Join me online Sunday, July 12!

Photo: Nephew Gabito inspects our latest Museum acquisition, ca 2011

The inevitable soon becomes necessary?

On Sunday I’ll be launching my first official Museum Livestream on Youtube. It was inevitable, since I’ve always wanted to livestream some of my Nomad Solar Cooking experiences. But also with the September Solar Cooking Festival fast approaching, now it’s necessary. I’m set to do at least two during the Festival trip, with another dozen possible. I want to get familiar with YT’s livestream setup so I can make the best use of the service and its features.

I’m taking a risk by scheduling this four days from now. The weather outlook is for full sun on Sunday, but when I scheduled my backyard deck solar brunches I always waited until two days before: the forecast had to be for full sun the day before and day of the brunch...because any outlook further in the future, could flip from sun to rain or cloudy to sunny. So, knock wood, roll the dice, hang that horseshoe over your barn door…and we shall have sun enough to cook. The weather reporting cabal really should change the term “outlook” to read “best guess scenario.” Forecasts however, are pretty good 48 hours in advance.

While tending to many cookers, I’ll answer as many questions as I dare. Not just what I can share about solar cooking, but also about the Festival. But don’t count on me for that! You’re welcome to log in and in the video comments, ask and answer as you feel moved to do so.

If you are in Minneapolis and can swing down to our south central neighborhood of Lyndale, come on by any time between 10am and 2pm. Our brunches always ran to nearly dinner time, and this one can as well, so you can log in at any time during the first four hours. Unless we have a technical failure, or storm clouds roll in, we should be able to make it to 2pm at least.

Other livestreams around the world are being organized for September’s Festival. I’ll post here when they are confirmed. Some might launch at 2 in the morning Minnesota time, as the hosts will be in India or Asia. As they confirm with me, I’ll add their links to this newsletter’s daily update and schedule.

If you’ve visited YT livestreams you know that the conversation can take place in the comment section. For the Festival we’ll have many other livestreams using Zoom, where you can enjoy some virtual face and speech time with the rest. I’ve upgraded my Museum Zoom account so up to 300 can log in. If more than 300 do, well, as we used to say at the Lyndale Neighborhood Association, “That’s a problem we’d love to have.” All of our topical panel discussions will take place Zoom.

A couple tips that will be included in the thumbnail and description for the Festival livestreams: Set captions if you are hard of hearing or are viewing in a noisy environment :) Also, YT is pretty good about near-real-time translation of said captions to numerous languages.

I hope you can join us on the deck, on July 12! Please do forward the YT link to friends & family, and share on your own social media apps!

Luther