Casita overflow line...

 

This is something I suggested to the new owners last year.  If the catchment tank overflows, all that extra water would just pool up by the foundation (not good).  I routed a 2" line from near the top of the tank to 30' downhill from the Casita.  There is a screen at the end of the line to keep critters from making their way into the water supply.  The tank is nearly full, and we have a good chance of more rain coming Sunday and Monday - so this line may very well get a chance to serve its intended purpose.  93,101,69,0,B    

a little sink...

A little plumbing job for the owners of the Casita.  A small (cold water only) lavatory.  Luckily the water and drain lines were rather easy to get to for the hookup.  Leaving the connections exposed until they pass the leak test.  86,94,73,0,B

Some inspiration...

I think I've watched over 100 of this guy's YouTube videos.

(He has posted 606 videos to date.)

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Moley shadow visit...

 

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straight ahead...

Proverbs 4:25 Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. 26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. 27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil. 

lost a friendly bunny...

 

...probably to a coyote

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Fist full of skulls...

 

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RC car trivia question:

 

What do these have to do with a modification 

I will be making on the rover?

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Grocery store renovation underway...

Grand opening in November...

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more bronze

Five pounds of freshly blended bronze poured this morning in 4 batches.  Each batch is 600 grams of copper and 60 grams of aluminum.  93,97,70,0,B

New batch of skulls

 

16 more skulls on order.  It is brutal casting these during the summer, but it was a bit chilly today so I was able to crank out five of them.  75,95,76, .12",B

A tree planted by the water...

Jeremiah 17:5 Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. 6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. 7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. 8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. 

a little afternoon shade for the front...

 

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Casita update...

The new owners of the Casita have done a great job of making it their own.  Very nice interior touches and a buttload of solar that doubles as shade on the south side.  92,99,74,0,B

autonomy essentials...

 

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unexpected...

Ended up with a nice little storm last night that wasn't in the forecast. Total accumulation over 5 hours ended up at .81". Caught 1600 gallons off my rooftops and pumped 2000 gallons into one of my creek tanks. Last time I got a good amount of rain out of one storm was on December 10,2019 with .74". Previous to that was 1.15" on December 7, 2017 (I keep very detailed weather records). I've been wanting to try adding my real time weather station data to a video and finally got my shot. My weather station is a discontinued model that I bought years ago from https://ambientweather.com. You can see my current conditions on WeatherUnderground at KTXALPIN105.

The desert sure soaks it up fast...

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back in business...

Nice visit today with Luther Krueger who came out to include The Field Lab in his solar cooking series on YouTube.  My solar oven heated up nicely today.  Clouds rolled in just before it got to 400°.  

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New mylar...

...for the solar oven reflector.

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you can run - but you cannot hide

Ecclesiastes 12:14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. 

Solar oven time

 

A YouTuber is coming out Tuesday to do a segment on my solar oven.  It has been almost 4 years since I last used it.  Cleaned up the double pane tempered glass this morning - and putting new mylar on the reflector tomorrow.  It will be nice to get this back in operation again.  Kinda seems wrong to be cooking my dinner with propane while we frequently have daily temperatures over 100° this time of year.  99,105,68,0,C

Double Feature Friday

First test of the desert rover project - to see how the Wyze Cam V3 works on a cheap RC car. Camera running off a 13000 mAh power bank. Next test will be with a much more powerful RC crawler that has a range of about 600 meters - which is about the same as the wifi range of my Wyze cameras working through the boosted signal from my Starlink router. This is the cheap RC car I used for this test.

Easily controlled the Everest 10 out to 250 meters with the stock transmitter and receiver. Video shot with a DJI Osmo Action camera with "rock steady" turned on for smooth video. This is one of a series of tests toward the ultimate goal of turning this into a solar powered autonomous rover. Next test will be adding a platform for firmly attaching more things to the existing crawler - such as cameras, sensors, micro controllers, etc... It's a little top heavy as is. I may also have to widen the wheelbase and lower the center of gravity as well.

The extraction

This is part one of a series on this watch. One of the case screws is broken so I also ordered a pair of those as well. Part two of the series will be installing and testing the watch. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS AT HOME! 95,100,68,0,C

A little surgery...

 

I was a little nervous because it has been over a year since I have worked on any watches.  Successfully extracted a broken mainspring from this 18 size Illinois Watch Co. Bunn Special pocket watch.  Took me awhile, but I finally found and ordered a replacement for it online.  Not out of the woods yet though.  Won't know if there are any other issues until the new mainspring arrives and I install it.  Video tomorrow.  86,107,81,0,B

Cute as a button...

 

Tested out the new EZVIZ C6 2K+ indoor camera today.  I was planning on doing a video review too, but there are already some on YouTube that are better than anything I could do.   The C6 is fairly simple to set up and the image quality is really nice, and the slightly faster frame rate mostly eliminates blurring of things in motion.  The horizontal tracking and AI recognition work surprisingly well, but I was kind of expecting it to tilt up and down automatically too.  That has to be done manually (and after thinking about it for a while - that really wouldn't make sense anyway).  For a new user, the menus are a little confusing and tricky to navigate (it took me forever to figure out how to remove the micro-SD card that I put into it).  I think a lot of overseas companies these days send out free products for review and end up with detailed how-to videos posted on YouTube so they don't have to include a manual written in broken English.  One other plus is that the E6 supports 2.4/5GHz dual band Wi-Fi (the Wyze cameras are 2.4 GHz only).  But while my Wyze cameras only shoot up to 1080P as opposed to the C6's 2K, I really like that the Wyze cameras can be programmed for continuous recording and time lapses in advance and as long as you keep it powered up, it will it keep running even from a remote location that is out of wifi range.  For me, time lapse capability is a plus, but I understand that moving the camera out of range probably isn't an issue with a security camera that will most likely get permanently installed in a fixed location.  The C6 image quality at night including color night vision is just as good if not better than the Wyze cameras but until there is an update, the infrared LEDs for night vision can't be turned off on the C6.  All in all, it is a very nice product for the price-point considering the features.  To be honest, I probably wouldn't have purchased this camera to try out had the company not sent it to me for free (thanks EZVIZ!) - but it is a nice deal if you are looking for a great little security camera with the features I mentioned above.   One of their other cameras that I am really interested in is their slightly more expensive C8PF Dual-Lens Weatherproof Pan &Tilt Wi-Fi Camera.  Of course I could write all about that one in a future blog post if they choose to send me one of those as well... 103,110,64,0,C

Ground Station

Successfully downloaded and installed mission planning software 

for the autonomous rover project.

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A tough nut to crack...

Matthew 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? 48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.  

Option 3

Already on to option three for the rover project.  Although I have a use for it (it may still be a good test platform for the ESP8266 Mode MCU), I am moving on from the first toy RC car I ordered.  It doesn't play well interference-wise with Wifi, and it won't work with the Radiolink RC6GS long range transmitter that I just got.  So, I ordered this RV crawler due to the price point and good reviews.  A good combination of drive features for a rover project - low speed and high torque.   94,99,68,0,B

big show / no rain

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Pool Party

 

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How hard can it be?

 

today's reading

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