Football Tonight . . .

The last ball game of the year - for LSU anyway.  LSU at the Peach Bowl (aka Chic-fil-E Bowl or the chicken bowl) in Atlanta.  LSU is often a visitor to that facility, season openers and SEC title games.  LSU has played there often.

I will be at Humperdinks for the LSU Watch Party tonight.   Hump's is buying food as well as the Tarrant Tigers, sort of our annual holiday season party.  I expect a big turn out, hope so anyway.  Hump's is a brew pub, non-smoking and lots of parking available.

We had our first watch party this year at a crummy place named "Oscar's."   We had the basement, well it was not much of a basement.  I really think the place was a converted McDonald's Restaurant.   People left at half time and I think it soured the attendance for the year.

When Ray Croc bought out the rights to the McDonald brothers of San Bernardino, CA, one of the stipulations was that each restaurant had to have a basement.  So for years, every McDonalds had a smallish basement, used for storage.  When the last of the McDonald brothers died and Ray Croc passed on, this requirement died with them.  Anyway, I think Oscar's was a converted McDonalds for the past.

We had good attendance but such lousy service at Oscar's and facility generally spoiled the later season watch parties.  Nobody would come anymore.  We also developed a second location in downtown Fort Worth.  I went to one game there, it was loud and the parking was lousy.

Humperdinks generally gives us their banquet room and a degree of privacy.  They are very cooperative.  And I am sure for the next season opener, LSU versus Texas Christian University will be another barn burner.  When we opened with the Oregon we pumped about 3,000 fans through Humps.  We did similar with the Cotton Bowl when we played the Aggies.

Humps is close to the Texas Rangers/Dallas Cowboys stadiums in Arlington, Texas.  They have a livery service that will take you to the stadiums and pick up after the game.  Parking at Humps is free.  Parking at the Cowboys Stadium starts at $25.  Livery service is $10 per person, so can be kinda good deal depending on the amount of folks involved.

The Tarrant Tigers, the LSU Tarrant County Alumni Association collected about $4,500 ~ $5,500 for the scholarship fund.  Due to those games, we have endowed a scholarship at LSU and are close to endowing another one.  We do have enough funds to give three scholarships per year, one from the endowment, one from our chapter funds and one from a member couple.

LSU has about 200 or so students per year attend schoool from the Dallas/Fort Worth area.  Competition for the scholarships is fierce.

The Grind is on . . .

We slowly in exorbitantly grind down to Christmas.  Time seems to be slowing down.  Yet we note lots of shoppers out there.  Wonder what tomorrow is going to be like

The experts say 10% of the shoppers have yet to do their bargain hunting.  Or if you, gift hunting.  I did note there seems to be less stock in the stores, that indicates the merchants are anticipating a leaner year.  I think they are right what with all the unemployment going on and the Fiscal Cliff threats.

Every body is afraid of taxes.  They are right, taxes are going up.  Maybe indirectly but they are going up.  All the Obama taxes kick in for Obama care.  And many think the President is hell bent on forcing us over the fiscal cliff.  No doubt he may have grossly misjudged the people, certainly the Congress.  The House of Representatives is not buying Obama's demands.

So things are going to get tougher next year for sure.  Could be a new recession or even a new depression.  The President does not seem to care.  Many think he has an socialist agenda and forcing a calamity will enhance his ability to force his ideas on the nation.

Oh well, we will soon know.  The great unwashed are in for a great shock.  The reelection of Obama guarantees nothing.  And they are loathe to recognize that.  So that to will soon be upon us.

With that, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We Is or We Is Not . . .

Back to minerals again.  I spent about an hour looking at Amelia's material on Tuscaloosa Marine Shale/Austin Chalk again.  The good news is that there is a lot of oil in those two geological zones, the bad news is (note one the ises) no one really knows how to get it out.  There are good wells and not so good wells scattered about into that zone.

Our place seems to have the infamous Edwards Shelf literally run right under it.  It can be note to the south of us lies the "down dip of the Edwards Shelf" and a number of gas fields in the Tucsaloosa Trend (which lies below the Austin Chalk and below that is the Tuscaloosa Trend - pretty damn deep is the trend).  Could be we are out of it since we are north of the shelf down dip, though no one really knows just where the edge of the shelf is (another is).  It would take a number of wells to log the structures way down the hole to really figure it out exactly where the shelf begins or ends, not something that is ever really going to happen.

The LaCour #43 well is into the Austin Chalk (note that I found out if you go east it is referred to as the Selma Chalk - go figure).  The well has had its problems producing oil and gas.  They killed the well in August, removed the Blow Out Protector (COP) located down hole and the gasket between the casing and the inner casing.  Since then, we have noticed on SONRIS Lite the oil production has quadrupled since their rework.  That is a good thing but still may not be sufficient to deem the well a success.  Oil production companies want all their money back PDQ, they are loathe to have to deal with a low producing well for years to get the gold back.

To the north of us is West Feliciana Parish and the big interest there is the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS).  Indeed the area extends into Mississippi too.  East Feliciana Parish is considered an even hot play for the TMS.  TMS is above the Tuscaloosa Trend but below the Austin Chalk formations.

It still appears the magic will be in the ability to get the wells to produce.  Long laterals have been drilled to increase the area of production with the idea I am guessing to make mega wells.  They all seem to start okay but decline rapidly, like with in a couple of months.

One land man theorizes that the laterals are collapsing or otherwise getting stopped up (a loose term or description).  He thinks the naturally fractured shale collaspses and gradually blocks up the oil flow.  It is his idea to pump the lateral full of gravel thus keeping the hole from collapsing on itself.  Others say use a casing that is slotted.  I stress we do not know what they did or did not do.  We do know that they open up the lower well and put the BOP up on top at the surface area.

There is more drilling activity to the northwest in Avoyelles Parish in to the Austin Chalk zone.  There is a well over in Edinburg, also an Anadarko well and drilled by the same crew as was used on LaCour #43.  We do not know if any subsurface treatments similar to LaCour #43 have been performed on that well.  That well is basically located across the Atchafalaya River from McCrea area of Pointe Coupee Parish.

Mean while we is leased.  That is the last is.  Yes, we along with many others have an active mineral lease for both Tuscaloosa Trend (Down Dip stuff) and Austin Chalk but not for Tuscaloosa Marine Shale.  Could be a good thing or who knows what.  Mean while the lease money was a nice token of their appreciation.  As Harry Potter said, "And now we wait."

Battery Charger Is Working Again . . .

I did some tinkering around with the circuit.  Replaced the  rectifier and the LED.  I probably did not have to do that to either one but it is done now.  And yes, it is back functioning again.

I did buy enough components to make another one.  But I need a chassis box and few Banana Jack connectors to complete the works.  When I do, I will have a second charger.

The sad part is that I can no longer reach the original designer of the circuit, Mr. Chu.  Since he told be he instructed pilots in basic flying in WW-II, I suspect he has passed away.  We have been losing out greatest generation now for many years.  And their age dictates that they are soon going to be all gone.  Glad that I made the contact and have the circuit.

Battery Charger , , ,

A few years a go I got a schematic for a trickle battery charger for NiCd/NiMh batteries.  The charger could charge 1 to 20 cells.  It was a current adjustable DC power supply.  The elderly gentleman that gave me the circuit has, I believe, passed on.  He was a instructor pilot in WW-II so I am sure when I last talked to him he was well into his upper 80's.  And as with all of our Veterans of the Great War, he has passed on.  At least I can not locate him anymore so that is my sad conclusion.

The circuit is pretty simple.  I use a filament transformer to step down the input voltage from 110VAC to 25VAC.  For those of you that do not know what a filament transformer is, it is a hold over from the vacuum tube days where they had a filament circuit hooked up to the cathode of the tubes.  Filaments were power by 12.5 volts which heated up the cathode.  So the secondary of this transformer has a winding that supplies 25 volts across the entire winding.  It is center tapped to provided two separate 12.5 circuits.  You just ignore the center tap and use the two outputs that crosses the entire winding and you have 25 volts.

The next part of the circuit is a full wave rectifier.  In the vacuum tube days you used a dual diode tube that basically had one cathode/filament and two positive plates.  Now one uses a single solid state device that has four diodes embedded and provides the full wave rectification of the AC current.  Then you use a 100 or better microfarad electrolytic capacitor as filter to smooth out the rectified DC.  The capacitor needs to be rated higher than 25 volts, they come in ranges from 25, 50 and up, anything above 25 volts will do.  Simple enough, even an old geezer like me understands it immediately.  Not a big deal and quite impressive since now the whole shebang is just two parts, a rectifier and a capacitor.

Now comes the interesting part to me.  The part I clearly do not understand how it works but can easily wire it up.  It uses a 10,000 ohm resistor hooked up to the positive side of the filtered 25 vdc.  The other end of the resistor hooks up to the base of the 2N3055 power transistor.  The transistor is in a T0-3 case and is mounted directly on to the aluminum box that will house the charger.  The case of the transistor is the collector and grounded to the case of the charger.  That takes care of the heat and establishes the ground for the transistor.  The negative side of the full wave rectifier filter is also grounded.  My thinking is that the current path is through the ground or negative side of the circuit.  And the transistor conducts based on the biasing of the emitter.  The base input is fixed.  So the current flow is regulated in the collector-emitter flow.  Changing the bias on the emitter allows more or less current to flow through the transistor and circuit.

Here comes the hard part, the emitter of the transistor is hooked up to a 25 ohm potentiometer or pot as we call them.  That is a variable resistor.  The center tap, or wiper of the pot is hooked up to ground along with the one end of the pot.  Basically that allows the pot to vary the resistance in the emitter circuit to ground.

