Summer Starting to End on the Farm

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It has been good spending time on the farm. I really had forgotten how quiet and dark it is here. It can actually be a bit unnerving. The leaf doodle bug was put to work in the forest. However, it looks like the car will be going back on the road. We can say it failed field trials,but that would only be partially true. The better utility value at this point is more suited to getting a teenager back and forth from high school. The mycological aspects of the farm did not disappoint. The pics of these shrooms are not photoshopped. The coal stove (very heavy) is loaded on the truck. It will be rebuilt in Georgia if I can save it. Coal stoves are increasingly out of production. When they are gone they are gone. The small wood stove is now in its place. The pic of the red sky in morning was indeed a warning of weather. We had strong storms and tornados in Upstate NY. Although I was travelling much that day in the area, I missed the worst of it.
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It has been a while since I blogged. It was one thing than another. My latest trip to Europe was a success. It is amazing how problems dissolve when you have people in the same room.

I flew into Munich, took the train to Marktoberdorf. After 3 days in Marktoberdorf I hopped on a direct overnight train to Venice, Italy. Unfortunately, It was a night train so I didn't get the benefit of the scenery. It felt good to maneuver the trains and stations. I hardly screwed up at all. Since I was by myself, don't know any other language besides English, and it was the first time, I did ok.

Venice was better than expected. I don't recommend going to Venice by yourself. Also, I was there in winter. I can imagine how busy it must get in season in the evenings. I would definitely avoid that. Exploring first thing in the morning in Venice was cool. There are no crowds and the images were very impressive. I think it is pretty hard to take a bad photo in Venice. I have so many pictures. I ran into some ugly Americans and some ugly Italians. I definitely got the feeling that everything in Venice will be underwater someday, by earthquake, flood or something.

After the weekend in Venice I had two days of meetings in Breganze and Bolzano Del Grappa in Northern Italy. Then back to Atlanta via Holland. I had a long layover in Amsterdam so I took the train downtown and out into the country. It was very nice. My camera battery was dead at that point, however.

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