Well, it's taken a lot longer than I anticipated, but our Arduino based energy monitor is now live and online. Now we can monitor our power system and make sure our new expensive batteries don't get dangerously low on energy.
We have only had it up and running for about 24 hours and I hope to make several enhancements, but... it finally works. In the long run I hope to measure current and battery state of charge, but for the time being voltage will have to do. I will keep the blog up to date as I add capabilities and eventually document all of the equipment, schematics and code. More to come. Stay tuned if your an electronics nut like me.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Happy Fall
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| Tom the Turkey struttin' his stuff. |
Just an update on the SponCon project: Here is a photo of from the auction program, which features some great professional photos of the projects, including Bill's pine and granite table, that will go up for sale this Friday. See Bill's post on SponCon below.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Sawin' Logs
There's nothing cooler than the sound of a falling tree. Except for when that tree smashes into the ground and branches break and boom and fly in the air. That's even cooler.
Bill and I took our chainsaw, and borrowed a buddy's, to head into the hills to down some dead standing pines. It was a good day for cutting wood.
We now have 4 cords of wood, most of which is stacked in the shop, for our winter heat. That should do us.
Bill and I took our chainsaw, and borrowed a buddy's, to head into the hills to down some dead standing pines. It was a good day for cutting wood.
We now have 4 cords of wood, most of which is stacked in the shop, for our winter heat. That should do us.
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| We finally have a use for that climbing helmet. |
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| "Throw it." (voice of Stewie) |
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| "Bad ass." (voice of Bill) |
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Piedra y Madera
Last Saturday I convinced a few folks from the Helena Woodworkers Guild and the manger at Helena's Restore to head over to Missoula and take part in a charity event called Spontaneous Construction (SponCon). The event takes place at Home Resource in Missoula. Home resource is a nonprofit building material resource center. They have been hosting SponCon for the last 5 years. In the event, they challenge teams to create something (artistic, functional, or otherwise) using only store materials in a 6-hour period. The store is very well stocked, so with a little ingenuity the sky is the limit. Since I was the only person in our group who had even visited Home Resource, we showed up on Saturday morning with open minds but little in the way of ideas. We all agreed that we should do something relatively simple so we could enjoy the event without stressing about the 6-hour time limit. Our team consisted of Jeff Camplese of Rising Sun Woodworking, Will Rex of Golden Stone Carpentry, Steve Staneart from Helena's Restore and myself. Given the large stock of items, coming up with an idea turned out to be relatively easy. Will's wife Heidi immediately found some really cool granite slab remnants. Almost simultaneously, Jeff came across a 1" thick reclaimed pine board that he really liked. Within minutes we had a sketch drawn out for our "Piedra y Madera" (Stone and Wood) sofa/hall shelf. The whole piece is made from a single piece of wood and likely a single stone. The only hardware used for assembly were 6 old square nails. Our piece qualified for the benefit auction and will get raffled off on October 19th in Missoula.
Check out the photo gallery of the event to see some of the other creations. Also, check out this time-lapsed video posted by a friend of mine. He also has more on the re-purposed garden tool project on his blog, Montana Wildlife Gardener.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Canning 101
Bill and I have dubbed ourselves with a new acronym (actually an acronym within an acronym): DADrunCs (DINKS against Drunk Canning). DINK= Double Income No Kids.
In the midst of our canning frenzy last night, we had a couple of beers. No doubt, it was wildly fun and we giggled and cranked the tunes as we processed 50 pounds of tomatoes. But, disaster eventually struck. I burned myself. And then, I did cardinal canning sin #1: I inadvertently let the lids boil instead of simmer. It is marked clearly on the lid box, like the surgeon general's warning for canners. But I blew it off as no big deal, something I would never do stone cold sober. So, after all the prep, and 70 minutes in the pressure canner, 2 of my 7 quarts of spaghetti sauce with sausage failed to seal. We did not, however, blow up the pressure canner, so all in all, the losses were minimal.
