I don't want to jinx it, but so far the tiny calf is doing better. I gave her a lot of extra care last week, and this morning the Monday sickness doesn't seem to have returned. Maybe she'll actually make it, since she was older than a week when she got it.

The bike trail headquarters in Kendall opens up tomorrow, and I think the same day is when they open the tunnel doors. Can't go this Sunday, but maybe the next Sunday I'll head down there for a little ride. And to get my season pass.

I haven't had much time the last week to ride my bike. Been busy with other stuff, and the damn wind has been blowing hard. This place really blows (in more ways than one), especially now that there are so few trees to slow it down.

Hard to believe my daughter turns 13 this week! Wow. She thinks she's so grown up! She really hates it if you call her by any nicknames normally used for children (like honey etc). She never was too fond of that kind of drippy stuff anyway.

Some of the old farmers want copies of the movies and pictures I took at the plowing on Saturday, so I'll be burning a few DVDs today.

AURORA WATCH: A solar wind stream is heading for Earth and it could spark a geomagnetic storm when it arrives on April 28th. Northern sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

If you're looking for a really cool night sky or astronomy program, I downloaded Stellarium the other day from http://www.stellarium.org/. I'm impressed. Here's how they describe their program: Stellarium is planetarium software that shows exactly what you see when you look up at the stars. It's easy to use, and free.

You can also zoom in on selected objects to see what they look like through binoculars or a telescope. I like the feature of speeding the time up, and/or reversing it. It's a little weird to figure out how to use it, most of the functions are controlled by the keyboard, but you won't know that until you look at the manual. You have to download the user's manual or visit the page on the web site.

The tiny calf is dying. Probably won't last much more than a day or two. It got the same Monday illness that they all get. Usually they will survive if they are older than a week when they get it, but I suppose she's kind of a special case being so small. Makes me feel guilty about taking the weekend off, but it's not my farm and I shouldn't have to be there everyday. She was fighting it Monday and yesterday, but she's giving up this morning. I had to stand her up and I was able to get some milk in her, but don't think she'll make it.

The youngest calf also has it this week. She is still drinking her milk good and acts fairly normal, so hopefully will survive. She was just one week old Sunday, so cut it pretty close.

Normally when I go riding, I either haul my ATV in the back of my truck, or I use my two place snowmobile trailer. A few years ago I thought it would be nice if I had a small, single place trailer for those times when I go by myself and don't want to load it in the truck or drag the bigger trailer around. Truth of the matter is, I rarely ever use the single place trailer. One exception being when I help the ATV club clean up the roadside garbage. The single place trailer is about the right size to pull behind the ATV and load up with garbage.

Unfortunately, this trailer is built kind of funny. I would have built it differently if it was me. The axle should be below the springs, not on top of them, and it should also be placed back another couple of inches to give it some tongue weight. Right now, as you can see from the above photo, it has no tongue weight and it rides with the tongue up too high. It's exaggerated in the photo because the ground the trailer is sitting on is lower than the garage floor, but you get the idea.

On the way to Necedah the other day, I noticed the ATV looked like it had moved back a little. Thought I better check it, so I pulled over into the Private Pleasures store (first time I ever stopped there, honest). Sure enough, out of the four straps, only one was holding and that one was loose! One of the back ones had even been dragging in the road behind me (funny none of the cars behind me tried to flag me down, I would have). I decided that was enough of that. Time to modify the trailer a little, more to my liking.
First I drilled holes in the front frame of the trailer to accommodate the strap hooks. (Hint: if you're making your own tie-down anchors on your trailer, try to match the angle of the ATV shocks more or less. It helps the suspension work with the straps instead of against them, and it's a hell of a lot easier to compress the springs and put some tension on them.)
Next, I drilled holes in the back frame of the trailer for the strap hooks. I intentionally made it so the straps would run across behind the tires. That way if the ATV should shift and begin moving back, it should press on the straps and help to hold it in place.
I can never remember from one time to the next where I hooked the straps to work best on the ATV. Seems like I have to figure out the best spot all over again every time. So, I marked the spots with orange reflective tape in the front.
And in the back.
Now I took a piece of angle iron (remember the chair repair?) and drilled it and the trailer and pinned it across the back. No way is that ATV ever coming off this trailer as long as it's right side up!
I also designed my angle iron bar across the back to be able to be swung out of the way and pinned to the side when not using it, or loading and unloading.

