Well, my Father’s Day began by sitting down at my computer with a cup of coffee at 7am. I received a bug report that I thought couldn’t wait until Monday, so I logged into my in-house Linux server and noticed something unusual. Root was already logged into my server, and was in the middle of spawning attacks on other networks. What fun! My days’ plans had instantly changed from pleasant leisure to server recovery.

It turns out that I had a dormant installation of a web statistics tool, which was recently found to have a buffer overrun vulnerability. That was my bad. Two things worked in my favor during this intrusion. My first stroke of luck was sitting down at 7am on Sunday – I was able to discover the intruder within an hour of the initial compromise of my machine. The last thing working in my favor is that, yes, I was once, in a previous life,  a fairly capable “gray hat” hacker. In my teens, living in a trailer park, with little to no money for such luxuries as internet or bbs access, I naturally learned how to create back doors into various local university servers so that I could ftp and telnet to my heart’s content. I never damaged a machine or destroyed data – but I did break the law in order to gain access to public information available only to the academic community. So with this sort of life experience, it didn’t take me long to track my father’s day hacker to Romania, and learn his handle, and in turn his real name. In my youth I would have taken this attack personally and volleyed to my opponent something an order of magnitude more damaging than his attack. But the reality is that I wasn’t singled out – I was just another IP address to a scanner that was automatically seeking out vulnerable servers. So, on my Father’s Day I rebuilt a much more secure Linux server from the ground up, enabled my T1 router’s firewall at its most paranoid setting, changed all of my passwords, and moved on with my life – a little wiser and more suspicious of the global internet  community.

I’ve got a mountain of finished farm projects behind me, and will be blogging about it this or next evening. On the farm-front, things are moving along nicely!

Eeek, we fell off the Internet for over a week when my Siemens 5940 router bit the dust after only three months in service. An MCI/UUNet support engineer determined the router to be at fault. So, this Monday, I contacted Siemens tech support to get a replacement. After they wasted 20 minutes of my time testing the router from remote and confirming that the router was, in fact, dead, they asked me to ship the dead router to them. I was told that once they received the dead router, a living and breathing router would be shipping back to me. I told them to go pound sand and I demanded a replacement router be shipped overnight immediately. I was offered a $30 expedited service but they required me to purchase the replacement router. I was promised that once they received the dead router, they would credit me. So, the end result is that I’ve paid Siemens $700 twice, just to get <b>one</b> functioning router. If my whole experience wasn’t off putting enough, it took Siemens four business days to “overnight” my replacement router.

Thanks, Siemens, for working so very hard to help win another long term customer for Cisco!

But enough complaining, I’m elated simply to have my Internet pipeline running again. Outlook is currently downloading 12,341 email messages, so it looks like now is a good time to go buy the fence rails I’ll need to repair our north pasture.

Cheers!

Sean

Last night, I worked on the Oak Hill Stables logo. I stumbled over a fantastic illustrator (http://www.inkart.com/)  and licensed the use of an oak tree illustration from him. The illustration is superb – I’m fortunate to have found Michael – his oak tree makes the logo something to be proud of. I added some falling leaves, and adjusted the details somewhat, and have selected the font and size. Here is what I’ve come up with so far:

I’m going to let it cool its heels for a few days and come back to it. If I still like it, I’ll make it official.

In other related house and farm news, I’ve put in about 10 more hours of work into my landscape intensive care project. I also converted a dog run in the horse barn into a chicken run  The chicken run is interesting, it is essentially a 5’ wide by 12’  deep “stall” in the barn. It has a swing door instead of a sliding stall door.  It also has a revolving lockable door at the back which opens up into a 4’x8’ wire fenced pen. Cleaning out 6” layer of dog stuff took over an hour with the shovel and the wagon . Another four hours stapling and slatting up poultry mesh and our chicken, aptly named Henny Penny, now has a deluxe two room condo. I’ll probably build some perches for her this weekend.

I’m finishing up Moira and Chloe’s bedrooms facelifts this week, so I’ll have lots of before and after photos of that project posted soon. Moira has named hers “The Rose Room” and Chloe’s is “The Sunshine Room”. Fun fun!

Let’s Play Find the Trellis!

Once upon a time our newly acquired property had a driveway Trellis. Then, previous owners inexplicably allowed it to be swallowed whole by Wisteria. Wisteria is an ornamental vine. As you can see in the first photo, our Wisteria was no longer ornamental. It had gone nuclear. However, this was nothing a gas powered toy couldn’t help me fix quickly. So, I raced over to the local John Deere dealership, and came home with a Pro Series H20S gas powered hedge trimmer.

