Introduction
and general-info-stuff:
August is the month that we will (begin to) learn about how 'bad' this Hurricane Season will be. August-September are, traditionally the 'heavy' months for Hurricanes... However, as 1 August dawns - there are no storms on the 'horizon' so maybe things will be 'o.k.'??? - ONLY TIME will TELL!... here's the web-site we use, mostly, to check for hurricanes: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov.
However, - the 'newerest version' of the 'experts opinion' from the US Weather Service, is that we'll have 14 more storms (we've already had 7)... - so - we're 'preparing' (eating up all the ice-cream in the freezer!).
On the other hand - MAYBE we'll be 'just fine' and then we can show you some pictures of the world-in-Stuart, very near to one-year-on after our hurricanes last September 5 & 17... OR - you can visit our last-year's web-page(s) about the Hurricane(s)... September 2004 - the Hurricane-Web-Page
One of our 'rental-customers': - he rents a little spot of land under our north lot for his multi-room-suite - little dusty, though, so I turned-on the sprinkler the other day and he came out to take a shower and have a tasty, wet, snack, now we don't have to mow the yard...
Ms. May's garden-fruit(s):
IF you look at this picture, - can you guess 'what comes next'? - if not then click the picture to find-out?
Jacksonville trip(s): 10-27 June; 5-9 July; 21-30 July:
We spent much of June and July in Jacksonville, helping out aging parents and moving them around, and so-forth... They are now in 'Westminster Woods at Julington Creek' - in extreme northwest St. John's County, Florida - but actually just across Julington Creek from their old house - also on Julington Creek - but in Duval county.
This is a difficult task, made more so by having to drive to Jacksonville... However, everyone has parents - so eventually we'll all have to do this... Thankfully, my Mom and step-Dad have made several intelligent decisions on their own, which makes life very nice.
On our last trip to Jacksonville (21 - 30 July (Thursday through following Friday)) our elder-feline, Ms. Tigger, decided that we'd abandoned her and so she went 'walk-about' to next-door and then across the street to Mr. Walt's house. There, she presented herself, and assisted Mr. Walt in his workshop by supervising upon his work-bench. (Apparently much like she does in my shop?)
Here's a picture, though, of Ms. Tigger, having 'adjusted' to our now being home & caring for her... I found out, today (Monday, 1 August) WHY she's been visiting these places... - it's because (I think) I saw Mr. TorToi (gopher-tortoise) wandering down the street - from Mr. Walt's front yard to the neighbor's driveway... - Now Maybe, JUST MAYBE, Ms. Tigger and Mr. TorToi have something going on???
Anyway, thankfully, Mr. Walt & his lovely wife phoned-us-up on Thursday morning, the 28th and said that Ms. Tigger was residing in their domicile, so we 'hurried-home' on Saturday, 30th, to retrieve Tigger, and let both cats know that just because we go away for a few days is no reason to abandon the house (where Ms. Toby was coming every other day to give them food and water!)
BUT, now we're home, so things are 'well' again, and we worked in the yard, today, and Ms. Tigger and Ms. Siew helped supervise the yard-work / 'mini-jungle-clean-up' and other such activities...
(domestic (south)) well hoses:
I struggled, EARLY this morning (Sunday, 31 July) and was at Lowe's at 08:00 to buy new hose, to replace all the re-inforced hose in/on our south-well-pump / water-softener (as well as replacing the carbon-filters (before the water gets softened))
old...
new....
This hose had been fine a couple of weeks ago when I last checked-it but apparently while we were away the last week in July it took that time to get 'ballon-shaped' in several places - but - hey - it was only $10 worth of hose and it had been there, basically, for over a year - so I guess it was 'time'...
Ms. May's yard-garden-vegetation & other 'green-thumb' stuff:
Ms. May's got a couple of great things going in the yard, these days - especially with all the rain and the heat, things are growing like crazy... - here's a couple of pictures:
Ms. May's front-yard - in the - circular-driveway-island vegetation. The little palmettos on the extreme left are 'old, but everything else here is new within the last 3-4 months - since we got the huge Pine-Tree taken-out...