A light emitting diode (LED) is wired in parallel with the transistor base and goes to ground.  The LED conducts and lights up indicating the circuit is active.  So it shares the 10K resistor with the base of the transistor.  LEDs are current deivices and usually need drop in the avialable current to keep it in the bounds of operation or it will burn out (open).  So the resistor does double duty.

The positive output has a blocking diode in it to prevent back voltage from the battery pushing back into the circuit.  It simply allows positive voltage to flow one way to out put terminal.  A simple protective device and probably costs you a volt or two drop across the diode.   Use one rated about say 40 volts, you can higher but it costs more for the part.

The negative output is wired directly to ground.  That is the case as well as to the negative out put of the rectifier.

I put a jumper in the positive output circuit.  I use my VOM to measure and set the current flow.  One varies the pot and reads the output.  To measure current one must insert the meter in the circuit.  So I set the current value I want and then hook up the battery to be charged. It can charge up to 20 cells.

The circuit allows the 25 vdc to "float."  As long as the voltage output exceeds the voltage of the battery at full charge the battery does not care.  Of course, excessive voltage is not a good thing but 25 volts is acceptable.  The batteries all have rated capacities in milliampere hours or ampere hours. 
One divides that number, say 800 milliampere hours, by 10 which give the ideal trickle charge rate or basically a tenth of the batteries current output capacity.  This is known in the battery chemistry world as C-10.  All NiCd and NiMh batteries can easily tolerate that rate.  Fast chargers use higher rates but have a voltage cutoff circuit so that when the battery is at full capacity as measured by voltage, it will shut down.  But fast charging can be damaging to the battery chemistry.

If you want you expensive batteries to last a long time, you trickle charge them.

My problem has been to determine the polarity of the LED.  I am pretty sure I have that down now,  The anode must be connected to the positive source of power in the circuit.  The gentleman had it connected to the base of the transistor.  Thus the 10,000 resistor does double duty, one for the base and one for the anode of the LED.

So I think I have reconstructed the circuit.  Not to fix it.  I know it worked as the old worked a long time.  I think something got kicked or trampled and did damage to the old charger.  Anyway  it currently does not work.  So I am reverse engineering circuit so to speak.

Off to see the . . . .

We are off to see Lady Jane and her brother, Williamm, for Thanksgiving.  A drive to Madison.  We know we will be entering the cold country but we thought it better than they coming to see us with two youngsters in tow.  So as bad as drive in late fall can be it is infinitely better than four on a flight from Madison and back though I am sure they wanted to get away from the city.

We have less equipment to move, and a very fine people mover in the Lincoln MKX to ride up there.  It is a magic wonder with all kinds of bells and whistles.  We just learned about one new one, the windshield wipers come on automatically if moist hits the windshield.  Neat, huh.   It has new tires and has maybe three thousand miles on it, so it is a sort of break in trip for the car.

We will do a short stay, have Thanksgiving dinner and depart Sunday for home.  It will be a short stay and with any luck be snow free.  If it snows it will be a slow trip back home, if not it will be fairly normal charge back to Texas.

Geaux Tigers!

Spider Lillies . . .

When I was a small boy in New Roads, our house had a nice front yard.  Out by the  street, the highyway really, was an Oak Tree.  It had been planted by allegedly Mr. Vilas Pourciau.  He must have died well into his 70s and had nice home on the other end of town.  In time lightening took out  the tree and a new tree was planted this time in the center of the yard.  It is still there but surrounded by concrete pavement, I wonder how long it will last?

Near the corner of the front porch was a Redbud Tree.  I really abused that tree, I tried but was not successful in building a tree house.  Of course my mother would never have allowed that to be finished.  I was maybe 9 or 10 years old - that's sixty years ago.

Around that tree was planted red Spider Lillies.  They sort of came and went on their own.  I recall them blooming and later putting out foliage.  And then we mowed them down.  I never really understood that and yet as I read today in their culture that was the thing to do.  So that is why they florished.

Took me years to find them in bulb catalogs.  And I have seen them here and there in my travels but did not have access to any of them until recently  I bought some bulbs and planted them in the front flower bed and they sprouted and made foliage but no blooms.  In the winter they died off and later this spring the area got covered by volunteer Katy plants.  So they were essentially forgotten.

Well yesterday I noticed five or six shoots up about 10 or 12 inches.  The Spider Lillies were blooming, on schedule I might add they are sending up shoots.  It seems they are related to a lilly I had seen in Ohio, Nake Ladies who also shot up blooms with no foliage at all.  Both plants develop foliage after they bloom.  So we will see a few blooms at first.

I am hoping the deer leave them alone.  And it they do so, maybe there will multiply and once again I will have my childhood colors back again.  The deer have eaten just about anything we plant except for strong herbs, Katy plants (and they will eat those too if they are really hard up) and Jasmine.

By the way, our home in New Roads was remodelled in 1957, the Redbud tree taken out and new living room replaced the porch and them some area toward the street.  So where ever they were planted, the Spider Lillies had been displaced and largely forgotten.  I am sure my mother did not much care for them at all, they sort of just came with the house.

So the Spider Lillies are back!

Fritz's New Antic . . .

This little animal never ceases to amaze me. 

I checked the flower pot to see if she was done in there asleep.  I looked closely and no she was not down in amongst the stalks of the plant.  Then I realized she was laying on top of the leaves, stretched out like a small but fat snake.

I guess she did not need the security of being hidden down in the plant, but counted on her natural camouflage to blend in with the leaves.  Well she fooled me, for a while.  Like I said, she was sort of bent around the leaves, ceverly using her colors to blend with what was there.

She seemed to be out of it, asleep.  She did not look at me nor did she spook.  So I guess she was still out of it.

Checked the afternoon, rainy day, and she was long gone, out on the hunt somewhere or other. 

I'll bet she will be back in or around the flower pot late this evening.  It is her refuge.

Amazing how little insignificant animals live and survive around us.

Checked the Flower Pot Again. . .

I noted yesterday about 8 AM Fritz had departed the flower pot.  Indeed saw her all over the patio and the sidewalk around the patio.  She was more mobile with the increase in temperature.  Hungry too I bet.

I cut the grass and as usual had to blow off the sidewalks and street curb.  Came around to the back of the house and Fritz was out in front of the wood pile about 10 or so inches from the edge of the sidewalk.  So I skirted around her.  She was unperturbed by the blower noise, powered by a 25 CC two cycle engine.  I blew the remainder of the sidewalk off and looked back and she had not moved.  As I went back to the front I blew over her and she just sat there.  I think she was expecting a few bugs to blown out from the cracks.  No matter, she could careless about me and the blower.  Now if I did not have the blower, well she may not have let me get that close before skedaddling away.

So this morning I got up just after 5 AM, and was in the kitchen area by 5:30 and on a lark decided to check the baker's rack and the flower pot.  Yep, she was in there all bedded down.  It must be a secure spot for her, to high for a snake to get her, though I suppose if the snake knew she was there, it would climb the baker's rack and go after her.  But first the snake has to know she is there and of course, we have have a snake too.  Haven't seen a snake around here for a couple of years.

While cutting the grass I saw a Fritz junior out back near the hose box.  There is an abandoned flower bed there and another not abandoned across from it.  The hose box is next to the water faucet from the well.  There is also a small, well it is taller than me, Crepe Myrtle there too.  We have seen Fritzes there on an off over the years.  There is yet another one that lives under the well pressure tank.  He has reached the adult stage but is still not as big as Fritz.

And there is a front porch Fritz, medium sized that lives in and around the front porch, well more like stoop. There are a couple of large spruces and other plants about.  So it is ideal hunting territory for him.

Strange pets of sorts, but they are ours.

Fritz . . .

Checked the flower pot on the baker's rack this morning and she was still in the pot.  The weather is going to heat up a bit this afternoon and I am sure she will come out hunting.

I do not know these little animals know when to stay put and when to come foraging.  But they do.  In her case, I am sure it is temperature related.  I think lizards are cold blooded so they need the heat to be able to function.  Until it gets warm, she will stay put.

And until then, I can not water the plant.  Cie La Vie!

We Got Rain . . .

We had a nice long soaking rain last night.  We had a little more than an inch and half of rain,  
That is almost unheard of this time of year in this locality.

We were drying up.  We had been spot watering using a single hose and sprinkler from the well.  That way it was not a strain on the system.  That perked up the Weeping Willow tree out front and the Wax Myrtles.  They were showing signs of the doubt.  The willow has lost about half its leaves.

We had to have the irrigation well tune up.  It just quit a couple of days ago when it was really hot and dry.  That did not bode well.  The well people came out and checked it out.  It seems the pressure switch which turns on and off the pump was shot.  They also replaced the starter circuits too.  The capacitor for the starting circuit is on top and not on the well pump itself.  The pump is submersed and is a couple of hundred feet down.  At any rate that really perked up the system.

The way it works is when the pressure in the system drops to 45 PSI, the well pump kicks on and when the pressure reaches 65 PSI, it cuts off.  Well the switch was not kicking on right and finally just stopped.  The starter circuit enhanced the response of the well pump too.   So they put a new pressure gauge on, adjusted the new valve and now it runs like a top.  Now I know to lubricate the switch every once in a while to keep it from getting stiff and to keep that rapid response up.

So the yard is greening up.  The oak trees are smiling so to speak,  They were showing signs of distress.  Even missing one day of watering was tough on them.  Now they are all good to go for a while.