Seems like a lot of work for what usually amounts to a one time per year use, but it only takes one time for the ATV to fall off the trailer and ruin the rest of the year, the way I see it!

I bought this chair on clearance at Pamida the other day. I have to say, I am disappointed. It wasn't much to put together, a couple allen bolts and slide the cushions on. I finished the assembly, sat down on it, and heard a funny noise. Within minutes I was pinned against my computer desk! It has two u-shaped peices of pipe that stick up from the central pivot point that the entire chair hangs and glides on. One of the pipes was welded kind of goofy and immediately bent, sending the front of the chair to the floor with me in it. I contemplated returning it for a replacement, which I doubt would be built any better, or for a refund. Mrs. Reverend mentioned that they might just think I was too much man for the chair and it wasn't designed for me. What the hell does that mean? :)
With my amount of man in question, I decided to repair it. I pried the bent pipe with a big pry bar back up to the proper height. I then cut and drilled two pieces of angle iron and attached them to the glider bolts on the ends of the pipes. So far holding good. I really hate it when I buy something new and have to rebuild it right out of the box. Maybe a little black paint on the angles? Probably not.

Finally got a little rain overnight. .9 to be exact. It was getting quite dry and dusty. Lots of brush fires over the weekend. The ground needs to be a little moist for good plowing this Saturday when the horses and antique tractors come to plow the fields.

A great day and we had a lot of fun! Hard to believe anybody could have fun picking garbage up along the road, but we did.

Sure dry and dusty today. Hope we get some rain soon.

The ATV ran really good. The warmer it is, the better it seems to like it. Pulled my trailer around all day with no complaints. Come to think of it, my little Hawkeye was the only one pulling a trailer! Actually didn't need it. There was so little garbage that I didn't end up with even half a bag.

Australian rescuers were on Friday trying to solve the "Mary Celeste" style mystery of a yacht found floating off the coast with its engine running, food on its table ready to eat, but no crew.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10435404

WEEKEND METEORS: Earth is entering the dusty tail of Comet Thatcher, and this will cause a mild meteor shower this weekend. It's called the Lyrid meteor shower because the bits of incandescent comet dust appear to come from the constellation Lyra. The best time to look is during the dark hours before dawn on Sunday, April 22nd, and Monday, April 23rd, when you can expect to see a shooting star overhead every 5 minutes or so: sky map.

Looks like it's going to be a great day! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I've got my ATV all loaded up and ready to go and help the ATV club with the route cleanup. If I get home from Necedah early enough, I'll help the antique club with their work bee today too.

Spring is here! The barn swallows started to come back this morning. A scout or two come a week before all the rest arrive. The rest of them always show up on or around the 27th. A sure sign of Spring!

Sounds like a good day tomorrow to be out in the Refuge. The last time I was riding there, I paid attention to the amount of garbage along the routes and didn't see too much. Should be a breeze to clean up this year. Thank you for not littering!

The Filter's Blazing Saddles Tour, May 19th, 2007

IT"S FREE!!!

OUR GOAL IS TO SAVE SOME CASH FOR FUTURE RIDES AND HAVE A GOOD TIME!!!

Where: The Filter's cabin in Finley, WI, in Juneau County, on West 3rd Street, take the first left after Josie's Hideaway if going north on Highway 80, it is the first cabin on the right across from the round cabin)

When: The weekend of May 19th, 2007

Why: Cause it's to damn long to wait for Lake Hilbert ride in August!!

We will be riding from Millston to Hatfield and back! Right now we plan on stopping in Hatfield for a trail lunch of sub sandwiches.

For more information visit: http://www.atvnation.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=17946

When an opposing group frightens your government-level representative agency into cowering and hiding innocent information, then the antis have won. How about courage, honesty, and freedom? When will those be represented?

