I annoy myself with Peter, Paul, and Mary

I have been listening to the TC-631 out in the shop. Yesterday I found a reel with folk music from the 1960's. It features Peter, Paul, and Mary and Joan Baez and probably someone else but they really all sound the same.
Now here's the deal...
When I was a wee lad I thought "Puff the Magic Dragon," was an awesome song. But I don't know if I ever made it all the way through a full album.
After 120 minutes of pain I actually can't believe people really listened to this crap. It is smarmy, self congratulating, shallow drivel. "Oh look at me, I'm young and white, and self aware, and war is bad, and I've been given everything I ever wanted and I want to be a commie, but not a real commie, and oh boy, it is up to us to change the world. I think it is the "it is up to us to change the world," BS is what gets me the most. Other than that clever guitar picking. And Oh my! Another folk song! They put down the people from their own heritage who were singing about real pain. (Think Hank Williams)
I listened to PP & M sing "Blowing in the Wind," and I had to think about the corruption that has totally become the hallmark of their generation. All that high minded coffee ship drivel and they are sellouts.
So...
For those of you who grew up in the 1960's I ask you... How could you listen to this crap without scratching out your ears?
Was it to nail the hippie chicks? (I can understand that)
Did you just really like coffee?
Were you absolutely stoned out of your mind the whole time?

And I ask myself, if you were recording stuff from the mid 1960's why not (never thought I would say this) The Greatful Dead!
Or Ramblin Jack Elliot, or be the first one to follow Townes Van Zant, or Bobby Wayne (Harold's Super Service) or Ian Tyson, or rather than hear Joan Baez earnestly style another folks song, join the Army and volunteer for Nam...

I had to listen to the Legendary Stardust Cowboy to clear my eardrums of congealed sugar and little pink and fluffy butterflies that looked like Che' on his Norton.

I annoy my family with easy listening music

Below is a photo of my pristine Sony TC-230 reel to reel. I say "pristine" with some reservations. It looks good and was well taken care of. But, it is 40 some years old and it was well used.
I wanted it because it has a phono stage and I thought I could use it to record scratchy 78 rpm records and 45s to my computer. However, my 78 rpm record player has a ceramic cartridge and that requires a different preamp and one thing led to another and it all got complicated and now i don't really care all that much anymore. I do need to take it apart and do some more cleaning and lubrication. I usually do this late at night when everyone is sleeping. I like to use the Old number seven cleaning fluid with a lot of ice. This does not help the reel to reel as much as it helps me.
I have a number of boxes of reel to reel tapes and have been listening to them. The family has demanded a stop to it all. It would appear that they do not care for the genre of music that includes "Leaving On a Jet Plane, Bridge over Trouble Waters, or the theme from "Midnight Cowboy," set to strings and lots of lady back up singers.
Well, perhaps I should clarify that. They don't care for 120 uninterrupted minutes of such exquisite stylings.
It is interrupting the Hogan's Heros marathon that is now the sound track of our life. "I know nothing..." (I have been trying to get the annoying Austrian fellow who sometimes buys hay from me to say, "I know nothing." I ask him questions he doesn't know the answer to or ask him for opinions about weird subjects but he refuses to bite.)
Anyway, here is the current object of my affections...

There are no Atheists in the Foxholes revisited

I am a horrible fisherman. I have no patience. I never know when I am about to get a bite. I usually screw up when setting the hook.
Sooo... when I have a success, no matter how puny I like to celebrate.
I caught a fish. (read the comments or read the cut and paste quote below)  I shouldn't post this as I may catch more. But, I'm bored with the whole thing and may go back and change the title to remove it from the search ranking.
I know it is pathetic to troll but on the other hand what is even more pathetic than trolling is actually spending time doing a google search for "There are no Atheists In Foxholes," so that you can show people how superior your enlightened Atheist Religion to fools who believe in silly myths, and yes people do that.
I give you just such a fellow and his insightful post which in no way goes down the list of Atheist talking points.

Doug IndeapJan 29, 2012 02:32 PM

"Why you would direct your ire at someone like Jessica Ahlquist who seeks to uphold the Constitution, rather than those flouting it is not apparent. It is important to distinguish between "individual" and "government" speech about religion. The First Amendment's "free exercise" clause assures that each individual is free to exercise and express his or her religious views--publicly as well as privately. The Amendment constrains only the government not to promote or otherwise take steps toward establishment of religion. As government can only act through the individuals comprising its ranks, when those individuals are performing their official duties (e.g., public school teachers instructing students in class and principals hanging banners in schools), they effectively are the government and thus should conduct themselves in accordance with the First Amendment's constraints on government. When acting in their individual capacities, they are free to exercise their religions as they please. If their right to free exercise of religion extended even to their discharge of their official responsibilities, however, the First Amendment constraints on government establishment of religion would be eviscerated. While figuring out whether someone is speaking for the government in any particular circumstance may sometimes be difficult, making the distinction is critical.

A word should be added about the common canard that this is all about people easily offended. We’re not talking about the freedom of individuals to say or do something others find offensive. We’re talking about the government weighing in to promote religion. Under our Constitution, our government has no business doing that--REGARDLESS of whether anyone is offended. While this is primarily a constitutional point, it is one that conservatives--small government conservatives--should appreciate from a political standpoint as well. While the First Amendment thus constrains government from promoting (or opposing) religion without regard to whether anyone is offended, a court may address the issue only in a suit by someone with "standing" (sufficient personal stake in a matter) to bring suit; in order to show such standing, a litigant may allege he is offended or otherwise harmed by the government's failure to follow the law; the question whether someone has standing to sue is entirely separate from the question whether the government has violated the Constitution.

Oh, and yeah, there actually are atheists in foxholes. Indeed, the horrors of battle lead some to and some away from belief in god(s). But then, that has nothing to do with separation of government and religion."

I am a little sad that Doug Indeap does not have a blog but it was nice of him to care enough to comment.
Now you may ask the difference between my rants in defense of mythology and his rants in defense of stupid high school girls who think they have invented truth and have a cause, I will answer that.
I know I am full of crap half the time and I don't do Google searches for phrases like, "farmers are stupid arseholes," and "dynaco amplifiers sound like crap," and then post impassioned defenses of my little pet ideals.

Care to discuss Faulkner?

The Left Bank of the Charles guy got me off onto a whole different train of thought this morning and as a result I was late for doing my hay and feed and now I'm eating lunch at 3 p.m. which is really coffee break time. Of course it had nothing to do with the topic of his post...
He had a wonderful quote from William Faulkner which says a lot about life. I've thought the same thought in a different context. It is sort of like the guy who jumped off the bridge and said he had 30 seconds to think about why he didn't want to die and why he wished he hadn't done that. But, that one moment between anticipation and regret was something else!
I can't imagine walking across that field into the Yankee guns but I guess I do it every spring... No wonder I'm an emotional wreck...