Lot's of people do not realize we live on the edge of the desert here.  The local cities rely on man made lakes for their water supply.  So if it does not rain regularly things get tense and then very hard nosed.  So far this year we have escaped that since we had a wet spring.  That was about to run out but this recent couple of rains have done much to recharge the resevoirs and green up the vegitation.

Relief for a while, then the cycle takes over again.

Dining DeLuxe . . .

Last night Judie and I dined out at St Emillion French restaurant in Fort Worth.  We had been chasing around reservations with our neighbors and late in the day, our neighbor developed an allergic reaction to a medicine and had to decline. So we called to make changes in reservations.

So we checked into the restaurant and found all early bird specials were long gone for Tuesday and only an 8:15 PM slot was available.  So on a whim we decided to accept the late dinner invitation and go.

We arrived a few minutes early but our table was available and we began our gourmet journey.  The place was small cozy and kind of noisy but after awhile we sort of provided us with an insulation from other diners.

We ate on table cloths, used cloth napkins and the wine menu was on a MAC tablet.  The menu was of course printed but there was a complete chalk board of specials to go with the menu.  We decided to select off the menu, I had the steak and Judie had the Salmon.  We had an "Atlantic Salad" that we shared.  It was a salad with sea food on it.  It had oysters, crab meat and a crab roll of sorts.  All served on a bed of greens with a vinaigrette dressing.  Very good.

It took about an hour and forty five minutes from beginning to end.  And it was worth it.  Pricey, yes, but one of a kind in a totally western town where Bar B Que reins.

We are returning next week with our neighbors.  And there were no children to bother us.  No teenagers anywhere and the average age of the attends was probably over 50.  Our kind of place.

How To Eat a Lobster . . .

Sunday, James and family came over to visit.  Chris also showed up. 

As customary, we go out to eat somewhere.  James Dunn usually determines the destination for dining.  He has a ferocious appetite, he is after all a teenager.

He chose Pappadeaux's.  We agree with that as it is about a close to Louisiana food as we can get in Texas.  Judie and I enjoy the Greek Salad and then move on to entrees.  She got fried softshell crab, just one and I got the medium order of fried shrimp, almost more than I can eat and certainly had at least three or four potato's worth of French Fries under the shrimp.  Judie on the other had broccoli shoots (as opposed to the more common broccoli florets).  I did not eat all those potatoes.

Son James had three or four fried softshell crabs but an appetiser of a dozen raw oysters.  Chris had a fried crawfish dinner and ditto on the oysters.  Joan had the seafood brochette which is a great dish.  It has shrimp, fish and other goodies on a spit and is served on a bed of rice.

James Dunn had a lobster.  He requested a two pound lobster but alas had to settle for a two and half pound lobster, the two pounders were gone.  He was delivered a big lobster, the tail was not so great but it had two massive claws.  He must have a half pint of melted butter on the side to dip his lobster in before eating it.  By the end of the lobster there was not a lot of butter left over.

And I can assure you there was no lobster left over.  He had a little assistance from his father in fishing out some of the lobster bits as in the knuckles, etc.  Of course his father imposed small fee, that is a couple of pieces of the lobster did not make it back to James Dunn's plate but rather grace James, the senior, lips instead.

A photo was taken and it was sent to Armada Grace to gloat over.  She sends telephone photos of her soirees into fine dining areas and meals, so it was turn about fair play.  She responded appropriately.

In the end, the lobster carcass was stacked on a couple of bread plates and was sort of put back together sans all of  its edible innards.  Such is the table decorations found on a Sunday afternoon meal.

Bon appetite!

Tail Feathers . . .

"Tail feathers" is the common term used for the tail section of a model airplane.  The proper French term is Empanage.  The tail feathers are composed of the elevator and the rudder.

I have finally finished reconstruction of the fuselage (another French term) where the empanage mounts.  The rudder, the vertical part was not in play, it was just fine.  But the structure where the elevator would be glue on had several cracks, on one side it was completely apart where the control rod comes out of the fuselage that attaches to control surface of the elevator.  I got the pieces back together using CA glue.  CA is not sufficiently strong enough to counter the large loads experienced by the empanage.

So I covered over the cracks with fibreglass treatment.  Now it is quite strong, stronger than original construction, it will not break in that area again.  I had to do work on both sides of the fuselage and along the top next to the rudder.  All finished now.

And I have covered one side, a difficult location to replace covering as control rods stick and it is hard to get the Monokote iron in place to activate the glue to hold the covering in place.  So I removed one rod, the elevator rod.

Well getting the rod back in place is quite a problem.  The rod travels through a tube and tube is no longer held in place and drifts around inside the fuselage.  It is close but not exactly correct and since it is floating is hard to get it back out the hole.  Just a task that takes time and patience to get done.  Frustrating as it takes multiple attempts to get it done.  That is the down side of model building.

Once I get the rod out and back where it should be, I will take on the rudder rod.  It is in place but I will remove it to get at the covering in that area.  Since the tube is still held in place where it should be it should be quite easy to do.

After the covering in that area is finished and the rods are back in place I will tackle gluing on the new (actually an old one off a long since salvage aircraft) elevator.  I will have to deal with the tail wheel which has to travel through the elevator and attach to the rudder.  So as the rudder moves, the tail wheel moves.  Simple but sometimes a real pain in the butt to get set up and in place.  It has to be done along with the gluing.  It can get to be tedious.

Well I will go out and try to fish out the control rod.

Flying, now Repairing . . .

Finally got an airplane to cooperate, flew three times Saturday,  but banged up the airplane.  Basically, I am rusty, did a stupid thing,  Tried to take off without refueling.  I guess I thought I had done that but did not.  So the engine did not get enough fuel for take and I did some damage to the airplane.

I do like to repair airplanes and have often said, "It is not a good model until it has been repaired at least once.   The damages usually reveal the weakness in the structure, so that the next time the airplane does a better job of survival."  This one was on its second go round.  The wing had the major repair last time and it sustained no damage at all.

The upfront repairs on the fuselage held up well.  Ripped out the landing gear but that was easy to put back in and re-glue.  Yes, I will have some recovering to do, but I am getting good at that.  Put a little lightweight spackling in the cracks and will sand that down smooth.

The back, the empanage (that is a French term for  the tail feathers, the combined rudder and elevator structure) did not survive so well.  It had breaks before and did not break at the repair points but it did tear up the elevator.  Fortunately, I had a salvaged elevator so that is not a big deal to install.  But the structure holding the elevator took a severe hit.  And then I managed to drop the fuselage so that the vertical took a good hit.  That finished off the weak spots.  I will glue those back quickly with CA glue.  That will hold structure in place and then I will (and have started to) cover over the area with a fibreglass patch. 

I have tons of fibreglass picked up at Radio Control swap meet.  I got about 10 yards of the stuff.  It is like any fabric one would buy at a sewing store, comes about a yard wide.  Since I am using pieces about a half a square inch here and there, maybe a patch on the wing splice that is 3 or 4 square inches in area.  That means I have maybe 7 or 8 years of supply.  And I also picked at a swap meet the epoxy for doing that kind of work.  My last buy of that kind of epoxy is almost running out.  So I am set up for repairs for quite a while.

I am also getting good at those kinds of patches too.  Put a tad bit of epoxy under the area to be patched, lay the fibreglass cloth on top, and spread the remainder of the epoxy the top.  Now depending on the bonding of the epoxy to the balsa the patch will be stronger than a glue joint.  Sand it a little bit and recover with Monokote.  Good as new, well maybe a bit stronger and not so pretty as new.

So I will have this bird back into the air by the weekend.  I may put a bigger gas tank in it.  I have a host of those from former aircraft. 

The engine in this bird is a Magnum four stroke .91 cubic inch engine.  It swings a 14 inch prop with a 6 inch pitch.  That is referred to as a 14 X 6 prop.  That is pretty much the standard for that engine.  I may go down to a 13 X 8 prop, roughly the same thrust but gives me more ground clearance for the prop.  The engine will turn a bit faster but not much as prop loading is about the same.  It has a lot of power.

Now back to work.

Flying Or the Lack Of It . . .

Not getting much Radio Control flying in now days.  First it is hot outside and second most of the spring was to windy for me.

Now the air plane will not cooperate.  I have some kind of fuel supply problem.  I found a bunch of holes in the fuel lines so have replaced them.  Next I bought some clips to put over the ends of the fuel lines as they slip on the fuel tank feeders.  The feeders are usually brass or aluminum tubes about an eight of an inch in diameter that go through the stopper.  The stopper is compressed by a central screw that keeps the tank from leaking.

The set up is fairly simple.  There are two lines.  One line to feed the engine carburettor and the other is a pressure input line from the muffler.  As the engine runs, the pressure tap keeps positive pressure on the fuel in the tank which enhances fuel feed.  This pressure line is also the vent line when you pump fuel into the tank, it is the over flow line. 

The over flow line is set up so that  it is at the highest vertical spot inside the tank.  One usually bends the tube to do this.  Sometimes I add a piece of fuel line to the end and it rests on the very inside top of the tank.  In this case I have done so.

The fuel feed line extends in the tank almost to the rear of the tank and has a weight on it.  The weight is called a clunck.  It clunks around in the tank and uses gravity to be always at the bottom of the tank where the fuel is.

The fuel feed lines out of the tank are supposed to be set about the height of the carburettor input nipple, if to high, the fuel will siphon out and the engine will be rich.  If to low then one has a fuel feed problem.  Some engines have no problem sucking up the fuel with the privided tank pressure but newer high performance engines do not have carburettors that have good draft characteristics.  They are large diameter carbs for increased performance.  So one scarifces the performance of the engine for fuel feed.

