By the reckoning of the Western world, we have entered into a new decade, 2010. I did a bit of research and our counting of years is a little on the new side. It seems that our current numbering was calculated by a guy named Dionysius in around 523AD. Previous to those days, the year was calculated using the reign of the current king (i.e. the 20th year of King Mike). Of course you can see the confusion when you have King Mike in country A and King Fred in Country B. They just don't start or end their reigns at the same time!
I found out that this is 2010 (our calculation) but it is also 2753 for the Romans, 2312 for the Greeks, 5770 for the Jews, 4707 for the Chinese, 1931 for India, 1424 for Islam and Persia and 2001 for Ethiopia. So pick your number.
Cayman has been personally quiet over the holidays. Good food, company and days off are the usual fare. Did not leave the island but I'll fix that soon enough.
We have achieved something a bit disquieting as a country. We were #6 in terms of murders per population at the end of 2009. Not a great achievement to be boasting of. A total of 8 murders with a population of 60K puts ahead of Mexico but behind Russia. And it seems to be all gang related. A sad trend these days.
Still moving into the new house. Installed closet organizers over the holiday as well as sorted out some things. Trying to declutter.
I was reading about New Year resolutions and decided to follow the lead of a great thinker - the Adam comic strip. It is recognized that most resolutions are broken by February as we settle back into the old way of doing things. I am keeping mine simple but achievable and promise to brush my hair, have at least one meal every day and try to keep alive.
Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2010.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Time is flying by....
I did not realize that so long has passed since my last update. Well, here is all the new stuff.
Temperatures are cooling down. We had two nor'westers (periods of winds from the north west that are a result of winter storms in the US) in the last month with did a lot to reduce the humidity and bring nice temperatures back again.
There is still rain but it is now isolated showers. About a week ago, I had to ride through two of them on my bike commute to work.
Chickens are OK. There is a bit of competition between two of the large roosters hence a chicken dinner will be coming up this week. The "Group of twelve" to steal a Canadian artist reference, at 9 weeks old are the size of 16 week adult chickens. And are quite heavy. Our best guess is that we have about 5 males and 7 females, but time will tell.
We are starting to move into the new house this weekend. The past month has had us going over every night, tacking some little job or the other. The longest running project has been the master bathroom and the tiling. There has been enough do and redo in order to get things looking just right and it looks like we have finally succeeded. It is really amazing how many little things that have to be done. You think you are finished a room then you remember that you forgot some item which leads to remembering another and so on. I am taking the upcoming week off work so I should be able to get the list down to a couple small items if not finish it off.
The garage has also been worked on. We did an epoxy coating on the floor and it is holding out quite well as machines are dragged over it. I have been constructing drawer cabinets to ultimately store tools and other items. I am hoping that I can get the lathe and milling machine into it before the Christmas season. That would allow me to play during the upcoming holidays.
Well, enough of a break. back to work!
Temperatures are cooling down. We had two nor'westers (periods of winds from the north west that are a result of winter storms in the US) in the last month with did a lot to reduce the humidity and bring nice temperatures back again.
There is still rain but it is now isolated showers. About a week ago, I had to ride through two of them on my bike commute to work.
Chickens are OK. There is a bit of competition between two of the large roosters hence a chicken dinner will be coming up this week. The "Group of twelve" to steal a Canadian artist reference, at 9 weeks old are the size of 16 week adult chickens. And are quite heavy. Our best guess is that we have about 5 males and 7 females, but time will tell.
We are starting to move into the new house this weekend. The past month has had us going over every night, tacking some little job or the other. The longest running project has been the master bathroom and the tiling. There has been enough do and redo in order to get things looking just right and it looks like we have finally succeeded. It is really amazing how many little things that have to be done. You think you are finished a room then you remember that you forgot some item which leads to remembering another and so on. I am taking the upcoming week off work so I should be able to get the list down to a couple small items if not finish it off.
The garage has also been worked on. We did an epoxy coating on the floor and it is holding out quite well as machines are dragged over it. I have been constructing drawer cabinets to ultimately store tools and other items. I am hoping that I can get the lathe and milling machine into it before the Christmas season. That would allow me to play during the upcoming holidays.
