Tuesday (28-June-2022) — New Jersey

Fairgrown Farm CSA Weekly Delivery Box #9.

This week the box contained the following:

Basil (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Fresh Garlic (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Kale (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Head Lettuce (Blue Moon Acres, Pennington)
Cucumbers (Cassaday Farms, Monroeville)
Cauliflower (Cassaday Farms, Monroeville)
Yellow Beans (Cassaday Farms, Monroeville)

The box was supplemented with an add on of eggs, fruit and mushrooms:

Eggs (Polnasek Farm, Hillsborough)
Blueberries (Rosedale Farms)
Golden Oyster Mushrooms, Blue Oyster Mushrooms, Pink Oyster, and Pioppino Mushrooms (Zell’s Farm)


CSA Delivery Box (Week 9). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

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Thursday (25-November-2021) — New Jersey

Happy Thanksgiving.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Blue Jay, Tufted Titmouse.


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

Continuing to learn how to use the Labpano Pilot EE 360 camera. This time I set it up to record me cooking a duck for my Thanksgiving Dinner. The time-lapse was set for 20x (0.6 seconds/frame) @ 4K (3840 x 1920). The battery ran out at ~99 minutes, even though I had the USB-C connected to an external battery. When I checked online, it appears that the USB-C power source needs to be a USB-PD fast charger. The 4K equirectangular video was processed using Premiere Pro with the GoPro FX Reframe plugin for the rotating Little Planet video. Since the time-lapse video stopped recording before I finished cooking, I’ve provided a still image of the Thanksgiving Roasted Duck Dinner for One. Beets and Onions from Clifford Family Farm, Duck and Mushrooms from Zell’s Farm, Brussel Sprouts from Whole Foods, Wild Rice from Minnesota.

Thanksgiving Duck Dinner. (David J Mathre)
Thanksgiving Dinner. Image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 24-90 mm lens (ISO 400, 24 mm, f/2.8, 1/40 sec). (David J Mathre)

Daily Electric Energy Used (65.9 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (25.9 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny, some clouds, but cold. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 40.0 kWh.

Friday (08-October-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

The Troll family found some large mushrooms growing in the black wood mulch, and decided to have an autumn harvest party.

Troll Family Autumn Mushroom Harvest Celebration. (David J Mathre)
Troll Family Autumn Mushroom Harvest Celebration. Image taken with a Leica S2 camera and 24-90 mm lens. (David J Mathre)

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, House Finch.


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

Flowers of the day: Cosmos, Morning Glory, Partridge Pea, Rose Mallow, Zinnia.


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

Two different types of frogs. A well camouflaged Pickerel frog in the yard, and a Green frog (Kermit) in the pond. Apparently, the Pickerel frog is the only poisonous frog in North America.


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

Daily Electric Energy Used (46.9 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (32.3 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and clouds. Deficit of 14.6 kWh.

Friday (17-September-2021) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Ruby-throated Hummingbird. This was one of the few times I saw the hummingbirds feeding on Zinnia and Morning Glory flowers. Most of the time they only went to the Canna flowers or hummingbird feeder.


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

Flowers of the day: Canna, Common Dayflower, Cosmos, Marigold, Morning Glory, Rose Mallow, Sunflower, Zinnia. Many of the flowers have rain water droplets.


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


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

I now have a good set of Cattail plants growing in my frog pond.

Cattail. (David J Mathre)
Cattails in the Pond. Image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 24-90 mm lens. (David J Mathre)

I noticed some strange looking mushrooms growing in the black tree mulch.


Fungi (Mushrooms) of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (45.4 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (11.3 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Cloudy and rain. Deficit of 34.1 kWh.

Monday (22-July-2019) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Daily Walkabout. Still hot and humid outside. The high was 93 °F with a heat index of 108 °F according to my personal weather station. Clouds developed and ultimately more thunderstorms (two days in a row) with 1.08 inches of rain over the two days. A large number of mushrooms popped up overnight, and I was able to get an image of the Troll mushroom farmers guarding their crop.

Troll Mushroom Farmers. Composite of 50 focus stacked images taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 64, 105 mm, f/1.4, 1/80 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Focus Magic. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Troll Mushroom Farmers. Composite of 50 focus stacked images taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 64, 105 mm, f/1.4, 1/80 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Focus Magic. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Power Use (78.0 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (65.6 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. The WaterFurnace geothermal HVAC system is able to maintain the indoor temperature at 74-76 °F using ~35 kWh of electricity. My previous 30 year old central A/C unit would not have been able to maintain the indoor temperature below 85 °F with outdoor temperatures above 90 °F and used significantly more electricity. Granted, I now have better insulation, an attic fan, and more efficient French doors.

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