I think it’s cooled now…and Amy just got home from work with dinner and some ice cream to go with it :D  My first attempt at a lattice (could have used one more strip in the one direction) and my first apple…hope it’s good!  Sure smelled good!

This one will be long with a lot of photos…no teaser photo for the front though.

I guess I’ll do this chronologically.  As per my last post I ended up going back and buying another tarp at the “Bargain” warehouse for $20 more than the last one cost me.  We then proceeded to try and get it up as quickly as possible Friday night in case the wind/rain came back.  That was no fun at all.  The other tarp went up easier than I had expected, this one fought us every step of the way and the extreme humidity made it just flat out miserable.  I soaked two shirts with sweat fighting to get that thing up…and had to take a break partway through to buy more rope because the 100 feet we started with just wasn’t enough.  I had planned on treating us to a nice dinner when we were done - but by the time I was done and showered the only place open was Applebees - who set a new low for service that night :(  Oh well, at least my “Perfect Margarita” pretty much was perfect and that did help!

The new tarp is on 90 degrees different than the last one, so we’ll see how that works out.  If you compare to the older photos you’ll see that the first replacement tarp has tightened up significantly since I put it up there.  I’m hoping this one does as well since it’s kind of loose and flappy right now:

From across the street showing the top of the new tarp.

From under the new tarp

Really, I’m not as overjoyed with the new tarp as I expected to be.  I was kind of looking forward to the white tarp so there would be better light under the carport for when I work on the vehicles.  And yes there is better light…but it seems like too much now.  Almost like there isn’t shade at all.  From the photos you can see that YES there is shade…but when you’re under there it’s bright.  Also means a lot more light coming in through the living room and kitchen windows.  Time will tell if I like it or not.  I’m thinking the next time we replace them I’ll get two layer tarps that are black on top and white on the bottom so they’ll give more shade but the white bottom will still be nice when working under there.

So moving on to Saturday.  We started out the day by going over to look at some darkroom equipment some people e-mailed Amy about after they saw her blog in the paper.  We didn’t have very high hopes…but it turned out they were a real friendly couple about our age and the gear was pretty nice.   We ended up buying a couple of things:

"New" enlarger

The Beseler 23C was the enlarger Amy learned to print on…so passing this up would have been hard!  It’s in great shape, just a little dusty.  Only has the 6×6 negative carrier (but oddly enough only a 50mm lens - 6×6 should have a 80mm lens) but we can get new carriers on ebay I’m sure.  We also picked up an orignal pre 45 Weston Master light meter, a Sekonic light meter, a fixed size enlarging easel that Amy liked, an Omega color analyizer and some safelights.  While we didn’t NEED another enlarger (I still have another Durts M670 in my parents basement and a Beseler 45 that I’m not sure how I’ll ever get out here since it’s so big!) the 23C does complement my Durst nicely.

The Durst is a diffusion color head with a quartz lamp.  That gives a soft light effect which tends to hide dust and scratches a little but at the cost of some fine detail and sharpness.  The 23C has a condenser head (though a diffusion head and a cold light head are available used) which gives a harsher light that results in dust and scratches showing easier…but also a sharper final image.  So having one of each gives us the best of both worlds letting us pick the right tool for each job!

With the new toys settled in we went out and did a little shopping for a piece of pegboard to hang in the laundry room to organize darkroom stuff, and look for a cabinet to put in there and the final things I needed to finish light proofing and ventilating the room.  The new cabinets at Lowes were nice, but more cash than we could justify - espically after having just bought a used enlarger we didn’t really need.  But the Habitat for Humanity restore used home improvement store had a few “gently” pre-owned cabinets that looked like they may work…we just needed to double check out measurements and come back the next day since they were closing soon.

A quick stop at the camera store for some more ID-11 and another pack of paper we found that they had another nice safelight on consignment which I picked up and they had Ilford Delta 100 in 120 in stock so we picked up a few rolls to shoot.  We went home and loaded up Amy’s Grandfathers Rolleicord and my Lubitel - then stopped back at the shop to put the Nikon 6006 my mom had given Amy a few years back up for sale in hopes it will help some student just getting started.  We then proceeded to snap a few shots around the river and downtown before coming home to dunk them in the developer.

We both managed to overexpose most of our shots.  Mine I was aiming for about 1 stop over exposed so I wasn’t surprised, they’re still very printable and I’m dying to see how a few of them enlarge.  Amy’s were a bit more overexposed than either of us expected, not sure if it was due to the odd aperture/shutter choices available on the camera, Amy’s unfamiliarity with the camera and light meter, the shutter possibly being a bit slow on the 75+ year old camera…or a combination of one or more of those.  It also seems there may be a small light leak in the camera, but it could just be Amy’s unfamiliarity with 120 film loading/unloading.  We’ll see after I get to run a roll through it.  She also only got 8 exposures due to us not realizing that the Rollei had a frame counter and automatic film advance stop that we were supposed to use instead of the red filter peep hole on the bottom.  oops.

