This morning, Kyle hosted the family for breakfast and a soccer game watching party (he is an avid Liverpool fan). Jeanine prepared a lovely Dutch Baby which disappeared very quickly. While these pancakes are derived from the German pancake dish, it is said that the name Dutch Baby was coined as the result of a child’s mispronunciation of the German autonym Deutsch.

For only the second time this year, we woke up to snow, a good three inches and still falling. The photo above was taken from inside our living room through window glass (talk about laziness or rather, a desire to remain cozy). In a further demonstration of slothfulness, I launched my drone from our tiny deck and then went back indoors to fly it. After taking a few aerial photographs, I nearly lost the drone because I could not find our house on return. Our house and property look very different when snow-covered and I found it impossible to locate. Fortunately, the drone defaults to an automated return to home function when the battery level drops. I held my breath until I could hear the drone come in for a landing.

When we purchased our new house, it was primarily for the river views. Little did we know that there would be treats for our ears as well as our eyes. When the river freezes and thaws, it makes the most unusual and wonderful sounds. Impossible to describe with words, I hope to make a future blog entry with an audio recording.

You know you are a nerd when you spend 2 hours driving around town looking at rooflines. Jeanine and I have decided that our new house design will include low slope (1:12 or less) standing seam metal roofs. These will likely be mono slope (shed) style or possibly a mix of mono slope and offset gable (for the garage). Before heading out, Jeanine agreed to a quick portrait which is the first I have taken in some time. Most of my good lighting equipment is in storage and I had to make do with a camera mounted flash. Expect to see many future photos with the river as a backdrop.

An office holiday party in the midst of the Covid pandemic presented some unique challenges. At Digital Alloys we held ours virtually over Zoom. The party featured a cocktail mixing class taught by our CEO and on-line games including a DA version of Jeopardy, Pictionary, and a true or false quiz. A sheet cake featuring a team photo I had taken a few weeks ago was the food highlight of the party. Employees participated from their offices, desks or from home.

It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows Jeanine that she is genetically programmed to nourish those she cares for. It is one of the things I love about her. When it comes to mouse eradication, however, this predisposition is not helpful. In response to the night time sounds of a mouse scurrying across the floor of a room above our shared office, Jeanine deployed several mouse traps. When I checked them to see if the culprit had been dispatched, I discovered what I can only describe as a cheese buffet for wayward mice (first image). Nice mouse-sized pieces of cheese spread in an area of the trap far from the trigger. To further ensure an undisturbed mouse dining experience, the trigger was set to the safe position, from which it cannot be actuated. Pictured below is my buffet for cats who like to eat dead mice.

This photo, taken by Kyle, features a rare albino squirrel. From a camouflage and heat absorption perspective, it seems that this guy is going to be in for a tough winter.

Maya shared this photo, taken with her friends, during a north country winter hike. Between work, the new house, and Covid concerns, Jeanine and I have had little time or interest in traveling far from home. We are both suffering from cabin fever and it may be time to take inspiration from our intrepid daughter to venture out.

Even though the kids now acknowledge that I was an early trendsetter for the bomber style hat fashion trend, they refuse to believe that my new high ear variation will go anywhere. It is most dramatic with both ears up. The one ear presentation is edgier. Only time will tell if I am once again at the leading edge of hat fashion.

Mild temperatures and a break from the rain made it the perfect day to do some yard clean up. I spent most of my time cutting a large stump closer to the ground. This is the stump on which we stranded the truck we used to move the tiny house to our new address. The task was unusually difficult because another tree was growing out from under the stump creating an obstacle for my chainsaw. Jeanine gathered fallen limbs that were littering the property and we used our makeshift fire pit to reduce everything to ash while enjoying a nice fire.

On a day that featured almost continuous rain, it started with a brief period of calm and a lovely mist moving down the river. Jeanine and I spent a good bit of time starting to build a “scrap book” of design ideas for the new house. Our architect has taken the as-built measurements of the house and will be ready for our first kick-off meeting in a week or two. One big decision that we will sit with for a while before committing to is a change from our current roof structure to mono-slope low pitch roof. We both realized that everytime we identified a house that we liked, it had this type of roof.

More often than not, when I see a swan, I see a pair and they are usually sticking their heads underwater in search of food. This guy was cruising solo up the river towards Fairhaven Bay and seemed interested in little else than reaching his destination. Kind of like me on my commute to work.

Jeanine found this vole wandering around in our basement and summoned me to relocate it outdoors. It was very easy to catch and was kind enough to stick around for a photo after I released him. A relative of the hampster, these creatures only live for 6 to 12 months but produce 100 offspring during that time. Something tells me, these guys are going to be frequent visitors. When time permits, I will have to figure out how he gained entry to the basement. The floor is poured concrete and the walls are cement blocks. There is, however, one area, under the base of the stairs, that goes down to the dirt. It is currently under a raised platform that constitutes the last step and I will have to remove it to validate my suspicion.

This evening, Jeanine offered me chocolate from this assortment explaining that we would each enjoy one per evening until they run out. Who am I to argue with this plan. Constant work on the new house has left me 15 pounds lighter and in a position to enjoy these treats guilt-free.

Work at Digital Alloys remains the source of great personal enjoyment for me. Our team continues to make excellent progress as we begin our series “C” fundraising in earnest. When I joined the company, I laid out a straight forward plan to get us to market. First, demonstrate that our printed parts were of the same quality as ones machined from the same metal. We accomplished this late last summer. Second, demonstrate that we could print parts at speeds that would result in an economically attractive business model. We achieved this milestone last month with a 30x improvement from our baseline. The final objective is to demonstrate that we can print parts of arbitrary geometry and I am feeling fairly confident that we can do this over the course of a few more months. Pictured above is a new fixture we have designed to hold the cylindrical block on which we print parts. It will be completed later this week when the final component (a pneumatic cylinder) arrives in house.

It has now been just over nine years since I joined the Board of Directors of the American Amputee Soccer Association. In that time, the organization has grown from one that could barely field a full squad to represent the United States in international competition and then only if the players could pay for their own travel to one that is now starting to build out regional teams and has modest funding. One of the most important missions of the organization is to help amputees reach their full potential and to create an opportunity to enjoy competitive soccer. Hayes, pictured above, recently lost his leg. He was thrilled when a member of the US National Amputee Soccer Team reached out and sent him a team jersey and backpack along with an offer to join the sport when he is old enough. I hope to still be with the organization when that day comes.