Machinery Infatuation

-
Image
I bought my first NEW piece of farm machinery. I am not sure if this is a failure or a success, but it is different. I picked up a NEW Rotary Cutter (bush hog, brush hog, mower, etc) from a dealer. It cost me almost as much as the tractor did with its bits of hardware and options. It seems to work well on the CNH Boomer 33. I planned on getting up to NY in the next couple of days, but Gracie has been sick.. she has been up and down. The steroid treatment and a change in diet seem to be helping at this point. Besides hauling the tractor and mower up to NY I have numerous events planned over the next month. I will be in Charlotte for a conference as well as Tucson Arizona and of course other events and activities. I started installing radio equipment in the Humvee. It now has a telescoping 30 foot antenna, a 24 volt to 12 volt converter, a removable SDR radio and some other stuff to be sure. I'd like to get it to the Stone Mountain Hamfest -- thats what i am shooting for. I thr...
Post a Comment
-

Here is a public domain picture I snagged of the Penguin rookery at Cape Royds. We have some radio equipment there, maybe I will get up there. There is a Shackelton hut up there from the Nimrod expidition.

Work seemed particularly busy today. I was in a weather satelite radome for a while and worked on all sorts of other problems with a huge varity or radios and problems. It tired me out today.

I am still thinking quite a bit of why I am here. It is not obvious yet. I have had some great insight and inspiration, but there is more. I know there is. There is a very clear purpose that has led me here. It will become clear. I will go to the library again tonight.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Machinery Infatuation

-
Image
I bought my first NEW piece of farm machinery. I am not sure if this is a failure or a success, but it is different. I picked up a NEW Rotary Cutter (bush hog, brush hog, mower, etc) from a dealer. It cost me almost as much as the tractor did with its bits of hardware and options. It seems to work well on the CNH Boomer 33. I planned on getting up to NY in the next couple of days, but Gracie has been sick.. she has been up and down. The steroid treatment and a change in diet seem to be helping at this point. Besides hauling the tractor and mower up to NY I have numerous events planned over the next month. I will be in Charlotte for a conference as well as Tucson Arizona and of course other events and activities. I started installing radio equipment in the Humvee. It now has a telescoping 30 foot antenna, a 24 volt to 12 volt converter, a removable SDR radio and some other stuff to be sure. I'd like to get it to the Stone Mountain Hamfest -- thats what i am shooting for. I thr...
Read more
-
Image
I finally cracked the code on lime in my fields. Trying to find the cheap/smart way in farming is difficult since farmers are generally very resourceful and they figure stuff out. My lime project has been in my thinking for years. Down here we need lime on our soil for hay. The soil is great for berries, but for hay it needs to be sweetened every 10 years or so with 2 ton/acre of a lime type product with minimal mineral values. I found a close-by source (Lansing) of fine concrete dust. The numbers are great. The price is cheap since it is a byproduct and I found a guy with a tri-axle dump truck in between the source and the farm who was also willing to drive it out the field. It was about 1/4 the money and much higher quality than what most other folks do. I will be spreading it at the same time I mow. The mower on the front and the spreader on the rear. That is efficient.
Read more
-
Image
It was an aviation weekend. I spent a bunch of money (Ahh.. I mean time.. Hpmt..) in the air. Here is one of the flights shown mapped out on the chart. Cory and I went down to a 2400 foot grass strip skirting around and under the class bravo airspace of the world's busiest airport. It was a bit of an oxymoron. Navigating some of the worlds most complex airspace to land and have lunch at a primitive airport with a nice country restaurant/aviation museum. Loads of fun. I had blinders on most the time for simulated instrument time. It was bumpy and hazy. It was also 108 degrees F out. Needless to say, climb performance and comfort were issues. It "aint" much cooler 5000 ft in the air. The hazy picture shows what "home" looks like. It is (LZU) Gwinnett County Airport from the South on about a 1.5 mile left base for runway 25, although you can't quite see the airport off to the left.) It is refreshing to get a "good" look at things when the blinders com...
Read more
-
I am participating in the Chenango County Relay for Life event this coming Friday night. It is a fund rasier for Cancer research facilitated by the American Cancer Society (ACS). I will be up most of the night Friday Night up in Norwich taking turns walking around a track growing awareness and raising money with my Team. Donations can be made at: http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RelayForLifeEasternDivision?pg=team&fr_id=9561&team_id=298915
Read more

Environmentalism and Earth Day

-
Image
I remember the first "Earth Day" in 1970. I remember it well. I was in third-grade at Oakview Neighborhood School in West Irondequit, NY. We had energized school lessons regarding care for the environment and there was a common thread in our cultural changes that we all need to care more about nature and ourselves. There was almost no opposing dialog. We had seen large fish kills, weird colored skys, and bodies of water we wouldn't even think about swimning in, including Lake Ontario. This was almost 10 years before the awakening of " love canal " in nearby Nigagra Falls NY. Generally, in 1970 the dialog was about polution and what we can do to reduce polution. Polution consisted of many things, trash along the highways, untreated sewage and industrial dumping and runoffs. Don't forget about sound polution, also part of the polution spectrum. We were also significantly concerned about needlessly cutting of trees and wasting paper. Since 1970 we have made g...
Read more