Progressive pummeling...

Progressive pummeling...  This pummeling is delivered by John Hinderaker.  The subject is gun control.  Hinderaker takes passage after passage from a piece in the New Yorker by Adam Gopnik, and eviscerates each passage.  His crushing of the under-informed and logic-challenged Gopnik is so thorough that you can't help but feel a little sorry for the poor chump.  Go read the whole delightful thing!

Progress report...

Progress report...  Well, yesterday turned out to be the very long day of the network.  I brought up the Cisco SG300 switch quickly enough, but ran into all sorts of troubles when configuring it.  I finally figured out that it wasn't actually an IOS switch – it just looks like it's an IOS switch.  Weird!  I went to bed last night without having it working; this morning I wiped it clean and started over, and in an hour I got past the issue.  It's working now!

Today I hope to finish up the networking for the house, and maybe get started on the barn's network.  It uses identical hardware, so that should go quickly...

We're going to visit the vet again today, mainly for a checkup on Mo'i.  He's urinating far more than normal, not a good sign.  We worry.

“Home Alone” sends the wrong message...

“Home Alone” sends the wrong message...  Awesome!

Brilliant...

Brilliant...

Political correctness...

Political correctness...  Sometimes I run across an instance of progressive (it's always progressives!) political correctness that just leaves me with my mouth gaping.  Here's another one: a major publisher (Harper Collins) prints an atlas with Israel simply left out.  It shows Jordan and Syria extending all the way to the Mediterranean.

I always thought the entire idea of an atlas was to graphically depict reality.  The current reality is, undeniably, that Israel exists.  That reality really doesn't seem likely to change anytime soon.

Somewhere George Orwell is laughing...

Progress report...

Progress report...  Yesterday was “the day of the network” around here.  I'm in the process of bringing up a network that is capable of handling both clients and servers in two buildings (our home and our barn), with a decent firewall, WiFi over the better part of an acre (between the two buildings), and the ability to connect over point-to-point links to several locations where I will want remote sensors (spring, well house, greenhouse, weather station, cameras, etc., etc.).

My network design includes two routers (identical MikroTik RB2011UIAS-IN units), three WiFi access points (provided by TrendNet TEW-812DRU units), two 20 port switches (using Cisco SG300-20 units), and a cable modem for our Comcast connection (which may not be a permanent arrangement (a Arris TG862G unit).  The point-to-point links will come up later; I'm planning to implement those with various pieces of Ubiquiti kit – highly recommended by a friend who runs a wireless ISP and won't use anything else.  The only one of these I was familiar with was the Cisco switch; everything else I needed to learn.

Yesterday I brought up the MikroTik routers and the TrendNet WiFi routers.  In both cases I used nothing but the web configuration GUIs, and in both cases it was quite straightforward.  The MikroTik's capabilities are particularly impressive – at 10x the price I'd still be impressed, but for sub-$200 it borders on incredible.  I struggled for a while because I'm so used to Cisco's IOS that I couldn't believe configuration of the MikroTik could be as simple and straightforward as it was.  Cisco has built a substantial business around training and certifying IOS experts.  MikroTik seems to take another approach: let's make it so easy that even a complete idiot could do this.  I like MikroTik's approach :)

Today I'm bringing up the Cisco switches.  I'm going to configure them to have two completely separated VLANs (no routing between them on the switch) so that I can control all the routing on the MikroTik routers (where it's far easier).  Hopefully that won't prove to be too difficult.  I've already got console connectivity, which is a prerequisite that has been challenging in the past.  This time it was easy :)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  The past few years, every New Year Day I have the same thought: this new year (2015 now) sounds like something I've read in a science fiction novel.  This year I had another thought: the year I was born sounds like something I've read in a history book.

Gulp...

