First Snowfall

The first snowfall came late this year, giving some extra time to get the vehicles in shape for winter!  I hope to make some more videos showing the ATV and other vehicles in action, so the first set of modifications lined up for IAP are intended to prepare everything for some off-roading in the snow.  More details coming soon.

In case you missed it, here's some footage from last year featuring the usual suspects:

Above, we got to do some cruising with the ATV and drift trike around the parking garage while gathering some preliminary data for my 2.671: Instrumentation and Measurement project. (April 2015)

Below, we got some new people to come try out the trike, testing how it handled while drifting on ice.  (March 2015)

Thanks to my roommate, Jon Morrell, for making the videos!  Check out his YouTube channel for some more crazy rides and stunts!

Merry Christmas!

Now that I have some free time back at home for the holidays, I've been trying to get back into catching up with all of my projects, website, blog, and everything else.  Time for my annual IAP attempt to document all my projects - hopefully I'll keep up for more than a month!

Going back home has always given me a venue for an entirely new set of backyard projects, including recently converting the back deck into a ninja warrior obstacle course.  I've long been a big fan of the tv show, and making my own course has been a fun way of getting in shape while building more crazy stuff.  Here's the classic salmon ladder:

With the day after Christmas an unusually warm 55 degrees, it was nice being able to still work outside in the yard.  I ended up not getting much done on the course, and instead cleared up the yard by chopping down some trees.  I like the workout, and after a long semester, it was good to vent and blow off some steam.  

Of course I managed to drop it the wrong direction, adding some excitement to the day.  The tree fell right on top of a few smaller trees and hung up in the air...

Daddio went in to assess the situation, but the big tree was perfectly wedged between three smaller trees and wouldn't be shaken loose...

It made quite a mess, but also made for a fun afternoon and a ton of firewood...assuming the winter ever comes sometime in the near future.