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Showing posts from March 25, 2007

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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We have been working on Rosie. She isn't sick. She just seems too stiff to get up on her own. We are giving her meds three times a day and exercising her. The photo shows how to get a llama up that has been down. We have a llama sling and sometimes they just need a pull on the sling. Other times you have to use a come-a-long and winch the animal up. This is the third llama that we have had to use the sling on. We have got of use out of it for sure. It isn't much fun but that is the kind of work you need to do when you have animals. Today I am buying aviation books, budgeting the lessons and the plan, listing a bunch of stuff on ebay and working on my book. The weather is nice out there. The chickens are out and they are getting lots of bugs and enjoying their freedom.
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I have not blogged in quite a while. Spring is starting to spring around here. The daffodils are starting to peek out of the ground and almost all the snow is melted. It won't be long now. Rosey the llama is down. We not sure what is going on. I took my first real flying lesson tonight in about twenty years. Here is a picture of the plane, a 1966 Cessna 172. I am comfortable, but not confident. Flying in and out of a grass strip (2600 feet) is a bit different. The surrounding hills are about 1000 feet higher than the airfield so if you are cruising at 2500 feet you are only about 600 feet about the terrain. The final approach puts you about 20 or 30 feet above some trees at the end of the runway. I think I will get the hang of it but it will take time. The book work is the easiest for me. Taking all the flight information in and processing it in realtime is a bit of a skill to learn. Knowing what to look at and for how long is a trick. Knowing what controls to gain feedback by ...