Oma Meets David and Plays with Katy!

I just had to make the trip to meet my new little guy . . . and he is just as sweet as can be! He looks a little serious here, but he just got home from the hospital and had been meeting people pretty continuously for two and a half days. And many of them were named "Grand" something, too. But I am the only OMA in the crowd. That is undoubtedly why he is thinking so hard about it.

While David is sleeping, Katy and I are having a great time with puzzles and songs and books and walks around the block. Katy knows the route so well that she won't let Oma change it! If we get to a place that she usually turns and Oma keeps going, Katy has a really hard time. "This way, Oma! No! This way!" Maybe we can branch out a bit tomorrow.

I got an awesome gift certificate from the kids for my birthday. It gives me a chance to get a facial or a manicure or a pedicure or other service at the Aveda school. I can't wait to get that scheduled. I also want to get another massage at "Body Wisdom" while I'm here. I should come back calm and beautiful . . . well, at least calmER and more GROOMED. :-) I also got a great garden stone for my flowerbed. Hopefully there will be some things blooming there shortly after I get home.

Katy and I are going to story time at the library this week. I don't know if she is looking forward to it as much as I am, but I can use a break from books about service oriented architecture and enterprise business strategy. A few days coloring Nemo pictures and reading Eric Carle books may just improve my creativity. It is definitely out-of-the-box thinking . . . the crayon box.

Adios, amigos! (Dora says this)

Happy Birthday, David!

David Richard has arrived! He was born today at around 3 p.m. weighing in at a healthy 9 pounds, 4 ounces. Mommy, Daddy, and Katy are also doing fine!

Oma can't wait to check out this boy! Emily reportedly says he looks like Melanie, who weighed 9 pounds, 8 ounces at birth with a full head of black hair. But I think this is definitely a BOY face, don't you? However, like Aunt Mel, David has found his thumb in his first few hours on earth and is already figuring out the eating system. My prediction is that he will be a good sleeper and a satisfied feeder as well . . . .

I guess he wanted to have his own birthday; but we can still celebrate together. :-)

Congratulations, one and all!

Robo-Wonder to the Rescue!


Ever since I was a little kid, my dad has invented things. As I think about it, most of them were "work avoidance" machines of some kind; or else they were things he created to solve a particular problem. Not surprisingly, he has always been good at solving problems! Engineers are like that.


Dad's inventions are things like the remote controlled lawnmower that he could use to cut the grass while sitting on the front porch when I was 4 or 5 years old. Of course, there were always a few interested neighbors and friends standing around watching the spectacle. So effectively it took half a dozen people to cut our grass. But never mind!


As a teenager, I remember that our old Volkswagon was so rusty that the water splashed your feet when you drove through a puddle in the street. However, in the 60's, cars were just starting to have windshield wipers with variable speeds. Dad got a pulse motor and a little dial control and hooked it up in one of our VW's (we had two blue ones just alike); and voila!!! Our car had fancy shmancy windshield wipers, too!


It's been this way for years! Crowds of people watching my dad . . . not working? Recently, Dad has invented yet another labor saving device. And this one has been picked up by the press! Since not every newstand carries FARM SHOW Magazine, I am giving family members a preview here on the blog. Dad is once again a celebrity inventor! Read on for a description of his latest invention. Great work, Dad!! You are awesome!

Dad will be making a return engagement to the blog next month on a different subject. He has been chosen to go to Washington, D.C., for a day in April with a group of World War II veterans to see the war memorials . . . especially the World War II tribute . . . and a number of sites around the city. We expect a full report including pictures of Dad and his Army buddy, Freddie, who will meet him at the mall that day. For now, here's the inventor story that will appear in the May(?) issue of FARM SHOW. You get the scoop!

P.S. Mom and Dad don't actually live on a lake channel. The invention is for a cottage they own in Indiana.




