By popular demand, more insects in amber...

These are gnats and midges, probably extinct species,
but then again, I not up on my Eocine insects.

I continue to be amazed at the detail which is preserved here,
right down to the microscopic hairs on the wings and antennae.

The New Microscope

Got a new microscope from E-bay today, with a digital camera, no less!

Here are some of the first efforts with the camera. Enjoy!!



This is a fly in amber from our amber collection. Please note the compound eyes staring back at you from 45 million years ago. Spooky, if you think about it!



Here's a moth. It's a bit deeper inside the piece of amber, so the image is a bit more washed out.

This is a bark louse.

The magnification is about 40 times. This guy is so small it's hard to see in the amber without magnification.

And here's a video of a Copepod from the bottom of our aquarium.
A fairly common critter, but cool to watch.

A visit to Barclay

While spending a couple days at the cabin, we decided to see if we could find the locally famous ghost town of Barclay. Barclay was a coal boom town from about 1860 to 1901 when a flood destroyed much of the infrastructure used to gar the coal or market. Also, by that time, most of the east to mine coal had played out and Bradford County coal mining was on the wane.

While nothing remains of the town, except a couple apple trees and some foundations, if you know where to look. The cemintary is still there, and in remarkablly good shape. While it is unmaintained, it is located on State Game Land offers some protection.

Check out some of our pictures here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Gary.N3HCP/Barclay#

Embracing my internal redneck!

Admit it to your self. There's a bit of the redneck in all of us. Being in northern PA has a tendency to bring this trait to the surface. In Overton Township pick up trucks are like opinions...everybody has one!!

After several months of preparation, our 2006 Dodge Dakota was finally ready to tackle the back roads and jeep trails on Bradford and Sullivan Counties. We've tuned it up, had the transmission serviced, installed a 55 watt back-up light (ever try to back around a narrow dirt road with a 6 foot drop on each side, in the dark?? I have!), bull bars with a skid plate, and, of course, KC Daylighter off road lights.

Last week I got to try it out! Very cool!! It handles the rough, rutty, mussy roads with ease and the lights are remarkable! They don't call them "daylighters" for nothing! Can't wait for the next trip north :)

Address comes camp

As part of the Bradford County 9-1-1 system improvements, most places, including seasonal residents, are getting street addresses. We are now 89 Junk's Pond Road, Overton township. Now all we need is indoor plumbing...

Snowey weekend at camp

When I arrived at camp Friday there was about2 to 3 feet of snow in the Woods ans 3 to 4 foot piles in front of the driveways from the township plows. To be fair, there are all seasonal cabins and most owners stay away in the winter...but not me! The gentlemen who lives down the road was kind enough to plow our driveway. All in all, a relaxing weekend!

Up and running!

The new weather station is up and running. My wife and I were able to get the remote sensor unit up on the pole on the garage without breaking anything (well, she did slip on the snow, but nothing broken!!). The new unit is smaller and lighter then the old one, so installation was not too bad. Now the data is once again reliable so the guys at NOAA won't disown my station!!

Comming soon to a weather station near you!

The weather station her at Radio Free Schaefferstown has been having some technical problems over the fast few months. As is so often the case, it turns out to be more cost effective to replace the whole system that to try to repair it.

The new system will be a Weather Vue from Davis instruments. After it's installed it should interface with the existing computer and data transmission systems with no further upgrades.

If all goes well, the new system should be on line sometime Thursday...I hope!!

http://www.vantagevue.com/

Welcome to March

Well, to say February was crazy would be an understatement! Schaefferstown has been snow covered for most of the month, and cold and windy to boot!!

Due to some construction on the offices at the Indiantown Gap National Cemetery, the venue where we normally hold the funeral services was closed and we were forced to use a back-up facility. Unlike the usual place, the back-up place is much more unprotected so cold and wind are much more of a factor. And it can get mighty windy out there!!

So far, the snow has kept us away from Bradford County most of the year, so far. Hoping to remedy that situation this weekend!!

Winter Cabin Trip

We went to the cabin on Wednesday, December for New Year's. The weather was interesting, to say the least! After the first day, the temperature stayed mostly below 20 degrees, with some stiff wind. We had some snow every day, including Monday, when we headed home. We never got officially "snowed in", but it was fun, never-the-less.

The two pictures from the Trail Cam show a small bear and an Eastern Flying Squirrel (look close on top of the stump...he's about the size of a chipmunk) that came to have a snack. The trail cam took 662 pictures, mostly Gray Squirrels, over about a week and a half!

Web site updates.