On the plus side the lens is VERY sharp and she did get a few good shots.  I’m looking forward to being able to share them here soon!

Sunday we went back to the Habitat store and for $15 picked up a cabinet.  Loading it into the truck I started to have second thoughts though as part of the toe kick fell off.  The whole thing was pretty shakey.  And before we got it out of the truck the concrete and ceramic top (which we had planned on removing anyway) was falling off.  In fact the whole thing was in danger of collapsing under it’s own weight.  There was no back and the old particle board it was made of was not holding together very well.  I didn’t get a photo of it in it’s original state but here it is with the top and toe kick removed as Amy starts to clean it in preparation for paint:

"original" condition of cabinet

We gave it two good heavy coats of Kilz premium primer to seal in any mold or mildew that may have been lurking within it - and to keep out any that conditions in the laundry room / darkroom would subject it to.  We then decided to give it a coat of the light blue paint we had originally bought for our spare bedroom but decided not to use.  With the nearly full gallon sitting there I decided to just bite the bullet and paint the laundry room as well.  One less salmon colored room!  Only two left!  Our own bedroom and the back bedroom.  Our bedroom won’t be getting painted for awhile due to lack of space to move stuff around in there.  The back bedroom will probably wait as well since we have plans to make some major modificaitons back there semi-soon.

Before - from dining room

Before from back bedroom.

After - from dining room

After - From Back Bedroom, also note the new pegboard behind the sink and cabinet.

The laundry room feels a LOT bigger and cleaner now with the fresh coat of light blue paint!  It’s not perfect, I still have to trim around the fold out ironing board and above the washer dryer…and I was too lazy to move the washer dryer so there’s still salmon hiding behind them and the washtub…but overall it’s a BIG improvement!

I also finished installing the bathroom fan I bought a week or two ago - and you can see how we put a safelight bulb in one of the two overhead lights in the laundry room.  When we moved in we thought it was silly that there were two light circuits in such a small room - now it’s just what we needed!

Safelight and vent fan.

I know, I still need to wire the fan in.  I also want to add an outlet for the timer in that area and I want to move the lights and outlets in this room onto their own circuit anyway since the one they’re on now is shared with the kitchen and IMHO way overloaded.  With no attic access in this area though it won’t be much fun to pull the wires

The duct from the fan goes out to an old dryer exhaust duct in the water heater closet.  It had one way flaps on it so I know it wasn’t there to allow air to come in for the water heater vent and works perfect for our needs, I do want to fill in around it with some expanding foam though to block out any final light leaks and make sure it’s a good permanant seal.  The path the duct takes should prevent any light from coming in through the fan itself - and if not that duct will easily expand enough that I can reroute it to make sure no light will get in:

Vent duct.

There’s another vent near the floor in that closet which probably does let air in for the water heater.  It also lets in a lot of light.  So I got another set of the one way flaps to go on the inside of that duct….but need a bit more duct to get them installed still.  I also added a new threshold at the base of the door for that room which probably seals the light leaks sufficiently that I won’t need the flaps after all.  Have to wait and see.

The “new” cabinet I fixed up with some hardboard on the back and pine stringers across the top (the original ones were badly warped) which stregthened it up a LOT!  It went from barely able to support it’s own weight to something I would stand on.  The toe kick wasn’t necessary for the height we wanted but I did have to shim out the one corner to make up for it:

Height shim on cabinet.

Yeah, we probably should have painted the bottom as well….but it will be ok for now.  After that I screwed our chunk of counter top to it and we now have a very stable and sturdy cabinet for darkroom supplies, I do have to scrape the paint off the hinges still:

Cabinet Installed!

I still need to trim the shims I used to level it…but hey at least I did level it!

Finally I made one more upgrade to the laundry room / dining room door to seal some final light leaks there:

I still have to paint it but it seems to block out the last of the light leaks quite effectively!  Oh yeah, we also put one of the safelight bulbs we acquired the past few days into one of the fixtures in the dining room so we have a semi-dark antechamber before entering the real dark room.  The dining room much like the laundry room has more lights than make sense for such a small room.  There’s a “normal” overhead fixture that we never use.  A track light which we never use (where we put the safe bulb) and a big skylight that has a flourscent light in it with a stained glass design under it - which is the light we tend to use the most since it gives the most usable light, makes the stained glass look nice, and lights up our backyard Ficus tree nicely giving some gentle light near the back door so we don’t stub so many toes!

Wow!  What a weekend!  I’m exhausted!  But I’m still going to go try and do a few quick prints tonight to celebrate having the darkroom pretty much “done” and fully usable complete with nice safelights now!

