Jeff & Konnor's Blog

Duck Pond in Winter

2012-01-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

This may look like a Photoshop effect, but it's actually one of our fish under the ice. The ice comes and goes (for example, this picture is from this morning and the ice is gone this afternoon), but the fish basically don't move for three months. We imagine the cold water isn't very pleasant, but they've all made it though every winter so far.

About Town

2012-01-11T18:05:00.002-07:00

Konnor was on a location scout yesterday with some fat cats.

Backyard Birding

2012-01-04T14:36:00.000-07:00

We often have mourning doves in the backyard, but we rarely see collared doves. This one was amendable to having its picture taken yesterday. We've had two hanging out for about a week now.

Happy New Year from the Greenhouse

2012-01-01T15:54:00.001-07:00

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T13:17:00.001-07:00

Birthday Balloons

2011-12-12T13:41:00.000-07:00

A fun surprise was awaiting Jeff outside this morning. Thanks Shelly!

Today in the Greenhouse

2011-12-11T14:56:00.001-07:00

Public Service Announcement

2011-12-04T12:29:00.001-07:00

Have you noticed anything about all the trees that fell down during our 100 mph wind storm? They were all pine trees (and their conifer cousins). Pines have very shallow root systems. If you have any next to your house, you should seriously consider preemptively cutting them down. Here's a tree that wanted to say hello to Jeff's jeep during the 1999 tornado.

Buddy

2011-12-01T16:24:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the month of no blogging. Here's a photo of Buddy watching a bird.

October in the Backyard (More)

2011-10-31T14:31:00.000-06:00

Fifteen photos total at our Smugmug site here, or on Google+ here.

We were thinking of using Google+ as our new permanent home for photo albums, but we just think that Smugmug looks better. Thoughts? Adding more albums is on our to-do list in any case.

October in the Backyard III

2011-10-30T13:26:00.000-06:00

October in the Backyard II

2011-10-29T13:25:00.000-06:00

October in the Backyard

2011-10-28T16:24:00.001-06:00

Cactus

2011-10-26T11:45:00.001-06:00

Fall Hiking

2011-10-18T15:49:00.001-06:00

Our seasons were backwards for a few days, but here's a real fall mountain view. (Cell phone cam while on a hike).

Mountain Views

2011-10-09T21:07:00.001-06:00

We usually make it to at least the end of October before getting snow, but this year it snowed on the 6th. On a different note, one of the benefits of taking down the garage is this nice mountain view from our backyard. Too bad about the power lines.

Red Butte

2011-10-01T14:22:00.003-06:00

We had a nice walk around Red Butte last week. More photos from our walk HERE.

Neighborly Tomatoes

2011-09-26T16:35:00.000-06:00

When our neighbors have extra tomatoes, they leave them on the wall between our yards. Having tomatoes just show up in your yard is much more convenient than growing tomatoes yourself.

Today in the Greenhouse

2011-09-24T16:53:00.001-06:00

C. Leoloddiglossa coerulea

Duck Pond

2011-09-18T17:01:00.000-06:00

By the end of summer, our duck pond is surrounded by rudbeckia and other plants and trees, and covered with water hyacinths and lily pads. There are some fish under there somewhere.

Today in the Greenhouse

2011-09-11T15:03:00.000-06:00

Blc. Lake Murray 'Mendenhall'

What we've been up to

2011-09-06T11:41:00.000-06:00

You may or may not have noticed that pictures of our backyard never show the view to the east.That's because the east side of our backyard used to contain, from left to right, a pile of junk where a dog run used to be, a strange lean-to attached to the garage by the previous owners trying to make more storage space, and an ugly garage that's about to fall down. See for yourself:

First we started building a new shed in the empty space where the dog run used to be. Here it is in progress.

Then we tore down the garage. Here we are halfway.

And no more garage! New shed still in progress in the background.

Current status: almost all of the junk hauled away, shed almost done.

Next step: making this new space into a patio.

Backyard Birding

2011-08-21T14:20:00.002-06:00

The number of hummingbirds in our yard has been on the increase in the last couple weeks. They chase each other around quite aggressively and quickly. This one is a black-chinned hummingbird, and was hanging out in our redbud tree. Click for the big version to better see the purple throat.

