Picturesque rocky cone
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Br. Machine Gun of Mild Reason" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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04:11 pm
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Weekend of firewood...
Yesterday we shared a trailer-load of wood from our field at the hilltop with some friends. Today the rest of the house was sleeping late, but I saw a forecast for rain later and set about dealing with some oak that came down behind our house in the December '08 ice storm. I had cut it up at the time, hoping someone would get around to splitting and picking it up, but no such luck. I decided to take the '51 Chevy, as it hadn't been run in a couple of months. It started right up (that solar battery maintenance system was *so* worth the time I put into it) so off down the field I rattled. Something I did set Trump-it (J's pasture ornament) off and he jumped right out of his paddock, getting J away from the computer. Meanwhile, my chainsaw was running well but what got the most exercise was me and my splitting axe. The oak was mostly in 24" lengths and just right for splitting. It took me about 3 hours to fill the truck, and it began to spit rain just as I finished.
There's another truck worth in a trunk I hadn't sectioned into logs. If we don't get a lot of snow before Xmas, maybe I'll drag it out of the brush with the tractor and get to work on it too. But not for a few days, splitting that much did not come without a price: moderately sore forearms etc.
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02:42 pm
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A heavy object seems to have fallen...
... on the gas pedal of my life. I will now demonstrate how to do 2 or 3 difficult and time-consuming things before Xmas. Or disappear in a puff of greasy black smoke. Or both. Possibly not including Xmas shopping, but I wouldn't be a fully-qualified modern american guy if I hadn't taken care of that on the 24th before....
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06:56 pm
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Arisia? Oh, Arisia? I guess I'll try spray-painting some graffiti...
I didn't get any email about signing up as a presenter. No link on arisia.org, so I asked info@arisia.org on Friday; I've seen the question handed off to another person, but no actual answer yet. Google for "arisia zambia" gets the '08 site. Adjusting the link to '09 gets 404.
Any pointers, O watching SMOFs, or is it too late?
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02:35 pm
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First of a series?
This year's interesting pie is 70% local orchard Baldwins, though they would have done better if I'd left them in the mudroom rather than the dining room. 30% is my Golden Russets and a few Baldwins I got by picking off my trees this morning. Next year, nature willing, I'll have 2X or more of my own late apples, so conceivably pie #2, instead of 'run of the orchard' (Macs, Cortlands and Galas, if I judge correctly) will be my apples too...
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10:45 am
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Ray Davies at Berklee (God Save the Kinks!!!)
Last June, Raymond Douglas Davies, CBE, turned 65. Sir James Paul McCartney turned 67. Bob Dylan had turned 68 the previous month. I saw them all this year, Davies at the Berklee Performance Center last night, Dylan at the Music Hall/Wang/Whatever The Highest Bidder Says Friday and McCartney at Fenway Park a few months ago. Of them all, I liked Davies' show the best. High energy, interesting re-works of long-ago hits and even an old song I don't think I've ever heard before ('Moments' from the sound track to 'Percy', which I've never owned). Leaving out the 'ants on the outfield' aspect of Fenway, McCartney put on a good show, but he hasn't played as many gigs, hasn't spent much time close to his audience since maybe 1963 and IMO, isn't as versatile a poet as Davies. Dylan certainly has the poetry cred, but his voice was in pretty rough shape Friday and the band/orchestration/mix did not help the audience hear him. He left the stage without an encore, leaving me glad I saw him fronting the Dead 22 years ago.
Bottom Line: Davies has several dates in NY, NJ and PA over the next 10 days, if you can get to one it'll be worthwhile.
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09:34 pm
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Many things are hanging fire...
... in my life, but of course if I could push them in a productive direction, I would have long ago. A minus is that I have elucidated the bug in my bank's new software, at the cost of 4 bounced checks, refunded fees and a profuse apology. The fix is, of course, hanging fire. A plus is how much live music I've had in my life recently, from mariachi bands playing Olde Mexican chestnuts to Dylan to Pink Voyd vs. The Machine and Ray Davies tomorrow night. Another plus is still picking Golden Russet apples off my tree, a week after it lost its last leaves. Those are what my ancestors meant by 'keepers'. A third is that I might manage a Golden Spike ceremony on the B&M Eastern Route (in my attic) before my birthday if I tear myself away from the Vast Recreational Time Sink I see before me and get with the carpentry already.
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10:58 pm
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I haven't really outgrown meditating, I think...
But I don't need as much meditation as I did 20 years ago, so I don't listen to meditating music so much. When I put something on, I'm often looking for energy. Less psychedelia and jam bands, more garage bands and punk...
Current Music: Ramones: Acid Eaters
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11:52 am
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Colorado narrow gauge trip...
Narrow gauge (3 ft. in this case) railroads were cheaper to build and could handle much tighter curves, so they wound up in mountains, serving mines, sawmills etc. Most that remains in the US is in CO and NM, where it was preserved because it was so scenic.
Los Pinos on the Cumbres & Toltec is about 2 miles north of the CO/NM border at 9700'. Yes, the RR does a U-turn in the valley to my left - it's all about gaining altitude carefully. I enjoyed riding it the next day, and riding the Durango & Silverton the day after, and the steam cave in Glenwood Springs the next day. But it took lots of driving to make it all fit in 5 days away from work. This weekend has been eaten by chores, giving a massage and other hobby stuff including making a first pass over ~400 images...
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08:02 am
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Common Ground Fair
I am contemplating going to Common Ground in Unity, ME on Saturday. It will be about 3 hours drive and traffic at the parking is typically slow, so if I go I'll leave early, like before 0700. I expect I'll have at least 1 empty seat...
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08:35 am
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Random stuff from the last weekend of summer '09...
