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Showing posts from August, 2005

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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http://www.catfastferry.com/the_ship/ Bonnie and I went to Toronto Friday night on the fast ferry. We stayed at the Westin Harbour where on Saturday the World Championship of Public Speaking took place. We came home on the ferry Saturday night. By the time we got to Berkshire it was actually Sunday morning. The ferry was neat. It was clean, fast, smooth and fun. We went business class. We had fun chating and making friends on the way over. They serve food in business class and the leather couches are pretty comfy. I slept on the way back. We didn't have passports with us. It turns out that to travel between Canada and the US you just plain need a passport with you these days. We weren't sure if they were going to let us into Canada. The one little movie of the stern wake of the cat while under way got corrupted. Maybe I need a new camera. Grr. The Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking was worthwhile. The top ten competed and the winner was named, Lance...
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I haven't had the available time to blog. It doesn't mean I am not interested. It is not always a priority. This past weekend I spent mostly tuck pointing the south side of my barn. The wall is 80 feet by 10 feet That is 711 concrete blocks, approximately 2844 linear feet of mortar joint. Although not all the joints are being reworked it takes quite a bit of time grinding the joints out with a diamond wheel in the mini grinder, cleaning and getting new mortar in there. I was thinking that I could by accident take too much mortar out and have the wall fall me. It would be almost a certain death as a hundred or so blocks fall on me. I started being more careful on doing a smaller section at a time after having the visual pop in my head. I need to be skidding trees out of the woods. We need firewood. Although we heat with coal a lot, wood is good for fall and spring evenings and it is used to get coal burning. Coal is hard to get going and getting it stated takes some atten...
I thought of a few simple crimes agaist humanity. Going to get your hair cut at 12:00 noon when you are retired. Having a handicap sticker on your car and parking in a regular spot. "That is my place."
GlideStone News I haven't found the time to blog lately. It is summer. Check out the blog link above from friend Todd Sheehan. We shall call this a cross blog or "crog." He has chronicled his hand gliding adventures. This guy is a nut. When we worked together he was building racing RC planes (electric). He was cutting the wings from foam then covering with fiberglass epoxy. Then he got into RC helicopters, first electric then gas. I took yesterday off and worked on the south side of my barn. I have to decide whether to fix the drainage right or move on. I have two foundation cracks I am digging under to pour concrete below the crack to stabilize. Bonnie and I really want to live in a finished house and property.