Happy Halloween!

October 25, 2025October 28, 2025 barkmannLeave a comment

We got the Halloween decorations down from the attic the last weekend of September, before we even knew about the offer on the other house. Ann decorated the house and I decorated the office. I had a couple of glow in the dark skulls that had been sitting over there in the corner room for more than a decade. With the CFL black light bulbs in place of the standard lamp bulbs on either end of my desk, both those skulls glow brightly!

But that was just the beginning. Having to replace the burned out bulb in the skull candelabra, I decided to buy more of those neon “flicker flame” bulbs. Good choice. Now the eyes flicker too! Then I ordered more and replaced all the incandescent bulbs in a twenty light string with them and strung them around the book cases in the office. And while I was sitting in a meeting, I modified the closet lighting test jig to add Halloween lights.

And no, this isn’t yet another lighting post. Well, it is, sort of… I merely modified the configuration and HTML enough to make a string of orange, eerie green, and purple colored lights that flicker together. Kind of spooky, but Ann wasn’t impressed. Her only comment was they looked pink, not purple. Thankfully a quick and easy adjustment to configuration values to add a bunch more blue and now they definitely look purple.

For My Next Trick…

Having those glowing skulls sitting on top of the speakers on either side of my desk got me thinking about what else I could do with the glow in the dark 3D printer filament and some UV LEDs. Nick and I were chatting on Slack one night and he sent me a picture of a plastic ghost flipping me the bird, from an ad, that said it was supposedly holding candles. If I try hard enough, I can convince myself those might be candles, but always saw it flipping me the bird first.

It’s funny, because the very next day I saw the very same ghost in one of those Chinesium store ads I get in my email daily. Ann had seen another skull candelabra at the Antique store down the street from us, but didn’t buy it. I asked her why not, but it doesn’t matter, she didn’t. I was telling Nick I’m thinking if they still have it, I’d go buy it. With an old white sheet and a couple of 3D printed “candles”, presto, bird flipping ghost.

We were out to eat the other night at the restaurant just next door to it, so I asked if we could walk over there afterward and see if they still had it. They close at six o’clock, so I figured we had plenty of time. Ann went to pull the door open, but it was already locked? And it’s just now quarter ’til six! A girl came to the door and said they lock up 15 minutes before. Ann told her in that case they should change their sign to 5:45 instead of 6:00.

The “Flip Off” Ghost

The antique store could have made a quick sale, but their loss. F… ’em! And the broom they rode in on! That’s alright, Nick found someone had actually created an STL file to 3D print a ghost flipping the bird with both hands and sent it to me. Both 3D printers had been sitting idle for a couple weeks with all the higher priority things that came first to be able to list the other house for sale. Time to wake them from their slumber.

I pulled the STL file into the slicer, Cura. It said 2 days 11 hours to print it! I about fell out of my chair! Then I realized it was still set for 100% infill. Dropping it back to the standard 20% infill says more than seven hours. Still too long. Scaled down to 50% of original size and now it says a bit over two hours. That’s better. I already had what’s left of a spool of white loaded in the old printer and kicked off a print.

The first print came out great, so I printed another one. Now we have two half sized “Flip Off” ghosts sitting on the tea table beneath the skull candelabra. I grabbed the mini spool of glow in the dark blue filament off the shelf, ready to make some more prints. Before long I had two more ghosts, but this time in glow in the dark blue!

Is That Ghost Flipping Me Off Or Holding Candles?

All Things Must Glow – In The Dark!

Back when I bought my first 3D printer, my first venture into ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diodes (LEDs) was my “Glow In The Day” clock project. I’ll save the details for later in the post, but like any prototype, mistakes were made. One was printing it way too thin, the plastic face splitting into a flap where the clock movement is mounted. More pertinent to this discussion was the selection of outdoor, 12 volt UV LED strips.

The decision to use 12 volt LED strips rather than 5 volt ones adds an extra part to boost the USB supplied 5 volt power to 12 volts. These “half pint” ghosts are barely 3″ (76mm) tall. Where would I hide that part? With lessons learned, I searched for 5 volt UV LED strips and found a large assortment. Some with battery boxes for three AA batteries. Some with an additional USB pigtail adapt ed to the battery box. Some with just a USB pigtail and an inline switch.

I ordered all three to see which works best. The latter fits the bill nicely. Initially I left the strip wound on the spool. I quickly found out that was a big mistake after the LEDs became too hot to touch and the spool began to deform. Oopsie! Time to unwind. The LED strip from the spool that is. That turned into a win when I realized I could use the drill to clear out an internal passage and just insert the end of the LED strip, now free from the spool.

Ghost Factory

Perfect! That’s exactly what I was looking for. The entire ghost glows from the inside out. Before long I had the two blue ones rigged to glow from a dedicated battery, along with two new green ones I printed while working out how to add the power port to the blue ones. I noticed the 20% infill creates many very small cavities where I wanted fewer, larger ones to more easily insert the LED strips.

Reducing the infill to 5% reduced the print time even more, barely an hour and a half. It also provided the desired larger space for the LED strip. Much larger. Now it only takes the drill a moment to penetrate the bottom layers and work a slot along either face of the infill grid. Some quick work with an Exacto™ or one of those snap off knives and a triangular opening is ready for LED strip insertion.

I was back and forth whether to use a USB micro breakout board or a battery port. I have so many spare LiPo batteries, they can power them for now. They use a standard JST PH (2.0mm spacing) connector. There’s only room to fit four LEDs per strip in these half pints, so adding a battery connector to the back then feeding the wires from the connector to the LED strip makes for a very simple build.

