Christmas Lights

[time]

I'm probably going to be showing my age here, but who has - or is intending to - put up Xmas lights?

The rot set in when we moved into the current house. All six immediate neighbours had made at least some effort. The killer was the guy more or less opposite; he had probably 40+ light sets. This is actually less than the street where we were, but in that case the culprit was 200m away at the end of the street.

So, last year, with little money and even less time, my wife managed to find a 'fairy light' set of 300+ lights, as well as a set of four 'Christmas Bells', the latter being green and red LED and therefore surprisingly bright - and cool to behold.

The fairy lights stank - you could hardly tell they were on. :(

So this year, I was determined to up the ante slightly. My first preference was LED 'icicle' lights, preferably blue; these invariably look stunning. Unfortunately, a few million other people had the same idea, and I couldn't even source the configuration I wanted from Chinese suppliers (remembering I'm essentially a cheapskate).

I ended up, at the wife's suggestion, at the local discount barn, appropriately named "The Warehouse". No useful LED lights, but a reasonable selection of 'rope lights'. I immediately secured the remaining blue samples, because that's the rarest color in incandescent - although they turned out to be blue and white, and static, but I maintain you can mistake them for icicles if you squint enough. ;)

Anyway, a couple of those, a pair of green and red 'chaser/multifunction' rope lights, an 'imploding star' net light (like a spider web - you have to stake out the 5 corners!) and a lit-outline Santa Claus with a rather feeble waving hand, and you have a plugboard-duct tape nightmare waiting for the next storm to test the veracity of your Earth Leakage Detection equipment.

It also looks kinda good, although a couple of people in the street have stocked up on LED leviathons, and the neighbour opposite appears to have boosted his arsenal to 50+ light sets ...

So, has anyone else here done their bit to cheer the children and warm the planet?

[Tannin]

People who put up Christmas lights also tend to be people who:

Weigh (on average) 10kg more than they should
Listen to Neil Diamond
Eat at McDonalds
Wear stripes and spots at the same time
Watch Opra every day
Have kids who are too busy playing video games to know what a cricket ball is
Drive a big 4WD, quite possibly a Syyongyang Musso, and have probably only just retired the Valiant
Wear too much makeup
Think John Howard is the greatest Prime Minister in Australia's history.
Don't know what to do with the car radio now that John Laws has retired.


Sorry mate, for some years now whenever I go past a house with Christmas lights there is only one feeling evoked: disgust and scorn. The more lights there are, the more clear it becomes that this person is a selfish fool not fit to associate with caring, intelligent beings. Most people I know feel the same way, though generally being more polite and tactful than I am they are less inclined to say so out loud.

Consuming energy is one thing. Deliberately consuming energy just for the sake of consuming energy is another thing. But deliberately consuming energy just for the sake of consuming energy and consciously showing the whole damn world what you are up to is, in this day and age, quite incomprehensible. If you really want the whole damn world to know how little you care about the other creatures on the planet and the other people you share it with, why not just spread garbage in the streets while everybody watches? Long-term, it does less harm, and you will get even more attention from your neighbors.

[Bozo]

We moved into our present home 4 days before Christmas in 1985. The wife and I managed to pull off a decent Christmas for our (then) young kids.
I was amazed at how pitiful our developement was as far as outdoor decorations went. Of the 34 homes, only one had a string of lights across the front of the house. And, our developement was poluted with pre-teen kids.
The next year I went ape s**t with Christmas lights. If it didn't move, it was covered in lights. I mean everything, house, trees, shrubs, and some decorations that I made. I used all white lights with a few red lights for contrast.
The house could be seen 4 miles away. We had trafic jams in front of the house. (being on a dead end street didn't help matters). On overcast, foggy nights the glow could be seen almost 7 miles away. It was great!
A few years ago I decided that I had had enough. I was a lot of work, usually taking 3 days to get everything up. Getting them down was a pain too. One year the weather was that bad they were still up on Valentines Day. So I turned them on that night. :-D
The year I decided not to put up the lights, the girl across the street told me her kids would watch out the window every night waiting for the lights to come on. I ended up putting up the lights for two more years.

As for the electric: I installed three 20 amp circuts just for the lights. I ran wiring and installed outside recepticles. I used two 3 phase size 1 motor starters and a timer to turn every thing on at once. It was really cool to be about half a mile away in the pitch black and see the house light up....everything,all at once.

The lights were on 5 hours a night for about 30 days. My electric bill went up about $12-$15 for that month. They used less electric than my P4 when it was running F@H.

Bozo :joker:

[paugie]

What we have in the Philippines is the "Parol".

It is a lantern in the shape of a star, which depicts the star which led the wise men to Bethlehem. Like all traditions all over the world (Christmas or what else) it has been battered little by little as years went by.

When I was young, every house, rich or poor had at least one parol. Of course the rich usually had more. Some towns have a tradition of Parol competitions, even up to now.

Below is a link if you want to see what I am talking about. I got it from a yahoo search page.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/magandafille/333048864/

I (or my wife puts up) a string of Christmas lights every year. The parol left about 20 years ago.