Lilies

2011-08-14T11:57:00.001-06:00

Our lilies are just about done for the year. This photo was taken in the evening with the low sun lighting them up nicely.

Butterfly

2011-08-09T10:30:00.000-06:00

Our hummingbird feeder apparently doubles as a butterfly feeder.

Water Lily

2011-08-02T15:03:00.006-06:00

Even bigger size if you click on the photo!

Today in the Greenhouse

2011-07-27T18:28:00.000-06:00

About Town

2011-07-24T09:11:00.003-06:00

Highland Drive and Fort Union Blvd., Cottonwood Heights, UT, looking southwest, yesterday. There really shouldn't still be snow on those mountains. Bonus photo item: one of the fireworks tents you will find in every store parking lot for Pioneer Day.

Day Lily

2011-07-17T14:28:00.002-06:00

Here's one of the many different types of day lilies in our yard.

(We're also using this post to see how well Blogger currently integrates with Google+).

Google+

2011-07-12T13:32:00.002-06:00

Let us know if you'd like a Google+ invite.

XKCD

About Town

2011-07-11T14:11:00.001-06:00

Skylight at the Conference Center downtown. We took this photo with a cell phone.

Backyard Birding

2011-07-05T16:59:00.002-06:00

The starlings were certainly prolific this year -- we've have tons of baby starlings in the yard. This one was having a hard time figuring out how to get from the roof of the bird feeder to the part where the food comes out.

Fern

2011-06-29T10:22:00.000-06:00

Build your own

2011-06-25T13:08:00.011-06:00

Frustrated with the system choices that computer manufacturers give, Jeff decided to build our new computer from parts. It was fun! Here are the guts. You can read the whole geeky story with additional pictures by clicking the "Read more" link.

The parts:

Case: Cooler Master HAF922
CPU: Intel i5-2500k (3.3 GHz Quad-core, unlocked)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3
Heat Sink: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
Memory: 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1333 G.Skill Ripjaws
Video Card: Radeon HD 6950 2GB
Solid State Drive: 64GB Crucial RealSSD C300
Hard Drive: 1TB Samsung Spinpoint
Optical Drive: Samsung BD-ROM, DVD/Write
Power Supply: 750W Corsair 750HX
Not Shown:
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Media Reader: Akasa All-In-One V2. Fan Controller / Card Reader / Multi Port Panel
UPS/Battery Backup: CyberPower CP1350AVR

Open case. The three fans come pre-installed. Ten(!) drive bays -- five external, five internal.

First self-installed part! If you install a power supply correctly, it takes four screws and one minute. However, if you later drop a motherboard standoff through the fan of the power supply, it takes an extra five minutes to remove the power supply, shake it upside down until the standoff comes out, and re-install it.

Four drives installed – BD/DVD/CD-ROM drive, media card reader, solid state drive, and the hard drive. These all ended up in different bays in the final build; two moved for cabling purposes, one moved for aesthetic reasons, and the media card reader was upgraded to a nicer looking one.

There’s some work to do on the motherboard before putting it in the case. Here’s where the processor drops in. You literally drop it in there, then clamp down a cover. It clamps down really tight and makes a scary grinding sound. Someone should warn you about that – I thought I had smashed it to death.

Processor in!

Putting the heat sink and fan on the processor made me nervous because it involves glue. Well, thermal paste to be more accurate. According to various websites, there are 100 ways to apply thermal paste to your processor, all of which are terribly wrong according to various other websites.

Motherboard with processor and heat sink added to the case.

Minor snag putting in the RAM – the heat sink fan blocks RAM slot 1 when installed as intended. Solution: remove fan, install RAM, replace fan about 1/4 inch higher than it should be.

Plugging stuff into the motherboard.

Video card manufacturers put cool designs on the top side of the card, but the card goes in the case face down. Odd.

Video card installed.

All wired up, and successfully powered on!

After a crazy amount of effort, I decide that this is as organized as my wiring is going to get.

Tada! (Bear sold separately).

Backyard Birding

2011-06-21T12:48:00.000-06:00

Mourning doves love to perch on our bench.

