Garden Update for August 2011

Our garden is coming along nicely. Over the last few weeks, we've tilled another area (by hand) in preparation for next year. Since it is slightly inclined, I'm thinking about leveling it a bit. But I've seen plenty of fields that aren't perfectly flat, so I'll try planting it the way it is and see how it works out. I tried planting some quickly maturing tomato and eggplant seeds that are a few years old in the new garden area, as well as some pickling cucumber plants I picked up at a local farmers market. Unfortunately, a deer came, removed the netting, which was held down by rocks, and ate an entire cucumber plant the next night. So I went and got some tent stakes and haven't had any more problems...yet.

I'm impressed with the kale plants. The plants that were eaten by an animal a while back have regrown and are almost ready for harvesting again. We should have plenty of kale in another month or so. Our cabbage is just about ready to harvest, too. The temperature is consistently in the 80s during the day now and in the low 50s at night. I've recently learned that cabbage plants like a steady soil temperature. I should have used mulch to help with that. When the temperature fluctuates so much, the cabbage growth bursts and the heads will split. Mine haven't split too much, but I see that some of the leaves have cracked. I'll keep that in mind for next year. The way the grass grows around here, it shouldn't be hard to make mulch, once we get a gas powered lawn mower instead of the reel mower we've been using.


Cabbage is almost ready and notice how pretty the kale is.
The largest kale plants are the ones that were completely
eaten before.

And finally our cherry tomatoes are producing nicely. I'm sure once we amend the soil properly we'll get an even higher yield. One or two of them have a tinge of yellow on them, so I'm getting excited! Super Sweet 100 is probably my favorite variety of grape tomato so far as taste goes. I'm very happy with what we're seeing for having put so little work into it. We've weeded three times now.



Super Sweet 100. My mouth waters just
thinking about them.



What in Tarnation?

About two weeks ago, my wife noticed a plant on our property that looked, well, suspicious. If it were just the one, that would be easy, dig it up, throw it away, and nobody would know any better. But maybe there were others. We started looking around our yard and found there were probably hundreds of these plants. We started to get worried. How do we discreetly rid ourselves of hundreds of these plants. And can we possibly find and destroy all of them? Burning might not be such a good idea. This is the plant I'm talking about:


I hope this plant isn't what it looks like

After a not so restful night we decided to study this plant further. Maybe it wasn't what we thought it was. Maybe it was a look-alike. Then we found several flowering plants. This should help us to positively identify the plant. The flower looked like this:

It turns out that it is illgal to not remove this plant if it is on your property in certain counties in Montana. Fortunately, we don't live in Montana, as getting this many plants under control quickly would be a real chore. I checked our state's list of weeds that homesteaders are required to control, and this plant was not on the list. However, it is an invasive and noxious weed brought to the northwestern United States from Europe about a century ago that is quite prevalent in the area. It is spread by seed which can number over 1000 per plant, which can be transported throughout the region in hay. The plant is called sulphur cinquefoil. It is a type of rose and has a woody root that should be removed along with the plant to prevent it from growing back.

We are so relieved that this plant isn't what we though it was. This stuff is growing along side the road going through our property, not just by the house. This situation also got us thinking about what we would do if we were to find an illegal plant, or worse, a whole field or forest full of them. I guess self-reporting might bring a lighter penalty than if your neighbor makes a report to the police. But if the police started visiting all the neighbors on our account, it might not make a good impression, considering we haven't met all of them yet. Becoming more independent is making me learn a lot more and think a lot more than I used to.

Garden Update #2 for July 2011

Well, it finally happened. Our kale was eaten while we were gone for the weekend. And what was left was eaten again a few days later. I suspect it was the rabbits that we see almost every day, as I didn't see any new hoofprints in the garden. I'm disappointed, but it's my own fault really, I should have covered it with netting. So I've planted some more. It only takes 60 days to mature and is cold hardy should winter come very early this year. I happen to like kale a lot, so I planted almost four times as much as I had before.


What's left of my first planting of kale.
Another two weeks or so and it would
have been ready to harvest.


There is a lovely wilted kale salad that we like to make, so there is no need to worry that there will be too much. There is also some green fruit on our cherry tomato plants, which will go quite nicely in our wilted kale salad.

