Category: Leisure

November 7, 2023 – Final AM Loop Antenna Results

November 7, 2023 /

Two worlds are colliding. The clean-up of the basement and my commitment to not leave things hanging have finally met. I wanted to get rid of this wire wrapped box that I have been hanging on to for almost two years now. But, I couldn’t get rid of it until I finally completed the modifications that I wanted to make.

One of the suggestions on my YouTube video was that my capacitor was not adequate. If you remember, it was an Aluminum foil wrapped card inside of an envelope. One of those was sandwiched between two others. The paper of the envelope acted as an insulator for the conductors and in theory, sliding the envelope back and forth was the fine tuning of the antenna.

I purchased an air capacitor that I see commonly used on DIY antenna videos. The plan was to replace the envelope capacitors with this relatively expensive component ($35) and hopefully this would be the trick. After the part arrived from Germany, I set about with this new round of experiments.

I decided to take what I thought was my worst AM tuner (an old Walkman… how about that) and the best AM tuner, my CCrane radio and test them outside and inside of the box. With the device inside the box, I would mess with the capacitor to see if there was any improvement in reception. Interestingly enough, the CCrane radio also has antenna inputs, so I tried that as well.

First of all, I will remind you that AM reception is directional. As far as I am concerned, I saw zero impact with respect to reception inside versus outside the box of either radio. It also appeared that any fiddling with the capacitor made no change to the reception. Orientation of the box with respect to the transmission tower did make a difference, but again there was no difference the radio itself.

What conclusion can I draw from this whole thing? The only thing that I can say conclusively is that this box antenna has no effect on reception. As a result I broke the whole thing down so that I could continue with my rampage of cleanup. I very well may try this again, but this time with different wire.

The wire I purchased was Aluminum at the second hand store. I wonder if changing from an insulated wire to a non-insulated one might help pick up signals. Buying a nice, new spool of wire kind of violates my principal of making this cheap or out of junk. To really get this dialed in on what components will work requires it to work in the first place. I just didn’t see that.

I don’t offer this enough, but if someone sees what I am doing wrong, by all means help me out. Now that I have outlaid the cash for a commercial antenna, I really don’t have any drive to put anymore energy into this endeavor. It is a good idea to learn from failure though.

End Your Programming Routine: When I first ran across the plans for this antenna, I had visions of young kids scavenging materials to gather around the radio and listen to a soccer game in some third world country. It may be that I don’t know what I don’t know but if that is the case, then this project is much more precise than I gave it (and I thought I followed the instructions to the letter). To be fair, I don’t have a full grasp of the science of antennas so it is possible that this can work, I have to say that my experience says it is not worth the time.

November 1, 2023 – Bluetooth… Who Knew?

November 1, 2023 /

I am in the midst of a network transition. I am going to talk about that next week. This old PC that I use day after day has a wireless card that I installed when it was new (we are talking 2012, how about that). I never use wireless because everything that I have that I can reach a wired internet connection is not on wireless.

This comes from a long standing reliability belief with wireless. The microwave interrupted it, the signal was spotty in being connected and not. The wireless n protocol on my old router was in draft form and only worked with devices from the same company. I just believe in bypassing all of that futzing and plug it in.

I was looking at Linux supported wireless network cards because I was was wondering why the wireless did not work on that particular computer. That is when I came to the realization that Bluetooth capability came with the wireless card. And, if I added a new wireless card, then I could broadcast from my computer to the stereo system without having a 20′ RCA cable.

You know that I think cable is superior. But then the problem is how to switch between the native audio output and the secondary output. I have tried it and it is kind of messy because one is labelled headphones and the other is not. It doesn’t always work like it is supposed to and then things get jumbled up with various programs taking precedent over output choice.

I made the leap to update the wireless card. I rationalized it to myself as another bolt on to manage the network that I have as well. Based on my success, I will also add one to my Linux machine. At $30, it is a pretty inexpensive add on for that flexibility and capability. That would also give me another operating system to help with troubleshooting.

