Jeanine volunteered me to help with the construction of “photo boards” to be used during the Concord 250 celebration in April. Pictured here are four pairs of stands that will be used to support 4’x6’x1/2″ plywood sheets. A neighbor who is in charge of the project and I finished the task in a couple of hours. We will cut face holes and support holes in the photo boards after they are painted. The wind load on a 4′ x 6′ surface in 20 mph winds is approximately 25 pounds. This will require about 45 pounds of counterweight placed at the right location on the legs. I will recommend 25-pound sandbags for each leg or that they be staked securely to the ground.

The new drone I recently purchased (DJI Mini 4 Pro) arrived today. Despite the high winds, I wanted to make a couple of test flights. I noticed that Verrill Farms has been constructing a permanent event space to replace the tent they have used in the past. I thought this might make an interesting photo. I also decided to revisit the neuron-shaped thaw patterns in the Sudbury River. The Mini 4 has three key improvements that convinced me to buy it. The radio range has been substantially increased, and it now has obstacle avoidance in all directions. These features will make it more intrinsically safe to fly. The newer drone now offers RAW only photo files which is more convenient for me than the previous RAW+JPEG mode.

As the Sudbury River has begun to thaw in certain areas, I decided to put up my drone for an aerial view. When I studied the images, I noticed some very interesting neuron-shaped patterns throughout the ice sheets. It appears to be a consistent pattern that can be seen all the way up the river suggesting it is the normal pattern for melting. I have never seen such a pattern before and will have to investigate further.

My sister Mayela shared this image taken at the North Carolina Zoo with the family.

Closer to home, we enjoyed our first proper snowfall of the season, just a little over 2 inches. A nice consequence is that we can see animal footprints in the snow and use our surveillance video to zero in on the visitors. Yesterday, this included a fox and coyote.

From ChatGPT:

Ice can make a variety of sounds, including cracking, crunching, tinkling, whooshing, groaning, sizzling, and roaring. The sounds ice makes depend on how it’s interacting with its environment, such as temperature changes, wind, waves, and icebergs.

None of these words come close to describing the sounds emanating from the frozen Sudbury River this morning. The closest thing I can think of is the sound made by a handsaw whose blade has been pulled into an arc and then released. I made several attempts to use my audio recorder to capture the sound with no success. Later in the day, Jeanine and I went for a walk along the opposite side of the river down to Fairhaven Bay, hoping to hear the ethereal song again. Once you hear this sound, you want to hear it again and again. It is yet another gift of the river for which we are grateful.

This morning, a light coating of snow and high winds produced mesmerizing moving patterns on the frozen Sudbury River. Due to the freezing outside temperatures, I operated my drone from the comfort of our great room. It felt a little like cheating. The stress of flying in high winds, on the other hand, made for a traumatic flight. The experience made me think about picking up a used backup drone for our upcoming trip to New Zealand, should I lose or crash my primary one. Instead, I opted to purchase a newer model that has better safety features and radio range. This combination of enhancements should reduce the probability of a fatal crash or loss of aircraft.

When I initially installed the vent hood over the induction cooktop on the kitchen island, I set the height so that it would just clear my head. Good for me, but not so much for taller cooks. Such hoods perform better when closer to the cooking surface, so my instinct was to keep it as low as practical. Today, I raised it by 7 inches after a recent guest bonked their head on the glass canopy. To compensate for the increased height, I installed new electronics that allow the fan to operate at a 75% higher flow rate. A pair of band clamps were just what the doctor ordered to facilitate an otherwise very precarious operation. Head clearance is now 6′ 3″. If you are taller than that, you cannot go on the ride.

At the end of February, Jeanine and I will be leaving for a 5-week New Zealand and Australia vacation. I spent the entire day and a good part of yesterday securing reservations for air, car, and ferry travel and lodging for 18 different accommodations ranging from an overnight voyage into the Milford Sound on a small cruise ship to a tiny hut previously used for sheep shearing. The array of housing also includes a small cottage on a llama farm and an off-the-grid tiny house. Even though we will be traveling during the shoulder season and we are booking almost 2 months in advance, it is crazy how many places are already fully reserved. On a positive note, we finally received a check for the energy credits earned by our geothermal system. The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center calculated the projected output of our system over the next ten years and provided a one-time payment based on the greenhouse gas emissions savings our system will deliver. The amount will cover the cost for our entire vacation. Even though it is money that came out of our pocket to pay for geothermal in the first place, it was still a welcome psychological treat.