Oh yeah, that’s one last thing I forgot to mention.  The back bedroom was wired kind of odd.  Most of the outlets were half always live and half switched by switches on the wall above them.  I took advantage of that with setting up our safelights.  2 of the switched outlets now control safelights so they’re on wall switches, and the 3rd switched outlet is where I plugged in the extension cord for the vent fan…so it’s on a switch as well.  This winter when I rewire this part of the house the fan will get it’s own switch in the laundry room - but for now at least it has a switch!

It happened again.

Read on for more details, more photos, and something completely different.

So yeah, last night we had a bit of a storm blow through.  44MPH gusts I was told.  we knew the tarp was going to need replacement soon, its color was fading quick.  But I really thought it had one or two more storms in it still.  Based on where it tore I’m guessing the two small holes were enough to seed it’s destruction.  The TV antenna had fallen a few weeks ago in a wind storm.  I knew it was going to go since the wood is real soft on the side of the house there and the biggest screws I had didn’t seem quite big enough to hold it.  Need to get some good lag bolts and maybe a bit of epoxy to stregthen the old wood there as well before I put it back up.  It did move in the storm last night but I suspect that was more due to the tarp pulling it around than it tearing up the tarp.

Torn and shredded

Other view

Long view

On the plus side the cheap tarp we put up to replace the last torn original tarp held up just great.  But when I went up to the store we got that one at today the price had jumped from $37 to $50 :(  And they can’t blame gas prices either since it looks like it has been sitting on the shelf since we bought that last one.  They only have one left though so I guess I should bite the bullet and go buy it.  Their tarp selection was much more limited this time than last despite the higher prices.

The storm also took out my new flag which I didn’t have time to take down first

Twisted 90 degrees and mangled.

Up is actually to the left in this photo…I forgot to rotate it before uploading and it appears the gallery in wordpress won’t let me rotate :(  The wind was strong enough to crack the wood and pull the screws out as well as mangle and bend the metal flag mount.

Up is up in this one.

There we go, with up facing up in this photo it’s a little more obvious what the damage was like.  I noticed nicer heavy cast flat mounts at Walmart the other day so I’ll probably get one of those as a replacement.  May have to get a friend with a welder help me make something a bit sturdier than my wooden insert though.

At least the light still works!

Now, as promised something completely different:

Softrock+Xtall v6.3 RX/TX

Backside, the Si570 is the silver chip near the center.

This is my latest little electronics project.  It’s a SoftRock+Xtall v6.3 created by Tony Parks KB9YIG.  It’s a software definced all band amateur radio receiver and 1 watt transmitter.  It’s only partly constructed in this photo…I’ll have finished photos up by the end of the weekend I hope.  The small daughter board is one of the 4 RX filter modules that have to be changed for various bands.  It comes with modules for 160m , 40/80m, 30/20/15m and the final for 15/12/10m.  Pictured is the 40/80 filter.   I probably won’t bother to bulid the 160m filter since I have no antenna for that band and no plans for one.  I build the 40/80 first since I the 30/20/15 and 15/12/10 modules are the ones I care most about so I figured I’d do the one I don’t care about first for practice.

Yes, I do already have 3 other softrock RX/TX kits and a couple of RX only kits.  I have the original 3 board stack that upgraded a v6.1 for 40/80m and a v6.2 for 20m that is still waiting for me to wind the last 7 inductors (and has been waiting nearly a year…I need to finish that.)  What makes this new one so much nifitier though is that little silver chip on the bottom - the Si570.  The Si570 is a programmable oscilator that gives this version of the SR full frequency agility.  Instead of being locked to 48khz on either side of the crystal this one can be tuned just about anywhere in the HF bands I could want.  It could theoretically even get up to 6m and possibly even 2m - but the switches that make up the mixer in the SR wouldn’t work at those frequencies so other methods would have to be employed.

The other reason I built the 40/80m RX filter first is that the kit only ships with the 40/80m TX PA and Filter.  The other PAF kits are still being tested to make sure they meet FCC requirements but should ship soon.  I’m also anxiously awaiting the new USB kit which I’ve pre-ordered.

You see, while the Si570 is programable there was no connection to the computer to command it in the v6.3 design.  Instead there’s a small microcontroller (a pic to be exact) right next to the 4 dip switches.  The 4 switches can be changed aroudn to select 1 of 16 different frequencies that the pic will command the Si570 to hold.  The USB kit will replace the pic microconroller with another small daughterboard which provides an i2c bus allowing a USB connection to the PC to command the Si570 giving full tuning ability.  The USB kit also gives a serial port which can be used to control the PTT line making hooking the SR to the computer much simpler.  You still need stereo audio in/out for the SR as well as audio out and mic in (necessitating either two sound cards or a 4 channel card like the Delta 44 I recently gave my dad due to the lack of 64bit Vista drivers) but overall the connections to the computer become much simpler and you get better frequency control.