It takes longest to reshape the drilled hole into a rectangular opening that fits the battery connector shroud. A bit of hot melt glue to secure it and all that’s left is to cut the wires to length and solder them to the LED strip. Maybe five minutes per ghost once I’m on a roll. Definitely far less than the hour and a half it takes to print them. The best part is they continue to glow even after the power is removed!

Some Of The Many Glow In The Dark Colors Available

Rainbow Colors

When I was searching for 5 volt UV LED strips, I also looked for other glow in the dark filament colors, other than the green and blue I already have. I readily found red and purple available and bought a 1kg (2.2lb) spool of each. Orange and yellow are also available, but it appears the glowing orange starts out as yellow and the the glowing yellow starts out as green. I’ll pass on those for now. The purple arrived first, so I loaded it into the new printer.

The online picture of the purple filament shows it as more of a fuchsia color, but in reality, it just looks purple. Strange. It glows pretty much the same purple color too. Soon there were a couple more of the half pints in purple ready for LEDs. I kicked off a full sized print in purple while I installed the “guts” in the other half pints. He’s a big one! About 6½” (165mm) tall and 5″ (127mm) wide at the base. No wonder it takes seven hours to print!

The infill pattern in the full sized ghost forms a diamond pattern in roughly the center of the print. I made an opening into the forward facing section of the infill. Testing with the lit UV strip inserted, it’s obvious I’ll need more than one strip. I’m thinking four strips, each facing in one of four cardinal directions. Think north, south, east, and west. Each strip is also nine LEDs compared to four in the half pints.

Meet Nate Decapitate - The Decapitated Ghost — Meet Nate Decapitate – The Decapitated Ghost

That Will Teach Me

With what’s left of the glow in the dark green still loaded in the old printer, I kicked off a full sized print, convinced there was enough filament to complete the job. I stayed up past midnight, checking there was still enough filament left, thinking I’d just pause the print if it ran out and swap in the new spool sitting on the shelf. There’s also a new spool of blue next to it. Thinking I could keep checking on it, I dozed off. Big mistake.

By the time I woke up, the print had “finished”, but the result was a “decapitated” ghost. Bummer. Not the end of the world, but I’m not sure how I can print just the remaining portion of the head and those two amputated fingers. Problem for future me. I did measure how tall the print was before removing it so I’d know where it left off though. Nick asked if I captured the time lapse since it would show the exact layer. Nope. Not this time.

By now the glow in the dark red filament arrived. It’s time to fill out the roster and print some red ghosts. But that will have to go in the old printer. I’m working on a music stand for Ann’s new to her keyboard. I took a bunch of measurements to get me started on the design, consisting of two assemblies, the mount and the music stand itself. The idea is to attach the mount to the keyboard in a sturdy fashion, then attach the music stand to the mount.

Ann's New To Her Keyboard - Sans Music Stand — Ann’s New To Her Keyboard – Sans Music Stand

Yet Another 3D Printer Failure?

I swapped the white filament with the glow in the dark purple in the new printer, printing the pieces for Ann’s music stand. The first problem I ran into was that damned Z-Offset was somehow out of adjustment again. This has been a long standing issue with this printer, ever since I first bought it. But I think I finally figured out why it keeps happening. The Z-axis is dual drive. But I think the issue is me being in a hurry and man handling the print head.

Sometimes I just twist one of the Z-axis leadscrews to rapidly adjust the print head height. Other times I just grab the print head itself, pushing down or pulling up on it. I think the print head mounting bracket to the X-axis gantry is just thin enough that it bends, ever so slightly, when I move it by the print head. In the future, I’ll remember to twist the lead screw and not touch the print head. We’ll see if it happens again.

It’s only off by 0.4mm (0.016″), but that’s enough that the first layer won’t stick to the build plate and make it look like it’s under-extruding. I’ve been keeping a history of these magical Z-Offset adjustments and we’ve come full circle. Originally it was 3.3mm, which slowly evolved into the last adjustment to 2.9mm as of August 7^th. Well, now we’re back to the original 3.3mm on October 18^th. It’s a tedious process and takes multiple cancelled prints.

Ghost In The Machine Or Software Bugs?

Anyway, as I’m dialing in that last piece to test fit that keyboard mount, the printer starts acting up. The first version of that piece was too short. After a quick adjustment to the design, it’s still too short. Another adjustment and the printer just won’t function properly. It keeps stopping mid print, moving the print head off the front corner of the build plate and extruding filament, as if trying to clear a clogged nozzle.

It’s done that before, not often, but usually after cancelled prints. The more I try, the worse it gets, failing sooner each time. I finally gave up and just shutdown the printer and the Raspberry PI running OctoPrint that controls it. Thinking about it, I was prompted whether I wanted to install a new version. Usually I wait, but this time decided to update both the old and new printers’ OctoPrint controllers. Bad idea.

I’m pretty sure this new version of OctoPrint is the problem because even the old printer is telling me every file upload fails, every single time, when it works and prints the file just fine. And all of a sudden I can’t upload a file to the new printer unless I use the file manager. Clicking the Upload button has no effect. Can’t create a new folder either. It just refuses to respond. I’ll have to see if there’s a way to revert to a known good version.

Buggy Software - Upload Failed Yet File's There? — Buggy Software – Upload Failed Yet File’s There?

Moving On

Everything was working great, until it wasn’t. I’m disappointed I can’t move forward with Ann’s music stand. Having the new printer offline is annoying, but thankfully the old one still works. And it’s out of filament, so time to load the glow in the dark red that just arrived and get printing. Again, a couple half pints, then a full sized ghost. I decided to prototype the full sized purple ghost while those printed, capturing the process on video as I went.

It’s definitely a trial and error process. Even though the end result glowed the way I wanted it to, I’m not real happy with wires hanging out the bottom or the difficulty I have getting four wires to cooperate long enough to solder them together. Twice. Once for plus and again for minus. Then connect them to the battery connector. In other words, it’s going to need work. But that’s what prototypes are for.