There are no Atheists in the Foxholes...

I was looking at Michael Savage to see what is wrong with the world and I came across this article about a teen who was offended by a written prayer hanging on the wall and took the school to court.
For me it was another one of my moments where I realized 1. we are always making the wrong argument and 2. the general level of reasoning in the 21st century is not all that high.
Perhaps someone can enlighten me.
What does a written prayer full of vague generalities that has been hanging on the wall for 60 years have to do with the separation of church and state?
No one is forced to recite it or read it or do anything with it. I suppose you are not allowed to shoot spit-balls at it but you can't even shoot spit-balls anymore I have heard.
If the prayer said "divine spirit" instead of heavenly father?
It is fundamentally different from a "ritual" spoken prayer because there is no participation. It is a static display. At this point more of historical significance than anything else.
The article had a poll whether prayer should be allowed in the classroom. I don't think this was a prayer. And I think freedom of speech should allow prayer in the classroom. For my child I would rather no prayer than a prayer with subject matter that I would find theologically offensive and I do not want the schools actively reprogramming my kid's religious beliefs. But, I am not offended by reprinted fake Native American prayers on dream catchers or on inspirational posters or ritual Muslim prayers on wall hangings as long as they don't explode.

Anyway,  the girl says she did not notice the hanging until a friend pointed it out, so in fact it was not an obvious sort of "offense."So, do we not study "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" in literature class anymore? I bet we don't... Answered my own question.
I think I will get my daughter to look for books with scripture in the in the School library and then sue. I wonder if the Atheist society would give her $30,000 for a scholarship?

And, the girl says she lost her faith at age 10 when her mother got sick and when the girl called on God he was not there to help her. So the whole thing is a vendetta over a misunderstanding of her own mythology religion at age 10? Great, more amateur theology. More amateur constitution law.
And she is now a little hero with "great strength of character."

But what can you expect from the courts. The USA now tortures prisoners, can lock you up and hold you forever on suspicion of witchcraft wrong politics being a Christian, being an Atheist, looking at a midlevel government employee wrong, being a terrorist, so the whole country from top to bottom has no appreciation for the constitution, civil liberties, or even understands what you should be offended about. (Like the TSA)

Since I have a diverse range of 39 readers my questions are.
1. Do homilies/written prayers in books and wall hangings have anything to do with the separation of Church and State?

2. Should you be able to sue for anything that offends you?

3, What about the girl's anger at God? Why does her personal problem have to become everyone's problem. Or rather if you really don't believe in God then why do you have to "convert" every one? Is that not the flip side of being a missionary? Or perhaps I should say, why do you care if people want to believe in mythology?

I also lost my faith at age 10 or somewhere around there. I found a book of sermon illustrations in the Bible Book Store in which I read word for word the illustration the revivalist had claimed as his own the night before. It was all a lie...

This whole thing could have been avoided if someone would have just used the phrase, "God works in mysterious ways," and then given her a short course on rationalization.

Now she has to be Carrie A. $%^&*ing Nation, Rosa Parks, and Susan B. Anthony and give the Atheist society woodies. A poster child, "Whoop! Whoop!" There is nothing quite like the earnest sincerity of a kid who has never been hungry and is standing up for something that doesn't matter.

Is there no real suffering in the world?

I went to the North West Ag Show

I went to the Northwest Ag Show in Portland on Tuesday. It was interesting.
I may become a dealer for a mineral supplement. If I think I can make money with only a 15% mark up. I am not sure this is good thing for me as I tend to knock a few dollars off for people just to build empathy.
You can check it out at www.grolicks.com
I am interested as there is nothing really like it on the market. It lets you give grass fed beef a little extra protein, minerals, and energy in the winter when the grass is not so good. Grass fed beef is what sells here. Grain fed is bad. Unless I am eating it... Grass fed is marketing BS...
Speaking of Marketing BS, right next to the grolicks guy were these guys who sell a device which exposes your irrigation water to magnetism. That is why I got started talking to Mr. Grolicks. I got bored with their speech after I found out the price.
They had photos and charts and all sorts of proof that it works. It does sound amazing. It softens hard water and I am sure it would grow the hair back on my bald spot that is always covered by a cap.
We listened to the speech and my brother held up one of the devices for a 1" line. They had them for 1" up to 8" water lines. They were little tubes with permanent magnets in them.
The fellow said it was "six" for the one my brother had and "8" for the big one. Or something like that. It was not $6 nor was it $60 or even $600. Not it was $6,000 and $8,000. And that is where he lost me.
I would rather $6,000 down on $30,000 worth of lime than $6,000 on a magnet in a plastic tube.
After hay selling moisture testers at the ag show for years and listening to people complain about the price of something you have to have, I was incredulous at the magnet booth. Actually, I bet you could make more money off spending $500 on a Delmhorst soil moisture tester and a couple boxes of gypson blocks and doing a good moisture management program than you could running your water through a magnet. Or $850 on an Acquaterr hand held probe which also has a built in pH meter.
But I digress...
Here is an example of the magnet scam...
Here is another discussion from HempUSA.com. (I think it is kind of funny)
Here is a disagreement...
I think I will try hooking up a few magnets to the water supply and see what happens. It will probably attract aliens. I worry about aliens...

New stereo in the shop

I was "gifted" a huge pile of reel to reel tapes and two Sony reel to reels.
Lots of classical music, a little easy listening from the early 1970's. Not exactly HiFi.
I guess I just didn't realize you could stuff 120 minutes of muddy sounding bland music on a reel to reel. I had a two-track from a radio station that used the whole tape and was fairly high speed. It sounded very good.
This makes good music for me to listen to whilst miss-measuring boards I am cutting for a pallet scales I am making.
Actually I gave the nice person some cash to take her kids sledding. And I saved her a trip to GoodWill.
Today I am going to dig out the reel of old Country and Western hits from 1971 which I found at a GoodWill in Eugene some 15 years ago.  120 Minutes of Conway Twitty should put me in fine form.

I am never allowed to make a mistake or do anything stupid

I have lived on this farm since, I don't know, 1975?
Over the course of those years we have only plowed next to the river two times in the fall. We have never left anything at the base of the hill leading out of the river bottom. The river has not significantly flooded in two years anyway.
This year we planted alfalfa near the river. We plowed and limed the ground. In the process we drug a lot of dirt into a low spot and then heavily seeded the low spot to oats and annual ryegrass.
This year the river came up twice. This last time it was high enough to flood out the dead truck we left in the field. I didn't think it was completely dead. I guess it is now.
The river is pretty much flowing through the low spot and I doubt there is any residue of the topsoil I drug into it or a sprig of annual or oats.
I am glad I didn't plow any more ground than what I did.
I see from my weather page that there has been another flood advisory issued for later this week.
Nice...

