Roswell, Indiana on Easter Sunday

Took Jersey (grand-dog) out for a run this morning and while I was out, took the opportunity to pick up some trash that had blown into the fence row.  I saw some trash in the neighbor's field, and my first thought was - his problem.  But, being an Eagle Scout, Mason, and care-taker of the earth, I stopped and went out to the orange "trash bag."

Upon arrival, I found it to be a parachute - with a balloon attached.  Must be a school project or something.  Too bad I cannot find what was attached to it - the string was broken about ten foot back.  I picked it up anyway.  As I came back to our property, I found another 10' section of rope - then another and it was attached to a box.

The orange is a parachute.  The clearish blob on the left is the remains of the balloon.
30' of rope - and a box.

I picked it up and the first thing I saw was this:

Instructions from the aliens.


The other side of the box.

So it appears as though this is a weather instrument, launched from Davenport, Iowa on 23 NOV 2013 at 5:00 p.m.  If you had to drive to Davenport - it's about 4.5 hours and 280 miles, but that's going N to Chicago and then West.  As the crow flies, it traveled about 180 miles, if it came in a straight line.

Dad and I opened the box up - it measured 4" x 6" and was mostly packing.  It had a battery pack, some wires which we think are antenna, and the instrument.  It also contained a huge envelope to send the whole thing back.

I have to document where and when I found it, but postage is pre-paid.

So this thing launched 5 months ago after the crops were out - wise.  But sat all winter in the field.  Well, Lockheed Martin - you're getting your instrument back - if indeed that's what it truly is...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cleaning Winchester SX3 / SX4 Shotguns

Image
The Winchester SX4 is my Go To shotgun for everything - clays, doves, ducks, geese, pheasants, whatever.  It is an awesome firearm.  The drawback?  There are multiple moving parts and a few of them like to collect carbon.  And this carbon sticks as if it were put on those parts with super glue! Specifically, the magazine tube and the gas piston are the main carbon collectors.  Those parts come out more black than silver & gold. The inner components of an SX3 / SX4 with highlights where carbon will form So what is my trick for cleaning those bits?  I drop the gas piston into my Hornady sonic cleaner.  Inside the cleaner I put in about a cup of Hornady's One Shot Sonic Clean Solution for gun parts, add some DI water, a couple squirts of Dawn liquid dish soap, and then top it off with a dash or two of the citrus version of Dr. Bronner's pure castile liquid soap.  I have found that the citrus Dr. Bronner's is awesome at removing grease and oil....
Read more

Winchester SX4 Trigger Assembly Update

Image
First, you need to read the post immediately before this one to understand why I had to take my Winchester SX4 shotgun apart - all the way apart - specifically the trigger assembly. Second, my bad.  I had neglected to clean the gun after returning from last October's pheasant trip.  I had about one bale of grass seed inside that gun, which in the end, may have kept the #8 pellet from getting out on its own.  Shame. Finally, I did not give up.  I watched four different YouTube videos on how to disassemble and reassemble the trigger group.  Sadly, no one did the SX4, only the previous version, the SX3.  Close enough.  Why did it take 4 videos?  Because no one explained HOW the damn sear goes back in.  Everyone either ASSUMED we all know how OR in two cases, the reassembly process was out of the camera frame.  Aggravating! The key, and this is more for me to remember, was on the fourth video, the author said, "The sear kinda slides down int...
Read more

Determine Sex of Deer from Tracks

Image
It IS possible to determine from a set of tracks whether the deer you are tracking is a doe (female) or a buck (male).  And, it's actually pretty simple if you know a few facts about deer. First, you have to know what a deer track looks like.  Deer leave a track that looks like the outline of a heart. Next, you have to know the direction of travel.  Deer are moving toward the "pointy" end of the heart.  So in the above example, the deer is traveling toward the top of this post, or up. Here is an actual photo of deer tracks in the wild so you can get a better idea.  Again, this deer is traveling up, or towards the top of this page.  (It is also clear that this deer was STANDING, not walking - well clear enough to me.  Read on to find out why I know that). Sometimes if the ground is soft or if the deer is traveling really fast (jumping), the track left will show the deer's dew claws at the rear of the direction traveling, like so: The ...
Read more