We’ve got a few petrol UTVs that are convenient, but it is a pain to keep refilling five gallon fuel containers so we can run these things. We tried to repair the 12v lead acid batteries, but that doesn’t look like a viable solution. Off to research 48v lithium ion battery options … until then, the Ranger is getting a bath.
We’ve got catkins forming for next year already!
I’ve long hypothesized that, as companies adopt AI (more accurately LLM’s) in their processes, the skillset required to enter the job market will change. You don’t need an entry level team member – that role is filled by the AI. You need a senior level person who can manage, direct, and oversee the junior “team members”. What that looks like varies by industry – in software development, you don’t need junior developers. You need a senior dev who does quality control on the generated code, integration, and debugging.
There’s now research backing up my expectation — https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5425555
While the number of senior employees has continued to increase, the number of junior employees has actually decreased in the past few years.
We’ve got an old charcoal grill/smoker at our camping site, so I made some shish kebobs to cook for lunch/dinner when we were hanging out this holiday weekend. Marinaded the beef in a little soy, ginger, and garlic. Then skewered along with various peppers, zuccini, tomatoes, and broccoli.
We cooked them over a wood fire
And had a quick meal — it’s easy to overcook small chunks!
We got our fire pit set up for the labor day weekend, cooked out, played music, and relaxed.
Unfortunately maple marshmallows didn’t work over the open fire — it was close, but the gooey mass ended up falling before it was really toasted. Luckily we had backup commercial marshmallows. And smores constructed and then set into the warm smoker grill were spectacular!
Marshmallows made with pure maple syrup and gelatin powder! In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine 1/3 cup of cold water and 1 Tbsp of powdered gelatin. Let the gelatin hydrate.
Heat the maple to the soft ball stage (~235F) and slowly add to the gelatin whilst mixing at low speed. Once all of the maple syrup has been added, turn up to a high speed and keep whipping until it’s a firm, sticky mass. (stiff peak stage). Then put it somewhere to set. I used a 8×8 cake pan that was lined with wax paper. Refrigerate for a few hours, then remove and cut. You can dust the squares with powdered sugar if you don’t want them to be sticky. Or just deal with sticky maple-flavored fingers.
The first hazelnuts are falling, and Anya has been hunting them in the grass.
When we picked up the field goal posts, we also checked out a Polaris Ranger EV that was being auctioned by a park / habitat preservation entity. We actually won the auction! Scott and Anya went out today to pick it up. The batteries are shot (of course! We’d measured the voltages already and bid with the assumption that new batteries would be needed), but everything looks solid otherwise. Fingers crossed we can get 48v of the batteries working to boot it up and confirm everything is functional.
Or, at least, the material to make some farm gates. These are field goal posts that pivot so you can do non-football things with the stadium. Less tall, and they will pivot to let vehicles pass.
Another government auction deal – $36 for 700 or 800 pounds of aluminum tubes that we’ll make into gates. The field goal system is designed to rotate to allow the field to be used for non-football purposes … which should be perfect for swinging a gate across the driveways and farm road.
