Yesterday, the entire family plus my dad went out to a nice, classical concert with Duke’s Ciompi Quartett at the newly renovated Baldwin Auditorium. The featured guests of the evening were the Krüger Brothers, a folk trio from Switzerland, based in North Carolina, that plays bluegrass and roots music.

So the concert started out with a strings quartet by Haydn. Then they went on to play Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 12 in D-flat Major, which was pretty challenging- especially for the kids. For the second half of the concert, the Krüger Bros. were on stage, and wow – that was a change in pace. They played some of their standard pieces and then they Ciompi quartet joined them in the the performance of Jens Krüger’s Appalachian Concerto. So for that, we had two violins, a viola, a cello, a banjo, a guitar and an acoustic bass guitar – all played by true masters of their instruments. The audience was treated to a skillful and gorgeous blend of serious classical form and bubbly, toe-tapping American folk music. The centerpiece on this performance was Jens Krüger’s soaring banjo play. Oddly, it was the banjo, of all things, that held it all together  – the technical, structured classical elements and the bubbly cheerfulness of the folk music.

Finally, the venue deserves some appreciation. Baldwin Auditorium is an old performance space, which Duke has renovated to the tune of $15M ! The acoustic are fantastic now,  and the seats are much more comfortable, too.

Germany has lost a feisty, thoughtful voice today. Marcel Reich Ranicki was the most respected literature critic in Germany and a fearless and honest voice for the survivors of the Holocaust. His love for literature and poetry inspired generations of readers and he relentlessly challenged German authors to advance their craft and create great works of literature. His strong opinions were loved and feared, but his insight was always welcome. He will be missed.

Ein Deutsches Leben – Spiegel Online

(Nerd Alert!) Over the last couple of weeks I finally built my new machine. I ripped out all the Intel crap from my nice Antec Fusion case (DP39DP and a Core2Duo) and rebuilt it with an AMD A10 6800 APU on an ASUS F2A85M MB with 2 sticks of 4GB G.Skill Ares DDR3 1866 SDRAM. Nothing fancy, but solid hardware at a decent price. However, the pièce-de-resistance is a brand new Samsung 840 EVO 500GB SSD as the system drive. They just came out last month, and twice I was ready to order at Newegg and when I went to the checkout they were sold out! This is the fanciest, most expensive storage I have ever bought for myself. And it’s totally worth it. The benchmarks on this thing are outlandish, compared to spinning platters. And it’s among the top-performing SSDs, especially on linear read/writes. AnandTech has a detailed review.

So what does this mean? It means I can reboot the system in 22 seconds flat. And a good bit of that is POST (12 sec). Windows 7 does not even get to finish its little Windows Logo animation – poof! There is the login screen. It also means that A complete reinstall of Windows takes – uh … about 5 Minutes. AND the little fucker is cool and silent. Won’t say a peep. And a silent system was definitely a design point for this machine.

Shhhh …

The cooler and fan that ship with the A10 are not bad, but, like most CPU fans, the fan is noisy. So I shelled out another $80 for a cooler and quieter fans. I got the Silverstone NT06 cooler and an Antec 120mm fan and a SilenX fan. I ended up using only the Antec fan, together with an original 120mm Antec case fan and the stock, low-profile 120mm fan for the cooler. BTW – see  the huge metal thing next to the blue-LED lit case fan in the picture above? That is the cooler. It’s massive! It doe work really well, though. The first time I fired it up, the CPU fan did not work, and within a Minute the cooler was really hot to the touch. So the four 120 mm fans that cool the system move a good amount of air at fairly low RPM (CPU  @ 1200, on idle), which gives me a cool, quiet system.

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Is mayonnaise an instrument??

Oh barnacles …

It has been over a week since we last saw our 18-year-old old Maine Coon Sodabe. He was on his last leg last time we saw him. His kidney s were failing and he could hardly eat any more. Sadly, we think he wandered off to die somewhere in the woods.

