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Six years ago my wife and I purchased some forest acreage. Three years ago we retreated there. This thread will be for sharing photographs, anecdotes and ramblings. Please feel free to ask questions; apologies if they do not get answered. Follow along as we make ordinary life more difficult than it needs to be.                 To the familiar, welcome back!
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Feb 26, 2016 14:34
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Feb 26, 2016 14:37
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Feb 26, 2016 14:46
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Feb 26, 2016 14:57
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Thanks for sharing the awesome photos Apatite. Did you ever change your mind about selling that awesome Syrup to goons?
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Feb 26, 2016 18:32
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Gegil posted:Thanks for sharing the awesome photos Apatite. Did you ever change your mind about selling that awesome Syrup to goons? Last year's syrup haul was all sold locally in as much bulk as possible to make it fast and easy. Going to take this year off from production as I have enough in storage to last us through the year and need to focus on other things, like getting my building permit in order for a garage/shop (and then actually building it)
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Feb 26, 2016 20:02
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Thanks for the new thread, I love seeing whatever you do and as a city goon, to live my country life through you. About the syrup, can't blaim you really, it looked like extremely hard work in the snow and dark. Ought to be nice to be able to skip that now and then.
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Feb 29, 2016 08:57
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We've been getting a lot of ice storms this year, it sucks pretty bad. Here's some pics                  This is a little meter I got from amazon, it works pretty well for monitoring power coming in from the PV charge controller to the batteries. Shows current battery voltage, incoming amps, incoming watts, total accumulated watt-hours 
apatite fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Mar 5, 2016 |
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Mar 5, 2016 00:06
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Hope nothing breaks too bad in the Ice storms. Good luck, love the photos! Ramp season is around the corner.
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Mar 5, 2016 00:12
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Suspect Bucket posted:Hope nothing breaks too bad in the Ice storms. Good luck, love the photos! Ramp season is around the corner. Thanks, nothing too bad just some trees down. Hooray for ramps/leeks! Can't wait. With anything, comes "weenies". Hikers for instance have "weight weenies" that will cut their toothbrush in half and spend whole paychecks on the newest titanium spork. Automotive enthusiasts have "horsepower weenies" that will quadruple turbo charge their lawn mower because it could use some more ooomph. My particular brand of weenyism would be electricity usage. For instance, my momma didn't raise no fool. Running all the lights, some air circulation fans and other things on 12v DC power means for a lot of stuff I use these automotive type switches that can be had for free/cheap. This is mostly because they are free/cheap, of course. There is no need to hook up the stupid LED in the switch though, that's just wasting power  
apatite fucked around with this message at 16:03 on Mar 10, 2016 |
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Mar 9, 2016 17:21
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I'm sure they're a pain to live through but you make ice storms look achingly beautiful.
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Mar 10, 2016 13:03
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15½ amps. Cripes.
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Mar 10, 2016 22:53
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How many batteries are you running behind those solar panels? Do you have an inverter(?) to get 120VAC out of it?
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Mar 11, 2016 17:12
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Nice: lowbush cranberry /ligonberry / partridgeberry salad?
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Mar 12, 2016 17:55
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DreadLlama posted:15½ amps. Cripes.
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Mar 21, 2016 07:02
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TheLastManStanding posted:At 13.23 Volts that's only ~200 watts, which is a pretty low/normal amount to be running. Yeah that is still just the array of what I'll now consider "four small panels", haven't seen it break 22A so far since installing the meter but we also just hit spring. I have new panels to put up that will take it from 600W rated total to 1800W rated total though, just need to put them up. Ran wiring this weekend  After that we desperately need a battery upgrade, the charge controller kicks to float usually around 1-2pm even after running it down pretty low the night before. That picture wasn't meant to show any kind of peak or anything it's just a random shot of the meter.Really just did not want to upgrade the battery bank without knowing I had the ability to charge it fully (without running generator every day), so panels came first even though we needed batteries more... Seat Safety Switch posted:How many batteries are you running behind those solar panels? We have 4x decommissioned telco batteries that are 12v, 90ah connected together to form a 12v ~360ah(when new lol) bank. There are two inverters connected, one small 175W runs the TV/DVD player/laptop chargers and is only on when needed, another 2000W runs our small fridge/freezer and is on all the time for that purpose. Various other things get connected to either inverter as needed. All lights are LED powered directly from batteries w/ 12v DC Nebakenezzer posted:Nice: lowbush cranberry /ligonberry / partridgeberry salad? apatite fucked around with this message at 13:59 on Mar 21, 2016 |
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Mar 21, 2016 13:50
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Where do you get PV panels? Cheapest I can find on ebay is $188 for 100W.
