Sun power!

This year will not be like the last: I filed my taxes electronically, and I got my refund already! So, what does a homesteader do with his tax return? Solar panels!!

http://www.sunelec.com/ has some of the best prices on solar that I've seen yet, the panels that I ordered were $1.19/watt USD. Never in history have solar panels been that cheap! In Canada, the cheapest panels I've seen are about $3/watt, although there wouldn't be any shipping.

Even with shipping at $700, I'm still getting 1280 watts of solar lovin', along with a top quality charge controller (Outback, of course) and a combiner box. The charge controller will take the very high voltage from the panels, topping at 71 volts, and step it down to 24. I can still add another 400-500 watts to the system in the future without adding more charge controllers.

I've decided to put the panels on the ground level, on a movable, tiltable platform since I may need to move them in the future. Not to mention, the ground is still frozen solid, so digging posts isn't an option...

Which brings me to my next question;

Where the H-E double hockey sticks is spring?? We're still getting temps overnight around -25C, and daytime is running about -10C or less! I guess no spring for us this year. We should be getting above freezing temps in the daytime by this point. It's supposed to warm up in a few days. We'll see if that actually happens. As I recall, by this time last year, we had no snow, and I could already feel the soil warming up. I haven't actually seen soil yet, so we're a bit behind...

Which is why I need a greenhouse!! Lucky for me, I already dug the pit last fall, so I just need a bit of plastic, some framing, and a couple of warm weeks so I can shape the soil a bit. I've started window shopping for garden goodies, and I might have a bead on a garden tractor for $300! Propane powered, not that I care. It could be powered by unicorn feathers, and I would find a way to run it.

I haven't had a lot of pics, because of the difficulty of uploading from the iPhone (might want to work on that a bit, APPLE!) but here's a few.

This is one of the many bizzare snowdrifts that we've accumulated this year. Definitely a smaller one, some of the big ones are 5 feet tall, and unfortunately, just outside the door!

This was once a wind turbine rectifier, now a smoking melted heap of Chinese crapola. I'm making a new one from better parts. I might salvage the heating coils from this, I do need a diversion load. The wind was 80 kph, I honestly thought the turbine was going to explode, but I shorted the wires, as you can see at the bottom, and she stopped.

I guess it's bed time, I'll have another post when the solar panels arrive!

Electricity on the farm

It's almost March! For some people in North America, spring has already begun, and they are hard at work preparing garden beds. It's -25 C here, and there is no garden work to be done.
I am instead working on keeping our pipes unfrozen, and our electricity on.
A few days ago, my awesome Wacker-Neuson generator had some major problems, making it necessary to buy a second generator, just a cheap Champion 3500 watt used one. My Wacker (what a name...) genny is actually running now, and I suspect that the cold weather is keeping it going. Some electrical part kept cutting out when it was warm last week, so I will certainly need to find that and fix it. Now, the new generator was running poorly last night, and I found the problem...a giant chunk of ice in the intake. There is still a bunch of ice in the air intake, so I will need some cleaning on that one.
For those of you who may be considering an off-grid system, and maybe like me you rely on a generator until you can afford solar panels, here is some advice. Two working generators at all times. Having your only generator cut out is NOT acceptable, a backup is a MUST! Even a cheap one bought used is fine, as long as you don't store it with gas in the tank, and run it for an hour every two months.
I had some other electricity related thoughts: I found something on the internet at this site
www.greensteamengine.com and I was astounded at the potential. These boys have invented a steam engine that can run off a pressure canner, is about the same size as a regular generator, probably 1/3 the weight, and produces no exhaust gas (the steam can be recondensed and used again). It can operate off of pressures up to 50 psi, or as low as 10. You can attach a small generator directly to the driveshaft, and tie it into your batteries.
For me, I picture using this in the winter, putting the pressure boiler directly on top of my wood stove! Even if it only produces 2000 watts, on dark cloudy days, it would easily produce all our electricity with ease in just a few hours. It would not be needed in summer, when the days are much longer, and the solar panels could take up the slack.
I tried to contact the website about prices, still haven't got a reply.
I will post any replies I get, in case anyone else finds this kind of interesting.
Adios for now!

Blizzard!!!

