ever been bitten by an osterich?

or slobbered by an elk?


I have... at Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch.

exploding train

There was some excitement near here last Friday. A cargo train derailed and exploded/burned within three miles of the house. Kendre's mom called to let us know - I was on conf calls and everyone else was doing school. I went out to the front yard and took this photo of the smoke:



A little later we got a call from the neighbor saying that the fire dept was short on manpower so they couldn't contact everyone, but asked him to call around and ask us to evacuate for 4 hours to let the fumes dissipate. As we were leaving, they already had roads blocked going over to the area:


(the tilted cars in the photo are caused by the slow scan speed of the Blackberry camera - since we were driving by, the picture looks tilted)

Apparently this video was shot by some emergency personnel on the scene:

We went to Edmond where we met some of Kendre's family for BBQ and then watched a movie at her nieces' house.

One of the OKC television stations has a photo gallery from the derailment.

[update]
The boys and I drove by the site this evening. There are still several cars laying by the tracks in various levels of destruction. The tracks are completely torn up. I guess it will take a while to restore service.

random Blackberry photos

A chicken out eating in the rain...


Lathen starts his schooling early.


I liked this shadow.


This week's silly sleeping dog pose:


Tressa has been reading "Hank the Cowdog".

done!

For the last three weeks or so, I've been working insane hours as my team approaches the first public release of the software we've been working on for the last year and a half. It would normally be bad enough, but two weeks ago, we decided that we (mostly me) needed to replace a pretty major feature at the last minute.

Kendre and the kids have been very patient and understanding while I worked 80-110 hour weeks. I had to put off going out for our anniversary, taking Mathias out for his bday lunch-with-a-parent, and a bunch of other stuff. If I've owed you an email or phone call or anything else, I'm sorry if I've neglected those things.


As of about 5:45pm today, my part of the project was sent on to the next step in the chain. It gets bundled into a larger project, and finally into a much larger software package. There will be a few weeks of intensive testing (we've had testing going on concurrently with development also) to prepare the final project. It's possible - even likely - that there will be some things to fix, but major changes will likely not be permitted until after the final release. Then starts work on the first fix-pack.

Now I'm taking some (ok, a lot of) time off work. We are going to see my parents for a few days and after that, I'm going to do stuff around the house and catch up on sleep. And make up for some stuff I've missed out on doing....

changed an oxygen sensor

This evening I replaced an oxygen sensor on the Sequoia that had been keeping the "check engine soon" light on recently. It wasn't that hard to change and I was able to save quite a bit of money by ordering the sensor online. I got it from Rock Auto - I chose them because they had good reviews. That saved about $35 over buying it locally at a parts store.


The sensor is a little difficult to reach, but having the truck up on ramps made it much easier. I had to use some WD-40 and a piece of pipe over the wrench handle for additional torque to loosen the old one.

The real trick to changing it was getting this oxygen sensor socket - it fits over the sensor with room for the wire to protrude. I bought it locally at Advance Auto in Edmond since it was the same price ($11) as online and shipping was more than sales tax.

Overall, it took a little while to get the part and the tool together, but it was well worth it to save a pretty good bit of money if you count the labor costs of having a mechanic change it.

After changing it, I was able to clear the engine error code with my OBD-II diagnostic tool that I bought a while ago. It was a bit of an investment (not nearly as much as the MSRP listed on that page), but I think it will pay for itself before too long - if not already.

random Blackberry photos

It's not a great camera but it's always with me! :-)



waking up with a bath


the chicks are getting big


toilet bowl art work by our youngest resident artist


another silly sleeping dog pose


I got out my flugelhorn this week and played it some. Tracking down when and where it was made has proven to be quite a challenge (probably 1960s in Italy).


SNU has a Bluebird! Looks alot like ours except the flat roof, big windows, paint job... well kinda like ours.

overkill

We had a little excitement this evening... After putting the kids to bed, I needed to go out to tend to the chickens. Often when I am going to be outside much at night, I wear a holster with one of my pistols just in case Drinian finds a varmint so I grabbed the XD .45 and a flashlight and headed outside.

I filled a bucket with chicken feed and grabbed the water hose that had been left out from kids playing in the afternoon and started toward the chicken pen. Right away Drinian started barking at something. I couldn't see at first what it was - I thought it was probably a rabbit invading his territory. But as I looked I could see it was a large copperhead and it was coiled to strike. Fortunately Drinian was keeping a safe distance - amazing how he knows to since with other varmints he doesn't hesitate to attack.



Since it was coiled I thought I stood a pretty good chance of hitting, so I shot it with the XD - which was loaded with .45acp jacketed hollowpoint. My first shot hit but then he uncoiled and the two follow-ups missed. but at least he was moving slow and I had time to grab a nearby 5 gallon bucket and use the bottom edge to finish him.

Anyway, I can attest to the damage that a 45jhp will do even in something as small as a snake - he would not have gotten too far as it nearly cut him in half. It was overkill but it gave me time to find something else to use. I'd say that it also is a testament to the very natural and comfortable handling of the Springfield XD - it puts holes where you mean it to - I'd highly recommend it! :-)

Copperheads are the thing I worry the most about with kids around here. Since we've lived here, I've killed about 5 of them. They like leaf litter and rocks and are pretty hard to see. They are one of only three venomous snakes around here and the only one that we've seen on our land. One of many good reasons to have a dog!

Also, just in case you were wondering, when Drinian trees a varmint (as he has with a few chicken-hunting raccoons) I always opt for a shotgun over a pistol. Shooting up in the air with a solid projectile when there are houses/people within the range of the gun is a really bad idea...