I have disabled wireless administration to the router. It is one of the security measures that I have in place. That way, only machines physically plugged into my network have the capability of making changes. Wired will remain my primary connection, but it also gives me some additional troubleshooting capacity for faulty switches as well. There are plenty of devices that are only wired to the switches like TVs and X-box.

It has been quite a while since I was in the hardware game. I needed to educate myself as to what the system requirements actually were. I knew from the TV tuner foray that I had an extra PCIe slot. But I certainly didn’t know what a PCIe -1X versus a PCIe-16x slot was. Nor did I know if I had a spare USB connector on the motherboard. It turns out that I did and so the installation was pretty easy for a Windows machine and plug and play installation. I also needed to manually install an optional OS upgrade for Bluetooth to make it work. Once I figured that out, I was off and running.

Speaking of Bluetooth and USB, the card I chose had Bluetooth 4.2 standard. There are options out there with Bluetooth 5.X and you may wonder what the difference is. Bluetooth 5 is better and faster with more range, but you do need a USB 3 connection on your motherboard. Defining all of that today is too technical but if you are in this position, seek research on the internet as to what ports and connections you have before ordering. I will say, having the the best versus none, go with what you can get. It also costs more for that extra bandwidth and range which is a big turn-off for me and techno junk.

Doing some advanced reading, I can’t say that the Linux installation will be as smooth. But that is OK. I need to continue to challenge myself in that operating system if I am to ever learn it. I finally got the software installed SDR/scanner. It took quite a while because I chose to watch baseball instead of working at it. It can be done, I am confident in that fact.

End Your Programming Routine: If you have some technology over ten years old, it may benefit you to update hardware if it makes sense. This was less about adding wireless network then getting Bluetooth. Honestly, I have tried both wired and wireless and things were pretty much the same except that I saw one hiccup streaming a song on wireless and several with the Bluetooth stream itself. This will continue to keep me wired but maybe in my lifetime it will get there.

October 26, 2023 – How Many Pumps for Accuracy

October 26, 2023 /

Hopefully, my zeal for experimentation and data translates into interest. I know that not everybody is like me. But, I get excited when people are excited about what they are doing. It really doesn’t matter what the topic is, I find it fascinating when people are into their thing. I may not want to do it, but I enjoy the enthusiasm.

The truth is, I wrote the article “I Hate Pumping” a few weeks ago prematurely. It was always my plan to test accuracy of BBs based on the number of pumps. I should have written after I collected all of the data first but I was in a little bit of a funk. I was getting ready to hunting and was suffering a little bit of brain fatigue. I needed something on the spot and I didn’t have time to do all the work.

My creativity seems to go in spurts. Right now, I am flush with ideas and time is getting a little less constraining. Now that the sun is going down with some evening left, I have time to read, think and tinker in the evening whereas in the summer it seems like it is go until you drop. I have several weeks of topics (that I think are good) in the queue. So, I want to close the loop on this testing for you.

Let me start with what I was trying to accomplish. Using the Crossman 1000 and shooting BBs, what does the number of pumps do to velocity? I did a series on pellets many months ago but I wanted to use BB’s this time because my preferred rifle, the Crossman Optimus only shoots pellets and I have a whole bunch of BBs. After understanding the pump to energy curve and knowing how many pumps would be adequate energy to dispatch pests, I wondered if this was even an accurate platform with BBs.

I found out that pumping the maximum twelve pumps is a chore but it was also pretty wild after the initial five attempts. To boil it all down, is it even worth it to shoot BBs? Looking at the picture, I think that you can see nine pumps is a significant improvement in accuracy over 12, it looks like seven is slightly better, five looks pretty dialed in and three starts to wander again.

This is good news. If the results would have all been like twelve pumps, I would have given up. Five is also a far cry from twelve pumps in the effort department. Looking at the energy data, I am not sure the energy is adequate for pests at five pumps, but that is OK, BBs are far cheaper to shoot if we are just talking about practice and trigger control and I have a lot of them around. The most important thing for practice is that it will hit where you aim.

Of course, now I will not leave things here. I am going to try a new series with my son’s Crossman 760. I did a baseline test months ago with pellets and found that rifle to be vastly inferior to the potential velocity. Ten pumps (the max) was equal to about four pumps on the Crossman 1000. What I am now trying to establish is that is it the velocity that stabilized the BB or is it rifle specific?

