Dakota Today

** Big and broken down in Winner, SD

Today when on the way to buy a $10 wrench set at Runnings on the west side of Winner (about a mile from the east side) I noticed something big and blue and on blocks.  It was or still is a Trail King trailer of somekind.  The tractor pulling it had a sign for a Texas pipeline company on the door.  The image below is actually from two images patched together.  It is a small version of the originals.

The combination of trailers is probably around 175 - 200 feet long or whatever 67 of my "3 foot" paces makes.  I did not find anything that appeared to be like this at the Trail King of Mitchell, SD website, but that may because it was configured or set differently than here.

It appeared similar to some of the specialized trailers for moving wind power towers and generators, but not exactly..to me at least.

Trail King Trailers

If you wish to see a large image of the trailer as it set in Winner today, download the file below.  It is large, so you may have to click the image to view full size and download..It looks more like a bridge than a trailer.

. View this photo

That is the "excitement" for the day. It appeared the guys at WW Tires were tired of answering what kind of trailer it was and if they were replacing some of the hundred or so wheels or tires on the rig.

*** Stay tuned even if you aren't quite as easily amused as I am some days -- Doug Wiken

** Some names on the radio need to be spelled out...Bridge Collapse Lecture at SDSU

On the SDPB Radio Midday Program today, Paul Guggenheim interviewed "Connie" of the Minnesota Highway Department on the rapid building of the replacement bridge in Minneapolis.

Well, that was what I thought until I started searching for somebody in the department with that name.  I finally found the story from SDSU on the lecture to engineers there.

SDSU Announces Lecture with alumnus Khani Sahebjam

Every now and then, radio announcers may need to literally spell some names. TV shows can plaster names on the screen in text....anyway..... Interesting program.

Getting a major collapsed bridge rebuilt in about a year is a major accomplishment. The November-December issue of American Scientist has a good story on the engineering and procedures tied to bridge inspections, etc. written by Henry Petroski who regularly contributes articles related to engineering. The story is on pages 444-448 of the November-December 2009 issue. The author mentions the Minnesota Transportation Dept., but gives no credit to anybody there for providing information. If you are a member of the society or a subscriber to the magazine, you can read the story at the link. I have just been buying the magazine on the news stand so can't actually get the story at the site.

American Scientist (restricted link) Bridge Story

However you do read it, it is an interesting story and the photos are good. One fact that is interesting: "In the 40 years that the old bridge stood, well over a billion people may have crossed it" The bridge had carried 140,000 vehicles per day with perhaps 200,000 people per day.

Inspection of the wreckage suggested that some gusset plates failed probably because a contractor had tons of equipment and gravel on one end of the bridge and the asymmetrical loading was just too much overload coupled with the high volume of traffic. Even though the bridge had survived for 40 years, it was under designed.

The replacment bridge was made in sections and glued together with epoxy and held together with internal stretched cables. Some information is available here:

Concrete Products Awards

The photo above is from the Minnesota Dept of Transportation. Click on it for a larger version. A good black and white photo of a beautiful new bridge and associated sculptures are in the American Scientist story. Google searches for " St. Anthony Bridge I-35w" will turn up a lot more information

And as a kind of sidenote, the American Scientist story had a word I had never seen before. "Charrette" which in the story referred to a planning meeting in the Mn Dept of Trans. I guess the term was exactly appropriate if the definition below is correct.

"Charrette"definition

So, Silo Tech puts out product more important than football teams.

*** Stay tuned even if you can go anywhere from Dakota Today -- Doug Wiken .

**Don't tell Sibby, but they really were Black Helicopters.

Sometime after noon today, October 5, 2009, I was talking to a neighbor on the phone when the whole house literally shook.  The floors vibrated, the walls vibrated, the windows rattled.  About the worst noise I have ever heard.  I looked out the window and my cows were running for shelter next to a building.  Then I saw one helicopter a hundred feet or so off the ground.  Hung up the phone and got closer to the window.  Five black helicopters were landing at the Winner Regional Airport.  It was a crappy wet morning with lousy flying weather and I guess that may be why they were so low over the house.

I drove up to the airport and got a few pictures.of the helicopters, but not of the men relieving themselves next to the airport building.  They had been flying for a few hours.  I talked to one of them.  They were on the way through here and fueling up for a trip south before being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan... I guess.  I wished them "Good Luck" and expressed hope that  they weren't being wasted in a futile fight.  They sort of looked at the ground.  "At least" one of them said, "it might be warmer there".

The blotches on photo above are rain on the camera lens. I may stick another one of these into a gallery, but the next photo taken an hour or two later  is just an indicator of how drizzly wet it was here today.  Some drops on a small branch.

