I can see clearly now....

What a difference a day makes! The rain stopped Sunday afternoon, much to our delight, though they predicted light showers through the evening hours. By sunset we could see movement of fish out in the yard (as we've had before when there's been flooding), and by nightfall there were some breaks in the clouds showing. For unknown reasons, I'm not sleeping well tonight - so am up in the wee hours and noticed a bright light shining through one of the windows in the peak of the living room. It was the full moon! We haven't seen the sun or moon in several days, so it was a welcome sight tonight! In fact, it's bright enough outside to see the reflection of the trees from across the river - in our yard! Looking at the radar, it appears to be clear skies for several days to come. Saint Charles actually was mentioned on The Weather Channel as being one of the places getting too much rain (9.98" in town - 10" in our neighborhood) over the past three days. Living on the river is beautiful, but when we're watching the waters rise it can be a little anxiety producing.

With the rain and bad weather the local squirrels have been cut short on their acorn gathering, and I took pity on them by filling the feeders full of sunflower seeds. Usually I get aggravated by the squirrels pilfering the food meant for the birds. Not at the moment though. They have been eating non-stop, while the chipmunks have been hoarding it in their cheeks to take back to their nests (probably under our house). The birds have been very active at the feeders, as well. We had 8 Goldfinches, several Sparrows, a Nuthatch, a couple of Black Capped Chickadees, and a male Cardinal at the feeders yesterday! All of those birds stay around here all winter, so they're not stocking up for a long flight - they were just feeding well since some of their feeding areas were cut off by the flood. I don't think we saw more than 2 Goldfinches together at any given time all summer, so to see 8 of them at the feeder at the same time was a treat! Between the birds, the squirrels, and the chipmunks, we had a very busy yard yesterday. We've even been seeing "Bruce", our local Woodchuck, on a daily basis. We both agree that he seems to be gaining weight. He is storing up for his long nap, though.

Dean worked on his telescope mirror yesterday, also! He will have to blog about it - but he's building a telescope for us to keep here. He has the laundry room set up as his "polishing lab" at the moment. I've never seen this process - other than the 8.4 m mirrors being polished at Steward when Dean was working there. It's really exciting to see it being done by hand vs. by machine! Unfortunately we don't have a better space for him to set up. He's making do though, and is doing a fine job of it! He will need to tell the specifics of the telescope that he is making, and I know that he has pictures to post, as well.

I think I'll try to get some snooze time now. Thanks for keeping me company during my sleepless night!