Another trip between Georgia and the New York farm

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Its unusual that I make the trip this late in the year. Although it is highly unlikely it would snow (and bring the road salt and all the other bad stuff). It is often rainy. I had excellent weather. The main objective was to bring the brush hog up and mow trails. The trails have been disapearing and there are a number of bush islands appearing everywhere a small finish mower can't do the job. The tractor worked well. Back up over a multiflora rose bush with the brush hog up and drop it down and take care of business --at least for another couple of year or so. I spent many hours years ago yanking these things out of the ground with tractor and chain which yields a more satisfactory long term outcome. I will be doing the same with the largest ones for sure. I understand that these bushes were originally planted as a natural fence. Animals and humans alike don't like the thorns. They are invasive.

Today I was in the shop. I fixed a radio or two and we spent quite a bit of time screwing around with this huge (geographically) wireless network we are building. One of the problems we have is that we have a pretty mixed bag of various vintages of equipment. Some of the stuff is ancient in terms of wireless LANs. Some is new. The feature sets vary so much it is important not to mix and match in each subnet. Even then functions across the net can cause issues.

I got word today that I am headed out to the ITASE traverse start site at Taylor dome, I believe for the put-in. What that means is I fly out in a twin otter skiplane with the folks who put up the tents and generally "make camp". There will be six of us. We will have to do a lot of hand digging and such. I understand to get one of the Challengers out of the snow it will be a manual process and then we can use that one to get the second one unburied. I have to get the radios working and install a couple more. We will probably have to rely on HF and satelite phone (if available). I don't think I can make the path on VHF. I am not sure. I have a meeting tomorrow to discuss this. I bet they are going to want Internet as well!

The important thing is that this time or another time I will be out in the field at the whim of weather and equipment. I may not post for a day or two or three. Don't panic. It just means I have to go primitive for a bit. I will post when I am in town.

These photos are from my helo ride yesterday. I have hundreds more just from that short trip. That is a great arial shot of McMurdo. Mt Erebus is in the background. Erebus is an active volcano. There have still been no trips to Pole, still too cold. I bet a few of these people would like to get home after being totally isolated since February.

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