Back to the "Deep South" in Duluth GA

-
Image
I get a kick out of hearing the term "Deep South" in 2026. It is a crazy incredibly outdated label. I think maybe I should start saying the "Deep Northeast". I am a Yankee. My family came over on the Mayflower and moved to Upstate NY via Connecticut. Terms used in the revolutionary and Civil war days are generally inappropriate. My family is all but totally out of NY State now. I find the term "deep south" to be of the same thinking that the movie "Heidi" is what contemporary Europe is like. It is a long drive between Berkshire, NY and Duluth, GA. Most of the 35K miles on the truck were spent in between. I drove the truck about 3k miles in 2-1/2 weeks. It was great to spend time on the farm. It was good to make some progress on needed repairs and improvements. I also felt good about making some new friends up there. I will be back up there in August.
Post a Comment
-

http://www.okienoodling.com/


The link is a good start to learn about "noodling". Noodling is a means to catch catfish like the one shown in a previous post. That fish is real. What you do is wade around the shores of lakes and streams, reach your hand into holes in the banks under water. The catfish will consider you a threat and try to eat you. You grab the inside of his mouth and wrestle him to victory. Seems simple enough.

It is Thanksgiving again. It is about 18 degrees out and we have a few inches of snow. We have a coal fire going, switching from wood last night. The savings in getting our own wood and using low dollar per BTU coal isn't so much about saving money. I certainly waste more money on the savings on other stuff. It is about being able to take care of ourselves as we need to. Gas for the chainsaw is of course a concern.

We are going over to couzin Liz's house in Dryden today. It is so weird that we ended up living in the same place almost. She is from Maine and is part of a practice as a doctor in Ithaca. We are cooking one turkey over here. There will be about 19 people.

Here are a couple of pics from a couple of months ago. The bass was caught in our pond. I told you it was just like the one in the previous post. The llama pic was a special moment just as the sun was coming up. We are often above the clouds here. Sometimes it looks like we could walk out on the clouds. The llamas look pretty happy in the photo for sure.

I have a lot of web stuff to do and fix. I might get to it. I am in two classes now.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Solon NY Water Mill

-
Image
I went and looked at the Solon Pond Mill. I was mistaken last time when I was up there in 2000. It was Summer and everything was overgrown. The mill is about an 1/8 mile from the building I thought might have been the mill. The mill is in rough shape. But everything is still there. I couldn't get underneath to see if the turbine was in good shape. I had heard that it was buried in muck. I suspect it is there, but probably in rough shape as well. It is a combination grist and saw mill, and could be restored to do exactly that. I am going to pass. I was thinking it would make a great homesite however. There is 3.9 acres (a lot for a mill) and you could build a nice house that looked period and work on getting an awesome water powered workshop out back. There is a planner, and it looks like a jig saw and I bet a few other pieces of woodworking equipment in there. All the shafting looks good. It is fun to think about the coolness of starting with logs and making furniture all out in th...
Read more

CAT D6 started after 30 years of Sitting!

-
Image
Well the big fun this weekend was that we got the CAT D6 Dozer running! After 30 years of not being run it now runs. When the diesel finally kicked it did not disappoint in the slightest. The thing belched a big black cloud of black smoke and the cooling fan emptied the radiator of 30 years worth of bugs parts and mouse nests all over us. The neighbor came over pretty much in disbelief. In thinking about it, he had only ever lived across the street, it appears, and he was maybe 40 years old. That machine had been a familiar static fixture for almost his whole life. Something simple like getting that big old engine running is truly a lot of fun and was satisfying. I don't have a video of the engine rebirth. It took more hands than two people have to work the controls required to get the thing started. Now it is a bit more work to get it to move. It appears the brakes and possibly other parts are stuck.
Read more
-
Image
I twisted my ankle Saturday. I am OK, but I will be taking it easy for a few days I am sure. The culture here is somewhat refreshing. People are polite and friendly and when you are driving around they wave to you. People who don't want to be here are not here. Living in close quarters with something and having much in common (being in Antarctica) allows people to connect better it seems. The bird is a Skua. http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/wildlife/birds/skuas.shtml They can get very aggresive. They will see you carrying food and then attack you. They are a good sign of summer and they are very skilled at getting their way with humans. The other picture was taken at about midnight. That is about as low as the sun gets. It is so weird. We still call it nighttime. I understand what folks say about short term memory loss on the ice. It definately seems to have affected me. We carry small green memo books which we call green brains.
Read more
-
Image
Douglas and his family stayed with me in Duluth last night. I went to a funeral today for a church friend. Dennis always wore Hawaiian Style shirts, so many of us wore Hawaiian shirts with black arm bands. It was good. http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2014/feb/19/dennis-marks/ Pic from last week.
Read more
-
Image
Life in Northern Atlanta. If you substitute the car for a small airplane in this pic it would hit the national news. I am glad I am flying to stay away from wrecks like this one. Aviation is so much safer. I did a nice emergency engine out (simulation) the other day (required). I picked a great spot. My flight instructor had a good laugh when I told him the engine out field strongly reminded me of landing in Greene NY. I wish I had a pic, but I was busy. Clear the trees, towers, hills, and wires and you have it made. I won't trade any of my sweaty palms (anywhere) for anything.
Read more