(sigh) some things I miss.

[Howell]

I don't like gobs of Xmas decorations. I like things simple. I'm still repairing my new house right now so I'll probably not do anything this year but I would be inclined to put up a wreath on the door, a tree, an advent calender and a couple of strands of lights.

[Howell]

Tannin, there is a difference between lights which are pretty and garbage which is unsightly. I think someone needs a hug.

[paugie]

I think someone needs a hug.
We all do. And we need to do so, often.

One thing really nice about hugs, we give one - We receive one at the same time. Now, I'm going upstairs to hug my wife.

Thanks, Howell, for the reminder.

[jtr1962]

I plan to put up lights this year because it cheers things up, and there's really not much else cheery in my life these days. That being said, Tannin has some good points. Putting up enough lights to dress up a house is quite a bit different than getting into a oneupsmanship with the guy next door, and then having both of you ending up with 10 kilowatts of lights . Most of my displays have only had 500 watts or less of lights. Now that I've replaced many of my older incandescent strings with LED, that figure is dropping. By the time they're all LED I'll probably be able to do a nice display for 50 or 60 watts. It's not just the energy saving aspects of LED which I've found appealing. I've just gotten tired of the annual ritual where I have to hunt through a string to find dead bulbs. Inevitably that's a day of my life wasted each year. Now when my incandescent strings start getting dead bulbs which cause all the other bulbs in series to go out, I'll probably just toss them in favor of LED. LED also offers true white which looks way better reflecting off snow than the piss yellow of incandescent.

In the scheme of things even 500 watts for perhaps 6 hours a night and 30 days isn't a lot of energy. That's only about 90 kW-hr. My PC probably uses eight or ten times that in a year since it's on most of the time. Once I've gone all LED, the outdoor display will probably use 10 or 15 kW-hr annually, barely worth mentioning.

[Bozo]

I wish there were LED lights when I was decorating. Fixing light strings was one of the worst part of the job.

Bozo :joker:

[Will Rickards]

We have one of those spiral trees and a reindeer with a moving head. Both have white lights. In my neighborhood we have quite a few blow up holiday decorations. One guy has an airplane on his roof. Another has a ladder of sorts coming down the front of the house to a ferris wheel of elves or something. I prefer low key decorating.

[Bozo]

I never cared for the blow up Christmas dolls ;-)

Bozo :joker:

[Clocker]

I replace the bulbs in our landscape lighting with red and green ones. Looks really nice and is easy to do.

[Splash]

People who put up Christmas lights also tend to be people who:

Weigh (on average) 10kg more than they should
Listen to Neil Diamond
Eat at McDonalds
.
.
.


And, they tend to leave the outdoor yuletide decorative lighting up all year long. And, they may even fire up this "permanent" lighting once or twice during the summertime when they're drunk out of their skulls.


PS: Even if I wanted to mess with this decorative light pollution seasonal nonsense in my yard, my neighbourhood's deed restrictions only allow me to use a particular variety of "approved" *white* lighting that uses small twinkly little bulbs. Anything else that uses colors or larger bulbs will get me a warning letter followed by a stiff fine.

[Fushigi]

And, they tend to leave the outdoor yuletide decorative lighting up all year long.Not around here they don't. (http://www.aurora-il.org/detail_news.php?newsDateID=88)

[Bozo]

Tannin & Splash: I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I don't fit your profile of someone that puts up Christmas light, although I am overweight.
Of all the people in this neiborhood and others that I know decorate for Christmas, none of them fit your profile either.

You two have a very narrow minded view of the world.

I hope you both have a Merry Christmas in spite of yourselves.

Bozo :joker:

[LunarMist]

I don't put up outdoor lights because it is not feasible, but I love to drive around and look at them. It is nice to have some small measure of beauty and serenity around the holidays in the stressful and dreary modern world.

[time]

Weigh (on average) 10kg more than they should Alas, you're right. When my doctor weighed me recently, I'm not sure who quivered more (she'd just bought a new set of scales).
Listen to Neil Diamond I was once quite fond of 'Crunchy Granola Suite' - it's an instrumental.
Eat at McDonalds Hate their decor almost as much as their food. Avoid like the plague.
Wear stripes and spots at the same time Does underwear count?
Watch Opra every day I'm typing this on Opera right now.
Have kids who are too busy playing video games to know what a cricket ball is They're girls. Regrettably, they're also too smart to stand around in the sun watching the grass grow - er, I mean, play cricket.
Drive a big 4WD, quite possibly a Syyongyang Musso, and have probably only just retired the Valiant No 4WD, but is an old Ford Falcon close enough to a Valiant?
Wear too much makeup Only on Saturday nights.
Think John Howard is the greatest Prime Minister in Australia's history. I gagged when the press originally dubbed him "Honest John" - sarcasm, perhaps? He was famously untrustworthy before he ever became PM. Amoral even by the standards of politicians. I frequently vote for different parties, but I never voted for that pond scum.
Don't know what to do with the car radio now that John Laws has retired. Talkback, eh? Does that include ABC radio? Not my cup of tea, I'm afraid. I've never understood the point of letting someone else do your thinking for you.

