02/01/10 - Putting together a gold panning tutorial is something I've wanted to do for a long time. I get a lot of questions from people about how to pan for gold and which kind of gold pan to use. I finally got it done. Go to my gold panning and prospecting page to see more.

1/31/10 - I've been having a lot of fun making movies of all my toys in operation. Here is a video of my homemade recirculating sluice / highbanker in operation. Go to my sluice page to see more, including how I built it.

1/16/10 - Today I pulled out my old jet engine built from junkyard parts out of storage and gave it a run for the first time in years. It needed a few minor repairs and tweaks after sitting around in my garage for years gathering dust and spider webs. In the end though, it started up and ran. Playing with this old engine has given me lots of new ideas for modifications to it. Stay tuned for more. Go to junkyardjet.com to see more.

1/05/10 - Just got back from a long weekend in Miami and the Everglades. Had a great time. The most fun was tearing around the Everglades at insane speeds in an air boat (see video below). I will post details and photos to my travel and vacation photos page when I get the time.

12/20/09 - Here are some pictures from my new workshop space I have rented. I am finally all moved in. This first picture is my workbench. Note how neat, clean and orderly it is. We'll see how long that lasts. I will probably rapidly degrade once I am hard at work on two or three projects at the same time. I seem to do my best work in a state of near chaos.

There is lots of storage space for all my junk raw materials and tools. My garage at home is now so neat and orderly since I have moved all this stuff into the workshop.

There is even room for my old home-built jet engine. It may roar to life again soon. I could never have fired it up at the condo where I live now. The neighbors would have come after me with torches and pitchforks. My workshop is in an industrial area, so noise isn't an issue. I look forward to tinkering with it again.

11/03/09 - I have finally rented some workshop space. Now I will have my very own hacker space to work on projects I've been itching to tackle for a long time. First, I have to transfer all my equipment, tools and supplies from my horribly over-loaded and under-sized garage into the new space, and get it organized. I have a long list of projects I want to work on. Most of them have been on hold for a long time because they are too noisy, smelly, dangerous, or just plain too big to do out of my condo's little garage. The projects will of course be posted here in the future. Stay tuned.

10/21/09 - I have just uploaded my sourdough bread recipe. I have been experimenting with using my own starter from a culture of wild yeast I have created myself

10/21/09 - I have just uploaded my second honey wheat bread recipe. I have been experimenting with the recipe and have come up with something even better than the first recipe.

10/16/09 - I just uploaded the page for my new home-built folding solar panel. I built a second, smaller, 15 Watt panel for when I don't need or want to haul out my bigger 60 Watt home-made solar panel.

10/06/09 - I just uploaded modifications to my my recipe for quick & easy meatloaf. I made meatloaf tonight and compared what I did, to the posted recipe, and found a few typos on the quantities of various ingredients.

10/06/09 - I just got back from a long (over 2 weeks) vacation in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. I've been back for about a week. Now that I am pretty much caught up at work, I have found time to upload some photos and do a write up of the trip over on the vacation photos section of the web site. Check it out. It was a great trip.

09/05/09 - I have just uploaded my recipe for quick & easy meatloaf in the cooking section of the web site. Check it out.

08/30/09 - Last night the St. Petersburg Astronomy Club held a public Jupiter watch at the Pinellas Science Center. I haven't been able to find my old modified astro-webcam since I moved a while back. So yesterday afternoon, before leaving to go to the Science Center, I tore apart an old IBM webcam I got at a yard sale for $1. I discarded the lens and mounted the imager in plastic tube that fits inside a telescope eyepiece holder. At the Observatory behind the Science Center I mounted the camera on the 16 inch telescope and had lots of fun imaging the moon and Jupiter. The atmospheric conditions (seeing) were pretty bad all night long. However, I managed to get a few half-way decent shots of Jupiter by recording video clips and stacking the images with Registax. I'll probably find my old webcam now that I have built a new one. See my astronomy pages for more webcam fun.

Update: Yep, I just found the old camera. Now I have 2.

