Detroit is a walk in the park compared to O’Hare. Particularly the traffic getting there.
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Bill, are you heading home on Sunday morning?
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Yes, I plan on leaving Sunday morning.
[quote=“BillSchiller, post:97, topic:3741, full:true”]
Yes, I plan on leaving Sunday morning.
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Yeah, we’ll have to get on the road early too. We have trainings to do on Monday morning.
Yeah, seems like a good meet this time. There’s some excitement about it around here too. Luke was a little disappointed today though. He got his letter about the Regional 4-H Public Speaking competition. It is on the 31st, so he won’t make Argos this year. He won the county competition with what I think is a really good speech about legal liabilities for bee keepers. I’ve been kinda proud of how he has developed that skill. He used to be terribly afraid of public speaking. Then he decided he wanted to overcome his fear and learn how to do it.In a short number of months he has become quite advanced in the skill. He preached an exceptional sermon last Sunday for the first message.
Anyway, everyone is looking forward to going…partially bcause we have been so busy getting ready for this training season. Argos looks like a vacation to everyone, me included. We’ve just gotten hammered with events since we made it known that we are willing to do them. I guess that’s a blessing, but it’s tiresome too.
We are almost ready for our OpenHouse in 9 days.
We have 167 iniversity students coming through in the next two weeks.
We just got another missionary training for some community leaders from Kenya lined up for the days immediately after Argos.
And another 2-week pogram just before Argos for about 35 Honduran community development workers and 25 American University students…
But we’re most excited about a meeting we’re having tomorrow with a Mennonite NGO Program Director leader working in Ghana, Africa. A 22 year veteran missionary who seems to have all the right ideas about how to get the job done. Those are hard to find. They do a lot of evangelism work and cross-cultural training, but are not doing much in the way of development work focusing on dealing with physical needs of the poor. They said when they started out they intended to do it but didn’t have the trainers to make it happen, and have been looking for the right fit for a long time. We’re hoping they will send all their people through here to take an intensive 3 to 6 week program on those subjects, focusing on appropriate technology, health & sanitation, and a lot of other subjects. That would pretty much be a dream come true for us. We’ll see how it goes.
Don’t mistake me for complaining, this is what we were hoping to do, just didn’t expect it to happen so fast, so we’re running to catch up.
Jakob is anxious to show off his tractor. He tore some of it down to try to fix some vibration in the drive shaft and ended up having to replace a bunch of bearings and stuff, so we’re looking for those parts now. It’s not easy to find parts for a 70-80 year old tractor. My brother was over tonight helping him machine new parts. But the gasifier is working well and he’s getting the hang of a starting procedure…and making charcoal.
He has also built a backpack charcoal gasifier to run a weed eater. I think it’s a little heavy, but he’s anxious to see what everyone else thinks of it. Anyway, we’re looking forward to seeing everyone. Planning to bring the whole family this time, except Luke, so I’ll try to get Erika to have her violin in the mix…
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You can find parts for those still. A repair manual helps so you can find part numbers or standard size replacements.
Yeah, they’re out there, but usually not too cheap. My brother helped Jakob make some of what he needed last night in the machine shop. And he ordered some bearings this morning.
On another note, I talked to Dr Larry today. He says that, as usual, he is having trouble getting on the DOW site. (I think he lost his password again and doesn’t want to bother anyone to fix it) Anyway, he asked me to let you know he was coming to Argos, and will need a ride from the airport if someone could do that. Sometime Thursday if he can work it out.He’ll let it be known more when he has more info…
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I was just wondering if there is going to be at this 2018 event any DOW hats, Tee shirts, vehicle magnet DOW signs, or other great stuff to buy, like there has been at the past events?
If there is, put me down for all the above.
Bob
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Bob, and all,
I have been dozing at the wheel a bit… My brother Jamie and I are working on Argos 2018 T-shirts. I will have a sign-up sheet shortly. Shirts will be COD at Argos, still working on a price, thinking $15-$18 range. Jamie is art and printing, I will be ordering shirts and helping. Jamie has done this for a living and still has axcess to T-shirt printing equipment.
As for the rest of the goodies, hope Chris and others will bring what they have extra from previous meet-ups.
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Looks like it’s time to revise my answer. Miracles, after all, do happen.
We hope to be there by late Friday. It would be good to see an updated list of planned attendees!
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Great news Robin !!
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Thanks Wayne!
The woodgas gathering has become a part of our lives not just for the adventure of traveling but for the great people we have met there, and, of course, the presence of the amazing machines that are fueled by wood and charcoal. I hope it is well attended this year.
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Robin and all,
Here is a cropped screen-shot of the attendance form without personal information. It is up to date as of 12:35 pm on 05/09/2018. Some folks are on there twice, but you can see that for yourself! 
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It’s a go for Michael Gibbs and Bob Mackey.
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I’ve made up a few buttons to bring if anybody is interested. I can also do them as pocket mirrors instead.
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Dang, I have zero time. I want to scream!!! If I can get the time off from work and bring something.
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Put me down for a couple of them buttons.
Bob
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Good morning Andy .
Please put me down for a couple of the DOW buttons .
Thanks
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I really like the “free the carbon” button. We’ll take a few of those.
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Sorry fellas pull me from the list I’m going to have to pass
John, Sorry you are unable to attend. Hope you can work it in next year, God willing!