Its summer time and the world is cooking right along. This is know as a Wheel bug according Beth a friend of mine.  It is an assassin and you must be careful not to get its pain sting.  Notice the long black spear shaped mouth part.

It is on top of a small solar light you find at Walmart.

Notice the double rainbow?  It is just to the left of the bright one.  Notice that the colors are reversed.  The reason is that the second bow is a reflection of the colors of the first rainbow in the rain drops.

You have got to go to Luray Caverns in Luray Virginia.  There are many other things to do.  The Car Museum is awesome.

This year the barn swallows built a nest over our front door.  There are little ones in there now.  Mud and grass does the job.

Keep watching the world around you and enjoy learning.

Building and Learning

Building a balcony railing system.

These are the newel post with and without the water based tint.  The water based tint causes the wood to bumped up so you have to sand.  if you use non-water based natural stain you should not have any problem.  My wife liked the water based tint's color better than the natural stain.

Here are the finished posts and one hand rail.  Notice how the post are all the same shade.  The original darker color lightened up.

 You also need floor plate.

Here you can see the baluster.  We used balusters with the square bottom and tops.

 Next the carpet is removed using the box cutter.  Also remove the floor insulation.

Find the floor joyces into which you will screw in the upright post bolts.  You drill a half inch wide hole 5 inches into the joyce.  You must find the center of the joyce.  I taped the area where the base of the newel post will be with blue painters tape.

 Now the posts are installed.  After tightening down the post bolts, I also used metal plates at the base of each post.

 The top hand rail is installed after you put in the rail to post lag screw and nut.  The old way with the lag screw and nut is difficult to tighten but it is possible.  There are newer ways to accomplish attaching railing to post.  Plus for the newel post to the floor which appear much easier.

 Next the balusters will be installed.  A 3/4 inch hole is drilled in the oak floor plate deep enough to hold the wooden pin that is glued into the bottom of the baluster.  My wife is an expert on measuring and placing accurating.  She does a great job in placing the balusters.

Here is the wood glue in the drilled out 3/4 inch hole.

This is the completed right angle part of the balcony railing system to provide stability to the entire balcony rail.

Here the corner moldering has been installed to cover the metal floor plates.

 The balcony railing.

 To set up the wall hungup is where I had to improvise because I could not find out to do it.  I used a spacer to trace the shape of the railing on the wall.  This allows me to find the center of the railing to install the lad screw.

This is the underside of the hand rail.  After drilling the two required holes for the lag screw and tightening nut, I also cut a slot so that I could drop the rail down over the lag screw before tightening the nut.

This is the wall plate that is installed over the lag screw.

Then the rail is put into place and tightened down.

 Here my wife is setting up the measurements of the width between the balusters to maintain a speed of no more than 4 inches at the widest spot between any two balusters.

 Blue painters tape is used to mark all the measurements.

 The process continues.

Here's is where my wife artistic eye and measurement skills help correct a problem I created when I place the wall mount for the hand rail.  She figured a method measurements so that the placement of the hand rail and balusters on the oak floor plate looked correct.  She made an optical illusion so that everything looked correct to the eye.  She is awesome.  

The finished project.  The gate I made years ago when a couch blocked balcony edge.  I will make a new gate to match the oak balcony railing.

  This giant Geode is at the Museum of Nature History in Houston, Texas.  A geoda is formed when liquid crystal solution seeps into an open area in rock then over time this highly saturated solution of a mineral will form crystal in the void in the rock layer.  Then over a long period of time the surrounding rock will be weathered by wind, water, and ice.  When more weather resistant geode will finally be exposed on the surface of the ground.  As you can see geodes take on varied and interesting shapes.  When I visited a store outside the Petrified Forest National Park, there was a geode that had three large legs.  Someone had cut the top off the geode exposing beautiful blue crystals which lined the entire inside of the geode.  A piece of furniture glass was attached on top.  The price tag of this 5 and 3 foot geode table was a mere seven thousand dollars!