08/17/09 - I have just uploaded the new main page for the cooking section of the web site, and added a couple of new recipes, including my recipe for quick & easy skillet cornbread. Check it out.

08/15/09 - I have just posted my guide to outfitting a kitchen on the cheap in the cooking section of the web site. Check it out. Soon there will be a landing page for all the cooking related stuff.

07/22/09 - I have just posted my recipe for Waffle House waffles in the rapidly growing cooking section of the web site. Check it out.

07/22/09 - I have been finding a little time lately to do some more work on my 3D printer project. It is a long way from finished. At present I only have two axes working. There will eventually be a third axes in the form of an elevator and a plastic extruder. Here is a video I shot a while back of testing the two axes by mounting a pen on on them and doing a little writing. Basically I have a pen plotter at this point. More will come in the future, including an entire web site devoted to this project. Check out the video.

07/15/09 - My car laptop tray build has been picked up by both hackaday and the make blog, and who knows who else. Visits to the site are through the roof. The hit counter is spinning like crazy. I wouldn't be surprised if this site goes down under the traffic load. Note to self: More car related hacks.

07/15/09 - Have just posted my recipe for tasty honey wheat bread, after getting positive feedback on the original white bread baking how-to. I think there will soon be an entire section of this site devoted to cooking.

07/13/09 - I've been doing a lot of cooking lately. I'm getting pretty good at it too, I've been told. Lately I've had a fascination with baking my own bread. I've finally gotten around to posting a how-to and recipe for baking your own bread, from a techie's perspective. check it out if you are cooking inclined. More recipes will follow in the future.

07/13/09 - Just got back from spending the weekend at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was amazing. Photos will be posted on the travel and vacation photos page soon. What recession? Disney was packed, and it isn't a cheap place to visit.

07/07/09 - I have just about completed a laptop / notebook computer tray for my beloved Toyota Tacoma pickup truck. It was a quick and easy project that really went together well. This design may be able to be adapted to other makes/models of vehicles. Check it out.

07/05/09 - I haven't updated the web site in a while. There have been big changes in my life. I have a new place. I am living on my own again. There is a new lady in my life, and I have been promoted to a management position at the company where I work. They are really keeping me busy at work. Lots of extra responsibility came with the promotion. As (if) time permits, I will try to update the web site a little bit with some of my new projects, and some photos of some of my travels in the last year. Though I am so far behind, that I may never get caught up.

05/14/08 - Our vacation is approaching rapidly. 3 weeks in Arizona and Colorado, camping, prospecting and sight-seeing. I can't wait. I have decided I won't be taking the big 17.5in Dobsonian telescope on this trip. That will save a lot of weight, which will hopefully improve my gas milage on this 5000+ mile trip. Not taking the big DOB and all its support equipment and accessories will also free up a lot of space in the truck for prospecting equipment. Instead I will be taking the 8 inch Cookie Jar telescope. Spent some time over the last couple of days reworking the base of the telescope to make it more rugged. Will update the Cookie Jar web page with the changes when I get a chance.

05/12/08 - The new recirculating sluice is complete. I have posted a write-up about its design and construction here.

04/19/08 - I plan on doing a lot of gold prospecting and mining on this upcoming vacation. The recent high price of gold has prompted me to step up my gold mining endeavors. So I have decided to build myself a recirculating sluice or highbanker to take along. That way I will be able to process more material than I could by panning alone.

03/20/08 - The new charge controller is finished. Pictures and a description will be added soon to the Wind Turbine page.

03/04/08 - I have been busy rebuilding the charge controller that will regulate power coming from my wind turbine and solar panel. I am also assembling battery banks from some 12V sealed lead acid batteries my brother gave me. All this is in preparation for our next vacation in May-June. I want to set up the wind/solar power system on my remote Arizona property while we are out there.

01/03/08 - I have completed my first home-built solar panel, and it works. YAHOO! It will add greatly to my power production capacity on my remote Arizona land. A complete write-up on it can be found in the solar panel section.

12/31/07 - Spent most of the day rearranging the garage. We bought some shelves at an auction a couple of weeks ago with the idea of taming the storage problems in the garage. Well, it's finally done. The garage is a thing of beauty. My back is wrecked though.

