A Bigger Barrel of Fish

Earlier this spring I got the bright idea to try to improve upon an idea and device that is pretty common in gardening circles but, to my thinking, has not been realized to its fullest potential.

 

Now, my bright ideas don't always prove to be practical, nor are they ever simple, but I was reasonably sure I could make this one work so I pulled together some materials and started making sawdust. Eventually the pieces started coming together in the rough shape of a barrel, but probably not one that would hold a lot of water.

The (almost) finished product. Can you guess what it is?

Here's a clue. I put it down by the compost bins that I built last year to hold the piles of leaves and grass that come out of our yard. The kids lend a helping hand.

I had to wait a month or so before I could say whether my super-sized compost barrel was going to work, but so far so good. I've kept it loaded with a fair pile of yard waste and the kids have kept it charged with kitchen compost and it looks like some good stuff is starting to pile up underneath. It gets a bit difficult to turn when the contents are wet and heavy, and I made the opening a little too large, but I'm pretty pleased otherwise. So far the kids have refrained from using it as a carnival ride.

Blazing Glorious

The maple trees in our yard have really caught fire this fall with vibrant color we've not seen in a while. It's difficult to capture on camera, but I took a few pictures yesterday morning anyway.

 This tree seems to have something extra. Three things.

Well, I always wondered where they came from.

Seeking Mangos and Camelas

The kids had the day off school last Tuesday so I took the day off too and we zipped down to St. Louis to see the zoo. It was wild.

It was also free, which makes me very happy. Of course, if you want to ride the zoo train or see the children's section or any of the extra attractions you have to pay a small fee, so they get you there, but the package tickets weren't too bad. We took advantage of the train ride right away to get the lay of the land. Paxton was on the lookout for some "mangos" and "camelas." It took us a while to figure out what he meant.

Toot, toot!

Andrea was in charge of the camera and took lots of pictures. I picked out a few notables, including this fine looking rhino.

And a hippo, happily bobbing about in his pond.

We did a lot of this. I wish I'd had a pedometer on me - it felt like we walked to Chicago a back.

The elephants are always neat to watch. That trunk is fascinating.

At the children's section, there was a place where the kids could go into the goat pen and pet the, well, kids.

Anthony brushes the coat of one of the friendly critters.

Anya had to chase down each one, but then would only poke at it tentatively before running off to look for the next.

The butterfly house was packed with colorful flutteries, including this one which, ironically, is black and white.  

The bears are always a favorite. I think it's because they always look so soft and cuddly, like this sun bear. The claws look neither soft nor cuddly, however.

We about froze in the penguin house. These Emperors looked pretty comfy.

Ah yes, one of the attractions that the Safari Adventure package included was a ride on the carousel. Paxton rode a cheetah, Anya a flying hippo, and I tried not to get dizzy.

"Mangos, mangos, pink fuhmangos!" Now where are the camelas?

Here's a chimp."Kenrick, do you think he looks a little like Uncle Sam?"

The Littles get up and personal with Mr. Orangutan. More than one person commented on similarity between the color of his fur and Paxton's hair. Turns out the orangutan's name was Rob.

The sea lion tunnel is new to the zoo. We held our breath, but it didn't break.

A couple of the gorillas were feeling frisky. Either that or the little brother was pestering his bigger sibling. Against teeth like that I think I'd be a little more respectful.

Finally, the "camelas!" Paxton was quite happy to see them; I'm not exactly sure why.

Anya spotted the "zeebas" in the next pen over. I'd much rather look at zeebas than at camelas.

The big cats were next to the zeebas, but not too close. This big boy looks soft, but definitely not cuddly.

The 'King of the Jungle', chewing on a T-bone.

One of the last stops for the day included a swing through the reptile house. I don't know if anyone has read the kid's book, "Verdi" about a little tree python who doesn't want to grow up, but this relaxing snake reminded us of him.

Time to go home to our own little zoo.

