Eclipse

Solar eclipse this morning at sunrise.  Taken in Oriental, NC at about 6:40 am.

Claire Elizabeth Carson

I'm a granddad again!  This is Claire Elizabeth Carson, born on this date in Houston, Texas.

Burn Day

Decided to burn the burn pile today.  About a years worth of debris.  Today was the first day in weeks where it didn't rain and rain is forecast again in a day or two so I jumped on the weather window.

Diamond's Folly

The place to go when you are looking for a diamond in the rough.

R.I.P.

I went out to collect eggs today and found one of my chickens dead in the coop.  No signs of trauma.  She was one of my two Easter Eggers which lay blue green eggs.

Garage Repair

I spent the last 3 days replacing this entire garage wall and the end of some of the rafters above. This picture was just before the wall came out.  Flood damage from Hurricane Irene in 2011 and subsequent termite infestation caused the damage.

Osprey

Mom bringing home a little dinner.

Cream 2005 Royal Albert Hall (We're Going Wrong)

Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton.  One of their greatest performances of We're Going Wrong.

Knowledge Can Be Enlightening, but Scary

Spring!

Spring has finally settled in here.  The flowers are blooming.  The grass is getting green and the daytime temperatures are starting to approach 80.  While it never got much below freezing this winter the cool weather lasted several weeks longer than usual.  This is a picture I took today of one of the farm fields just down the road from me.  These are Canola plants which produce Canola oil.  Their bright yellow flowers which cover these fields are beautiful.

Bernie and Polly

Tom's daily blog has turned into Tom's monthly blog lately.  Work, work, work is what life consists of right now and, as I was driving home wondering if all this work is worth it when there is a big world to see out there, I run across Bernie Harberts.

I met this guy today as he was cruising down the road near my home.  His name is Bernie Harberts and he cruises the US with his mule and wagon.  From just the few minutes I talked to the guy I found him to be wonderful and gracious.  He gave me a card to his website so I came home and did a little Googling (Googleing?).  Turns out he sailed around the world in the late 90's then he came home and hit the road with mule and wagon.  Ended up traveling from here (Oriental, NC on the coast) to San Diego, CA, a 3500 mile trip by mule then they travelled from Mexico to Canada.  He also spent last year exploring Nova Scotia by mule and wagon.  Somewhere in all of that he also bicycled around Tasmania.  I would love to sit down and talk to him more some day about his adventures and the differences between solo ocean voyaging with its isolation vs. his travels by mule/wagon with interested people coming up to him all the time.  He has a book and video on his website that I just ordered.  Check him out at www.riverearth.com

Frosty

We went from record highs near 80 early in January down to near 20 the last few days and now it is supposed to be back in the mid 70's the next 2 days.  This is a picture of frost on the windshield of my Jeep a couple of days ago when it was so cold.  I have seldom seen frost form beautiful patterns like this out in this area.  I think it takes really cold weather to get more than our usual plain coating of smooth ice on windshields.

Life for me is starting to smooth out.  I am getting through the initial steep learning curve in my new job position and I look forward to having a life around the homestead again.  Spring is right around the corner so there will be a lot to do around here.

The World

US Government

To me, this picture represents the current state of the United States Government.