Odds and ends

What a pretty sunrise a few days ago. Tish even noticed it, a surprise.

I finally got around to assembling some of the videos I took at last month's Pumpkinfest into a single video about two minutes long. YouTube gave me some trouble uploading it (I was successful on the fourth attempt). Coming out of Windows Movie Maker the video was 414MB!! I ran it through VirtualDub, trying a couple different compression mechanisms which yielded similar results at 40MB. That's a big difference. WMM's .wmv product was the size winner at 38MB.

The trebuchets, catapults and air cannons were videoed during the third round of competition. One air cannon had been disqualified in the earlier rounds for landing well out of range (limited to 1000 feet). In the third round it took distance for a shot of 975 feet. One of the trebuchets launched its gourd 650 feet. It's always a kick to see a trebuchet at work. This year there were a couple unusual designs. the most curious one spun a long arm in its middle, then somehow connected that to the payload. It was too far away to see clearly. In the video the Chicken Dance is playing during its attempt.

Note that my video can't show just how the contraptions work, due to distance and some compression effects. Check some of the "Related videos" if you really want to see these things in action.

There's been only a little new evidence of beaver activity along the creek in the past couple weeks. It's comforting to know that at least one is still around.

Two weeks after a brilliant color display the cottonwoods in the wetlands are all but denuded. What is curious is that some cottonwoods in the neighborhood are just entering their color change.