Solar Panel Bobage

More Bobage, this time on the solar panels. The panels are on a frame that pivots to track the sun. We used to have to climb up on the roof 2-3 times a day to move the panels. PB took 2 pieces of flexible conduit, he tied them to the legs of the frame, the other ends of the conduit snake through the roof on the porch. He then ran a piece of rope through the conduit, each end is tied to the corners of the solar panel frame. The rope comes down through the roof, inside the conduit and is tied off on the porch. Now when we want to change the direction of the solar panels, we do not climb on the roof, we simply pull on the rope. We marked the rope to indicate where the panels are, when the blue marks line up, the panels are flat. It's very simple to do, it's very easy to pull.

Bobage

Here is some more Bobage, that's what we call it when Primitive Bob makes something out of nothing, sorta like  MacGyver meets Tim the tool man, without all the grunting.

PB made what he calls an "add a foot" shelf to the side of my oven, the top is made of stainless steel, he fabricated the hinges (on the stove side), and he made it so that it swings down out of the way when I'm not using it, when I do want to use it, all I have to do is flip it up and it automatically locks into place, when I'm done with it, I merely kick the stick holding it up and the shelf falls down, out of the way.

PB also made a spice rack/shelf combo for me, it is on the cabinet next to my stove, attached to the top and back of the cabinet. He inserted thick wires to keep the bottles from falling over or being knocked over. He also added a larger shelf on the top for whatever I want to put up there. He also put hooks and screws all over it so that I can hang various things on it. I must say, it looks quite nice, now my cabinet next to my stove is cleared off and I can actually use the top for prepping food and cooking.

Poop Station

Here is our homemade poo composter, compooster? It's really a pretty simple system. We have Humanure style toilets inside the skycastle, basically 5 gallon buckets, we poo in these (we urinate in separate containers), we line the buckets with newspaper, in the bottom of the bucket is a paper plate, and after each sitting/deposit, we put a layer of newspaper on top, it helps to flatten the deposit a bit too. When the buckets are full enough, usually about half full is sufficient, we take them outside and it goes into the poo composter.

The outside component consists of 2-55 gallon plastic barrels mounted on a wooden a-frame. The barrels have a door cut into the side. The top barrel has a shaft that contains metal tines that chop up the poo and paper. Mountain Man Bob mounted a large, heavy flywheel on the outside of the top barrel, it is attached to the shaft, that makes turning the shaft much easier, this flywheel is the wheel from a heavy wire spool.

You will notice the "brake" around the top barrel, it is a couple of rubber bungie cords that stop the barrel from rotating, only the shaft and tines inside it rotate. When it is sufficiently chopped up, we dump the top barrel into the bottom barrel to finish composting, it doesn't take very long to get finished compost this way.

Bob built a makeshift shelter around it, for a bit of shade, he also took some of the long grasses we have growing around and wove them into the sides of the shelter, mostly for aesthetic purposes.

The top barrel contains fresh poo so it smells but only when the door is open, the bottom barrel does not smell at all, the ants have found their way in to the bottom barrel, they don't seem to be hurting anything so we have left them alone for now. There is also a colony of dung beetles living under the barrels, they seem happy enough, I suppose they will clean up what ever might accidentally spill out.

Here is a video of the poo composter, enjoy. Warning, there is a bit of "colorful" language in this video, it is appropriate for the subject matter being discussed.
I edited the video to make the sound louder.

More Videos

I added more videos to the video list on the top of the page, just click play, if you have already seen the first few, click to video #8, 8-13 are the new ones.

Enjoy

Wretha

Videos and Concrete (Soilcrete)

You asked for them, now you got them! Check out the videos in the upper right corner of this blog, you might notice, these are my videos! Right now the videos are of a tarantula that was strolling around my property. The other videos are of the front of the cabin (Bob hates it when I call it a cabin, I'm going to have to start calling it something else, maybe sky castle?). The concrete now goes all the way to the top of the sky castle, Bob took the forms off this morning, this is a big milestone for us. :) Woo Hoo!

Anyhoo, watch the videos, and enjoy, let me know what you think.

Wretha