I mentioned yesterday that our lettuce and chard in the hydroponics had run it’s course. This evening I planted the next batch in their little sponges and I hope these will actually do something. We have not been having a lot of good luck getting seeds started this year. First, the ones I tried starting in the basement near the end of winter got to cold. I forgot to use the warming mats and they just did not germinate. Then we tried starting some additional ones out in the actual hydroponic tubes themselves and I think the seeds got to wet and rotted.
So, we now have 24 Swiss Chard seeds in their damp sponges, and 24 Lettuce seeds in their little sponges. I am going to keep them a little less moist than we have been doing previously. I have a feeling these sponges hold more moisture and the seeds may be rotting. I talked with a few people in a group I am part of and they reminded me that when seeds are in the soil they dry out, get wet, dry out, get wet, and so on. The hydroponic material holds much more water and may not allow that dry out process.
Grow little ones! I want salad one of these days from a non-grocery store source.
Aurora Colorado is under Stage 1 water restriction this Summer, and I fear it is going to get much worse before it is over. Currently we are only allowed to water grass on Thursday’s and Sundays, not more than 20 minutes per zone. Also, they have put excessive use fees into place so we are not allowed to go over 50% above our Winter usage.
Our lawn looks almost dead.
I am hoping that it comes back but I am not holding my breath. It’s half tempting to start replacing sections of it with sand. but I do have some concerns about that as well as I do not want the ticks and fleas that sand comes along with on the dogs. So, for the moment I am not going to worry about the dead grass.
The hydroponics are doing really well. We have already had one crop of lettuce and Swiss Chard picked and multiple harvests, and the spinach did really well. But, you can only get so many cuttings out of a crop before you have to re-plant. That is in progress right now. The cucumbers are doing really well, we have a stack of them ready to be processed in the kitchen. We also have a lot of growth starting on the eggplants. The green peppers are doing well also. And, we got some hot peppers also.
The only thing that we have planted in actual gardens this year is the zucchini squash. I guess you can’t kill those with hot weather and high sunlight.
Next year I am going to expand the hydroponics again. I may try to plant tomatoes in them. We have many tomato plants this year in our grow boxes and in regular pots in the yard, but they are struggling with some sort of “rot” on the bottom of each tomato. We can’t figure it out but we loose about 50% of our tomatoes this way. It could be the heat also. The tomatoes have been the biggest struggle on this property that is a mile closer to the sun than anyplace we have ever lived before.
That’s what’s happening in our little bubble of agriculture here in Aurora, CO.
There still be snow in the mountains, actually a little more than the last time I posted, last weeks storm brought a nice coating to the higher elevations. Anyways today started off as my weekend days normally do. I was able to get up, get caught up on some system things I needed to take care of, both on my own servers and the work learning management system. Yes, I know it’s Saturday but this is the best time to do updates in case I need to roll them back and recreate the world. I had a small issue with a major update last week when it required some Apache server reconfiguration that took me a while to figure you.
Then I was able to get Res out for his weekend morning walk. We managed to do a little over 3 miles in a little more than an hour. Res is Go Go Go Go Go until he figures out that we have turned around and are heading back home. Then he slows down to “snail pace” and does not want to end his walk. The problem is that I still need to walk his sister. I am thinking we may do a dual walk tomorrow rather than a singleton walk.
Climber was next on the walk list. She didn’t do all that well either, she was a little pokey today. Maybe it was a full moon or something last night, but regardless we did a little over 3.5 miles and then came back home. She is the opposite of Res, when she is headed home she is Go Go Go Go, she would drag me back to the house if she could.
After Jesse and I had breakfast (or more accurately brunch) it was time to head to Lowe’s to pick up some supplies I needed to put together our expanded hydroponic system for this year. With this years water restrictions we need to be really careful on how we are going to be watering the gardens and the property. Last year we had tremendous success with hydroponics, so we decided to add a little more to the system for this growing season and move some of what we did in the gardens last year into buckets for this growing season.
So, this is what our plan is this year. It is all assembled and I will leak check and start running the pumps tomorrow. I need to give it a good rinse before we can add plants and fertilizer. We will probably start planting tomorrow.
