Random Thoughts....

Little Firepit with the Girls

2011-12-27T08:44:00.001-07:00

Made a little fire with the girls. :)

Linux Webcam Capture (CentOS)

2011-12-23T10:19:00.000-07:00

So I have a laptop sitting in the back room and it has a built in webcam. I have been messing with it to get snapshots from it but the solutions from a Google search didn't give very good results on CentOS. My requirements didn't add up to a lot; no streaming video or anything. Somehow I came upon some software called fswebcam.
http://www.firestorm.cx/fswebcam/
This works GREAT!!! It was really easy to get the software to pull an image from my webcam and place it in my apache directory. I think I may just have to plug in another webcam just so I can play with it some more! :)

First Fish on the First of October

2011-10-01T14:37:00.001-06:00

This morning I took Ella out for some fishing. The lake is a bit dried up. Where we sat, we would have been under water during the spring. Its surprising the amount of tires in the lake. I have been meaning to give our scouting group the idea for an eagle project being taking tires that people have dumped and using them as trail markers to keep people on the designated trail.

Ella Writing and Drawings

2011-09-19T20:03:00.001-06:00

Put a drill in my hand... literally.

2011-09-03T20:26:00.000-06:00

Whoops. I was working on project and as I was drilling the bit went right through the pipe into my hand. Ouch. The pictures make it look not to deep but the doctor was pulling up the flesh and looking at my tendons to make sure they wern't hit. 5 stitches later and I was out the door. About and hour after I got back I fired up the drill and finished my project. ha Sound familiar dad? How long was it after I cut my finger before I was working on that band saw again?

Just a flesh would right?

5 stitches

All wrapped up

Auto Dunker

2011-06-26T08:59:00.003-06:00

This is an inspiration from my dads dunking machine. His had a bottle on a string that you throw a bottle at and if you hit the bottle, the person under the bucket gets wet. In my adaptation, my daughters (4 and 2) couldn't really pull that off without help from my wife and I. So, I built my "auto dunker".

Here is a vid and some pics. I will explain it after the pics.

The vid kinda stinks. I took a higher quality one after this with a real camera (not my cell phone) and will upload later.

Ok. The process is quite simple. The bucket fills with water and there is a drain tube at the top. This fills a separate container and the weight pulls open a release valve "flushing" the water. When the outside container empties, the release valve is closed and the bucket fills again. It "auto dunks" over and over again.

Here is how to make it. You have your regular toilet parts of the release valve thing, and the fill mechanism. In my build, I got a low profile filler with a pressure plate to sense the water level. It worked out perfect cuz its out of the way and also was the cheapest. I also got the cheapest release valve as you don't need anything fancy unless you have money to burn. After placing those two in the bucket, you can check the function by hooking a hose up to it (requires a little out-of-the-box thinking) and pulling the chain manually.

The next part took the longest. You need to put a bar, pvc in my case, through the side of the bucket with the center of gravity offset. What I did was drill a series of holes through the pvc and then put some small bolts through it holding it in place till I got the right spot. One end of the pvc pipe will connect to the release valve. The other end will connect to a outside fill container; in my case a washed out plastic peanut butter jar. Find some string or wire (brown pair from cat5e for me) and connect the other end to the jar. The center of gravity should keep the jar from falling.

Below that pvc you will make another hole for more pvc or small tube. I started out with a tube but it took a little longer than I liked to fill my jar. Put the pvc through just below the top water level when the bucket is full (ready to "flush"). Add a 90* bend and another length of tube down to your jar. At the bottom of this pvc (the end in the jar), make a 45* cut so it doesn't sit flush with the bottom of the jar. It will make it fill faster. A little trick I did was to secure the top of this pvc to the bucket with some cut off pipe. A couple holes with bolts or screws or anything would work fine though. Next put a small hole in the bottom of the jar smaller than your fill pvc. That will drain the water to close the release valve.

The size of the fill tube to the outside jar and the size of the drain from the jar determine the frequency of "flushing". Small fill and small drain create a larger interval but has a side effect of letting water out while waiting for the jar to fill. Personally I like it best with the larger tube and the kids do too as it splashes them more often.

Enjoy!

More fish, and a turtle.

2011-06-25T15:53:00.000-06:00

Fishing with the Girls

2011-06-16T22:47:00.001-06:00

Took a spur of the moment trip out to one of the lakes with the girls today. Ella and Lily had a great time. We got two fish; one catfish and one bluegill sunfish. I had planned on doing catch-and-release but the girls insisted we bring them home. I told them just this once (we will see how that holds out). Its kind of funny actually. Ella has this little 3 foot pole and caught a nice big catfish. I have a regular pole and caught the little sunfish. ha ha

New baby name!

2011-06-14T19:34:00.001-06:00

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Ella Gma Libby Bday Present

2011-02-12T07:57:00.001-07:00

Thank you for the birthday present grandma libby.

Got My CompTIA Security+ Certification

2011-02-08T20:33:00.000-07:00

I was so excited when I walked out of the testing area! I was confident but still a little nervous. :) I think I may have even done a little happy dance. ha ha After a few weeks of training, I passed my CompTIA Security+ exam!!

This is my previous certification, the CompTIA Linux+. Now I have 2 certs for my resume!

Now, my goals are the CompTIA Network+ and Server+ :)

Ella Dancing

2011-01-30T17:45:00.001-07:00

In the ARMY now

2011-01-22T21:39:00.000-07:00

A couple from BCT

Squished Penny Books

2011-01-16T16:28:00.000-07:00

The kids and I were going through our squished penny books and I thought I would share. :)

This one is all from Utah; Bingham Canyon, Heber Valley Railroad, North American Museum of Ancient Life, Temple Square, Living Planet Aquarium, Ogden, and the Utah Olympic Park. (oh, and one from Shoshone Falls, Idaho)

This one is some from Hill Aerospace Museum Utah, Clem Mikeska's Bar-B-Q Texas, Round Rock Texas Baseball, and a free via mail Park Pennies from Disneyland.

