the Outfit http://outfitnm.com Biodiesel, Wind turbines, Permaculture, Sustainable lifestyles, and our new Renewable Energy Workshop Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:42:37 +0000 en hourly 1 BMN, Tusas, Wind Power Cooking, Fire Dancers http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/10/bmn-tusas-wind-power-cooking-fire-dancers http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/10/bmn-tusas-wind-power-cooking-fire-dancers#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:41:19 +0000 admin http://outfitnm.com/?p=1750

Fire Poi Dancing

  Fire dancing, also known as fire spinning, involves twirling or spinning an object that is on fire in time to music or in elaborate patterns. The practice is common in many cultures throughout the world. Fire dancers us many different objects in their performances. [...]]]>

Brian's Morning Newsletter

Wednesday, March 10th 2010

Fire Poi Dancing


  Fire dancing, also known as fire spinning, involves twirling or spinning an object that is on fire in time to music or in elaborate patterns. The practice is common in many cultures throughout the world. Fire dancers us many different objects in their performances. Staves, batons, whips, even chains with balls attached, are all common tools used in the performance.

Good Morning

Pretty exciting headlines this morning, huh? Well, first off, let me do some explainin'
Yesterday as I mentioned in the BMN we were going to, for the first time attempt to employ the energy from our wind turbine to power our big Crockpot and cook a small beef roast. I crossed my fingers as I plugged the Crockpot in. Sorry if I disappointed those of you waiting for the scientific method; no I never put the Crockpot on the Killawatt meter for the practical excuse that the outlet on the kitchen counter is upside-down. We would have had to stand on our heads to read the display. You don't want us to hurt ourselves practicing our alternative energy research do you? Let this be a lesson for all the aspiring young electricians out there, make sure the third pin on the power outlet is on the bottom.

Seriously though, unsure how much wind we had up here in the mountains, hoping enough energy was stored in the batteries to run the Crockpot long enough to cook our dinner I plunged forward and plugged it in. Curiously, the ammeter on the inverter jumped to 12 amps for ten seconds, then dropped back to 5 amps. At first I was confused, but then I realized the Crockpot electronics employed something called duty-cycle  which the relationship of an "on" time to "off" time. For the three temperature settings on the Crockpot, low, medium and high, the duty-cycle is simply modified, from "off" more than "on", up to "on" nearly constantly.

This power strategy seemed all right to me, as long as the heater element did not jump up much past  the 12 amps  while it was heating, a little math says: 12amps times 120 volts equals 1440 watts, which is a tad over what our crappy little UPS inverter can handle at a steady rate, but intermittently it should be fine. Anyway, we don't know if the inverter survived, probably, since the meat was fully cooked and still hot when we arrived home 8 or 9 hours later, although the inverter was off.

The inverter shuts off all the time, so that is not really of concern. You see, as the energy generated and stored in the batteries is used, battery voltage drops, and the inverter shuts itself off before the batteries get down to 20 volts from the fully charged voltage of 25 volts. I was hoping that the wind was going to blow like it did the day before, and keep the Crockpot running all day, but when it comes to nature, we happily take what we get. A grand success, that wind turbine powered Crockpot experiment. The meat tastes oh-so-fine knowing it didn't cost a dime to cook it all day long. Nell cooked carrots from our garden as well as potatoes to go along with the roast, mmmm-good.

So, whats with the other part of this morning headlines, I mean besides the awesome images of fire dancers?  Well, we are thinking about entertainment for the Tusas Campo this Spring. I don't know if we will have the diesel generator ready to go by then, or for that matter whether Nell will see her way clear to let me make payments to Slim for it. You know me, I'm ever hopeful, and touch on the stubborn side; when I get my heart set on something, I rarely think of much else, and work doggedly trying to make it happen. If we can buy the diesel generator, and make it work again, we can run it on WVO (Waste vegetable oil) homemade biodiesel or dino-diesel super powering the stage this year which means we might want to hire and promote a band of musicians to entertain us.

Oh, for sure I have no problem coming up with a million reasons why we here at Las Tusas Ranch need this generator, but alas this isn't the problem, bills and taxes are constant reminders that our government is a blood sucking black hole into which every dime plus a hundred we haven't earned yet must flow. Add to that medical bills from before Nell worked at the hospital and bought health insurance, retarded dental insurance plans that pay for only half of the largest bills from another outrageously overpriced medical field,  dentistry, and let's see who else is constantly fleecing us, oh yeah who can forget the county, city and state taxes, and dear Jesus protect the smokers from government. One pack of drugstore "nickel cigars" now costs nearly $30, where the hell does all that money go? We should have the best lubricated government tax money can buy, yet we hear with fright and horror that New Mexico still doesn't have enough money, the governor as I write this is considering taxing the food we buy.
They are stealing from us people.
But what we gunna do?
Anyway, it is snowing again. Now that the dawn approaches, looks to be an inch or so of white stuff on the ground, and it is coming down hard and in little balls.
And I'm supposed to work outside again today
Brian Rodgers

Letters

I know, I haven't called you in so long I can't remember your number, bad dad, bad!
Yeah rope lights are neat looking, I want lots of rope lights, wrapped around vigas and posts on the stage, lots and lots, I want the stage to glow brilliantly. I also like the Fire dancers, this doesn't cost much of anything energy-wise, I would like to buy a few sets of what are they called? "Poi?" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poi_(juggling)

Glowstringing flowers

Really looking forward to adding a big-ol thick layer of adobe to the horno, really make that oven hold the heat.  Thinking of how to get the bus you guys lived in back there and putting it somewhere near the horno. 
——–

I can totally relate to your struggle with shading and trying to create depth and substance. One of the things I learned in my watercolor class I'm taking right now (with Susie Morgan — lots of fun!) that has really helped is that I need to stand back a good distance and look where I need darks and lights. I tend to get wrapped up and focused on one tiny area like a clump of grass and I'm not looking at the whole composition. When I stand back I can see the 'blank' spots and where I need to go in and lay down some shadow or color. So maybe try putting it in some good light and then go to the other end of the room, sit down, stare, squint and look at the WHOLE thing for a while.

Yours in artistic struggles.

MB


——-
Thanks Mary-Beth
Indeed, the standing back and staring works well, I will try the squinting too. While driving home last evening, the sun was setting behind Hermits Peak, my god it was beautiful. I have to wonder if this painting hobby isn't causing a whole new appreciation of natural beauty around us. I wanted to stop at the scenic outlook just north of Nine Mile Hill and soak up the sunset for a later attempt at painting what I saw. Now I look at the sky and the way sunlight interacts with clouds, I think about every painting I've seen and the way each artist  painted clouds, and how I would do them. Yes, I think the next canvas will be a landscape.
Brian

   

 

 

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]]> http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/10/bmn-tusas-wind-power-cooking-fire-dancers/feed 0 BMN Rain Dance http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/09/bmn-rain-dance http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/09/bmn-rain-dance#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:50:34 +0000 admin http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/09/bmn-rain-dance Rain Dance by Tom Philllips

Good Morning Yes, I worked on my native American Ghost dancer painting, but I am still struggling with just about everything, from shading to color. I had a feeling painting a person was going to challenge my beginners luck. It is still interesting and fun to learn, [...]]]> Brian's Morning Newsletter

