Weather Station

It's pretty bad when you have to drive for two hours to find out that there is a really cool weather station just 3 miles from your house. It measures temp, wind speed, humidity, precipitation and more every five minutes, so you can see live reports or you can check back and see history. Pretty cool. There are a bunch of these all over the state.

Kentucky Mesonet is the web site and the local station is at EKU's farm. CoCoRahs also has daily precipitation collected by a network of volunteers.

636 Wordle

Trying to use this Wordle in a newsletter assignment. Hope it works.

Sunrise on the Farm

The trip to Ashley's bus stop takes me past a great view of the mountains in Estill Co. and this morning the fog was so thick you could see only the tops of them floating in a white mist just before sunrise.

When I got back home I grabbed the camera to see if I could get a sunrise shot of a similar view. From my house the mountains were almost completely covered with fog so I didn't get the photo I wanted, but while I was waiting for the sun to come up I got something even better.

She kept looking at me, stomping her foot, and circling around to get a better view. After about a minute two other deer that I couldn't see ran off and she followed.

I've been trying to get Tori to do a 365 days on the farm, but since she won't I think I'll start off my own 365 days with this.

Controlled Vocabularies

Here I am whining about controlled vocabularies and subject headings and my favorite website, ravelry.com, just reworked all their patterns to make searching more efficient and guess what? They worked out a controlled vocabulary to describe the patterns available.

Socks are no longer socks, they are now "Accessories - Feet / Legs - Socks - Mid-calf. " What is even more amazing is that almost 160,000 patterns were reclassified by volunteers in one week. A very narrow set of items such as knitting patterns would be easier to classify than books which often cover a large variety of subjects per volume.

Which brings me to a topic I hinted at last post. I have fought for the past eight weeks with subject searches in the library catalog. They either aren't accurate or they are too broad to be effective. For example the heading 'Registers of Birth, etc'. should not be a subject heading for a census transcript. A census is a snapshot of the country at a specific date. Nothing about births included. On the other hand "Cemeteries - United States" is too broad for a handbook on cemeteries and cemetery research.

Subject headings can be effective when conducting meta searches like the metalib search engine at the Kentucky Virtual Library. A keyword search returns so many results across so many databases that it is totally ineffective.

I wonder what the library profession will look like in another decade?

Library School

I finally did it. Debbie kicked me in the behind and scheduled me to take the GRE back in the winter. I started my first class May 11 and it is complete. One down 11 more to go. Assuming, that is, I make it through this reference class.

I sort of understand the point of the assignments is to make us familiar with reference sources of all types, but I truly don't see the point of beating my head against the wall searching for just the right database to find the answer to a question that can be answered with Google in 30 seconds.

This is the second assignment in which we had to answer 20 questions using only proprietary sources. The instructor wants us to search the library catalog to identify sources which might have the information requested. Then we are to go to the sources and look for the information. At the same time she tells us to search efficiently using controlled vocabularies and subject headings.

I'm sorry, but in my humble opinion this type of search strategy isn't efficient. We have moved way beyond card catalogs and Reader's Guide and static print encyclopedias. The new information world is dynamic, so why are we beating our heads against the wall with static search methods? Yes, I'm frustrated.

This morning I started on this 20 question assignment at about 7:30. I have taken a few breaks throughout the day, but I haven't left the computer for more than 15 minutes at a time. It is now after 5:30 and I still haven't answered all these questions with the proprietary sources we are supposed to use.

To beat it all I finally got into the UK Libguide for reference materials just to see what I might be missing and guess what I found?

Reference Universe: "Unlike your library catalog, which only provides data about reference works, Reference Universe shows you what is inside them, searching deeply into the indexes of more than 40,000 electronic and print specialized reference works from over 750 publishers."

Sure enough this search engine gave me one of the answers I have been over an hour looking for. I would never have come up with a pop culture encyclopedia. Besides a search you can browse by title, publisher, subject headings or an index term. The search isn't perfect, but at least it is a move in the right direction. It also doesn't search all the databases I needed to answer the questions I had to answer. Ideally in the future it will.

The library profession should be putting their efforts into improving resources like this that will make searching efficient, rather than trying to justify their salaries and positions by using out-dated methodology.

Eiffel Tower Shawl

Another one of those projects that is so cool that it has to be started immediately. This is also a knitalong on Ravelry during the Tour de France.

The shawl can be found on the designer's website.

Here is the yarn I found in Lexington.

LIS Wordle

Last week was the first week of classes. One of our assignments this week was to come up with three indexing terms for an article we were to read. After reading the article and listening to a video created by the professor, I decided to play around and create a Wordle for the chapter.

The result was interesting.

Blackberry Winter

Before I forget, Tuesday morning there was frost on the windshield and blackberries are in bloom. This should be the last cold spell. Amazing how it always seems to work.

Floods

In the 25 years that I've lived on this farm, I've never seen it flood this bad. The pond had a foot of water washing over the dam. The muddy drain at the edge of the woods was a creek 8 feet wide. Meadowbrook Road was impassable even at 10:30 last night.

At my house we had 6.99 inches in less than 24 hours. If you want to see inches across the state check out the CoCoRahs web site. Volunteers across the country record precipitation daily. Since it is volunteer not every county is represented, but there are still a lot of dots on the map.

Locust Winter

For the past several years I've been watching the cold spells to see if they really do match up with redbud, dogwood, locust and blackberries blooming and amazingly enough they do. I think it was the week before last when there was frost on my windshield and the dogwoods were in full bloom.

It didn't warm up much, but this cold, rainy spell going on right now hit when the locust trees were blooming. If it keeps holding true there is only Blackberry winter left to go. Last year there was frost on my car just after the blackberries bloomed.