That being said, expect another one of these with a new set of data. This time, I promise that I will wait until I have everything completed. But like I said above, I need to do a better job closing the loop with subjects that I introduce. Maybe I should introduce a new category like ‘Results’ to share my conclusion. That will keep me more honest when using it and then I can write the post in a more scientific fashion. I will think on that.

End Your Programming Routine: Based on my results, BBs can be accurate without needing Popeye’s arms. That being said, not all tools are best suited for every job. Where I have settled is that I should be able to adequately shoot BBs with five pumps for practice. Stayed tuned for another analysis on potentially why five pumps is the best.

October 17, 2023 – Lessons From Deer Camp

October 17, 2023 /

When I was young, I used to envision that I would hunt and fish to my heart’s content. Getting married and setting additional priorities has changed that. I still wish that I would have the freedom and not feel guilty about taking time to do what I want but make no mistake, there is a changing of philosophy.

This year, deer camp was more about father/son time. I brought my son with me and of course I was hunting with my dad (and uncle and brother). When I was young, around eight, my dad used to alternate taking me and my brother hunting. I used to look forward to this time for weeks ahead of time. When it was my brother’s week I used to spend an hour questioning and trying to get the low down on what happened. It is hard to express how jacked up I was by missing out and looking forward to my week.

Now that my dad is in his mid-seventies, the opportunities to spend this kind of time is dwindling rapidly. And more so than that, my son’s time is dwindling as well. He is a senior this year and a lot of his familial interactions have been with his mother’s side of the family. So, it is kind of a opportunity to make up for lost time. I was really a senior when I started to spend time with my mom’s father so it is not too late and was definitely a worthwhile endeavor.

The season that we had tags for lasts nine days. It started on Saturday and ended on the following Sunday. The weather was not favorable for hunting. Yes, mid-eighties sure is nice camping weather but it makes for a pretty dire chance to see animals. For that reason, we did hunt but I also took the opportunity to look around too.

One afternoon, the temp was in the mid-eighties and my son and I went to to see something called ‘Hole in the Ground’. This was apparently a geothermal vent where water got trapped and ultimately exploded causing a giant depression. Unfortunately, the picture does not do it justice. I would say that it this is why going to deer camp was valuable. I would never just spend the time to drive to it or make it a deliberate destination but it is something that we can share as unique to this trip.

I used to be pretty rigid about missing school but that has changed. Not only is my son a senior so there is not much more that he is really going to learn but my observations of the quality of that time has been diminished. I observed in 2020 that seniors just graduated at spring break. This tells me that even the school system really doesn’t take those extra months of ‘education’ seriously. What is a couple of days?

Weighing the time spent family bonding versus a couple of days of school is no question. These are memories that don’t come any other way versus another forgettable high school day. All that being said, I could only afford to take one day off because of my new job so he only missed one day of school. In that case, it really was a minimal disruption.

Ultimately, I don’t really care if my son develops a desire to hunt. I am relatively certain that my vegetarian son won’t. So whatever our future looks like, we will have to meet where we are. I happen to hold many of the same interests that my dad has. That makes it relatively easy. I plan on half-heartedly pursuing hunting and fishing the rest of my life. But, my son’s and I may have to find other places to meet in the middle.

We did see other things, like we saw a wild badger; that was a first for me. We saw how men should behave in an all male setting. I gave him a the freedom to go explore on his own and make some of his own decisions in this setting. I taught my son how to perform a proper deer drive. I think all of those things are character building experiences.

End Your Programming Routine: We left with only three days of hunting put in while everybody else was going to stick out the rest of the week. For our portion, it was scarce on seeing deer and nothing bagged in camp. That is OK because what we got was much more valuable than a trophy. It was me and my son spending time together that we rarely do and hopefully this will be a worthwhile memory. It was for me.

