Next 30 Days, You Can’t Buy a Non-essential… Can You Do It?

My annual self-imposed no purchase for 30 days.  It falls roughly sometime between September 15th to October 15th. I figured this time of year works best because there are no major holidays, no reasons to really go out and buy things. School shopping is over and Halloween isn't here.  I also find that no one is really Christmas shopping yet either. Making this the perfect time to not buy a damn thing and honestly to see if it can be done. Rules of the Game: This is personal, not family related. Go family if you want to play on the hardcore level only. The rest of us are doing it just personally! Of course you can buy food. Grocery shopping…

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Fair Results: Third Place

Sometimes it seems you can't win for trying.  Isn't that how the saying goes? I recently entered my maple syrup into a local fair as I detailed in a prior post.  The results are in!  Third Place.  I suppose that's not horrible out of all the entries that were there, but I was docked points because it wasn't a "full pint".  Figures.   I was specifically told that for competitions you put them in a honey jar.  Well, that's what I did.   Apparently that's only for the Quart Competition where they use the Beeline #2 Honey Jar.  The pint rules are a little loose, but they need to be a pint.   Being undeterred, I found another fair that's…

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OpenROV Trident – First Test Run

Finally got to take the ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle) out on the lake for the first time since I received it a month ago.  The Trident was fully charged, the cable was ready, the software was updated...  and I still had no idea what to expect or what I was even doing. So I handed everything over to my kid! Truthfully I purchased everything to keep her entertained and for her to see and explore the underwater world.   I love scuba diving.  It was my passion as a teenager and I worked my way up to be a certified divemaster by the time I was 18 and had logged over 100 hours underwater by that age.  My daughter on the…

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It’s Fair Season – Entering my Maple Syrup Once Again

So last year many of you will remember that I got big into Maple Syrup.  What you may not know is that I tried my hand at it the year prior also (Spring of 2017) and made roughly a gallon of syrup using only a stock pot and single burner.   It was hard, I had very little idea on what I was doing (Let's just boil down this sugary water...  Easy right?), I'm pretty sure I didn't know what filtering was, nor bottling properly.  Despite all of this, I was determined to enter it in my local fair, and enter I did! Disqualified! Disqualified?  On taste?  Well now, I thought it tasted just fine but who am I to…

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It’s Labor Day – Time for an Air Beer Delivery Service

I figured Amazon was taking too long for beer delivery on demand so instead of waiting, I embraced the American Dream of invention and created my own micro-delivery service.   For now the beer delivery service is just between my neighbor and myself.  I may add another neighbor for 100% growth next quarter, but for now the dividends of this corporation is being paid by a return beer.  I drop off a beer and a different one returns back.  I like this arrangement.  Enjoy the video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6BA_LY4qXA The initial test flight of Carter's Beer Delivery Service Beer Delivery Complete!

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Full Moon – Astrophotography

I was outside enjoying a Padron last night when I caught a glimpse of the moon coming over the horizon and trees this amazing orange-red color.  I ran inside and grabbed my simple zoom camera and had to take a photo.  Wasn't sure if the red was going to show through, but I was happy with the outcome. Last night was a day after the full moon, but you couldn't really tell that it wasn't completely full.  You can see the remnants of fading clouds (the darker band in the middle of the moon). Taking these photos reminded me that I once used to use my telescope more often and that I used to take photos through it with the…

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