The Nieborgs - InfoSpot: December 2008

Happy New Year... Before

Another year on its way out...

3rd Annual Starkey Park Geo-Event

Time for one more geo-event before the year is over. We attended this one on Sunday, the 28th with Karen and Bradley joining us.

Karen started out early with us at the park and since it's close to her house, she let her boys sleep in, then picked them up at around noon-time.

It was a great time to socialize with a few geocachers we haven't seen in a while. Captain Biggins here, was the first place winner in our 10-Coin Geocoin Challenge recently. He also worked hard on making a couple of pots of chili, and then put together a geo-bingo game and a geocaching version of a poker run too. His efforts were greatly appreciated.

And here we are, preparing to begin the poker run, a game where you find different hidden containers that have sealed envelopes with a playing card hidden inside. After locating all of the containers and collecting an envelope from each, they were turned in to Captain Biggins so he could cut them open and see what kind of poker hand we came up with.

But first, Luann decided to take advantage of the scenery for a neat little picture of 'SeekingValhala' and 'The Alchemist Ekard' (they both signed up with their own geocacher's names now).

As we made our way to the first poker run container, we came across this gopher tortoise on his way to his next meal.

During our search, we came across several fellow geocachers whom were trying to make up a poker run hand too. This is Geo Mrs. P, poking around underneath a log with a ski pole. You never know where Captain Biggins might have hidden those containers...

At the next container, we came across Florida Panther too.

Although FL Panther was riding a bicycle, we seemed to cross paths with him several times.

Looks like SeekingValhala found one of the boxes and is letting us all take our pick from the envelopes inside.

Here's a pic of a leaf bug we came across on our way back to the pavilion to turn in our poker run envelopes.

And here is SeekingValhala and The Alchemist Ekard waiting to see how well they did. Actually, it took Biggins a bit before he could announce the winners, because so many people had played the game.

Time for a bit of lunch and a rest after our jaunt on the poker run. In a minute, Karen will be leaving to pick up her boys.

When we started off to hunt for real geocaches this time, we came across this 5-foot eastern diamondback rattlesnake, making it's way across the road. Since his progress was real slow, I held up traffic in the park so this big boy could get to the other side without being run over.

Ah, Karen and her boys. Brendan and Kylor look like they're ready for a nice, fun day of geocaching.

Time to use a fallen tree as a bridge over this creek. Careful now!

Ok, steady now... (Click on the picture for a better view)

Heading down the trail, we came across an orange tree, so I climbed up and shook a few oranges loose for our group.

Well, Kylor and SeekingValhala have one, time to get a couple more.

One final pose of our fellow travelers in front of this massive oak tree before we head home for the day. This was a bunch of fun, I can't wait for another one of these geo-events to come up.

Merry Christmas! 2008

Below is a link to the Christmas e-Card we created for our friends and family. Please Click Here to download and view it. If you are unable to view Microsoft Powerpoint files, please Click Here first to download the free viewer. When the little screen pops up, click on Run, and free Power Point Viewer will be loaded. After the loading is done, you can click on the Christmas card link (above) and it should work.

Volunteering At Toys For Tots

We spent all day Saturday (12-20-08) working at one of the Marines Toys For Tots Foundation toy distribution warehouses (click here for access to their website) that distributes toys to needy families so their children can have toys for Christmas. It was grueling, hard work for us volunteers, but it was well worth the effort. While I did shelf inventory stock-work for the 3-6 year-old boys table, Luann and Katrina worked in the baby care area (for those parents that couldn't find somebody to watch thier children so they could stop by). After lunch break, Luann and Katrina shifted over to assist me at the '3-6 Boys' counter because the counter people we had in the morning, were only there for 1/2 a day. To be honest, we had only planned to be there for the morning session ourselves, but since we could see they really needed our help, we stayed for both sessions. It was pretty busy as we teamed up together to get the boxes unloaded, the toys on the tables and then helped the parents find selections that would be good choices for their special someones...

The final tally for our distribution center was that 1117 families were able to find gifts for their 4000+ children to have for Christmas morning. We had heard about the Toys For Tots program through Luann's work and it is nice that there is something like this out there to help those in need. We hope that after reading this, you might be encouraged to help out with the Toys For Tots program in your area too.

To be honest though, this was really hard work, but with the occasional tears we glimpsed, the many times we heard "Thank-You" and the tons of smiles we saw when the parents realized that they will have something to give their children for Christmas, made every bit of work we did worth it... yeah, we'll be doing this again next year...

