An unusual Scarecrow

Well, after much thought, I finally came to the conclusion I cannot have a birdfeeder in our courtyard with our shark. The birds do not like the shark ... it acts kind of like a scarecrow.

At first I thought the birdfeeder was too close to the house so I moved it's location. But it was the same distance to the shark. I saw birds eyeing it but after landing on the feeder once or twice, they left and didn't return. So then I thought it was bad food so I went out and bought premium sunflower seeds and saflower. Cardinals and blue jays love that. Still no luck. They would not visit. So my next attempt involved getting a brand new birdfeeder. I thought that maybe they didn't like the design of the feeder. So I bought a really nice wood birdfeeder and thought for sure we'd get birds. After that failed, I came to the conclusion that the shark freaks these birds out. Crazy eh? Maybe I could get rich marketing this concept to farmers. Instead of scarecrows, they could plant a bunch of sharks in the ground around their cornfields.

At least our little squirrel (named Ernie by my wife) isn't afraid of the shark. Ernie occasionally hangs out in the sharks mouth. Looks really funny too.

In other breaking news, I was sent an article on MSNBC entitled "The Future of Business" listing the top 10 jobs of the future in 2012. Guess what's #10 ? .... That's right ... Robot builder, wrangler . So it looks like I"m sitting pretty if I find myself needing a job in 2012. Here's the link http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20283894/

A different kind of garden gnome

This is a project I've been considering and playing with over the past year. I wasn't sure I wanted to put it on our lawn but reason finally won out and I thought ... why not?

It's a life size great white shark in the courtyard area of our front lawn. Kind of hidden from the neighbors. An interesting sight to welcome visitors on the walk to the front door. He's actually only about 10 feet from where the bus stop robots will be camped out waiting for the bus.

Click here for background music

Skinning the shark

As the Sonotube has lines spiraling up the sides, I found a spare hour in an extremely busy weekend to cut out some styrene to attach to the dorsal fin backing and the tail fin backing. Construction adhesive works pretty good for that sort of thing although it is a big lumpy if you look close.

Tomorrow the shark will be painted with a new Rustoleum paint I found. It's textured multi color paint. Looks pretty interesting and I think it will be a good base for the fins and back.

Working out in the garage for an hour on Sunday night was a perfect end to an almost perfect weekend.

Land Shark

While taking my wife out to lunch one day, we stopped by a resale/antique store and found this incredible fiberglass great white shark head. It was like seeing a kitten in the window of a pet store begging you to take it home. That shark just had to come home with us. Originally we thought it might look good in our sons bait shop but that wasn't in the cards so the shark took up residence in the workshop.

The large dorsel fin and smaller tail fin was created using Sintra and a jig saw. The dorsel fin still needs a covering on the base to create the area where the fin connects to the back of the shark.

OK, I know this idea may seem a bit "odd" to some but here's my vision (the vision of a madman).

Picture a typical beach scene with the shark head embedded partially in the sand with his head tilted a bit more down than his default pose. More like he's swimming and the head is just coming out of the water. Behind the shark, also in the sand is the dorsel fin and behind that part of the tail fin.

Now add a pretty girl in a bathing suit laying on a lounge chair. She's reading a book looking very relaxed. In the background only a foot or so away the jaws of the shark are almost upon her. His mouth open and ready to strike.

I'd like to take pictures of that scene and come up with a good title. Gives a new meaning to the definition of Sand Shark ... or even Land Shark !

Another idea is to embed the shark in the front lawn. Instead of a "Beware of Dog" sign, you would see "Beware of Shark". However, even I think that's a little out there and I don't want to freak the neighbors out too much. Might do that just long enough to get some pictures.

We'll be away from all computers for about a week. After that I will begin my next "from scratch" robot. One that only a few people have made.