Sedum

2011-06-18T10:47:00.000-06:00

False Spirea

2011-06-14T12:20:00.000-06:00

Solomon's Seal

2011-06-10T12:13:00.002-06:00

Cactus

2011-06-02T18:51:00.001-06:00

Still relatively cool and wet weather. The showiest thing we have in the yard right now is a cactus.

Backyard Birding

2011-05-26T15:56:00.002-06:00

Most of the finches that visit our backyard are house finches or goldfinches, but every once in a while we get these Cassin's finches with crested heads.

Iris

2011-05-20T18:00:00.002-06:00

It's still unseasonably cool with a lot of overcast days. Irises are just about the only new flowers we have coming up.

Today in the Greenhouse

2011-05-13T10:56:00.000-06:00

Backyard Birding

2011-05-04T09:11:00.000-06:00

American Goldfinch. We have tons of these this year, which is nice. They aren't all this vivid -- we call ones like this the "super yellows."

Spring?

2011-05-03T09:00:00.000-06:00

It hasn't been the most prolific spring so far. First week of May, and we're still limited to tulips and daffodils.

Job Update

2011-05-02T08:47:00.003-06:00

Konnor is done with "Good Luck Charlie" and is enjoying some time off. Parts of the movie filmed in St. George, Utah, where Konnor took this photo. The color saturation is a real-life phenomenon -- no post-photo adjustments.

Jeff is still working on rebuilding all his online courses for the school's new system. For those of you in the education biz, the conversion is from Blackboard 8 to Blackboard 9.1. You'd think you could easily convert a course from one to the other, but alas, no. It will end up being much nicer for students though.

Plum

2011-04-27T16:18:00.001-06:00

Between the hailstorms and the house finches, we're soon not going to have any plum tree flowers left. Here's a house finch eating some flowers. His orange color is unusual.

Hail

2011-04-26T17:55:00.002-06:00

We've had a crazy amount of hail this spring; today was the largest hail yet.

Wine Tasting

2011-04-21T15:48:00.002-06:00

Here we have a bottle of 2007 Las Rocas Garnacha, a grenache produced by Bodegas San Alejandro in the Aragon region of Spain. Ruby in color. Cherry is the fruit that came to mind while drinking it, although it's not very fruity overall. Tobacco flavors, a bit spicy or peppery, and also a bit tart, but not overly so. We think it's a good value for $12. The Wine Advocate loves it with a 90 rating, and it's popular at Cellartracker with 177 comments averaging 88.

Today in the Greenhouse

2011-04-17T11:42:00.000-06:00

Backyard Birding

2011-04-13T11:34:00.002-06:00

Dark-eyed junco. A few of them have blue heads, but we haven't been able to get a picture of one of those.

Bonsai

2011-04-08T13:50:00.003-06:00

The leafy bonsai are starting to leaf out. This Japanese maple is way ahead of schedule.

Job Update

2011-04-04T10:48:00.003-06:00

One job secret is out! The Salt Lake Tribune, investigating why the Gateway was decorated for Christmas, ran a story outing the movie Konnor is working on as Good Luck Charlie, based on the Disney Channel show. (warning: auto music on opening).

Jeff's school has started its spring quarter, but rather than teaching, Jeff is redeveloping all the business courses for a shiny new online platform.

First

2011-03-30T14:15:00.001-06:00

Here is our first yard flower of the season. It actually bloomed about five days ago, but it's been buried under snow for most of the time since then.

Today in the Greenhouse

2011-03-28T10:30:00.001-06:00

Backyard Birds: Uncooperative Edition

2011-03-25T10:24:00.002-06:00

These birds had somewhere else to be.

Cell Phone Cam

2011-03-22T11:24:00.002-06:00

Wine Tasting

2011-03-18T14:14:00.002-06:00

We're no wine experts*, but we know a lot of you are wine drinkers, so we thought we might pass along some wine tasting notes every once in a while. We'll start with one of our favorites, Dr. Konstantine Frank Dry Riesling (2007), from the Finger Lakes region of New York. This makes in the cart every time we visit the wine store.

