stubbed toes and mud pies

[flowerbug]

*sad* heard about today that the drummer from one of my all time favorite progressive rock groups (Neil Peart of Rush) passed away a few days ago. i never met him or shook his hand but he was a person i understood and admired in some ways and that he lived his life on his own terms and had a work ethic that he did made him what i considered a hero. he wasn't someone who put a lot of faith in the afterlife or deity but he did think about such things and it was interesting to hear what he said. he was well spoken and geeky and funny and from what i've read of his books an excellent writer of stories too. the world is a smaller place to me with his passing. in a lot of ways he had more influence upon me than my own father and this is not a statement of regret or anger or anything other than the simple facts of the matter.

40something years later at times i still play 'em at 11 and i expect i will the rest of my life - like a good book each time i come back to them i can see it from another angle or bring new things from my own perspective.

 

[flowerbug]

back to camera tinkering.

set up all my beans on the floor from last year and got some pictures of them, then i transferred the pictures to the computer as usual.

i want all of this to be more automated than it currently is so for the next few days i'll work on a program to do the copying and counting for me since that is what computers are good for.

the problem with the camera is that it forgets what the highest number is that it used when naming pictures in the folder if i remove them from the camera so if i were to do a straight copy from the camera to only one folder it would overwrite previously copied pictures. um, no, that's not what i want...

well, into the breach...

 

[Trish Stretton]

lol, you and your (.....) beans

 

[flowerbug]

lol, you and your (.....) beans

i'm full of them for sure! but they're so cute!

 

[flowerbug]

i can't believe how much i got sidetracked the past few weeks but finally i have gotten back on track. at least part ways.

first of all i needed to get another keyboard after my previous two finally gave out enough that it was annoying me to even type. for the amount of time i spend futzing around with computers in the middle of winter and things i need to get done i really couldn't put it off any longer.

the new keyboard is much lighter and has a few things about it that will take me a bit of retraining to get back to my regular speed, but it is mostly working as it should. the main improvement is that it has a solid aluminum plate on the bottom so it won't bend. the previous two were all plastic and they just couldn't take how i use them (perched across my stomach or legs depending upon how much i want to sit up or lay down). it is also a lot quieter as my previous ones were rather clickity-clicky (remember what the old IBM Selectric keyboards sounded like?).

so the past few days i've been able to get back to my program that takes pictures off the camera and puts them on my computer and an external back up device where i want them to go. all automagically. i still have some work to do on the first version and then i have to think about if i want to wrap it in something that runs every so often and checks to see if the camera is plugged in or if i want to do that manually. for now manually will be ok.

and then i would like to get another program set up to index all my pictures and make sure they have a unique name (because currently a lot of them have the same name). luckily it isn't too hard to set up alternative names for the same file and to keep only one copy of the actual data. i have a lot of older stuff on this computer that will also need to be indexed and classified in a similar manner, but i can do that some other time. for now just getting the program set up to do the moving of the files off the camera working will speed up the rest of my month if i ever get around to starting to take pictures as i'd planned.

hmm, other things going on here, i have some new pea babies for planting this spring. i'm so psyched! i love peas as much as i love beans. so this is like doubling my season because i get to have two harvests instead of one (with just beans). i'll have pictures eventually...

family stuff. ugh. pass. Mom is doing ok. it's other things... a good reason i've just been reading a lot to keep my mind occupied.

seed swap is coming up! gotta start working on that.

 

[flowerbug]

2nd program is working.

chunking my way down my list of tasks for this winter. next item is to get back to ordering a few things i need for taking pictures now that i have a way of moving pictures and naming them as i'd like set up.

i will have to go back and change a few that i've already posted to the website but i've not put many new pictures up yet so that is ok.

this week should be good for sorting more beans and getting ready for the seed swap.

 

[Trish Stretton]

....more beans? You arent garden addict, you're a BEAN addict. lol.
here's a bean question for you.
Cannelini beans- which gives the most amount mass wise? Plucking the beans when they are small or letting them mature on the plant?

 

[flowerbug]

....more beans? You arent garden addict, you're a BEAN addict. lol.
here's a bean question for you.
Cannelini beans- which gives the most amount mass wise? Plucking the beans when they are small or letting them mature on the plant?

i don't know those beans at all. ask in the bean thread! *looks it up* i get mixed information, are you eating these fresh or as dried beans?

 

[digitS']

Perhaps, Trish is talking about them drying on the plants or off.

It reminds me of a possible source for seeds. It wouldn't be difficult to find a few varieties of beans in the soopermarket but have you visited one of those places with "unusual" selections of food products for bean seed?

Just learned of a Rancho Gordo brand out of California that has unusual dry bean varieties sold in stores across the US.

We have happily picked up soopermarket or Asian market ginger in recent years and had several pots growing in the greenhouse through the summers.

Steve

 

[Trish Stretton]

I had been told that if I was going to dry the beans, that I should let them dry on the plant for better nutrition.
When I harvested the dried plants, there werent that many beans on them even though they were much bigger than the store bought ones and the seed that I sowed.
I think next year, I'll try picking the individual bean pods(?) to see if I get more from them