Author: Steve Hardin

Internet vs4.0. The only option

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I had visions of high speed internet. Those visions are crushed. 
I was unsure why our internet had quit working in the night. I was waiting until 1100 when the dish guys were coming to go outside. The rental company had called and said they would be out this afternoon to pick up the boom.  They showed up early.  My mother-in-law called to tell me it looked like the semi might get stuck. By the time I got outside the semi was stuck in six inches of mud.  I brought over some gravel with the tractor and a shovel in the hopes we could gravel a path back to the road. While we were doing that the satellite guys show up and barely got around the truck. They then proceeded to get stuck by machine shop and powered their way over to the road. The semi is going no where so the driver decides to move the boom around the machine shop. But it is only 2 wheel drive, advertised as 4 wheel drive and it cannot hardly move. The operator is making the problem worse by trying to power through the mud. He cannot around the machine shop as the road is slightly elevated so he had to come back. Unfortunately, he cannot get around the semi truck either. I think he wanted to use the weight of the boom to help him gain some traction in the the semi truck.  This was a large “negatory ghost rider” moment.
Once he got out of the way with the boom the satellite guys got their truck in place and tried to aim the dish.  One of them came over to me and said the pole was loose.  I went over and crawled up the tall ladder on the end of the machine shop.  The collar that was 2/3 of the way up the mast had spread and slipped down in the wind some time in the night.  Wtechlink high speed internet is just not going to happen!  They took the dish down and we laid the mast down on the peak of the roof.  I will take it all down in the summer.  Annmarie called the phone company and asked them to restart our old service.
The flat bed driver finally managed to get chained up and backed onto the road. The entire area looks like a mud derby was held in the vicinity.  Our poor road has huge tracks in it and is mostly mud.  I ordered 30 cubic yards of 1.5 inch gravel in an attempt to actually get the road back in shape.  
 
 
The next day I spread out 20 cubic yards of 1.5 inch gravel on the road by our house and on the dirt road I made this summer.  The dirt road looked pretty good.  Our road turned out to be incredibly bumpy.  Gravel this size is really not just 1.5 x 1.5 inches in size.  it only has to be 1.5 inches narrow on one side to go through the screen.  It is a lot bigger than that.  The nice thing is it is staying on top of the road.  The bad thing is it is staying on top of the road and the cars don’t like it.  It got dark so I could not keep driving on it with the tractor.  The next day it froze and it has stayed frozen since then.  Annmarie is not too happy with the rough road.  As soon as it thaws out I will take a load of gravel in the tractor and drive up and down the driveway to push the gravel down into the road bed.   
 
We are now back to telephone internet at 1.5 MBS max speed.  On a plus note, our phone/internet bill went from $110/month to $60/month after we cancelled for one month for the exact same services.  I truly don’t understand why businesses do that.  We do now have power at the machine shop and we have a light in the hay room.  Both very good things.  
 
 
 
 
 

Internet vs3.0

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I had a plan, it just needed some freezing weather to come to fruition. What I did not anticipate was the plague. I started feeling very ill on Christmas Eve and it just went downhill from there. I missed Christmas dinner and spent over 36 hours in bed straight. By Monday morning I could move but AnnMarie had the plague and was miserable. It was my last day with the boom and I had promised AnnMarie internet or we would go back to the phone company for our super slow but reliable internet.

 
  I put on my new coat and headed out into the cold. The boom started no trouble and I was able to maneuver it into place. I had to keep moving the boom around with the wheels. It goes up well but will only reach sideways so far. I did a bunch of manipulating and had to go everything three times as I was still fighting the funk and my brain was not at its usual 75%.  
 
 The longer I worked the softer the soil got and the wind started blowing. When you are 40 feet in the air and try to move the boom one foot to the left it jerks around a lot!  I almost hurled a few times. I was really glad for the safety harness. I finally managed to get it up. Locktite on the tighteners and everything in place. I moved the vent dish around and hoped we had internet. My cell phone had died halfway into this three hour ordeal so I could not call anyone. Good thing I didn’t fall out of the bucket. 

When I went inside we had internet!!!  We watched tv that was not from an antenna. Life is good. I called the internet people and set up an appointment for them to come aim the dish and replace the bent reflector. They are coming at 1100 tomorrow, Mission accomplished. 
 
It’s tomorrow and our internet went out in the middle of the night. The dish is still up and on the pole so I don’t know what is wrong. AnnMarie tells me that Skype or any live web stream has not worked since we switched to antenna. I will have to pass that along today. 

Cows are not coming home.