This one is a bunch from Las Vegas, Circus Circus Hotel, Rainforest Cafe, Rivera Hotel, M&M World, and some "Lucky Pennies".

This one is Sea World, Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, and Florence Oregon.

These ones are mostly of the Oregon Coast Aquarium, some lighthouses, and Tillamook Oregon.

Recent Geocaches

2010-12-19T09:47:00.004-07:00

Thanks for the christmas present Madi. Love ya! I found a neat site that can put together a slideshow for you. It has a lot of options too. Best of all, its FREE! So, here is a slideshow of my recent geocaches, inspired by my christmas present. :)

The slideshow was created at: www.slideful.com

Pinewood Derby

2010-10-22T20:45:00.005-06:00

We had a pinewood derby tonight at church. There was a good group and we all had a good time. The racing went well and there were some good matches. :)

This is my car, and my car:

Here is the lineup of all the cars that raced:

My car ... lost. ha There were some guys there that really knew how to win. It was fun though and Ella had a blast. She got to play with kids her age and made some new friends. Toward the end the guys were sticking weights all over every car there trying to make them go as fast as possible. ha

Girls Get a New Car

2010-09-27T19:33:00.006-06:00

So I found a Escalade on craigslist that I couldn't pass up (although Madi would say otherwise, ha). It was in a little bit of rough shape but for being dirt cheap, its a good fixer upper. The previous owner had sprayed it with some wasp killer and the plastic turned white in parts due to being sprayed and from being outside.

Here it is mostly taken apart:

Here are the parts. I don't think Madi thought I could get it back together. :)

After a few cans of Krylon Fusion for plastics, I had the whole thing covered. We had to sacrifice a bunch of the stickers but were able to save the headlights, grill logo, and power wheels front license plate. We also used Ella's Texas license plate for the rear to give it a personal touch. :) The paint we used matched closely to the original color so it worked out perfect.

Here are the girls in it. They LOVE riding around in it. Maybe a little too much... they fight over it and drove it into the fence countless times! ha ha Time for some touch-up paint!

Ella posing for me. Now only if Lily would sit still long enough to get a pic of her too!

It actually has a hitch on it now too and can pull my green wagon easily. I will get a pic of that one day. ha Yeah for good finds!

Troubled Toyota on Post

2010-09-10T20:14:00.001-06:00

Church colorings

2010-08-29T13:25:00.004-06:00

Offroad Trip

2010-08-07T17:40:00.005-06:00

I got to go on a offroad trip this weekend. A bunch of jeeps and a fullsize. These are a bunch of the pics from the ride.

New to us house in Pershing

2010-07-30T19:42:00.002-06:00

Walmart Automotive NEVER AGAIN

2010-07-29T18:20:00.004-06:00

Never again will I use walmart automotive department! So I needed a flat repair, No big deal. I went to walmart cuz I am new to the area and wanted a place I could trust. I am wanting to find a chain store like Big-O-Tires or Les Schwab but there arn't any of those down here.

The guy walks out and says "oh, I don't know if we can fix that size of tire". WHAT?! They pull it in anyway, and then pull it right back out saying they won't fix it cuz of uneven tire wear.... WHAT?! Total crap.

Yes, there is a little cupping but that wouldn't make a difference on putting a patch on the inside of a tire. I say it was lazyness and wanting me to buy new tires. When I worked at Big-O-Tires we would do tires WAY bigger than what I got on my truck. ARGGGG

For those of you that are tire savvy, I currently have a 285/75R16 (32.8" minus tread wear). That is only a LITTLE bigger than some trucks standard from the factory. If they let me do my own, I could be in and out in 10 minutes instead of the 45 minutes they made me wait to get my truck in. Off to sprocket (ft hood) to do it myself!

Old FRS Radio Hack

2010-07-18T14:00:00.005-06:00

I was looking at a old FRS radio (walkie-talkie) that my dad let me use as part of my communications trailer (thanks dad!). Its a Radio Shack Two-Way Personal Radio. Not even a model number. ha

It has a port on the side for 9 volt power, ear, & mic. Well, I was looking at the back battery compartment and noticed that the power requirements for these is 4 x AAA batteries. That totals to 6 volts. Now, these radios have a lower tolerance than that because they continue to work even when the batteries are low. So my brain started to wonder... I bet this could be run off USB!

USB is 5 volts and these little radios don't pull hardy and amperage at all. I had an old cable lying around and cut the end off it. It was nice of the manufacturers to correctly color code the inside wires red/+ and black/-. After stripping the wires, I touched them against where the batteries would make contact and turned on the radio. It worked! Next I moved onto the radio itself. I put a hole in the base of the plastic, tied a knot to relieve pressure on where I would be soldering. After a little bit of solder, I was good to go.

Now, I can use the radio while using my laptop, while driving with a cigarette lighter usb adapter, via a usb wind up charger, etc. I have 6 or 7 of these so a few more to go and my set will be complete.

(I bet my wife wishes I had done this before our trip using bulky CB's, ha)

Texas Thunder Speedway

2010-07-18T08:03:00.004-06:00

Went to some races this weekend. They were ok. I think I like the demo derby's better. :) There were a few hits, a lost tire, and a rollover that made it interesting. It was fun to hear the roar of the engines etc.

Bad ujoint?

2010-07-15T18:44:00.002-06:00

Posting this to link to a forum. For some reason it wouldn't let me upload the pic.

BCT roomies

2010-03-19T06:08:00.003-06:00

Ok, before I get old and forget. ha Left to right...
- McShinsky
- Mijatovic
- Maxa
- Melvin
- McCord
- McNair

Kido

2010-03-17T17:32:00.002-06:00

I like this pic!

Basic Training with a M249

2010-03-11T19:21:00.003-07:00

This is me with an M249. I got to lug this thing around with me the second to last week of BCT. I guess you could say it was a privilege as I had to turn in my M16.

Basic Training ACU's with M16

2010-03-02T17:48:00.003-07:00

Poser pic with the M16. Got a 39 out of 40 on qualification day with that thing!

ACU Parcha (uncommon)

2010-01-09T16:39:00.002-07:00

ACU Present Arms

2010-01-09T16:27:00.001-07:00

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PT Uniform

2010-01-08T17:19:00.001-07:00

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4am at basic

2010-01-07T02:00:00.001-07:00

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Bunks at basic

2010-01-07T01:58:00.001-07:00

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Waiting for bus

2010-01-06T13:55:00.001-07:00

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Landed east coast

2010-01-06T11:31:00.001-07:00

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Plane to basic

2010-01-06T06:59:00.001-07:00

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Ella and Daddy

2010-01-02T16:24:00.001-07:00

Gift for Madi

2009-12-30T21:06:00.001-07:00

Sacagawea Dollar - No Year

2009-12-07T22:04:00.001-07:00

Just posting this to link to a forum. If you know anything about it, please let me know. :)

Out For Some Ice Cream

2009-11-30T23:04:00.003-07:00

Tonight we went to Arctic Circle for some ice cream after some shopping. Ella loves to play on the slides so she was totally up for it. :)

Happy Birthday Annie!

2009-11-11T21:52:00.003-07:00

Happy Birthday To You!
Happy Birthday To You!
Happy Birthday Dear Annie!
Happy Birthday To Yoooouuuu!

(Sorry about the crappy cell-phone pics)

American Fork Canyon - Forest Lake

2009-11-01T20:07:00.014-07:00

This weekend I took Ella on a little drive with me. :) We went up American Fork Canyon; specifically, Forest Lake. This is the second time I have been there. The first time I ran it at night! It was nice this time to see everything clearly and the beauty of nature. To get there, you start by crossing this stream:

This is the top of the first hill after the stream:

Then at the top of that hill, you continue onto another hill:

My truck:
:)

The top of the second little hill. This is the first obstacle. As you can see, a full-size rig doesn't have much room:

This is just after that tight spot. I think the first little bit of the trail is the most technical:

Here is Ella. She was nervous about the big rocks but loved to go on the ride:

Here are a few shots of the trail:

Low Bridge!

We made it to the lake:

The rigs:

Redbox... BLUE!

2009-11-01T08:44:00.002-07:00

I noticed at Wal-mart the other day a blue Redbox! So... that kind of defeats the purpose of the name? Anywho... I figured I would share. :)

Only On A Friday

2009-10-23T16:08:00.002-06:00

This is how my day has been going:
BSOD

At least my linux box is still chugging away strong!

Utah Lake Target Practice

2009-10-18T10:04:00.006-06:00

Yesterday I took Ella with me to Utah Lake to do some shooting. We found a nice little area and finished off a box of 22 Long Rifle.

This chair worked GREAT for holding the auto-reset targets! I never once had a problem with it falling over or moving at all. After I got sighted in, I shot a smiley on the top part. :)

Even Ella got to take a couple shots. :)

30 Rounds from a Remington 597

Corner Canyon

2009-09-27T20:00:00.004-06:00

This evening I took a trip along the Upper Corner Canyon road. It was a nice drive. I have a lot of memories from before the developers came along and closed Lower Corner Canyon. They were to concerned about their money than the recreation that went on along Lower Corner Canyon. Karma... Karma Karma Karma!! The road is now grated and a car can easily make it up the road. Upper Corner Canyon used to require a 4x4 to make it to the top years ago. It makes for a nice drive though. Now that it is Autumn and the trees are changing color it is a nice drive.

Almost to the top:

Playing on the way back down:

Another angle:

(Ella sleeping in the back seat, ha)

5-Mile Rattlesnake Trail

2009-09-26T22:02:00.002-06:00

These are the videos I took on Rattlesnake trail at 5-Mile Pass.

Base of the trail:

GR8GPN First Obstacle:

This guy bought this Jeep just as it is a month ago.
Not sure if it was his first time out or not.

A harder route:

A willeys (sp?) on the harder route:

GR8GPN on a small obstacle:

Geocache 5-Mile Rattlesnake Trail

2009-09-26T21:33:00.013-06:00

Today Ella and I went to 5-Mile Pass to do some riding and some Geocaching. We met up with some guys from geocaching.com and started up the trail.

Ella waiting to go:

My new truck with trailer:

Some Jeeps:

Some more Jeeps:

An official travel bug:

On the trail... to the trail:

The start of the trail:

I have some videos that I took of the Jeeps going over obstacles. I will make another post for that though.

Looking up the trail at one of the more semi-technical spots:

A few Jeeps waiting to to over an obstacle:

Ella hanging out with her friend while waiting for Jeeps to go over obstacles:

The last geocache on in the series:

The group at the top:

Flag

2009-09-26T15:14:00.002-06:00

I saw this the other day high above my head and couldnt resist taking a picture. I am proud it is flying high and strong.

5-Mile Ella

2009-09-26T15:06:00.002-06:00

Ella after a morning of riding at 5-Mile Pass.

Geocaching In The New Truck

2009-09-19T16:39:00.003-06:00

This evening I took Ella with me to go find a geocache. It was up a dirt road... perfect for my new truck. :)

The geocache gave me a chuckle so I figured I would share. :)

There was also a big rock right at the geocache so I figured I would take a couple of 'flex' shots.

My New Truck

2009-09-18T20:49:00.003-06:00

I finally got my truck!!!! Yeah!!!! So I found a sweet deal on KSL that was almost to good to be true. The trucks exactly what Madi and I have been looking for. 4 doors, 4x4, under $2500, clean, and preferably a Dodge. This truck fits each of those great!

1999 Dodge Ram 1500

Pics from the listing:

(rack not included)

The mileage is a little high at 275000 but for the price I paid, if anything goes wrong it is worth the effort to fix it. In fact, the price was amazingly right... $1000!!! I have been wanting a truck for a long time so this is so exciting!!

