Summer Starting to End on the Farm

-
Image
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.
Post a Comment
-

I knew I might out-do myself on this most recent trip. It has been a busy-busy trip and complicated. Thankfully, I really did not have any significant travel or meeting disruptions. I am currently in NY and headed back to ATL tonight. I have been away from Atlanta for 17 days. Although, I liked the bed in one of the hotels in Italy, I am looking forward to my favorite bed in Duluth.

I am staying at Douglas and Becky's in Lisle NY. It has been pleasant. We have moved a lot off the farm into storage. It is good to see horses on the farm. There is nothing sadder than a farm without animals.

The truck front right wheel bearing is about to totally fail. I have just a couple more trips to make today. I will need a little luck, but the contingencies are coming clear. Knock on wood, I can complete my mission with it today.

Ian is shown wearing a carnavale mask from Venice Italy playing with his turtle flute from rural Argentina.

Friday I had a productive meeting in Detroit with a new business contact I have there. I also had a fantastic sushi dinner with my friend Kelly Thursday night in Royal Oaks, Michigan. Leaving Detroit I ran into an old colleague of mine from Raymond. It was an interesting encounter and dialog. It was a pretty funny and memorable encounter. It was almost like some sort of act from a stage play. It is interesting to consider that Detroit was probably the highlight of this trip in many ways.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
I twisted my ankle Saturday. I am OK, but I will be taking it easy for a few days I am sure. The culture here is somewhat refreshing. People are polite and friendly and when you are driving around they wave to you. People who don't want to be here are not here. Living in close quarters with something and having much in common (being in Antarctica) allows people to connect better it seems. The bird is a Skua. http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/wildlife/birds/skuas.shtml They can get very aggresive. They will see you carrying food and then attack you. They are a good sign of summer and they are very skilled at getting their way with humans. The other picture was taken at about midnight. That is about as low as the sun gets. It is so weird. We still call it nighttime. I understand what folks say about short term memory loss on the ice. It definately seems to have affected me. We carry small green memo books which we call green brains.
Read more
-
Image
I picked up a cold-bug. It has been a quiet weekend. Not much fun, not much activity. I hired a guy to fix the dock. I am planning on some fences and things around the property. The goose seems like a loner and a bit mentally ill. We have named him "Buddy". He comes around and is a bit of a pest. We found some Russian ice cream at the Korean store the other day. It was great example that you don't need to travel to explore. Angie was in the UN last week.
Read more

CAT D6 started after 30 years of Sitting!

-
Image
Well the big fun this weekend was that we got the CAT D6 Dozer running! After 30 years of not being run it now runs. When the diesel finally kicked it did not disappoint in the slightest. The thing belched a big black cloud of black smoke and the cooling fan emptied the radiator of 30 years worth of bugs parts and mouse nests all over us. The neighbor came over pretty much in disbelief. In thinking about it, he had only ever lived across the street, it appears, and he was maybe 40 years old. That machine had been a familiar static fixture for almost his whole life. Something simple like getting that big old engine running is truly a lot of fun and was satisfying. I don't have a video of the engine rebirth. It took more hands than two people have to work the controls required to get the thing started. Now it is a bit more work to get it to move. It appears the brakes and possibly other parts are stuck.
Read more

The Balkans 2023

-
Image
Dowdell's 2023 Balkan trip Wow! What a trip! 10 New Countries (based on what the US state dept considers countries) Romania Bulgaria Moldova Serbia Bosnia and Herzegovina Kosovo North Macedonia Montenegro Albania Greece 3 Different Alphabets (many different languages, sometimes with multiple alphabets) 10 Currencies 14 Taxi or Uber Rides 3 Rental Cars 15 Border Crossings 9 Flight Segments 4 Bus Trips All that in 14 days. I am only now convinced that we could complete a trip with those stats, because it is over. It was a complex trip. We tried to take a version of this trip in 2020 but were thwarted by Covid. This time we pulled it off. The Balkan peninsula countries are fascinating because of the deep history, unique cultures, but also with current events and intercountry relationships. We learned a lot about the region and relationships with other countries. Since it was such a travel intensive trip we l...
Read more