I have that problem.  The tank is to low.  So I have resulted in using a modified pressure system.  I put a check valve in the muffler pressure feed line.  So only pressure goes in and it builds up in the tank and pushes the fuel up to the engine.  That works but it makes the adjustment of the engine very sensitive.  So I am going through the cycle of adjusting the engine.

It ain't cooperating.  Runs well at idle.   Accelerates well in the chocks (actually a table that restrains the airplane).  Place on the runway, and start the take off and it gets about a hundred feet and the engine stops running.  My thinking is the pressure is too high and I need to crank the high speed needle in some more.

I'll get there - sooner or later.

Summer Quarters . . .

Fritz has moved out of the shoes.  Not really sure just where she is staying but pretty sure it is in one of the flower pots nearby.  There is a pretty crowded pot up on the bakers rack but may be tough to get in and out of.  Though we have seen evidence she may be using it.  The evidence is a torn leaf.

This AM I saw her on the edge of the carpet adjacent to a flower pot that is on the patio floor.  It is not as densely potted and may provide a better location for her.  It has a Begonia in it.

No matter, she is always somewhere around the baskers rack in the AM.  So she stays in the neighborhood for sure.

Amazing little animals.  Right at our feet sometimes and we do not even know it.  We do now know she does not hunt at night, she is daylight animal.  That sort of makes sense in that she beomes vulnerable at night because she is so vision dependent.  So she holes up at night in a safe out of the way spot.

She must be good at it since this is here second or third year with us.  She is a surviver.

Fritz . . .

Well Fritz has returned to using the shoe at night.  She has about the same hours as I do.  That is she is in her shoe no later than 8:30 to 9:00 PM.  She gets way into the toe of the shoe curls around the so that unless you know she is in there you would not know it at all.  Like I said it is a safe place to spend the night.

I see her head sticking up looking around in the morning.  As always she is very patient.  She does not move her head back and forth. She is very still.  I am sure her eyes are moving around.  She is very attuned to any kind of movement in her hunting.  So I am sure she is looking for predators.  She starts looking around about 6:30 AM and by 7:00 AM she is out and about.  Often see her on the patio carpet, an 8 by 8 rug of sorts.

She spends the day scouring the patio and outer patio that is not a solid white concrete but decorative pebble surfaced more closely matching her coloring.  She scoots back and forth after her prey.  Most of the prey are too small for us to see unless we are up very close.  Of course, she does not tolerate us being up close.  She does allow us to be with say five feet of her. 

I have seen her charge off the patio into the side flower bed after an insect of sorts.  She devours small butterflies and loves crickets.  We rarely see crickets anymore.  And if one of those little butterflys lites within 18 inches of her, they are done for.  She is fast.

So we often sit and watch her.  She scoots this way and then that way.  She rests in the shade under the wood pile or under the furniture.  Every once in a while she goes up in the tree, a Hackberry that shades the Southeast corner of the house.  It is about 7 or 8 feet from the patio and a like distance from the house.  We think it is at once cooler up there and probably more insects to boot.

They are pretty savvy little creatures.  Fritz is fairly tolerant of us but all the others are not.  They run and hide very quickly if we approach.    Hard to sneak up on them.  In Fritz's case we are sure she knows us and thus we have become non-enemies.  There must be five or six of them in the yard.

And so goes life at our feet.

Rough Night, Last Night

As predicted thunderstorms blew into the area.  About midnight, I heard a great deal thunder and goings on but we did not get any rain or hail.   It sounded pretty violent and close by but not over us.

I am guessing the upper winds cut the tops out of the storms and they broke up before doing any harm to us.

That brings me to Fritzina, she spent the night in a shoe again.  She has been using the flower pot on the top shelve of the Baker's Rack but last night I guess the elements drove her into the protective shoe.  It was not particularly cool, in the mid 70s or so, so it was not the temperature that drove her to the shoe. 
This shows that they have a little intelligence after all.  They are smart enough to take cover in bad situations.  I am impressed with these lizards.

If only life was as that simple for us.

The Green Spring . . .

We have had a green spring, lots of rain spaced out so it does the best job.  The lakes remain full.  The country side has remained green and we had the best Blue Bonnet crops since we have live here some 11 odd years.  The aquifer is full too.

Our problem remains the wild life, principally the deer.  Along with the deer is a goat.  The deer eat different things, the goat eats everything.  We have given up on Day Lilies, but have one volunteer growing out front in a cage.  Even then the deer lean in to get at the leaves and flowers.  They leave Irises alone for the most part.  And they leave aromatic herbs alone too.  They have been known to clip the green tops of Daffodils, though they are supposed to be toxic to them.  Maybe it is just the flowers.

We have one rose bush that takes a beating.  They love to eat the tops out of the rose bushes.  The old fashioned country roses at the other end of the yard have so far escaped the deer and are doing very well.  These bushes are tolerant of local conditions and do not suffer from black spot and other rose bush ills.  Their blooms are smaller but since they can do well here, they are the bush of choice.

All the water has kept the lawn looking good.  And all the fertilizer the lawn service puts on along with the pre-emergents has taken care of 98% of the Dandelions.  They are getting rare now days.  The ones that do make it up are easily taken care of.  And of course, the St Augustine grass laps up the water and is spreading everywhere.

And I saw Fritz this AM.  She always stays somewhere near the bakers rack near the back door.  She seems to know us and tolerate us.  The younger lizard run at the drop of hat.  She just looks on.  So we feel fairly sure she has grown to allow us to live in our house and she will take care of the crickets for us.

The beat goes on . . .

Leave False River Alone . . .

Once again I read in the Morning Advocate that tax money is going to be spent to "improve" False River - again.  Improve what?  Well they say make it a "Trophy Lake Again." 
For those of you that do not know, False River is an ox-bow lake formed from the Mississippi River in the year 1700.  Ox-bow lakes occur up and down the winding Mississippi, indeed there is yet another in Pointe Coupee Parish that is known as Old River.  There is Lake St John, Lake Providence and others up the river from New Roads.  New Roads, the county seat of Pointe Coupee Parish is located on the north end of False River.

Some years ago Florida Bass were introduced into the lake.  They did well and a lot of big bass were caught while fishing in False River. So were huge Cat fish but they were not from Florida.  And for a while they introduced Striped Bass to the lake.  Stripe Bass are sterile and will not reproduce but they are fish devouring machines and probably did more damage to the fish population than anything else.  Ask the biological experts about that issue.

I can recall as youngster growing up in New Roads and living on the lake a lot of things.  While learning how to swim, there was no grass in the lake.  None, nada, nothing.  That was the era when detergents were introduced that had a lot of phosphates in them.  So a  lot of what might be called "grey water" today, was discharged into the lake.  It was not contamination per se.  But that enriched the lake so to speak along with random discharges of raw sewage from out houses and the like from the cabins along the lake side and yes from farms along the lake.

The lake is also part and parcel of the drainage system of a great part of Pointe Coupee Parish.  Water from New Roads streets goes into False River.  So does water from the fields, etc. drain into the huge body of water that comprises the lake.

I can recall back in the early 1950s where we had a 14 inch rainfall.  It occurred over the weekend.  Monday, it was  bright and sunny and then it happened.  Slowly but surely False River rose about six feet in about eight hours.  Places no longer in existence like Tropical Gardens were a wash in water.  It did not deter the drinking crowd, they just waded in and kept at it.  And it did not hurt the "Trops" either.  The venerable Trops burned down years later.  But that shows how the natural drainage system functions, excess water not absorbed by the fields runs into False River or otherwise we would have been flooded.  And that is a good thing.

The "Rougon Canal" was dug to allow the excess water to run out of False River.  The canal runs from the old light house (an old watering hole and restaurant, to Bayou Black (locally referred to as Bayou Gros Tete)).  Takes a while to pull a lot of water of a lake that is roughly 12 miles long and mile wide especially when the bayou is also struggling to take care of its normal water load from such a rain.  Took more than a week to bring False River back to its normal everyday level but by then hundreds of piers and camps had been damaged by the high water.

In the late 1950s grasses started showing up in False River.  I do not mean Water Hyacinths (pretty but choking water lillies), I mean grasses like Horn Wort.  Grass that grows in the water not on the water like Water Hyacinths.  I can remember great mats of the stuff out on the "flats."  The flats is the area at the ends of the lake where over time sediment has filled in the lake.  The flats were famous for catching Blue Gill fish - limit 50 a day.  Blue Gill were also called perch or Chinquiapen.
The grasses did not help those fish at all and more or less destroyed fishing on the flats.

They even sprayed the lake to kill the grasses in the 1960s.  I wonder how many of the do gooders recall that disaster.  Killing grasses also killed fish.  And it did not work.  Way too much grass and way too little areas sprayed.

Then modernization has kicked in.  No longer are there allowed septic systems along False River.  We had such a septic system with a drain field etc. at our camp.  Now we have a connection to the sewer system.  There is a capture tank, a pump and the sewage is lifted up to the main sewer and taken off to be treated.  No more discharge into the lake.

The grasses have disappeared.  Why?  I can tell you why.  The enrichment of the lake has stopped.  The lake does not have the minerals to sustain grass growth like it used to do.  We have cleaned up the lake.  Now that is not a bad thing but it does nothing to help the biologicals that live in the lake.  The so called protective grass beds are gone.  Well we did not have them when I was kid and fishing was just jim dandy.  So somebody is stretching the truth regarding the need for grass in the lake.