Is the snow finally gone? Let's hope. Two years ago it snowed the first week of May! If global warming will eliminate nonsense like that, I'm all for it! So far it hasn't.

I haven't rode my ATV too much lately. A little bit in the woods. It makes a few strange noises, but that's the nature of the beast. The engine is mounted solid to the frame, the clutch is a heavier, different design that has a bearing on the end of it in a metal clutch housing, and it's air-cooled which makes for some strange harmonics. I've read stories of people going into a panic because of the strange noises. They need to relax. It's no big deal. If something is really wrong, it will show up and be obvious. Like my dad used to tell me with the old snowmobiles: "Don't listen to those noises and ride the damn thing!"

And another calf born yesterday. Normally I take Sunday off, but I went down last night to get the calf and mother in the barn. If it had been one of the old cows I wouldn't have worried about it, but it was a heifer that had never been in the barn before. And since I take Sundays off, there is usually a bunch people helping on Sunday and I didn't feel like getting her in the barn by myself this morning in the knee deep shit in the barnyard. (No less than five people there last night to take the place of little ol' me, I work almost completely alone the rest of the week.)

I have a conflict for next Saturday. I think I will be helping the ATV club clean up the routes, but on the same day is the first work day in preparation for the antique club's show on the 28th. The antique club cleaned up all the old cars and other junk last year, so unless more junk got hauled in there (I rarely ever go beyond the barn, so don't know for sure) everything should be fairly junk free yet. And they are having another work day on the Friday before the show that I will be helping with, plus the show itself. So, unless the weather is bad, or something tips the scales the other way, I will be cleaning routes with the ATV club next Saturday.

I've added a video to the home page. Something I'm experimenting with. I have a lot of home movies, but never really did much with them before because the files are so big. But, between trimming and compressing, and then using Google to display them, it makes them a little more reasonable to view. I've got some ideas about filming a few things, now that I can share the videos more easily.

The Extraterrestrial Highway, one of the most desolate roads in the country, has more reported U.F.O. sightings than any other road in the country.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/travel/escapes/13extraterrestrial.html

"Although it has already taken nearly four decades to get this far in building the Internet, some university researchers with the federal government's blessing want to scrap all that and start over.

The idea may seem unthinkable, even absurd, but many believe a "clean slate" approach is the only way to truly address security, mobility and other challenges that have cropped up since UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock helped supervise the first exchange of meaningless test data between two machines on Sept. 2, 1969."

http://kutv.com/national/local_story_103134443.html

"And nothing sends me into metaphysical theory like UFOs; the otherworldly quality awakens so many questions in my mind. I recognize that art, literature and even the Bible have referenced these lights in the sky, so perhaps they have always been a quality of the Earth’s environment. But then I get lost in what it all means. I know many believe that discovering alien life would solve many issues here on Earth, from global warming to new sources of energy. I know others are expecting a new age, a time of great enlightenment due to making contact with our galactic siblings and guides, when we will literally shift into a new dimension. Some Christians believe that UFOs are signs a malevolent entity, demons or just a force to push them from their path. And many believe we are living in the End Times and The Rapture could come at any moment, when millions of believers will ascend into heaven. And there are those that believe that the winding down of the Mayan calendar is at hand and the end of time, as we know it, is 2012."

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=24203

“What are the odds of them coming here? I mean, just thinking about Roswell, New Mexico, and the alien craft that crashed. That’s funny to me, that these aliens could develop craft that could get from their distant planet to ours and then crash in New Mexico and get herded up by small-town police.

“They have the technology to build this craft, and then they’re captured by Barney Fife, his pistol and one bullet? That story strikes me as a bit odd.”

http://www.kvnews.com/articles/2007/04/13/news/doc461fe46938e19342436925.txt

How old do you suppose the programming on the local radio station was this morning? My old boss was the DJ, and he passed away quite a few years ago! It was a little freaky at first, hearing him on the radio again. Hopefully none of my elder relatives heard the weather forecast. Some of them will put on their shorts and sunglasses, head out and freeze to death! I've seen them fooled by old forecasts before. Unless of course, someone takes them by the hand and explains it to them! Ha ha!

