Live Christmas Trees

If you are getting a live Christmas tree, there are some things you should know.
You can get live conifer trees in two forms.
One is a cut live tree. These are grown at tree farms. If you go to a tree farm, you can cut your own or have the staff cut the tree you chose. I’d get them to cut it.
The other is to buy a ball and burlap tree. This tree comes with the root ball wrapped in burlap. The burlap rots in the ground over time. Sometimes, if the tree is large, the root ball will be held together with a wire frame. The metal of the frame disintegrates in the soil over time.

Let’s say you want a cut tree. You will need a tree stand to hold the trunk of the tree in place in the room where you want it. You will need the tree trunk end to be in a bucket of water. Places that sell Christmas trees have these things and anything else you need.

A cut tree.

When you find the tree you want, the staff can cut the trunk to the length you need. Sometimes the trunks of trees are too long to fit in a stand.
Once this is done, the staff will bail the tree in netting. This keeps the branches from breaking. Usually the tree will be tied to the roof of your car.  The trunk of the tree will be at placed the front of your car.

A bailed tree.

When you get it home, it’s a good idea to cut the end of the trunk again. Sap coats the end of the trunk very quickly and water can’t absorb into the tree. You have to keep water in the bucket that the trunk sits in. It helps prevent the tree from drying out.
The cut tree will dry out. You can tell it’s too dry by feeling the needles. If they come off when you touch them, the tree is dry. Get someone who knows to show you this.
Once the tree is dry, after the holiday, it will be taken out side. A lot of towns recycle Christmas tree.

The ball and burlap trees are heavy. They can weigh around 250 pounds for a 6 foot tree. When the holiday is over, the tree can be planted outside. You can plant trees outside as long as the ground isn’t frozen. If the ground is frozen, you can keep the tree outside until you can plant it.

When you get the tree home, you need to put it somewhere like a garage or shed. You need to leave it there for a few days. This takes the tree out of the cold and keeps it in the less cold. After this, you take it and set it up in the room where you want it.

Christmas trees, both live cut and ball and burlap, should not be in bright sun by a window. They should not be by a heat vent or radiator. This dries the tree out too quickly.

You can ask your local fire department for tips on how to keep you and your tree safe indoors.

All the following pictures are from Wikipedia Commons.

In October, Balsam Fir trees at a Christmas tree farm are pruned. The picture was taken by, Blake Wile.

This is Anstruthers Famous Christmas Tree  by, Jim Bain.

This is in Winchester Cathedral  by, Colin Babb.

This is Trafalgar Square in 2009  by, Peter Trimming.

 

 

 

Screech Owls, Silent in The Night

I have learned that there are about 21 kinds of Screech Owls and more keep showing up. I don’t know why they show up. Maybe they hadn’t been seen before and then someone, who knows about owl, saw a new kind.
Screech Owls are small. They are around 7 to 10 inches tall. If you saw one soaking wet, you would think it was closer to a parakeet than a bird of prey.
Owls hunt at night. Screech owls eat insects and small rodents.
When owls fly, they are silent. Not a whisper of wing can be heard.
If you are walking outside in the dark of an evening, you might see a Screech Owl fly by. You might hear one call out from an undisclosed location. If you walk by one that is sitting in a tree, you would hear a clicking sound. The Screech Owl doesn’t like you nearby. You are being told to go away.
I will use WC for the pictures from Wikipedia Commons.

The first two picture are by the US Navy. The first is taken by, Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class, Damien Martinez.
The second picture is by, Sharon Kollmar, Avian Structural Mechanic (Equipment) 2nd Class.

This Screech Owl was found in the wheel well of a fighter jet on the USS Harry S. Truman. The name of the owl is FOD. I should add here that when owls are tense, angry or unhappy in any way, their feathers pull in and they are slimmer. These two pictures demonstrate that FOD is happy.
Notice the bump under his head, on his chest? That’s called a crop. It is full. FOD is very happy.

The next picture is by, Sascha Rosner, German Wikipedia.

A Western Screech Owl  by, Jim Rorabaugh, US Fish and Wildlife, Arizona Ecological Service, Field Office.

Another Western Screech Owl  by, Randy D. Magnuson, WC.

This owl doesn’t like his picture being taken and he doesn’t like Greg Hume, WC who took it.

This is a Pacific Screech Owl  by, Patrik Coin, WC.

The last picture is of an Eastern Screech Owl. They also come in gray. The picture was taken by, Greg Hume. The owl seems to like Mr. Hume.

