Eclipsing at the ranch

Monday, August 21, 2017 was the day of the great American eclipse. 

Here in western South Dakota we had 95-96% totality. We had heard all the hype and weren't excited enough to travel a couple hours south to be in totality. Now I totally wish we had though. We had planned for Terry to come home from work for lunch but then his dad asked us to help immunize calves. When we arrived at the ranch around 9am, we found the cows all bellering their mama hearts out since they had been separated from their babies.

Just getting over to the corral.

The guys started pushing calves through the tub and into the shoot where Jerry would squish and trap them, give them two shots, and spray them down with anti-bug stuff.

The whole process only took about an hour and a half and then the kids played outside a bit.

Sydney and Evie had randomly wore Star Wars shirts. I went inside, grabbed the eclipse glasses a friend had given me (we had another from Main Street Square the weekend before when the National Grassland rangers were there), went out by the kids again, and took a look at the sun. I was so excited to see that the eclipse had already started! That was actually the best part for me, my first glimpse of it. It was just so cool, surreal. Looking at these photos I can tell that the sun is dimmer than it usually is at the ranch. Usually you just can't hardly step outside without sunglasses because it's blindingly bright.

Everyone finally went inside and Alice worked on lunch. We turned on the TV and watched totality cover Oregon and it was just so darn cool! Every few minutes we would go outside and take a look with our four glasses. I had seen many warnings about making absolutely sure not to damage your eyes by viewing the eclipse without approved eye-ware, so I followed the directions of one such video and taped a paper plate around the outside of the glasses to prevent peeking.

I took a ton of pictures with my phone and Canon camera and none of them turned out. It was amazing to me that even with the tiniest sliver of sun showing, the camera just couldn't capture it, it still just looked like a full sun! The closest thing I got was this reflection of the eclipse below the sun.

I tried putting the glasses over both lenses and that didn't work either.

Terry and his mom.

I stepped back from the house to try to capture the sky and the dimness. It sure was dark compared to what it usually is. 

I wanted to capture the dimness all around but it was hard to do so. I think since I was higher up here, there was more light for the camera to take in. I dunno. It does look darker than normal but I think in real life it was more so.

Samuel picked a "flower" for me.

We had heard repeatedly that animals could go a little nuts during the eclipse and perhaps that's why Luna started chasing Girlie around. Or it was simply because she's a puppy and always acts like that.

Luna is wicked fast.

The height of darkness was around 1155am or so. I ran inside and told everyone this was it and out they all came.

Jerry, Alice, Terry, and Noah. Oh, and Luna and Girlie frolicking. Ha ha.

Dim dim dim

It really was quite amazing. I so wish I had been in totality. 

I sure hope the kids remember this. I'd never seen any part of an eclipse before! I especially love Samuel and Ezra's faces, their mouths all squished and funnily shaped from pressing down so hard on the plate.

The eclipse in moving time.

It's pretty dark really!

I was bummed the stars didn't come out though. I didn't realize that 4-5% was such a big deal! The sun sure is powerful.

Luna was tuckered out on the way home.