Engineers Having Fun

Posted on 06/10/2012 by Grumpa Joe
e-book

e-book (Photo credit: Ángela Espinosa)

Engineer’s love invention. My career as an engineer began when I was eleven years old. A Christmas gift called “The Erector Set” started me in motion to a lifelong career. I write about many of my inventions in a book titled “Jun-e-or” available on Amazon as an e-book for $2.99. Click the book cover on the right to get you there.

Watch this short video to see what kind of fun engineer’s have when working on their design project. My class design project was a gear box which had to transmit 40 horsepower from an electric motor and change the rpm from 1800 to 600. That is just a little different from what the kids in this video had to do.

Thanks Rich for sharing this video, I had a great laugh.

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Ugleee!

Posted on 26/09/2012 by Grumpa Joe

ugly-tomato-contest-winner

ugly-tomato-contest-runner-up (1)

For all the folks in the world who think I am a loser here is evidence that I am not. A few months ago a blog that I follow offered an ugly tomato contest and solicited entries. This was my big chance to show the world I can grow a tomato. The plant came from Home Depot and I planted it late. The species was labeled as Big Beefy. I wanted a big, juicy, meaty, red tomato to slice on to my sandwiches. Alongside the Big Beefy I planted a cherry tomato. I can report that I thoroughly enjoyed the cherry tomatoes in abundance all summer. The Big Beefy was somewhat sluggish to produce. When it did finally yield a fruit, it was always a distorted orb with tumor like growths projecting. The one in the photo caught my eye as a work of art and not as a meal. I picked it green to take photos. That’s when Soulsby Farm was looking for candidates. I seized the opportunity if only to redeem this fruit’s self-esteem. It would be an entrant in the ugly tomato contest. Never in a hundred years did I expect Big Beefy to become a finalist. Big Beefy won the runner up award.

I must confess I doctored the fruit just tad. Big Beefy looked very much like an Ogre. So I got creative and used a heavy marking pen to enhance his features with eye-pupils and eye brows. I thought Big Beefy looked rather scary. If he lasts until Halloween he will be my contribution to the night of horrors.

Thank you Soulsby Farm for an entertaining post.

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Don’t Mess With Mikey

Posted on 25/09/2012 by Grumpa Joe
Indiana School Childrens' Class In Gun Safety.

Indiana School Childrens’ Class In Gun Safety. (Photo credit: D’oh Boy)

About thirty years ago, I taught my young son how to shoot a gun. I believed my kids should know about weapons and I wanted to teach them proper use and safety. Evidently, some of it rubbed off because my young son recently took up shooting with a hand gun for sport. He began by taking a gun safety class. Here are his targets using a handgun for the first time in his life.

I recommend you think twice if you intend to mess with him on the street, when you break into his home, or if you harm one of his kids.

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Epic Family Movie

Posted on 25/04/2012 by Grumpa Joe

My latest project.

This short movie was a fun project filmed in 1967. We were on the farm having fun when I decided it was time to make a movie with Barb’s cousin Eugene and his wife Pat. We brainstormed a plot using the props available to us. The whole thing took about an thirty minutes to make. We shot 100 feet of Super-8 movie film.

Sadly, the main character Gene died at age fifty something. His cousin and my wife Barbara died at age sixty-five. Others in the background were my kids, father, mother, mother-in-law, and dog. A lot of great memories packed into one minute.

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Dr. Orchid Revives a Patient

Posted on 23/02/2012 by Grumpa Joe

Miss Orchid 2012

Miss Orchid has done it again. After six months of abuse by her owner, she decided to grant him a gift by blooming. Thank God Grumpa Joe knows an orchid expert who helped him repot her and to rejuvenate her root system into fresh potting medium.

Dr. Orchid Expert diagnosed her with severe dehydration and recommended immediate surgery. He clipped some her most severely dried roots and hoped for the best. Upon returning from the orchid hospital, Grumpa Joe assumed a new attitude about this precious symbol of his deceased wife Barbara. He began to give it the kind of care she should have received all along.

Weekly half hour showers of tepid water in the kitchen sink followed by a drenching of water spiked with fertilizer  have been the routine since November. She began to bloom a week before Christmas, and continues to sprout new blossoms, and even a second spike from her main stem. Her solitary place of honor is on the glass table in the sun-room.

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