| Grape Photos | | [22-Aug-2010]
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| Predawn Shuttle launch, Sunrise, Newport Spring | | [05-Apr-2010]
Went to shell point for a 6:21 am shuttle launch. Went the wrong way (through Medart) and it took longer to get there than I thought it would so only had about 10 minutes to set up. There was an old couple on the beach with a golf cart to watch also. Set up and took photos they are getting developed. The weatehr was great, watched it climb up and is vanished for a few seconds in some clouds. When it came out the sun started reflecting off the trail making this wide glowing path across the sky I really hope I got photos of that. Thought something was wrong for a few minutes till we realized it was just the sun reflecting off it.
Took some later shots of the smoke trail remnant and sunrise with the blackberry some of those are pretty fuzzy. Stayed around still sunrise. The shuttle trail did too.
Came back up Plank Road, stopped and took photos of New Port Spring. There used to be a geocache here but its been archived.
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| Rear Ended | | [26-Mar-2010]
I was rear ended by a drunk driver coming home on St. Patricks day. Guys car was messed up and smoking but he fled anyway, someone followed him and when his car quit called the cops. The only damage he did was to my bumper which has now been replaced.
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| Yearly House Photo | | [17-Mar-2010]
Yearly Photos
Notable changes, no pine trees behind the house and fewer trees along the left property line, irrigation pipes by the mailbox, the front apple trees are pruned better. the white shield of the sensor on the blackberry trellis to the left, no sago palm in front of the apple tree. |
| Natural Bridge 2010 | | [07-Mar-2010]
Natural Bridge seemed quick and small this year. When I got there it was almost deserted. No cars on the side of the road. It filled in later but I still think attendance was down. The Reenactment also seemed smaller, no colors for the Union troops even. Checked on the cache in the park and did 2 others on the way back. Its nice to be able to take Plank road and not go through town and Woodville now.
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| Delivery, Geocaches, Zoo, kids. | | | [04-Mar-2010]
Took moms new laptop to her. Stopped and did some geocaches on the way. 2 that I couldnt find before and one new one. Im sure the Hill Top Drop one is not there now. Thursday went to the Jax Zoo so I was at the north end of Jax to have dinner with a 3 year old who was passing through. The zoo has changed a lot since the last time I was there in the 80s. They have a whole Florida wildlife section now, and everything has moved. Displays are no longer the old concrete pens but much better. The only thing still there is the train and the Carousel Did a couple of more geocaches afterwards before coming home.
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| Last Night Shuttle Launch | | [15-Feb-2010]
Spent 2 days near the Cape waiting in the cold for the last night shuttle launch ever. It was worth the wait.
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| Olustee 2010 | | [14-Feb-2010]
A beautiful day, drove to Olustee and skipped the sutlers. I wanted to sit on the southern side this year since its been years since I did that just for the change so I need to get to the line early. Of course the decided to fight with the south more to the right of the field this year so I was looking at their backsides most the battle. Used the new blackberry as a camera, it did pretty well. Despite the weather the southern line seemed a little sparse, but there seemed to be a good Union turnout.
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| More yard work | | [25-Jan-2010]
Havent done anything since last week first because of torrential rains
then sinus trouble making it impossible to do anything productive.
Tied up and mulched the blackberries. Ripped out the Kiowa blackberries (again). They are not worth the trouble to much trailing along the ground. Relocated the irrigation connection at the south end of the blueberries and one of the blueberries further west more inline with the rest of the bed. Retensioned the grape trellis. |
| Not a cherry tomato | | [01-Jul-2009]
I checked the tag again after I picked it. This is labeled as a cherry tomato. Its a little big for one. Yes thats a quarter.
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| Still recovering from Fay. | | [01-Jul-2009]
Mom bought tile for the kitchen for my birthday. It has been installed.
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| Rainbow, Wires suck. | | [25-Jun-2009]
This is from 2 days ago. You dont relize how many electrical and telephone wires are just really in the way until you try and take a picture of a rainbow.