He was a good cat, very low maintenance most of his life, and very social. When we picked him out from is litter in 1995 at the animal shelter, he was the one with the pink nose. Our  Siamese Deha took him in like one of her own.

Phew … brutal weekend – I am hurting all over! Saturday morning Jacob and I did our usual 2 hours of Karate with Sensei Kevin. That’s usually pretty intense, but Saturday evening we also went bowling for 3 hours with 6 of Julia’s friends, to celebrate Julia’s 16th Birthday last week. Thank god they had decent beer at that place!

Sunday morning, I got up a 7:00 and went running. It was 60 Deg. F (16 Deg C) and fairly low humidity, so conditions were great, and I went for 10 Miles (16KM) on Guess Road. That was my longest barefoot run so far (0.2 miles longer than my last 10 mile run) AND this was the first time I beat 100 Minutes over 10 miles! And yet, the run was actually really pleasant. I paced myself carefully, watched my technique and was really able to enjoy my run. Since the weather was so nice, Laura, of course, wanted to go horseback riding, too. Julia was busy with homework all day, so I went for a 1 1/2 hour ride with Laura at Hill Forest that afternoon. Boy, when I got off Wally, I could barely walk.

So, I am in pain today. But it’s all good – it was a fun weekend. Not much in the way of chores got done, but we spent a lot of time outside enjoying the unusually cool weather (for August in Durham).

Yesterday, I set up a baby pool in the pasture and, after some coaxing and a little – uh – push, one of the emus got in and sat down and took a bath. She really seemed to enjoy her bath, flopping on one side or the other several times to get the water everywhere.

DEUTSCH: Emus im Planschbecken … den Emus ist es in letzter Zeit so heiß und die genießen es so wenn man sie mal mit dem Wasserschlauch abspritzt, daß ich den beiden jezt ein Planschbecken aufgestellt habe. Mit einem kleinen Schubser ging dann auch gleich einer der Vögel rein und die Abkühlung schien ihr dann auch richtig Spaß zu machen.

It has been pretty hot, lately and whenever the horses get hosed down, the emus come over and sometimes we spray them with water, too. They do seem to enjoy getting hosed down, and they sometimes sit down in the puddle and try to take a bath. So I got them the baby pool and I cut off the top half of the rim so they can step over it more easily.

More emu photos below …

Mehr Emuphotos weiter unten …

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Photos from our week in the Virginia Mountains. Open the post and click on a photo to start the gallery.

Urlaubsphotos! Hier öffnen und dann auf ein Photo klicken um die Gallerie zu starten.

Overlook at Grayson Hughlands

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(English) Letzten Samstag packten wir unser Gepäck, Futter für die Pferde und Jacob’s Kayak in den Pferdeanhänger, luden die Fahrräder auf das Fahrradgestell und die Pferde auf den Anhänger und dampften ab in die Berge für eine Woche. Wir fuhren cirka 150 Meilen/240 KM nach Virginia in die Nördlichen Blue Ridge Mountains am New River. Dort haben wir von einer Bekannten eine Ferienhäuschen gemietet daß auf einem Berg auf etwa 760 Meter Höhe und etwa 60 Meter über dem Fluß liegt.

Bei einigen Steigungen wurde der 5,9 Liter Dieselmotor unseres Pickup ziemlich heiß, aber mit etwas Vorsicht und Geduld schaffte es unser 4.5 Tonnen schweres Gespann hier herauf. Die letzten 20 Minuten der Anfahrt ging es über Schotterstraßen begauf und bergab und dann kroch unser Gespann im niedrigsten Gang die steile, kurvige Auffahrt 50 Höhenmeter zu dem Ferienhäuschen hinauf. Ich war froh daß unser Pickup Allrad Antrieb und gute Refen hatte. (Hier weiterlesen …)

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A week at Peggy’s Cabin is just what the doctor ordered. A week of horseback riding, kayaking, mountain biking and hiking … and a nice, tasty beer when we get back. Saturday, we packed the trailer with the gear: the kayak, hay for the horses, tack, some tools, and our baggage. The bikes got strapped to the rack in front of the truck and then we loaded the horses and drove into the Blue Ridge Mountains in Southern Virginia. The engine got a bit hot dragging all that stuff up the mountains. And for the last few miles on one-lane gravel roads up to the cabin I was really glad we had 4-wheel-drive.

