The Massachusetts FFA Crowd Visit Again 2006

The Massachusetts FFA Crowd Visit Again 2006

Here it is, October 24th, the day after nephew Jim’s FFA students visited us on their way to the convention in Indianapolis. Here is the story, as I can remember and piece it together.

This is the 3rd year that Smith Vocational HS Instructor, nephew Jim has stopped by with his associate teachers and their FFA students. They work all summer to scrape up the cash for the Planes, Trains and Automobiles (or buses/vans as the case may be) trip to the FFA convention. The Train from MA to Chicago, the highway from Chicago to the convention and the Plane home. The convention the past 2 years has been in Louisville. This year it is in Indianapolis. They did not have as far to go after leaving here.

Listening to the Train experiences, although apparently interesting, it was pretty bad. Not much sleep. Cars that were either boiling hot or freezing cold. The Chicago arrival was only about an hour or so late (The Amtrak system in the US is bad when ‘only an hour or so’ is used to describe the arrival time, really not right). Then a time consuming period picking up the 2 reserved rental vans. After a brief stop at Navy Pier in Chicago for some sightseeing, they headed south. One van missed an I94 Interstate interchange turn off and fell about a half hour or so behind the lead van. From Jim’s discussion of the itinerary on the phone, I surmised that they would be here around 4pm or so. And they would need to leave by about 6:30PM or so. I should know better by now, that surmising Jim’s schedule is risky.

I had previously decided to move the hot dog roast out to "The Hog Lounge" (appropriately named by nephew Alan and I several years ago) in the pig shed as the weather predictions had been ‘cold, high NW winds, possible rain/snow’. Actually the weather was not too bad. The cool winds were from the NW and brisk , but the snow/rain never showed. The pig shed, in the woods, gave us quite a bit of protection, while still remaining outside by the fires. The ‘pig shed’ was used 40 years ago or so by my Dad raising pigs. Now mostly used for storage etc. As should have been expected, the entourage was running late. At least we thought it was late, although it may not have not been late for them. As a result of cell phone contact, as the they neared, and clearly hungry, my brother Carl and I put on the hog dogs.

A big reason they like to stop here, besides the hot dogs and environment, is that the BIG agriculture fields and BIG harvesting equipment is much different then they are used to seeing in Massachusetts. In the past years they have had time to stop at the local John Deere dealer where Jim’s cousin Alan works. There they were able to see and drive one of the BIG tractors. This year they did not have the time for this visit. However the neighbors to the west and to the south of us were both picking corn. This is something that the FFA group had wanted to see for the last 3 years but it did not work out. This time they were in luck. As they neared our location they spotted the neighbor to the west of us. Ken G had just finished and was getting ready to drop the head on his BIG Case model 2388 cornpicking machine. So they stopped. And of course they were enthralled. And Ken G was enthusiastically explaining the workings of his big Case. Meanwhile the hot-dogs were done and cooling rapidly up at The Hog Lounge. But the cornpicker had priority. Hunger was forgotten.

They were just about ready to break free and continue on when the delayed, missed exit, van showed up. This caused a little more delay. Finally they all arrived at ‘The Hog Lounge’. It was nearing 5:30 PM.

Jim’s cousins Alan and his son Cody with his girl friend, and Jerry and his son Jeff showed up. After an initial surge of eating it looked like I had misjudged the amount of hot dogs needed, so I made a quick run to town for more. Meanwhile they had spotted Carl S picking corn in the field to the south of us. Wow, a BIG John Deer model 9610 corn picker in operation. I had previously warned Carl S that they might want to watch him at work. So down the hill they went. And Carl S was gracious in explaining and showing them the real live, big cornpicker in operation. Including taking the students for rides while picking. Again hunger was temporarily forgotten.

Back at the fire at The Hog Lounge, things started to slow down a bit so I got out the ‘steer horn’ horn and the ‘conch shell’ horn. That got everyone stirred up trying, with many successes to come up with a nice loud long blast. Several of the students scared up some deer in the neighboring woods and evidently chased them through the woods. Fortunately they did catch them or we would have been cooking deer meat on the fire in place of hot dogs. Because of the brisk weather, I had made a nice hot pot of Wassail (no alcohol) to help kill the chill. It was surprising to me that no one was familiar with Wassail (*see below). Everyone liked it though. It was nearly gone by dark.

By now it was well after 6:30PM. It was getting dark rapidly. There is no electric power at The Hog Lounge. There are usually no lights. Based on my surmised ‘Jim’ schedule I did not even bring a flashlight, let alone, our MG set and some electric lights. Finally my brother had to drive his pickup in with the headlights on so we could see to pack up all the left overs and ‘jam’ them into the vans with all the rest of their stuff. I did manage to keep out enough for a small lunch on Tuesday. Carl passed out the ‘travel’ goody bags made by Cousin Jerry’s wife Becky for their trip on south. After teacher Jim made sure they had all written in the Outhouse Diary, we all said our good bye’s and thankyou’s and come again’s they left.

