2011 has been laid to rest, and 2012 has begun. Overall, 2011 had some ups and downs, but in the end I was still on the right side of the semi-frozen Minnesota turf when the ball dropped last night.

Here’s a recap from 2011 for anyone that gives a rats hind end..

January – February: It was pretty dang cold, so we didn’t do all that much.  I worked out, edited some videos and worked on some websites..

March: We headed up north for a weekend for a Rollag work weekend.  The 75 Case was getting fitted with a new boiler, and our new bucket truck was getting finished up as well.  Good friends, good times and we managed to make it into Moorhead shortly before 94 was closed due to bad weather.  If seemed to follow us up, but we didn’t really see it!

April: This brought the MSEA steam up at Larson Welding, and the maiden run of the 75 Case.  Once again we were chased up to Fargo by bad weather, but it didn’t affect our fun.

May: May brought a the start of steam season and was kicked off my my, Eileen, our buddy Tyson and the dogs loading up in a pickup and heading to Pawnee, Oklahoma for the OST/GEA show.  We caravanned down with the boys from the Nelson Bus Barn, our neighbors at Rollag. We had the opportunity to meet an engineer at Rollag last year who was to run the Baker Engine that was restored at Larson.  The engine was originally from the OK show and was going to return there for the 2011 show.  We got ourselves a plan and made a road trip down for 5 days of new adventures.  It was a great experience that I’ll not soon forget, and was one of those rare opportunities when everything fell into place.  Being from Minnesota and having a good amount of training towards my MN steam license, but not actually having it yet, it was great to be able to get down and operate an engine on my own.  It was truly a great weekend of traveling, meeting new people and seeing new places.  On our way back, we passed nearby Joplin, MO, shortly before it was decimated by a tornado. At the end of may, I got engaged, up at Rollag with our friends around over Memorial weekend.  That was an exciting weekend, and am exited for that next chapter of life.  No date has been set yet, but all things in good time.

June: The start of the month brought the MS150 bike tour once again, Marking my 15th year on the tour, give or take a year.  I had spent a good deal of time in the spring training, between riding, running and weight training.  Overall, it was a pretty good ride., and I’m looking forward to it already in 2012.  Also, Rollag held the Steam School, of which I took part in.  I’ve been learning the ropes for the past few seasons, but it was really nice to learn some of the details and logic behind you do what you do, and why things work the way they do.

July: Of course, July starts with the 4th weekend, as well as my birthday.  We took a trip to Rollag for a weekend, and some work on the camper.  We also ran down to the Hastings Little Log House with the Nelson clan and Tyson.. He made the trip down from up north since the show was featuring his two favorite things.  Chevy and green tractors.   We had some bad heat and humidity, along with some nasty storms on Saturday night that pretty much decimated most of the flea market.  At least it took care of the humidity.

August: Of course August means Rollag and the Avery feature.  10 days of vacation from work (ok, so I still worked some) lots of great friends, and a ton of camera gear for production of the 2011 Rollag DVD.  This carried over into September, but always ends too quickly.  The weather was pretty good, the people were even better, and you can be assured I’ll be there until every year until they stick me in the ground.  Also, knocking one item off my bucket list was running a 5k.  I completed the run in a shorter time than I had planned, which was pretty awesome for me, and then we departed immediately for Rollag!

September: A short two weeks after Rollag, we head off to the Albany show, which is where most of the Rollag people go to relax after our show.  Many of the same people, some different ones.  Again, a great long weekend.  The weather was a bit chilly, but the cheese curds were a good fix for that.  Later in the month, we headed up to Askov for a little family show by some relatives.  Again, it was a whole bunch of Rollag people pitching in, and really laid back. Also, the end of the month brought the close of a new house and moving.  Add all this activity on top of editing the Rollag DVD, and I’m one busy little beaver!

October: Brought house projects, editing and the Rollag annual meeting.  I once again ran for the Board, but was knocked out at the last round of voting.  I’m starting to feel like I should be on Survivor.  Upside, Eileen got on, as well as some of our friends.  It will be a good to have a large change of thought, and see what new ideas can be brought forward while still carrying on the existing plans.

November: Editing, Editing, Thanksgiving and Editing.  We had a few folks down for turkey, and also our 3rd annual Black Friday party.  It was a pretty good time, again, nothing beats spending time with friends and family.  Especially when you have great friends and family!

December: This was an interesting month.  Of course you have the Holidays, however in order to get there, I had to wade thru my employer getting purchased, and having the purchaser also be purchased.  Also, I took a trip out to California for some business travel, met up with some friends out there, saw the Golden Gate bridge, had drinks in a museum and had a sleepover at SFO.

Overall, not too bad of a year.  I guess I still have to complain about a house that hasn’t sold, and have completely blacklisted USBank for a reputable financial institution due to some unethical practices they used earlier in the year, and other details I prefer not to discuss.  I will advise you, to find a smaller, local bank where they know your name and aren’t a bunch of crooks.  I have no regrets, and suggest you do the same.

For 2012, I have a few goals and plans.  We have some work to do in the house; move a wall, add a bathroom, bar and some cabinets.  No real plan on when those will get done, but sometime soon.  I do need to get back in the fitness routine.  I’ve started up the P90X routine again, and joined a content with co-workers where the winner stands to win some real cash for losing the most weight.  Once I get back on a track, and knock out the holiday foods, I should be good.

I’ve got another big video project starting up in February, MS150, and show season.  A big goal for this year, is to find a Ranger, and upgrade the Cushman at Rollag.  Batteries are awesome for power, quiet and such, however, with the schedule I run up there, they are dead by Saturday, as they like more than 6 hours a night to charge.  Somewhere in there we also have the Spitfire to start restoring, along with a handful of other garage projects.