Well, enough of a break. back to work!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
No hurricanes as yet but.......
As I sit here this morning, it is pouring rain and howling winds outside. Rain rate gets as high as 4" per hour then drops off. We are getting the effects of an offshoot from former hurricane Ida (now tropical storm). The storm is currently 230 miles SW of Grand Cayman but it has spawned two offshoots. One about 3/4 of the size of the tropical storm (probably will become another storm itself) that is threatening Cayman and a third area about 1/4 the size that sits to the south and in between the two. Our area of concern has just started to interact with us and is heading northeast. The intense rain area for this offshoot is about 1/4 the size of the main part of Ida and 100 miles south of us but can easily grow in size. We will be keeping an eye on it for sure. Since we have not had any hurricanes pass through this year, sea temperatures are very warm (hurricanes use the ocean heat to for their power) and is just waiting to be used!
We have another 4 day weekend. This is a special one. Monday is the usual public holiday for Remembrance Day but there is a new constitution being introduced as well as the first premier.As a result, we have had Friday as a special public holiday. Who am I to complain!
We did a nice chicken test yesterday. I open the door to the coop and let everyone out to roam around. And they did, eating the grass and weeds, scratching for bugs and other niceties that chickens love and even going for a stroll. When it was getting dark, everyone came home to roost, including two that joined from places unknown. Egg production is still at 2-3 per day but it falls off at times. We have a new layer and it's first egg was about 3/4" dia. Hopefully, they will get larger. It reminded me of the quail eggs that one gets in Brazil at the hotels for breakfast! Did a quick count of roosters in the coop and it seems they have about 1/3 or the population. Guess I'll be eating some in the next couple months!
The new Rhode Island Reds at 5 weeks are the size of our normal chickens at 2 months. All 12 are still alive and doing well.
I was planning to go out and do some normal and infrared photography but the weather dictates otherwise - maybe tomorrow or Monday wil be better. I think I'll build the light tent that I have had plans to for the past 4 month sor so.
We have another 4 day weekend. This is a special one. Monday is the usual public holiday for Remembrance Day but there is a new constitution being introduced as well as the first premier.As a result, we have had Friday as a special public holiday. Who am I to complain!
We did a nice chicken test yesterday. I open the door to the coop and let everyone out to roam around. And they did, eating the grass and weeds, scratching for bugs and other niceties that chickens love and even going for a stroll. When it was getting dark, everyone came home to roost, including two that joined from places unknown. Egg production is still at 2-3 per day but it falls off at times. We have a new layer and it's first egg was about 3/4" dia. Hopefully, they will get larger. It reminded me of the quail eggs that one gets in Brazil at the hotels for breakfast! Did a quick count of roosters in the coop and it seems they have about 1/3 or the population. Guess I'll be eating some in the next couple months!
The new Rhode Island Reds at 5 weeks are the size of our normal chickens at 2 months. All 12 are still alive and doing well.
I was planning to go out and do some normal and infrared photography but the weather dictates otherwise - maybe tomorrow or Monday wil be better. I think I'll build the light tent that I have had plans to for the past 4 month sor so.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Time goes by fast
It has been over a month since my last post so I need to do some updating.
The last two weeks of Sept were pretty uneventful. Rained the odd day but life continued with its daily cycle.
We took a two week leave of the island and had a wonderful break and upon returning, quickly got back into the old grind.
We finally have electrical hookup to the new house and the final touch-ups and finishing can begin in earnest. No more electrical umbilical cord from one house to the other. No more quitting as it got dark (around 5:45pm now). No more extension cords to run, change the different plugs when you used something on a different floor and other concerns. Electrical hookup was completed on last Wed and this morning, I started to rewire switches to a more logical (to me) order. What this means is where you have a ceiling fan with the light underneath and it is controlled by a two level switch, you put the fan to the top switch and the light to the bottom. Makes sense to me but obviously not to everyone. It also means that I can now hookup outlets for the table saw and welder. The initial plan did not allow these as they were considered commercial connections. Guess they haven't seen my garage!
