10:34 – I’m surprised that with all the comments yesterday, no one pointed out that I’d dated that entry 2015. Fixed now.
Still more kit stuff on tap for today. Barbara has a busy week, including a trip down to Winston tomorrow, so we interleave all the kit stuff on a time-available basis. We’re never short of stuff to do.
One of the items on my to-do list is checking into the details of our well. I’ve been thinking about having a 24VDC or 48VDC submersible pump installed to replace the current well pump, assuming our well depth is within its capacity. That could be driven by an ordinary transformer during normal times, and directly by solar panels or solar-charged deep-cycle batteries in a long-term emergency. The ShurFlo 9300 model I looked at pulls only 4 amps max at 24VDC, has a maximum lift of 230 feet, and delivers just under two gallons per minute at max depth. In a pinch, it could be driven directly by one 18V 100W panel, although two panels with a charge controller would be better.
Solar well pumps are a mature technology. They’ve been used widely for years, particularly in the arid western states for unattended livestock watering systems. Their service life is rated at 5 to 10 years, and repair kits are available. I suspect we’ll end up installing one eventually, but for now I’m reasonably happy with the generator and rainwater harvesting for backup. We could run the well pump on generator to produce 100 gallons per day using only 4 or 5 gallons of gasoline per month. Rainfall is pretty reliable around here. In the last six months, we’ve gotten measurable rain probably every week. We’ve had between 3.2 and 4.0 inches of rain per month since we moved here in December of last year, typically a quarter inch to a full inch at a time, and even the summer months have regular rainfall. In a pinch, we could store several hundred gallons of captured rain, which would be enough to carry us through any dry spells.
Back to work on science kits.
170 days to Thanksgiving
http://www.gocomics.com/bc/2016/06/07
I’m surprised that with all the comments yesterday, no one pointed out that I’d dated that entry 2015. Fixed now.
As with you, we are all getting older too. I am trying to put a software release to bed with over 10,000 lines of new C++ code from me alone. Maybe 20,000 lines of new C++ code, who counts? I am changing our internal variant storage system from distributed to sparse. It is not going well due to my inability to focus intensely for more than say, a minute. I am shuddering to think what the future will bring me.
I used to submerge in the code for hours at a time, jerking back to awareness when I got an intense high drum level alarm from the bladder.
I may have to follow Jerry Pournelle’s wise example and create a Monk’s cell.
Do you have a well house over your well pump? If not, you may want to start with a visit to Home Depot to pick one up. That would also give you a good place to mount your solar panel(s). You may also want a broom in there to knock the dust and snow off your solar panels.
My old well was in the well house floor concrete pad. And still is (melted XXXXX retired in place since we could not jerk it out of the old well with a one ton F350 dually crane). The new well is not. But my 240 gallon tank and the well controller is in there. And, millions of dead fire ants (looks like a kill zone). And the piping is about a foot below ground until it gets to the side of the well house.
“Do you have a well house over your well pump? If not, you may want to start with a visit to Home Depot to pick one up. That would also give you a good place to mount your solar panel(s).”
Good idea. Except our well/pump apparatus is right next to the house and putting a well house over it or even mentioning it here would have the spousal unit throwing a fit: “It would look AWFUL!!!” Ditto solar panels anywhere. It’s getting difficult to think of ways to prep here without causing this kind of disruption and reaction.
It may take more of the Big Hurt kicking in and various wotta and power disruptions to make the sort of impact required to step things up.
RBT: regarding the date on yesterday’s post. Sharp-eyed visitors will notice that although the heading (title) of yesterday’s entry was changed, the link still shows 2015 : http://www.ttgnet.com/journal/2016/06/06/monday-6-june-2015/
This is because WP creates the link based on the title when you first ‘publish’ (or ‘save draft’). You can go to the post editing page and change the link also.
BTW, if you are interested in better search results, changing the permalinks to the post title, rather than the current date-oriented one, will be to that advantage. All the links in previous posts will not be affected.
There will be out and out war between Trump and The Congress if Trump is elected.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ryan-trump-made-textbook-definition-racist-145429378–election.html
and
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/145560612726/the-robot-judge
Ryan is so nieve that he thinks that he can apologize for Trump. What a loser!
Of course, Congress will rollover for Hillary and call her pantsuits pretty.
Good idea. Except our well/pump apparatus is right next to the house and putting a well house over it or even mentioning it here would have the spousal unit throwing a fit: “It would look AWFUL!!!” Ditto solar panels anywhere. It’s getting difficult to think of ways to prep here without causing this kind of disruption and reaction.
Are the tank and controls inside your basement? If so, I would not add one. Your system obviously works in horribly adverse weather.
Adding solar panels will get you an attaboy if you need them. But until then, you will pay and pay …
How about setting up a well cover that looks like an oversized garden gnome. Then you can tell everyone that the gnome pisses into your pipes and that’s the best-tasting water you’ve ever had.