In November, Jeanine signed me up for a senior adult recreational pickleball league. Today, the program commenced, and I played for the first time. Just as she insisted, the game is a lot of fun. The time I spent learning about it on YouTube proved to be quite helpful, and I felt pretty comfortable halfway through my first match. It should be noted that I was one of two men in a group that included 11 women, half my junior and half my senior. If my knees prove they can tolerate the sport, I think I may join a more competitive group next session in light of a request from one player who asked me not to hit the ball so hard.

Conantum, our neighborhood, has common land shared by all who live here. This includes a community garden, boat dock, tennis and basketball courts, playground, baseball field, and a network of trails. These amenities are maintained by volunteers from the community. I recently joined the Trails Committee and received my assignment today. I am to be the Steward for trail segments X and Y as labeled on the partial map above. I will be responsible for keeping the path safe and clean. As illustrated below, this may involve the occasional clearing of fallen trees. Jeanine joined me for an initial assessment this afternoon and I am pleased to report that my predacessor has left the trail in very good condition.

While sectioning downed trees in the yard with my chainsaw today, I encountered the work of another lumberjack who shares our property. Interestingly, beavers can fell up to 300 trees in a year, with a single beaver capable of cutting down a medium-sized tree in just one night. When beavers cut down trees, they primarily want to eat the inner cambium layer of the tree bark. In addition, doing so is necessary to maintain their fast-growing, self-sharpening teeth. These animals are truly remarkable. I wonder what it would take to train them to work on the downed trees that are the target of my efforts?

Maya slept over last night so she could have her new car inspected by the dealer who sold it to her first thing in the morning. We will accept any reason for a visit from one of the kids. While she was enjoying coffee in the great room, I was struck by the similarity of texture and color between the swivel chair, her fleece, and the lampshade. We enjoyed a far-ranging discussion with her last night and are so proud of the woman she has become.

High winds in the area took out power to our neighborhood this morning. I was working at my computer and did not notice anything until I received a message from our battery backup system informing me of the outage. In our last house, we had a natural gas-powered generator, and it would take about half a minute to come online, making it very obvious when a blackout had occurred. It also tended to not want to start during extremely cold or windy conditions, those most likely to be present when the system was needed. This is now the 7th time the grid has gone down since we moved into the house and I have to confess to being happy every time it happens. Our backup system was fairly expensive and the more times it is pressed into service the better I feel about the investment.

Concord has its own electric utility (CMLP), and I have nothing but great things to say about its responsiveness and competence. They had the whole neighborhood back online within 90 minutes.

With the new year, Jeanine and I are both switching to new email domains. We are leaving behind our “@comcast.net” domains in favor of an “@gmail.com” domain. This transition will complete our disengagement from Comcast, a company that has caused us no end of frustration and grief. We would ask everyone to update their contact database accordingly.

Happy New Year!

Jeanine and I joined old and new friends atop the Old Hill Burying Grounds in Concord for a sparkling cider toast. For the second year in a row, it was the starting point for a New Year’s Eve party hosted by one of our neighbors. This year, however, we did not join the group for dinner as Jeanine is trying to shake an incalcitrant case of bronchitis. Instead, we opted for a quiet evening at home. It has been a year full of change and excitement for us so we were more than happy with a low-key transition to 2025.

I designed a very simple stainless steel handrail today for the steps to our front door. I did not want to do this work until the stairs had sufficient time to settle. I have sent the rendering and dimensioned drawings out to a couple of fabricators for price quotes.

I also began the incredibly annoying and time-consuming process of fully extricating myself from Comcast, possibly the worst company I have ever done business with. When we moved into the new house, we switched to fiber optic-based broadband access through our local power and light company. Performance, reliability, and support have been exceptional. The last vestige of our connection to Comcast is the “@comcast.net” domain, through which all of our e-mail correspondence is routed. Even though we are no longer customers, the company is legally required to continue to support access to these addresses. Like everything else they do, it works until it doesn’t, and then the process of troubleshooting is enough to drive a person insane.

With well over 200 accounts linked to my “@comcast.net” address, it is going to take quite some time to switch them all over to my “@gmail.com” address.

Maya picked up her new car today. It is a grey/silver 2023 Subaru Outback Limited. This is the first car she has purchased for herself so it is a milestone that we were happy to witness. I really enjoyed sharing what I have learned about how to buy a new car with her, having done so ~20 times in my life. She handled all of the negotiations yesterday and took care of the paperwork today. Owen drove her up from Somerville in his new grey/silver Toyota RAV4, the other car Maya was seriously considering. I suspect that there will be a race between the two cars at some point and I am urging caution should that happen.

Maya has yet to name her new car although her gender has been determined as female.