For most people, the energy usage is trivial. My lights would consume maybe 1kW and are on, at most, 3 hours a night for 3-4 weeks in the year (and not on every night). That's about 60kWh; probably about the same as we use boiling the electric kettle and running the toaster for a month, or half what our appliances use in a month when switched off!

The reason most people do it is to support a sense of local community. It brings cheer to young and old and helps bind people together in spirit. If some want to go over the top, the rest of us can live with that.

[Tannin]

Funny you should say that, Time. For some years a former girlfriend of mine (who will remain nameless for now) had a favourite pair of knickers which were decorated with both stripes and spots. These items, being of the classic bipolar personality type, were known as the "phrenzknitsicks" (exactly how you spell that is another question - I guess you just combine "schizophrenic" and "knickers" in whichever fashion seems most suitable), and we discovered that the evenings could become quite phrenzknitsick too from time to time.

A happy memory.

[Tannin]

I hope you both have a Merry Christmas in spite of yourselves.

I always have a merry christmas, Bozo. Indeed, Christmas Day is usually one of the best days of the year for me. I make it a rule to spend Christmas Day with those I love most of all.

Christmas Day 2003, Lake Wendouree, Victoria, Eurasian Coot:

[img]http://tannin.net.au/other/sf/031225-095940p.jpg[img]




Christmas Day 2004, Porongurup Ranges, Western Australa, Western Wattlebird:

[img]http://tannin.net.au/other/sf/041225-090751pfc.jpg[img]




Christmas Day 2005, Yararra, Victoria, Variegated Fairy-wren:

[img]http://tannin.net.au/other/sf/051225-175844-46ucfc.jpg[img]



Christmas Day 2006, Burnett River, Queensland, Red-backed fairy-wren:

[img]http://tannin.net.au/other/sf/061225-071408-9484fc.jpg[img]

EDIT: what the hell is wrong with the forum code? Where are my images?

[Tannin]

I always have a merry christmas, Bozo. Indeed, Christmas Day is usually one of the best days of the year for me. I make it a rule to spend Christmas Day with those I love most of all.

Christmas Day 2003, Lake Wendouree, Victoria, Eurasian Coot:

http://tannin.net.au/other/sf/031225-095940p.jpg




Christmas Day 2004, Porongurup Ranges, Western Australa, Western Wattlebird:

http://tannin.net.au/other/sf/041225-090751pfc.jpg




Christmas Day 2005, Yararra, Victoria, Variegated Fairy-wren:

http://tannin.net.au/other/sf/051225-175844-46ucfc.jpg



Christmas Day 2006, Burnett River, Queensland, Red-backed fairy-wren:

http://tannin.net.au/other/sf/061225-071408-9484fc.jpg

PS: the 5 minute edit rule SUCKS

[ddrueding]

PS: the 5 minute edit rule SUCKS

Dude...I think that is the first time I've seen you use all caps somewhere. And it was so perfect for the situation. Now I'll wait another few years to hear you use "dude" appropriately, and my life will be complete.

Great pics, BTW.

[Tea]

I hope that you will live a long and happy life then David, especially the "long" part, which you'll need as I doubt that Tannin would adopt "dude" as part of his lexicon anytime this century. It seems to be, in his mind (well, whatever it is that Tannin has which sometimes passes for a mind if you have had a couple of large gins and the lights are dim) ... seems to be one of those words on his "never, ever use these" list, most of which consists of American slang and stuff you hear on commercial TV. (Which is probably a tautology, come to think of it.)

[Tannin]

No, I never use "dude". Here in Australia we went metric decades ago, and I haven't measured a length of wood in dudes for 40 years or more.

[Tannin]

What about a "Yeah, LOL, ROFL, RLY"? Would that do?

[ddrueding]

What about a "Yeah, LOL, ROFL, RLY"? Would that do?

'Fraid not. Although "yeah" is technically a word, it doesn't really represent an emotion or concept well enough to be used emphatically. Sucks and dude are both capable of providing emotional context, and are therefore more powerful when used correctly, as you demonstrated above.

[Tannin]

Oh, and the pictures are really just OK, David. I can do (and have done) better, but I wanted ones taken on Christmas Day, so that only gave me 1/364th of a portfolio to choose from.

The first two are old digiscoped ones, which tend to lack contrast and be noticably blurry. The 2003 one is the better of the two - fantastic light, which (by the way) is 100% as-shot - no Photoshop colour tweaks involved - and a nice pose. The 2004 one is a nice pose but taken from too far away and thus blurry. The same goes for the 2005 one - a wonderful bird, most spectacular of all the fairy-wrens in my view, and a pose that couldn't be better, but taken from a distance with a 100-400 and cropped hard, meaning that it lacks clarity. The 2006 one is perhaps the best of the four, certainly in a technical sense it is, but I actually had to spend most of Christmas Day last year travelling and only had a few hours worth of birding in the morning.