RE: LifeStraw
My daughter watches a couple of YouTubers named Rhett & Link who have a regular YouTube show they do called Good Mythical Morning. I usually end up listening to it as she’s typically watching it within earshot. Anyway, the other day they had a show about those LifeStraws and proceeded to drink all sorts of crazy things with them. So, if you want to see them in practice on things you would never dare try yourself, then give this video a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJjEAWkFCHA
Lifestraw filters to 0.2 microns and has a 250 gallon capacity before you have to replace it. For the same price, the Sawyer Mini filters to 0.1 micron and has a 100,000 gallon capacity. No comparison. The Lifestraw should sell for about ten cents to give equal value.
I carry one of the Sawyer Mini Filters in my luggage or truck when I go out of town now.
http://www.amazon.com/Sawyer-Products-SP105-Filtration-System/dp/B00TOX6UM6
I am going to sneak one in my wife’s trunk before she goes back to Dallas to check on her father. I already put a 24 bottle case of Ozarka water bottles in there and had to withstand an argument XXXXXXX discussion about the weight dropping her gas mileage.
I would also like to sneak a .22 revolver in there for her but she would never look for it if she had to walk home 300 miles. I wish I owned a .22 revolver in fact as they are rare beasties.
Grave danger from dead white poets
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/436268/yale-students-major-english-poets-curriculum-has-too-many-white-males
Hmm. A small car with a driver and a tank of gas is 2500 pounds. More common is closer to 4000 pounds.
24 pints of water is maybe 25 pounds or so.
Yep, that 1% increase in weight is going to kill car’s mileage.
Hmm. A small car with a driver and a tank of gas is 2500 pounds. More common is closer to 4000 pounds.
24 pints of water is maybe 25 pounds or so.
Yep, that 1% increase in weight is going to kill car’s mileage.
I’ll let you try to explain this to my wife. I could not. She is very proud of the fact that her car gets 35 mpg at 80 mph. 2005 Honda Civic EX with five speed that can hit 60 mph in 7 seconds.
BTW, she has already vetoed the Toyota RAV4 hybrid as it is not “comfortable”. I am now trying to get her into a Subaru Forester now but she is not happy that it only gets 25 mpg at 80 mph so she has delayed the purchase. After all, why waste a good crisis? Meanwhile I get the heebie jeebies every time she goes more than 50 miles away.
And she is wearing a heating pad on her right arm today since it hurts again. She has had three surgeries on that right arm (breast cancer). I am trying to move her from a manual to an automatic but she likes shifting her bright red hot rod.
Do you know how deep your well is yet? I suspect the most reliable way would be to pull the pump and measure what you have now.
Are those solar well pumps designed to provide your house water pressure? The very little bit I looked, the systems were filling some sort of cistern or tub, over time, rather than running on-demand and providing the pressure to the house.
A configuration I saw in Ireland had a big open-topped tub in the attic. It filled with water from a well, but gravity provided the flow to the house plumbing. (Or was there a house-pressure pump somewhere?) The fill mechanism looked just like the one on a toilet tank – the whole thing was like a giant toilet tank. I imagine it helped that the climate was not prone to freezing. In any case it allowed for a slow supply running longer to handle the load of a household. (I saw this in a holiday cottage we rented, very recent construction when we were there in 1987.)
“Obama to Ban Thousands of Senior Citizens from Owning Firearms”
http://www.gunowners.org/alert06072016.htm
“Barack Obama understands it is the Second Amendment community that has destroyed his legacy.”
“And now, like a rabid dog, he is lashing out in an effort to destroy as many law-abiding gun owners as possible.”
“His most recent scheme is the SOCIAL SECURITY GUN BAN, which was formally published in the Federal Register last month.”
“How broad will this regulation be?”
“If you are on Social Security disability by reason of a mental health impairment, then your gun rights are gone. Period.”
And that mental health impairment has a tricky definition.
“Thus, under this language, if you are a senior and can’t “manage [your] own affairs,” you are specifically acknowledged by the Social Security Administration as being a “mental defective” for purposes of making you a prohibited person.”
Hmm. A small car with a driver and a tank of gas is 2500 pounds. More common is closer to 4000 pounds.
24 pints of water is maybe 25 pounds or so.
Yep, that 1% increase in weight is going to kill car’s mileage.
BTW, I tried to put 30 lbs of MREs in her trunk also. She said no way.
And that mental health impairment has a tricky definition.
That’s most of us here! 🙂
I’m sure the permanent government — the uniparty and the bureaucrats — will use the Soviet definition of mental illness: if you don’t support everything the government does, you’re insane.
“Grave danger from dead white poets…”
Don’t get me started. You’ve all seen my rants on this before more than once. I’ll just mention that Mr. Lowry is late to the party; this stupid shit has been going on since I was in grad skool a quarter-century ago. And the main reason, among several other big reasons, I got out of that game as not worth the candle to light it. Buncha dumbass commie twats who should be hoss-whipped and sent to carry hods and unload trucks and cargo ships while Chaucer and Pound are read to them through loudspeakers during their work days. Esp. Pound. The lefties have always hated him.
@ Ray Thompson
“”It’s awfully suspicious that my comment outing someone became uneditable with 30+ minutes left on the clock
I blame it on the Spook. He/She/It/Shim/Sher shows up and strange things start happening. Coincidence? You be the judge.””