I still have to finish assembling the PAF board and tuning this setup….so that’s on deck for this weekend.  Not a big hurry though since I’m holding out for the 20m PAF and the USB kit which should be here sometime in September.

Better exposure, but neg was damaged.

I loaded up the other exposure of the old canal, decided to try a vertical crop instead of the native square (in hopes of cropping out some of the falloff in the corners caused by the lubitel) and after a quick test strip did a test print.  That’s it above.  As usual my scanner mangled it pretty good - one day I’ll find a way to get that scanner to reproduce images accurately instead of trying to “correct” them.  The good news is that as I suspected the exposure is MUCH better on this frame and the tones were very close to where I wanted them printed on #2.  The bad news though far outweights that.  The image is soft, my focus wasn’t quite where I wanted it unlike the other slightly underexposed image.  And then there’s the squiggle.

It was a piece of hair.  And sadly it wasn’t just on the negative, it was IN the negative, actually embedded into the emulsion :(  Removing the hair was easy enough - but once removed it left a canyon in the emulsion.  It was either there from the factory (unlikely), got onto the film when I was rolling it onto the spool for processing (fairly likely given how deeply it was embedded) or got there when the film was still wet and hung to dry (also very likely given our excitement over the first roll of film processed in the new house and our eagerness to inspect it.)

Had it been damage on the other side of the negative a little nose grease or no scratch would have been able to cover it.  But alas, a deep wound to the emulsion like this is far more grave.  Way too big to spot out.  I could correct it in photoshop…but I’m not looking for a digital solution here.  So this neg is effectively trash

If it wasn’t for the focus being a bit off I’d be kind of bummed.  But as it is I guess it’s just and excuse to go back out there again for some shooting sometime.

The other quick print I did was far more gratifying.  The scene itself isn’t all that great…but the exposure was quite nice, it was remarkably sharp for the equipment used, and the print came out almost exactly as I had visualized it which was gratifying:

Lizard sunning on a weathered post.

Of course as usual my scanner has “corrected” the print and thrown off the original tones.  Contrast has been increased, subtleties have been lost, and sharpness and detail were lost to the scanner as well.  But it felt good to get a print Iw as happy with after just one test - even if the image itself isn’t all that great!

Hopefully this weekend we’ll find time to put light to film and get some negatives I’m a little more excited about printing.  Saturday we’re going to a local couples house to see if we are interested in any of their old darkroom equipment so with luck I’ll be able to pick up a safelight and printing won’t be quite as much of a chore anymore.

Assuming of course that I finish installing our vent fan and track down whatever has mysteriously caused two electrical circuits in our backyard to suddenly fail at the same time

Laguna Dam - abandoned sluiceway

Read on for details!

First stop of course was our new local camera shop “Backyard Photography” in downtown Yuma. We were glad to see they had a number of customers in the store when we showed up, and they were glad to see us having seen Amy’s blog about them on the Sun’s website.  They apologized again for not having safelights in stock, they almost ordered for their initial stock - but held back at the last minute.  It sounds like they’re also going to get in some 120 film which I’m looking forward to.

While I preferred Ilford films back when I last shot film - I never used the Ilford developers normally using T-max developer, since the local store is still working on getting setup with Kodak this was a good chance for me to try some Ilford developers so I picked up some ID-11 and Perceptol film developers. The fixer and stop we bought last week can be used for both film and paper (just a different dilution) so we didn’t need any more of that. Dug out my old film tanks…and decided to expose some emulsion!

But I didn’t want to just shoot 35mm roll film. And having recently sold my 4×5 monorail didn’t have that as an option (though the cash from selling it did help us make the down payment to afford the house we bought and love so dearly so it was still a good call…I do have a 4×5 field view still…but it needs a new shutter.) I have a 120 Holga but it’s got a polaroid back on it and I don’t know where the original film back is right now. Plus it’s a Holga…super cheap plastic lens, no reliable way to focus, and lots of light leaks.

Amy and I also have a decent collection of older cameras a few of which will take 120 roll film…but I opted instead to dust off another “toy” camera that I’ve always had a lot of fun with. The Lubitel 166, a slight step up from the Holga. Like the Holga it’s still made of plastic, and has some light leaks. Unlike the Holga it has a real glass lens, a real shutter and aperture and can actually take some halfway decent photos. It is kind of tough to focus accurately though and with no light meter getting a good exposure takes a good bit of experience. But the effect can still be quite nice for the right subject matter.

Plus I really like working in the 6cmx6cm square format and the viewfinder is a lot like a view camera with everything backwards which gets me thinking a bit more out of the box and looking at things differently. Being a TLR (twin lens reflex) you don’t see the exact image that the film sees like you do with a SLR (Single Lens Reflex) but you get a much more accurate representation than you would with a rangefinder camera like the Holga.

