So the young people picked the songs and lead the worship service this morning.
A great time was had by one and all.
The super musical Francees family provided the instrumental and sound system support.
I won't mention the kids' names since this is the big bad Internet. But if they want to pull the pix onto their Facebook pages etc. that would be ok.
They've been busy out there and wind turbines are sprouting up all along the line. These pictures were taken pretty near the entrance to Washington Park.
The picture above is a 1 to 1 crop from the picture below. You can see the Spelonk lighthouse on the horizon in the distance.
I sort of over processed the image to make the lighthouse more visible. I didn't notice it when I was taking the pictures, but the camera caught it.
Talk about good timing. The new tower parts and the paint were delivered to our transmitter site just yesterday afternoon.
Painting the new cross braces and installing them on the towers is a job that will last well into next year.
Below is a photo of our son, Richard, helping to wash the original Swanson Bonaire buggy back in the day. No, those pistons in the background are not from a VW motor!
We've subscribed to the online version of the Bonaire Reporter for a number of years, even though we live here, because we don't always get around to picking up one of the hard copy editions when they come out. If you want to keep up to speed with what is happening here on the island, check out the Bonaire Reporter online. The current issue is always viewable without a subscription. Sandra is on page 14 of the edition you can find online right now.
Mercury (upper left) and Saturn (upper right) made a nice triangle with the Moon. You'll probably have to click on the picture below to make it bigger so you can see Mercury and Saturn.
By Saturday night, the Moon will have moved to the upper left of Mercury. The Moon, Mercury, and Saturn will form a tilted line in the evening sky. That should look pretty nice too.
The beach is unique because it consists of crushed and powdered sea shells. The sand has an unusual texture and feel as you rub it in your hands.
I love all the huge weathered coral rocks in and around the sandy beach area.
The waves hit an underwater shelf and allow the area near the shore to be quite calm most of the time. Cooling off in that clear water feels especially good because that dark sand gets quite hot.
Here is a shot from near the ocean end of the inlet or boka. It was fairly choppy that day.
Still, it is surely an unusual look for Bonaire and it caught our attention big time. Turns out it is actually coral dust from when the trench for the new power cables was carved out of the solid limestone rock.
This completed pad looks like prop left over from the movie "Men in Black". They've been busy since the last time I visited the site. All the pads are poured and most of the wind turbine components are stacked nearby.
They were offloading the first of the towers as we passed by. They say that big crain is here from Curacao for the project. It's been a week now, since we were there, so I'll have to head back soon and see if they've stood that post up yet.
Here's Sandra doing her best Vanna White impression by one of the rotor hubs. Actually it reminds me of "Lets Make a Deal." Do you want what's behind door number 2 or curtain number 3?
Here are some of the rotor blades. The outer ends have up-swept tips, like modern airplane wings. And the inner ends have little brush-like bristles where the blade meets the hub.
We have a bunch of 40 year old (maybe more) bottles that we use when we make root beer. Modern bottles can't handle the pressures generated by the do it yourself brew.
We used to only make root beer in the summer in Massachusetts and New Jersey, because one needs the hot weather to keep the yeast going. Here on Bonaire, one can make root beer at any time, of course.
I was tempted to keep walking closer to this bird and try for a head shot. But I decided to keep my distance so as not to disturb him and just crop the shots in the computer. These are 1 to 1 crops.
Well the Tour de France is over for another year. So we're not glued to the TV each evening, and I can get back to all the things I normally do with my spare time, like this blog.
The Sound of Life radio network, based in Kingston, New York, is doing a special promotion this week to raise funds for our upcoming TWR - Bonaire antenna tower repairs.
I took these pictures to show what one can do with a minimum of equipment. I had my trusty DSLR camera sitting on a photo tripod with a 85mm lens on it. Each image here is a combination of 50 exposures, each lasting a mere six seconds. The camera was set at iso 1600 and the lens was at F2.8. I also took 50, six second exposures with the lens cap on (dark frames) and combined them all on my laptop with free software called DeepSkyStacker. So if you have a camera that can shoot RAW images, and a computer to process them with, don't be afraid to try some simple astro-photography. The sky's the limit!
The bright star above is Deneb in Cygnus, also known as the Northern Cross. The regions of the sky shown in both these pictures are some of the most fun to scan with binoculars.
It was an enjoyable evening because many of the people in the room have been involved in the process of discovery over the years.
This past week all the Kibrahacha trees all over the island burst into bloom.
I went out after work on Wednesday and took pictures of these trees on the hills to the East of the TWR offices.
We enjoyed looking at the trees around Gotto Lake on our early Thursday morning road bike ride, but I didn't stop to take pictures this time around.
It is getting to be somewhat of a challenge to take fresh new pictures of the exact same trees each year when they bloom.
The color of the flowers seems to be very tricky to capture in an image. They usually a lighter yellow that what the camera captures, although they get a little darker the second day. I first saw the trees blooming on Wednesday morning, and by Saturday, the flowers were completely gone, at least when seen from a distance.
Above we see Pastor Baran digging the first hole. (We already knew that Pastor Baran wields a mean shovel from his performance in our chicken manure project, which has generated over three thousand guilders so far.)
Lucho read some scripture passages and led everyone in a song based on one of them.
I threw together the same PA system that we use for our Easter sunrise services up on Seru Largu, so we could hear the guitar, singers, and speakers ok. We had distinguished visitors, munched on cookies and punch, and I think a great time was had by young and old alike.
Pastor Baran presented a few remarks about faith and led the group in dedicating the site and the new building. I have more pictures on my Picasa site. I put up a lot of pix today, but will weed some of them out at a later date. The slide show mode seems to be the best way to view the Picasa pictures.
If anyone in the States is interested in contributing to the IBCB building fund, a church in Nashville is handling donations for us so that you can get a tax receipt for your contribution. Here is a link to a form to send the church.
Ryan Jensen is doing a summer internship with Trans World Radio. As part of the project, he is videoing some of the TWR facilities and activities in the Caribbean and South America. Tough work, but some one's got to do it. ha-ha
The first race got off right on schedule at 7:30 am, with more races, live music, and food scheduled for the rest of the morning. The swim course ran right along the waterfront road downtown. I can't imagine a more perfect venue for distance swimming.
There was a 500meter race, open to all ages. The 1.5km, 2.5km, and 5km swims were for competitors 11 years old and up.
I saw the start of the first race of the day, but wasn't able to stick around for the finish, as I had to head to the high school by 8, and help set up for the IBC church service.