Floating “Robot” Automatically Removes Weeds From Lakes

Garl McHenry of New Carlisle, Ohio, needed a way to remove floating weeds from a channel in front of his home. So he built a remote-controlled, electric-operated Styrofoam pontoon that’s equipped with a 2 1/2-ft. wide aluminum rake. The floating “robot” measures about 18 in. wide by 4 ft. long and is covered by fiberglass.


While sitting in a lawn chair, McHenry moves the pontoon back and forth to collect weeds. Once the rake is full of weeds, he brings the unit into shore to dispose of them.

“As far as I know there’s nothing like it on the market,” says McHenry. “Whenever I get it out on the channel it usually isn’t long before there’s a crowd standing around watching it run. Some of my neighbors on the channel even come out with their rakes and ask me to help them. So I go up and down the channel pushing weeds toward the edges of the channel, where they can rake them up and then dispose of them.

The entire unit doesn’t weigh more than 35 or 40 lbs.” The device doesn’t cut off weeds. Instead, it gathers up weeds that are cut off the bottom of the lake by boat propellers and then float to the top. “The floating weeds can plug up boat propellers as well as motor cooling systems. There are often large patches of weeds, up to 40 ft. wide by 500 ft. long, that can’t be reached from shore,” says McHenry.

The pontoon is propelled by an aluminum paddle wheel on each side. The wheels are controlled individually by small electric motor gearboxes powered by a 12-volt DC battery. The rake on front of the pontoon is made from aluminum tubing and has tines that are 9 in. long and spaced 4 in. apart. A spring-loaded cable is used to lift the rake out of the water when positioning the pontoon for another sweep. A metal counterbalance makes it easier to raise and lower the rake. The entire unit is controlled by a 4-channel, ground frequency radio control system purchased at a hobby store.

“Four servo motors were purchased for the system and are used to operate eight microswitches. The microswitches are used to go forward, reverse, right turn, left turn, rotate left, rotate right, raise rake, or lower rake,” says McHenry.

To operate the unit, he makes a path every 3 to 4 ft. It goes about 10 ft. every 30 seconds. I can turn sharp by rotating one wheel forward and the other one backward. I usually use it to retrieve weeds up to 150 ft. away, and never more than about 400 ft. Beyond that it’s hard to see the weed patches laying on the water.”

Once the pontoon reaches shore, he unloads the weeds by raising the rake and then backing away. “As I back away, the paddle wheels push the weeds even further in toward shore,” says McHenry. “I use a pitchfork to load the weeds onto a conveyor which delivers them into a trailer, which I then haul to a disposal site.”

The robot displaces only one or two inches of water, which can be a problem in some conditions, says McHenry. “The buoyancy makes it difficult to operate in fast moving water or in windy conditions.

To make the pontoon, McHenry bought a 4 by 8-ft. sheet of Styrofoam and cut it in four pieces, then used “liquid nails” to glue it together.

“I spent about $500 on materials. I’m 83 years old so I’m not going to manufacture this unit. However, anyone who’s interested is welcome to contact me.”

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Happy Easter!

It has been a great Easter weekend in spite of the snow yesterday and the chilly temperatures. Anticipating the arrival of our new grandbaby has given the holiday a different sense of waiting for something to happen. Waiting for new life to begin . . . waiting for spring and flowers to pop through the ground . . . waiting like the disciples hiding away in the upper room for something to happen.

We went to an early church service this morning to leave room for visitors later in the day. At 1 p.m., I am dressed for a walk and heading out into the sunshine in a few minutes. There are a few daffodils that are poking their heads out in my flower beds. I am hoping that the bulbs I planted last fall will start appearing soon. I added some blues to the early garden and can't wait to see how they look. When I am out walking, I will be looking for hints of other people's plantings while I get my exercise points.

Greg got the updated Turbo Tax software yesterday, so I guess we need to get that installed this week and plug in the numbers to see what we owe the tax man. I have my box of stuff here in dissarray waiting to be plugged in and ground up by the software. I have given up on filing early. Maybe if I planned for a refund that would be important. Not so. Besides, I like the togetherness of filing with the rest of the slackers. :-)

We sang a great song this morning that is running through my head. Let me leave you with that. It's called "Alive Forever Amen" and the chorus goes like this:

"He's alive, alive, alive hallelujah!

