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April 19, 2012
Our pond has been thawed out and running for almost a month now, which is somewhat amazing. Even the lily pads are coming out. Each year as things warm up these big old bullfrogs pull themselves out of the muck at the bottom of the po... more · · ÷ · · |
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April 1, 2012
Raz and I went on a long hike in the Boston Lot area this morning. Not much mud, no snow, and all of the ponds have but a thin veneer of ice ... all but the one Raz chose to walk on. The first place he tried broke through, so he jus... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 4, 2011
This year the plant life around our backyard pond has gone a bit feral. It seems like every plant that could possibly grow is giving it a shot. Weeds, trees, flowers, fungus ... all kinds of plants, springing up everywhere. A nu... more · · ÷ · · |
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February 23, 2011
Seen outside the basement office at home this afternoon. Just a few feet away I watched as it sniffed the pond cleaner and poked into a few holes in search of food. Perhaps it remembers a few years back when the pond was full of fish ... more · · ÷ · · |
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November 28, 2010
Raz and I went on a long hike in the woods south of the house yesterday. It is certainly looking a lot like Winter out there. Creeks and streams are still running, but ponds have a thin layer of ice and the muddy puddles are freezing ... more · · ÷ · · |
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June 18, 2010
This little fella/gal climbed up on the big rock by the pond (where the pond filter airs out, hidden from the filter eating dog) to watch Zane and I watching it. Zane lost interest first. Raz didn't see chippy otherwise it might have ... more · · ÷ · · |
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February 23, 2010
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December 14, 2009
Finally shut down and winterized our decorative pond in the back yard this weekend. The cold weather over the past week had turned the cascading waterfall into a beautiful ice sculpture. Each year it does this but never quite the same... more · · ÷ · · |
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November 18, 2009
Mom and I went for a hike up to Quarry Hill yesterday. Once we got past the steep parts of the trail (there were a few!) and reached the top of the hill I think it was more enjoyable for all. Well, Raz could climb and run around like ... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 3, 2009
Both taken with the Nikon, 70-200mm, 1.4 teleconverter and macro diopter. It was an hour or so away from Sunset and the frog was a great subject not so much as flinching as I got down on my belly right in front of him. In fact i... more · · ÷ · · |
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July 23, 2009
The top frog (taken with Nikon D200 using 70-200mm zoom with macro diopter) is one of the dozen hanging out in the little pond at our house. The second, Wood Frog (shot using iPhone), was found on a noon-time hike with Raz. It was tou... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 16, 2009
Raz has been shaping up over the past month now. He responds to basic commands, is usually walk-able on the leash, and when off the leash he doesn't do a Houdini and disappear. I have him sit and stay when putting food out and he do... more · · ÷ · · |
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April 26, 2009
This last winter was the first time I didn't winterize the pond. We hadn't seen the two fish all fall so there wasn't any reason to keep a hole in the ice for air to escape, so it froze solid and pretty much stayed that way all wint... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 25, 2008
Since we lost Zeke last year the number of wildlife sightings in the yard has greatly increased. The deer have spent nights snoozing in our yard, Tink has more neighbor cats to fight off and the squirrels have gone wild. In the hear... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 22, 2007
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August 17, 2007
A line of thunderstorms rolled through last night dumping around an inch of rain over the span of a couple hours. In their wake the Sun poked through the thunderheads long enough for a majestic sunset. Juggling baby, tripod, and ... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 10, 2007
A minute later there were two perky heads and shortly after that three of them! I got photos of the two perky heads, but it was way over exposed and blurry and by the time I got the camera focused for the three perky heads they dis... more · · ÷ · · |
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July 29, 2007
One of the thousands of toad babies from this year's crop. They show up all over the yard so you have to be careful where you tread, which is tough since they are barely as big as a dime. This one was only a few feet from the pond,... more · · ÷ · · |
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June 29, 2007
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June 8, 2007
