Bob

One Year Ago Today 08/21/2017

Total Eclipse of the SunIt was a year ago that we were in Casper, Wyoming to witness one of the greatest astronomical events of our lifetimes; the All-American Total Eclipse of the Sun. We were camped in an RV park near the centerline of the eclipse. Totality lasted just over two minutes and it was magnificent.

Verna took this image (and many more) during the totality; this image was taken at about the middle of the Moon’s shadow passing across our location.

When you click on the image to enlarge, you can see a prominence at about two o’clock on the limb of the sun and the planet Mercury at the four o’clock position below and to the right of the disc. We didn’t see those specifics with the naked eye, but inspection of the astrophotography after the fact revealed those details.

Click on the image to enlarge.

New Birdhouse Location

Birdhouse New Location

Last Saturday evening we had a microburst monsoon event that toppled our little palo verde tree out front near the driveway. We recently posted about repairing and re-hanging the little birdhouse in that tree. Fortunately, when the tree toppled, the birdhouse was not damaged.

A neighbor helped us clean up the tree mess on Sunday morning; we cut it into pieces with a chain saw and put it on his trailer for transport to the green dump. Verna rescued the birdhouse and put it in the courtyard for the time being. There is no nest inside, so no birds were involved.

Today, we went up the hill behind the RV drive where we have the bird feeders. There is a nice little mesquite tree up there that was perfect for hanging the recovered birdhouse. I took the image above this afternoon while up on the hill out back. Click on the image to enlarge.

VERNABOB.COM 12th Anniversary

12.jpg

Today marks the 12th year that we have been open for blogging. We don’t blog as much or regularly these days, well, because retirement finds so many ways to use your time and efforts otherwise. The following was our opening statement after converting from our old format to WordPress:

We’re now completely converted from the old stuff and functioning as an online diary/weblog (”blog”). We decided to convert our old website to the blog format of the WordPress Publishing Platform.

As we continue to add new posts here, we also plan to add new gadgets and features to this format. Most all of the features from the old website have been converted and are available in the left sidebar. Check out some of the Potpourri items or our “stuff.”

Birdhouse Repair and Re-Hanging

Birdhouse
 
House in Tree

The little birdhouse given to us in May of 2012 by our late friend “River Ron” (RIP) fell off of the palo verde tree out front last week. Today, I screwed the broken parts back together and hung it back up. Click on either image to enlarge. Images courtesy of Verna.

Catch and Release

Trapped

Release

One of the little antelope ground squirrels in the area has been making itself a bit of a pest by digging up Verna’s bulbs and roots in the courtyard. Earlier today, I set up the Havahart small animal trap with a piece of bread and peanut butter for bait. It wasn’t more than a half hour later that Cabela let us know the trap had been sprung.

Ever since we unwittingly caught a cactus wren in a rat trap by the trash barrels, it has been our policy to catch and release the pests. We caught this little guy in the courtyard and released it at Tractor Supply, about a mile away. That should work to keep it away from Verna’s garden for a while.

Click on either image to enlarge.