The horses are staying inside their travel fence, munching on the nice, juicy mountain grass around Peggy’s Cabin.  The cabin is located at 2,500 feet (760 meters), about 200 feet (60 meters) above the New River in Grayson country, Virginia. Ironically, the “New” is considered the oldest river in North America. There are lots of logging roads and gravel roads to explore on horseback and on bikes, and the New River is great for kayaking or canoeing, especially right now when it is full after all the rain.

kayaking on the New River

Today, Jacob and I spent 3 1/2 hours on the river kayaking down from the Virginia/NC border to to the road right below the cabin. I then hiked up to the cabin and got the truck to haul the kayaks out. The river is still pretty shallow here – about 2 – 4 feet  (1/2 – 1 meter), so there is no motorized traffic on the river and there are occasional rapids that make kayaking pretty fun. It was really quiet and peaceful on the river and we had nice weather most of the time (we did get drenched in one shower).

While Jacob and I were kayaking, Laura and Julia took the horses on a long excursion all over the logging roads around the cabin and along the river. Wally and Cleo had eaten a lot the nice, juicy mountain grass ad they were feeling pretty good. They also waded into the river and into the pool below a waterfall. They, too, got rained on.

So, we’re looking forward to a few more fun-filled days here in the mountains. We hope it won’t rain too much. The temperatures are rally nice with highs in the low 80s (below 30*C).  (more photos below)

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Here is another fun Jazz tune to enjoy on this Friday (or whenever you like)

Dave Holland Quintet – Vicissitudes – recorded in 2007

In this year’s edition of the Doughman Quadrathlon race, team Overheight When Flashing finished in 5th place! So for the third time in a row, we finished in the top ten of the Doughman. As far as I know, only two other teams have accomplished this: team Dain’s Place (hell, they OWN the Doughman) and El Gigante. Now, the Bull City Track Club team clocked their second 1st place in a row, so we’ll see next year if they can keep this up.

Here is the menu for this year and who on our team took on which leg:

• Leg 1, Swim – Bill Copeland; Food from Rise: Pig in a blanket with Firsthand Foods sausage link, Freshpoint sweet potatoes, and cheddar cheese
• Leg 2, Bike – Craig Young; Food from NOSH: Pimiento mac-n-cheese “cupcake” including Freshpoint kale
• Leg 3, Long Run – Jason Figge; Food from Dos Perros: Freshpoint kale and mushroom tamales
• Leg 4, Short Run – Jurgen Henn; Food from Dain’s Place: “The Jurgen”– Firsthand Foods bratwurst with gorgonzola cheese, kraut and Freshpoint jalapeños on a locally baked hotdog roll from the bread shop

We all did really well with our individual legs, but on the desserts – that’s where we smoked ’em! We were the fastest team (1 Min 11 Sec.) on the dessert leg:

• The Parlour (Freshpoint purple sweet potato ice cream with honey marshmallow)
• LocoPops (vegan strawberry lemonade paleta)
• Daisy Cakes (vanilla bean cupcake filled with strawberry-rhubarb compote and topped with ginger buttercream with Freshpoint strawberries and honey)
• Monuts (strawberry shortcake donuts)

Each of us had to finish one of these delectable desserts and we then had sprint to the finish together as a team.

So much fun!

McCoy Tyner Trio with guests (Frisell, Bartz) – Stuttgart, Germany, 2009-07-24

Enjoy!

Last weekend, we moved the emus out to the horse pasture and one of the two started chasing the geese out of the pasture. Silly thing. Of course he did not stand a chance keeping them out – those geese ae much too stubborn. He has since given up trying to keep the geese out. Buy his attempts were funny to watch.