While I was working in the garden, I spotted fruit on the wild strawberry plants that cover a large part of our yard like grass. I tasted some, and they are quite tart--not at all desirable for eating. But they smell very nice and might make a nice fragrance for some homemade soap. We haven't made any soap yet, but would like to some day when the renovation slows down. I've been told that if I want to grow strawberries to eat, I need to get rid of all these wild plants because they will cross with my good ones and ruin my crop. Hmmm... more work to do. These wild plants are everywhere here.

Wild strawberries from the yard. These berries are very
small. That dish is the size of a small cupcake.

Resources
James Russell's Wilted Kale Salad recipe: http://therawchef.blogs.com/russell_james/2006/11/wilted_kale_sal.html

Our Water System

Many people, especially city folk who aren't used to living with a well, are intrigued by our water system. This post is to help them understand what I'm talking about when I mention our water tank.

This system was put in place before we bought the house, and it works reasonably well, allthough I would like to make a few changes to increase reliability and availability.

We have a relatively shallow well--only 75 feet deep with the static level at about 20 ft. However, the well, on average, produces only about 4 gallons per minute (as observed during a flow test during a winter home inspection). That's an average of 4 gallons per minute, that is not a continuous flow. In reality, we can pump about 150 gallons out of the well at a much faster rate before it slows to almost nothing, then resumes again for a minute or two a few minutes later. If pumped continuously, the flow will start and stop every few minutes. This is not ideal for on-demand water use in the home. Furthermore, the well pump requires 120V AC and draws quite a bit of current, making it not feasible to run the well pump off of the house battery bank.

To solve this problem, a previous owner installed a 350 gallon storage tank inside the house. The tank is filled via underground pipes while the well pump is powered by the generator. I actually plug a cord into an outlet on the generator to fill the storage tank. This takes about 20 minutes and I only need to do it about every two or three days, and only sometimes more frequently.


Our indoor water storage tank, next to our efficient washing machine.


To provide pressure in the house, a 12V DC pump pressurizes a small tank to 80PSI. When the pressure in that tank gets down to about 40PSI, the pump pressurizes the tank again to 80PSI. The pressure pump runs off of the house battery bank and provides adequate pressure for household water use at conventional water taps through out the house, including shower, toilets, sinks, washing machine, and outdoor spicket. Hot water is provided with a propane-burning instant (tankless) hot water heater which uses electricity only to light the propane and to power the thermostat. So far it has worked well.

Pressure pump and tank

I would like to make some improvements. The underground pipes are not deep enough to prevent freezing in the winter. This may be because there is a lot of granite in the ground in the vicinity of the house. But it's also because the water pipes enter the well above ground where there is definitely the potential for freezing. I'd like to have these pipes enter the well casing under ground. I'd then like to put a hand pump on top so that we can still get water if something should happen to the well pump.



The insulation on these pipes is no match for the cold
winters here. They need to be underground.



I'd like to replace the 120VAC well pump with a DC pump that can run on power produced by solar panels. That way when the generator breaks down again, we can still get water out of the well.

And finally, I'd like to add some sort of water-level detection mechanism that can turn the well pump on when the water level in the storage tank gets to a certain level and then off again when it's full.

Garden Update for July 2011

feOur tiny garden is coming along quite nicely, except for the peppers. I think they might need more water or something as they always look a little dry by the end of the day. The cabbage looks like it will be ready by the end of the month or so, and the kale is coming in quite nicely.  The tomatoes have flowered. I really haven't put in much effort into the garden at all. Just watering every day and fertilizing once a week.

I'm really happy that I haven't had to do any serious weeding yet. I know this will make some of my gardening friends jealous, but I'm pretty sure that whoever tended this plot before me must have done a good job of getting rid of weeds. I suspect that when I expand for next year, I may have more weeding to do.

The netting seems to be working. I have seen deer hoof-prints in the garden, and I see deer around the house frequently, but so far, nothing has been eaten in the garden. Maybe we are just growing foods that deer don't like? At any rate, I'm happy the deer are not being pests this year.

Here's a picture of our cabbage and kale:


Cabbage and kale are doing great!



