Saturday, October 11, 2008

11 oct., 2008 -- Poker Run




Black Bart!

John and Ben stirred up the recently applied seed and fertilizer. Not fair, I guess, to pick on them. Each airplane that taxied, landed and took off stirred it up.





EAA and MPA chapters sponsored a Poker Run today. That's where a bunch of folks fly their
airplanes to different airports to collect a winning poker hand, one card from each airport. We had about 15 airplanes come through Mtn. Grove, a couple of them were just passing through and not part of the parade. I haven't heard yet who won with the best poker hand.

Other flying things... lots of buzzards have been enjoying the thermals the last few days.






Look, Jamie and Jan and I have long legs!

Friday, October 10, 2008

10 Oct., 2008 -- Dig it up again!


Smoothed it all out, then came along with this cute little chain saw and dug it up again. They filled these holes with square bales of straw to prevent erosion in the low drainage areas, far away from the runway.



Square bales. Round bales. Old style, new style. Don't throw out the old style, someone will find a use for it.







They spent the day grinding up round bales and shooting the chaff out over the grass seed that they spread yesterday. The wind was blowing today, right into the hangars. Pttooo Phtooo. That little tractor doubles as a chain saw and a bale loader. It followed the "chewer/spewer" around like a little R2D2 servant, feeding bales into the chopper. I didn't count the truckloads of bales that they used.





Lloyd flew the Archer to Arkansas for his 50th class reunion. He called later and said the wind was not blowing in Atkins, so I'm sure he made a perfect landing.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

9 Oct., 2008 -- Thursday, busy weekend coming up



Towed the flight simulator to Willow Springs this afternoon, re-installed the software, and made sure it was going to function for Saturday. The EAA Chapter 1218 Open House & Fly-In will draw lots of people and airplanes, remote controllers, Air Evac display, the Poker Run to area
airports, then pot luck & business meeting. The grounds are like a park, and with the afternoon sun and the trees beginning to turn, it was really pretty this afternoon.


The fertilizer and seeding crews worked all day, and will finish tomorrow probably. The grass seed is broadcast with a stream of water, and it's so graceful and really pretty in the setting sun.



The mulching machine chews up a bale of hay in about five minutes, and the little loader keeps delivering bales right through that choking dust.



Bill got in a short flight with his biplane just before sunset. Had to have at least one airplane in the post today, right? Jerry left after dark, so he didn't get his picture taken.





Wednesday, October 8, 2008

8 Oct., 2008 -- Airport activity




City crew fixed a few potholes in the driveway. That took all of 10 minutes, and six people.



Randy brought the Ag Husky down from Iowa, then flew on down to Arkansas in the 140 Cherokee. He'll be back to take the Husky to the bootheel in a few days to have an ag gps system installed. Then the Husky will winter over here, and he'll take his pickup truck back to Iowa. Shuffle shuffle.


Yes, it does fit in there.





Found some more patterns out in the dirt. Was looking for wooley worms, as the weatherman on KY3 wants pics of wooley worms to predict the winter. How scientific! Persimmon seeds are indicative, too so I'm told. I've found spoons, so far. Shoveling?

7 Oct., 2008 -- Post-It Puppies Serenade



More serenade... ooow-WOOOOOO!
Samantha sent me a pile of

whimsical Post-It Puppies.
They all have names, too.

Clover

Shamerock

Snoopy

Banana Nut

Humpy


Daisy

Spot







In the second picture,

Ki-Lime Pie

Star

Blue Berry

Zebra

and ... Sticker

I think you can tell which one he is!



Thanks, Samantha. and G & D & C & K & R for all the rest

of the stuff in the box, especially the poem about flying.

Love you guys.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

7 Oct., 2008 -- Serenade

I heard the most beautiful song this afternoon, snuck up and shot through the plastic window in the screen door (hence the slightly blurred images). This little wren sat on the railing, then disappeared under the deck, re-emerged to sing some more. But no partner showed up, and that was it. Sure was a pretty serenade.

Monday, October 6, 2008

6 Oct., 2008 -- Rock picking

Excavation crew is about finished, Holy Cow, they're doing manual labor!
Scraping up rocks, smoothing it out, getting ready to seed it with grass.
Rained today, well, sprinkled. It hasn't rained since they began, and boy, the dust has been flying.

5 Oct., 2008 - Games are fun, remember?

Hassled all day with the Flight Simulator computer, again. Tried to install the new software, had to install Service Pack 2 first. That glitched, and it went downhill from there. So, I think we'll settle for the 2004 Century of Flight edition. Then I discovered that the throttle on the yoke isn't getting full travel in the software, so the airplanes are chugging along without full power. F4 on the keyboard solves that, so I guess XP doesn't like the old hardware. Anyway, solve one problem, another arises. Ach.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

4 Oct., 2008 -- Saturday, Fly fly fly fly!






HAD to fly to the bootheel today, almost in Arkansas, shot three fields for MU, (thanks, Peter). These aren't the target fields, but AD-OS stepped in and these harvest patterns caught my eye on the way home. I enhanced the contrast to bring out the design.



Some fields are parallel and neat, some are haphazard patterns like these. I can understand following the curves in a hilly field, but in a flat field with no variation in terrain??? Might have been a corn maze. On the other hand, that's a mighty big field for a corn maze. I wonder if they had porta-potties and snack food dispensers... and "welcome to maizeland information rest stops"? In reality, an ever-enlarging rectangular harvest pattern would lead to the diamond shaped design, enhanced by the angle of the early morning sunlight. The refreshment crew with watermelon might account for the random curving tracks disrupting the elegant neatness of the whole thing. On the other hand (how many hands do you have?) the farmer might have had a hangover.



The ponds; I don't know whether they are rice fields (too late in the season for that), or maybe catfish rearing ponds. Each one is slightly different in color, due to algae, or test chemicals, or stirred up where there's green water/brown water? Anybody got a guess? Colors are pretty, AD-OS. This is near Paragould, Arkansas, I didn't have the camera hooked to the gps for a precise location, but according to the time, and the homeward track, and the symbols on the sectional chart, that's my "expert" opinion.



Then homeward and ...


Willow Springs, our EAA hangar is the white roof lower left corner. That looks like Hokie and Ray in the parking lot. 1H5 is almost-smack-dab on my return path, how convenient.



AH HA!

TARGET! There's Jerry on the runway. I didn't know it was him or I'd have chased him farther for some closer-up-air-to-air-close-ups.

YeeeHaaaww, Jester's ..... It isn't often that I get an advantage over him. Or HA! a stealth attack!






Mtn. Grove, and the (mostly) completed excavation work. Now for some GRASS. Oh, won't that make for some major mowing.



My, oh, my... a four hour flight can create so much entertainment. For web-log newbies, "AD-OS" means "attention deficit - Ooooh Shiny". Most of this family and its friends are afflicted. It's not an affliction, really, but a good excuse for, procrastination, practiced to perfection.