Time to print a full sized glow in the dark blue ghost. The red gets swapped out for the remaining blue filament. There should be more on this spool than there was on the green spool, mainly because I printed a number of glow in the dark features for two of those “Glow In The Day” clocks. Now whether there’s enough to completely print a full size ghost or not remains to be seen.

That Should Have Taught Me

Well, that was another bad assumption. You guessed it. It ran out of filament before the print finished. But this time it ran out even sooner than the green spool did! How is that possible unless they short changed me on the blue compared to the same size green spool? This time I’m ready with that new, full spool of blue, but it soon becomes apparent they’re not made by the same manufacturer.

The original small spools of green and blue were made by Amolen. These full spools are made by Sunlu, also the maker of my new printer. Every so often they have a bulk filament sale and I’ll buy four to eight spools at once, basically half price. That explains why I have two 90qt tubs full of filament along with an entire six foot long shelf. Normally I go through this stuff a lot faster than I have lately because of other, higher priority tasks.

No matter how hard I’ve tried to monitor how much filament I’ve used and track how much remains, I never seem to come close. That’s going to change. I search for where the print history lives in OctoPrint, but there isn’t one. There’s a plugin for it though, tracking how much filament has been used, and the running total. I’ll give that a shot. The problem is spools are measured by weight, not length of filament.

Nate Decapitate Gets Head - And Fingers — Nate Decapitate Gets Head – And Fingers

Giving Nate Back His Head

When we were talking about it earlier, Nick told me I could shift the model down in the slicer since it only prints what’s above the build plate. The problem is knowing how far down to shift it. Glad I noted it was ~331⁄32″ at the time. That works out to roughly 100.81mm. At 0.2mm per layer, 504 layers out of 762 printed. Close enough for our needs anyway. It’s sliced and ready to print. Let’s see how well this works.

I loaded the new spool of glow in the dark green and kicked off the print. When it finished, I gathered the “scalp” and “amputated” fingers and “cemented” them on the previously failed print. Not bad. Looks nearly perfect, except for the obvious difference in filament. I kicked off another full sized, homogenous print. For whatever reason, the old Amolen filament seems more transparent than the corresponding Sunlu filament.

While that printed, I put together some four into one harnesses to allow a single battery to power four of the half pints at once. They went more than two days when they each had their own battery. Four from one should at least last all night. Then I got to thinking why not make a USB micro to battery connector to eliminate the need for a battery (and charger) altogether. If it’s always plugged in, it’s always on.

The Groovy Ghoulies

I grouped one of each color of the half pints together then connected them all to one of those four into one harnesses. I set them on the tea table together with the original white half pints and the flickering skull candelabra. I figured the battery would last all night, but it didn’t. I was hoping Ann would see them still glowing in the morning and get a chuckle out of it. I plugged in a fresh battery to show her how they would have looked.

She seemed unamused, but commented on how they’re rainbow colored. I guess they are in a certain sense. Maybe I should have bought the orange and yellow glow in the dark filament too. That got me thinking about how I have orange and yellow flicker LEDs and wondering how they would look inside one of those white ghosts. Only one way to find out. I feel another prototype coming on.

Using the USB “battery eliminator” harness, I plugged the Groovy Ghoulies into a USB power block and they’ll all glow together indefinitely now. Meanwhile, back at the workbench, time to find those flicker LEDs. I looked everywhere I thought they would be but couldn’t find them. Turns out they’re the one place I kept convincing myself they weren’t. Right next to blind me in the blind corner space.

The only color I have in the 3mm size is amber, or rather “orange/yellow” according to the label. Time to drill a hole through the white ghost and assemble what resembles a “probe” with an LED tip. The 470Ω limiting resistor soldered to the anode and protected by clear heat shrink. The remaining lead of the resistor is clipped and soldered to the cathode. The entire thing is inserted into the hole and the power leads soldered to it.

It’s not as impressive as I’d imagined, but the head does flicker like it’s filled with a candle flame. It sort of matches the skull candelabra’s flickering. I’ll do the other one later. I thought I had other colors in the 3mm size to experiment with, but they’re all 5mm. I guess I could drill a bigger hole if I really want to see whether I like the way they look or not. Maybe later. I still have a set of full sized ghoulies to finish.

Prototype Full Sized Ghostly Tangled Wire Mess

Round Two – Ad Tedium

The revised edition for the full size ghost will require a PC board, or its equivalent. I had a number of small chunks of Vectorboard™ I found when packing up the corner room and sorting through the electronics. It’s basically brand name 1⁄10″ (2.54mm) hole center perforated board, perf board for short. This is the light colored fiberglass version vs. dark brown epoxy. Add some ¼” copper tape and you have DIY PC boards.

In this case I simply need enough holes for five common positive and five common negative rails for leads to solder to. The ¼” copper tape essentially covers two rows of holes, so using a hacksaw to score and snap the boards into smaller 4×6 hole pieces is just the ticket. If I made them much smaller I wouldn’t be able to handle them without fumbling them. With the copper tape in place the holes are cleared of excess material.

Cutting all those short power leads, stripping, and tinning them is tedious. The eight wires are less than an inch long, four black and four red. After tinning the pads of the LED strips, the short leads are soldered to them. The short, tinned leads from the four LED strips will each occupy holes in the common power rails, one in each rail. Then the battery connector leads are trimmed to length and soldered to the end of both power rails.

The process takes about an hour all told. At least, that’s how long it took me when I recorded doing it. But the end result is well worth it. The wiring is much more compact and the makeshift PC board is small enough to stash inside the opening in the bottom of the ghost. No messy, excessive wiring hanging out the bottom like on the prototype purple ghost. It’s as compact of a design that I can come up with. And it works.

