" Move over, Bro!!"
That would be the mudball covered in dead and live baby mantids.
As you all know, the mantids weren't only birthday we were celebrating, Jonny turned 18 yesterday, and we partied accordingly :-)
This is Jonny's idea of safety when attacking wasp nests with chemical spray: Spray for the nest, an umbrella for the spray fallout(which is toxic when in contact with skin), overalls and dorky glasses for the stingers. Of course, he didn't want a harness or anything because we all know that falling from 18 feet in the air and breaking your back is a lot less scary than getting stung by a wasp ;-)
The nests... covered in spray.
Fastest aerosol-spray-can in the west.
-Graydon L
This is one of our favorite projects to create: and inflatable tent. This particular tent is comprised of two bed-sheets taped together with two fans at one end blowing air inside, thus inflating the contraption and also blowing cool air on the occupants (Jonny and I). as you can see, there are several volumes of an encyclopedia set around the edges of the tent. These are to keep the outside edge on the ground and to keep the cool air inside.
A view from the door of the occupants. We ran some power bars inside so we could have a lamp and radio plugged in. You can see the fan back behind Jonny, it dosen't look like it's moving, but it's still working away to keep that thing inflated.
This is the latest of all our inflatable tents. It's powered by two small fans, and one gigantic fan (forground) which can just barely keep the roof over our heads. It's made by taping five sheets together to form a "box" and leaving three holes near the bottom for the fans.
There we were, In a 1954 Cessna 180, 1500’ eastbound over the second narrows bridge in Vancouver, just clearing the Harbour control zone. We were on our way back from a nice lunch at a restaurant on the beach at Gilles Bay, Texada Island with some friends. Suddenly I noticed a seabird ahead. It was a cormorant. A sea bird normally found on or under the water or flying low. I said to Pauline my wife, “What’s a cormorant doing way up here?”
We were on converging courses, and he was slightly higher than us, so I descended slightly to increase the margin. He started to descend also, so I increased my rate of decent and yelled “Watch where you are going!”
With that he dove abruptly and we hit with a loud bang. The windshield was immediately covered almost 100% with the remains of the bird and his last meal. (Which I later found out to be herring) The cowl doors were blown open and damaged. I informed the Harbour tower of my situation and told him I would divert to Pitt Meadows airport since it was slightly closer than Langley, and had wider and longer runways more suitable for a blind landing. He gave them a call to give them a heads up and shortly I switched to them and headed directly towards Pitt Meadows. They asked if I needed any emergency services and I said “Not likely, but let’s see how the landing turns out.” I was cleared straight in but couldn’t see ahead so requested and was granted an angled approach so I could see out the lower corner of the windshield for the approach. I descended to just over the threshold and then straightened it out, and then completed the landing using my peripheral vision on the sides of the runway only. It wasn’t too difficult actually. My time flying the Tiger Moth at the museum was a benefit since you fly that from the rear seat with your passenger and engine ahead.
Anyway, I have a bit of work to do fix the upper cowl again. We just finished a major restoration of this airplane last spring.
Enjoy the photos attached, and keep an eye out for those suicidal birds!
-Rick
Here's some pictures that he took! prepare to see your lunch again :-P
That's my aunt Pauline behind the plane. Oh, and that red stuff all over the front of the plane is blood and bird-bits
Here's what it looks like from the inside.
...and from the top
ooooh, yuck ;-O
-Graydon L
Directed by: Andrew Stanton
