t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


the weather today was perfect: not too hot, not too cold, dry air, blue sky, white wispy clouds. had i known it was so nice, i would've been outside much sooner, compared to when i left, which was 11am. when i got to belmont my parents had already come back from their walk. my mother got me a burger king egg and bacon croissant sandwich with some hash brown.

my father split up his parallel connected twin solar panels so one of the 100W panels could charge our 35Ah sealed water pump battery that runs from the basement. with a shorter run of cable, the basement panel produced nearly 66W of solar power. compare that to the living room battery with its longer wires which only produced 47W. that solar panel did a weird thing where it only generated 2.7W despite getting full power. we switched out the panel and it still did the same thing. we disconnected the panel from the MPPT controller and it still didn't change. finally it reverted to normal, but not sure what caused the glitch. something wrong with the wires?

since it's going to be raining non-stop tomorrow, today was the only day we could do yard work. my father and i made more fencing for our raised beds, the weirdly-shaped smaller RB0 and RB3 which is essentially a rudbeckia nursery at this point with a few spots for hollyhocks. RB0's dimensions are too wide and not deep enough, so our standard 4ft long chicken wire fencing frame wouldn't fit. we made 2 4ft long fencing anymore for the sides, even though they stick out. as for the front and back, we made a custom length of 4-1/2 ft to accomodate the non-standardized sizing.

just making 4 fencing for RB0 and cutting up the furring strips for RB3 was exhausting, and i suggested once we finished RB0 we leave RB3 for next time (or i could even do it myself if my sister ever comes back home and goes back to work). besides, we still needed to mow the lawn and it was already getting close to 4pm. while my father mowed, i climbed the platform ladder to harvest more of our cashmere hops. i collected some 2 weeks ago and i think that was peak harvesting time, because now some of the hops have turned brown (though i think still usable). afterwards my hands smelled like really fragrant beer.

afterwards i watered the patched areas on the lawn (back and front) as well as the garden areas. it probably wasn't all that necessary with the amount of rain we'll be getting tomorrow, but i figured i'd make a dent on the rain barrel level so they can refill back up tomorrow.

our new refrigerator is getting delivered tomorrow but my parents don't seem the least bit concerned. i was the one who initiated cleaning up the kitchen and hallway area so the delivery guys can make it inside the house. i also collected all our coolers so the fridge foods can go into those containers as the fridges get swapped out. home depot hadn't contacted me yet but when i went to the website i saw there was a 7-11am delivery window already in place. looks like they'll contact me tomorrow 30 minutes before they arrive.

for dinner we had some stir-fried "la ruo" with garden-picked flat beans and long beans, along with a bitter melon stir fry with salted duck eggs.

after dinner i was helping my father research DC battery monitor meters for the LiFePO4 batteries. one of them uses a hall sensor to measure the current, while the other has a rudimentary voltage/amperage meter, but it's not accurate. i think instead of a hall sensor meter, we'll try one that uses a shunt, which i heard are more accurate.

i got back home by 8:20pm. i completely forgot there was a dolphins-patriots game tonight. after a quick shower, i parked myself in front of the tv to watch the game, or at least have it in the background while checked out scores of aquarium videos on youtube (i also browsed ebay for aquatic plants i might buy). patriots ended up losing, but once again, it was a game where they almost came back after being down to tie up the game but didn't. next week new england plays the jets, i expect that to be a win.