Note: No assumption of affiliation with the Toys For Tots program is made through the use of their logo on this site. For further details about the great work that the Toys For Tots program does for needy families in your area, please click on the link above to be taken to their official website.

Hello From Baltimore, Maryland

Geez, I'm getting around lately... Seems I had to run out to Maryland on an emergency basis to repair one of our machines.

This is what our motor-starter runs, a metal shredder, or Hammer Mill. You can put a car in on one side (engine block and all) and you get a shredded wheat version on the outbound side.

Here is our motor starter inside the building.

And here is where I worked to put things back in order.

Another view of the work area.

The power for the motor power supply was pretty weak, so a UPS was installed (the black thing). The installation is temporary until the rack that was ordered comes in.

This is the minimum size of transformer we need to run this 4000hp motor.

And this is the kind of fuse it takes too. They make 'em kinda big, don't they?

Here's the outbound side of the shredder. The only way somebody could be standing here is when the machine is turned off, because all kinds of stuff comes flying out of this thing while it's beating stuff into little bitty pieces.

Well, before we can start that 4000hp motor, the hammer mill has been opened up so the junk that is still stuck in it can be cleaned out.

Here is a pile of what comes out of the shredder. Click on the image for a larger view and see if you can guess what some of this stuff might have been before it took a trip through the hammer mill. Kinda tough to identify, huh?

Yeah, lots of this shredded stuff is piled up all over the place...

Here's a magnet crane, being used to sweep the roadway of metal pieces. It actually works pretty good.

Here is where a capacitor bank was once connected to the motor cables. This was disconnected because they aren't supposed to be hooked up when a soft starter motor controller is used.

And, there were surge capacitors up inside the motor connection box too. The surge cap had also been disconnected, so that everything will work out fine when we go to start the motor. On the next start attempt, the shredder came all the way up to speed and was put into action so it could start 'eating' cars again...

Hello From Greenpoint, New York

Well, this isn't exactly Greenpoint, but it does make for a neat opening picture...

Actually, I went to NYC in order to check up on our big motor starters there used for providing aeration for some digesters at a waste water treatment plant. But primarily, I was called out to provide some training on how to communicate with our machines using a laptop computer. This starter here is named Beatrice. All of our big machines are named. For this project, Germanic names were chosen. Although there are 9 machines here, we actually chose 10 names because we also built a prototype that was intentionally destroyed in testing. The prototype was named Gertrude, and the other nine were named: Gretchen, Brunhilde, Helga, Beatrice, Frieda, Ingrid, Mathilde, Adelheid & Katerina and built in that order.

And this is the motor/machine that we start. This is an air blower that moves huge amounts of air through it. The electric motor (on the right side) is rated at 2000 horse power.

And here is the training room. I was told that this room was to be demolished as the expansion of the treatment facility is completed.

As some point in all of this, I decided to take my first subway ride in New York, with the assistance of Chiu from work. He flew out at about the same time as I did to visit with his family and to show me around town, as time permitted. I took this picture because after I put a $10 bill in the Metrocard machine, it gave me back 3 different $1 coins. One is a Susan B. Anthony, the other is a Sacawajea and the third is a John Adams coin. It was interesting to see such diversity in change received from a machine.

First stop, Grand Central station. I can imagine this place is packed during rush hour.

Ah, Times Square. Again, thank goodness it isn't rush hour...

And here is Times Square in the opposite direction.

There are lights, signs and all kinds of illuminated commercials everywhere. I would love to see the power bill for this place.

Things just swirl around you if you stand still.

Nothing is as 'Christmas-y' as giant Christmas tree bulbs... Well, kinda.

And, how about a quick stop by Radio City Music Hall...

Then a stop by Rockerfeller Center to see the Christmas tree, the ice skating rink and the golden statue.

Yep, that's the one...

I just couldn't visit New York without stopping by the Empire State Building.

And, here we are, at the top of the Empire State Building. I was told that the top spire is loaded with radio and TV antennas, so here it is...

Wow, the view from here is great!

Ah, Lady Liberty. I was surprised that I could get this shot all the way from the ESB.

This is a view of the jobsite in Greenpoint. It's a sewage treatment plant where those egg-shaped vessels are in the distance.

I was amazed at the measures that were taken to keep people from splattering themselves on the streets below.

Hey! What's this guy doing here? Actually, Chiu has been showing me around his old stomping grounds during our visit here. Chiu wanted me to take his picture with the gold-capped building in the background.