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| More water | | [03-Apr-2009]
It continued to rain. Over 8 inches in the last couple days. When it rain at more than 2in/hr for a while is when I get flooding. Here are more photos, mostly of other parts of the yard I need to work on. The are by the beds is holding water because I just did some irrigation there so its low. Ive got a mound of dirt out in the yard to build it up some. Other problems might be water coming around the pine tree to the right once it gets backed up enough in the pasture. There are some low spots, right about where the wheelbarrow is sitting,
Updated some of the After photos in a previous post to point to these photos as well. |
| Drainage in action | | [01-Apr-2009]
It finally rained enough, and hard enough (a total of about 2in at 4.8 in/hr this morning) to see the drainage in action. The water flow is well away from the house now and does not seems to be much better contained on its way to the street. This is no where near as much water as during Dennis and Fay but at least its away from the house for now.
| Before | After |
Fay |
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Random Storm
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Dennis
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| Rain Barrel Tower | | [30-Mar-2009]
Spent all weekend, when it wasnt raining building a tower for the 3 rain barrels that arrived late sunday afternoon. The barrels need to be washed and Im waiting on 2 in Buttress threaded parts to finish them and install them in the tower. They are in the background of some of the pictures. Bought the remaining parts to set them up and move the gutter over at lunch monday. The north post is really a 16 ft post, with a 10ft metal pole and the anemometer on top. That puts it 22 ft high, well above the top of the house. Of course thats also a foot too low for offical reporting.
There are also a few pictures of the
drainage in action. It really wasnt enough rain to matter but at least you can see where the water flows now.
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| Death to the Pineapple | | [15-Mar-2009]
Dug the new irrigation lines, laid the pipe and connected a real sprinkler timer and valves for the garden. Attached it to the existing line to the apples and blueberries. Still need to fill in the trenches. Built a bed for the Mara des Bois strawberries which should be here this week sometime. Planted some flowers in the flowerbed. Sentenced the no-productive pineapple to death. Dumped it out of the pot, kicked it a few times and dropped it in a hole on the flower bed. Didnt bother to pack it in good. It left a thorn in my thumb that is still there hours later. The Tangerine didnt die in the last freeze maybe next year. Im thinking of putting it in the ground to ensure death next winter. The pink lemon is next if it doesnt fruit this year. I think the Irzu apple is dead. The Rev. Morgan seeds to ave buds, but no leaves. Planted the corn, and some tomatoes directly in garden. Bulbs in the flower beds are just starting to surface. Took yearly photos but they are too far out need to retake them. Took a lot of photos of the other plants.
Cut the boards for the pantry selves. Need to get the stud finder back. Got the outlet in there on Thursday and mounted the weather monitor. |
| Natrual Bridge 2009, Blackberry Trellis, Weather Station | | | [11-Mar-2009]
A warm spring day. They have cleared some of the brush on the Union approach and it looked like the Union was forming lines a bit closer to the confederates than they normally do. The wounded guy was interesting but he just wouldnt die and kept moving around.
After the reenactment finally finished putting up the new blackberry trellis on the peak of the berm between the houses. Mounted the rain guage and temperature sensors from the weather station to it. Still need to get wire vises and tighten the wires some. There is enough room to lengthen the trellis in both directions another 15 feet (its 15 feet between the posts now) over the years and to put in a second trellis downhill before it gets to close to where the major drainage flow would be in a bad storm. Right now there are only two blackberry bushes, the Choctaw and one from Mr. Huggins. I should get new shoots from them and will fill in as needed. The current trellis should hold 5 plants before i need to expand it.
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| Olustee 2009 | | | [15-Feb-2009]
I finally made it back to Olustee. They had a horse team moving a cannon out in front this year, very nice. A lot of the photos are similar I was playing with the high speed so they almost look like single frames of a movie. That is before the battery died a third of the way through the battle. There is nothing after the artillery duel. |
| Colchester and Home | | | [04-Jan-2009]
Put up the last photos of Colchester and I'm back home now. |
| Thetford, Stonehenge and Portsmouth | | [01-Jan-2009]
Yesterday was kind of an off day. Didnt go anywhere, just walked around the local town of Thetford. It goes back to the Iron Age, has connections to the Iceni tribe (Boudicca's tribe), was raided by the vikings, had a Norman castle and was the birthplace of Thomas Paine. New Years day was a lot of driving, first to Stonehenge then Portsmouth. Stonehenge itself was better than expected, its in the middle of an empty plain on the hill and the fence is outside the area you can walk in. You still cant touch it but at least it wasnt closed off like I thought it would be. Portsmouth was a lot of time wasted, we got there to late and took to long to eat. Only got to see one of the three ships the HMS Victory. Forgot to take the geocache coords so didnt look for them despite being at the Round and Square towers.
  
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