The interesting point is that part of the southwest which are now hot and dry were more like swamps with many trees and prehistoric animals.  Scientists now say that geologic evident shows that the large area was uplifted by 3000 to 4000 vertical feet over a long time.  Thus this area saw climate change with a change in plant and animal life.  In a ancient indian village close by, it is known that the area once supported farming.  Now the area is desert-like and a near by river is dried up most of the year.

There's a snapping turtle in my corn!

This morning I had a great opportunity to see a Eastern Snapping Turtle depositing her eggs in the soft moist soil of my sweet corn garden near a creek that runs along our property.  After I took these pictures I left, and when I came back she had covered where the eggs were put and was crawling back to the creek.  The turtle's shell was around one foot in length.  When she detected me walking down, she froze in place so I took a couple of more pictures to show her entire length.  From past experiences with snapping turtles, I know the neck can extend long enough to grab your hand even if you are holding it towards the back of the shell.  I was never injured only educated.

According to the Maryland Natural Resources website...Even though the turtle may have a long tail, spinal injury can happen to the turtle (any turtle) if picked up by the tail.  As for snapping turtle there are only two living members of the Chelydra Family.  The scientific name for the eastern snapping turtle is Chelydra serpentina serpentine.  It is the largest freshwater turtle with sizes between 8 to 14 inches.  The record is 19 inches but we had one one that would cross the road along Little Conococheague Creek that looked longer.  Not something you would try to run over.  The result would have been bad for the vehicle...in my opinion. This turtle is common throughout Maryland.  They like permanent bodies of water such as ponds.  Our creek called Dry Run has water flowing in it throughout the year be it little during the dry times. The Maryland DNR gores on  the say these ill-tempered turtle stay camouflaged except during nesting season from April till June.  When these turtles "snap" their heads and necks will extend surprising far to catch their prey or your finger which will mostly likely be removed from your hand.  You can watch safely at a distance and do not mess with them. 

Learning

You know learning can be fun.  Yes it does include work but the payoff has a lifetime of benefits.  There is so much to learn anywhere you go.  When visiting Houston, Texas, the Museum of Nature History is the place to go.  Here I saw this giant geode.

 A geode  is formed in solid rock where where there is an opening or cracks in the rock.  Over time saturated solutions of dissolved minerals seep into the spaces in the rocks and formed crystals.  Then due to weathering of rocks by wind, water, and ice the rock above the geode is eroded away.  Finally after a long period of time the geode is found on the surface of the ground.  More later.

The Dinosaur National Monument Utah

These are petroglyphs on some of the cliffs in the Dinosaur National Monument east of Vernal, Utah.  Why lizards?  No one know but they do know it was between 500 and 1200 A.D.  By a group of native Americans who used a sharp stone or object to peck away the darker surface rock to expose the lighter inner rock.

On the way down from the cliffs this lizard allowed me to get pictures of it as I got closer and closer before it scampered off.  It was about 3 inches long.

This is part of the wall of dinosaur fossil remains.  Originally it was part of a river bottom into which bones of dead dinosaurs were washed by rushing water.  Here all the bodies and bones dead dinosaurs collected and were then covered by silt.  Then the silt formed sedimentary rock layers.  Over time the these layers were tilted by tectonic plate action.  There is a rich history on-line about Dinosaur National Monument.  On Google Chrome use this link http://www.nps.gov/dino/  Here you can get the whole amazing story. Plus in Vernal, Utah there are two great museums.  One on western history and the other on dinosaurs.  The Western Heritage Museum is very interesting.   Learn more at www.uintahmuseum.org and the Utah Field House of Nature History Museum is a great  place to stop for the entire family at www.dinoland.com

As we look at the world, one has to ponder upon how all we know and are learning came about.  One might reach a realization that all we are and what we find on planet Earth is much more than the luck of the draw. There is a plan for all that has come before, all that is happening now, and all that will take place in the future. We must find those truths.