Author: -N-

Postal Express

Josh writes . . .

My uncle has been getting into and enjoying high-power rocketry for a while now, and I guess I’ve been a little inspired by his enjoyment. In hanging out with him, I got interested in it, too, and raided his scrap bin for some parts and ideas. While most people interested in rocketry would probably begin with any of the high-quality kits that are available, things seemed to line up for a scratch build for me.

I started with a standard 3-inch mailing tube from Office Depot. We wrapped it with a layer of fiberglass for strength. I built a motor mount out of a piece of “blue tube,” which is high-strength paper composite tubing made specifically for rocketry, and some rings cut out of plywood. Fins I cut from a composite called G10 (aka Garolite). The recovery harness was made from Kevlar and nylon webbing. I found an inexpensive surplus parachute online, and added a plastic nose cone. The whole thing was assembled with epoxy, and a little spray paint I had around prettied it up some.

In between work and other obligations, it took several build sessions over the course of six months or so to get the whole thing ready to fly, but finally I was both ready and available on the club’s regularly scheduled launch day. My uncle and I went out to the club’s launch site in the desert, and we saw several flights despite the conditions, which were on the windy side. One rocket, launched to about 2000 feet, drifted more than a mile on its parachute before touching down again. I was a little nervous, but I knew that my comparatively large, heavy rocket would not be flying as high, especially given that I was planning to fly on a comparatively small motor, so I decided to go for it.

The motor I had chosen was an H-238, and the simulation software estimated it would boost my rocket to about 980 feet. The delay packaged with the engine was rated for ten seconds, so we cut a little hole in it with a drill bit to shorten that a bit. The launch looked good, although the rocket seemed to wiggle a bit just after it cleared the launch rod – perhaps because a crosswind caught it. While I have seen lots of rockets go completely out of sight, the comparatively high weight and low power kept mine in sight the whole time. It had a smooth climb to apogee, then turned and started down again. I had a terrible moment or two when the rocket was clearly pointing toward the ground and falling, but the ejection charge finally did go off. The chute deployed, and the rocket came down smoothly after that. It touched down only a few hundred yards from the pad, and when I caught up to it, I could see by grooves in the sand that it had been dragged about eight feet by the wind. There was no damage, though, and the rocket is ready to fly again.

Plans are already under way for future flights and projects. This rocket, although it flew well, does have some design flaws that aren’t fixable, so the next one will benefit from what I learned in building and flying this one. I also have plans to install an electronic altimeter in the next one to control the ejection charge (actually, charges, plural, for dual deployment) and avoid the possibility of a bad landing. I also want to install a GPS receiver and radio beacon so I can find it if I lose sight of it. An on-board camera looks interesting, too.

Ahead

The holidays are coming up, and with it the usual plans.  Families.  Presents.  What to do during the two weeks off at the end of December.

I have some thoughts about what to do this weekend.  The first one that crossed my mind this morning was whether or not I should go out and see the last of the lunar eclipse.  The answer was no.  I rolled over and slept another hour or two.  I also need to write up a test for Monday’s class and print it out, grade some papers, and pack some things into the car to take in to work.  This is the tedious stuff, but luckily it doesn’t take up hours!

And what else . . . ?  Well, we got our shipment of candied citron, orange and lemon peel from King Arthur Flour in Maine yesterday.  Time to get ready for baking fruit cakes tomorrow and figuring out . . . brandy or bourbon?  Maybe some of each.  This means assessing what is in the pantry and augmenting existing supplies.  Josh wants dates and / or figs.  I like nuts.  We also have dried fruits in a number of varieties, and a goodly collection of spices.  And a recipe we have agreed on.  Did you know that it will take 3.5 hours to bake these cakes???

Today is cold and bright, with streaky clouds overhead presaging tomorrow’s rain.  Certainly a good day to take a bit of a walk with the camera.  It has crossed my mind to drive out to the beach, but the fact is, being home is nice – no people except Josh and me and Wicket (who needs a bath . . . maybe something else to consider).  Still, I do want to get outside – too pretty to stay in!  I can think of a few places to go where contact with people will be minimal.  You see, being a teacher and an introvert, is really a conflict!  Students need my focus, and I need my focus – hence the need to decelerate and regroup on the weekend.

And there is a new hat in the works, along with pulling together some brushes to photograph and describe for someone . . .

Mornings are exciting adventures in thinking about what lies ahead.  It’s like Christmas when you are a kid – mystery and potential!

Covered with Stickers & Ready for Breakfast

Brrrrr!

My hands were so cold this morning!  I wandered out of the house around 6:15 into a chilly morning (for us, for me in a long time!) of 35 F – just a few degrees above freezing!    The goal:  take pictures of the sunrise.

Did it work?  Well, I got a few I like, a few that are hmmmms, and a lot that I think that the delete key is their raison d’etre.

Nonetheless, I did have a blast.  I had forgotten what it is like to be chilly or even cold – where I live, it is very temperate.  I cannot recall the last time I was actually in snow, other than when I was living in Colorado in the 80s.  I ran in and out of the house a few times before setting off – nope, a vest is not enough.  Got a jacket, got a hat.  Wished I’d had some gloves!

I headed up to Wildwood Park, climbed a slight hill, and parked myself amongst the sage and (I think) toyon and last year’s yucca.  I metered in aperture priority, and shot a few shots.  It was pretty dull stuff.  Dropped the shutter speed to underexpose a bit.  My fingers were getting very numb.  The light was nothing exciting . . . until the sun began to climb over the mountains in the east.  Suddenly, there was magic.  The light began to change, the shadows moved, Mount Clef caught the sunrise and glowed.

