Isn’t that the secret phrase they used in Babe to control the sheep? Or maybe it was Bah Ram Ewe. In my life it seems to be Bad RAM though.
It kind of perplexes me, that in all the years of working from home, from the beginning of the home computer/internet era (yes, really!) I had poor clunkers of computers with no real support except what I could devise myself… I managed. (Sure, the IT guys would say, bring it on in and we’ll fix it, but that was a two-hour drive, a half-hour subway ride, and then a hike from subway station, and we’re not talking a laptop here!) So, I learned to deal with it myself, as best as possible. Only the major ‘toast events’ got me to take it in.
But I managed. And hardly ever had things that couldn’t be dealt with. And yet, in the last year… My old computer went distinctly freaky and it got worse. It was a toss up whether it was the hard drive or the motherboard, and when I had the chance to get a deal on a used, but slightly more current PC, I took it. Woo woo! USB and PS/2! And they saved my data. And life was grand.
But only a few months later, things started getting weird again. And I went through the fall assuming every time I turned it off at night might be my final farewell. But at Christmas it suddenly smoothed out and got quiet and happy again. Not that I assumed it was cured…. I still kept my eyes open for a replacement hard drive, and finally got one in early February, though I didn’t have time to do anything with it till the show opened in mid-Feb.
And then, just about the time I was thinking I’d sit down and take things apart, Disk Failed! Ooops. So, after a week of what was supposed to be a quick swap, and using up all my favours with a geekish friend, as well as discombobulating HIS machine in the process, we got this puppy back on the road. But with attitude.
And now we’re thinking it was bad memory. (Not a bad memory, but actually faulty RAM.) Because having removed the extra John had added, the intense problems have gone away. But maybe there’s a flaw in the RAM I already had, and that would explain some of the other oddities…
But heavens above! Has my life ever ended up being ruled by this ostensible labour-saving device.
Argh!
Anti-v
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
'Smeltfest' (a paper blog)
Here we are, in Lexington, Virginia, for Smeltfest. All smelting, all the time! Well, maybe not all smelting. There’s also charcoal-making & sorting, ore-roasting, smelter-building… something for everyone!
Not to mention basking in the sun. (Well, only a teeny basking, but it’s still milder than home, and snowless. [Anti-V note: that was my opinion when I started writing this! By the end of the week it was 81 degrees Fahrenheit!] Today it’s actually supposed to be in the 60’s. I’m sitting here in a tank top! Of course, that’s really because I got warm helping to sort charcoal. I was raking it as the boys worked it through the screen. Two days ago I was involved in the ore roasting, cooling it with the hose, floating and skimming off the charcoal, and shoveling the ore onto a tarp to dry.
…So hours have passed. Skip cooked us lunch of sausages and onions and peppers over a fire of smelting charcoal. The Jormungand furnace burned quick and hot, and with 100 lbs of ore in the furnace, we got a 48 lb. Bloom.
(passage of time….)
Obviously, I didn’t devote much time to this throughout the week! Weather was stunning, moving through spring and into summer. I am now rosy pink, not having even thought about such things as sunscreen until I was well toasted. Bought some the next day, but could easily have brought some along…just never occurred to me!
This year we ended up with a good rhythm to Smeltfest. The men kind of gravitated into two teams, and daily smelts alternated between the teams. That meant that there was a potential ‘day off’ every other day (or a day to handle other chores, to watch, to provide input.) And it kind of reduced the chaos of 3 smelters, no waiting that we’d tried last year.
In some ways it was more holiday-ish, too. And everyone wasn’t totally wasted by the end of the day. Plus, we managed two film nights! (Okay, they were smeltin’ films, but hey!)
On Saturday they fired Darrell’s Jormungand furnace again, and since it’s unbelievably fast, in the afternoon we went off to the ‘iron diggin’s’ and collected Virginia rock ore. Of course, then it was decided to send that ore back with another fellow who will be hosting the Early Iron Symposium, and on Sunday, Darrell and I had to go back to the mine to get our own ore. (Fun one day, a bit tedious for two!) Though I did get to see a flying squirrel flying!
Overall, for the bit we were around for, Skip, Lee & Mike’s Brazilian furnace was fired twice, Jormungand, Darrell’s Norse ‘stick’ furnace was fired twice, and the African Queen was put into action on the last day.
The Brazilian furnace, a variation on last year’s Coated Flue-Tyle’ furnace, produces big blooms, and gets run with a more, more, more kind of philosophy. The boys got a bit carried away, wanting to make big blooms, regardless of what plans they had beforehand. It’s funny! We all get quite a kick from watching their exuberance.
Darrell’s furnace was based on a different archaeological model, seemed to be quite simple to construct, and also turned out to be a remarkably quick and hot smelter. (Quite elegant, too!) He was using hematite ore, very pure, and it appears that both his smelts produced a high carbon bloom, essentially a steel bloom!
Big Bertha, or the African Queen, is Sauder and William’s first guess at building a smelter, and is a big steam-engine-like contraption. Essentially she’s built of discarded metal tanks, welded together, with an auxiliary water tank that preheats the air. (where the African Queen image comes from…) She’d been languishing for over a year, so they decided to brush her off and fire her up. Most of the smelt seems quite tame, but it gets pretty spectacular at the end!
