Texas Spring/Summer Thread

[farmgirl19]

Only down to 63* here, but the house is opened up and I'm listening to the crickets! I thought I might hear some coyotes and see if I could get a shot at one, but they are not out near here. Won't be staying up tonight, when they probably will be around.

Between the crickets, toads and the frogs that sing around here, nothing seems to mind when I sing off-key! I don't think any of us are in the same key! :shocked:

 

[Western]

Only down to 63* here, but the house is opened up and I'm listening to the crickets! I thought I might hear some coyotes and see if I could get a shot at one, but they are not out near here. Won't be staying up tonight, when they probably will be around.

Between the crickets, toads and the frogs that sing around here, nothing seems to mind when I sing off-key! I don't think any of us are in the same key! :shocked:

I was just on the porch listening to the coyotes!, they are loving this cool front!! Weird how just a few miles makes the difference in temperature.

 

[NativeSon]

Hobby Airport was in and out of rain and clouds last night. All I got was a fuzzy shot of the moon around 2am. My camera's battery is charing right now, so I have to wait to see how it came out.

On a happier note...........................it's raining here. I'm fixin' to go out and dance a continuance dance. No knee high mocassins now, just rubber boots!
hugs, Brandi

Rubber boots will be the UOD for a while.

Charlie

 

[farmgirl19]

I was just on the porch listening to the coyotes!, they are loving this cool front!! Weird how just a few miles makes the difference in temperature.

Yes, it really is weird how those few miles can make so much difference.

Predicted low of 56* tonight. I'll bet I sleep with the windows open!

 

[NativeSon]

Love it!! 63* this morning. Makes an old horse feel like a young colt. Yesterday evening, the last time I checked, we had a a total of 6 3/4". There was some flash flood warnings out and a little bit of flooding in southern Wood Cty and in Smith Cty (Tyler). Starting to get light out so I'll go get the paper and check the guage. This rain has certainly been a Blessing.

Charlie

 

[jinman]

My thermometer says 54.7 F right now. I'm not trying to 1-up Bird and Dennis; more like 5-down them. We slept with the windows open and had to pull up a blanket in addition to the sheet in the wee hours this morning. Dang! This is so nice! I did get a little run-off into my new ponds. One is up 18" and the other a foot. When I saw that Grand Prairie got over 6", I was very jealous. In a storm like that, the street in front of my old Grand Prairie house turned into a curb-to-curb river. Water from four streets all converged on the same point and that made that little 100' section of the street flood until the water found it's way to the ditch. Even so, if we have cool temperatures, I may not have to water anything for almost a week. I can give my "miles" of garden hose a rest.

Brandi and Farmgirl: Ya'll be safe and enjoy your time together if you get the chance. Don't worry about taking pictures. If we have a get-together in the springtime, you'll see that crowsfeet and expanding waistlines are common with a few exceptions like txdon who is eternally thin and fit.

 

[txdon]

If I can get a ZTR morning mow in my extended yard areas I might be able to leave the dust mask off.
Kyle my ponds are still at least 6'-8' from the brim. The water did not get to the ponds till the last of the showers. I have two small ponds toward the top of my hill that I call my sand catchers. Both were empty but now are half full.

Fg19 I took your lead and put out 50# of rye seed by one of my ponds that I have been working on but I'm afraid that 50% washed away, we will see in a week! I just love seeing the green grass waving in a cool fresh north breeze with content deer.

 

[pacerron]

Ron, it's quit raining here, may start again, but anyway, I just went out and dumped about 2.62" of rain out of my gauge, and that brings my annual total thus far to 23.29" The 2.62" is the biggest rain we've had in 24 hours since March of last year. But for a whole year's total, I've had:
2008 - 35.59
2009 - 52.34
2010 - 41.27
2011 - 29.21
2012 - 28.33

Bird,
Thanks for the numbers; that's interesting.
Not actually here on the farm since my electronic rain gizmo blew up, but at the official weather station a few miles from here they have 28.62" for the year so far. Over an inch of that has dropped here since 3 AM from the dancin of Charlie and FG.
We get about 38" for the year on average. 16" of snow average adds another 1.5" or so. But we have a lot of clay soil so it stays wet for a while after a rain.
Ron

 

[farmgirl19]

Brandi and Farmgirl: Ya'll be safe and enjoy your time together if you get the chance. Don't worry about taking pictures. If we have a get-together in the springtime, you'll see that crowsfeet and expanding waistlines are common with a few exceptions like txdon who is eternally thin and fit.

Thanks, jinman! Sometimes, I think it is harder for us girls to admit that one day, we might actually hit 30! :laughing:

I hope that we can have that get-together in the springtime. I'd love to meet, in person, all of the people that I have come to call friends here!

 

[sseelhoff]

Glorious! 1.6 inches in total. Everything is turning green. No dust blowing, the bare spots now look like dirt. 71 degrees and a delightful breeze out of north. Opened the windows for the first time since June.

Just finished clipping back the spring tomatoes (they are still producing!) to get more air to the fall crop. Found another watermelon on the vine, about the size of a softball right now.

 

[bindian]

Glad to hear eveyone reporting rain. I got another .5 inch last night. So my total for yesterday and this morning is 2.5 inches. It was still drizzling when I checked the gage an hour ago.