Ms. May's Ceramic-Arts 'stuff':
Ms. May's continuing to work at the 'Waterways Gallery' in the "Treasure Coast Square Mall" where she presents some of her own work, as well as 'manages the store' for a shift, each week. - we'll have to find some good pictures of some of her work, here, and/or take some photos of the gallery for your edification...
Mr. Bill's shop and other miscellaneous 'junky-stuff':
This month will really be the 'clean-up-out-throw-it-away' month in the shop... There's been a whole bunch of 'stuff' we've hauled-home from Jacksonville - courtesy of Mom and step-Dad having moved out of their house... But now it all takes-up-room in my shop - so I'm having to throw-things-away to make room... On the other hand - we needed (desperately) to throw-out some STUFF from the shop - things I haven't used in 10 years are PROBABLY NOT WORTH SAVING!!!
OH, - while in Jax, last time (or was it the time before?) went 'shopping' at "Black Creek Outfitters" and managed to spend a whole month's worth of budget on my toes...
Today (4th (Thursday)) I spent a LOT of time with the 'abrasive cut-off saw' - and sawed-up a BUNCH of STUFF and threw-it-out... Something I'd been wanting to do for 'some-time-now' - and tomorrow (Friday morning, 5th) is TRASH DAY - so it's all out in trash-cans-now... PLUS - threw-out the glass & mirrors (whole 2' x 3' BOX of this stuff the prior-owner left (he claimed to be a contractor) I'd not touched this stuff in 18 months, so I figured I'd never use it so I threw it out TOO! - we ARE making progress cleaning things up around here!
AND- one of the reasons I got into 'cutting & throwing-out' was that I was debugging my (Kemppi) TIG welder's recent problem(s) (it doesn't have high-frequency to start the arc when doing AC-TIG welding (for aluminum))... - I also have a water-pressure-switch problem - but that's another issue.
Mr. Bill's GIS-GPS-ing 'stuff':
Mr. Bill is still computering- and still doing volunteer work for the US Fish & Wildlife Service in Vero Beach (well actually nearer Sebastian Inlet) where he's taking field-data on the "Pelican Island Restoration Area" for the FWS, and building some computer (GIS-GPS) maps for them. I went up yesterday (3 August - Wednesday) and spent about 4 hours running around this roughly 1 square mile area, on their "Polaris (automagic-transmission) ATV - in (mostly) 2 wheel drive - sometimes in 4 wheel drive) and took a WHOLE BUNCH MORE data - however, they still have not mowed (they were working on the mower, yesterday), and when I am 'done' with this project I'll get to move-onto some other project(s)... - Their 'land-acquisition' project is still 'in-the-works' (I guess it always will be). Maybe they'll find something else interesting for me to get into...
How does this GIS-GPS thing 'work':
Just 'for reference' - here's some files / pictures / maps / etc. for you to view - to get an idea of what / how / where / etc. this whole thing works:
I use something called a "Trimble GeoXM" hand-held field-data-collection-unit. Indian River Community College has three of these units (one of them works) and the US-Fish and Wildlife Service (in Vero Beach, - where I work) also has a single unit. They are made by Trimble (a successful and leading-edge hardware maker) supplies this hardware. It basically is a sophisticated hand-held-computer (running Windows CE software-OS) and a GPS-receiver all in a single unit. It costs about $2,500 for the least expensive model (which has a 'resolution' of about 10 meters). The more expensive unit (with more memory and a more exotic GPS receiver (which has a 'resolution' of about 1 meter)) is about $3,500-$4,000.
Anyway - the hand-held-unit runs both Trimble's 'TerraSync' (data-collection) software (which is actually a much better piece of software for what I'm doing - collecting field-data-points (but the US Fish & Wildlife Service people don't have a license)). When I use the FWS-Trimble unit I have to use something called "ArcPad" (version 6.0.2) software for data-collection) which comes from "ESRI".
