|
|
the perfect birdhouse for Raspberry Pi bird photography Saturday, April 17 2021
This morning I was the one who wrote the seven letters of the New York Times Spelling Bee onto the white board we're using to display them in the living room during our Saturday morning coffee ritual. Unfortunately I got them wrong, so what should've been a "o" ended up as a "d." I don't know if there is a panagram for "jdurnal," but eventually Gretchen caught the error and I fixed the board. I was little off my usual game because last night's drinking had given me my first hangover since January.
Later I dealt with several procrastinated tasks. I began by burying the collected urine from the laboratory's flushless urinal in the garden, a task I often only do when absolutely necessary, as was the case today. The pipes (one inch PVC in most places) had become blocked, as they seem to do about once a year due to the way undiluted urine gradually blocks pipes that it flows through. My next chore was to unblock the laboratory urinal. I started by draining what I could from the urinal itself (it has a large U-trap). Then I added some Liquid Plumr, and then, using the bespoke urinal pressurizer, I forced the Liquid Plumr through the system. It's an unpleasant chore but at this point I've got it down to a science, and I no longer have the spillage accidents and chlorine gas releases that used to plague the process.
My final procrastinated task of the day was to start some all-legal homegrown cannabis. Using ten seeds that I grew last year (knowing I would need seeds, I'd let a male pollinate the female), I began an experiment to see if dark brown seeds are more likely to germinate than ones that are green.
Back during Saturday morning coffee, I'd been talkative until Gretchen said she tired of hearing my voice and that she hadn't had alone time in months. I took that to heart and tried to make myself scarce for the rest of the day.
Late in the afternoon, partly to give Gretchen more alone time, I drove out to Lowes in search of better bird seed than the cracked corn I'd bought last summer (which birds do not seem to like). I also wanted to see what the bird feeder options were. I ended up buying a nice sheet steel birdhouse with large overhangs on its roof. I figure I can equip it with a Raspberry Pi (which the roof will shelter from the rain) and then I can easily add and position cameras that I can attach where ever I need to using rare-earth magnets. Tiny powerful magnets solve a lot of problems that used to call for velcro, double-sided tape, and even through-holed mounting points.
Back at the house, I eventually retreated to the green house, which is a great separate place to be when Gretchen needs alone time. I'd eaten some cannabis, and it really seemed to hit me while I was watching YouTube videos and drinking a beer. When it was clear I couldn't really stay awake much longer, I turned off the lights (and heat; the day had been too cloudy to warm it up much inside) and went to sleep.
For linking purposes this article's URL is: http://asecular.com/blog.php?210417 feedback previous | next |