Memorial Day Weekend - Roasting Hot Dogs

It is a crisp Spring day in southern Indiana and a good time to get a small fire going in the fire pit. Once it was hot it was time to roast some hot dogs.

At the end of day, we had a small fire to sit around.

Antenna Modification for Syma X5C Controller

In an attempt to increase the range of the RF controller for the Syma X5C quadcopter controller I removed the 28 mm antenna with a Linksys WRT54 WiFi router one.

The new antenna works but I did not do a range test with the old antenna so I am not sure if it is about the same, better or worse than the new antenna. I did not modify the antenna in the quadcopter.

The router is 802.11b model so it could not be used securely anymore as a wireless router since it used only WEP. I could not flash upgrade it so I removed one of it's antennas.

The top of the antenna is threaded so it can be removed when storing the controller. In order to get it to fit in the snugly in the casing, the bottom section of threading needed to be wrapped in electrical tape to expand the diameter of the connector.

Frilly White-Purple Iris

Pictures of some frilly white-purple irises blooming Clark County, Indiana USA. Images taken in May 2015.

Louisville Free Public Library How-To Festival

I have always wanted to attend an event our local public library holds each year called the How-To Festival. In the past a schedule conflict has occurred and I have not been able to attend. This year I was able to visit for part of the day. It is a great community event. Their web site can be found here: http://www.lfpl.org/how-to/

The presentations I got to attend were How to grow and appreciate heirloom tomatoes by Terry Gibson. He shared with an audience of about 30 people his expertise in growing tomatoes. From the questions from the audience he must have presented before because they were referring to tomatoes mentioned in an earlier talk. He mixed experiences and advice growing tomatoes with some humor. When asked what to do about animals such as deer or rabbits eating plants how garden. He said something to the effect in believing they are all God's creatures so we should send them back to God. It was joke of course. He talked about various scented repellents to ward off these types of animals.

I next attended the Maker's mobile lab to hear Mark Lorence talk about How to use a 3D printer. He talked about his experiences and those of associates to make artistic objects or machine parts. The printer was there with examples of items it had created. It was not running during the time I was there. He also showed us the 40 W laser cutters and examples of they they could do. They were used to etch words or logos into objects and to cut cardboard to make 3D shapes. The example we were shown was of a bust of Benjamin Franklin.

The last presentation I watched was How to get started with quad copters/drones and photography: flying demonstration. Al Wollerton was the presenter and he had a number of quad copters to show. The demonstration of the Phantom quad copter was impressive. The Phantom sells for over $300 and can be found on amazon.com.

He was flying a smaller quadcopter as well that reminded me of the Syma X5C I fly but it looked more aerodynamic. It could to the 360 degree loops as well.

Picture of a friend (Benjamin Franklin) of American libraries displayed at the Louisville Free Public Library on May 2015.

Cereus Night Blooming Cactus

My smaller Cereus cactus bloomed the other night. I was hoping to put a webcam attached to a Raspberry Pi computer to time lapse photograph it opening and closing during the night. The night the bloom opened I only got the camera set up late in the morning so the bloom pod had already mostly closed.

I did capture a small about of video of it for several hours which I need to figure out how to edit and put on YouTube.

Interesting enough it looks like amazon.com sells seeds for a blue variety of this cactus.

See my previous posts about this cactus here:
http://poppular.blogspot.com/2009/03/night-flower-of-cactus.html

http://poppular.blogspot.com/2009/07/night-flower-of-cereus-cactus.html

http://poppular.blogspot.com/2013/08/cactus-ready-to-bloom.html

http://poppular.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-cereus-night-blooming-cactus.html

A Very Colorful Queen's Tears Flower

Pictures of the Billbergia nutans (Queens Tears) flowers. It bloomed in November 2014. The plant had it's most blooms ever in 2014. I believe there were 4 bloom stalks that produced 24 flowers during 2014. At the beginning of the year I placed in a more sunny place in the house. Maybe this increase in energy gave it more food to produce a lot more blooms. We will see what 2015 brings. I was not able to photograph most them due to my work schedule. 

Years ago I created a time lapsed video of the flower which is on YouTube for the viewing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T-K8doGPFs

Blooming White Azalea Flowers - 2014

 White azalea flowers blooming in May 2014 in Louisville Kentucky, USA. Photos taken with Moto X smartphone.

Russian Iris Blooming 2014

This small iris tends to bloom early in spring. A Moto X phone was used to take a picture of this purple flower.

Flower Pictures with Moto X

The Motorola Moto X phone has gotten a lot of nice reviews. It may not be in the same league as the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy phones, I like it. One shortcoming of the phone that some users have brought up is the camera. As you can see with these pictures it does take some nice images. These flowers were taken at dusk so the lighting was not great. The phone was in HDR mode auto and was handheld.