Tuesday March 9th 2010


Rain Dance by Tom Philllips

Good Morning
Yes, I worked on my native American Ghost dancer painting, but I am still struggling with just about everything, from shading to color. I had a feeling painting a person was going to challenge my beginners luck. It is still interesting and fun to learn, but I am working harder to wrangle workable attitudes about most aspects. Paintings like the one above are inspiring becasue I see that certain effects are not as complex as I make them out to be. I'm thinking about the feathers, I stared at my dancer for a long time yesterday. I see so much that needs attention, it is almost overwhelming. I mix up paints and touch up specific areas, stand back from the painting and sigh. Not that what I changed wasn't better looking, but it still doesn't have a positive light source . . . and and

I can't seem to create the depth I want, which may be because I am still focusing on the skin-tones, when instead I ought to be working on the source of the light and shadows. I'm not discouraged, but reality is beginning to press down on me. I desperately need one little break. Some small breakthrough that I can repeat, ya know like a fresh tool in my painters arsenal. Like: "Always use . . ." So I stare at other artists' work looking for anything I think I might be able to reproduce. I know my dancer needs a feather in his right hand, I haven't done it yet, because I finally got that hand to look remotely like a hand, unfortunately the angle of the hand is wrong for feather holding, I always dislike and avoid tearing things I like apart.

Yeah, I'm not in the best of moods. I hope it is just because I don't feel well, but it didn't help my demeanor to open a letter from Mike the other morning and have him repeatably call me an asshole, just for replying to all for a message about telemarketers and cell phones. What the hell is wrong with you Mike? If you are trying to bring me down it is working, so please stop, I am weary of your rudeness.

Anyway, looking at the ghost dancer, I can see that his left leg needs to have a calf and knee, and really even though the ankle is covered it is still too wide in comparison to the rest of the leg. I like the foot, but it keeps coming and going as I try to bring detail to the toes. The blue foot looks like a some kind of flipper deformation. I can't tell if it is harder to work with blue because of its intensity  and texture, or I'm having trouble because my model photograph is black and white.  I'll buy a new color cartridge for our printer today, that ought to help.

Again about the feathers, maybe you can see that my dancer really does need some color and detail in his headdress, but I can't get over the feeling that I have bigger fish to fry. First thing is to re-proportion the legs, decide where the light is coming from, create more texture with shadows, then I'll fool around with the feathers. I am feeling good about the flesh colored arm, somehow I got the slightest muscle tone in his arm, and I didn't mess it up as I attempted to get the color more realistic. Yeah, there are way too many opaque layers, but what the hey, this is a learning process, I can only hope each layer is better than the last, and if it did work can I remember what I did.

Okay, I better sum this up. Yesterday evening I shut the wind turbine down as the Spring wind had the batteries fully charged and I had all sorts of loads plugged in using up the generous energy. So, this morning before I leave for work, as Nell suggests I will put the crockpot on the inverter and use up the excess energy cooking dinner. If this works, and we don't know if it will because the crockpot may draw too much power, it'll be a big step forward, using the energy from the wind to feed us. I'll also put the Killawatt meter on the inverter to see how much power the roast takes to cook.

I keep meaning to finish installing the batteries we bought earlier this year, and now with the predictable strong Spring winds up here I better get moving on this project. Plus we are planning to have much more LED low wattage outdoor and decorative lighting for Tusas Campo this year. We have been looking at rope LED lights as well as outdoor LED flood lights
http://www.solarropelights.com/
I know I'm extreme when it comes to twinkling lights, but would a disco ball be fun?
Anyway that's that, wouldn't you say?
Brian Rodgers

]]> http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/09/bmn-rain-dance/feed 0 BMN Gensets, Controllers, and Grid-Tying http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/08/bmn-gensets-controllers-and-grid-tying http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/08/bmn-gensets-controllers-and-grid-tying#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:29:27 +0000 admin http://outfitnm.com/?p=1741 Good Morning We've been working on an older Kohler Diesel generator: 17.5 ROY (17.5 KW) trying to isolate a fault which keeps the generator from making it through its 60 second post. Three conditions can set off one of two  reset breakers: Over cranking, (starter running too long) Low Oil [...]]]>

Brian's Morning Newsletter

Monday March 8th 2010


Good Morning

We've been working on an older Kohler Diesel generator: 17.5 ROY (17.5 KW) trying to isolate a fault which keeps the generator from making it through its 60 second post. Three conditions can set off one of two  reset breakers: Over cranking, (starter running too long) Low Oil Pressure, and Coolant Over-temperature, which are tied together, one NC (normally closed) one NO( normally open)  Anyway after trouble shooting while forcing the IP (injector pump) on, to keep the engine running we ran controller board tests, rectifier module, and rotor brush tests, the controller board went from bad to worse. The good thing is we have a clear understanding of how these carbon brush generators work. For one thing this genset has a standard nine wire configuration on the generator head output, meaning wiring several different Delta and Star configurations are possible, this one configured as single phase 120-240 same as a US home.

There is a fairly exciting method for manually exciting the generator. My point is we discovered a fascinating correlation between the rotor voltage and the stator output. Apparently this is how this style of generator maintains constant voltage. By feeding-back a reference voltage from, in this case L1-L2 (line 1 = 120 volts AC)the AVR (automatic voltage regulator) signals battery charging alternator on the diesel engine to put out more or less voltage which in turn alters the voltage to the brushes on the rotor. It is really quite elegant. Unfortunately, none of these functions were working for us. Like I said we manually excited (per the service manual) the rotor and got an output from L1-L2 albeit erratic and unregulated.

After determining that the generator was pretty standard, I'm an old hippie VW mechanic, my son-in-law is a journeyman electrician, plus we had the owner here in our recently built renewable energy (partially axial flux wind turbine powered) shop in northern New Mexico, we are confident the controller board is malfunctioning in more than one arena. If you know me  you know what I'm thinking, "this would be a fantastic genset for us here on the ranch." Without checking with my wife and before we finished trouble shooting I offered $2,500 for the Genset. The owner said yes, we proceeded with the trouble shooting gambling that it was going to work, but not really since I was only able to make payments.

Long story, I know, but this is an evolution in thinking, combined with a touch of a naive outlook, I forged forward. I had heard some new generators could be grid-tied. Now we see how this is possible, by employing a feedback loop from the house electric instead of the output of the generator the phase and voltage can be matched. Cool, cool, I want to play.
So I went InterWeb-surfing, looking for first, a replacement controller from Kohler or any after market manufacturer, which proved that even if the proper controller was available, it was going to be ridiculously priced, to the tune of $1000 plus, so I continued surfing and came across this  http://www.allproducts.com/manufacture2/kutai/Product-20076685448.html
 
    
"EA45A220F (Full Wave) and EA45A220H (Half Wave) 45 Amp universal self excited genset voltage regulator compatible replacement for carbon brush type generators. There are also optional low frequency protection available."

This device looks perfect, except that no matter how hard I searched I could not find a company that sells them, thus no idea if this is a $100 or a $1000. I modified the search parameters and came to this: http://www.ab.com/PEMS/cgcm.html "Power & Energy Management Hardware  Combination Generator Control Module (1407-CGCM)

The CGCM consists of a single module that provides multiple functions needed to implement a generator control system. It supplies controlled excitation current to the generator field winding in order to produce the desired generator output voltage.