 

 

 

Earth at Night

The Suomi National Orbiting Partnership Satellite has taken some vibrant images of the Earth at night. The short version of the satellite’s name is Suomi NPP. It is a NASA and NOAA, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration project. It launched in 2011.
Today, I am showing just some of the pictures of the Earth when it is dark. There is a picture called the Black Marble, which is the Earth at night. The Blue Marble is the Earth during the day.
I found the mother lode of images about how they built this satellite and I will do a post on that because I love hardware, even though I don’t understand it.

This first picture is of the 2012 Blue Marble.

The next picture is of a composite picture of the world at night.

The southern lights over Antarctica.

These are six pictures of city lights at night.

Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Asia and Australia.

The Americas.

Korea

The Nile.

United States

Last picture. 2012 Black Marble.

 

 

 

2012 US National Christmas Tree

I must first tell you that I just wasted a lot of time looking for public domain pictures of the tree being harvested, transported and then planted in President’s Park. No luck. The pictures that I did find, were copyrighted and all over the place.
The tree this year replaced one that 50 mile hour winds took down. They had one that died of transplant shock before that. Transplanting large trees, I’m going to say over 6 feet, can be hard on the roots. The roots have trouble settling down. When you do transplant a large tree, just remember, they don’t like you doing that.
This year, the tree came from the Blanco Ranger District of the White River National Forest in Colorado, US.

The map.

US map of the states by EPS. I drew the red lines. DC is Washington D.C.

This is a picture of the tree before they dug it up. It is taken by the US Forest Service.

From the same site, here is a picture of the tree with the stats.

Except for the last picture, which is by the National Park Service, the pictures were taken by Tim Evanson, Wikipedia Commons. They were taken in Washington D.C.

6 foot trees are planted around the area of the big tree.

This is the stump of the last tree that was removed.

The decorations for the tree were made by children in Colorado. The these was nature. That was one of the pictures I couldn’t fine. My mother used to say, when something couldn’t be seen for some reason, imagine you see them.

This is a picture of the tree after it was planted.

To support the tree branches are guy wires. The tree was planted just before Hurricane Sandy. The tree made it.

Another imagination picture. These are boxes of model trains to be put around the tree by model train volunteers.

The lights for the tree are LED, light emiting diodes. They use less energy than the old type lights. You see LEDs in things like clock radios.They are on netting so that they don’t hurt any branches.

This is the last picture. The tree has been lighted.

 

 

Artificial Christmas Trees

It used to be that people would turn up their noses at artificial Christmas Trees. The trees looked like they were fake. There was a fad of silver and pink metal trees.
Now, if you go out to buy an artificial tree, be prepared to spend time looking at the selection. They come in many sizes and types. You can get one that looks like a Fir tree or a Balsam tree, for example.
Artificial trees can be used where someone doesn’t want a live, cut tree. Sometimes, fire regulations prevent the use of live trees.
When you buy an artificial tree, it comes in a narrow box.
Some of the large trees are a stand with the center pole and you hook the branches onto the pole. There are directions on how to shape the little branches. It is easy and doesn’t take a lot of time.

I found a bunch of pictures of artificial trees. I will use WC for Wikipedia Commons.

The first picture is from Oncor International Christmas Trees Limited. These are recycled. They show how an artificial tree looks when you put it together.

Here is a table top tree with the lights wrapped around it  by, FASTILY, WC.

A tree in Brazil  by, Ikescs, WC.

By, Green Lane, WC.

Two pictures from Hawaii, by Forest & Kim Starr, WC. Kim is standing in front of the trees.

From HuLotus Heas from Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, WC.By, Mfisherkirshner, Wikipedia.

At the Westin in Tokyo, Japan  by, kazuh, from Tokyo, Japan, WC.

From Plant Museum  by, Elkman, WC.

By, FASTILY, WC.

In Union Square, Manhattan, New York  by, Marlith, WC.

In Town Hall Square, Vilnius  by, Alma Pater, WC.

This last picture was taken in Eaton Centre, Toronto, Canada  by, Leslie Mateus, a user of Portuguese Wikipedia.

Altai Mountains, Siberia

You may want to visit the Altai Mountains one day. There is a unique beauty to this area of the world. I am only showing a dab of this region.

The maps.

World map  by, Ktrinka Wikipedia Commons. Siberia is up on the right. It is huge.

This map of Siberia is based on a CIA map. The modification was done by Ulamm, Wikipedia Commons.

The Altai Mountains  by, Geof, Wikipedia.

The rest of the pictures are from Wikipedia Commons.

Altai Mountains  by, Vit Hnevkovsky.Beluha Mountain in the Altai range.

Katun Ondrei  by, Yuri.

Altai Kuscherla Tal  by, Stefan Kuhn.

Altai Mountains at Kazakhstan  by, Dimitri A. Mottl.

