Preparing for a Nor'easter

The neighborhood deer were out feeding early this evening as a Nor'easter approaches.

Colder Weather

This winter's temperatures have been mild until this week when colder/seasonable temperatures returned to our neighborhood. Several of the local deer were out early pawing through the snow searching for buried food.

Build Your Own Drone

Grandson Reed received a "Build Your Own Drone" kit as a Christmas gift from his Uncle Chuck and Aunt Nikki. After some help from Reed's dad it was time to fly. Reed and his dad checking preflight instructions and communications.

This small drone is controlled by a smartphone app via a WiFi link. The drone kit includes several repair parts that are easily replaced.

We have liftoff!!! Controlled flying was difficult in swirling winds around cars and buildings. This drone had a magnetic attraction to large metal objects like cars and the red construction dumpster in the background. The drone also buzzed like a mad hornet within a few inches of my head.

The Doctor is In

We visited our grandson Reed this weekend and learned his new career choice is to be a doctor.

Feeling tired? Dr. Reed may have the placebo you need. His placebos are marked with the well known "M&M" identification.

Need a second opinion? Consultation with Dr. Reed's silent partner is available.

Dr. Reed's office.

Enjoying the Mild Weather

The weather has turned mild after the last snow storm and some of the local deer are enjoying the daytime temperatures in the mid-30's.

This deer has made a comfortable nest in pine needles under a pine tree.

Freezer Alarm

The recent snow storm that caused our electrical service to be unavailable for a day reminded us of the household damage these outages could cause. Luckily we have a wood stove for heating and a backup generator to power essential items such as basic lighting, well pump, Internet router and freezers. The big questions during an extended power outage are of course, when will the power be restored, and if food stored in a freezer is OK. It is very tempting and a bad idea to open a freezer during a power outage to check the temperature.

After the recent power outage I did some searching and found this wireless freezer alarm for around $20. This alarm comes with 2 wireless sensors which are placed inside a refrigerator or freezer and allow me to monitor temperatures without opening the doors. This device will also set off an audible alarm if the temperature inside the freezer gets too high.

In the past we had close calls with our freezers when the household power was on but the circuit breaker was tripped. A couple of months ago the circuit breaker to the freezers was tripped after power was restored from an outage. At that time we had two freezers plugged into the same outlet and the circuit breaker was overloaded when both freezers tried to start at the same time. We didn't notice the tripped circuit breaker for several hours and were lucky to get the freezers online before any damage occurred. To correct this problem I installed a second dedicated outlet on a different breaker panel. We also installed indicator lights in each of the receptacles to warn us of tripped circuit breakers and discourage additional loads on these circuits.

More Snow

The last remnants of 3 feet of snow from the last storm had almost disappeared due to warm weather when a smaller snow storm was forecast for this past weekend. A light snow, followed by rain was forecast. The light snow started to fall late Sunday evening as I settled in to watch some football games on TV. The first hint of storm problems occurred around 9:30PM our electrical power flickered off/on twice. It looked like the electrical problem was over until 9:45PM when the power went off and didn't come back on. After a few minutes of waiting for the power to return we called the power company to report the outage. By 10:30PM the power was still off so I put some more wood in the stove and headed for bed thinking the problem would be fixed before morning.

By the next morning the power was still off and it was apparent that the forecasted rain had arrived as 6 to 8 inches of heavy/wet snow. Our electrical company had over 1,700 households without power. I spent most of the morning plowing the wet snow and around noon I fired up our generator to power the house. By 5:00PM I checked the power outage map for our area, 1,300 households were still without power. Around 8:00PM we started to see trucks from the power company parked in front of our house as workers with flashlights checked the power lines behind our house. Around 8:45PM our power was back online. A check of the power outage map this morning showed more than 300 households were still without power.