Good morning!!!!

[kenmbz]

Good Morning 55 going up to 76 and sunny today, calling for multiple days of rain, ground so dry it comes up as powder.
I had to water my swale as the grass I put in early spring is looking a bit wilted.
Tried to get the cherry tree stump out, used the BH to dig a bit, sawzall to get the big shallow roots, but did not move much when attached to draw bar.
Today will dig some more and see if I can find the hidden root(s)

Weed killer down, side lawns mowed, 1990's Simplicity Regent still on the job!

Drew-good to hear things are coming together-sounds like timing might be overlapping for this morning , hope it all works out

Eric, looks like your making progress- mud soup does not sound tasty or fun - hope you can get the drainage working well enough that your sheep don;t have to learn how to swim.

RNG - glad to hear your Solar project is moving towards closure-have plenty of coworkers who were affected by fires there last year and then mud slides. So hope this year gives you all a break.

Stay safe and be well.

 

[PJSprog]

61°F and clear skies this morning, going up to 87° today. Low humidity has made these slowly rising temperatures quite tolerable this week. Voice on the radio this morning suggested that will come to an end this weekend, as the arrival of Summer is bringing its humidity friend. All in all, we've had a pretty decent Spring season here this year, more so than we've had in a long time.

Need to make a run to Tractor Supply after work today to get chicken feed. Anybody else need anything while I'm there? While I'm up?

If I make it to 83, Jim, I'll be happy to even be able to get on a bike, much less ride 55km/34mi in a day. That's incredible.

Congrats on the first successful trial of energy independence, RNG. Glad things are working out. Hope you are one day able to tell PG&E that they're "#1".

Good to get a decent night's sleep, eh Drew? I take melatonin as well. Besides helping you relax, another benefit of melatonin is that it helps the body and brain disconnect. That's why I take it. The part of my brain that disconnects from voluntary muscle use while I'm sleeping was damaged in a car accident in 1985. So, if I have a dream that I'm fighting, my body actually responds to the impulses to kick or strike. Naturally, my Wife is none too fond of this. For me, 5mg almost does the trick, so I take 10mg each night just before I go to bed. It works. There are some potential side effects of continued use, but none as bad as breaking one of my Wife's toes in the middle of the night (which I've done :ashamed.

 

[rswyan]

71F and mostly cloudy @ 09:30, high for the predicted to hit 80F.

Did not find sufficient motivation for late shift last night ... or the night before ...

Probably need to start eating a little earlier ...

Cleaned up a small Wearever stainless steel sauce pan day before yesterday that ... somebody ... had left on a burner a couple of years ago they had forgotten to turn off. It had been slated for the trash/recycle but I used some 500 grit sandpaper and was surprised at how well it cleaned up ... and was hesitant to even show it to The Woman. She was amazed. It still appears to have one little spot where stainless cladding is compromised ... so it won't get used in the kitchen again ... but it made a good little vessel to heat up hydraulic fluid, up in the shop, to soften that one seal up so I could install it ... :thumbsup:

Might go ahead and give reassembling the cylinder a shot today ... have what appears to be an "extra" o-ring (there was no corresponding item on disassembly) ... need to check the exploded diagram on Kubota's K-PAD to verify where it goes. Might be similar to the lift cylinders - which definitely had an external o-ring on the rod originally. Dunno, hafta see.

Think the neighbor came down yesterday and ran the tedder over what he had cut ... so might be down to bale it tonight.

RNG - I assume the hay bales will go inside one of his two barns and be stored there. Think he has between 6,000 and 8,000 sq. ft. under roof between the two of them. (Large enough to stick entire tractor-trailer rig in, which one of the former owners of that property who was an O/O and used to drive OTR used to do ... )

Last year, he and a friend raised a couple of head of cattle for beef ... dunno ... they might do that again this year.

Have multiple incomplete projects I have dug out as part of the shop clean up. One of them is to finish restoring the old Lisle "Jeepers Creeper" whose plywood splintered and broke when I deposited my butt on it some years back. All the wood crossbars have been sanded down and stained, along with a new piece of plywood. All that's really left to do is straighten one bolt and apply a surface finish and reassemble it. Debating between boiled linseed oil or clear polyurethane ...

Brine tank clean out still on list. Noticed yesterday while I was down there feeding the worms that the tank had partially refilled with water after the manual recharge the other day ... after I had busted up the salt. Didn't really seem to be a salt bridge, but who knows ?

Thought that the softener valve body no longer appeared to be leaking (the continuous trickle) but noticed yesterday that it still is ... need to do a really close inspection and clean up of the entire system (there's some mildew on the outside of the resin cylinder and water pressure tank) I have held off on ordering the parts to rebuild the valve body until I can go over the whole thing and give it a really good look.

