Technology - David Mathre Photography

Sunday (22-December-2019) — New Jersey

Indoor Nature in New Jersey.

Since I will be off to Florida for the holidays, I needed to harvest and shut down the indoor AeroGarden farms. The farms on the ground level have an extra 1 gallon water bottle with a gravity feed, so I will try to keep the plants in these trays going. The AeroGarden Farms also have a “vacation mode” where the lights are only on for 8 hours (rather than 16-17 hours). The Swiss Chard, Broccoli Raab, Kale, Basil, and Arugula were all harvested, packed in vacuum bags and frozen. The other greens and leaves were bagged for the Florida chickens. I was able to harvest two more strawberries before leaving.

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

Daily Electric Energy Used (59.4 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (33.7 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Rained much of the day. Overall a net deficit of 25.7 kWh. Most of the hydroponic gardens were off or only on for fewer hours. Also, the thermostat for the Geothermal heater and hybrid heat pump hot water heater were set for vacation mode.

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Sunday (15-December-2019) — New Jersey

Indoor Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

Ripe indoor hydroponic strawberry and broccoli head nearly ready to harvest. Indoor hydroponic Snapdragon, Marigold, California Poppy, and Zinnia flowers.

Indoor Hydroponic Strawberry. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 800, 80 mm, f/11, 1/125 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Indoor Hydroponic Broccoli. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 800, 80 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

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

Daily Electric Energy Used (73.2 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (20.4 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Overall a net deficit of 52.8 kWh.

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Friday (29-November-2019) — New Jersey

Colorful Dawn Sky Over New Jersey.

At this time of the year, I often get to see colorful dawn clouds before the sun rises. The following are composites of 41 images showing a 360 degree view of my backyard at dawn transformed into a flat (2D) image. The images were taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 100, 15 mm, f/5, 1/30 sec), then processed with Capture One Pro and AutoPano Giga Pro. Some of the images are over 1 GB in size, and even with a Surface Studio Pro 2 computer and dedicated video processor with lots of memory took a long time to process.

Autumn Dawn Clouds. Panorama 360 View. Composite of 41 mage taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 100, 15 mm, f/5, 1/30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Autopano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Autumn Dawn Clouds. Little Planet View. Composite of 41 mage taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 100, 15 mm, f/5, 1/30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Autopano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Autumn Dawn Clouds. Mirror Ball View. Composite of 41 mage taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 100, 15 mm, f/5, 1/30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Autopano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Autumn Dawn Clouds. Tunnel (Inverse Little Planet) View. Composite of 41 mage taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 100, 15 mm, f/5, 1/30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Autopano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (78.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (34.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Sunny, but cooler outside. Overall a net deficit of 33.7 kWh.

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Wednesday (27-November-2019) — New Jersey

Autumn Yard Work.

Snow is forcasted for early next week. I finished assembling the DR-Power leaf vacuum and connecting it to my John Deere lawn tractor. I added ~ 1.1 L of 5W 30 Mobil One oil and filled the gas tank. It took a few minutes to start the engine. I am happy I got the electric starter option. Between the noise from the tractor motor and the leaf vacuum motor, I decided I needed to be wearing hearing protection. Even though the grass and leaves were a bit damp, the majority were picked up. I also learned the hard way to check to see if the leaf collector was full. I kept going until the leaves were not being sucked up. Then when I checked found that the trailer was not only full, but over full. Compare the 2nd and 3rd video… It was very difficult to empty the trailer, and I had to dig a good portion out. I managed to collect three trailers full of leaves that are being used to start a new mulch pile. I will go out again tomorrow to finish the job, and to assemble the snow-blower attachment for the DR-Power Field and Brush mower.

Daily Electric Energy Used (74.1 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (9.4 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cloudy all day. Overall a net deficit of 64.7 kWh.

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Tuesday (26-November-2019) — New Jersey

Some Assembly Required.

Snow is forcasted for early next week, and I still have some outside end of season projects that need to be completed. While using the DR-Power Field and Brush mower a couple of weeks ago, two bolts holding the disk brake pads fell off. Since it was only the 2nd time I had used the mower, the company sent me replacement parts. I needed to get this fixed so I can install the snow-blower attachment. I also needed to make a custom attachment to connect the DR-Power Lawn Vacuum to my John Deere lawn tractor. They provide a generic attachment that needs to be cut to fit my mower. Some assembly required. I spent the afternoon in the garage working on these two projects and used a Garmin VIRB-360 camera to make a Little Planet view Time-lapse video. Tomorrow, I will connect the lawn tractor to the leaf vacuum and make sure it works.

Daily Electric Energy Used (70.1 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (30.6 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Overall a net deficit of 39.5 kWh.