+ My house is nicely painted (thanks, Joe)
+ First time since May that it's dry enough that the door to the ell (mud room) will close
+ Many good beers at The Tap's Riverfront Brewfest last night
+ ditto good company
+ The younger generation seems to be doing well
+ ditto the older generation
+ The light mist of blue-gray I applied over the tuscan red gives the effect I want on a resin kit I'm building
+ The last of the Summer Crisp pears will be this week.
+ Seckel next, and I'll get the first few Russet apples in the history of that tree. Talk about gnarly and not what you find in stores!!
- Looks like my total tomato production from 16 plants will be less than a dozen. Some of it is the year's damp, but some acts like it might be viruses, so I will plant in a different place next year.
There are other minuses, but I'm not moved to enumerate them.
Review: J.P. McBride's in Haverhill is further down the 'dive' scale than the places in the downtown area (but how they afford 4 bouncers and a rent-a-cop on the small crowd they had Saturday night I'll never know). C. notes that their stage is big enough for bands of some scope. Whether or not I ever go there again, I will remember it as where I first encountered "Reuben Egg Rolls". Nom nom (but most of you know where my tastes will take me)...
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10:13 am
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I am a man of many pears...
This week's are SummerCrisp, ripe and falling off the tree, emitting yummy pear smell that leaks out of plastic bags and my pockets and my backpack and my dining room (I said I was a man of many pears). And just as I share the yummy smell, I share the pears. Easiest delivery is to Malden, but ask us. A dozen or two? Easy. A 5-gal. bucket is also possible, just heavy. If a 2nd person asked for a bucket full, I think I might have to shake the tree.
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11:46 am
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Two articles I found very interesting
Why is the placebo effect becoming more pronounced (http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-09/ff_placebo_effect)? Probably because it is looking more and more like fantasy is the only way out of any number of impending train wrecks.
Why do we need public campaign financing? Because our cash-addicted legislators seem likely to hand us a sow's ear, with a large "SILK PURSE" label pasted onto it: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/29988909/sick_and_wrong/
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11:45 pm
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Labor Day (and labor I did)
Vacuuming. Helping with pear jelly. Lawn mowing, feeding diesel/gas (not my truck, not my mistake) to the Gravely L-8, which doesn't mind at all. Cleaning up the barn cellar some, then revived the '51 Chevy 3100: battery charge, 2 l. coolant, 1 l. 10W-40 and it ran. Wash, polish, mourn the rot eating the restoration paint job (salt dripping from above for several winters, but No More), fix the passenger's window mechanism, more lawn mowing. Then Smuttynose's Old Brown Dog, dinner (corn, our beef burger, fried zucchini and fresh bread, thanks ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) goddessfarmer and eventing_ponies ) and a shower.
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08:19 am
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Writer's Block: Home Remedies
One finger's width of vinegar in a glass of water.
Tags: writer's block
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09:16 am
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Idea in need of an artist
I've been harvesting tree fruit (mostly pears) from my lawn and giving them to J and A, who are usually taken aback by the strong flavor (compared with anything from the store, whether it's been sprayed or waxed or flown 7K miles or ...). Also kicking around my brain is the Hobgoblin beer (UK) ad: http://www.beer-pages.com/protz/features/wychwood.htm
Slogan: "What's wrong, fast-food kid? Afraid you might taste something?"
Image: Green man/farmer in overalls surrounded by produce, offering in its hand a visibly gnarly apple.
On a T-shirt, I might be able to get NOFA to use it, or maybe one of the semi-custom places on the net would be a good venue.
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09:03 pm
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Film/slide scanners?
I've got in the neighborhood of 7000 35mm slides, mostly Kodachrome, mostly in yellow boxes. Looks like there aren't going to be many more. I have a Nikon Super Coolscan II dating from about 1997, whose results I never really liked. It appears I could run it from FreeBSD/DigiKam/SANE but I'd need a new SCSI card. Or I could buy a newer scanner with SANE support, though it appears that just walking into MicroCenter won't work. Or I could cons up a WIntel box and buy any old (new) scanner with a film adapter. Or I could just hire the scanning done. Thoughts? Experiences?
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10:11 pm
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I gave J some help at her horse show
I comment on the public transportation aspect thereof on this thread at Railroad.Net: www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php [Edit: my thoughts are towards the end of the second page]
Now I've got to make some progress on at least one of the myriad things on my plate RSN, lest I grow soggy and hard to light.
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05:07 pm
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Lactobacillus is my co-pilot!!
I must have gone to at least 4 or 5 different "Lacto-Fermented Pickles" workshops at NOFA Summer Conferences over the years, but this year I went by the Heron Pond Farm stand right after I got home and found cute little pickling cucumbers. So I started my first-ever lacto-fermented pickles last Sunday in a 1 lb. PB jar, using some of the 'gone wild' micro-garlic left over from goddessfarmer 's activities of previous years. After burping the jar several times this week, lunch today was the moment of truth: Nom nom nom. Even eventing_ponies allows as how they are "ok".
Now back to mowing the lawn...
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09:09 am
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I'm starting to feel brown-shirted by the right wing...
This business of disrupting the health care town meetings crosses an important line. They've had professional protesters for years; I know one, a retired guy who I see on the train from Haverhill, who's told me he does it to supplement his Social Security. Recently I've been seeing him two or three times a week. This is too much. Really, Palin has it exactly backwards who's following in whose footsteps here.
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10:00 pm
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Lyonesse, call your office...
... there may be a mycelial mat in my future. I hope you enjoyed what you were doing between 8 and 9 tonight, but you might have had more fun listening to Paul Stamets (http://www.fungi.com) let his inner (not very) fungophile hang out...
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