Revised Edition Compact Full Sized Ghost Wiring

Warning: Math Ahead

There are roughly 3 LEDs every 2″ (50mm), so 9 is ~6″ (150mm). At that rate, the 16 strips we need for the first four full size ghosts quickly eats up that 6.6′ (78″ or 1980mm) strip. In fact, it would totally consume it. We’ll need two strips. It requires roughly 24″ (610mm) per ghost. Add the strips for the half pints to that and it’s almost another full sized ghost. Let’s say 10′ (120″ or 3048mm) of the two strips gets used.

I stopped short of using up all of those first two strips though, taking two of the 9 LED strips from a third spool of LEDs. That left enough to replace the old 12 volt strip on the bedroom “Glow In The Day” clock. There were 40 LEDs on that one. With what’s left on either of the two spools of new UV LEDs there are just enough to fit in the old strip’s place. What a difference! Night and day you ask? These new LEDs glow as bright as the sun!

They’re so bright it’s hard to tell the glow in the dark features are green and not blue. Even the hands are glowing! When the LEDs are turned off, everything continues to glow bright green for quite a while. Perfect. If those features were printed with the Sunlu filament and not the more transparent Amolen it may look even more green. The picture doesn’t do it justice. Even after adjusting the white balance, it looks more blue to the naked eye.

“Glow In The Day”

I printed two of those clocks, the prototype sits out in the garage, while the revised edition still sits on the bedroom nightstand. Both were ESP8266 Arduino controlled. Yet another lighting controller, this time optimized for monochrome LEDs. In this case UV LEDs. For the glowing ghosts project, that decision to use 12 volt LED strips adds extra complexity, namely the boost converter to step up the 5 volt supply for the Arduino to 12 volt for the LEDs.

Three things became readily apparent. First, 40 LEDs draw a significant amount of power, regardless of supply voltage. Each LED draws about 20mA, times 40 is 800mA. The boost converter is rated for 2A, but supplying anywhere near the maximum power to the LED strip, the color changes from the familiar UV purple to nearly bright yellow? Not sure what that’s all about. Could be related to the outdoor silicone coating or the LEDs themselves.

Second, even though the boost converter is rated for 2A, once the brightness gets much over ~40%, it draws so much power from the 5 volt supply that there isn’t enough left for the Arduino itself. At that point, the Arduino promptly resets! This flaw makes it impossible to fully illuminate the 3D printed glow in the dark features, enough so it can’t claim to be the “Glow In The Day” clock anymore.

The third “flaw” is the inability to illuminate the radium painted hands of the clock movement. So not only does it not fully illuminate, the hands don’t glow anywhere near as much as the features on the face. The size of the clock face and LED housing is already at the limit of the print volume at the time with the old printer, making any further modifications to move the LED strip further away from the face and slant toward the hands impossible.

As time passed, the fragile nature of the overly complex boost converter and PWM brightness control circuitry was its downfall. Somehow the USB cable got snagged on something and ripped those parts loose. And because it was on at the time, it ended up shorting out something and destroyed the Arduino itself. Reworking it to run straight from a USB cable, the LEDs are bright enough now, albeit that weird yellowish hue, but the hands still don’t glow.

So why does all this matter? I replaced those old 12 volt ones with what was left of one of the new 5 volt UV LED strips. Now it glows so brightly, you can barely tell the glowing features are green! Even the hands glow brightly now! That’s what I was shooting for to begin with! I may resurrect the Arduino monochrome controller with an improved MOSFET driver to greatly reduce the heat from wasted power using the old transistor one.

Glowing Ghosts Everywhere!

There’s a set of half pints glowing on the tea table and another set glowing on my desk in the office. Add to that the full sized set glowing on my workbench and there are glowing ghosts everywhere! Add the string of flicker bulbs and the modified Halloween lighting and I bet Ann thinks I’ve lost it. Gone overboard, off the deep end. Well, maybe just a little. But it’s been a fun project.

The most time consuming part was the full sized ghosts. Everything else went together in minutes. Nowhere near the amount of time it took to put together four full sized ghosts. But they’re just fun to look at and even more fun to watch them continue to glow after turning off the UV LEDs. It’s like when I was a kid and held my luminous Timex watch dial under the living room light then turned it off to watch the hands glows. Only better!

What can I say? I’m just a big kid at heart. And if you never slow down, you never grow old. That’s not quite true in my case though. I am slowing down. I just never let myself grow up. Perhaps a better way to put it is growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional. Whatever the case may be, I had a lot of fun building these glowing ghosts, even the tedious full sized ones! And I learned a few things and finally got a true “Glow In The Day” clock out of it.

If you made it all the way through to the end of this post, thank you. I hope you understand why this is important to me. Even if we didn’t really discuss the Barkyard all that much, other than to explain how we made decoration for Halloween. Hopefully we can leverage what we learned to make some creative neon signs or other effects for the Downtown Marketplace. And hopefully the footage I recorded will make it to our YouTube channel soon!

In any case, leave us a comment to let us know what you think. You’ll need to create a user account to do so, but we don’t use any personal information for marketing (see our privacy policy). You’ll receive a verification email. Reply with the link provided to verify your email address. After that, it’s all automatic. No waiting on moderator approval! No spamming your inbox with useless ADs and Special Offers. None of that nonsense.

Stay tuned…

Merry Christmas 2023!

December 25, 2023January 4, 2024 barkmannLeave a comment

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

From All Of Us At The Barkyard Railroad…

We wish you all Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

While it may not show all that well, we’ve been busy here, working on the railroad! And while it may not be working on the railroad all the live long day, we’ve been busy planning and doing, just not reporting and updating. If we make just one New Year’s resolution, it’s to report and update more often! So with that in mind, here’s what we’ve been up to this last year, 2023.