A FaceBook memory from this morning. The pack 10 years ago. I think Ranger and Mindy would have loved Colorado. I don’t think they cared all that much for Florida. Mindy would have had me walking all over Aurora and probably the Front Range as well. She used to love her long walks.
Someone asked me why I hold myself accountable for making these daily posts, especially since it is possible that I am the only one that reads them. Sort of a rude question, but a valid one. I am not sure how many people read them, I have them open for comments, but that has yet to happen with the exception of some spammers, and those get deleted. Here’s the thing, I do have family out there, they are not part of my life right now for a variety of reasons, but I like to think that someday they, or their kids, may like to know a little more about me. The other thing is, that there is so much negativity on social media these days that my posts, that are really just about life, may offset some of that. Why don’t I post directly to Facebook, BlueSky, Twitter, X (or any of the others)? It’s about advertising dollars. The social media platforms for years have made a ton of money from our intellectual property. It’s sort of the contract with them. They use your content, use your thoughts to stir up controversy that causes other people to click on like,dislike,love on your posts. Then they feed you advertisements. It’s in their algorithms. Well, if someone is going to use my content I want it to be linking to my site, where someday I may be able to get some advertising dollars directly on my own (not that I am holding my breath on that as Google has told me my site “lacks relevant content”). I do try and cross post to the other platforms, but my intellectual content stays on my sites.
Anyways, Good Morning! I think I am going to write today’s post in parts today. Started off the day as usual, got up a little late, it’s Sunday – I’m allowed, dogs out, in, and snacked. Res is still being picky about his snacks, I am not sure what’s up with that but I wish he’d stop. I really think he is just bored with everything. I think Angel Ranger is up there at the Rainbow Bridge making the case to take Res’s Greyhound Card away from him. It must pain him to see all of these missed snack opportunities. And, since Climber has to loose 9 pounds I can’t keep giving her Res’s leftovers.
Once Res and Climber had their food, I spent a few minutes doing some site maintenance on my WordPress block (this one), and I do need to go update the Learning Management System for work (Alpine Intel University) as I don’t like doing that one during the week. Too much risk for downtime when someone is actually going to be using it. Today some of the plug-ins had to be updated, then there was a security release to Moodle itself, and then there were some app upgrades for the Ubuntu back-end system. One of these days I probably need to do a distribution version update, but I try to avoid those like the plague….. the server is a VPS on Digital Ocean and I try to avoid the distribution updates until I really need to do them. The VPS that this site runs on is a little more forgiving, and I keep this one current more frequently.
Res got his walk, he did well. We did 3.5 miles, a little over 5K. He wanted to go further but he has a little soreness on his pads that I am watching.
Next is Climber’s walk. She did much better than yesterday in terms of pulling on my shoulder. She was actually pretty good. She did 3.48 miles, slightly less the Res, though I am not sure why. It could have been the walk back to a trash can that I had to do with Res. We did make a stop along the way so that I could submit a report of a water leak along Buckley.
After a good breakfast/lunch/brunch I went over the to pool for an hour. I was planning on a 1 hour swim but was forced to take a 15 minute “safety break”. That is such bullshit, and it makes it impossible to get a good swim in, but I guess that is something I am going to have to keep in mind going forward. I am hoping they realize that the policy normally ignores those swimming laps. I am having a lot of problems preparing for my Mountain Swim if I can’t get an hour in the pool.
After I got back from my swim I decided it was time to get the hydroponic supplies out of storage and get an inventor of where I am at with supplies this year. I also wanted to build the double buckets we are going to try this year for our cucumbers and maybe some other vegetables. We were planning on adding some additional raised beds, but I just can’t see that happening based on our current water restrictions. I think the better idea will be to do most of our planting in hydroponics where I can control water use and chemicals (fertilizer, food, etc).
Take some 3 gallon square buckets, drill holes in the bottom of the top one, to allow fast drainage into the bottom bucket. Put a bulkhead type fitting into the bottom of the outside bucket, making sure it is low enough to let the other bucket sit inside of it, and then stack them.