Big day for Zane yesterday. His Grandparents have been visiting this week and we all went out for a walk yesterday afternoon. That was followed shortly (i.e. after naps, diaper change, feeding) with Zane’s first night out at... more · · ÷ · · |
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June 2, 2007
It was an unremarkable day, a day like most other were it not for the misty fog (which might explain some of what was to happen), when the lovely Princess Pea happened upon a warty toad in her palace garden. Perched on a moss lade... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 26, 2007
Zane has a number of faces which can be useful for reading his state of mind, instead of waiting for him to start crying. The photo shows what Faith calls "Bird Mouth" and it pretty much means: "I'd like to request a meal if you ar... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 13, 2007
This moose was less than a block away from our house: standing in the field looking lost and completely out of place. I stopped to take a photo (damn tourist!) and it galloped off a bit. Gallop probably isn't the right word, ma... more · · ÷ · · |
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April 8, 2007
A week ago the snow was all gone, I cleaned the pond out and got the pump and waterfall going again. The Spring snow storm we had mid-week changed the face of everything. It was a great week though. Faith and baby Zane are do... more · · ÷ · · |
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April 4, 2007
It was May of last year (the 25th to be precise) while sitting pond side watching the quiet New Hampshire sky fade to twilight that a UFB (unidentified flying bug) made a series of low level landing maneuvers and plopped into the po... more · · ÷ · · |
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April 2, 2007
Two weeks ago Zeke wiped out on a patch of ice while getting out of the car. He seemed fine at the time, but by evening he was lethargic and stiff, slow to move. The next few days he was very un-Zeke-like: not moving much and ha... more · · ÷ · · |
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March 26, 2007
Warmer weather has been moving in, with daytime highs hitting the 50's most days now. I was out inspecting the yard (ALL 80+ fish survived!) and while uncovering Faith's private pansy stash I found an expired rodent a few inches a... more · · ÷ · · |
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March 9, 2007
Tyler, Paul, and Janet's homemade sledding course in their back (front) yard. With an industry standard ZMU for a sense of scale. p.s. sorry the ZMU left an obstacle... ... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 26, 2006
Our pond got hit pretty hard by the recent rains. It was flooded for a couple of weeks with all of the nearby soils, mulch, and lawn run-off turning the water a murky brown. The extra nutrients along with PH changes really made th... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 22, 2006
If anyone is loving the near non-stop rain we've been having it's got to be these guys. They probably would enjoy a little bit of Sun just to warm them up (wouldn't we all!). So far this month we have received just a bit under sev... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 15, 2006
Wow, what a wet weekend! Around 2.8 inches of rain at the house on Saturday and another inch on Sunday. Still, it looks like we got off easy as some of the southern sections of the state clocked in with 12-15 inches of rain. ... more · · ÷ · · |
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April 17, 2006
We were out for a hike in the woods last weekend and ran across a collapsed beaver dam. Dramatic collapse with a big hole punched into the end of the four or five foot dam face. About ten feet away, in what was once the ... more · · ÷ · · |
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February 19, 2006
Zeke and I saw this pair on the drive into work the other morning. They crossed the road in front of us about a quarter mile from the house. One looked like it might be limping, that or maybe it's just the way they lope? A mont... more · · ÷ · · |
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January 7, 2006
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October 16, 2005
Another rainy weekend in New England. Last Saturday we measured over four inches at our house...and we got off lucky, some places got a foot. Here's a little video documentary of last week's flood in Keene, NH created by John Udell.... more · · ÷ · · |
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October 5, 2005
There's a couple "bushes" of flowers on the edge of the pond that are going through a last fall fling blooming frenzy, attracting every bee, butterfly, and moth from miles around. While trying to photograph some of them it felt a b... more · · ÷ · · |
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July 28, 2005
It was about this time two years ago that I finished making our backyard pond. The fish have spent two winters in it, the first without any loses, and then this last winter we lost the koi and another fish. In turn we've (well, they... more · · ÷ · · |
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July 22, 2005