Have some returns ($$$) to go back to Home Depot, need to pick up another piece of F-channel, some clear gloss polyurethane, and brush cleaner ... along with some more brushes. Also need some stuff from Menards ... they have the 11% rebate sale going on through June 20th.

Hope everyone has an enjoyable, productive, and safe day.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Good morning to all! Low of 50, going for a high temp of 88. Chances for showers now nonexistent for the next 5 days.

Kenmbz... you want to see powdered dirt, come on out.... just walking leaves a dust cloud behind.... we are really dry. Humidity levels are now at 6-12%.

Drew, hope you had a better nights sleep last night and that you will have a chance to get out and do some walking today!

Did all of the errands yesterday, so today I can concentrate on finishing the hobby shack interior walls. Only, six pieces, but they all have to be cut twice and outlet openings cut. Going for a nice leisurely pace.

A chicken is going to take a ride on the rotisserie on the new grill.... I cannot wait to see how it turns out.

Everyone have a great hump day!

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 63F @ 6:30AM. Plentiful sunshine. High 93F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph.
We're under a Red Flag Warning until tomorrow afternoon; the usual strong winds and very low humidity of summer have arrived.

Good to hear melatonin is working for you both, Paul and Drew. You've got me curious enough I might give it a try. I kick and scream enough to wake myself up from nightmares, too, so maybe that same part of my brain is damaged.

Yesterday, PG&E plead guilty to 85 counts of involuntary manslaughter and agreed to pay 13.5 billion dollars to Camp Fire survivors. But at this time, not one of the people who's decisions led to the disaster still work for the company, and none of them have received any kind of punishment or even accepted responsibility for their crimes. Not exactly what I would cause justice, and I can't ever see myself thinking of the organization as #1, Paul, unless it's enemy #1. I've spent tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in the last year hardening my home and property so that the next wildfire, very likely caused by their poorly maintained equipment, will not kill me, and the half measures proposed by their current management do nothing to convince me that they care about anything other than staying in business. Sorry for the rant, but my life will never be the same because of PG&E, and I'm one of the lucky ones that still has a life.

Good luck with the digging, Ken. Could be you're fighting a tap root that goes straight down under the trunk. If you can cut enough roots that radiate out from the tree, maybe you can get it tipped over far enough to reach around it with the bucket and come at that tap root from behind. At that point, curling the bucket and hooking the tap root might pop it out of the ground.

What a mess, Eric. But at least the Creature From the Black Lagoon hasn't gotten you (yet).:laughing:

Sorry about your rain and mud, Buppies. Do you think the official arrival of summer will help dry things out for you?

Nice, healthy looking doe, Ron. Be good to see the fawn when she's ready to show it off.

Not sure I want to be the only house on the canyon with the lights on, Don. Might attract the wrong kind of attention.

Sounds like Dave had a real bad day, Thomas. You gonna send him a new life vest, or maybe a dive mask and flippers?:laughing:

Hope Coco's OK, Billy. Good luck with the taxes.

You're an inspiration, Jim. Use it or lose it, right?:thumbsup: I'm in Ken's boat: Used to bicycle a LOT, raced, double centuries, mountain biking, the whole nine yards. Last time I was on a bike I thought it was gonna kill me, a good sign I need to get back in shape again.

Maybe you can bribe your driver to swing by a bagel shop on the way home from your appointment, Drew? Regardless, there's certainly nothing wrong with your mind, and if the rest of you recovers as quickly, you'll be piloting your Audi to the best bagel bakery in town by the end of the week!

Glad the AC problem could be fixed so quickly, Kyle. I'm reading a book now on restoring vintage AC systems, and just finished a chapter that talks about the importance of keeping the metal lines wrapped with cork insulation to prevent the formation of condensation. I've got a roll of the stuff on order from Amazon because I'm pretty sure that wasn't done properly in the van...

Thanks for all the positive comments on the solar power system, folks! And for all the moral support on what turned out to be a bumpy ride to get there. The crew did finish yesterday, which including fixing the conduit problems properly and replacing a bad charge controller. The electrical lead gave me a briefing on all the components and their operation, most of which I videoed. Thanks for that suggestion, David. Until the system gets an official blessing from PG&E, I'll be charged for any electricity that gets onto the grid, so until then the system is set to only use solar power when it doesn't sense the grid. That's achieved by flipping a couple of breakers. So I'll do that each day once the sun is up, and start getting a feeling for how much power the solar panels make vs. what gets consumed. The Mate3 controller is hooked up to the internet, and for some reason the contractor thought it best if they were the ones to set it up and manage it, but I'll have full admin access once they forward some instructions and login credentials. Mainly, though, I'm gonna focus on accessing the controller over the LAN, so it's back to the operator's manual for some homework.

