I went to the grate metropolis today (needed milk and printer ink, in that order) and got the last pieces to add in the next raised bed to my drip irrigation system. A friend gifted me his leftovers and I must say it is bloody wonderful. While I was doing the put together Peter called and it appears we now have bought some solar panels and a grid tie in inverter. I know almost less than nothing about these, but Peter has a nose for a bargain, and he says i have one. Hopefully it will come in useful one day.
On the firewood hunt today, I cut up some pieces of tree that had fallen and been rough-cut and left to rot, which has the most amazing scent from the fresh sawdust - almost sweet spicy vanilla. It seems to be a native, and I only took the smaller messed up bits. Will try to get some and plank it, and post some pics of the other trees of the same type growing around.
Otherwise the bachelor boys - James, Norman (his partner and daughter are away too) and I -- had a big calamari and rice with with XO sauce for tea and apple and raspberry pie and custard for after. Tomorrow I will fly along to fetch Barbs back and I will return to normal sleeping hours - I tend to work until I fall asleep on the keyboard, while she's away.
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ReplyDeleteBiren :-) We miss you. And I too long for the robot that will vacuum, and cut grass and weed and...
ReplyDeletePools are a money and labour drain - and in winter not much fun. Nik! Ha ha ha... I have James home right now 'helping' in the same way.
My friends use solar to power lights in their deer camp. However, they discovered that using an inverter to power high voltage AC (110V here) to be a major issue with batteries etc. So they switched to a 24v DC system and use the bright LEDs that truckers are now using for their interior lights. They also use some accessories that operate on 24V DC...quite common here in truck stops. The only things they had to switch out were some of the wall sockets to accommodate the power points (aka cigarette plugs)needed for teh phone and laptop chargers.
ReplyDeleteThe battery issue is a LARGE one. Expensive, PITA. The lights of course are fine on good LEDs, but what isn't is the freezer bank. We could no more live without our freezers (without quite a drop in lifestyle) than without the internet. That is to say, we could can everything, or salt it... but the freezers give us a lot of flexibility. Other appliances we use a lot are the 3 bread makers (I make rolls once a week - except when the kids are here, then it is every second day, if I am getting off lightly) but this means I don't have to knead by hand, the power mincer/sausage stuffer, the kettle (OK that could go gas) and the egg beater/liquidizer. I could do all of that by hand but it takes time. The ice-cream machine and fruit juicer are also used a lot in summer and while not necessary, are rather good ways of using a lot of our produce (make sorbets quite a lot) Oh and my home-made biltong (like jerky) drier, but that would work off 24 volt). At the moment we're looking at grid-tie (this could change, depending where we end up living) and reducing our bills to very little as the grid buys power at parity ATM - and the law ties them into sticking to what they contract. I'd very much like to go to using a water pumping storage (pump water uphill when you have lots of power, run it down to power a hydro unit when when you don't. It's inefficient, BUT... doesn't need batteries, and a concrete water tank has a lot more lifespan than a lead-acid battery.
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