Two days ago I noticed a heron taking flight from our neighbor's place...which is odd since the only water over there is the family swimming pool. Seeing it that close to our pond makes me nervous. On the walk to work yester... more · · ÷ · · |
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June 29, 2005
Looked out the window at home the other day just as this duck landed on the lawn. First duck landing we've had, that I'm aware of. I was really hoping it would waddle over to our pond for a bit, help legitimize it and all, but it to... more · · ÷ · · |
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June 6, 2005
Look what we found on the walk home from work the other day! It's a carnivorous plant called Sundew, or Drosera rotundifolia. The plant is about three inches in diameter and barely over two inches tall. On memorial day we drov... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 30, 2005
The mandibles look so much like metal contraptions that I went back in and extracted a 100% crop of that area. Turns out that they are white-ish with black tips. There were a bunch of these bouncing around the pond area yeste... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 27, 2005
Wait around long enough and they come out from hiding to see what's going on. Even Zeke snuffling around ten feet away wasn't enough of a threat to scare off this little tike. In case you missed them here's some photos of one that... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 17, 2005
Last week, while sitting down to a nice dinner with Faith, I noticed a flash out of the corner of my eye from the side window. "Colored bird?" I thought to myself, but hadn't really seen enough to know. Just seemed...different. ... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 12, 2005
It's been a gorgeous week. On Sunday Zeke and I drove into work and dropped off the car. We've been walking to/from work every day since, which averages between 7 and 8 miles a day (all uphill!). I'm feeling pretty good. Zeke h... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 10, 2005
I've been noticing a mass of frog eggs in the shallow water of the ditch. It's a marshy area that will dry up in the next month, that is if the rain stops for more than a couple days. Each day the egg mass has changed and today we fou... more · · ÷ · · |
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April 19, 2005
I'd like to be alone... Whilst de-thatching with Margaret on Sunday I happened upon a frog hopping for dear life. Being the soft-hearted old fool that I am (as opposed to the frog tormenting young fool I once was) I stopped to tra... more · · ÷ · · |
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April 18, 2005
Don't mind us as we flip onto our backs and wiggle in the grass for a little while... Awesome weekend. Sun, a few sprigs of green starting to poke out from beneath the dead leaves, and birds galore. Tink is now officially back ... more · · ÷ · · |
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April 9, 2005
This was the view when I got back to the office this week. Contrast that with the highest flooding we'd seen previously. Spurred on by the heavy rains and warmer temps our backyard and the pond started thawing out. By the mid... more · · ÷ · · |
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March 10, 2005
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January 20, 2005
Up at 5. Zeke zips outside and into the woods seemingly oblivious to the weather. 7°. A heat wave compared to yesterday. I leave the sliding glass door open a few seconds longer and look skyward...maybe an aurora, maybe just th... more · · ÷ · · |
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November 17, 2004
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October 14, 2004
Been meaning to post an update on the fish situation in the pond. When we got back from vacation in July I was surprised to find a half dozen baby fish in the pond. We've had Whitey and the five other fish for almost five years a... more · · ÷ · · |
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October 3, 2004
Winter is edging closer and this fella is still hanging out at the beaver pond. His lady friend moved on sometime earlier in the week and now he is all alone, apparently uninformed about the migration thing. The past few times... more · · ÷ · · |
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September 27, 2004
We have a couple clumps of flowers (Faith knows what they are) which have started blooming again with gusto. In fact the only thing around the pond without blooms these days are the bee balm and Queen Anne's lace. Maybe it has some... more · · ÷ · · |
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September 16, 2004
How many frogs can you find? Click for a much larger image (328KB). Taken at the pond waterfall yesterday afternoon. ... more · · ÷ · · |
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September 13, 2004
I took the D70 on this weekend's getaway and snapped a bunch of photos. Sadly, dew and dirt marred many of them. I'm not used to having such a large lens and it seems to be a magnet. The A70 lens was less than three quarters of a... more · · ÷ · · |
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September 6, 2004