Our Deck Has Decking!

(Feb/Mar 2023)

And railings! And steps! And that’s about it for now. The deck project is at that “add a little bit here, add a little bit there” phase. The next big push will be adding utilities and the tunnel(s). Trenching in the utilities doesn’t require much planning. The rest will take more “Imagineering” as the mouse down the road would say.

The reason the deck exists is to provide easily attainable elevation change. Them’s some big words there! What did he say? Mainly we didn’t want to have to move and maintain all the dirt it would take to build believable mountains and tunnels. So now the “imagine” part is how to make that last corner of the deck look like a believable sheer wall and somehow wedge a grist mill’s water wheel into a water feature as part of all that.

The second tunnel would be arranged around the hand rail of the steps, basically to hide the stairs from view altogether everywhere but standing in front of them. It needs to provide a believable reason for the lower loop and deck loop to exit tunnels by the terraced planters. We have electronic (CAD) drawings, but they don’t provide the “hands on” experience that fitting various pieces together with a creative eye. More to come.

Adding A Split Unit Air Conditioner

(Mar 2023)

The office was always on the warm side, always much warmer than the rest of the house anyway. Not anymore! Finally pulled the trigger on a split unit air conditioner / heat pump to better regulate the temperature year round. Much thanks to our son, Nick, for the unit selection and help with installation. We couldn’t have done it without him!

The Barkyard workshop had one installed a year or two back when the window unit air conditioner finally died. Nick gave us his old unit when he installed a new, more capable one in his workshop. All we had to do is buy more refrigerant to recharge it. While the window unit ran all the time and still couldn’t keep up in the summer, this split unit not only keeps the shop cool in the Summer, but also keeps it warm in the Winter.

That window unit is still sitting in the window! Eventually it will get replaced with a new window, but for now, there are far more pressing issues. For now, the office has all the comforts the workshop affords. The only thing missing is the smartphone app to remote control it. Not sure what happened to the little QR code thing to scan and install it, but it appears to be impossible without it. Again, more pressing issues…

Trenching In Utilities To The Deck

(Apr 2023)

The next step for the deck is adding utilities, namely power and water. Power for all those gadgets we’ll soon have installed. Water for irrigation and future water features. Nick lent us the “banana” shovel to make the job a little easier than using a standard garden spade. Even so, it still took moving ten yard cart loads of dirt just to reach the middle of the deck!

Well, that and moving a few pieces of artificial turf out of the way first, removing the rusty old “staples” and all. The first day got us half the way there to the near corner of the deck, roughly ten feet, or one stick of pipe / conduit. But we can’t just leave an open, narrow, two foot deep trench for the dog to fall in to and injure themselves. So we back filled the path and covered it with the turf just to be safe.

The second day we trenched the last ten feet to the middle of the deck. Gluing the next ten foot legs of all those pipes and conduits down in the trench was no fun, and not all at once either. First the conduit was finished and buried at the foot and a half mark specified by code, backfilled to half a foot deep to finish the irrigation lines. Once those were completed, the entire trench was then backfilled and compacted.

Two of the irrigation lines remain to be extended to the far end of the deck. but that’s another ten feet to trench, albeit only six inches deep. It’s a project for another time, twenty feet is good enough for now.

Welcome Jasper!

(May 2023)

Meet our latest addition to the crew, Jasper! He’s our focus now. Getting him crate and potty trained didn’t take long. And just like with toddlers, all the things that aren’t good for him to get in to have to be hidden and locked away. And he gets in to everything! After all, he is a puppy!

He’s getting used to his brother, Rocket, and sister, Kai, and new yard, the Barkyard. Kai took to him almost immediately. She’s already playing quite rough with him, getting him just mad enough to bark at her and jump up to fight back. It’s heart warming and comical to watch all at the same time.

Deck Railing Updates

(May 2023)

The railings on both sides of the main deck have been attached for months now, but attached with a minimum of balusters. While the deck isn’t tall enough to require railings at all, we still want them, but mainly for a place to set down a drink or plate of food or whatever. Without more balusters to provide adequate support, they don’t even provide safety.

The balusters themselves were provided by Nick, and used to support the railings around the deck for his above ground pool, now long gone. I’ve moved them here and there and everywhere out of the way while waiting to use them. They sat outside long enough to warrant an anti rot treatment, and then needed cut to length for sitting height and not standing height railings.

They’ve been stacked at the corner of the deck, awaiting installation, until now. If required by code, they need spaced no more than four inches apart. Since they’re not required, we attached one per plank at the joint between planks, not quite five inches apart. Close enough.

The railing itself is a deck plank, but the final touch is to attach another one to form an “L”, which provides that shelf to set things down on for both railings now.

More Stringer Repairs?

(May 2023)

Yeah, I know, don’t say it. Wood is NOT the correct choice for stringers in Florida. After yet another round of stringer replacement, we turned to using the “plastic wood” 2x4s waiting in the workshop for just such an occasion. While they may last longer outside in the elements, they certainly take longer to cut! The feed rate is about half that of a wood 2×4.

Add to that the plastic “shavings” are statically charged and constantly clog the vacuum hose to the shop vac. Having to stop after each and every ¼” thick slat to unclog the vacuum hose means it’s taking twice as long to cut each one, and these are only six foot long to boot!

Considering what a major pain it was to cut just these three 2x4s, this is probably the one and only time we’ll consider using them. But at least we tried. Live and learn. Moving forward, ground contact stringers should be concrete and above ground stringers will eventually be replaced with trestles.

New Equipment Added To The Roster!

