Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Pig and Sky Updates

Yep, you probably guessed it, the way my luck goes, didn’t ya? I spent all that time cutting my yard and the resident wild pig (feral hog) decided to give it a manicure. In this first picture, you can see where she is in relationship to my deck where my telescope is now sitting:

This next picture is a closer shot of her trying to make up her mind just what she wants to do next. Eat something or dig some more?

She decided to pose broadside since someone was taking her picture:

“Oh the heck with it” she says as she pretends to be a bull dozer:

Later that evening after dark, she broke down the dogs’ fence. My dogs try to call her in, to my dismay. My wife is afraid that the pig will kill our little dogs, so when she (the pig not my wife) comes around, I got to gather them up and get them in the house. Not an easy chore when they are barking and nipping at the pig’s nose on the other side of a fence that she can easily come through. In fact, my wife worries that the pig will knock down the deck.

Update on the viewing with the telescope. Being old and tired (me, not the scope) I don’t stay up very late, so miss out on some good viewing throughout the night. If I don’t post a blog some morning, I may have stayed up all night.

First, since I told you about Jupiter’s moon movement, let me update Jupiter for you. Last night there were only three of her moons visible, two on one side and one on the other with a big gap between Jupiter and the two moons. I guess one was hiding behind Jupiter, since I didn’t see any new spot on her face. Of course, I didn’t spend any time looking for it.

I found M15, a beautiful globular cluster and then just started scanning the sky overhead. It just amazes me to see how many stars are really up there, all the ones that you can’t see with the naked eye (especially from this area). There is not an empty spot anywhere. While just randomly scanning I came across a beautiful “Diffuse Nebula”. Not sure its name; will have to do some research. But it was fairly good sized and bright enough to see clearly. It was not symmetrical but had a jagged uneven shape. Smother edge on one side and uneven “fingers” on the other.
It was probably close to where M27 is supposed to be, but M27 is a planetary nebula and the one I saw was not. I just love to look into the night sky!

10 comments:

  1. Man, I hate to tell ya what you already know,but you gonna have to put that wild pig out of your misery. . There ain't not "cute" involved with them.. In fact there was a story just this past week about the damage they have caused in subdivisions over in north Dallas area..

    Need to borrow a Big Gun?

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  2. Ah Ben, but isn't she so very cute? Anyway, she is too heavy to drag, would have to quarter it where it dropped.

    Barney, you guys are starting to tempt me. How much meat would you get off one that size? Over 300 or 400 pounds or more? At least enough that there would be left-overs, right.

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  3. Every where I go in Texas and the south those stupid feral hogs are destroying stuff. They used to be decent eating and you get a lot more meat than any of those little white tail deer produce. Many ranchers and farmers are paying bounties. A rice farmer can lose a whole months allotment of water in one night to those hogs.

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  4. Hey,Dizzy ask one of your neighbor kids ( strong, rough adult) in advance to come help you skin and clean one in exchange for some of the meat. Then POP one of them with a head shot with a BFG!!! Let us know how it turns out OR you could host a big ole pig roast for your loyal blog followers. :-)

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  5. Barneyh & Ben, I know what I should do but really hate to kill her since she has been around here for so long.

    I know a guy that used to have a big BBQ pit, you know, the typ on a tandom wheeled trailer. Maybe if he still has that, we could have us a genuine pig picken.

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  6. I think it's poetic that the pit you're going to cook the pig in is being dug by the pig itself. I'm so cruel... but seriously, something drastic will have to be done if it continues to be annoying. And as you say, your dogs and your own property is in danger with these annoying, feral things.

    Great to hear you're getting the scope out more. Inspiring me to do the same.

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  7. Hey Pip, Yeh, digging her own pit. LOL
    I left a comment on your last blog about the sky.

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  8. Well I think she is cute Dizzy-Dick...don't do her in!

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  9. How could u kill this innocent little cutie, when shes been around so long!! Just put up a better fence. LOLOLOL

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