I spent most of the day updating the web site. A bunch of new stuff has been added to the main page and a new page has been added just for the Bradford County weather data. Check it out!!
http://www.n3hcp.com
http://www.n3hcp.com/new_albany.htm

The gas rush in Bradford County

During a recent trip to the wilds of Bradford County PA we say a number of operating gas wells and even more drill rigs. 7000 feed below is the ground, the Marcellus Shale underlies much of the Appalachian Basin. The gas wells are being drilled 6000 to 7000 feed down and then up to 6 wells from each hole are drilled horizontally 4000 feet or more into the shale.

The wells are springing up across Bradford County like mushrooms after a spring rain, and producing a number in instant millionaires in the bargain. Think "The Beverly Hillbillies" To my great dismay, we are not among them.

A cold day at the Gap

Today my fellow Honor Guard members from VFW Post 23 were privileged to provide military honors for the funerals of seven veterans. Today's weather was cold, wet, and windy...looks like it's time for the winter uniforms! The picture is from a funeral a few weeks ago when the weather was a bit nicer!

Regardless of the weather, it is an honor and a privilege to be able to help provide the military honors at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery.

Schaefferstown weather is back!!

Yes...it's true!! The weather station at Radio Free Schaefferstown is back on the air, and the Internet!! We actually have two weather stations up and running...one at home and one at the cabin. The links are available at Http://www.n3hcp.com Enjoy!!

Cabin upgrades.

We've had some major upgrades to the cabin in the last couple weeks. The worn out, old, sliding doors have been replaced with shiny new french doors. We can finally go in and out through the front door without straining a muscle pushing it open!

We also installed a new composting toilet. That long walk down the path, especially at night, was getting a little old.

Bear in the back yard

Here's a picture taken by our trail-cam about 50 yards behind the cabin, in the woods. Maybe he was looking for the outhouse!!

Long time, no post.

The schedule has been a bit full here of late. We just returned from a trip to Eastern Canada and Maine. While in Maine we were able to visit what's left of Loring Air Force Base where I was stationed in the early '70s. Mostly, it a ghost town. The picture of the fire plug kinda say it all.

We also had a close encounter with a moose while in Maine. That's not actually that unusual in that part of Maine, but coming face to face with 800 pounds of cow moose is an interesting experience, to say the least.

Memorial Day Weekend

We were fortunate enough to be able to spend the weekend at the cabin and were honored to entertain guests!! Some of our camping/geocaching friends spent Saturday afternoon with us, enjoying the piece and relative quite (is was a holiday weekend, after all, and the 4-wheelers were out and about) of Bradford County.

We also had a few visits from some of the neighbors who live there all year...

Ready for visitors

OK...now that we have the cabin shaped up a bit, it's time to show it off. If you would like to visit the cabin, we are ready to welcome you to beautiful Bradford County. We had given some thought to an "open cabin" or "cabin warming" sort of thing, but the distances involved and every-body's bust schedules, that just seems out of the question.



So, anyone who might like to take a drive in the country and visit us, just send us an e-mail (at the address below) and let us know some dates and we will check our all-too-full calendar and see if we can come up with a mutually workable time. Unfortunately, we still don't have provisions for over night guest yet, but the cabin is only about three hours from Lebanon County, so it makes a good day trip!!

We have set up a special e-mail account just for cabin related stuff. It's:
overton.cabin@yahoo.com

New furniture at the cabin!!

Well, new to us furniture, anyway. We would like to thank our cabin-neighbors, with the help of their daughter, for the kind donation and delivery, no less, of a chair and reclining love-seat. With these additions, the interior furnishing is finally complete!

The new bushes planted last month appear healthy, and we have no serious damage from the winter storms. After almost a year we have made the place our own, and it is now very comfortable (we have satellite TV, after all).

Easter at the cabin

We decided to spend this Easter at the cabin. The nights were a bit cool, but the days were sunny and nice. We were able to attend services at the New Albany Methodist Church in nearby, you guessed it,...New Albany!!! We also took the opportunity to plant a few bushes in front of the cabin to help hide the large empty under the building caused by the almost 45 degree slope upon which it was built.

Yet more pictures have been added to the web site at http://n3hcp.com/Cabin_pictures3.htm

Curb appeal.

With the completion of the painting of the new steps and deck posts, the outside repairs at the cabin are complete. We may be adding a little landscaping this summer, but for the most part, this is as good as it's likely to get any time soon. It's been a lot of time and work, but at last we will be able to just go up and relax!!

Where's Mike Rowe when you need him???

This past weekend we got into all the stuff we've been putting off at the cabin. There was a little carpentry work, but the real "dirty jobs" came with cleaning and painting the inside of the out-house and cleaning parts of the loft that likely haven't been touched since the place was built. As with any place in the woods, mice are always an issue. There was plenty of old insulation that had been used by them for nesting. Hopefully, our efforts to seal the cracks and the judicious use of other rodent control measures will put an end to that problem, for the most part.