Appearance is yellow-gold to straw-yellow. Crisp smelling with citrus and pear. Taste is also of citrus, lemon if you made us pick a particular fruit, with pear, all very clean and crisp. Light to medium bodied. As the name suggests, dry compared to a typical Riesling, and very well balanced between fruit and acidity. Most reviews also note a mineral taste, but we don't quite have a grip of what mineral tastes like.** We can't imagine any foods that it couldn't be paired with, and it's also very good on its own.

Highly recommended, especially if you haven't had a Finger Lakes wine before, since the wine is typical of the region. $18 at the UT State Wine Store.

*(although one of us does have actual college credit for taking a wines course)

**(actual college credit notwithstanding)

Today in the Greenhouse

2011-03-11T10:20:00.001-07:00

Slc. Hsin Buu Lady 'Y.T.'

Backyard Birding & Miscellanea

2011-03-09T09:53:00.002-07:00

We had thought that spotted starling (last week's pic) versus shiny starling (below; click to enhance shininess) was a male/female thing, but it's actually a seasonal thing. Spotted = fall/winter; Shiny = spring/summer. Starlings come to our feeder only when there is lots of snow on the ground, but they do so by the dozen. This particular starling was showing off its mimicking skills -- in the five minutes we were listening, it did robin, quail, finch, chickadee, squirrel, and some originals.

Work has been very busy for both of us. The secret film Konnor's working on is shooting, and the secret university Jeff teaches at is changing online learning platforms. Not a lot of time to find pretty things to take pictures of. However, we are working on a few different things for the blog. Stay tuned.

Backyard Birding

2011-03-03T19:36:00.002-07:00

Starling. Click to embiggen.

View

2011-02-23T09:12:00.001-07:00

Out our front door, this morning.

Today in the Greenhouse

2011-02-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

Vera Cruz

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T12:54:00.001-07:00

A candy heart sign that you are getting old: when the messages on the hearts are simultaneously (a) something that couldn't be done when you were a kid, and (b) already behind the times.

Backyard Birding

2011-02-06T15:56:00.002-07:00

An increasingly rare event in our backyard -- capturing photos of bird species that we don't already have photos of. This is a ruby-crowned kinglet. Odds are that we've seen this type of bird in the backyard before, but didn't know it. In fact, in this case we thought we were taking pictures of finches eating seeds from our rudbeckia seed heads. When we pulled up the pictures on the computer, though, we saw the small bit of red on the bird's head, which sent us to our trusty Sibley Guide to Birds.

Today in the Greenhouse

2011-01-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

Cattleya percivaliana 'summit' x 'sonja'

Job Update?

2011-01-24T17:19:00.003-07:00

Konnor has started working on a new Disney film, but we can't tell you what it is. It's got a code name and everything. This goes along well with Jeff's university, which doesn't allow its name to be used on personal websites.

Student Protip: If you are going to claim that you were too sick to complete your assignment, don't say that you had an illness that was eradicated in the U.S. several decades ago.

Random Trivia: We love old game shows.

Not a Squirrel

2011-01-19T16:00:00.003-07:00

We recently put up a squirrel feeder. [We're sure that sounds strange to those of you who have to chase squirrels out of your attic, but we have only a few and they don't get on the house.] In any case, this photo shows the unexpected results.

Winter continues

2011-01-15T10:59:00.003-07:00

Sorry for the lack of photos lately. It seems like it's been overcast and generally ugly outside for weeks. There's a lot going on in the greenhouse though -- here's Laelia Stirling Dickinson.

Job Update

2011-01-03T20:20:00.003-07:00

Jeff was named Online Faculty Member of the Year! Showing you the top of this award would violate [Redacted] University's strange new "Social Media" policy relating to personal blogs. We think it's safe to tell you that today is the start of the winter quarter.

Konnor is enjoying some time off, with December and January being traditionally slow for the movie industry around here.

Today in the Greenhouse

2011-01-02T17:56:00.000-07:00

'11

2011-01-01T11:11:00.002-07:00

Sure, a bunch of people are noting things like it being 11:11 on 1/1/11 -- our contribution is that it's also 11°F. (And that's -11°C!) Happy below freezing new year!

Playing with Christmas Presents

2010-12-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

A Christmas Story

2010-12-25T08:26:00.003-07:00

From the Salt Lake Tribune this morning:

This Santa Claus might want to stick to sleighs.