Maya, Jeanine, and I made a day of car shopping for Mishka’s replacement. Maya was up late last night doing research. She also consulted with Owen and his dad, who are car experts. She downselected to the Toyota RAV4 and the Subaru Outback. We visited the local dealers for both brands, and she test-drove both models. We returned home late in the afternoon, from where she conducted price negotiations. Once she secured an acceptable discount, we returned to that dealer to put down a deposit. Tune in tomorrow to see which car she purchased!

In 2011, I purchased a new Audi Q5 and passed it down to Maya five years later. She named it Mishka. It is the car she learned to drive in even before her legs could reach the pedals. Sadly, Mishka fell ill last night while Maya drove to the River House. She was pronounced dead this morning after being towed to Maya’s mechanic. The autopsy revealed a total loss of compression, possibly caused by a broken heart (timing chain.) The cost of replacing the engine with a used one is more than the current value of the car so Maya decided to donate it to WBUR. Mishka lived a good life and was a strong and reliable companion who lived to the age of 150,000. She will be missed by all who felt the warmth of her heated seats and the embrace of her retractable seat belts. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to National Public Radio.

Maya has decided to start dating new cars immediately and is considering a new long-term relationship with either a Toyota or Subaru.

Despite her assertions to the contrary, Jeanine prepared a perfect batch of popovers to kick off our traditional Christmas breakfast which included a lengthy conversation about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on humanity. Next, we plumbed the depths of our Christmas stockings for the various treats and presents within, a process that took about two hours. Games and noshing carried us into the afternoon when Secret Santa gifts were opened, followed by various forms of resting. Jeanine is pictured testing her new yoga bolster (hidden under her back), which caused her legs to stretch to twice their normal length. Several more hours were devoted to the evening meal with Nico acting as head chef. Our menu included prime rib, bacon, mushroom and pancetta risotto, and a pomegranate seed and pear spinach salad. Kyle’s flatmate Eloisa joined us for the feast.

This morning, we were fortunate to get a dusting of snow, providing the backdrop for a white Christmas. The river is frozen creating a pristine ribbon of white weaving through the neighborhood and past our house. Conversely, the trees remained brown and green because the snow was too powdery to stick to the branches. This is the inverse canvas produced by a normal snowstorm and made for some interesting drone photography.

The kids arrived midday and helped prepare our traditional Swedish Christmas Eve dinner of Raclette cheese served over boiled potatoes, sausages, and cornichons. Nico prepared the most delicious Focaccia bread I have ever had in my life, and a nice salad provided nutritional balance to the meal. After dinner, we were joined by Maya’s friend Fiona, who is spending the night here between nursing shifts at the hospital where she works.

Stockings were hung under the “fireplace,” where they were visited by several clandestine elves who were lending Santa a hand.

The family’s quest to purchase a mixed-use building in Somerville ended abruptly this morning. Kyle and I met on-site with a structural engineer to conduct another inspection. No sooner than he started his work, I noticed a pin-hole steam leak in one of the building’s original pipes. This type of failure is caused by corrosion, which is not uncommon in a 124-year-old pipe. Unfortunately, it stands to reason that additional failures of the plumbing are to be expected, and the cost of ongoing repairs could be exorbitant. As much as we saw the potential for this property, logic dictates that we move on to other options.

On the home front, I am pleased to report that our heating system is working as designed. Overnight, the temperature reached 2°F and all remained toasty inside. When I sized our heat pump, I used -15°F as the design temperature. Below that, an auxiliary electric resistance heater kicks in.

Owen is Maya’s boyfriend. He is Canadian. Canadians are very nice people obsessed with ice-related activities.

Maya is visiting with Owen’s family this weekend at their lake house a few hours north of their home in Waterloo. Apparently, Canadians regard the winter holidays as a good time to carve a hole in the ice of a frozen lake, span it with a chin-up bar, and then see how long it takes to make a human popsicle. I can only imagine that Maya participated in the popsicle making to prove herself worthy of a Canadian boyfirend.

Well, I have news for Owen. Maya is one-quarter Italian. Italians are very nice people who like to eat pasta which is made in boiling water!

Having sorted my full-size tripod collection, I have now focused on my tabletop tripods. Of the three shown above, I will use the largest one for travel. It weighs less than 12 ounces and fits neatly in a front pocket when collapsed. It is a pound less than my full-size travel tripod. It is tough to justify the other two as they offer no real benefits over the first. Even so, I will not be parting with them. Pictured below is a set of tripod legs I 3D printed. Although they cannot be collapsed, they are as light and stronger than all my other tabletop tripods. As of this moment, my tripod collection numbers 13 with 2 up for sale. What can I say? Some people collect stamps. I should note that part of the enjoyment for me is matching the optimal tripod head with the legs. In the group above, each base is mated with a head from a different manufacturer.

