I got kinda ho-hum about rainbows when I lived in California, because they were so common. Back here in Illinois they’re more of a big deal—I probably see less than one a year, on average.

I got kinda ho-hum about rainbows when I lived in California, because they were so common. Back here in Illinois they’re more of a big deal—I probably see less than one a year, on average.
Prairie grass is growing like a weed where they did the burn a couple of weeks ago.
It’s not visible in the picture, but I saw a Yellow-shafted Flicker fly up ahead of me. They’re showy birds, always fun to see.
There’s a solar farm just north of Winfield Village, with ranks of solar arrays that turn from pointing east to pointing straight up to pointing west. (Oddly, they’re not arranged to point south. I assume the people who built it knew what they were doing, but I’ve been puzzling over it for a couple of years.)
The directions they point (and the timing of the changes) seem odd, and I’ve been trying to characterize the whole thing.
I initially assumed that they’d be programmed to point a particular direction based on ephemeris data about where the sun will be, but that seems not to be the case.
Here’s one piece of data: At dawn they do not turn to point east. Rather, they turn to point straight up:
It is only after the sun is well up that the panels turn to face east.
Last night, perhaps an hour before sunset, they were pointed about halfway between west and straight up. Which kind of makes sense, as there were clouds to the west, so they clear sky straight up was probably as bright as the sun behind the cloudy sky.
My current working theory is that the panels turn to face whatever direction produces the most power, regardless of where the sun is in the sky.
I’ll continue to watch, and try to characterize their behavior further.
Maybe I’ll even get in touch with the University and see if they can provide a link to a description!
For a couple of weeks the birds have been acting like it’s spring. Now the trees are getting in on the act.
Most days I walk the dog right at the end of cocktail hour, which this time of the year is right at sunset.
Ashley and I have been figuring out how the dog should be walked, in order to get her enough exercise that she isn’t a pest, and to make sure that she doesn’t have “accidents” in the house. Here’s how things seem to be shaping up:
The Fourth Walk doesn’t always happen, if she doesn’t seem to need to go out before our main meal of the day, so some days we’re already down to six walks per day. (We were doing about eight walks per day for the first several weeks, as anything less led to peeing or pooping in the house.)
Longer term, I’m hoping to get down to about four walks: First walk, Long walk of the morning, Long walk of the afternoon, and Just before bedtime.
Wish me luck.
Although we’re doing slightly fewer walks, we’re probably walking longer distances—I’m averaging a full 8 miles per day last week and this week.