We also have to run three high amp circuits to handle some tools - welder, table saw and other 240V power hogs. The fun is about to begin.
In the camera scene, I have been experimenting with infrared photography. This is a little area of the spectrum that is not too often explored by photographers. It is mainly monotone but has an interesting effect. Vegetation becomes while like snow, animals become black and other effects are seen.
In the image below, the white leaves are easily visible. The sky is black (no clouds). The iguana on the wall is a dark gray and the leafless tree in the front is dark. This was taken in full sunlight, hence full infrared.
In the image below, the sun was behind the clouds and things become a bit redder. There are clouds in the sky and the iguana is visible in the middle of the leaves. The tones can be adjusted to mirror that image above but I wanted to show the difference. Most photographers avoid imaging at midday due to the harsh light, but for IR, this is the best time. Please click on any image for a larger view.
The last two weeks of Sept were pretty uneventful. Rained the odd day but life continued with its daily cycle.
We took a two week leave of the island and had a wonderful break and upon returning, quickly got back into the old grind.
We finally have electrical hookup to the new house and the final touch-ups and finishing can begin in earnest. No more electrical umbilical cord from one house to the other. No more quitting as it got dark (around 5:45pm now). No more extension cords to run, change the different plugs when you used something on a different floor and other concerns. Electrical hookup was completed on last Wed and this morning, I started to rewire switches to a more logical (to me) order. What this means is where you have a ceiling fan with the light underneath and it is controlled by a two level switch, you put the fan to the top switch and the light to the bottom. Makes sense to me but obviously not to everyone. It also means that I can now hookup outlets for the table saw and welder. The initial plan did not allow these as they were considered commercial connections. Guess they haven't seen my garage!
We also have to run three high amp circuits to handle some tools - welder, table saw and other 240V power hogs. The fun is about to begin.
In the camera scene, I have been experimenting with infrared photography. This is a little area of the spectrum that is not too often explored by photographers. It is mainly monotone but has an interesting effect. Vegetation becomes while like snow, animals become black and other effects are seen.
In the image below, the white leaves are easily visible. The sky is black (no clouds). The iguana on the wall is a dark gray and the leafless tree in the front is dark. This was taken in full sunlight, hence full infrared.
In the image below, the sun was behind the clouds and things become a bit redder. There are clouds in the sky and the iguana is visible in the middle of the leaves. The tones can be adjusted to mirror that image above but I wanted to show the difference. Most photographers avoid imaging at midday due to the harsh light, but for IR, this is the best time. Please click on any image for a larger view.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
It's raining - kinda
Well, the summer is about to end as the rains are here again - I think!
Here's the problem. Cayman does get rain - and sometimes lots of it. The problem is that it either comes as a wave that covers the whole island or as bands, that dump rain on a 1-2 mile wide strip and leave either side dry.
So far, the past couple weeks have seen only bands.Last week I measured some of the rain and we had 16" and this week, my total is almost 6". Early this morning, it started to thunder at around 4am and I got up to take a look. Some lightning and cloudy skies but nothing serious.
Right now, it is thundering quite a bit to the south and I went outside to take another look.The clouds are about 2 miles south and about 1 mile wide with rain. A thought came to me. A few weeks ago, the weather bureau was saying that we only had about 7+" of rain all year. What do they say now? A quick check on the internet brings the total up to 16.74" with only 0.37" today (so far).In the past two weeks, west bay has had 22" and counting.
I have decided to make a more accurate rain gauge and record that amount of rain over 2010. I would then compare my results to the weather bureau at 3 month intervals - although I can also do Sept-Dec as a check.
The picture below is a composite of this mornings storm cloud. Please click on it to see a larger picture. A lot of it is hidden due to the picture size.
Here's the problem. Cayman does get rain - and sometimes lots of it. The problem is that it either comes as a wave that covers the whole island or as bands, that dump rain on a 1-2 mile wide strip and leave either side dry.
