Back on the farm in Summer

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I trailered a towable man lift (bucket lift) from Georgia to New York. The thing that made it eventful is that I had to drive my truck. My 2017 Chevy 3500 HD service truck (with only 31k miles) is not my Tesla. I have grown very accustomed to the Tesla self-driving, navigation and general hi-tech luxury. The truck, although I am very fond of my truck, is stressful and expensive to drive compared to the Tesla. Being on the farm alone has been an eye opener. I had forgotten how quiet and in-nature this place is. Very occasionaly a car or plane comes by and disrupts the void, but only occasionally. It has been very reflective. It is the first time I have been up here from Georgia without a specific date I must be back for... or so it seems. "All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone."-- Blaise Pasacal mid 1600s. I guess I am working on humanity's problems. It can take a lot out of you. I feel good about some of the pics I ha...
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Today was a great day. Making it to Antartica was an ok first step. Making it to my first mountain top in Antarctica is well... "That's what I am talking about!" I went up to fix a repeater. Mt. Coates is about 6000 ft. It is a shear cliff on most sides and flat enough up top to land the Bell 212. Actually, some of the sides are overhangs and the rock is quite brittle. I found the experience to be quite amazing. I don't know how else to describe it. I was up there for about 4 hours. The helo came back and we went home. There is always two of us together for these missions with a survival bag our ECW and radio contact to the helo (and other channels) with handheld radios. The weather was perfect. The pilot commented on the weather several times. I have hundreds of photos and the ones I have posted are not the best ones I am sure, since I have not looked through them yet.

It looks like I will be out in the field each day for a few days to different places.

Here is a very small sample of the science we support with our communications infrastucture in the dry valleys. There are hundreds of scientific projects this season, all of which need communications for science and safety. We have science lectures twice a week on station. Last night's was regarding penguins. My co-worker got some nice close ups of some penguins on Monday.

http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/antarct/ajus/nsf9828/9828html/h10.htm

http://www.astrobiology.com/lter/

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Back on the farm in Summer

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Image
I trailered a towable man lift (bucket lift) from Georgia to New York. The thing that made it eventful is that I had to drive my truck. My 2017 Chevy 3500 HD service truck (with only 31k miles) is not my Tesla. I have grown very accustomed to the Tesla self-driving, navigation and general hi-tech luxury. The truck, although I am very fond of my truck, is stressful and expensive to drive compared to the Tesla. Being on the farm alone has been an eye opener. I had forgotten how quiet and in-nature this place is. Very occasionaly a car or plane comes by and disrupts the void, but only occasionally. It has been very reflective. It is the first time I have been up here from Georgia without a specific date I must be back for... or so it seems. "All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone."-- Blaise Pasacal mid 1600s. I guess I am working on humanity's problems. It can take a lot out of you. I feel good about some of the pics I ha...
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