Bird, Scores, Soil Temp, Snow, Heater Light, Greenhouse Plastic Done, Fire, Grilling - Sunday

The chickadees were back at the sunflowers yesterday morning so I setup my camera again and right at the end of the 10 minutes this one landed. My camera records in max 10 minute clips and I hit stop at the perfect time to make it super easy to find in the video to clip out. We have a pretty big number of them that are around and will see half a dozen at a time flitting around the deck and pergola. I finally have a use for the sunflowers that I had saved.

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While @stryeyz soaked in the morning and I had FA cup matches on I got some practice in. My groupings are getting much better and more consistent and I am getting so damned close to another max. Just outside the wire on the 2nd dart.

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Around 11am I headed out to the greenhouse to get to work. I tested the soil temp first and the coldest was 38F near the outer plastic.

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The mound over the soil heater at the bottom side was 42F.

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But then I went to the top end and the top of the heater soil mound was almost 52F.

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The surface temp of the actual seeded row was 46F which is on the low end of germination temps. I have not seen anything sprouting yet but I'm hoping things might start to kick with the heaters inside now.

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Much of the day it snowed lightly. It was that type of snow that falls SUPER slow and is seemingly coming from nowhere. It was above freezing all day so the flakes never really amounted to anything.

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I had to find a heat lamp that works. We have a big pile of them in the coop, many of them 30+ years old, and the one I grabbed nearly exploded the power in the coop when I plugged it in. The wires inside were both twisted up and shorted. I hauled the lamp to the tool shed and got my huge soldering iron heating. I had to cut the wires back, strip them of insulation, then solder them into the back of the lamp. Not my preferred method of attaching the wires but they are super solid now.

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The oil heater is placed in the inner between rows. I have it on but I need to check this morning to see if it is going to dry the soil out beneath it. I have to balance the two especially with -12F in the forecast for Friday. My heat lamp got clipped to the heater and I worked to install the end plastic cleaner.

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The upper end works much better now that I reset the plastic and evened it out.

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On the entrance end I used two pieces of plastic so that I have a seam in the middle to walk through. I'm pretty pleased with how well it went up how even they are. The temperature is noticeable warmer in the main greenhouse and even warmer in the inner. I'm anxious to see the thermometer in a bit.

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Once I finished the greenhouse I made sure to gas up the snowblower and got it running then parked in an easy place to begin snow blowing once the snow has fallen.

After lunch the boys worked on house chores to earn their digital time in the afternoon. R ran the vacuum around the living room and poor kid slammed the attachment into his nose as he tried to remove it and gave himself a bloody nose.

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While the Seahawks played their ultimately pointless and last game of the season I threw darts again and I got myself a 174! I got this one intentionally and with aim. The first dart hit the 18 the the second hit the right side of the 20. I stepped to the left on the oche and threw the third perfectly into the left side of the 20. I'm trying to ingrain the feelings to repeat it.

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They managed to eek out the win in the end though they didn't really deserve it, the Seahawks are done for the season and frees up time.

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I got the fire going in the pit for grilling our dinner and made sure it was built up well.

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I wanted to get my thermometer that has high and low hanging in the greenhouse and I found a tripod setup I have that works perfect. I put a thermometer switch on the light that should turn it on when the switch gets below 34F. The light is not on this morning though and the temp is mid 20sF outside right now.

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This was a nice little test to see the light works.

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This is what is coming and why I am rushing to get the heat working.

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I had thawed a t-bone steak and got it grilling, got the cauliflower cut up and ready to cook, then got R to make the salad.

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Shorter soak.

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Today is the calm before the snow/rain storm and I have until probably about dark to make sure I have done everything I want outside. This is going to be a messy storm to start with pretty warm temps and then it will be followed by the arctic blast that is right behind it. You can see the mass of clouds being pulled from the southern region and followed behind it is the dotted clouds that represent bitter cold temps.

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I have to get the boys to and from school, work in greenhouse some, Man Utd play today which is likely going to be a shit show as usual, the sheep will need a new bale soon as the last one was rolled in 11/29 and is nearly finished off, tank heaters need to be checked on, and water line heaters checked for the arctic blast, then this evening is our flying club meeting.


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Whoa that is some chilly weather on its way! No wonder you were working so hard on the plastic setup. I hope it works out well. I love those recirculating oil heaters and have even used them in camping tents before. Dunno if you can do it with that setup but in the tents I would always set them atop a one inch thick piece of marble to act as a barrier between the heater and the floor.

Stay warm!

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This year's weather is being a bit psychotic compared to many other years. I have a bunch of the paver bricks I pulled up that I can lay down to set the heat on, that should give me a good barrier between them.

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I hear ya on the weather! Those bricks work well as heat sinks also. I used to use one inch granite slabs as heat sinks also. I said marble in my previous comment but I meant granite.

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I’m sure that you must be getting better with darts because it seem you have been playing it frequently these days

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It's easy to stop and throw for a few minutes since the board is in the middle of the house. The difficulty of being consistent is part of what makes it so fun and keeps me throwing regularly.

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I enjoyed the Man U FA cup clash, it was really interesting and Man U didn't disappoint. I hope they maintain the same level of momentum against Tottenham on Sunday.
Glad to know you made the best of you day and had fun while doing so. Wishing you the best.

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Man Utd is a schizo team this year and can't seem to keep it together for more than a half at a time. They were lucky against Wiggan who had numerous chances to score. I'm presuming they they will likely struggle against the Spurs as well.

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It is great to see that you are working everyday and all these projects of yours are going very well.

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