Others?

[NutmegCT]

I've got an "heirloom apple" orchard with over 200 trees; most are varieties identified before 1800. Yesterday another volunteer and I took scion wood (last year's growth) from the trees, for grafting onto new M111 rootstock. Imagine slowly traipsing several miles up and down hills in 30 degree temps and 30 mph gusts, climbing trees, cutting some twigs, then storing each separately in plastic bags. The trees were planted around 1970 and have a 30 year life expectancy. The work was well overdue!

(I am not the young guy ...)

We'll do the grafting over the next several weeks.

Here's an interactive view of that orchard:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewe...ll=42.107888343005285,-72.10451469007415&z=19

Onward through the fog!
Tom M.

 

[Mickey Richaud]

Good on ya for that!

(But I don't believe you were practicing the requisite six-ft. distancing practice... )

 

[Gliderman8]

A modern day Tom Appleseed. Sounds like an interesting (and important) project.

 

[Basil]

I posted about this in one of our other forums.

As you know, I'm involved with NAMI as our state's program director. We have had a training scheduled for several months now to train new Family Suport Group facilitators. The training was scheduled for this weekend but the lady who was going to drive up from Las Cruces to Albuquerque to do the training has been ordered to remain in her home due to having been possibly exposed to COVID-19. Our solution: We had 6 people scheduled to take the training (I am one of them). We (6 people training) are all gathering at the NAMI training room at our local NAMI affiliate. It's a large room and we have separated the tables to give each person more than 8 feet "social distance." We also used Clorox wipes to wipe down all surfaces, door knobs, etc. I also bought rubber gloves for the folks to wear. Then, I set up a big screen TV at the front of the room and hooked up my MacBook and connected with the "trainer" in her home in Las Cruces using "Zoom." We had our first day of training yesterday (Saturday) and it worked really well! I'll be leavig in a few moments for the second (final) day of training. Sometimes ya just have to innovate.

 

[NutmegCT]

Basil - good on you for doing that.

Wouldn't an online (Skype, etc.) gathering be more efficient and save time?

Tom M.
Edit: I should have written "online gathering for each person involved". Anyway, really great that you're keeping the training program operating.

 

[glemon]

It is hard to get used to thinking this way, but minimizing risk of unnecessarily using health care resources means we don't ride our bikes and avoid activities that enhance the possibility of injury (like trimming trees). My earliest memory of going to hospital was from dropping an ax on my leg while trying to cut a tree branch.
Bob

Wow, although I just went to the doctor with a slight self inflicted injury, and told my wife I am glad it happened last week rather than this week, I have mostly been thinking about all the things I can get done at home with less time spent at work and socializing. I cut down a (very small) tree with a chainsaw this morning. I won't stop, but I will certainly try to be careful. I have a long list of yard and car projects, if I just sit around I will go nuts.

As far as helping others, mostly family, my brother's and sisters appointed one of each of us to help our elderly and divorced parents. I am trying to keep my mom in, help with chores and get her anything she needs. Our sons our both in the restaurant business and we have told them not to worry about things, esp. son I Portland whose restaurant shut down.

I am also the boss at work, so much time this week on plans to get the workplace safe, as well as changing procedures and providing guidelines for those we work with.

 

[Basil]

Basil - good on you for doing that.

Wouldn't an online (Skype, etc.) gathering be more efficient and save time?

Tom M.
Edit: I should have written "online gathering for each person involved". Anyway, really great that you're keeping the training program operating.

No, for this particular training it was necessary to have us all in the same room just due to the nature of some of the group exercises - but we were able to accomplish the training while observing "social distancing." The "trainer" joined us from Las Cruces via ZOOM (similar to Skype, but more capabilities).

 

[NutmegCT]

No, for this particular training it was necessary to have us all in the same room just due to the nature of some of the group exercises - but we were able to accomplish the training while observing "social distancing." The "trainer" joined us from Las Cruces via ZOOM (similar to Skype, but more capabilities).

Thanks. I'd never known of Zoom before. On a related tack, imagine how tough the current situation would be if we *didn't* have internet connectivity.

 

[drooartz]

Thanks. I'd never known of Zoom before. On a related tack, imagine how tough the current situation would be if we *didn't* have internet connectivity.

It would be a very different world for sure.

Though this situation also brings up how patchy internet access is in this country. The school district I work for is in a pretty wealthy area, but even there we are struggling to ensure that all of our students have access. We fired up a hotspot program for the students, but we ran out of them pretty quickly. At least I've got some data now that I can take to the city and county governments when things quiet down to have some discussions about the needs of their community.

It's an interesting juxtaposition. I live in a very rural area (I can see a heard of cows from my studio window) and I have fiber to my house. In the town where I work there are families of means that struggle to find a workable internet solution, and what they have is now being taxed beyond its capability. Wireless broadband isn't keeping up in those areas now that we may have to workers at home plus students trying to access course materials.

