Posts

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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I went to a party last weekend. It was casual and good. Summer sure is nice around here. It is off to another party today. I took friday off again to try and get stuff done. The bobcat, jeep, and all three chainsaws are fixed. I had a welder come up to the farm and get the fork attachment done for the bobcat. It was expensive, but it is done. It is a critical weld job. His welds are a thing of beauty. The plane was at the party at McKinney field. It is a highly modified Tri-pacer. It is classified as an experimental. I am planning a cross coutry with my mentor Monday night. Greene to Cortland to Norwich to Sidney to Greene. That will be fun.
It seems that all my equipment is broken today. The jeep, small mower, chainsaw, bobcat, tractor all have issues. It really gets frustrating keeping everything running. Some days it is just bad luck. I cut a whole bunch of trees down to square up a pasture and get firewood. I am getting better at felling trees. I did have a couple that didn't toggle quite right. I had to do a bit of pulling as shown in the video. Pulling a tree down while filming was a bit challenging.
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Well it is 8/8/08 at 888 N. Ketchumville Rd. just past 8 o'clock. Sounds good. Saw yet another nice rainbow on the farm tonight. I have seen sooo many here. Had Rooster Salad last night on a flour tortilla. Ya know, as I was eating Mr. Chicken Friend I couldn't help but think about how much he tasted like rattlesnake. Go figure. It was good. Another busy weekend is planned. I am trying to get 10 lbs into a 5 lb bag. I am multiplexing about 20 projects this summer. They have been on a card in my pocket. I then use other cards for the shorter term "do lists". All the projects are moving. There has really only been a few distractions from the begining of the summer. Of course they were worth the flexibility. I did my first consignment with an auction house today. We see how that went tommorrow. I will be going flying next Tuesday is the plan. What a great place to fly. I have really learned to enjoy the feeling and the sensations of the plane when I pull the throt...
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The following is the webcam of the Greene airport. This is looking down rnwy 7. So you can see me taking off coming towards you (normally) on 25. I am planning on flying at 5:30 Thursday the 7th of August. I will be doing takeoffs and landings. Not surprisingly, to practice landings you have to do takeoffs. 5:30PM Thursday.. Had to cancel due to weather. http://www.wunderground.com/webcams/MarcelBarrows/1/show.html
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I am tired. I did a lot of outdoor work this weekend. I am a bit behind on my firewood, but I will get there. I obtained some 12 x 12 hemlock beams. I am working with an Architect for deck/porch design. These beams may be part of look. The local stone is already in the plans. I will hopefully have the design complete in September, which is good because I have some repairs to do before winter. I am getting pretty good at getting pictures of cars flipped over off the road as I drive by. I have no idea how this vehicle/person got there. The utility pole is broken and the guard rail was only slightly damaged. Maybe he came out of the side street and flew mostly over the guard rail. It was on NYS Rt 79 near Lisle. There is a picture of a very large hit and miss engine that a neighbor has in his repair shop. Who says two-stroke motors are lightweight?
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I went to scrap yard and generally worked like crazy Monday, my day off. The machines used at the scrap yard almost make the whole trip worthwhile. Many of them are like some weird dinosaur hydraulic beasts. The video is of a giant hydraulic lobster. The scrap yard was incredibly busy. The cash payouts get really big, scary big, when you see thousands of $$ people put in their pockets. I got $266 for some farm junk I chainsawed out of the woods since the trees had grown up thru it.
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I got some antibiotics for my cold. I am feeling so much better. I didn't even realize how bad I was feeling. I am taking a three day weekend. I will be going to the scrap yard, geting parts for power equipment and mowing. I had some guy show up to buy the 4 wheeler he bought off me on ebay. It was easy for me to empathize with his 4 hour drive each way. He got lost in my neighborhood. I live so far off the beaten path GPS doesn't even work. The mapping is wrong around here. The llamas really kicked back yesterday. They were just sunning themselves groving on the scene. Friday I had a flying lesson and my instructor and I agree that I have made great progress. I have turned a corner. There was a fly-in to Greene as well. So after my lesson we went over to the restaurant and talked aviation. I realized at that point of how nice a place it is to live around here. The word perfect came to mind.