Month: November 2021

Monday (15-November-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Day Working Outside and in the Garage in New Jersey.

My Little Planet time-lapse video for the day. The local Coop truck arrived to deliver 12 cubic yards of black mulch to be dumped at the same location as previous deliveries. Unfortunately, the rear (power) wheels of the truck got stuck in the remaining old wet black mulch. We initially tried putting plywood boards under the tires. That didn’t work. We then tried to help pull the truck out using White Rhino and a nylon jerk strap. We then switched to a heavy duty chain that I saved from Silver Rhino I. This worked. White Rhino helped to free the truck. I’m glad I had the tow package installed on the Range Rover. Most of the day I spent cleaning and reorganizing the garage. The bags of Quikrete were wrapped in plastic to protect from moisture. The DR Power brush mower was switched to a snow blower (hopefully this means little or no snow this winter). I took pictures of the damaged components of the DR Power 25-gallon sprayer, and sent them to DR Power technical support. Unfortunately, they said they couldn’t order the replacement parts for me, and I had to contact the manufacturer — AgriFab. I sent a request into AgriFab for the replacement parts. At the end of the day I put together some more wire shelving units to store the grow bags with Canna tubers. A long day.

Daily Electric Energy Used (59.6 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (10.8 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Lots of clouds. Getting colder outside so the Geothermal HVAC is heating the house. Deficit of 48.8 kWh.

Sunday (14-November-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Day Working Outside in New Jersey.

My Little Planet time-lapse videos. 1) Installing a Tent Box “Classic” onto White Rhino. I purchased the Tent Box over a year ago. The delivery took a while, and the roof rack mounting bars were for a Range Rover Sport, not the Range Rover Classic. I ended up having the local Land Rover dealer install the factory roof rack. Normally a job for two to install the Tent Box on a vehicle, but I employed Red Rover as my helper. 2) Red Rover’s Little Planet view of installing the TentBox. 3) Red Rover, switching from front forks to front loader bucket, and switching from rear tool carrier/weight to back hoe. 4) Attaching the backhoe to Red Rover. Actually, pretty easy for one person to do since the hydraulics do the heavy lifting. Normal view riding Red Rover with the front loader bucket and rear backhoe.

Daily Electric Energy Used (60.3 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (17.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and clouds. Getting colder outside so the Geothermal HVAC is heating the house. Deficit of 42.7 kWh.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (340 kWh) from Sense. Weekly Solar Electric Energy Produced (144 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Deficit of 196 kWh.

Saturday (13-November-2021) — New Jersey

Another Autumn Rainy Day in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Downy Woodpecker, Black-capped Chickadee, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

My Little Planet time-lapse videos. 1) Before the wind and rain, Red Rover went out to trim some branches over the driveway, recovered the air puppet scare crows from the back yard, and move some rolls of landscape fabric. Just as I finished, the rain started coming down and I got soaked. 2) Inside the garage to complete the assembly of the wire shelving units for the Canna tubers. I also started to assemble the DR Power tow-behind sprayer. Unfortunately, one of the factory installed bottom support connections had broken. I requested a replacement tank assembly.

Daily Electric Energy Used (54.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (15.7kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and rain. Deficit of 39.0 kWh.

Friday (12-November-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Rainy Day in New Jersey.

Time-lapse video. The weather forecast for the day was rain in the morning. I spent the day cleaning and organizing the garage. Need space for the soft-pots containing the Canna tubers to overwinter, and space for the car. Empty the tow-behind sprayer, assemble the tow-behind fertilizer spreader, start to assemble the wire racks for the Canna tubers. Bonus clip at the end of the possum trying to steal food from the rat trap.

Daily Electric Energy Used (40.9 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (9.1 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Mostly sunny. Deficit of 31.8 kWh.

Thursday (11-November-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Working in the Yard.

Time-lapse videos. The weather forecast for tomorrow was rain, meaning lots of things in the yard needed to be done. 1) First I needed to move the 64 bags of Quikrete into the garage. Red Rover is not able to lift a pallet weighing 3200+ pounds. My initial idea was to build wire storage racks with wheels so I could have flexibility to move the bags around in the garage so I would have space to park my car. So I built on of the wire storage shelving units with 3 inch wheels. Unfortunately, once I loaded 12 bags (600 pounds) onto the rack and tried to move it the wheels snapped off. 2) Next idea was to move the bags onto a pallet in the garage. This meant first reorganizing and covering the bags of fertilizer and Miracle Grow Potting Soil in the backyard to free up three additional pallets. Then moving the remaining Quikrete bags into the garage. 3) Also before it rains, I wanted to brush mow the last section of wildflowers, flowers gone after last several mornings with frost. Followed by using the leaf vacuum to clean up the fallen autumn leaves before they get wet. Since it has been a long time since using the leaf vacuum I forgot not to let the trailer get too full. It was too heavy to dump the leaves and grass clippings into the mulch pile. I ended up needing to use Red Rover to help dump the leaves out of the trailer. ARRG!!!

Daily Electric Energy Used (44.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (24.3 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Mostly sunny. Deficit of 20.4 kWh.