The CGCM also measures the generator field current, the generator output voltage, and the generator output current. These measurements are used to implement a variety of protection functions to insure the generator operates within its design ratings. In addition, the CGCM measures the voltage on one or two reference busses. This additional information provides the data needed to synchronize the generator output to the selected reference bus to allow the generator to operate in parallel with another generator or the utility supply. All of the measured data is available as full featured metering data. Access to the CGCM data and functions is provided via a standard ControlNet communication port."

Again, no idea of a price, although this one looks very expensive, but it makes me think. The technology is here and available now. Not that we would spend $1500 on a refurbushed control board for the genset, but the idea that a modern control board retrofitted to the 17.5 KW genset could make the machine Utility grid-tie compatible creates a possible return on the investment. For instance running the engine on biodiesel, and or WVO, or WMO means we would cut the monthly electric bill by running the genset for a day now and then, for that, I would spend the money.

So my question is, have you seen after-market grid-tie genset controllers made fro carbon brush rotor standard nine wire generators and can you provide feedback and perhaps a link? Or am I thinking ahead of the current technology?

Shear mechanical madness did not occupy my entire weekend, indeed I painted as well. I finally splotched paint on one of the canvasses Nell's sister Susan sent me. Please forgive the sloppiness, this painting is still in the early stages of development.  Acrylic paint is forgiving, thank goodness. I have already  made major changes to my native American Ghost Dancer as I call this work.  As  Usual I feel there are as many features and techniques I dislike  about my painting as there are things I like.
Ghost-dancer
Working on a large canvas is easier. I get to focus attention on the hands and feet as I wanted to, and please don't laugh, hands and feet are almost as difficult as faces, yeah pretty much everything I feared was realized. Still, I have hope. I sort of got one foot and one hand to come-out. I had to go and pick a subject that was blue on one side and flesh on the other. It is completely different figuring out how to shade and shadow in blue as opposed to flesh, which I admit I hadn't done yet either.

Oh, should I show you the model photo?

 

Good luck with this, right?

Well, there it is I suppose

Brian Rodgers

Letters

Re: BMN Mud bog averted
Regarding the mud bog road -

Where is the water coming from?

Is it possible to do earthworks off the road and around the road to keep the water away from it and keep it from degenerating into goo? or put minor, angled "speed bumps" above the bogs to divert water from the bogs?

Here is a link to a pdf book by Bill Zeedyk on the topic-

http://quiviracoalition.org/images/pdfs/1888-A_Good_Road_Lies_Easy_on_the_Land.pdf

"This book addresses the construction and maintenance of unpaved rural roads including strategies, techniques and practices for dealing with problems frequently encountered by landowners, land managers and maintenance personnel. Running water is the primary force affecting road condition and generating the need for maintenance. Economical maintenance means dealing effectively with water, but not just surface runoff. Standing water, seeping water, rain, snow, ice, frost and even a lack of water can contribute to road maintenance needs."
Lee
—–    
Thanks Lee, that is a great little book
Brian       

–
Brian Rodgers
All Internet traffic from Las Tusas Ranch relayed through DIY solar powered WiFi tower. My Sustainable Lifestyle site  www.outfitnm.com/

 

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Visit the forum at: http://outfitnm.com/forum/
 Read the BMN online at: http://outfitnm.com/category/brians-morning-newsletter
 Oh yeah, I turned the comments back on at http://outfitnm.com
]]> http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/08/bmn-gensets-controllers-and-grid-tying/feed 0 BMN Mud Bog Averted http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/05/bmn-mud-bog-averted http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/05/bmn-mud-bog-averted#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:51:05 +0000 admin http://outfitnm.com/?p=1737 Blink, blink, is it morning already?

Good Morning Indeed, a dim light appears on the eastern horizon, and it ain't me babe. Although, or perhaps, because I've been awake since 3:30 my light isn't particularly brilliant this morning. It has been pretty awesome already. How is that possible? While I [...]]]>

Brian's Morning Newsletter

Friday March 5th 2010


Blink, blink, is it morning already?

Good Morning
Indeed, a dim light appears on the eastern horizon, and it ain't me babe. Although, or perhaps, because I've been awake since 3:30 my light isn't particularly brilliant this morning. It has been pretty awesome already. How is that possible? While I was surfing the InterWeb in search of BMN fodder I heard the little bee-boop which signifies that some sort of chat was beckoning. This morning at five it was Dan Fink of Other-Power fame using my GMail chat window. We chatted at great length about an upcoming seminar in which Dan will lecture. He is looking for well-documented post-Other Power workshop attendees for reference. I can't think of anyone more well-documented than me, I said.
I'm The king of Chronicles, if I don't say so myself. Anyway, what's it mean? They are looking for real people to tell stories about life after one of their workshops, well virtual real people. I said "all they need do is run a search at http://outfitnm.com and they will have me quoted."

I have no idea why I woke at 3:30, I did, and wide-awake was I, regardless of the fact that yesterday I unloaded six yards of rock and gravel into the seemingly bottomless mud bog which was once our driveway.  Yeah man, the Dodge dually paid for itself yesterday. Even with one particularly large and heavy load the Cummins 6BT hauled-ass up Nine Mile Hill in fifth gear, and actually accelerated from 55 to 65, totally shocking for a guy who has become accustomed to slowing from 65 to 45 on said same hill. Yeah, I probably didn't need to accelerate, but I did it anyway. I've only owned one other big engined truck, the Ford with a 351 cubic inch eight cylinder gasoline engine, but it never came close to hauling that weight, and at half that (one yard) the V8 felt like most of the VWs I drove on Nine Mile Hill. Here a six cylinder had many times the power of the Ford V8, indeed I don't know why anyone would need that much power in a pickup truck.


Calories, yep, many, many calories. The first two yards were unloaded with shovels by Jackson and me between Macky's house and Jack's house on the first incline of our driveway.  Yes sir, two yards of 2 to six inch rocks disappeared in the deep mud like nobody's business. Howard Sand and Gravel charged a mere $15 per yard for this ungraded river rock. I made three trips, was kilt-dead-tired by 3:00 PM, when fortuitously the last major muddy rut was filled with the last possible shovel-full of rock and gravel we could muster.

Heading out before the ground defrosted was smart, well after the prior day escapade  where I waited an hour too long to head out it wasn't terribly smart. It does show that yours truly can be learnt a thing or two, lucky for me I had the time to recover any dignity I may have lost. So obviously I made it out before the localized surface defrostation, but it took an hour to drive in to town and return, what was my plan at this point? Surely the heavily laden truck would sink to the axles in the first bog it hit.

Sitting there below Jack's hill and the first bog, I revved the powerful diesel motor as if to psych-out the hill itself. Ahead of us lie a formidable obstacle, bog number one. A 15 degree uphill incline, with water oozing between the foot tall tire ruts. I gunned it one more time and hit the hill in second gear. The front end of this huge diesel engine is host to considerable weight, and yes it began to sink in the mud. I was however over the rim of the hill and quickly down shifted, easing forward another ten feet in the deep mud, we came to a halt on a fairly level spot.

