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Playing with a barred owl

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Well, that was magical. Lately, I've been experimenting with meshtastic, a technology of small, low power radios that run software to form a mesh of communications over a few tens of kilometers range, and enable text-based messaging independent of any other infrastructure. In theory useful for situations where the power is out for an extended period of time, like ham radio enthusiasts describe. For the last couple of days, I've been hoisting one up one of our taller trees to see what kind of range I can get.   Also for the last few days, our barred owl has been active. On Monday, I startled it under the deck, and we spent an hour watching each other.  Last night my arboreal meshtastic node's battery died, because the solar panel was not aligned with the sun. So I hauled it down, and was working on getting the halyard in a better position.  All of the sudden, our neighbourhood owl flew in, to see what I was up to! I interacted with her(?) for a couple of hours. She was cur...
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WE Cruise the Rhine

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In celebration of a significant number of decades of wedded bliss, we did a river cruise on the Rhine, courtesy Ama Waterways. The Route I've drawn this by hand, so our actual distance covered was likely more, over 800km. The plan She has consented to do carry-on only luggage, as we have a couple of multi-hour periods where a big bag would be painful to deal with. We reached a good agreement on what is really essential travel stuff. Itinerary Monday May 12th to Montreal, then overnight to Amsterdam arriving May 13. No one had announced direct flight when we booked all this. Stay in Amsterdam at the Rho Hotel See the sites in Amsterdam until we board our boat the AmaPrima on May 14. May 15, we stay docked the first night, and go on a canal tour in Amsterdam in the morning May 16, we dock at Dusseldorf walking tour of Dussledorf walking tour of Cologne May 17, we dock at Rudesheim bike tour of the Rheingau Siegfried's Mechanical Music cabinet May 18, we dock at Ludwigshafen (Mann...
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Record production

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 Beautiful cold, sunny day. Our solar power array was maxed out four hours, and productive for nine. Looking forward to the days getting longer.
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Nerd alert: heat pumps vs. oil-fired hydronic baseboards analysis

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We are heading for a cold snap this week, with a low of -15C forecast for Tuesday. What temperature does it make sense to turn up the thermostat so the oil-fired heat takes over from labouring heat pumps? Well, I'm glad you asked! I looked at our oil consumption for 5 years before we installed heat pumps. In the non-heating summer season, we used oil to heat just domestic hot water, to the tune of about 2.8 liters per day. We used a measurable amount of oil annually, so taking 2.8 * 365 from that total gives the annual oil consumption for heating only. The annual heating degree day total here is 3600, meaning that the daily outside temperature is, on average, 3600/365 (i.e. 10) degrees lower than our desired home interior temperature. My outside temperature sensor agrees, maybe a bit warmer. Oil is 10.7 KWh per liter, so (mutter, mutter) heating our house with oil consumes 4.48 KWh per heating degree day, or 186 watts per degree difference between inside and outside. I'm measur...
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