Not quite quick enough

Cheryl was sitting on the sofa in the great room with the back door to the porch open when she heard a louder-than-usual noise coming from the bird feeder outside.  She got up to approach the door  cautiously, but also tried to let Norris know about our visitor.  The bear was frightened off.

We've often mentioned how all the wildlife like to use the stairs we had our landscapers put in for us when we first moved in. At least we get a good view of the bottom of the bear's paws through the screen.

You can see that the second photo was taken moments after the first.  A few seconds later, while hidden from the camera, the bear paused and turned to look at us, hoping we'd back off so it could come back for the sunflower seeds in the feeder it had abandoned on the ground under the pole.

 

Moki was upstairs with us but retreated to the laundry room toward the other end of the house, tail puffed up.  Lu and Lily were downstairs in the studio.  Deciding the bear was easily frightened, Norris waited maybe 5-10 minutes, then went out to pick up the feeder and checked on the studio cats through the windows - Lu was at the window, on high alert.

Weather Station On-Line

This posting may only be of interest to one blog reader (Dorry), but that's good enough reason to do it.

Norris decided to add some hardware and software to his weather station so that the weather data can be displayed in a number of different ways on his computer screen.   The weather data is also sent to a weather site on the Internet.  The hardware addition was a data logger module and cable that connects the weather station console to the computer.  The software being used is the Virtual Weather Station (Internet version).  The on-line weather data is posted every 3 seconds to the Weather Underground website.  Weather Underground (also known as Wunderground) is a network of thousands of home weather stations across the county that all post their weather data to the Wunderground web site.  

This is a screen capture of the weather display on Norris's computer.  Its a very flexible interface that allows you to display many different weather parameters in many different ways over any length of time.  Norris is still experimenting with various sorts of displays, but for right now this is the fairly simple set of displays he has selected.  You should be able to click on the screen below for a larger view.

To see how the weather data is displayed on the Wunderground website, go to this link:
http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KNCWEAVE14
or simply click on the Hawks Landing Weather on the right side of the top of the blog, underneath the bear picture.

You can see that the weather data can be displayed on the Wunderground site for a day, a week, a month, or a year at a time.  For now, there is no history before the first of June since that is when the software was installed, but as time goes on the history will build up.

Over on the right hand side of the Wunderground page, you can see the ""Nearby Weather Stations" map that shows the location of our weather station in Hawks Landing (station 60 on the map).  The nearby station at location 62 is the weather station at the Reems Creek FD.  If you click on the "Satellite", then click the + button five or six times, you can actually see our house.

Just under that, in the section called "About This Station", you can see location information for our weather station as well as a photo.  If you click on the photo, you can enlarge it to full screen.

The Virtual Weather Station software also makes it possible to add your weather to any web page, so that's how we now have our weather permanently attached to the top of our blog page.

Mountain Thunder Cloggers at Weaverville Roots

Yesterday, Norris and Cheryl went to Main Street Weaverville to the first ever Weaverville Roots Festival.  It was a celebration of the town and its history. One of the highlights was this group of cars at Rodney's.

 

 
When we arrived, there was a bluegrass band just finishing their set.

But the real reason we went was to see the Mountain Thunder Cloggers perform.  Cheryl took clogging lessons with this group for about three and a half years. She never performed - she just wanted to learn the steps. Here's a quick clip showing them doing one of the numbers Cheryl knows.

It was hot and there was no relief from the sun for the dancers. But that didn't stop young Amber - the instructor's daughter - from making her appearance.

Sometimes her version of the steps was unique, but she knew some of the moves perfectly!

 

Here are two more video clips of the Mountain Thunder Cloggers at Weaverville Roots, showing their versatility. The audience really was delighted with their dancing!

New Weather Station

Our old outdoor weather station failed last week, as it was no longer transmitting data to the indoor console.  We ordered a more sophisticated model to replacement it and Norris installed it on the old pole yesterday.  This model has the rain gauge integrated into the main unit, unlike our old system that had a separate rain gauge.    The large dish-shaped opening on the top is where the rain enters and is funneled to the measuring device.  The shiny panels on the left side are the solar cells that power the sensor unit and transmitter (with a backup battery for use when the sun isn't out).

The new station also gets us a fancier indoor console.

Norris is toying with the idea of ordering a plug-in accessory to continuously load the weather info to a computer, which gives you an even more sophisticated interface that can be used to view all sorts of graphs and long-term weather trends.  This would also give us an option to upload our data to a weather station web site.

Our neighbor stops by

Other neighbors have been reporting seeing a bear for the last couple of days.  Norris decided our bird feeders should not be left out, and the cats were not allowed porch time today.  Happily, the bear stopped by late this afternoon in spite of our lack of hospitality.

 

Cheryl hopes our readers will understand why she did not go out on the deck so as to get photos without the screen or deck cables between her and the bear.

 

The very young vegetable plants apparently were of no interest. The bird feeder area may have retained a bit of the smell of fresh food, but the feeders had been put away.  The bear did pause at the birdbath, but that was behind the gas grill so we don't know if it took a sip of water.

 

The person with the camera does suddenly get the sensation the bear is very close when this large face suddenly appears right next to the porch screen.  (Your photographer was in the house, behind glass.)

 

Temporarily, we lose sight of the bear as we have to move to the back windows.  Sorry about the glare but there's not much time to set these up.

 

We both liked the pose captured in this next photo - 

 

But a bear has other places to go - this one used the top of our retaining wall as a path....

 

and made its way directly past the Satellite dish

 

Finally, the bear paused as Norris drove up the driveway and got out of his car for photos.  Speaking to us evidently was not on the bear's agenda - it walked back into the woods so Norris got no pictures from his vantage point.  You can see the blackness of the bear right behind the foliage of the river birch in the foreground  - still on top of the wall.

  Come back any time, bear!

Fiber farm visit

We don't always go to visit the local artists in their studios during the Weaverville Art Safari, held in Spring and Fall, but this past Saturday, we stopped by a local goat farm on the other side of the ridge from us in Barnardsville. 

A pair of basket makers and a felt artist also had wares on display inside.  Some of their work is visible to the left and right of the doorway where Cheryl is standing.

 

Most of the little goats were at some distance from us in the pastures. But four of them - we figure they were the boys, were kept separately in a field across the drive and this one

hung around looking for a handout, so we could get his photo.

 The goat-keeper came out to tell Cheryl about the yarns for sale, but disappeared while we were looking at them, and we never got to ask any more about the goats. They are only a little more than knee high.

The fiber you get from these angora goats is mohair, which has a pretty sheen and a warm fuzzy texture.  We didn't buy any on Saturday, but Cheryl does plan to support the local fiber economy with her knitting.

Ready for thinking

With the addition of a new bench, our Thoughtful Spot is now complete. 

The lumber and stone path from the house, with its mulch bed, makes access very easy in any kind of weather.

The lens we had in the camera can not take in the full expanse of the view, so we took three shots.  We start by turning slightly left.

Then we look straight across the road.

Finally let's turn right, looking toward the driveway - you can glimpse a little of the light colored concrete among all the green, lower right in the photo.  To see the house and vegetable garden would take a little more of a turn to the right.

If you look straight in front of you, down toward the road and beyond the rock retaining wall that creates the flat spot for the bench, you see the area we had planted with dogwoods, redbuds, and P.J.M. rhododendron a year ago.  The already lush wildflower meadow is on the right in this photo.