Wrens, by the way, are much harder to photograph than you would think. They move very fast and you struggle to get framed and focussed and correctly exposed with them, and although they let you get quite close (well, the Superb and the Red-backed do, the Variegated tends to be shy, and the White-winged is ridiculously shy), they are so tiny that the perfect lens for them would be something like a 100mm macro at a half-metre .... assuming they would let you get that close and hold still for you, which they don't.

The 500 gives me more reach and focuses faster than the 100-400, but it's so big and cumbersome that you can't get it pointed in the right direction fast enough or smoothly enough (smooth movement matters if you want to keep the little critters happy and not flying away), and it's just so big and obvious (more bird-scaring factor there). Most of all, it only focuses down to 4.5 metres, and you want to be about 2 to 3 metres away for best results.

Probably the ideal wren lens would be a 400 DO: light, fast - and you need every last bit of shutter speed you can get with these guys - small enough, and MFD of 3.5 metres. A 400 DO with a 25mm close-up ring would probably be as good as it gets for wrens.

Lately I've been alternating between the 500/4 and a 13mm ring on the 40D, and the 100-400 on the ID III. Neither is perfect, but slowly, very slowly, I am getting better wren shots. Over summer - who knows? maybe on Christmas Day? - I would like to add pictures of the Western Australian endemic wrens, the Blue-breasted and Red-winged Fairy-wrens.

[Tannin]

Christmas Day 2003, Lake Wendouree, Victoria, Eurasian Coot:

http://tannin.net.au/other/sf/031225-095940p.jpg




Christmas Day 2004, Porongurup Ranges, Western Australa, Western Wattlebird:

http://tannin.net.au/other/sf/041225-090751pfc.jpg




Christmas Day 2005, Yararra, Victoria, Variegated Fairy-wren:

http://tannin.net.au/other/sf/051225-175844-46ucfc.jpg



Christmas Day 2006, Burnett River, Queensland, Red-backed fairy-wren:

http://tannin.net.au/other/sf/061225-071408-9484fc.jpg



Christmas Day 2007, Lake Unicup, Western Australa, Australian Ringneck:

http://tannin.net.au/other/sf/sf071225.jpg

Nothing fantastic so far, but the day is yet young - it's lunchtime here in Western Australia. The forecast is for 39 degrees later on today, though my guess is that it will top out around 36 or 37. Either way, it's no good for birding. Birds aren't stupid and pretty much all go and hide somewhere cool and shady when the weather is like this. You have to make the most of the first hour or two in the early morning cool. Unfortunately, I'm exploring unknwn country today and found myself in some bird-poor Jarrah woodland, which means the pickings were slim.

No matter: having given up in the Jarrah country when it got too hot and windy, I set off for a place I know about 120 kilometres from here where, if the weather is dry and hot, the honeyeaters come in to drink. It will be hot enough, the questions are: (a) is the place still there - I was last over this side of the continent three years ago - (b) is the water level in the lake high enough this year to fill the side-channel I want, and (c) has it been long enough since the last rain here for most of the alternative drinking places to have dried up? If I get a "yes" to all three, it will be a brilliant afternoon. If not .... well, that's birding.

Wish me luck!

[paugie]

Here, just posting something before the family leaves for a reunion at an aunt's house (the last living sibling of my late mother)
We'll be eating roast pork, leche flan, cake, maybe rice cakes, which are traditional holiday fare here.
My 2nd daughter's the games master (as usual). There'll be gifts to be given and received.
Then blessed sleep about 10:00 tonight.
Believe me, I'd rather be in the wilderness with Tannin. At least for a change.

[udaman]

The 2004 one is a nice pose but taken from too far away and thus blurry. The same goes for the 2005 one - a wonderful bird, most spectacular of all the fairy-wrens in my view, and a pose that couldn't be better, but taken from a distance with a 100-400 and cropped hard, meaning that it lacks clarity. The 2006 one is perhaps the best of the four, certainly in a technical sense it is, but I actually had to spend most of Christmas Day last year travelling and only had a few hours worth of birding in the morning.

....they are so tiny that the perfect lens for them would be something like a 100mm macro at a half-metre .... assuming they would let you get that close and hold still for you, which they don't.

...Most of all, it only focuses down to 4.5 metres, and you want to be about 2 to 3 metres away for best results.

Probably the ideal wren lens would be a 400 DO: light, fast - and you need every last bit of shutter speed you can get with these guys - small enough, and MFD of 3.5 metres. A 400 DO with a 25mm close-up ring would probably be as good as it gets for wrens.

Lately I've been alternating between the 500/4 and a 13mm ring on the 40D, and the 100-400 on the ID III. Neither is perfect, but slowly, very slowly, I am getting better wren shots. Over summer - who knows? maybe on Christmas Day? - I would like to add pictures of the Western Australian endemic wrens, the Blue-breasted and Red-winged Fairy-wrens.

