Solar ecplise from not totality...

Happy B-Day for all those who had one on the same day as the eclipse!  No cloud cover here, but only an 80% coverage...

Here we go...

The light was a bit odd as an incomplete spectrum of light streamed around the moon...

And there we have it!  

I used a solar film on the good old Nikon.  I found a large enough sheet to use on the 9.25 telescope, so maybe we'll get a few sun pics in the weeks ahead.  Not discernible in the eclipse pics, was the sun spot activity today.

Here are a few pics of the Eagles at the National Eagle Center...

Majestic, and sadly half blind.  This eagle will be cared for for the rest of her life at the center.

Another recovery.  A car strike and a new home

And... not exactly a roadside oddity but yet a really odd thing!

The world's largest boot... or so goes the claim!

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Remember KI Sawyer... Wurtsmith too?

I grew up in a sleepy town on the tip of Wisconsin and when the Cary Mine and the Montreal Mine closed we had to move.  My father, a machinist, found work with another mining company in Michigan.  Michigan has never been my home... it's never felt as comfortable as Wisconsin where the past two generations of my family lived.  When we moved from Wisconsin we settled in the UP (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan a few miles away from the Strategic Air Command Base known as KI Sawyer.  I could tell by my hearing alone if a KC 135, B 52 or anything else was heading towards me.  Actually anyone can if you're hearing it every day.

So when KI Sawyer closed, and Wurtsmith too these bases just became part of the memory that soon forgets.  KI is now a municipal airport handling most of the UP air traffic in and out of Marquette County, with a verrry long runway for any 747 making the long haul flight from ORD to Asia that may need a safe spot to touch down....

So what of KI Sawyer's sister B-52 SAC Base Wurtsmith?... I never knew until last week.

We stopped in for some fuel and I was really surprised to see

...it has been re-purposed!

Kalitta now does maintenance here...

All types of maintenance going on here!

Some 747's w/o engines

No longer is the flight line a string of B-52's

Yup, a museum too...

Fly-ins are part of the summer time activities.

If you ever need jet fuel this is a great stop!

Now known as Oscoda Airport!

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Summertime -- the way it's supposed to be!

It's been a busy summer with a lot of things going on, fortunately we made a little time, and SEO got ahead of the garden, and I did just a little old timey prep on the LMS Hazel to share this fun cruise.

I love the lines on this old boat.  You could say it suites me, a 1959 runabout with a '64 Jacobson cranking out 75 smog addled horse power LOL..  The Jake mak'n wake!

Let's get going!

Idling by the loons...

A little rough at low idle, the old '64 makes good power at throttle up.

The Hawaiian Leis were sort of like dice in the rear view mirror...

The loons have a protective area on our lake... around 4 am this morning we heard a loud clear call.  It's sort of mournful and a little eerie in the darkness of the early morning. 

 

 

This movie is a really neat roadside oddity, watch as an artist sculpts a tree from within a tree!  He's building in carvings of birds and other woodland creatures with a chain saw.  The original tree was much larger and was hit by lightning - so this creative soul is sculpting a new "tree."  

 

 

 

Another cool find this weekend... a beautifully restored Ford Model A

I hope all my visitors are making time to enjoy this pleasant summer here in North America. 

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The call of the Loon on Mildred Lake this evening

We have a pair of loons on our lake and they are most interesting to watch and listen to.  They call to each other with distinctively different calls and answers.  I made a quick sound file this evening.  The return call is barely audible, but these birds communicate across a long distance with these calls.  I've been waiting to get this pair on a video, this evening was my first try...  I'll keep at it until I get a better audio/video to post.  I managed to capture audio with Audacity then to combine a pic from the good ole Nikon into a video using Pitivi.  Worked pretty well!

Here's a spectral plot of the loon call...

I wonder what information is captured in this complex spectra... They call back and forth, so maybe it's checking in... How are you?... How's the fishing over there?

I hope everyone is enjoying the summer or winter - depending on where you are!

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