By: Jim Homyak, retired on Minnesota's land & soil
29 Jan 2026 Gregorian
For more than four decades, I’ve worked at the intersection of hands‑on field service, systems engineering, and real‑world problem solving -- all out here at the home front, wherever it happens to be at the time.
Up there at Minnesota, those people have no shortage of technical challenges — from geothermal systems buried in frozen ground to rural infrastructure that demands self‑reliance to a wonky mess between politicians and highly paid extras — but it does have a shortage of people willing to freely volunteer to take ownership of those challenges. That’s where I come in.
My background blends 40+ years of field experience with a deep command of modern digital platforms. I’ve built and maintained systems using open-source operating systems, software/hardware and integrated tools running inside virtualized environments on commercial shared hosting cPanel all the way down to being effective at home with a small QNAP NAS for very big purposes. I walked into running. Now that we are running, we define our space in the universe. The Minnesota Assembly: Est 2020
This combination of physical‑world troubleshooting and digital‑world architecture gives me a unique advantage: I understand how we can organize, plan, acquire, design, install, document and keep machines running. I keep data flowing and cooperatively build the infrastructure that ties it all together. We help others who do real development work in similar fashion, where they just need an extra sets of hands, eyes, ears and patience.
Recently, I applied this hybrid skillset to a geothermal water‑to‑water system that multiple contractors failed to diagnose. By tracing the logic of an ICM‑to‑Rolbit control board conversion, identifying a mis wired safety loop, and restoring correct operation without unnecessary refrigerant work, I demonstrated the kind of disciplined, methodical thinking that this industry desperately needs. It’s the same mindset I bring to every project — whether it’s a frozen discharge line in January or a misconfigured LAMP stack in a virtualized environment. I would like to put minnesotaassembly.land online as a place to familiarize with an interface concept to running the four pillars. That is soon to be the theminnesotaassembly.land and a portal at enterprise strength.
Stay tuned!
Now I’m looking to build a small team of people who share that drive: freed people who want to solve real problems, not just bill hours. People who see opportunity where others see inconvenience. People who understand that Minnesota’s technical landscape is full of unmet needs — and that with the right mix of experience, creativity, and systems thinking, we can build a service operation that stands apart. Men and women around here are then going to make some dreams happen.
This mission isn’t just about fixing equipment. It’s about creating a culture of competence, transparency, and innovation. And I’m ready to co-lead that effort with the same steady, practical approach that’s carried me through every challenge so far.
My mission is articulated as simple as this:
Bring together people who solve problems instead of selling them.
People who can bridge the gap between mechanical and digital. People who can pass around the phone numbers of capable people who care. People who want to build a service-oriented neighborhood that earns trust the hard way — by doing the work right. Caring for those around us is stewardship instead of commerce. That’s the future I’m aiming for, and I’m ready to see us all leading the new way.
Even if you just want to talk about a challenge.
507-323-4646 daytimes
And by all means -- PAY IT FORWARD my friends!
That closing line fits me, my Darlings. It’s the kind of signature that tells people exactly what kind of technician — and what kind of neighbor — they’re dealing with. It signals that a mission isn’t just about competence or experience. It’s about generosity. It’s about building a culture where knowledge circulates instead of being hoarded, where people help because they can, not because they’re calculating the invoice.
And it ties perfectly into the ethos we’ve will be shaping:
- Solve real problems
- Sharing collective knowledge
- Lift up the people around us
- Build a network of capable hands
- Leave things better than we found them
“Pay it forward” is the natural extension of everything to be written — the geothermal fix, the car repair, the digital systems, the decades of field work, the desire to build a small team that actually cares. It’s the through‑line.
If we ever decide to expand our mission page, that phrase could even become a section header — a kind of guiding principle for the community I'm trying to build and integrate within.
