Tag: Autumn

Thursday (26-September-2019) — New Jersey

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.

AeroGarden Farm 1 Left. at 8 days. Red Heirloom and Golden Harvest Tomatoes. Image taken with a Leica TL-2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
AeroGarden Farm 1 Left. at 8 days. Red Heirloom and Golden Harvest Tomatoes. Image taken with a Leica TL-2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
AeroGarden Farm 1 Right. at 8 days. Lettuce (Red Romaine, Deer Tongue, Marvel of 4 Seasons, Paris Island, Black-seeded Simpon, Red Sails), Basil, Chives, and Dill. Image taken with a Leica TL-2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
AeroGarden Farm 1 Right. at 8 days. Lettuce (Red Romaine, Deer Tongue, Marvel of 4 Seasons, Parris Island, Black-seeded Simpson, Red Sails), Basil, Chives, and Dill. Image taken with a Leica TL-2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
AeroGarden Farm 2 Left. at 7 days. Peppers (Mini Jalapeno, Purple Super Hot, Red Fire), and Chives. Image taken with a Leica TL-2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
AeroGarden Farm 2 Left. at 7 days. Peppers (Mini Jalapeno, Purple Super Hot, Red Fire), and Chives. Image taken with a Leica TL-2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
AeroGarden Farm 2 Right. at 7 days. Lettuce, Romain, Arugula Image taken with a Leica TL-2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
AeroGarden Farm 2 Right. at 7 days. Lettuce, Romain, Arugula Image taken with a Leica TL-2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
AeroGarden Farm 3 Left. at 7 days. Broccoli, Swiss Chard, Basil, Dill, Parsley. Image taken with a Leica TL-2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
AeroGarden Farm 3 Left. at 7 days. Broccoli, Swiss Chard, Basil, Dill, Parsley. Image taken with a Leica TL-2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
AeroGarden Farm 3 Right. at 7 days. Cauliflower, Kale, Cilantro, Oregno, Rosemary, Thyme. Image taken with a Leica TL-2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
AeroGarden Farm 3 Right. at 7 days. Cauliflower, Kale, Cilantro, Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme. Image taken with a Leica TL-2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 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.

Current Weather Conditions

powered by Ambient Weather

Tuesday (24-September-2019) — New Jersey

Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

More seeds of the various wildflowers I have planted in my backyard over the last few years trying to create a wildflower meadow. This fall and winter I am going to try and grow some of these indoors in either hydroponic or regular dirt gardens. One of the goals is to know what the plants look like before they develop flowers so in the future I can better what is a weed vs. something I want growing in the wildflower meadows. I also want to relate which which wildflowers did or did not work in my gardens, especially from the wildflower seed mixtures. More seeds and seed mixtures in yesterday’s post. The grid in the image is 0.1 inch.


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


Daily Electric Energy Used (62.4 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (34.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cooler out so the Geothermal HVAC wasn’t working as hard (5.2 kWh), but more clouds. Last day of running server backups. Overall a net deficit of 27.6 kWh.


Current Weather Conditions

powered by Ambient Weather

Monday (23-September-2019) — New Jersey

Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

Something different. Seeds of the various wildflowers I have planted in my backyard over the last few years trying to create a wildflower meadow. This fall and winter I am going to try and grow some of these indoors in either hydroponic or regular dirt gardens. One of the goals is to know what the plants look like before they develop flowers so in the future I can better what is a weed vs. something I want growing in the wildflower meadows. I also want to relate which which wildflowers did or did not work in my gardens, especially from the wildflower seed mixtures. More seeds and seed mixtures will be in tomorrow’s post.


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


Yesterday Electric Energy Used (61.3 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (48.7 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Less sun and warmer. 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 on (11.6 kWh). Server backup and new hydroponic garden online. Overall a net deficit of 12.6 kWh.

Daily Electric Energy Used (69.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (47.3 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Warmer out so the Geothermal HVAC was back on for much of the afternoon and evening (19.2 kWh). Using more electricity while running server backups and the new hydroponic gardens. Overall a net deficit of 22.2 kWh.

Current Weather Conditions

powered by Ambient Weather

Tuesday (11-December-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

Critters on my patio and in my backyard. The bird feeder and the area below was busy (Mourning Dove, Yellow-breasted Nuthatch, Blue Jay, House Finch, American Goldfinch, and Northern Cardinal). One of the relatively new birds to visit is the Yellow-breasted Nuthatch. It like the woodpeckers are attracted to the suet. The squirrels stayed on the ground going after the Black Walnuts. Later in the afternoon one of the neighborhood cats stopped by causing the birds to fly away. The deer look awfully scruffy. Later in the evening I got an image of the waxing crescent moon. All of these image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 200 mm f/2 lens with a 1.4x teleconverter.






Individual images in the slide shows can be viewed here.

Tuesday (11-December-2018) — New Jersey

Home Cooking. Savory Herb Loaf.

Savory Herb Loaf Recipe: Sprouted Wheat Flour (1 cups); Whole Wheat Flour (1 cup); Bread Flour (1 cup);  Dill Seed (1 tbs);, Celery Seed (1 tbs), Poppy Seed (1 tbs); Dill Weed (1 tbs); Oregano (1 tbs); Parsley (1 tbs); Garlic Powder (1 tbs); Chives (1 tbs); Flax Oil (2 tbs); Salt (1 tsp); Egg (1 large); Brown Sugar (2 tbs); Water (1 1/3 cup). Above ingredients added to Panasonic Bread Bakery. Yeast (2 tsp) added to yeast hopper and the unit set for Whole Wheat Bread (Rapid) and started. Three hours later, I removed the loaf of bread. It rose to well above the top of the pan — and the house smelled of herbs. I only let it cool a few minutes before slicing a piece. It was good, but next time I will add a bit less sugar so it doesn’t rise too far.


Individual images from the slide show can be viewed here.