Crappy Crank & Theory Update
Saturday, August 6th, 2022 11:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioI never bother to record anything on Saturdays, because people are out there blasting music day and night, and traffic is a lot heavier all night.
All I did today was manage to fashion a crank for the canopy hoist...
It's one of the sketchiest things I've MagGuyvered together in 25 years... as you can see!
It's a testament to how much junk I don't have lying around! I mean, I've got some junk, and junk hardware, but I don't have, spare crank & barrel kinda junk. That's farmer with a huge barn full of junk, levels of junk!
I just kept thinking last night that I needed a spool to take up the slack, and a crank to turn the spool, and I was determined not to spend any money on this project.
So, what you're looking at is the ONLY wooden spool in the whole house... a sewing thread spool. So I had to cut a little piece of scrap wood to act as the crank, and carefully drill some holes into it... and into the spool.
The little wooden knob was part of a whole bunch of wood beads I bought a few years ago for wind chime purposes.
The three screws... two holding the crank to the spool, and one holding on the knob... did come out of an ancient junk drawer. They are straight-slot screws and likely belonged to my grandfather.
Again... ONLY three screws in the house, both narrow enough, and long enough for the job!
--<>--
Though it's only a sewing thread spool, the wire rope for the hoist is pretty thin gauge so, I think it can do the job of taking up the slack of... 20 feet of line? Maybe?
If not I have a ton of plastic coffee can lids. I'm sure I could slap two on the sides of the spool to give it more take-up space.
No, the true stumbling block was the hardware to connect this crappy crank to the SCOP! I searched through all my nuts, bolts washers, and other crap and just could not come up with a combination that would all work together to fasten that spool crank to the SCOP and allow it to turn freely.
So, I will have to break down and go to ACE Hardware to get the right bolt, washers, and nuts, but it should only be a few dollars.
--<>--
I do have two small pulleys I can use to guide the line from the tree down to the crank. So, if I can properly mount the crappy crank... I should be able to make this whole canopy hoist idea work!
It's gonna take a little doing, but if I can get it to function, I think it'll be a powerful new tool in my recording arsenal. Because with the S8, the name of the game is getting it close to the signal source.
That, and don't box it in!
Do those two things, and it takes care of the rest!
------------{=0=}------------
CRICKET THEORY UPDATE
While I haven't been block sounding this week, I have been out in the front & back yards every night, well after dark, for ten to twenty minutes, just standing and listening.
(I've also been recording a few minutes each night, but I'm gonna compile those into one, 'tuning up,' track)
And it was difficult to figure out what exactly was going on, the first few days, but by tonight (Saturday night) I'm confident to say that the juvenile field cricket population has been increasing by leaps and bounds, everywhere.
--<>--
So, a week ago, it sounded like many field crickets were hitting adulthood out there on the streets, and forcing the juveniles who were left, into the block interiors.
And I expected the younger ones to hit adulthood by the end of the week and we just wouldn't have any more juveniles. It'd just be adults everywhere, and they'd all space out to become uniformly distributed in both front and back yards.
Instead, what happened was... while I did hear more adults popping up, even in the back yard... and even heard them kinda forming little cliques... little adult safe spaces, in the back yards... meanwhile there was also this huge SWELL in the juvenile numbers everywhere!
--<>--
Tonight was the first night I heard my entire back yard saturated with field crickets... from right beneath my feet, out to the periphery... but it was 98% juvenile. And it felt like exponentially more than just last night.
However, I didn't record because not only was it beastly hot, with AC condensers blasting everywhere, but there was distant party music, and also a fairly strong breeze.
--<>--
Still, what I heard, suggests that in the spring, all those overwintering field cricket eggs don't all just hatch at the same rate for a couple weeks in late April and early May.
Instead, it's more likely that there's a bell curve, where a small number start to hatch in late April, and then it builds up to a huge peak in mid May, and then tapers off again by May's end.
My eye-witness sightings of field crickets during the day has also gone up quite a bit this week, indicating there are just so many around now that you can't help but spot one.
And Dad and I witnesses a two day phenomenon on the 5th & 6th, where the back yards were just crawling with all kinds of birds all afternoon, pecking in the grass! I thought maybe it had something to do with the hackberries, because I'd seen a bunch on the sidewalk those same two days, but maybe they were also feasting on a glut of little crickets!
The sizes of field crickets I've been spotting this week have varied a lot! I've seen at least three sizes all week long, from adult, to juvenile, to mini-juvenile.
And that corroborates the idea that there are currently three different waves of hatchlings all at or close to adulthood.
All these signs, combined with what I heard tonight, with the back yard fully saturated with juveniles, says the boom is here, and likely corresponds to a spike in hatches around... let's see, ninety days ago was... May 10th!
--<>--
So, it may take most of the coming week for the adult field cricket song to match, or overtake the juvenile song, but it seems the juvenile song will still be a component of the soundscape into September.
And the time span over which none are heard at all, may only be a few weeks in late September! I dunno!
------------{=0=}------------
I do think though, I'm clear to do a first proper recording of the orchestra this coming week... no matter what the age mix.