MINExpo 2012

As I said in my previous post, the reason that Andrea and I went to Las Vegas last week was because I wanted to go to the big mining show that's held there every four years. It's called MINExpo, and attracts all the players in the surface and underground mining industry from every corner of the world. Caterpillar puts a huge effort into putting together a world-class exhibit, uses the expo to introduce new products and services, and hosts activities with dealers and customers during and surrounding the three-day event. I was there to enjoy the show.

MINExpo is held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, a sprawling collection of massive halls, meeting rooms, and secret underground tunnels. Well, I don't know about the tunnels, but I do know that it took me two full days to walk the exhibit. I'm sure there were areas that I didn't even catch sight of.

Anyway, did I mention that Cat had a big display? This is what you saw as you entered one of the main entrances to the central exhibit hall. Big. Huger than huge to be more preciser. And very impressive.

The Caterpillar display took up 54,000 square feet - that's about 1.2 acres for you farmers out there - the largest display ever for any exhibitor at a MINExpo. Part of the reason for the large display this year was Cat's recent acquisition of another large mining company, Bucyrus International, which drove a big emphasis on our new line of underground equipment and expanded range of surface mining machines.

This is the line of machines that I work on. The 797F Large Mining Truck below can carry 400 tons of dirt, rock, ore, sand, or jello. At 42 miles an hour. It has lots of other mind-boggling specs - if you are interested, take a look at the brochure on http://mining.cat.com.

The 994H Large Wheel Loader is our largest wheel loader, but not the largest loader in the world. Still impressive to see.

One of the things we gained by the acquisition was a line of hydraulic mining shovels. This is a relatively small one, but significant because it represents the ability Caterpillar has now to match loading tools with our trucks. This machine also causes some mixed feelings because it's the type of machine I would have been working on in Aurora had Caterpillar not acquired Bucyrus.

As large as the Las Vegas Convention Center is, it still can't contain the really, really big stuff. This is a bucket from one of our cable operated shovels. You kind of have to just imagine the rest.

The underground equipment is always strange and fascinating. This is the business end of a continuous miner - essentially a mobile conveyor belt with teeth that can slip along a narrow seam of coal and hog out vast quantities of the stuff.

One of the most interesting and unique pieces of equipment on the Cat floor was a new heavy hauler locomotive from Electro-Motive Diesel, a subsidiary of our wholly-owned subsidiary Progress Rail. Almost as fascinating as seeing a locomotive inside the expo is the video on YouTube of how it got there.

The main reason I wanted to go to MINExpo was to see our competitor's equipment and I definitely wasn't disappointed. I took lots of pictures. One of the most intriguing rigs at the show was the monster Hitachi hydraulic shovel. They had it opened up so you could walk around inside the engine bays and poke at the unimaginably tangled mess of pumps and valves and hoses that all work together to make this beast breathe.

The majority of exhibitors at the show were vendors of some type of support services or equipment for the innumerable 'small' jobs in mining. Ever wonder how you change one of those monster tires on our large trucks? Here's one way.

I thought this slurry pump was interesting. See the guy standing next to the outlet? I'm not sure what kind of motor would be needed to drive a pump this size.

There were lots of manufacturers of odd-looking machines for specialty underground work. This is a dual head roof bolter machine - for attaching stabilizing bolts to the roof of a tunnel. The thing that looks like a roof over the length of the machine is just that; protection to keep loose rocks from falling on the operators. Scary.

Speaking of scary, I also saw the world's largest rototiller. No, really it's a terrain leveler. I guess to make the ground flat. Or maybe to chew up competitive equipment.

You can't build big machines without big bearings. Everybody claimed to have the best.

One more picture. The track links below are similar to what's on the big Hitachi shovel. The pinion gear on the left, maybe one of the two or three needed to swing the top half of that shovel or a drag line around from dig to dump. The guy in the background? Worn out from three days of shopping or selling or schmoozing.

Quite an experience.