This was it, the first bog of semi-defrosted mud. The next bog was going to require a new and better technique. Me and my dualy wouldn't make it across the next bog with that plan. I needed a new plan. Two yards fell with great effort into the mud as I backed the truck over the rock we had just laid. This seemed to work. A plan was developing and I had plenty of time to work it through on the return trip to town. Cujo was happy too, dad finally got the show on the road. Three trips to town, riding up front. It was a dog's dream come true.

You guessed it, I backed the truck up the hill dropping rock in the mud as we went, then driving over the fresh laid rock. Sure the truck sunk a little with all that weight, and a lot more rock disappeared, but in the end the rocks outnumbered the mud, the driveway is once again passable. No need to install the tracks on your four wheel drive to come and visit.


Well here it is, Friday again, and the world hasn't ended miserably, good, good, good!
With all this snow it seems like we are in for a perfect Spring up here in northern New Mexico.
I can't wait to start planting, perhaps this weekend we will get seeds germinating.

Have a great weekend, I know we will
Brian Rodgers

Letters

Re: BMN Mechanical, artistic, spiritual

Brian mused-

"What the hell do I know about modern vehicle mechanical design?"

I hobb-nobbed a bit with auto workers and others in Detroit, and there is only one thing you really need to know in order to understand modern vehicle design.

The big three go to great pains to design their vehicles so that they require the minimum number of assembly steps and the minimum amount of labor to roll off the assembly line.

What you have to do after you buy the vehicle in order to repair or maintain it is not a consideration.

The past several decades have seen any number of travesties, including Cadillacs on which you cannot replace the starter without pulling the engine (really.) Chevys on which you cannot replace spark plugs without undoing the motor mounts. And so on.

And they wonder why Japan, Germany and Korea have all kicked American ass when it comes to the auto industry. It may have something to do with other countries actually considering consumer needs. Just maybe.
Lee

 

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Visit the forum at: http://outfitnm.com/forum/
 Read the BMN online at: http://outfitnm.com/category/brians-morning-newsletter
 Oh yeah, I turned the comments back on at http://outfitnm.com
]]> http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/05/bmn-mud-bog-averted/feed 0 BMN Mud, mud and more mud http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/04/bmn-mud-mud-and-more-mud http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/04/bmn-mud-mud-and-more-mud#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:59:29 +0000 admin http://outfitnm.com/?p=1730 Good Morning I've been trying to get inspired about the new canvas, honestly I'm a little scared. It feels a little like I'm going to the Show, as baseball players say when the go pro. Sara suggested a Kachina, I'll [...]]]>

Brian's Morning Newsletter

Thursday March 4th 2010

The Eagle Kachina Dance.
Original Oil Painting.
By: J.C. Black, Navajo/Zuni


Good Morning
I've been trying to get inspired about the new canvas, honestly I'm a little scared. It feels a little like I'm going to the Show, as baseball players say when the go pro. Sara suggested a Kachina, I'll be the first to admit I was reluctant, but the more I fretted over features such as hands and faces the more a Kachina appealed to me. One of my difficulties, and sure there are quite a few, is I haven't had a model or a photograph to work from since the calendar animal set I did in the beginning. With The Moulin Rouge painting I extended the living-room PC LCD monitor across the room to reach the edge of the dinning table where I've been working.

Moving the monitor is inconvenient at best. Anyway, Nell has a Kachina doll, if we can locate it, I'll set it near where I've been painting. Oh yeah, we haven't bought an easel yet, so I'm working poor-boy style and have the canvas set on the Kiva ladder in our living-room. It works well enough, as I used the ladder for the demon painting and am happy with the height, angle and if I place a clamp-lamp above attached to the loft I ought to be able to paint in the evenings as well as during the natural light periods.

 

I suppose most of you aren't thrilled with my latest works, or I'd have heard something. Oh, I suppose it is possible that I've crossed some invisible boundary of quantity and quality, hey much like my morning newsletter, huh? One thing I have always been good at is determining what I'm good at and focusing specifically on those talents. Nobody likes to be frustrated, so I tells myself, painting is fun, as long as I'm not struggling to create what I have in my imagination. Like most everything I see painting as a balancing of ends and means. I thinking of the Kachina doll so I have a model in front of me, while I am also thinking the figure is more cartoon-like than a human figure.

Speaking of the demon, I did work briefly on that painting yesterday, although it was after my ill-timed attempt to go for rock. Yeah, speaking of the best laid plans, that was a good plan, and maybe if it didn't warm up so quickly yesterday morning the Dodge-dually might have made it more than the ten feet it did before sinking in the mud of our driveway, right in front of our house, no less. Not one to push a vehicle when it doesn't want to go, I quit after a futile rocking back and forth several times produced a negative forward motion.

Say the serenity prayer, chant a calming sound, after all my life is about as mellow as can be. Not needing to be anywhere, is a luxury, I know and yes I love it. Leaving Cujo in the Dodge, I simply came back inside and made a new plan which didn't require the Dodge to move, and painted while I thought about it.  There are only two outside jobs awaiting my attention, one is Slim's diesel generator, which is parked outside the shop, as is Bobby Benivedez's Ford PU which Jack and I hauled up and out of the mud of the driveway on Tuesday. Bobby's truck hopefully needs only minor work done on the clutch hydraulic system so I agreed to work on it for him, then the engine stalled-out coming up the hill, leading us to believe perhaps more troubles are awaiting.

Slim's generator shuts-down after 60 seconds and flashes a reset lamp, suggesting either an over-voltage, over-cranking and or oil pressure issue developed and the electronics kicked off the safety switch. It is my job to figure out what the trouble is and correct it. Slim says I have permission to over-ride the system over-ride if I can, but I still belive I can determine what is going wrong and correct the fault, leaving all the Murphy switches enabled. Yesterday I installed a new solenoid for the glow plug system, because of course, working on old equipment means fixing a multitude of long-term dis-use caused issues.

The diesel engine finally started, and ran long enough for me to run a few tests on the generator itself. I feel more confident now to make a diagnosis. I called Slim later and told him it looked more like the generator wasn't getting up to the proper voltage before the failsafe kicked in and shuts the engine off. So anyway, I have plan of what to do next on the generator.

 

 

One last note and I'll let you go. We heard that many Windows PCs are going down with a virus that virtually takes control of our computer. We weren't worried because Nell's and my PC run Linux and like Apple PCs they don't (knock on wood)get computer viruses.  Above, in this lovely picture of our living-room PC you can see the flat screen monitor Wesley gave us years ago, thanks man, it has been a blessing. Anyway, the PC caught something yesterday despite the fact that it was actively running up to date AVG anti-virus, Adaware, and an anti-spyware program. When Windows catches a bug it really gets sick. I fiddled with it for a few minutes, but the virus was persistent and blocked every attempt to remove it. "Screw it," I said, I've had it with Windows, if I never work on another Microsoft PC again that'll be soon enough.

Unfortunately, the living-room PC had a bad CD drive, replacing that took the longest time of the process of dumping Windows and installing Ubuntu Linux.   Proudly, out of four PCs in our house three are now Linux. The PC out in the shop is the last hold-out and I tried to wipe Windows off it, but it didn't have enough resources to run Ubuntu, so I left Windows on it. There are thriftier versions of Linux which will run on the older PCs, I just hadn't had the time to do that yet.