Now for the story. :) As mentioned above, the truck was just the right fit. I figured I would call to see if they forgot a number in the price. Go figure that when I call, I get some guy who doesn't speak english and when he hands the phone to someone who does they know nothing about the truck. My first thought was that someone was pulling a prank on the guys. Just to make sure, I sent off an email to the guy selling the truck letting him know the number listed may have been wrong and also included our phone numbers to call us back.

About four days later, I get a email from him stating he made a mistake in the listing and would try to give me a call later that day. It wasn't 30 seconds later that I was making a call to the correct number he gave me! After chatting with him for a few minutes, I said I would be there in 2 hours (1/2 hour to get the kids organized, 1 hour drive, 1/2 hour fluff for traffic). I made sure to get there quick as he said he had a ton of emails from interested people saying the wrong number was listed.

After trying to get out of town before rush hour (and failed) we finally made it through all the traffic and were able to check out the truck. This thing is in nice condition! No dents, no rust that I can see, minor scratches just from age, etc. The test drive went well too. Just as the add stated; the engine ran strong but the transmission is a little finicky. Thats ok with me, if something does happen with the transmission, I can justify the repair because of the cost of the truck. :)

$1000 later I was on my way home with my truck. :D This thing drives nice on the highway. Cruising at 65 MPH it felt like I could have driven it to Oregon and back. When we got to Draper, I noticed that after stopping it seemed to have trouble taking off again. I then realized that what if felt like, was starting from a stop in 3rd or 4th gear. After thinking again for a moment, I realized that I could manually put it into 1st gear. At the next stop, I did just that and when I pressed the gas it was happy to move right along in 1st gear (manual up into 2nd and 'drive'). I can live with that. :)

Alright, enough for tonight. I will take more pics and probably post some more in the coming days. For now, I am going to bed. 'night!

Nice View

2009-09-17T13:11:00.002-06:00

Waiting for Madi enjoying the view of the mountains.

Face Painting

2009-09-15T21:04:00.004-06:00

Ella got her face painted by the neighbors. She did really well (didn't mess it up). ha They got some face paints for Halloween but broke them out early for some fun this afternoon. :)

And So It Begins

2009-09-15T16:23:00.002-06:00

A Couple More Pics

2009-09-13T23:24:00.003-06:00

Here are a couple more pics from the weekend. These wern't taken by me but were posted on the 'net (and I 'borrowed' them for here). :)

Little Sahara 2009

2009-09-12T22:26:00.023-06:00

This weekend Ella and I went on a trip. Mom got left behind to play with Lily. We left Thursday evening for our weekend at Little Sahara sand dunes. We got in a little bit late (just as it was getting dark) and to help setup camp, I turned on the flood lights on my trailer... oops. Bugs everywhere! My lighting of the campsite quickly turned into a bug magnet! I instead turned to my inside lights which provided just enough light to get the job done of setting up the tent. While we still had residual bugs, it was much better than before. Ella and I even had a good time 'wacking' them. ha The tent we used is called an "SUV Tent". They are designed for SUV's with a rear hatch or such. The design is so that you can keep your gear in your SUV and have plenty of space to sleep. I had to think outside the box for my situation though as I was using a utility trailer. Here it is:

The next morning after a cold cold night, Ella and I went out to have breakfast. Pancakes sounded good. Now, I have been trying to come up with ideas for "Pie Tin Cooking". The idea is to cook everything in a pie tin while camping so there is no water required for cleanup. Just crumple up the "cooking utensil" and cleanup is done! So far, there has been a bit of ... trial and error ... leaning on the error side. ha

All good right? Maybe if I had done sausage or bacon first so there would have been a little grease. This is what happens when you forget to butter the bottom:

As you can see, breakfast didn't go so well. But you know what kids love to eat? Hot dogs! ha So, we cooked up some hot dogs for breakfast. Yum! ha

Alright; enough with the food already. You wanted to hear about the riding anyway didn't you? To start off, here is my cute little girl all set to ride:

And here she is on the bike. I swear every time we would come back to camp, she would be ready to go riding again!

The bike we rode is a Honda 200S 3-Wheeler. Gotta love these things for the way they ride and the price! I think we need to get Ella a little Honda 70 when she can ride on her own. :D

Ella loved to play in the sand. A few times while we were on the dunes, she would tell me she just wanted to get down and play. ha

This is kind of a funny picture for two reasons. ha First is what you see. Do you see the big snot bubble she is blowing. ha I had to keep a supply of tissues in my pockets the whole time for her little nose. The second funny thing is what you don't see. ha Just after I took this shot, she was being a cute little curious girl and ... wanted to know what the sand tasted like. ha ha That was entertaining trying to hold back my laughing and at the same time telling her to spit it out. Poor girl, probably had sand in her mouth all the way till dinner!

This shot is at the top of one of the hills we rode. Ella wasn't to fond of the hills so we actually did about 1/3 dunes and 2/3 trail riding.

In this shot, you can see Sand Mountain in the background:

Here is a shot of some of the group that was there. This is everyone that was there on Friday and it about doubled on Saturday. I didn't get any shots of the whole group before I left but I am sure the picture will show up on the 3-Wheeler site soon enough.

Here is a lineup that just happened to be that way. Not planned at all its just how we ended up parking. ha

Alright, back to the cute little girl. She gave up on the spoon and went all out with her mouth. ha As you can see, this was a "Pie Tin Meal". It worked well to just put the canned spaghetti rings w/ meat balls into the -2- pie tins. You will see why you need 2 in a minute.

This is another "Pie Tin Meal". This is what happens when you only use one pie tin. Its much to thin!

This is how we fixed the problem. We didn't have any hot dog poker things so we did the best with what we had:

At least we had one food item we couldn't ruin. Apple sauce!

Here is another shot of Ella always wanting to go riding. First thing in the morning... get on the bike to go riding! ha

And now some shots of Ella and I.