Birthday Party For my Father

Apparently I was supposed to invite people.
Anyway, Ralph, it you would like to take the Concord down here to Amity you are certainly welcome to attend. I'll even buy you a piece of pie...
It is around noon.
I am the short balding fellow with the red nose and squinty eyes.
It is at Ashes Cafe.
It was Sharon's idea as she is just that sort of nice person. It is for two old pluggers who are now 93. My father is one of them.
We could go to the Blue Goat afterwards for really expensive chocolate cake but they never even invited me to their one year anniversary so I am boycotting them.
I don't like events with more than five people so I plan on withdrawing into a shell of grumpiness.
Have a nice day...

Our Dear Leader Sings Al Green?

I was sitting around listening to Al Green and I discovered Our Dear Leader had used an Al Green song at a fundraiser. I queried my wife and she laughed at me. She said she didn't want to burst my bubble.
I've had a suspicion that being a middle aged white guy who likes Al Green is akin to a white college kid who likes Bob Marley only without the Chronic. I hope it has nothing in common with middle class white kids listening to rap.
I suppose this pretty much fits my understanding of Our Dear Leader being only slightly less Black than Bill Clinton.
I did see a pretty funny interview on OPB with David Stockman where he pointed out the ironic humor of an Alinsky inspired community organizer appointing the guy who nearly ruined GE and the Jobs Czar.
Check out this article, of course since Livingston once worked for Reagan he is a fraud and the hilarious quote at the end about GOP regressing into the extremist right. Funny because some of us think the GOP has completely sold out and should be just a tad more on the conservative side.
Speaking of irony, I am now watching a OPB story about a Korean War Vet who was tortured by his captors. Kind of changes your perspective now that Our Dear Leader has embraced change by basically accepting and normalizing the torture program set up by those evil neo-cons. Not to mention the loss of free speech and the right of Habeas Corpus which was pretty much a bipartison effort.
But, I digress...
I really hope the Reverend is not shilling for Mr. Hope and Change but I suppose the amazing conversion of Al Green is mythology anyway.
I really prefer George Clinton but I don't think he is going to give me a lift to the mother ship as I am not Black nor do I actually own any Parliament of Funk Albums.

When I grow up I want to work for the Schultze Toy Company

Sergeant Schultz is my favorite character in Hogan's Hero's. Today I discovered he was the owner of the Schultze Toy company.
Then I looked him up and discovered his family was killed by Nazi's in Austria. And that he died something like one year after moving back home.
Which means I can't go to work for his toy factory because it never existed. This whole reality vs fantasy thing sometimes really confuses me...
Which also brings up my inability to make decisions. I've been attempting to buy a slide scanner to convert some old negatives we found in the basement.
I spent hours looking looking them up on Amazon last night and was unable to decide on any single model for under $100. That is because they are all crap...
Have a nice day...

Stormy Friday, as opposed to Stormy Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday...

I'm setting in my old Lazy Boy, (avocado green, salvaged from my uncle) listening to Al Green's "Precious Lord" album on LP. I just picked it up at GoodWill. It is in really good shape.
I have my Dynaco 120A Amp and Dynakit PAS-2 preamp and the vintage Dual 1019 and craigslist special Dynaco A-25 speakers. It could be 1965, except that Precious Lord was released in 1982 and I would not be all that old in 1965 and in 1982 I would not have been caught dead listening to Al Green.
Sometimes i wonder if the reason I am broke all the time is due to the lost productivity which results from me continually "flogging a dead horse."
LP records, tube amps, second rate 1960's technology, and beat up lazyboy recliners have got to be a pretty much a waste of time. Frankly the whole setup just does not sound all that good. Plus, I've got so much crap stuffed in the "den" that my wife won't let me bring anyone in to listen to my vintage tunes anyway. She really does make a good point...
Anyway, a real farmer would be researching soil mycrozial functions and pouring over soil tests. Heck a real farmer would have moved his dead truck off the river bottom before water flowed though the cab. Well it is dead... Sure as heck won't catch on fire this evening...

I would like to attend his church sometime. I wonder if I wrote him a letter he would come to ours... Probably not...

My Hero!!!!

Click Here to better understand the author of this blog. When i was a kid I read these comics in the Oregon Farmer and for some reason took the fellow as an inspiration and not as a cautionary tale.
I guess it explains a lot about my success as a farmer...
I am the anti-edwinkle...

I go off on a rant and have a probably flawed understanding of theology...

I really enjoy the blog the Contrary Farmer.
Read the blog and then come back here for my comment.
The blog was on the subject of the author giving talks to Churches and being somewhat of a nonbeliever.
There are two answers to the post. The first answer is an easy one... and that is the one I left at teh Contrary Farmer. The second part is my disturbing observation.
Standard disclaimer: I am in no way a particularly good example of a "Good Christian." I have a number of glaring failures which are at times evidenced in this blog. In fact much of this blog is a result of my failure of faith, so if you are easily offended and are an Atheist Click here, if you are easily offended and are a Christian click here. If you don't really care and want to look at porn, Click here.
The concept of Good Stewardship of what God has provided for us is a pretty central theme in Christianity. As a Christian one is supposed to live according to the best of your understanding. When we better understand things like soil health, better treatment of one's neighbor, then it is our duty to follow them.
That being said, Christianity is not really doing so well in this country. Farmers certainly seem to do their best to come out ahead in every financial situation. I suppose you can love your neighbor while you are renting ground out from underneath him if you call it "tough love" and say it is for his own good. Which is done.
Christians also pretty much neglect the difficult parts of the religion. Humbling oneself before God. That we are all sinner and require the forgiveness of God. That being a Christian means a certain standard of moral purity, honesty, and forgiveness.
And then there is the simple fact that the old "mythology" doesn't hold up so well in this day of medical science, crop insurance, bank loans, instant communication, and the constant assault on your basic belief system by mass media.
Which leads me to the point in my little speech were people will get offended.
Quite simply, not that many Christians really believe anymore. Instead we have this vague notion of taking care of "God's Creation" which we don't actually believe was a "divine" event. After all the concept of "God" was invented to explain the unexplainable, but yet we do have churches to fill and so we talk about love for our fellow man and we sing hymns and have potlucks and talk about good stewardship where it doesn't exactly apply to us and we grow sustainable lettuce in our gardens and we absolutely love black folks, and white folks who have gender confusion, and we build habitat for humanity houses.
(I'm not sure what people of color do when they want to go to Church but have out grown God. I suppose they rant about oppression and the evils of the "system," which I guess works out pretty well can then they can dovetail right on in with the white branch of the faith and everyone get together and stimulate each other's god  center  in the brain.)
But I digress...
Say what you will and point out all the failings of Christianity but are they not also the failings of the human race? And are they not recognized as the failings we must fight against inside and outside of the Faith.
It seems to me that the transition from Christianity as the moral conscience of our culture to being kind to Mother Earth and White Self-Hatred as the moral conscience of our culture is going to be a rocky one.
But, that is just my opinion...
And, after this little rant I will go back to talking about Dynaco amplifiers, horrible music, farming, and rain.
Have a nice day... I don't expect to see any of you in church Sunday.
Except perhaps Mr. 706.