Visit to Kentucky Kingdom and Hurricane Bay Amusement Park

On Saturday May 17, 2014 I got to visit the reopened Kentucky Kingdom and Hurricane Bay amusement park located in Louisville. It is a very nice place to go and see. The park is not officially opened yet so not all the rides were operational and there was still some landscaping to be done.  amazon.com fulfillment employees were allowed to visit the park early and they appeared to be having a good time.

The Deep Water Dive slide was the amusement that most caught my attention. I believe it is 12 stories high and you slide down this water slide in mere seconds. The people sliding down appeared to have fun.

The near by Splash Zone seemed pretty cool as well with this large water bucket that would pour water every so many minutes.

The park is a nice addition to entertainment options available to the visitors and residents of Louisville, Kentucky.

Toyota Camry Achieves 300,000 Miles

The 1997 Toyota Camry achieved 300,000 miles after almost 17 years of being driven. It has been a good car and appears to be in good enough shape to go another 100,000 miles.

Ice Patterns

On Christmas day 2013, I checked on my parents mailbox and came across some ice in a drainage ditch. The ice had some interesting patterns on it so I took some pictures using a Motorola Moto X smartphone. I am really liking this phone!

Hats of Asia Exhibition

The above image is of a doll featuring Fuji Musume (藤娘) or a Wisteria Maiden. It depicts a dance scene from Japanese Kabuki theater. It can be found at the Asia Institute - Crane House. Learn more about Kabuki at this web site.

The Asia Institute - Crane House is a place to promote Asian culture in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. The house is located at 1244 S. Third Street, Louisville Kentucky 40203. It is free to visit the house so if you are in the area I encourage you to do so. Learn more at their web site.

As of this writing (October 2013), The Asia Institute - Crane House are exhibiting a collection of hats from the different cultures around Asia. The exhibition is called Covering Asia: Telling the Story of Asia through Hats. The exhibit runs from September 27, 2013 till May 9, 2014.

The following is a small sampling of items on display at this exhibit.

Kang Dong or round turban worn during formal occasions in Vietnam.

Kang Dong or round turban worn during weddings by the bride and groom in Vietnam.

Chinese skull cap worn till the 1940s. Also referred to as guan pimao or melon cap (xiao mao).

China green army hat used after 1950s. This one is missing its red star.

China Long March cap used after 1950s.

Muslim winter hat used in Beijing China.

Kingfisher jewelry worn on special occasions in China. The Kingfisher bird that had blue colorful feathers the jewelry was based on was hunted to extinction in China. Learn more at this web site.

Model of Japanese Samurai helmet.

Cincinnati Museum Center

Here are some pictures taken in August 2013 at the Cincinnati Museum Center in Ohio, USA. The museum has an Art Deco design from the 1920s.

Outside the museum one can see a view of the Cincinnati skyline.

Creating Grape Juice

The steps to making grape juice is not too difficult. It does require quite a bit of work though.

1) First harvest your grapes, in my case I used Concord grapes. I then soak the grapes in a large 5 gallon bucket to get rid of bugs and other debris.

2) Next the good grapes need to be removed from the stem and placed in containers.

3) Once the grapes are separated, wash them and them place them in a container to be crushed. I used a large metal bowl. You want to separate the skins from the inner pulp while at the same extracting the sweet juice from the grapes.

4) Dump the crushed grapes into a large metal pot for cooking. Cook the grapes on low medium to help extract more juice. Do not let them boil though. Stir and crush some more grapes to maximize juice production. Heat for 10-15 minutes on the stove.

5) Obtain another large container. I metal cooking pot and strained the heated grape pulp with a wire mesh strainer.

6) The mesh will get clogged with pulp so it needs to be cleaned out from time to time.

7) Have another container to discard used grape pulp into. I composted the grape pulp when I was done.

8) I used a 64 ounce (8 cup) Pyrex measuring bowl to collect the grape juice.

The 10 gallons for grapes picked ending up producing about 150 ounces or about 1.2 gallons of organic grape juice. I consider them organic since I did not use fertilizers or pesticides on the grape plants. It took two people about 30 minutes to pick the grapes. Another two people about 2 hours to clean and de-stem the grapes. It probably took one person about 90 minutes to extract the grape juice and clean up the kitchen.

The grape juice was stored in the refrigerator in three containers and consumed over a 3 week period. There was some sediment settling at the bottom of the pitchers during this time.

The juice produced was a little murky, for a clearer juice like one finds in the store, a cloth strainer might be used.