Hello,

It's been a challenging week for Maine. We chose this state because it IS the safest place in our country. Our communities saftey was disrupted by the growing mental health crisis and the ease of obtaining assult style weapons. We've been close to mass shootings living in Florida and Texas. This madness making its way to the peaceful state of Maine has pushed Phillip and I to try and take a bigger stand to bringing resolution to these issues.

On a lighter note, we had an awesome time watching the moon rise and eating pizza with friends new and old this last Friday. We are learning how to host events and hope to get better each time. I"ve got a lot brewing in my mind about the future.

One very special event is the upcoming Solar eclipse! Mark your calendar on April 8th, 2024 at 3:30 p.m. for a viewing party here at the farm. Working on some projects to do to learn about eclipses and how to view them safely. I'm partnering with the Parsons Memorial Library to host these educational opportunities. We may be doing those gatherings at the library leading up to the Eclipse, weather is very tricky in March. Big goals of having an event tent up by April to expand our potential.

We were able to get the trellis's up for our Everest grapes, there are a thousandish of them. The grape vines really vegetated this year and need some taming. Our goal is to have every vine strung up by the end of next week. If you'd like to help in that adventure, lemme know.

There may be a carrot harvest soon, thinking next week. If they look promising, I'll have them posted for sale.

The farm is awake for just a few more weeks. The last 10 hour day is next Tuesday! I'm ready for the reset.

Events:

Experimenting with more days and topics! Introducing Art on Sunday afternoons. Goals of getting a space exploration one on Tuesdays.

Friday, 2:00 pm- Nature science Tea Time, Leaves and Needles. Bring Paper or nature journal.

Sunday, 2:00 pm- Art Tea Time, The movement of diagonal and zigzag lines. Looking at;

Thomas Hart Benton Country Dance 1929,

José Cúneo Perinetti Ranchos Orilleros 1932,

Jacob Lawrence Children at Play 1947.

Bring paint, brushes, paper, glue, and scissors.

Astronomy:

Simplifying this section as I figure out how to learn about astronomy myself. Narrowing down what to focus on.

Star- Eltanin can be this weeks focus. Find it by locating Vega first, high in the west after sunset, the star shining brighter than all. Vega is about a fist and a half above Eltanin. This star is considered the nose or an eye of the constelation Draco.

Nebula- On Halloween an hour after sunset look to the Northern sky above the little dipper to find the constelation Cygnus. Find the constelations brightest star, Deneb. After finding the alpha star, take your gaze to the east-northeast. Here you can find The Cocoon Nebula. It is an emision/reflection nebula, it is reflecting light from other stars and emiting light from its ionized gases. Directly to the west is a Dark Nebula (blocks light) called Bernard 168. It is also called The Dark Cigar due to its shape. The two nebulas apear to be like a comet with a dark trail.

Planet- Jupiter will be at Opposition (directly opposite of the sun) on November 3rd. Best viewing this evening because of its brightness. It rises in the East after sunset moving southeast and then setting in the west as the sun rises. The constalations that surround it are; Aries above, Cetus to the lower right, and Taurus to the lower left.

Constlstion- Taurus will be the focus. Look to the East-Northeast in the evening. In this group find the star cluster Pleiades in the upper right. This cluster of seven stars was used by several ancient civilizations to help with telling what time of year it is. Seeing this cluster at different points alloud them to know when to plant, sail, and celebrate. Taurus's brightest star is Aldebaran. It has a hugh of red and represents the eye of the bull.

Moon- Waning Gibbous. First quarter November 5th.

Astroid- Midnight on Wednesday search for Astroid Vesta 4 towards the feet of Gemini and just south-southeast of the waning gibbous moon.

Space Flight News:

Spacex aims to launch Starlink sats on a Falcon 9 rocket on 10/30

Intuitive Machines announced they are aiming to start lunar missions in January,