Every year, we get a couple of slammin' blizzards, usually lasting a couple of days or more. Last year, it was December, this year, it's right now! Blowing snow, drifting, getting stuck, and snow, snow, snow everywhere.
Since we now have three vehicles, I figured at least one would start. I knew that there would be snow packed into the engine block by the wind, which there was, but I managed to get my truck started, and put the belt back one after it slipped off (happened last year too). Then, I made the driveway run. And, I got stuck. So, about 20 minutes of shoveling later, I'm out! It's obvious though, that there won't be any car getting out of that. The snow is still falling, and blowing. Any tracks I make today will be filled in tomorrow.
We haven't had to run the generator for a day and a half, which is good because it was buried under 4 feet of packed snow. The wind has been driving the wind turbine hard, and we have more than ample power.
I took a couple "snowcation" days, but I'm back to work tomorrow. Bye!

Deep winter report

It's almost hard to believe, it's already January 7th! All the fun bits of winter are over, and now the waiting for spring sets in. Worse yet, we've had snow on the ground for 2 months, and I haven't been skiing once!

HOUSE
My wife and I have been spending a lot of time looking at houseplans, and discussing what we want to build. I've been investigating using a kit, which means that the house wouldn't be a strawbale building, but a kit would be much faster, has a set price, and comes with all the relevant documents. All of that would allow us to get a home up faster than we would otherwise, which is kind of important. If I hire out the basement pouring, and use a kit, we could have a house up in a few short months, rather than a year or longer. It will cost more to hire it out, but we will also save money by not having to rent in another town!
Am I compromising my dream of having a super insulated house? No, because I have a few tricks that I intend to employ when building that will help. Reflective foil on the inner, and outer walls should add some heat retention. The basement will also be heavily insulated. Having an ultra-insulated house isn't really that huge of a benefit, when you don't pay for heat already...

AGRICULTURE
It seems every time I post, my garden plan has changed. Well, this is no exception, but it's only one small (large) change. I still plan to have a large garden with a few main crops that I will sell, but I've added one thing. A greenhouse. I can buy the 6mil greenhouse poly for about $250, which gives me 2000 square feet of plastic. That would be enough to build 2 50 foot hoophouses, for a total growing area of 1000 sq ft! I'll need a pile of either rebar, or electrical conduit, whichever is cheaper. Bend those in an arc, stick into the ground, add a straight piece on the top, tie together, and done! Well, almost. The poly will have to be attached, which probably takes about 4 people to do well.
Hopefully this will give me a 4 week headstart on growing, and I can totally control all moisture, exclude pests, and work in the garden even when the weather is poor.

I have also decide to tone down my cattle plans, mainly because of lack of money. To really get some cattle going would take a lot of money, which would be tied up for 18 months while the cattle grow. We need that money available to do other things, like put up solar panels!

DARK TIMES AHEAD

I've been reading, listening to podcasts, and trying to look into the murky future. It doesn't look good, at least for America. I would not be surprised to see a major bond default by the US within the next 24 months, maybe longer. American is living on borrowed time (as are we all), and she can't continue to run 1.2 trillion dollar deficits without breaking the bank. Literally.
I am expecting the following to occur here:

1. Oil prices hit the stratosphere - Solution - As much solar, wind, and gasoline storage as I can manage. I'd like to have 6-8 months of gas in 200 gal tanks. That will give me time to come up with some kind of alternative transportation, probably something with woodgas. I'd also like to have 2 years worth of firewood put aside.

2. Food prices follow oil - This will benefit us, and might be the catalyst for my eventual departure from working for the Man.

3. Interest rates rise...a lot - 15 %? 21%? It's happened before! I know that I need to lock in at my lower rate for 5 years, and get rid of any unsecured debt with variable rate. Then, when rates rise, we need to have a plan to be out of debt by the end of the term.

4. Pay rate freezes, or even salary rollbacks - I don't expect to lose my job, but I do expect a reduction in pay. We already live beneath our means, and by the time this hits, I'm hoping to be at a monthly surplus of $1000 - $1200.

5. War? - You have to admit, there is a lot of chest puffing, and bluster from around the world, particularly from some shorty Asian dictators, and bearded Muslim guys. Historically, major economic crisis is usually followed by a war or three. This one ought to be a jim-dandy, what with everyone possessing nukes and all.

Should we all worry? I can't change anything by worrying. We'll try to be as ready as possible when stuff happens. I have to trust in God, because my neighbors certainly aren't ready!

The worst is over...we hope

Hello again everyone, it's boxing day! Or it was 2 hours ago. I'm trying to push my internal clock forward for the graveyard shift tomorrow, so I'm up late.

