Bighanded

we've been getting the desperately needed rain here...the event last Sunday took my creek from near dry bed to almost full at the banks and some spilling over in a couple places. the pond gained over 2 feet back up on the bank...course that will go back down some..but then overnight...a lot of the latest system.my creek and some of the low woods will likely be flooded a little...and that's fine as long as my pond gets back to good levels. only one major tree down from the winds last weekend...and it's blocking an entrance to one of my back trails..so me and the chainsaw will have to get to work soon as a Saturday frees up.

well, 61 degrees here on T-Day.. I spent the morning putting new seat covers on my offroad golf cart...wearing a t-shirt n shorts. sorry guys...but not plow season here just yet. (grin)

that lil Mav held up better than I expected.. I would hit it with a larger drone..but yeah man I hate the hornets and wasps.

I hear ya.. I just ordered new seat covers for my golf cart...long overdue..but ouch! $ ! my wife tends to see cool gadets and want to get into a hobby. I'm usually happy to dump the $ as it gives me some leeway when I come home with another guitar or gun, etc (grin). her spare room/office is litered wit 3D printers, the drones, camera gear and these days it's astro-photography...so telescope, tracking mount, etc etc. I should make some time over the Christmas break to get out back and play with the drones...it's fun..some of the grandkids are old enough now to enjoy them as well without risk to the units.

here's an older youtube of my Hubsan model...the X4. nice consumer hobby grade for it's day

most units...even in that budget range these days have GPS Return to Home feature, so even if they go out of your line of sight, and if their battery reaches a certain low point, they will automatically go into RTH mode..you just sit there and wait for the little whirl to come spinning back over the hill. I've watched mine return and land on the pizza box I launched it from. as for property surveillance? yeah, if they are already willing to trespass, poach, etc...they likely won't hesitate to take a shot at your bird. we aren't on that many acres. I cover my trespass issues with cell trail cams..15 seconds from trigger to notification on my phone. then I can decide what to do about it. but the time it takes to prep a drone...not an immediate response tool. fun to fly, and some fun video/pics. but that's about it for me. had a neighbor who got into it pro...mostly real estate...went from weekend to full time. But his rigs were another level...and he was licensed at that level as well.

forgot to mention the selfie drone is the Dobby by Zero Tech...has a good brain and was a nice advance from the earlier Hubsan here's one of many youtubes on the little wonder. A 4K GPS Drone in your Pocket - The Zerotech Dobby - Full Unbox & Review - YouTube you are likley looking for a much more capable drone, but just as it is with a carry pistol...the big one tends to get left at the house, when you want that quick birds-eye view...the Dobby can stay in a little back, ready to pop up and take a look about.

my drone experience is dated..got into it a bit early...but the wife was the one that wanted one. it was an earlier model Hubson that offered the Return to Home feature, as well as a go-pro style camera on a remote controllable mount (gimble option makes it smoother) but at least while you hover you can do a look-around. back then, the rig was pushing the $800 mark... I think it was worth about half that. and battery life never approached the 45 mins advertised... we could enjoy 20 mins or so before it was flashing that we best get it back to the ground. The wife got very frustrated as it would seem to loose it's mind at times, and would wind up in a tree someplace. she also was bad about coming straight down too quickly..so it would toilet bowl and loose it and crash. I upgraded the prop blades and it made all the difference on that. But I had to loose the blade guards..which is fine with me, but she gets so nervous. Anyway, it's sat in the box for the past 4 years...she lost interest in it...and it's her unit...but I should get it back out and have some fun....wouldn't really recommend it for anyone..even on a budget the other unit I have is in the selfi-drone class...bout the size of a pregnant smart phone..with the fold out rotor arms. hand launch and land, etc...works with my iphone or her android..nice thing is you can opt for joystick style or move your phone to fly. unlike some later models, this one is stout enough to do ok in a light breeze, the camera is fixed with the ability to angle the veritical before you launch..but after that, you'll have to aim the drone, rather than seperately control the camera. again, it was great to have it on road trips..but now the laws are so bad that it eliminates most places we'd like to fly for some quick pics...ie Blue Ridge parkway and other nationals, etc. so it also has not seen light of day since before Covid.

always easy to remember.....my son turned 43 this weekend..plenty of celebration ..and this evening, I wanted a bit of relax time...so pulled my lil Red 1979 CT90 out of the garage...couple kicks and brrrrrm! went for a ride on my back woods trails...still love that little bike 43 years on.

