Badgers and drones...

Badgers and drones...  We had a bit of excitement here this morning, involving the badger at right.  I heard the dogs losing their minds in the southeast corner of our fenced back yard, so I walked out to see what they'd found.  It wasn't hard to figure out – this fellow was about 2 feet from four dogs, with a fence between them, and he was hissing, charging, and basically acting very obnoxious.  When I approached him, as when taking this photo, he even charged me!  As Bugs would say, what a maroon!  I didn't have a gun at hand, but right nearby were some 10' lengths of 2" plastic conduit – just right for a badger bonker.  I gave him a couple of whacks on his thick-skulled little head.  He didn't like that much, but it got his attention – and then I used the conduit to prod him into the brush by our irrigation canal.  I heard him snuffling away, and he didn't come back all day.  If he does reappear, next time I'll greet him with my .22 rifle...

We had yard work going on the past couple of days, and I've been helping a bit on that.  Our lawn contractor was here, and that took a bit of time.  I also had a Tesla tech here both yesterday and today to finish up on some repairs.  In between all that, I managed to finish unpacking my drone and it's accessories (creating a mountain of cardboard and packing materials in the process), getting it all assembled, all the firmware updated (there are a lot of computers in that thing!), and actually flying it.  I've flown it for about an hour now, including about 20 minutes with the big, fancy, gimballed camera.  I haven't actually taken any photos or video yet, just practiced with the camera.  Even with a single controller it's not hard, but when we get Debbie on a separate controller to handle the big camera, it will be even easier.  The picture from the gimballed camera is remarkably steady even in gusty winds like we had today.  Oh, and I also made a distance test flight: about a half mile to an abandoned quarry, which I circled and then returned.  I was quite relieved when the drone made it back to my vicinity, but the truth is the thing worked flawlessly even at that distance – and the first person view (FPV) camera made piloting it a breeze even at that distance. 

I think I'll be ready to try flying it out in the boonies after just a few hours of practice...