Returning to the 21st Century By Installing a Washing Machine

Almost any washing machine can be used off-grid if you have a good generator. Some washers are more efficient than others, though, and if you want to run the washing machine off the solar panels, more efficient is definitely better.

There are a number of options for washing clothes off-grid, and I'll talk briefly about each of them:

• Fully manual: This includes beating against rocks in a creek (your downstream neighbors might not appreciate this, so not recommended), washing in a tub with a scrubber, the old plunger-and-five-gallon-bucket... You get the idea.
• Wringer washers: I hear these are pretty reliable and quite efficient with water, especially if you do multiple loads using the same water, starting with the least soiled clothes. These machines are typically obtained (well) used, but they are making a comeback and are being manufactured again. They are available with hand-powered or electric wringers.
• Conventional late 20th century washing machines: Most were not built with energy- or water-efficiency in mind. If you want a conventional washer, get a modern one.
• Staber washing machines: These come highly recommended by those living off-grid because they are efficient and easy to repair. However, after reading user comments on the web, it seems to me that they need more repairs (easy or inexpensive as they may be) than a washing machine should need. They also cost more than modern washing machines. If sustainability is important to you or you are so remote that it could take a long time to get a replacement part, seriously evaluate this option.
• Modern high-efficiency washers: Today's front-loading (and even some top-loading) washing machines are very water-efficient, and many are very energy-efficient, too. These modern washing machines do cost more than the least expensive models available, but the water- and energy-saving features pay for themselves in very short order when living off-grid.

We felt that the positive aspects of a Staber washer did not justify the expense for our situation. We opted for the most energy efficient front-loading washer available at Home Depot, which turned out to be an LG WM2140CW. This machine (or previous years' models) was rated highly by users and seems to be quite reliable. Should the washing machine fail we will resort to washing at a laundromat in town or we will use the five-gallon bucket and plunger. We also purchased the extended warranty because it covers power surges, and the store sales person assured us that any mishaps caused by running off a generator would be covered.

Our experience with the washer has been very good for the month that we've had it. Electricity usage is very low and I think I may be able to run it off of our soon-to-be-installed 460 watt solar array during the peak power period. Usually, motors don't work well with modified sine wave inverters like we have, but when started accidentally once without the generator running, it seemed to work just fine. It is possible to install a capacitor to smooth out the starting surge created by many motors. I haven't done this yet, but will investigate if it is needed after I get the solar panels installed. Water usage is also quite good, using about the same or less than would be used by a 10-minute shower. Another nice feature of this washer is its high-speed spin cycle which leaves most clothes pretty dry, reducing the amount of outdoor drying time required.

Water efficiency is also an important factor. Most people don't realize this, but more than one fourth of the energy produced in the United States is used to pump water. When you are off-grid, you need to consider the energy cost of the water you use. If you have a deep well and need to run a generator to pump water out of it, then filling a top-loading agitating washer a few times per load of laundry can cost quite a bit more in fuel than would using a front-loading washer which uses one fifth as much water as a top-loading machine. If you have more water than you know what to do with coming out of the spring uphill from your house, consider yourself blessed, you have some really cheap water. But for the rest of us, the cost of water is an important consideration.

Resources
Staber washing machines: http://www.staber.com/
LG washing machines: http://www.lg.com/us/laundry/index.jsp
Lehmans has lot's of off-grid appliances. Washers here: http://www.lehmans.com/store/Home_Goods___Laundry___Washing?Args=&view_all=&sort_by=

Becoming a Logger

I've never cut down a tree before, but since our primary source of heat is our woodstove, I need to learn how to produce fuel for it. I haven't actually bought a chainsaw yet, but I did inherit a small electric one, which if I use within 50 feet of the generator works ok for cutting up the tree into 16" to 18" sections.

Today I started by picking some trees that were in the way and needed to come down anyway and that were small enough that I couldn't cause any significant damage to anything (including myself) if something went wrong. As luck would have it, both trees were just out of reach of my 50-foot extension cord. So I used a hand saw. The standing dead tree was only about four inches in diameter and the living one was about six inches, so were easily manageable with a small handsaw. Both were birch trees about 30 feet tall or so.

