Steam Up 2011

One of our family traditions is the annual visit to the Brooks Steam Up.
The Flying Merkel.



The annual picture in front of the big cat.



I love Stirling engines and fans.




Recoiless rifle jeep.


Tanks for the memories.


On the electric trolley.

We had a great day.

Latest Things

August has been a bit busy, so you get a dump of pictures and links…

Here’s some pics from DaVinci Days

Max Likes Bugs


Off to save the galaxy.

And some from the Steam Up:

Evey year we take a pic in front of the biggest Cat.

Kindly fireman.

Spotted a time traveller…

And his wife.

Walker Bulldog.

Yes it is.

Neat home made rail bike/cart.

Spud took Max and me fishing down the Long Tom.

Small fry.

Going back into the river.

So that’s the last month in pics, at least the high points.

Besides that I’ve been messing with computers a bit (I’ve bought a bunch at yard sales dirt cheap). So here are some computer links:

I bought this IOGear Keyboard for use in the bedroom, works well although the trackball doesn’t work well beyond about 40 degrees tilt.

How to boot from a USB or CD even if your BIOS won’t let you. Very handy, allowed me to restore a $3.00 laptop purchased at a yard sale.

CPU-Z tells you everything you need to know about a PC. Great for dealing with unknown hardware and figuring out what’s what.

Guimark is a great way of benchtesting a machine’s flash performance (I use the “Flex 3” test). Amazing the differences a little ram or CPU speed make when rendering Flash streaming video.

I installed a Netgear WG111 wireless PCI card (no Amazon link because I wouldn’t recommend it…) on one of the Barn PCs. It disabled “Fast User Switching” – AKA the normal XP login screen. Here’s an article on how to get it back. It’s 2010, Netgear, get your act together!

Online “Crap, I left my Caps Key on while typing that 10 paragraph blog comment” converter.

And some other non computer links:

Telegraph Instruments of Europe

The Making of a 15th Century Cannon

Harry Epstein Closeout Tools

Kolbasti Dancing.

Steam, Turkeys, not in that order.

Some wild turkeys showed up in the back yard.

Henry stalks the elusive wild turkey.

They weren't fooled by his turkey impression.

We did our annual pilgrammage to the Brooks Steam Up today. This isn't a typical Lamborghini.

Henry has a beautiful smile but if you tell him to smile for a picture it goes from bad...

to worse...That's a Stuart behind him.

Max, chillin' in the trolley.

An Army mobile machine shop. It's for sale, $8500 which is a deal! I have the guy's phone number if you want it.

I know, it's the Steam Up and I only take pictures of tanks. But it's the first year they had a tank.

This is not my idea of a hobby. Haying is not fun.

It was close to 90 degrees...we took it slow.

Every year for the past 4 we've taken a picture in front of the big Cat. (Notice that Henry, having not been told to smile, looks great.)

Another Year at the Steamup.

Well we went to the Steamup on Sunday. The weather was perfect.

Max doesn't see the toy Beetle at the flea market.

Some steam tractors.

Tractor driving rednecks love country music and Yakisoba.

Ready to drive with a bellyfull of noodles.

Max scored the firemans hat for free.

Henry and I ride the tiny train.

Big man, tiny train.

Yarding scale logs.

Up ahead a train derailed.

Jenny overtakes us.

Henry and I enjoy the breeze as we ride the streetcar.

On the streetcar.

Showing a boy how to use a bazooka.

A scout car.

Felice will not buy me one for my birthday.

A Hong Kong trolley car.

The old electric trolley moves along.

Max drives the Caterpillar.

Another year, another picture in front of the huge bulldozer.

1936 Cord

Max heads off to have a look.

A nice old engine.

G scale trains.

Gregg has his engines on display.

His pump.

Graduated engines.

Max ate some sort of horrific shaved ice that made him cyanotic.

Riding the rails...