12/25/07 - The big family Christmas party was at our house this year. We cooked and cleaned for two days to get ready for it. Boy did we have a house full of people. Everyone seems to have had a good time. They didn't eat half the food we made though. After it was over, the house was a wreck. Time to start cleaning again. Sigh.

12/14/07 - The company I work for sent me out to Santa Barbara, CA on business on fairly short notice. It was a big scramble to get ready with very little notice. It was a long and not very fun trip. There were long plane flights, long hours of work, bad food and lots of jet lag. It was definitely a work trip and not a vacation. One of the few bright spots on the trip was walking down to the seal rookery on the beach in Carpinteria before dawn. I got lots of photos of the seals on the beach and the sunrise illuminating the Channel Islands and the mountains above town. The Santa Barbara/Carpinteria area is very pretty. Too bad I didn't have the time to really explore and enjoy it. I will post all the photos on the travel and vacation photos page when I get a chance.

11/22/07 - Once again, we attended two different Thanksgiving feasts. One for my family and one for hers. This is getting to be a high-calorie habit. There's no way around it I guess. We don't want to offend anyone by not showing, and unless we rent a banquet hall somewhere, nobody has room for all of us. Oh well, at least we have a long weekend to digest it all.

10/13/07 - Just got back from our vacation to Tennessee and Georgia. There is a big write-up about it and lots of pictures (of course) on the vacation photo page.

10/04/07 - Getting ready for vacation. This year we are heading up to Tennessee and Georgia for a while instead of going out West. I'll post more when we get back.

09/20/07 - Haven't posted much lately. I've been really busy at work and with our Ebay side business. Next month we are taking a vacation, and boy do we both need one.

06/07/07 - The place is starting to look and feel like home. We have most of the house set up nicely. The garage/workshop and office are still works in progress, but they are coming along. They are a little more organized and functional every day. My only real complaint about the house is the lack of storage space. I really miss the 3 walk-in closets I had in my old place. We only have 1 walk-in closet in this house, and is has to be shared. The garage, even though twice as big as in my old place, has to hold all my workshop tools and equipment, plus all the overflow of two other people, and our business. We are going to need some efficient storage solutions to get the garage whipped into shape. On the whole though, I am liking the new place. The house is new with all the modern conveniences anyone could want, the neighborhood is quiet and peaceful and close to everything. Here is a picture of the house. Click on it for a larger version.

05/28/07 - We are pretty much moved in. All the stuff from Patti's place, and most of the stuff from my place is here. We moved most of it in only 24 hours. Four full loads in a big moving truck. Two from her place and two from mine. Boy are we sore. We haven't worked that hard in years. It's going to take a while to unpack all the boxes and get everything set up the way we want it.

05/24/07 - Got the keys to the new house today. Tomorrow we start moving.

05/19/07 - Had a huge yard sale to try to pare down the amount of stuff I will have to move to the new house. It's amazing how much junk you can accumulate when you live in the same place for 13 years. I sold a ton of stuff, but it hardly made a dent in the pile.

05/11/07 - Patti and I have found a house we like. She started looking as soon as she flew home from Vegas. I joined the hunt as soon as I got back from driving home. It took us a surprisingly short time to find a house we both liked. We will be moving in at the end of the month.

05/07/07 - Just got back from vacation. We drove to my property in Arizona. We camped out there for a while in my new popup trailer. Then we took the scenic rout to Las Vegas via Sedona. Spent half a week in Vegas. Patti flew home from Vegas, since she only had a little over a week of vacation time. I took my time driving back, stopping and staying in several old mining towns in Arizona and New Mexico to indulge in my hobby of prospecting and gold panning. Didn't find much gold this time though. I still had a lot of fun. Had no problems towing the popup, other than really lousy gas milage while towing it. The popup is very comfortable.

04/15/07 - All the maintenance issues with the popup have been taken care of. It's ready for the road. I just finished replacing all the wheel bearings. I was just going to repack them, but once I got the hubs off and had a good look at them, they were pretty much shot. New bearings are cheap, and now I don't have to worry about them on the long trip.