I have to give credit on this idea to DIY Hydroponic Gadens by Tyler Baras. We have done hydroponics for about 10 years now and I ran across this book one day when I was traveling to Portland, Oregon and decided to stop at one of my old hangouts, Powell Books, and I came across this gem. Lot’s of new ideas and some that will be an improvement of things that I have done in the past. Lot’s of new experiments this year. We have 5 of these buckets built.
I still have to add the supply and return piping, but here is this years basic setup, minus the reservoir and the supply/return.
The buckets still need to be put up off the ground. I am going to use a 2×6 on cinder blocks for this. I have the 2×6 and all I need is the cinder blocks. Once that is done I have to run my return line across the bottom back to the patio, the resevior will sit on the patio itself at the base of the retaining wall so we have natural drainage. I am going to use PVC from the buckets, I will also be using a horizontal PVC pipe across the bottom of the rails at the edge of the ledge. We didn’t have good luck with the hoses last year and I think I want to make a change in that regard. I also think I am going to be putting some valves into the drain lines from everything so I can better control the level of the water around the roots.
Had a Salmon, Asperigus, and Shrimp for dinner this evening, and now we are having a relaxing evening with both dogs sleeping off their day.
I have been slow in posting for the last couple days. This post is for April 6th, that would be Monday. Not much to write about today, basically the painters “finished” on the house and Climber had a well visit at our new vet.
First, Climber’s well visit. Yup, she has officially been told she is overweight and needs to go on a diet. She needs to loose 9 pounds. Ooops, that may be my fault, but I also blame Res. We will work on it and maybe at her next vet appointment she will be back to the weight she should be. She has a build a lot like Lady did and she can put on weight before I even know she is.
Then, the painters have wrapped up the outside of the house. Well, sort of…. they have a bunch of touch up to do as they were sloppy on their last day of work. But, we went from the brown trim to our awesome burgundy that we have used on other houses.
I got up this morning at my normal time and it was cloudy but there was no snow on the ground. Well……. that didn’t last long. Colorado finally decided to start participating in Winter. Where’s our trophy? Anyways by the time Jesse went to go walk the dogs there was already over an inch in the grass.
As always I worked for a good portion of the morning and then went and got my hour in the pool. I got in just about a mile and a half. I am still so unsure of these workouts written by others. I am not sure if it is really preparing me properly for the distance I need to swim. I understand the points of all of the sets, but just feel that they are not doing what they should. I also do have a little concern about my shoulder.
It wasn’t a bad swim, and I had the pool basically to myself because of the weather, but I just wasn’t feeling it today. And, my times are not really getting better….. need to figure out what was up with that. My endurance is improving but my times are not. I think I need to work more on endurance right now. I have to get up to a 5K in a single swim, if I accomplish that I know I will be able to complete the first swim of the Mountain Lake Swim Series 2026 in June. My should is my worrying unknown.
Anyways, came back home and found one of our neighbors had shoveled the sidewalk all the way around the cule’d sack (or however you spell that), so I got out and did our driveway and the porch steps. He was nice enough to shovel a path to the front door. Anyways, the snow is really heavy this time, almost like New England snow.
And then came back and worked the rest of the day. After that was finished I let Res and Climber out in the yard because I was sure they had to go out something awful.
Res, took very ginger steps into the white stuff before he realized what it was and it wouldn’t hurt him and then he decided to just have some fun! He went under his pine tree for some protection from the “falling sky”. And then it was Climber’s turn. Climber does not have a care in the world and she got out in it, did a few laps, fell on her butt, and then took care of business and back into the house we went.
Sorry, It’s the only picture I could get, I didn’t have my phone outside with me. And then I decided that I had to start working on getting snow out of the yard. This is heavy and the normal snow thrower we use is not doing that great with it. I don’t think this is going to last that long anyways, snow does not like upper 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s.
I got about 1/3 of the back yard shoveled but my shoulder is taking the brunt of that. I may have strained it again, it is going to take a heating pad tonight.