A man in a Santa costume received a wild ride Friday when the hot air balloon carrying him blew across Midvale.

“We got Santa back,” said Midvale police Sgt. Torin Chambers. “Santa’s fine and everything’s good.”

The Santa and a pilot were supposed to land the balloon at Midvalley Elementary School as part of a fundraiser. But the balloon landed hard and the pilot fell out of the basket, Chambers said.

With less weight in the basket, the balloon took off with the Santa still inside. The balloon traveled 1.7 miles before losing air and landing at Brighton Place Apartments.

Chambers said citizens were following the balloon and helped police hold it to the ground when it reached the apartments. “Everybody was trying to save Santa,” Chambers said.

No one was injured.

Backyard Birding

2010-12-23T10:32:00.001-07:00

Christmas goose edition.

Yucca

2010-12-16T14:44:00.000-07:00

Birthday Menu

2010-12-14T12:30:00.000-07:00

Bambara, in the Hotel Monaco, is our favorite restaurant in Salt Lake. Thanks to our friend Art, the general manager, for a great birthday meal and the personalized menus!

Happy Birthday Cake!

2010-12-13T08:04:00.002-07:00

For Jeff's birthday, we made this cake with cannoli filling completely from scratch. We usually just buy some cake squares from the local bakery. Neither of us is a cake decorating expert, obviously, but it sure is yummy!

The View out our Window

2010-12-07T18:29:00.000-07:00

...before today's big thaw.

Today in the Greenhouse

2010-12-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

Pot. Red Crab x Blc. Oconee

Buddha hat

2010-11-30T15:38:00.002-07:00

Sorry for the lack of pretty pictures lately, but it's been ugly out there, with about twice as much snow as usual for November, and a string of record lows (new record low for November = 6F). Our Buddha statue now has a nice foot-high hat though.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T14:39:00.003-07:00

A huge thank you to Jennifer, Jason, and family for a delicious and fun Thanksgiving! Special thanks to Simon and Cynthia for the place tags!

Meet Buddy

2010-11-18T17:38:00.003-07:00

Here is our new dog Buddy. He's from the Humane Society and was up for adoption because his previous owners were having their first baby. He is two years old, half pit bull and half greyhound. He was at the Humane Society for two months, which we're guessing was because most people want puppies, people don't want pit bulls, and you needed to interact with him outside in the play area without 100 other dogs to see his real personality. We called him a bunch of different names for a couple weeks, but none of them stuck, so we kept his original name. He is fun, smart, and friendly. He's a great hiker and loves toys of both the squeak and rope varieties. He saves us the trouble of having to entertain him by throwing the toys around himself. He has a booming someone-I-don't-know-is-outside bark, and a completely different happy play bark. We were apprehensive about getting a new dog, but Buddy fits in really well.

Fall Ivy

2010-11-10T15:00:00.002-07:00

We planted ivy along the west side of the house last year so that the brick would absorb less late afternoon heat. The fall colors are bonus.

Today in the Greenhouse

2010-10-31T11:44:00.001-06:00

Our Halloween orchid.

Just in time

2010-10-28T19:51:00.003-06:00

In past years, we've winterized the koi pond by taking the steel railing off and replacing it with a covered wood frame sort of thing. Steel = heavy; wood frame thing = awkward; both = take up space. This year we simply made a box of insulation around the railing, and put a giant sheet of plastic over the whole thing (post photo). Just in time for four inches of snow and temperatures in the 30s. Whose crazy idea was it to put a pond half in and half out of a greenhouse anyway?

Fall Hike

2010-10-25T20:41:00.002-06:00

Shelly took some great photos while on a hike recently that we wanted to share:

Duck Release

2010-10-18T17:46:00.004-06:00

Day 62: The ducks started flying (we had to retrieve them from the neighbor's yard, in fact), so we brought them to Sugarhouse Park. They flew out of their tote and quickly started acting like they had always lived in the park - swimming around with other ducks (and geese), finding a family giving out bread, and generally doing what ducks do. We were happy to be able to release all eleven that we had originally caught.

