Further Developments

May - August 2016

Its been a long, hot, and wet Summer. Still, some progress has been made.

The new additions are completely dried-in.

The Master Suite has wiring, insulation, and drywall.

Work has begun on the tile shower.

A new refrigerator and stove have been installed and put into service.

Light fixtures and ceiling fans have been installed in the "living room" and on the screened porch.

Nature

And sprinkled throughout the hours of human work, the local life carries on...

Small Animal Tracks (probably raccoon or skunk)

Eastern Hognose snake (Heterodon platirhinos)

Green anole (Anolis carolinensis)

De Kay's snake (Storeria dekayi)

gold bug

Ground skink (Scincella lateralis)

butterfly

Luna moth

field mouse

frog

spider

Western Worm Snake (Carphophis vermis)

praying mantis (order Mantodea)

cicada chrysalis

dragonfly

 

Off the Genny

This past week there were some major developments. Monday morning I asked Nathan and Wade (two of my builders) to help me hang the solar panels. In less than four hours we had all 30 of them mounted to the racks that I built last year. Amazingly, I had to re-drill only one of the 120 mounting holes I drilled months ago. This was due to warpage of the pressure-treated lumber in the sun.

On Tuesday Nathan's father-in-law who is an electrician came by to give me a hand wiring the master panel. I knew where connections were to be made. I just didn't feel confident to actually make them.  Again in just a few hours, we had all the major connections made. Over the course of the next few days I connected the solar panels to the combiner box and brought the system online. That was around 11 AM Wednesday morning. I was so excited! The first thing I did was plug in my little refrigerator and unpack my cooler.

Meanwhile, Nathan, Wade, and Matt built a pergola, a set of steps, trimmed out all the doors and windows, and completed about 80% of the siding. To make sure they had all the material they needed. I made one trip to builders supply in Fort Payne and three trips to Daniel Millican's sawmill. Nathan loaned me his long trailer to make the job a lot easier.

  

By Thursday afternoon, I felt the battery had charged enough to run my window air conditioner. So I ran it for several hours while I went to get a load of siding. It was nice to come back to a cool room. By Friday morning, I felt like there was enough juice in the battery that I was willing to let the carpenters use solar power to run their tools. They used a small air compressor, a 10 inch table saw, and a 10 inch chop saw. Everything ran as well as if plugged into Cherokee Electric. I am now officially off the Genny. Quiet and peace has once again settled on Richmond Woods.

Hooking it Up - Part One (of Many)

The battery is now assembled. Instead of having 40 individual cells of 1.2V each, I now have a 48V battery! This is a a 300 amp-hour battery which is 14.4 KWHr of which I can safely and routinely use more than 10 KWHr. The battery is where power is drawn at night and during periods of cloudiness. I should be able to keep the TV, the refrigerator, and a couple of lights running for several days of no sun on this. Of course, I won't be running shop tools or doing laundry while on the battery unless I am willing to start a generator (more on this later).

Each nut on the inter-cell links or bus bars was tightened to 22 foot-pounds (30NM).



I installed a new service panel in the master suite and connected my service cable to it.

Set the Wayback Machine to March 2010 when I installed a small breaker panel in hopes of someday having having electricity.  Well, that day is near at hand. So, I ran some service wire from the new panel over to connect up to the service wire I left hanging in the crawl space. Now when the other end of the service cable gets connected to the E-Panel and my solar panels get installed, I'll have juice at the receptacles in the cabin portion of the manor house.

Big Wire In

Finally, I have bit the bullet and cut the wire. I have measured and re-measured the runs and with all the confidence I could muster, I cut the 370' roll of wire into four pieces. The longest run was from Power House to Shop - 164'. Next was Power House to Cabin - uh, I mean Manor - 135'. With the leftover wire, I decided to use one piece of 44' to deliver power from the Combiner Box to the Power House. the last piece of wire is long enough to run from the generator to the E-Panel inside the Power House.

The run from the Combiner Box to the power house actually requires 4 conductors and my service cable only has three. So, I purchased a length of 2 AWG wire to complete the set. Getting four #2 wires through 40 feet of 1.5" conduit with five bends was not easy. I rigged pulleys to direct the wire and the pull as much as possible in line with the initial and final runs of conduit. I even resorted to using a come-along at one point. I eventually gave up and purchased a can of wire lube and suddenly the job became orders of magnitude easier.

Next, I laid the run to the manor into the ditch. I first coiled the cable into a 4' diameter hoop with one end secured. Then I took the free end into the Power House by way of the conduit. Finally I rolled the hoop along the ditch paying out the cable. I did the same thing with the run to the Shop.

Lastly, I used TRAKKER to push dirt back into the trench. Of course not everything went smoothly. I'm glad I bought that farm jack last year.

Other exciting news includes the improvement of the driveway, and construction of a new ozone generator vessel. Many large and very heavy trucks have been down my road in the past few months (remember the concrete truck? see Dec 15th in More Space!) and thus my driveway has taken a beating. Ruts have become deeper and rocks have been exposed. Four massive loads of crusher run vastly improved the worst of the places but to get the entire road done "properly" will take at least eight more.

The old "ozonator" vessel was quickly constructed and leaked badly. Plus, it was very difficult to open for periodic cleaning. The new one is constructed of heavier materials and has a threaded access port at one end. It is well sealed with teflon tape and does not leak. This delivers a stronger flow of ozone into each of the 8 barrels.