It is always neat having them come to our little place in North Central Indiana They enjoy coming and we enjoy it too.

*Wassail From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wassail is a hot, spiced punch often associated with winter celebrations of northern Europe, usually those connected with the Christmas holiday such as Christmas, New Year's and Twelfth Night. Particularly popular in Germanic countries, the term itself is a contraction of the Old English toast wæs þu hæl, or "be thou hale!" (i.e., "be in good health"). Alternate expressions predating the term, with approximately the same meaning, include both the Old Norse ves heill and Old English wes hál.

Recipes vary, but usually call for a base of either wine or fruit juices (apple being popular) simmered with mulling spices, possibly fortified with spirits such as brandy. Orange slices might be added to the mixture. (In northern Europe, oranges once enjoyed the status of a novelty Christmas fruit. As oranges come into season in the winter, in pre-refrigeration days that might be the only time of year that they were available to cold climates -- provided they survived shipment from the warmer countries in which they were grown.)

A Nice Autumn Motorcycle, Camping, Saturday Outing

With an invitation in hand (or at least in mind), via the Michiana BMW Club (MOL South Bend area), to the 4th annual Summit City BMW club (Ft Wayne area) Fall Outing. A little bit, SE of Silver Lake, IN early on Saturday afternoon (October 7th). It was a beautiful autumn day for the 42 mile ride over to the gathering site.

The site is at one of the SC members small family farm. And it is pretty neat. A nice, grassy area surrounding, a little pond with trees for camping. An operating windmill. A pavilion with fire place. And an outhouse.

A good chili and ham and beans lunch with deserts and some appropriate liquid refreshment was ready upon arrival. Followed by the usual tent space location and construction activities.

As evening neared a delicious Chili and Ham & Beans dinner with desert and appropriate liquid refreshment was ready (did it remind of us lunch?). As the beautiful fall harvest moon rose in a clear sky, the campfires came alive. And of course there was much stimulating discussion `kicking lies and telling tires' of motorcycle journey's and stories as well as solving world and national political, immigration, and religious issues. Followed by crawling into our tents as temperatures dropped into the 40's.

Along with the normal night sounds and a bunch of coyotes barking and howling and a distance train was the sound effects of the digesting ham & beans and chili. Unfortunately I had to get up before dawn to empty some of them in the outhouse. Very unusual for me. However with the bright light from the moon it worked out OK.

Later the sun started coming up on a crisp Sunday morning. The activities of breaking down, packing, good-bye's, see you around, thankyou's and heading out was under way.

I was planning on stopping for Biscuits and Gravy somewhere on the way home. I had vaguely recalled that their might be a place at the junction of IN114 and IN15. Since I came in via IN14 and IN15 I decided to head south and pick up IN114. It turned out that Ruth Ann's was there, at IN114 and IN15 and open and serving delicious B&G and coffee. Well fortified, I headed west toward Winamac, planning on riding straight home.

But then, it was such a nice road and nice morning and the coffee and B&G had me feeling good I decided to ride the rolling hills and take the "Rochester South By-pass" - IN19, IN16, IN17. A familiar route taken many times. Had I thought about it earlier I probably would have headed on south, from Ruth Ann's on IN15 and gone through the covered bridge in Roann on IN16.

It was about as perfect as you can get. Not much traffic, nice roads, sunny sky's, crisp temps but not cold. This route goes through the small towns of Akron, Gilead, turning west on IN16 before getting to Chili, Denver, Twelve Mile, Lucerne, and Royal Center.. Just west of Denver there are some 15 MPH and 25 MPH caution curves (watch for loose gravel). For a minute or so you think you might be in North Carolina. Since gas stations are sort of limited along this route I decided to head to US35 at Royal Center. This took me into Winamac from the South, a stop for gas, onto IN14 and east, a couple miles, to home. A nice 66 mile ride home. Temperature increasing about 15 degrees to about 70 by the time I got home at 11:30AM.

A nice Autumn MC ride, MC rider socializing and camping trip.

Antenna or Satellite Cable TV, which way to go?

Antenna or Satellite Cable TV, which way to go?
Friday October 6, 2006 Tom Anspach

Our TV antenna electronics were zapped by lightning. The quandary- to replace the electronics on the TV antenna tower or belly up and subscribe to satellite TV. Here is the story.


Last Monday night a nice, typical, lightning, thunder storm (with rain) came through our rural area of North Central Indiana. Lightning was crashing all around. Not unusually spectacular, but loud, and close enough to keep a person awake. Along with one medium sized crash I heard a ‘sort of a snap’, although I thought ‘uh oh’, I did not get up to check anything out.


The next morning the phones were DEAD and the TV was very snowy. ‘Uh oh’, again, that ‘sort of a snap’ may have been ominous.


