Goldfinch and Fountain

SmugMug Daily Link

I always love the bold colored yellow feathers of the summer Goldfinch male plumage.  I took  break from painting yesterday to go visit Ms. Jean's yard again.  She likes it when I visit, and I appreciation the open invitation to come with my camera.  Her daughter, Judy, did  lovely job creating  beautiful front yard garden, and butterflies and birds abound throughout.  I was hoping to get a hummingbird shot, but didn't get a one.  However, the Goldfinch were enjoying the running water of her fountain.

This female Goldfinch was also enjoying the water.

SmugMug Link

Barn in the Countryside

SmugMug Daily Link

Just down the road from Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant sits this old fashioned rusty barn.  We zipped past it in Donnie's Scion xB, and I asked Donnie to turn around so I could get out and take a picture.  This location had no shoulder, so I literally got out and took some bracketed shots while Donnie went up the road a bit to turn around.  I was able to get what I wanted in a few minutes and was back in the car away from the sun and fire ants pretty quick.  It's been a long time since I saw a new barn worth taking a photo of.  Very glad to have spotted this one.  Processed with Photomatix.

I Is for Instrument Panel

SmugMug Daily Link

Once a year for just few hours, Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant opens its doors to the community so that folks can tour the training control room. Donnie had been before, but I hadn't. Yesterday was the day, and we had time to go over there unfortunately without the boys who were with their dad. They were giving bucket truck 'rides' to the kids, and Johnny would have loved that! I thought it was fascinating all around. I love driving past the cooling tower and taking pics from time to time, but this was the first time I really got to learn about the plant. I was struggling again to come up with an 'I' shot, and then instrument panel popped into my head. They talked about how much training is involed to to be an operator. Wow! Sounded stressful and quite ivolved. Durig the tour we got to meet several operators. Glad they are there to monitor the systems and keep us all safe. Pray they never have to handle any severe situations.

Here is a pano taken on my iPhone 5 of the whole instrument panel.

SmugMug Link

Joey Raising the American Flag at School

SmugMug Daily Link

I had one of those proud mom moments today as I watched Joey and two of his classmate raise the American and NC State flags.  They select a group of 5th graders to handle this task, and Joey has this responsibility through September.  He was excited, and so was I.  I've been watching the kids, seems to always be boys, raise the flag for several years in eager anticipation for one of my boys to get the chance.

I have to say that they did get it raised and that they were respectful and careful but it took them over 15 minutes, and they had to take the flags off and redo them twice and then they had trouble with twisted ropes.  And that was with no wind!  LOL.  They perservered and got it right in the end, though.  

SmugMug Link

Redbud Leave in the Light

SmugMug Daily Link

Another shot taken at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham on Saturday.  I loved how the leaf detail looked in the light.

NCMLS Is Going Ducky!

SmugMug Daily Link

The boys and I visited the Museum of Life and Science in Durham on Saturday.  It had been WAY too long since we'd been there, and it sure felt good to be back!

The museum did not have any special events going on during our visit, and attendance was down a bit due to the Labor Day Weekend holiday.  That meant we were able to enjoy everything and take our time with all the exhibits.

My daily picture was taken in the Explore the Wild wetlands.  The museum is having  fundraiser where you buy small rubber ducks and then race them at  special event in October.  To advertise this, they've installed 3 huge inflatable rubber ducks in the wetlands.  The mother duck is 13' tall!  The baby ducks are 8'.  The boys were amazed and mom really enjoyed trying to get a good picture of them.

Here is a collgeof other pictures that highlight out day.  They have a new flight/wind section downstairs in the main building.  The boys enjoyed making airplanes and using the air powered launcher.  We had a great time in the butterfly house.  Isn't the Blue Morphos pretty?!?  Loved Joey and his shadow!  They had a new movie making station upstairs in the main building.  The boys were able to take a pic, move the characters around, and take another pic.  Then they could adjust the frame rate to see what it looked like.  Pretty neat!  We saw the Alpacas and thought they were cute.  I got a picture of the boys on the butterfly seat outside the Magic Wings Butterfly House.  Boy have they grown since the first picture I took there!   We even got to see Ms. Nancy and do cool flotation experiment in The Lab.

SmugMug Link

All in all it was a very fun day!  We're planning to go back again soon!

Check out this blast from the past (2007 with Jacob and Timmy)!

SmugMug Link

And, from 2006!

SmugMug Link

Guess I need to put together an album or collage of just butterfly seat pics:-)

H is for Hardie-Tynes

SmugMug Daily Link

Donnie spotted  an ad for the Silk Hope Old Fashioned Farmeprors Day event in our local paper, and we decided to go check it out today.  What a gorgeous ride over back roads from Wake to Chatham County past Shearn Harris Nuclear Power Plant and over Jordan Lake. Tad hot but who can complain when we've barely gone over 90 all summer and actually had a rain free week.

We mainly went to see the old farm tractors, but we were treated to watching several steam engines in operation to mill wood, bale cotten, and run other word working equipment.  It really was interesting and filled with cool history.

I am trying to keep up wtih Donna's alphabet challenge each Sunday.  I admit to not giving it quite as much time as I should during the week, so today I was scrambling to find a shot.  I thought this Hardie-Tynes steam engine would work.  What an impressive piece of equipment!  Here's a wider view.

SmugMug Link

"Hardie-Tynes Co., Inc., founded in 1895, is a manufacturer of large-scale engineered industrial parts, including water control systems, mining equipment, steam turbines, pressure vessels, bridge sections, and industrial and defense equipment."

Watching trees be made into usable boards was truly fascinating not to mention loud and creating huge amounts of saw dust:-)  This collage shows most of the equipent and the process.  They would move a pine tree log onto a moving platformm that would push the wood through the blade.  They'd take off the bark and get the piece reasonbly square and then trim it to nice boards.  The scrap and bark would be burned to provide the steam to run the equipment.

SmugMug Link

My favorite shot of the day was Johnny up on a John Deer tractor.  We asked the owner of this 1971 beauty for permission, and he was happy to oblige.  Johnny has always wanted to do that!

SmugMug Link

Johnny wanted me to show you how big the wheels and tractors were by him standing beside them. Cute!

SmugMug Link

There was a 92 year old gentleman who had a 1925 Model T? car at the event too.  He was encouraging everyone to sit in it and take pics.  Really?  Wow!  Sure!

SmugMug Link

All in all, a very informative and fun way to spend part of our day.