So far, the past couple weeks have seen only bands.Last week I measured some of the rain and we had 16" and this week, my total is almost 6". Early this morning, it started to thunder at around 4am and I got up to take a look. Some lightning and cloudy skies but nothing serious.
Right now, it is thundering quite a bit to the south and I went outside to take another look.The clouds are about 2 miles south and about 1 mile wide with rain. A thought came to me. A few weeks ago, the weather bureau was saying that we only had about 7+" of rain all year. What do they say now? A quick check on the internet brings the total up to 16.74" with only 0.37" today (so far).In the past two weeks, west bay has had 22" and counting.
I have decided to make a more accurate rain gauge and record that amount of rain over 2010. I would then compare my results to the weather bureau at 3 month intervals - although I can also do Sept-Dec as a check.
The picture below is a composite of this mornings storm cloud. Please click on it to see a larger picture. A lot of it is hidden due to the picture size.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Rainfall test
I have been home for this week, trying to use up my vacation before the end of the year.
In the afternoons around 1-2pm, we have been getting rain showers. These are local thundershowers that are approx 1-2 miles wide (in a N/S direction) and 5-10 miles long (E/W). This orientation is caused by the prevailing winds from the east and the thermal effects of the island. I have a weather station and on Tuesday afternoon, it registers 3" of rain in 3 hours. Now we do get heavy showers but this sounded as quite a bit. Thinking something was wrong, it registered another 6" on Wed. Wow! What is going on here?
I decided to make a simple rain gauge from some clear plastic tubing, and a funnel and placed it outside as a temporary measurement device to compare against the weather station. I calculated the amplification factor (diameter of the big funnel entrance divided by the diameter of inside of the tube) and waited for the next rain.
On Thursday, we once again had two heavy showers and I recorded 4.7" of rain in a little over 2 hours. The temporary device also confirmed that amount. While this is no world record,it does let me know that the grass will need to be cut every week for the next little while! :-)
On the chicken front, egg production has increased to between 2-3 eggs per day. It seems that the more nesting cubicles we build, the more they lay. It probably does not hurt that I have fed them a bit of Layena to see if that will assist a bit - but only one cup full. I do not believe in turning the chicken into laying machines and disregarding their health.
In the photography arena, I am getting ready for a upcoming trip. I have managed to obtain from the US of A a Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 lens (that the cost of the lens plus shipping was more than buying it here). This is a replacement for the one destroyed in the lathe. It will make a great low light lens for portraits and city scape night scenes and should also come in handy for astrophotography of the night sky. I also have plans for a simple astronomy camera orientation device called a barn door mount. It allows one to manually track the motion of the stars while taking pictures. Yes I can throw everything on one of the telescope mounts and have it the stars accurately tracked for me but there in not much challenge in that! Besides, there are a couple other nuts... I mean persons who are interested in night sky photography and it will make a nice group and learning project.
Looking forward, I have purchased Photoshop CS4. This is for processing all my photographs. It has a large learning curve but with the long winter nights coming up, it should keep me busy!
In the afternoons around 1-2pm, we have been getting rain showers. These are local thundershowers that are approx 1-2 miles wide (in a N/S direction) and 5-10 miles long (E/W). This orientation is caused by the prevailing winds from the east and the thermal effects of the island. I have a weather station and on Tuesday afternoon, it registers 3" of rain in 3 hours. Now we do get heavy showers but this sounded as quite a bit. Thinking something was wrong, it registered another 6" on Wed. Wow! What is going on here?
I decided to make a simple rain gauge from some clear plastic tubing, and a funnel and placed it outside as a temporary measurement device to compare against the weather station. I calculated the amplification factor (diameter of the big funnel entrance divided by the diameter of inside of the tube) and waited for the next rain.
On Thursday, we once again had two heavy showers and I recorded 4.7" of rain in a little over 2 hours. The temporary device also confirmed that amount. While this is no world record,it does let me know that the grass will need to be cut every week for the next little while! :-)
On the chicken front, egg production has increased to between 2-3 eggs per day. It seems that the more nesting cubicles we build, the more they lay. It probably does not hurt that I have fed them a bit of Layena to see if that will assist a bit - but only one cup full. I do not believe in turning the chicken into laying machines and disregarding their health.