There is still an audio problem with the old living-room PC, so converting to Linux isn't always a breeze, but still I know it will be way-easier to figure out a simple audio problem than it would have been to get rid of that virus, and now we don't need to run five different anti-malware programs jut to keep our computer running.

So. . .  there ya go
I think I covered everything that happened in my awesome day working at home yesterday, if not, we always have tomorrow, but then again, I just pulled the Dodge out of what was deep mud yesterday morning, the dog is loaded up and waiting to see if I'm more serious today about going for a ride, smiles
Hasta
Brian Rodgers
————      

letters
Sapello — Food Pantry Distribution

I wanted to let you guys know about the first Food Pantry Distribution that we'll be having in Sapello. It's a new program being put in place for this region of the state to distribute food to families in need.

I serve on the San Miguel County Family and Community Health Council, and this Food Pantry Distribution is a project we have wanted to support for awhile now. And it's finally coming to the Sapello/Rociada area (every second Tuesday from 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM, starting March 9th). The food distribution will be held in the Mike Mateo Sena Elementary School Gym.

Unlike some other food pantry programs, this one does not require proof of income, tax returns, social security card, ID, birth certificate or DNA sample (-:   All that is required is filling out a short eligibility form (which I have not yet seen).

See below for the income eligibility chart and the attached flyer. Help spread the word here in our community among our neighbors. Times are tough and there are folks among us who, at the very least, deserve a free bag of food now and then, eh?

If folks want more information, they can call our friend and neighbor, Yolanda Cruz, who is also the Coordinator for the San Miguel County Family and Community Health Council (505-617-0483).

Thanks!

Pat Leahan

—————–

Eligibility:

Families who receive food stamps or WIC/CSFP automatically qualify.

Or families making below:

# in household    weekly income    monthly income
1                    386            1670
2                    519            2247
3                    652            2823
4                    785            3400   
5                    918            3976
6                    1051        4553
7                    1184        5130
8                    1317        5706
9                    1451        6283
10                    1585        6860


—————         
Wow, Pat is this a kind of statement about incomes. Is this a national average?
Sad, the US dollar isn't worth a spit anymore.
Brian

 

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]]> http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/04/bmn-mud-mud-and-more-mud/feed 0 BMN Mechanical, artistic, spiritual http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/03/bmn-mechanical-artistic-spiritual http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/03/bmn-mechanical-artistic-spiritual#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:16:52 +0000 admin http://outfitnm.com/?p=1721

Good Morning

Yeah, boy howdy! Jackson created these tiles from scratch at New Mexico Highlands University back in the seventies, I suppose. He says they didn't come out right; the color faded, and the tiles warped, well some of them, but most were fine I said.  Not entirely sure [...]]]>

Brian's Morning Newsletter

Wednesday March 3rd 2010

Good Morning

Yeah, boy howdy! Jackson created these tiles from scratch at New Mexico Highlands University back in the seventies, I suppose. He says they didn't come out right; the color faded, and the tiles warped, well some of them, but most were fine I said.  Not entirely sure how the concrete base didn't come-out directly in front of the fireplace, although it was my design that caused it. Whatever, but the reason the main pattern is off-set is to make up for the discrepancy. The dark colored tile are slate left-over from Jona's and Sara's bathroom project. There are still a few things left to do around the fireplace, namely the adobe which the water from the fire-hoses eroded, still needs to be redone. You can see evidence as a jagged edge at the upper left and right in the photo. Also we still haven't installed the door Louie created.

Even though we have these minor projects looming, we really can't do anything about them right now. This extreme weather has demolished our driveway. We've added rock and gravel continuously over the last four decades, yet somehow nature always wins, and quick too. Yeah that damn entropy rears its head after a melting and soaking snow. I don't know exactly where the tons of rocks we put on the driveway go, one thing is certain the rocks aren't coming to the surface. I mean most of you have been up our road, it was done to perfection, large rock base, covered by smaller rocks, graveled,
don't come to visit today though unless you run one of these mud-bog trucks

 

mud bogger

Yeah the driveway is crying out for aid in the only way it can. We need to do something, and do it today. My idea is to go to town in the Dodge and buy four inch rock by the cubic yard, and unfortunately because I haven't built the dump-bed yet, unloading the rock by hand into the worst mud will be a tough job. Knock on wood, the sand and gravel we dug from the river and placed on parts of the road, is holding up well. Perhaps we can get our neighbor with the Bobcat loader to put us a couple bucket-fulls on the Dodge. I don't mean to doubt, but that's a little iffy since we never got together when the weather was nice to try out his Bobcat in our gravel quarry, now it is a a frozen mess down there by the river as well.

I really need to get the front-end loader installed on our tractor, but then again for how long have I been saying that? We need rocks today. It will be hard enough unloading the truck without the dump bed, so I guess it is time to meditate and manifest a couple of little positive ideas into reality, well for next year anyway.


Yesterday,  was a beautiful day working in the shop, even with the garage door off, the wood stove and south facing windows made enough heat to create a comfortable work environment. Yeah, I wasn't going to let that icing on the cake of irony I wrote about yesterday get me down.  In order to remove the starter from a 1984 Chevy S-10 Blazer, your trusty mechanic must first remove the large hunk of steel called a cross-member. I chuckled, "where the hell do they come up with these terms?" I mean is there a non-cross-member, affectionately called a "member?" The two members cross in the middle, obviously??

Anyway while I was considering the hours of my life I was about to dedicate to the ill-placed cross-member, I cheered myself up with the idea that if the utter-ass-hole-engineers of 1984 could dream up a retarded system like I was about to undo just to swap out a starter, then what have those sneaky little engineers been up-to during the decades since? These days it may be standard practice to pull the engine to swap a starter. What the hell do I know about modern vehicle mechanical design? Nothing, that is for sure. Nope I have never bought a new car, never, oh yeah I worked on plenty of new cars being a factory trained VW dealership mechanic for ten years, but since I'm now reaching human antique classification, the cars that were new back then are older than hell now too.

Even though I'm going to be digging black grime from under my fingernails for a few days everything worked out swell. The starter went in, after what might have been a graceful 180 degree twister had it been done off a high dive

 

instead of knocking chunks of grease in my face, I keep telling myself. It's all about the spiritual plateau one may obtain whilst performing the maintenance needed to create a sustainable lifestyle. See what I mean? I could have been working on a car we were still making payments on designed by the devil himself, instead we were making what we had work, and loving every minute of it.  
I hope you enjoyed reading about my joyous day
Right now all I gotta do is find a way to attain a personal spiritual plateau about the mud filled driveway.
I'll work on that,
Until next time,
Peace
Brian Rodgers     


      

 

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]]> http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/03/bmn-mechanical-artistic-spiritual/feed 0 BMN Rápido http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/02/bmn-rapido http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/02/bmn-rapido#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:48:15 +0000 admin http://outfitnm.com/?p=1717

Good Morning Got to run this morning. Our Blazer has minor mechanical issues, which means I will drive Nell to work in the Trooper, pick up a new starter in town, return and install the pesky little devil, all before I head off to work myself. Perhaps Desertgate will [...]]]>

Brian's Morning Newsletter

Tuesday March 2nd 2010

Good Morning
Got to run this morning. Our Blazer has minor mechanical issues, which means I will drive Nell to work in the Trooper, pick up a new starter in town, return and install the pesky little devil, all before I head off to work myself. Perhaps Desertgate will be able to reschedule my one job from 1:00PM today until tom0rrow, giving me more time to work on the Blazer. You may recall that Jack and I just did a starter replacement becasue I'm almost certain I gave the tedious job its BMN due in blood, sweat and tears. You may also recall that job was frivolous in the end. It turned out it was a bad cable not the starter. The starter is very difficult to reach in that model Chevy. Without really trying I've iced the cake of irony, since that was dad's Blazer that we laboriously removed and then reinstalled the starter on (Big Sigh.) Wish us luck.

