video - David Mathre Photography

Monday (30-September-2019) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

I’m having a real problem with the deer. They were up on my patio during the night eating my tomato and strawberry plants. The electric fence doesn’t seem to work at keeping them out anymore. The first video is from a security camera in infrared at night, the second video is with a Nikon 1V3 camera through my kitchen window just as the Air Dancer Scarecrow is triggered.

Daily Electric Energy Used (45.8 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (21.6 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cloudy but cooler out so the Geothermal HVAC was off. The new hydroponic gardens are using 8.7 kWh. Overall a net deficit of 24.2 kWh.

Monthly electric energy used (1457 kWh) and Solar electric energy produced (1261 kWh) for a net deficit of 196 kWh. This is the first month since March where I didn’t produce more via solar.

Monthly Weather (0.99 inches rain).

Current Weather Conditions

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Wednesday (11-September-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

To keep the deer out of the wildflower garden next to the house, I have added a 10 foot tall Air Puppet. I have it set to run for 1 minute every 15 minutes all night. Unfortunately, I turned it off too early in the morning, and then didn’t turn it on again until too late in the afternoon. The two videos from my security cameras show the fawns feasting on the wildflowers inside the electric fence.

Daily Electric Energy Used (51.2 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (56.1 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Clouds in the morning but more sun in the afternoon. I had to turn the Geothermal HVAC system on to cool the house. Overall a net surplus of 4.9 kWh.

Current Weather Conditions

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Tuesday (06-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Daily Walkabout: I went out with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens with a 1.4x teleconverter. Butterflies (Silver-spotted Skipper, Tiger Swallowtail, Peck’s Skipper (?), and Monarch), Flowers (Zinna, Sunflower, Blanket Flower, Bee Balm, Lark Spur, Cone Flower, Thistle, Partridge Pea, Coreopsis, and Poppy). One of the Sunflowers had all of its seeds removed by the Goldfinch. One of the Thistles had gone to seed. This is probably the last Poppy of the season. Then for something different, one of my security cameras caught a bat in mid-flight.

Butterflies: Click the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.

Zinnia Flowers: Click the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.

Sunflowers: Click the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.

Various Wildflowers: Click the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.

Daily Electric Energy Used (53.1 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (46.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Lots of clouds during the day. Daily net deficit 6.3 kWh.