Ted and I were experimenting with the Nikon D70 the other day and got to wondering if faster compact flash (CF) cards were worth the extra money. Cameras like the D70 have large internal memory buffers, which allows more shots to be q... more · · ÷ · · |
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September 5, 2004
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August 29, 2004
A couple images from the past week. The moon was captured through a 120mm refractor telescope using a 10mm lens and a 2x barlow (effectively a 5mm lens). I think that's a magnification of 24x without taking into account the camera lens... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 25, 2004
Yesterday was a good day. After three and a half weeks the summer cold of doom seems to be over. I wouldn't recommend getting it, no fun. Not the kind of cold where you sit home drinking hot tea with honey, eating Swanson's TV dinners,... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 17, 2004
If you have quicktime you should be able to listen to this audio clip. Discovered on my camera this weekend and recorded sometime back in June it appears to be a goose and frog orchestra at the beaver pond down the road. Then agai... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 4, 2004
Our friend Linda helped us design, pick out, and put in the plants around the pond last year. This weekend I was sitting by the pond and a hummingbird started feeding on bee balm a couple feet away. We saw a Cedar Waxwing and Gray C... more · · ÷ · · |
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July 31, 2004
There are a couple of mysteries unfolding at the pond. Number one showed up sometime during the two weeks I was away in Wyoming. Babies. Our pond is host to one large Koi (whitey) and five orange fish, of which I can never qu... more · · ÷ · · |
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July 22, 2004
Here's how our pond is looking these days. ... more · · ÷ · · |
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July 21, 2004
We were somewhere in Western Nebraska, driving along interstate I-90 on a Sunday morning. Destination Wyoming. Overcast skies with the temperature at a comfortable sixty five degrees. Green, late June grass, strained a bit from... more · · ÷ · · |
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July 18, 2004
What did Zeke do on is vacation this year? He played with his doggelgangers: Booda and Happy. Booda is the large fella on the left, Happy the slightly smaller one in the center. The goal was to align the dogs from big, bigger, to bigge... more · · ÷ · · |
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June 19, 2004
Every decade or so I buy Mom a new computer. Or a new used computer, but new for her all the same. The very first was a Radio Shack Model 100 way back in the early eighties. Back then I was a PC weenie, but pc laptops were large and ex... more · · ÷ · · |
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June 18, 2004
There's a variety of ways to add digital music to your car: iPod, commercial MP3 deck, or rigging up a mac/pc/linux box in the trunk or under a seat. But a Sun 450? If you are driving a Solaris powered music machine (or just hoppin... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 24, 2004
Ah, the days of sunshine and noses. The past few days have seen rain, rain, and more rain. The pond is overflowing (with water and toadpoles), the river is overflowing, and New England is about as green as it gets. Super green.... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 20, 2004
I took a tip from Insect Journal and headed down the road with bucket and net to get insects and tadpoles for our pond. In this case a swampy area on the side of the road which will dry up in the next couple of months. Let me te... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 18, 2004
I've been meaning to post an explanation on the night shot of me and the telescope. Sunday was science day. I wrote some groovy code at the office, worked on a homemade electric lawnmower, built new water rockets (THZ article coming so... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 15, 2004
With the warm weather and ample rain the pond landscaping is starting to fill in. The extreme cold may have done in the bamboo but everything else seems to have made it. The blue raft in the pond is Gilligan's Island, a little flotill... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 13, 2004
Set up the telescope last night to try and catch a glimpse of Comet Neat. Which, if you follow that link, looks nothing at all like the muddy tail-less snowball I was looking at. Still, Venus and Jupiter looked nice and even Saturn emer... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 3, 2004
A month back a bear pulled down the pole and destroyed our bird feeders. Last week I got a couple of feeders for my birthday and after securing and re-enforcing the pole I filled them with seed and hung them up. Danged if the bear didn't ... more · · ÷ · · |
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April 11, 2004
A neighbor called Faith the other day to let her know that a Bear had knocked down their bird feeder. Faith, looking out the window replied, "Oh, THAT's why our feeder is on the ground!" The three feeders were mounted atop a t... more · · ÷ · · |
