[AT] Backing up tractor pictures and degenerating into a ramble.

[Larry D. Goss]

FWIW, I did the calculation to see what the equivalent stack of 3.5
floppies for a 160 Gigabyte would be.  It's a stack approximately 5 feet
by 5 feet by 8 feet.

Larry 

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of
robinson at svs.net
Sent: Sunday, January 16, 2005 11:24 AM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Subject: [AT] Backing up tractor pictures and degenerating into a
ramble.

	Actually I don't bother backing up tractor pictures or even take
many any 
more. I have a lot of good pictures in my head. Funny, as I typed that I
had an 
image flash through my head of John Girrard's little home made tractor
that 
looks like it was built with a cutting torch and an arc welder...   :-)
	My big back up item is my genealogy work. The Legacy Family Tree
software 
creates its b/u in a zip file and it takes very little room. It will
even fit 
on a 1.4 floppy. I am very careful about that file. Once about a year
ago a 
computer glitch cost me a months work. Now in addition to my normal b/u
stuff I 
keep two floppies, a CD, b/u files on three desktops, a zip drive and my
laptop 
and at two locations on the web...   :-)   I am also going to send it as
an 
attachment to several other family members. I don't want to lose that
baby...
	All of my family tree working notes I keep on other hard drives
and password 
protected. I also have a lot of "files and piles" of paper notes.
	Much of my stuff is older equipment but I like to putter so I
have two desk 
sitting side by side that look a little like the Titan mission control.
I have 
4 desktop PCs and my laptop all networked together and 5 monitors. I
barely 
have room to write out a postcard...   ;-)
	I still putter along with the family tree stuff and do a tiny
bit most days 
but I have given the all out effort a bit of a rest for the last 6
months to 
avoid going completely mad. Too much else going on. I started with
little more 
than nothing beyond my great grand parents a few years ago (less on
Diana's 
family) and it is now up above 1,700 names, most with places, dates,
marriages 
etc. Some of these folks can really hide... It will never be done, they
can't 
be. I am reaching the point where I will soon publish what I have for
the 
benefit of family and let someone else hopefully pick up the work later
and go 
on. Over the last several years I have spent more time in cemeteries
than some 
of the dead folks.   :-)

	BTW, does anybody here live close to Warsaw (Duplin County) NC
?...   :-)

	I have long enjoyed Mike Sloans ads from the Lancaster Farming
paper for two 
reasons. One is simply that they are interesting. The other is that both
Diana 
and I (especially Diana) have roots in that area. 95% or more of her
family 
tree is German/Swiss Penn dutch and almost all in Lancaster County. Part
of my 
maternal line is from northern MD and York County (next to Lancaster)
PN. As I 
read the ads I often wonder if some of the folks running the ads are
distant 
relatives or if some of the antiques they sell were ever used by our
families 
ancestors there. If only those things could talk. Maybe it is just as
well that 
they can't...   ;-)
	At least tractors mostly have serial numbers. Genealogy can have
a lot of 
problems that are about the equivalent of someone switching serial
number 
plates between tractors. You can spend years tracking a line then modern
DNA 
testing can prove that one horny milkman 100 years ago threw the whole
thing 
out the window...   ;-)
	Just a couple of weeks ago a fellow about my age on one of my
surname list 
found after tracing what he thought was his line for many many years
that he 
was adopted and never told about it... Talk about devastated. The last
he 
posted he had gathered himself and was going to push on anyway... He has
no 
clue about his birth parents.
	BTW, I suspect that either Diana or I are related to more than
one member of 
this list. It is funny how last names keep popping up... 



-- 
farmer, Esq.
      Wealth beyond belief, just no money...


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson at svs.net

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