26-September-2019 - David Mathre Photography

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Daily walkabout with a Nikon One V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens. There were several Monarch butterflies in the wildflower meadow. They seem to like the Cosmos, Zinnia, and Marigold flowers. This may be the last brood that will be heading off to Mexico for the winter. For flowers there was a blue Asiatic Dayflower, Black-eyed Susan, and Purple Morning Glory. I’m not sure if the dayflower was in one of the wildflower seed mixes or is a local (invasive) weed. I also saw a bee that looked to be collecting mud at the edge of the mostly dry pond.

Click on the image above to access my PhotoShelter gallery with the individual images in the following slideshow.

Bee collecting mud. Image taken with a Nikon One V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Yesterday Electric Energy Used (62.4 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (34.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. As the sun gets lower, the leaves from one of my Sycamore trees block the solar panels part of the afternoon. You can see the hump in the graph. The Geothermal HVAC was off. The new hydroponic gardens are using 8.7 kWh. Overall a net deficit of 27.6 kWh.

Daily Electric Energy Used (62.1 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (49.1 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Warmer out so the Geothermal HVAC was back on for some of the afternoon and evening (3.3 kWh). The new hydroponic gardens are using 8.7 kWh. Overall a net deficit of 13.0 kWh.

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Autumn Indoor Nature in New Jersey.

The new Aerogarden hydroponic Farms have been online for just over a week. You can see how many of the plants have already sprouted. Depending on how big some of the plants get, I may have to trim some out. The LED lights for each tray raises to 36 inches as the plants grow.