We've had a mix of good and bad times, mostly good of course. The bad stuff isn't much, mainly automobile problems. I had to spend a gob of money on tie rods, and the car is still making some strange noises from the suspension and steering area. I couldn't do the work myself without a very expensive tool, and I needed my car on the road right away.
On Christmas Eve, as I was on my way home from work at about midnight, I was coming around a corner that I KNEW was icy, so I slowed down...but not enough. The road was a thin sheet of ice, and the car started whirling around like a retarded ballerina! I ended up off the road at a rather steep point, facing straight down into the ditch. Someone passing by stopped to offer help, and ended up giving me a ride home (Thanks again, Steve and Samantha!)
Lucky for me, my mother has AMA, so she had a two truck out there today, and I'm out! He pulled my car out by one of the back tires, so I'm not sure if that can cause damage...hopefully not.

With Christmas past, and the days actually getting longer, I've started dreaming of gardens and livestock again. I did a mountain of research into cattle, and I figure I've got 3 choices. One, wait till fall, buy 6-7 weaned calves for about $500 each, feed them through winter on whatever forage they can reach, and perhaps a little hay, and butcher in fall of 2011, selling the beef in sides. Option 2, buy as many cow/calf pairs as I can in March/April, and sell the calves off in 2011 as per option 1. Then, rebreed the mothers and repeat ad infinitum.
Option 3, and a very risky type of option, but with the highest potential for profit. Get a few bottle calves, and try keep them alive long enough to eat forage. It's a lot of work, but the calves can be had for under $100 in most cases! We'll see....I think a mix of Options 1 and 2 are probably best, if I can come up with a decent bit of cash.

I've also got some designs on a market garden, scaled up from last year. The things that really did well, carrots, peas, sunflowers, a different variety of bean, onions, and strawberries, will be the only things I grow. The peas will be grown behind something that will block a lot of light, as that seemed to be the way they grew best. The peas that were in 70% shade last year produced a TON of pods, which decreased for the plants which were getting longer light.
I would also like to get the pit greenhouse covered, and at least a small portion of it planted to something.
I will be planting in rows, after I burn off the vegetation on about 50x20 feet of space. I literally mean "burn" as in flames! I will have buckets of water ready...don't panic now. I have no plans to rototill the ground, except to hack a narrow bit out and place the seeds directly into it. There are a lot of thistle roots in the ground, but they get worse when you cut the roots, or bring them to the surface.
I will certainly need some way to control the weeds, and wheel hoe looks like the best and fastest way. If you've never seen one in action, look it up on YouTube, it's an amazing little tool, if not a bit pricey. A really good one is $350 or more, and then you can get different attachments for them that would cost more. Still not as much as just one weaned calf tho.

Right now, the wind is blowing like mad, which of course means free electricity for us! I have a pretty large list of things to do tomorrow, including water hauling, and wood cutting....unfortunately, the fun and games never end out here, but at least the house is warm for free!

Take care, and happy new year!

I must protest, Mr Weatherman

November 27, 2010. Not even December. Alberta has already seen more than a foot of snow, and temperatures dropping to -39 C a couple of nights. I have twice dragged my car down the driveway with my truck because the snow was too deep to navigate with my car. Booooooo....

The really cold weather is behind us (for now), but we still have tons of snow! That's not very common for this time of year, and it brings challenges. Any tools left out will be either gone till spring, or until the next Chinook, the snow forms large, solid drifts that block foot traffic, and of course, driving becomes nightmarish. Then, water pipes freeze. Thanks to some missing insulation under the house (-39 didn't help either) several of our water pipes froze. They have thawed since, but it's very apparent to me that living in a mobile home is going to be a constant battle to keep those lines unfrozen. The only successful thing I have been able to do is to blast a kerosene heater under the house, especially in the direction of the sewer pipe, which again froze solid on me. The heater did it's job tho, and our pipes are clear, and my wife loves me again (haha....ha).

Seriously though, once we are clear of the winter months, we are going to take a drastic step. We are selling our house, and moving away. Temporarily.
Sitting on my "List of things I wanna do someday" is building a strawbale house. The problem with doing that is, how do you build a house, when you already have one? The only real way to do it is to sell the first one, THEN build another! Therefore, we are listing the house in the new year, and we are going to try selling it with all of the renewable energy stuff inside. I will even offer to move it (the first 100 km) to sweeten the deal, if we don't get a lot of interest at first. I'm going to ask for a bit more money to cover the replacement of the RE stuff, probably 15k more.
It shouldn't take more than 1 year to build a house, at least far enough along to live in it. We only need to obtain financing from the bank, which is no easy task to be sure. I will give it my best shot. We probably need about $60 k, which isn't much, but I never take it for granted that getting any kind of loan will be "easy". It almost never is, except for the first time.