And now for the wildlife portion of the show...a spotted red salamander.

Q1 - '16

Its been a busy winter and much has been accomplished despite some cold and very wet weather. Progress has been made on the house, the solar power, and the landscaping. Here's the diary which does not include such incidentals as: many trips to Dixie Salvage for windows; a trip to a welder to have a seat bracket fixed for my tractor; two trips to the seed & feed store; a visit to a campy restaurant (Vintage 1889); a trip or two to the electrical supply place for conduit and fittings; a couple of visits to the library for Internet access; numerous trips to Lowes for plumbing supplies; etc.

Jan 24 

The cold popped a hole in one of my water heaters. I had drained the water lines but neglected to open the drain plug in the heater itself. I tried to solder it but without success. Next I tried a JB Weld product called Water Weld. This is a two-part epoxy putty that is easily shaped around the leak. It sets fairly quickly and soon I was back in hot water. Somehow that sounds wrong...

Jan 29 

It was a pretty day so I worked on the adjuster arms for the solar panel racks. After assembling a couple of them, I realized it would be better to wait until after the panels are mounted. I did take the time to set the three seasonal angles and mark the hole positions for the lock pins. Hopefully, I can set up a jig to make quick work of drilling these holes in the 20 adjuster arms.

Feb 1 

Finished the power house ceiling and worked on the battery rack.

Feb 6 

When the block layers had finished, I realized this would be a good time to expand the "basement" area. While the floor framing was not yet installed, I could still easily swing a mattock. I wanted to expand this area to accommodate the propane cylinders that will fuel several water heaters, the clothes dryer, and the space heater in the bath. Also, this will be our "storm shelter" until such time as we can build a true storm shelter that will double as a root cellar.

  

In the process of hand excavation, I uncovered the most gigantic grub I have ever seen. It was living in the root of an oak tree stump. I think it might be a descendant of this which we came across on 23 June 2007...

... and which Amber graciously modeled for us. We heard it rustling through the leaves 75 feet away. I thought it was a mouse trying to get into my tent.

Feb 15 

The carpenters returned to install the floor framing. In a couple of days, they had it 99% done. It would have been finished except some of the lumber was too warped to be used. Still it was complete enough for me to install plumbing. Especially on the kitchen end where the crawl space is only about 18" in places.



When it was time to run the gas line along the front wall from one end to the other, I had the unpleasant task of removing a mountain of glass wool insulation that had been stored under the cabin for the past 5 years.

Mar 3 

With water lines, drain lines, and gas lines in place, the carpenters returned to finish the floor framing and begin the decking. Things were moving along smartly when it started to snow - hard. In just a few minutes there was 1/2" of snow covering the work. The next day, they were back and finished the decking and built one wall. The next time I see them, I am hoping they will be spending more time on my job.

    

Mar 6 

John Lawton (the man who dug my footers) returned for a day of stump removal. The plan was for him to dig up the stumps and for me to drag them away with TRAKKER. He soon was far ahead of me. Some of the stumps I could not even move.

   

Carolyn was continuously picking up smaller roots and laying them out in contour lines for a water break. She probably burned more calories than John and I together!

The next day, John dug the trenches for power lines and finished pulling stumps down as far as the brush pile. When he left, I hitched up the landscape rake and started smoothing out the ground and reforming the berms.

        

Carolyn hand-sowed 6 pounds of grass seed. Also, in what will become our vegetable garden, she sowed 1 pound of red clover and 1 pound of lentils. We are hoping this will help improve the soil when it is turned under.

Beware the Ides of March

Mar 15

This week the boys returned with accomplishment on their minds. In 3 days, they finished the wall framing (exterior and interior) and got a roof over the new kitchen. 

Fifteen trusses up - 28 to go!

Spring Equinox

Mar 21

With the same vigor as displayed last week, the crew hit the decks running. They finished the roof over the new bedroom, bath, and utility room. But first, they had to fix one of my mistakes. I had given the wrong size on at least two of the doors they had already framed. My bad! 

With the roof on and felted and the sheathing finished and wrapped, they put in the new windows. The house is getting dryer and dryer.


Before their week was done, they started on the decks in the back. That's when I had to relocate a yard hydrant that was in the way. It was then that I realized a trench was also needed for the drain lines. Fortunately, Nathan has a little digging machine that was his grandfather's. Its called a "Dig It" and it made quick work of the tasks at hand.

At the end of the week, this is what the front of the "cabin" looks like...

... It doesn't seem right to call it a cabin anymore. Henson Cottage has evolved into Henson Manor.

Mar 28

Accomplishments this week include completion of the back deck and porches and installation of three exterior doors. The porch work included tear off of the metal over the old porch and replacement of the old OSB with plywood like the rest of the porches.

At the end of the week (and the first quarter of '16) the rear of Henson Manor looks like this...

I know it seems like I haven't done a thing on the solar power and between helping, supervising, and running after stuff for the builders of these additions I really haven't done much. However, I have been slowly getting little things done that will facilitate the final hookup. Namely, tunneling under the foundation of the house to run a buried power cable (something I should have taken care of before concrete was poured), running conduit and mounting the combiner box for the solar panels, and doing a lot of measuring and figuring in preparation of slicing up that expensive spool of tray cable.

Next comes installation of the metal roof, soffit, facia, and the trim and siding. Somewhere along the way, we need steps and railings and a pergola at the end of the sun porch.