I only had one roll of 120 film left though…it was a roll of Ilford FP4+ (125iso/asa) which expired back in 1998 and has been stored quite poorly in the bottom of a box ever since. But what the heck. Let’s give it a go!

We trekked up to Mittrey lake and Laguna dam road to take some photos of an abandoned part of the Laguna dam - also known as the Swastika dam. This was the first dam built across the Colorado river back in 1905 by the Bureau of Reclamation - at the time knows as the ” U.S. Reclamation Service” who had adopted the swastika as their emblem (well before it came to have the negative connections many of us associate with it now.) Read the link for more details about this interesting old bridge and dam.

Here’s some shots I took back in 2005 where you can see some of the swastikas….I didn’t take any yesterday that show them:

Canal Turnouts on AZ side at Laguna Dam

"Swastika Bridge" at Laguna Dam

Anyway, I’m getting off track! The point is we went up there and snapped some shots…we tried to make it up to the Imperial dam…but by the time we got there the sun had dipped behind the mountains and the light was fading and flat. And I only had 1 exposure left - oddly enough I managed to overexpose it trying to compensate for the fading light.

Once we got home, Amy mixed up the ID-11 developer and some film strength fixer while I cooked dinner. After we ate I dug in on processing some film and the results were not too shabby at all considering the quality of film and camera I had on hand.

Here’s the proof sheets I whipped up:

The lower right was my first exposure….not having used the Lubitel in a couple of years I got the self timer and shutter cocking mechanism mixed up and wound up doing a several second exposure by mistake…oops. The shot above that shows what can happen when you’re used to a SLR but switch to a TLR - I thought I had positioned the camera to shoot through the fence. Though I kind of like the effect I ended up with having the fence positioned like that. The other two exposures - the top one was exposed according to the reading I got with my light meter. The lower one I tweaked the exposure a bit to get the effect I was looking for - apparently I still remember a thing or two as it seems to have come out just like I planned. If you view the big version you may be able to see the little lizard sitting on the post who blended in to the point I almost didn’t notice him.

Oh and on all of these - please excuse the dust - my scanner sucks and is pretty dusty right now. I tried cleaning it off but it’s still bad. And the glossy paper tends to cause reflections on this scanner as well. Trust me when I say the original prints look much better.

The second contact sheet from this roll:

Amy makes a cameo appearance in the shot in the upper left, but she’s way down at the end of that wall and very small.  The two in the lower left were once the light was fading, the “no parking” sign was up at Imperial dam. I ended up picking the image on the lower right to try doing a print of - the frame at the top of the right column was a better exposure…but I liked the framing of the lower one better and wanted to print a full frame.

My first test print was a little flat - the scan distorts the tones somewhat, and makes it look a bit closer to what I was going for in the shadows…but the highlights look a lot flatter in the scan than they do in real life:

Since I liked the highlights on that first print I stuck with the same exposure but went from a 2 contrast up to a 3.5 contrast to bring in the shadows…but that was going too far:

3rd try I stepped back to about a 2.75 (I use a color enlarger so I can dial in variable contrast filtration more without having to do the 1/2 value steps you get with tradional multi-grade filters.) But I also stepped up the exposure just a hair since the highlights were looking a little weak on the previous two (or so I thought…once they fully dried I realized I was closer than I thought.)

Again - the scanner is throwing off the tones on these a bit but you should be able to see how the contrast is inbetween the last two.

No good final prints out of this session…but that’s mainly due to me getting frustrated working without a safelight and loosing my patience in the complete dark. Once I get a safelight setup (and a better exhaust fan) I’ll probably switch to the other neg of this scene and do a good final print that I’ll give to the local shop as thanks for being there and inspiring me to get back into the darkroom.

So there’s a locally owned chain of gas stations here in Yuma who offer a cash discount.  Overall this seems to be a very popular offering based on the comments I hear around town and see in the letters to the editor of the local paper.

Conversely we also have AM/PM stations who charge a “credit/debit” surcharge.  Which is almost universally despised and complained about at any opportunity by anyone who stopped at one for gas without knowing about it.

Essentially they’re both the same - you get charged more for using a card and pay less if you pay cash.  Yet one marketed as a discount is loved by consumers while the other portrayed as a penalty is hated.   Many times by the same people.

It never ceases to amaze me how easily some people let themselves be misled into lousy deals.

The first order of buisness was decided where to do it.  We needed water and a room that could easily be made dark.  Well, our laundry room almost fits the bill.  It has water, but no counter space, and there was a BIG gap under the one door.  But no windows.

The room on the other side of the laundry room, our 3rd bedroom and future master suite, only has one window.  It also has its own A/C unit which works better than the main house unit, and two desks.  One of which was covered with boxes.