So I say to the experts leave my lake alone.  False River is mecca to sports boating now days.  Children do not have have Typhoid shots to swim in the lake as we did as kids.  Water skiing, Skidoos, power boats and even a few sail boats abound.  More problems with wake control than fishing control.  More problems with alcoholic consumption than fishing.  The lake is cleaner.

And yes, while I live in Texas we do maintain a camp on False River.  So we own a piece of the pie.

While visiting there a while back I noted Mullet jumping.  Mullet had sort of disappeared in the days of the grasses.  Mullet are food fish for the likes of Bass.  They are back.  That is a good sign.

Again, leave False River alone.

Graduation

We returned to New Roads and the camp on False River for granddaughter Amada Louise's graduation from LSU.  Her ceremonies were held in the PMAC, the Peter Maracvich Atheletic Center, a huge areana for basketball and similar indoor sports like Gymnistastic events.  It is festoon with championship flags from the past.

Amada graduated from what I knew as the College of Arts and Sciences, today it is Arts and Humanities.  There were a little over 900 in her class, many with very high honors.  Most were just graduates.  It took almost two hours just to get her diploma.  It was well organized and every student was properly announced.  Indeed the arena was near full, perhaps about 80%,  Some seats were cut off in each end but that was to be expected.

She was in the second group to get their diplomas in the PMAC,  Two other large divisions also used the same facility.  They were separated by an hour or so.  So basically, every four hours they pumped out hundreds of graduates.  The PMAC was but one such facility in use.  Small colleges were using the Student Union Auditorium as but an example.

As a comparisom, when I graduated almost 50 years ago, there were about 700 graduates total in June of 1963.  In my day LSU had about 8,000 undergraduate students and maybe another 2,500 graduate students.  Graduation was held three times in a year, much the same as today.  But today, LSU has 28,000 undergraduate students, it is a huge institution.  And graduation was held in John M Parker Auditorium in my day which had the world's worst accoustics.   The birds chripping over head in the rafters drowned out the much amplified guest speaker.  So for us it was more of a sight thing, or rite of passage.

Robes for the undergraduates were all purple with LSU festooned across the breast.  Master Degrees were black robes also with LSU across the chest.  Doctorates got all different colors of robes and had three cheverons on the sleeves indicating a Doctorate Degree.   Medical degrees were in green gowns for instance.

In Amanda's class of Arts and Humanities there was one perfect score, all "A"s, a number of Summa Cum Lade, Magna Cum Lade and Cum Lade graduates.  Many had high honors and University award medals.  A lot of very smart young people finished their undergraduate degrees.  Many are off to higher degrees else.

So all over the campus were saw young people in the robes with their Mortor Board hats moving here and there.  It was their last day.   It was a grand day too, bight, sunny and filled with joy.

Our Lizards . . .

We have so many of them now we refer to all of them as Fritz's, sometimes with a descriptor like "side yard Fritz" or "Short Tailed Fritz" but they are pretty amy every where in our yard.  They seem to tolerate us.

The oldest one, Fritzina, has now become a permanent resident in Judie's yard shoes.  Sometimes she is joined by short tail Fritz in an adjacent shoe.  Judie has two pairs of yard shoes placed on the little side rack by the Baker Racks just outside the patio door.  We use the door frequently but once they bed down for the night they do not seem to mind our comings and goings.  So nights, I check and there is Fritzina and other nights she and another Fritz is in their respective shoes.  She is usually in place in her shoe by 6 PM, sometimes earlier.

I am sure the shoes provide protection against night predators like snakes.  If the lizard curls up in the toe well out of the way, it is well protected.  That the shoes are dark means they hold the heat and warm up in the mornings.  So they get a fresh heat charge so to speak.

They seem to rise regularly about 9AM.  It appears to me to be about 72 or so degrees and the sun has been on the shoes for maybe a half hour or so.  So it means they get an early warm up.

First you see their little heads kind of sticking up out of the rear of the shoe.  Its like they are checking for crickets and predators.  Next you might see them sprawled over the shoes sort of getting their bearings.  And then they are off.  across the carpet to begin the days hunting.  The younger Fritz usually scoots over under the green box (a big green cabinet on wheels that houses bird seed and the like on the patio).  Big Fritz or Fritzina does not care to go there, she is heading off to the edge of the patio.  Later we see them here and there looking for prey, sometimes on the carpet, even up on the patio furniture (gives them a broader view).  I think they are pretty smart little animals

We have seen them in the trees, in the side yard, even in the garage.  They are welcome as they are master bug eaters.  We do not have many crickets any more,  rarely seen now days.  That is by far their favorite food.

I always fear that they will have over fed and devoured all their food supply.  But yet they even remain.  I guess their shoe domain is too attractive for them - safer than a wood pile.

Swimming . . .

Do you recall who taught you how to swim?  I do.  My mentor was Lindy Boggs.  I learned on the Gulf Coast at Long Beach, MS out in front of the Boggs family compound.  The owned a strip of land, I think since the Civil War, that ran back from the Gulf of Mexico to the east-west railroad tracks.

My father's business partner and cousin, Stanley Morrison was married to Claire Boggs, who was Lindy's sister-in-law.  The business partners had two big meetings a year, one at Easter and the other at Labor Day.  Generally they got together in Long Beach for Easter and New Roads for Labor Day (at our house).

Lindy is my cousin, second cousin.  Her mother was a Morrison.  So the Morrison's are intertwined with the Boggs family, sometimes related, sometimes just kissing cousins.  Stanley Morrison was also a second cousin.  You can imagine that there are double cousins involved.

At any rate, Lindy got me to over come my fear of water and I began swimming.  I can remember ducking my head underwater and seeing a crab skedaddle away from us.  I only swam a few yards but I had conquered my fear of water.

Later I can recall taking bigger chances while swimming of Louis Morgan's pier.  But by then I had a great deal more skill and capability.  And even later I demonstrated my skill by swimming across the big pool in Monroe, LA.  My aunt T (T is for Thelma), my mother's oldest sister had a standing wager that if we could swim across the pool we would get five dollars.  Five dollars was a handsome sum in those days.

Alas the Monroe pool and Louis Morgan's pier are long gone.  Destroyed by storms and age.  There was even a pier of sorts in the Gulf in front of the Boggs domain, it too is long gone.  But I can still swim.

Lindy by the way was later to serve 11 terms in the US House of Representatives and was Bill Clinton's Ambassador to the Vatican.  She was always a great friend to our family.

Back Home Again . . .

The first thing I noticed was the lack of humidity here in Weatherford.  After New Roads, Angeles Plantation and False River it as quite dry here, only about 65% or so humidity.  While the temperatures in Pointe Coupee were not outrageous, the normal humidity was its typical self, high, damp and oppressing.  Small price to pay for paradise.

But it was good to return to one's abode, one's castle so to speak.  Lonely though as Judie was still in Madison visiting with grandson Will and his parents.  They will soon be off to a visit to France  for a week.  Anne and Will stay only a week.  Jake will be there for a long bike ride.

I miss Europe for the summer months but do not miss the political doings going on over the Euro.  I would love to spend a couple of weeks in Germany again, perhaps a few days in London to go with it.  But that ain't gonna happen.  I am sure it has all changed as my elderly memory slowly declines.  What I thought was a great place and climate might just be pretty tough.  Oh well, better to feast upon one's memories.

We will soon charge back to New Roads for Amanda Louise's graduation from LSU.  I am sure James and Joan will be glad that task is done with.  Soon Jammie will be on his way to some higher education.  I would not be surprised that he would go to Vanderbilt with all of Joan's connects there.  No matter that he festoons all kinds of LSU dress, these things can change over night with the younger generation as they too mature and look about.

Judie is back now.  Arrived last night on American Eagle.  Picked her up and we went and voted in the local election for city fathers.  We have yet another election cycle coming up for county and state officials.  We thought they would do it one time but that is not the case.  The Democratic lawsuits over Gerrymandering changed the dates.  The Democrats lost their lawsuit and the Supreme Court level, saying local Federal Judges can not over rule local legislatures that are acting in accordance with the state constitutions.  A five to four decision and sorely disappointed the local Democrats  Texas is a Red state now days, swinging ever more and more conservative.

Any way it is good to be home again.

False River . . .

A couple of years back there was a raging controversy that the lake eco-system was in trouble.  Biologists wanted to lower the water level drastically, then allow it to rise again.  They said that was the natural cycle and would restore the lake.  The US Corps of Engineers wanted to dredge the ends of the lake to remove the years of silt that had built up.

Things were moving along smartly until lake side residents protested that lowering the lake would cause their homes, their cabins, their beloved camps to have structural damages.  This they said was unacceptable.  And the US Corps of Engineers wanted some monetary contribution to add to their funds.  In austere times that is not going to happen.   The bally ho stopped, so called progress was halted in its tracks.

Oh the biologists were upset.  Their grand experiment had been side lined.  The lake was doomed they said.
Well I saw something that I had not seen since I was a kid.  I saw mullet jumping, not once but several times.  I noted the grass influx had greatly diminished (could be that there was some treatment to reduce the water plants).  But I know for a fact that the lake side homes and camps were all now connected to proper sewer systems.  That means "grey water," discharge from septic systems has been greatly reduced.  It means the discharge from washing machines that release phosphates from laundry soaps was no longer going into the lake.  In short the lake was cleaning itself up

We now have a significant population of Green Heads - Mallard ducks, that reside here year round.  Wild life is up, not down.  We see all sorts and kinds of water fowl. Great Blue Herons, Pelicans, and White Egrets.  Little birds never left and the Purple Martins that migrate in from Brazil to feed on the insects and raise their young are teeming.

