We’ve had a few days designed to fool me into believing Spring has finally come – in fact today was t-shirt weather right out of bed. And a good thing because I have a perfect way to spend a gorgeous morning – doing an electrical job in the very back of Ian’s Cave, which is black as black can be when the inverter’s turned off and pretty much the same temperature year-round.
But I have the perfect tool for that, which I don’t get enough chances to use. I’m really not much of a headlamp person but sometimes nothing else will do and a nice one is very good to have.
And every time I take it off its peg, I think kindly about the person who donated it even though I can’t recall who it was.
On the way out I finally took the opportunity to measure that blank spot on my ground mount’s rack. And wouldn’t you know – it’s perfectly suited to that heat exchanger box like it was designed for that purpose and no other. One more excuse bites the dust, though I’m not 100% it’ll bear the weight as distributed.
I got well into my electrical job when I realized I should have brought the cordless drill. Had to walk back to the Lair to get it, and on the way I met this brainless fellow denizen…
…who just stared at me like he had no idea what a person was for. And I said to him aloud – and this is not the first time I’ve had this onesided conversation,
“Hello, there. Please don’t let me interrupt your pleasant morning, I’m only this area’s apex predator. Yes, I eat creatures exactly like you, almost daily, so you probably shouldn’t just stand there insolently staring. Seriously, I could – if you’ll excuse the expression – blow your head clean off at this range and I’m thinking about it. Really. I’ve been practicing.”
It’s true, too.
“Good thing for you the trailer tire is immediately downrange at this moment.
“Well, don’t let me bother you. Have a nice day.”
I got the drill kit, headed back to the Cave, and soon enough realized I had two recycled duplexes and a switch but no way to bolt them to their boxes. That meant I had to go all the way to Landlady’s barn, where all the surplus electrical and plumbing bits are kept. Nice day for a walk but I have more jobs in mind than this, only have so much energy in a day and really didn’t want to use it all up walking back and forth. Also didn’t want to go back to the Lair and hassle with the Jeep.
Good thing I store the ebike in Ian’s cave. 🙂 My life contains perfect moments.
Beautiful day to spend half an hour out of the cave, and I didn’t even have to make up an excuse!
Finished up. No sparks, no unexpected oh shit moments. On simple things, after going on fifteen years of fending for myself I often actually know what I’m doing.
And I finally got a chance to seriously use that tool tote Neighbor D and I made several weeks ago!
So, good day so far. Except that it has taken forever to compose this and I won’t be sure it’ll post until it does.
If that heat panel is as heavy as I fear, you might want to add two foundations and a third A frame to your panel rack. Is there enough room behind the panels to form a redneck shower stall?
The box is made of fiberglass and surprisingly light. Fill it with pipes and fill the pipes with water then cover the whole thing with thick glass and I’d expect things to get substantially heavier. But looking at the spot where I hope to install it this morning I wonder if I couldn’t get away with just propping the bottom rack, maybe on a poured-concrete pedestal. The racks are plenty strong enough for the weight, just kind of bendy on their vertical axis.
Also, I have an actual shower stall in the cabin which has always been almost wasted space. If I can get hot water in summer I’m not wasting it on an outdoor stall.
A little OT, but it sounds like a lot of walking for the day. How’s the new leg working out so far?
It’s weird – I have very good days, like today, when I barely notice the thing. I have very bad days, like as recently as yesterday, when I can’t even keep it on all day. So it’s really hard to nail down just what I’m supposed to tell the prosthetist, who has expressed a sincere intention to make it right without further expense but can’t feel the damned thing through my stump for me.
“not wasting it on an outdoor stall.”
But, Joel, nothing beats drying off alfresco. And it might scare away the cattle. 🙂
A day in the life… Nice post, Joel.
Serendipity can be a good thing, glad to see the rack size will accommodate the solar heater. I have to agree with Ben about shoring up the rack. I’m not sure how much water will be in the solar heater, but at 8.25 (ish) pounds per gallon of water plus the weight of the solar heater, it adds up.
I found my perfect headlamp a couple of years ago. It runs on a single 18650 battery, it doesn’t have the bulky box in the back, and it remembers the intensity setting and doesn’t make you cycle through a gazillion button pushes every time you turn it on.
Of course they stopped making that model.
I had a forehead-slaping thought last night. Don’t stick that heavy water panel on the weak end of the rack! Extend wires if necessary, and then slide two pv panels over to make room in the middle for the water panel.