October 12, 2023 – I Hate Pumping

October 12, 2023 /

Every since I purchased my Crossman Optimus spring piston, air rifle my Crossman 1000 has sat in the corner. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with it but that it is a variable pump rifle. That means to get the same performance (actually less than) from the 1000 to the Optimus, it takes twelve pumps. I know that I am aging, but this wears you me as well as it takes a long time for a follow up shot.

I continue to collect pellet ballistic data, looking for that magic combination of energy between velocity and weight. The other day, I was thinking, I should do some work with the Crossman 1000 because it also shoots BBs. Maybe I can practice even cheaper? Maybe I can burn up those BBs I loaded on day one and haven’t shot since I went to pellets with the Optimus?

I am not going to bore you with more numbers. I find it interesting and maybe if you really want, e-mail me for the results. But, one of my going in theories was that BBs would not be accurate. As I was trying to measure velocities across that 1 1/2″ window, I was struggling. I shot probably 30 shots to get ten measurements. When you have to pump the rifle 12 times with increasing force, it really gets to be a chore.

The scope that comes with the rifle is cheap and barely useable. I do not recommend the Crossman 4×15 that you can purchase for $20. Since mine came with the rifle, I will use it for now until I get fed up with it. The point of that is that it is not easy (or clear) to see through it well. But, from what I could see, it looked like was shooting all over the place. Hence, why it took me so many shots to get measurements.

All of these shots were from a rest with 12 pumps at 10 yards. The ones in the red represent the first 5 shots whereas everything else happened afterwards. It is no wonder I struggled to get measurements with the chronograph.

I started out with a whole series of velocity/energy measurements with BBs and pumps just like I did with pellets. This time I went 3, 5, 7, 9 and 12 pumps. Skipping all of those other intervals saved my arms a lot of movement and I didn’t really care to get that much data. I am pretty sure the velocity curve follows the one that I previously calculated for pellets. The other thing that I did differently was measure the velocity at the target (10 yards). The reason I did that was because I am trying to determine how effective this rifle with BBs really for pest elimination.

I already know that 8 ft/lbs at the muzzle is lethal on pests. The last thing I want is an ineffective tool. After I got all of my measurements, the next thing that I wanted to determine was how accurate is this rifle with BBs anyway. So, I just started shooting at targets. At first, my groupings were pretty tight, then things started to go a little wonky.

By the time I got through my planned magazine, I was struggling to pump the rifle even on the first stroke. After I ran my magazine dry, I tried another test. I simply cocked the bolt and pulled the trigger. Low and behold, it fired. Then I did it again and it fired again. I did it a third time and it was just the thud of the spring.

So, it appears that twelve pumps puts more air in the chamber than is used to drive the BB. This is the cause of the increasing difficulty to charge the rifle after firing. I believe that it is also the cause of increasing inaccuracy. I really don’t know where the line is between expected results and chaos, but I would say five shots is a safe bet since that is where I got my best groups.

I am going to continue this test with other pumps groups. The reason being is that I am trying to determine if it is even worth training marksmanship with this rifle and BBs. Ideally, I would like to know this rifle well enough that I could say, this is where I train and this is where I could use it if need be. After all, an inaccurate rifle is pretty much useless. You don’t do anything for marksmanship or pest elimination and you might shoot something that is not intended.

End Your Programming Routine: The big drawback is the multiple pumps. I am hoping that my data says that 3 pumps is adequate. This would relegate the Crossman 1000 to mostly just target shooting, but it would be worth it for the practice. If the accuracy proves to be a problem, then it may relegate the rifle to the garage sale pile.

October 11, 2023 – Totality Again

October 11, 2023 /

What kind of nerd would I be if I didn’t get excited about somewhat rare astronomical phenomenon? The video I am posting today was from our total eclipse in 2017. We didn’t even have to leave our deck to watch the several minutes long spectacle. The video my son took and we had a small party. At that time, I was letting him post on my YouTube channel and so it is still there.

The video does not do it justice. The time was approximately 11 AM in August and you can see that it looks like twilight for several minutes. For those of you not in the path of totality like I am on this one in 2023, you might not see much. We are expecting about 90% coverage in this area.

