etching underway...

97,101,71,0,B

like a sponge...

Got 3/8" of rain at 2 AM this morning.  By 5 PM today, the desert was back to its old crusty self.  97,101,65, .38",B

That Bunn Special...

 

Finally got the replacement mainspring and installed it.  Was hoping that the watch would magically start running when I wound it up.  No such luck.  I really didn't want to disassemble it, so I peeked inside with my magnifying loupe and found the problem pretty quickly (there really aren't that many parts).  The impulse jewel is gone.  Since replacing that is something that is beyond my skill set, the watch is either going back to the owner or to a real watchmaker.  I am waiting to hear back from a couple of online pocket watch restoration guys that I contacted.  The owner is going to rely on my recommendation so I want to make sure I find someone that will repair and fully service the piece.  My deal was no labor charge if I can't get it running - just parts which amounts to about 50 bucks for the new mainspring and a couple of case screws.  I gave it my best shot.  86,100,70,0,B   

a perfect storm...

Got what I consider the perfect storm yesterday afternoon.  Just under a quarter inch of rain out of a 10 minute downpour.  A little rain that fast doesn't destroy my road but really gets the creeks flowing and I was able to top off my second creek tank by pumping 1,500 gallons into it...while the sun came back out.  80,97,76, .24",B

Satan's folly

It is not widely known that Buzz Aldrin took communion during the Apollo 11 moon mission and read John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.  The ritual and scripture reading were not broadcast nor publicized because of a woman named Madalyn Murray O'Hair.  In 1971, she filed a lawsuit challenging the open readings of the Bible by US astronauts (who are federal employees) during their spaceflights - spurred by the reading from the book of Genesis by the crew of Apollo 8.  A very vocal atheist, she spent a lot of time bringing about lawsuits involving religion.  Her son William J. Murray became a Christian in 1980 and later a Baptist minister, publishing a memoir in 1982 about his spiritual journey.  His acceptance of Christ as his savior incensed his mother to the point where she made this public announcement: "One could call this a postnatal abortion on the part of the mother, I guess.  I repudiate him entirely and completely for now and all times...he is beyond human forgiveness."  In 1995, Madalyn Murray O'Hair was brutally murdered and dismembered along with another son and a granddaughter - the victims of a kidnapping and extortion plot.

20 skulls...

 

...ready for etching and final polishing.

91,102,74,0,B

Happy Birthday Ben

 

10 years old