Christmas Day 2023

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Adak and Abby watch everything to do with food.

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Rocket Rescue:

Two weeks ago one of our rocket teams put a rocket high up in a tree. We put rockets in trees every year and we get many out, but never all of them. For the higher ones we use a bow to launch an arrow towing fishing line over the rocket, and then the fishing line pulls up paracord which pulls up a grappling hook. It works, but can be very difficult to get right and each shot can take a long time to retrieve and arrow and reset.
So, I bought a 46 foot telescoping ham radio antenna, which ended up being a few feet too short. This week I built an 7 foot 2x4 extension base with a dirt-digging spike and a 4 foot dowel extension for the tip. The plan was to tape a small grappling hook with paracord to the tip of the pole which would rip free. As the sun set, Joan and I managed to weave the tip of the pole through the tree branches and snagged the rocket and then we reefed on the paracord and down it came; decent slowed by its parachute.

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