Chazd's (Charles Dowdell's) News Burps

This weekend was of reflection and socializing with new friends in their homes and environments. It is all good, food, culture, attitudes. Life is a buffet. Be in command, eat what you want, sample it all otherwise you will miss out. Since last blog we have had temps to 15 below zero. The llamas get concerned at these temperatures. Everything is ok. The llamaheater is functioning and we have had and are working to a plan. The kids are fine. I took the tractor out for a spin in the snow. Things are ok out in the woods. The heater and radio worked well in the tractor. The woods are especially beautiful in the winter. The pic is of my ham station (N2TYQ, November Two Tango Yankee Quebec) as of today. Things change, sometimes not visibly, but the shack changes. Sometime I may have to add callouts to this pic. Everything works. The keyboard is on my peddle generator handlebars. You cannot see it all, but I think you can get the idea. My Internet connection is via satellite (2 way, up...

It is cold this morning. I measured the bottom at 8 below zero. The llamas are out walking around, waiting for their breakfast, duh. They could be in their house with the heater. It is probably about 10 or so above in their house. The air is so still. When it gets like this there is such a beauty in the cold. It is so quiet you could hear something miles away if there was any noise made miles away. I have a combination coal and wood fire which is keeping the living room at 72 degrees. I will be finishing up my final today.

I am working on my final exam for "Value of Investments." In this class I learned some sophisticated means to analyze corporations to determine value. The models get complex, so complex; I think they teeter on chaos. I have learned a lot and can immediately apply what I have learned to work and home. I expect the final will take me between 24 and 32 hours to complete. The following pics are from a vacation we took in 2000. We went through New Orleans and then up the redneck Riviera in Biloxi and then to Florida and the Suwannee river. That is Franklin and Bonnie down by the old Suwannee. We rented a cabin on the shore. I was thinking that that area hit so hard with the hurricanes this past year will never be the same. Not that anything ever stays the same, but I you have to imagine the sudden change will be lasting.

I really have to get back to the homework... These are from a plane ride ride I went on with Richard Graumann a while back. The photo shows the Dowdell Farm. You can see a speck on a trail. That is Bonnie in the Jeep. The movie is on final in Greene grassstrip airport from the north. Looking at these makes me want to get back in the air. Click pic for video

When I was procrastinating about doing homework I found this town map which I have added the callout for our parcel. Boy, taxes sure are high for "Vacant." "Ok all you animals.. get out. This land is vacant."

I have been doing homework all weekend. I ended up in two classes for some bizzare reason. One of the classes is a no-credit research class. Every program has one. It does not matter how many times you have taken a similar class. Using academic databases online is still pretty much a pain that it always has been compared to using google. I have to go out and get some hay this afternoon then it it is a Christmas party for Bonnie's work. It is hovering in the low teens her on the farm. We are almost always colder than the published temps in the area. We are in an "outlying area." These pics are a little old but are from Maine NY which is the next town south of the farm. The way I understand it there were lands annexed by New England colonies in the formative years of New York state. In my area we have Berkshire, Maine, New Conn., all part of these annexes supposedly. I have been listening to my 1940 Philco AM radio console all weekend. It is astonishing how good that...

http://www.okienoodling.com/ The link is a good start to learn about "noodling". Noodling is a means to catch catfish like the one shown in a previous post. That fish is real. What you do is wade around the shores of lakes and streams, reach your hand into holes in the banks under water. The catfish will consider you a threat and try to eat you. You grab the inside of his mouth and wrestle him to victory. Seems simple enough. It is Thanksgiving again. It is about 18 degrees out and we have a few inches of snow. We have a coal fire going, switching from wood last night. The savings in getting our own wood and using low dollar per BTU coal isn't so much about saving money. I certainly waste more money on the savings on other stuff. It is about being able to take care of ourselves as we need to. Gas for the chainsaw is of course a concern. We are going over to couzin Liz's house in Dryden today. It is so weird that we ended up living in the same place almost. ...