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.
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.
Gone to See Portugal. Street Photography Workshop with Steve Simon. Day 0: Lisbon, Portugal.
I arrived in Lisbon a day before the workshop. I walked around most of the day. Lots of tourists in town to watch the running of the marathon. Later in the evening I had dinner with Steve Simon.
Individual Images from the slideshows can be viewed here.
Afternoon Walkabout in Lisbon during the Marathon. Little-planet time-lapse video (Garmin VIRB-360).
Dinner at an Indian restaurant. Little planet and Tunnel View time-lapse video (Garmin VIRB-360)
It had been overcast and cool much of the day. In the late afternoon we finally got some much needed rain. Not enough, but something. The clouds started clearing from the west and I noticed sunlight coming in my bedroom window. When I looked outside I saw a double rainbow. I ran outside with the first camera I found with a wide-angle lens. Three views — a 360 degree panorama, a little planet view, and an inverse little planet/tunnel view.
Rainbow. 360 Pano View. Composite of 46 images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 100, 19 mm, f/8, 1/80 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and composite created using AutoPano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)Rainbow. Little Planet View. Composite of 46 images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 100, 19 mm, f/8, 1/80 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and composite created using AutoPano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)Rainbow. 360 Tunnel View. Composite of 46 images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 100, 19 mm, f/8, 1/80 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and composite created using AutoPano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Daily Electric Energy Used (36.4 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (35.5 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cloudy much of the day. Still cool enough that the windows can be left open and no need to run the Geothermal HVAC. Overall a net deficit of 0.9 kWh.
It was much cooler, so I spent the morning catching up on yard work. The electric fence (not charged yet) is already helping the Forsythia and Lilac shrubs we planted earlier this spring. They have new leaves that the deer haven’t nibbled. I am in the process of installing a drip hose to water both these shrubs and the daffodil patch (using rainwater collected in barrels). The grass hadn’t been mowed in two weeks, so that also had to be done. Also lots of mile-a-minute vine weeds needed to be pulled. The walkway from the front to the patio was overgrown with tall Cosmos and Sunflowers that needed to be trimmed back. Time-lapse video recorded with a Garmin VIRB-360 camera and the video processed with Photoshop CC (including the Little Planet view).
After the yard work I did my daily walkabout with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens. The deer wondered why I mowed their lawn. In addition to the last week being hot, we only got 0.42 inches of rain. The water level in the pond is way down. Kermit the Bullfrog was only partially submerged in the middle of the pond in a section that is normally a couple feet deep. I only saw one Hummingbird Clearwing moth (white legs) feeding on a Bee Balm flower. The only recent new flower is a bright red Indian Paintbrush. Finally a beat up Monarch butterfly.
Fawn and Doe. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)Kermit the Bullfrog in the Pond. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 800, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)Hummingbird Clearwing moth feeding on a Bee Balm flower. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 800, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/160 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)Indian Paintbrush Flower. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 800, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/160 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)Monarch Butterfly. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Daily Electric Energy Used (48.2 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (71.9 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cooler outside and the sun was out most of the day for a net surplus of 23.7 kWh. Laundry used 3.7 kWh.
One note — the WaterFurnace Symphony software indicated the system used 3 kWh, however the Sense Energy monitor indicated that the geothermal heat pump used 5.4 kWh. I tend to believe the Sense numbers since they more closely the energy being recorded at the external power company (PSE&G) meters. I’ve asked the WaterFurnace folks in the past about the discrepancy, but they didn’t have a good answer. The Sense folks told me they thought that the WaterFurnace/Symphony system was only measuring one phase of the energy even though the system is powered by the 220V circuit (using two phases). I wish an electrical engineer that understands this better would correct me here.