Soon after, I had reclaimed the Trellis and carted away the debris. It’s not perfect yet, but as you can see from the second photo, it’s a big improvement. During my next trim session with this monstrosity, I’ll be trimming the top and fine tuning the entire vine to get it growing in the right direction.

I’ve made good progress with our courtyard landscape. In another month the landscape will be moved out of intensive care. My next landscape project is weeding out and cutting down the Chinese Shumacs – also known as the Tree from Hell – that have invaded  my backyard mechanical and basement entry area.  

What farm would be complete without a farm truck? Exactly. So, on Memorial Day weekend, we headed on over to Duncan in Rocky Mount and traded in our venerable Oldsmobile Aurora for something in Big. It’s a 2005 Dodge Ram 1500 Thunderroad. As you can see from the photo, nothing says Nouveau Farmer like 20” chrome clad rims. Soon our service department will be installing matching chrome tubular running boards so our children can climb in and out without spotters

The 345HP Hemi v-8 and the truck’s 8600lb towing capacity will come in handy during Dressage competition season. Now, our next challenge is to find the right two-horse trailer that also offers a lounging area without all of the “living quarter” bells and whistles. 

The truck has 219 miles on it now so according to the manual I’ve got another 81 miles left of “rapid and brief full pedal acceleration while at cruising speed”. All in the name of proper engine break-in of course!

This is what a 6’1” 185 pound man looks like sitting on a teensy widdle John Deere 2210, a 23HP diesel tractor. Laugh it up, all you real farmers! Haha! Seriously, though, this is a surprising little tractor. I’ve been able to reclaim pasture at absolutely blinding speed, one 62” wide strip at a time. I can mow my entire lawn in under two hours, which doesn’t sound impressive if you don’t know my lawn is +/– 8 acres.  And on Monday, they’re putting a loader on this baby. That’s right, this intimidating tractor will be able to lift 600 pounds of “farm by-product” at once, which is about 500 pounds more than I can lift by myself. Also on order is a 72” landscape rake, a grading blade and an iMATCH quick hitch.

In the photo, you can see Moira and Chloe are getting a wagon ride while I haul a load of horse tack to the tack room. This John Deere wagon has a neat feature. It has a lever on the hitch, flush with the front of the wagon box. When one child climbs out the front of the wagon and steps on the lever, the other children are dumped out the back. Genius! I tell you, they don’t pay those John Deere mechanical engineers enough money!

Nancy and I had some fun this past month while we brainstormed from time to time on what name we’d give our farm. It didn’t take long before we stopped taking ourselves seriously, coining such gems as “Snob Hill Farm”, and “Dead Moose Farm”, and “Tax Shelter Stables”. Recently, on a drive home, we decided we wanted to include the word “Oak” in honor of the massive oak tree, the very first thing one sees as you approach our farm. So we decided to name the farm “Oak Hill Stables”. Soon I’ll be designing the logo for the farm. Not sure if I’ll be basing the design around an oak leaf, or an entire oak tree, but I’m damn sure I’ll have a hill in there somewhere. Too bad I’m not an illustrator or I bet it would look damn cool! Maybe we should have named it big red square farm, because I can make killer red squares!

When we first moved in I had no idea what this Trellis-like landscape construction was. When I showed this photo to a friend via instant messenger, his reply was “Hey, nice Pergola!”. It doesn’t look it, but this Pergola needs some intensive care. There is some wood rot evident in various load bearing posts. The entire structure could use a fresh coat of paint. These two tasks would, under normal circumstances, be pretty straightforward. However, note the vines. Gosh, they’re pretty! But wait…. My god, they’ve eaten the latticework! How does one go about painting latticework that is covered in vines? As far as I know, one doesn’t. Unless one is also willing to lay down paint on vines and leaves. I’m tempted. But I’m putting a hold on that project until I consult with a landscape professional. Until then, I’m cleaning up the Pergola (I love saying that word) and cleaning off the brick semi-circle. Unlike the original brick pavers put down around the house in 1979–ish, these brick pavers – put down in 1985–ish – are not set down in mortar. They were set down in sand. Over the past 20 years, the sand has been pushed up by weeds. So….. In order to remove the weeds and clean off the sand and grime from the bricks, I’ve been abusing my weed trimmer. How so? By effectively whipping the brick into submission at very high RPM. I’ll note here that this technique works very well, but grains of sand traveling at roughly the speed of sound tend to embed themselves into things like exposed legs. After a half hour of sand blasting my shins I went and replaced my flip flops with knee high Muck Boots. In the photo at right you can see I’m actually making progress with this special brick whipping technique. The right side is nearly clear of weed and grime. The left side will have to wait until I regain sensation in my lower legs

Once upon a time, in June of 2004, Sean and Nancy Pecor moved from Orwell, Vermont to Blacksburg, Virginia. This move came after months of discussion and planning. We decided that Nancy would resign her position at her parents’ family farm to take on an exciting role as the director of the largest equestrian facility in Blacksburg. In the nine months that followed, we enjoyed both the positive aspects, and commiserated over the negative aspects, of living in the suburbs. Soon we began to dream of living in the country on our very own horse farm. So, after months of discussion and planning, we moved again! As of May 2005, we are the proud new owners of a uniquely beautiful house and horse farm located in Boones Mill, Virginia!

