I go to a seminar

Yesterday I went to a seminar/class/whatever about UAV's. They don't like to call them "Drones." For some reason "Drone," has some negative connotations. Probably similar reasoning discourages one from referring to the "Cloud" as "SkyNet."
I sat next to the Lovely and Gracious Mrs. Muddy Valley who is a happy and positive person. Mr. Muddy Valley declined to attend. He does not realize that moving from a Sunny state to the end of a dirt road in places called "Muddy Valley," or "Gopher Valley," can exacerbate your curmudgeonly characteristics. (I have always heard that exacerbation will make you go blind but now that I looked it up on the net, I discover it just means grumpy.)
I suppose I should give a review of drone school and how much I like the cool technology and just how nervous it makes me after hearing the speakers earnestly tell us when it can do and how of course, there are moral obligations to protect privacy.

I will take out all the fun stuff and bring it down to a couple basic points.
1. Drones could be really cool technology that would allow you to use cameras that tell by analyzing the colors of the plants, when you need to irrigate or spray, and identify problem areas of fields, measure the growth of plants. The data can be analyzed to give you a printout much like a soil test and since it can be tied in to global positioning it can be used with modern variable rate sprayers and planters and tied into yield data and so on.

2. This technology would be cool on a small farm but will actually result in gigantic farms where the "land manager" could never get his, her's, it's feet dirty. I really hope it will result in huge crop failures like the commie collectives but it won't.

3. While Law Enforcement has to have a warrant to spy on you.... I suspect other regulatory agencies do not. Some years ago I reported a field was 8.5 acres and it was was really 6.9 acres. The conservation cops actually hired an airplane to fly up a lonely valley in the foothills of the coast range, they took pictures and measured the field. I was off by 10 percent on my reporting. I explained that I really had no idea of the field size as I just dumped seed in the drill and when it ran out I called it a field, and 8.5 acres sounded like a good number... But, that was not enough. I had to write a letter to the local conservation board or I would have had to give all my government welfare payments back.
You can't tell me that if drones are available for cheap automated flights that they will not be used for code enforcement and if you take a leak behind the tractor you will get a fine for violation of a salmon bearing stream!

4. I don't like winery people any more after hanging out with them for a day than I did before I got to spend a day with their L.L. Bean covered bottoms.

5. Drones are cool, I want one.

Also....
I was going to write my whole post about a comment I got on the recent anti-Monday post but I started ranting about drones. Another interesting person from the South found me and I hope joins the blog. I am going to try to give her annual ryegrass growing advice but Orin is the expert and I fear he has abandoned me now that I have no reviews of Porter Wagoner albums.

It is cold but the snow is going away

I keep being ambushed.

The dog has short hair and gets very cold. He needs a dog sweater.

My wife brings him in the house. I figures that if he doesn't move he is invisible and I can't see him.

He won't even leave the blanket to take a drink from the toilet. This goes back to the time he cut his foot and had to live in the house for a week. He ate five pork chops that were cooling on the kitchen counter.

It is snowing

My daughter had to go to school.
This is pretty funny.
You have to realize we live in Oregon and everything shuts down when there is a hint of snow.
Most people then sit around the TV and watch cars slide down the hills in Portland and laugh when the News People have to run for cover.
My daughter is not happy!
I tried to help.
I said, "Out of solidarity with you, I promise not to have a snowball fight with your cousins."
This did not help.
Right now we have almost blizzard conditions outside our house.

Blizzard Lite-Less Filling

I doubt it is really slick outside as it is 25 degrees. It is not going to warm up today so it won't be dangerous.
I suspect NOTHING will get done at school today. There are a lot of windows and the kids can see the snow. But then again, it ain't like we would be a tuition refund for a snow day...

A record snowfall!

And Now a photo of some corn!

This was like what...last month?

I repair the offending hydraulic line

It is 17 degree F outside.
I've been thinking I should really check on the hot tub. By checking I mean walking out on my porch stark nekked and getting in. Perhaps with some Legendary Stardust Cowboy on the HiFi and a nice hot cup of Swiss Miss hot chocolate heavily laced with Peppermint Schnapps.
One would not want the pump to freeze up!
I wonder if other farmers would stop by and talk to me?
I once told my sometimes a big helper that I would give him $100 if in hot weather he would drive the silage truck naked, and then when the dairyman wanted to talk to him for a half hour each load, he would get out of the truck and casually stretch and ask for baby powder.
He refused.
I repaired my cross-threaded hydraulic line.
I went to town and bought a new double flare collar thingy. I'm pretty sure that is the exact term. Strangely enough, I could not buy 1/2" brake line off the rack. I was told they only stock it up to 3/8.
I exclaimed, "But are we mice or are we men?" and the nice lady just looked at me funny and wandered off.
The autoparts stores just don't hire the quality of help they once did.