Beyond smelting? Well, there was the excitement of arrival. It was raining and dark, and our wipers got moody and cut out. There was some construction on the main through street of Lexington, and in the smeary dark, caused us to go round in circles, and eventually had to park until the rain let up some and the wipers started again. Then we had to wind our way up into the mountains, on twisty, narrow roads, peering for signs and landmarks. We’d been up to Lee and Elizabeth’s one time last year, and were certain we were well and truly lost as we headed up the mountain, expecting to hear the strains of the theme for Deliverance and run into Bubba & his shotgun & his possum hound at any turn.
They live up at the top of House Mountain. The road gets rougher and more abandoned and wild-looking the farther you go. Once you finally claw your way to the top, they have a wonderful open plan house, designed to make the most of solar gain, and with a view that just never stops. We were camped out in Elizabeth’s studio, another 50 to 75 metres behind the house (but UP the mountain!) (By the end of the week, I no longer needed to take a rest on the climb, but was still huffing and puffing.)
And that’s where I stopped writing my paper blog. (Never thought to take the laptop…) More thoughts to follow.
Not to mention basking in the sun. (Well, only a teeny basking, but it’s still milder than home, and snowless. [Anti-V note: that was my opinion when I started writing this! By the end of the week it was 81 degrees Fahrenheit!] Today it’s actually supposed to be in the 60’s. I’m sitting here in a tank top! Of course, that’s really because I got warm helping to sort charcoal. I was raking it as the boys worked it through the screen. Two days ago I was involved in the ore roasting, cooling it with the hose, floating and skimming off the charcoal, and shoveling the ore onto a tarp to dry.
…So hours have passed. Skip cooked us lunch of sausages and onions and peppers over a fire of smelting charcoal. The Jormungand furnace burned quick and hot, and with 100 lbs of ore in the furnace, we got a 48 lb. Bloom.
(passage of time….)
Obviously, I didn’t devote much time to this throughout the week! Weather was stunning, moving through spring and into summer. I am now rosy pink, not having even thought about such things as sunscreen until I was well toasted. Bought some the next day, but could easily have brought some along…just never occurred to me!
This year we ended up with a good rhythm to Smeltfest. The men kind of gravitated into two teams, and daily smelts alternated between the teams. That meant that there was a potential ‘day off’ every other day (or a day to handle other chores, to watch, to provide input.) And it kind of reduced the chaos of 3 smelters, no waiting that we’d tried last year.
In some ways it was more holiday-ish, too. And everyone wasn’t totally wasted by the end of the day. Plus, we managed two film nights! (Okay, they were smeltin’ films, but hey!)
On Saturday they fired Darrell’s Jormungand furnace again, and since it’s unbelievably fast, in the afternoon we went off to the ‘iron diggin’s’ and collected Virginia rock ore. Of course, then it was decided to send that ore back with another fellow who will be hosting the Early Iron Symposium, and on Sunday, Darrell and I had to go back to the mine to get our own ore. (Fun one day, a bit tedious for two!) Though I did get to see a flying squirrel flying!
Overall, for the bit we were around for, Skip, Lee & Mike’s Brazilian furnace was fired twice, Jormungand, Darrell’s Norse ‘stick’ furnace was fired twice, and the African Queen was put into action on the last day.
The Brazilian furnace, a variation on last year’s Coated Flue-Tyle’ furnace, produces big blooms, and gets run with a more, more, more kind of philosophy. The boys got a bit carried away, wanting to make big blooms, regardless of what plans they had beforehand. It’s funny! We all get quite a kick from watching their exuberance.
Darrell’s furnace was based on a different archaeological model, seemed to be quite simple to construct, and also turned out to be a remarkably quick and hot smelter. (Quite elegant, too!) He was using hematite ore, very pure, and it appears that both his smelts produced a high carbon bloom, essentially a steel bloom!
Big Bertha, or the African Queen, is Sauder and William’s first guess at building a smelter, and is a big steam-engine-like contraption. Essentially she’s built of discarded metal tanks, welded together, with an auxiliary water tank that preheats the air. (where the African Queen image comes from…) She’d been languishing for over a year, so they decided to brush her off and fire her up. Most of the smelt seems quite tame, but it gets pretty spectacular at the end!
Beyond smelting? Well, there was the excitement of arrival. It was raining and dark, and our wipers got moody and cut out. There was some construction on the main through street of Lexington, and in the smeary dark, caused us to go round in circles, and eventually had to park until the rain let up some and the wipers started again. Then we had to wind our way up into the mountains, on twisty, narrow roads, peering for signs and landmarks. We’d been up to Lee and Elizabeth’s one time last year, and were certain we were well and truly lost as we headed up the mountain, expecting to hear the strains of the theme for Deliverance and run into Bubba & his shotgun & his possum hound at any turn.
They live up at the top of House Mountain. The road gets rougher and more abandoned and wild-looking the farther you go. Once you finally claw your way to the top, they have a wonderful open plan house, designed to make the most of solar gain, and with a view that just never stops. We were camped out in Elizabeth’s studio, another 50 to 75 metres behind the house (but UP the mountain!) (By the end of the week, I no longer needed to take a rest on the climb, but was still huffing and puffing.)
And that’s where I stopped writing my paper blog. (Never thought to take the laptop…) More thoughts to follow.
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