- - - ESRI writes the software for about 98% of what people in the world of GIS do these days... They don't necessarily write the best software in the world, but their owner, Jack Dangermond, just about single-handedly created the industry, so I suspect one has to give them 'a break'...
I also collect backup data (just X-Y-data-points) with my 7 year old Marine-boat "Garmin GPS-Map175" unit. That X-Y data looks like this (this is a raw-ASCII-text-file). Then, after downloading and converting (to ...dbf format) I can use the X-Y data in the ESRI ArcMap (version 9) software). The reason I do 'backup' is because the Trimble unit(s) - though more accurate than the Garmin - frequently 'can't get a fix' - and so they get all hosed-up / crash (probably a result of 'Windows' problems but who knows) and so I frequently use the Garmin unit's 'data' to 'fill-in-the-gaps' in the Trimble-data-point-network.
The ArcMap (ESRI) software (which runs ONLY on Windows-OS / PC environment(s), there is / are other software tools to create maps that run on Linux (Apple / Macintosh) but that software is almost always 'fairly 'iffy'' in terms of stability and in terms of the 'inter-network-ing- of it's files)... The ArcMap, though, is where the 'actual work' of developing the map(s) is done. ArcMap has 'filters' and 'translators' that allows it to accept point, line, polygon feature-data from a number of sources into a map-making / plotting framework.
ArcMap is one of a whole suite of products from ESRI - typically called "ArcGIS" - and they offer the 'suite' with a number of other products, though ArcMap is the 'main' product used by people like me, to 'create' maps... -
Here's an early map that has a LOT of data-on-it... (click on it to get MUCH BIGGER version)
Here's the 'raw-field-data' map produced on Wednesday, 3rd August of just that day's data - this is a raw-map, and has not been 'enhanced, nor 'tailored' to any specific audience or project. (click on it to get MUCH BIGGER version)
For further information e-mail to: bill@vikingasia.org
August is the month that we will (begin to) learn about how 'bad' this Hurricane Season will be. August-September are, traditionally the 'heavy' months for Hurricanes... However, as 1 August dawns - there are no storms on the 'horizon' so maybe things will be 'o.k.'??? - ONLY TIME will TELL!... here's the web-site we use, mostly, to check for hurricanes: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov.
However, - the 'newerest version' of the 'experts opinion' from the US Weather Service, is that we'll have 14 more storms (we've already had 7)... - so - we're 'preparing' (eating up all the ice-cream in the freezer!).
On the other hand - MAYBE we'll be 'just fine' and then we can show you some pictures of the world-in-Stuart, very near to one-year-on after our hurricanes last September 5 & 17... OR - you can visit our last-year's web-page(s) about the Hurricane(s)... September 2004 - the Hurricane-Web-Page
One of our 'rental-customers': - he rents a little spot of land under our north lot for his multi-room-suite - little dusty, though, so I turned-on the sprinkler the other day and he came out to take a shower and have a tasty, wet, snack, now we don't have to mow the yard...
Ms. May's garden-fruit(s):
IF you look at this picture, - can you guess 'what comes next'? - if not then click the picture to find-out?
Jacksonville trip(s): 10-27 June; 5-9 July; 21-30 July:
We spent much of June and July in Jacksonville, helping out aging parents and moving them around, and so-forth... They are now in 'Westminster Woods at Julington Creek' - in extreme northwest St. John's County, Florida - but actually just across Julington Creek from their old house - also on Julington Creek - but in Duval county.
This is a difficult task, made more so by having to drive to Jacksonville... However, everyone has parents - so eventually we'll all have to do this... Thankfully, my Mom and step-Dad have made several intelligent decisions on their own, which makes life very nice.
On our last trip to Jacksonville (21 - 30 July (Thursday through following Friday)) our elder-feline, Ms. Tigger, decided that we'd abandoned her and so she went 'walk-about' to next-door and then across the street to Mr. Walt's house. There, she presented herself, and assisted Mr. Walt in his workshop by supervising upon his work-bench. (Apparently much like she does in my shop?)