The Offending Part

So I dug out my double flaring tool set and I even found the instructions.
I did a practice run on a discarded section of tubing. It turned out perfectly.
So.....
I carefully trimmed the old flare off of the offending line. I removed the old collar. I chamfered the edges of the trimmed tubing. I made sure the edges were square and level.
I put the tubing in the special die clamper thingy.
I used the die to set the height of the tubing.
I clamped it.

The special clampy thingy in the vice

Then I remembered I had not installed the new collar first!
I installed the new collar. It was a tight fit.
I put the die in the end of the tube and tightened the press thingy.
I looked like it was working.
The die is supposed to make the end of the tubing round over towards the inside. But of course my double flare set is an old American Brand that has been almost ruined by the fabled Chinese Export Craftsmanship.
Then I removed the die and used the pointy part of the clamp to make a regular flare.
I don't think it really worked right.
But it is now installed.

Try and get your fingers and a wrench in there!

Perhaps when it starts pouring out ATF it will be warm outside...
Of course it didn't go quite that smooth....
Along they way there were several stops for loading hay, chicken feed, random acts of laziness, lunch, hot chocolate, but no nap.
Perhaps today will be more efficient?

An Update: I found another corn picture and so here it is! Perhaps I already posted it. Who knows? Like I actually read my own blog!!!

More positive thoughts!

Yesterday...
My daughter has been sick so I have been working on sending out bills and figuring out what I need to buy before the end of the year.
I ordered 24 new coulters for my Great Plains drill. By ordering 24 I got the price down by two dollars per row.
I called about tires for the 2-155.
I can get four bias-ply Goodyear tires for $5,700 installed. (Two front and two rears)
I could get radials for $7,500. I think that would be Titians. Some people don't like Titians.
I really wanted Firestones. They used to be the best.
Of course who knows? A new tire will last a decade at least and by that time the company could chance everything.
It is sort of a hard decision.
The rear tires are 18.4-38's and the front are 16.9-26. The fronts are an odd size which limits my choices.
The question is- Would radials give me that much more flotation and traction over bias ply? I'm getting a long-bar/short-bar pattern because they are supposed to wear better going down the highway. I rarely pull the tractor brutally hard. It is mostly pulling a 15ft no-till drill behind a 160hp tractor at 6.5 mph.
After reaching the limits of my decision making abilities I retreated to the shop to alternate between working on the G1355 and repainting the uncle's sign.
I couldn't find the orbital sander.
I did get the transmission cooler lines hooked up in front of the radiator.
I printed and lost the wiring diagram.
A fellow no-tiller stopped by and looked at my no-till drill.
I attempted to look up Newholland parts online out at the shop but the airport is not working correctly.
I helped my dad in the restroom.
I put air in my sister-in-law's tire.
I checked on my daughter.
I scratched
my nose.
I spent one hour attempting to attach the oil cooler lines to the three speed shifter and stripped one completely.
This could mean I have to pull the hydra-shift or amplitorque or what ever they call it. This means the tractor splits part into three sections.
I didn't even say a bad word.
I was going to take a photo by my phone quit.
I thought about grinding my phone to a powder but I didn't.
I shut off the lights and went to the house.
It was 7 p.m.
I am now looking at the online job openings for janitors and groundskeepers at the local college...

And moving to Belize...

Note: Just because I am frustrated does not mean that I am not aware of pain and suffering in the world. I am frustrated in my little fishbowl and so you read about it in this blog. And now my phone has chimed that I have a message. Is this my wife or daughter texting about forgotten glasses or a text book which will give me an excuse to take a drive or is it my brother's sometimes a great employee texting that he will not be coming to work? I do not know. Perhaps I will continue to set here in my easy chair and wonder. Of course if my brother is reading this at some truckstop or on WiFii in his truck sleeper he will most likely have no sympathy for me. He will probably think I am a ma-roon for stripping the threads on that cooler line. An hour! I spent an hour trying to get those lines hooked up. Did I mention how difficult it was to get the lines into position? I must get more coffee.... Look at the phone... Go to work....

Another Monday which I hate

My daughter was quite excited to spend a couple days with a friend who has moved to the next town. Well, the town next to the next town. Actually, the town next to that town. Well, lets just say 45 minutes or so away.
The worst thing happened at the sleep-over.
Everyone got sick!
So we went after her Sunday morning.
She is on the couch right now and I'm trying not to wake her up. I need to go out and finish the pig feed for Werner Von Braun (not his real German name) who didn't text me when he expects to arrive.
However, I suspect the scream of a three cylinder Detroit diesel and the roar of an unmuffled turbo-charged 806 International outside her window may wake her up.
She is going to be worried about missing school, since we are leaving soon for Florida. The cold part of Florida, where people used to say "Sheeeeeeee-it" a lot.
Perhaps some ideas for places to go?
I should get on NAT and see if I could get invited on some farm tours.
Where is the place where the Mermaids swim in the tank?
I want to go there...

