PHOTO OF THE DAY 11.30.2005

Froggie Waits For Spring

Last Christmas, Carol gave us a solar-powered frog that absorbs light energy (solar-cell) and then glows all night. Froggie sits on our front porch all day and night, but ... last night he/she* got covered with snow. We heard him/her* say, "Croak ... what is all this white stuff?"

* How do you tell the difference? LOL

PHOTO OF THE DAY

November 26, 2005
Day after Thanksgiving.

We tried our hand at skeet shooting.
"Deadeye Bryan" took away the honors.

The Palouse Is Unusual

Here is an collection of twelve photos that Jacquie took on the flight to
Palouse Falls. Until you are airborne, you really can't appreciate the varied landscape.

Click the link below to see the album.

http://userpages.acninc.net/rwd1/palouse/index.htm

New Feature: LIVE PICTURE

This is a LIVE picture.
It updates every hour.










To see something REALLY COOL, click below!
(If it happens to be night, well, wait until sunrise.)

http://userpages.acninc.net/rwd1/rwd1/blog/rjranchpixs.html

PHOTO OF THE DAY 11.17.05

Palouse Falls, Washington State
Water drop of 198 feet ... 21 feet higher than Niagara Falls!

This morning, Jacquie and I flew to Palouse Falls. It is 45-miles west of Pullman. Since this is the "off season," we were expecting to see dry falls i.e., no water. I was told that the water flow is low to nil at this time, but is quite spectacular in the late Spring. What a pleasant surprise to see so much water. Beautiful!

Photo by Jacquie.

The Sky's The Limit

I've spent countless hours trying to get our satellite Internet up and running and only accomplished it a few days ago. It's been in the works since BEFORE hurricane Katrina! (I use that reference because I ordered the equipment just before Katrina and was told that Homeland Security bought all the satellite equipment for their use.) The dish and all the goodies didn't actually get here until late October ... then the problems started!

I paid a professional installer $500 to set it up, but he couldn't get it going, after spending several hours trying, because he couldn't get the dish pointed at the correct satellite. He "lost interest" in continuing with the project. So: Jacquie and I took up the task. After about 15 hours (over several days) of sitting on the roof in freezing weather with my notebook computer, trying to locate and lock-on the stupid satellite - I also gave up. I told Skycasters (the provider) there must be something defective with something! It should NOT be this hard! They said they would send me a new satellite receiver ... and check it out first, before sending it.

Well, guess what: The new unit they were about to send me didn't work for them either! It turned out they had a "software" problem within the receiver! They emailed me a new software patch to load into the satellite receiver ... I had the thing up and running in less than 2-minutes! I guess I should be mad, huh?

(Yeah, I know, it looks all warm and cozy in the picture I took today ... but it wasn't that way when I was huddled on the roof!)

New Feature

The NIGHT NOISE blog now features LINKS to
other features and Internet sites that you might like to "check out."

Here are the initial three:

Paintings By Jacqueline

Current Weather at the R J Ranch

Bryan's BLOG

Watch for frequent additions to the LINKS.

(You can go to a LINK by either clicking under the icon, above, or go to LINKS,
which will always be on the blog.)

PHOTO OF THE DAY 11.15.05

It was cold, this afternoon, but I decided, anyway, to take one door off the helicopter and go take some aerial photos. Just after take-off, I swung by the R J Ranch and took my first picture. Then ... the camera shut-off with the message, "BATTERY LOW - CHANGE BATTERY." That ended the photo flight! I really wasn't all that disappointed ... It was cold.

PHOTO OF THE DAY 11.14.05

The end of the day and waiting to be put to bed.

(No, that's not a flaw in the photo ... it's the moon.)

A Firm Understanding

Last Monday, the landing pad was poured and on Saturday it was ready for use. (Thank you, Curtis Concrete!) This makes it very easy for one person to roll the chopper in and out of the hanger.

Today was a beautiful day and the LZ (Landing Zone) was used for a short flight.

PHOTO OF THE DAY 11.13.05

Evening, November 13, 2005
Just another beautiful Palouse sunset. I really love the sky's here ... they are so different from the Seattle or So. Cal. area. I hope you don't get bored with them - I don't.

The Feast

Dateline:
November 12, 2005
Todd Hall
Washington State University
Pullman, WA

Each Friday evening before a WSU home football game, the WSU School of Culinary and Hospitality Services hosts a very unique dinner for approximately fifty guests. This Friday was the last "Feast" of the year and featured Northwest cuisine. The Maryhill winery provided the various wines.

As each course was presented, the owner of Maryhill Winery told us about the particular wine we were drinking with that course and why it was selected. Each course, including dessert, featured a different and unique wine ... all very good.

Also, with each course, the department head described the food, where it came from and how it was prepared. The food was varied, unique and above all delicious!

If you have a high speed internet connection (or about 15-minutes to spare with dial-up), you can click the link, below, and see a .pdf file of the menu.

http://userpages.acninc.net/rwd1/feastmenu.pdf

We are definitely doing this again, next year. Anyone want to join us?