03/26/07 - Patti and I have decided to move in together. Neither of our places is really big enough, and we both want to move into better diggs in better neighborhoods anyway. So we will begin house hunting when we get back from our trip to Arizona and Las Vegas.

03/25/07 - Found a set of very rare blue depression glass plates at a yard sale for $5. They had no idea what they had. I grabbed them and bought them. Then I resold them on Ebay for $238. I love the antique business! Antique glass seems to be becoming my specialty. I can spot it a mile away.

03/18/07 - The new popup has a few issues. It is in generally good shape, but I am going to need to rewire it and redo the wheel bearings before taking it out on the road. I also want to put new tires on it, since it's first outing with me will be a cross-country trek to Arizona and back. So I've got some work to do the next few weekends before we take off for Arizona in late April. I also need to practice backing up with the trailer. I've never towed anything before. Backing is tricky.

03/11/07 - I bought a popup camper. Ironically, it is a Starcraft Meteorite. Is that appropriate for an astronomer or what? I didn't even notice the name until I was ready to buy it. It was just another in a long line if used campers I'd looked at. It is used but in pretty good shape. This should make camping a little easier for us. I think I may still occasionally nip off into the wilderness with only a tent though.

02/18/07 - Just got back from the 13th annual Orange Blossom Special Star Party. Whew, it was rough this year. The weather was murder. Rain, cold, ice, more rain, wind that destroyed my tent. It was a challenging camping trip. After putting up with all the hardship from the weather, we only got in about 1 1/2 decent nights of observing. Still, the OBS has always been more of a social event than a hard-core observing event. So we had fun anyway.

02/02/07 - Got a wicked case of the flu. It was bad. I see why so many people die of the flu every year.

01/16/07 - I've made my first $1000 selling stuff on Ebay. I've pretty much sold off most of my old junk. Patti and I are now going to a lot of yard sales, estate sales and auctions, buying things to resell. I am rapidly becoming an expert on some kinds of antiques. It's a lot of fun. I could see this becoming a second career.

01/02/07 - Well, we made it through the holidays and into the new year. Maybe things will return to something resembling normality now.

12/26/06 - We've been to three Christmas parties, two Christmas dinners and several gift exchanges. I'm exhausted, and way over-fed. We've still got New Year's to look forward to. I can't wait until life gets back to normal in January.

12/22/06 - Got the topper installed on my truck. It didn't take as long as they thought for it to arrive. It's great. Also got a bug deflector installed at the same time.

My new topper

12/09/06 - Ordered the topper for my truck. They said it might take as long as three weeks because of the proximity to the holidays. I can't wait.

12/06/06 - My Christmas shopping is officially done. This has got to be the earliest I have ever finished it.

12/03/06 - I finally started selling off my excess junk on Ebay. My girlfriend, who has been selling on Ebay for years, is amazed at how quick my stuff is selling. I have high hopes of making large sums of money and reclaiming lots of space in my closets and garage. You can visit my auctions (if any are running) here: My Auctions.

12/02/06 - Built a long ramp to allow me to get my big 17.5 inch Dobsonian telescope up into the bed of my new truck. That bed is really up there. It takes a long ramp and a lot of muscle to get the scope up there. I didn't know how good I had it with the van.

11/25/06 - I Bought a new truck. I got a brand new 2006 Toyota Tacoma 4X4 pickup truck. I love it. I've been wanting one for a long time. While everyone else was in the malls shopping on Black Friday, I hit the car lot and bought myself an early Christmas present. I got a really great deal on it since it was one of the last new 2006's. Click the photo for more information.

My new ride

11/24/06 - Attended two different Thanksgiving dinners (one at my family and one at her's). Groan, is it possible to be poisoned by too much turkey?

11/18/06 - Patti and I went with a group of fellow astronomers out to the Alafia River State Park to watch the Leonid Meteor Shower. The meteors were scarce and it was bloody cold, but we still had a good time anyway.