YouTube Partner Program Back Up and Running!

Well, it appears I have not blogged on this site since February when YouTube announced the demonetization plans. I'll admit I do the majority of my writing and video editing during the dark cold months so it's only fitting that I restart with entry at the beginning of Autumn! After a long hot summer my Channel finally hit 1000 subscribers and the requisite 4000 hours of Watchtime per past 365 days. While this is by no means a windfall in the grand scheme of things, it is a good feeling.

A double wammy on the YouTube channel struck as the demonetization went lock and step with the laptop absolutely imploding. I put in a new motherboard, usb board, power button, 8 G ram stick, battery and power supply, NOTHING! the only thing left that was original is the fan but even with that unplugged I get no lights. I'll probably continue tinkering with it as I hate to give up when I'm defeated but we'll start the HP Pavilion 15 obituary soon. The more important thing is the next phase. I'll be adding some random tech entries (as if I know what the hell I'm talking about) as I build the next generation computer. Editing video shot with my new Nikon D5600 brought the laptop to a standstill reminiscent of my college days trying to render video, computer animation, and autocad files. We only had one computer in the lab for rendering and you had to sign up for a timeslot with your anticipated final files size! A stack of sticky notes was always handy to jot down your name and location (ie, coffee shop, bar, couch...) as we didn't have cell phones!

Stay tune and check out the build, I'll have some YouTube videos coming up as well and a list of parts still waiting for funding on over on my Patreon page! 

Mulching the orchard with the wood chipper

Although it is still considered Winter I am getting excited about this Spring's gardening. I plan on taking the orchard to the next level this year and have the next phase of the food forest installed. So far we have our Fruit trees laid out with Plum, Persimmon, and Apricot in the first tier terrace, Italian Prune (Plum) in the second terrace, Cherry in the third, Pear in the fourth and Apple in the fifth.



Each terrace has a row of fragrant herds for scent masking, pollinator attractant and cooking/ medicinal uses. these include Rosemary, Lavendar, Valerian, Borage and Sage.



Another row of flowers for attracting pollinators includes Columbine, Foxglove and Lupine (also a nitrogen fixer)



In between the fruit trees running perpendicular to the herbs and flowers are Goji Berry bushes. these are both extremely nutritious but also provide nitrogen to the soil. Along the edge, also running perpendicular to the herbs and flowers is  a row of ceonothus acting as both a pollinator attractant and a nitrogen fixer.



As the trees will take time to mature this year I will be adding bean and pea trellises to produce vegtables as well as fix nitrogen in the soil. The trellises are being contructed out of Alder that we acquired this year and will be inocculated with mushroom plugs. Like I said, I'm getting excited about what is in effect Year 4 for our Orchard and Garden turned Permaculture. Check out some of the videos on YouTube and Subscribe, we need all the help we can get! Also check out some of the links for products I use around the yard!



Like the new Nikon D5600 I picked up to help up the quality of the YouTube channel and spme of the photographs I put up on the blog!



http://amzn.to/2HeG2ws

Upgrading to the New Nikon D5600 DSLR

Awhile back I made the decision to up my game a little bit in terms of photography. After cycling through several point and shoot cameras that had dismal battery life and frustratingly small storage capabilities with relatively crappy resolution it was time to do some real documentation. For those of you who stumbled upon this blog from my youtube channel, you'll be happy to know that future projects will be filmed in HD!

So after playing with the settings, reading several other blogs and watching some youtube videos I feel comfortable announcing this new upgrade. All in all I am very happy with this camera, not the highest end of the spectrum but right where I need to be between amateur and semi-pro. The video feature is limited due to both over heating and apparently  some stupid import tax on the difference between cameras and video cameras, kinda sucked finding that out after I bought it.

So in the future some of my blog posts will be far less text and alot more pictures! Here's tow links to the Nikon D5600.





                                                                           

And here are the first few photos.....................