Before I was obsessed with Dynaco amplifiers I was obsessed with omelettes

When I was younger and less depressed I would tend to fixate random things over the winter and devote inordinate amounts of energy in useless enterprises.
Upon reflection, nothing has really changed.
Actually, I've been obsessed with no-till planting for the past eight years and that seems to be passing. The last couple years I've been thinking about Legos as it is a passion I share with my daughter.
But, I digress...
It was something like a decade ago that I read the book, "On the Tip of My Tongue," by Isles Brody, and became obsessed with making the perfect omelette. I dug out my cast iron skillet, I learned about olive oil, I eschewed filler of any type in my omelette, I swore never to use milk, I used a whisk, and they were always a failure.
I was having back pain at the time, which is not so different from now, but it was my first bout with it and I thought it could be relieved. I spent a lot of time soaking the hot bath tub and reading. As a result my books became a little steam damaged. Especially if I went to sleep and dropped the book into the tub.
But, again I digress.
This morning it is pouring down rain.
I was going to go to work but discovered I was quite hungry at 8:04 am and since I had not heard the front door slam on my brother's house across the machinery lot I figured he would certainly not be in the position to cast the first stone should I not go to work.
So...I cooked an omelette.
I use mostly "found" art so I scrounged through the refrigerator. The cilantro was in the trash and despite my fear of radiation exposure I did not really feel like rummaging through the compost for a few good sprigs. That would be just gross.
Sort of like some years ago when the neighbor kid was working for my dad and dad decided to make baloney sandwiches and found a nice bowl of lettuce on the counter. A nice bowl of lettuce with rotten tomatoes under it that was destined for the chicken yard.
But, I digress...
I threw my French omelette snobbery to the winds and fried up some bacon, I cut the cheese, (twice) er I mean I sliced up some cheese, and I put two eggs in a bowl with a little milk and I whipped them together with a FORK. Not too much as I don't really like the yolks and whites completely mixed up.
By this time the TEFLON coated skillet was nice and hot from the bacon. I poured the bacon grease on a pan of dog food and then watched with amusement as the dog attempted to weigh his irrepressible urge to devour bacon-grease-soaked-Ole-Roy-cheap-dog-food against the sure certainty that he would burn his tongue. It was a cheap laugh I know, but simple man, simple pleasures...
I wiped out the grease with a paper towel and poured in a little olive oil. I probably could have just used the bacon grease but I had to make one concession to french cooking.
I turned the heat up a few notches and dribbled just a drop of egg on the pan. It sizzled nicely, and so I dumped the eggs into the pan. It was a thing of beauty. For the first time ever I had the heat perfect, the eggs rose as I watched. It was light and fluffy and just what I had read in the book, so long ago.
When the top was nearly solid I flipped the eggs in the pan and turned down the heat. After admiring what now could in fact be called an omelette I discarded the last of my snobbery and added ingredients. Mostly bacon and cheese. Lots of yellow Tillamook Cheese, the kind that comes in a big yellow block and bacon. The package of bacon was frozen so I just cut off the fat ends to fry.
It was good, very, very good.
I think I shall take a nap.
I am indeed the "Lazy Farmer," Mirandy is at work. I may learn to smoke a pipe... I do need a woodstove, propping your feet on the heater vent is just not the same.

I am writing a letter to Al Gore!

I am now whole heartedly opposed to Global Warming and I am planning on writing a letter to Al Gore to tell him to stop it!
It is pouring down rain outside. Not only pouring but the rain is kind of horizontal and our window leaks.
I want snow.  The weather service promised us snow. The whole upper west coast of the USA is snowed in. Seattle is shut down. Do we get snow? No!
I have no where to be. My brother is not driving truck this week. We have a quarter of a beef in the freezer and a couple generators. I'd be happy if we were snowed in for a week. It would help hay sales and sled sales and hot coffee sales and tow truck drivers. So why not?
If "they" can make a hurricane wipe out New Orleans and a Tidal Wave hit Japan then where do I send my appeal for a blizzard in Oregon. Do I write to "Secret Government Organization in Charge of Global Weather Manipulation/CO HAARP Project," or just shove it under the door at the local Masonic Temple? Why does Jeff Rense never address such practical applications of huge global conspiracies?
It's for the Children...

"It Sounds Like a Chicken House Being Bombed"

I thought I would expand from the Legendary Stardust Cowboy with a little Long-Hair music. Just in honor of the Dynaco Stereo system.
I suppose this really "Post Long-Hair" but my Zbigniew Namyslowski Lennie Tristano album has a skip...

My daughter was a bit blunt...
"It sounds like a chicken house being bombed," she exclaimed.
Philistines, I am surrounded by Philistines!

Another Vintage Stereo Post

This whole vintage stereo thing is getting a little out of hand. I actually spent money!
My wife seems a bit bemused by the whole thing. I have not made a big deal about the latest addition as I am a little sensitive about the amount of Crap I drag home. However, I almost never spend more than $25 on anything.
I found a Dynaco ST-120 amp on craigslist. The fellow I bought it from was really interesting. I talked to him for something like two hours and I couldn't really back out of the deal at that point. He was asking $75. The ad has been on for several weeks at $100 and I doubt he got many calls.
The Dynaco ST-120 was Dynaco's first attempt at a solid state amplifier. There were some problems. Plus it was a kit and often there were problems with the amateur soldering jobs.
I got it home an connected it to my amplifier. I hooked it into the headphone socket since my KA3500 does not have a preamp output. I turned the volume control down and switched on the Dynaco. There was a loud pop though the speakers and buzzing noise.
I tried a record and one speaker rattled badly. I switched the amp off and waited a minute for the caps to drain and then turned it back on. I got pretty good sound which then faded in volume and became quite fuzzy. There is no fuse on the output of the amp and I think this is how the powersupply deals with a short circuit. I don't really understand it but I think it increases the voltage but decrease the amperage to keep it from burning anything up.
I disconnected the Dynaco 120 and hooked the speakers back up the KA3500 now I had distortion in my right speaker. I kind of freaked out a bit. I scored a pair of Dynaco A-25's which are kind of ugly but sound incredible. I'm not going to be able to touch another pair for less than $200 which is hard to do on a $35 budget.
Muddy Valley suggested that since it was an intermittent problem I turn the offending speaker face down and run it to see if something had stuck in the voice coil. Wonder of wonders it worked.
I pulled the cage off of the Dynaco 120 and discovered the solder had melted where the power supply capacitor lead was soldered to the circuit board.
Sunday afternoon I resoldered it and low and behold it worked.

