Satellites, Outdoor Stuff & Gardens

“You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of football team, or some nuclear weapons, but in the very least you need a beer.” ― Frank Zappa

So…

We got Starlink the other day.

Yes, internet from space. Isn’t that nifty? Right now there is a satellite up there giving us like 230 Megs at top speed. Millions, possibly billions in research and development, advanced rocketry & other really expensive hard to make stuff was spent to allow me to broadcast my version of the news to the world.

Walter Cronkite wept.

So yeah, the kits is actually really well thought out.

The instructions are actually really good. Right to the point without a bunch of word salad or changlish phrases. “Want to make for happy time and good review!”

Kinda had to screw that up.

Awesome! So naturally I deviated from the instructions almost immediately. I decided to mount this thing on the roof and I didn’t want to pay like 70 bucks for Elon’s awesome roof mount. So I made my own.

I made this guy on the 3d printer that I have been pimping to you people for Bezos. Then I mounted it to this guy that was left over from the 300 satellite dishes that were on the house when we moved in. Seriously it looked like the local NSA intercept facility here.

Check that out. Then I thought “self”, ‘cause that’s me… “that wind get kinda strong around here. Maybe you should secure the dish so It doesn’t fly to Arkansas next wind event”. So I did.

The wind actually came in the next night. Everything worked like a champ.

Its a cedar plank with gasketed screws and butyl tape sealant underneath the plank for the screws. It isn’t going to leak.

We decided to watch a classic of American cinema to celebrate our entry into the semi-modern world.

Classic.

Then we went swimming the next day.

Or rather, kayaking and swimming. Farm Dog® took her first ride in the canoe. Soon to be “Adventure Dog®”. It was damn hot. Good time though.

We started a thing a few weeks back. Vinyl Sundays. I hear tell that some folks judge a guy by his record collection. I think I’m doing OK.

So here’s some shots of the garden this week.

The tomato plants are about shoulder high on me.

Punkins!

The second potato patch is coming along nicely and we harvested the first one too. The harvest was kinda small, but we are replanting it on Friday with another batch of reds. We also harvested our first batch of mint. You can see it drying on the trellis in the background. It’s not the prettiest trellis, but its all reclaimed material or logs felled in our forest. Don’t lecture me about environmentalism.

The first batch of compost is ready and in the garden. Oh yeah, I made sides for the trailer.

It’s enough material to add at least a foot to the first potato hill. I’m mixing it in daily then we will plant on Friday. I’ve never been able to get a second season before. This will be interesting.

The work weeks is what it is, but its like a thousand times better that I thought possible. And we get to go out and do things like this in a Wednesday night.

We rotisseried those little chickens over the fire and I made stuffed mushrooms too. Beautiful night!

Well, see you next week. Here’s your salty meme for the week.