Machinery Infatuation

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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...
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Summer has Broken!

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Relief. Summer seems to be on the way out which means perfect weather here in Duluth Georgia.

Gracie the cat being friendly on her "Fun boards". I attached a number of pine boards (fun boards) on the walls in the porch (cat room) afew years ago. She is starting to use them more. I would have thought that a cat would love them. They are up high, great visibility, exclusive use for cats... but the cat makes the final decision.

My 2017 Chevy Service Truck just turned over 30k Miles. So I drive it less than 5k a year and most of those miles are on trips, most to the farm in NY and back.

Here is a pic of me showing me with a portion of my shop. (It doesn't show my electronics bench or the racks and racks of stuff.) The bench is clean and that was the reason for the pic. It's a very rare situation.

I bought a NEW piece of McIntosh audio gear to complement the vintage Mac components. The McIntosh MB25 is a Bluetooth transceiver that allows modern integrations with the vintage gear. One of the coolest bits is that there is an external RF connector for an external antenna. But the obvious use is to steam audio to the Hi-Fi from my phone.

I had to tear apart the 50 plus year old frypan. The thing became intermittent and was showing a large hysteresis from on-temp to off-temp. I wasn't sure If I could fix it, but I did. Needless to say, the skillet was very well made indeed.

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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...
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Environmentalism and Earth Day

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I remember the first "Earth Day" in 1970. I remember it well. I was in third-grade at Oakview Neighborhood School in West Irondequit, NY. We had energized school lessons regarding care for the environment and there was a common thread in our cultural changes that we all need to care more about nature and ourselves. There was almost no opposing dialog. We had seen large fish kills, weird colored skys, and bodies of water we wouldn't even think about swimning in, including Lake Ontario. This was almost 10 years before the awakening of " love canal " in nearby Nigagra Falls NY. Generally, in 1970 the dialog was about polution and what we can do to reduce polution. Polution consisted of many things, trash along the highways, untreated sewage and industrial dumping and runoffs. Don't forget about sound polution, also part of the polution spectrum. We were also significantly concerned about needlessly cutting of trees and wasting paper. Since 1970 we have made g...
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I finally cracked the code on lime in my fields. Trying to find the cheap/smart way in farming is difficult since farmers are generally very resourceful and they figure stuff out. My lime project has been in my thinking for years. Down here we need lime on our soil for hay. The soil is great for berries, but for hay it needs to be sweetened every 10 years or so with 2 ton/acre of a lime type product with minimal mineral values. I found a close-by source (Lansing) of fine concrete dust. The numbers are great. The price is cheap since it is a byproduct and I found a guy with a tri-axle dump truck in between the source and the farm who was also willing to drive it out the field. It was about 1/4 the money and much higher quality than what most other folks do. I will be spreading it at the same time I mow. The mower on the front and the spreader on the rear. That is efficient.
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The reality has finally hit. I will be away for the holidays. We will all get through it that's for sure, but reality has a way of resisting all other thought. Not only will I be away from home and NY, the United States, I will even be away from "Antarctica". I will be at the very small camp at Taylor dome almost for sure. In actuality is is probably better to be out in the field camp (tell ya the truth) than here. The culture and customs are very strong in Mactown. It is like having your holiday at a stranger's house (not by their invitation). I told my boss about what I had heard the temperatures were at Taylor dome and he assured me those were windchill temperature. That doesn't count. I go by real temperatures. It probably won't be colder than -25F. I feel a lot more confident. Work is going well. I get the chance to fix all sorts of electronic stuff. I was working on solar panels, transmit combiners and PRC-1099s today. My ankle really went around t...
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On Being Single.

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Another weekend over. The scrap in the picture sold for 150 bucks this past Saturday. Amazing how high commodities have got. Hang on. The economy is in for some twists. I was all set to invest in forign currencies and I held off because of fear. Wouldn't you know my fears were warranted. The dollar started gaining some strength back. I lucked out there. I have to remember that. I was bit surprised how easy I got the scrap to the scrap yard. I used the tractor to drag the metal scrap out of the hedgerow (way back on the property), the bobcat to load onto the trailer and the truck and trailer to get it to the scrap yard. I seem to be set up for this stuff. It took less than two hours from end to end. The llama shearer will be here this weekend. I am going to look at a D6 dozer too. The dozer may be helping make some new ponds and what not. The projects on the list are going well this summer. Like always there are steps forward and steps back on the roads of progress. It is ve...
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