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Back South Again with More Projects

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A lot of driving. I have forgotten how much driving is involved when on the farm. Everything is far. But I also had to drive up and back twice to Syracuse to pickup/drop off Angie at the airport and a business meeting for Wisdomino in Albany. Yeah it was a lot of driving for me. All and all it was about 4000 miles in three weeks. Early in the morning I decided to check out some auctions (dangerous). I ended up being high bidder on a 2015 New Holland Boomer 33 ( "hours unknown, does not run, may have problems, no key, no battery" ) from the State of Tennessee. I figured I could swing by Nashville and pick it up on the way to Georgia. And indeed I did. It was only a couple of hours extra, maybe 4. But, it was more efficient than going to Georgia and then back and forth to Nashville. Nashville is about 4 hours from Duluth. So I was looking at a 4 hour savings. After I go through it and getting if working I will tow it up to the farm in NY. I wasn't prepared for a trac...
Opportunity - A favorable or advantageous circumstance or combination of circumstances. In time of change there are new circumstances that if viewed as such provide advantageous circumstances as they relate to personal values. For example: Rising oil prices is an opportunity for the oil companies to receive more revenue whereas rising oil prices for the masses is not a good thing. Opportunity depends on values since it stems from advantageous circumstances.
It was hot this past weekend. I don't know what the temp was but it must have been well into the 90s. I decided I was done making excuses about the trim on the southside of my barn, so I was up there sweating buckets "gettn r dun". I moved and chopped firewood, cleared some for the fence and generally did farm work. I finished mowing my hay field this week. It feels great to look back at the 18 acres and see alternating stripes of grass. Next year, I plan on baling. The big news is that Bonnie "made me" buy a fish pole as well as a new reel for my larger pole. That was fun. I have a very nice Fenwick/Abu Garcia ultralight now. Sunday morning I got up at the usual early hour (about 5:00), drove through the woods with my Jeep to the far corner of the property. I then carried my fish gear through the park about a mile to the very serene, slightly foggy, glass-smooth lake. I fished about 45 minutes. I hooked a nice bass. The fish jumped nicely and then spit the ho...
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The sun sure came up this morning. It is brilliant out. I will be in Syracuse all day. The following photo is of my orange tree. It is one of my most valued possessions. I was having a few bad days in early 1999. In my lunch I had an orange with just a overwhelming amount of seeds in it. I decided at that point I was going to make something positive and I germinated the seeds taken from my mouth in a foam cup lined with moistened paper towels. The seeds sprouted and I transplanted the select seedlings in progressively larger and larger pots. I am working these days on trimming and shaping the tree which is an even greater thing to do than germination. I enjoy looking at the tree during times of stress. It is a symbol for me of growth, rejuvination, solace and action-based hope. "Tradition holds that three basic virtues are necessary to create a bonsai: shin-zen-bi standing for truth, goodness and beauty." http://bonsaisite.com/intro1.html
Smithville day I ran 25:45 in the 2006 Smithville 5k. I was a bit off my plan of 24:30. I could blame it on a multitude of things, but it was all me. Running like this is not a team effort. I feel good about my improvement from last year and the accomplishment of my goal. I suspect next year I will do better.
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I am about to go run the 5k over in Smithville. The Tioga cat decided he wanted to be in a photo this morning.
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I sneaked up on some deer this morning before work. I am running the Smithville 5k tomorrow morning. I expect to finish in 24 minutes 30 seconds. I am picking up the post hole digger tonight. Hopefully, I can get it working this time and get some holes drilled. The llamas will appreciate the grass the deer were enjoying this morning. It is a weird juxtaposition between the deer and the llamas. They are curious about each other. Both the deer and the llamas are limited by a fence. Click pic for video
I was excited to hear the national spelling bee was to be on "regular TV" a couple of days ago. I was very much in agreement with the news hour, in regards to "That it is great to see kids get this kind of recognition for mental achievement not just achievement in athletics". I remember writing a great paper regarding the "revenge of the nerds take II". Just like when Bill Gates and all the other non-bureaucratic engineers started to get real attention from their achievements we will see information savvy folks do the same. Forgive them they know not what they do. Ask the folks who are working the Google enterprise.