What you see is it looks almost normal until right before the moon totally covers the sun. Then all of a sudden, it is like a dimmer switch rapidly turned down. It goes from normal brightness to a twilight feel in a matter of seconds. They sky is a grey/blue not like the colors at sunset but a unique hue that comes with the sun being blocked by the moon for a couple of minutes.

I personally did not notice this, but I heard reports of birds and insects suddenly quiet. There was much excitement in the air anyway. Towns hosted festivals and for a few minutes, all eyes were in the sky.

We started hearing about this event (2017) about a year before it was to happen. I think we heard about this current eclipse about the same time frame. It has been on our calendar for months anyway. For us, the eclipse will be Saturday October 14, at 9:18 AM give or take a few minutes. I would err on the side of give if you want to ensure you will see it. Be sure to get some specialized glasses to protect you eyes, especially if you want to watch the partial process. I am seeing them in the stores for $0.99 a piece, a small price to pay for safety.

If I want to travel about 45 minutes south, then I could be in the path of totality. As it is, we are volunteering at the OSU Beavers football game to raise money for our son’s senior party. And so, I don’t know if we will even be able to watch. That being said, you can see the path, times and locations of the solar eclipse here.

Another factor to consider is the weather. Having an eclipse in mid-August in Oregon is a near guarantee that things will be clear and visible. It is the driest month on average. That being said, the forecast as I write today is overcast. This means that there is a good chance that we will not be able to see the eclipse at all. That also means for the best chance to see it, head southeast of Eugene to central Oregon. Weather on that side of the state is typically 25-50% better in terms of cloud cover.

End Your Programming Routine: You don’t have to be a nerd to enjoy this event. I think everybody would be awed by totality. I highly recommend that if you are close and you have never seen it to do it. Having experienced totality, I think that the extra effort is worth it considering you hardly notice a partial eclipse. Regardless of where I am at or what the weather is doing, I am going to look if I get the chance.

September 21, 2023 – Heavy For Caliber

September 21, 2023 /

You know that I am a scientist and that I like to do things just for the heck of it. An experiment if you like. Well, this is an experiment. I found some .177 pellets online that I purchased a few years ago. They are 16.4 grains in weight which would be double the normal weight of run-of-the mill air rifle pellet. For reference, that would be in the 5-9 grain range.

In my quest to find the best pest elimination combination i.e. energy, I thought that I would give these things a try. Because of the weight of these pellets, they are not able to achieve the velocity of the lighter pellets and therefore, they make less energy than the other pellets I have tested. But what about accuracy?

I was reluctant to shoot these because the label said for PCP (Pneumatically Charged Pellet) rifles only. These are rifles that are filled with SCUBA tanks or air compressors like Lewis and Clark used (did you know that?). PCP rifles are becoming a thing because they are not considered firearms and are made all the way up to 50 caliber making them suitable for hunting large game.

When I put these pellets in my break barrel Crossman, they stuck out about 1/16″ of an inch of the chamber. A normal lead pellet would compress to be forced all the way into the chamber. This was my hesitation to trying them in the first place. But I closed the barrel anyway and gave it a shot (literally). It worked. OK, now I am going to zero the scope. And here is where the problem was manifested.

The picture above shows 10 and 50 shots with no scope changes at ten yards; the rifle is on a rest. My rifle cannot shoot these pellets with any degree of precision. The reason is that these pellets are heavy for caliber and why I think they were marked PCP rifle only. I will explain the phenomenom.

Heavy for caliber means that the projectile does not match the rifling groves in the barrel. In this case, the rate of twist is not significant enough to stabilize the projectile in flight and therefore accuracy suffers. For instance a .223 Remington typically shoots a 50-60 grain bullet in a barrel that is 1:9 or sometimes 1:8. The translation of those ratios are one full revolution in 9 (or 8) inches of barrel. The faster the rate of twist, the better heavier bullets will be accurate and fly true.

This is all fine until you look at the 22-250 which uses the same bullet as the .223 Remington. Those rifles come out in the 1:8 to 1:14 rates of twist with the typical being either 1:10 or 1:12. The primary difference between the two cartridges is velocity with the 22-250 being 33-50% faster. The same rate of twist equation doesn’t apply equally between these two calibers. Here is a link to an article that goes more in depth on the subject.