As the subject suggests, this morning's BMN is a rush job. I have about fifteen minutes left to write. The Trooper started, again I forgot to get my new netbook out of the car after work yesterday, now it is defrosting inside, but this time I'll let it warm slowly before I switch it on.

As you may be able to detect, I worked on two of my paintings in progress, not much just a bit of touch-up. This picture of the hand is the proper color, but my attempt at glazing a transparent color over the too-dark index finger was unsuccessful, the color is fine, but somehow, even thinned with a wet brush the color blend I made came out opaque. It's funny, but yesterday I said I didn't care if it was perfect, it was close enough for me to feel good about it.  Then I went and fiddled with it, and now it makes me feel like I need to fix it. See, I should have left it alone, except I really haven't learned anything about layering transparent colors, but then why would I?

Yesterday I posted a color chart, which each artist is supposed to create, I didn't. I guess it just goes to show I can't cut corners if I wish to learn something.
After all there is a reason why it's called "beginners luck"
Lucky for me the hand painting was never a masterpiece, and secondly, layers can always be added afterward, but first I better create my color chart made with the paints we have to work with.
Oakie dokie
Tomorrow is another day
Catch me then?
Brian Rodgers

How to Test if a Paint Color is Opaque or Transparent

How to Test if a Paint Color is Opaque or Transparent

 

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]]> http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/02/bmn-rapido/feed 0 BMN Hand Painted http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/01/bmn-hand-painted http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/01/bmn-hand-painted#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:10:27 +0000 admin http://outfitnm.com/?p=1712 Exploration of form, Brian's Hand Painted

Good Morning

 More is wrong than right with the hand, but I needed to see if I could do it, and although I could have kept fiddling with it, I won't, it is what it is. In an attempt to understand skin-tones and acrylic [...]]]>

Brian's Morning Newsletter

Monday March 1th 2010


Exploration of form, Brian's Hand Painted

Good Morning

 More is wrong than right with the hand, but I needed to see if I could do it, and although I could have kept fiddling with it, I won't, it is what it is. In an attempt to understand skin-tones and acrylic paints I searched the Internet, and came away with a technique called glazing. Besides the link, I pasted the first page below, very cool stuff. I learned several new terms as well. Such as, paint opacity,  ground, mediums


I'm tempted to quit on the Absinthe Dreamer painting, although I still like where it is going. A major obstacle for me is I don't want to do any detail which doesn't interest me. For the dreamer, this means the background. Anyway I added a floor, more color to the man's face, removed the waiter's head entirely, worked-over the column, and fiddled with both men's attire, oh yeah, the green fairy's face got a few dabs of white-green.  Again, I am not too  happy with any of the additional work, my favorite part of this picture is the woman's general proportions; the shading and lines of her shoulders, arm, and back.  If I could even come close to doing a face, I'd try a nude.

Anyway, that's why I tried a hand. Oh, I forgot to mention, I had fun creating the fairy's hand, but it was so small I couldn't really do much with it. So, you may be wondering how or why I decided to paint  a demon face if I was so into painting skin tones, and the human form. Ah, life in the woods is at times complicated, yet most of the time, not. Austin gave me this painting with permission to Jesso (White paint base) the canvas and reuse it. Coming back around to something I was talking about earlier, I like the stuff Austin had going on in the painting, and felt it could be helped with a center piece.

When I looked at this painting I saw flames, I wanted to paint a face, perhaps this painting could use a face of a person in agony, ya know from the flames. Sara was here and she showed me some tricks to drawing faces. We worked together on proportions and I went a little crazy toward the demonic. In my first painting of the hand, although you can't see it from the lousy picture I took, I had the skin-tone figured out close enough, well that is my hand, and I don't know if you've seen my hands, but they are the hands of a workman, so the color isn't off by all that much.

Painting is all about having fun, though Sara says, she tries to paint images she would like to have on the wall. So, yeah, I may hang the demon, for a while at least. The demon face was good for me because the few little techniques I've learned over the last few months actually worked, well I think they worked. I never would have guessed that I could have been satisfied with any of these paintings. What I am learning as I go, seems to be enough satisfaction.  "So what, the nose doesn't look like  right." I started with a fictional character, que no? Looks like the demon I saw, right?

What I am saying is we need to give ourselves a lot of latitude, after all the devil is in the detail.

P.S. thanks to Susan and Ron for sending me five 24"X30" canvases. I am working my way toward that size, and in reality, this is why I painted my hand, I'm thinking of doing a figure next. I love the nude from the back, with all the tone and structure.
Something along these lines

So there it is, another week and new month begun. 
The world as we knew it, is as it was. go figure.
Doesn't mean we shouldn't be getting ready for  el crapo hittin' el fano.

Smile, it suits your face.
Brian Rodgers
——–       
P.S.S. uh oh, a new forum, well I've felt guilty becasue I haven't been to any of my regular nuts and bolts forums in months. http://www.artspan.com/community/index.php

-

Letters

>>It wood be nice to have a couple of these in the home though wooden it?<<

I beamed when I saw your little pun. You're right. It certainly wood.You're a real tiger when it comes to new ideas. I wood be interested to see yew branch out and carve yourself a career in this field of expertise. I wood knot think there is a glass ceiling there.

OK, sorry about that. It's Friday so I suppose it's just end of the week delirium.

Punnily yours,

MB

————-         
Brian observed -

"No matter how strong and nice looking a timber frame home is, it needs to be insulated to modern standards."

Straw bale.

It can be integrated with frame construction (the recommended method, if only to placate building inspectors,) it's a cheap, locally obtainable material and while the R-value per inch seems small, straw bale walls are a couple of feet thick, so that "R 1.45" actually translates to an overall R-value of 30 or better. With a lot less embedded fossil fuel energy than the high-tech materials, I bet. 

And of course R-value is not the alpha and omega. For sustainable construction, thermal mass is also a consideration.

So a really good design might be straw bale with a south facing rock wall. Preferably with a solarium attached.  Or straw bale home with a south-facing clerestory shining winter sun on a dark, masonry floor.
Lee
—  

Hi Brian,
The following person invited you to be their friend on Facebook:
Joe von Rodeck Joe von Rodeck
Invite sent:
Feb 13, 2009

———-  
Hey Joe, something is wrong with this, I can't see you in facebook
Brian
———  

Painting Skin Tones

By , About.com Guide

See More About:

4 of 6

Creating Skin Tones by Glazing

Glazing skin tones

"Emma" by Tina Jones. 16×20". Oil on Canvas. The painting was done by glazing, using thin layers of paint to build up into glorious skin tones.

