Backyard Design

Was trying to figure out what to do with the backyard so I asked for a simple layout with a tree in it.  As you can tell there is no tree in this yard and most of it is shrubs instead of vegetables.

I have to admit the layout looks nice but it doesn't even come close to what I asked it to do.

First off I gave it dimensions and where to put things in a layout design.  This is not oriented correctly and there are things all over the place that have no reason for being there.

The furniture, where did that come from?  And there's so much of it.   I think if I did put furniture in the backyard it would probably not be this much or it would be consistent on whether or not it was on grass or a deck.

And there are so many things for shade here but I don't really see any shade on the ground.  It's like there is the idea that it would be nice but the light must be coming from the air and so the trellis, umbrella, and pergola don't really do anything to keep you safe.  It's the kind of place where you would know that something was off if you were there but might not figure out what.

There also doesn't seem to be any access to the table and chairs on the grass.  You'd have to step over the plants.  I'm also pretty sure that on the right corner that that's actually a huge tissue box.  And at the top it looks like a secret garage door that is partially open. 

This could possibly be a cool writing prompt to see why some of these things are placed where they are.  What exactly is in that strange short garage anyway?

Boletus Mushroom

This is one of a few boletus mushrooms I found in a yard the other day.  I didn't pick them though since they looked so pretty and they weren't in my yard.

Since I didn't pick them, I also didn't test them to see if they were of an edible variety.  The initial look though is promising.  Wild harvesting mushrooms is not a thing around here either so there's only a slim chance that these would ever be picked.

I find that mushrooms are much more likely to be left alone and admired for the look of them in an area.  We've had a lot of rain recently and so there are more mushrooms than usual popping up.

Backyard Cooking

This is one of the better frames from the video I was able to capture. It looks bigger here than its usual flame height but this also give a better view of what it looks like.

We picked this up at Kohl's while standing in line to buy towels for the guest bathroom.  It's the perfect size to roast marshmallows.  The marshmallows we cooked were very small though but that's just because that was what we had on hand at the time.  We plan to cook bigger stuff in the near future but I'm sure it's up to it.  It runs off of rubbing alcohol from 70-90 percent.  You know I'm going to put some 99 in there though and see how well it can burn.

I did a temperature test not too long ago where I tested different strengths of alcohol to see what the temperature difference would be.  They're not too different but they do go up.

This burner also has a wick though which helps the alcohol have more surface area to create the fumes needed to burn.  It's the gas not the liquid that actually does the burning.  Once it mixes in the air with oxygen it can combust.

Since I mentioned it I figure I should just go ahead and post the test results here from the burn test.

Performed a quick test since I really wanted to know the answer to this question as well.
Burned about 2 Tablespoons of different percentages of isopropyl alcohol in a copper censer and used a K2 pyrometer model DP-902F to measure the temperature.

The results:

70% alcohol observed a maximum temperature of 1210°F

91% alcohol observed a maximum temperature of 1300°F

99% alcohol observed a maximum temperature of 1430°F

Facing North

You may have heard about cat's insane ability to find their way back home from even a long way away.  It's true that cats have a remarkable ability to navigate the world but so far there hasn't been enough evidence that they have any sort of internal compass.  It's more likely that they use their other highly tuned senses to make their way through the world.

Our cats however don't have to worry about navigating the world, they're inside cats and merely have to navigate the house.  It's so much simpler.  We just moved and this is our first home with them but their third home that they've had to get used to.  They're adjusting nicely though and seem to already think they own the place.

That all said I can't figure out why they decided at this point to both sit in a doorway facing north.  They are usually running around or lying in a box, or on their cat tree on one of the many many levels, (I'll get into that at another time but I don't understand why there are so many cat trees that should really be called a cat bush or even just a cat chair....) or gnawing on each other as they still fight for who's the dominate cat.   But here they are spaced apart just sitting there.  I can't explain it.

Does anyone else have a cat (or other pet) that seems to face north or any other direction.  They rarely face north but they also rarely are just sitting there so there's that.