The first day and the last day we had the ducks in our yard:

Fall Plants

2010-10-16T17:52:00.004-06:00

This begonia never bloomed when we had it in the house. This year we put it in a planter outside, and there you go.

Duck Walk

2010-10-12T18:52:00.005-06:00

Day 48: The ducks have all their feathers, but they don't fly yet. They run while flapping, but they don't get off the ground. Strangely, they are relatively cooperative in going back and forth between the pond and the dog crate, which is on the other side of the yard. When we open the dog crate, they simply walk (or run) to the pond. When we shoo them from the pond, they walk back into the crate. Granted, we've set up a sort of funnel to direct them that way, but they proceed orderly and without any fuss.

Fall Colors

2010-10-11T12:28:00.000-06:00

From a baby sumac tree in our backyard.

Duck Splash

2010-10-09T11:51:00.002-06:00

Day 34: The ducks are waterproof enough to stay in the pond as long as they want, and they now have most of their wing feathers. They love diving, splashing about cleaning themselves, and other crazy antics. We'd leave them out all the time, but they eat any plants they can find, and we don't want anything to eat the ducks at night. They outgrew the first cage we had them in, so we moved them to a huge dog crate.

Job Update

2010-10-08T10:17:00.003-06:00

Konnor is working on a film called "Darling Companion," with Diane Keaton and Kevin Kline. From IMDB, "A husband and wife set out on a search for the thing that keeps their marriage together: their dog, which went missing during a wedding at their second home." The writer also co-wrote Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. As you can see here, Konnor sometimes works with wild turkeys. Photo courtesy friend and co-worker Jason (not a turkey).

Jeff is in the first week of the fall quarter, teaching Investments, Derivatives, Managerial Economics, and Leadership.

Today in the Greenhouse

2010-10-02T13:43:00.000-06:00

The camera is potentially yummy.

2010-09-28T08:40:00.002-06:00

Day 26: Many more feathers, although still not waterproof, as you can see. We learned that male ducklings have greenish-yellow bills, while females have orange bills. We had four males and seven females. Also, using their bills, ducks will inspect absolutely everything for edibility. This includes camera lenses.

Deadhead Day

2010-09-25T16:47:00.003-06:00

We have a lot of rudbeckias. So many, in fact, that we have to schedule half a day to trim them back. We hope to be rewarded with a second bloom in a few weeks. This photo of one of our rudbeckia patches is from about a month ago.

Backyard Bugging

2010-09-23T17:48:00.003-06:00

The Google tells us that this is a red-banded leafhopper. We also saw one that was blue and red instead of green and red.

Duck Feathers

2010-09-19T17:51:00.003-06:00

Day 20: The ducks are big enough to put in a cage we happened to have. Every time we had tried this previously, they escaped through the bars. It's amazing how quickly they grow. They enjoyed being able to hang out in the grass instead of a tote. They especially liked when we would leave the hose on to make it swampy so they could dabble. You can also see in the photo that they had just started getting real feathers at this point.

Pete

2010-09-15T18:43:00.007-06:00

Pete (a.k.a Petey; a.k.a Mister Pete) has passed away from anemia, most likely caused by cancer. He went quickly and with little apparent pain after just a few days of listlessness. Pete was twelve years old, and we had him for over eleven of that. We rescued him from the Humane Society, where Pete was the one sprinting back and forth in the dog run jumping clear over all the other dogs.

Pete especially liked hiking, playing in the snow, people, and dogs. His few dislikes included cats, squirrels, fireworks, and bubble wrap. His favorite game was "attack the oven mitt." In his younger days, his sign of affection was to try to knock you over. He was humorously klutzy. He had what we called a "roo" instead of a bark, and not paying enough attention to him earned you a roo or two along with a snout to your elbow. In this photo, Pete is about one year old.

Pete was a very good dog and had a good life. We will miss him.

At the Fair

2010-09-14T15:40:00.003-06:00

From our visit to the Utah State Fair: Entrance with the Capitol Building in the background; Shelly with a goat; the Ferris wheel; a shockingly colorful game booth.

Duck Pond

2010-09-12T20:01:00.003-06:00

Day 14: Ducklings' first day in our small pond. They lasted only a few minutes before becoming water-logged, but they were smart enough to jump out when necessary.