I was good today, no complaining, and I remain grateful for my technical background which allows me to do my job, the move to Colorado because things keep getting crazier in Florida, and some of my doctors who continue to try to figure out why I keep having some heart related “issues”.
Anyways, that’s it for the evening. Stay out of a snow bank, and I will see you all tomorrow.
And it is another day in the books. I really did not sleep well last night. Typical first night in a hotel. The time zones are messing with me, and I am not sleeping well. I talked with my doctor today and he wants me to cut back on the caffeine I drink during the day, he said “cut out” but I am going to translate that to “Cut Back” as “Cut Out” will make me a very unpopular person with all the people I work with.
I woke up around 5:30am Central Time, which is an inhumane 4:30am Mountain Time and just could not fall asleep. So, I made myself a cup of coffee, oops, which was a challenge because my hotel room has a Kureg machine and all the coffee packets in the room are not Kureg. Go Hilton! You just keep making it harder and harder to maintain brand loyalty.
Anyways, I digress, what else to do with my early morning other than to go spend an hour on the treadmill downstairs in the fitness center. Did pretty well, but something odd happened during the middle of my workout. My heart rate suddenly dropped form about 130 bpm to about 80 bpm, and it was a fast drop while I was still working out. I verified my watch vs the heart rate monitor on the machine and it read the same thing. I got my hour in and a little over 4 miles, it’s not an all time record but it was important for me to get some workout in.
And then after answering a bunch of questions from the processors I left the hotel to go to my first appointment. Nice property with a non-functioning Home Automation System. I just don’t understand people paying large sums of money for a Control 4 home automation when I can do just about the same functionality with my Samsung Smart Things hub and a bunch of z-wave switches. This one systems main components cost over 35K and that does not even include all of the switches and other controlled devices around the house.
We have a Home Automation System at our house as well. Most of our light switches and outlets are controllable. I have a nice mix of Z-Wave, Ziggbee, and Internet of Things devices. All are controlled by my Smart Things controller. I think my total investment is close to $1000.00 overall, plus the time it takes to do the programming. I plan on adding audio in the near future, but still trying to figure out how I want to approach that.
My next appointment was a claim stemming from some flooding, which overwhelmed a sump pump and filled a basement. As the water rose it submerged a well pump, all the wiring under the first floor, the furnace/air conditioning, and still had standing water in the air conditioning coil. The appointment didn’t take long, per normal my two hour round trip drive took longer than my time on-site.
Got back to the hotel, finished the 16 processor requests, and worked on about 4 technician support requests, and by that time it was dinner time. I noticed there was a Galleria mall across the street from the hotel. I figured that they would have to have a food court. I had to wade through snowbanks to get there. For some reason Saint Louis does not move snow out of the streets and off sidewalks, they just push into the left and right lanes and leave it. No sidewalk clearing, crosswalks, and push buttons for the traffic walk lights are all hard to get to. Makes it very impossible for pedestrians.
Had Panda Express and it was pretty good and then I did a walk through the mall and back to the hotel. I did something I have been meaning to do for a while, I started figuring out a resistance band workout. I really need to start building some muscle as everyone says it will help me loose some fat. I do not even think about the being “Mr. Muscle” but I do want to work on building a little bit more lean muscle. I am hoping the resistance band workouts can help me with that. I am able to take the resistance bands with me and it does not require time in the gym. Hotel gyms are a frequent problem. Surprisingly this hotel has a pretty nice one, but most do not.
And I am now sitting here sipping some de-caffinated tea and wiring my journal for the day. Going to read for a while and then hopefully fall asleep.
OK, so I had opened my big mouth, I guess Florida is now participating in Winter 2026 – at least for a few days. It will all be gone by the end of the week. I am happy that I got Res’s and Climber’s morning walk in before the snow started to Fall. Hey Canada, your drunk weather is in my back yard, would you please come get it back?
Current weather – snowClimber in her SunbeamRes ignoring Climber
Today was the day to take down Christmas and pack it away for next year. Jesse normally does the tree and it’s best if I stay out of the way, so after I brought the boxes up to the living room I went for an hour swim. I really wanted to get the full hour in because I needed to submit an hour swim to US Master’s Swimming for the first virtual competition event of 2026. I also needed a competitive event to submit to to WellRight to get credit for 1 out of 4 athletic events (it’s a work fitness/health/mental health sponsored thing).