Yes, False River is very much alive.  It is the summer Mecca of Baton Rouge and now people from all come to this backwater of America.  It is a semi-resort now days.  New houses and camps abound around the lake.  I say the biologist were wrong.  The US Corps of Engineers just wanted to get their hands in control of the lake.  That's not going to happen either, perhaps that is a good thing.

Ole Man River just keeps on rolling along.

Got Up Late . . .

I arose a bit late for me but then I did not have an alarm clock to bother me.

I rose, turned on the coffee pot and took my usual morning pills.  I seem to live on pills but I adapt easily and it that is what it takes, so be it.

Took my coffee out on the porch and observed the river in fog.  It was calm and there were a couple of ducks along the bank.  They were silhouetted against the water.  So I went and got my camera.

By the time I got  back to the porch, the fog had lifted enough for the ducks to launch and off they went.  But then I noticed a great Blue Heron sitting on the old boat house piece of a pier.  A lonely sentinel looking for his breakfast.

I took a few shots anyway.  With digital cameras you can take literally hundreds of photos and not worry about running out of film.  Young photographers of today will miss the ability to use black and white film all the benefits of a dark room.  Many shades of gray will be missed.  Now it is how many pixels you get and the cameras are constantly improving. Memory is growing and thus one seems to have infinite capacity to shoot pictures.  None of this work to compose, just shoot and it you shoot enough you will get some great pictures.

It was nice to watch the changes in the morning on the banks of False River.

False River Again . . .

Back in New Roads again.  Here to attend a wedding.  Susan Poindexter'r daughter is getting married Saturday in St Mary's.  The reception will be out at the plantation, an ideal location for family doings.

Wife Judie is in Madison visiting with with grandson Will and his parents.  It is her usual trek and not be put off.  So I get to represent the family so to speak.

Humidity is off the scale and the lake was calm and quite pastorial.  Its later now, and already the power boats have it a bit choppy.  Pretty day, lots of white puffy clouds abound.  Temperature probably near 90 degrees.  Normal Louisiana fare.

"There was an old lady who lived in a shoe . . . "

As the nursery rhyme goes, "There was an old lady who lived in a shoe . . . " Looks like Fritzina the lizard has become a regular in Judie's yard shoes. Judie has two pair of shoes that a positioned near the back patio door. They sit off the ground on a rack about four inches in the air. The shoes are black, one set is water proof, the other ones are leather.

In the morning, the morning sun reaches those shoes and being black, they must warm up pretty fast. So it becomes a perfect hiding place of the lizards. It provides protection from their enemies and provides early morning heat which they need. And the shoes are close to the ground but not too high and in their turf. Perhaps they are shoe lizards now.

We have discovered that they sneak in around sunset and get way up into the shoe. They locate well up into the toe area and you can not see them unless you use a flashlight to closely examine the interior of the shoes.

This prevents Judie from early morning forays into the yard. But since she is not an early riser like me, it does not make much of a difference. But sometimes late at night she does foray into the yard and now must check first or she will be startled by the critters in her shoes. I am not sure she is plesed by this but she seems tolerant of it all.

For sure there will be no scropions or crickets in her shoes. Fritz will take care of that for her.

Interestingly, we have two lizards that have chosen her shoes. We believe one is the off spring of the other one. Fritzina is pretty big for her ilk and the othe one is quite a bit smaller. This is Frizina's second year with us.

No matter, we like to see the little critters have chosen to live with us. They seem to be more tolerant of us. We do not startle them, or at least they are not prone to run away if we get too close.

We have seen a little Friz's roaming around out front. And we have seen the medium size Fritz go to the front yard via the driveway/garage area. In fact, I have seen them foraging inside the garage. Naturally, I do not have any crickets, or at least I do not have them for long as visitors in my garage.

I am thinking we must not have any snakes either. That is probably the lizards greatest enemy. That and hawks but we do not seen to have many hawks visit us. The Mississippi Kites that return from South America don't seem to get down and dirty with us either. So I expect we will have our Fritzes for a long time to come.

And that is a good thing.

The Benjamin Incident . . .

As a youngster in New Roads, I asked for and got a Benjamin Air Rifle (they still make them). All the boys my age generally had such a gun and we roved the town hunting and shooting. We shot at song birds, tin cans, ducks in the lake, fence postsm well you get it we went around shooting. That was acceptable male child behavior in the deep south.

The incident occurred when I shot myself in the foot, one of my toes actually. I was at Tommy Jewel's house (alas, Tommy a couple of years older than me is now pasted on) and we were talking. I used my air rifle as a sort of prop and leaned on the stock with the end of the barrel on top of my shoe. My shoe as I recalled was a leather loafer of sorts.

Well in the conversation as with small boys things got exciting. I had forgotten the gun was loaded, it was a .177 pellet gun. And I pulled the trigger. Pop, there was a hole in the top of my shoe and I removed the shoe and the sock and found it had gone into the side of my toe.

Well, I rushed home (three houses over from our house) and we went to the Doctor and he looked at it and then removed it. He said, "Don't do that again." I did not even get a stitch. I did not have limp. I got a band aid. My wound was superficial and I don't even have a scar. All I could show for it was a small hole in the top of my shoe which I continued to use.

Well as you can imagine word got around town about Chip's stupid act. I am sure it was a great laugh. The preverbial "he really did shoot himself in the foot" kind of thing.

Turns out one of my buddies at the opposite end of town, known as the Morning Side (East end of town) was demonstrating my stupid act to his buddies. He showed how I had placed the gun on top of my shoe and leaned on it. And then the pulled the trigger. Guess what, he shot himself in the foot.

So stupid old Chip had the last laugh.

Today, you can not shoot anything in the city limits. No fire works, no air rifles, no .22 rim fire rifles, no shot guns, nothing, nada. How times have changed. From brandishing guns to required helmets for bicycle riding. What a bunch of wimps. Times have changed, for the better maybe, for the worst, for sure. I ain't no fun anymore.

"Do you have . . . "

Do you have these kinds of moments? I do, probably my old cranky age causing it all but it drives me nuts.

I get all my medications via a mail order pharmacy. As a military retiree, I can use Express Scripts and get supplied a 90 day supply of my prescribed medicines. I have a number of them. And I get very reasonable prices, mail free but have to put up with a sort mass production kind of operation. Express Scripts is the largest of its kind, so not much competition. And it is the only military sourced mail order house for medications.

I have had dropped prescriptions, ignored prescriptions, but never a wrong prescription. They began pushing automatic renewals which I thought was a good deal only to find out that I had reinitiate the automatic service with each renewed prescription. I guess they could not figure out renewal versus new prescription, pretty dumb, huh? That caused me a problem.

Today I got a telephone call, an auto telephone call, not a real person. The call was to say three of my presciptions needed to be renewed. What Express Scripts failed to say was the current presciption was still good until the end of May of this year and this was the last resupply on the current prescription. So the communication left me up in the air. Considering the source and past performance I immediately called them on their 800 number (well really it is an 877 number but you know what I mean).

Well I got the usual auto menu deal. First say your name, then your birthday. The auto reply says they recognize the phone number and give me a menu that has absolutely nothing do with what I want to talk about. After several button pushes resulting in several layers of irrevelant menus, I pressed and held the "Operator" or "0" button on the phone and got a connection to a "customer advocate." I have learned from experience to go for the operator button and you will get a real live person to deal with. Why can't they do that to begin with.ive person?

As you can imagine it is at last a live person. We discussed the call and what it really means or did not say. Turns out my prescriptions are all okay, they expire in late May (which I knew to be a fact). So I asked why was not the remaining other four prescirptions due to expire in May were not also mentioned. No reply, no answer except to say "we apologize" meaning we do not have a clue as to why it occurred that way. Makes you wonder doesn't it, these people are dealing with life issues like medical prescriptions and can only get it half right. Makes you wonder that what you get in a bottle may not be what you really need. Their credibility sits on the edge all the time.

Well it turns out my auto resupply kicks off on the 26th of April, today being the 24th of April. That's okay. One prescription of Bayer Test Strips that are used to measure my blood glucose was due to be renewed on May 6th. I pointed out the reason that date appeared is because Express Scripts did not have them in stock at the appropriate time for the last resupply cycle and shipped them late. The advocate moved that resupply date up concurr with the April 26th date.

So now I can expect one package of all my prescribe medications in the mail. And, yes it is about time to go see my personal physician for my annual look see. I can not call it annual check up since that is not covered by Medicare, you get one physical examination when you go on Medicare, so I do not know how the Doctor sends in this for his fees but he seems to know how to do that. So I will get poked and punched, pricked and tested once again and all my medications will get renewed. And I will send them off to Express Scripts and start the cycle all over again,

Fritzina is Back . . .

Fritzina is the name given to our fench lizard that lives in and around our back patio. It is a haven for insects and Fritzina's favorite food are crickets. Needless to say, we have few crickets around. She ranges far and wide, I have seen her scourering around in my garage (lots of insects in there) and she likes to climb the Hackberry tree next to the main bedroom/bath part of the house.

Not sure of the attraction of the tree but it has got to be food. They are dependent on insects for their livelyhood. No food, no lizards.

"22 Rifle . . ."

Recently in a visit back home, I acquired the family .22 single shot rifle. I did a little research, it is a Springfield Arms gun. Springfield Arms is a common name but appears in the late 1920s to early 1930s. I am pretty sure Sears and Roebuck sold the guns. So I concluded the gun originally belonged to Uncle Ham. Joe Morrison, one of Uncle Ham's children gave me the gun.

