2 Engineers Retired

One of the ponds on the drive in to our place Here at the lake one of our closest neighbours are beavers.  There are a multitude of ponds, dams and houses in the immediate area and while they can be pretty and interesting they impact various aspects of our lives – but mainly the roads. Lots of lilypads Management of the levels in the ponds can be a constant activity depending on the rains.  If the pond levels get too high adjacent roads will flood.  Roads in this area are private and maintained by local property owners.  Flooding will put the road underwater, or in some cases wash out a channel across the road.  As well, beavers crossing the road from pond to pond start to wear down the edges of the road which gradually results in it becoming more narrow. Luckily we knew that the road under this flood was solid As the waters rise in the pond (due to rain perhaps, as certainly is the case this year) there...

Woo Hoo – Done !! We have completed the task(s) and are now flush with power. Our extra 4 panels high on the stand Besides moving our original 12 panels (which I have documented already) we decided to add 4 more panels, on their own stand, set slightly differently to allow a longer day of energy gathering.   It can also be vertical - for winter This additional bank also has the feature that they can be set exactly vertical for the winter so as not to develop any snow build up.  Our other panels are set at an appropriate angle to pick up maximum solar energy during the time we are here, but there is a very small amount of power required during the winter when we are not present.  This smaller amount helps the battery stay warm and run the computer which sends information on battery status to the internet which we can pick up from where ever we are. The new set of panels is mounted on a high square pole, and is set into a ...

After a life time of city living we are now living at the cottage.  And not one of those wussy, house like things, where there are various services around to make your weekends about pleasure and not maintenance – this is the kind of cottage where we do the things ourselves.  So – as a result – we have ended up with a bunch of stuff I never knew we needed, or for that matter never knew existed.   Here are some: A Manual Road Grader This thing is an antique (at least it is about 100 years old).  It has been modified over the years mostly adapting to various means of propulsion.  Initially it would have been moved by horses.  Now we have a hitch on it so it gets pulled either by our truck or the Kubota.  I think when it was pulled by horses one operator could manage the whole thing, guiding the horses and using the large wheels to adjust the blade.  Now it takes two – one to drive the truck (or trailer) and one to operate the ...

Hi All Well - the bear came back.  No surprise I guess. There was an all you can eat buffet after all. This time though, I had made sure the garbage can was firmly secured. Alas he (she?) was strong enough and clever enough to get past the device. Here is the result. Garbage cans now live in the shed !

Hey ! We had our first visit from a black bear!!! I have known all along that bears are in the area, but until now I haven’t seen one.  We see lots of other animals (deer, porcupines, fox, coyotes, beavers (of course), turtles, chipmunks, squirrels) but until now no bears. Looks open, but the bear just disappeared We had settled down to our evening ritual, watching a DVD.  It was still light, being summer and all, and out of the corner of my eye I could see movement out the living room window.  Fully looking we could see a smallish black bear wandering down the driveway as if he owned the place.  Now this was very cool – first time since we owned this place – so maybe 8 years or so…. Of course we immediately grabbed a cellphone for the camera and headed outside to get a shot.  Alas the noise of opening the door spooked the fellow and he made an abrupt left turn and headed into the bush and disappeared – so no pic of said bear....

carrying part of the rack base On to the panels themselves.  The twelve individual panels were removed from the mounting rack at the lake and both racking and panels were then transported up to the garage (thank you again orange friend).   Then the rack base was dissembled, brought up piece by piece to the new location near our garage and reassembled in the new location.   Racking mounted on the base At this point, of course, we are no longer powered by solar at the cottage itself.  Instead we continue to use the battery but are now recharging the battery via a generator. Technically this works fine but just isn’t the same  (that background hum, the fuel cans ….).  So we want to make the rest of the move quickly – to get back on quiet, free solar power. reassembly This time instead of a direct southern exposure as we had done at the lake edge we have chosen an direction slightly off south – more like 11:00 o’cl...

The Trench Hi Well now here we are with a giant trench going through the bush from our cottage to the garage, and another that goes out from the other end of the garage to where the panels will ultimately go.   There is sand where sand is supposed to go.   So far, so good! Wouldn't that have made a great table? Next up ? Lay the cable.   Now this is no ordinary cable.  It is thick, stiff and pretty darned heavy (armoured, about an inch and a half in diameter with 4 separate wires contained). It came on a giant spool that the supplier needed a $375 deposit on – so there went my idea for another table near the fire-pit.  Our orange friend (the backhoe), essential for moving stuff around, helped us get the thing off the trailer and on the ground.   Rolling Then of course this cable needed to get laid in the trench.   So – how exactly should this be done ?  Well the nice thing about spool...