So we decided to use both rooms.  The laundry room would be the “wet side” of the darkroom while the bedroom would be the “Dry Side”.  It’s not idea.  There’s dryer lint to contend with in the laundry room, and the bedroom is where the dog door is so there’s lots of fur in there.  It’s also carpeted and kind of big to try and keep dust free for an idea darkroom.  But for occasional use it will be just fine.  With that decided the big question was…how to make the rooms dark!

So a quick trip to Lowes to look for inspiration.  I figure eventually I’ll make a custom blackout block for the window out of some styrofoam, weather stripping and aluminum foil.  But for now the aluminum foil and a roll of foil tape did the job quite nicely.  The dog door we just put it’s blocker panel in and toss a towel over it to take care of the small final leaks.

The gap under the laundry room door took a bit more work.  But with a piece of 1/2″ poplar and a piece of 1/4″ poplar I was able to extend the door.  It still needs some finish sanding and paint but works great!  A bit of weather stripping and a small fox to the striker plate (that door never latched before) and the door is almost completely light proof:

Upgraded to fill the gap!

We cleared the boxes off the other table, which resulted in the final empty bookshelf back there finally being filled with books.  And then setup my old Durst:

My old Durst all setup.

It’s a little low for my tastes…but Amy likes being able to sit on the bed while working and I can live working from my knees as often as I print anymore.  You’ll also notice the motel style A/C unit in the background, with some more foil tape we used to seal up the light leaks around it.

I also re-installed the shelf that was in the laundry room.  We had to take it out to make room for the laundry tub.  But I cut it down to fit the remaining space (slightly overlapping the tub so things can drain off of it into the tub) and remounted it.  I wouldn’t lean on it or put anything heavy on it…but it can support a few trays or my Jobo processor just fine:

All set up and working!

Space is tight…and the trays aren’t setup optimally.  That’s developer in front, Stop in the corner, fix on the right and improvised wash in the tub.  I also only had 2 real trays on me…but for $7 walmart had a Sterlite 3 drawer organizer and the drawers make very handy trays!  The 2l bottles were also the cheapest option we found for holding the chemicals - $.67 each though, it was cheaper to dump out the soda than to buy real bottles and they work just fine for us.

On the other side of the laundry room I hung a bit of kite string which we use as a drying line.  We both cranked out a quick print or two and it does indeed work.  But without a safelight it’s very difficult to work in there.  And we need a better processing timer.  But with a bit more organization, a few things shipped out from my old darkroom at my parents house and a bit more time….it will be quite nice.

Now if we can just get the dog to decide if she wants to be in or out while we print

I also found one last bag of the grass seed I’ve been using in the backyard and another bag of starter fertalizer since things are starting to brown a little back there (I cut back my watering schedule a little prematurely it seems) but haven’t got that down yet either.  I did however get this up:

Flag on our carport

I’ve been wanting to put a flag up since we moved in.  There really isn’t a place in our front yard for a tradional flagpole.  And thanks to the carport I couldn’t really mount one to the house.  But I figured the carport itself would be a nice place to mount one.  That tube was uncapped though so I couldn’t just bolt a bracket on.  I ended up cutting a piece of wood to fit inside the tube, then screwing another piece to the end that would be big enough to mount the bracket to.  Seems to work like a charm!  I also picked up a cheap solar light which is mounted on the wall under the carport to shine up at the flag - we’ll see tonight if it’s bright enough to do any good or not.

Oh yeah, the photo was snapped with Amy’s new cell phone which we got on saturday.  That was the main reason we didn’t get much else done this weekend.  Once we got her her new toy she wanted to come home and play with it :D  Looks like it does a decent job on photos.  And she’s really happy with it since she finally has the UK fight song as her ring tone.

In other news friday night I was “treated” to the most disgusting thing I’ve ever tried to eat in my life.  In Yuma the late night options are rather limited so we ended up at Denny’s.  I ordered a western burger which I’ve had before and quite enjoyed.  But this time something went wrong.  I don’t know if it was someone in the kitchens idea of a sick/cruel joke…or if they ran out of BBQ sauce and tried to cover for it…but instead of BBQ sauce my burger was covered in A1.  And I don’t mean just a splash…I mean swimming in it.  Now I like A1 just fine…but it’s not something to be eaten in that kind of quantity.  The first bite of the burger brought tears to my eyes.  I recognized the taste…but couldn’t quite place it…so I took another bite to try and figure it out.

After 2 or 3 bites I figured out that it was A1 and not BBQ.  At that point I attempted to scrape off as much as I could…but it was still way too much.  To add insult to injury they put tomatos on my burger after I asked for it with none, and the bug was both stale AND soggy.  Apparently my burger sat under the heat lamps since the bun was soggy from the outside/bottom up due to condensation NOT due to juices soaking into it. After a few more attempted bites I couldn’t handle anymore…thankfully our server showed up around that time to ask how everything was.  He tried to claim that it was a mix of BBQ/A1 but I pointed out I had ordered this before and something was quite wrong tonight.  He offered to get me something else but at that point even though I was hungry, I could eat no more as my stomach was in knots from the quantity of A1 I had consumed.