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Just before Christmas AnnMarie called me at work to tell me the cows were out again. After the last time, she told me I would have to come home and do it as the cause is usually my lack of fencing skills. This time I am happy to say had nothing to do with my actual fencing skills. I forgot to shut the gate after the last time the cows got out. This had not been noticeable because once the snow hits the cows quit wandering. We just had a chinook wind clear off all the snow on the hillside and the grass is green so the cows are wandering.  By the time I got the dressed for the biting wind, got both dogs and got the tractor through three gates the cows had already put them selves back on the correct side of the fence.  
I just had to wire the gate shut. This was the third fence I put up on the place and my rock cribs are falling over. They were too small, too tall and not enough rocks. They are starting to lean precipitously downhill. It’s just a matter of time before the gate one collapses. 
So the dogs and I ran down to the other end of the fence by the schoolhouse. There is another loose spot in the fence bordering the CRP. This section has never been touched by me. I have been slowly fixing sections but this far section has had nothing done for 10 years. Looking at it I would say it’s more like 30 years. I need to add some more metal T-posts and a bunch of wooden stays. I am short on stays so I will need to get another 500 in 2017. 
Plus, I need a couple more railroad ties or a heavy duty rock crib to pull the fence to so I can get it tight. 
AnnMarie wants me to make an enclosure for the bull. I want to use the barn lot but it means I will need about 25 railroad ties and I am going to have to string a hot wire on the fence. There is no other way I am going to be able to keep him in. Even after reinforcing the fence short of a huge wooden corral and that is cost prohibitive. 
 

 

Internet vs2.0

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We have been without the internet for over three weeks. The weather would not allow me to crawl up onto the machine shop roof. I finally realized that was not going to happen this winter. Annmarie stated that we were not going to wait until summer before getting the internet back. So I tried to rent a very tall boom. They would love to rent me said boom just that it has to be delivered on a semi truck. I was going to have it delivered on Monday of last week but upon weakening I could hear the wind howling. I called the rental company and asked what the wind recommendations were he said 20 mph. I said don’t bother delivering it. 

On Thursday I called and set up delivery for Friday at 0900. We had two days of beautiful warm weather. It was a little muddy but the rental guy had assured me the boom was four wheel drive and would have no trouble. 
I called Friday morning to say the wind was howling again. There was no wind at the rental place. He then tells me that due to the holiday if I take delivery today then pickup will not be until Tuesday morning. I’m thinking that is a heck of a window so bring it on out. The delivery guy drops it off and gives me the five minute instruction. He shows me the foot pedal I have to push to make anything work while in the basket. Its a safety feature. I go back inside and at noon come out to fix the antenna. I have all my tools in a bucket. My safety harness on, AnnMarie made me wear it and I try to start the lift. Damn thing will not start. I get out and can start it from the motor side but from the boom I cannot. I am pushing the foot pedal. So I call the rental place, luckily they did not close early on Friday and get some walk through. I am doing everything correct. Then I got out on speakerphone and find out that the only time you do not push the foot pedal is when you are starting the machine.  Does that make any sense?  So I am off and running.
 
 I go to maneuver the boom into place and it starts sliding all over in the five inches of mud. It is not four wheel drive!!  Only two wheel drive with positrac on that differential. I gave up trying to get any work done and concentrated on trying to get the boom out of the mud onto the road. The boom was heavier than it looked but being able to move 500 pounds on a 45 foot boom would mean the base needs to be heavy. I managed to finally slip and slide my way into the road and parked it. I would need to wait until we get some solid freezing temperatures. I did look at the forecast and cold weather with more snow was coming. 
 

The wind blows.

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I had to cancel the boom lift on Monday. I called first thing in the morning to ask what the wind rating was on the boom when it was 43 feet in the air. The guy says 20 mph. I replied that we were already past that.  So I am now trying to find a time when the wind will not blow. 


This morning I woke up at 0430 to get ready for a meeting. First thing I did was look out the window and notice there was no snow on the hillside. Second thing I did was utter a swear word. There are five fence crossings with panels hanging into the spring creek runoff path. The trick is if I lift the panels before the water is running the animals just cross under the fence. But if I wait too long then I am wading into the runoff trying to lift the panels in the water. That is incredibly unsafe and not fun. We had a chinook wind all night and I was afraid the runoff would start any moment. 
I got dressed quickly and headed outside to lift the panels. The wind was howling and at the second crossing I had to go back to the house for tools. I needed a crescent wrench, large bolt cutters and a standard screw driver. The bolt cutters make short work of those locking clips with the built in locking nut. I have decided I need to buy 50 of the snap clips so I can actually get the panels moved easily. It took me over 1.5 hrs to get the crossings lifted. The only witness to my battle with the panels was an owl I spotted in a tree. The wind seemed to pick up speed the longer I stayed outside. 
When I came back to the house I learned that I had made a sacrifice to the wind gods, I had lost my screwdriver. 
I was still able to make it to work on time!!