[Ibon]

Nice pic Newfie, wide open spaces.


We retrieved one of our game cameras today. Look what passed by September 21 at 5:20am. This location is a 15 minute walk from our cabin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGROurq ... e=youtu.be

[Newfie]

VERY cool !

[Newfie]

Visiting my son, he has let his beard grow out a bit.

Sitting at the table talking last night I noticed “Holy Shit, he is going grey!!”

My SON is going grey. How old does that make me?

Yikes.

[careinke]

Teaching my five (and a half!) year old granddaughter to read is the most amazing, interesting, and satisfying thing I have probably ever done. We just finished lesson 38 of 100 to get her to the third grade reading level.

We are starting to sound out words in our heads and then say it out loud the "fast way". She has a keen mind, and I was worried she was just memorizing the words. But the last few days, I've become confident she is actually reading. She also likes her mom to write out sentences so she can copy them. Tonight she started her letter to Santa.

Sorry, couldn't resist bragging a little.

[Plantagenet]

I’m off on an unusual little adventure.

About two nights ago a friend called up and said he had just come from the optometrist and he was having a little problem with retinal separation.....his retina was pulling away from the back of his eyeball and he’d already lost about half his vision in one eye. The nearest medical facility capable of dealing with retinal separation was in Anchorage, about 500 miles south of us. And then he asked if I would be willing to drive him to Anchorage since he had to be there the next day for his surgery. Apparently flying is a no-no when your retina is separating and they won’t do the eye surgery without someone there to take of the patient after surgery.

So I immediately dropped everything and an hour later we were in his car (I refused to go in my 20-year-old RAV4 that I drive in the winter) heading south to Anchorage.

We’re down to about 3 hours of daylight and it was a blizzard (of course) but we had to get to Anchorage. MY friend lay down on the back seat and I drove and drove and drove. We did the worst of it about midnight, crossing the Alaska Range in the dark in a big-time blizzard that blasted and swirled snow into the windshield so you couldn’t see a thing. It was a total white-out. There was nobody else on the road but us lunatics. I drove right dow the center of the road because it was snowing and swirling so hard I couldn’t even see the edges of the road. There were rumble strips down the middle and I could feel the rumble strips hitting the left tires which meant steer a little more to the right and then they’d hit the right tires and I’d steer left.

Anyway we made it to Anchorage, and my friend saw the doctors. He actually has one retinal separation in one eye and a retinal tear in the other eye. Surgery is later today.

I got a good nights sleep last night and this morning I feel really good I got my friend to the doctors.......even if it did take 20 hours to drive him there.

Cheers!

PS. I’m also enjoying taking a little trip away from my cabin up in central Alaska. I insisted we stay in a “nice” motel because Anchorage is having a serious Covid outbreak. Just about EVERYTHING in the city is mostly closed. No bars no restaurants. Its kind of amazing to see a big city closed down. Now I know what the rest of COVID America is like right now.

[Shaved Monkey]

Family in South Australia find live koala in their Christmas tree



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijRe4zv ... e=emb_logo


https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... stmas-tree

[Newfie]

Great stories guys. Plant, thats a big favor he asked of you, he must value you a great deal to ask so much.

[mmasters]

Anyway we made it to Anchorage, and my friend saw the doctors. He actually has one retinal separation in one eye and a retinal tear in the other eye. Surgery is later today.

I got a good nights sleep last night and this morning I feel really good I got my friend to the doctors.......even if it did take 20 hours to drive him there.

That's awesome you helped your friend! Also, on the positive side I bet there wasn't much traffic.

I'm not sure if I could live in an isolated place like central Alaska - I value convenience too much.

As far as news for me, I got a new heat pump for my house, was 13K. My dad left me a 4,000 square foot ranch house in central VA which I now live by myself in. The only problem with it is it has a concrete foundation and water pipes in the attic. Sometimes when it gets below 20 the pipes in the attic break. I don't want to deal with that anymore so I got a system that could handle the attic as well as the rest of the house. The unit also helps dehumidify in the summer which is good for my musical instruments. So far I'm loving it! I didn't want to spend that much but it was what was necessary given the situation.