You'll have to come with us next time Madi!!!

Ella shoes

2009-09-07T10:52:00.002-06:00

Ella trying on shoes at the shoe store.

Boating with Neighbors

2009-08-31T17:03:00.004-06:00

This weekend the neighbors invited us to go boating. We got to meet their family and hang out. We did a little boating... well, not Madi... we will get her in one next time. ;) Ella had fun on the boat. She kept smiling everytime I would look at her. :)

Some Fish

2009-08-27T10:32:00.002-06:00

The other day I found a fish tank at the DI. It was an ok deal so I picked it up and last night at walmart I got some supplies. And fish. :) Sorry no pics (check Madi's blog).

The fish are:
Southern_Platyfish
Plecostomus

Defcon 17 - More Pics

2009-08-13T00:46:00.003-06:00

It was hot... hot hot hot.
107*:

Neat clouds I saw on the way down:

The crowds were, well, large. The hallways would fill up quick everyone had a hard time getting to the next presentation. Part of the reason was because of fire codes. If they knew a particular speaker was going to be popular, they had to empty the room and then do a headcount of everyone going back in:

This is Pauls contraption for charging his iPhone:

Closer shot:

We stayed at Circus Circus:

Utah! On our way home:

Road Ranger 268 Travel Trailer

2009-08-13T00:34:00.003-06:00

This is the Road Ranger 268 Travel Trailer. I was wanting to show a friend but couldn't find any pics. It is a 1986.

The inside has a hide-a-bed couch in the front. Not sure if that was standard but I don't think so. Still a good idea though! Its got a gas/electric fridge, 120 AC to 12 DC (40Amp), water tank, bathroom w/ shower, queen (I think) bed, 4 burner stove, and lots lots lots lots of storage space.

Defcon 17

2009-08-10T09:11:00.009-06:00

Another Defcon this year and it went well. My two co-workers and I went to Vegas for the computer security conference. The presentations went over just about everything you can think of... from listening to what you type from the next room, to taking with the feds... :o

As the company paid for our meals, we went out to eat every day. My co-worker has been to Korea and wanted to go to a Korean restaurant that was near by.
I had "Bolgogi":

Then we had some cod:

And don't forget the little fish:

We also walked around a little bit.

I had to make sure and go to the M&M place. :)

Got to see a little of what you don't want to happen in Vegas:

On the way back from Vegas, we stopped at Fry's (Electronics store) and I found this for Madi: (now we just need to find a pink laptop case cuz we use only laptops)

On the way out of Fry's, I found this for Ella:

There are a few more pics on Madi's computer but I will have to get to those at some later point.

I Had To Drive

2009-08-06T15:00:00.003-06:00

Oh my goodness.... I just heard the ... well ... dumbest thing this week.

Owner of company: Oh, happy birthday.
B-day person: Thank you.
Owner: Is it today?
B-day: Yes.
Owner: Sucks to work on your birthday huh?
B-day: Actually, this is the first time I have ever had to work on my birthday.
Owner: Well I had to drive 8 hours in Munich & (someplace) on my birthday.

OH MY GOSH!!! You had to be in Europe for your birthday. You got to see some great places there. You didn't have to even work for a lot of the time (probably). And your complaining about driving on your birthday?! Dude, come down to my pay grade and then tell me "I had to drive in Europe on my birthday". Get a grip... YOU WERE IN EUROPE!

-rant off-

I'll take his business trip to Europe on my birthday, even if the flight is on my birthday.

Hiking Plan

2009-07-23T09:55:00.003-06:00

As my family will be going on a hike, I wanted to put together a "Hiking Plan" for a just-in-case. A little searching around and the only template I could find was from a Police department with their logo, name, and number all over it. I decided I didn't need all that fluff and re-wrote it to be just what is needed.

Anything I missed? Let me know and I will update it.

Now here is the real trick... how do I upload a DOC or a PDF to blogger? Well... I didn't. ha Here is what I did:

Create document in OpenOffice Writer
Save as a PDF
Open in Adobe Reader
View Full-Screen
Press the 'Print Screen' key on your keyboard
Open Microsoft Paint / Photoshop / etc.
Paste screen shot and use the "Select" tool to crop the area you want
Save as PNG (not jpg; I noticed the PNG saved better with the text than the jpg)
Upload PNG image to Blogger. =)

Layers of dirt ... eh ... sawdust

2009-07-20T11:05:00.004-06:00

The other day while I was working in the wood shop, smoke started coming from the tablesaw! Long story short; I replaced the saw blade(?) with a new one and it sliced like hot knife through butter.

Longggerrr story: =)
What was happening was the blade was so dull, that it was actually burning the wood. After filling the shop with smoke, it was time to replace the blade. My first encounter under the tablesaw was not very fun... sawdust --everywhere--. ha I grabbed the shop-vac from the garage and went to work.

I got a little carried away even; I cleaned up a bandsaw, drill-press, another bandsaw, a bunch of the floor, and lastly the tablesaw. ha I cleaned up mostly the insides of the tablesaw but didn't worry to much about the bottom. I knew that would just fill-up again. In the midst of all my cleaning, I found something in the sawdust that even Dawn would think is neat (as she does geology stuff).

You know those pictures of the layers of soil... like this one:

Well, this was my find in the sawdust:

Neat eh? Anybody take a guess at how many years and how many projects this layers of sawdust represents?

Helicopter

2009-07-18T14:46:00.003-06:00

I got to do today, what I have wanted to do for a long time. I had the opportunity to ride in a helicopter! It was a blast! Its draper days this weekend and right after the parade, I headed over to the helicopter staging area. The guys from Wasatch Helicopter were offering tours for only $35. For some reason, I had always thought that they were $50 which would be way out of my range. ha The flight went from the IFA, around the immediate area, then back to the IFA. It took about 5 minutes but was totally worth it. =) If you have the chance, take a flight cuz it is a lot of fun!