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March 31, 2004
I'm happy, and amazed, to report that all six fish made it through winter in the new pond. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about the short story is, "last year I dug a new pond so our fish could spend the winter in ... more · · ÷ · · |
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March 28, 2004
A really nice string of days in New Hampshire. Temps in the mid-50's are sending the snow into a hasty retreat and making quick work of the ice covering the fish pond. Still, it's tough to spot the fish. I felt like the paparazzi tryin... more · · ÷ · · |
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February 12, 2004
Since sometime in mid-December Whitey, and the five other pond fish, have been locked under a relentless ice cover. Hibernating. At least that has been our hope, since the view is entirely obstructed. The month long below... more · · ÷ · · |
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January 30, 2004
Cool idea: the new Toyota Prius hybrid car uses a transponder instead of a key. This means when you get within a few feet of the car the doors unlock. Furthermore, once inside, the drive system computer senses the transponder and all yo... more · · ÷ · · |
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January 7, 2004
Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day features a big color photo from the Mars Spirit Rover. While pondering the drifts, or lack thereof, around the rocks I noticed this little fellow on the left. Obviously a Mars attack pod ... more · · ÷ · · |
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December 14, 2003
Way back when this weblog was using radio userland it had a Stories & Photos section (still in the links column there on the right) which was where I'd post longer articles or bigger collections of images. When I wrote my own weblog... more · · ÷ · · |
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December 2, 2003
The snow, that is. Half a day later: It's STILL coming in from Canada! It's brought light snow, plunging temps, and a wind that really bites. Last week my cousin Gigi wrote that she can't wait for snow to visit Nebraska. ... more · · ÷ · · |
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November 21, 2003
So far this month we've had 2.75 inches of rainfall. 1.43 of that fell yesterday morning before noon, a quarter inch fell the night before. Faith called to let me know that the fish pond was flooded (luckily no one tried to make a break... more · · ÷ · · |
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November 16, 2003
Guess who hasn't unplugged the pond? The bottom photo looks like Zracgar the radiated crustacean battling Bob the bumpy buffalo. It's tempting to leave it running all winter just to see what it produces. I love wat... more · · ÷ · · |
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November 10, 2003
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November 10, 2003
Woke from wandering the banks of the North Platte river in Nebraska (although it's never been so narrow and winding) looking for trout. Probably fish anxiety from watching the fish in our pond through a veneer of growing ice. Walked... more · · ÷ · · |
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October 23, 2003
I just finished making this little pond side "reflecting" bench yesterday. The stones (granite legs, slate top) were harvested from the stone garden in our woods. Maybe someone else had considered this before, maybe I've been slee... more · · ÷ · · |
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October 19, 2003
Here's a photo of the finished pond. Our friend Linda came over and helped with plants and then there was a pile of rock, bark mulch, and gravel touch-up. Just in time for Winter! The photo is a series of four photos take... more · · ÷ · · |
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October 18, 2003
Dad is out visiting so we spent a day driving New Hampshire's White Mountains, enjoying the fall colors. As we got further north the colors started to disappear as did the warm temperatures. This is a shot along the Kancamagus h... more · · ÷ · · |
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October 15, 2003
You may remember the Great Blue Heron pond attack from a couple weeks ago, if not we'll wait while you catch up. Don't get me wrong, I really like Heron. I love spotting them in ponds, statuesque and mute amongst the cat-tails. The... more · · ÷ · · |
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October 3, 2003
It's getting kind of chilly: thirty degrees this morning. Last night I set the telescope on the deck before it got dark and then went out a couple hours later. It was chilly but the worst part was that the "snow pellets" from earlier ha... more · · ÷ · · |
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October 2, 2003
I opened the back door to take a look at the pond and a Great Blue Heron burst into flight! We've had this pond for over three years and that never happened before. Does this mean we've hit the big time? An article I read on prepar... more · · ÷ · · |
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September 30, 2003
