The Blue View - A County Fair, Tasmania Style

Marcie and I were reviewing some old photos for a project we were working on and came across a folder of photos and video clips we took at the Huon Show in Tasmania a few years ago. A 'show' in Tasmania is much like a county fair in the U.S. There are livestock exhibitions, baking contests, food booths, a carnival and a whole lot more. We enjoyed it all, but our favorite part was the axemen competitions – contests between lumberjacks.

It was a delightful day, and we put together this video. Hope you enjoy!

Let There Be Light and Soft Water and...

She said (actually she requested) “Let there be light … and soft water … and enough chairs at the kitchen table and ...” and there was. We may be off the boat, but David and his brother, Paul, have been up to their eyeballs in house projects. There always seems to be something to do and the guys have been busy. The kitchen lighting at the new house was the pits. Cathedral ceilings in the kitchen dispersed the light, which was already pretty anemic, making the lighting in the work areas shadowy and inadequate. Mary is a fan of the “industrial theme” and we chose lights (lots of them) that looked like inverted canning jars with brushed nickel trim and added vintage style LED bulbs. Since there were already light fixtures in place, the job of connecting them up was pretty straightforward other than the ceiling is about 12-14 feet high and required David's new super ladder to reach them. The result was bright, to say the least, and he's now thinking of adding a dimmer switch.

The water in the Las Vegas desert is hard, i.e. it contains lots of minerals, especially calcium and magnesium, which deposit and build up in pipes and eat away at sink fixtures. David did some research and was able to ascertain that on a scale where “1” is soft water, “2” is medium and “3” is hard water, Las Vegas' water is an 18. We needed a water softener to take care of the problem. We purchased one at Lowe's, the guys had it up and running in a day which included cutting into the incoming water main and then installing a drain for the regeneration outflow. There is a noticeable difference, especially in the shower. Soap actually lathers now.

The latest project was adding two pendant lights over the breakfast bar between the kitchen and family room which also provided more light over the sink. We kept with the industrial, brushed nickel theme and the result was awesome. This project was complicated by the fact that no lights existed in the area and thus new wiring for the lights and the switch had to be installed from the attic. Knowing me the way he does, David suggested that the girls find an outside diversion (go shopping) for the day while the guys tackled the light installation. Good thing because the mess was overwhelming. That said, the project was nearly done and the clean-up had begun when we returned home to find the lights in place and looking great.

Midst all the projects, we still find time to scour the local thrift shops and add to our home furnishings. We've added two dining room chairs, a sleeper-sofa and six new kitchen chairs plus a couple of lamps … all pre-owned and ridiculously priced. We also discovered a newly opened IKEA store on the west side of town and though we didn't purchase much, we got some great ideas.

It's time to start thinking about Nine of Cups again. Soon, we'll begin ordering boat parts and making our plans for heading back East at the beginning of September. Time flies when you're having fun.

Meteors in the Desert

Every August we vow we'll get up to watch annual Perseid meteor shower and we usually remember to do it some time in mid-late September. We've observed several astronomical events while aboard Nine of Cups. Its a rare night that we don't see a shooting star or two during night watch. Clear nights at sea, away from city lights, are particularly amenable to stargazing. The blood moon eclipse in September 2015 was one such event and we took advantage of it by lying on deck with our pillows to view it. Photos of a slow event on a rocking boat, however, are never easy.

This year we remembered the annual Perseid meteor shower. It was at its peak the other night and we ventured out into the desert to watch the show. We set our alarm for 0245 and the four of us were out the door by 0300. The night was cool, compared to the sweltering 110F+ (45C) temps during the day. The sky was clear, but the loom of the Las Vegas lights occluded our view. We drove north on Interstate 15 about 20 miles, turned off the highway and parked midst the hills. We leaned against the car and gazed up at the stars. The moon had set. Orion was rising and the Pleiades were bright and sparkling. A perfect night in the desert.

The meteor shower was at its peak and shooting stars streaked across the sky in every direction. It was estimated that as many as 200 meteors per hour could be expected to whiz past. We didn't see quite that many, but it was quite the spectacle nonetheless.

According to several sources, the shooting stars are “the result of debris left behind by the Swift-Tuttle comet which passes close to the Earth every 133 years. The comet last passed through our solar system in 1992. As it did so, the Sun’s rays heated its frozen surface and released trillions of small particles.

The Earth passes through this debris once each year. The particles strike the Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of 125,000 mph (200,000 kph) and burn up, creating the dazzling bright streaks.

The Perseid meteor shower has been observed for at least 2,000 years.” How cool is that? Two thousand years ago, people stood and gazed up to watch the show just as we were doing now.