Painted Sky

Not Morse Code

No, it's not dot dot dot, dash dash, dot dot dot.  It is southbound however.  I'm guessing 3 to 5 miles out.  The moon was behind it but obscured at this point by clouds....we're getting rain and then snow on Thursday.  Whoopee :-(

It's Been Over A Month

It's been over a month since I last put anything up on this blog.  Why? Well as a retired guy I can say I've been busy but everyone knows that's a lie.  Busy yes, but too busy to put anything up, well, not really.  I just haven't touched the camera.  I have done some reading, read a good book on the American Indians, mainly the Comanche and how they ruled the western lands.  Boy were our forefathers of the west a bunch of a**holes.  Yes, the Indians were cruel and savage but just because your skin is white doesn't make you an angel.  Let anyone walk into your house and lets see how you react if your property is just taken away as well as your way of life.  In some cases the savages were just that but it was on both sides.  

Now I'm reading a book called Frozen In Time.  It's a World War II story about a C-53 (5 crew members), a B-17 (9 crew members) and a Coast Guard plane called a Grumman Duck (3 crew members), all trying to do rescues in Greenland.  The C-53 cargo went down first then the B-17 tried to locate it and they went down and then the Coast Guard.

My next book is Here Lies Hugh Glass but better know today as Reverent the movie.  I want to read the book first, don't know why, just do.

Between reading times I have been reorganizing my workshop.  Bought a new tool, a Joiner / Planer and found it didn't JUST fit in, it needs its own space due to the way the wood flows.  Also I found recently that when I was doing a small project for Cindy that I had to keep moving my shop vac hose from machine to machine.  Not that I don't have time but it takes time and flow away from what you're doing.  I decided to put a central system in.  I found Shop Vac has an inexpensive kit that is about $144.  I also found it on Amazon for $122 and then I found it at Sam's Club online for $82.  I bought it and set things in motion.  I did have to ad some more to this, hose and some fittings and one special hood that I mounted under my table saw.  So the project went like this....get up and eat.  Get caught up on emails, the national news (getting a big kick out of the two circus's in the political arena-scary too) and check the stock market.  Go down to the treadmill and then go into the shop until lunch.  Afternoons are open for errands, more Internet busy crap and whatever.

This is one of the pictures, kind of tells the story of our Ohio weather this year.  Two weeks ago we had temps near 70 degrees and then this past week we were in the negative numbers.  This weekend is back to the 50's and the weather people are calling it a spring feeling.  I'm sorry....there's snow on the ground and ice on the pond....the air will be cold.  Pick how you're feeling, bright and sunny or cloudy and gray.  You know the routine, click them to make them bigger.

Warm Turns to Cold, Turns to Ice, Turning to Snow.

So, finally it gets cold  here in the mid-west.  We've had that unusual weather this year as the rest of the nation seems to be having except ours hasn't been bad, on the contrary, it's been a relief.  Just a few days ago we were still seeing 50 degrees....in January.....I knoooowwwww.  That has changed as of this past Sunday when first it rained, not like they forecasted but some downpours.  Then, overnight, it got cold and turned to ice.  Yesterday it was very chilly and wet off and on but overnight it got colder and the rain turned to snow.  Whoopee, I got to use the snowblower.  Good exercise....no lifting.  I did six driveways and their related sidewalks then took it a step further to the main road behind our house.

So, where am I going with this, well, how about the critters outside.  In particular, the birds.  I've built a seed feeder out of an old skid wood, hung a cake feeder and took two limbs from a Weeping Cherry that was removed it the fall to use as a feeding device.  I used different sized Forstner bits to make pockets in the branches then put a mixture of peanut butter and bird seed in the holes.  My brother and I use to do this with bottle caps on a board and either peanut butter or grease drippings.  Who has that today?  Saturday I put pieces of an orange out and was surprised that it seemed to be like a Christmas present to the little feathery creatures.

One Night Before a Full Moon

I don't know why I shot this at such a low ISO but here it is.  Tomorrow is a full moon but tonight will be the only night to get anything as tomorrow it is suppose to rain....90% chance.....lots of rain they say.  Sump pump started last night and is running every 22  seconds.

Anyway, I shot this at 100 for 30 secs at f~5.0 with the lens at 270mm.  Hence the star trails and clouds out of focus, I mean moving, I always shoot in focus.  Santa won't visit me tomorrow after that big lie.  No matter, this is pretty much right out of the camera.  You'll have to blow it up to see how many of the little stars I caught.

Landing Gear This Year....Wheels!

No Santa....we aren't going to put the runners on the sleigh this year.  Get over it.  December, mid-sixties, rain and fog.  This morning just the fog.

There was a bright shininess to the trees as the sun came up and started to burn off the fog.  It looked as if we had had a little ice over night but it was just from the rain.  Just keep the wheels on Santa.

No One Guessed What the Project Was

Only one person tried to guess on what my project was, you can see it in an earlier posting.  I couldn't put the results up until after Thanksgiving.  Our daughter has a motorcycle that she enjoys to ride so I thought I would make a bike for her to put in her office on a shelf, something she could look at on those snowy or bleak rainy days that lie ahead for the next few months.  Three types of wood, red oak, pine and I'm assuming a dark oak that I took from an old skid.