It was dark when we left the house and started walking to work yesterday morning at 5:15. Orion stood clear and bright in the southern sky, chiding me for not taking advantage of the clear sky. Over to the west, huddled together and whi... more · · ÷ · · |
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September 25, 2003
Trolling through the log files I found some interesting tidbits: Someone created a Jerry Rig™ product. Hopefully they aren't trying to snarf up my snazzy domain name. Don't mess with his Lordship Jer Pond the Anti-paladin. Pe... more · · ÷ · · |
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September 21, 2003
We are happy to announce the launch of Pond 2.0. Pond 1.0, if you recall was a smashing hit, albeit limited for some of the power users. It was mostly for the warm weather months and even early spring was a bit chilling. Pond 2.0... more · · ÷ · · |
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September 19, 2003
The pond is very, very close. Most of the week was spent trying to fuse the rubber liner to the huge boulder protruding into the pond. Triple expanding foam to fill the big gaps, minimal expanding foam to fill the little gaps, and... more · · ÷ · · |
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September 3, 2003
I just realized that the reason all of you Jer Zone readers haven't been burying me in emails, volunteering to help dig the pond, was that you had no sense of scale on this stupid project. The pictures are only a few inches wide ... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 31, 2003
I noticed three deer in the field bordering our house this afternoon and decided to try photographing them through the telescope. The back of our yard is lined with thirty feet of heavy brush and trees, on the other side of which l... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 27, 2003
Last month I ran across an egg burrowed in the raspberry patch. It never hatched, but let's forget that part for the sake of our story. A couple weeks ago, just a scant few feet from the site of the egg, I ran across a baby Evenin... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 26, 2003
A beautiful but busy weekend here in the Pond Zone. Fall moved in quite suddenly, replacing the hot humid temps with a blustery cool that's nice for sleeping and for long days in the open pit mine I call the Pond. This weekend I r... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 21, 2003
We walked into work via the Storr's Hill trail again. The strange candle remains seen on our last visit have all been removed. In fact it is pretty clean and tidy, except for the empty Michelob can and Salems pack someone left ... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 17, 2003
Normally this is the closest I can get to birds by the feeder. It doesn't work if I sit motionless and think peaceful thoughts...although it works for the cat (and she's NOT thinking peaceful thoughts!). It doesn't matter if I sit cam... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 16, 2003
I'm taking a break from water rockets while I work on the pond but still keeping an eye on the water rocket message board. Someone posted a link to rockets using flour instead of water. Once you take a look at the pictures you'll see wh... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 12, 2003
I've been meaning to mention our recent wildlife spottings. Most likely the rain is washing them out of their normal warrens. Last month on the way into work I saw a rather wet looking porcupine munching on a neighbor's lawn. Faith saw... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 10, 2003
Why, isn't that just a loveliest little watering hole you ever did see? Wild asparagus to the north, ferns and bamboo to the south, and plenty water. Oh, and let's not forget the high voltage line submarining into the water. N... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 7, 2003
It's been raining here like the end of the world. Every day there's a few false rays of sunshine and then clouds amble in, unleash a torrent or three, and rumble on eastward. Whenever I see a break in the rain I slosh out to the ... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 3, 2003
8 of 10 women wear the wrong bra size Let the dog out yesterday morning at about 5:30 and found that the pond had collapsed overnight. The huge boulder we thought immovable, moved. The heavy rains must have washed away the la... more · · ÷ · · |
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July 27, 2003
Work on the pond expansion is moving along quite swimmingly. I spend a couple hours a day alternating between lugging rocks and digging and hauling dirt. Some of the extra dirt is becoming a hill, which is where the new waterfall ... more · · ÷ · · |
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July 26, 2003
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July 22, 2003
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July 19, 2003
Happy birthday to my buddy Christopher! click for larger version He was visiting us around this time last year and we had a blast. Hey, Christopher, the pond misses you. We only have one frog so far and it won't talk to me at ... more · · ÷ · · |
