The threatened rain didn’t really materialize.
2026-09-20
Cool Dama at the Pond vibe with the winner
Zach Magnuson. Andy beat him during Dama at the D in Detroit this past May… I got his pro mod so I would remember that moment. 🤪
Some of our loot from the day
They fed us and gave us Around Square (🔺⭕️◼️) gift bags. That more than paid for the entrance fee! Andy got this special edition kendama (left pics) and I got a ZMags pro mod (top right). My gift back included a blue, Delrin knucklebone. :)
2026-09-19
They had pond water and pond food.
Andy and I passed on the pond water, but I used the cup to make an iced coffee. The cool cups change to blue when you put sold liquid in them haha. The barbecue pork and chicken were great!
Beautiful day for an outdoor completion…?!
Luckily, it only rained when we were on a break between events. But it wasn’t looking very good there for a bit…!
Me competing in Dama at the Pond
I was prepped better than I normally am. I learned several new tricks, but for some reason, I couldn’t get past the first one during the competition. Maybe it was just stage jitters, maybe being too cramped, or maybe just to close to the water’s edge? Regardless, I had fun, learned new stuff, hung with Andy, and met new friends. Good times.
Remember the ant lion?
Sophie and I took some pictures of one we found near the barn while working on Andy’s van when he switched back to Deaton. I was in the barn last week and saw where at least one of them was living. You can see his ant trap crater in the lower left of the pic.
2026-09-18
It’s fun to see Zoe come out to watch me mow…
If I don’t take her with me for the adventures working on the property, she “yells” at me with her “Hey, you forgot someone” bark. Pretty cute. Obviously, she has to keep her distance from most of the mowing and trimming activities…
The trees are fighting back…
After I cut the fallen ones out of our tree line and drug them away, my arms looked like THIS… I guess I got a decent case of poison ivy out of the deal… I don’t think they liked me messing with where they’d landed…
This is a cool song and graphic
It reminds me a lot of what fatherhood looks like. I really love being a dad and having good examples in my life of how to do just that too. Something about the teddy bear in the tactical bag full of kid and survival gadgets along with carrying his kid in the pumpkin seat. Good ole days…
Summary from the internet:
•The song "I'll Carry You" by Tommee Profitt and Stephen Stanley is generally interpreted as a message of support and reassurance for anyone going through a difficult time. The lyrics convey a promise to be a reliable source of strength, comfort, and companionship for someone struggling with inner demons or feeling lost.
•The song uses metaphors of lifting someone from the shadows and fighting their wars to emphasize solidarity and empathy. It is often seen as an uplifting anthem about the power of human connection and being there for others in their darkest moments.
There is a blockage in the hallway…!
Chloe makes a rather formidable speed bump, the kind that would launch you flying helplessly through the air if you hit it at any speed… hahahaha.
I ran across these civil servant pins
They are service anniversary awards. Trouble is, I don’t even know which side of the family they’re from. Neither my mom or Julie remember anyone serving this kind of role in our family history. Interesting and cool, but I wish I knew a little more about who they belonged to.
Here’s what Siri suggested for the kinds of roles it could be…
United States government civilian employees encompass a wide range of non-military roles across various federal departments and agencies. Any full-time civilian employee reaching the 15 or 20-year milestone could be awarded these pins, including:
- Administrative and Clerical Staff: Secretaries, data entry clerks, and office managers supporting federal offices.
- Professional Specialists: Lawyers, physicians, biologists, and engineers working for agencies like the EPA, NASA, or the Department of Veterans Affairs.
- Public Safety and Security: Federal law enforcement officers, correctional officers, and intelligence analysts at the FBI or CIA.
- Service and Operations: Postal workers, air traffic controllers, and national park rangers.
These employees are part of the federal civil service, which is managed by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The workforce is generally divided into three categories:
- The Competitive Service: The majority of civil service positions, where employees are hired based on merit after a competitive process.
- The Excepted Service: Positions with streamlined hiring processes, often used for specialized roles like intelligence, foreign service, or medical professionals.
- The Senior Executive Service (SES): Non-competitive, senior leadership positions filled by career employees or political appointments.
2026-09-17
If you need electrical tape…
…This is the type you want! It’s only like $4 a roll, and works so much better than the cheap stuff that goes for 88¢ but has less than a quarter of the material and uses a far inferior adhesive.
Time to fix my traction control…
I was getting an error in my traction control system on my Jeep and it was disabling my cruise control. I have a lead foot and need cruise to keep from accidentally speeding. I narrowed the error down to this wire on the driver rear speed sensor. It was getting chaffed from the bump stop and axle movement. So I isolated the work area, cut it out, spliced back in new wires and wrapped it back up. Crazy there was mud under even the inner layer of wrapping tape…
It’s all good now and started working nicely again!
It’s always fun to see what Apple’s got next
I like my screen where I was watching the event too. I’ll likely sit out this batch of upgrades. I already have an iPad, my phone and camera still have a lot of life left them, and the watch didn’t offer anything new from a hardware standpoint. I always like these summary graphics they make. I have been running the new iOS for several weeks and find that I like it.
Zoe and I took some time last week…
…to explore the local history and cemetery. When you think about the first area doctor, being 20 years old and serving in the revolutionary war… It’s cool to learn about the founders of Centerville and how it and they fit into America’s history.
2026-09-16
Of course, an aquarium shop!
We found another shop for Julie to check out after our castle exploration.
I took a little hike to the river
While Julie relaxed under the archway of foliage, I walked down towards the river to explore. I was rewarded by this cool view of the castle and it’s four or five levels!