I overheard the server talking to the manager which I believe is why he came back with a new bill that didn’t include my “meal”.  And I heard him going into the kitchen say “well, I got you off the hook on this one” which leads me to believe the kitchen knew full well what they were doing.  Had they just told me they were out of BBQ I would have gladly ordered something else.  Now instead I’m afraid our late night dinner options may be even more limited for awhile

The solar lights mentioned in my last post have gone from bad to worse…only the two I repaired are now working.  The others are in my office letting their batteries drain.  Though about half of those seem like it may be bad batteries and not just overcharging.  I’ll give them a few more weeks of darkness before putting them back out.

The backyard grass continues to grow and I continue to watch it.  Still not quite grown in well enough for me to post photos…but a HUGE improvement over the bare earth and gravel that was there when we moved in.  I think one more bag of fertalizer and one more bag of seed for the remaining bare spots and it will be looking good enough for photos.  And hopefully by October or so when the weather finally breaks it will be ready for backyard party season!  I’m already getting the itch to start making more pizzas remembering how great the last two experimental “grilled pizzas” came out.

And while I’m bound and determined not to let this disintegrate into a “Coffee blog” that is the reason for the title and what has again inspired me to put my lazy fingers to the keys and bang out an update.  The corpse in question is our local Linens N Things which is one of the stores they’re closing to try and save their hides in the tumbling economy.  Since I am as always about 180 degrees out of sync with the rest of the world bad economy for everyone else means time for me to score some great deals, kind of like we did with our house!

Amy and I were quick to check out the clerance sale at LnT as soon as it started, but at the time the store was still pretty much stocked like normal and the deals weren’t all that great.  Yeah 20% off the entire store was nice…but not outstanding.  We picked up a few odds and ends and I got myself a Bialetti Moka Express stovetop “espresso” pot.

I’d heard good things about these little Italian devices and figured for <$20 it couldn’t be any worse than the steam pressure espresso machine my dad had sent me.  Sure enough it brewed up a drink just as tasty, but which I found somewhat more enjoyable to make.  It was less fussy than the little electric steam machine, easier to clean, and well…more authenticaly Italian.  Plus it works on any heat source, so I can even take it camping.  It’s not really espresso but then again neither was the steam machine.  But it still made for a good strong brew.

Then a few weeks ago we went back once the discounts reached 30% off or more on the entire store.  This time I couldn’t resist buying something a little more extravagent.  It still won’t win much approval from real espresso purists but it does have a 15bar pump, a good heavy solid portafilter and group head, and actually brews something a lot closer to real espresso - a Krups XP4030.  It was the nicest machine they had other than a Breville that was twice as much and didn’t really have anything more going for it - and with the store closing discount I got it for just barely over $100 which was the price I had set for “Might as well try it”.

Please excuse the 4oz glasses on top…they were the smallest glasses left at LnT and for $3 for the two of them at least a double shot doesn’t look super silly in them like it does in a normal coffee cup!  I’ll have some proper demitasse cups sooner or later.

Overall I’m very happy with this little machine.  Yes it does have a pressurized basket which creates fake crema and probably harms real crema production…but apparenly you can pop in the basket from a much more expensive machine and the pump and temperature controls on this little creature are up to the task of making real espresso at that point.  But even with the pressurized basket I’m quite happy with it and it’s a good step up from the steam machine and moka pot.  In fact I sold the steam machine to one of Amy’s co-workers a week after getting this.

Unlike the steam machine the steam wand on this one actually makes enough steam to really froth milk…I haven’t had much luck making proper microfoam yet, but I’ve only tried once or twice.  I’m not really big on milk in my coffee.  Amy will probably use the steam wand for milk chocolate more than I’ll use it for anything.  It’s easy to clean and does what I ask of it just fine - which is my one cup a day of freshly roasted and ground coffee…now a 2oz double shot of espresso instead of a 12oz mug from the french press or moka pot.

And today I tried a new experiment with it.  I ordered some ESE pods from Pod Merchant after an exhaustive search of every store in town failed to provide me with a local source.  (Well, I didn’t try the big new starbucks…but it’s not like they’d have much selection anyway.)  I didn’t expect much from the pods…but since they’re individually sealed I figured they’d be a nice “emergency” stash to have on hand for when I forget to roast up fresh beans.  Since they arrived today I had to pop one of the Illy medium roast pods in immediately.  I was actually quite impressed.  I’ve had quite a hard time getting a “proper” shot with my own coffee - usually despite the pressurized basket I end up with closer to 3-4 oz. in 20 seconds rather than the 2oz I should get in 25-30 seconds.  I’ve tried tamping harder and grinding finer…but I suspect my blade grinder is the limiting factor here.  With the pod it took a full 28 seconds to pull 1oz, and had a decent bit of creama (though that’s probably mostly due to the pressurized basket again.)  So the pods were not at all a dissapointment - but are not about to become my regular source of coffee joy.  They do have me starting to dream about a nicer burr grinder even more though.

