Category Archives: General

Threshing Days

General,

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This is a steam-powered tractor, which I photographed last August at my hometown’s annual festival, Threshing Days. It is a massive thing, full of detail, noise, and action.

Threshing Days (see earlier articles about it) brings people in from across the country. The town’s usual population of 600 multiplies for this.

The engine pictured here was being used for a threshing demonstration, which was how wheat was processed before combines were invented. A big flywheel on the engine was connected to a large belt, which powered the threshing machine. That machine separated the wheat like a modern combine does, but was supplied by farmers dumping wheat onto it.

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Mercurial & Git

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About two weeks ago, I wrote about my thoughts on Mercurial and how I was switching to it from Darcs.

At the time, I had skipped Git because of its lack of Windows support. I have some contributors to pieces of Free Software that I write that use Windows, and that seemed a pretty big flaw.

But I recently discovered git-svn and git-svnimport, both of which look like great tools for working with our friends using svn that haven’t yet gotten ahold of the DVCS light. Then I noticed that Git has a CVS server emulation tool, which means that Windows users can use TortoiseCVS to interact with it. Nice.

I spent some time today learning Git. This was a lot easier having already learned Mercurial. Git and Mercurial have very similar philosophies to a number of things, but the Mercurial documentation explains all this far better than the Git documentation does.

I’m going to have to try both of them out more and see what I think. But git-svn (which is bi-directional) certainly looks like a very nice thing.

Neither of them have something as nice as darcs send, though.

Farm Living Update

General

Well, we’ve been back in the country for about 2 months now. I figure it’s about time to write about what’s been going on lately around here.

The big controversy is about the county jail. Apparently the county is sharply divided about this. People are angry. Profanity has been uttered at county commission meetings. Some people want to build a new, larger county jail because the current jail has been overcrowded for years. Some don’t see any problem with the current situation. Others want to close our county jail entirely and pay other counties to house our prisoners, saying that we usually have less than 6 prisoners total.

Yes, in all seriousness, the county is all abuzz about our jail where a population of 6 means overcrowding.

The weather has been getting warmer and that means an increase in traffic. Today I met two cars on the roads near our house — one in the morning and one in the afternoon. That’s a new single-day record. Usually I don’t meet that many vehicles in a week.

And our local high school boys’ basketball team made it to the state tournament for the first time since the late 80s. That was quite something. It’s probably been years since our school had one of their games broadcast live on the radio. And probably about that long since any local business bothered to advertise on the radio. It even got mentioned in a sermon at church. (They took 4th in the state — congrats!)

I also have prepared this helpful chart for you explaining a few differences about living out here.

Item City Country
Check this before leaving home Traffic report, so you can avoid the big 5-car pileup on the Interstate Weather report, so you can avoid the roads that are impassible if it rained last night
You might comment on this when you get home in the evening Three of the cars in the daily 5-car pileup were on fire and there was gas on the roadway and helicopters everywhere and you drove right past it Someone drove down our road at night
Always yield to… Trains, school buses Escaped cows and those trying to catch them
Neighbors will be mad if… You are blaring loud music at 3AM Monday night You notice the gate to their pasture is open and you don’t tell them
Neighbors will not notice if… A car drives by at night You are blaring loud music, anytime
Minor everyday dangers Maniac drivers, drug dealers, Taco Bell Cow pies, electric fences, thistle infestations
Seasonal events that prolong commute time Indianapolis 500 Harvest
Bank tellers ask you… What your account number is, and could you give them a photo ID with that How your remodel has been coming
Bank presidents… Never spek to you Ask about your brothers
Distance from house to mailbox… 50 feet or less 1 mile or less
Your car is sporty if… It can do 0-60 in a respectable time It can do 0-60, then slow back to a stop, before leaving your driveway
Power flickers during Hurricanes and tornados Wind
Water meters read by Computer or city employees Yourself; you write the reading on your payment stub each month, if you are lucky enough to qualify for a water service
Free meals attainable by… Using a 2-for-1 coupon Attending the annual business meeting for your electric company
A good time for fundraising is… End of year so people can get a tax deduction on that year’s taxes Just after harvest
Fundraising benchmarks include… We have less than the price of a new house to raise! We have less than the price of a new combine to raise!

Weather in Kansas

General

Here’s what it’s been doing:

2 days ago: high of 69
yesterday: daytime high of 23 plus “breezy” winds at 30MPH
today: forecasted high of 26, 3-7 inches of snow, winds at 25MPH, gusting to 35MPH

Yesterday, I drove to the doctor’s office and back to work, a drive of about 15 minutes. During that time, I encountered:

  • calm
  • thunder and lightning
  • freezing rain bad enough that my windshield almost froze over in less than 5 minutes
  • calm again
  • sleet

I’ve heard people from all over the country say, “if you don’t like our weather, wait 5 minutes.”

In Kansas, we really mean it.

Peter

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I was meaning to write this story two weeks ago, but then the fire happened… So better late than never.

My brother Peter is participating in a ministerial inquiry program this summer. College students can spend a summer as an intern at a church and start to get a real feel for what it’s like to be involved with ministry.

Two weeks ago, Peter gave his first sermon at the church he’s with this summer. He compared the task of a bunch of college guys trying to figure out how to get their bathroom clean to that of figuring out how to spread Jesus’ word. A great (and entertaning!) sermon for sure.

We went back to hear his second sermon today — a more serious, but no less vibrant, one about how Elijah felt that he wasn’t up to the task the Lord had in mind for him. Peter did a great job again, and gave me some things to think about.

Now, since I’ve been going through pictures this weekend, here’s a picture of Peter back when he was 6. Our parents were having drywall installed at the time, and Peter and I found the stilts that the drywall installers were using one evening. We had a lot of fun walking around on them.

Peter is the one on the left with the smile, toy sheriff’s badge, hat, and pen on his shirt. (He still has the smile and pens, but I haven’t seen the badge or hat in awhile.) I’m the one on the right, looking annoyed that I’m not on my preferred side of the camera lens. I really was enjoying myself until then ;-)

Bowling with Grandpa

General,

I’ve been taking photos for a long time. Today I found some pictures I had taken back when I was 11.

My grandpa used to like to take my brother and me bowling. Grandpa was a good bowler and played on a team. I wasn’t a good bowler. But it was fun because it was the two of us and Grandpa, and he’d always take us out to eat afterwards, too.

Here is a picture I took while bowling with Grandpa back in 1991:

It’s fun to look at some of these old pictures. They sure bring back the memories. And sometimes there are worthwhile ones like this in between all the photos of pets and household objects.

Things are a happenin’

General,

So… Our big move (yes, we’re buying a farm) is moving along!

We’re tentatively set to close on it next Tuesday. The last two months have been busy. A lot of phone calls to arrange permits.

The director of planning and zoning retired recently, and they didn’t have a replacement ready. So all building permits were on hold until a replacement arrives. In the meantime, the county clerk’s office was trying to handle basic inquiries. I called it one day, and didn’t realize until later that I was speaking to the county clerk. I grew up in this county but obviously I’ve lived in larger ones too long if I’m surprised about this. Everyone was very friendly and as helpful as possible with an unfortunate situation.

I got a surprise phone call today. Apparently the telephone company is running new lines in rural areas of the county (upgrading to support DSL) and they wanted to know if that place was going to stay vacant. A “not at all!” later, and it looks like we’ll be able to get DSL by the time we move in. WOOHOO! We were bracing for dialup or wireless…

There are still some bits of paperwork that have to get done before Tuesday yet, so it’s not 100% guaranteed that we’ll close then. But we’re getting excited anyway!