Life goes on - Summer 2017

Thanks for the numbers Chris. I will put up 6 cord either way. Whatever I don’t use in the house will get used up in making Maple syrup. We will be doubling up production next year.

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To our friends that live in Texas, I hope all is well and please stay safe.
Translating inches of rain to inches of snow would be more than 30’ of snow depending on temperatures.

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Didn’t you put an addition on your house this summer. More to heat??? TomC

What Bill said ,

I think Jason is in or near Houston . Hope he and his family are safe .

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Billy North Re: hand water pumping. Here are a couple of very good ideas concerning pumping water
with the help of a pendulum.
http://gravityassistedpower.com/

Much of this development work is based on the toils of Veljko Milkovic

Dan Allard, Re: tractor hydraulics. I wanted to add something to one of my tractors and didn’t really have room for a bigger spool valve. I found a powerful 12 vdc linear actuator. They did the job. They wouldn’t be practical for a bucket but, will work for lighter attachments. There is even a guy on youtube who uses the back of his tractor for a forklift. He has one linear actuator and a good size set of forks.


If you are considering building a woodgas truck, if you are considering building a chunker but, haven’t quite found the motivation, here is a BIG does of motivation.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-26/why-shale-oil-miracle-becoming-debacle

As I previously mentioned, I live outside of L.A. Many years ago, I built a log house in Bend, Or. I’ve been much too busy to move in. I’ve left it empty for 27 years. As the prognosis for the coming crash got worse and worse, I try to get prepared. Since Bend, Or. can get a frost at any time in the summer, Bend was not a good place to try to revert to an agrarian lfestlye.

I bought 10 acres on the Coquille river East of Myrtle Point, Or. I recently went up to Oregon to work on all the equipment that had been sitting. The 1960 F-600 boom truck needs quite a bit of TLC. The Farmall 560 needs work on the carb. Some unnamned person took the carb apart in the weeds and lost the needle. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:
A big bald eagle recently got ALL the ducks, chickens, turkeys and geese. I had to build a big enclosed coop.
The local beaver was making big problems daming up the culvert. After he dammed it up, he couldn’t go under the road. So, he crossed the highway, and got hit by a semi-truck. :slight_smile:
I got a deal on a 2500 gallon plastic water tank. I placed that 20ft. higher to get even more head. Not even sure how high my spring is. It’s across the river up on the mountain. I also found another
spring much higher up the mountain on my side of the river. It has good hydro-power potential.

I need to replace 2 logs on the log cabin. They were in a position that they got a lot of rain. I found a couple of real good juniper logs. I found a supply house that sells lag bolts up to 24 inches long. I’ve been neglegent on keeping up with the treatment on the logs. Texas A&M reported that TWP from Amteco is the best stuff.
The Yanmar 155d is hard at work in Myrtle Point and has been real good. The 2 John Deeres in Bend are OK but, need to be worked.
The neighbor in Bend noticed that my fence is quite divergent from the property line. So, That is another project.
My Dakota is in limbo since I don’t have a good handle on the other 95%, or was it 75%?
My 1 ton Dodge utility bed-camper needs a few things done to it. It’s been sitting ever since the kids got older and started doing their own thing.
I need to do all the projects in oregon but, I’m still trying to finish the dump bed for my 1965 NAPCO Chevy C-50.
In my spare time, I invest quite a bit of time into economic research to write my economic thread.
http://www.energeticforum.com/general-discussion/13014-economic-pressures-78.html
I work 5 1/2 days a week maintaining a fleet of Diesel trucks.
If there is any time left over, I eat and sleep.
Best wished to all.

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thanks, i like the volume/motion ratio.

My wife’s brother is in Houston. She finally got a call through, and is talking to him right now. He’s ok it seems. Bad floods.

Bill, when you say “cords” do you mean a real cord or a face cord? I’m assuming it’s a full cord since you’re talking about burning for 9 months. I hope you guys love it up there.
Garry said it weeds out the men from the boys. I guess I’ll just have to be happy to stay a boy. haha :disappointed_relieved:

I wonder if there are genetic differences in people groups who come from different areas that help them to better handle their respective environments. Maybe some natural selection going on?? .LOL… Or is it all learned. ??? Having always lived in FL, AL, and South America, I can handle about any amount of heat. but I’m such a wimp when it comes to cold. Sometimes when northerners are around in the winter here, they feel like it’s real nice weather with their shorts and t shirts and I’ve got a coat on, with a wool hat and bundled up, and the stove running as hard as it will burn. . … Anyway…just a curiosity to me I guess…

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A face cord is a 1/3 of a cord, so, I used 18 face cords.