Thanks Jim. It isn't the expanding waist line that gets me. It's the need for more clothes that look awesome and fit. After all, free work clothes and tractor clothes only get a girl so far. Two new blouses yesterday..............$81.
hugs, Brandi

 

[pacerron]

Ron yes I have a level on my camera.. I hold my left arm at a 90 degree while my right arm stay at a 45 degree.. I tilt my head at 16 degree and the camera 64 degree.. knowing that the moon is 10 degrees above the arising.. it is much easier at sea level than up north.. higher elevation,:confused3:, plus a couple of shots of scotch helps when you close your eyes and say hope this is a good one..
. Lou

Lou,
I went back out about 23:30 for one more look. The moon was still behind a haze but not too much to drag out the camera, still on the tripod from earlier, and grab a couple shots before it went behind thick clouds again.
This one was taken at 23:43, f-6.5, ISO-100, 1/60th, exposure bias -1, manual focus on infinity. With the clouds auto focus wouldn't stay locked in. At that distance manual-infinity keeps the camera happy :confused2: I cropped away most of the black surround.
By processing the RAW shot I was able to eliminate the haze and added an "Overlay" layer to make it more vivid.
The camera was level, and you can see that up here the Tychos Crater is pretty much due south. If you save and open the image full size you will see how the moon is not somewhere to live.
Ron

 

[Lou66]

Ron that is one of the best pictures I seen with so much detail.. nice,, I will go back and see what I have in the files/computer.. I know I don't have any pictures that clear.. Lou

 

[farmgirl19]

I tried taking pics of the moon, this morning, but the sky was just beginning to lighten, so I didn't get any detail. :confused3: I'm sure enjoying the photos y'all are sharing! That is some great detail, pacerron!

 

[pacerron]

Two new blouses yesterday..............$81.
hugs, Brandi

You'll be lookin good in all those pictures with Chloe.
Then you can order all those ( photo gifts) coffee mugs, T-shirts, baby blankets, Murals and other stuff that grandma's like from the photo site.
Ron

 

[farmgirl19]

You'll be lookin good in all those pictures with Chloe.
Then you can order all those ( photo gifts) coffee mugs, T-shirts, baby blankets, Murals and other stuff that grandma's like from the photo site.
Ron

Take the photos quickly, because I was thinking, there is bound to be barf or something else to stain them, first time you wear the nicer things with the baby! It is harder for some of us to stay looking nice, than others! :laughing:

 

[pacerron]

Ron that is one of the best pictures I seen with so much detail.. nice,, I will go back and see what I have in the files/computer.. I know I don't have any pictures that clear.. Lou

Lou,
Maybe you got your arm details screwed up and forgot to hold your breath :hyper:

Honestly, you will never be able to get a sharp shot at the settings you used if it is handheld.
If you don't have a tripod you can set the camera on something solid and prop it up to the right angle with a pillow, shirt or bean bag under it.
In either case you need to use the time delay so that you can push the shutter release and get away from the camera to allow 4 sec or whatever
you choose for the camera to be stable before it fires.
At 337 mm zoom it is like trying to balance an egg on the end of a toothpick, you can't hold it still.:dance1:
You might try raising the ISO speed real high to increase the shutter speed but that will increase the digital noise.
You could open up the f-stop from f-4.5 but your max at that zoom is F-3 so you won't gain much that way.
Your camera meter is over exposing the moon detail a bit, which is a normal fault when it is trying to balance the little bright circle with
all the big black surroundings, even though the meter is set on spot.
It is normal to have to use exposure bias of a -1 to a -3 when shooting moon shots, particularly if there are no clouds covering it at all.
That's why in a lot of shots you see folks take on automatic, the moon is just a pure white overexposed ball with no detail.
Lenses, and zoom lenses in particular, have a sweet spot. There is an ideal f-stop where the lens has less internal reflection, thus more sharpness than any other.
Of course the f-stop alters the depth of field but when shooting the moon, depth of field doesn't matter, since it is so far away, but the sweet f-stop does.
You have probably noticed that your camera taking normal and close distance shots has an f-stop setting that just seems better than the others.

I'm lazy so I use a tripod which once set level stays that way. Most tripods have level bubbles built in.
I use a 3 foot electronic cable release so I can sit comfortably on a porch chair, with cool drink in hand, and just watch the LCD and click the release when I want.
Having the focus set on manual infinity I don't have to mess with the shutter half way down to focus crap.
I have a little flashlight so I can see the knobs and buttons on the back if I decide to change a setting.
I shoot on (A) Aperture setting so I have control of the f-stop, set the ISO to 100 so no digital noise, let the camera select the shutter speed, but actually increase it by selecting
a minus exposure bias. Each step in a minus direction effectively doubles the shutter speed.

Your camera, and most digital cameras, will work the same way if you want to try it.:reading:

Ron

 

[pacerron]

:sneeze:

It is harder for some of us to stay looking nice, than others! :laughing:

Especially when you work in a hot barn all day:sneeze::sneeze:

 

[Lou66]

Ron I use to keep up with all of that back before our house burn down.. All of my camera equipment went up in smoke.. So now I carry this Nikon Coolpix 80.. it mostly for around the ranch/farm.. equipment and new calves.. better than a hot brand.. just an ear tag and a picture.. picture of the series numbers and a picture of the piece of equipment.. That's my filing system.. may need a back up plan in case our house burn down.:shocked::laughing:.

Most of the time I make a copy of the picture without all the info before I post it.. but not always.. But thanks for the help.. I make get me a another tripod.. Lou

 

[lostcreekranch]

3" of rain yesterday and overnight in Colorado County. Tanks came up about 6" but, both get runoff from about 50 acres.

Mowing today was dust free.