Year-End Closeout

Well, the year is nearly over. Here is a summary of what has been happening since mid-October...

Kitchen Sink Faucets Installed

Now if I only had water in the pipes :-(  The little tap on the right is for drinking water. It has its own 0.5 micron activated charcoal filter.

Figuring out how to treat my well water has been a struggle. As I mentioned in my post, Hot Showers On-Demand, I had discovered the power of oxygen to rid my water of iron. Well, I kept looking for a solution along the lines of this new discovery and finally discovered the incredible oxidizing power of ozone (O₃). Ozone is a kind of super active oxygen that has the power to oxidize not only the free metals in my water but also algae, bacteria, cysts, viruses, and simple organic matter. It also has the wonderful feature of a short half-life. This means that within minutes, the ozone has broken down into simple atmospheric oxygen.

I ordered a bunch of stuff and have been experimenting with a system that I will share with you in a future post.

Firewood Cut and Split

A Summer storm had brought down a nice size Hickory tree so I decided it was time to start gathering firewood. Carolyn and I moved all of the old firewood up onto the porch and stacked the newly cut Hickory on pressure treated 4x4 scraps.

I cut down and cut up a couple more dead trees from out in front of the cabin.  How do you like my new hand-powered log splitter?  It is slower than using a splitting maul but a heck of a lot easier on my back.

Clean Tank and Install Ozone Circulator

Cleaning the tank was not fun. I used a 50/50 mixture of water and chlorine bleach with a sponge to wipe down all interior surfaces. I probably should have had a fan or blower pushing fresh air inside but I was in a hurry. And gasping for air made me go even faster.

This funny looking device is my ozone circulator. It consists of an array of 6 lengths of  1/2-inch PVC each about 2 feet long. At the lower end of each tube is a 1-1/2 to 1/2 PVC reducer which makes an inverted funnel shape. Inside the reducer is an aquarium air stone; the O₃ is bubbled through it. As the bubbles rise, they carry with them water from the lower part of the tank and circulate it upward. With all 6 stones bubbling with 15 psi, this array should be pumping about 20 gallons per minute.

The array is suspended from 20# monofiliment about 6" above the tank floor.

Access for the ozone (and for fill water) is through a 2" opening in the top of the tank.

Set Up Power for Ozone Generator

I took the 45 watt panels I was using for the cabin and added to them another set I had stored in the attic. This should be adequate for the O₃ generator and small air pump that will circulate the ozone inside the water tank.

The O₃ generator works really well but the small aquarium pump I was using for circulation was not strong enough to overcome the water pressure when the tank was full. I have another one on order.

Install New Solar for Cabin

Since I took the solar panels for the O₃ generator, I had to replace them to keep the battery bank for the cabin charged. Instead of 45 watts, I now have 200 watts charging the batteries. Fire up that radio, Carolyn! We've got juice to spare!

Repair Broken Pipes

I was so proud of having a hot water shower! Now I have to re-plumb this part of the RW water system. I had drained down the water line that supplied the shower in preparation for Winter but I totally forgot that there was an isolation valve inside the bathhouse that should have been opened. You live, things go wrong, you correct, you learn. This weekend I'll begin the corrections.