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  -4°F ... that's the temperature outside right now, according to my truck's thermometer.  We're getting introduced to northern Utah winter in dramatic fashion :)

I just ran down to a local store to pick up a couple of power strips.  I'm bringing up some new network gear and I ran out of outlets (despite having three power strips already!).  The store opens at 6 am, but there was only one employee there.  I found my power strips and went to check out, but couldn't find that one person.  The cash register was open, the doors were wide open ... and the one employee was in the storeroom in the back of the store.  I had to go drag him out so I could pay for my power strips :)  What a place we live in now, where the store employees are completely unconcerned about leaving the till (which contained a considerable amount of cash) open and the goods unguarded!

Of course, it was 6 am, and -4°F out.  It would have to be a really ambitious crook to go after that store right now!

Wall of field spaniels...

Wall of field spaniels...  Over the years we've collected quite a bit of art related to field spaniels.  Today we hung some of the larger paintings, prints, and drawings on our dining room wall.  Later, when we find them, we'll add some smaller pieces.  In addition to these, we also have a Mene sculpture of field spaniels chasing a goose and a large number of photos...

Just signed up...

Just signed up ... for milk delivery service.  Debbie and I both drink quite a bit of whole milk.  A local dairy (Rose Hill) has the service, and they have full butterfat, low temperature pasteurized, non-homogenized whole milk available (the closest thing to raw milk you can buy commercially).  We've been buying their milk in our local grocery store, and it's easily the best-tasting milk I've had since I moved to the western US in 1971.  They make weekly deliveries for $5 a month.

I love Utah!

Progress report...

Progress report...  Our builder (Jim J.) was here all day yesterday, and was joined for part of the day by his son Talon and wife Cathy.  He's finishing up the sheathing on the inside of the barn – in shirtsleeves, now that we have heat – and the other two are starting the cleanup.  It's a royal mess inside right now, with debris from the sheathing, plumbing, and electrical work.  They made a big dent in the remaining work on all counts.

Debbie and I somehow managed to get very little done all day long.  I frittered away a couple hours trying to get our Mac Mini server up, only to discover that the problem was the monitor.  I don't think I've ever had a flat-screen monitor go bad before!  This seems to have happened in the move, which would make this the very first casualty of the move to this point.  I ordered a replacement for a whole $110 from Amazon.  It's astonishing to me just how inexpensive certain computer components have gotten, monitors amongst them...

We had a very nice visit with Tim and Jeannie D., our neighbors to the north.  Just an hour or so of pleasant conversation and companionship, but it put smiles on our faces for the whole day.  On the way out of their house I slipped and fell right on my butt; they had some ice on their front stoop.  No harm done to me, but I rolled into their gutter downspout and squashed it nearly flat.  Dang.

Mo'i update...

Mo'i update...  One week ago, Mo'i had some minor oral surgery – an infected tooth extracted and a couple of small tumors sawed off.  Debbie and I are amazed at the difference it's made for him – it's like we have a new dog.  We thought he was descending into his final weeks and days, slowing down and losing interest in life.  Now we're thinking that those symptoms were all a result of debilitating pain from his tooth – as he recovered from the surgery, he keeps looking better and better.  For perhaps the ten thousandth time, we wish our little friends could talk to us.  We thought the swelling on his face was a tumor, and two separate vets told us the same thing.  Our new vet up here took one look at his tooth, declared it cracked and infected, and recommended its removal.  He's been suffering with that a while, and we didn't know...

Progress report...

Progress report...  We got a lot done inside the house yesterday! 

Our temporary shared office is coming together – bits and pieces of the network are running, tables are arranged, and cabling is well underway.  This arrangement is temporary for two reasons: first, my new office in the barn hasn't yet been built :), and second, the temporary shared office will become just Debbie's office, and the custom cabinetry for it hasn't yet been designed, much less built.  It will probably be several months before we get both of these things done, so this temporary setup will be around for a while...

We also hung a couple dozen pictures in our living room, kitchen, bedroom, and entrance way.  Having the art on the walls was a bit startling to me – I've been living in this house with bare painted walls now for eight months, and to see stuff on the walls really jumps out at me.  It also makes the house look much, much more like our home, as all of this art is very familiar to us (it was also hanging in our Jamul home).  I'm really glad that we took the care that we did in packing, as so far every single piece of art (including lots of fragile knickknacks) has arrived safely...

