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.
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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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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.
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