December 2017 – Ben's Blog

December 31, 2017

Been programming – Tessellation preview

Between the brutal cold and children, I haven’t had as many untainted brain cycles as I’ve been wishing for; still, I just finished the core engine for a universal way to apply translations to pen strokes. It allowed me to rewrite the mandala engine better, and expand it to allow for tessellations, and really any kind of translations on any center at any orientation. It’s been a ton of ground work so it’s nice to finally get some eye candy :).

I can’t wait to see what the internet does with it. Here’s a preview:

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December 30, 2017

2 Ash 1 Saw

[mejsvideo mp4=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/2_ash_1_saw_short.mov.mp4″ ogg=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/2_ash_1_saw_short.mov.ogv” webm=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/2_ash_1_saw_short.mov.webm” poster=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/2_ash_1_saw_short.mov.jpg” width=”640″ height=”360″]

Feels very good to chainsaw, it had been a while and I had been itching.

They went right where I wanted them.

And for your viewing pleasure here’s just the tree going down, notice the little pine way out in the back getting utterly whipped.

[mejsvideo mp4=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/ash_01_going_down.mov.mp4″ ogg=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/ash_01_going_down.mov.ogv” webm=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/ash_01_going_down.mov.webm” poster=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/ash_01_going_down.mov.jpg” width=”640″ height=”360″]

Numero dos:

[mejsvideo mp4=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/ash_02_going_down.mov.mp4″ ogg=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/ash_02_going_down.mov.ogv” webm=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/ash_02_going_down.mov.webm” poster=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/ash_02_going_down.mov.jpg” width=”640″ height=”360″]

December 29, 2017

I heart wood

December 27, 2017

x1.5

Another Winter another solar upgrade. Short overcast days are good at exposing a lower limit. After having lost power a couple of days it was time for an upgrade. The house is growing and so it our consumption, especially on the Summer months when we get used to abundant electricity.

Bringing the panels on site, I always said my son would make a great draft horse.

I’m becoming good at building in the cold, my fingers are not thanking me though.

All I need to do now is prop it off the ground and anchor it for heavy winds.

I like this frame, it takes 6 2x4x8 and this is the only scrap lumber left.

I did some quick back of the envelope math and so far our setup costed about as much as what we would have paid for grid electricity these past 2 and a half years. Seems like it costs about as much to learn how to fish than it does to buy fish, at least at the beginning. We have now entered the gravy zone.

December 26, 2017

Scintillating world

December 26, 2017

We woke up to a world encased in ice

We have had ice storms before but this one was particularly thorough in covering every nook in cranny of our land.

The sun shone through pine trees and it looked just like a Christmas tree decorated with lights so I updated the list of traditions I understood since moving to Vermont.

I almost plowed what snow we had before the ice came, but in talking to a friend, she brought up letting the ice accumulate on the snow rather than on the ground so it’s easier to kick out. Duh, what kind of flatlander doesn’t know that.

The storms are rolling in one after another, the tractor has been invaluable in taking care of all this snow. We have great paths, a flat driveway, and all I had to do was push a button and joyride around.

With all this snow and ice, the trees are taking a beating.

On the less glamorous side of things, emptying the portable toilet is a full on arctic expedition these days. We lost access to the septic tank and really, I prefer it this way.