Tuesday, January 2, 2018

4 degrees F (3.6) January 2, 2017

This morning at about 7:45 am the outside temperature reading at the farm was 3.6 degrees F.   Coldest temp so far for the season.  Clear moon lit night, clear blue sky today.

Thursday, December 28, 2017

12 degrees F December 28, 2017

12 degrees F this morning on the farm.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

16 degrees F Dec 13, 2017

On Sunday December 10, 2017 the morning low dropped below 21 degrees F, it was 20 point something.
This morning, Wednesday December 13, 2017, the temp dropped into the teens for the first time for this year.

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

24 degrees F November 20, 2017

On Monday morning November 20, 2017 the low temp was 24 degrees F at the farm. 

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Linux runs on the fastest 500 supercomputers in the world


Linux has been dominating the high performance computing space for a while.

Now, linux runs on the fastest 500 supercomputers in the world.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-totally-dominates-supercomputers

China has topped the US and now has more systems in the top500 list than any other country.

At ORNL we have the Titan supercomputer, now five years old, it has dropped to #5 in the rankings.  A new supercomputer called Summit is being developed and installed at ORNL and is expected to take over the #1 spot on the top 500 list of supercomputers next year.

Switzerland has the #3 supercomputer.

www.top500.org


Monday, October 30, 2017

27 degrees F October 30, 2017

Definitely got some frost on the pumpkin this morning, coldest temp of the season so far, the temp hit 27 degrees F.  Outside water drinkers froze, including the ones in the coops.
Last week one morning we hit 32 degrees F.

Thursday, October 19, 2017

October 19, 2017: 36 degrees F and first frost of season

This morning the low was 36 degrees F and there was ice on the windshield of my truck and light frost on the grass etc.

The sky was clear, beautiful and starry last night.

A pack of coyotes came up fairly close last night, the dogs kept things under control.  

Sunday, October 1, 2017

44 degrees F October 1, 2017

Beautiful clear night, 43.9 degrees F this morning.

Saturday, September 9, 2017

47, 46, 47 degrees F, September 7 - 9, 2017

Beautiful weather the last three days with cool morning low temps of 47, 46, and 47 degrees F.

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

That's something I've never seen before ...

September 3, 2017:
Outside doing evening chores, I saw a group of at least 20 night hawks, with the distinctive pointed wing shape similar to gulls, with a very visible white spot on the bottom of each wing, they were flying mostly above the field in between the house and the bee hives, and they remained for 30 minutes or so, feeding up above on insects.  Again, the chickens and pigeons completely ignored them.  Very interesting.

September 5, 2015:
I was outside just before dark this evening and saw something I don't recall ever seeing before.  I saw a couple of large predator type birds flying about 100 feet over the pigeon / chicken / duck / rabbit / peacock area.

Uh oh I thought, this could be trouble.  However, the chickens et al did not seem bothered by the presence of these birds overhead.  Then I noticed these birds were darting about in the sky, much like bats feeding on insects.  Could they be large bats?

These birds had pointy wings with a white mark visible on the underside of each wing.  I searched online and found that these were common nighthawks, which today are not that common.

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Big rain event Friday July 14, 2017

Last Friday afternoon July 14, 2017 we had a big rain event, it was localized and embedded near the farm.   Just a few miles away it did not rain at all.

We lost power at the farm for a couple of hours, there were branches down in the road. 

My next door farm neighbor has a pond that overflowed across Clifty Creek road, something I have not seen happen before, you could slowly drive through with a truck or SUV but you would not want to attempt with a lower / smaller vehicle.

Another neighbor had all of the rock and gravel washed away leaving a bare metal culvert pipe exposed at the entrance to his gravel access road.

At all of the water locations on the farm you can see where heavy water flow flattened the vegetation.  In the wildlife pond the water flow plowed open and folded over two sections of thick sod, I saw it and it took me a little while to figure out what it was and what had happened.

I have a swale or dip near the bottom of the driveway to divert water and that dip was almost filled up with rock/gravel/sediment.  


Wednesday, June 28, 2017

49 degrees F June 28, 2017

Another beautiful clear cool night with a morning low temperature of 49 degrees F.  

Monday, June 26, 2017

49 degrees June 26, 2017

Beautiful evening last night followed by a cool morning, 49 degrees F at 6am today.

Friday, May 26, 2017

46 degrees May 26, 2017

It has been nice here recently, this morning it was 46 degrees F and foggy, then just a beautiful morning as the sun burned off the fog and started to warm things up. 

Friday, May 12, 2017

Super P is back home, April 23 river crest

Our peacock "Super P" left on April 1 this year for his spring break, see earlier post.

On April 23, 2017 the Emory river at Oakdale crested at 27.98 feet.  Clifty Creek road was closed, the water level was above the railings on both sides of the bridge across Clifty Creek.



I drove down to the bottom of the cliff that day and met a few neighbors who also wanted to see the high water, one neighbor asked if we were missing a peacock and I said yes and she said that he had shown up at another neighbors farm.

Yesterday Debby and Mary stopped by the neighbor's farm and Mary caught Super P and they brought him home.   When I got home from work yesterday I was greeted by Super P's familiar honk-honk greeting call. 

Monday, May 8, 2017

ice on windshield May 8, 2017, snow in the Smokies

Cool mornings lately, 41 degrees May 6, 37 degrees May 7, and 40 degrees May 8.
Excellent grass growing weather. 
I turned on the windshield wipers yesterday morning on my truck and was surprised to see the wipers create a small pile of ice.
Mt. LeConte in the Smokies has 6" of snow.
Springs and creeks flowing nicely.
Beautiful weather.