New weather station at Spiritwood

After considering options for years, I finally installed a weather station that can record to my computer and share online with anyone.

The device is an Acurite 5 in 1 Professional Weather Station (model 01036) — and purchased for the remarkably low price of just $60 from Costco. Time will tell how well the plastic sensor unit lasts on top of our laundry-line pole!

It took a bit of fussing with fairly obscure “instructions” to get everything connected, but now it is sending data to my computer and publishing it on Wunderground. The current status of the sensors should display below. Click it to open my weather history data on Wunderground’s site.

You can also view this and other nearby weather stations by using this link.

Back at Spiritwood after a year away

We enjoyed our year of travel but it sure was nice to be back home.

Last treats for Whiskey on the day we left in Dec 2009

Of course, homecoming was tempered by the loss of Whiskey, my 27yo gelding horse. He had been weakened by a nasty slip on ice in early 2009, and we had wondered if we should make the tough decision to have him put down before we left. Our vet said he would look out for him, and with a diet of senior food, should be okay. Unfortunately, just five days before we arrived home, he was unable to get himself up after a roll: the strain caused internal injuries, and our house sitter had to euthanize him.

Other than that, our own bed felt luxurious; the water tasted wonderful; the cats were like glue to us... Despite the presence of a 5yo boy for the year, the house was in pretty good shape: no crayon marks! We suspect that the gardens suffered as the house sitters had unexpected other demands on their time, and were unable to cope with gardening. Oh well, at least the snow is covering it all for now...

Our travel blog went well while we were travelling, but kind of stalled when we settled down for three months of house sitting in southern Australia. It was interesting to see how socializing took away much of the opportunity to look after blogging and photo organizing. When we were staying in hotels in SE Asia, there always seemed to be “down time” to deal with such things.

First winter storm

The view from here is now white. The storm everyone was talking about hit this morning and blew from the east pretty steadily all day. A few drifts were too deep for the car to get through, but the snow was light enough to shovel easily where necessary.

However, when I went to the barn to pull out the snow shovels, I was a bit taken aback at the amount of snow inside. The steady east wind had lifted the metal roofing up and let the snow blow in onto the roof trusses and floor below. A steady sprinkle of snow in the middle of the room revealed another problem: a part of the ridge cap had been loosened as well.

Just as well it happened now I guess… It will probably warm up enough in the next few days to allow me to get up on the roof and put in roofing screws. Over the years, most of the nails have loosened and popped up, so I’ve been replacing them with screws. The pitch is low, so it isn’t a dangerous or complicated task; just yet another thing to do!

Leonids no-show (but nice stars)

The 2009 Leonids were being touted as the best in years—and the sky was clear—so of course I stayed up to see them. I set the tripod up on the deck and fired up Stellarium to get oriented.

By midnight I hadn’t seen more than one or two small meteorites. I set the alarm for what was supposed to be the peak at our location (05:30!) but only saw a single flash in ten minutes or so.

However, it wasn’t a total loss. Compare the screen capture from Stellarium to my shot from the deck. The stars in the constellation of Orion are right on—and both Sirius and Rigel show very distinctly.

Screen capture from Stellarium for 2009-11-16 23:40:21 looking SE

Photograph taken 2009-11-16 23:40:16 looking SE

The Nikon D300 camera was set at ISO800, f5.6 for a 30 second exposure. The glow on the horizon is light from Ottawa—so this truly is a view from this end of the Escarpment!

More power for the tower

Attaching the wind generator to the Internet tower. (Yes, Cliff is using a safety harness!) ©2009, Eric Fletcher

The tower we erected to provide us with high speed Internet access is too far from the house to run a wire. I had installed a solar panel to charge the batteries, and everything worked just fine until November.

But then dimmer days and cloudy damp weather couldn’t provide enough sunlight to keep the batteries charged.

This year, we were determined to add more capacity—but the months slid by without getting around to it.

Finally—and probably just in time—we were able to get a wind generator installed at the top of the tower.

It would have been more pleasant in warmer weather, and the sun wouldn’t have set at 16:30, but by the time we made our way down in the twilight, the generator was installed—but not spinning in the now-still air.

The installed wind generator with one of the antennas below it. ©2009, Eric Fletcher

I went up the next morning though, and an intermittent wind had it humming away—and adding power to the somewhat depleted batteries. More work is needed though: we’ll need to clean up the wires, add some fuses and some sort of excess load dump before I’ll feel fully comfortable.