In the photography arena, I am getting ready for a upcoming trip. I have managed to obtain from the US of A a Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 lens (that the cost of the lens plus shipping was more than buying it here). This is a replacement for the one destroyed in the lathe. It will make a great low light lens for portraits and city scape night scenes and should also come in handy for astrophotography of the night sky. I also have plans for a simple astronomy camera orientation device called a barn door mount. It allows one to manually track the motion of the stars while taking pictures. Yes I can throw everything on one of the telescope mounts and have it the stars accurately tracked for me but there in not much challenge in that! Besides, there are a couple other nuts... I mean persons who are interested in night sky photography and it will make a nice group and learning project.
Looking forward, I have purchased Photoshop CS4. This is for processing all my photographs. It has a large learning curve but with the long winter nights coming up, it should keep me busy!
Saturday, September 5, 2009
What's up!
I was viewing the blog today and realized that 3 weeks had past since I had posted anything! While not much has changed, there has been progress.
Chickens - we have built a chicken coop and continue to catch more and more. I currently have 23 pullets and chicks (about 1 month old or less) and 11 hens and two roosters. The 12 Rhode Islands Red layers ordered have not appeared as yet.
Mangoes are all but finished and we are now busy with guavas. So far, there are 15 pints of guava jam and about a square foot x1" thick piece of guava paste, 5 pints and 4 quarts of mango. Enough to give away and still have enough jam for ourselves. We are getting a juicer and will start juicing the fruit (as the guava crop is about 1/3 way through) - something I have never done before but why not try it! If anyone wants guavas, drop by and get some.
It is still hot and there is a threat of rain but it is only local showers spread over various parts of the island.
The news reported that this is the driest year on record. Only 7+ inches of rain all year compare to the average of 24+ . On the other had, the mosquito population is way down.
I have been playing with the cameras and lenses. So far, 3 have been converted and are working well (and the fourth, a 50mm 1.8 got damaged in the lathe). My only problem now is my eyesight. I cannot seem to get the pictures into perfect focus. Lots of close enough but when you increase the picture size to18x24, it really shows up. The auto-focus confirmation beeps but I think it might need a bit of tweaking. I am trying to learn more about how Canon measures exact focus to see if I can come up with a solution.
A couple of pictures are attached for your review. They have been greatly reduced in size. The middle one is of lightning and was taken after the storm had passed us. No lightning bolts but I did get the glow in the clouds.
Chickens - we have built a chicken coop and continue to catch more and more. I currently have 23 pullets and chicks (about 1 month old or less) and 11 hens and two roosters. The 12 Rhode Islands Red layers ordered have not appeared as yet.
Mangoes are all but finished and we are now busy with guavas. So far, there are 15 pints of guava jam and about a square foot x1" thick piece of guava paste, 5 pints and 4 quarts of mango. Enough to give away and still have enough jam for ourselves. We are getting a juicer and will start juicing the fruit (as the guava crop is about 1/3 way through) - something I have never done before but why not try it! If anyone wants guavas, drop by and get some.
It is still hot and there is a threat of rain but it is only local showers spread over various parts of the island.
The news reported that this is the driest year on record. Only 7+ inches of rain all year compare to the average of 24+ . On the other had, the mosquito population is way down.
I have been playing with the cameras and lenses. So far, 3 have been converted and are working well (and the fourth, a 50mm 1.8 got damaged in the lathe). My only problem now is my eyesight. I cannot seem to get the pictures into perfect focus. Lots of close enough but when you increase the picture size to18x24, it really shows up. The auto-focus confirmation beeps but I think it might need a bit of tweaking. I am trying to learn more about how Canon measures exact focus to see if I can come up with a solution.
A couple of pictures are attached for your review. They have been greatly reduced in size. The middle one is of lightning and was taken after the storm had passed us. No lightning bolts but I did get the glow in the clouds.
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