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Spring has sprung in Berkshire. The weather was great Saturday. I riggged up a tractor back-blade on the tractor and it has become a formatible dozer. We took the llamas for nice hike outback. The woods were as beautiful as expected; the buds are getting green and you can still see through the woods. Nothing is hidden by the leaves as it will be in a few months. I got some more sand for the garden and will be turning that in soon. The chickens have been having a great time picking bugs from around the house and letting us have their eggs.

I went for a very nice plane ride a few days ago in a Cessna 172. The weather was near perfect. It was possibly one of my best flights ever. My interst in aviation is hightened lately; I was just reading about the DeHaviland Twin Otter aircraft. I am expecting to get a ride in one of these this year. They are 20 seat twin torboprops (Approx. 580 HP each) with a 12,000 lb takeoff weight. They seem to be very rugged and versatile. They are non-presurized and can be noisy compared to a commercial jet.

Today I am working on the conference for next weekend of which I am co-chair. Planning a meeting of 150 people requires planning in its purest form. It will be stressful if you want it to be stressful. It is that simple.

I also hope today to work on some 900 MHz radios (FM) that KB0VIW are planning on using for a simplex connection between our stations.

The pics are of Bob and DJ's emu chick. The chick is 8 days old when I took the pictures (hatched on April 7, when I was in Denver). The emu males sit on the nest and boy is he serious about protecting his chick. I wasn't interested in getting in the cage with him. He has making some weird growly noises. The chick makes a fairly loud peeping noise.



Click pic for video

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