Sunday, April 23, 2017

FRESH AIR & WATER---CELL PHONE CAMERA HACK




Looking west and down over the upper lawn. Ventured down where the nesting Guinea Hens have returned to their daily calling. Sometimes during the day and early evenings, their talk consumes the forest. I was looking for the small creek that runs through here, but my trekking through these woods is difficult at best and this photo will have to suffice for a hint of near by terrain. 
We are not at a loss for rock or dead fall.

Purposely inhaled several times on our first trip outside earlier this week. Clean air, fresh air, no smells other than nature. I enjoyed the moment. Not sure why I picked up on this but I did and paid attention to things I take for granted.  Fresh air is a norm in everyday living isn't it?


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Not going into thesis-writing but I am hinky these days and my insides are unsettled. Hair-raising-on-the-back-of-my-neck feelings. Being pushed to get outside, downstairs, in the woodshed, to the gardens and moving items back to their spring/summer/fall locations.  There is nagging hanging over my head. You know I write about this all too often.

Purchasing a Berky water filter for the house soon. Why I/we never did this in the past years of basic "prepping" is curious. We saw one of these while having dinner at friends' home a month ago. Simple, functional and opens up normal water sources for drinking and use in cooking. Collecting rain water, skimming local small creeks with water containers, walking a mile to and from the nearby river collecting water is all possible. But having the ability to pour, purify and drink water using a commercial water filter never crossed my mind.  Will keep you in the loop on this.

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Headlines on War and North Korea abound. My intent was to share a half-dozen here but to what end? If you come to visit from time to time, you also visit other blog / news sources and my guess is that you are up to speed on a lot of what is going on; with opinion.

I am also going to guess here that we most likely are in the same boat as to concern and worry. We should be by several factors. Maybe it is just time for peace to end, war to begin, run its course and enter an era of rebuilding the world. A cleansing, rebirth and new social advancement. History repeating/mirroring itself. Maybe the advancing of a larger hidden agenda.

Having lived in peace and in a free country, it is a hard bridge to cross thinking it cannot happen here. We are not that special as to be left out of a full collapse of the society and war on our lands. To be spared from a global free-for-all is most naive. And if I may be so bold, do we really fully understand the depths to which all of this can go and how quickly?

If we awake tomorrow to the event(s) precipitating war, a Pearl Harbor, buildings-falling-in-New-York-City event, coming and going missiles in the air event or "the happening" event we recognize as Day One in a long and undetermined future, how will we behave and react

"The sky is falling"--"the sky is falling"--"the sky is falling"--"the sky is falling"--. . Media, print and blogs, the Henny Penny panic has me exponentially numbed. 

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And within all of my humanly worry, life does march on around us.

If only we could grow gardens as well as the lilies grow on their own.

The lilies at the left have doubled in size in just one day. They are working their yearly program, on schedule.

  




I always look forward to the first garlic peaking out of the winter straw. The strongest push through first and sets me to pulling up top layers of straw to let in more warmth. 

We can grow garlic easily.


 




Chives, too, returning after the hard winter months. Just a little combing with my hands to take out the dead strands and they are off and running. Time for some water and a little food.
 





Potatoes seeding on their own in the dark under stair storage compartment. Going to get them in the ground out back and let them have a go at living in the wild this season. They are healthy, more than ready.







A CELL-PHONE CAMERA "HACK"

I am pleasantly surprised at the quality of photos and videos I can get using my cellphone camera. BUT, my hand-shake kills all the completed videosHow to steady the camera?

T-Nut (10-24 thread) drilled and tapped into place with a hammer using scrap plywood


Photo mono pod removable base screwed to plywood holder. Note that I have used velcro on the plywood holder and then some on the back of the cell phone.
Plywood base and mono pod base plate secured into mono pod left. 

Cell phone stuck into home made plywood bracket right and also works in landscape mode.

I used a thicker CA glue for assembly, parts clamped into place using a hand spring clamp.

I had to "after cut" out the notch in the front so I could access the on/off cell phone switch/photo or movie when mounted in portrait.   

My intent is to have the mono pod and plywood base in the truck as I travel. The cell phone quickly attaches/detaches using velcro. A couple heavy duty rubber bands would work in  place of velcro too.  

Works fine for the first prototype attempt. Cost under $2 for parts and use of scrap wood. I suggest the use of plywood as smaller pieces of regular wood may split during the assembly of the T-nut. 

This also works using any tri-pod base too. The only little issue I have is the need to put a little pressure on the camera when attaching. This insures a secure phone to the plywood part. Comes off easily.  Testing proves it works, just need to play with it more.

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Nineteen minutes and I could not stop watching. Old-school repair of equipment.

This is the fellow you want as a neighbor. 

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Keep Calm and Carry On was a motivational poster produced by the British government in 1939 in preparation for the Second World War. The poster was intended to raise the morale of the British public, threatened with widely predicted mass air attacks on major cities. (Bing Search)

Ought to work just fine for us this coming week.
 
 

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