Sunday, December 28, 2014

A Girl and her Drone- Plus Other Cool Gifts


Now Who is this gift for?
The tag says it is for Taylor, but do you think Pops has designs on it?
You have three guesses and the first two don't count.
Heck, Yes!!


It started out to be an inexpensive grocery store offering
for a pretty cool double bladed helicopter with a LED 
light, which we got for her cousin.  But then Pops said,
Let's go to the Hobby Shop!!
Uh oh.

 I went over to look at the "girl stuff" and when I came back
it was like the Geek convention.  Here they were talking
copters, gear, flight paths, ranges, etc.

Ummm, this is a kid's toy
(A Big Kid's toy from what I am seeing)

It doesn't look like any helicopter I've ever seen.
That's because it's a Quad Copter, or in other words
A Drone.


This one did not come with a camera but can be retro fitted.
It works on a  2.4 Ghz, a frequency Tom is licensed for
through his ham radio license, which means he can ramp
up power, better transmitters, etc.  Google has been 
talking about experimenting using these for repeaters
rather than towers, amazing!  These are similar to
what Amazon intends to use for package delivery.

 He is going to set up obstacle courses and landing targets
 once she gets good at it.  Pops seems to be practicing 
a lot, even when Taylor is not here!
He must be breaking it in for her.
That's it.

We got some other really cool gifts this year .


The cats got me a travel acrylic paint set.


 I also got some drawing pencils to go with it.

In  addition to a pocket knift and thumb guard for whittling.


I have no idea if I will be good at this but
thought it would be fun to try, especially
as we spend a lot of time sitting around the fire
or on the covered porch in the summer.
There are directions for making tiny animals
as well as other handy things.


Our neighbor gave us a Mushroom Mini Farm!
She had tried one of her own and it grew right out of
the box.  The photos were amazing, so pretty!
I'm looking forward to starting it.


Santa brought Pops an old time game,
he's always been fond of these things-
you know- how to unhook the horse shoes or
entwined nails or the peg games for tic tac toe.


Becky (my daughter) and Taylor (granddaughter)


Christmas Eve next door at my mother in law's house.
My daughter working as bartender.


Neighbors came to visit.


My brother/sister in law's mantle with the 
required opossum among the stockings (???)


Kids by the fire


Mom was not here, the first time in years and years.
She is still recovering from her months in the hospital, 
feeling much better and getting around the house 
unassisted now.  She spent the holiday with friends
 back in Arkansas. We gave her a Google Nexus so she
has her email and Facebook right by her chair and
can keep up with messages and photos of the family 
and friends.   It also has Google Hangouts which is
similar to Skype but easier. We'll teach her to use that
and we can video chat.




5 comments:

Harry Flashman said...

Wow. You really do up Christmas in your family. I have been hearing a lot about drones, and how they are becoming common in the hands of the general populace. I think once the FAA decides how to deconflict air space and the prices dome down some, I might look at getting one with a camera. I can think of a lot of uses for it.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

This one wasn't too bad, it was $80 but again, no camera but it can be fitted with one later. It is a line of site frequency but will go about a mile or so, if we could see that far and it didn't get stuck in trees. The rest of us really didn't do much for Christmas, other than the smaller gifts except for Mom and that was a family gift to her. We do always have a nice get together on Christmas Eve, my father in law designed his house with a bar in the living room (that caused a lot of rumors up here before people knew him) and it has come in handy for entertaining.

Powell River Books said...

Looks like you had a bountiful Christmas. Wayne got our friend one of the four rotor helicopter drones. I wonder if he'll try it out or leave it in the original box like the remote control truck and quad we got him several years ago. - Margy

Yahoobuckaroo's Blog said...

I have this great memory of going to my grandparent's farm in Tennessee as a young boy and sitting out back learning to whittle. A handful of other old farmers in overalls would come by and we'd all sit around a bucket in the fall whittling kindling for the fireplaces and wood stoves. Fill one bucket, start another. When I got tired of whittling I would chase down jute bugs and tie a long string around their legs and twirl them in the air. They make a sound like a miniature airplane. Must have been hell for the bugs, but nobody seemed to think about it at the time. The backyard on the farm must have looked like a Norman Rockwell painting.

Manny said...

I love that drone. My son got too many presents, and frankly I think he's getting spoiled. He always expects more.