Brian's Morning Newsletter
February 1st 2010
Good Morning
At some point over this excruciatingly arduous weekend I found time to paint another aquatic rodent: Brian's new beaver! Yippee! Yes, I'm having fun with painting, I hope it shows. The painting already looks different than the photograph. I changed a few things from the first morning's work. I've been experimenting with various shades and colors trying to add perspective and depth to the painting. I think I got something to work with his right fore-paw, so much so that it stands out too much. That's okay, now I need to figure out what I did and try and perfect it.
I don't know if you want to hear about everything I'm doing with my paintings, but I guess it's okay to elaborate with the entertainment side of life, doubtlessly I've bored some of you to tears with technical information all these years. So here goes some more mingling.
There is one happy camper, Jackson looking more gleeful than tired, but I know the truth, we kicked ass all day long, fitting, cutting and nailing one by six tongue and groove flooring. Snow was melting in the front yard and spilling down on the areas where I had shoveled after the snow on Thursday, What was nearly dry from the warm sun, was getting wet again through melt off. Jack spread hay around the front yard where we had saw- horses set up and the miter saws. Anyway we tracked mud in, there wasn't anyway around it.
These photos were taken late Saturday afternoon, after it began to dawn on us that the nailer and compressor were going to be needed for another day. Yeah, the two of us made it almost all the way to the door of the bedroom, but we were hurtin, seriously. That was around four, Jack and dad went to town at 7:30AM to get the nailer, I was there at his house clearing everything out of the rooms at 8:30. Louie arrived shortly thereafter with a truckload of tools.
Laying flooring is fun in a way. After a while I realized it is really hard work. So besides fitting the pieces, it's all about the bending over, except for the getting up and going outside to cut boards. Unexpectedly, Louie had to leave before noon for a while, so it was just Jack and me. It turned out Louie got hung up and Jack and I were on our own for the day. It turns out the Rodgers' boys are pretty good flooring installers.
Our old camera combined with the dirt on the floor makes for a crappy image. These boards from Old Wood Flooring are perfect. We had only one piece that we didn't use, all the rest fit together perfectly. I don't have pictures of the bedroom floor, or maybe I do, but the camera I think is still at Jack's. Anyway the Near Clear Pine we installed in the bedroom were all long boards; covering the whole floor plus a six or eight inch piece which we staggered from one end to the other. When we were finished with the bedroom I quickly counted the knots in David's Near Clear wood, "One, two, three," in the whole room!
In the above image the pine is still bundled in the freshly painted bedroom.
I want to thank Louie especially for his help this weekend. We heard bad news on Sunday, Bill Anderly is in the hospital in Albuquerque with congestive heart failure. Louie said they don't think he is going to survive. Bill and Linda live next door to Louie and Prissy, we are all good friends. We bought the used sealed cell batteries from Bill and Linda, they live off-grid in Canyoncito. Jona Louie and I drove over to their place on Sunday afternoon to see if we could get the electrical back up and running since Linda is still in Albuquerque with Bill.
They've got a Chinese low-RPM diesel powered generator as backup to eight photovoltaic panels. Not knowing what Bill's routine was to start and switch over the solar to diesel we brought Jona who is an electrician. It turns out the photovoltaics had charged the batteries enough to turn the pellet stove on and the house was warm again, which was a good thing because I couldn't get the diesel engine to run. It really made me worry what would become of all my DIY renewable energy projects if I wasn't here to flip the right switches in the right order.
Today, I don't know how Jack's going to do it, but the plan is to return the nailer & compressor and rent a orbital floor sander. I'm feeling terribly guilty, in part because I told Slim I would work with him today, and partly because I am utterly exhausted, and when I opened up my email this morning I saw a message from Desertgate that I am scheduled to do a WiFi installation in Pendarais this morning.
Torn is three directions at once.
Don't know which way to go, leaning toward working at the mill though, Slim uses Budweiser as lubricant.
Bueno-bye then
Brian Rodgers
Letters
Greetings from your reader in Serafina!