However, it sure is nice to look out the back windows with binoculars and see the blades spinning in these rainy and overcast November days!

The wind generator is an AirX 400W unit made by Southwest Windpower, and available at Canadian Tire stores in Canada. The antennas on the tower are all from Ubiquiti Networks. Details about our efforts in erecting the tower can be viewed here.

Looking into our past

We’ve been trying to sort through stuff we really don’t need any more. One of the disadvantages of having lots of space is that it gets filled up—and too easily falls off the clean up priority because “out of sight is out of mind.”

When I came in with a box labeled “Old Prints” the other day, I should have known it would be a time sink: hours later, Katharine and I were still at the table surrounded by piles of prints, postcards and letters—but also a half-filled garbage can between us.

In the 80s and 90s, a second set of prints cost hardly anything more, so most of the envelopes are thick. We can whittle some of these down: many sets have flawed shots (exposure and focus problems); some are related to projects long completed; a few are just dull…

However, the biggest problem is that almost none are dated! With digital cameras, the date stamp is automatically in the file, so our pictures since 2001 are all very accurately dated. When I scan images—either from slides, negatives or prints—I alter the date to as close as possible to when it would have been taken. This lets me see the older images on a timeline in tools like Picasa or Photoshop Elements.

So whose surprise 40th birthday was that? Everyone hid their cars in the back, so she didn't have a clue until the doors opened with a big crowd in the barn. Scanned from a Polaroid instant print; 5 May 1992.

Sometimes there are clues: an obvious event like a specific birthday party, or a handwritten note on one print in a set. More frequently, we need to deduce the date: a new calico kitten at a Christmas tree indicates it must have been 1996, because we got Tigger when Persia disappeared in December…

The box was significantly reduced though, and we were inspired to go through some more boxes to downsize some more. However, I just know it will mean a big chunk of time with the scanner!

An even earlier print: Eric with the car we bought to tour Australia; on a backroad en route to Canberra in May 1984. Original print ©1984, Katharine Fletcher

Harvest from the woods

As we ride the horses through our back trails at this time of year, flashes of orange reveal patches of Chanterelle mushrooms. Unfortunately, with all the rain this July (>240mm vs. the more normal 90mm!), we didn’t harvest many of them soon enough.

However, yesterday’s ride inspired us to go out and collect a basket full in just two of the more promising sites. Later—and after a tasty meal that included fresh Chanterelles simmered in butter with fresh garlic from the garden—we took the rest out to the barn and loaded the food dryer.

Although Chanterelle mushrooms have a distinct appearance, never eat a mushroom unless you are completely certain it is edible. ©2008, Eric Fletcher

By this morning everything was dry, and we now have several bags to spice up food in the fall.

Chanterelle mushrooms ready for the dryer. © Eric Fletcher

Chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius) are considered “choice” for eating, and are high in Vitamin C and carotene. They are delicious cooked fresh, and when added to a sauce or soup, their slightly peppery taste adds an interesting spiciness.

Black currant pruning

We like to prune our Black Currant bushes as we pick the berries. The set of bushes in the west field hadn’t been pruned for a couple of years so we decided to do it this year. We take out the suckers that form on branches that put out roots when they bend to the ground—or, in our case, got covered with mulch. We also thin the cluster of stalks to increase air circulation and prevent fungus or mold growth. After pruning, we take away all the detritus and burn it. These bushes are in sandy loam, and tend to dry out, so we put mulch around the base of the plants. The ones we transplanted from here to more of a clay loam and a slightly shady location are much better producers.


This time lapse video was created from a series of still frames using the interval feature of my Nikon D300 camera while set on a tripod nearby as we worked.

Springtime chores

With temperatures reaching the mid-teens during the day, the snow is going fast now. We pruned the black currants the other day, and this afternoon I cut up some spruce trees that had blown down.



The melting snow revealed one of our other spring irritants: muskrat damage! This year the little beasts had been really busy making under-snow burrows that have really messed up the lawn near the garden. They usually tunnel into the higher banks on the east side so they can stay above the water level, but this year they have come up in the lawn on the west side.

Time to set the trap! Muskrats are rodents, and if I don’t get rid of them, the pond will be full of them—and they will spread to the fields and watercourses nearby. Many of our farmer neighbours have tile-drained fields, and muskrats can do a lot of damage to the drains, so they need to be kept in check.

Just one of the very few “less pleasant” things to have to do.