Queen of Tears Flowering for 2018

The Queen's Tear plant flowered in November (2 bloom stalks) and December (5 bloom stalks).

100th Anniversary of End of World War I

I visited the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery to pay respect to soldiers who served in World War I. The cemetery is located at 4701 Brownsboro Road in Louisville, Kentucky. A number of World War I veterans are buried at the cemetery including Ethel E. Ochsner (nurse), Dee Royalty (bugler), Lovell Marion Humphrey (1st Lt), and Felix H. Carrico (field artillery).

White Alligator at Louisville Zoo 2018

Here is a picture of an albino American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis). This alligator is named King Louie and resides in the Louisville Zoo. It was hatched and raised in Louisiana and then transferred to St. Augustine Alligator Farm in Florida. It was then acquired by the Louisville Zoo and the animal was named after the French King Louis XVI whom the city is named after.

Last time I visited this alligator was in April 2010. He is definitely a lot bigger. See this post http://poppular.blogspot.com/2010/04/white-alligator-at-louisville-zoo.html

Leaving Manhattan

A picture taken from the vehicle transporting us to the airport on July 22, 2018 morning. I believe it is a view of lower Manhattan. We were staying near Central Park in upper Manhattan.

2018 Potato Crop

I harvested the 2018 potato crop which was planted from remnants of the 2017 crop. I planted about 4 pounds of small potatoes and harvested about 2.4 pounds of small potatoes. They can be used to cook with green beans. Crop was grown in Clark County, Indiana, USA.

Watermelons 2018

After a number of years where I did not make a good effort to grow watermelons, this year I got a nice crop planted in Clark County, Indiana USA. New plastic in about a 50 foot by 20 foot plot was used. Eight hills planted with about 35 plants growing. The vines were growing great and the due to all the leaf coverage it was hard to tell how many melons there were going to be. It appeared that 20 pound melons were already forming by the beginning of August and my past crops did not mature till mid to late September. I was getting excited that I might have 40+ lb melons in September!

All my hopes were dashed when disaster struck. The leaves in the middle of the patch started to wilt soon the entire middle was dropped. Within the week almost all the leaves in the patch were brown or wilting exposing a lot of melons (possibly 50 or so). I picked two in the middle of the dead zone to see how far along they had gotten. They were a reddish-pink and had relatively large seeds. They were slightly sweet and were edible once refrigerated. The largest weighed a little over 16 pounds and the other 11 pounds.

I am hopeful that several of the larger melons at the end of the patch will ripen before all the plants are dead. Time will tell.

Crystal Growth on Pyrite

This picture is of pyrite crystals (reddish-yellow block shapes) with a white crystal growth on it. The images was taken Canon DSLR camera using a Anchor Optical Wide Field Stereo Microscope at 40 times magnification. The rock plate the crystals were found on is Waldron Shale from Bartholomew County, Indiana USA. It dates to the Silurian Period about 419 million years ago.

Tomatoes in August 2017

 Tomatoes grown in Louisville Kentucky USA in August 2017.

Orchids

Orchids seen at Home Depot in January 2018.

First Winter Snow

First snow of the season in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.

Dental Bridge circa 1840-1860

While on a visit to Charleston, South Carolina, USA in August 2017 I saw the most amazing thing. It was a solid gold bridgework set with ivory teeth at The Charleston Museum. The two pieces were listed as being fabricated in the United States somewhere between 1840 and 1860.

The odd thing, it was found in the privy of the Heyward-Washington House. So why solid gold objects would be thrown in an outhouse puzzles me? Was someone mad at the owner of these false teeth and put them there where it would be difficult to recover? Were they being hidden where no one would find them (maybe during the American Civil War)?

I suppose the answers are lost to the sands of time...

Last of the Tomato Crop

Here is an image of the last three tomatoes I grew in containers harvested in September 2017. I ended up using them on salads. Grown in Jefferson County, Kentucky, USA.

Blooming Thistle

Repaired iPhone

Fixed an iPhone 5 broken display.

2017 Potato Crop

I gave my dad about 4 pounds (1.8 kg) of potatoes to plant back in March. The plants grew up and then died leaving about 16 pounds (7.25 kg) of potatoes in the ground.

So far I cooked the smallest ones with fresh green beans and a onion my mother grew in her garden. Very tasty. The largest potatoes I have been eating as baked potatoes. Soon I hope to make some mashed potatoes.

3D Print Tractor Speed Control Plate

If you look at the picture above it shows two plastic plates. The top one was the original plate from a lawn tractor that allows 7 different speed setting to be used. The notch broke that let speed #4 to be set. I created a replica of that plate using a 3D printer and ABS plastic. My notch settings are approximate to where the originals are. This object pushed almost to the print size limit of the printer where I had to print it diagonal on the square printing glass plate.

 It took 19 hours printing at 100% fill with 0.1 mm layers. The left side of the object did not print the text "SLOW" or the number 1 correctly, I think because the print plate was not completely level.

This next image shows the bottom plates, as you can see the original plate was hollow thus the teeth were weaker and susceptible to breaking. The 3D print plate has complete solid plastic teeth.

This last image shows a side view of the printed plate. Since it took so long to print and the plate heating is not uniform, left side of the plate started shrinking so it is not the same thickness as the right side. I do not think this will affect the plate mounting on the tractor chassis.

Lichen

Here is a picture of a leafy fuliose lichen growing on tree bark.

Learn more at this site: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foliose_lichen

Fern

The fern is an ancient plant that has been in existence on the planet for hundreds of millions of year.
Learn more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fern

Purple Iris

Iris is named from the Greek word for rainbow. Learn more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_(plant)

Berries on a Mahonia Plant

You have all you basic colors represented in this plant: reds, greens and blues. The genus Mahonia is a named for Irish American horticulturist Bernard McMahon (1775-1816) in 1818 by English botanist Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859). The Mahonia was one of the plants returned by the Lewis and Clark expedition that McMahon cultivated .


Learn more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahonia