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… are boring.
I took about 118 photos this afternoon and the > 100 straight-down shots are not interesting. Straight-down shot will provide good data when we have the ground markers and get enough shots in the right places. But for visual appeal & interest, the photos are boring.
Flying the kite was fun. It was cloudy with 10 – 15 mph winds from the N – NNW. It was a challenge to get the FF16 kite up–a 15 minute ordeal. But when it got up, it stayed. It was tiring to take it down and then it easily went right back up again. I took shots of the CG and then went to Staffanson.
Here’s one of the few shots with the camera tilted. I like it.
This is a view of part of the common garden from the West. The rows are 1 m apart and those things are tripods for the video cameras. The tripods weren’t in use today and have plastics bags over them. Flags are more visible than the Echinacea plants. But If you click on the thumbnail, you’ll be able to see some flowering plants in the larger image.
The toilet has again been modified. With the addition of the spider plant, the toilet is no longer a seat. It was uncomfortable anyway. The “maximum loading…” sticker came from the $10 hammock I bought from a garage sale. Not sure where to put it, but the trees near the pond seem to be the best bet. All I need is something to attach to the trees to attach to the hammock’s chains.
Jameson has barricaded his garden in an effort to keep the enemy at bay. The enemy includes the likes of deer, bunnies, and probably ground squirrels.
Colin shot off some “fireworks” last night. A few of the pictures turned out well.
As the crew posts profiles of themselves, certain aspects of people’s personalities are inevitably left out. Our complex identities are unable to be fully described in a few short paragraphs. In an attempt to fill some of these holes, I present Julie Nicol.
Julie displays her talent.
Who would have known there are such wonderful animal impersonation talents in Team Echinacea. It appears that Jameson can do a killer cat impression too; we’ll work on getting it on camera.
Andy came back to the Mando today and he inspired us to create this
 complete with swans
What is it you may ask? It’s a revolutionary multi-functional piece of living room furniture. The full implications of this exciting new gadget are not yet realized. As a chair it has two or possibly three settings. It’s great for playing guitar. It can be used as a planter. It also has ample storage space in the tank and in the bowl if desired.
Although Colin and I worked for hours making the wooden platform and fastening it to the bottom of new creation, I will give credit where credit is due. The truth is that if it weren’t for Dr. Andrew Christoper McCall, our toilet wonder would not be in existence today. Thank you Andy and everything that you have done for us. It’s quite special. I hope you think so as well. From all of us at the Mando, farewell Andy. We hope all is well at your new abode in Hoffman. If not we’ll always have a spot on the floor with your name on it; literally (just kidding). If you want we can write your name on the toilet though
The Bee team has been busy (I’m avoiding including a bad pun here) lately. We have implemented and perfected our tracking protocol in the past couple of mornings, and have gotten some good data looking at the flights between flowering heads in the Common Garden. Yesterday morning we successfully tracked the flight of one bee to 57 consecutive heads! For the most part, we have been faithful to the original protocol, although we have found that working in groups larger than two is more successful.
We discovered yesterday that the bee we have been identifying as Halictus rubicundus is actually neither that genus nor species. Stuart brought up a reference collection from the U of M, and our best guess is now that our bee is Melissodes cf. subillata.
Overall, today went pretty well. We managed to get the camera up on the small kite. 
The wind gave us a few problems, though. The camera came down a few times and we had to run to grab it. 
The big kite, however, had issues. After letting it out around 80 meters, the kite took a dive to the right… into a building. WHAM. This isn’t a sound you want to hear. A few tears on the front, but not horrible. The problem came when Stuart was moving the kite. A gust of wind caught the kite around him. SNAP. Another bad sound. The carbon-fiber sticks were fine; an aluminum connector was not.
We had a great picnic at Elk Lake Beach on the fourth. The wind off the lake was refreshing & would have been great for kite flying. Instead we ate great food, sat on the dock, swam, kicked the soccer ball, tossed a disk, and ate great food. The company was marvelous: Amy, Colin, Dwight, Gretel, Hattie, Ian, Jameson, Jean, Josh, Julie, Per, Pete, Rachel, Sarah, & Stuart. Folks stayed for about four hours and some got a little too much sun. The water was pleasantly warm, but a little greener than usual. I didn’t take any photos.
Here are some key resources:
Kensington general forecast and 48-hour surface wind forecast (from NWS in Minneapolis).
Hoffman general forecast and 48-hour surface wind forecast (from NWS in Grand Forks).
Current conditions at nearby weather stations.
We forgot our list of what specific heads to video for each plant, so I decided, in the field, to just video the one with a twist tie color that comes first in the alphabet. I think we’ll use this method from now on as it is at least haphazard and it’s easy to remember.
Also, three of our rigged batteries failed immediately. I hope my big batteries from B and H come soon!
Video Andy
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