On the bright side, I researched a new method of sterilizing jars. The trouble with water sterilization is that it takes so much energy to heat up the water. Not to mention, I have limited space on my stove top. The oven method is simple. First, clean your jars in soap and water, place them on a cookie sheet, and preheat the oven to 225-250. And then you let them cook for 20 minutes, keeping the oven door closed. Remove them with a mitt, fill them promptly and place them in the canner. Viola! Simple. And so much more energy efficient. Of course, this method is not FDA approved. However, according to the National Center for Home Food Preservation, sterilization of jars is not even required for pressure canners or for water bath canners when used for more than 10 minuets (20 minutes at my elevation). So, in most cases, all I really need to do is heat the jars, which the oven is perfectly capable of doing.
Lessons Learned:
1. Don't boil the lids!
2. DADrunCs
3. Sterilize canning jars in the oven.
In the midst of our canning frenzy last night, we had a couple of beers. No doubt, it was wildly fun and we giggled and cranked the tunes as we processed 50 pounds of tomatoes. But, disaster eventually struck. I burned myself. And then, I did cardinal canning sin #1: I inadvertently let the lids boil instead of simmer. It is marked clearly on the lid box, like the surgeon general's warning for canners. But I blew it off as no big deal, something I would never do stone cold sober. So, after all the prep, and 70 minutes in the pressure canner, 2 of my 7 quarts of spaghetti sauce with sausage failed to seal. We did not, however, blow up the pressure canner, so all in all, the losses were minimal.
On the bright side, I researched a new method of sterilizing jars. The trouble with water sterilization is that it takes so much energy to heat up the water. Not to mention, I have limited space on my stove top. The oven method is simple. First, clean your jars in soap and water, place them on a cookie sheet, and preheat the oven to 225-250. And then you let them cook for 20 minutes, keeping the oven door closed. Remove them with a mitt, fill them promptly and place them in the canner. Viola! Simple. And so much more energy efficient. Of course, this method is not FDA approved. However, according to the National Center for Home Food Preservation, sterilization of jars is not even required for pressure canners or for water bath canners when used for more than 10 minuets (20 minutes at my elevation). So, in most cases, all I really need to do is heat the jars, which the oven is perfectly capable of doing.
Lessons Learned:
1. Don't boil the lids!
2. DADrunCs
3. Sterilize canning jars in the oven.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
The Broody Breaker
The chicken Blondie turned out to be a wonderful incubator. She sat on her eggs dutifully, clucking angrily whenever anyone approached her nesting box. However, it turns out, she was a horrible mother. Horrible, as in: she literally pecked her chicks to death. Bill and I were heartbroken when we found the first dead chick, pecked and mangled, lying outside the box. I frantically researched options and ultimately, I stole five of the remaining seven eggs out from under mama Blondie, and attempted to set up an artificial incubator. Some of the eggs rocked and "peeped", so I knew the time was close. I carefully set them in a box with wood chips, and angled the heating lamp accordingly to keep a temp at 100 degrees. I dabbed them once in a while with a moist paper towel. That night I sat by the box for an hour and watched. Then I slept for an hour, rechecked. Solid 100 degrees. Then, 2 hours later, the temp was still holding strong. Then I made the mistake of falling asleep for four straight hours. I woke up in a start, ran to the box, and to my utter horror, saw the thermometer reading 137 degrees.
It took me exactly one week to stop feeling so terrible that I could write about the results. No question, Blondie was bad, but so was I. I had cooked the chicks.
I did bring myself to check the eggs and calculate fertility rates. Blondie started with 11 eggs. Of these, only four (36%) had developed almost fully. The two eggs I left under Mama Blondie turned out to be unfertilized.
From beginning (acquiring the rooster and introducing him to the flock), to end, this hopeful-turned-horrible project took about 7 weeks.