(Jun 2023)

The Barkyard Railroad has recently acquired three six axle EMD SD40-2s in the PRR Brunswick green livery. All three units were put to the test on the pike! A dedicated run in stand was constructed to test them out prior to mainline operation. And by constructed, we mean 3D printed and assembled using only the least expensive roller skate bearings available. This latest set of twelve rollers pretty much used up what was left of our stash. Even the M2.5 screws and nuts are getting scarce! So we ordered another 100 bearings and 200 SS M2.5 screws and nuts.

In addition, we added a New York Central S4 switcher, several 40′ boxcars, a couple of 50′ boxcars, and a New York Central Caboose to the roster as well. The S4 switcher set included a new 4 amp power pack, with enough juice to run those bigger engines and the switcher all together at the same time!

But we didn’t stop there! We needed cabeese! Alright, cabooses. We added three center cupola wood sided units, two in PRR livery and one in Rio Grande. We didn’t have a single PRR caboose to go with the new SD40s, and needed something to go with them. Thinking of “kitbashing” one of the two PRR units into an N5C “porthole” unit. Maybe even both if it turns out well!

Irrigation Lines Extended

(Jun 2023)

When the utilities were trenched in to the deck, they stopped at the halfway point, mainly because extending them any further meant removing some of the decking planks to gain access beneath it. Because of the angle change it makes at the midpoint, the far end and corner would overhang an extension of the straight line path the trench follows.

But until those irrigation lines are extended, any further work on the deck is on hold to avoid having to “back track”. So two of the three lines were trenched just past the far corner of the deck. They will provide for any water features and, eventually, irrigation for the raised beds along the fence. One of those two is meant to terminate there at the corner of the deck and has a permanently installed riser. The other was not glued together, but has a temporary riser in place until the raised irrigation line is trenched in some time in the future.

The third line was terminated near the middle of the deck with a permanently attached riser. This line is dedicated to irrigation for the terraced planters.

Surveillance Camera “Upgrade”

The original camera that essentially looks out from the beneath the office window worked for a limited time then failed. The camera was fine, but the Power Over Ethernet (POE) cable connection wasn’t, a number of the contacts badly corroded despite the weathertight sealing components. It sat, waiting to be rescued and revived.

That POE cable used to run in through the office window, preventing the sliding parts from closing completely. Everything about that camera was an afterthought, temporary by nature to begin with. It served its purpose, albeit for a short time only.

With the new split unit, a dedicated pass through was installed dedicated to its power and plumbing. That pass through can now be shared for a more permanent installation of new cables. That’s right, plural, cables. Because we added a new camera to keep an eye on the new split unit, watching what used to be a blind spot between our house and the neighbor’s.

We also replaced that camera outside the office window with a new one because it looks like when it was opened previously to inspect for damage, the weathertight seal was lost and it corroded parts of the circuit board. It still works, but it’s sitting in a drawer, waiting to be pressed into service for any interior use for which it may prove useful.

Running Trains For the Fourth Of July!

(Jul 2023)

We ran the new S4 switcher together with some of the new boxcars and the new Pacemaker Caboose. Jasper had a blast barking at it and chasing it around and around! He’s so much like his brother he never met, Brigel. It was enjoyable sitting in the rocking chair on the new deck, watching the train run around the layout with the puppy in tow. We switched out the switcher for one of the SD40s. Then two of them together.

The track has been ready to run for awhile now, the only thing missing a more permanent solution for a “step over” to remove the tripping hazard created by the track right near the edge when stepping on and off the deck. It’s only a few inches tall, but enough of a tripping hazard without something more substantial in place for safety. The idea is create something like a threshold, like in a doorway, substantial enough to be stepped on.

Eventually we’ll make it like another step at the top of the steps, but for now the “slotted” 2×6 segments will work just fine. Adding a hand rail for the steps will provide more safety as well as provide an anchor point for the “mountainside” to hide the fact the track is a simple loop. But more on that later. It’s a 2024 thing now.

Sidetracked By Leaking Air Conditioner / Kitchen Teardown / Rebuild

(Jul 2023)

Sour grapes. So much for paying “professionals” to do their job correctly, let alone finish the job! Imagine discarded gloves floating in a bucket of trash left in the attic. A bucket left in the attic to contain the leak they obviously knew about and just left that way instead of doing it right. Left there since they installed it Last December (2022) and left before they were finished. Well, that bucket finally overflowed and totally saturated the plaster and lathe of the kitchen wall below. Pictures are worth a thousand words. Pictures yet to be posted. Enough said.

Realigned Track For Water Feature

(Aug 2023)

In anticipation of adding a water feature in the future, we had to realigned the track that follows the lower loop around the deck. More like the exit of the loop toward the wye and downtown. The path it took, not quite two feet away from the trees was entirely too close to allow for an adequate creek channel, let alone river.

With a yardstick in hand, a radius is swept from the nearest object is a curve from beneath the bridge toward the fence, describing a tight river bend for the track to follow. The idea is to have the track follow the bank of the river / creek / stream to give the track a reason to curve in the fashion it does.

We were dreading this because of how difficult it is to cut the turf, and put it off again and again, until one day we though about using the dremel saw in place of the awkward razor knife we’d used in the past. Talk about a world of difference! Not only does the dremel saw slice through the turf like butter, it melts the edges together, eliminating those inevitable “carpet strings” when using a knife.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the rotted stringers beneath the track need removed and replaced anyway.

Decking Trimmed and Another Railing Added

(Oct 2023)

With the utilities trenched in for months now, we need a place to attach an outdoor in use electrical box to allow easy access to power. The problem is there isn’t a convenient post to mount it to, or anything else for that matter. The thought is to add a post where the two parts of the deck meet at an angle, but the decking overhangs the framing, making it impossible to mount anything to the framing.

