Author: Caryn

It worked!

On By CarynIn chickens

And then it didn’t. The saga of the in and out web cam in the coop continues. It was working on the 4th, then not working today. Maybe someday I will figure out under what circumstances everything works, rather than just being buffeted by random happenstance. The camera is on the edge of the wifi range, even with an extender plugged in at the corner of the house closest to the coop, so things are going to be a bit wonky. I am not ready to invest more money into the system, as the chickens are really predictable, going to bed before the automatic door closes, and not getting up and about until well after the door opens, but it is nice to be able to check on them without hauling down to the coop. (Especially when wearing a boot brace. Yes, I’m still shackled.)

Hens in their run seen through the surveillance cam

Color changing spinning top

On By CarynIn Craft

I made another toy top on my lathe. This time I painted it with red, green, and blue to see what would happen when it was spun. Our standard school book learning that red and blue mix to make purple doesn’t quite hold when it comes to reflected light. So the color is different when I spin the top than when I mix the paint, which is fascinating. The coolest part is when I made a video of the spinning top. Because of frame rate, the colors shift and spin through a rainbow in the video. To the naked eye, the spinning top remains magenta, cyan, and gray until it topples. Very interesting phenomena.

Top painted red, green, and blue
Acrylic colors mixed on a pallet (aka paper plate)
Colors as the top is spinning

It really is worthwhile to click on the video link, so I’ll give it to you again.

Overload

On By CarynIn Life Hack

I have reached the max capacity of my media storage for my blog. Oops. As a temporary fix, I upgraded (because that is what they want you to do), but going forward I need to not upload photos directly from my photo album (which saves things in the MB range), but reduce the size first, which is hard to figure out without using a sketchy third-party app from overseas. I retreated to my “poke it until it goes” method of computer programming and was able to put together a shortcut in iPhone to make my photos smaller and put them in a special folder, so I don’t over write my originals. Why is this not easy I do not understand (oh, wait, just addressed that, more money for more storage). Any who, here are the shortcut steps, if any of you need the information. I can’t give you more specific instructions, because I literally just kept trying until something worked. Bah.

DIY yarn bobbins

On By CarynIn Craft

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I was going through my Grandma’s knitting tools (I have inherited quite a few craft tools from both sides of the family), and found some home made yarn bobbins. My Grandma was an avid knitter and very skilled. It looks like Grandma used the commercially produced bobbin (yellow one on the left in the photo) as a template, and cut the others out of margarine tubs and other thick plastic. Very nicely done.

Three yarn bobbins made by my Grandma probably 30-40 years ago on the right, commercial bobbin (yellow) on the left

My calicos

On By CarynIn Cats
Shadows (1996-2009) and Izzy (2017-present)

Pulling up old pictures of Shadows had us wondering how close in coloring our current cat Izzy is to Shadows. The answer: pretty close. Both had/have one orange leg and one black with white paws, they were just mirrored. They both had/have a mostly black back, Shadows just had more white on her tummy. The biggest difference is in their size. Shadows was a small rolly polly cat, while Izzy is a large sleek feline (not that you can tell in these particular photos). The dates are adoption dates, as we added both to our family when they were adults.

Is this a case for reincarnation? Or just that I really like calicos.