This is the helicopter I went in:

It Pays To Be Handy

2009-07-15T19:35:00.002-06:00

A little bit ago, Madi and I found a Coleman grill at the DI. It looked nice and was a very good price. It wasn't till just today that I got around to testing it to make sure there wern't any leaks and such. Well, go figure that it didn't work. I decided that I would take it apart in sequence from the propane tank to see where the problem area was. As I did so, I found out that part of the piping from the propane tank was being blocked (looked like corosion). I cleared the blockage and now it works perfect!

Camping trip, here we come!

Sidewalk Parking

2009-07-15T07:34:00.002-06:00

The camera on my phone really stinks! Its good enough to get a decent picture, but you can throw detail out the window. While waiting in the car the other day, I noticed this ironic situation...

The sign says "No motorized vehicles allowed on sidewalk"

Sprinkler

2009-07-11T11:44:00.007-06:00

As the grass was getting ... yellower ... I decided it was time to turn on the sprinklers. They days have been getting hotter, and the weeds that fester in the dry grass were getting stronger. There was a problem lurking in the grass. One that would take you by surprise and swallow you up if your not careful (well, get you we at the very least, ha).

If the trees could talk, I'm sure they would have a tale to tell about a roaring beast upon the land. This beast had no mercy. It came through like a whirlwind, tossing about everything in its path. Included in this path, was a fountain of water.

This fountain gave life to everything around it. It was praised by the grass, the trees, and all manor of life. For the kindness and grace it gave upon the land, the largest tree of all gave back to this fountain. It protected it from any influence that may have hindered its flow of life giving water.

The tree had no match for the beast though. While the tree could protect itself from the beast, it was unable to keep the roaring beast from damaging the fountain of water.

This was not the first time the fountain had been damaged. Yes, roughly one year before the beast had come upon the land. Roaring without mercy it thought very little of this fountain and its grace upon the land. The beast had severed the fountains very core; cut off at the neck, leaving only its head.

The fountain of life still had one trick within its grasp. As it was lying on the ground, gasping for life, it was able to spread the life giving elixir to all those very close to it. The land directly around the fountain of water was not as giving as the fountain though.

As the water spread to those closest to the fountain, everything around it took in as much as they could get. They were starving for anything that would come their way. This, however, would not turn out well for those not so close the fountain.

About this time, a traveler came along who could see the terrible things that had been done to the fountain. It was easy to spot actually; the land was dry and ... yellow ... and needed to be cared for. So the traveler took it upon himself to try and save this land.

As the traveler worked, he saw that the area around the fountain was very damaged. The tree had protected it and now it was his job to use that area the tree protected to his advantage. The ground was soft, easy to work on. The work came easier than the traveler had expected. In short time he had dug his hole quite deep into the ground. The beast had no mercy, it had afterall, taken the fountain by the neck.

Now that the traveler had the area prepared, he had to journey on a quest. He did not have all the tools required to save this land. He traveled far by his own roaring beast (although, this one tamed and never hurting those around it). It was much bigger than the beast that took the fountain from the land. So much so, that if the traveler ever had to battle with the beast of no mercy, he knew he would come out victorious in the end.

The traveler had a name for his beast; he called it 'car'. Car took him to a far and distant place by the name of 'Home Depot'. Here, the traveler was able to find everything he needed to fix the fountain of life.

Upon returning to the land, the traveler made quick work of the fountain. He knew that his work would bring life back into the land and everything around would flourish. Putting together piece after piece, he worked and worked till the sun was near to disappearing behind the mountains. At last, he was ready. Everything was in place and he knew that it was only a matter of time before the water would be flowing again.

As the traveler sat back, waiting for his potions to take hold (PVC Glue), he could only recall that of his loved ones back home. He had traveled far across the land. His beautiful wife and children waiting for him back home. They knew was doing important work though as he had sent a message to them (text message) informing them of his delay.

SUCCESS was upon the land! The potions had taken hold, keeping everything in place. When the water of life returned to the fountain, it sprayed it upon all around. The grass and the trees rejoiced by the elixir that was now upon them. The traveler, very pleased with his work, now returned home. He knew what this meant to the land, and would remember to pass this way again in case the roaring beast were to ever return.

Strike 3

2009-07-09T10:47:00.003-06:00

My canopy frame... is dead.

Strike 1 wasn't to bad. The wind caught it and put it on its side against the shop. The canopy still worked although a little ..skewed.. It had one leg bent out of shape but everything bent back ok.

Strike 2 didn't really do any damage. I had set it up and done a couple minor strengthening add-ons where damage had been done via strike 1. I left it out and it must have gotten a little windy. It had blown up to the shop almost like someone thought it was in the way and moved it. ha

Strike 3 did it in. I walked out yesterday evening to find it up against the shop... It looked like it was frozen in time, wind still blowing it in place. A quick look at the frame and I knew it was done for. I had been planning on putting a new(ish) frame under it anyway so I wasn't to worried about it. This just sped up the process a little.

Here is the 'frozen in time' pic:

Intersection Idiots

2009-06-25T18:25:00.002-06:00

Just a little vent here.... People do not understand intersections. One day, while I am legally turning at an intersection, someone is going to plow into me and guess what.... I will get a nice new shiny paint job or even a new car as they were idiots in an intersection.

The wrong way:

The right way:

=)

H1 Light Bulb vs H1 LED

2009-06-19T00:24:00.006-06:00

A little background... The light bar on my trailer uses the H1 light bulb (not hummer) which is a VERY bright bulb. It has been traditionally used in emergency and construction equipment such as the image below:

When I installed my light bar, one of the bulbs was not working. So, a quick trip to Autozone and I had my H1 light bulb to complete my light bar.

The H1 bulb is this:

Well, after a little bit of use with the bulb, and a few dirt trails out camping, one of the bulbs burned out. No fun... Now, these arn't the cheapest bulbs either. They are dang bright and that is probably why you pay a little extra for them (think $7 instead of $3).