Stairways, arches, domes…
All hand-laid by one guy. This dude built this castle after he returned from WWI. His told his Sunday school class of kids that if they carried the rocks up from the river he’d build them a castle if they swore an oath to live by the Ten Commandments. 50 years and 55,000 five gallon buckets later, here it is! He had it mostly finished by the time of his death in the mid-eighties. It’s crazy that he figured out how to build a spiral staircase and a dome all out of individual rocks with no poured concrete or metal support. You can see a little of the three floors of the staircase in the pic on the right.
2026-09-15
Having fun working through my tricks
I’ve managed to get good enough to get through the list in two minutes or less most of the time. Of course, that’s under low pressure conditions, not on stage… I don’t care how I do in the competition. The point is to learn a little more skill, keep my self loose, and get to hang out with Andy. :)
Split ring recovery points!
These split ring recovery points make it super convenient when you need to connect and disconnect a bunch. It took me several trips to get all the tree remains taken care of. It’s also really handy to have the cameras (hitch cam in this case) so I could see where the load was, and how it was tracking.
Nice to save money by doing it myself
Between my chainsaw and Jeep I probably saved myself about $3,000 by taking care of these trees myself. I can’t believe I managed to trim the trunk off in one cut. It was about two feet in diameter at the base, but my little 18” saw did a great job working it’s way around.
2026-09-14
The end of our apple era…
Our last apple tree died off over the winter last year… We’ve had them on our property since I was a little kid. One of our favorite climbing trees was the apple tree in the North West corner of the yard when we were kids. Fruit trees seem to slowly die off around here. The one in the south west corner was the last. It still had a few apples last year, but was looking pretty bad. I had to take it down this past week as it was completely dead. I put the jeep to work again to make the tree fall where I wanted. It’s crazy that it was still standing with only that little sliver of wood left uncut in the middle. I just tapped the winch a few more times and pulled it right over.
Julies adorable single serve waffle makers!
She makes these little Chaffles as an NSNG way to have bread like buns. In this case, they were the base for an awesome sloppy joe meal! The chaffles are basically cheese waffles. They’re made of cheese, egg whites, and almond flour. So golden brown and delicious ❣️❣️
One of the cool, big frogs in our pond
His body was about five-six inches long. I saw quite a few of them while I was trimming around the edges.
2026-09-13
The pond looks a little better
Here you can see what it looked like after I got the fallen trees cleared away from the pond (upper pic) and after I trimmed the weeds and cat tails (lower pic). It’s nice to have it all back in order and trimmed back so I can walk and ride around it with Julie and the pups.
A useful winch and helpful view
I managed to be able to winch this huge pile of trees out of the way after I cut through all the trunks. I like having tires that would bite into the turn, but not spin. The camera helped me know when I was getting close to running out of winch line to pull in so I didn’t wind my tow strap into the winch. Putting the Jeep to work. At least it paid for some of it’s maintenance costs, hahaha.
It’s hard to swim when your sister is a boat anchor…
Zoe has come to really enjoy the water. She die this loop over and over again while I was working in the field. She really wanted to swim across, but Chloe kept her anchored to the shore haha. Chloe knows bassets can’t swim.
2026-09-12
Who let the dogs out?
I did! John and Savannah were in Cincy for the day so I got to let out Pebbles and May. They like me well enough now that they were happy to see me, went out on queue, and then settled back down for some pets. They were convinced that if I was there, J&S must be arriving any second haha.
My “helpers” and usual contributions…
Zoe loved jumping in the pond while I worked. Chloe abstained knowing she’s just a boat anchor. She did enjoy the shade of the cattails though. At one point, Zoe took off running when Chloe was laying down and it caused Chloe to log roll a couple times before she jumped up and ran along. Hahaha. I was wet and dirty by the time I was done for the day…!
Tree work at the pond
We had a big tree fall across the pond path a while back. I got out some tools, chains, and vehicles and went to work… Lower left is the before. Lower right is after working for several hours in the 93º heat to cut through the fallen tree and all the shrubbery and ones it took out on the way down.
2026-09-11
Good thing we know a guy…
I was threatening to adjust our water pressure (pressure relief valve) myself. The boy decided he better swing by before I broke something… Good plan❣️ He fixed us right up! We have much better flow now. In the process, he noticed our tub drain was leaking so he fixed that while he was at it. We’re good until the next thing crops up! For now, Andy’s our hero again.
WAS! Now it is “just add water”…
I forgot I had these pouches that came with a med kit way back when. It’s supposed to contain 4 oz of water. They’re long past there best by date and the water either evaporated or leaked out. However, the bag is still mostly air tight and still contained a little pillow of air. Julie said it was “just add water” now hahahaha.
Pretty storm clouds reflecting the sunset
While us RC guys were hanging out, we saw these cool reflections in the quarry pond while the sun was setting in the west and lighting up these eastern thunder clouds.
2026-09-10
Then I headed out to RC fun with the Strong men
Chris organized a get together at the quarry for us. We brought our scale rigs and enjoyed climbing the rocks and falling down them too.
The call came in…
Andy was wanting to hang a piece of plywood on the wall behind his cab in his truck, but it was definitely a two person job. So, he rang me up and I appeared. We figure out what we needed then headed to the lumber yard. It was fun to ride around in his big box :) Lower left shows the finished project. It didn’t even take us two hours. Not a bad activity to do in the sun on a 93º day hahahaha.
A fun little nod to the original moon watch
I like the moon on the back, the crators in the strap, etc. It’s pretty nice looking for just a cheap “plastic” watch. I paired with with a quick fit band and enjoy reliving my swatch junior high days too, hahaha.
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