Alive, praise and glory to the lamb!

Alive, alive, alive hallelujah!

Alive, forever, Amen!"

Happy St. Patrick's Week to You!!!

I would truly be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the BEST holiday of the year---St. Patrick's Day! Being from the McHenry clan and growing up loving the color green and just generally loving being Irish, this has to be a favorite time of year. It is a holiday with no presents or flowers----just pure, unrestrained FUN!!

To celebrate this year, Greg and I started on Friday night, March 15, with dinner at our favorite restaurant, the Passport Cafe in Wexford. They had good Irish grub and some special beer (of course) and Irish music by The Arnold Family Band. We really enjoyed the evening listening to favorites like "Danny Boy" and "Finnegan's Wake" as well as numerous ballads about Irish boys and girls who invariably came to some bad end and ended up being buried with a jug of whiskey at their feet. I'm STILL tapping my feet to the music.

I've managed to wear green every day since Friday, and it has raised my spirits considerably! Tomorrow is the first day of spring; and it also happens to be Fred Rogers' birthday. In his memory, all of Pittsburgh has declared Thursday to be "Sweater Day." As a tribute, we are being asked to wear a Mr. Rogers style cardigan. I wonder if I have a GREEN cardigan? Here's a nice number. Emily and Melanie, what do you think? Would I look good in this?

"Won't you be, won't you be, please won't you be my neighbor . . . . "

Slacker Blogger, Oma!

Yes, family, I am still alive!!! It has been a busy week in Froehleville. Lots of meetings in the evenings for Sojourner House and Zonta and home group and so on. I'm looking forward to the weekend.

Some of you know that I have been having a lot of trouble with my neck and back since the holidays and that I have been going to a chiropractor . . . with some improvement but not a "cure." This week I decided it was time to think about some physical therapy, which required a visit to my family doctor for a referral. While I was there, I asked for a physical since I have been amazingly healthy and hadn't been to my primary care physician for over two years. Since my visit, I have taken a second job of setting up appointments and getting up early to go get blood drawn at 7 o'clock in the morning and go for a bone density scan. I never knew it was so much work to be healthy . . . almost. I figured it was good enough to be fairly satisfied with your weight and to have good blood pressure (114/62).

I am on baby watch now, you know. Emily is inside the 2-week window on having little David. I can't wait to go meet him and to have fun playing with Katy and doing puzzles and watching her videos. Just for fun, I am including a memory picture from Katy's first days. Can't wait to do this again!

The Big Thaw


I know this snow is pretty, but it was 55 degrees on Sunday, which melted most of it. To top it off, it has rained for about 4 out of the last 5 days. To a non-Pittsburgher, this may not seem like a big deal. But to those of us in the 'Burgh, this is a recipe for flood watches and high water.

All the hills around here mean that melting snow and water seeks the lowest point . . . and eventually ends up in the rivers. (You will recall that we have three rivers; the Monongahela and the Allegheny Rivers combine at the point to form the mighty Ohio River.) As I was driving to work this morning, the big flashing road sign that usually says "Congestion, next 700 miles" {slightly exaggerated} had a new message. It said, "Mon Wharf Closed." The Mon Wharf is the public boat launching and docking area in downtown Pittsburgh. During the business week, the Mon Wharf is a parking lot for commuters who park in the huge concrete wharf area and walk into downtown to work. On high-water days, the wharf closes sending a few hundred commuters scrounging for a place to park. These are REALLY good days to have a parking lease which insures you a place to park. Unfortunately, I do NOT have a lease right now. I was probably one of the last 10 cars in the garage before it closed this morning.

Life is sweet. Hope the water goes down soon. I applied for a lease, but it doesn't start until April 1. Keep your fingers crossed that the rest of March isn't too wet.