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Cables, Coffee, Cycles, and Cocktails


Tarheel

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As you might imagine, our Sunday morning phone conversation with our police officer son was very interesting.

 

I won't go into the details here, as I wouldn't want to jeopardize the long term viability of this thread.  I'll share his insights and experiences in another thread (see: https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/164979-advice-regarding-police-interactions/).  That way, when the all but inevitable posts in violation of TOS appear, that thread can get locked and this one can live on.

 

Enjoy your day.  Be considerate of your fellow passengers on this tiny lifeboat we call Earth.

Edited by DizRotus
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We are grillin & chillin on the deck....grill fired up....tiki's all lit up....

 

Great looking area, I love the tiki torches.  :emotion-21:  

 

Don't know why some people freak over bats, I think they say they eat there weight in bugs every day. 

Edited by dtel
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Now, I have installed newer high tech low voltage lighting at two neighbors homes.   Yesterday installed 4 Hampton Bay 50 watt wide spot LED heads under as many trees at a home directly across the road from us.   Put over 100' of power cable under the mulch etc.   They had an elect. contractor install an outdoor duplex for my use with a timer/transformer.  Last night, everything went on around 8:30pm.  Looks very nice.  

 

 

Just got done installing some led garden and path lights yesterday, I think it turned out great, well much better than darkness. I did the walkway to the bar and some of the trees in the garden surrounding the bar. It's the plain little Malibu style plastic path lights and floods. I had these years ago and they last a long time, the only problem back then was bulbs burning out since they were only rated for 2000 hours. I want with the plastic trying to keep the cost down, I bought the standard incandescent bulbs kit and bought the replacement led's sold on ebay. It turned out much cheaper to do it this way, 10 path lights 48 watt transformer and wire $43, 2.5 watt led replacement bulbs with 68 led's in each bulb $27 for 10 bulbs.

 

I found a place online with floods 10 at $5.40 each free shipping and $16 for 12 of the 1.2 watt leds. Total that one little 48 watt transformer now has 20 bulbs on it totaling 37 watts, it was 40 watts with just the 10 incandescent bulbs and the led are rated at 60,000 + hours. (so they say ?)

 

One day soon I will try to get some pic's to give you an idea. 

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Edited by dtel
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Very nice dTel....  Yes. those are for the older style Malibu lights...  I remember trying to use one at my mom's to light up the flag at night.   It worked, until she hit the wire while trimming the hedges !!   I made the repair and she was back in business...

 

My older Malibu set are all true 50 - 20 - 10 watt  halogens and I am changing them out slowly.  The new fixtures I have been putting in are from Hampton Bay as mentioned.   A set of four are $100 at HD.   One of my neighbors GAVE me the two extra left over from their package and claim it is NOT part of my payment.....that is very nice of them.   I will get some photos of those heads. 

 

The transformers I installed are all like my largest one - 600 watts!   Then I have some of the more modern versions with digital timers in them with back up battery, very nice should the power go out, no resetting...  Plus, they have every option under the sun for shutting down and turning on etc...

 

Ok, all for the moment, dinner going right now...

 

..............g

Edited by Tigerman
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Back to the lead topic for this thread "coffee" - there have been many varieties of coffee making appliances mentioned/used, how many use the French press? After a light diner I decided to break mine out for a taste; purty damned tasty. Full bodied, bold, vibrant to the tongue yet easily swallowed with a strong hint of - rich, black coffee! Not bad --

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The transformers I installed are all like my largest one - 600 watts!  

 

That's a big transformer, but your running much more powerful lights so it's better to be safe. 600 watts can go a long way with LED's

 

The garden surrounding the bar was not lit at all unless we lite the tiki torches and that's not always convenient or cheap, well refilling them is just messy.

 

The bar is lit well either with the lights in the ceiling and under the front of the bar, not even counting all the candles used in different ways. The biggest problem was the walkway about 50' to the bar was dark and when in the bar you couldn't really see the garden past the glow of the bar lights. So I just added the floods to give the base of the trees some light, 7 Crepe Myrtles, one large Sasanqua camellia and 2 Japanese maples , one large.

 

It just gives a little accent light to be able to see a little out past the bar area, I didn't want it bright at all, part of the reason all bar lights are dimmers.

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Anybody here do cold brewed coffee? I don't mean hot brewed coffee that's been chilled...

 

A french press works for hot and cold.

I dig it with some Almond Joy non-dairy creamer . I also use a shot of cold espresso in my daily mixed berry and protein smoothy made with coconut milk and a dash of cocoa powder .

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Yes, yes on the French press.........Chris and I were hooked on that for a long while........then I decided to try the glass percolator and really enjoy it........the drip maker is used from time to time still....

 

dTel, sounds like you did the right thing with the up lighting!  Yeah, the tikki torches are messy, some I have seen burn down = catch fire !!, also smokey too  :o !  (sorry MKP......I see you have them...maybe you could add a comment?)

 

Ok, lets get some photos of our lighting and share right here with coffee mugs in one hand of course (and an adult beverage in the other)  :lol: ...

Edited by Tigerman
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Yes I've done cold brewing and think I still have the kit around somewhere. I forget the brand name and didn't take the time to look it up but it uses quite a bit of coffee. I believe you use something like a half pound of coffee, pour water over the grounds and let it run through a small filter at the bottom of a funnel type container. Place this funnel over a carafe and let the the filtered water/coffee run into the carafe, store in 'fridge till ready to use then pour the highly condensed coffee liquid to a cup and heat. Makes for a very clean, robust cup. Very rich tasting.

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I do French Press occasionally when I want a serious caffeine hit.....I drink very strong coffee made through my Chemex anyway, but the French Press really gives me a kick.

 

These folks have great advice and guidance on the many different methods of making one of my favorite beverages....

 

https://www.stumptowncoffee.com/brew-guides/french-press

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Ok, lets get some photos of our lighting and share right here with coffee mugs in one hand of course (and an adult beverage in the other)  ...

 

 

Got some pic's, I put a bunch so you could see what I was talking about, the walkway was dark and you really couldn't see much past the bar area except from the lights under the bar roof.

 

I just did the base of some trees just to have it look a little bigger and see more of the garden, it feels bigger being able to see out a little further. I really like the difference, none of the outside tiki torches were lit in these pic's..

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Edited by dtel
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Good morning my  friends.........   :emotion-44:  :emotion-44:  :emotion-44:

 

dTel, thanks so much for the photos.  EXCELLENT work with that lighting and I could not have done a better job myself :wink: !

 

I have always been partial to lighting up the bark of trees and seeing how it plays off the underside of the leaves!   Just finished doing this for one of my neighbors.  There trees are over 60 feet up, so I used a narrow focus LED 50w equiv.   Two of them to reach the underside of the tops, and then two wide focus (75 degree beam) for some shorter trees providing more of a 'wash'.    

 

Ok, I will have to get some photos together for you this week....

 

........off to work now..... :wacko2:

 

...........Gary

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Mornin' all. Haven't checked in for a couple of days.

 

Great pics dtel. Thanks for sharing ... you've given me some ideas for our place.

 

Nothing but hot temps out here ...just made plans to go to the mountains in a few weeks to escape the heat and give Better Half a break from work. Maybe a little fly fishing. Despite the nasty temps, been doing a lot of cooking outdoors. Hickory smoked ribs and mesquite grilled ribeyes. Not likely to starve anytime soon.

 

Enjoy your day. Cheers .............

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