Loved Roth's characters when I was I think about 12 yrs old...had stickers, etc..the big bug-eyes monsters driving crazy cars.. used to draw them in school..no wonder I got in trouble during class and couldn't get a date to the dance (grin)

I admire you guys doing your own reloads. I'm, well, not too lazy, just have other hobbies that I'd rather spend time and money on..so it's never been on my short list

reminded me of a chuckle... when I bought my ol Fourtrax, the guy told me the bike had never been mudded, or abused. He only used it during deer season to haul corn in and deer out of the hunt property. when I went to meet him and buy the bike, he had just been out that morning and got a buck...he knew I was coming to buy the bike...he didn't even bother to wash the blood off of it. I test rode it, ramped it into my trailer, paid him and drove it home... THEN it got a bath. (grin)

yeah...used to sing that in the back seat of the family car.. I'm 65 yrs old...so I was there when these boys charted with this and it was the version that we played.

didn't really have an "eye" by the time it came over us...winds were in the 20s-30s...only a few trees down, the rain was so desperately needed but still less than a third of what is needed to restore from the drought. family in Tampa, Friends on the Carolina coast...knee deep in water, bit of a mess but nothing like the devastation further south. I did tour the property next morning..so my ol Blue Fourtrax did see some trail time, but no, not in the midst of the storm.

the wife and I took a quick ride at lunch...just for perspective before we hopefully get some rain from Ian. never been quite this dry. the pond boats are usually wet except for their nose up on the bank. The creek (25-40ft across) is usually knee deep normal levels with great flow.

yep.. I've got large limbs coming down from a couple trees that have just been dying of thirst.

hate this for our coastal brethren.. but I gotta say, the dump of rain will be welcome here. pond is over 6 ft off bank normal, creek has been dry and it will take nothing short of a storm like this to even begin to replenish our water table. if we were even close to normal levels here, then this would be a flooding event for us...as it is, we have plenty of room for it. I'll be sure to top off the vehicals today as I expect the platforms in the gulf will get shuttered for a couple days and that can mean some bags on pumps for us here at the butt-end of the Colonial

that tire serpentine belt will sure be expensive to replace and I don't know that I'd want to get sand into that rig. but it'd sure get the looks and attract the babes (maybe)

I love seeing guys come up with concepts that are this much out of the box.

I was surprised earlier this week with 91 degrees the kids enjoyed some pool time ...but looks like Fall has finally sunk in permanently now. never want damaged for others, but I'm sure hoping to see some inches of rain from this next storm. pond is about 6 feet off bank, creek is all but dry.

went to visit some of my family on Sunday. they've moved out to a country home..grandson (15) now has a short trail he can ride on... son-in-law, has a cheap chinese made ATV (brand name not important). anyway, I trailed my 300 over there, hopped on, and with the tap of the start button the 1993 SNAPPED to life as always. then I had to wait 10 mins while they struggled to get the chinese junk to start and run...and then to run consistently enough to take a spin. my son-in-law, still learning his lesson, said he's going to go shopping for any old older honda. (smil)

sorry for the late reply guys...was off busy having fun (grin)....old college buddy and his wife were up to stay with us over the weekend.. The wife suggested us boys go ride the hondas for a bit and he got this big grin on his face...so I went out and opened the garage..told him to give me a minute and I'd pull the 300 around for him...I hadn't started my old CT90 in about a month, so figured i might need a minute..anyway..he was anxious..he followed me out and hopped on the old blue beast...so i handed him the keys, refreshed his knowledge on operation and off he ran...leaving me behind at the garage... I chuckled to myself and quietly encouraged my lil red wonder that she needed to fire up so we could go catch up with him and keep him out of trouble...took a half dozen kicks but she came to life and off we ran...I tend to not ride that ol bike that often and then my mind wanders to thoughts of selling it..then I do hop on it and remember how fun that small underpowered lil wonder can be....guess I should keep it til I'm too old to kick start it

we are sure due..it's been a very quiet season so far. I certainly don't want any damage for folks, but we could use some inches of water from a storm at this point to get us even part way back to normal.

LOL...yeah, that was probably me you saw running down the road...I'll get out to it this weekend and see what I'm looking at in detail..what repairs/patching might be possible..but in the end, we've had many many great trips and good years out of this box...just not worth the cost of a new roof.

the water just gets too stagnant and hot and the thermocline flips...first you really know about it is when your prize large mouth bass are all floating dead on the surface the temps are cooling at least a bit..that'll help but I'm real close to renting or buying a displacement pump so I can aerate