I had two Nikon lenses with me.  The one I began with was the 35mm f/1.8 G.  The other was an old classic, the 105mm f2.5 AIS.  The former autofocuses, the latter does not.  Both are really good lenses, for different reasons, and I brought them for different purposes.  I wanted landscape and a broader vista – hence the 35mm – but I found myself wanting an even wider lens.  The 105mm was fine, and I brought it to work on manually focusing, checking if the little dot in the viewfinder really works.  It does, but not if you are skittering about handholding the lens!  Still, I got a few nice shots.

I did not go passionately hiking up hill and down to get my photos . . . nope, I rolled around in the dirt, in the stickers, scared some birds and cottontails.  My clothes were covered in burrs and other debris.  Out for a couple of hours with a few interesting shots, and a wonderful morning.  It’s been awhile since I’ve watched the sun rise, and while there were no dramatic skies to shoot, the cold and activity, followed by a hot cup of coffee and breakfast, made a great way to begin a Sunday.

A Crostata of a Different Flavor

Sunset Magazine is filled with interesting things. Recipes of all sorts may be found, and the holiday issues are some of my favorites. The Thanksgiving edition had a particularly intriguing recipe, which I made for yesterday’s family get-together. You may find the original recipe here; what makes it particularly interesting is the fact it is made with an artisan flour derived from a different wheat than is in your average flour.  It is made with

Emmer farro flour, made from whole-grain emmer wheat, gives the crostata a rustic texture and great flavor. Because it’s low in gluten, it needs to be mixed with all-purpose flour to hold the crust together

The flour is from Bluebird Grain Farms whose specialty is heirloom organic grains.  While I did not use their flour, I think I am quite likely to try it in the near future.  I’ve added a link to their site under the Farmers to Admire category.

Below is how I made the crostata.  I think that you can use this recipe as a basis for any fresh, seasonal fruit – the frangipane is a wonderful flavor!

PASTRY

  • 1 1/2 c. whole wheat white flour
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes (1 stick of butter, and 2 T more)

Use a food processor, as in the original recipe:  pulse flours and salt to mix. Add butter and whirl 3 seconds. Drizzle in 1/3 cup ice water, pulsing until mixture comes together in a shaggy ball but still has bits of butter showing. Form into a disk, wrap airtight, and chill at least 2 hours or overnight.

FRANGIPANE

  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 6 t. white sugar
  • 1/3 cup blanched almonds, finely ground
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 T flour
  • 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. almond extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat together 6 T. of sugar with butter until light and fluffy.  Mix in almonds (I used ground almond meal from Trader Joe’s), egg, flour, extracts, until smoothly blended.  Set aside.

CRANBERRIES

  • 3 cups fresh or frozen cranberries (1 12-oz. package)
  • 1/4 c. white sugar
  • 1 T. water

Mix together cranberries, sugar and water.  Set aside.

ASSEMBLING CROSTATA

Roll out dough on floured surface into a 14-inch circle.  Rotate and flip pastry as you roll it out.  Trim edges, and transfer to a round pizza pan or rectangular cookie sheet.  Line either with a sheet of parchment paper.   (I used a cookie sheet, only to find it was to big for my refrigerator, so I tilted it to fit, and had no problems with any berries escaping!)

Spread frangipane over inside of dough, leaving about a 3-inch border outside your circle of frangipane.

Place sugared cranberries over the frangipane mixture, pressing them in a bit to help keep the cranberries in place.

Fold the edges of the dough up and over the cranberries – do this gently! – and create pleats or folds as you go.  Once you do this, pinch the pleats in place a bit to seal the dough.  This will prevent leakage during baking.

Place crostata in refrigerator for about 30 minutes before baking.  While you do this, preheat the oven to 375 F with the cooking rack in the middle.  I used my oven on convection, but changed nothing as far as temperature or time.

Bake crostata for 45 minutes.  I checked mine at 35 minutes, and then continued.

Cool on parchment paper and cookie sheet, then transfer crostata and parchment paper to cookie rack to finish cooling.

Serve at room temperature, or warmed in the oven.  Great with vanilla ice cream!

A Bowl, A Brush

Yesterday a friend who is a potter came over.  I’ve only known her a short time, but she is one of those people you like the minute you meet, and like even more as time goes by.  She brought some of her work to show me.  For some reason the term “organic” is the only way I can describe her pottery – it is earthy and elegant at the same time, and seems to be perfect for the clay.  I liked what I saw.

The point of the visit was sort of show-and-tell.  You show me yours, I’ll show you mine.     She wanted to learn about sumi-e and brush work so she can apply it to her pottery.  For me, this was a much-needed diversion from the technology of photography and post-processing software.  It also motivated me to dig out a rather large supply of brushes I have from Japan, bought for resale.  And it reminded me of just how peaceful it is to ink up a stone, and take the time to do something with my hands other than pushing around a mouse, doing dishes, or whatever.

She is a lefty.  The movements I find difficult are easy for her, and vice versa.  Together, we went through a bit of paper, tried out different brushes, and have agreed to do some more of this.  She left with a stone and ink, a mosen, and a package of sulphite paper.  I got a bowl and the reminder to move away from the computer.  Maybe I will make some pottery with her at some time.