On top of our supplemental power household power list is an good inverter. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to save anything toward the estimated $1800.00 piece of the renewable energy setup. It is still in my mind to run a single 115 volt AC line from the shop back here to the house and run our appliances off the wind turbine, but we need a decent inverter to do this, because the less expensive units are hard on appliances and inefficient at converting battery power to household power, and one thing I have learned about renewable energies is we need to use all of the power generated, not 60% or even 80%, we want to use it all, like if possible 95% with only 5% loss. [You mean 95% of the AC power generated which, due to derating (inefficiencies in the equipment), is 58 or 67% of the miniscule part of the total solar irradiation that is being converted to electricity; for photovoltaics, anyway. So, because we have batteries, we use the lower derating value, 58%. Our system has 3.12kW nominal DC generating capacity. 3.12 x 0.58 = 1.81kW -120 VAC/. Additionally, I have found out that the 240 VAC capacity is limited for solar. If you do what we did, you install a transformer for $300 and are limited to one 25A circuit. To get more current, I'd have to buy another inverter at the aforementioned $1800+.]
Another consideration in purchasing an inverter is interconnection with household power, the new systems have all sorts of beneficial features: Battery charging circuitry, grid-tie abilities, power management programming, remote meters, so we can tell what's going on here in the house with a system setup out in the shop. I love the idea of anti-islanding too, but I don't know what's happening with this currently. My understanding is this means if the grid goes down, the home generation equipment stops sending power out the grid, while still powering the home, unlike most grid tie systems, where the home power goes out when the grid does, even if photovoltaics (PVs) are still producing power.[This is the system we have, a grid-connected PV sytem with 2 days battery backup. Grid-tie is the cheapest type of system.]
John Offersen
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Thanks for the letter and info John
Brian
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I think the lifeforms on it are lichen.
Lichen is very cool stuff.
Not just one type of lifeform, lichen is an organized symbiont of fungus and algae. Either, apart from the other, would not be able to live on a rock under the conditions they do. The algae lacks the moisture and minerals which would enable it to survive. The fungus cannot access the sugars which it needs to survive. So they form a cooperative arrangement. The fungus secretions dissolve the rock, liberating minerals which feed the algae, and the fungus provides moisture and a protected environment for the algae as well. The algae takes the water and minerals, and photosynthesizes, manufacturing the sugars which the fungus needs to survive.
http://www.earthlife.net/lichens/lichen.html
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Thanks Lee
Yeah, the locals call these rocks "Moss-Rock," so I started to call them that as well.
As happily practicing hippies, we would say witty things like," I like em, da lichen."
Brian
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Well, I'm glad I went out to the old Anderson farm on Wednesday afternon and chainsawed-up two big old dead elm trees… bucked the wood into stove-sized rounds and hauled home an over-loaded truckload in the little S-10 Chevie…
Yesterday morning started with a little 0.5-inch skiff of snow around 6:00 am… then around 8:30 the real snowstorm started. By noon we had 6-7 inches on flat level ground in protected places… wind from the northeast at about 25-30 mph and drifts of 2.0-2.5 feet around buildings here in downtown Mosquero.
Then in mid-afternoon, some real snow started falling, wind eased back to 5-10 mph, and it came down thick. By late afternoon, the NM State Hwy Dept had plowed-up a 5-foot high, 8-foot wide pile in the middle of Main Street, and the drift in front of my front door and the honeyhouse next door was up to 3.5 feet deep and eight feet wide. Snow on the level ground in my garden on the east side of the house iis about 2 feet deep this morning. It's hard to figure exact snowfall, since the wind blew it around so that some places there are 4-foot drifts, other near corners of buildings only 2-3 inches. I'd say about 16-18 inches overall.
Anyway, from 9:00 to 10:00 am, only one vehicle has moved in the village… a through-traveler from west to east. All the vilklage streets except Main Street are piled with snow above bumper-level and some 3-4-foot drifts. We're snowed-in. The last time we had a snow of this magnitude was in March 1997.
Last night's low was 14 degrees F. I worry about the deer and antelope… ranchers' livestock in the high plains. But if we get 3-4 days of sunshine now, this whole countryside is going to have some good ground moisture now in mid-winter.
This is a time to read and write…
Ken
Ken Garrison
Star G Honey Company
270 Main Street
Mosquero, NM 87733
(575) 673-2325
starg@hotmail.com
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Nice report Ken
Thanks
Brian
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