Generally speaking, the heavier the bullet, the faster rate of twist you want in your rifle. Like all compromises, the better you are on the heavy end of the scale, the more likely you are going to struggle on the light end of the scale. Somewhere out there, there is an optimum ammunition and barrel combination. This one is not it for me.

Now, contrast that to this target. This is 10, 10.5gr pellets at the same distance on the same rest as the picture above. I would estimate this to be about a one inch group. I fired these cold for the first time.

End Your Programming Routine: As I say all the time, know your equipment. Now that I know, I am going to burn up these heavy pellets to get to more productive practice. The truth will be that I won’t get much out of the rest of those pellets, maybe I will work on trigger and breathing discipline. I almost thought of trying to buy another PCP rifle for this fact. But then I also need a way to charge it and the rifles are pretty expensive, in a lot of cases more than a real rifle. So, maybe sometime in the future. For now, I am going to keep going to see if I can find the inflection point.

September 14, 2023 – Never Expected That

September 14, 2023 /

In all the excitement, I guess I forgot to take some pictures. Nevertheless, it is the words that are most important. Recently, I went to the rifle range to see how I liked my new trigger. It has been almost a year since I installed it and the day after installation burning desire has dissipated but still I wanted to know how I liked it. Plus, it is time to get ready for hunting season.

Maybe it is a luxury or maybe I am just not practicing enough but I have been shooting the same lot of ammunition since I bought the rifle. That is thirty rounds since 2012. There are a lot of variables at play but removing one by having consistent ammunition is one controllable one.

Last year I think I took five shots to verify zero and that was it. Then I cleaned things up and put the rifle away. Not only did I want to try out my new trigger but I also wanted to see how much variability a different brand of ammo had on my group. What would happen if I had to borrow some ammo in the field?

First shot, not on paper. Huh, this was the same ammo that zeroed perfectly last year. And the problem is, if not on paper, then where is it? I tried aiming at the edge of the paper and low and behold, I was 12 inches to the left. I checked my scope to see if it was loose and it wasn’t. Everything seemed to be in order. Twelve clicks on the scope and I was shooting one inch groups again.

The nearest I can figure is that banging pins out to change the trigger changed some sort of alignment with the rifle. I did a little research into the subject and saw other people reporting similar issues. It also seemed like most internet warriors kind of poo-pooed the idea that this should matter (just like I thought). That being said, I saw other comments that such things like new slings might change the barrel harmonics enough to make a difference.

After I got things back to where they should be, I tried the new brand of ammunition. and my zero pretty much stayed true at 100 yards. I know that at farther distances there will be some difference because I measured the velocity at about 200 fps between the two brands. But, unfortunately, my range only goes out to 200 yards. That is as far as I can realistically check.

I didn’t hang a target at 200 yards but there are 6 inch steel plates at that distance. That seems realistic enough to me for hunting purposes. I hit six out of six and I called it good. I was pretty happy about how things ended. I don’t think that there is going to be a shot beyond fifty yards anyway considering how flat things are and how many trees there are.

End Your Programming Routine: So, the lesson is always check your rifle before hunting season. The next lesson is always check your rifle after you change something. It really doesn’t matter why things had changed, just that they have. A firearm that doesn’t hit where you are aiming does no good at all. In fact, it might even be downright dangerous.

September 13, 2023 – Once I Start, I Can’t Stop

September 13, 2023 /

This must be how addicts feel. Once I start doing a puzzle, I can’t stop doing it. I will literally skip eating, sleeping or anything else to keep looking for pieces. I have to physically force myself to stop. Sometimes even then, I don’t stop. Just one more piece turns into another hour.

Puzzles are something that we occasionally do (fortunately). It is usually a long weekend/holiday activity. In our climate, it is also a beach activity. I guess what I appreciate about them is that it is a family activity. Since I despise most TV and movies, I am not interested in sitting around for hours for little gain. So, it is also an activity that we can be in close proximity.

There must be some sort of connection in the brain between puzzles and programming. When I used to do that, I would get the same sort of feeling. I would start writing a routine and I couldn’t stop. Just one more time would turn into hours and pretty soon it was two in the morning.

