First things first. Kelly? My "new" crockpot does not have 5 temp settings. It has five time settings. Reading glasses help.
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This is the fossil I found. It is part of a plant. What is cool is that you can actually see the pattern of the phloem in the fossil. If I was a better photographer, I could show you. I tried. I tried very hard. It was my first closeup photo, and I could not make it work to save my soul.
I was tending to the plants in my greenhouse today, and I noticed a swallowtail butterfly fluttering against the ceiling of the greenhouse. I couldn't reach it, but I did manage to get it safely out the door. In the corner, I noticed the body of another. I've begun closing the screen doors to keep them from being trapped inside.
We began work on the roof today. We'll go up tomorrow morning to work, but Tim has an afternoon appointment in Erie. They are calling for it to be very hot and humid for the rest of the week, so it would be smart to limit our work to the morning or evening hours when it is cooler anyway. 
Coming home, I saw some post that a train hauling wind turbine blades was coming past Youngsville. It had posted only 2 minutes earlier. I told Tim about it and we looked out our window and there it was!
We beat it to Warren and waited for it to arrive. The size of those things boggled my mind. They each took up two railroad cars. 
There were a lot of railroad cars.
Held up traffic for quite a while, but no one seemed to mind.
I was not the only idiot out there in the hot sun taking pictures.
It was cheap entertainment for a hot day.
Kay of Musings: Oh my! You found a fossil? That’s amazing! Art and my brother would be so JEALOUS!
ReplyDeleteKay, that set me back on my heels. After thinking about it, it makes sense. Hawaii is a pretty recent addition.
DeleteI am sending some fossils!
DeleteI saw those blades being hauled by tractor trailers on the interstate. Soooo long!
ReplyDeleteHuuuuge.
DeleteI, too have seen those long blades on I-35 in Oklahoma and Kansas one time. I had also pulled into a large truck stop for gas, and so did one of the blade's trucks. Yep, they are really big. On the railroad, I'm wondering how a blade on a flatbed car the length of two usual flatbed cars can make the turns in the railroad track. There's a curve close to my daily drive, and I can see just the slight curve causes the boxcars to really tilt. Stay safe and watered. I'm thinking those cars honking at you are stunned that you two "youngsters" are putting up that house. You put The Waltons to shame. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteEach car had a pivot, about four or five feet tall. The blades rested atop of those. One blade required two cars and two pivots. (you can see one of those pivots in the third picture.) As the train goes into a curve, the pivots turn with the car and that allows the cars to take the curve while the blade stays straight. I tried to catch it, but the cars were actually coming out of a very sharp curve as they came into town.
DeleteYou make me laugh. The other day, I said to Tim, "Know what's good about all of this?" and he said, "What?" and I said, "That we didn't wait until we were 70 to get started."
Yes, I see that funny pivot turn thingie. Really amazing production. Linda in Kansas
DeleteShame those blades weren't turning .. you would have had a good breeze to cool you down.
ReplyDeleteThat's hilarious!!!
DeleteI am not sure if it is the case with this train but I amazed at how in America such long trains travel through the middle of the cities, some even in the middle of a road. And always remembering that means less trucks on the roads.
ReplyDeleteYes, you need to pace yourself carefully in the heat.
This one traveled verrrrrrry slowly through town, and there were railway personnel at every crossing. This was a valuable load. It was a long train, and I will guess that it took a half hour to get through our little town and back out again.
DeleteFossils are fascinating!
ReplyDeleteThose blades are really long...and they are pushing to erect even taller ones! Did you know that if one blade is painted dark, of the three, that it practically eliminates bird strikes?
I didn't, but that is fascinating. I wandered off to have a read about it.
DeleteOf building a house, sheathing the roof has to be one of my least favorites, especially now. I'm not as agile or unbreakable as I used to be when I was younger and I've always had a healthy respect for heights.
ReplyDeleteWe have a plant that makes those things down the four lane road from our place so I generally never make a trip to our capital city without seeing three or four of those things going down the highway. They have special dollies to hold up the rear of the blade connected to the front part of the trailer with a long metal I-beam. They generally have a safety car in front and back of each semi so it is a large production to drive them to where they need to go. I have never seen one going down railroad tracks though. I assumed there were too many tight bends for them in urban areas.
See my reply to Linda. It was fascinating to watch, though. They were coming from a yard in Erie where they had been brought in by ship and headed to the middle of the state.
DeleteI think I've seen those wind turbine blades being hauled on the interstate. They are impossibly huge, aren't they?
ReplyDeleteThat is a very cool fossil rock you found. It would have pleased me to find it too.
Y'all be careful in this heat. I know you will.
What a rare opportunity to capture the shipment of those blades. I hope they will be installed (imagine the crane that has to lift them) and provide electricity for lots of people. When driving out west I saw farms of them, and it was hard to imagine how big each one was.
ReplyDeleteI'd have been gawking at the turbine blades, too. Thanks for the clarification on the crock-pot. It had me wondering.
ReplyDeleteWhen you see the blades up close it makes you realise how huge those turbines are.
ReplyDeleteI've seen the blades moving on the interstate. Ginormous!
ReplyDelete