BoxHenge

 

This month’s mystery photo start with this clue.  I call it BoxHenge:

That’s the only clue you get.

Oh yeah, almost forgot the mystery photo:

Ok, one more clue.   They photo is from a follow-up project related to a video I did last month on monitoring air quality:

  http://misterhouse.blogspot.com/2015/01/monitoring-air-quality.html

In people news, Aya had a fun and productive time on a business trip to Paris.   This is a Skype call with her not not falling in love with a Frenchman, for which travel wary us are grateful:

We Ebayed Dad a nice only slightly used powered wheelchair from Texas.  It has 4 different motorized chair adjustments, which Scott had our brave test pilot test out before delivering it to Dad:

This is another test pilot (son of some friends) getting flying instructions from Doggy.  Not that Doggy has flow before, but he thinks he knows how to help out in any situation:

I tested out my telephoto on the 2 mile wide Kennecott copper mine, 30 miles away.   They are still removing 100 million tons of slide rock/dirt from 2013 slide, should be back in full operation in 2016:

Spring has sprung here already, so the Box Elder bugs are out in full force:

I’ve been swatting them, and Bantik has been licking them.  That gives him the power to climb walls and ceilings:

The object of that mystery photo came last week in these BoxHenge boxes:

Ten 18” x 10’ x 0.06” fiberglass tubes, $280 each with shipping from NH.   Each holds 132 gallons of water, so that is 1320 gallons total, which works out to be 5.5 tons!

It took me 1/2 a day to fill them.   That mystery photo is looking through 10’ of water to the bottom of one of them.   They idea is to use the water as a thermal mass heat battery to lower the night –> day temperature swing we get on sunny days from the passive solar heat we get from all those south facing windows:

I’m experimenting with different water dyes for better heat absorption:

I finally convinced Doggy that they were (relatively) safe … no leaks yet!

Plants on the south side, and a walking corridor on the north side:

I’ve put 6 temperature sensor at various places in and out of the tubes, collecting the data here:

   http://brucewinter.github.io/plots/temps_waterwall.html

Will do a more detailed how to post on that after I’ve collected more data.  

If anyone has a use for 4 10’ foot boxes, let me know:

Last photo shows our latest indoor lighting fun.   I bought a few more inexpensive LED lights, using a 4 watt spot light on the chandelier, much more energy wise than the 10*30=300 watt bulbs built into the chandelier: 

Bruce

Tulip chairs

 

Remember that crazy small nano quadcopter I showed last month?   I discovered an even smaller one, easier to fly, and only costs $20 preassembled!

That bigger black one costs a whooping $45, as it has a build in camera for recording pictures and/or video.   My initial crazyflie kit copter, while harder to fly, has the most potential, as I can control it via the computer.    In theory.  So far, best I have done is to almost give dog a hair cut by launching and flying it automatically by giving a voice command to my watch as shown in a video here: 

  http://misterhouse.blogspot.com/2014/12/voice-controlled-nano-quadcopter.html

All of these small quadcopters are loads of fun to fly indoors and mostly safe.   As long as you don’t have hair, as Boris discovered:

Dog likes to play with them also, until his tail gets in the way:

We had a nice video chat with now bearded Noah from a coffee shop at one of the ports he was stopped at.  He is playing a piano on a cruse ship somewhere warm on the Atlantic Ocean:

We took another trip out to Miles City last week.  Got Dad moved into a nice room:

Had wonderful visits with siblings:

Helped with some cores around the house.   Mike and I got the pool table cleared off:

Then he proceeded to woop me 5 games straight.  Scott has some beautifully cut agates … forgot to take pictures of those:

Also helped Scott move out an old massive couch from his room and we set Mike up with a smaller and more solid bed frame:

In the process, we sent 10 bags/boxes of donations to St Vs and the library and collected a 300+ lbs donation for the dump: 

Sub-zero weather created pretty ice roads on the greenhouse windows:

Scott bought Mom some dictation software, so that inspired her to write down an outline of her life history, then dictate that into a 20+ page memoir. 

I taught Mike how to play the theme from Batman, Helen taught him how to make Sushi.  She even FINALLY allowed us to put some chocolate into one of the Sushi rolls, nummy!

Dogs got along well:

On the way back, we visited with friends Marie and Jason in Billings.   Those rocks are some of the new ones that the RimRocks deposited in their yard a few weeks ago:

Back home we finally decided on a new set of kitchen chairs.  These ‘tulip chairs’ were designed by Eero Saarinen 2 years before I was born.  He is the architect who also designed the St Louis Arch and JFK.  Love these chairs, novel, affordable, AND they best of all they swivel!

Yesterday our biggest house plant decided it wanted a change of venu.   So it walked itself up the stairs, with Bantik’s help:

It landed in a nice spot next to the bear.  That frees up a 2’ x 20’ strip near the downstairs windows that I hope to make into a ‘water wall’.   Basically 10 18”x10’ fiberglass tubes filled water to serve as a 1300 gallon, 5.5 ton solar battery to store some of the passive solar heat we get on sunny days. 

Dog is not so sure about this plan.   “What if that 10,000 lbs of water escapes?”  he said.   “I think I’ll stay put, nice and dry upstairs”.

He was also not so sure of these dorky looking shoes Helen put him in.   Cat found it amusing

He soon escaped them and bounded freely in his beloved snow:

Final pic is of one of Helen’s most beloved things in the Universe …  crystals in sunlight:

Bruce

A Crazy Fly and non-Sous-vide Latkes

Your final mystery photo challenge for 2014, some hints scattered below.

As most of you know, I spent 2 weeks in Montana, helping Dad with a very painful E coli spine infection, discitis.   He was 2 days in the Billings ICU, then 8 days in a 3rd floor room:

Mom didn’t have a chance to pack cloths, so after a few days of proper ripening, we took a quick trip to Old Navy:

For reasons only known to underwear Gnomes, Old Navy sells men's but not women's underwear.   So separately, with the dramatic flare of a male buying women’s underwear for the first time, I bought Mom some underwear. 

We had numerous visitors, including good friend Larry C.: 

After 10 days in Billings, we moved to the newly opened swing bed section of the Miles City hospital:

Along with excellent care and staff, it comes with its own Christmas carolers (from church)!

Scott is doing a great job keeping the home fires burning:

Need a hint on that mystery photo?   Not a mouse house … here is a photo of another one I found nearby:

While we were in Billings, our friends Jason and Marie invited Mom and I up for dinner in their recently renovated house, just below the Rims near the hospital.

Built in the ‘60s from a curved airplane hanger, they completely renovated it in a project they called ‘Gut the Hut’ into 1 big room and 1 bedroom:

A few days ago, a large rockslide deposited some huge rocks just feet their nearest neighbor’s house.  They are the curve roof house on the right:

You probably have that mystery photo figured out by now.   If not, you are going to kick yourself if I have to tell you.   One more hint:  I have come close to swearing when looking for one of those and not finding it.  

Helen and pets were glad to get me back home.  We had a family discussion about Snowden’s motives.   Pets didn’t have much to say, but Helen sure did:

Bantik helped me out and re-fashioned a not-so-fashionable hat Helen bought me.   Much better without the tassel:

I did another DYI video on how to wirelessly read your power meter (along with the readings from 300 of your nearest neighbors!):  

  http://misterhouse.blogspot.com/2014/11/monitoring-power-with-20-usb-stick.html

My latest project is this micro quad-copter kit called Crazyflie:

In theory I can program a computer to fly it, but currently I’m  still trying to get the hang of simply flying it with a joystick.    The good thing is that it is so small it can’t do too much damage flying into indoor things … that’s the theory anyway:

Helen new hobby is Sous-vide, low temperature, slow, water bath cooking.   She has some zip-locked bagged beef in this pot.  Those Hanukkah Latkes were NOT done Sous-vide, although she probably considered it:

Finally, for those of you still guessing on that mystery photo, I present this smiling fellow:

Bruce