Back off the coffee topic I’ll update to say I haven’t had much time to get my chops back with the cornet…but the other day Amy did comment that my attempt to make it through the first section of one of my old solo pieces was “much improved” and almost sounding musical again ;)  Were our backroom not unbearably hot right now and me to cheap to turn on the A/C back there I’m sure I’d be progressing quicker.  Perhaps once the weather cools down again the horn will make more apperances in the blog.

And speaking of A/C I discovered a bit of an issue with ours.  The house has been surprisingly humid as was my office.  I had a friend who is learning A/C repair take a look at it and while he was able to clean out the house unit and get it running more efficiently - he defered to his boss, our friend Mark, for the full diagnosis.  My office unit I discovered on my own that the previous owner of the house had blocked off the condensate drain!  Once I removed that plug and it was able to start draining it’s condensate the humidity in my office went down considerably.  I still need to fix the angle of the A/C a bit better to help it drain the rest of the way but it’s a big improvement.

And Mark took one look at the drain on our house unit and determined that it has a similar issue.  The drain is not draining properly and that’s contribuiting to the humidity in our house.  He further suggested some changes to the thermostat settings as well as a change to the main air register which will further improve the efficiency…and come winter we will likely be running some new ducts and extending the main unit to the addition as well as improving airflow in the living room and kitchen.  Of course I’ll try and blog about those when they happen as well!

We’ve also been working on painting the living room again…well finishing painting it as well as repainting it.  The last of the salmon color from the previous owner has finally be eradicated from the living room and hallway.  The bright red wall has been redone in a more neutral tan, and the green wall behind the TV has been painted to match the blue wall behind the TV.  Once we finalize our color choices for the trim and get it repainted one last time I’ll post some photos.  But given how long it took us to pick up the brushes and start painting last time it could be awhile yet before we’re done!

So yeah, guess I have had a lot to update about.  I need to get better about lots of little updates instead of one big one every now and then like this.  I’d say that I’m going to try and aim for at least a post a week…but I know myself and know that if I said that I’d never pull it off.  So instead let’s just hope that I can start posting more often.  And that maybe next time Amy posts a comment she’ll make sure I’m logged out first so it doesn’t look like I’m replying to myself

So rather than write them off I moved them to our far back patio.  That’s where I setup the dartboard for parties, and the rest of the time it’s a nice secluded and quiet part of the yard.  The soft glow of the solar lights worked well out there.

And they did seem to work quite well for a few months.  Yeah, they weren’t all that bright…but that’s not because they didn’t charge well.  They were just cheap lights.  However a month or so ago once the summer sun really started to do it’s job I noticed that instead of lasting longer through the night the lights actually seemed to be having bigger problems - some had stopped coming on at all.  Assuming that the cheap nicad batteries in them had failed I brought one in and checked it out.  Nope, good full charge on on the battery…in fact a little higher than I normally would have expected from a nicad.   Checked the output of the charge circuit and it looked good too.

Doing any more digging would require disassembly of the light so I left it in my office, with the solar cell down against my desk until I could be bothered to go out into the oven, er I mean shed, and get the right sized screwdriver to disassemble it.  So there it sat for a week…or three…ok maybe a month.

Then a day or two I noticed something unusual.  When I shut off the lights in my office that day the light came on!  It didn’t do it again after that…but I assumed by then the battery had to be low, when I checked it today sure enough it was almost dead.  So I took the light back outside this afternoon and shoved it back into the ground.

I just went out and checked…and sure enough it’s working again!  Though it seems even more of the ones that had been working previously are now dark.

My theory is they’re simply getting TOO MUCH sun.  The batteries are getting overcharged and somehow preventing the circuit from kicking into drain mode at night.  I figure tomorrow I’ll round them all up and bring them to the dark for a few weeks for the batteries to drain then put them back out to start fresh.

I had been warned that it was possible to fry solar panels out here due to our overly abundant daylight…but figured these were out of the direct sun enough to deal with it.  I guess not.  Maybe more expensive solar lights would have smarter charge/drain circuity and could deal with it more gracefully.  But I guess until I can afford such lights I’ll just have to take these into the dark for a week or so every month until fall or winter.

And one of these days I still want to get some real panels up on our RV shade with a bank of batteries in the utility area behind my office.  I figure I could put the pump for our drinking water tank, the outside landscape lights, and my radios - maybe even some of my computer stuff on solar since they all run on 12v.  Just have to keep my eyes open for some deals, it’s not uncommon to find some older technology solar panels when snowbirds upgrade their RV’s.  And with sun like this I don’t need the newest most efficient panels to keep things topped up!