Amazingly enough I had 16 hits on my blog a couple days ago using the search term Locust Winter.

I Love Chicago

Most of the time I like my quiet, little place in the country, but it is nice to be able to get out and see other places on occasion. Thanks to work, I've been able to do a lot more of that in recent years and this week it's Chicago.

Since it's 3:30 am and I can't sleep I thought I would post some of the fun things we've done. I'll do conference things later.

I've been lucky enough to be downtown for both trips I've made to Chicago, so the first thing I always do is walk on the Lakefront Trail. The first day we walked the trail down to Bilboa and then across to the loop. We were looking at the menu of a pizza place, when someone walked by and said "If you want pizza, Lou Malnati's is better." Since I haven't had both I can't say which was better, but "The Lou" was great.

Next stop was Loopy Yarn to pet yarn. I picked up a skein of Lorna's Laces, Shepherd Sock off the sale rack. It was the Pioneer colorway, which is blues and browns. Enough for a scarf or maybe a pair of anklet socks. They had a great selection and friendly staff.

Since Thursday night is their free night, we walked back down to the Art Institute after the conference reception at the Afterwords bookstore and a stop at the world's largest Jazz Store. The last time we went Edward Hopper's Nighthawks was on loan, but this time we got to see it. The rest of the time we spent in the Thorne Miniature Gallery. Amazing details in these tiny rooms completely furnished in period style.

Today, well I guess it's really yesterday, I started off the day with a walk to Ohio Beach to walk along the shore and pick up some interesting glass, shells and rocks. There is something about standing on the shore with your eyes closed listening to the waves coming in that makes everything drain out of you.

At lunch we took the Blue Line out to Division and ate at a really great Polish restaurant, Podhalanka. The owner made recommendations and fed us very well. Fresh, homemade fruit juice, cabbage soup (zupy), potato pancakes, pierogies, stuffed cabbage and bread. The soup itself would have been a meal. Fantastic recommendation from Laura.

The next stop was another yarn shop to pet more yarn at Nina's, just a couple blocks from the L. I didn't buy anything this time, but I loved all the samples and displays. It's nice to actually be able to feel and see the yarns you read about on Ravelry.

Last stop for the night was Atlas Galleries on Michigan for the opening night reception for the French artist Jaline Pol. Her work is bold, bright flowers with vivid colors and great texture created with a palette knife.

No wonder I can't sleep. My brain is on overload from trying to cram to much into a two day trip. This doesn't even include conference sessions.

Random Thoughts

A friend let me borrow his canoe last night and took me to Owsley Fork for the first canoe trip this summer. It was beautiful. The lake was calm and peaceful. The trees are starting to turn green and the redbuds are in full bloom. There just wasn't enough time to enjoy it fully. Someday I have to get a canoe, so I can go out whenever I need to.

Last day of the cold spell was March 30, redbuds started blooming April 5; I guess that was Redbud winter. Dogwood winter is right on the money though, with the cold spell starting today and the dogwoods just starting to bloom. Two winters down, locust and blackberry left to go.

Proof that cats can get down from trees without fire department assistance. I'm trying to wean Hurley from the house and he climbed this very tall tree to get away from the dogs. I couldn't coax him down, so I went inside. Melissa, texting from Florida, said call the fire department and get my cat out of the tree. The next time I went out he had gotten down and climbed another tree. At least he was not so far up and looked content. The third trip out to rescue him he was on a log and finally reachable.

New Project

I need a monster project that I can throw myself into completely and escape from other things going on that I can't change. After looking around and thrashing out ideas with T, I think I have it.

One of the things on my 20 wishes list is to build an off the grid small home, and this might be a big enough project to get me through the next few months. I've been walking through the two acres of woods behind the house looking at what's there. If there isn't enough lumber there to build a house, a small barn, a chicken coop and finish the goat shed, it will be close. What isn't already down needs to be cut down for one reason or another.

The first step will be to clean up and sort the timber there. There is pine, red cedar and white ash that will need to be cut for various purposes. The pine will be cut into 1 and 2 inch boards for framing. The ash will be 1" boards for shelving and furniture. The cedar will be barn poles, fence posts, fence rails, cordwood and if I'm really lucky there will be some that can be cut to 1 and 2 inch boards for porch swings a bench and a wood strip canoe.

I picked out the house site that has the best view and actually it will be the easiest to clear. I'm thinking the south wall will be cordwood with lots of windows to generate passive heat in the winter. Solar power, compost toilet, earthen floor.

T says clean up and saw lumber this year, build next year, but I want to build this year as well. Things I'm not sure about are moving big logs and keeping a chain saw running. I guess I'll have to learn some basic mechanics.

Bird Watching

Several years ago at the Friends of the Library Annual Book Sale, I picked up a Smithsonian Birds of North America, a beautiful hardcover book with a page devoted to each species which tells you everything you need to know about each bird.

I don't use it every time I see a new bird, but sometimes a species unusual enough shows up and I have to go look it up.

Yesterday morning while I was fixing a bowl of cereal, I saw a pair of birds swimming on the pond. That doesn't happen often so I got out the binoculars to see what they were. As soon as I saw the black and white head on one bird, I remembered seeing them last year, but I couldn't remember what it was.

Hooded Merganser
Originally uploaded by Rick Leche

I pulled out the bird book and sure enough I did write down that February 27, last year there was a pair on the pond. They were Hooded Mergansers. This year I tried to get close enough to get a photo which didn't work. If I had waited maybe he would have given me a show like he did last year. They must be on their way back home.

Last Sunday a young Red Hawk landed on the deck railing. I've never seen one get so close.