I didn’t do the best, I probably will be at the bottom of my age group, but this was important to me to at least get done. I plan on (hopefully) doing all 4 US Master’s events this year. There is a 5K and a 10K swim competition that requires a 50M pool that I may have to figure out how to get done as I am not sure we have a 50 meter pool anywhere near me, but that can be done anywhere between May 15th and September 15th.
Never mind, I digress, but I got home and helped Jesse with taking down the rest of Christmas and packing it all away down in the basement for next year. At least being out of Florida I am less concerned about mice getting into stuff as we were in the Florida house’s attic. It’s time to get the basement ready for Spring planting in a few months, though looking outside right now I am not thinking about Spring.
I guess the kids (Res and Climber) are not getting their afternoon walks today. And of course that will mess with their dinner, greyhounds are creatures of habit and routine. Res has a tendency not to eat well if his routine is messed up. And…. his routine is messed up with this cold weather.
Jesse has been slow cooking broccoli cheese soup today. Hopefully it’s almost ready, it’s soooooo good.
Anyways, I think that’s a wrap for today. I am going to sit here and read for a bit, maybe go on Facebook for a bit. I also really need to figure out what to do about my Linkdin profile. My resume on there is tailored for a specific position I was trying for over 6 years ago. It does not represent over 40 years of working life. I had a deposition a week or so ago for an insurance case I was asked to be a witness for and I was disqualified as an expert in that base based on my Linkdin resume. I am wondering if the safest bet is to remove my resume from Linkdin. I keep an accurate copy of my resume here and I would rather people have a current resume than a really old one and one that has been shortened to fit the needs of a specific employer.
Today was what I consider an “office day”, that is a day spent catching up on all the things that I should be doing (and get backed up) when I am out in the field. Spent most of the day working on Commercial Electrical Claim pricing and scope (what repairs are needed to get the insured back to “pre-loss condition”), and other processing support.
My new Thermal Imaging camera showed up in the Amazon delivery today. I think this one will service my purposes better than the last version that made it about 1.5 years and died. I think the physical connection to the phone is the problem. The new one works via WiFi connection and it won’t have that point of failure. It will also work on either Android or iOS.
Of course because I have a new tool (toy?) perhaps I needed to test it out on some willing suspects. See if you can identify the dogs in the gallery below. It looks like I will need to calibrate the temperatures the first time I am out in the field.
On another note, it looks like Winter is almost here. The ski resorts are opening, the first avalanche was caused by a back country skier, and the grass was crunchy when I went out with the dogs this morning.
Busy day today. It was Winter cleanup day here in Aurora, Colorado. First Jesse cleaned up the leaves around the rock in the backyard, then it was time to blow out the irrigation system so that the lines do not freeze over the Winter. We are now ready. Of course in the process of blowing the lines out we did find another broken pipe from last Winter. Can’t win on that. At least it is not the constant battle with sand that we had going on in Florida.
I did get out for a little over an hour to connect the two sections of trails on my workout tracks that have been driving me nuts figuring out how I was going to connect them. Now that nagging space in the GPS maps is gone and I can start on the rest of the trails. My goal for this coming week is to finish the Toll Gate Creek Trail. There is not that much left.
Climber got into some trouble today. She has re-started her high pitched whining when she can’t see her people. I really thought we were done with that, guess not. She is going to have to learn that this will just result in a loud bang on her crate and a “CLIMBER, KNOCK IT OFF!” Res hates it when we get onto Climber, he leaves the room and goes and sleeps someplace else.
The photos above are from various activities today.
My GPS track for today’s workout:
Total distance: 5.09 mi Max elevation: 5518 ft Min elevation: 5438 ft Total climbing: 347 ft Total descent: -341 ft Average speed: 4.21 mi/h Average cadence: 58 Average heart rate: 129 Average temperature: Total time: 01:14:42
