In my town we're still experiencing a most peculiar summer. Although we did have a couple of days of temperatures hovering around 90 degrees in July, most days have been more like spring. The high and low temps today, for example, are expected to be 75 and 51.

August is National Wellness Month. The thumbnail rose is 'Well Being,' one of my favorite Harkness roses.

It's Martha Stewart's birthday.

zuzu said: It's Martha Stewart's birthday.

• Rose (Rosa 'Living')
• Uploaded by zuzu

What would we do without Martha!!

It is refreshing to hear about cooler than average weather even if it is far away. The month and day representative roses are lovely as always!

It's Regatta Day.

Regatta day seems like the perfect day to share photos of a new 50-foot bamboo mast that I've lashed to the trunk of one of the garden's yew trees. No, the purpose isn't to attach a cloth sail to it; rather, it's to attach a 60-foot long copper wire radio antenna to the top of it. The wire will run 45-50 feet above ground (parallel to the earth's surface) to the top of a 50 foot yew tree in the back corner of the garden. I'm an FCC licensed amateur radio operator, and have been using a relatively small vertical antenna up to this point. But I recently passed the FCC exam for an advanced license that will allow me to transmit and receive signals across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and that requires a much more powerful antenna.

I harvested the bamboo mast yesterday from a grove on the other side of our neighborhood. The pole is incredibly strong but pliable, very thick at the base, and perfectly straight. And best of all, it's free, unlike the $400 it would cost to purchase a fiberglass mast of the same height.




This afternoon I climbed up to the top of the other yew tree that the antenna will be attached to, in order to prepare one of the branches with attachment hardware. It's about 50 feet tall, so it doesn't need a mast. Here's a photo I took a couple of hours ago while sitting in the top of the tree, looking out toward the bamboo mast in the opposite yew tree.



Regarding safety, it's quite easy to climb yew trees because there are so many sturdy branches in close proximity to each other. They create what amounts to a spiral step ladder, although I did take my "pocket" chain saw with me to do some trimming along the way, which made maneuvering a little easier. I can reach the top of the tree from the ground in about a minute of careful climbing, and at the age of 59, I have to admit it made me feel like a kid again.

Congratulations, Mike! Those are exciting accomplishments - both the advanced license and the antenna installation! I have this image of you walking through the neighborhood carrying that mast - not, surly, a one=man job. I'd like to hear how you are going to run the wire from point to point.

Thanks very much! I was afraid I would end up having to carry the pole over my shoulder through the neighborhood, stopping to explain it at every house along the way. But fortunately, I was able to open the hatch of my SUV, pull one end of the pole up to the passenger seat, tie the middle of the pole to the cargo hooks in back of the SUV, and then drag the rest of it on the road behind me with my flashers on. Fortunately I didn't pass any cars along the three blocks back to my house, and only had to explain myself to one curious and skeptical neighbor!

WOW - I'm so impressed - I loved climbing trees when I was a child.

Here's a schematic of the antenna, known as a balanced dipole. The distance between the two trees is 90 feet, but the copper wire antenna is just 60 feet, so both ends of the copper wire are attached to 15 feet of nylon antenna cord, and the other end of each cord is attached to the top of the pole or tree. In truth, one of the nylon cords isn't just 15 feet long, it's actually about 65 feet long, because the additional 50 feet runs through a pulley back down the entire length of the tree to about a foot off the ground, where it's attached to a heavy, suspended "floating" weight, that keeps the entire apparatus pulled taught, especially when wind blows the tree branches around. Also, the bamboo will have a couple of guy-lines attached to other trees to keep it from bowing under the weight of the antenna wire, or from swaying in the wind.

A separate "ladder line" of wire will be attached at a 90 degree angle to the middle of the copper antenna wire, and it will run to the radio tuner, whose job it is to match the electrical impedance in the antenna to the electrical impedance in a coaxial cable that runs from the tuner back to the radio and power supply.

I'm amazed at your abilities, Mike. The radio ( I'm thinking Ham? ) will be so interesting as you will be able to speak to people across the seas. Now when it comes to climbing 50 feet up a tree I have to ask you what can't you do???
BTW, congratulations on all this!

Yes, Annie, it's ham radio. My father was a ham for decades, and after he passed away earlier this year at the age of 93, the FCC granted my request to change my station's call sign of KE2BPF to my father's original call sign of WA4ARB. My dad used to build radios out of spare parts as a kid, and then went on to college to get three masters degrees (one in electrical engineering, another in physics/statistics, and a third in communications technology), and he worked for Bell Labs his entire career. I'll never possess the technical knowledge that he did, but it's nice to continue his legacy.

Mike said: Yes, Annie, it's ham radio. My father was a ham for decades, and after he passed away earlier this year at the age of 93, the FCC granted my request to change my station's call sign of KE2BPF to my father's original call sign of WA4ARB. My dad used to build radios out of spare parts and a kid, and then went on to college to get three masters degrees (one in electrical engineering, another in physics/statistics, and a third in communications technology), and he worked for Bell Labs his entire career. I'll never possess the technical knowledge that he did, but it's nice to continue his legacy.

That is wonderful. My father used to poke around on his tool table and could make and repair lots of things. I think we both had great dads. My husband and I used to transmit on CB radios as he was a long distance truck driver. We met some of the nicest people way back then and am still in touch with a couple of them. Lots of good memories!

It's National Michael Day.

Perfect!

What a cute baby.

You were a cute one Mike!!

Blooming in the garden today are...

Iceberg


Queen of Elegance


Ch-Ching!


Benjamin Britten


George Burns


Precious Dream


Cinco de Mayo


Cherry Parfait


Paloma Blanca


Pink Intuition


Love and Peace


Crown Princess Margareta


Twilight Zone

It's Meghan Markle's birthday.