My best guess is that tannin's camouflage outfit is a giant chicken mascot like you see at sporting events :p. How else can you get so close to birds without spooking them? I was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in April 1984 or '85 for late season skiing, where it was -5F in the morning, later in the afternoon after my legs quit on me, I was driving along some deserted country road nearby the ski resort just to see the sights, that dead-ended for the winter closure. Right before coming to the closed end of the road I spied a small pond 100ft from the road down below---perhaps 100ft across, feed by a small stream. In that pond, was a giant Blue Heron. My car stopped, engine off, pure silence in the air, as I tried to quietly open my car door and take my trusty Oly OM-1 w/Tokina 28-200 zoom attached and take a picture from too far a distance with the higher ASA film I had in the camera, but after one or two clicks of the relatively quiet Oly's shutter/mirror mechanism, that was all that it took to spook the Heron, and it flew away. Maybe I Leica rangefinder might have been quiet enough. How the hell can Tannin use a friggin 1D series Canon, those brutes are loud! Even the new 40D with it's new 'quiet' mode, I'll bet makes a louder sound than the Oly OM-1.

The wren, seems like the breast feathers are not so sharp. Is that the lens, camera shake, or what? Parrot is razor sharp in comparison, except the DOF looks a tad too narrow for my preferences (I'd like to get the entire bird in focus, including the tail).


Christmas Day 2007, Lake Unicup, Western Australa, Australian Ringneck:

http://tannin.net.au/other/sf/sf071225.jpg

Nothing fantastic so far, but the day is yet young - it's lunchtime here in Western Australia. The forecast is for 39 degrees later on today, though my guess is that it will top out around 36 or 37. Either way, it's no good for birding. Birds aren't stupid and pretty much all go and hide somewhere cool and shady when the weather is like this. You have to make the most of the first hour or two in the early morning cool.


.... It will be hot enough, the questions are: (a) is the place still there - I was last over this side of the continent three years ago - (b) is the water level in the lake high enough this year to fill the side-channel I want, and (c) has it been long enough since the last rain here for most of the alternative drinking places to have dried up? If I get a "yes" to all three, it will be a brilliant afternoon. If not .... well, that's birding.

Wish me luck!

As a birder, aren't you supposed to go where the birds are, meaning like a pro-photog using a tele, the lens may have limitations, so the pro knowing that get's close enough to the subject when necessary (at least trys ;), easier said than done, but that's why they get paid the $$$). So you go, wherever the birds are, not just dried up watering holes.

Brrrr, 39F is cold for us here in So. Cal. coldest day of the young winter here in So. Cal. this past Saturday morning, after a light shower on Friday evening.(last January we had the coldest days of the year and citrus/avocado crop damages to the tune of ~$1 billion). I had to go get some of the last unheated greenhouse grown heirloom Purple Cherokee tomatoes from the local farmer's mkt which opens @8AM (early bird gets the worm...or best selection of pittering offerings, non-split, non-rotting, best looking choices), and to lower my carbon footprint, lol, I took the bus. But even with bad cold virus, I still walked 3/4mi from home to the bus stop (well there's actually a bus that's closer, but for a lousy 3/4th mile and I still need to lose *cough* 30 or so pounds of BMI, I was too cheap to wait 15min extra and pay 50cents for the transfer fee!), all the cars not hit by the morning sun had frost on the roof...must have been about 36F overnight to get that. Got on the bus and it was freaking hot!!!, driver had the heat blasting away, I was sweating in my sweatshirt, while everyone else on that bus save a few old characters wearing shorts and t-shirts, was completely bundled up like this was the frigid mid-west, lol. While walking to the bus stop, I hear an unusual bird calling, looked up overhead to see small group of 6 Mexican parrots flying around looking similar to the one tannin has shot here. Apparently Mexican parrots are a) not too smart or b) unaffected by freezing temperatures.

Oh wait, isn't this a Christmas tree lights tread, who jacked it? ;) Almost no LED's in my neighborhood, lots of massive amounts of power sucking incandescents. Maybe I can get this thread just slightly back OT, I spend the last 30 minutes tracking down this link as I was in a daze and forgot which TV program had the story...couldn't find the video link, but maybe there is one on the 'Nightline' ABCnews site???:

enviro-smackdown
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=3413135&page=1

[ddrueding]

Best of luck, Tony. I always enjoy what you bring back.

[Tannin]

Pretty ordinary day, all up. But let's try this one:

Christmas Day 2007, Pemberton, Western Australa, Australian Ringneck:

http://tannin.net.au/other/sf/071225-194708-1pf.jpg

I'll post more after I make camp, if I'm in range. (No, no more pictures, just the usual boring wordy stuff.)

[ddrueding]

Posting from the bush? Awesome. Using your mobile? What kind of speed do you get? What is causing the affect in the background of the latest image?

[Tannin]

Posting from the bush? Awesome. Using your mobile? What kind of speed do you get? What is causing the affect in the background of the latest image?

I have been for a little while now, david. It's wireless broadband, a little dohickie about the size of a matchbook that plugs into a USB port. Well, "wireless" insofar as it works anywhere you can get mobile phone coverage. And "broadband" for a given value of "broad" - i.e., up and down a bit but on average about the same as a fair to good modem.

