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Showing posts from August 29, 2004

Worst Weather in the World

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I flew up to Maine to see my sister and cousins for a few days. As part of the trip we went up Mount Washington in NH. We went up on the Cogged Railway. It's A unique old vehicle system that only uses a large cog underneath the engine hooked into a ladder type of rack on the tracks all the way to the top. The modern engine uses a 600HP John Deere driving a hydraulic pump which in turn drives several hydraulic motors turning the large cog. Mt Washington is known for the extreme cold and highest wind in the world. Yes, the world. That was not the case when we went up. The winds were 3 MPH and the temp was 62 degrees. the highest ever temp ever recorded was 72 degrees and a 3 MPH wind is generally unheard of. So, the weather was quite kind for us.
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Ultralight aircraft, used ultralights for sale. I went for a great ultralight airplane ride the other night. John's Dad, Mel took me up for about 20 minutes or so. It was great. I felt myself smiling pretty good. I took the controls and did some practice coordinated turns. It was a great experience. I hope to get an ultralight at some point. It is different and fun. Click pic for video
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Do It Yourself: House Exterior The roof is done. That makes two big jobs this summer on the house. First I did the electric service entrance for the barn and the house and later the roof. Luckily, no sheathing had to be replaced. I thought there would need to be some replaced, but I lucked out. I used 56 bundles of 25 yr shingles, with new drip and rake edges, one course of snow and ice guard and rigid ridge vent. I am glad the two big jobs for this year are over. Next year I am replacing the load beams in the barn with steel I beam. I will need to buy about 80 more feet of 8 inch beam. I get a great price on steel through work. The other big job is probably going to be the deck. I can't start on that until we have a comprehensive design plan for the house done. We still have lots of ideas, but no definitive plan. Hopefully, I will be sponsoring a design competition at the school of architecture at SU shortly. I am waiting to hear back about the "ins and outs"...
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The Official Site of the Great New York State Fair Bonnie and I made it to the fair finally. There was a lot to do. Overall, we had a good time. Click pic for video Click pic for video