News

Here is the new 2009 Calendar from the company I am part of: Cobham Defense Electronics, M/A-Com Signal Intelligence Products. Our customers are a scary bunch but they are on our side and their checks are big and don't bounce. The plane in the photo is a stealth bomber - we don't make them but we do make several electronic devices inside of them. We don't live in a perfect country - but God has always blessed it and but somebody's gotta keep it safe...it is an honor to help to do that.

Here are the new pulleys and spreader for the Amish clothesline I will be constructing. It will be a 63 foot run from the back door to the smoke house. We see these wonderful clotheslines everywhere on the Amish homesteads in Lancaster County PA on our bi-weekly trips for fresh milk and eggs. We are going there this morning again.

This is the sign at the entrance to Wentworth's dairy farm where we buy our milk, eggs, and grass-fed beef. We bought a 110lb. hind-quarter from Rob Wentworth last fall and it is very good beef. Their website is http://www.wentworthdairy.com/about/about.htm They are not Amish and he keeps his cows and free-roaming chickens (careful not to run over them when going there!) the way we would. His son Nathan attended a college course in Wisconsin last fall to learn more about grass-fed beef "best practices". These are good people - wish they were my neighbors!

Here is the Wentworth Dairy Farm.

This is the Lehman's Non-Electric catalog I ordered the clothesline hardware from. Lehman's has supplied us with goods since 1997.

I still have their 1997 catalog and it has just about the same items as thier newest catalog.

This is what is left of the Avacado cheesecake that Barb made this week. It was good. She brought it to the ladies' Thursday Crochet meeting and it was consumed heartily.

Barb crocheting. She does this a lot and she is having fun and being creative and productive even when resting. I think this is a blanket for somebody's baby. She has made many blankets for many babies among friends and family.

Barb is also making a quilt. I got her a new sewing machine for Christmas in 2007. It has many capabilities but Barb likes it because it threads the bobbins so nicely.

I had to do the monthly maintenance on the Berkey Light water filter rig this week. I take it apart and wash it thoughly with hot soapy water so as to prevent biological build up of germs.

I am going to back-flush the ceramic filters this afternoon. I will use a garden hose adapter to force pressurized water through the filters backwards, so as to clear them of any accumulating contaminants. I noticed the water in the top chamber gets a little cloudy before it is filtered so this should cure that. I'm hoping to prolong the life of the filters from 2 to maybe 3 years.

The filters are rather costly but worth it.

We bought the Berkey Light from Lehman's and theoretically it will filter polluted swamp water be safe and potable. It removes metal, biological, chemical, and other contaminants. I understand these rigs are popular among disaster and humanitarian relief groups who camp out in remote areas of the world. Thanks Steph for suggesting we get one of these!

Barb made coconut-chocolate chip cookies yesterday. I let myself eat 2 and they are soo good. The trick is to freeze a coconut for and hour before you drain the juice out of it and smash it with a hammer. The meat separates from the hairy shell very easily if it's frozen. Barb shredded the coconut meat in her food processor.

As part of healthy living as God expects, I decided to minimize procrastination so I tackled a plumbing problem this week. The faucet in the bathtub had been leaking for several months, adding like 10% to our water bill from Harford County.

So I disassembled the valve assembly and cleaned/lubricated it with silicone grease and reassembled it but it still leaked.

I turned off the upstairs hot and cold water until I could buy a new valve at Lowes on Friday. Well, Sherry needed to take a shower before I could finish fixing it so Barb turned on the valves for that but she turned the 2 cold valves and not the hot water valve (the upper left one). Sherry was in a hurry and decided to endure a cold shower and was really annoyed at that. I don't know why she did not call me for instructions. After Sherry was done and gone, Joe took his time and found the hot water valve and turned it on for his shower - but nobody's telling Sherry...Ha Ha!

I got the new valve assembly in last night and it works great now.

I have been putting up more shelving units in my workshop. I bought these from the company at auction. They are heavy duty. A place for everything...

These frames are ready for the shelves...

This frame will likely go in the basement.

This is a Saturn Relay we bought at Christmastime. It has side-impact airbags, traction-control, anti-lock brakes, and OnStar. It also has a DVD player so we can watch classic movies when we go camping. It is 3 years old and had 38000 miles on it. Several events led us to finding this vehicle - we know it is the one God set aside for us.

I will be cutting down this tree soon. It's weakening and might fall across the driveway. In the meantime I put a cable and turnbuckle around the trunks to stabilize it.

I might add more to this post later today...