The nights are still a bit cool by Arizona
standards which makes it a struggle to leave a warm bed in the morning. We’ve started turning the heater on in the
evenings just to take the chill off. The
heat that can build up inside the camper on a sunny day doesn’t stick around
very long once the sun goes down. It probably wouldn’t feel as chilly if I’d wear
long pants and socks but this is Arizona…long pants and socks are so Michigan.
----------
Yay!
We figured out how to configure the cell cam settings so the videos are
downloading almost immediately. Had lots
of camera action overnight…got caught up in checking that out for longer than I
should have. So easy to fall into the technology trap.
----------
About
mid-morning, when the wind picked up, my phone started popping off like
crazy. I figured the owl wasn’t moving that much so I checked a video and
discovered that the bush that was camouflaging the camera was hitting against
it. My notification sound is a little
‘boing’; for about an hour that ‘boing’ was a humorously annoying background noise.
Finally it became too much and I had to mute the notifications. Interestingly it was the weed that made us
realize that the camera records sound.
We didn’t know that. Don’t know
that we need to hear the wind noise or the weed hitting the camera but the
crickets and crows were a nice touch.
It
also became apparent from the pictures I was receiving that the camera stake
was leaning. I can fine tune the camera wherever I am…change the motion sensitivity,
the duration of the video and so much more.
It’s all about the app. However,
a leaning stake required an on-site fix. So when we checked the trail cam down
the road Kim found just the right sized board in a nearby pile of random junk. He did some drilling and cutting and voila! a
longer camera stake was ready for installation.
Headed out to the nest, Kim in the truck and me on the bike so I could just continue on a ride after we were done. I think the noise of the bike spooked the momma; she was out of the nest before we got through the ditch. Didn’t take long to switch out the stake…the new one has the camera a bit above the bush which also allows the camera to be at a different angle looking up to the nest. Switched out the card, did the adjusting of the camera and then we were outta there. The momma returned to the nest and life was good again.
----------
Put the camera card in the computer and
OMGoodness! There were over 200 pictures and videos to wade through. However, after
looking at a sampling of videos I realized that it wasn’t just the wind, the weed hitting
the camera or the movement from the owl that was setting the camera off…the
wind was strong enough to make the saguaro sway in the wind. It was subtle but
apparently enough to activate the camera.
I cut the motion sensitivity in half.
----------
Yesterday the majority of diesel fuel prices we saw was $4.79/gal. Today in Coolidge it was between $4.99 and
$5.09. This is some cra-zee stuff! The price was rising before the Russian
invasion of Ukraine but now it’s going up by leaps and bounds. I sure hope it comes down by the same margins
and not a penny here, a nickel there.
I do
know that the price of fuel will dictate how much frivolous driving we do
around here. Our walking/hiking will have
to be more local out of necessity.
----------
Today Kim made good on yesterday’s intention
to do the wash. While we both do the
wash at home, when we’re out here I tend to do it. No major reason or division of duties…it just
happens. So when yesterday’s 40 Days of
Lent challenge was to do someone else’s ‘chore’, he chose the wash. However, by the time we returned from our
hike in Catalina State Park, the camp laundry was closed. So he gathered it up and did it today.
Today’s
challenge was to bring doughnuts to somebody we know. Well, as is becoming typical for us, we had
to put a little spin on this one. No
doughnuts available to us. However, we
have an oven and we can bake cookies. So
I bought some cookie dough with the intent of making some tasty goodness for
Bingo tonight.
I’ll put ‘em on a plate and we can put them out for the Bingo break. Tonight we didn’t take a break, just played 10 games straight through then everyone left and we were holding a plate of cookies. Hmmmm….
Kim
has been talking to a guy here in the campground whose 8 year-old son races
miniature race cars. Apparently he’s
quite good and they’re down here from Washington so the boy could get some time
on the track and dad could make the necessary adjustments to the cars. Anyway, I thought we should take the cookies
to them since they have kids. So that’s
what we did…knocked on the door and gave them the cookies.
----------
As I’ve
been typing this the phone started boing-ing again. Yes, the notifications were
from the cell cam. Lowered the motion sensitivity again but there’s
a warning that it may take up to 24 hours for any changes in settings to take
effect. Just in case it does take that
long, I turned the ‘boing’ off again. And I really think the camera itself is
the culprit now…the camera appears to be swaying in the wind. So in effect, the camera movement is
activating the camera. Maybe a taller
stake makes the camera more sensitive to the wind. Problem solved if the wind would stop blowing.
---------
No
walking/hiking today because of lack of energy on our parts but it was a good
day for a ride.
----------
Bike miles today: 94
Total miles: 444
No comments:
Post a Comment