Pictured below is Jeanine’s idea of a table topper, the dish she prepared to bring with us to a neighbor’s winter solstice party. The food and ambiance were fantastic, but the highlight of the evening for me was the opportunity to hold two of the smaller guests in my arms. It has been 15 years since I have cradled a baby. Tonight, I had a chance to do so with not one but two. I have forgotten (1) how heavy they are and (2) how completely they surrender their weight to you. I did remember how soft and sweet-smelling they were. I hope and pray that I will not have to wait 15 more years before getting another fix.

Apparently, there are no materials that are both compressible and have zero water vapor permeability. I recently came across an application that requires such a solution. To address the problem, I devised an approach that combines a deformable gasket (round – orange) and a flexible vapor barrier film (thin – light blue) like aluminum foil. The foil prevents vapor migration, while the gasket provides compressibility. Since the foil is flexible, it can conform as the gasket changes shape.

When we designed the River House we decided for health and safety reasons that it would have zero indoor combustion. The most difficult thing to give up was a fireplace. Reinforcing our decision was the fact that a stone chimney is an efficient conductor of heat and, hence, a conduit for energy constantly leaving the home. Even the best flue dampers allow some amount of air through, and thus, a second major source of energy loss and drafts. Finally, we thought about our last home. It had five fireplaces of which we only ever used one and that one only a handful of times per year. Our energy efficient alternative is a virtual fire that plays on the big screen TV in our living area complete with the sounds of a real fire. Now that winter has arrived, we find ourselves “making a fire” almost every night and while we miss the heat and smell of a real fire we are equally happy not having to gather wood from outside or clean ash from the hearth. When we want the authentic experience we step out to the patio to enjoy the fire pit.

Mild winter days are the best time to do tree work in the yard. It is not so cold that your fingers get numb, and all the leaves are down making movement and pruning easier. I spent a couple of hours on the west end of our property cutting down dead trees and smaller ones that will never break through the canopy. Pictured above is the bottom half of a 75-foot tree that I dropped within a foot of my target by cutting a precisely angled hinge at the base with my chainsaw. I only wish I had the foresight to set up a camera to record the felling. As weather permits, I will need to spend another afternoon cutting this trunk into sections for firewood.

The drawer slide hardware I have been waiting for arrived today, allowing me to complete the drawer project I started last week. I will use this area to store my photography gear. I enjoy creating organized spaces for my equipment, which allows me to access and retrieve it quickly. One drawer will be allocated for lenses and another for my “goto” set of full-size tripods. The one in the middle is for travel and hiking (1.8 lbs). In the front is the one I use for most normal shooting situations (3.4 lbs). The one at the back is my choice when using my heavy telephoto lenses (4.1 lbs).

Over the weekend, the entire family toured the building pictured above. We are thinking about purchasing it as a group in 4 equal shares (Kyle:Nico:Maya:Parents). Today, Kyle and I revisited it to do a closer building inspection. We discovered undisclosed fire damage, a non-functional furnace for the top apartment, and a floor that slopes 8 inches over 25 feet. None of these are deal breakers but need to be considered should we decide to make an offer. I returned later in the day with my drone to survey the roof. We have decided to get an HVAC contractor to estimate the furnace replacement cost and to get a sense of the permitting requirements before making our decision about an offer.

Last week, I encountered a tower while walking through the woods. Today, I passed the same tower and went off the path to investigate. A peek into the dilapidated hut at its base revealed an abandoned well. The tower was for a windmill used to pump water for irrigation. A follower of this blog suspected as much and can take credit for solving the puzzle. As a prize for that bit of sleuthing, I am offering a new challenge based on an object I found later on the same walk. I know this mystery will be of special interest because this individual is a subject matter expert on gears.

Jeanine and I met up with Kyle, Nico, and Maya in Somerville to look at a mixed-use building in Somerville. The ground level houses two businesses with a three-bedroom apartment on each of the the second and third floors.

Kyle has been orchestrating the search for an investment property and Maya and Nico are interested in building equity rather than paying rent. The three are planning to pool their resources to buy the building. Nico and Maya would each take a floor and rent out their extra bedrooms. After the tour, we had lunch together and it looks like everyone wants to move forward with an offer. There are still a lot of variables to consider and hurdles to overcome but we all left feeling excited about the possibilities.

On the home front, I persuaded/coerced “glue girl” to help me assemble four drawers that will eventually be installed in my office to house camera gear.