Photo © Tina Jones

Glazing is an excellent technique for creating skin tones that have a depth and inner glow to them because of the multiple layers of thin paint. You can either mix your skin colors beforehand and glaze with these, or use your color-theory knowledge to have the layers of color mix optically on the canvas as each layer changes the appearance of what's beneath it.

Glazes are particularly good for working up subtle differences in skin tone or color, because each glaze or layer of paint is so thin and thus changes can be very subtle. Because each new glaze is applied over dry paint, if you don't like the result you can simply wipe it off.

For Further Information on Glazing See:

———————-               

How to Test if a Paint Color is Opaque or Transparent

How to Test if a Paint Color is Opaque or Transparent

How to Test if a Paint Color is Opaque or Transparent

Image: © Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc.

Different pigments have different covering properties. Some are extremely transparent, barely showing on top of another color. Others are extremely opaque, hiding what's beneath. Considering this, and not just what the color is, can enhance a subject. For example, using a transparent blue in a sky gives a greater feeling of airiness than an opaque blue will. Compiling a chart of the colors you regularly use, such as the one above, shows at a glance how transparent or opaque a color is.

You Will Need:

  • All the colors you usually paint with.
  • Medium-size brush.
  • Cloth to wipe the brush on.
  • Jar of clean water.
  • Pen to record the color names.
  • Piece of white paper. If you've got about a dozen colors, you want a sheet about A5 size.
  • Ruler (optional, straight lines aren't essential).
  • Hairdryer (optional, for acrylics or watercolors).

How to Make a Chart:

  • Sort out your colors in an order that makes sense to you, such as the color spectrum (rainbow).
  • Mix up a little of each color. Paint a vertical stripe of each. Wait for them to dry.
  • Paint horizontal stripes for all the colors, in the same order.
  • If you're using a ruler, wipe the edge after each stripe so you don't contaminate the next one.
  • Record the names of the colors next to each stripe.

Check the Results:

  • Opaque pigments are dense and tend to block out other colors. This makes them ideal for subjects that are solid and heavy, such as tree trunks.
  • Transparent pigments are light and airy, barely showing on top of other colors. This makes them ideal for atmospheric subjects such as a misty morning or diaphanous fabrics.
  • Semi-transparent are somewhere between the two.
  • With time, you won't have to refer to the chart, but will instinctively know the properties of a particular color. Until then, stick the chart up on the wall where you can see it while you're painting.

    See Also:
    Paint Tube Labels.

 

 

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]]> http://outfitnm.com/2010/03/01/bmn-hand-painted/feed 0 BMN Dreaming Timberframe http://outfitnm.com/2010/02/26/bmn-dreaming-timberframe http://outfitnm.com/2010/02/26/bmn-dreaming-timberframe#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:46:57 +0000 admin http://outfitnm.com/?p=1703

Good Morning I didn't get a chance to work on my paintings these last few days, so I hope the dreaming about building with timbers I've been doing this morning will be entertainment enough.  Not all the designs I see make a lot of sense to me. Much of the  [...]]]>

Brian's Morning Newsletter

Friday February 26th 2010

Good Morning
I didn't get a chance to work on my paintings these last few days, so I hope the dreaming about building with timbers I've been doing this morning will be entertainment enough.  Not all the designs I see make a lot of sense to me. Much of the  timber-frame technique appears outdated in the insulation department.  For instance in the first image the frame is exposed and looks great, but . . . 


then they cover the beautiful beams with this crap!


So what? The choice is cover the outside or the inside? Or possibly we can go with a poor insulation value product like red brick? 

 

That is a lot of brick cutting, and even then this technique is doubtlessly prone to drafts, and anyone who lives in a stone house know about the chill factor.

 

I love the look of this timber construction too. But look at all the joints that need to be filled, that looks drafty as well, and solid wood doesn't have very good "R" value, not in comparison to the SIPs (structural insulated panels)

Here are some numbers from the r value wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-value_(insulation)
Funny, it looks like snow is slightly less of an insulator than brick. Brrrr.

Typical per-inch R-values for material

R-values given in Imperial units of ft²·°F·h/Btu and in parenthesis the SI unit ( m²· K/ W)
Typical values are approximations, based on the average of available results.
Material  ↓ Value per inch
(Minimum)  ↓		 Value per inch
(Maximum)  ↓		 Reference  ↓
Brick R-0.2 (0.03)

Wood chips and other loose-fill wood products R-1 (0.18)

Snow R-1 (0.18)

Hardwood (most) R-0.71 (0.12)
[10]
Softwood (most) R-1.41 (0.25)
[10]
Straw bale R-1.45 (0.26)
[11]
Wood panels, such as sheathing R-2.5 (0.44)

Vermiculite loose-fill R-2.13 (0.38) R-2.4 (0.42)
Perlite loose-fill R-2.7 (0.48)

Rock and slag wool loose-fill R-2.5 (0.44) R-3.7 (0.65) [12]
Rock and slag wool batts R-3 (0.52) R-3.85 (0.68)
Fiberglass loose-fill R-2.5 (0.44) R-3.7 (0.65) [12]
Fiberglass rigid panel R-2.5 (0.44)

Fiberglass batts R-3.1 (0.55) R-4.3 (0.76) [13]
High-density fiberglass batts R-3.6 (0.63) R-5 (0.88)
Cementitious foam R-2 (0.35) R-3.9 (0.69)
Cellulose loose-fill R-3 (0.52) R-3.8 (0.67) [14]
Cellulose wet-spray R-3 (0.52) R-3.8 (0.67) [14]
Cotton batts (Blue Jean Insulation) R-3.7 (0.65)
[15]
Icynene spray R-3.6 (0.63)
[16]
Icynene loose-fill (pour fill) R-4 (0.70)
[16]
Urea-formaldehyde foam R-4 (0.70) R-4.6 (0.81)
Urea-formaldehyde panels R-5 (0.88) R-6 (1.06)
Polyethylene foam R-3 (0.52)

Phenolic spray foam R-4.8 (0.85) R-7 (1.23)
Phenolic rigid panel R-4 (0.70) R-5 (0.88)
Molded expanded polystyrene (EPS) low-density R-3.7 (0.65)

Molded expanded polystyrene (EPS) high-density R-4 (0.70)

Extruded expanded polystyrene (XPS) low-density R-3.6 (0.63) R-4.7 (0.82)
Extruded expanded polystyrene (XPS) high-density R-5 (0.88) R-5.4 (0.95)
Open-cell polyurethane spray foam R-3.6 (0.63)

Closed-cell polyurethane spray foam R-5.5 (0.97) R-6.5 (1.14)
Polyurethane rigid panel (Pentane expanded) initial R-6.8 (1.20)

Polyurethane rigid panel (Pentane expanded) aged 5-10 years R-5.5 (0.97)

Polyurethane rigid panel (CFC/HCFC expanded) initial R-7 (1.23) R-8 (1.41)
Polyurethane rigid panel (CFC/HCFC expanded) aged 5-10 years R-6.25 (1.10)

Polyisocyanurate spray foam R-4.3 (0.76) R-8.3 (1.46)
Foil-faced polyisocyanurate rigid panel (Pentane expanded ) initial R-6.8 (1.20)

Foil-faced polyisocyanurate rigid panel (Pentane expanded) aged 5-10 years R-5.5 (0.97)

Silica aerogel R-10 (1.76)

Vacuum insulated panel R-30 (5.28) R-50 (8.80)
Cardboard R-3 (0.52) R-4 (0.70)
Thinsulate clothing insulation R-5.75 (1.01)
urea foam R-5.25
[17]
poured concrete R-0.08
[18]
glass R-0.24
[19]
polystyrene board R-5.00
[20]
Air-entrained Concrete R-3.90
[21]
Vermiculite R-2.13
[22]
Home Foam® R-3.9
[23]

Wow, look at the R value of vacuum insulated panel: R 30, per inch! There's a link there check it out

Yep, she snowed again last night. No matter how strong and nice looking a timber frame home is, it needs to be insulated to modern standards.