Just to be clear, I am not giving up. And, true to my streak of impatience, I went straight away to Murdoch's ranching store and, against Bill's better judgement, bought the solo egg incubator they had on the shelf. I was determined to hatch some baby chicks even if Blondie wouldn't cooperate.
The incubator I brought home is made by Little Giant, model 9200, which is a still air (no circulation) variety. I added some accessories: an automatic egg turner and a fan, to increase probability of survival. (Eggs need to be turned 2 to 3 times a day to prevent the yolk from sticking to the shell and screwing up chick development. Also, a fan keeps the temp more uniform.) When I pulled the contraption out of the box, I was staring at, basically, nothing more complicated than a Styrofoam container, two pieces fitted together, with two plastic windows on top to watch the incubation progress, and a place for eggs and a heating element inside. Very efficient, but nothing fancy.
I knew energy would be an issue, but the heating element itself runs about equivalent to a 40 watt bulb. This is do-able when we have decent sun days, like we're having now. So I was ready to dive in again and gather up some more eggs. Bill semi-grudgingly let me scheme and dream along, all the while gently reminding me the energy requirement for this endeavor might be too high. It wasn't until he pointed out that beyond the 21 days of incubation, we'd require probably another 6 weeks of a heating element for the growing baby chicks. That would put us running an inefficient heating lamp into November and December...months when we just don't have that kind of solar energy.
I finally came back to reality, abandoned my immediate plan to start again, and temporarily packed up the incubator. It can wait a few more months to hatch some chicks. And so can I.
Lessons Learned:
It took me exactly one week to stop feeling so terrible that I could write about the results. No question, Blondie was bad, but so was I. I had cooked the chicks.
I did bring myself to check the eggs and calculate fertility rates. Blondie started with 11 eggs. Of these, only four (36%) had developed almost fully. The two eggs I left under Mama Blondie turned out to be unfertilized.
From beginning (acquiring the rooster and introducing him to the flock), to end, this hopeful-turned-horrible project took about 7 weeks.
Just to be clear, I am not giving up. And, true to my streak of impatience, I went straight away to Murdoch's ranching store and, against Bill's better judgement, bought the solo egg incubator they had on the shelf. I was determined to hatch some baby chicks even if Blondie wouldn't cooperate.
The incubator I brought home is made by Little Giant, model 9200, which is a still air (no circulation) variety. I added some accessories: an automatic egg turner and a fan, to increase probability of survival. (Eggs need to be turned 2 to 3 times a day to prevent the yolk from sticking to the shell and screwing up chick development. Also, a fan keeps the temp more uniform.) When I pulled the contraption out of the box, I was staring at, basically, nothing more complicated than a Styrofoam container, two pieces fitted together, with two plastic windows on top to watch the incubation progress, and a place for eggs and a heating element inside. Very efficient, but nothing fancy.
I knew energy would be an issue, but the heating element itself runs about equivalent to a 40 watt bulb. This is do-able when we have decent sun days, like we're having now. So I was ready to dive in again and gather up some more eggs. Bill semi-grudgingly let me scheme and dream along, all the while gently reminding me the energy requirement for this endeavor might be too high. It wasn't until he pointed out that beyond the 21 days of incubation, we'd require probably another 6 weeks of a heating element for the growing baby chicks. That would put us running an inefficient heating lamp into November and December...months when we just don't have that kind of solar energy.
I finally came back to reality, abandoned my immediate plan to start again, and temporarily packed up the incubator. It can wait a few more months to hatch some chicks. And so can I.
Lessons Learned:
- It is extremely hard to try and simulate the conditions underneath a broody hen (I failed miserably). She keeps it 99.5 degrees and 80% humidity. She also turns the eggs several times daily, until the last week of their development, when they do best to stay in the same position to prep for hatching.
- Not all hens make good mothers.
- "Time and tide [and sun] wait for no man". But sometimes you do have to wait for it.
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