solar living

SOLAR LIVING


Last night I’m watching the Fox channel. I despise that Walsh idiot and America’s Most Wanted, so pathetic that when the number of illegal immigrant mass murdering pet molesters run out they run criminals of absolutely no danger or interest, but old John has to make it sound like democracy itself hangs in the balance if this unfortunate idiot isn’t caught. And that silly little raised intonation and finger jabbing he does makes my testicles want to retract. I refuse to watch that crap. But Cops I can handle. It is still sad and pathetic, with the showboating in front of the camera and the inevitable shaved head, none of which comes close to my perfect hair. But at least I don’t gag too violently watching it. The old lady loves the show and since she rarely demands to watch night time TV, preferring the exciting drama of court shows or soap operas during the day, I can’t say no. They were running a show on the border patrol/customs agents and I couldn’t let that go without comment. The segment on the guy that swallowed cocaine pills was pretty damn funny. The customs guy actually is serious, wearing a straight face, as he describes the process of obtaining evidence. The guy goes to the hospital and if he refuses a stomach X-Ray ( hey, just like the airport screening- refuse a dangerous dose of radiation near your reproductive organs and we’ll treat you like a terrorist, conducting full cavity searches ) they wait as long as it takes for him to crap three times. I wonder how much they pay the unfortunate idiot to hose down the turd to find evidence? What a crappy job. But the segment before that was what got my panties into a bunch.

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These guys were customs agents. They were talking about turning illegals over to border patrolmen so I imagine it is just another duplicate operation organization. But what astounded me was the fact that each team was made of all Mexican-Americans with one each token white dude. Now, before you get all outraged and stupid, remember I have no beef with Mexicans. Out of four wives, two were Mexicans. I admire their much stronger family values and work ethic. Having said that, does anybody else see the slightest problem with letting Mexicans police our borders? Okay, perhaps all the white guys can’t learn enough Spanish so they are assigned to Detroit or something. The only bilinguals they can find are nationalized Latinos. Or second or third generation Americans. But their accents were heavy enough that I think they were former immigrants. Anyway, how can you tell that these guys don’t harbor Reconquista views? And even if you think that is too far fetched, how about a far more likely problem- with family still south of the border, what is to stop the drug cartels from holding the family members hostage? Let out drug shipments through or we “disappear” your cousin Jesus. Am I the only one seeing this obvious problem?

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A minion recommended the book A Secret History Of Time To Come. I read it and while I wasn’t disappointed, nor was I sorry I spent the money, it wasn’t all that great of a post-apocalypse tale either. It was set far into the future and it was mainly comprised of looking at ruins and marveling at how the ancients ( that’s us ) did things. The main story is a group being captured and placed into slavery, by no surprise a gang of Southerners doing the kidnapping. The author was obviously a Gottdamn Yankee, but he did capture the accents pretty well. Remember, this book was written back before Wal-Mart and big box stores finished the elimination of culturally different regions. The southern way of life must have still seemed quaint to northern readers. Or it was a not so subtle jab in response to the civil rights clashes. Not a bad novel by itself, but by no means a good genre tale.

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Until I moved out to the Bison Compound, I had little appreciation for solar power. Despite being well edumacated in its theory, I had no actual experience in how well solar actually stacked up to petroleum fuel. Actually, what finally brought me around to being truly astonished was the generator fiasco. Which, by the way, I solved by taking several minions advice, forgetting the DC generation and just got a battery charger for the AC plug. It was only $45 after tax for a 10 amp that shuts itself off as needed. I guess I was so preoccupied with the DC charging I wasn’t focused enough. I think in my initial hunt I only glanced at the charger prices and only saw the high priced ones- such as $70 or $100. Upon closer, more focused investigation I found the cheaper one. I would be further embarrassed but I think I overshot that state with the last act of idiocy, experimenting with the DC solar charger controller. The good thing is that once I get reimbursed for the returned charger I’ll have spent no extra money. Plus, my next generator purchase can be one that doesn’t need the DC plug ( which you are charged more for I imagine ). I had to run a poorly built machine with most likely no longevity at all on fuel imported from half the globe away for half the time it took the sun to generate the same number of watts. But of course, the panels are also imported so perhaps that isn’t a great example. So let’s take my propane heater.

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To generate enough heat to keep from freezing, I have to run my small propane heater. And it never generates enough heat when compared to a sunny day. It can throw out about half the BTU’s is my best guess ( after insulation was added to my trailer ). And that is great compared to my cooking fuel. Last November I used $20 worth of propane for heat, and $30 in December ( so far the coldest month this winter, averaged out the whole time- November had much colder days, but the first half of the month was fall like ). About seven gallons and ten gallons. Not bad at all. Solar did a lot of supplemental heating. But to cook one meal a day, plus heat bath water plus make coffee I use five gallons of propane a month when I’m unable to supplement those tasks with solar. If the sun goes down at 3:30 and I get home at five, I’ve wasted heating the water in the solar heater. It has dropped in temperature too much ( I can’t count on the wife to go outside and bring in the water bottles- she stays locked in all day ). It might take five or six hours a day, but solar heating my water, when possible, saves me nearly half my kitchen propane use. Winters here are more cloudy than sunny, so solar heat is not a constant ( this is what I hope to achieve with the earth pipes ). But when it is available it is so much better than modern fuels for most tasks. We have become so focused on petroleum for everything we do that we are blinded by the cheap simple alternatives.

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I highly recommend two publications for simple, frugal solar living. Sunshine To Dollars. Go to the website

http://www.knowledgepublications.com/

This is where I got a lot of ideas from. The discarded condenser and motor from a fridge for a 100 watt ice maker. The hanging black plastic sheet inside the window to double your solar heat gain in a room. The outside solar heater which is a glass covered black box with intake/outtake sides. The black metal box for a cooker. This is as indispensable for solar as Travel Trailer Homesteading is for RV/junk land living, or The $50 & Up Underground House Book is for frugal earth dwellings. Another one you shouldn’t do without is Simple Solar Homesteading. I bought the $25 paperback but he has the same thing for $5 in an e-book.

www.freewebs.com/simplesolarhomesteading

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My e-mail is jimd303@netzero.com
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