Unclear to me what comment, who was outed, etc.
Meanwhile… I am reminded of a situation in a former workplace (a mosquito-infested swamp) when
I said to my coworkers that I was going home and that anything that went wrong could be blamed
on me, so I’d be the Official Scapegoat. Turned out pretty nicely in that particular case. I got air
conditioning and no bug bites, and nothing particularly went wrong (other than the other guys
having to spend the night in the swamp).
Official Scapegoat. I’m him. He is the Spook.
Slate, a mostly liberal commentary site, has a good defense of the Yale requirement to study the 6 “dead, white poets”… written in terms that the PC crowd can understand.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/05/24/yale_students_want_to_remake_the_english_major_requirements_but_there_s.html
Sadly, the dead poets seldom some up in daily conversation.
I am keeping a few lines of rant starting with “Whan that Aprille… ”
in memorization (such as it is in my old age), but mostly in case
I need it to escape from fundamentalist religionists, distracting
them with “speaking in tongues” or whatever they want to call it.
Sadly, the dead poets seldom some up in daily conversation.
Drat. Typo !
Sadly, the dead poets seldom come up in daily conversation.
“”Roy Harvey says:
7 June 2016 at 17:56
Do you know how deep your well is yet? I suspect the most reliable way would
be to pull the pump and measure what you have now.””
_________________
Tie a washer or something like that to a string, somehow making sure the
washer stays horizontal, and the washer needs to be just slightly smaller
than the well pipe diameter, note…
Lower the washer down until it plops onto the surface of the water in the
well. You can feel it on the string… Try it two or three times, and measure
the length of the string to the plop on the water’s surface.
Sorry, this is old environmentalist’s technique, so it might not work if you
want to destroy your local environment.
“””” Hmm. A small car with a driver and a tank of gas is 2500 pounds.
More common is closer to 4000 pounds.
24 pints of water is maybe 25 pounds or so.
Yep, that 1% increase in weight is going to kill car’s mileage. “””
A “donut” spare tire saves a lot of weight, too, but why not haul
a real spare so you can go further than 50 miles at 50 mph ??
Most new cars don’t even have a donut, just maybe a can of
flat repair juice, too. That juice might get you out of a tight
spot, but really it’s scary to keep running at highway speeds
without four (4!) good tires !!
Oops… and I forgot to suggest a good jack and other tools !!
That attic water tank arrangement is standard in Irish houses, though it should be understood that the water is not really regarded as potable after being so stored – potable water is fed directly from the mains supply. The tank water is fine for ablutions other than brushing teeth, for laundry etc. Another convenience in Irish houses which is not common elsewhere is the “hot press” or “airing cupboard” – a small cupboard which houses the copper hot water reserve tank, and which can also be used for airing small items of laundry. In my family, it is known as the “hot jocks and socks”; it is a very nice amenity in a cold, damp climate.
@RBT: on storing rainwater. A one-piece PVC septic tank makes a splendid rainwater cistern. With all those farmers in your locality, someone is bound to have a digger, and might be persuaded to dig it in for you. I did my own with a rented digger – an easy afternoon’s work and not much expense for 3000+ litres of very nearly potable water storage. We use water from the cistern for flushing toilets and watering the garden, but could easily turn it to other use in an emergency.
Interesting idea, but a cistern is more than I want to take on at the moment.
“Try it two or three times, and measure the length of the string to the plop on the water’s surface.”
That would only give us the wotta level and not the actual depth of the well, amirite?
I thought I’d seen an actual note around here somewhere among the house docs several years ago about the well depth but darned if I can find it again now. And when I called the local well drilling company, they told me to look for a metal tag on the outside of it that had all the info but that ain’t there anymore and probably blew away in whatever ice, wind and snow storm long ago. So we don’t really know how deep it is or the wotta level.
And once or twice in the recent past, we’ve noticed a sulphurous smell esp. if there hasn’t been any rain for a while.
That was me. Sorry.
(Fart jokes FTW, yo.)
“And once or twice in the recent past, we’ve noticed a sulphurous smell esp. if there hasn’t been any rain for a while.”
Perhaps the ghost of Hamlet’s father is down there…
@OFD, your well might just be a direct link to Beelzebub’s lair. You might need some incantations and sacrificing of virgins.
“… and sacrificing of virgins.”
What are these “virgins” you speak of?
So far the theories have been Mr. SteveF’s noxious emissions, Hamlet Senior and/or the Lord of the Flies.
Meanwhile a former neighbor, an elderly woman who was born in this house, told Mrs. OFD there had been “paranormal” events here, but we’ve seen and heard nothing so fah. But the cats sometimes are looking at the stairs and following with their heads as though someone is walking up or down them when it’s only me downstairs with them.
A “donut” spare tire saves a lot of weight, too, but why not haul a real spare so you can go further than 50 miles at 50 mph ??
That is why I drive a truck. The wife driving my truck is scary. She has backed into two other vehicles with it as she does not have a clue how to use mirrors. And she has panic attacks driving large vehicles.
That’s why I drive a truck.