The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning
Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
Other creatures in our world
Mary found another tree frog while picking Savoy lettuce for breakfast:
They’re much better camouflaged in their (more or less) natural surroundings, so I didn’t spot it at first, either.
They really are cute little gadgets:
This is only the fourth tree frog she’s seen in the last two decades, but the second one in a month. It may be the same frog as before, although the garden now has a rather husky resident snake who seems to be eating well.
The butterfly bush attracted another Hummingbird Moth:
As always, those gadgets are a wonder to behold!
Photo from the Pixel 3a, zoomed all the way, and showing why digital zooming isn’t the way to get nice pictures. On the other paw, it’s the camera I always have with me.
A myriad of tree frogs serenade us in the evenings, but we rarely see any. This fingernail-size critter was impossible to miss against a brown plastic trash can:
It sat tucked nose-up inside the handle until I loomed overhead, whereupon the edge seemed better. It eventually jumped to the ground, dozens of body lengths below, and hopped off into the leaf litter behind the cans.
We wished it well and expect to hear from it during the rest of the season.
Canada Geese seem primed to travel in a straight line, whether in the air, on water, along a rail trail, or even on a sidewalk:
They proceed around corners in an orderly manner:
But they completely ignore crosswalk markings:
We think two goose families joined forces for this outing: four large geese and seven goslings by our count.
The sidewalks sport a rich assortment of goose poop, so the geese obviously enjoy their hikes.
A great musical interlude on the patio announced an airlift of construction materials eventually producing this pile inside the top cover of the propane tank:
The male Carolina Wren switched from the Tweedle of Great Nestbuilding to the less musical Mighty Chirr of Disapproval, presumably because he noticed a mouse (or, perhaps, chipmunk) occupying the lower ring of the tank. Rodents and birds do not coexist well at all; I have no doubt a mouse would climb right up the tank for a supply of breakfast eggs.
I must blow the crud off the tank before the next fill.
I clearcut a stand of spearmint and turned it into three jars of what should become mint extract:
The left jar has 3 ounces of mint mostly covered with 80 proof vodka and the other two jars each have 5 ounces submerged in 180 proof grain alcohol.
Nine days later:
The vodka is now on the right and shows a weird layering caused by the leaves extending above the light yellow liquid; I’ve been inverting the jars every few days. The grain alcohol looks more like the previous iteration, with uniformly decolored leaves in dark green liquid.
A closer look:
What’s happening in the vodka jar does not look like a nominal outcome …
The underside of a spinach leaf makes a fine place for a spider to guard her egg sac, right up until the leaf arrives on the kitchen cutting board just before breakfast:
We deported her (and her incipient family) to the flower garden just outside, wished her well, and continued with breakfast.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 