The House

The house itself was built in the late seventies for a local cancer surgeon, and was designed by a Martinsvillle architect named Conrad Knight. Architecturally speaking, the house is a custom brick Williamsburg Cape Cod with +/– 6,500 square feet of finished space. The house has five bedrooms, three full and two half baths. Other rooms include a large foyer, an eat-in kitchen, a dining room, a living room, a family room, a sewing room, and an office where my business operations have taken up residence. Even though the home was built using “modern” construction methods, the interior and exterior style successfully evokes the colonial period. Documents from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation that were found in the home would indicate that some effort was made to honor particular colonial themes throughout. One striking feature that hearkens back to earlier times is Storage. It abounds. I’ve never seen so much storage built into a home. Each closet, be it in a bedroom or a hall, is walk-in. Furthermore, six closets in the second floor have access to additional attic storage. These days, new homes, even those as large as this one, are designed with precious little storage room! Above all though, my favorite feature in the home is the commercial quality drinking fountain built into a corner of the kitchen!

Our brick cape cod is a beautiful home that is structurally sound and has aged gracefully. With that said, after nearly a month in the home, I have a compiled a staggering list of DIY repair, remodeling, landscaping and farm projects. Clearly the original owner had made a substantial investment in the original construction of the home and farm, but once construction was complete, basic maintenance was not executed, or was at best misguided.

The Landscape

It seems the landcape, the pastures, and the outbuildings have not, for many years, benefitted from a good steward. So, during this first month, I’ve begun to feel like I’m in Tolkien’s Middle Earth, touring a Rivendell long past its Autumn, seeing here and there the evidence of the former glory of the land. I’ve begun this month a substantial landscape reclamation project and will post updates to this blog as time permits. In the photo at right, it’s not entirely obvious that the Azaleas, Boxwoods and other flora have overgrown their boundaries. But trust me, hiding under that greenery and layers of sediment is another three feet of brick walkway! 

The Farm

The farm land is +/– 38 acres, and consists of +/– 10 acres of pasture, three paddocks, and rolling fields and forest suitable for riding cross country. In addition there is a full-size 20×60m outdoor Dressage riding arena. As for the barn structures, the horse barn, the indoor riding arena and the storage barn are each built with oak and cedar, a rarity these days. The horse barn is 3,000 square feet and has ten 12×12 box stalls, a heated wash stall with hot and cold water, a grain room and a tack room. Each stall has rubber mats, plus an individual light switch and power outlet. As you can see from the photo at right, the horse barn opens up to the 66×134 indoor riding arena. The riding arena has many 8×8 translucent panels to let in light; in addition each translucent panel is a “door” that can be slid open to bring in more daylight and fresh air. For riding after sunset, there are +/– 18 nickel metal hylide overhead lamps. There is also a disabled overhead watering system to help maintain the footing – it’s one of the many things on my repair list  

In between the storage barn and the horse barn is a heated barn office (with, yeee haw, another water fountain! ). The storage barn is quite large at 3,000 square feet  and has plenty of room for sawdust, hay and equipment. There is a long neglected shop corner in the barn that I will be renovating. An interesting feature in the storage barn is a 12×12 horse stall. It’s not original to the barn – I believe this may have been built as a quarantine stall of sorts. 

The Setting

Ah, the view. How to describe it. We’re perched on a hill at +/– 1,300 feet above sea level. Oddly enough, the driveway meets with the “rear” of the house, while the “front” of the house faces due North and enjoys an unobstructed view of Cahas Mountain (pronounced CAY-haw or CAW-HAW). Now, let me tell you, I’ve spotted Cahas Mountain from many places throughout several counties. And I think we may own one of the most highly treasured vantage points of this beautiful mountain. Cahas Mountain rises 3,571 feet and you’d swear you can see every inch of it’s height while standing in our brick courtyard. During our first month on the farm I enjoyed watching the Spring awakening gradually roll up the mountainside over a period of several weeks. In the photo at right, Spring had not yet made its full ascent   The lush green farming valley and Cahas mountainside helps this Vermonter feel much more at home as we settle into our life on the farm.

The Saga Continues….