I hooked it back up the head phone jack on the Kenwood but I hooked up my Baby Advents as I do not want to kill the Dynaco's and the Advents already have fried crossovers. It worked! Very little noise.
The Dynaco 120 is not considered a very good amp by the audiophiles but I'm not exactly "HiFi" and it fits in with the rest of my Dnyaco set up and plus, it looks cool so who cares!
I am listening to the amp at this very moment. It sounds incredibly clean hooked to my little Sansa MP3 player and playing though some little Jensen bookshelf speakers I stole from my brother. They don't have a lot of bass so I can't really work the amp very hard but it is not getting hot at volumes that don't wake the rest of the family.
I am listening to Merle and Lefty and a little Ian Tyson but have not worked up my nerve to give the Legendary Stardust cowboy a try.
It sounds pretty incredible with strong midrange guitar and vocals. I am listening to the Louvin Brothers, "The Drunkard's Prayer" right now. Excellent details in the high range. I can't hear any noise at moderate volumes. The bass is not real strong but these are little bookshelf speakers, but the tone is pretty good.

I am assaulted by snowballs

I saw my sister-in-law walk out of her house and no one threw snowballs at her...
My wife can take a walk in the snow and no snowballs.
Does Grandpa get a snowball?
Does my brother get assaulted?
No...
But I decide to try out my mountain bike in the snow and what happens?

I think it takes a lot of nerve for the gang of four to attack their kind uncle (well one member of the gang is my daughter) and technically the youngest didn't attack me as I was quick to refer to him as my absolute favorite nephew with in four feet.  I have taught them funny songs, told them iconic jokes like the one about the duck and the one where the punch line is, "he should have quit when he was A HEAD," and given them entertainment my sneaking up behind them with a truck air horn attached to an air hose, and played tonka trucks with them, and showed them how a dude walks, and all sorts of other highly important and useful things.
Yes, no good deed goes unrewarded...

The Electricity bill came

We are trying to reduce our electric bill. We probably should be trying to reduce our cell phone bill instead. We do not have a house phone and instead rely on cell phones and I tend to natter on about nothing to various farmers when I am driving in circles in a tractor. It keeps me from falling asleep but the microwaves are frying my brain and do we really need to send each other photos of interesting corn planter attachments, girls in Wallmart with wedgies or photos of other farmers who are stuck?
But I digress...
I live in a trailer house Super Good Sense Rated manufactured home. We have an electric furnace. I was going to put in a woodstove but the regulations involved kind of scared me off. Plus, I spent the money on a carport. (long story)
We also have problems with our water heater. It is on the opposite end of the house from all the everything that uses water. So, in order to take a bath in are very large "garden" tub (with no overflow drain-I might add) you have to turn the hot water on full for five minutes. Unfortunately our average attention span at this house is five minutes, (mine is -.5 min and my wife's is .875 min but we have a cat so that raises the average) so we forget the bathtub with somewhat catastrophic results. (another long story)
So, we have considered those clever point of use hot water heaters. One at the kitchen sink and one in the master bath. My theory is that this would heat the water until the water from the main tank arrived. I suppose we could keep adding point of use heaters, one for the laundry room and one for the other bathroom and then turn down the main hotwater heater.
There are many designs, 220volt, 110 volt, propane, LPG, and the one I kind of like. Which is a $150 model you nail to the side of the house that uses, a propane bottle and is made for campers and cabins. It uses D cell batteries but of course it could be modified.
I've been looking at them on and off four a couple years but I can't find the information I want on the internet. My searches seem to give me "content farms" and not the crude pages made by odd folks who do weird and interesting things, the least of which is to nail a hot water heater to the side of their trailer manufactured home.
Those are the pages that give you the good information.
Anyone tried these hot water heaters?

Choosing your own destiny

I like to read the Surviving in Argentina blog. I have mixed feelings about the whole end-of-the-world and stockpile ammo and guns crowd and I kind of avoid linking to those sorts of blogs. (although I secretly read them sometimes. However, I thought Mr. Argentina provides a lot of good sense info that will keep you safe no matter where you travel. I guess this is a bit ironic, but especially if you don't like to walk around armed to the teeth. He gives lots of good info on being self aware, paying attention, what to have ready in an emergency.
I was brought up in a small subsection of the Christian faith that has often faced persecution from everyone, including other Christians. I married a nice girl who came from another branch of the faith that has also been thrown in jail for not following the status quo from time to time. When I was a kid I read stories of Christians in Russia and China and tales of Bible smugglers and people being thrown in jail for refusing to shoot other people even though God was on their side.
So the idea of having to pack up your stuff and leave on a moments notice or being sent to the re-education camp has kind of settled in the back of my head. Not that I am really prepared for anything and I really hate to get my kid into that mindset as she seems so happy and well adjusted.
But...
Mr. Argentina did it... He packed up and left. His family took what they could carry and moved to Northern Ireland. He has my respect and admiration. I don't know if I could do it.
I really need to start selling my crap on ebay. Who really needs a collection of Marx Cowboys, Musty old books, boxes of LP records, old stereo equipment and every toy I every played with since I was born?
I don't need it, it brings me down, my kid doesn't need every lego that has gone through Goodwill in Yamhill country.
I have no idea where I would go but I would like the option of doing it.

A late lunch and a question

I came in late for lunch as i was selling feed. I sat down in my easy chair to enjoy a cup of warmed over coffee. The elderly and quite grumpy cat crawled up in my lap and sat down and started purring loudly. I hate to kick him out as he will probably get angry and go pee on my shoes again. He does that out of spite.
Anyway, does anyone remember the name of my old blog? I doubt any other followers besides collieguy and G706 have seen it. It was a bit dark. Perhaps there are some lurkers who remember as it you could find it by looking for thedailystrumpet.
I think it was either digwemust.blogspot.com or therestandstheglass.blogspot.com.
I've been trying out the internet wayback machine.
Ok, cat left on his own. Back to work we go... Dig We Must!

