And Faranuf in the light of sunrise, with "False Portal Peak" looming in the background --
It was a day of errands, and seeing how many people were actually able to attend the Faranuf Lunar Eclipse Potluck Party starting at 5pm on Sunday. Turns out there will be six, including me -- which is a perfect number as that's how many good dishes I have. And I was able to borrow a table and chairs from good friends Lori and Mark Conrad so we can all eat on the back deck. Then we'll do our actual eclipse viewing from Faranuf's front porch, and with a little luck should get an uninterrupted view of the whole eclipse starting with moonrise over the Peloncillos. I mentioned in a past blog report that we have Sky Village here, where astrophysicists and astronomers can have a house with a nearby observatory for their sky viewing And these folks are no slouches in the astronomical world; one of them is Fred Espenak, a retired astrophysicist who used to work for the Goddard Space Flight Center, and has a (click on following) page on Wikipedia -- along with his own "Mr. Eclipse" website, where he talks about past and present eclipses both solar and lunar, including detailed information about Sunday's "supermoon" -- though as he says on his September 27 lunar eclipse page -- the moon during that night will only be 4.7% larger than average. So go out there and view it -- as the next total lunar eclipse won't occur again until 2032. The Faranuf party viewing area will be on the front porch area seen above -- or can also be in the open area in front of it, if need be (though we will have to watch out for rattlesnakes, always a possibility here). I'll be using my Canon 500mm f/4 lens, along with the 1.4x teleconverter (700mm digital total) and a spotting scope for those you won't be taking photos, while my friend Noel will be using his Nikon 200-600 lens. It should be a memorable experience, and I'll post the photos here on tomorrow's blog entry...But to get back to Saturday's events. I tried to keep Faranuf cool using only the ceiling fans and opening some windows and the back sliding glass door; I wanted to try out using just the fans, turning off the York heat pump whick also keeps the interior temperature to a comfortable level -- but can be kind of expensive; last month's electricity bill was nearly $120! But that's what happens at an all-electric house. I've done various electricity-saving methods,such as closing the floor vents to rooms I don't use (the 2 extra bedrooms) and closing the doors to keep the temperature at a comfortable level in the rooms I do use. And I turned off the full-size freezer, since I am able to put all of my frozen goods in the refrigerator freezer. So yesterday I tested shutting the heat pump off entirely -- the inside temperature eventually peaked at 83 degrees. Not bad, as I have the heat pump set at 79 degrees, and the ceiling fans (one in each room except for the kitchen and bathrooms) have 2 speeds, including a high-speed. And you ca change the direction of the blade rotation -- clockwise for cooling off, and counterclockwise for keeping the inside warmer. (Once again, the original owners spared no expense with Faranuf in all aspects.) But even with these cost-saving methods the electricity bill can be kinda high, so I'm considering going solar in perhaps a few years, though with equipment and installation it can get quite expensive. But I digress from the events of Saturday. The Big Bend Patchnose snake returned to its"hidey-hole" in my back yard, so if he comes back one more time I will grant him Faranuf Resident status. From asking folks who are familiar with snakes -- we have quite a few retired herpetologists here, along with astronomers and wildlife biologists -- the Patchnose eats mainly lizards and grasshoppers, so as those are both in abundance here, it should stay. Then after re-discovering the Patchnose, I went to the Portal Store where I joined friends for dinner and listening to a band playing music ranging from New Wave to California Surf. Who says that Portal and surrounding areas are in the "boonies"? We may be living "rurally", but we have many events, potluck parties and concerts -- for instance, a week of Irish music in coming up in early October -- that keep us both busy and connected. And that's really all that pretty much matters...
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