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Documentation shows my ancestors all lived around here since at least the 1600s. Also my learning curve is pretty flat. I still hate cold and dark.
I do like to complain :smile:

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Billy, Re: natural heating. Body heat is controlled by the mitochrondia. The system is flexible until about 12 years old. Then, it kind of locks in the setting. The same is true for the number of sweat glands that are active. We have tons of sweat glands but, only part of them are active. People from Seattle wear T-shirts in frigid California weather. I was in Havana and went to the beach with some girls. The water temp was perfect for me but, frozen to the Cubanas. At the same time, I couldn’t stand to sleep without A.C. They were fine.
Life Extension Foundation sells a nutrient package called Mitochrondial Energy Oprimiser Since I started taking that, I have little trouble adapting to temperature extremes.
A given race may be a certain genotype but, the children can differ by quite a bit when influenced by the enviornment.

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Thanks Bill,
It has been raining and blowing non-stop. I put a 55 gallon drum out in the field to serve as a “Texas Harvey Rain Gauge”. It is now over half full, and there is still more rain in the forecast. There are two very large Post Oak trees (probably more) down, so I will have to get the chain saws out and cut them up. Green wood cuts much easier than dry old dead stuff, so I can make lots of cookies. Besides, I can lift a 2’ diameter cookie that is 4" or 6" high, and can’t do much with the bigger stuff. Our wet weather stream is a raging river, but so far the two dams are holding, and the 1/4 mile gravel drive from the road to the house has not washed out. On the positive side, the drought has been stopped, the grass will turn green, and the burn ban will be lifted so I can make more charcoal.

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Actually your body will adapt to the heat by thinning your blood. When you live in the cold your blood is thicker. I don’t know how much but when I spent a year and a half in Tiawan I had a hard time with the cold and my doctor told me that was why once I was back here long enough it seemed normal again.

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Ray stay safe out there I hate cutting trees that fall never know just how they are still hung up.

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Really glad to hear you’re okay Ray.

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The Oak Tree fell into the area where I store round bales, so at least it didn’t fall on any of the cows. I’ll trim off all the little branches, and see what I have to do to be able to cut on the trunk. Sometimes, I can pull them with a tractor, so I can get at them with the saw. Here is a photo of the top of the tree, and another of the water running over the outlet of my larger tank (pond).



The black dog is a stray puppy that we recently adopted. We think she is a Cathoula Cur, the state dog of Louisiana. She has webbed feet, and the strangest howl/bark I have ever heard. At first, I was worried because she wouldn’t stop chasing calves, but I caught her in the act and connected with a lucky stone to the ribs. She learns fast, and hasn’t chased them while I am outside!
Wife just came in soaking wet and says there is some damage to the driveway where we have two 24" culverts. They are not big enough, so the water eventually goes over the road. I have “crowned” the road, to force the overflow over the pasture at the ends of the crown. I can’t go much higher, or it will flood the neighbors upstream.

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Nothing is better for the forest floor than a nice blanket of snow when running your skidder. Dress right and ya warm up good and fast when working but it sucks when you’re just driving to your place of employment. Winter is why I love a wood fire! ! !

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Since things could be getting interesting in the near future I thought I should learn a bit about going stealth on the net. You could say the charcoal side of the net, so to speak. Android user here, could not get Orbot to start but fire.onion seems to be working but slow.

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Spent the weekend in Madras, Oregon at an air show and to see the aftermath of the Eclipse madness.

Always fun to give first airplane rides!

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Thanks Bill this gives me some idea. Plenty of trees around us up there. I could never cut up all the stuff that has blown over or died on the stump.

We will have a sawmill for the cabin for sure. Every time I set one up, people start hauling logs in to saw, good money in that custom sawing and I’ve always enjoyed it.

Thanks for the calculation Chris. Good to know it can be figured out that close. I never knew there was such a formula. Good to know…

Good luck to all in Texas, flooding a hard task to endure.

Bryan

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A coworker was evacuated by the national guard last night. Everyone else in my circle is okay. Thanks for the thought and prayers.





http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/093137.shtml?mltoa34#contents

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