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Mar 21, 2016 16:07
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DreadLlama posted:Where do you get PV panels? Cheapest I can find on ebay is $188 for 100W. First batch I got direct from manufacturer (DMSolar when they were selling on amazon w/ free shipping). The last four I actually got on ebay (free shipping, this is the theme, shipping will kill you buying PV panels online). There is probably nothing wrong with all the chinese panels that the market is flooded with but who knows if the company will exist if you need a warranty claim so I bought some nice ones made by Canadian Solar (http://www.canadiansolar.com/) and paid $1.10/watt shipped to my door via freight truck with liftgate. This price should go down if you buy in bulk but if you are buying in bulk you shouldn't do it on ebay. If you are buying pallets do it from somewhere like http://sunelec.com/
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Mar 21, 2016 17:34
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apatite posted:First batch I got direct from manufacturer (DMSolar when they were selling on amazon w/ free shipping). If you happen to be in the US. you can also check and see if your state offers any rebates for Solar. http://energy.gov/savings
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Mar 21, 2016 17:42
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Gegil posted:If you happen to be in the US. you can also check and see if your state offers any rebates for Solar. That's true, my state does but you have to be connected to the grid w/ a net metering contract and have a NABCEP ( http://www.nabcep.org/ ) certified installer do all the work. Also has to be your primary residence. For 2015 at least there was a federal credit available that does not require any of that Also, 'My Side of the Mountain' is on Netflix and I'm watching it right now at work apatite fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Mar 21, 2016 |
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Mar 21, 2016 17:48
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Haven't been around in a while, was out of town. Did a crap job draining on demand propane water heater and a pipe inside it froze and burst. Leeks(ramps) are up in full force and trilliums are about to start blooming. Going to try to replace this burst pipe. This fuckin heater obviously needed to be taken apart and cleaned anyway, good god that is disgusting.  <edit> We also have 2+ inches of wet heavy snow this morning and it hasn't let up yet so everything coming up in the woods will probably die apatite fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Apr 26, 2016 |
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Apr 26, 2016 15:02
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Yay, thread is back! I see you're back working again? You doing full time work or consulting or what?
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Apr 28, 2016 17:52
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dreesemonkey posted:Yay, thread is back! I see you're back working again? You doing full time work or consulting or what? Yeah full time internet stuff, it's alright but the tech bubble is gonna pop again and then what?? Maple syrup, leeks, berries, firewood and poorly focused pictures of fungus, that's probably what
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Apr 28, 2016 19:22
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apatite posted:Yeah full time internet stuff, it's alright but the tech bubble is gonna pop again and then what?? Maple syrup, leeks, berries, firewood and poorly focused pictures of fungus, that's probably what Not a bad fallback.
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Apr 29, 2016 19:46
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May 3, 2016 19:28
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RAMP IT
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May 4, 2016 00:09
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A bird in the hammock is worth two eggs in the nest Worked on some things   Then it got back down into the 30s *F range and we got a bunch of hail and stuff. Weather has been real weird.
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May 16, 2016 13:13
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That happened to us too. Thursday or so? Went from nice and partially sunny to windy as hell and cold, then a hailstorm+heavy rain, then back to nice and partially sunny, all inside of an hour.
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May 16, 2016 16:54
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kastein posted:That happened to us too. Thursday or so? Went from nice and partially sunny to windy as hell and cold, then a hailstorm+heavy rain, then back to nice and partially sunny, all inside of an hour. It was Sunday, hailed four times throughout the day  Here's a couple other pics of what those poles ended up as   It is farther along now but no pics. This is a 'coat closet' w/ a shelf on top for rubbermaid type bins of seasonal clothes. If anyone hasn't guessed we have extreme seasonal differences, down to -20 or -30F in winter and up to 100F in summer so there is a stupid amount of associated garb and whatnot
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May 17, 2016 13:54
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apatite posted:It was Sunday, hailed four times throughout the day You should get some vacuum bags and vac your clothes. Will take up way less space
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May 17, 2016 17:37
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May 18, 2016 13:19
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Looks beautiful there this time of year! Glad you're still posting!
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May 18, 2016 14:01
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Stream is at August-drought like levels. Hit 97F two days in a row. Dog brought home a friend. We took the friend away from the dog. 
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Jun 1, 2016 13:56
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From the relative smoothness of the shell I want to say that looks like an alligator snapper.  You are far braver than I.
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Jun 1, 2016 19:34
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DreadLlama posted:From the relative smoothness of the shell I want to say that looks like an alligator snapper. Y'know, I was going to say it was a some variety of Map Turtle, but it could be a very young Snapper.
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Jun 1, 2016 19:47
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DreadLlama posted:From the relative smoothness of the shell I want to say that looks like an alligator snapper. I don't see what the big deal is, we used to have one of those as a pet.
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Jun 1, 2016 20:02
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Yeah it was a young snapper. Real cool dude-- he wasn't nearly as much of an rear end in a top hat as the older ones! (Coincidentally you tell the sex based on the location of their... rear end in a top hat)
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Jun 2, 2016 15:19
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We really need to get irrigation to a remote field but don't have money to have a well drilled. Thankfully there is a spring nearby at the edge of a swamp but of course it is about 20-25ft in elevation lower than the actual field. A friend and well wisher(or maybe he just wants free fruit??) donated an old shurflo pump out of a camper, basically an older model of what we use for domestic water. The other day after work I took it out and verified that it has the balls to actually pump water that high. Testing method was highly scientific and should not be attempted at home without the guidance of a trained professional.    Success! Now I will set up a pole mount for our old set of 15W PV panels and the pump will run when the sun is shining, filling a tank approximately where the farm truck is parked in that pic. From there it will gravity feed to the trees, bushes and other things planted in the field.    
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Jun 13, 2016 14:18
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Another new buddy 
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Jun 16, 2016 19:38
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Please boop le snoot.
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Jun 17, 2016 16:18
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