All I'm waiting for now, is a cooler night with no rain, and low wind. Tuesday 09, Wednesday 10, and Thursday 11, are all looking good.
°¦}
All I did today was manage to fashion a crank for the canopy hoist...
It's one of the sketchiest things I've MagGuyvered together in 25 years... as you can see!
It's a testament to how much junk I don't have lying around! I mean, I've got some junk, and junk hardware, but I don't have, spare crank & barrel kinda junk. That's farmer with a huge barn full of junk, levels of junk!
I just kept thinking last night that I needed a spool to take up the slack, and a crank to turn the spool, and I was determined not to spend any money on this project.
So, what you're looking at is the ONLY wooden spool in the whole house... a sewing thread spool. So I had to cut a little piece of scrap wood to act as the crank, and carefully drill some holes into it... and into the spool.
The little wooden knob was part of a whole bunch of wood beads I bought a few years ago for wind chime purposes.
The three screws... two holding the crank to the spool, and one holding on the knob... did come out of an ancient junk drawer. They are straight-slot screws and likely belonged to my grandfather.
Again... ONLY three screws in the house, both narrow enough, and long enough for the job!
Though it's only a sewing thread spool, the wire rope for the hoist is pretty thin gauge so, I think it can do the job of taking up the slack of... 20 feet of line? Maybe?
If not I have a ton of plastic coffee can lids. I'm sure I could slap two on the sides of the spool to give it more take-up space.
No, the true stumbling block was the hardware to connect this crappy crank to the SCOP! I searched through all my nuts, bolts washers, and other crap and just could not come up with a combination that would all work together to fasten that spool crank to the SCOP and allow it to turn freely.
So, I will have to break down and go to ACE Hardware to get the right bolt, washers, and nuts, but it should only be a few dollars.
I do have two small pulleys I can use to guide the line from the tree down to the crank. So, if I can properly mount the crappy crank... I should be able to make this whole canopy hoist idea work!
It's gonna take a little doing, but if I can get it to function, I think it'll be a powerful new tool in my recording arsenal. Because with the S8, the name of the game is getting it close to the signal source.
That, and don't box it in!
Do those two things, and it takes care of the rest!
CRICKET THEORY UPDATE
While I haven't been block sounding this week, I have been out in the front & back yards every night, well after dark, for ten to twenty minutes, just standing and listening.
(I've also been recording a few minutes each night, but I'm gonna compile those into one, 'tuning up,' track)
And it was difficult to figure out what exactly was going on, the first few days, but by tonight (Saturday night) I'm confident to say that the juvenile field cricket population has been increasing by leaps and bounds, everywhere.
So, a week ago, it sounded like many field crickets were hitting adulthood out there on the streets, and forcing the juveniles who were left, into the block interiors.
And I expected the younger ones to hit adulthood by the end of the week and we just wouldn't have any more juveniles. It'd just be adults everywhere, and they'd all space out to become uniformly distributed in both front and back yards.
Instead, what happened was... while I did hear more adults popping up, even in the back yard... and even heard them kinda forming little cliques... little adult safe spaces, in the back yards... meanwhile there was also this huge SWELL in the juvenile numbers everywhere!
Tonight was the first night I heard my entire back yard saturated with field crickets... from right beneath my feet, out to the periphery... but it was 98% juvenile. And it felt like exponentially more than just last night.
However, I didn't record because not only was it beastly hot, with AC condensers blasting everywhere, but there was distant party music, and also a fairly strong breeze.
Still, what I heard, suggests that in the spring, all those overwintering field cricket eggs don't all just hatch at the same rate for a couple weeks in late April and early May.
Instead, it's more likely that there's a bell curve, where a small number start to hatch in late April, and then it builds up to a huge peak in mid May, and then tapers off again by May's end.
My eye-witness sightings of field crickets during the day has also gone up quite a bit this week, indicating there are just so many around now that you can't help but spot one.
And Dad and I witnesses a two day phenomenon on the 5th & 6th, where the back yards were just crawling with all kinds of birds all afternoon, pecking in the grass! I thought maybe it had something to do with the hackberries, because I'd seen a bunch on the sidewalk those same two days, but maybe they were also feasting on a glut of little crickets!
The sizes of field crickets I've been spotting this week have varied a lot! I've seen at least three sizes all week long, from adult, to juvenile, to mini-juvenile.
And that corroborates the idea that there are currently three different waves of hatchlings all at or close to adulthood.
All these signs, combined with what I heard tonight, with the back yard fully saturated with juveniles, says the boom is here, and likely corresponds to a spike in hatches around... let's see, ninety days ago was... May 10th!
So, it may take most of the coming week for the adult field cricket song to match, or overtake the juvenile song, but it seems the juvenile song will still be a component of the soundscape into September.
And the time span over which none are heard at all, may only be a few weeks in late September! I dunno!
I do think though, I'm clear to do a first proper recording of the orchestra this coming week... no matter what the age mix.
All I'm waiting for now, is a cooler night with no rain, and low wind. Tuesday 09, Wednesday 10, and Thursday 11, are all looking good.
°¦}