Sunset at Kucheria Lake  by, Dimitri A. Mottl.

Some animals you might see in the Altai Mountains.

Camels  by, Yoavd.

Reindeer  by, Lomvi.

Lynx  by, Bohringer Friedrich.

Last picture. Snow Leopard, way up high in the Altai mountains  by, Rodney Jackson.

Voyager 1, Somewhere Out There

I will do a post on Voyager 1 and 2, twin sister ships another time.
Voyager 1 has made news because after thirty five years of space travel, she is at the point where she will go into interstellar space.
A lot of this is about the unknown. No one knows what is out there in space as Voyager 1 continues to travel. The images show what was known and what was found  not to be the case in the outer region beyond the solar system. It is confusing because we are finding out about the unknown.
All the pictures are from NASA/JPL.

Voyager 1 was launched on September 5, 1977.

Voyager 1 still in the lab.

An artist drawing of Voyager.

This is a diagram of the Voyagers in space, showing the interstellar region.

This diagram shows the Heliopause that has been wondered about for a long time.

This is a drawing of what could be in that area of space, out beyond our solar system.

This is a drawing of what was thought to be in that area of space.

This is an old drawing of what NASA thought might be out in the Heliopause.

This is the comparison of what was thought and what Voyager 1 found.

This is the new view by itself. They call the reddish area bubbles.

This last drawing shows the magnetic field directions.

 

Curiosity, Martian Dirt is Complex

Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity has been testing Martian dirt. There’s more to this than you’d think.
All the pictures are from NASA/JPL.

The first picture is a diagram of Curiosity. At the bottom left, the camera that is used to look at the ground is MAHLI (Molly).

Here are pictures of the dirt and surroundings of the samples.

This is the area on Mars called Rocknest.

This is a picture of a rock they call Rocknest 3.

This is a picture of the five landing sites and they type of soil in each. The spot where Spirit Exploration Rover, twin to Opportunity is shown.

The next two pictures are of the scoop marks made by Curiosity for soil testing.

This is a picture of Wind Drift at Rocknest. The explanation said that even though Mars is called the red planet, the soil isn’t really red.

These are diagrams of SAM, the instrument used to have a look at the soil samples.

Isn’t that great? I don’t understand any of it, but it is a lovely diagram.

This next picture is of SAM being installed on Curiosity.

This is the diagram showing the results of the soil tests. There is carbon, but they aren’t sure if it is from Earth or Mars. That will take time to figure out. It is carbon chlorine and it not organic. In other words, they have not found life on Mars. This is the last picture.

 

 

 

 

Bryce Canyon, Utah

If you go to Bryce Canyon, it will seem as if you stepped into another world. The rock formations are unusual. When I was looking at pictures of Bryce Canyon, I noticed that the sky was so blue that it didn’t look real.
This is just a small portion of what you would see at Bryce Canyon.

The maps.

Map of the states by, EPA. I drew the red line around Utah.

By, US Geological Survey

This picture was taken by, Jean Christophe, BENOIST, Wikipedia Commons.

This is called Thor’s Hammer  by, Martin Jones, Wikipedia Commons.

The next picture is by, Luca Galuzzi.

Here are three pictures by National Park Service.
The first is of a natural bridge.

A picture of people in Bryce Canyon in the winter, using snowshoes.

Horseback riding.

Elk are seen in the canyon. I don’t know who took this picture, but it is from Wikipedia Commons.

Mule Deer.

A commonly seen bird is the Swift. The picture is taken by, James Phelps from USA, Wikipedia Commons.

The last picture is of a Barn Swallow. There are a number of different kinds of Swallows. Swallows are seen in Bryce Canyon. The picture is taken by, Broken Inaglory, Wikipedia Commons. It wasn’t taken in Bryce Canyon.

Chomalungma, aka Mount Everest

Mount Everest is known for its height. It is 29 029 feet above sea level, which makes it the tallest mountain on earth.
A lot of people have climbed Mount Everest and some have perished.
Mount Everest is in the Himalayas at the international border of Nepal and China.

The maps.

NASA, I drew the red dot to show the location of Mount Everest.

Nepal relief map  by, Uwe Dedering, Wikipedia Commons

A view of Mount Everest from Nepal  by, Peter Morgan from Beijing, China.

From NASA, a top view showing the mountain range.

An aerial view, edited by shrimp01967, Wikipedia Commons.

The north face of Mount Everest  by, Carsten nebel, Wikipedia Commons.

Mount Everest  by, Pavel Novak, Wikipedia Commons.

The last picture is of a sunset on Mount Everest  by, Thomas fanghaenel, Wikipedia Commons.