Red Rover - David Mathre Photography

Friday (11-March-2022) — New Jersey

Wintertime Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed in the backyard, at the birdfeeder and on the patio: Dark-eyed Junco.

Dark-eyed Junco. (David J Mathre) — Dark-eyed Junco. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens. (David J Mathre)

Indoor hydroponic California Poppy flower opening. Time-lapse Video. Images taken every one minute using a Leica SL2s camera and Laowa 24 mm f/14 macro probe lens.

Time-lapse video of yardwork on Red Rover. I needed to prepare for a storm predicted for tomorrow. Rain, snow, heavy wind, and temperatures dropping well below zero. The bulbs in Soft Pots that started to sprout needed to be brought back into the garage. Also, the Garden Shed that I had been storing the tractor implements blew over during the last windstorm. I was able to set it back up, but two of the ground anchors failed. For this upcoming storm, I decided to anchor the shed from within using a pallet of fertilizer.

Daily Electric Energy Used (81.8 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (58.5 kWh) from Sense. Sunny. Deficit of 23.8 kWh. I should note that the Solar monitoring from SolSystem via Locus Energy stopped working since the Locus LG-120 meter uses 3G cellular to connect. ATT has turned off 3G cellular.

I’ve re-added the feed from my Ambient Weather Station.

Sunday (06-March-2022) — New Jersey

Wintertime Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed in the backyard, at the birdfeeder and on the patio: No birds today?

Time-lapse video of Yellow and Red California Poppy flowers opening. At least three more flowers are about to bloom.

After raining in the morning, I spent the afternoon on Red Rover spreading more of the wood chips.

Daily Electric Energy Used (72.9 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (20.2 kWh) from Sense. Sun and clouds. Deficit of 52.7 kWh. I should note that the Solar monitoring from SolSystem via Locus Energy stopped working since the Locus LG-120 meter uses 3G cellular to connect. ATT has turned off 3G cellular.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (614 kWh) from Sense. Weekly Solar Electric Energy Produced (321 kWh) from Sense. Deficit of 293 kWh.

Friday (04-March-2022) — New Jersey

Wintertime Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed in the backyard, at the birdfeeder and on the patio: Dark-eyed Junco.

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

I spent much of the day working on the yard. A lot to do to get ready for spring. The ground is wet. For the time-lapse video, I’m moving and spreading wood chips using Red Rover.

Daily Electric Energy Used (104.3 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (58.3 kWh) from Sense. Sunny, but colder. Deficit of 46.0 kWh. I should note that the Solar monitoring from SolSystem via Locus Energy stopped working since the Locus LG-120 meter uses 3G cellular to connect. ATT has turned off 3G cellular.

Tuesday (21-December-2021) — New Jersey

First Day of Winter. Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Dark-eyed Junco. Busy with other projects, so the images were obtained from security video cameras.

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

Time-lapse Little Planet videos of the day. Removing the 3-point Post Hole digger from Red Rover. Distributing deer fence posts to the holes dug yesterday. Starting assembly of the deer fence gates.

Daily Electric Energy Used (74.9 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (17.3 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Cloudy. Geothermal HVAC heating the house, much of the day stage 2 since it is cold outside. Deficit of 57.6 kWh.

Friday (17-December-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Downy Woodpecker, European Starling, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco.

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

Time-lapse Little Planet videos of the day. Breaking cardboard down for the biweekly recycling pickup. The main project for the day was to start working on the deer fence. Yesterday, Red Rover was used to dig the first post hole. Today the first 6 foot steel inner sleeve was pounded into the hole. A layer of gravel is added to the bottom, and then the hole filled with about one bag (50 lbs) of Quikrete (fast setting concrete). Before adding the water, the Quikrete was pounded down and the post aligned strait up using a magnetic leveling device. Water (about 1 gallon) was added, and the concrete allowed to set for 24+ hours as the temperature was only in the mid-50’s. Ten more holes were dug, and seven more inner posts installed. Note that the ground is very rocky, so not all of the holes and posts could be set to the same depth. The great thing about the Benner deer fence system is that the eight foot outer post slips over the inner post so all of the posts can be set to the same height above the ground.

Daily Electric Energy Used (47.1 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (23.5kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and clouds. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 23.6 kWh.