One of the almost 100 geese that roam all over the place and poop is nesting on the outside of the barn window again this year. Last year it banged on the window so much that it broke it out (JR knows what I'm talking about). Now there is a piece of plexi-glass in place of it, so I doubt it will break, but the frame isn't the greatest. I hate geese. The only animal more useless than cats.

Speaking of cats, all the strays running around have been popping out kittens. There's a bunch in the barn, some on my back porch, and who knows how many I haven't discovered yet. I hate cats.

No meeting for me today. I can't imagine any important decisions wee members would have to make that haven't already been made. And to drive all the way around the lake and back this Saturday to talk about what we already know for next Saturday seems kind of pointless.

Another wonderful "Spring" day! Yee haw! I guess I don't really mind the cold so much, other than it makes the grease stiff in the bearings on my bicycle, but I could live without the snow. A little bit to make the ground white at Christmas, and then it can go away. The only good thing about it this time is I know I won't be plowing! Ha ha! No plow.

While I was typing this, Snoopy started barking like crazy in the next room. I went in there to find her with a little toy, and she was looking in the mirror. She was barking at the dog with the toy in the mirror! Crazy dog.

The TV news was saying that Dane County had a lot of their snow removal equipment put in storage already and their mowers out. I know the feeling! April 9th, 1973 we got almost two feet of snow (I remember), so I guess it could be worse.

Another calf born this morning. I'm starting to run out of room! Normally I would put the newborns in one pen, then the older/weaned ones in another pen. But, the ones in the weaned pen are way overdue for putting outside to make room, and there is a bull of that same generation in the little ones' pen. So, when Hell freezes over and the big ones are moved outside there will be room in the pens for the little ones. Right now they're tied up with twine and shitting all over the barn.

While I was putting the mother in her stanchion this morning, the cow next to her kicked the crap out of me! Nothing out of the ordinary, just that it's usually not the cow next to the fresh one that kicks you. It's usually the fresh one!

Speaking of Hell freezing over, what's up with this weather? Now they're talking 8 inches of snow tonight. Right now I have nothing to plow my driveway with.

A top hurricane forecaster called Al Gore "a gross alarmist" Friday for making an Oscar-winning documentary about global warming.

"He's one of these guys that preaches the end of the world type of things. I think he's doing a great disservice and he doesn't know what he's talking about," Dr. William Gray...........................

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=3017716&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

I rode around on the routes in the refuge for a few hours today. Too bad it was cloudy and kind of cold - not very much like Spring - but it was fun anyway. A few flakes of snow in the air from time to time. Never saw another soul riding while I was out there.

What kind of a man explores hundreds and hundreds of miles alone on an ATV? A man who travels across the Nevada desert through blazing heat, suffers hypothermia in the cold Rocky Mountains, loses his only companion—his dog not once but twice, overcomes break downs & hardships, experiences the kindness of strangers, and records the epic adventure in a daily journal!?.....................................
http://www.atvwagon.com/beck-interview.html

Another regular size calf born today. Chores and milking is starting to take a little more time to complete again now. Not anything nearing record proportions, but longer than a week ago! It comes and goes. There's times when I have no little calves to feed by hand.

Will the wind ever stop blowing? Man, now that most of the trees are gone (from the tornado a couple years ago and the greed that followed) this place really blows! In more ways than one. Ha ha!

There is an awesome photo from the Hubble Space Telescope of galaxy NGC 1672. You can see the big picture here. I find it hard to believe that we are alone in the universe. Imagine if the human race is the best that the universe (or God) has created! Scary.

I'm trying out FireFox. I've tried it before on an old computer, but it didn't have enough RAM to run it properly. Works pretty good so far. I'm also trying out Thunderbird for e-mail. Only 2% of the people that visit my web site use FireFox. 74% use IE 6 (only because it came with the majority of the computers being used today) and the rest fall somewhere in between. I've never been a very big fan of IE or Outlook. Too many security and software problems. Not that there isn't enough trouble already with Windows itself!

Wishing for warmer (and less windy) weather!