The effect is just movement of the leaves: terrible light and a horribly slow shutter speed for a 500mm lens: a 200th of a second at f/4 and 1000 ISO. Needless to say, you have to fire off a lot of frames at that speed and hope that your bird will keep still for one of them.

[Tannin]

Oh, and handheld, BTW, that was taken out of the car window.

[Tannin]

Question: can I respond to Udaman's post before the mosquitos drive me spare? Let's try it and see.

Camouflage outfit? Nope, though I do make a point of dressing in plain, earthy colours, and take advantage of any cover that is going.

There is no secret to getting close, you just have to work at it, gaining a little here and a little there. Move slowly, and not in a purposeful way, just drift along like a browsing sheep, stopping and starting (not too suddenly) and approaching the bird on angles, never straight towards it unless you are very confident it won't mind. Pause, shoot, wander vaguely closer again. Take your time, give it every chance to get used to you and decide that you are harmless.

Better yet, see if you can figure out where the bird is going to go next and walk around the long way so that you are there first, waiting quietly. Try to take your stance close to some object (such as a bush, a tree, a fencepost), as that won't hide you but it wwill make you stand out and be a it less obvious.

Practice, practice, practice!

Learn how to judge different birds: this species is skittish, that species less so. This species hates noises, that species is OK with noise but goes bettron dull days (e.g., fairy-wrens, which are highly visual).

Don't bull up towards a bird, spook it, and then expect that it will be OK if you approach it a second time more slowly. Nope, once you spook a given individual bird, you might as well just go and find another one - that one will keep moving away from you every time.

Shutter sound. Some birds hate it, most don't mind, certainly not once they are used to it. Fire off a few shots of your boots or something while you are still a long way away, it usually helps. But with some species, you only get one chance - learn which is which. Often, you guess. Sometimes you guess right.

Most, in fact nearly all, of my best pictures are, in fact, lucky shots. And, to misquote Thomas Edison, the longer and harder I work at it, the luckier I get. Pretty good rule for everything in life, when you stop to think about it.

I give up! The mosquitos are driving me mad. Time to go somewhere more sensible.

[ddrueding]

Like in your car? You have a Subaru Outback, no? Easy to sleep in the back of that. I used to have an air mattress that fit the back of my car perfectly with the rear seats down. Still 6in too short, but better than just about anything outdoors.

[Bozo]

Christmas lights.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/consumer/orl-geeklights2307dec23,0,2223946.story?coll=orl_tab01 _layout

Bozo :joker:

[Tannin]

A Forester, David, like an Outback but without the ridiculously long front and rear overhangs that make Outbacks useless in the outback. But it's too short to sleep in unless you want to be ridiculously uncomfortable. But in any case, I like to sleep under the stars. Mostly I just throw my bedroll on the sand. Unless it's raining or blowing a gale, that's much the most pleasant.

Nope, when I posted that I was sitting in a park in Denmark (the town on the coast of SW WA, not the country) waiting for the billy to boil. It was a fire ban day yesterday because of the weather - hottest December day ever in Perth, I think they said on the radio, yet another sign of global warming - so I had to find a public gas barbeque in order to make a cup of tea. (Normally I just use my petrol stove.)

I have yet to think of a practical way to boil water without fire, damnit! I have tried 12V immersion heaters but they are crap. The one I brought for this trip lasted for 1 and a half cups before it burned out and crapped itself. That seems about typical of the bloody things.

Now I'm camped near a deserted beach abnout 25k out of town. Nice spot!

[ddrueding]

Sounds like a blast, Tony. I woke up this morning to a beautiful sunny day and was inspired to head out into the hills and take some pictures. As soon as I got to my car I noticed it's battery is completely dead, I haven't driven it in 5 days! Certainly the longest without driving it in years, and I'd left the radar detector on. I'll need to wait for the GF to get home and get a jump.

[jtr1962]

Here's what our house looked like this year:

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k318/jtr1962/CPF/Lights_1.jpg

Sorry about the blurriness-this camera doesn't handle low light conditions well. Also, the sodium vapor streetlight right in front of our house tends to overwhelm the display. I've had larger displays, but this is the first all-LED one, and that's all the LED strings I had. There are 820 lights in total, set on a sensor to go on at dusk, off at dawn.

This is the best part (reading on my home-made wattmeter):

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k318/jtr1962/CPF/Lights_2.jpg

I actually found one string after I took this reading so the total is closer to 43 watts. Still better than the ~40 watts per string of 100 incandescents however.

[LunarMist]

This year she needed an extra circuit brought in to power all the tree lights, lawn creatures, and the blower-powered ones. :lol: Joe would have "blown a fuse". ;) Then Santy had a mechanical problem and was semi-trapped in the chimney. It was hysterical. :D

[time]

Ummm ... who?

[LunarMist]

Not a member - never mind.