After paying for one bulb, I decided I would buy some online instead of then having to pay for another, and get some H1 LED replacements. The auction looked good, the pics were exact matches. The auction even stated that they are aux lights and shouldn't be used in normal conditions. Great! I bought a pair of them (one for each side of the light bar).

This is the H1 LED:

After waiting a few days for the mail to arrive, I installed my new H1 LED lights. I'm going to be blunt. They suck. Sure, they produce a light that is impressive for the size of LED, but I have seen the new police LED light bars blind me... these... will... NOT. ha

Think of it this way:

The H1 light bulb says:
"HEY, WATCH OUT, I'M WORKING HERE!!!!".

The H1 LED says:
"Hey, something is going on over here. Caution."

All-in-all... If you want to pay to replace the H1 light bulb (your company can afford to), use the H1 bulb. You will be very happy with the performance. If your needing an occasional use of your light bar such as use with a back-hoe or your personal truck you take to the construction site, use the H1 LED. The H1 LED will be an item that you can put in the light bar and never have to worry about it again. LED's have a very long life-span so you will probably get a new, cooler, brighter light bar before replacing your LED's.

Trailer Pics

2009-06-18T20:01:00.004-06:00

Neat Tail Lights

2009-06-15T07:55:00.002-06:00

I saw these neat tail lights the other day in Riverton. They are a curved LED instead of just a bulb. I took the pic with my phone so its hard to tell in the first pic. A quick search of ebay came up with a much better picture.

Dirt Track

2009-06-11T21:46:00.004-06:00

This evening I took some big pipes from the back yard and made a little track out of them. It worked ok but the trucks couldn't quite turn tight enough. I made two designs and they seemed to work ok.

The circle...ish track.

The figure 8 track.

The two trucks. =)

Bathroom - Post Index

2009-06-03T16:26:00.002-06:00

Bathroom - Finished

2009-06-03T16:25:00.001-06:00

I havn't taken any pictures of the finished installation yet but here are a few of the tub in place. I will update this post when I get some pics of how the bathroom is now. =)

Bathroom - Getting It In The House

2009-06-03T16:21:00.001-06:00

Here we are getting it in the house. The doorframe even needed removed.

Bathroom - Moving The Wall

2009-06-03T16:17:00.002-06:00

To get the tub to sit flush on the wall, we either had to bring one half of the wall into the bathroom, or push the other half into the hallway. We went with the hallway.... =)

Bathroom - Hard At Work

2009-06-03T16:11:00.003-06:00

My dad did a lot of the work. He is a great guy! I think every time I would come home from work he would have something more done with the project.

Bathroom - Apart

2009-06-03T16:07:00.002-06:00

Here are the pics as the bathroom is being torn apart.

Bathroom - Before

2009-06-03T16:01:00.004-06:00

Ok, I found the bathroom pics. I was a little nervous cuz I couldn't find them! I knew I put them on my laptop, but they just weren't there. I found them today on my work computer so we are all good. =)

More = Way Less

2009-06-02T16:17:00.002-06:00

I just have to vent here a little bit.....

EVERY TIME I USE VISTA.... I HATE IT EVEN MORE!!!!

Its like Microsoft decided to do a little experiment. They wanted to know just how much market they hold... "if we screw it up enough... how many people will still use it?" It drives me nuts!! Sure it may be ...ok... if you browse the web and do a couple word documents... Try doing ANY administrative functions. Ya.... its near impossible to do ANYTHING EFFICIENTLY!! They took the simple things that were one, maybe two clicks away and made them into 4,5,no,7 clicks away! On top of that, every time you click on something administrative, a NEW window comes up. Who wants 20 windows for 1 thing???

I'm sick of it. I'll get off my soap box now....

Ella & The Planes

2009-05-28T13:17:00.003-06:00

Today while Madi was doing some stuff, Ella and I went to the Florence Airport to see some airplanes. =) We saw 5 planes in total and 2 planes taking off.

Ella on my car.... Good thing I put her up there. ha =)

Playing At The Beach

2009-05-26T16:30:00.003-06:00

When Madi and Lyn went to go shopping the other day, Steve Ella and I went to play at the beach.

Ella Running

Ella At The Edge Of The Water

Ella In Water

Ella & Joe's Feet In The Sand

My Trip To Oregon

2009-05-24T20:23:00.008-06:00

To sum up the trip ... adventure. ha

My boss let me leave work a little early so I could get to Oregon (coast) before it got to late in the evening. It is a 16 hour drive so I had a bit of a trip ahead of me. I have had my snow tires on from the last winter and I planned on getting my old tires put back on before making the trip. Well, I took them to a tire place and guess what? One of the tires was almost bald. Go figure. I even looked around at a few shops for some used tires but there was nothing. I figured the snow tires wouldn't be that great for next season anyway and decided I would get a few more miles out the them.

About 10 miles out of Twin Falls ... bLoW oUt! The front right tire was toast! Long(er) story short, I got some new tires. I'll let the pics fill in the gaps.

And now for a preview of the new tires...

I'll let ya see it in person for the whole view. =)

Geocache's On The Beach

2009-05-24T17:44:00.005-06:00

This afternoon we hit up some geocache's on the beach. The first one wasn't a very high difficulty rating but we ended up going through some thick bush to get there.

The first cache (GCQNZM):

This is the geocoin copy I brought from Utah:

This is the second ... cache ... I found. I was looking for a cache and found this instead. I thought it was the cache I was looking for so I stopped looking. I thought I just looked up the wrong thing but when I got back to the house, I found out I was wrong. So, looks like it will have to wait for another beach adventure. Check out Maddie's page for the pics of the beach.

Oops

2009-05-21T08:58:00.004-06:00

I guess this is bad timing?