I have to believe that it must be good for the brain. I know that my grandfather used to do a lot of puzzles. He was also a big reader and not much of a TV watcher. So, maybe it is in the genes. I was curious, so I did some quick research and here are some links.

https://fortune.com/well/2022/10/02/mental-health-benefits-puzzles/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brain-workout/200904/puzzles-and-the-brain

It also turns out that this kind of research can be a real rabbit hole. I started watching videos on how to do puzzles quickly. Back on topic! I observe that there are two kind of methodologies. I observe my wife doing a lot of brute force. I some cases, that may be all you can do when everything is the same color or you are just starting. I actually look at both the color and the shape. This allows me to automatically rule out certain sides of even pieces.

I have been accused of finishing the puzzle without my partner. For that reason, I try to focus on the most difficult aspects of the puzzle. I will do the sky or the water because it slows me down. Granted, it is not the most fun part of the activity but I feel like I can really dig into the lessor appreciated aspect.

One thing that I am getting more and more familiar with is that lighting makes a huge difference. I find that when it is daylight, I can see so much better than under artificial light. A lot of that is aging and over the last couple of years I have noticed a significant decline in my eyesight. Fortunately, it is not bad yet but I do have to strain a lot more than I used to. This isn’t great news for that rainy Saturday night.

I wouldn’t call it a tradition, but it is becoming something we routinely do during Christmas vacation. It makes a good family gift and we spend time working together. If your kids are ho-hum about it, the subject can be something that they are interested in to kind of get them going. At least, this is what we do.

End Your Programming Routine: It would seem like this is a good activity to keep doing considering what experts are saying. I am not really much into word games or soduku but maybe I should be as an aging person. It seems like puzzles along with games provide good stimulus to combat some of the worse effects of aging.

August 23, 2023 – It Is That Time of Year Again

August 23, 2023 /

So much for summer. We are a little over a week from school starting again. My younger son is off to Taiwan in a couple days and my older son will be home the day after that. We just registered my older son yesterday for school and the end of summer is eminent.

We drew tags to a new deer unit this year. I have been over there twice doing some preliminary scouting this summer. In fact last weekend, we spent a day driving around trying to get the lay of the land. We need to figure out where to camp, how to hunt and how to access the area.

I have always heard that serious hunters spend time with maps and photos before putting boots on the ground. I remember reading an article one time in American Hunter but it has been long lost. So, I have been perusing the internet on how to scout with maps. Maybe this is something that could help my usually poor outcomes?

I found this one that is a little dry, but I thought it contained good fundamentals. The presenters shows features on the map and talks about definitions of words in relation to the map. This is a good start for people that have no basis in maps and the vocabulary.

As a former Boy Scout, at least I understand the vocabulary, maps and compasses. But what nobody really tells you is the application of such. How do you read a map and find a deer?

I guess that there is no substitute for just trying. Now that we kind of know where we are going, I can look at maps to see what might be around and and look at some spots where I might want to look for deer or setup and observe. Maybe I will do a video on what and why I chose what I did and what I learned (don’t count on it).

Currently, with my new job and all of that, I am thinking that I will probably at best get a long weekend to hunt. So, I really don’t want to waste it on tripping all over myself trying to get oriented with the territory. If things go as I expect, then I will also have to consider what the rest of the party has already done before I get there. But, maybe if I do some advanced work, I can influence what they will do with or without me by providing strategies based on my map work. At least this is what I am thinking.

Lest we forget that there are some easier things to do to get ready besides like physical fitness. Truth be told, this probably should have started months ago, but maybe if you are young enough there is still time. And, just because you are not fit enough doesn’t mean that a little bit doesn’t help. I doubt that I will be fit enough as I should be. But, this is a reminder

End Your Programming Routine: I am excited that hunting season is coming around. That being said, this is also approaching harvest season. It is a crazy, manic and wonderful time of year. I think that it just might be my favorite time of year. The hope of a new school year, the gentle warmth of the last of summer, the bounty of the harvest and all of those things that need to get done. I just hope to take some time to enjoy it as well as participate.