I’m waiting for the day when I can get some shots as good as these of the eagles and falcons around here… Superb.
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Did you at least say “better give me the keys so I can get those tyres scrubbed and brakes bedded in for you”?
If not, give yourself a slap upside the head 
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hey thanks, I appreciate that!
I think a lot had to do just with the length of time they were hanging around. Usually, I’ll hear something going on and by the time I’ve went and got the camera and gone outside it’s either over, they’ve shifted too far away, or maybe they are around for a couple of minutes, tops.
This went on for at least 45 minutes, maybe longer - even had time to go inside and come back out again and they were still at it, so was able to take tons more pictures than usual.
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Indeed it is…. Here is the closest thing I will get to the iconic KLM 747 shot, taken when I was there a couple of years ago.
@chipwich : It looks like you are having a great time Dan! Hopefully you will get a chance to sit at one of the bars by the beach and do some plane spotting with a beer in your hand. 
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Well actually, St Thomas also has a runway extension over the water that makes for a pretty interesting approach too. Must be enjoyed by boat for the most part. We watched for a while from one of the overlooks. Mostly B737s landing by the bushel basket. Some light commuter recip twins heading toward St. Croix too. The odd twin otter coming in to roost.
From another vantage point. Our boat in the distance. The airport is at the right, with the extension out of view.
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I’m old enough to remember the hype about that…Dennis Conrad… Wow…that is really cool she’s still sailing…
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I would love the opportunity to sail a 12m yacht… or nirvana would be a Maxi.
I also did a fair amount when I was younger:
Rigging my Paper Tiger for a friendly ‘race’ against a mates Hobie cat… I lost by (nautical) miles.
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We put the last of the Ewe’s and lambs out today, the barn is cleaned up and very quiet compared to two weeks ago.
The project manager/nerd can’t help surfacing.
Final counts:
81 lambs born
6 died/still born
68 out in the field
7 “pet” lambs that we are manually feeding inside.
Overall it’s a good one.
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Went over to the ex’s house. Always weird being on the property that I tended to for so many years. Anyway…there is stuff to be done around there and I wanted to get outdoors so she was fine with me tidying up some things. Well…at least partially working on it. (I put my shatterproof sunglasses on after I took the picture…I know…stupid to be chainsawing without them…). Love the physical work of sawing up…moving and hand splitting. It is definitely one of the things I miss about living on the property.
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Recently got to fly 737 (in a flight sim powered by LMs Prepar3D). It was pretty cool. Managed to land 4 out of 4 times in different conditions (day/night, with crosswind etc). All of the landings were pretty smooth, my instructor even said I flared too much 
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Nice job Chris
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Sahara dust made for weird lighting this afternoon.
~120km, first 61km was at a pace of 30km/h and that was taking it pretty easy with an 18km/h tailwind, the next half was an 18km/h headwind of course. That was much harder at a considerably slower pace. We managed about 26km/h average still but I am done for the day
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Working with the saw, splitter and logs is something I love. We have to do a couple of weeks a year just to keep the wood healthy.
Let me know when you’re available. 
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I am not allowed to use the chainsaw unless I’m wearing the hardhat with built in ear muffs & face shield, steel cap boots and chaps.
Eucalyptus is a bit different to pine. You have to let it dry/season for at least a year before it burns properly in a ‘slow combustion’ stove which means it is hard as iron.
The last time I tried to split a log with an axe, a full swing with a razor sharp axe and all it did was bury it about an inch into the wood and it took ages to separate the two.
I use one of these and can split a months worth of firewood in an hour 
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Cool… Even us seasoned sim pilots sometimes need to get reminded to just plop it into the landing zone. In some cases…it is a requirement. I believe on our circling approaches to touchdown we are given -500’ to +1,000 from the TDZ to get the plane on the ground. If not it is a bust… So trying to go for a perfect touchdown and landing long isn’t encouraged. In real life…there is a bit more effort if you have the runway to play with…but sometimes it is just drive it on and get the weight on the wheels. Really cool experience you had there!
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Not a terrible policy to be honest. I’ve been running chainsaws on that property for about 13 years…and haven’t really had any close calls…but the first couple of years it took some “possible” incidents to learn to read the wood and how it is laying under compression or tension. It is amazing how much potential energy can be bound up in a limb. I also learned to climb the trees with a harness and a jugging technique…but I was very, very careful cutting when I was in trees. It was not something I was ever comfortable with. I used arrows with lines to put bull ropes up into the tops of trees and used trucks to get trees to fall the right way just in case my felling cuts weren’t correct. Trees do funny things sometimes. Rotten ones the moreso. I have complete respect for people that do it as a profession. I can’t imagine doing it day-to-day…
Most of our trees are oak and hickory…both very hard woods. The smell when you split them is so earthy…I love it. But yeah…you can actually feel the physical weight of the moisture in newly cut piece of wood versus one that has sat out for a year drying. It is amazing. And the creosote build up from burning the “green” wood is pretty awful.
I use a really nice Fiskar’s maul. I have never broken a Fiskar’s handle. They are absolutely bomb proof. I have a Fiskar’s axe too…but I almost never use it…preferring the maul for most work. Every so often I’ll get some really stubborn larger pieces that will require a sledge and wedge… We have quite a few poplar trees that when you cut them into rounds…they are so filled with moisture and have this really odd no-grain texture to them. The maul just buries itself in it like into a wet sponge. Best to let the rounds sit out and freeze…then they split quite handily…
I love the woods. Might go over again tomorrow. I went today…burnt out some of the section I was working in. Hosed it all down afterwards… Fun stuff…
Those long longs I dragged out of the woods with my Honda Pilot… 
then used some balancing and pivoting points to get them where I wanted. They are staked in rolling against some steel stakes…and filled in behind them with gravel to make a level drive to the shed. None of this is my property now… I’m just the guy doing stuff. I don’t know how many years those logs will last as a barrier on that downslope. Might outlive me. I guess I could coat them with a tar or something and make them less likely to get bug infestation. Termites and ants will do a number in a decade or so…
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The history of the America’s Cup is a fascinating one, steeped in tradition, and a lesson international cooperation and sport, whose inaugural event was held in 1851. The 12m, or 12 meter formula, which was used between 1958 and 1987 are probably my favorite designs, and likely the last that resemble the boats used at the race’s inception, albeit quite a bit shorter and less complex. Even if you take into account the winged keel pioneered by Australia II in the first successful challenge to the Cup in 132 years, at least it looked like a sailboat.
The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron is the current defender and the 37th Americas Cup will be contested in 23 m/75 ft foiled monohulls, AC75.
The way that I understand it, the boat we sailed, Stars & Stripes 86 was the 3rd of 4 boats that Sail America and the San Diego Yacht Club commissioned in preparation for the ‘87 America’s Cup challenge, The next boat, Stars & Stripes 87 skippered by Dennis Conner would successfully defeat Kookaburra III in Fremantle in 1987.
Speaking of keel design I asked the skipper of our boat how deep she drafted and he replied 9 feet officially, but with the winged keel, 10 feet while heeling.
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Between chainsaws and grenades… I’m not sure which thing the army taught me to use is potentially more dangerous to the user?
I’m a lazy SOB I’ll stck with 20t of hydraulics thanks 
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