NEXRAD Phoenix Radar
What's more useless than a tanning booth in Arizona? Live weather radar from the Sonoran Valley. Realtime doppler coverage of Maricopa County monsoon activity.
Scott TV Webcams
Incredible live images of the whole family in various compromising positions. Watch Dave raid the refigerator or catch Liz enjoying the big screen.
Are You a SWAT?
Want to trace your roots back to Poland (or Austria)? Maybe you'd like to share a family moment. Perhaps you're trying to return the power tools you borrowed last year. The Swatkowski family weblog and message center is back. Take a few seconds and let us know what you've been up to lately.
All Pigbag Radio
Crank up the All PigBag streaming radio feed, lock your computer, go to lunch. Your co-workers will love you!
We Will Rock You »
Robot Comic Brain
Our swelling, itching Joke-A-Matic Brain cranks out one liners, limericks and jokes that kill. Like an Austrian Death Machine Terminator on nitrous oxide.
Its NOT a Tumor »
Fish ON !
Believe it or not there are quite a few lakes within an hours drive from the East Valley. There is a fishable portion of the Salt River less than ten minutes away. The lakes are stocked regularly with trout and catfish.
We were able to get started with four fishing poles and tackle for under a hundred bucks. Inexpensive rod and reel combinations like the Zebco Rhino or Classic 33 work well and cost between $20 and $40. Almost any ball bearing reel paired with a light to medium action rod will handle an amazing variety of fishing scenarios. I like the spincast reels because they are easy to use and reliable. Recently I purchased a bait casting reel and have made several sweet bird's nests of fishing line trying to get the hang of casting with this infernal contraption. I'm sure it can be done, but it will take serious practice on my part.
Productive baits include Hebrew National hotdogs, cheddar cheese, nightcrawlers and some select lures and artificial bait. We've had our best luck to date with little chunks of Kosher all beef franks. Perhaps those folks do answer to a higher authority. Popular artificial baits like Berkley meal worms and Aaron's Magic salt worms have proven effective, yet not as productive as common "refrigerator" bait.
Results may have something to do with the venue as our convenient lake is rather urban and these fish have access to a virtual deli assortment of feed choices. Bottom line ( no pun intended ) fishing is a great way to spend family time, though the wife may opt out of some spin casting expeditions. She may appreciate the quiet time more than a fighting Bass.
August 2008: Caught three good sized Catfish and a dozen Bluegills at Tempe Town Lake recently. Fish the east side of the lake between 0400 and 0700 hours early morning. Got hard bites on Hebrew hot dogs, cheese curds, Gulp worms, chicken bones and baby rabbits. Bring your landing net for Lake Marlin.
Check back soon for KLorg! fishing reports.
Blast OFF !
Over the last few years we have lost, blown up, burned down, and fished out more rockets
than I care to quantify. As our hobby progressed the space craft became larger, more complex
and increasingly expensive to fly. Electronic payloads (read, more equipment to lose) accompanied the high
tech boosters to collect data, fire ejection charges and aid ground tracking crews when recovering the rockets
as they returned from the upper atmosphere.
Since we moved to the desert we have gone back to basics. Flying lightweight model rockets on engines
with C-6 power is every bit as satisfying as the big ticket launches. The family formula includes nylon parachutes, nomex wadding
and in some cases audio tracking beepers. The lack of trees and tall grasses has greatly improved the rate
of successful recovery. The tracking beeper costs a mere $15 to build.
Here are a few moments, captured in our quest
to enjoy rocketry as a hobby while retaining hardware. We learn a little with every launch,
including new ways to cope with loss.
At least our failures don't cost $165 million and end up Mars litter (sorry NASA).
There will likely be ( at least ) one more UBER rocket built this year. KLorg Labs will endeavor to construct a three foot tall, 24 mm monster rocket with D through G engine capability that will break the sound barrier on its way to a mile into the sky. Stay tuned for info and video clips.
Launch Movies - Realmedia
- Beeproc Flight ~400K
- Bigstick Launch ~400K
- Patriot Launch ~100K
- Rockzilla Launch ~100K
- Firestick Launch ~200K
ON Target !
Many years ago a well placed rifle shot brought home a frozen turkey from a Lion's Club sponsored target competition. Fast forward forty years, the winner fires a second shot and has a great time in the process. Target shooting goes to the top of the hobby list. Now we routinely blast away at paper targets, citrus fruit, spuds, tin cans and undocumented border crossers ( kidding ).
Like so many fledgling shooters we started with a Ruger 10/22. Ours is stainless with a 22 inch barrel. Lots of folks will swear the 10/22 is a tack driver, but in our experience it is an average rimfire rifle without some aftermarket tweaking. The kids had some issues with the factory bolt and magazine release mechanisms. Favorite ammo is hot 30 grain Aguila Supermax. The Aguila round cycles reliably where lesser powered cartridges sometimes fail to eject properly. That aside, the Ruger is a great value when it comes to plinking fun per dollar.
A half dozen rifles and a thousand dollars later we are sticking with the 22's. Long rifle, shorts, magnums, colibri, hornets, fireballs and .223 calibers fill various target shooting requirements. Ruger, Remington, Savage, Marlin, Taurus and Bushmaster pieces are regularly pressed into service seeking the ellusive single ragged hole. They all make short work of reactive targets strewn about the desert.
We have a gun range nearby that is a favorite place to shoot paper and steel targets. They have rimfire, high power rifle, pistol, air gun and practical ranges available. We developed a Bullet Bowling competition there that is a fun test of marksmanship. The idea is to score as many points as you can with twenty five rounds shot at 2 inch bullseye and tiny bowling pin targets. You can download a Bullet Bowling target HERE.
The target pictured represents the best effort so far. It was a perfect spring day with almost no wind. Five shots were taken from a concrete bench on the 100 yard rifle range. The gun is a Remington 597 M chambered in 22 WMR with a heavy barrel and laminated stock. Its as nice to look at as it is to shoot. Its a semi-automatic, but there aren't too many bolt action target pieces that will shoot better.
While the future of sporting arms remains uncertain, today we can still enjoy an afternoon spent hurling projectiles downrange at peanut sized targets. Take your kids plinking sometime soon. Target shooting is a safe, fun family hobby that gets the adrenaline flowing as it rewards discipline and self control.