We got a bit of snow last night, adding to the bit that was already on the ground.  We've got about 2" that fell since I plowed the driveway, so as soon as it's light I'm going to go out and plow again...

Progress report...

Progress report...  We went to Lowe's yesterday morning to buy a 7/16" drill bit so I could finish installing Debbie's closet door.  $276 later, we staggered home with a truck full of all sorts of things we needed.  Probably the most important of these things was a snow shovel, which I employed when we got home to clear out out front entrance way.

I did, finally, finish installing that closet door.  Debbie now has an absolutely absurd amount of closet space.  Of course, it's not actually enough space, despite being large enough to have its own zip code :)

Then it was on to the next big indoors project: setting up our temporary office.  I assembled a little equipment “bread rak” that fits on top of a table, and now I'm in the middle of getting the networking gear all working.  Hopefully I'll have it going today...

Snow in Paradise...

Snow in Paradise...  The storm on Christmas day left us with 6 to 8 inches of snow, with a layer of ice underlying it because of the initially warmer temperatures.  The first consequence of this was that I needed to plow our driveway – all 18,000 square feet of it!  I purchased a nice snowplow for my little Kubota, and this was the first time I really needed it.  The snowplow has a hydraulic “flipper” to change it's angle, and it's mounted to the loader (in front), so it's really easy to use.  The tractor's four-wheel drive makes it behave solidly even on the ice.  I've never used a snowplow like this before, so I had some learning to do.  One thing I learned: the curves and variable width of our driveway don't make plowing it easy :)  About a week ago I installed snow stakes along the sides of my driveway, knowing that the snow was coming.  It's a darned good thing I did, because without them I wouldn't know where the edge of the driveway was!

The dogs had a ball in the snow, except that toward evening when it was a bit warmer, they started to have trouble with ice accumulating between their toes.  I actually had to carry poor Mo'i in from one walk, as the ice was making it painful for him to walk.  I've ordered a set of dog boots for him, as this will be a recurring need.

We made a drive into town this morning, and the roads were quite slippery.  However, people were driving slowly, and appropriately so.  They've obviously seen this action before :)  Later I drove to the post office to pick up our mail (we don't have rural delivery here).  The post office is on a side street up a gentle hill, and it's street was very slick.  I watched a car turn about 45° as it came down toward me.  The driver was totally calm and unflapped; she just turned into the skid and recovered when she got traction again.  If that had happened in California, the driver would have completely freaked out :)

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  Looked out my window today and saw a little girl trudging across our field.  I knew her – it was Allie L., the 8 or 9 year old tomboy in a neighbor's family.  Likely she was returning from a sledding outing – the local kids use a farmer's hill to our northeast.  That hill is something like 3/8 mile from her home, so the round trip is roughly 3/4 mile.  Her path to that sledding hill crosses state highway 165, the busiest route in the area.  The ponder: how differently the parents here treat their kids, as compared to California.  Here it's completely normal for a little girl make a solo journey of nearly a mile, crossing a busy highway.  In California, the parents would likely be at risk of arrest for child neglect and abuse.  Similarly, kids start hunting (with either gun or bow) at quite a young age - girls and boys, at 9 or 10 years old being quite normal.

It's a shame that such normal behavior here is noteworthy.

But it is...

Dogs in the snow...

Dogs in the snow...  Taking Miki and Race out for their morning walkie today was a blast.  Miki's belly skimmed the snow, and he had his snout buried, snuffling for voles, for much of our walk.  I let Race off-leash, and he must have run a mile in five minutes, racing around our 12 acre field randomly, just for the sheer joy of running.  When I called him, he came right back, skidding to a halt right in front of me, snow flying in all directions.  He looked so happy!  Even Mo'i clearly enjoyed walking in the snow.  He's not up to running and leaping any more, but he walked and snuffled all over, and didn't want to come back inside for 10 minutes or so...