It wood be nice to have a couple of these in the home though wooden it?

okay, that's what I got for this week, I hope it was as good to you as it was to me.
Brian Rodgers

Letters

 That seed swap Lee talked about sounds great. I am going to try to be there. I think I mentioned a little while back what an interesting book 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' was — highly recommended reading for anyone, even if you're not into gardening/farming. One of the things discussed in the book is the value of heirloom seeds in a day when the large seed companies are doing all kinds of things to their product genetically and also I believe have actually have successfully sued a small farmer using heirloom seeds because his plants cross-pollinated with theirs. Whether you believe genetically modified seeds are bad or not, just the fact that these seed companies were able to sue some farmer for bazillions of dollars for a natural process bugs the crap out of me.

So keeping heirloom seeds alive is actually very important in keeping our food crops more genetically diverse and sustainable.

Agriculturally yours,

MB

 

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]]> http://outfitnm.com/2010/02/26/bmn-dreaming-timberframe/feed 0 BMN, WiFi-work, Plaza Adam & Boss VisitRenoirs http://outfitnm.com/2010/02/25/bmn-wifi-work-plaza-adam-boss-visit http://outfitnm.com/2010/02/25/bmn-wifi-work-plaza-adam-boss-visit#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:05:24 +0000 admin http://outfitnm.com/?p=1698

Pierre Auguste Renoir's  Summertime

Good Morning Wonderful visit with Adam yesterday after work. Yesterday morning I made cookies while I worked on the newsletter. So in other words my day began like it does most mornings multitasking small jobs. I hadn't been to town to work in seven [...]]]>

Brian's Morning Newsletter

Thursday February 25th 2010

Pierre-Auguste-Renoir-Summertime

Pierre Auguste Renoir's  Summertime


Good Morning
Wonderful visit with Adam yesterday after work. Yesterday morning I made cookies while I worked on the newsletter. So in other words my day began like it does most mornings multitasking small jobs. I hadn't been to town to work in seven days, so yesterday was a little different.  Being sick sucks on a bunch of levels. I love my job, and since it only occurs a few days per week makes it even better. Still, being out for so long makes even Solo-Man-Brian crave the company of others.

Yesterday all my social needs were met with a couple of good jobs and interactions with customers, co-workers and friends. I even watched in amazement as one client cooled-out a landlord at his condo after she gave me the stink-eye and said he did not have permission to mount the gear on the building, to which I stuttered, "It has been there for two years, I'm upgrading it." Long story shorter, I removed the equipment from the outside after I setup the new stuff inside pointing out the window. The bottom line I quickly turned the problem into a solution, everyone is happy.

After work, I went to the drugstore to buy cigars and coffee, where I ran into Adam. We chatted in the parking lot for a time, and it wasn't long before we realized we had a lot to catch up on, and agreed to meet at the Plaza for a beer. Cool cool, I hadn't done that in a super-long time, and I really needed it too. Adam listened while I vented a lot of little emotional hassles I've been experiencing with work and the economy. Adam talked about a new business he wants to start,  designing and creating textile art and clothes. We talked about  how we want Austin, Amelia and Kevin back down here as soon as Taos closes for the Winter. We talked about all sorts of things, it was fun, thanks Adam.

Now you may be wondering why I've posted  Renoir's painting,  Summertime again. Well, I saw it again yesterday while visiting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemianism, I wasn't sure what Summertime had to do with bohemianism, nevertheless I was blown-away by this painting, in particular the girls hair. How the hell did Renoir get that detail. One of the cool things about some Wiki images is often there is a higher resolution image to be viewed when clicking on the smaller image like the first picture I posted.

Goodness gracious, the image revealed was magnificently huge, too large in fact for the BMN, so I loaded up Linux's the Gimp, a graphics manipulation program and cropped the picture to show only the face and hair. Can you believe it? Now that I see the detail, I'm even more awed at Renoir's talents. I know it is difficult to look away from this beautiful girl's face, for I too am constantly drawn back to her eyes, nose and mouth. Now that, is a painting, indeed Summertime may be my favorite painting of all time. Of course I'm still open to suggestion, what is your favorite painting?

Pierre-Auguste-Renoir-Summertime
And, No. I probably won't attempt to copy this painting, although if at some point I need to paint hair I may look back at Summertime for reference.

Sincerely,
Brian Rodgers

Letters

Absinthe is much noted for its alleged narcotic properties, and much of that reputation is probably undeserved. The active ingredient, AFAIK, is a neurotoxin. Oddly enough, wormwood, artemisia absinthum, is an ingredient in a number of apertifs and liquors besides absinthe.

Wormwood is of interest to me because it has medicinal, herbal uses in addition to the intoxicating, and it is of a family (artemisia) which is a component of the pinon-juniper guild.

Ever notice how in many parts of this area, you will see pinon popping up right next to junipers? It is because junipers are nurse plants to the pinon, and there are other plants as well that like to grow in their company. And if we are slick and sly about it, we can do some substituting for other plants in the same family and still have a functional guild.

So, this spring, if I can get the coin together, I will have a pinon-juniper guild started in my front yard. A spreading juniper will stand in for the scrub juniper, and will provide visual contrast to the upright pinon which is already growing there. Surrounding these two trees will be artemisia absinthum, goji-berries, which are a chinese variety of the native wolfberry that is part of the pinon guild, purple prairie clover for a nitrogen fixer, and maybe alpine strawberries or kinnikinnik as a ground cover and mulch plant.

I am itching for spring. I walk out into the back yard on a regular basis to consult the signs, mostly looking at the nascent buds on the currants, apples and peach planted back there. They are telling me spring is still far off. But my sap seems to be rising faster than theirs – I am eager to plant!

Lee

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Absinthe Dreamer painting

Just a comment regarding your painting. You might find it difficult to work around the green figure. You might want to get rid of her for now, work out the background and put her in there last as a thin overlay. I LOVE the two men. I think their expressions and body movements are great.

MB
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Event notice – seed exchange
Please publicize widely!

Saturday, April 17, from 10 am to 4 pm in the Luna Community College cafeteria, we will be holding the Meadow City Seed Swap. We hope to make it an annual event.

Co-sponsored by several local organizations including Luna Community College, Las Vegas Barter Hours, Casa de Cultura and Sustainable Las Vegas, the event will feature tabling, and hopefully some presentations, but the centerpiece will be a free and open exchange of seeds.

If you have seeds you would like to share, especially heirlooms, bring them! If you don't have seed to share, but would like to take some home to cultivate, that's great too. Stick around and mingle with the many other locals who share your interest in gardening, culturally significant foods and preserving genetic diversity in our crops.

Lee

 

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