More idiotic regulations

SO I got this confusing letter from the Oregon Department of Transportation. I need to have a physical, (yes I knew that) but now I have to send proof of it to ODOT and there is a different physical to drive across state lines and it is my responsibility to send in the paper work and if I don't I will loose my CDL.
Or at least I think that is how it works. I really don't quite understand it. Since I don't really need a Commercial Drivers License and I could have the less expensive Farm Endorsement I'm not sure I care but fees are involved and I could end up without a driver's license at all and I still have to have a medical card for my Farm Endorsement.
Of course this is all completely stupid. First of all, I doubt lives have been saved by making drivers have a medical card. It is a pretty simple physical. They basically make sure your are alive.
AND most importantly you already have to have a card showing you have had your physical or you will get a huge fine and I have heard you must show that card if stopped by the police regardless of whether you are driving a Commercial Vehicle or your car. I don't know this for certain. The last time I got stopped for having a tail light burned out I was told I had better get my medical card or I could get in trouble.
I know I am going to screw up sending that card in and loose my license and forget about the whole thing and then get hauled off to jail for driving illegally.
More and more annoying regulations.
No wonder the economy is in the toilet.
I wonder if it would be better just to immigrate to China? At least then you know where you stand!

Things to do in the winter

I am thinking of switching my obsession from Dynaco tube amplifiers and the Rec-o-kut turntable to solar energy.
I found this site showing how to build your own solar power from damaged solar cells bought in bulk off of ebay.
Anything to keep me from doing real work.
Yesterday I installed two motion sensing lights on the house.
They didn't work...
Today I am going to make more pig feed. My customer is really running through the feed. He thinks it is the consistency of the feed. It is ground finer so it goes though the slats in the feeder faster.
I suspect the pigs are getting bigger and eating more in the cold wet weather. Or I didn't get the feed value up high enough and it is taking more feed for them to grow. However, the material is quite dense which generally means there is more grain in the mix. The low protein stuff is annual ryegrass screenings which has no weight to it.
I am not so good at doing calculations using pearson's square.

Will someone drag me out of my chair?

I took my daughter to school this morning. She likes to get there early to help in the library. I braved the young mothers parking in the fire lane confusion.
I came back home, had a cup of coffee and I was going to go to work.
I went out and got the extension ladder to work on the broken motion sensor light that my wife has tried to get me to fix for six months. But, my boots were on the porch and they were cold inside so I brought them in an put on the heat register.
I also discovered that the glue on the turntable base has not dried so I brought that in as well. It looks pretty rough. I am not a carpenter.
Then I sat down in my chair.
The fellow who is helping me prop up the shop sent me a text that he hurt his back.
Have not seen my helper.
I have not heard the front door slam at my bother's house so I don't think he is outside looking for me.
I'm having just a bit more coffee, but I have work to do!
I bet Orin is out working, probably Mr. Goff is as well, I know Ed Winkle is working. I suspect collieguy is just "fiddling around."  MuddyValley is probably barbecuing coffee beans, Gorge has a real job, Pumice and Msladyd are working, and I suspect Mr. G706 is in the loo.
I guess we don't call it the LazyFarmer blog for nothing...
If I could just get paid for doing this!

Go over to From My Brown Eyed View and read about the morons in the Georgia public school who got themselves in trouble.
It was your typical idiotic public education approach, an ill-advised attempt to combine subjects and stimulate thought but instead they came up with something quite offensive.
I brought this up for a couple reasons.
1. I've got nothing really to say this morning...
2. Public purposeful misunderstandings are a pet peeve ever since my clever jokes about Al Gore inventing the internet got state.
3. I left a meandering spiel on someone else Weblog and I really hope she is understanding of my lack of racial sensitivity training.
4. The comments on the BBC article show only certain types of hate speech are actionable.
5. I misspoke on Brown Eyed View. I said I thought the teachers should have to be janitors for a couple weeks and see what it is like to have to work for a living. What I meant was, they should have to trade their "high status' status job for a "low status" job and see what it is like to have to function in a job with a diverse group of people. I know this because my wife who is a teacher took on janitorial work at the school in an attempt to maintain her full time status. It was an eye-opener and she teaches at a private school.
Anyway...
I have come to believe we are, shall we say, "racist" by our very make up. We form social structures at an early age. Like people group together. Other groups form. Alliances are made, insults are given, challenges are made. It is the nature of our instinctive social makeup. Like chickens and cows and other herd animals.
Instead of recognizing there will always be conflict and trying to develop ways to minimize the conflict we alternate between ignoring it, exploiting it, and making it a sin above all other sins.
What really amazes me is the hatred expressed by liberals and progressives towards poor white Southerners and Christians. They are only groups left that it is acceptable to hate.
So what is the point?
I think we all should get along. I think it is harmful to confuse insensitivity or stupidity to racism. I thing the charge of racism should be restricted to a purposeful and malicious intentional action against another race and I think the term hate speech should be eliminated. I don't think that name calling should be prosecuted.
Here is another example.
I went to George Fox College. Private Quaker College with a lot of Volvo's in the parking lot. In 2008 some students used clear fishing line to suspend a cardboard cutout of our future dear leader from a tree. They attached a sign with an obscure reference to a scholarship program at the school.
Here is the first story on Oregon Live.
and
Here is the second story on Oregon Live.
Nowhere do you see an explanation of what really happened.
Even though I had long since graduated I can tell you what happened.
Our dear leader was not hung in effigy.
The clear fishing line was used to suspend a cardboard cutout from the tree to make it appear that he was standing in front of the building that the liberal arts stuff is housed. The sign said he was a reject of a minority scholarship program. I think it is a statement about internal GFU frustrations.
I have to laugh. A wry cynical laugh. Some George Fox students actually thought on their own about something and tried to make a statement. Boy did that go wrong.
When I was there the only social statement seemed to be the peace and love people hating on the Zionists and loving the exploding people... (See, I just made a racist statement and some of you laughed)
Anyway... This topic now bores me. I lost my point somewhere along the line. I hope I didn't offend MsLadyD on her own blog!
I'm going to work.
Have a nice day...

I have been otherwise occupied

Sometimes I loose my focus.
I have stuff to post about.
There was the safety training. The safety training and information was really good. The regulations are insane. The real reason we are having an economic depression is trivial over-regulation and utter failure to enforce needed regulation.
So...you can completely pollute the Gulf of Mexico due to company negligence and then you can poison the Gulf by using a toxic chemical and get by with it because it was in your spill mitigation plan?
But, woe to me if spill 50 gallons of diesel. I learn on Curious George that during storms the water will overflow the city sewer system and dump poopie directly into rivers or the ocean, but if have a dairy and your worker leaves the end plug off the irrigation line and you accidently pump a few thousand gallons of poopie into a stream you go to jail. And you certainly can't make the two bit bureaucrat feel justifiably nervous or you will get a visit from a SWAT team, and you can thank you Republicans for that one!
The whole safety seminar put me into a funk.
The real issue is not safety but it is about exerting pressure and collecting "protection" money.
So I have a whole range of topics to write about.
I even got a donation from Anonymous in Reno! (Thank You Very Much!) I'm spending it on a WWII book.
I went to the GarageSale Store and found a whole pile of virtually unplayed records from the 1960's. Two Allman Brothers records, an obscure artist from South Florida who predated the Byrds and whose name I can't remember, The Monkeys, The Ventures, and a really cool test record. For some reason I also bought a Jethro Tull album in perfect shape. It is perfect because it is so horrible and pretentious I couldn't stand to listen to more than five minutes of it and I'm sure no one else could either. Reminded me of all the idiots in college who read Tolken and wrote stupid songs about caterpillars turning into beautiful butterflies and thought they were so profound.
I also found an ammunition box. You can never have too many ammunition boxes. They are quite useful.

