10,000 miles in 3 days - destination: South 13.405722 East 34.30386.

5:01 PM, 11/23/13, San Antonio International Airport depart for Washington Dulles International Airport.

Weather: Wind gusting to 28 mph, temperature in the high 30's, winter storm warning for ice and freezing rain.

Arrival time: 8:45pm local time, Sterling, VA.

Tonight, depart Dulles at 5:40PM. Next stop: Dakar, Senegal.

The stars tonight!

Helicopter fly by...

This streak is actually a satellite reflecting the sun as it flies over. 

When the Sun Goes Down on the Ranch...

Then other things which in themselves bare the Glory of the Lord come out:

This is what the sky looked like tonight. I took this at about 6500 ISO so not the greatest shot, but that is the Gospel in the heavens, the declaration of a good and beautiful God who made all things for His glory.

The clouds were beginning to move in in this shot, but the majestic Milky Way is still clearly visible.

And then some not so beautiful, but at the same time intricately designed things come out in the dark:

This little guy was about an inch and a half long. As you can tell, the little bug in front of him is one mighty little thing. Yet, as small as he is, he has more life in him than the smartest scientists in the world are able to make in a test tube. God then is a most glorious creator. 

Same guy without the flash on.

Just a few feet away from this guy, was another creature:

This mantis was only an inch long, yet intricately detailed as close as you could get to him.

And then the grand daddy of the night watchmen this evening, just a foot from the mantis was this 3 inch in diameter monster of the darkness:

And God made him too.

For the record, the scorpion saw his last night alive this evening and is now in a, shall we say, state of disrepair. All his parts are there, just rearranged into a less lively combination. The mantis is free and exploring the darkness. The tarantula is in a container in my living room, to be released at a later date.

Now, the other night, the moon was out so I took some moonlight pictures of the ranch. They turned out pretty nice for moonlight:

 This is really just moonlight. You can see the stars in the sky over the trees in these pictures. Pretty amazing!

  I decided to see just how well my camera could see in the moonlight so I boosted the ISO to the highest setting and did a handheld shot with moonlight only. That is the last picture, unedited, straight from the camera! The thing can practically see in the dark.

Oh, one last picture. I have a few guns for sale:

If anything looks interesting, let me know, and I'll send you the prices. Proceeds will be supporting missions in Africa and Asia.

To God be all praise and glory.

Of Lizards, Deer, and Ranches...

Well, grabbed an old manual focus 80-200mm lens and went for a walk tonight. Took way to many pictures of a couple lizards, and some deer landscape shots. so here they are a little out of order because I didn't want to take the time to sort them after blogger messed it up.

This 3 inch lizard was on my rock wall behind the house. He posed well for a few shots.

Some Picasa effects on a shot of the pool area...

Two bucks and three does...

More Picasa effects...

The neighbors donkey.

A deer behind my house when I got home. Eyes reflecting my flashlight.

This little guy was just an inch and a half long...

Some more of the first lizard....