Letztes Wochenende haben wir die Emus auf die Pferdeweide umgesiedelt und einer der Emus begann sofort zu versuchen die Gänse aus der Weide zu vertreiben. Natürlich hatte der Emu keine Chance, denn diese wilden Kanada Gänse sind viel zu hartnäckig. Er hates auch inzwischen aufgegeben, aber seine Versuche sind ganz amüsant.

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Monday, Laura made this loaf of sourdough bread, which was tasty as it was pretty:

Montag hat Laura diesen leckeren Laib Weizensauerbrot gebacken.

Weiter unten ist noch ein Bild …

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Sadly, on April 17, our beloved little black poodle Meme passed away due to a terrible accident. We had inherited Meme in Oct. 2011 from Laura’s mom Dolores. Meme had been a faithful and cheerful companions to Dolores for several years, and so when Dolores passed away, Meme came with us to North Carolina. It was quite an adjustment for Meme, going from being a mostly-indoors, lap-sitting companion dog to a life as a “farm dog,” with horses, emus and an old, feisty cat or two to contend with. But over time she got in touch with her “inner dog” and started to enjoy rolling in horse poop, chasing the geese and the squirrels, and – her favorite – riding in the truck with her nose out the window and in the wind. She also learned  several tricks, like “roll over”,  “jump” and how to walk on her hind legs. We’ll miss that little dog and her silly tricks.

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Tonight, I pulled batch #100 from my biodiesel reactor and started washing the fresh fuel. Back in Aug. 2006 I brewed my first batch and I’ve been cooking fuel ever since. I collected almost 5,000 gallons (20.000 liters) of used fryer oil from local restaurants and processed it with 1,000 Gallons of Methanol and about 200 kilos of Potassium Hydroxide to make an estimated 4,600 Gallons of fuel for my cars and my truck. That’s almost 50,000 Kilos (or more than 100,000 pounds) of CO2 that was NOT added to the atmosphere.

Today, our family bid a very sad farewell to my sister’s husband of 18 years, Karsten Hupfer. He died completely surprisingly on March 23 at a hospital in Waiblingen, Germany. He leaves a huge void in his and our family, and in my sister’s life in particular.

Heute haben wir uns in tiefer Trauer von meinem Schwager Karsten Hupfer verabschiedet. 18 Jahre lang war er meiner Schwester ein loyaler Ehemann und ein Fels in der Brandung. Am 23. März starb er völlig überraschend im Krankenhaus in Waiblingen. Wir vermissen ihn alle sehr.

… is Durham, North Carolina, according to the magazine Southern Living:

Part of what makes Bull City compelling is the confluence of old and new: Its foodie future is gradually wiping out its tobacco past, yet remnants of the town’s first industry provide a backdrop for its current scene. Both the American Tobacco Historic District and Brightleaf Square, two mixed-use developments brimming with restaurants, bars, and live music venues, are housed in former tobacco warehouses that date back to the 1800s and 1900s. The town’s top tastemakers are also drawing national attention. Durham recently scored four James Beard Foundation Award semi-finalist nods, including one for Scott Howell at Nana’s for Best Chef Southeast.

Check out Durham’s Celebrated Cuisine List for some of the best food Durham has to offer.

Finally it looks like spring has conquered the remnants of Winter, here in North Carolina. The weekend was gorgeous: sunny, warm (70*F/22*C), and dry. We finished planting our garden and Laura and Julia took the horses out to Hill Forest Sunday morning.

I did some logging, got a bad case of poison ivy and I also started on my newest project: fungi. I got a big bottle of Mycogrow, as well as two bags of mushroom plugs from Fungi Perfecti. I mixed in 16 tablespoons of Mycorrhizal Fungi spores into the little garden plot I made (plus a yard of biodiesel-waste/manure compost). The rest of the Mycorrhizal Fungi spores goes into an experimental compost piles where I will try to compost vegetable oil waste and glycerol.  The mushroom plugs I plan to use to inoculate several hardwood logs in order to grow edible mushrooms – shitake and lion’s mane, to be specific. If all goes well, well have some tasty, homegrown mushrooms in a couple of months.

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