[blakerwry]

I have yet to think of a practical way to boil water without fire, damnit! I have tried 12V immersion heaters but they are crap. The one I brought for this trip lasted for 1 and a half cups before it burned out and crapped itself. That seems about typical of the bloody things.


While a white gas/gasoline powered stove seems ideal, some other possible solutions come to mind.

Power inverter + electric kettle... or candle warmer/hot plate.

One would have to be careful about the power draw from these units, so as not to exceed the capacity of the power inverter or car wiring.

You might also be able to heat small amounts of water by way of the exhaust system of your car. The exhaust manifold gets very hot, but may or may not be accessible enough for placing a tin cup/pot for the purposes of boiling water.

Personally, it would seem to ruin the atmosphere of the outdoors to have to boil water by way of motor vehicle, but in some cases it may be the only legal option. I would find myself hard pressed to camp at a location that did not at least allow for a small, single burner white gas stove. Though I prefer to cook directly over camp fire if at all practical. A camp fire is one of the elements of camping that I enjoy most, it adds quite a bit to the experience.

[Tannin]

While a white gas/gasoline powered stove seems ideal -

In many ways it is. I have one, and use it most of the time. In Australia, Blakerwry, we have very high fire risk (probable the worst of any country in the world, although fires get pretty bad in several other places) and on high-risk days have Total Fire Bans - i.e., you cannot light a fire or a gas stove, harvest wheat, or even use an angle grinder unless you are securely indoors. You can't even use a BBQ in your own back yard.

These bans are not just essential for fire safety, they are backed by some serious penalties - I forget exactly what but I think it's a $10,000 fine plus 6 months in jail. Something of that order in any case. This is not unreasonable when you recall that a single fire can burn out hundreds of square kilometers, sometimes thousands, cost hundreds of millions of dollars in damage and firefighting costs (hired a big helicopter lately? that's serious money), and kill people. (Three people died in a bushfire in Western Australia just two weeks ago, for example. It's not uncommon.)

The other day, by way of example, I was in South Australia. Almost all of the state had a Total Fire Ban, except a small region in the east where it was judged that the weather was a little milder, and where, it so happened, I was planning to pass through anyway on my way back to Victoria. That meant that I could make camp on the South Australian side of the border, have a cup of tea, and fill the thermos - all before midnight, because at midnight a state-wide ban came into effect because of even hotter weather. (It was 45 degrees that day - for the backward ones that's 113 Farenheight. The next day was forecast cooler at around 40 degrees, but very strong winds, hence the extension of the ban to all parts of the state.)

Over the border in Victoria there was also a fire ban - and rightly so, it was wild weather and if a fire started you wouldn't get it out this side of February.

So any form of fire is out, alas. It has to be electric, solar, or some form of internal combustion.

You can get electric 12V imersion heaters but they draw a lot of power, take forever, and are horribly unreliable el-crappola made-in-China things. My last one made precisely one and a half cups of tea before it crapped out. The one before lasted about three. Junk.

You can get electric cups that run off your cigar lighter, but they too are el-crapola. The one I bought, thanks to the bloody lawyers, won't heat anything up to boiling no matter how long you leave it running, but cuts out at a dreadful and undrinkable luke-warm temperature wich would not really do for coffee and isnt even close enough to the temperature you need for making tea.

You can of course tow a caravan and use the gas stove in it, but I'm damned if I'm going to tow a whole bloody caravan just to boil water. I sleep outdoors and travel light.

I have an inverter but it's not big enough to run a kettle from, it's just for the laptop and cameras.

You can get 12V kettles, but I doubt the ability of the electrical system to stand up to the draw. Still, it's a possibility.

I've toyed with the idea of using the exhaust manifold, but don't really know where to go with that idea.

Solar is very slow and sensitive to wind, and probably not practical for someone who moves around as much as I do. In any case, the main times I want hot water are early motrning before sunrise and late in the evening after the lihght has gone.

Maybe the most practical option is an internal combustion generator/inverter plus a kettle. Unfortunately, kettles are high-power devices and you would need a pretty big generator to run one - yet more weight and bulk to squeze into a fairly small car - and I don't want a bigger car, I burn enough juice running this one - 11,000 kilometres in the last 30 days.

I dunno ... it's a puzzle

[Tannin]

By the way, it gets a bit warm down here in Oz in January. This was not an inflated "trick" temperature reading, it's the real thing. For the backward ones among us, it equates to 115 Fahrenheit. I spent a fair amount of time in the car that day, but despite the heat the light was remarkably good, so I took advantage of it to get some very pleasing landscape stuff around the WA Wheatbelt, and - remarkably - quite a few bird shots as well: nearly everything stops normal activity when it's that hot, but around waterholes can be quite rewarding.

http://tannin.net.au/other/sf/hot.jpg

[Tannin]

Not a pretty shot, but interesting, I think. This was taken the same day after it cooled off a bit to a mere 45 degrees. It's two common birds, a Yellow-throated Miner and a Grey Butcherbird having an arguement about, of all things, shade. Yup, under that woodwork (actually the base of a windmill) must have been nice and cool, because under it was the Grey Butcherbird and about 8 or 10 Yellow-throated Miners, all flaked out and panting in the heat. (You can just make out anotyher two or three miners in the background on this side and there were more of them on the other side (out of shot).) I imagine that there was a water leak such that the breeze flowing through was pleasantly cool for them all.

