"Old Nancy"

Instead of going to economics class this afternoon I attended a talk by the College of Engineering distinguished alumnus.  He graduated in Ag Engineering (now called Biosystems Engineering) in 1980.  He's worked for NASA or a dedicated NASA consultant for most of his career and talked about that experience.   He had beautiful pictures of the International Space Station(ISS) and interesting pictures of the building of that vehicle as well as the shuttle and some rockets.  Some interesting facts that I didn't know about the ISS

• It is 50x100 yds in size--about the size of Jordan Hare Stadium--and weighs 1 million pounds
• It took 45 space flights to build it
• Water is now recycled on board
• Crews rotate every 6 months
• ISS occupation began in 2000

When he finished his talk, the Biosystems Engineering seniors gave him a blanket with a picture of a steam tractor that was lovingly restored by Ag Engineering students while he was at Auburn.  The tractor's name is "Old Nancy".  I spoke to the department chair and told him I needed to have my picture taken with "Old Nancy".  She's in the basement of their department so I'm going to find her next week!  Maybe I'll find me a blanket with "Old Nancy" on it too.

This is the picture I promised of the native azaleas--all of these are native azaleas and this is only a very small portion of the beautiful grounds of this house.  I didn't even get any of the yellow and light orange ones.   We'll have to go to the azaleas man's nursery in Pine when I get back to Poplarville.  I think we can grow all of these and they would be so beautiful!

I saw my first hummingbird today--at my feeder!  They are such cute and feisty little birds.  I have two more feeders that I'll hang tomorrow before I leave for Opine and a welcome change from studying.