One big goal I have set for myself is to get back on the track to becoming self-employed by the time I hit 40.  I have some time, but need a few things in place in preparation for that.  Starting with one of the most basic things, I’ve consolidated my freelance sites into one site:  http://timdachtera.com.

I can’t say I have many true resolutions, but goals that I want to attain over a longer term vs. most resolutions that are forgotten a few weeks into the year.

Here’s to a great 2012 for everyone.  May you reach your goals, keep your compass pointed straight ahead, not forget the past, but don’t let it hold you back from making your future.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been really debating, and trying to justify the purchase of an iPad.  I don’t need the 64g model with 3G, just the simple Black 16gb WiFi would be just fine for my needs, which I have yet to fully determine.

I’ve been saying since they came out, that I didn’t need one, I had the desktop, laptop, and DROID to use, plus a handful of WinX laptops laying around.  On the flip side, I’ve recently been trying to ‘simplify’ my daily life.  I don’t have too much free time at night after supper, working on client projects etc, and continuing to sit in my home workspace vs. being social doesn’t seem wise.  On the other hand, sitting on the couch with my laptop (which also gets mighty warm on the lap) – It is a 5 year old laptop afterall.

My thought for the iPad was, something I can quickly pick up and put down, check news, gossip on FB and track some stuff at home like my foods and exercises (as mentioned to me by a co-worker) – Something I mainly track on my DROID now, which is a bit cumbersome.  I could also use it a bit with some of my video work for odd tasks such as timers and audio recording, something I currently have to lug my laptop along for.  Turns out I can keep tabs on my TV stuff at home, and watch shows via the iPad, (which might be nice sometimes, as I don’t have a TV in my workspace, or also to look up new meals in the kitchen (don’t forget the screen cover)

I could see a valid use for it at the office, using it in meetings etc to take notes.  I rarely if ever undock my laptop to take it to meetings.  Primarily because it’s always connected and doing some sort of task where I cannot drop the net connection (and WiFi isn’t an option for what I’m doing) Also, I can keep an eye on some of my tasks that I monitor during the day as well.

One big positive that a co-worker mentioned to me, was use it to review photos when you’re out shooting.  The little LCD on the back of the camera doesn’t due justice, and the last time I went shooting, again, lugging that 5yr old laptop was a pain, especially since the battery was not lasting long.  – For a weekend camping with a backpack only, light=good.

I’m sure I can find many more uses, but I’m trying to moreso justfiy the cost of it than the actual ‘having’ of it.  I’ve got a stash of spare parts I can offload on Craigslist to subsidize a portion of the cost, so I guess if I can come up with 1/2 the cost of one via selling stuff, that should be doable.

Any of you with iPads have any other great ideas of why I should have one (BESIDES Angry Birds)? – Or, do you have a reason NOT to get one..

Tags: Apple, iPad, iPad2, Laptop, Mac, Photography

Spark Show - Photo by Tim Dachtera

So, the last few weeks have been pretty fun, and the next few weeks are shaping up to be pretty fun as well. Here’s a little recap of what’s been, and what will be!

Running: Well, I’ve given up on the whole trying to run/ride after work at night.  There are just too many things to do.  So, I’ve opted to get my ass out of bed at 5:30am instead, and trade off between jogging and riding.  So far it’s been working, especially if I can drag myself out of bed at 5:30 on a Monday morning.  The scale did manage to tip in the favorable direction last week, so I’m quite happy about that.

Shows: A bunch of us ventured down to Pawnee, OK for the show down there last week, and it was certainly a good experience.  It was fun to travel 700 miles across the country, and still be in the company of new people who know the people you know from back home.  We were 6 Minnesotan’s that came down to run a steam engine, who talked funny according to the OK residents.  I sure had a good time running the Baker engine.  Here’s a few photos from Facebook, and video clips on YouTube.

We’ll be headed up to Rollag for Memorial weekend coming up here soon, which should be an exciting weekend for a handful of reasons.  With some new upgrades to Cushman 2.0 (we might be on v2.3 by now) for the camera boom, the new set of batteries and more camera toys to play with, this years DVD for Rollag should be pretty good. Being it our 5 year anniversary of doing the DVD’s for Rollag, we’ll be putting in some fun clips of behind the scenes and how we get the shots we get.  Also, in June, I’ll be attending Steam School, in prep to get my MN boilers paperwork, so I can run an engine if the opportunity is presented.

MS-150: The 2011 MS-150 is quickly approaching.  While I do have some funds raised, I need to get a handful more to reach my goal.  If you’d like to support me, please click this link to do so!  I’m looking forward to getting back together with a bunch of the team I used to ride with, so pending weather, it should be a good weekend!  Feel free to visit us at Grand Casino, or celebrate our return at Century College.

Stupid House: Still have the house on the market, and it just needs to go away.  It’s a wonderful house if you have no kids, or 1-2 kids that can sleep alone since the master suite is upstairs.  Huge back yard and 2.5 car garage with lots of space.  Recent paint in most of the rooms and refinished hardwood.  We just need more garage space actually, and a mortgage with no past attached to it.

Freelance: I’ve been keeping busy working on my TractionCMS platform for some of my clients that are still 100% home rolled, and also been working with a number of other clients to create new, or update old sites to some present web trends for better usability, e-commerce and improved SEO functionality.  If you know anyone who is looking for a website, please send them my way.

That’s pretty much it in my world for the moment!

Tags: Fitness, Rollag, Summer, Vacation