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July 17, 2003
Lest you think all of our time is spent shooting water rockets, annoying insects, and shaving dogs. The top photo is of this year's garden. A masterpiece of planned and unplanned growth (Faith can't resist volunteers... more · · ÷ · · |
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July 4, 2003
A learning day at the Jer Zone. Kirk is right: shave most of the nose cone down, it doesn't stick, and the water rocket parachute deploys. Surface wind, or lack thereof, is not an indicator of winds aloft. Parachutes and trees are ... more · · ÷ · · |
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June 1, 2003
Almost two weeks of rain: e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g..i.s..g.r.o.w.i.n.g! Thankfully there have been the few odd moments when the sun breaks out long enough for us to do something about the lawn that seems to grow an inch a day. Yester... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 29, 2003
I was complaining last week about the ponderous english sections on the French audio language "tapes" I listen to. Yesterday I remembered that iTunes has a feature to adjust the starting or ending point of a track. Hmm, you don't suppos... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 8, 2003
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April 30, 2003
Yesterday was another birthday. Forty three. Other than some really nice well-wishes from friends and family it wasn't much fun. Zeke woke up sometime before five, rustling around, making the sound of "gotta go pee" which usually trans... more · · ÷ · · |
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April 22, 2003
Adding miles to your commute and loving it... Zeke and I found a new "shortcut," highlighted above in light blue. Typically we've been walking the paved Slayton hill route, which isn't bad but, hey, it's a road. Now that most of th... more · · ÷ · · |
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March 28, 2003
Been pretty busy at work lately and in my spare time I've been obsessing. Most likely stemming from the extra mental cycles during the walk to and from work. Long walks are like mowing the lawn, you can only accomplish so much deep thinki... more · · ÷ · · |
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March 25, 2003
If you didn't click the dog immersion link in the previous article then you missed out on the Phillips Vision of the Future web site. Our future includes Enhanced Jewelry "This responds to two needs - for body adornment and for more intim... more · · ÷ · · |
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February 5, 2003
From the Photo Galleries of Jacob Holt: "When I lived with a dirt eating family on the muddy dirt roads on Meridians northeastern side I had to pass these shotgun shacks. The name comes from the fact that you can shoot through every room i... more · · ÷ · · |
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January 23, 2003
My optical mouse started acting up today. The main clicky button (left) sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. And like any sane person, engineer or not, I whacked it on the desk a few times and it started working. With the accumulated c... more · · ÷ · · |
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November 11, 2002
After more than two weeks of freezing weather I was worried that I put off the yearly pond winterization too long. The fish are indoors, but the pump, filter and plants (some wild plants I transplanted from a nearby swampy area) were all i... more · · ÷ · · |
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October 14, 2002
It has been raining quite a bit lately, which seems to have both spurred on the fall colors and hastened the leaves to the ground...and the ponds. It's that time of year when I have to figure out what to do with the fish in our little dec... more · · ÷ · · |
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September 7, 2002
It's a frog eat frog world Today is pond cleaning day. Drain pond, remember to remove fish at last minute, move frogs out of the way (tons of little frogs and a few fat, happy bullfrogs...little did I know), scrub rubber liner lik... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 23, 2002
School is approaching which also corresponds to a new piano schedule for Faith's students. Yesterday I dusted off my PHP editor and rewrote the Piano Schedule and the Lesson Availability calendars, along with some behind-the-scenes tools s... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 21, 2002
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August 21, 2002
If the same hair is touched twice or if two hairs are touched within a 20-second interval, the cells on the outer surface of the leaf expand rapidly, and the trap snaps shut instantly. Hey, sounds like some programs I've written trying to ... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 19, 2002
Yesterday was an outdoors day. We started off with a long meandering hike to capture some newly discovered trails on GPS and update digital trail maps. Man, it is dry. We're out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees, and the unde... more · · ÷ · · |
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May 18, 2002