Here's a picture, though, of Ms. Tigger, having 'adjusted' to our now being home & caring for her... I found out, today (Monday, 1 August) WHY she's been visiting these places... - it's because (I think) I saw Mr. TorToi (gopher-tortoise) wandering down the street - from Mr. Walt's front yard to the neighbor's driveway... - Now Maybe, JUST MAYBE, Ms. Tigger and Mr. TorToi have something going on???
Anyway, thankfully, Mr. Walt & his lovely wife phoned-us-up on Thursday morning, the 28th and said that Ms. Tigger was residing in their domicile, so we 'hurried-home' on Saturday, 30th, to retrieve Tigger, and let both cats know that just because we go away for a few days is no reason to abandon the house (where Ms. Toby was coming every other day to give them food and water!)
BUT, now we're home, so things are 'well' again, and we worked in the yard, today, and Ms. Tigger and Ms. Siew helped supervise the yard-work / 'mini-jungle-clean-up' and other such activities...
(domestic (south)) well hoses:
I struggled, EARLY this morning (Sunday, 31 July) and was at Lowe's at 08:00 to buy new hose, to replace all the re-inforced hose in/on our south-well-pump / water-softener (as well as replacing the carbon-filters (before the water gets softened))
old...
new....This hose had been fine a couple of weeks ago when I last checked-it but apparently while we were away the last week in July it took that time to get 'ballon-shaped' in several places - but - hey - it was only $10 worth of hose and it had been there, basically, for over a year - so I guess it was 'time'...
Ms. May's yard-garden-vegetation & other 'green-thumb' stuff:
Ms. May's got a couple of great things going in the yard, these days - especially with all the rain and the heat, things are growing like crazy... - here's a couple of pictures:
Ms. May's front-yard - in the - circular-driveway-island vegetation. The little palmettos on the extreme left are 'old, but everything else here is new within the last 3-4 months - since we got the huge Pine-Tree taken-out...
Ms. May's Ceramic-Arts 'stuff':
Ms. May's continuing to work at the 'Waterways Gallery' in the "Treasure Coast Square Mall" where she presents some of her own work, as well as 'manages the store' for a shift, each week. - we'll have to find some good pictures of some of her work, here, and/or take some photos of the gallery for your edification...
Mr. Bill's shop and other miscellaneous 'junky-stuff':
This month will really be the 'clean-up-out-throw-it-away' month in the shop... There's been a whole bunch of 'stuff' we've hauled-home from Jacksonville - courtesy of Mom and step-Dad having moved out of their house... But now it all takes-up-room in my shop - so I'm having to throw-things-away to make room... On the other hand - we needed (desperately) to throw-out some STUFF from the shop - things I haven't used in 10 years are PROBABLY NOT WORTH SAVING!!!
OH, - while in Jax, last time (or was it the time before?) went 'shopping' at "Black Creek Outfitters" and managed to spend a whole month's worth of budget on my toes...
Today (4th (Thursday)) I spent a LOT of time with the 'abrasive cut-off saw' - and sawed-up a BUNCH of STUFF and threw-it-out... Something I'd been wanting to do for 'some-time-now' - and tomorrow (Friday morning, 5th) is TRASH DAY - so it's all out in trash-cans-now... PLUS - threw-out the glass & mirrors (whole 2' x 3' BOX of this stuff the prior-owner left (he claimed to be a contractor) I'd not touched this stuff in 18 months, so I figured I'd never use it so I threw it out TOO! - we ARE making progress cleaning things up around here!
AND- one of the reasons I got into 'cutting & throwing-out' was that I was debugging my (Kemppi) TIG welder's recent problem(s) (it doesn't have high-frequency to start the arc when doing AC-TIG welding (for aluminum))... - I also have a water-pressure-switch problem - but that's another issue.