When I first used the gun, it was at our house in New Roads. It was in the back closet and apparently John Jr. had used it a lot. The cocking mechanism had failed and somebody, John probably, had used some wire to devise a way to cock the gun. It did not take much pull to cock it.

I must have shot a thousand rounds through that gun at Poule Deaus, water ducks, in False River behind the house. No matter that people lived on the other side of the lake, but in those days there were not a lot of camps on the other side as there are today. Nor were there many boats and water skiers. There just were not that many people around in those days. I am sure today people would be shocked at someone shooting a .22 on False River. And in fact it is against a city ordinance to shoot a gun inside New Roads city limits. Not sure the parish authorities have caught up that kind of gun control yet, too many hunters in and around the country side.

We thought nothing of doing that as kids. We roamed around with our Benjamin air rifles, .22s and later shot guns across the country side. Our parents did not see any harm in it either. They are the ones that gave me the Benjamin air rifle. And Red Rider Daisy BB gun before that. That was life in small town rural America.

I fired that gun until the wire gave up and I could not cock it anymore. Back into the closet the gun went.

It seems John Jr, my older brother now long deceased, retrieved the gun and had Stienberg's in Baton Rouge repair it. The parts are common enough, I did a web search and found them. Anybody could have done it with ease. The little rifle sits in my closet now days. Stienberg's is no longer in existence; the Lipsky family, the owners of Stienberg's, are probably one of the nations largest gun importers. They only sell wholesale now days to other gun dealers. Baton Rouge's oldest and best sports store is but a memory now days replaced by Cabelas or other mega outdoor fitter stores. And Joe Lipsky sells to them.

Yes, I bought a box of 50 rounds at Walmart but I have no where to shoot the rifle. It is just another family heirloom, not of great value except to us. Perhaps sometime in the future I will return gun to the plantation where it really belongs.

"First Fish Out of False River . . ."

Do you remember catching your first fish? I do. It was quite memorable for me, a little boy.

Our neighbor a couple of house over, had a fishing pier, well really a pier to support his boat house (and boat).

But on cane pole with my trusty bobber, and a big fat worm I was after it. Others were out there but I do not recall who it was but there was at least one adult. We were after sun fish, Chincapins or we called them perch. Quite delicious fried up but you had to catch a ton of them to get enough to eat. And they were kind of bony too but they are worth it.

Not satisfied as I was not catching anything I switched to a different location on the other side away from all the others (who were catching fish, not me~!). All of a sudden my float went under and I yanked real hard. Then I knew I had something big on the line. I yelled for help (and advice on what to do now that I had caught one). I got help right of way and after fighting the fish for a while, we decided (at least the mentor decided) it was too big to just pull in up in the air.

So we dragged it along the pier and got on the river bank and pulled it in. It was about a five pound Cat fish. A big one. Really big for me.

Took up the hill and my father was home. He skinned it and we ate it the next day. It was Friday and in those days good Catholics ate fish on Friday. Normally we my mother would have gone to the fish market to get Cat fish but not this go round. It was enough to feed four of us, two adults and my sister and me. My older brother ws off to boarding school in Indiana (and he misssed out on all the doings).

Great story, that must have been around 1949 or so. Long time ago but who could forget catching a monster in False River. And I did not ever catch another Cat fish again.

"Six Degrees of Freedom . . ."

I was struck by that adage of we are all connected by six degrees of freedom.

My usual morning ritual is to work the crossword puzzles in both USA Today and The Washington Post. I stumbled upon a artcle about studios and home featuring James Carville, etal and Cokie Roberts etal.

Six degrees of freedom you say, well James Carville of Carville, Louisiana located just below Baton Rouge in Iberville Parish was the home of the only Leprosy Hospital in the continental US and the of course the Carvilles'. How do I know that, well my exbrother-in-law, George Raymond Nickie" Neck mother was a sister to James' mother. So we at one time occasionally visit the Carville estate for family doings. So that is my connection to James Carville.

Cokie Roberts nee Boggs is my second cousin. Her mother, Corrine "Lindy" Boggs is my first cousin and fairly close to my family. Both Lindy, a famous person in her own right (Retired US Congress Woman and former Ambassador to the Vatican) and Cokie abide in the Cokie Roberts household this day and age.

On rare occasions I Email Cokie but never ever do the same to James Carville. He is just a conversational piece to me. I saw him but once that I can remember and that was at Nickie's funeral some few years back. He and Nickie have a vague but recognizable resemblance. Nickie however was a big man and James is rather smaller in statue but they had similar large egos.

Family is a grand thing. You never know just how far apart we all are. Family is not all blood relations but more often personal relations from our childhood or other close encounters. Kissing cousins, near cousins, almost cousins, employees, fraternity brothers, etc.

The community I grew up in has a relatively ancient in history, more so that similar small towns. The locality began recording legal notices in 1771. That predates the Revolutionary War. Indeed a relative, albeit distant, is my wife's patriot that allows her to be a member of the Daughters the American Revolution. That patriot fought in the only revolutionary battle that occured out side of the original 13 colonies and it was in Louisiana. Few people know that (or care about it) but it is a significant piece of trivia and a muse of history.

I had occasion to retype my mother's book, Early Marriages of Pointe Coupee, 1771to 1841. I noted that in such a small enclave of people inter marriage of families was common and expected. Thus I concluded that all my childhood friends were indeed related to each other, some close and many distantly but related.

Could be we all are related - distantly? Think about it,

"Tornadoes . . ."

We escaped a deadly bullet Tuesday. We were expecting rain and we got it but it came with some very violent Thunderstorms. In the past 10 years we have replaced two roofs and had two vehicles beat up by hail. This time we had about a half inch of rain, most of which fell in short order, then drizzled the rest of the day.

The TV guys took over the airwaves about 10 AM and stayed with it through about 3 PM. The first place to take a hit was the City of Cleburne, South of Fort Worth astride of I-35W. The Schnieder Truck dispatch yard took the first hit. Trucks were scattered, trailers crushed and pushed around but no one injured.

The next town was a little further East and still South of Fort Worth, Kennedale. Kennedale had a swarth a quarter of mile wide and 4.6 miles long. Most of the Tornadoes were EF-2s, maximum winds of 135 MPH in that town.

Further East and South of Dallas, the City of Forney took a big hit. Several storms rated as EF-3s, maximum winds of 165 MPH.

There were a total of 15 Tornadoes reported with 11 confirmed doing damage. There were more storms to the East of Dallas towards Tyler. And it went on into Louisiana and Arkansas. But the worst of it was here in the DFW complex.

The irony is that the next day, Wednesday, the sun shown clear and bright. Little wind, few clouds, just a nice Spring day. Yet over 300 structures were destroyed or damaged. Mobile homes to the brunt of the damages. There are photos of 2 X 4s embedded through walls of a house and in another house missing its second floor a bookshelve's contents in the kitchen exposed to the open went untouched or distrubed. Many stories of lost pets and survival in closets or in bath tubs. The upshot is no one was killed or even severely maimed.

We always need the water and the reservoirs are near capacity again. But we abhor the Spring storms, they are so violent and damaging. There were 15 reported Tornadoes, 11 of which did damage, 3 of which were EF-3 (maximum of 165 MPH) and 8 rated as EF-2 (maximum of 135 MPH).

With glory of Spring comes the horror of random destruction.

"Its Genetics . . ."

Thought I was gonna write about hair color or skin color or eye color. Nope it is about our two Shumard Oak trees. Shumard's are red oak trees, that is when sawn up the wood has a red tinge to it. In the family of oaks it is a relatively fast growing oak tree. So a Live Oak it is not, Shumard's tends to shoot up.

We have two of them in the front yard planted by the landscaper for the house builder. They were about four inches in diameter and maybe 20 feet tall back in August 2002. They are now about a foot in diameter and upwards of 30 feet plus in height. They are beginning to mature. There roots are beginning to come up as with all oak trees.

But about the genetics. The tree on the left side of the yard loses its leaves first in the late fall and gains them back, first, in the early spring. The tree on the right, slightly bigger (better soil), loses its leaves at least two weeks after the other tree and puts on leaves at least two weeks after the other tree. Both trees benefit from the fertilizer spread for the lawn.

The only explanation is the genetics. While each is definitely a Shumard or Texas oak, they are not from the same parent tree. Not that it makes any difference, they are just slightly different.

In the North side yard, we had several Hackberry trees. They have been cut down. But next to one of the Hackberry stumps is a volunteer Shumard Red oak. It is already about two inches across and is over 12 feet tall. It came up from an acorn but not an acorn from our front oaks, just a acorn from somewhere in the local area.

We also have a yard full of Post Oaks out back. They are even slower growers than Live oaks and rarely reach the size of either the Shumard or the Live oaks. And they are cantankerous. If you build a dog run around one, the dog running around will kill it. We have had one on the North side yard bloom in the spring, start to put out leaves and died. Fortunately, we have one survivor over there and it has spawn a little one. That is about two and half feet tall and I can assure you it is four years old. It is in very rich area, gets lots of water, etc.. They are just slow growers.

One of our older Post oaks out back is about two feet in diameter, has been in trouble but has been treated. It seems to be doing okay. We estimate it to be at least a 100 years old. We refer to it as "old tree." It supports several bird feeds that are liberally used by the birds, squirrels and deer.

Any rate it is Spring and everything is putting out new leaves, very green and the weather is mild. The Peach trees have fruit all over them. I hope a freeze does not come along and kill all the fruit or a hale storm. We seem to get fruit once every four or five years.

Fritzs Confirmed. . .

We now have spotted no less than four Fritz in the yard, with at least two on the back patio. One of which spent the night on the wall behind the Rterge just out sided the door. He was perfectly camouflaged and held his ground.

