Fall Colors
Fall Colors
I hit the road on Friday night around 6:30p and return home Saturday night around 9:30p. I figure that I put about 700 miles on the truck. I managed to shoot a small selection of decent color images and then switched to shooting some digital infrared. (I will post some of infrared images in the coming days.)
The fall colors were very good a few miles in-land from Lake Superior. The wind and rain had not knocked down too much of the color as of 9/25. I would say that the color was very near peak which was a pleasant surprise.
It was fun to hit the road with the truck, camera, radio, and sleeping bag for a quick phototrip.
Summer is over!
The first school bus trip of the fall season arrived at 7:07AM.
If your a kid, that is a sign that summer is over!
If your a kid, that is a sign that summer is over!
Guitar Tune Up
Ben is going to start guitar lessons tomorrow
He is planning on taking my Kramer 300ST for the lessons. So on Friday we went and bought a new hard case for the guitar. Today we spent about 90 minutes removing the strings, cleaning the guitar, restringing it, and then a good tune-up.
I think that we have it setup adequately for the lessons. At some point I should take it into someplace like Guitar Center for a tune-up with a real guitar tech. The Kramer is probably 23 years old and due for a real tune-up.
He is planning on taking my Kramer 300ST for the lessons. So on Friday we went and bought a new hard case for the guitar. Today we spent about 90 minutes removing the strings, cleaning the guitar, restringing it, and then a good tune-up.
I think that we have it setup adequately for the lessons. At some point I should take it into someplace like Guitar Center for a tune-up with a real guitar tech. The Kramer is probably 23 years old and due for a real tune-up.
Red Rooster Days in Dassel, MN
It is the big weekend in Dassel, MN
People line up several hundred deep (and out of the picture) to wait for the BBQ chicken dinner.
They cook thousands of chicken halves. They start prepping around 6am and then they are ready to serve meals starting at 10:30am.
It is a pretty nice meal consisting of a half chicken, coleslaw, potato salad, white/wheat bread, milk/water/coffee for $8. The meal is big enough that it will feed two people per plate which is what we do with our kids.
After the meal there is plenty activities for folks to do. Here Jacob and Ben and jousting over in the kids area.
They also have a nice classic car and street rod display at the baseball field.
It was a nice way to spend part of the day with the local community in our area.
People line up several hundred deep (and out of the picture) to wait for the BBQ chicken dinner.
They cook thousands of chicken halves. They start prepping around 6am and then they are ready to serve meals starting at 10:30am.
It is a pretty nice meal consisting of a half chicken, coleslaw, potato salad, white/wheat bread, milk/water/coffee for $8. The meal is big enough that it will feed two people per plate which is what we do with our kids.
After the meal there is plenty activities for folks to do. Here Jacob and Ben and jousting over in the kids area.
They also have a nice classic car and street rod display at the baseball field.
It was a nice way to spend part of the day with the local community in our area.
Saturdays are for tower work
On Saturday I drove over to Green Isle, MN to help work on a tower project.
Here is the 55 foot lift that we used for the project.
Here is a picture of Don, KC0QNA about about 48 feet in the air. This is Don's tower at Don's QTH so it is only fitting that he should be the guy climbing the tower.
Here is the picture of the 56 foot tall tower from the ground.
I was the guy riding up and down most of the day in the bucket of the lift. I have some experience doing tower work using a cherry picker like this so I was happy to help out.
The project went pretty well, the weather was nice, and the company was pleasant. It nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon in late summer.
73 de NG0R
Here is the 55 foot lift that we used for the project.
Here is a picture of Don, KC0QNA about about 48 feet in the air. This is Don's tower at Don's QTH so it is only fitting that he should be the guy climbing the tower.
Here is the picture of the 56 foot tall tower from the ground.
I was the guy riding up and down most of the day in the bucket of the lift. I have some experience doing tower work using a cherry picker like this so I was happy to help out.
The project went pretty well, the weather was nice, and the company was pleasant. It nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon in late summer.
73 de NG0R
Camping at Leech Lake
We spent 4 days camping up at a Army Corp of Eng campground at Leech Lake. It is the first time that we have tried one of the federal campsites as we normally use the Minnesota State Park system. We pleasantly surprised at how nice this facility is. For having so many electric sites (and some with water + sewer) the sites were fairly large.
Some dogs & brats were cooked along with several games of chess at the picnic table.
We went for a 19 miles bike trip. Wild man Joe (7) rode the whole thing like a trooper.
Jacob (11) made the whole loop as well.
Ben (9) rode about 5 miles but had to turn back a bit early. He was sick all weekend and the ride was more than he could handle.
The ride was all asphalt through the woods around Pike bay near Cass Lake.
I did manage to find a little time to fire up the radios as well. I primarily operated PSK31 on 20m and 40m. I had a 40m wire dipole up in the trees. (Ubuntu 10.4 + FLDigi)
Overall I did not spend a lot of time on the radio so there were not that many QSOs in the log... but several of them were longer and more than just running the macros in PSK. I was fun to have some actual QSOs.
Overall it was a nice trip. I would suspect that we will visit this campground again at some point.
73 de NG0R
Some dogs & brats were cooked along with several games of chess at the picnic table.
We went for a 19 miles bike trip. Wild man Joe (7) rode the whole thing like a trooper.
Jacob (11) made the whole loop as well.
Ben (9) rode about 5 miles but had to turn back a bit early. He was sick all weekend and the ride was more than he could handle.
The ride was all asphalt through the woods around Pike bay near Cass Lake.
I did manage to find a little time to fire up the radios as well. I primarily operated PSK31 on 20m and 40m. I had a 40m wire dipole up in the trees. (Ubuntu 10.4 + FLDigi)
Overall I did not spend a lot of time on the radio so there were not that many QSOs in the log... but several of them were longer and more than just running the macros in PSK. I was fun to have some actual QSOs.
Overall it was a nice trip. I would suspect that we will visit this campground again at some point.
73 de NG0R