Just kidding! I thought I would share a little crash I saw on the way to work.
Lexus:0
Jeep:1
(btw, my car is fine)

Everyone elses commute going northbound:

Camping Canned Food - Chili Noodles

2009-05-20T08:37:00.004-06:00

This was my first attempt at using a pie tin as a cooking dish. I wanted to do something simple just in case something went ... wrong. ha The pie tin worked well. Water boiled no problem and I didn't see any problems. Why a pie tin? Well, when out camping, it is a lot easier to fold up the pie tin and throw it away than it is to clean up / wash a frying pan. It may not be exactly as eco-friendly but it does the job and I am happy with it. This meal is actually more of a poor college student meal. It was a good test and now I can move on to tastier camping meals.

Ingredients
1 Can Chili
1 Pack Ramen

Recipe
1. Add water & bring to boil
2. Before opening ramen, crunch into small pieces.
3. Add ramen to boiling water, set flavor packet aside
4. When ramen is soft, strain extra water
5. Add chili
6. Warm to a desired degree and serve

The end result needed a little more flavor, yet I couldn't think of anything to add. I didn't add the chicken flavor in this meal so maybe next time I will use beef, and add the beef flavor packet. I suppose I may try this in the future with some sort of canned bread.

Camping Canned Food - Beef Stew

2009-05-17T09:47:00.003-06:00

This beef stew was actually suppose to be a make-shift tin-foil-dinner. I completely spaced getting the tinfoil on my way to go camping. Because all ingredients are canned goods, this meal will feed 3 to 4 people (I had a lot of left-overs, ha).

Ingredients - Mostly Canned Goods
1 Diced Potatoes
1 Sliced Carrots
1 Green Peppers
1 Luncheon Meat
1 Vienna Sausage (not required)
1 Flavoring Packet Beef Stew

Recipe
1. Cook diced potatoes for 5 minutes, do not strain fluid.
2. While potatoes are cooking, cut the luncheon meat & vienna sausage (strained) into small chunks (slightly bigger than the potato chunks).
3. Add the cut meat and let cook for 5-10 minutes.
4. Add the carrots & green peppers, strain each can.
5. After mixing everything so far, sprinkle the flavoring packet evenly; mix thoroughly.
6. Cook for another 10 minutes making sure to evenly heat food.
7. Serve. =)

Horses By The House

2009-05-11T16:45:00.002-06:00

I was driving back to the house today and noticed that there are horses in the field right by the house. I guess we don't have to go far in either direction to let Ella see some horses.

More Than A Mother Of Two

2009-05-10T19:34:00.003-06:00

Take a good look at this picture. What do you think it is?

Thats right... burned tater-tots. If it wern't for my wonderful wife I would be just like them... burned to a crisp in dumbness (she might have you believe I am anyway, ha). She really is more than a mother of two. Madi is so great. I am so glad to have her as my wife and I would not change anything. I have two wonderful children that are a joy to our lives. Madi takes such good care of them. Madi has so much loving and care. I love you so much and miss you. I am counting the days till I get to hold you in my arms again and see your beautiful eyes looking back at me. The thought of your touch when I see you again makes me long for you in my arms. I wish I could be with you now.

(who knew a bunch of burned tater-tots could turn me into a romantic, ha; I love you Madi!!)

Wasps

2009-05-10T15:29:00.003-06:00

I finally took down the wasp catcher from last year. There was a HUGE nest about 25 yards away, and then up into a tree. I have now emptied it and put some meat in it as I don't have any attractant. We will see in a few days if the meat does the job.

Skull Valley Camping & Shooting

2009-05-10T00:00:00.006-06:00

This weekend I decided that I would do a little camping, riding, and shooting. As I was going by myself I figured that I would just use the air mattress in the trailer. Now, the last time I did that, I froze my butt off! ha Although, last time I did that, it was a much much colder night. Friday night wasn't bad and the only part of my that got cold was my toes in the morning. It was still a slightly cold night though as I wasn't about to get out of my sleeping bag just for fun. ha I did bring my laptop and watched Tremors 4. :)

In the morning, Paul and his son Stan came out to shoot their guns. They had a fun time with their 22 and shotgun. Paul got to test out a bunch of different kinds of shot with his shotgun. Go figure that the one we liked best was the one we got a bunch of. ha I think my best shot for the weekend was when I used my dads 243 and hit a 6 inch target at 200 yards. :) I got it zeroed in at 100 yards and hit the 6 inch target a few times before moving out to 200 yards. I think it was only my 3rd shot at 200 yards when I made the hit.

I didn't get many pics (only 2) but Paul did get some on his phone. I even tried to get more than the 2 but my phone was dying and told me 'no pics for you!, to low of battery'. ha I will update the post after he gets them to me.

Do you see the generator? This rock made a perfect sound barrier.

More to come!

Edit: Oh ya. We even did our part to help the area. I ended up taking out one bag of trash that was from my doing, and 2 bags of trash that was picked up from around the area. So, if your reading this to find a place to shoot in Utah, do your part and pick up your trash!

Sleeping Beauty

2009-05-07T00:50:00.003-06:00

Madi sent me these pics and I thought I would share. :)

Present For Ella

2009-05-06T14:03:00.002-06:00

I went with Paul today to Office Max and saw something I couldn't resist. A horsey ruler! And the horses move when you move the ruler! I really hope Ella likes it. Here is a video of what it looks like:

Shooting With The Boys

2009-05-04T10:25:00.002-06:00

Saturday we took the boys out shooting right before going to the family thing. These guys were amazing! Both boys on their first shot hit the target! They even kept on wanting a challenge. After a few minutes at the closer range, they wanted to have it moved further back... and then again further back. Even dad took some nice shots at 100 yards without a scope. I'm not sure I could do that very well.

Here are the boys shooting:

One side of the spinner targets:

The other side:

Family (Dads Side)

2009-05-02T21:49:00.004-06:00

Tonight we had a little get-together with some family. It was at my cousins house on the way out to 5-Mile Pass. I got to do some riding and chat with a few people. It was too bad Ella wasn't here to meet Ella. ha I totally forgot to ask how old she is; oh well, they will meet some day. :)

Here you can see Ella on the left side: