Saturday (04-December-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Meditating Troll. (David J Mathre)
Meditating Troll with Hot Peppers. Image taken with a Leica Q2 Monochrom camera and 28 mm f/1.7 lens (ISO 100, 28 mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)

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


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

Time-lapse videos. (1) Installing a Thule bike rack on White Rhino to carry my Elby bike. (2) Adjusting the TentBox connections on White Rhino.

White Rhino, TentBox, Elby. (David J Mathre)
White Rhino with the TentBox, Thule bike rack, and Elby bike.. Image taken with a Leica Q2 Monochrom camera and 28 mm f/1.7 lens (ISO 100, 28 mm, f/2.8, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)

Daily Electric Energy Used (57.6 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (23.8 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and clouds. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 33.8 kWh.

Monday (15-November-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Day Working Outside and in the Garage in New Jersey.

My Little Planet time-lapse video for the day. The local Coop truck arrived to deliver 12 cubic yards of black mulch to be dumped at the same location as previous deliveries. Unfortunately, the rear (power) wheels of the truck got stuck in the remaining old wet black mulch. We initially tried putting plywood boards under the tires. That didn’t work. We then tried to help pull the truck out using White Rhino and a nylon jerk strap. We then switched to a heavy duty chain that I saved from Silver Rhino I. This worked. White Rhino helped to free the truck. I’m glad I had the tow package installed on the Range Rover. Most of the day I spent cleaning and reorganizing the garage. The bags of Quikrete were wrapped in plastic to protect from moisture. The DR Power brush mower was switched to a snow blower (hopefully this means little or no snow this winter). I took pictures of the damaged components of the DR Power 25-gallon sprayer, and sent them to DR Power technical support. Unfortunately, they said they couldn’t order the replacement parts for me, and I had to contact the manufacturer — AgriFab. I sent a request into AgriFab for the replacement parts. At the end of the day I put together some more wire shelving units to store the grow bags with Canna tubers. A long day.

Daily Electric Energy Used (59.6 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (10.8 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Lots of clouds. Getting colder outside so the Geothermal HVAC is heating the house. Deficit of 48.8 kWh.

Sunday (14-November-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Day Working Outside in New Jersey.

My Little Planet time-lapse videos. 1) Installing a Tent Box “Classic” onto White Rhino. I purchased the Tent Box over a year ago. The delivery took a while, and the roof rack mounting bars were for a Range Rover Sport, not the Range Rover Classic. I ended up having the local Land Rover dealer install the factory roof rack. Normally a job for two to install the Tent Box on a vehicle, but I employed Red Rover as my helper. 2) Red Rover’s Little Planet view of installing the TentBox. 3) Red Rover, switching from front forks to front loader bucket, and switching from rear tool carrier/weight to back hoe. 4) Attaching the backhoe to Red Rover. Actually, pretty easy for one person to do since the hydraulics do the heavy lifting. Normal view riding Red Rover with the front loader bucket and rear backhoe.

Daily Electric Energy Used (60.3 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (17.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and clouds. Getting colder outside so the Geothermal HVAC is heating the house. Deficit of 42.7 kWh.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (340 kWh) from Sense. Weekly Solar Electric Energy Produced (144 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Deficit of 196 kWh.