After checking the phones out, it was traced to the 2 phone line sections of the surge protectors on our 2 computers. Removing the surge protectors from the phone line fixed the phone line. The 110V portion of the surge protectors were OK (they will be good for Christmas lights). The electronic phones, the fax machine, and the computer modems were all OK. The connector portion of one of the phone line splitters I had on the line was charred black. The computers were powered off during the storm. After going to the local computer store and spending 40 bucks for 2 new surge protectors the phone line and computers were, again, protected.


Now the TV. First a little background. We are located about 80 line of sight miles from Chicago, and Indianapolis. About 40 line of sight miles from South Bend and Lafayette. We decided many years ago to stay on antenna TV rather than cable for as long as possible. We have a guyed tower about 30 feet high and we live on a hill about 20 feet high. I constructed the tower, 3+ years ago, so that I can lower and raise it myself to replace stuff at the top. With our medium gain antennas (UHF and VHF) we get good signals from South Bend and Lafayette and so-so from Chicago and Indianapolis some times. There is a preamp located at the top next to the antennas a distribution amp in the basement to drive all of our TV’s and a couple FM receivers. The antennas are on a bearing mounted rotor.


Now lets see what the problem is. After some unplugging and plugging of coaxial cables and amplifier power it was apparent that the tower preamp was capoot and probably the distribution amplifier. This meant lowering the tower and buying about $150 worth of electronics. So now the dilemma. Should we stay with antenna or go with satellite? Hard cable is not available out here. A trivial dilemma in the journey of life, but a dilemma none the less.


There were several considerations. There are several channels on basic satellite cable that we would like. Local channels are available. Both Dish and Direct TV have free installation, equipment, etc., offers to sign up new customers. They both seem to have very good customer reviews. Direct is a little more expensive ($5 or so a month) than Dish. Dish has a neat $10 per month discount for 10 months. Both require a contract. My wife likes to watch TV more than me, but I also like to watch at times. We could get about 6 months of cable for what we would have to pay for repairs. The consideration to switch to satellite cable was very strong.


There were several items bothering me about signing up for satellite cable. We had cable (hard wired cable) for several years when we lived in Florida. I recall how I hated to pay that bill, that kept increasing, each month. Even though I don’t watch TV much, I still think I watch it too much. So lots of available channels to watch was not very impressive to me. I recalled that, one of the happiest days of my life was, when we lived in Florida, I took the cable box into the cable store and said ‘I am canceling our cable’. I constructed our tower 3+ years ago just so I could replace stuff, up on top, myself if something broke. Now something is broke, and it needed replacing. My wife told me the decision was entirely in my hands. She would be OK no matter which way we went.


I slept on it a couple nights. Did a bunch of searching and talking about satellite cable. Wednesday night I decided: I did not want to be under the cable bill again. It was time to make use of the capability I had constructed in the tower. It was a good time for a nice autumn 120 mile round trip ride to Lafayette to the only electronics store that I know of this close that handles long distance antenna TV stuff. And I did not want to wait for Internet shipping, I wanted to ‘get’r done’. Thursday morning I dropped the tower. I pulled the preamp. It had a black powder on the pc board. It was probably toast. I motorcycled to the parts store and bought $170 worth of stuff. As usual my initial estimate was a little low ($150). This antenna preamp and distribution amplifier (Winegard) has a little higher (15% or so) gain than the old amps (Channel Master). It was a beautiful day for a MC ride, so the time and gas to pick the stuff up doesn’t count.


I, immediately, installed the preamp and turned the power on. The TV picture improved immensely with the tower still down. This morning (Friday) I pulled the tower back up, installed the stuff in the house, reconnected all the TV’s and FM receivers. And we are back in business with TV. Now if the lightning will stay away for another 3 years. . . . I’ll be happy.


Still remaining is the why, and how. Why and how did a surge of lightning damage the TV antenna amplifiers, blow out the telephone surge protector fuses but still not damage any of the other electronics in the house? All I can say is ‘lightning does weird things’ Once in Florida, actually this is a long story shortened to 1 sentence, lightning came in through a copper clad steel telephone line, spalling all the way, went down the water pipe, to which it was grounded, and burnt out the deep well submersible pump, leaving the electronic phones and fax machine intact! The copper clad steel cable, which is normally as stiff as uncooked spaghetti, was as pliable as cooked spaghetti. (OK it was 2 sentences.)


So that is my story for today.

Another little sidelight. I had wondered for the past 3 years why FM reception did not change no matter which direction the VHF antenna was rotated. It was very difficult to pick up any classical music stations. I know when I put the VHF antenna up I removed the FM trap shunts and I thought I had set the preamp FM trap to ‘Out’. When I pulled the preamp the FM Trap was set to ‘IN’. . . bummer! So I made sure this FM trap was set to ‘Out’. Now, I quickly found an FM station broadcasting Classical Music !!!!!!. Life is good.