Click on image above for a larger version.  

More to come tomorrow on health insurance issues and the McGovern-Abourezk meeting here in Winner Saturday evening.

[[[ Dakota Today Note added Tuesday Oct 6, 2009: This afternoon I heard a news report on SDPB radio which indicated these five helicopters carrying something like 45 men later had to land at Yankton, SD and stay overnight because of the inclement weather.  I was told yesterday, but did not know if it was information the men wanted spread around, but the news today with a colonel's blessing apparently indicated the men were from North Dakota on their way to Ft. Sill in Oklahoma in preparation for deployment. That's the rest of the story more or less--- Doug Wiken ]]]]

*** Stay tuned even if "The big Noise from Winner" was never a good band or music to anybody's ears---- Doug Wiken

Tripp County Veteran's Memorial and Labor Day

I guess there was a celebration including some politicians.   I missed it.  I also missed most of the other special events "celebrating" the 100th anniversary of Tripp County, SD with Winner, SD as county seat.  We did hear some fireworks last night and actually saw a flash or two of those that went high enough.

Missed the annual Labor Day Parade too, but had to drive a couple extra miles to do that since it blocks the state highway for around an hour.  I am not sure why the State of South Dakota allows that.  So much for wet blanket coverage of the bank and implement dealers big celebration.  Take a look at the photo below.  A whole lot of names of veterans from Tripp County.  I may count them when the crowds are gone.

 

Click on the image for a larger version.  The carnival on Main Street folded up and the trucks and rides were rolling out of Winner around 1AM after the Monday celebration of Labor Day.

** Stay tuned even if you drive many miles to prove everybody loves a parade-- Doug Wiken

**Found an old rusty tool

We did a little fencing today.  No, not with epees or sabers, but with pliers and wire and a fence stretcher.  Anyway, while walking where a few hundred cows have walked for a hundred years or so, We found an old rusty tool.  Click on photo below for an enlarged view:

It appears to be a combined pry bar and hammer.  It also appears to have been made by a blacksmith or shop using processes similar to blacksmithing.  There are two small holes toward end I am holding.  I would guess there was a wood handle of some kind like a knife handle.

Anyway, we don't know how old this tool really is.  It might be 40 years old, or it might be nearly 120 years old if it was used before somebody lost it on this farm.  If you have any ideas let us know.  It was not quite what I expected to find when I kicked it.

While speaking of old stuff, my wife and I have now spent 40 years married to each other.  A local store clerk expressed her condolences for my wife, but she did it with an evil grin.

*** Stay tuned even if you are an old tool yourself--- Doug Wiken

**Purple Sunset Phase

Sunsets can be spectacular on the plains.  Sometimes they change by the minute.  Tonight was one of those evenings.  Red, purple, yellow, gray, and then darkness.
The more or less purple phase is below.

Tonight on SD public TV SD Focus, the discussion was on education of Native American students in South Dakota.  Sounded like a lot of ideas to dump a lot of money into native pride humbug when better math, better English language, and better science teaching is needed.

Native American students don't need to learn more about the evil white guys of the past who destroyed their culture or the brave chiefs and wise medicine men, they need to realize that their ability to survive on the plains in the past is a reason they can survive in the present day if they work and study.  Their plight by now is not a whole lot different than that of most students from rural areas who have not spent time in dormitories or spent much time away from the small town for farm.  All rural students need some good direction and information on college and other education options.  It is not just a problem for Native Americans.  It is a problem for all school students not lucky enough to have been born to parents with college educations and that related experience.

Their cultural specialism demands are no more relevant to modern culture and eduction than my demanding that my children should have gotten a lot more information on the wonders of longboats and Viking culture and "opportunity" to eat lutefisk in school lunches, learn net weaving and ocean fishing lore, etc. etc.

I noticed the panel participants must have had every relative lined up to keep the phone lines loaded with supporters of special cultural privilege and of course jobs for the specialists of cultural privilege and specialness.  This is no more relevant to education than is the celebrity news on which celebrity is screwing which other celebrity or which celebrities are divorcing or really gay after all... see CBS Morning "News" for all of that crap that anybody could ever use.

Whatever, we should all be able to enjoy a good sunrise or sunset.

**Stay tuned.  The sun will shine tomorrow--- Doug Wiken

**Swallows have returned to pester cats and eat bugs

The barn swallows that make our porch a mess have returned.  I think they got here yesterday or day before, but today was first chance I had to photograph one of them.
They fly gracefully and fast catching mosquitoes ...I hope. 

