A Pair of Brown-headed Cowbirds

Infrequent visitors to the feeder, this pair is up to no good. I'm sure they are just hanging out to follow the other songbirds around to their nests, lay a few eggs and then out of the woods back to the fields.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown-headed_Cowbird

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Another Sign of Spring

All of the trees are coming to life, just some do it a little better than others :)

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Chilean Lube Team Likes to Celebrate!

The fixed plant lubrication guys seemed to be a happy bunch. All smiles, showing off their PM schedules and very proud of the work that they did to keep the crushing system running day in and out. I noticed they had their Christmas decorations up and asked about not having any snow in December. They told me that it would feel strange to have snow during Christmas!

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Chileans are very cool people :)

Anyone can see that the Chileans have it going on!!

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Tulips say its Spring!

One of the tulips opened up today----so it got it's picture taken of course :)

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Last few days of an era...

With the AM of the BAM crew getting their licenses soon, it is with mixed emotions as I await the after school bell. Soon I'll just sit at home (and count the minutes) until they appear in the driveway!!

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Friday Night Flight

Tonight's ride to the Big D......

Room with a View

The residents of Copiapo begin their Friday. The climate here is subtropical with most of the vegetation recognizable by yours truly from his native Florida.

A Dim View of the Crux

Need a few more exposure settings but I did manage to digitally tweak one photo to show a few stars. The two bright lower stars are Alpha Centari and Beta Centari----those stars in which all those B grade sci-fi movies claimed were the homes of invading aliens. The four brighter stars above those two and near the top are part of the Southern Cross or "Crux". The long vertical axis of the cross runs left to right. The drawing below shows the method to finding the direction south similar to the Big Dipper aiding in finding the North Star (Polaris)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crux

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A Wee Bit of Moon

Disappearing just after sunrise, a ghostly Moon pales in the clear blue skies. The terrain is fair typical of the terrain in this area. The mountains are very worn but still with a high elevation. Vegetation grows all the way to the tops on the mountains with lush marshy grasses in the valleys where indigenous farmers raise llamas, goats, sheep and horses .

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Getting use to taking the stairs

Like quite a few airports I've arrived to over the past few months, Copiapo Airport is not an exceptionally large facility. We were actually the only plane there at the time we landed. The plane was an very new Airbus 319, the airport itself is clean and well marked, but again ADA regulations obviously do not apply when boarding and unboarding.

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Canopies of Grapes

Grapes make up the largest agriculture crop in Copiapo, Chile. The photo shows the grape vines being grown horizontally in vast canopies as to the more traditional vertical rows. The grapes however are not typically used for eating "off the vine" or for making the famous Chilean wines but for raisins. The grapes are harvested, sun dried and then processed by packing companies into the forms we have come to know today.

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Made it to Top!!!!

After a 4 hour winding, but very scenic, ride through the dry side of the Andes we arrived at the mine. Situated at 4500 meters and having clear skies nearly every night, I'm looking forward to seeing the Southern Cross star formation tonight.

Welcome to Santiago!

First glimpse of Santiago shows a fairly modern city around the airport. Not sure if the haze is smog or some type of of weather related inversion.

State of the Art

My last couple of flights on a Boeing 767 were over Russia and it was like being back in the 80's.....front projection TV, a little Sinatra playing during boarding and these curious control panels on the seats very similar to some a fellow blogger helped with during that same time period.

I'm sitting in Dallas awaiting a flight on a modern 767 to Santiago. I'll give an update on the differences!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_767

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I waved when I flew over you house on the way in cousin!

Spring Forward

Spring arrived a few days early for our local population of eligible bachelors down by the lake. Hundreds of leopard frogs started their homage to the warmer temperatures last night while we opened our windows to the weather---so I recorded a few of the boys serenading the ladies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Leopard_Frog

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Food Around the World

In the first photo, a typical beginning to a meal for a business class passenger on a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER. The airline is one of the top-rated airlines in the world.

The second photo is the entire meal for every passenger on the IrAero Antonov An-26 100 turboprop heading up to the mine. Basically a winged bus for the teams to get to and from the mine on their rotations. The airline is focused on serving the far eastern cities of Russia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Airlines

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_777

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IrAero

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-26

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Up, Up and Away!!!

Though technically violating FAA and Homeland Security rules (Guantanamo here I come), I recorded the Triple 7 takeoff from Houston to Moscow a while back. The take-off was actually a very smooth and uneventful one. This Boeing is a very stable and quiet platform during flight.

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"Well, the Ides of March have come"

Bouquet of Buttercups

Just one of the many groups of buttercups popping up around the yard this (and every) Spring. This two-tone variety is one of my favorites.

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Long Walk to Memphis

Most airports require some walking and the international airport in Toronto is no different. The difference is they walk a lot more in their daily lives and this thinking applies to modern airports. It is Gate 250 for today's departure and it beats the heck out of Gate 272 from the previous trips.

Lost in the Clouds

Having lunch today at the CN Tower....the top is lost in the clouds this morning. Hopefully things will clear a bit for some good photos!

This Georgia Peach went fishing 22 Yrs Ago

And hooked a largemouth Florida Cracker :)

Fortunately for me, catch and release wasn't popular back then!!!

Happy Anniversary #22 to my favorite beach girl--3/10/2011

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8,035 days in captivity

Vertically Challenged

This Russian porcelain is rough! Should have one of those "You need to be this tall...." signs posted as you go into the bathroom.

King of the CATs

Yours truly and a few of his closest friends from the Western Hemisphere stand in front of a CAT 797F 400 ton Haul Truck being manufactured in Decatur, Illinois. The engine in the F Series is a single block, V-20 cylinder, quad-turbo, 4,000hp monster. The tires are mounted on 63 inch rims and stand over 13 feet tall. The gross vehicle weight is 1.4 million pounds!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterpillar_797

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Early Morning in the Entertainment District

Getting ready to walk to work this morning with an international crowd :)

Fond Farewells

An employee was leaving Kinross at the Kupol mine and her coworkers had a little fun Photoshopping the soon to be departed's head onto various bodies, printing the altered images on a plotter and then mounting on foam-core. Probably result in legal action in the states :)

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Just putting a date on my notes and....

.....Happy Birthday Grandma Setzer....the Big 90!!!!!

I'm Back :)

Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine waking up in CAT country again--unless it was because I was retired and taking a season for a Great Loop Cruise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Loop

Up in Peoria as a customer of CAT. Looks to be a good week.

Going to have to study up on that 6 degrees of separation stuff.

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