Well, it did. It broke! By the time my outside faucet had thawed enough today to once again drain it, it was busted. I have been thinking of doing something different with it anyway to make it less complicated to take care of. I never thought it would freeze hard enough and long enough to break it, until it was too late. I wouldn't have even had it hooked up yet, except that I worry about fire weather. Especially now that the plantation by the house has been mostly cleared and all that is left is various stages of decaying pine boughs. Never know when somebody driving by will pitch a cigarette out, or thump their tobacco pipe ashes out on the outside of their car door.

I've added a news feature. You can click on my preselected search terms to see a few news articles for each. The ATV search term was a little tricky. If you search for anything ATV related, you always come up with almost exclusively accident reports. That's because ATV accidents get big ratings and are disproportionately represented in the media. Do all the car accidents get media coverage? No. Motorcycle? No. Bicycle? No. Snowmobile? Even though all the others have many more accidents, every ATV mishap gets coverage simply because it is big news to all the dumb bastards. It's not fair, and is always blown way out of proportion and makes ATV accidents look like a much more common occurrence than they really are. But, that's a whole topic in itself for another day. Hence, I added the - (minus) sign in front of "accident" on my search term. If it works properly, that will exclude all results with the word "accident" in them. Clicking on the other terms should be pretty much self explanatory. Just something I'm playing with. I'll see how it works.

Oh yes, and I've already changed the look of the blog again! Imagine that.

“At breakfast time I was sitting by the house at Vanavara factory facing North. [...] I suddenly saw that directly to the North, over Onkoul's Tunguska road, the sky split in two and fire appeared high and wide over the forest. The split in the sky grew larger, and the entire Northern side was covered with fire. At that moment I became so hot that I couldn't bear it, as if my shirt was on fire; from the northern side, where the fire was, came strong heat.

“I wanted to tear off my shirt and throw it down, but then the sky shut closed, and a strong thump sounded, and I was thrown a few yards. I lost my senses for a moment, but then my wife ran out and led me to the house. After that such noise came, as if rocks were falling or cannons were firing, the earth shook, and when I was on the ground, I pressed my head down, fearing rocks would smash it. When the sky opened up, hot wind raced between the houses, like from cannons, which left traces in the ground like pathways, and it damaged some crops. Later we saw that many windows were shattered…”

http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/2007/arch07/070403tunguska.htm

Change, change, change! The weather's changing, I've changed to a different ATV, and I keep changing the looks of this blog! I think I've finally settled on the proper blog look/format. None of the other ways seemed quite right, but this one offers a good balance between the formatting I want and the ability to customize a few things. But, you know me, I'll change it 100 times yet in my quest to get it perfect and still never be completely satisfied!

YUCK! Winter is back. I hooked up my outside faucet the other day and I hope it doesn't bust! I'm sure it's froze already. Never fails, as soon as my yellow bush starts to bloom, the weather turns to shit and it snows. What a wonderful place we live in.

Here's a picture of the tiny calf. It's hard to tell how small it is from the picture because there is nothing else to go by, but it's not a lot bigger than my shoe!

Another calf born this morning. I knew the mother was getting close, and she didn't come in the barn this morning at milking time. I went out in the dark to find her, and when I did, the calf was still hanging out of her. I thought maybe it was dead, but couldn't see it good enough and she wouldn't let me get close. She came right up and into the barn with the calf still hanging. In the light, I discovered the little bugger seemed to be ok, just that the cow was having a little bit of a hard time. I ended up pulling it out for her (if I could only count the number of times I've had cow placenta dripping from my elbows). Cow and calf are both doing fine. This calf is normal size. About three times as big as the tiny one born the other day. I normally don't like to milk a fresh cow when I'm alone because sometimes they get a little wild, but this morning like most of the time, I had no choice.

The tiny calf seems to have made it through the weekend ok (although, one of the cows croaked). She might even be growing a little bit. Still have to look at her twice every time just to make sure I'm not imagining her small size!

Hauled a few loads of wood up to the house yesterday. The ATV seems like it will handle it ok. Squats a little bit in the rear, but doesn't bottom out. It won't be as good at it as the Sportsman, but it'll do.