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May 3, 2002
Today's project: get all of these plants into the ground! My first mail-order plants include Heritage and Bristol Raspberries, Coville Blueberries, Nova & York Elderberries, and a lone Melody White Grape vine. I found an online raspberry... more · · ÷ · · |
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April 3, 2002
While the fish are happier in the pond I have a feeling it's a little cold for them. The waterbed heater I tossed in doesn't crank out lots of heat (it takes days to heat a cold bed, and that is indoors and covered). Yesterday Faith wen... more · · ÷ · · |
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April 1, 2002
It was a beautiful weekend. Luckily so, since the pump on the indoor fish tank has been dying a slow, noisy death these past two weeks and I'm running out of jerryrigs to keep it going. The tank is the winter home of our pond fish: one la... more · · ÷ · · |
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March 11, 2002
Camera fished from pond takes surrealistic photos. [thingamubob] ... more · · ÷ · · |
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February 14, 2002
snatches from a dream... ...putting on military clothes, not travel or dress but fatigues. The hour is early, light a muted blue-gray. Taking a trip. Spain. The purpose is not clear and the mechanics of getting to the ... more · · ÷ · · |
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January 15, 2002
What is this? My old weblog tool, blogger, has been sucking pond water recently and I finally got fed up with it. Coinciding with that I had downloaded the new release of Radio Userland 8.0. I not only like the Rad... more · · ÷ · · |
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January 7, 2002
Here's what "half a foot" looks like up on Daisy Hill this morning. Hmm, gonna have to recalibrate ye 'old yardstick, looks like it's reading about eight inches higher than it should. Cross country skiing should be primo...heck, any kind ... more · · ÷ · · |
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January 6, 2002
Just finished a two day project (part time) of shovelling off the pond down the road for ice skating. The skating wasn't too bad, but my ice skates rot! I picked them up at a garage sale a few years ago and they remind me of Steve Marti... more · · ÷ · · |
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December 4, 2001
Frosty morning here in the north country. This isn't a specimen of scorodite nor can you probably use it for new age healing. It's just a blue blanket I left out to dry last night and which sprouted a friendly frosty froth. Our pond has ... more · · ÷ · · |
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November 15, 2001
Spurred by the PBS Stay Curious campaign I set out to explore the watery regions of our fish tank. Our fish normally reside in a little backyard pond but since it's so little they have to winter inside. This year I upgraded their winter h... more · · ÷ · · |
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November 2, 2001
Nomadic Computing & Connectivity Resources for Technomads from Nomadic Research Labs. You may or may not remember the founder of Nomadic Labs, Steve Roberts, who travelled the country in a few homebrewed techno-recumbent bikes. For the pa... more · · ÷ · · |
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October 6, 2001
I bought a digital camera today (Nikon 775) and then went for a long walk to experiment taking pictures. My favorite out of the bunch is Zeke overlooking the beaver pond down the road from our house. This is a favorite swimming hole ... more · · ÷ · · |
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September 26, 2001
Yesterday was very rainy, even torrential at times. We took the two dogs (Zeke has company while we watch our friend's dog) for a walk in the morning during the lighter part of the rain. On the way home I saw two things along the road. O... more · · ÷ · · |
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September 10, 2001
Wings of the world week in our corner of New England. Lately we've had lots of Monarch Butterflies in our yard and along the roadside as, I suspect, they fill up one last time before fluttering on south. On our walk this morning a Monarch... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 22, 2001
Doncha just hate cell phone envy? You think you have it so good with your motorola startac slung smartly on your hip or nokia "just like the matrix" silver surfer tucked into a convienent recess...and then you go to Europe and see how cell... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 10, 2001
Admit it, you really want to know How Toilets Work. Although I must admit that the vacuum toilet with the teflon bowl is a current fave...do they sell these to non-airline customers??? Some more spontaneous toilet topics: On a trip to Eu... more · · ÷ · · |
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August 9, 2001
Another article from E4 : Engineering caught my eye, this one about new techniques for fast freezing food. It reminded me of an article I read the other day in the waiting room of my doctor's office. The magazine was from the AARP (retire... more · · ÷ · · |