Spring is near!!

This afternoon this robin was singing in our larch tree. Can spring be far behind??

The storm is over.

So,here in Schaefferstown we ended up with about 6 inches of loose, powdery, dry snow. The blowing and drifting made accurate measurement impossible.

Living in the country with farmers for neighbors has its advantages. This picture is how our driveway was cleared...nice!!
(The garage and old truck are my neighbor's. We share the driveway.)

Here comes the snow.

It looks like we are getting a bit more wrap-around snow then expected from this coastal storm. It's starting to look like a good old fashioned Nor'easter! We here at Radio Free Schaefferstown already have between 4 and 5 inches with snow falling at the rate of at least an inch an hour.

Back from the cold north.

Well, I'm back from the cold reaches of Bradford County. Two full days of work accomplished most of the projects that were planned, plus some unexpected repairs. It seems whoever mounted the kitchen cabinets on the wall was unaware of the advisability of finding a stud. As a result, one was mounted with nice big lag screws into nothing but the wall board. No realizing this, I foolishly stored some stuff in said cabinet, thereby exceeding its rather low capacity. On Friday, while opening it, the top came loose, placing the cabinet at a precarious angle and allowing much of the stuff stored therein to slide out!! With very little trouble wall studs were located and the cabinet remounted. Makes me wonder how many other interesting surprises await us. Well, at least it keeps the project interesting!!

The weather Thursday was fairly warm and sunny. Friday was around 48 degrees with showers all day. Saturday morning the temperature plummeted to 17 degrees with light snow flurries.

The camp weather station is back on the air at:
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/wxpage.cgi?call=N3HCP-3

Leaving for camp.

I'll be leaving for the cabin in a few minutes. One of the first projects will be to get the weather station back on the air. Watch for it at:
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/wxpage.cgi?call=N3HCP-3

The weather this week, and other stuff.

It looks like the weather may warm up a bit over the vest few days. I may get a chance to go to camp in Bradford County for a little cabin maintenance. For one thing, the last time we were there it seems I inadvertently turned off the weather reporting station...probbaly by bumping the radio controlled with a bag of potato chips (you had to be there)!

On another front, a classmate of mine from the ELCO class of '67 has put together a video using photos from our yearbook and audio from recordings made at the time. A true blast from the past!! Even if you don't know anyone from the class, the video is still worth a look, just because of how well it is done. Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuhX77KjGMA
Enjoy!!

A wintery mess for this week.

After a couple nice, if cool, days Monday and the first half of Tuesday, look out for a bit of a mess for the rest of the week. Wednesday into Thursday looks to be the messiest time with the usual snow, sleet, freezing rain, rain scenario likely. Another storm system looks poised to come in over the weekend, although that one may be more of a problem for the northern half of PA. We'll see...

Nice weather for February.

With the coming of record warm weather for February and the resulting snow melt, we decided a short trip to camp was in order. While the temperatures in Bradford County weren't a warm as Schaefferstown, it was enough to get rid of a good deal of the snow. Some areas went form snow packs in excess of 12 inches to nothing in less then a week! Wednesday morning the warm air and the melting snow conspired to produce a nice layer of ground fog.

After the cold front crosses the area tonight, it looked like it's back to reality! Oh, well...

Cabin Fever

Yes,I have cabin fever. I need to get to the cabin in the worst way...but the weather's not with me. As near as I am able to tell, the roads to the cabin are passable, with 4WD. There is somewhere between 8 and 12 inches of snow and ice on the ground making the lane into the cabin a bit of a challenge, to say the least. I can deal with the cold if I could get there, but that's not looking good for the next couple weeks. Come on Spring!!!

Two weeks without power?

Yep...some places hit by yesterday's ice storm could be without power of two weeks or more.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28873371/

Missed again.

Once again what could have been a decent snow storm has turned into a wet, cold mess. As has been the norm this winter, and to quite an extent, the past few winters, we were tight on the rain/snow line. Last evening we got a couple inches of snow. By morning, it had changes to ice pellets and freezing rain. By noon on Wednesday the surface temperature had risen above freezing so what little ice accumulation there was is melting fast. Oh, weel, maybe next time...

Two days in Bradford Co.

N3HCP decides to take advantage of the two warmest days in over a month to visit the cabin and do a little work. The coal stove got a work out, and with a little help from a kerosene heater, was able to maintain a 50 degree difference between inside and outside. There was about 8 inches of snow on the ground. It's truly amazing how quiet it is out in the woods with fresh snow on the ground to absorb the sound...especially at night! The temperature there tonight is below zero, so it good I came home when I did!!