A Studio is Born

November 11, 2005
Gladish Community Center
Pullman, WA

Jacquie's new studio opened for business in Veteran's Day. Already she has people calling and asking when they can start classes. Her first regularly scheduled classes, through the Pullman Department of Parks and Recreation, will start in January.

PREVIEW

Here is a screen copy of the future weather page from the R J Ranch.

This is the actual weather being logged now.

PHOTO OF THE DAY 11.9.05

November 9, 2005

The Frost Was On The Pumpkin, this morning. Cool, but beautiful.

Watch my BLOG for current weather info ... shortly. (As soon as I learn how to intregate my weather station's HTML code.)

When It Doesn't Rain - It POURS!

November 8, 2005

It was a beautiful day this morning and while we were eating breakfast (Hot, cooked Irish oatmeal ... Yummy) a very welcome cement truck showed up, along with a crew of about six men from Curtis Concrete.

The ramp from the hanger is poured and about Saturday, I'll roll the R22 out and fly it from our own heliport. What could be better than that?

Sunday Update

Dateline:
Pullman, WA
Sunday, November 6, 2005

Happy Birthday, Courtney

Cougar game yesterday. WSU vs Arizona "Sun Devils"
Cold, windy, same old outcome!
First half: Offense played well, but the defense ... well, the defense was a "no-show."
Second half: The coach must have had a little "you-know-what!" at half-time. Both offense AND defense played quite well, but not quite good enough to extract the Cougars from the first half hole they dug for themselves! Close game, but "No Cigar."

We went to our usual Sunday breakfast in town at "The Old European Waffle House" but, not surprisingly, since it was "Dad's Weekend" in Cougarville, the place was packed with a stated one-hour wait. NO breakfast is worth a one-hour wait, in my opinion. There is a small restaurant up on the hilltop called, appropriately, "Hilltop Restaurant." We've never been there before, but we passed it on the way to the waffle house. I noted that it didn't seem busy, so I suggested we go there and give it a try, expecting to find a rather ordinary restaurant. Not so: The Hilltop is a small place, but very nice. In fact, one of the nicest restaurants in Pullman. It is owned and has been operated by a local Pullman family (Ron and Barbara Wachter) for many years. This Sunday, being Dad's Weekend, the Hilltop featured a sunday buffet, with yummy homemade pastries and some of the best potatoes au gratin that I have ever eaten. The raspberry crepes were another "must have more" item. But probably the best part was meeting and chatting with the owners. This will surely become one of our favorite hangouts. (We looked over the usual food menu and found it to be quite interesting. If the food matches the descriptions, it will be outstanding.)

We stopped by Jacquie's new art studio and hung a few painting. It's coming together nicely.

We spent another two hours trying to get the satellite internet working. No results. Something must be seriously wrong. It should not be this hard! Stay tuned.

PHOTO OF THE DAY 11.4.05

Dawn: November 4, 2005

Mornings like this wake the soul. (A hot cup of Starbuck's doesn't hurt, either!)

Update from the R J Ranch:

• The satellite internet project is at a critical point: The local installer seems to have lost interest in trying to get it up and running. Jacquie and I tried for a couple of hours to get the system locked on a satellite, to no avail. I called the supplier and told him that he'd better get someone out here that could get the job done. His reply: "I'll check with my boss and call you back." No call-back.
  
• The concrete guy showed up and has formed up the concrete helicopter landing pad by the barn. If the weather holds, it should be poured early next week and useable by next weekend.

From The Archives - 37 years ago

Macau: November, 1968

During the month of November, each year, the Hong Kong Motor Sports Club hosted it's annual Macau Grand Prix. It was a 3.2 mile course through the city streets of Macau. At that time, Macau was a Portugese possession, occupying a small portion of mainland China. It was reached by flying to Hong Kong and then taking a one-hour hyrofoil boat trip to Macau.

Photo #1: Roger, Dad and an unknown "admirer."
Photo #2: Roger raced his 1957 Corvette (#22) in the Macau Grand both in 1968 & 1969.

This year will be the 52nd year for the race!

See: http://gp.macau.grandprix.gov.mo/mgpc/public_html/gp52/en/

A Work of Art

November 1, 2005
Like any new business, getting the work area ready for customers/students is never an easy task. The walls were originally painted PURPLE! The new soft green (almost white) will be a pleasant change. Here, Jacquie is rolling on the (hopefully!) final coat over the undercoating.

Landing Zone (temp ... I hope!)

For the immediate time, the only way to get the helicopter in and out of the hanger (aka: barn) is to move it on the pieces of 3/4" plywood we've laid down. I'm hoping that within the next ten days, I'll have a concrete pad poured. Because of the frantic construction in the Pullman area, it's almost impossible to find a contractor that has time to do the job ... Even if he's a friend! If we can't get it done in the next ten days, it will turn into a DIY job.

Ps: It's raining, in case you can't tell! Soon, I'll have "real-time" live weather information available for the R J Ranch.