The railing is missing from that part as well, and for the same reason, it’s impossible to mount the balusters to the frame. Time to do something about that. A quick trim with the circular saw and problem solved. There are just enough screws to attach the balusters and railing, but not enough to add the top cap. We’ll need to get some big lag screws to attach a 2×4 or 4×4 to the intersection between the two parts of the deck for that electrical box mount though. It’s a 2024 thing as well.

Preparing To Cast Concrete Roadbed

(Nov 2023)

All preparations are made for installing the forms to cast concrete roadbed beneath the stretch of track we realigned back in August. We 3D printed screed tools with the edges sloped away from the center depression meant to cradle the track, one just tie depth and the other the entire track height deep. We’ll see which works best, if at all. I took the week of Thanksgiving off with the idea I would be working on the roadbed. Plans change…

Some distraction away from making progress toward our goals always crops up, like the kitchen disaster. At least this time it’s not a disaster. The kids have been dealing with the lack of a water supply line to their refrigerator’s ice maker for some time now, basically ever since the the plastic water line in the attic failed and nearly destroyed the kitchen there. It’s been useless ever since. Literally years now.

As a Christmas present, we tore the outside wall off the back of the garage and ran a new pex line off the old copper hose bib feed. Too many trips to get parts later and it’s installed and operational. Can’t say that much about getting the garage wall siding back in place and painted though. We did manage to hang new ½” plywood sheathing to protect it from the elements, but like everything else these days, the one specific kind of siding we need is no longer available? Yet another 2024 thing.

New Equipment Added To The Roster!

(Nov 2023)

The Barkyard Railroad has recently acquired an LGB 20882 Uintah Mallet Steam Locomotive. The invoice says “Collector’s Item”. It’s priced like one, that’s for sure! Even the few Bachmann versions I found are fetching a high price! Back when we were first looking to start a garden railway at the other house, the Bachmann versions were plentiful on eBay, and for a third the price being asked these days.

I had always wanted one, but figured they would remain just as available as they were back then. Wrong! They were no longer available for any price. Every so often I would search again but still found nothing. As luck would have it, I received an email from Only Trains (not sponsored) which included some used items for sale, including this recent addition to our roster.

Every email from every other online hobby stores that include used items for sale are already sold by the time I look. I didn’t get my hopes up, but looked anyway. Much to my surprise they still had it! A quick search on eBay turned up a few Bachmann versions, and all around the same price! Considering none of those had sound already installed like this LGB unit did, I jumped on it right then and there.

Of course, it requires its own run in stand. Four 3D prints and a bunch of screws and bearings and assembly later, I have the 16 roller stands I need. It’s also the first and only time I needed to run power through the roller bearings themselves. I chose to only run power through a pair of them since it’s not the best thing for them.

Lithophanes

(Dec 2023)

Buying and exchanging gifts with loved ones is a Christmas tradition. But there’s something to be said for making the present for a loved one oneself. Something that isn’t really commercially available. Something that comes from the heart. Something that is close to your loved one’s heart. In this case, two such close to the heart items.

So by now you’re probably screaming, “What’s a lithophane already?!?!?” It’s hard to describe, another picture worth a thousand words type thing, but let’s try anyway. Imagine a 3D printed black and white picture, using a somewhat transparent filament. More like translucent, but the idea is the thicker the print, the less light makes it through it. More light makes it through the thinner portions. So necessarily a strong, diffuse backlight is required to illuminate the print.

I liken them to one of those illuminated photo cubes of the past vs. those new fangled digital display cubes that cycle through a set number of stored images, except using a more three dimensional rendition of the image. The backlighting comes from an array of LEDs, but they appear as point sources and are too harsh without a diffuser, in this case a thin 3D printed piece using white filament.

The only thing missing is the picture frame to “stuff” everything inside. I started with a site set up to generate the actual STL of an uploaded image file. It also had STL files for the frame and diffuser, except I didn’t read the instructions and uploaded non standard sized photos which resulted in something that was not exactly 4×6 and didn’t fit their 3D printed frame. So that was a bummer. It also meant I had to do more work and design different sized frames for the two pictures I used. The end results are well worth it though.

New Equipment Added To The Roster!

(Dec 2023)

The Barkyard Railroad has recently acquired an A-B-B-A set of F7s in the PRR Tuscan livery as well as ten heavyweight passenger cars in the same Tuscan livery. Basically one of each of the available cars. These cars are each nearly three feet long! They include figures and flicker free lighting already installed from the factory. They are truly impressive. And they better be for as expensive as they are!

Of course, the F7s requires their own dedicated run in stand. Three 3D prints and a bunch of screws and bearings and assembly later, I have the 12 roller stands I need. So now the office and the bedroom are full of USA Trains boxes full of equipment we won’t be able to run until 2024. Thankfully, that’s tomorrow. Happy New Year!

I’ve Never Been Good At Goodbyes…

June 17, 2022July 8, 2022 barkmannLeave a comment

Bye Bye Big Guy

It is with a heavy heart that I share the news that our beloved Brigel crossed the rainbow bridge today. We knew he was leaving us before his time, but I never thought it would be on us as suddenly as it came. He’d been slowing down for a long time. Back in March is when we knew he wouldn’t be around much longer. By then, his heart had already been working too hard for too long, and we could tell he was getting tired.

But we didn’t want to keep him from playing, or do anything any differently than we always had. Would keeping him from playing and the things he loved to do help him live any longer? Days or weeks perhaps, but we knew he wouldn’t understand, and we wanted his last days with us to be as joyful as they had always been. We wanted him to have as much fun as he could possibly have in the time he had left.