Christmas progress report...

Christmas progress report...  Yes, my lovely bride makes me work on Christmas day :) 

I installed some shelving in a closet for her, and then started to install a bi-fold door on that same closet.  Progress came to a complete halt, though, when I discovered that I needed a 7/16" drill bit, but didn't have one.  For some reason the set that I purchased has a 3/8" and 1/2" bits, but nothing in between.  The size is important in this case, as metal parts have to fit snugly into the hole.  So we paused that project until today, when I'll go get a new bit from Lowe's (I'm assuming they're open).  I also need to make another important purchase: a snow shovel!

I started another interior project yesterday as well: setting up a shared temporary office for Debbie and I in one of our upstairs rooms.  We're going to have cabinetry made for Debbie to have her own office in this room, but it will probably be several months before we can have that finished.  It will also be (at least) several months before my new office on the second floor of the barn is finished.  So we're setting up “shop” on some folding tables.  The first step was to move our Internet connection to that room, and I got that all working yesterday.

The first job this morning is plowing snow.  We've got about 7 or 8 inches of fluffy snow on the ground, and it has stopped falling.  I want to get that off the driveway before anyone drives on it, and compacts it into ice.  This will be my first actual use of the tractor and snowplow; a good test.  Then I'll be off to Lowe's, and back here to finish the closet door and get the office set up...

We don't have a TV yet...

We don't have a TV yet ... in our new home.  Our old TV was part of the deal with the folks who bought our house.  We'll get a new one early next year. 

Debbie and I have a tradition of watching some old classic Christmas movies during the holidays, and last night we wanted to do that again.  We have the movies on DVD.  We have a laptop computer (my MacBook Pro).  We have a USB DVD drive that works on the laptop.  All we had to do was to find all this stuff, rig up a Rube Goldberg-esque set of cables, and then we could watch the movie while we're snuggled up in bed. 

The main challenge turned out to be finding the DVD.  Our DVD collection was distributed over five moving boxes.  Three of the boxes we found quickly, searched through them, and ... didn't find the DVD we wanted (“It’s a Wonderful Life”).  So we started searching through the box piles.  In the last box pile we searched through, we found the two missing DVD moving boxes.  In the last box we searched, in the last few DVDs, we found it.

And we watched the movie as planned, and as is our tradition.  I love that movie...

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  It's a white Christmas for us – we got about 2" of fresh snow last night, and cold days (below freezing) are forecast for at least a week.  The weatherman is predicting snow all day today and into the night, so by tomorrow we should have a thick layer of that white stuff around here.

Losing Lea a few days ago dampened our spirits here, but we have a great deal to be merry about this year.  We're all together again, after 8 months of me living in an under-construction house 850 miles away from the rest of my family.  Our new home is beautiful, and getting better every day as we unpack and continue making improvements.  Our animals are settled in and acting like this is their new home, too.  Mo'i, our 16 year old male field spaniel, is doing much better after some minor surgery earlier this week, to remove an infected tooth and a couple of small oral growths.  He also had bladder infection, which antibiotics knocked down almost instantly.  We're surrounded by friendly neighbors who have gone out of their way to make us feel welcome here in our new home community.

So there are lots of smiles and good cheer here, though punctuated by moments of sadness.  When I walked the dogs this morning, I took Mo'i out by himself, instead of with Lea, his usual walkie companion.  He snuffled away happily in the snow (he's discovered voles) while I stood in the swirling, falling snow and shed a few tears for our old girl.

Right now, as I type these words, I'm sitting in our kitchen's dining area.  Around me are three happy and content dogs, all sacked out on their little doggie beds.  Behind them is a window looking to the north, over a scene that could be on a Currier & Ives print: snowy fields, big fluffy flakes gently wafting down, and the sky lightening as daybreak approaches.  I took the photo above right out of that window.

Merry Christmas, everybody!