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Saturday (12-October-2019) — New Jersey

Autumn Outdoor Yard Projects.

Day two with the DR Field and Brush mower. Cleared the south-east wildflower meadow in the backyard. Ordered new V-belts for the roto-tiller. Need to repair fence poles the deer broke, and put down some cover crop seed. Some of these activities were recorded on a Garmin VIRB-360 camera for a Time-lapse video.

Daily Electric Energy Used (56.8 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (38.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. More sun than yesterday.  Overall a net deficit of 18.0 kWh.

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Friday (11-October-2019) — New Jersey

Autumn Outdoor Yard Projects.

The DR Field and Brush mower arrived yesterday. The truck driver left the pallet containing the mower at the top of the driveway. Some assembly required. The mower deck is pretty heavy. I moved everything in front of the house. Attached the deck to the power unit, fitted the drive belt, filled the engine with 5W-30 oil, and the filled the gas tank. Once I figured out where the gas shutoff valve was, the motor started right up. One of the reasons I chose this model is I can remove the mower deck and install a snow blower attachment. Once the unit was running, the first task was to burnish the brakes and clutch before taking it back to mow a section of the back yard. I also go the Roto-tiller to work on one of the wildflower meadows for next year. Didn’t get much done as the forward v-belt seems to be loose. Some of these activities were recorded on a Garmin VIRB-360 camera for a Time-lapse video.

Daily Electric Energy Used (53.3 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (25.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Less sun than yesterday.  Overall a net deficit of 27.5 kWh.

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Thursday (10-October-2019) — New Jersey

Autumn Indoor Gardening in New Jersey

After the deer ate my strawberry plants in the canvas pots on my patio, I tried to get some strawberry plants started indoors in the hydroponic gardens. I cut some of the runners from the Garden Towers. After 2 weeks only a small percentage started growing roots. Most were dead. Later, I read that the runners are better started still connected to the mother plant. I then ordered some strawberry plugs (Sweet Charlie and Chandler) from ISONS in Georgia. These are delivered in October for fall planting. I decided to try some indoors in the hydroponic gardens, and the others outside in the canvas pots (replacing the ones the deer ate). Time-lapse video of the indoor planting.

Daily Electric Energy Used (51.1 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (30.9 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. The sun came out in the afternoon.  Overall a net deficit of 20.2 kWh.

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Wednesday (09-October-2019) — New Jersey

Home Cooking: Bread and Salsa Verde.

It must be autumn as it is cold and raining outside. Spent the day making Bread and Salsa Verde. I made a Time-lapse video of the time in the kitchen cooking both using a Garmin VIRB-360 camera.

Whole Wheat & Muesli Bread Recipe: Bob’s Red Mill Muesli (1 1/2 cup); Bread Flour (1/2 cup); Whole Wheat Flour (1/2 cup); Sprouted Wheat Flour (1/2 cup); Flax Seed (1/4 cup); sugar (2 tbs); dry milk (1/4 cup); salt (1 tsp); egg (1 large); flax oil (2 tbs); water (1 1/4 cup). Above ingredients added to the Panasonic Bread Bakery. Yeast (2 tsp) added to yeast hopper and the unit set for Whole Wheat Bread (Rapid) and started. Three hours later, the loaf of bread was removed and allowed to cool. This time the bread stuck to the cooker and was hard to get out. Next time reduce the Muesli by 1/2 cup, and increase the bread flour by 1/2 cup. I like this bread since it is not as dense and heavy as the Rye & Whole Wheat loaves.

Salsa Verde Recipe: First I grilled/blackened husked and washed Tomatillos (2.5 lbs), Red Onion (1 quartered), New Mexico Hatch Chile Peppers (4, cut in half and de-seeded) on a broiler pan. These were placed in a 4 quart Instant Pot pan along with garlic cubes (12, Trader Joe’s), salt (1 tsp), Coriander (1 tsp), Cilantro (fresh, 2 oz, washed and chopped), Apple vinegar (1/4 cup), Lime juice (2 medium, squeezed). Then cooked for 10 minutes at high pressure. After relieving the pressure, the mixture was blended with a hand-held immersion blender. Still a bit too sweet. More vinegar and salt?

Daily Electric Energy Used (52.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (12.9 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cloudy and rainy all day. One load of laundry and two loads in the dishwasher.  Overall a net deficit of 39.6 kWh. Hope to see more sun this month… But the ground is dry causing the deer to keep getting into the fenced wildflower meadows.

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Eleven-Years Ago (07-October-2008) — California

Gone to See America October 2008 Road Trip. Eighth Annual Nikonian Photography Adventure Trip. Day 3: Yosemite National Park.

Rock Slide at Curry Village.  Hard to believe it has been ten years since I experienced a rock slide at Curry Village. Since then, many of the cabins and cabin tents in Curry Village were relocated further away from the valley walls. This year Curry Village got its name back after a trademark dispute between the National Park Service and the previous concessions service company. All of the hotels, lodges, campsites, and restaurants within Yosemite National Park had to change their names for a couple of years. Since the rock slide, I stayed in Curry Village two more times.

After our morning session, we ate lunch at Curry Village. Michael Mariant was going to do an IR photography workshop in the afternoon. On the way to the workshop, we stopped by our cabins. As we were leaving the cabins there was this loud noise. At first it sounded like thunder — but the sky was blue with no clouds. The noise got louder, and Michael yelled “run for your lives — rock slide” We all ran from our cabins to the parking lot. Since I drove, I was one of the few  that had cameras and lenses available. Most of the folks left their gear in the cabin for the IR workshop. I took the  following images  during and just after the rock slide. Luckily, there were no injuries since most everyone was out of Curry Village visiting other parts of Yosemite  when the rock slide occurred. Later in the afternoon, a Park Service helicopter with a USGS geologist surveyed the rock slide site and declared things safe. Only then were we permitted to return to our cabins. A school group was also staying at Curry village. That evening the Elementary school age children moved to a different campsite. The Middle and High school students remained at Curry Village. The crisis counselors told the students that a large rock falls in Yosemite Valley on average every 9-10 days, so they would be safe for the rest of the trip. Little did they know that Murphy was listening!!!!