Monday, June 15, 2015

Dragonfly alert

Driving to the bank this morning to deposit township monies,
I lost five minutes finding a place to pullover to take this picture.
All I had was the cell phone.
The dragonflies were down low, barely over my head.
The cloud was way up there!


 Then I went to the bird seed store, to buy food for my flying pigs.
Standing in line to purchase, I saw Made in the USA on this device, and pulled one from the display for a thorough check.

A well presented information card explains using the Archimedian principle of water displacement to measure rain. Pretty neat.

I'm going to type in full the rest of the card, in case you don't go to the page:

"Copper is endlessly recyclable and most commercially available copper contains some amount of recycled content. In fact, it's estimated that at least 80% of all copper ever mined is still in existence. Rumor has it that the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the original Seven Wonders of the World, was made of copper but no trace of him exists; he was scrapped, collected, recycled...and possibly lives on in a World's Coolest Rain Gauge." 


And on the back of the card:

"Our rain gauges are made entirely in the USA and most of the parts are sourced within a 30 mile radius of our upstate New York studio. Assisted by a collection of brilliantly quirky machinery and imaginatively repurposed gizmos, we fabricate, test, pack and ship the World's Coolest Rain Gauge worldwide. Thank you for supporting small US companies like ours."

How could I not buy it. My dad filled us with facts like "all the water ever on earth still remains." How could he miss the bit about copper?

I planted it in the hen and chick patch.



One last view of the cloud and the dragonflies.
I couldn't pick between my two shots.


30 comments:

  1. that is a cool rain gauge, I'd get one too but Gary just bought me one, what is that concrete man sitting in the hens and chicks? he looks interesting and our hens and chicks hardy ? they look wonderful

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  2. Replies
    1. I planted half a dozen little one by two bedding pots of several varieties of hen and chicks three years ago. They are doing well, and the last winters have been brutal. I remember gardens with hens and chicks flowing down the walls from my childhood walks to school, and winters were no better than. So, I'd say Yes, they're hardy.
      One of our road guys is pretty good at sculpting big rocks, and I got the last one he made. As he says, he's too old to put all that inventory on a trailer to haul to a show.

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  3. Beautiful cloud. I heard the Minoan society sailed all the way to the northeast to mine copper then took it back across the Mediteranian sea eons ago.

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  4. Haven't the cloud formations and blue, blue sky been magnificent lately? If I said I think I took a photo of that cloud last week with my iPhone, you would think I was crazy. But I am sure I did! Linda@Wetcreek Blog

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  5. Wonderful pictures and a beautiful rain gauge.

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  6. beautiful picture of your towering cumulus cloud formations! Don't that sound intelligent? ha ha ha I am learning new stuff from my recently purchased field guide (thrift store find!) ha ha ha ha ha stopped by to say HI!

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  7. The card had a factual and humorous explanation of the product. I would not have been able to resist. The hen and chicks are beautiful. My grandmother had them in her garden. a big fluffy cloud can keep me fascinated for hours.

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  8. When I was six, my brothers told me dragonflies shoot poisonous needles that hurt like heck. They still scare me a little.

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  9. Hari OM
    Absolute delights - all of them!!! Gonna pass that bit of intel on to the father - he'll like that! YAM xx

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  10. Cool on the dragonflies and clouds. I too would have spent the time looking for a place to stop and take the pictures :) That is a cool rain gauge and I like that it was made in the United States. I would buy one but with the lack of rain we seem to have, I wonder if it would ever get used.

    betty

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  11. That rain gauge is brilliant.
    Love it - and the carved rock. And yes, hen and chickens are hardy. Very.

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  12. Joanne, I had to enlarge the pic to see the dragonflies... but cool pic!
    And loved the video of the cool rain gauge. I think that was a good buy...

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  13. I don't know which I liked better, the clouds or the dragonfly. The rain gauge is too cool. So most of the copper mined is still around, kind of like gold.

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  14. Beautiful view of the clouds.

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  15. We had a rain gauge when I was young. My dad enjoyed it. The cloud is beautiful. I want to float on it.

    Love,
    Janie

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  16. Great cloud.
    My rain gauge was most likely made in China everything is these days, yours is nicer.
    Merle......................

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  17. I too enlarged your photo to see the dragonflies - beautiful. Have fun with the rain gauge !

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  18. That's a nice looking rain gauge, how nice to find it was also made locally, not in China.
    I like your hen and chick patch too.
    I've never seen more than two dragonflies together in my life.

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  19. Love those flying helicopters.... had to enlarge to see, but then loved them even more.

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  20. we've been having some pretty great cloud formations too. when I was cleaning out the water lily pond filter, I found two dragonfly nymphs so I tossed them in the water lily pond.

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  21. cool rain gauge. I think it would have maxed out recently here.

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  22. Very nice cloud pictures. I love the rain gauge. I love things made from scraps!

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  23. I am an avid buyer of Made in the USA. Tough to find Made in USA products in today's market. Your gauge is beautiful -- it looks great in your garden. BUT -- I especially like the carved stone by the gauge. So unfortunate your source is is no longer making the carved pieces anymore.

    If the TPP trade deal goes through it will be extremely difficult to find Made in the USA anymore. All jobs will be outsourced to other countries!!!!! That is why Obama is trying to fast track the bill through Congress as he figures folks in this country will be mighty upset about the deal -- but once it is approved I doubt it will be overturned.

    -- barbara

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  24. Whenever I see a cloud like that, I can almost believe in heaven.

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  25. Hmmm. Where are the dragonflies? Lol.

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  26. I need a new rain guage. Mine broke and I'm obsessed about the weather. Lovely cloud.

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  27. Rain gauges are art in your garden! I think I saw a pig in your clouds.

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  28. What a wonderful cloud. It reminds me of a meringue!

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