[Newfie]

We launched the boat out of the yard after a nearly 6 month stay. Took a long time for the yard to schedule our work, and then (as is always the case) more work was found and the list grew. So we were pretty busy right up to the end. Splashed Monday.

Left Tuesday for an approximate 135nm trip to Edenton, NC for our winter berth. Had a range of weather along the way, all of it cold. One day got throughly drenched and had to tolerate that for some hours. And one day we just said screw it, too cold, too windy. So we laid on the hook and relaxed.

Arrived Edenton yesterday and our dear friends met us with our car. So we even have wheels!

Today, 45°F, constant rain, we assembled the dink and surveyed the channel into the marina. Minimum 6’ depth noted, we draw 6-1/2’. It is supposed to be soft mud you can push through, it was and we did. However there is apparently also a lot of dead trees or stumps or something down there, and lots if it, so we would go along and ride up over something and go along and bump something else, etc. But we persevered.

We are now nestled into to our slip, have shore power, heated bathrooms and toilets, and can (sorta) just step onto the dock, no more climbing 1-1/2 stories to get on or off the boat. And a nice restaurant/oyster bar right here. Heaven.

So Tuesday we leave our nest to drive 6 hours to visit the kids for the holidays. Down to a 6 hour drive.

Life is good.

[JuanP]

Definitely sounds good from here. Enjoy your holidays, Newfie!

[careinke]

Here is a rather optimistic view of 2021. I recommend it if for no other reason then to expand your thinking. I enjoyed it, it also fits in with my agorist and permaculture views.

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max and Stacy spend Christmas Eve with Abe Cambridge of TheSunExchange.com as they deliver the opposite of coal in your stocking. They discuss the solarpunk ethos of a decentralized, peer to peer, anti-fragile energy grid. Cambridge catalogues the renewable energy breakthroughs from 2020 and forecasts more for 2021. Solar planes and blimps, UV sequestration and solar energy pipelines are just some of the latest advances they cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lp1qD-BEIA

[REAL Green]

Here is a rather optimistic view of 2021. I recommend it if for no other reason then to expand your thinking. I enjoyed it, it also fits in with my agorist and permaculture views.

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max and Stacy spend Christmas Eve with Abe Cambridge of TheSunExchange.com as they deliver the opposite of coal in your stocking. They discuss the solarpunk ethos of a decentralized, peer to peer, anti-fragile energy grid. Cambridge catalogues the renewable energy breakthroughs from 2020 and forecasts more for 2021. Solar planes and blimps, UV sequestration and solar energy pipelines are just some of the latest advances they cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lp1qD-BEIA

I am an optimistic pessimist. You can lower the pain and the trouble of decline with a positive system. It is kind of a strategy of old age. You can follow some basics that will lengthen your lifespan and make the decline less painful but you are not going to eliminate decline. In the same way I see civilization declining in decay. Sudden death is always possible for the individual and so is it for civilization. You can positively decline with the right system. I find as I get older in decline I am finding much happiness. In fact I am much more content now then in my wild youth.

We are now nestled into to our slip, have shore power, heated bathrooms and toilets, and can (sorta) just step onto the dock, no more climbing 1-1/2 stories to get on or off the boat. And a nice restaurant/oyster bar right here. Heaven.

Newf, keep your sail boat stories coming. I love to hear them becuase one of my life fantasies is living on a sail boat. Sailing is wonderful. I did it when I was younger with my grandfather.

[Plantagenet]

I just got my Covid vaccination.

Alaska has a very small population but its doing a very good job of getting the vaccine distributed around the state and into arms.

I want to encourage everyone to sign up and get vaccinated as soon as you become eligible in your own states.

I know Gov. Cuomo in New York and Gov. Davis in California and other leading Ds were spreading fear and doubt about the vaccine in the runup to the election, but they were only trying to discredit the vaccine out of a misguided effort to deny any credit for the vaccine to Trump.......in actuality the vaccine has been put through the same kind of tests and analysis as any other drug or vaccine.

Don't be afraid of this vaccine.......my advice to everyone is to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

I'll post again if I have any adverse reaction, but so far I feel GREAT! AND its an incredible relief to know I've been vaccinated. The worlds been turned upside down in the last year, but the vaccine can change things back to normal, for every one of us individually and for the whole world.

I want the world to go back to normal.

The vaccine is a good thing.