After a minute or so of sawing the dead tree came down. Even with my little handsaw, I made two cuts--the first on the side I wanted the tree to fall and the second cut slightly higher from the back side. The live tree took a little longer because the moisture caused the saw blade to stick a little, and because my second cut was crooked. After the trees had fallen I dragged them over near the generator shed so I could use my electric chain saw to cut them up.

Using a chain saw didn't come naturally at first, but it wasn't hard to learn. I didn't naturally want to keep the bucking spike against the tree, but once I realized how doing that makes it so much easier to manipulate the saw and actually cut the wood, the bucking spike became my friend, and the work progressed much more quickly. I didn't get much firewood out of the dead tree because part of it was rotting. The live tree should give me almost one day's worth of heat on a not-too-cold day.

The trees are now stacked and drying out, getting ready for use next season. I've got a lot of work to do before next winter. Hmmm, I'm going to need a real saw.

Starting Our Garden

Memorial Day may mark the official start of summer for some, but for us it heralds the arrival of spring. Most people around here believe that the last frost has finally passed, and we sure hope so! Even for this area, it has been too cold much longer than usual. Night-time temperatures still dip into the upper 30s, though more often they are dipping only to the low- to mid-40s.

So this four-day weekend was a great time to start our garden, among many other tasks. Our garden is pretty small--only about six feet by ten feet--and took less than an hour to dig the old-fashioned way--with a garden spade. I chose this particular location mainly because it appeared to me that the area had been used for a garden before. I thought that maybe the soil had been amended before, might contain fewer weeds and such, and would be easier to dig. It was certainly easy to dig, and the soil appeared rich and dark. We'll have to wait and see about the weeds.

Our goal this year is simply to learn, so we didn't want a huge garden. It's been decades since I've worked in a garden. My wife has never gardened and isn't necessarily looking forward to it, but is looking forward to eating the produce.

We haven't quite decided what we will grow. We have decided that we will start with plants and not from seed, given the late start we are getting. We planted 4 "Sweet 100" grape tomato plants and one "Stripey" heirloom tomato plant which we will attempt to save seed from, if we can remember. We also planted an orange bell pepper plant and four cabbage plants. Next weekend we'll plant some seeds we had left from last year that we never got to use at our condo and see how they do: some kale, eggplant, and basil. If there is any room left, we may try a potato of some kind, and maybe a melon.

I think the really tricky part--even trickier than getting the plants to survive and produce--will be deterring the local wildlife from eating our food before we get to eat it.  We got some netting that is supposed to annoy deer.  I guess we'll see how effective that is.  I'll also look into planting some plants that deer, and other animals in the area don't like and see how well that works.

Our garden patch. I'll report later how effective the deer
netting is. Under the netting are tomatoes, pepper and
cabbage plants.

A New Roof

Our home inspector told us before we bought the house, that we should replace the roof as soon as we can. At the time of the inspection, there was no evidence of any leaks, so he thought we could probably get by with the existing roof for a year or two. Well, the roof didn't last but another seven months before I noticed several leaks. By the time we actually moved in, the sheet rock ceiling had begun to sag in one area and every time it rained, there were puddles in the same spots around the house.

The original roof was corrugated steel, and we wanted to replace it with a more modern-looking steel roof. The original roof was owner-installed, and looked it. We wanted to the new roof to look good and last long, so we asked for quotes from three vendors who were members of the Better Business Bureau and had good customer ratings. Two vendors responded with proposals, one bid was more than twice the bid of the other. The proposals didn't differ much with respect to the actual work done or materials used, so we went with the lower bid, but upgraded the roofing material used. The vendor proposed using a 29-gauge steel and we asked for a 26-gauge steel. The vendor offered Loc-Rib which features concealed fasteners and a very beautiful profile in our opinion, and we figured it might dent less when small branches fall from the trees overhanging the roof. We chose a dark brown color which goes well with our cedar siding.

Given that there were significant leaks in the existing roof, we knew there would be additional work. It turned out to be even worse than any of us, including the roofer, expected. Most of the sheathing over half of the house had to be replaced. Furthermore, the insulation had some mold, so we removed it while the roof and sheathing was off. One rafter was rotted completely through and was replaced, and the two neighboring rafters were reinforced. All this extra work doubled the amount of work to about four days instead of two, but the end product looks very nice! It feels good to not have to cover things up inside the house when there is rain in the forecast.

