It’s not quite paranoia, but I wanted another outside camera. This time, I wanted a view of the garden. Why? Because the house doesn’t have any windows on that side and I want to check in on the veggies. And to yell at any deer and cats that trigger the motion alert (the latter of which I’ve already chased away with the camera’s alarm). I’m also hoping its presence will be a deterrent to a certain neighbor who takes their dog across the property line to shit. Doubtful.
But between the pandemic and chip shortage, the camera model I wanted, which I’ve previously installed in the backyard, hasn’t been available for a couple years now. Then, finally last month, it appeared open to order, though it must have been backordered because I only just received it over the weekend. No matter. I have it now.
Taking the previous installation’s lessons, I routed a CAT6 through the attic and to the garage window, where I installed a keystone jack, and connected to this a specially-ordered outdoor patch cable which ran along the eaves and to the camera.
Exposed wires are never elegant, but it’s the garage.
I also must be losing my touch with crimping cable terminals. I struggled to the point of fury before deciding to go out and buy a different model, which worked just fine. User error maybe.
Surpassing the other camera, this is now the longest ethernet run I’ve pulled. And fortunately, it worked the first time.
I see you!
This makes my 10th drop to the patch panel. And I even acquired a PoE switch since last time, thus replacing the prior single-port injector and giving me 4 powered ports.
Future expandability!
Looking forward to some nature pics. And foiled pooping attempts.
I like the concept of naming one’s home, but never fully jumped on board with the idea. And I think it comes down to the fact that the names fail to recognize the place itself. Instead, when I hear someone mention a named plot of private property, it’s for the sake of status. Such is the case with celebrity locales, HOA neighborhoods, crappy apartments that try to sound better than they are, and sports arenas (which are really just sponsor plugs). Sometimes small businesses choose a name that reflects the space, but more often opt for a more descriptive name which references what that business does.
So how would I choose a name for my small estate?
In order to avoid making it about me, I should refrain from explaining what I do with the property in the name. Our love for dogs prompted some cutesy thoughts, such as “Whippet’s Run” or “Feisty Fields”. But, the dogs are transitory inhabitants. Also, we’re a somewhat sarcastic family. The name should have a bit of snark, and reference what will always be here, devoid of the goofy romance with which people try to make you believe that they live in a British cottage overlooking Dover. No, this is a contemporary abode in a neighborhood with well-funded public amenities, and the standard homeowner/municipality friction that always accompanies such developed areas. The name should allude to that fact.
It needs to be an honest name with snark that only calls out what the property itself is and the type of place in which it resides.
A year later and the clematis are doing a nice job.
This is an update to the original trellis post (the one about the fucking tools in the fucking truck, wherein they should never be placed).
So far, they’re doing a good job with the view obstruction. So good, apparently, that the neighbors decided to move their deck furniture against the property line, between the Plywood Palace and…our compost pile. If they’re trying to intimidate us with such a move, it will come as an interesting surprise to them when the late summer rolls around and I have rotting kitchen scraps back there. Odd people, but they’ll have a nice view at least.
This was predicated upon the expectation of a large potato crop–the results of my hand made potato box.
The final yield was, however, lackluster, and my other root crops, onions and garlic, don’t require root cellar conditions.
But the carrots did exceptionally well, and storing them in a combination of the crisper drawer in the fridge and the garage, well, was annoying. So I revisited my plans to convert the crawlspace.
All I intended was to add some shelving, but I never got around to it, and my earlier attempts at using it for storing radishes resulted in a box of moldy radishes. I abandoned the plan.
Then our chest freezer died. Its thermostat had always been finicky, refusing to settle anywhere between 0 and -30. And when the power went out, the compressor never clicked back on again.
It always had that busted corner too. Maybe that was part of the problem.
Everyone surely remembers the great toilet paper shortage of COVID. Faced with a temporary yet inconvenient possibility of having to wait a few days to buy what we wanted immediately, people began stockpiling items they were most afraid of going a day without: food, sanitary products…ammunition…?
You never know when you might need to shoot your neighbor because they bought all the toilet paper. And apparently that’s going to require a thousand rounds.
Anyway, on this list was deep freezers, to store all this frozen food that you might have to go a day without. And now, almost a year after the quarantines, they’re apparently still hard to find. But find one we did, at a former Sear’s warehouse, for too much money. But it was either that or lose all the steak, and I’ll be damned if I have to go a day without steak. So we bought it and lugged it home and hooked it up and…at that point I noticed the old freezer had finally clicked back on.
God dammit.
But then I got an idea. We could take it back, or I could convert the old glitchy one into a root cellar! Which is essentially just a giant refrigerator. It’s impossible to keep a dirt cellar 33-40 degrees with 98% humidity anyway. So while this approach might not be more efficient, it was certainly more effective.
But one problem remained: freezers aren’t refrigerators and aren’t designed to act as such. Fortunately, that problem had already been addressed. The market is flooded with thermostatic controller overrides, which turn the power on and off to the external cord independently of the freezer’s wonky and cheap internal thermostat.
That’s right, an override!
So far it’s working pretty well, though I might add some water jugs in there to help regulate. It tends to turn on and off more frequently than I’d like. I know compressors don’t like that.
Or I could just add a bunch of beer in there instead…for thermoregulating purposes.
And with one last addition, milk crates, I have stackable storage in there too, which keeps things off the metal liner (hopefully this will also prevent frostbite). And even though these reduce the usable space, it’s still a ton of storage. I even thawed a turkey in there last week, so there’s certainly uses beyond just vegetables.
I won’t have to occupy an entire fridge door for a week brining pork belly for bacon, either. And that’s something I’m unwilling to go a day without!