Normally birds like these wouldn't tolerate a human so close to them, but in the heat, rules like that are relaxed. Indeed, I wouldn't expect to see miners so close to a butcherbird as butcherbirds are not big enough to take adult Yellow-throated Miners as prey but would certainly take chicks from the nest.

http://tannin.net.au/other/sf/shade.jpg

There wasn't enough room in the shade for everyone and every now and then another couple of miners would try to fit in, shuffling all the others along, at which point (as you can see) the butcherbird would assert his right to the choice spot.

[blakerwry]

We occasionally suffer fire bans in certain territories that I hike/backpack in. However, I don't think the risks are nearly as great here. Even in fire ban, I've tempted fate a time or two and made a small fire when I was careful and didn't feel at risk of spreading anything..

I like your idea of an ICE generator... but agree that the cost, weight, and noise make it impractical (even for a luxury). However, maybe you can get away with toting an old deep-cycle battery? Perhaps a dedicated battery would be strong enough to supply juice to either a hot plate/electric kettle... or even an dishwasher or smaller type appliance heating element.

Regarding the exhaust manifold... I'd pop the hood and feel for the hottest part. Then see if you can place a small (2-3cup) pot there.


Nice shots by the way, wish I was there. I'm stuck in rainy winter... the high tomorrow is a brisk 0.5C (where's that frosty emoticon?)

[ddrueding]

A guy I knew a while ago had a second battery connected to his car just for auxiliary camping stuff. It charged off the car when it was running, but could be run completely dead and you could still start the car. Depending on how often you are driving from one place to the next, this could be a good idea.

[Tannin]

0.5 degrees? Yike! I'll take my 46 any day before a 0.5, or even a 5.0 for that matter. But of course, a nice split-the-difference of around 22 would suit me better. And you, no doubt.

I have a second battery, Dave. On the other hand, I need to be reasonably conservative with the way I drain it because some of the places I go to are very remote and the second battery is something you simply cannot afford to be without. I usually have food and water enough to survive a week or two if need be, but even so, I don't like to tempt fate.

Also, I drink a lot of tea. Typically I go through 4 litres a day. There are several reasons for this:

1: I like tea.

2: In hot weather, you have to drink around that much or your body suffers badly. Most people can't cope with heat because they (a) don't drink enough to start with, and then (b) over-compensate, usually by drinking ice-cold stuff out of a cold-box. This leaves then dehydrated and bloated at the same time, lethargic, weak, headaches, washed out and generally buggered. Their system, having become fluid-deprived, can't absorb the fresh influx of cold fluid properly; meanwhile, their sweat glands have shut down because there isn't enough water in their system - it's all in the digestive tract where it cannot be used until their system starts to operate normally again, which takes hours. They wind up feeling very crook.

In addition, in everyday life most people only drink 1 or 1/1/2 2 litres of fluid a day (apart from drunks, which is a different thing). Once the temperature goes over 35 or so their systems are unable to absorb enough water to keep up with dehydration. I drink 4 litres of tea (sometimes water if I can't get tea) every day, (a) because I like tea, and (b) because pushing plenty of fluid through your system is good for you; it allows your kidneys to scour all the poisons out of your system without having to work too hard and this keeps you healthy, and (c) because when I hit hot weather my body is already adjusted to absorbing lots of fluid and I don't get so dehydrated, which means I can remain comfortable and productive. Oh, and did I mention that I like tea?

3: In hot weather, most people drink cold stuff, ice water of Coke or similar. This is a mistake. Your body craves the cool rush and so you keep pouring ice water down your throat - you are drinking because the drink is cold, not because your body wants fluid, and in consequence, you drink far too much too quickly. By drinking tea in hot weather (or any other hot drink that isn't laden with poisons - i.e., anything except strong coffee), you are drinking when your body wants fluid, not cooling. Again, this keeps your system running smoothly and efficiently, avoiding both bloat and dehydration. Also, I suspect that hot drinks are absorbed into the bloodstream faster because all chemical processes go faster with more heat, and ice-cold things slow the action of the digestive walls down to a crawl - but this last is only a guess based on a little logic, a little experience, and a complete lack of scientific evidence.

4: Some of the places I go, the water is dodgy and it isn't a bad idea to boil it before you drink it.

5: I like tea.

In a few minutes, I'll hit the web and see what I can find out about generators and kettles. I think I need to talk to someone who knows about car electrics - which I don't. What load is my alternator good for? How fast does a battery recharge? Is my wiring up to scratch? And so on.

But first, I'll make another cup of tea.

[ddrueding]

I think more batteries is your solution, Tannin. You already have a good generator on hand (the engine) with a great source of fuel. Adding another (likely less efficient) generator specifically for this purpose doesn't make sense (to me anyway).