Then I obsessed about turntable plinths for a while. Then tube preamplifiers. I looked up Dynaco and Dynakit and attempted to figure out the difference between a PS-2 and a PS-3 preamp and what a Dynaco 120 was and how to repair the blown crossovers on my Baby Advent speakers.
Then I attempted to work on a building that should have been bulldozed in 1974. Then I attempted to clean the shop and got more depressed. Then i got a lecture about how I should sell my 1960's stereo collection to real collectors before I ruined it, and buy something modern and just download mp3's from iTunes like everyone else with half a brain. Which kind of translated well into a metaphor for our whole farming operation. Which led me to think about all the real farmers at the safety seminar which made me even more depressed.
Then this afternoon I decided that if I continued to worry about the difference in density between Baltic Birch Plywood and MDF I would never have a turntable base and so I just built one out of scrap lumber and the original plywood top which already had the cutouts.
I am not a good carpenter. 

Have a nice week.
Sometime this whole blogging thing seems like mental self-abuse. As in personal self gratification. You complain and then someone tells you that you are wonderful. In the end you still go blind...

It is going to be a beautiful day and I have to go to school

I hate the safety training meetings. I sit though hours of training and add up in my head the fines if we get inspected again, and I start to sob quietly. We are old school farmers with piles of junk everywhere and despite my effort to install PTO shields on every tractor, the ones that I delegated to be installed are sitting on the floor under the bench and my helper is sitting home on his couch.
Oh well...
Yesterday I helped MuddyValley move a safe.
It was a major tactical error, but he made me feel guilty/empathetic by giving me valuable stereo equipment. Well, valuable to a very small niche market that collects vintage tube equipment.

 (yes I need a new phone camera)

Muddy grew up in the big city in a house that matches my every imagined picture of what his father would own. Dark wood floors, a dim study, with indirect lighting, real oak paneling, leather chairs, shelves full of tomes on psychiatry, secret panels, and one of those couches straight out of Mad Magazine.
I felt like Holden Califield, (or rather, Alfred E. Neuman) just walking through the door. And then, to top it all, I found, in a dark dim corner, (next to the National Geographic from 1952) four tattered books, in German, very old, and it appeared to be the collected works, or an in-depth commentary, on Goethe.You have the science, the learning, the journals of psychiatry, but in the dark corner you have Faust arguing with the devil. If only I were a writer I could make something out of that!
I think MuddyValley was a bit amused at my wonderment.
But, I am a Philistine and I don't care.
The safe was a bugger! (not to be too offensive)
We had to use jacks and pulleys and levers and blocks and I kept thinking about that Harbor Freight cherry picker with rubber wheels setting home in the shop.
Anyway, all is well that ends well and now I have to go to the Loo to school.
Have a nice day...

And the first major news story I see illustrates what is wrong with this country...

It is about gun violence. (Click here)
Here is a synopsis of the story.
A crazy gun nut joins the Army. Goes to Iraq, gets in trouble with the Army, comes home, has PTSD, hangs out with crazy gun nuts, gets in a gun fight, runs to the mountains, shoots a park ranger, SWAT teams are called, everyone in the huge park is rounded up and subjected to weird paramilitary stuff even though the guy is miles away in chest deep snow-in a t-shirt and tennis shoes, the ranger dies because the SWAT team won't go near the shooter (I bet you money), the guy dies from exposure less than a mile from the scene, and it is made into an issue about guns being allowed in National Parks.
There is a whole list of problem issues here and the only issue brought up is one which has no bearing on the case at all. The issue of guns in National Parks. Which is a stupid issue. Parks are so huge that you don't even know when you cross the border. People have been prosecuted for hunting one foot over the line. (look it up)
But, I digress.
I probably shouldn't have used a gun issue because it is such a hot topic but this story is such a perfect example of the stupidity that is the USA.
Look at it this way,
Crazy person gets involved with government agency, crazy person gets worse, crazy person does not get treatment even though it becomes more and more obvious he is crazy. Crazy person does something stupid and illegal and dangerous,  Crazy person makes a code violation. 
There is a chase, people die.
The discussion is not about mental health, police response to a crisis, the waste of money on SWAT teams, if everyone in the visitor's center should have been made to kneel with their hands behind their head when the threat was miles down the road, no the discussion is about guns in the park. 
Like it would have stopped him...
It was a field day of Law Enforcement. (Click here, Taylor said there was a plan at some point yesterday to use an armored vehicle to evacuate people, but authorities instead let visitors drive their own cars under escort.) Oh, my! Well, better safe than sorry I say!
I can't find the first story I read which talked about the kneel on the ground with your hands behind your head treatment of people at the visitor's center.
Kind of ironic perhaps that with all the screwing around and panic and SWAT teams and technology and emergency drills that the guy died of exposure.
There will be countless studies and training adjustments and stupid regulations and self-congratulations and you can bet that everything they learn will be wrong.
Probably could have been resolved in two hours 40 years ago and would have only involved a couple park rangers with .30-.30's. 
Just makes you tired...

Back to my regular life

The Holidays are over. That magical time that starts just before Christmas and ends January 1st has past. It is the only time of year I don't think about work or plans for the future. I enjoy the Christmas tree and getting and giving presents.
This year we had good dinners and good family events. Daughter and I spent a lot of time watching Hogans Hero's. I was able to obsess about something unrelated to farming or finances.
New Years Eve the kids went to one house to play the Wii and my brother and his wife came over and we played "Scattergories," and listened to records and watch a movie about people in Wales and a guy who went up a hill and came down a mountain. Then we set off some very old fireworks which made the kids pretty happy.
Today it is back to work.
I'm having a hard time getting started.

They say what you do on Jan 1st makes a statement about the rest of the year...

But, then again "They" say a lot of things. Perhaps is a good think I have moved from violating the pooch to violating vintage stereo equipment. Perhaps 2012 will be a banner year at Shepherd Farms!
I have been enjoying my slightly violated Rek-O-Kut and drinking huge amounts of coffee.
I wanted to hook it up to the good stereo in the "den" but I need a certain amount of space to balance the turntable level on the floor. I'm using old books that I grabbed at random out of the bookshelf. Including a vintage "Florida Days," a hardcover first edition of "The Postman Always Rings Twice," "Grass, an Anthology of Agriculture, 1948," a biography of President Garfield, "Diseases of the Horse," (1920?), and "Gunny, Mostly a true Story," an autobiography by a local WWII hereo.
I found "Through the Five Republics on Horse Back" by C.W. Ray. A book I've been looking for, so I took it out of the turntable support system.  I had a better version that I actually sold on eBay some years ago.
It is interesting view of the world from 1926 and is autographed by the author. Alas it is a bit worse for wear and tear.

