Summer Starting to End on the Farm

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It has been good spending time on the farm. I really had forgotten how quiet and dark it is here. It can actually be a bit unnerving. The leaf doodle bug was put to work in the forest. However, it looks like the car will be going back on the road. We can say it failed field trials,but that would only be partially true. The better utility value at this point is more suited to getting a teenager back and forth from high school. The mycological aspects of the farm did not disappoint. The pics of these shrooms are not photoshopped. The coal stove (very heavy) is loaded on the truck. It will be rebuilt in Georgia if I can save it. Coal stoves are increasingly out of production. When they are gone they are gone. The small wood stove is now in its place. The pic of the red sky in morning was indeed a warning of weather. We had strong storms and tornados in Upstate NY. Although I was travelling much that day in the area, I missed the worst of it.
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I am working mostly on computers again this weekend. I am moving all the files into their appropriate storage areas. I have a quite a bit more to do. I am stuck with a 10 Mbps NIC in the machine I am typing on now (Pentium 233 we threw together). Simultaneous Internet access and file transfers can take quite a while. The progress box on the other machine here says 98 minutes.... uh oh, something is weird.

I am setting the new "work box" up to easily accept strange hard drives. It is a dual boot machine with linux and windoze. I will be adding a 5-1/4 in floppy drive to the complement of I/O. It has both MFM and IDE controllers. I am skipping all SCSI and CDROMs for now. Other future projects will be to figure out how to get the data of the C64 disks so we can run those games we had so much family fun with in a 6500 emulator that must be out there.

I sent out a bunch of RFQs for my new truck and dump trailer. It will be interesting to see what I get back. I did it by paper and mail. The option to submit RFQs is available on the web but that kinda defeats the purpose since I suspect there is a bidding arrangement via the web. Everyone knows who has the goods, and there are rules of engagement. I suspect a paper based is not there yet... too much data entry.

I am going out of town for three days to ride along with dealer technicians so I can further empathize with their work (and what I put the department through). This is not mandatory for me. The snow on the ground is the crustiest snow I have ever seen. We have been alternating between rain, freezing rain, and snow for the last few days. The llamas don't like it one bit. It is warm though. It has been over freezing in their llama house so I have not been running the heater.

Hopefully, I can get the EPROM burned for my 2 meter GE radio project tomorrow. I want to get some data links set up. With my satelite internet connection and all the batteries, generators, and inverters I have I will be able to be in touch without any power, cable tv, phone, gas, water or any other physical infrastructure. My tractor and jeep would fit the bill ok if the road went away as well. (I think I just jinxed myself)

I have been reading short stories lately which has been a great deal of fun. It is great to kick back a little. My finance class starts on the 24th.

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