Thursday (16-December-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Turkey Vulture, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco.


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

Red Rover time-lapse video of the day. Today’s project was to attach the Woods PD-25 post-hole digger on Red Rover. Took a while to get it installed. Read the safety manual several times. When completed, dug the first of 170 holes for the deer fence project. Small issue of a bolt rubbing one of the safety shields, and a shear bolt falling out (didn’t shear, nut must not have been on tight enough). Tech from Belle Mead motors stopped by to fix the rubbing issue.


Daily Electric Energy Used (50.3 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (27.5kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and clouds. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 22.8 kWh.

Wednesday (08-December-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

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

I am trying to figure out the problem with the following slideshow. (10-Decmber-2021 Update: PhotoShelter provided a fix to the slideshow problem).


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

Time-lapse Videos of the Day with Red Rover. (1) Completed assembly of the 4th Shelter Logic storage shed. The frame remained up overnight (no strong winds) prior to attaching the ground anchors. This one has a rounded roof, and we will see if it does better when the snow comes. (2) Assembled a Titan 3-Point Subsoiler Single Tine Ripper, then used it to pull out some old agricultural fabric.

Daily Electric Energy Used (65.8 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (10.7 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Cloudy. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 55.1 kWh.

Tuesday (07-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, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco.


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

Time-lapse Videos of the Day. Assembly of the 4th ShelterLogic storage shed. This one has a rounded roof, and we will see if it does better when the snow comes. 1) Morning, assembling the frame. 2) Afternoon, back and front walls. Didn’t finish with the top or anchors as the sun started to go down. Just hope not too much wind overnight.

Daily Electric Energy Used (64.8 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (25.2 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and clouds. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 39.6 kWh.

Sunday (05-December-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: The birds seem to have been missing today. I don’t know if there is a hawk in the area.

Time-lapse videos. Maybe the last leaf vacuum run this year on Red Rover. (1) Little Planet view. (2) Equirectangular view.

Daily Electric Energy Used (60.5 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (20.4 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and clouds. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 40.1 kWh.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (430 kWh) from Sense. weekly Solar Electric Energy Produced (151 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 279 kWh.

Friday (03-December-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Black-capped Chickadee, Blue Jay, Dark-eyed Junco.


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


Blue Jay Drinking from the Birdbath. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Red Rover time-lapse videos. (1) Installing a set of Pat’s Easy Change System for category 1 three point mounts on Red Rover. (2) Moving black mulch, used to cover the center driveway Holly and Pine tree section, and to cover the front yard Japanese Maple tree section.

A couple of notes about the Pat’s Easy Change System installation. I was looking for something to make it easier to change items attached to the Category 1 three point system on Red Rover. Like the quick change system on the front loader that I use to go between the front bucket and the forks. The installation documents for Pat’s Easy Change system were relatively straight forward. There was a note indicating that the system adds 4 inches to the length of the tractor lift arms, and that some tractor models may require a longer top link. That should have been in the information I read before purchasing the item. The first difference between the installation instruction and the package I received was they switched from using set screws with jamb nuts to hex bolts with jam nuts to align the Easy Change System. Also, my parts bag was missing the 0.25 inch roll pins used to hold the shims used to make the hitch parallel with the lift arm. I ended up using bolts and nuts to hold the shims in place. The rest of the instructions were straight forward. The installation gave me the opportunity to relevel the lift arms, and adjust the width between the arms to 26 inches. When I went to use the Easy Change system to re-connect my rear weight & tool holder to Red Rover, I found that I had to extend the top link to its maximum length (~25 inches). I may need to get a slightly longer adjustable top link. I will need to test the Easy Change system with my 3 point implements that use the PTO. Does the power drive connection to the implement extend the extra 4 inches?

Black & White images from a Leica Q2 Monochrom camera.


Black & White images from a Leica Q2 Monochrom camera. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (51.4 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (29.8 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and clouds. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 21.6 kWh.