I find it a bit hard to concentrate on a book after five cups of coffee.
I'm listening to the Kinks. I started out with "Village Green Preservation Society," and have moved on to "Chronicles."
Actually, I started with the Beach Boys, "Endless Summer," and a collection of Stephen Foster Songs I found in the Goodwill pile. I paid wife and daughter to organize my record collection. I had forgotten I owned the Roxy Music album with the topless girls and anything by The Jesus and Mary --- Chain or Courtney Love "----" Hole. I think a couple records will go on Ebay. My daughter was a bit offended. I don't even like the albums. I just acquired them along the way.
But I digress,
The Rek-O-Kut sounds ok. I have it hooked up to my Optimus SA-155 which is now part of our new entertainment center which is a LCD TV nailed to the wall, a Wii, and a Wallmart special DVD player, and my old Baby Advents. The Advents sound good hooked to something overly bright like a modern DVD player but sound quite muddy playing analogue music off a turntable. So, I strung about five patch cables and several adapters of dubious audio quality all together and hooked it up to my old Kenwood KA3500 and the new to me Dynaco speakers with the sparkly grills. Not much on the stereo imaging and it is kind of giving me a headache but then I just listened to swing versions of Stephen Foster songs, the Beach Boys, and Village Green Preservation society four times. That is probably enough to make you a bit daft...

My listening and reading schedule for today...

Muddy Valley is breaking my heart. First he sold the truck I've lusted after since I was 16 and now I find out the massive speaker system I wanted is actually worth money. Not to mention the Rek-O-Kut he gave me is also worth money to collectors. I suppose I should give it all back. I have visions of the Lansing speaker system sitting in my living room hooked to my vintage scott tube amp with that pink Legendary Stardust cowboy spinning on the Rek-O-Kut.
Alas, it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.
Sorry for the long post, I guess it filtered out all the ADHD subscribers.
For those drawn here by a search for repairing your Rek-o-Kut with a torch and 12" Crescent, I will have a shorter post with details on changing the oil and freeing up the drive bearing. I also found links for a new belt and plinth building. We shall see if I can stay focused.

I violate a vintage Rek-O-Kut!

I am pretty sure no one cares about 2012 and really wants to hear about my restoration efforts on my recently acquired Rek-o-kut K33H turntable.
The K33H is a belt drive 33 and 1/3 rpm turntable with a heavy platter and powerful motor. I don't know all the motor details as I have been mostly worrying about the Fairchild 282 tone arm which was broken off of it's pedestal bearings in transit to my house.
It appears from looking at sites such as AudioKarma and ebay that both items are somewhat collectible. The K33H is a solid and pretty quite drive and it is a fairly easy design to mount in a heavy plinth.
The Fairchild 282 tonearm is reputedly a Raymond Loewy design (think Studebaker) and represents the ultimate in the old 50's style heavy mono tone arms. So basically this state of the art for the late 1950's and early 60's era. Pretty much fits in with most everything else in my life.
The issue with the tone arm pedestal bearings is a fairly serious problem. The bearings are little hardened steel pins and there are small set screws which the pins fit into. There is a corresponding hole on a pin which goes through the pedestal that forms the bearing base for the pins. You can tighten the pins with the set screw and this appears the only antiskate adjustment you have.
After three days of searching the internet I could find nothing so today I decided to make the best of what I had.
I took the turntable to my "clean room," and assembled my tools.

I first attempted to put the arm on the base without taking anything apart but that proved impossible. I then desoldered the wires to the tone arm and removed the pedestal from the base. After first marking everything with a Sharpie.

I soon realized that the bearing pins were higher quality steel than the mounting pin that goes through the pedestal. (See photo) And that the top pin had broken off with  such a small indention that it was going to be very hard to remount it using the old parts.
First I tried drilling out the old pin. But the drill drifted immediately.
Next I tried the site adjusting tool for my old AK-47 which is kind of a clevis and clamp mechanism. I almost would work but it started to mushroom the head of the pin. Finally I just found a brass punch and knocked the mounting pin out. This didn't help all that much.
The broken bearing pin that was stuck in the mounting pin was too hard to drill and I gave up on my initial plan of chucking the pin in the lath and drilling out the bearing.
I tried a magnet to get the bearing pin out. I tried a tool steel pair of tweezers. I tried tapping it. Then I tried heat.
If you heat up a pin stuck inside of a larger mass the smaller piece will cool at a faster rate than the larger piece and they will shrink at different rates. This will break the part loose from each other and facilitate removal.
I just don't have a lot of delicate precision tools...

Finally I just said "oh fiddle!" decided to put it back together and see what would happen.
It was pretty touchy to get the little pins aligned in the tone arm. They fit into hollow set screws that threat though the tone arm and then the pins fit into indentions in the pin that goes though the mounting pedestal. The pins are tiny and worn down. I suspect they should be pointed but I can't get the broken pieces out of the pedestal mount.
The following photo is pretty blurry but it shows the size of the pins. The set screw is below the pin setting next to the screw in the turntable base.

A number of times of almost losing the little pins I got it. I set it up a little tight and figured it would wear in.

I carried it back to the house. Soldered the leads back to the connection block under the turntable and hooked it up to my stereo.

It worked!
I still need to figure out how to adjust the side to side drag of the tone arm. On other arms there is an anti-skate adjustment. The tone arm is a cantilevered arm which also pivots in the middle. The second pivot point is between the Fairchild logo and the pedestal arm. You can see the setscrew for the hinge in the top photo.
I also need to adjust the tracking force as it seems to be balanced with very little down pressure and so it tends to skip a bit.

It has a Shure High Track cartridge. I can't tell you the model number with out getting my arse out of the easy chair but I am sure you will find out in another post. It would be worth a whole lot more money if it had a Fairchild mono cartridge or what seems to be quite rare, a Fairchild stereo cartridge.
It sounded surprisingly good. There is not a lot of noise with the belt drive, even in the horrible non-audiophile mounting setup of a piece of plywood setting on two stacks of books. There was no hum even though I did not have it grounded.
It did rattle in the high end on loud passages so I will have to investigate that issue.
Truth be told I have no business with this tonearm at all. It should be in a museum or in the possession of a collector. I'm probably going to break it. But, on the other hand, it was not even usable before this evening so we shall see.
Happy Nude Year... As in Nude Elliptical!