Posts

Showing posts from March, 2013

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...
This weekend I am in an exotic locale. Atlanta! Exploring is a state of mind not a place on the map or expensive arrangements. I went flying flying Sunday, pretty routine. I didn't take a single pic. Weird. When a bird is alive, it eats ants. When the bird is dead, ants eat the bird. I am planning a cool trip up north, Boston area for my birthday with family, then speaking at a conference in Providence RI and rounding things out with NYC and a nice tour of the familiar Upstate, NY State.
Image
I was out in Phoenix most of this week. We got to visit the Taliesin West-- Frank Lloyd Wright's Arizona school and home. I thought I saw a quote years ago from Wright where he said, "Don't buy a house for the view unless you own the view." I could not find the quote documented anywhere so I will take the attribution.
Image
I am back from 8 days in Brazil, both in the North and the South. I had many "peak experiences" during this time. I spent three days in Petrolina which is on the border of Northern States of Pernambucu and Bahia. It is a semi-arid area on the San Fransisco River. The river is damned at this location creating a reservoir only second in size to the "3 gorges project in China". The area reminds me in climate to southern California. The irrigation and the sun makes a great place for citrus and the like. We went to a Gal Costa concert, a river boat ride and lots of other fun activities in a short amount of time. Goat meat (bode) is a specialty in the area and source of local attention. The domestic flight into Petrolini had such a hard landing we bounced enough to warrant a go around. That happens in my little planes as we are learning, it is uncommon with a large commercial jet, for sure. We all lived and the fire equipment stayed at the station. I was very proud of my...
Image
Spring has sprung in Duluth. The birds are singing, the buds are budding. Time to spend time working on the house. The following pic shows one of the roots of the traffic problem in Atlanta. There was a minor fender bender on I-285 yesterday. They dragged and drove the cars involved to the side of the road in a few minutes after "the authorities" got to the scene, After that though they had all the lanes blocked for god-only-knows-why afterwards. At least before the authorities got to the scene folks could use 3 of the five lanes. Man made disruptions. Traffic backs up for miles and miles and lanes and lanes. lets say a car takes 22 feet (given the space between them). If traffic is backed up for one miles in five lanes that works out to be 1200 cars, and that is if it is only backed up for one mile. A 5 mile backup is common.