He wanted to play right up until the end, bringing us his “stick”, fetching it back to us for another turn, right beside his little brother, Rocket. He had just enough strength for two turns before he took his break, this last time he would ever have a chance to play. Ever.

The Beginning Of The End

He was once nearly a hundred pounds, but his digestion degraded to the point we started preparing fresh turkey and rice since the New Year. Over the last several months he soon grew tired of that, refusing to eat his food to such a degree that we were out of options. The occasional substitution of chicken or beef might persuade him to eat a meal rather than turn his nose up at it, but it wasn’t long before his appetite was gone. He was gaunt and had lost enough weight that it wasn’t worth using up his strength just to weigh him anymore.

I kept trying to “fix it”. Maybe if we…? What if we…? Ann with her knowledge of medicine knew what I didn’t, there is no cure for Cardio Myopathy. She finally told me he had maybe another week. She dispelled the misconceptions and myths I had. His arrhythmia hadn’t caused the swelling of his heart, the swelling of his heart is what caused his heart to race. I had it backward.

These last few weeks, our once “Big Guy” went from gaunt to emaciated. Nothing but skin and bone. By now, his digestion is non existent. It seems like anything he eats just goes right through him, like the food itself is exacerbating his condition. We know there’s nothing more we can do for him… Nothing except ease his struggle. We’re heartbroken.

Saying Goodbye

We both know Brigel is struggling with congestive heart failure. He’s been on Lasix to help stave it off for months now. He’s unable to find a comfortable spot, getting up and wandering around more and more often. This last week he’s hardly slept, wandering around in the middle of the night. Nothing can calm him down or ease his struggle to breathe. He’s drowning in the fluid slowly accumulating in his lungs that his heart can no longer pump out.

Ann calls an impromptu family meeting near the middle of the week to tell us it’s time to talk to the mobile vet. I’m still in denial about it. Still trying to fix it. But I can’t and I know it. It’s hard for me to say it’s time while he’s still playing. While he’s still breathing. But Ann knows his discomfort is just going to get worse, and quickly. We all agree it’s time. We have only days left to spend with him.

The mobile vet showed up before lunch today. We’ve yet to learn the secret to put a stop to Rocket’s aggressive barking at any and all strangers, so I have to be outside with the little guy when she gets here. We’d like this to be a peaceful transition. Ann finally comes to spell me so I can say my goodbyes. He’s already been sedated. He looks comfortable now, more relaxed than I’ve seen him in a long time.

Ann comes back in, knowing that Rocket will be more at ease with being left outside by her. The final injection takes a few minutes, but now he can rest. Now he’s finally at peace. Nick takes it the hardest. He was always able to use Brigel as a pillow, the only dog we’ve ever had that would let him do so. He lays his head down on him one last time, knowing his beloved pillow is no more.

The Hard Part

This has been hard on all of us. For me, the hardest part is helping the vet carry his now lifeless body to the back of her van and lifting him in. I thanked her for her kindness and said goodbye Big Guy. Rest now. Say hello to your sister, Maya, for us.

For those of you that know us, those of you that have followed us from the beginning, I want to thank you for your kindness, your patience, and your understanding. I haven’t updated our online presence in over a month. I’ve only recently been able to sit down and write about this. The Barkyard won’t be the same without him. We miss him dearly.

We thought the tears were over… Until Ann picked up Brigel’s ashes. They had hand written a very nice condolence and card. We are grateful. When we found they also cast his paw print, we both lost our composure. It’s a beautiful gesture, and a remembrance we will have the rest of our days.

In the coming days I will put together a memorial photo album on our Barkyard Facebook page, and a YouTube video with clips of our Big Guy in action. Maybe even a slide show, starting with when he was no more than a 5 pound bundle of fluff in our two hands.

Until we meet again Big Guy…

Happy Valentine’s Day!

February 14, 2022 barkmannLeave a comment

Warmest wishes from the Barkyard Boys!

Welcome Lena!

September 3, 2021September 18, 2021 barkmannLeave a comment

Our New Grandpup!

Welcome Lena Lu, the latest addition to our team. We are so happy to have her join our family. She’s only been with us two weeks as I write this, but to me it feels like she’s always been here. Our son, Nick, may disagree. But he has to put up with her and Klaus all the time. Grandpa gets to go spoil them and leave.

Where Klaus and Rocket missed, she and Klaus hit it off right from the start! Klaus had no choice with her nipping at his hocks to pester him into playing! It’s a joy to watch the two of them together, like it’s always been that way.

She’s part German Shepherd, part Malamute, and not even a year old yet! We’re as lucky to have her as we are happy.

How We Found Her

We didn’t find her, our dog sitter did. She came to us as an abandoned stray, found wandering along the road, rescued by our dog sitter. The sitter related her contact with the owner, who said just keep her. In fact, the previous owner offered to pay the sitter to make that happen! Sounds more like she escaped, but we’ll never know for sure.

The sitter knew Nick was looking for a companion for Klaus ever since we got Rocket and it didn’t work out. So when her husband had misgivings about keeping her, she asked Nick if he could foster her until a new home was found. He welcomed her into his home, and the rest is history.

She’s gentle, loving, and extraordinarily intelligent. It’s hard to believe she was unwanted and abandoned. Makes me wonder about folks sometimes.

Forgetting The Past

Her name was Luna, but she doesn’t answer to her name, and we don’t know what to think about that. It’s her past, but she probably didn’t get much attention, if any. The matted hair behind her ears and elsewhere was a good indication of her past situation. After a trip to the groomer, she’s now a pampered pup!

Nick renamed her Lena. We tacked on the Lu, not as a reminder of her past, but what better to go with Klausie Boo than Lena Lu? She just soaks up the affection and gives it right back. It’s a shame she wasn’t wanted before, but she’s home now!