In the mean time, I've sent an email to the building department person who, last January, promised I'd be sent a full package of the approved documentation for the system. Both building inspectors that have visited so far have asked to see it, and I'm told the system won't be approved if they're missing for the final inspection. One more reason I like doing business via email, as it helps to track down what went wrong and who can do something about it.

Another week disappearing into the rear view mirror so quickly; it's already Hump Day!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Need to make a run to Tractor Supply after work today to get chicken feed. Anybody else need anything while I'm there? While I'm up?
.

A propane refill would be nice, since you’re going.

 

[PJSprog]

... I can't ever see myself thinking of the organization as #1, Paul, unless it's enemy #1.

Yeah, I was being facetious. My reference was based on not using your index finger ...

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Yeah, I was being facetious. My reference was based on not using your index finger ...

Thanks for the clarification, as your comment went way over my head.

 

[Buppies]

RNG we are in a strange pattern heat in mid west muggy and wet here lots of cut off lows with lots of moisture sticks around for days cool too 50s for highs

This I suppose could last a while longer until hurricane season heats up 3.67 inches of rain since midnight

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Here are a few photos of the finished system.

The solar panels, generator, and propane tank off the back side of the house.


These are the "balance of system" components on the back inside wall of the garage. Left to right, a pair of subpanels that manage incoming power from the grid, generator, and solar panels. Then there's a pair of charge controllers that manage how power coming from the solar panels, generator, or the grid are used to charge the battery. Next is the Mate3 controller that provides a user interface and internet connection to the system. Below the Mate is a Hub, which works pretty much like an ethernet router to enable all the components to communicate with each other. Next to that is an inverter, which is set to be the Master, managing the Slave inverter below it. The inverters convert DC power from the battery bank into AC power for all the household loads. Below the inverters is another set of breakers for controlling power out of the inverters. This is where the bypass breakers live, used to feed grid power to the household loads should something go wrong with any of the components in the solar/generator side of things. Power can then go to or flow from the battery bank through the conduit on the right, or come out of the inverters through the conduit to the left, where it is routed first to the well pumps, then back to the old main panel for the rest of the house.


This is the display panel on the Mate3 controller.

I'm not 100% sure about what exactly it is showing, but I'll take a stab at it and maybe David can tell us how well I guessed?:laughing:

The battery bank voltage is displayed in the upper right corner. I was told it would be a 48V bank, but this one turns out to operate in the 54-55V range for some reason. Not sure what the page with folded corner icon means.

The next line down shows that the solar panels are providing 0.9kW of power to the battery. Everything is relative to the battery in that power from the grid, from the solar panels, or from the generator, all goes to charge the battery. Unless the system is put into bypass mode where grid power goes directly to the household loads, all power to the house comes from the battery as DC, then is converted by the inverters to AC before it is fed to the house. This ensures that there is no loss of power to the house loads if the grid goes down, even if the generator fails to start. At least as long as there is power remaining in the battery, or the charge level has fallen to the point where the house loads are automatically disconnected, the well pumps will be able to provide pressurized water for fighting wildfire. And that is the main purpose for building this whole system. In effect, the system acts as a giant Uninterruptible Power Supply to drive the well pumps. It's a UPS that can be recharged from the grid, the solar panels, or either of the two generators. Belt and suspenders, and suspenders for the belt.:laughing:

The left half of the next line down shows that 0.7kW of power is being consumed on site. If the power was being sold to the power company, the bar on the right side would indicate how much was going out.

The next line down shows that overall, 0.7kW of power is being consumed on site.

The bottom line is a sort of graphic that attempts to show the flow of power. The little sun symbol on the left says that the power is coming from the solar panels, the arrow tells us that the power is going to the battery bank that is currently operating at 54.0V, and the next arrow says that the battery bank is providing 0.7kW to the house. The G in the circle tells us that the generator is connected, but it currently isn't producing any power. Which is probably why there's an error message in the upright left hand corner of the display, which is mostly obscured by glare.

Last but not least, the straightened out conduit on the right. Somehow on the previous visit, the lead electrician got the idea that he wouldn't be given enough time address some fitup issues with the conduit I'd run through the various trenches, and tried to make do with the parts he already had on the truck. At the end of the day, he had to come back anyway to replace a defective charge controller, and the conduit issues here and in a couple of other places were all remedied.


Just received a text message from the contractor letting me know he's been able to access the system controller using the Optix software provided by Outback, and that he'll forward me login credentials so I can also access it, but in a read only mode. That'll let me get familiar with it without making inadvertent changes. Once I come up to speed, I'm told I'll have full access to administer the system.