Tag: Red Rover

Thursday (11-November-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Working in the Yard.

Time-lapse videos. The weather forecast for tomorrow was rain, meaning lots of things in the yard needed to be done. 1) First I needed to move the 64 bags of Quikrete into the garage. Red Rover is not able to lift a pallet weighing 3200+ pounds. My initial idea was to build wire storage racks with wheels so I could have flexibility to move the bags around in the garage so I would have space to park my car. So I built on of the wire storage shelving units with 3 inch wheels. Unfortunately, once I loaded 12 bags (600 pounds) onto the rack and tried to move it the wheels snapped off. 2) Next idea was to move the bags onto a pallet in the garage. This meant first reorganizing and covering the bags of fertilizer and Miracle Grow Potting Soil in the backyard to free up three additional pallets. Then moving the remaining Quikrete bags into the garage. 3) Also before it rains, I wanted to brush mow the last section of wildflowers, flowers gone after last several mornings with frost. Followed by using the leaf vacuum to clean up the fallen autumn leaves before they get wet. Since it has been a long time since using the leaf vacuum I forgot not to let the trailer get too full. It was too heavy to dump the leaves and grass clippings into the mulch pile. I ended up needing to use Red Rover to help dump the leaves out of the trailer. ARRG!!!

Daily Electric Energy Used (44.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (24.3 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Mostly sunny. Deficit of 20.4 kWh.

Wednesday (10-November-2021) — New Jersey

Outdoor Autumn Yard Projects in New Jersey.

My Little Planet time-lapse videos. 1) Building Shelter Logic storage shed #3. This one is a bit larger (12′ x 12′ x 9′) to store Red Rover’s tractor implements. For this shed, the estimate was 2.5 hours for two people to assemble. It took me about 6 hours by myself. 2) Red Rover was then used to move the pallets with the rototiller, snow blade, front loader bucket, Auger, and weighted rear tool basket into the shed. Once I was done, wish I got the version of the shed that is 20′ deep so I could also store my other powered garden tools.

Daily Electric Energy Used (46.3 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (26.5 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny. Deficit of 19.8 kWh.

Monday (08-November-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, European Starling, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco.


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

Time-lapse videos: 1) Building floor supports and moving plastic-coated wire rolls into the storage sheds. 2) Building pallet supports for the tractor implements (rototiller and snow blade).

Daily Electric Energy Used (50.3 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (26.5 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Mostly sunny. The Geothermal furnace is now on to heat the house. Indoor temperature set to 64° F. Deficit of 33.8 kWh.

Saturday (06-November-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Time-lapse videos working outdoors and using Red Rover. 1) Building a wood frame in the second storage shed to hold the 4′ by 8′ sheets of plywood. I built it to store the plywood above the rolls of deer fence 2″ by 4″ and 4″ by 4″ pressure treated wood. 2) Installing the winch for the DP Power half-ton trailer. Probably wouldn’t have taken so long if I read the directions first. But how better to learn than by doing??? One problem with the directions was drilling a 1/2 inch hole to install the heavy-duty eye-hook. The section behind the threaded part of the eye-hook was larger than 1/2 inch, so the hole had to be increased in size using a Dremel grinding tool. 3) Moving the plywood to the new wood frame. Yesterday, I was reminded how heavy plywood sheets could be. Red Rover was not able to lift a pallet containing 4 3/4″ sheets and 8 1/2″ sheets. A 3/4″ sheet weighs ~ 70 lbs, and a 1/2″ sheet ~ 43 lbs. Not counting the pallet, that would be 624 lbs. In order to move the plywood, I needed to separate the 3/4″ and 1/2″ sheets. Also, Red Rover needs to be running at 3000 rpm to maintain the hydraulic pressure to raise the forks loaded with the plywood.

Daily Electric Energy Used (58.2 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (28.3 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Mostly sunny. The Geothermal furnace is now on to heat the house. Indoor temperature set to 64° F. Deficit of 29.9 kWh.

Friday (05-November-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: 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 working outdoors and using Red Rover. 1) Switching front loader on Red Rover to pallet forks, filling Red Rover with diesel (5 gallons after 12 hours of use), moving the pallet of wood delivered by Home Depot. The pallet was too heavy for Red Rover to lift. I had to transfer four sheets of 4′ by 8′ of plywood to a different pallet, then move the pallet. The remaining eight sheets of 4′ by 8′ of plywood were transferred on Red Rover’s forks to the plywood pallet. The remaining 4″ by 4″ and 2″ by 4″ posts remained to be moved on another day. 2) Building Storage Logic (10′ x 10′) storage shed 2. This time was faster and easier than the first storage shed. Experience, and no wind. Still it took longer that the 2 hours for 2 people to assemble the shed…

Daily Electric Energy Used (57.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (28.3 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Mostly sunny. The Geothermal furnace is now on to heat the house. Indoor temperature set to 64° F. Deficit of 29.4 kWh.