The Blue Goat Doesn't Suck anymore!

Ok, I've been pulling my punches.
I have a bit of a love/hate sentiment towards the infamous Blue Goat restaurant, located in Amity.
I wanted to like it because they have a really cool oven, they are locals who work hard, really good restaurants are hard to find outside of Portland, they seem to be nice people, weird funky stuff is really cool when no one else is being weird and funky.
I hated the Blue Goat because they represent the death of the old ways. There is no Amity Cafe. There is no hardware store. There is no Meeker's Warehouse. Just wineries and pictures of grapes and people who have more money than I and I hate them all.
But I digress..
This is not about my objection to "progress" but rather about my recent happiness at the Blue Goat.
Back to my complaints from the early days at the Goat.
Here is the problem, I've been mildly annoyed by their tendency to run out of food. They ruin a perfectly good pizza with pear sauce. Voices echo off the bare brick walls and prevents me from hearing most conversations when there are more than five other people in the building.
I also have never had the urge to eat dead goat.
The food has been ok. Not really great. It is more novelty food. In my opinion it is from things put together for contrast and effect rather than from a love of good food. Clever and interesting food rather than a good satisfying meal. And when I say satisfying meal I mean a big good steak and a baked potato.
So, in my previous reviews I tried to be nice. I looked for something positive in what was kind of a laughably poor dining experience which was basically decor and "coolness" over really good food.
My wife and I had planned to treat my brother and his wife to dinner. In the end he turned out to be the one with the hundred dollar bill and I was the one with the tens and twenties and somehow I think he ended up paying.
Perhaps that is why I enjoyed the food.
It was a Saturday evening and the Blue Goat was fairly busy. We did stand at the door for a little while but soon a place was cleared.
The menu was pretty simple which is good.
I avoided the Jersey beef. I've had that before and I would say I was disappointed but how can you blame the cook when you are the one that ordered the "Jersey" beef. Jersey is a milk cow. It may be more lean, but it also tends to be a little tough and stringy and with less flavor than Angus, or Herford, or an actual beef type animal. Of course my experience comes from raising feeders purchased at the local auction or bull calves from local dairies and should have some merit.
I ordered the Blackened Pacific Rock Fish (I think, my mind is starting to fail).
It was very good.
I've never like the Blue Goat tendency to pair contrasting tastes. I do not like pear sauce and cheese on a pizza. However, the blackened fish with little squares of yams and crunchy greens really went well together. The sweet yams contrasted well with the blackened fish the spices set off the flavor nicely.
I am enough of a Philistine to not remember terms now that I don't have the menu in front of me but then again, if you were high culture you would probably not be reading this blog.
The portion was not huge but it was not small. I would say just right.
Last week I had fish and chips at the Hotel Oregon and it was much more expensive and much less tasty.
My wife had a Jersey Burger and was quite happy. It had Blu Cheese on it and came with sliced potatoe fries, like the old Captain Neon burgers of the above mentioned chain of brewpubs. But, unlike the modern incarnation it was $10 and the waitstaff were happy and helpful and competent.
My brother had the Rockfish and enjoyed it. My sister-in-law had the Hungarian Stew. It was a little too loud for me to hear how she felt about it. But, that is a problem with my ears.
I've gone to the Blue Goat several times a year since it has opened. I've been a bit frustrated.
This is the first time I've been able to say that I would go back for the food rather than just to be amused by the clever wine crowd, or to look a the cool oven, or because I just don't want to drive to the city.
So....
If you have tired of reading my drivel and just scanned to the bottom of the page...
It was good, I liked it, I will return sooner than later, and....
I didn't like the Jersey Beef because I have a freezer full of fat Black Baldy Beef and it kind of ruins you. If you've been buying your beef in town then you will think it is great, so peddle your bicycle or pop in your Prius, put on your short pants or perhaps those trendy back ones with the narrow legs and the ironic shoes, and if you are really a ma-roon, wear your kilt (cause everyone cares to know you think you are Scottish) and swill some wine at the Blue Goat. Tell them I recommended it ask to see the oven!
Also, please mention that you think the people that run Amity are a bunch of idiots for screwing up the parking and putting a bench directly in the way of being able to see South on 99W.
I swear, Amity is run by door-knobs. What the world needs are more wine tasting rooms with no parking and five handicapped parking spots per block. Oh, not to mention the 5 crosswalks per block, except for where the kids from the elementary school cross every day.
I'm sure they hired traffic engineers.