We had youngster do that last year so I am surmising he is now an adult but still uses his same old location to over night. The wall retains a bit heat as it is in the sun most of the day until noon. So it is warm but not hot. And the Eterge provides a frame work of metal to protect him. He blends in well with the bricks.

Judie notes they are all darker this year. I think they have just not been out of the sun while hibernating and have come up to speed so to speak. We shall see as the summer goes on. Soon they will be foraging on the patio, sometimes even found sitting on the furniture so that they have a better view of their hunting turf.

Some of them are quite tolerant of us and others are skittish. The one on the wall behind the Eterge was tolerant of us. It did not move yet its eyes were open. So he felt safe behind the iron work. But we do not know if he knew we were there are not. No matter, he was present and acoounted for.

The crickets are not as yet out but the hunter is. They love crickets and will go great distances to find them. Read where they will continue to eat them if so fed. They will not stop, they will stuff themselves.

They are a welcome sight.

"Fritzii Are Back . . ."

We know Spring is here. The Fritzii are back. Fritz is the name we give to the little fence lizards that seem to abound in our yard. They are not Geckos, Chameleons or other ilk of that nature but true lizards.

They are found all down the East Coast across the South all the way over to Parker County. They are not found much further west than Parker County, their cousins are but not Fritz's. I guessing it gets to dry.

The first Fritz seen was the front yard Fritz. He likes to climb up the new screens we have. So I get good shot at his under body. He has an abbreviated tail, lost some of it somewhere.

Judie found the water hose Fritz. He lives in and around the box container that winds in the water hose out back. There is a Crepe Myrtle adjacent to the water hose container. So he ranges around in the back flower beds and his turf is limited to the lawn area so to speak.

And just awhile ago, Judie started out to yard and was halted when she found a Fritz in her yard shoes, sort low quarter water proof loafers. He was looking out toward the patio and his tail was nice an long. It was so long it stuck up while the rest of him or her was facing outward. I took a picture and will soon post it for you readers to see what we are writing about.

But better than Robins, Fritz is a harbinger of Spring since the hibernate over winter. Bugs are out, ergo Fritzii are out. Besides Robins winter here so they are really not harbingers of Spring, just winter residents.

"Wow, what a storm. . ."

Late yesterday a slow moving storm came in from the west. It took a long time to get there, slow, agonizingly slow. But it started to rain about 4 PM. If finished this AM at about 7 AM. I am sure we got about two to three inches of rain.

We had lightening and thunder all night long. And it rained and rained and rained. Just did my neighborhood walk and street gutters were still running. The ground is soaked like a sponge and is slowly releasing water into the curbs and down to the storm drains.

This will make everything green, make the grass grow and start the spring. It is way too early but what the heck, it is 84 degrees in Chicago today. Not that hot here but soon will be that temperature and more.

At least the rain will fill Weatherford Lake up, it was still short a foot and half. Perhaps they will have gained a foot more water. That is a good thing. If we get one more long soaker we will have all the reservoirs overfull. Better to have more than less but we run risk of local floods.

Last year it was fires not it is floods. The little rivers in this area are all flowing rapidly. Normally, they do get water in spring but not this much. But with two years of drought, it ain't a bad thing.

False River . . .

As we left Sunday, March 4th, it was as usual a mild day. But what was notable was that the river, the lake, was like a piece of glass. Not even the ducks were out, it was cool and kept them quite. The fishing rodeo Saturday was a one day affair, so the boaters were not out. That is getting rare now days. The lake is surrounded by "camps" some of which are lavish homes, some are ramshackle put together affairs on rented land used by weekenders, not locals.

The weekenders were not out either. It was predicted to be at freezing early AM but in reality it was around 45 to 50 degrees when we left at about 9:30 or so. So the lake stayed calm, just to airish for the boaters to be out and stirring up the place. Even the Purple Martins had not risen. So it was an idyllic scene. Once could imagine it was back in the 1700s - not. Too many camps lining the edge of the lake to take it back to pristine days.

I took a few pictures. I like to do that, once in a while I get a good one. Well once in a great while I get a good one. The camp grounds looked good and the Bill's Cypress trees standout. You can even find the place using Google Earth by those trees. I am sure if not cut back, they will last another 100 years and some one will marvel at them and wonder about them. Who planted those trees in such an orderly fashion? The answer is Wilmark "Bill" Gremillion.

We had a good time out at Angeles Plantation at the business meeting. Well it really is a Morrison family meeting. A lot of the folks showing up do not have a financial interest but they are family and are always welcome.

We stripped the beds, bringing our linen back to be washed and prepared for the next visit. We emptyed the trash, did a small amount of clean up, folded the afghans and turned off the lights. Yep, we locked up on our way out leaving the camp ready for the next family user. We drove off our usual route up through Marksville to Alexandria and on home.

Der Blog . . .

I was surprised to learn from Susan Morrison that I had readers of my blog as far away as South Carolina. At least she asked if it was my blog named False River and of course, I said, "Why yes it is." That kind of astounds me.

Then Chris Morrison, my cousin, who lives in New Roads at the old Morrison house and is its keeper so to speak, said I was referred to as an expert on Austin Chalk and Tucaloosa Marine Shale. Well I am here to say, I am decidedly not an expert, not even a Geologist but I am interested and read about it. I also contribute to the Haynesville Shale Forum and did start the thread on the Austin Chalk.

Believe me there are many others that are far more knowledgeable on Austin Chalk and the Edwards Shelf than I will ever be. But it is nice to know that the six degrees of freedom do indeed work, at least in my case.

Again the family business meeting was a great time. Great food, great hosts and good to see the family show up as they did. I hope it continues to grow and get better. We owe much thanks to Chris and Walter who are the real hosts of the affair.

I can not say enough about there stewardship. I know it is there home and heritage so to speak but they are aware it is a family asset. They just have the pleasure of being there in the fore front and do get the little and big things done for the plantation.

As corporation, maybe it will last the measure of time, at least for several generations.

The Family Meeting . . .

The family meeting came off again in New Roads. As usual we expected no one would be there and there was a nice crowd. Ann and Camille made it in, Herrise was there and surprise, so were Polly and Charlie. Herrise's children were there, well at least Ray and Byron were there.

It was nice listening to all of them. Great family get to together. Another good year and the old house is still there.

Time moves on and we are getting older. The youngsters are slowly taking over. And that is a good thing.

Off to New Roads - redux

We are off to New Roads again in the AM. Do our usual stop in Tyler for breakfast, gas in Natchitocis and on to False River. As usual we will arrive, unpack the car and then make a trip to Winn Dixie's to stock up on whatever.

We sort of plan to go to Joe's Dreyfus store. Joe Major sold out but it remains a good eatery in the local area, may not just be up to Joe's standard good enough. Daddy used to like to eat there and in fact introduced me to Joe at his original place out on 189 before it burned down.

That was a tiny place, maybe four tables and one had to wait outside in the car for a table. But the food was outstanding. He later bought the old Dreyfus General Store down the bayou from Livonia on the west bank. The Dreyfus family and store had been there for very long time. Credit to Joe, he retained the building as is and added a kitchen in the back. He provided good service and good food, but was an all cash operation for along time.

It is now open selected hours and the weekends. It belongs to another chef and he of course has added his touch to the menu. But overall the food remains good, well above the normal cafe standard and fast food specials.

Then we will be out at the plantation for the annual meeting. Never know who will show up but that is the good thing about it. And we all get refamiliar with the old place and hear the latest on whatever is going on in Pointe Coupee. Plus we always get a wonderful meal at the end of the meeting and visiting.

So a little four hundred mile drive is okay.

Starting a New Plane . . .

I have had the "Almost Ready to Fly" kit for almost a year now. Cleared out a bit of junk and crashed a few old ones so it is time to assembly this airplane. As with all such airplanes there are yet things to do. And the instructions are less than specific, that is they seem to ignore certain construction requirements. Almost Ready to Fly (or ARF) literally means the airplane has its cover, the skin, installed/ That means all the structure is completed. One needs to glue on the "tail feathers," install servos and receiver, battery and engine. One must rig the airplane make sure the servos are going the correct direction, and the balance is correct. Sometimes one has to move things around or even add weight to achieve the correct balance.

The ARF usually comes with landing gear, fuel tank, control rods, hardware, wheels and so on. This is usually matched stuff for the kit. Sometimes it is first class hardware and sometimes it is cheap stuff. For the most part this is first class stuff.

But, and there are lots of buts, the fuel tank is a tiny affair, not of sufficient capacity for the selected engines. It is basically a six ounce tank, and I need eight to ten or even eleven ounce capacity. The internal structure is sized to accommodate the little tank but there is plenty of room. So I will have to go for an after market tank. And the tank is situated quite far behind the engine firewall. That is a no no. Generally, the engines do not have fuel pumps and rely on pressure from the exhaust system and gravity to feed the fuel to the engine. The engine does not always have sufficient draw to pull the full forward. There are several systems to fix this but they are sometimes hard to keep up. So I may resort to a pumped engine. I just do not need an engine that powerful for the airplane but . . .

The landing gear is two pieces, one for each side. This is rinky dink and not the best solution so I may have to get an aftermarket landing gear. I have found one but it is pricey. Probably will go for it.

I have the receiver and the servos from previous aircraft. One tends to build up inventory of those things. Same is true of landing gears and fuel tanks but not of them will work or at least no work well.

So ARF it may be but it will take some time, thought and maybe modification to get it airborne. But when it does get there it will be a work of beauty.