Good Morning North America, Good Night Pacific!

The Demon Dog will soon go out for The Last Potty and I will need to move some flower seedlings to a sheltered spot. I think after two more nights, it will be safe to plant them. We are having cold nights.
 
Went for a 15mi ride today with no rain or hail! Finished dinner (leftovers), and am just taking it easy till it's dark and I can put the ducks away. Shouldn't you be asleep, Stefan?
 
ChezCheese:) said:
Seriously cold wind today. We are off on a camping trip to Jedediah Smith Redwoods Park. Gorgeous place. I've never cold weather camped before, but of course, we will be in our van, so it's not like we'll be chattering in a tent all night...
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I slept in my van in Ithaca NY over Christmas. Way below zero . Electric blankets are a treat if you have shore power or big batteries . If not. hot water bottles in the beds are almost as good
 
Got up early (6am) to Weed and Feed the dewy lawn. We have a 3 or 4 day "inside" stretch this week. Mid 90s (F) and mid 70s dew point . . . A bit sticky!
 
Just chased away a good-sized coyote who wanted to make off in the pouring rain with one of my two remaining ducks. In broad daylight, as it is about 2:30 right now. Yesterday evening it was a bald eagle who made a low pass and I ran out to wave it off. I need to get two more ducks, so if I lose another it won't be entirely alone.
 
I like the perspective of the OP. It is why I like to integrate metric measures, appreciating International voices. We went on a group ride today on a place called Sonoma Mountain. It is so beautiful. Then I just finished a POS Boda. It came to me looking like it should be in a Bakersfield junkyard that serves a Pit Bull puppy mill. It was faded, oxidized, rusted and dirty. It had 12 year old huge rear hub motor. I would not allow the battery indoors. Especially after hearing about Art. Sorry about the photo tilt. I was standing on a steep slope.
 

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This morning, a coyote made off with one of my ducks. There is just one left, and about an hour ago, a coyote tried to get her. I need to get a few more, so she won't be lonely. The attrition is getting out of hand though.
 
Ducks around here like to have an island. I know that is not easy. They are so cute and silly. I love to watch them and the geese. They hang together. Maybe some geese too. They are tough in protecting territory. The males are aggressive. I am sorry for the loss.
 
They are farm ducks, not pets, so I am not broken up about it. They are here for slug control and eggs, but dagnabbit, twice in one day! They have to free roam in order to forage, so I can't keep them in a chicken tractor, like I have done with broiler chickens in the past. I just feel sorry for the one duck left. Got to get her some buddies asap.
 
ChezCheese:) said:
They are farm ducks, not pets, so I am not broken up about it. They are here for slug control and eggs, but dagnabbit, twice in one day! They have to free roam in order to forage, so I can't keep them in a chicken tractor, like I have done with broiler chickens in the past. I just feel sorry for the one duck left. Got to get her some buddies asap.
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You will probably need to shoot/trap some coyotes, or they will keep coming back, I'm sorry to say.
 
Forgot to post before I went to bed a few days ago. Much of the world was not treated to this event.
 

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Roamers said:
That was taken on a mount that was tracking the moon, correct? Those stars are pretty tight. I was too lazy to pull my scope out so was limited to .5 sec exposure.
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It was an exciting night indeed! I used a regular tripod, a Pentax K-5 (it was my DSLR of that time), and a Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 lens. I had an issue to find the right spot to keep the Moon visible, and had no experience with the eclipse photography. It was a cold night, and I was roaming around the neighbourhood. Eventually, I found a good spot by the main road of the area, and a meadow, so nothing was obscuring my view. It was near to the daybreak, by the way.

I was used to the fact the Moon was usually very bright. I directed the lens towards the Moon... and the Earth satellite just disappeared! Yes, that's the full Eclipse for you. I almost panicked. I had a remote in my hand (as to not add any vibration to the tripod/camera), and was increasing the exposure time for several times, actually not being able to see anything in either the viewfinder or on the LCD monitor! And I was shooting with the remote. (I cannot tell you what the exposure was as I later lost almost everything save my last Pentax K-1 camera and two lenses in my home fire). Besides, I still keep some old archives on a hard disk that survived but have no energy to review the archives now.

Upon returning home, I started developing the RAW .DNG files. I had to crop the best frame very tight but Pentax DSLRs are believed to produce very low noise, so I was successful :)
 
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