Summary
Originally Published 2020-07-06
Well this week was one of poison ivy, yes the itchiness was very bothersome. I finished my branch dragging project, so I can pull branches out of the bush instead of taking the wood chipper into the bush. I have been working on a stone fire pit and put the logs in place. I finally listened to my solar power supplier and now I have air conditioning without using the generator! Beyond that just the usual gardening. It is somewhat hard to believe what is going on in the USA, some are saying it is the start of next Civil War.
Poison Ivy
Having owned this property for seven years and never getting poison ivy I felt very confident I wouldn’t get it this year either. Well Mother Nature decided to show me how wrong I was and gave me a real good dose all over my legs and arms. The itchiness coupled with the extreme heat has lead me to do very little. Despite this it still seems to be spreading but at a reduced rate so my guess is it must be air borne as well. Oh well one of the risks of living out here.
Tractor Project
I built a rake of sorts for my tractor. I detailed the build here . And it seems to be working well enough for pulling branches out of the bush. That consumed a day but with the intense heat it is nice to do a little less labour for a change.
Gardens and Greenhouses
As expected the greenhouses are ahead of the curve as they were planted about a month before the outside gardens. The daily salad is getting more and more tasty! The green peppers and bush beans are almost ready to pick as well and that will make a full salad. We had some friends out and served the salad and it went over well. So far the animals have only eaten one plant so all good so far.
Air Conditioning and Solar System
The house I have has a 5000 watt air conditioner, which is far too large to run on my 3000 watt inverters. However during the long hot summer days I produce so much electricity that my battery bank is filled by 10 AM, and the charge controllers just dump electricity all day long. One of my son’s had a 1090 watt standing air conditioner that specifications said can cool up to 700 square feet. I have 680 square feet and spare electricity so it sounded like a match.
The first day I plugged in the air conditioner it worked and worked well. Only when I did dumb things like run the fridge, microwave and air at the same time did I trip the 3000 watt inverter to turn off. The only issue was the batteries seemed to be draining quickly and this shouldn’t happen when I have excess charging capacity.
Then the words of my solar guy “Solar Tech” in Hawkesbury Ontario came back to haunt me, “always put everything on the same connection”. So I moved the inverter connection which I had attached to a different terminal than the charge controllers to the same connection. The obvious happened during the excess charge times the inverter pulled from charge controllers directly leaving the batteries fully charged. Of course as the quality of the charging starts to fall in the evening it pulls the excess from the batteries so I don’t run it too much into the evening.
So I still have my 5000 watt air that I can run off the generator but that uses gas, this uses sunlight and gives me all the cool I need!
Fire Pit Project
This is one I started last year simply gathering rocks and giant split trees. I’ll post an image next week but it is my intent to burn the deadfall trees in the pit while at the same time having fires outside this winter while doing some skating. Also I have been reading about the history of maple syrup and this next spring I plan on processing the sugary sap to the syrup using the old ways. More on that later.
Civil War II in the USA
While it is really neither my business nor my fight, I hope my neighbours to the south will get together and stop all the BLM, Antifa and CHAZ/CHOP stuff as well pulling down statues. Yes the concerns of the community must be heard and I am definitely in favour of policing alternatives as well, but hurting each other is not the solution.
Regrettably thought the ages violence and war has determined the victor but the truth is everyone looses. Never can a man win if memories of the looses remain, never can peace exist if there is always some subset of the population that remembers defeat. So I hope that everyone will come together as one and end the issues without ending the history and lives.