Upper Peninsula Michigan and Auction Win Outcomes

-
Image
I was up in Wisconsin and the UP (upper peninsula) in Michigan. It was a lot of driving after launching/landing in Appleton WI. I got an item off the bucket list by driving across the "Mighty Mac". Altough it was built in the late '50s. It is still the longest suspension span in the Northern hemisphere. It is a crazy long bridge with a crazy long suspension span. It was good to see the bridge in context of the seemingly endless forests of Northern Wisconsin and Michigan. The culture in the two haves of Michigan are noticibly different as you might expect. Great time meeting with folks both in WI and MI. The tractor I won in auction, seems to have paid off. This time I beat the odds. It was a really good deal. I have the "no-key, non-running, may have hydraulic problems, unknown hours" -auction win, running well with minimal cost and time. I have some more tweaks, maintenance and minor fixes but the major risks are gone.
Post a Comment
-

DJ and I did some farm sitting for an organic farm a few miles away. The farm is off grid and they get a little electric from solar panels. The house is underground so I imagine it is pretty energy efficient. We milked a goat by hand. The new experience was worth the price of admission. Now we are making cheese with the milk.

My FAA medical has expired. I am getting that back in place. My solo has been postponded until that is done. Learning to fly is done thru series of learning experiences and plateaus. It can get a little frustrating, but it will come. The learning is a combination of confidence and skill building. Each is neccesary. I definately understand the saying that, "flying is the most fun you can have with your clothes on". When I think about flying and landing the plane a warmth comes over me.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Upper Peninsula Michigan and Auction Win Outcomes

-
Image
I was up in Wisconsin and the UP (upper peninsula) in Michigan. It was a lot of driving after launching/landing in Appleton WI. I got an item off the bucket list by driving across the "Mighty Mac". Altough it was built in the late '50s. It is still the longest suspension span in the Northern hemisphere. It is a crazy long bridge with a crazy long suspension span. It was good to see the bridge in context of the seemingly endless forests of Northern Wisconsin and Michigan. The culture in the two haves of Michigan are noticibly different as you might expect. Great time meeting with folks both in WI and MI. The tractor I won in auction, seems to have paid off. This time I beat the odds. It was a really good deal. I have the "no-key, non-running, may have hydraulic problems, unknown hours" -auction win, running well with minimal cost and time. I have some more tweaks, maintenance and minor fixes but the major risks are gone.
Read more

Solon NY Water Mill

-
Image
I went and looked at the Solon Pond Mill. I was mistaken last time when I was up there in 2000. It was Summer and everything was overgrown. The mill is about an 1/8 mile from the building I thought might have been the mill. The mill is in rough shape. But everything is still there. I couldn't get underneath to see if the turbine was in good shape. I had heard that it was buried in muck. I suspect it is there, but probably in rough shape as well. It is a combination grist and saw mill, and could be restored to do exactly that. I am going to pass. I was thinking it would make a great homesite however. There is 3.9 acres (a lot for a mill) and you could build a nice house that looked period and work on getting an awesome water powered workshop out back. There is a planner, and it looks like a jig saw and I bet a few other pieces of woodworking equipment in there. All the shafting looks good. It is fun to think about the coolness of starting with logs and making furniture all out in th...
Read more

Southern Africa!

-
Image
I was successful getting to all 8 countries I planned. South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Eswatini (Swaziland), Lesotho, and Namibia. The trip was 14 days with 13 flight segments. The shortest flight was 15 minutes in an ultralight and the longest flight 16+ hours. I rented a 4x4 in Lesotho and another in Namibia. Among many other things in my travels, I walked across the Victoria Falls bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe and took an ultralight aircraft ride over the same bridge and falls. Namib Desert from the air. Look for my 4x4. Skeleton Coast Heart of Namid desert near uranium mine Maputo, Mozambique-- City Hall and Samora Machel statue Maseru, Lesotho-- I was delayed at the airport leaving Lethoto by about three hours. I had to find a nother hotel in Namibia since I wasn't going to drive after dark. The delay was caused by the Airport being shut down because of an expired battery in the airport fire truck. We had to wait to get a n...
Read more
-
Image
I got the bobcat going again and I have almost all the holes drilled. I will be taking the auger back Monday morning. I still have to assemble the fence, fashion 4 gates and generally get the job done. I am gaining on it. It is amazing what you can get done when you are not studying for a class and working a full-time job. We have our new llamas, two females named Rosey and Ultima. They settled in with the herd right away. The current animal count: 7 chickens, 6 llamas, and 2 cats. Click pic for video
Read more
-
Image
Today we went up to a NASA building to peak the antennas for the Erebus Volcano cam. We squeaked about 4 additional dB out of the signal. The golfball is the radome for satellite tracking. You will see the web cam is not functional at this time. I am not sure if they are going to feed the video I worked on today to the web or not. There are alot of good movies and what not at this site though. http://www.ees.nmt.edu/Geop/mevo/mevo.html The other pic is of my boss and a rigger who did the hard part up the tower. All I had to do was setup the Spectrum Analyzer and give adjustment instructions over the handheld radio to the riggers at our site and atop the volcano. Next week looks exciting. I will be going to a large penguin rookery Monday and the the summit of Mt. Terror Tuesday (weather permitting). I have volunteered in the galley Sunday morning. That will be different and fun. I told myself I was going to pitch in as I always like to do.. so I am.
Read more