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Sauk Centre, Minnesota: near the corner of Ash Street and South 9th.
(Please, be patient. The live streaming video starts after a (relatively) short canned commercial.)

Monday, July 27, 2009

I Overslept

There are about 12 minutes of "morning" left in the Central time zone, where I live. I got the webcam up and running a minute ago, so it did return 'in the morning.' With 13 minutes to spare.

I overslept.

That's the disadvantage of using the USTREAM service. It's great: quite reliable, pretty good image quality. But, it makes demands on my system that make shutting down now and again to let the system sort itself out a very good idea.

Besides, my computer is about five years old, and I have to keep it running as long as I can. My budget is so tight, eagles on my quarters are screaming.

Enough venting for now: Enjoy the show!

Friday, July 24, 2009

Harvester Waiting at the Corner

"Nothing runs like a Deere."

"Harvester on the Street"

Aluwir, USTREAM (July 24, 2009)
video 0:56

Not every farm in this area uses John Deere equipment, but quite a few do. This harvester - a combine without the header equipment, I think - is the sort of rig that drives by from time to time. I live on one of the more logical routes into town, from anywhere south and east of town.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

'Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control - - - '

Somewhere in the 24 hours or so after midday Tuesday, this webcam stopped broadcasting. My best guess is that my computer tried to reboot itself and didn't quite manage the trick.

I'd have noticed, and done something about it, earlier: but I was out of town at the time.

A tip of the hat to my oldest daughter, for putting Small Town America: Minnesota back online this afternoon.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Oriole!

Not long ago, I noticed a bird on the webcam monitor: more than twice the size of the hummingbirds I've seen here in central Minnesota. Taking a careful look out the window, I saw a dark-backed bird with orangish stripes on its wings. I'm no expert, but I think it's an oriole. Baltimore oriole, most likely.

That's the first one I've seen at the feeder.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Webcam's Back!

The webcam's been offline for a few days, but I've got it working. For now. I'm still not quite sure what happened before: but around noon today I got a working signal from the webcam itself, and started the feed going.

About the video quality: My equipment can handle the 23 fps that USTREAM supports, but providing that sort of smooth video takes resources that I need for other purposes.

So, I cut the frame rate down to two frames a second: which should be good enough to catch the hummingbirds that come to the feeder, and still leaves my other software with room to work.

Finally: I'd love to have this webcam on 24/7/365, but will need to stop broadcasting now and again. Thunderstorms, system reboots, and my efforts to keep this five-year-old set of machinery running don't leave me with much of a choice.

But, if at all possible, I'll have the broadcast on ASAP - or by around 9:00 the following morning, Central time.

An Early Summer Morning in Small Town America

I took this photo on Wednesday, July 1, 2009. It's what you'd have seen at the time, if the webcam had been working. More about that in another post.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Webcam? What Webcam?

The webcam delivered live streaming video all afternoon. The, after a reboot of my computer, the software can't find the webcam hardware.

Frustrating, rather.

I've spent enough time on that today: and I've got other tasks to get done. So, instead of leaving the display blank, I'm showing what the webcam would have seen this morning.

Live Video: Grass, Cars, Bicyclers, and Intermittent Hummingbirds

As of about 1:00 p.m., Central time, I've had live streaming video up and working: thanks to my son-in-law-to-be. Enjoy.

A New Approach

My son-in-law-to-be took a look at my webcam and the system I used for posting pictures. He thinks he's got a better idea: and I think he's right.

If all goes well, we should have up-to-date photos available later today.
("Following" list moved here, after Blogger changed formats)

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