They also drive the porch cats about have nuts and have a rather irritating squawk for a bird "song".  Nothing at all like the Prairie Meadowlarks which got here some time ago just in time for one of out snow storms.

I usually write down on a calendar when these birds get here, but right now can't remember if I did it last year or not.  Anyway, that is the excitement for the day....besides getting our dishwasher running again with the help of a $46 solenoid fill valve.  I suspect the time spent will make my wife much happier since her slacker husband isn't real great about washing dishes otherwise.

I ordered some e-book creating software after finally getting the order system to work.  I will try to get Dakota Today past posts into an e-book form.  That may take a while however...even if the software works as I expect.

***Stay tuned even if birds can fly and pigs still can't..even if "swine flu" can sure get around--- Doug Wiken

**Tulips finally add a bit of color

Winter of some widely varying quality and some gray, damp days have seemed to make the seasons move rather too slowly.  But, there is hope.  The tulips finally opened out here in the boondocks. If you want a bright color for computer wallpaper, click on the larger version and save it. Edit as you like for your screen. Cheery for a day or two.

Well, that isn't a really heavy weight post, but it fits well with the Sunday Argus Shopper today. There were so many ads inserted in the paper that the local gas and read store had to put them in about six piles with only 3 or 4 papers in each pile; otherwise, the papers and junk would slide apart and spill off the counter onto the floor.

 In the spirit of yesterday's post on the pipeline volume, etc., I weighed the paper on an old baby scale. No guarantees of precise measurement, but anyway. The total paper with included junk weighed about 33 ounces. The actual news, views, and sports pages weighed about 5 ounces..roughly a sixth of the total.

 But weight (pun intended), the pages with actual news on them also had a lot of ads. Adding the ads together into front and back of a sheet indicated that about 33% of those "news" pages were also display ads. After all that, the actual "news" in the paper was about 9% of the total weight of ads and news.

 The paper would be a real bargain if we were paying 9% of the $2.00 cover price or 18 cents...or for that matter, free like the other shopper papers. Anyway, enjoy the nice weather while it lasts and

** Stay tuned for something weightier ...maybe...--- Doug Wiken

**Pseudo Road Photo from near Winner, SD April 4, 2009

Winner, South Dakota, seems to be in kind of a radar hole. It can be raining or snowing like crazy here and it may not show up on KELO or KSFY radar. South Dakota Safe Driving site has photos from cameras on highways and interstate, but none from Winner or Tripp County.

 Below is a road photo of the kind we need from here. Note the extra data from the airport weather. That kind of info should also be a part of the actual road photos. Click on the image for a larger version. It is however mostly just more snow.

 I haven't checked any sites for road conditions here, but my guess is "No driving recommended" would be appropriate. Even so, I have to slog through it for some groceries. My back has not recovered from shoveling the previous foot of snow that was finally cleaned and melted off most roads, driveways, and sidewalks. This is a generous resupply that I don't think we really needed today or tomorrow.

***Stay tuned and let powers that be know we need a real highway camera near Winner, SD-- Doug Wiken

** One inch, two inches or seven to 12 inches...March Snow

Predictions for snow in the Winner area varied all over the yardstick depending on which forecaster and which day and even which hour prior to the spring blizzard. First maps indicated next to nothing. Next maps suggested half a foot or so. Then came the reassuring only and inch or two report. Rapidly replaced that evening by the 7 to 12 inches or so. That was about the time the drizzle started. Later the drizzle froze and the wind blew. Then the snow. First real blizzard of the winter season. Good news was the temperature wasn't dreadful even if the windchill was not at all pleasant. Below are a couple of images. One with the snow and a street light. The next with the cars partly shoveled out before the city had cleared the street...which meant shoveling through a three-foot high ridge piled by the snowplow into the driveway. And, the backache, neckache, sore arms evidence. Driveway and sidewalks have ground about three inches off the bottom of aluminum snow scoop and the grain scoop is about shot..getting short enough for a kid...or maybe just in time for a gray-haired snow shoveler. Today, the snow on streets and highways has mostly melted or been removed. Tripp County waited until easily rolled slush turned into ice this morning. They removed a fraction of an inch of ice. The sun did most of the work this afternoon. Wind and weather as indicated by weather service and trying to stand up out here in the country was pretty dreadful for most of a day and night. Winner airport weather is available at Winner Regional Airport Weather
Well, that is enough on the weather. KELO and KSFY radar often show no precipitation in this area even if there is a raging blizzard or pouring rain. SD highway photos needs a camera by the state highway office here so the actual weather can at least be viewed in a timely fashion.
**Stay tuned. Happy weather days will be here. April showers, May flowers and all that...just remember that weather and climate are not the same thing-- Doug Wiken