In other interesting news, my darling wife, who up till now has never really taken much interest in business, has had a lightening bolt of a business idea, which I think has a real shot at producing something. I won't go into extreme detail, but it involves crafting personal health products, like lotion, soaps, perfume, and selling them. This idea has kind of revitalized her, given her something to reach for. Of course, I support the idea, and I'll put whatever money is needed on the table, even if my own business plans suffer a bit.

Because of the house-building quest, most gardening will take a back-seat this year. I may attempt some peas, carrots, and other easy veggies, but my main focus this year will be purchasing some cattle, and getting them growing out on the grass. In time, I plan to market the beef for bulk purchase. It looks to me like there will be quite a bit of interest, many of my friends and coworkers have said that they would purchase bulk meat. Raising cattle is more of a "hands off" type of activity, they don't need much except wind shelter, fresh grass, and water. That will free up my time for construction.

My phone's camera is still shot, or I would have pics of the snow. It's quite deep, but thankfully it hasn't drifted too much yet.

The Neverending Summer

It's October 15th, and my son is 6 months old! He is now sitting up on his own, but no crawling or rolling yet. Not that I'm upset, the sooner he crawls, the sooner I have to clear out EVERYTHING in reach before it becomes food!

I've been busy, doing exactly those things that I said I would do all year, and thankfully, the weather has been absolutely perfect! I rented the mini-excavator and dug the water tank holes (more on that later) and dug a large rectangular greenhouse pit, which I will be covering with plastic.

GARDEN UPDATE:
It's mid October, which is looooong past normal gardening time, but there are still some plants that are alive in the garden. All of the flowers are still alive, the sunflowers are slowly maturing, and if I had actually planted a second crop of peas, they would have produced a good crop at the end of September. Next year, I will do that. I'm not used to double cropping here in the frozen North!
Carrots are a good double cropping thing too, and I've already got my future huge garden plot mapped out, it just needs the weeds tilled under!

WATER
As I mentioned before, the real purpose for renting the excavator was to bury my water tanks, so I dug a huge hole for that purpose. Turns out it wasn't huge enough, and only one tank will fit, and that's after I got into the hole and hacked it out with a pick and shovel.
At first I pushed the empty tank into the hole, realized it didn't fit, and panicked when I saw that it needed to come back out. This is a 1250 gallon tank, 7 feet in diameter. Prolly 250 lbs. I pulled it out with the truck, by looping a rope through the top and bottom.
The bottom of the hole has accumulated about 1 foot of groundwater, which was surprising to me. I didn't realize our water table was so high! It made working in the hold a lot more difficult, until I tossed a couple of sturdy pallets down there. The tank itself will probably be resting on top of these after all is said and done.

RENEWABLE ENERGY
I finally got my new turbine blades! Today is installation day for the newly upgraded wind turbine, and not a moment too soon. The automn wind is picking up, which means $3-6 in free electric on days where the wind exeeds 20 kph, which is about every third day so far. Less windy days might produce about $1.50 in power, not a lot, but that's every single day!
I have been window shopping solar panels in the US, and on the site
www.sunelec.com, full panels can be had for $1.35/watt USD. That's a substantial discount off our local prices here, and with the US dollar at parity with our dollar, I will be able to get many panels for just a few thousand dollars.
I need about 1000 watts worth, which in the winter will admittedly only produce about half our needs, but in summer will be more than enough. Eventually, I want about 2500 watts, and an additional 8 batteries to even out the power consumption. My goal is to reduce my generator runtime to less than 50 hrs per month in the winter months, and nothing in the summer.

OTHER BRIC-A-BRAC
I still need to work on the insulation under the house, fix the storm doors, seal some of our windows, put an outside air intake on the woodstove, and a few dozen other smaller projects. Not like last year at this time, where every waking hour was spent working on the ill-fated workshop, which I have been cannibalizing for lumber, btw.
Oh, and finish off the perimeter fence. That's kind of important too.

As you can see, a homesteader's work is never done! Sometimes, it stays half done for a while.
I'll post pics of the water, when I've got it completed.