Mr. Bill's GIS-GPS-ing 'stuff':
Mr. Bill is still computering- and still doing volunteer work for the US Fish & Wildlife Service in Vero Beach (well actually nearer Sebastian Inlet) where he's taking field-data on the "Pelican Island Restoration Area" for the FWS, and building some computer (GIS-GPS) maps for them. I went up yesterday (3 August - Wednesday) and spent about 4 hours running around this roughly 1 square mile area, on their "Polaris (automagic-transmission) ATV - in (mostly) 2 wheel drive - sometimes in 4 wheel drive) and took a WHOLE BUNCH MORE data - however, they still have not mowed (they were working on the mower, yesterday), and when I am 'done' with this project I'll get to move-onto some other project(s)... - Their 'land-acquisition' project is still 'in-the-works' (I guess it always will be). Maybe they'll find something else interesting for me to get into...
How does this GIS-GPS thing 'work':
Just 'for reference' - here's some files / pictures / maps / etc. for you to view - to get an idea of what / how / where / etc. this whole thing works:
I use something called a "Trimble GeoXM" hand-held field-data-collection-unit. Indian River Community College has three of these units (one of them works) and the US-Fish and Wildlife Service (in Vero Beach, - where I work) also has a single unit. They are made by Trimble (a successful and leading-edge hardware maker) supplies this hardware. It basically is a sophisticated hand-held-computer (running Windows CE software-OS) and a GPS-receiver all in a single unit. It costs about $2,500 for the least expensive model (which has a 'resolution' of about 10 meters). The more expensive unit (with more memory and a more exotic GPS receiver (which has a 'resolution' of about 1 meter)) is about $3,500-$4,000.
Anyway - the hand-held-unit runs both Trimble's 'TerraSync' (data-collection) software (which is actually a much better piece of software for what I'm doing - collecting field-data-points (but the US Fish & Wildlife Service people don't have a license)). When I use the FWS-Trimble unit I have to use something called "ArcPad" (version 6.0.2) software for data-collection) which comes from "ESRI".
- - - ESRI writes the software for about 98% of what people in the world of GIS do these days... They don't necessarily write the best software in the world, but their owner, Jack Dangermond, just about single-handedly created the industry, so I suspect one has to give them 'a break'...
I also collect backup data (just X-Y-data-points) with my 7 year old Marine-boat "Garmin GPS-Map175" unit. That X-Y data looks like this (this is a raw-ASCII-text-file). Then, after downloading and converting (to ...dbf format) I can use the X-Y data in the ESRI ArcMap (version 9) software). The reason I do 'backup' is because the Trimble unit(s) - though more accurate than the Garmin - frequently 'can't get a fix' - and so they get all hosed-up / crash (probably a result of 'Windows' problems but who knows) and so I frequently use the Garmin unit's 'data' to 'fill-in-the-gaps' in the Trimble-data-point-network.
The ArcMap (ESRI) software (which runs ONLY on Windows-OS / PC environment(s), there is / are other software tools to create maps that run on Linux (Apple / Macintosh) but that software is almost always 'fairly 'iffy'' in terms of stability and in terms of the 'inter-network-ing- of it's files)... The ArcMap, though, is where the 'actual work' of developing the map(s) is done. ArcMap has 'filters' and 'translators' that allows it to accept point, line, polygon feature-data from a number of sources into a map-making / plotting framework.
ArcMap is one of a whole suite of products from ESRI - typically called "ArcGIS" - and they offer the 'suite' with a number of other products, though ArcMap is the 'main' product used by people like me, to 'create' maps... -
Here's an early map that has a LOT of data-on-it... (click on it to get MUCH BIGGER version)
Here's the 'raw-field-data' map produced on Wednesday, 3rd August of just that day's data - this is a raw-map, and has not been 'enhanced, nor 'tailored' to any specific audience or project. (click on it to get MUCH BIGGER version)
For further information e-mail to: bill@vikingasia.org
last updated: Saturday,
afternoon, 20 August 2005 @ 12:53; revID:
6s by: Bill Schell in
Stuart,
Florida,
USA