 

[pdplot]

Trapped down here in Paradise. Golf course is still open and birding is still possible though local beaches are closed. Many people riding bikes and walking. Our club dining room is closed but takeout is still ok. Also trying to take sharp photographs and having trouble. My Olympus M10 has in-camera stabilization but my bird photos all seem to be soft. I'm using the only lens I brought down with me - the 75-300 f4.8-6.7 telephoto. Will not use a tripod.

 

[DrEntropy]

Have ya tried a monopod? Whatever the Bogen #3016 is replaced with.

 

[Basil]

Trapped down here in Paradise. Golf course is still open and birding is still possible though local beaches are closed. Many people riding bikes and walking. Our club dining room is closed but takeout is still ok. Also trying to take sharp photographs and having trouble. My Olympus M10 has in-camera stabilization but my bird photos all seem to be soft. I'm using the only lens I brought down with me - the 75-300 f4.8-6.7 telephoto. Will not use a tripod.

Like Doc said - try a mono-pod. Also, your camera has four different IS settings: "All Direction Shake," "Vertical Shake," "Horizontal Shake," and "Auto IS" (detects which type IS is needed. You might try the different settings and and even try turing it off. If you are shooting moving birds in flight, or even a sitting bird using long telephoto, you will want to use a shutter speed as high as possible (1/1000 or higher). A high shutter speed will help with sharp images probably as much if not more than IS (Try high shutter speed with IS Off). If you use a high shutter speed, shoot wide open (Wide aperture). Adjust ISO to give you a good exposure.

 

[Silverghost]

I work in an Essential Service industry - packaging - so I'm still going to work. I was given a Travel and Work Authorization letter to carry in my car. Very strange to carry papers to go to and from work.

 

[DNK]

 

[LarryK]

Tom was in 30* weather with 30 mph winds, climbing trees. I'm sure he got the stink blown off him.

 

[pdplot]

I tried a few shots today with manual settings. A bit better - some overexposed. Here's the best one.

 

[pdplot]

I have a monopod.
Its sitting home in a corner with my old tripod.
No steadier than me. Did you remember who's holding the monopod?

 

[YakkoWarner]

It would be a very different world for sure.

Though this situation also brings up how patchy internet access is in this country. The school district I work for is in a pretty wealthy area, but even there we are struggling to ensure that all of our students have access. We fired up a hotspot program for the students, but we ran out of them pretty quickly. At least I've got some data now that I can take to the city and county governments when things quiet down to have some discussions about the needs of their community.

It's an interesting juxtaposition. I live in a very rural area (I can see a heard of cows from my studio window) and I have fiber to my house. In the town where I work there are families of means that struggle to find a workable internet solution, and what they have is now being taxed beyond its capability. Wireless broadband isn't keeping up in those areas now that we may have to workers at home plus students trying to access course materials.

I am a living example of this: I work for a college - and as of now they are pressing everyone to work from home. However, I live in an area that is too financially impractical (in plain speak "low income") to be served by the high speed internet companies. I HAVE to come to the office to access email, video conferencing, etc because where I live the only thing available is an advertised 300 kbit DSL which actually delivers more like 150kbit (thats 0.15 megabit for comparison to normal cable or fiber). No one here at the college actually ASKED whether or not people had the capability to work remotely - the decision makers just assumed that since THEY live in higher income areas that have these services, everyone else would have them as well. I did have a friend offer to loan me a cell phone that might be able to work as a hotspot, but the college isn't interested in reimbursing the $10.00 per gig cost and I don't know that there is enough cell signal to make it work anyway (my flip phone works but when my sister came to visit over the holidays she couldn't get much in the way of 4G signal on her iPhone).

 

[apbos]

I am considered essential, being a Large Animal Veterinarian only a few things have changed. Social distancing and no routine calls for new clients. Disinfection of the office has been increased and our doors are locked, but we are open. Our rural community has been affected as a local dairyman passed away from the virus after coming back from an international trip. We feel we are blessed because we are further away from major population centers ( the Bay area), but we are close enough that we have had 68 cases in our county as we have many commuters and even though we are in lock down, I think we have too many people on the street. Time will tell.

We are dealing with our university student being home and now taking classes online. We updated our internet service just in time as I understand from the tech that they were swamped. Things are going well so far for those of you who might have to deal with distance learning. However, I can not understand how you can do a Chemistry lab online. From what I understand most of her lectures are not live;but a download, so high speed internet is not a requirement. She has a few live classes, that are live using Zoom. They are recorded for those students that can not access the lecture in real time. Wash your hands, social distance and stay at home is the official line. I have some additional opinions, but will keep them to myself.
Stay well.
Paul

 

[waltesefalcon]

My home internet can be very spotty as well and my school district is going to be using some form of distance learning soon. We'll be informed on Monday how we'll be teaching our classes for the rest of the year but I'll need access to my classroom if I'm going to have reliable internet.