Recent content by Redneck in training

It has a large battery. So, you could hack in with an inverter and use it as an energy source when grid goes down. It should power your house for several days.

I was my own GC when we built our last house. Since I didn't have a track record the bank demanded high downpayment close to 50%. We run out of money to finish the house. The bank inspected the work done and lent us whatever we needed without much hustle. When my wife was trying to get us the...

What do you do when you see a nuclear bomb explosion? Take a very good look at it because you will never see it again.

The key words are DIY. I installed two systems. One on our farm was 24 kW at cost about 54000 (including the concrete mixer) before the tax rebate. Installed January 2012. Paid for itself in 11 years. We sold the farm in 2021 the panels added a significant amount (estimated 70-100K) to the...

Moved to Czech Republic.

My neighbor is from hospital for some time. He was not much outside during the cold days though. So I saw him yesterday after long time. He is not on oxygen anymore, his skin looks healthy and he said he is gaining strength for spring work around the house.

I just put 3.84 kW of solar panels on a house we bought in town. 12 320 W panels to fill whole south facing roof. But I bought 7.7 kW inverter because I see electric car in our future. So we could add another 6 kW on the east facing roof. The total investment in hardware before tax credit was...

My neighbor across the road got a lung transplant he was waiting for for some time. His lungs were scared and hardened most likely due to exposure to dust during his life time work at construction sites. The surgery went well and he is recovering nicely. My other neighbor on the north side got...

I don't have a bill for August yet so there are my numbers for July. 1826 kWh purchased 1888 kWh sold 3650 kWh generated 3588 kWh consumed. Electric bill 140.26 Our utility doesn't offer net metering. We produced more energy than we consumed but we still have an electric bill. We buy retail...

At the end of the day in the outback. The roads are graded and allow stupidly fast speed. (no cops there) A cow is the most dangerous animal at night. If you keep the stupidly fast speed at night when you see them you are going to hit them. The car doesn't brake too well on the gravel. That...

I have a Lincoln 255 MIG. It started to sputter once a while. I removed the rollers but found them more or less clean and in good order. Checked all the connections etc. and found no issues. Then I looked at the cable and it occurred to me that was the culprit. It had all kind of convoluted...

How not to launch a boat.

Father of friend of mine just bought new car and parked it in front of the four storied building where he lived. Minutes later snow slid from the roof and flattened the car such a way that the seats and the engine were !imprinted to the roof and hood sheet metal.

We used make this concoction for a sore throat: Take a medium size glass or a coffee mug. Fill it to about half with your favorite alcohol such as rum. Fill it to the top with a hot tea. Add large spoon of honey. Toss in few aspirin tablets. Squeeze in lemon. Chug it and hop in bed. It will...

I am building a snow plow for my tractor. I had old Grasshopper blade laying around so I widened it by 40" and build quick attach for it. While building it I run out of MIG wire so I sent my wife to get it from a welding supply. The spool cost 73.33 as before but now also plus 19.25 steel...