Now we need to remove the ceiling and the remaining insulation, remove any existing mold, and install new insulation and a new sheet rock ceiling.  I'll probably remove the existing ceiling myself as well as install new insulation. But I'll probably hire someone to install the sheet rock on the cathedral ceilings. I just don't like holding heavy objects over my head in precarious positions.

Before: Leaky and ugly

After: Dry and attractive

Energy Efficient Lighting

The typical incandescent bulb is a better source of heat than it is of light. In a few situations, a low-wattage heater is what is actually desired, but when you're off-grid and needing light, you don't want to be wasting electricity on something you don't want.  Fortunately, these days there are a plethora of lighting options, some of which were not a viable option just five years ago. Our off-grid house had 60W incandescent light bulbs in the four recessed lighting fixtures in the living room.  I'm guessing the previous owner didn't want to pay the higher price for dimmable compact florescent bulbs. Before purchasing dimmable replacement bulbs, I looked at my options.

Incandescent
Not really an option, in my opinion as I'm looking for something more energy efficient.

Halogen
Halogen bulbs use 20% to 30% less electricity for bulbs producing the same amount of light.  Like Incandescent bulbs, halogen bulbs produce full spectrum light, and they are reasonably priced.

Compact Florescent
The standard in energy efficiency, compact florescent bulbs use about one fourth the electricity of incandescent bulbs producing the same amount of light.  While they tend to cost quite a bit more than incandescent bulbs, they last significantly longer and are generally more cost effective in the long run. Some positive aspects of compact florescent bulbs: long-lasting, low power consumption, available in various color temperatures from warm to daylight, and they are available in dimmable models (make sure the packaging mentions the bulb is dimmable, otherwise it is not).  Some negative aspects: compact florescent bulbs contain toxic and hazardous materials (mercury) and must be disposed of properly, many (i.e., most cheaper and/or older) bulbs do not produce full brightness immediately, and dimmable bulbs cost quite a bit more than regular compact florescent bulbs.

LED
LED bulbs strive to be even more efficient than compact florescent bulbs. In reality, I found that the more affordable models (they are much more expensive than compact florescent bulbs) consume about the same amount of electricity as compact florescent bulbs producing the same amount of light. LED bulbs don't contain any toxic or hazardous materials. Until fairly recently, LED lighting tended to be extremely white or too yellow and provided a very unattractive light color for most residential applications, in my opinion. LED lighting manufacturers seem to have figured this problem out, and fortunately many models are dimmable. Generally, LED light bulbs last at least as long as compact florescent bulbs. The major drawback remaining is their price. However, prices are slowly coming down and in a few more years will probably be not much more expensive than compact florescent bulbs.

So what did I get? Since I was looking for efficient bulbs that were dimmable, I went with LED lighting. Because compact florescent bulbs don't produce full brightness immediately, I don't want to have to adjust the brightness again once the bulbs achieve full brightness.  Halogen bulbs didn't give me the increase in efficiency that I was looking for.

How well do they work? They work pretty well with a few caveats. When running off batteries with a modified sine-wave inverter, there are a few problems. The dimming range is significantly reduced. The brightness can be varied only slightly around the bright end.  Dim a little more and the bulbs start blinking. I have a theory as to why this might be, but since I really don't know, I'll just leave it at that. If someone can explain why these bulbs are behaving this way, please make a comment below. I did notice that when the generator is running (which produces a much more conforming sine wave) the dimming works great and I can get the bulbs to go much dimmer before they turn off completely.

The actual bulbs I got were the least expensive LED bulbs I could find at Home Depot that were comparable to a 60 watt incandescent bulb. That particular bulb happened to be an Ecosmart model. It claimed a warm- to bright-white color temperature and that it was dimmable. There was also a model from Philips which cost $5 more per bulb.  I decided to save the $20.

More LED lighting options are becoming available all the time, so try them out!

Incandescent bulbs on the left, LED lights on the right. Notice
the more defined circle of light projected on the floor by the
LED lights. There is a definite cone of light coming from the
LED light vs. the incandescent  bulbs.

Resources
EcoSmart Bulbs from Home Depot: http://www.homedepot.com
Philips Lighting: http://www.lighting.philips.com/us_en/consumer