Life with Andy…

I feel like there’s a Venn diagram in here somewhere from a few pics I snapped while hanging out with Andy and Sophie at his place this past week.  I couldn’t quite figure out what should be in the middle, then Julie realized it would be ANDY! Good one Jewels. Haha.

Screenshots from my smart watch…

Always fun to capture screenshots and then go back and try and figure out why I wanted to capture them by the time I a computer to download them… Ha ha.

One complaint I have about the Garmin watch; I can’t plug it into my iPad and download the screenshots and use it as a hard drive like every other device in the world. Requires a PC.  Maybe they will update the OS one day so it complies with the current mass media standards. 🤪

Getting ready for Dama at the Pond

Andy and I are heading over to Indiana to check out a new weekend adventure in early September.  It’s speed ladder format for me.  I can do most of these tricks.  Number 3 gives me fits.  But I am getting better.  Andy gave me a couple tweaks and I have a chance now, at least. :)

Fun with watches…

I’m using my clone to practice a little.  First, I had to get the case back off.  I didn’t have the proper tool so I used a pencil and hot glue which worked really well (lower left pic).  Then I had to tweak the tiniest of little levers (lower right, red arrow is pointing to it) to adjust the beat error and the running speed.  If you can see how much you moved it, you went too far, haha.  It’s a delicate operation with the hair spring and the balance wheel right below it!

In the upper pic, you can see I got it running nicely.  Spot on timing, nice amplitude and a beat error less than 0.5ms.  I tweaked it one more time and actually got the beat error down to 0.0 too.  Beat error is the asymmetry between the tik and the tok.  Now I just need to wear it for a few days and see how it does in the real world of getting knocked around on my arm 🤪 The first 24 hours it didn’t gain or lose any time, so I think I’m on the right track.

When I was all done, a little bit of rubbing alcohol causes the pencil to pop right off easily. I went ahead and got the right tool too.  $12 on Amazon.

Just messing around shooting cardboard and steel. Good practice!

It’s fun to see the kids borrowing stuff

They’re using some of the tools I’ve collected to care for their place across the street.  It’s fun to see them making it their own, and keeping up on it.  I’m happy to help, and they take good care of my stuff, so win-win.

Nice sunset this past weekend!

Pretty crazy competition setup this past weekend

I still get out once a month or so to keep my skills sharp.  We got to shoot from cars, shoot while climbing up and down steps, and more! Fun Friday evening!

Cool blue glowy

Citizen watches have a really cool color of blue for the lume on their hands and hour markers.  It lasts all night easily too.  

It’s fun seeing people read my blog

This was a particularly fun exchange between the three of us recently❣️

I got my tire remounted and balanced.

It’s almost as good as new.  You can see where the buried root (that I accidentally dug up with my wheel while winching out) poked into the sidewall and popped it off the bead… What a freak thing!

I got this cool timegrapher…

I used my birthday cash to by this little meter that listens to the heartbeat of a mechanical watch so you can tell how it’s running.  It helps with regulating and maintaining them.  Pretty interesting!  Also shows my retirement watch is running super nicely and accurate :)

I asked my mom about the other pocket watch I remembered

She’d always had this one hanging on the mantle while we were growing up.  I got the full story! It’s cool to have five generations of time pieces in our collections!  She’s gonna have to keep me from swiping this one when she’s not looking! It’s crazy how the minute hand was curved from the heat of the fire.  The hair spring is broken too so not much chance this one’s gonna run, the the intricate case, beautiful movement, and precious memories are all still evident!

My mom found this map of our old house

She’d drawn it for my Grandma who was house bound so that she could see how it was laid out inside.  It’s a pretty good re-creation!

Tractor and bush hog lessons

They’re preparing us for the next time they need bush hogging done at Camp Jabez.  We were planning to do some this week, but working on the fence and electric wires was higher priority. 

My dad would have been jealous to see me running this.  I’m sure he got to play with bigger ones when he was working on a farm in his later years.