The vaccine is a miracle.


To paraphrase Mick Jagger......Everyone must get stoned vaccinated.

Cheers!

[The_Toecutter]

A week ago I finally got my custom designed/built velomobile converted to electric. Having next to no money, I slowly accumulated the parts needed over a 2 year period. Now that I got the last few needed components, it runs as an EV.

It is highly efficient. Without the tail, and with the torque sensor scaling my pedal output to account for 1/3 of the motive force, I only need about 8 watt hours per mile to maintain 30 mph on flat ground. That is the equivalent of more than 4,200 miles per gallon. With only a 46.8V 10.5AH battery pack purchased used for $60 and limited to 1,250W power draw by the controller, it tops out at 46 mph and gets about 60 miles range at 30 mph. I just got the regen braking working today and that should improve the range about 5-10%. Thanks to the electric motor, my rolling averages are comparable to a car in city driving conditions, especially now that I don't have to slog up steep 20% gradients at less than 10 mph in low gear anymore.

It is also able to be pedaled at a decent speed with the motor disabled entirely, including overcoming its cogging losses. Without the tail, I can still sprint to 32 mph and maintain 20 mph on flat ground purely under pedal power. With the tail present before installing the motor, it was significantly faster under pedal-only, but I wasn't lugging a 17 lb hub motor whose cogging losses amount to about 35W at 30 mph, and thus cruising speed was closer to 24-25 mph and top speed about 37 mph. So, there is no range anxiety for this vehicle since with everything shut off it can still be pedaled significantly faster than a normal bicycle, and my low gear is low enough to climb up a steep hill at 3.5 mph at 60 rpm cadence.

In order to mount the motor, I had to remove the tail piece because I didn't have clearance to fit the motor. It will be modified to accommodate this before being replaced. This should noticeably improve the aerodynamic drag and allow it to go farther/faster, and get me closer to the unassisted speeds I could reach before installing the motor, maybe 35 mph in a sprint?

Turn signals, permanent headlights, running lights, brake lights, and 110Vac and 12Vdc charge stations for electronics are in progress.

I have also obtained a kweld spot welder and some secondhand barely/never used Panasonic NCR18650GA cells that are demonstrating nameplate capacity. When I get the bugs worked out for this vehicle as well as finish the remainder of the body(I need to install the wheel fairings I made), I will be making a 72V 21AH 1.5 kWh battery pack capable of about 5 kW peak power, which should in theory allow a 70 mph top speed, 200-250 miles range at 30-35 mph, and acceleration comparable to a car, and will probably do 30 mph on only 6 wh/mi.

I also plan to add solar to it in the future when/if finances permit.

If I end up living on the street again, at least I'll be mobile. I can fit camping gear, tools/parts, spare clothes, and a few days worth of food/water in the trunk space.

This vehicle is a prototype of something I plan to build whenever I get the time/resources to do so. The long-term vision is a vehicle that can function significantly faster than a bicycle purely under human power, but when powered, be used as a one-seater race car. It will weigh under 100 lbs, accelerate like a fast car, maintain highway speeds with mechanical reliability while getting the electric equivalent of thousands of miles per gallon, and be capable of reaching triple digit speeds for brief periods.

[Newfie]

Congratulations on over coming resistance of all sorts to keep your dream moving.

[Ibon]

Here is a video of our bird blind and feeding station at Mount Totumas. Just published this, spent many a days sitting in the blind these past months filming the highlights of the visiting birds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkkuSf1 ... -m_R2uJEd4

[Newfie]

Nice.

We don't get to see lots of birds. We hope to soon make a trip to A local lake famous for its winter waterfowl. There is a lot of big ag here, and tree farms. Both are pretty much deserts for wildlife.

Driving down a rural road you see no birds adjacent to fields, but next to unmanaged second growth there are birds.

[AdamB]

This vehicle is a prototype of something I plan to build whenever I get the time/resources to do so. The long-term vision is a vehicle that can function significantly faster than a bicycle purely under human power, but when powered, be used as a one-seater race car. It will weigh under 100 lbs, accelerate like a fast car, maintain highway speeds with mechanical reliability while getting the electric equivalent of thousands of miles per gallon, and be capable of reaching triple digit speeds for brief periods.

Will it have A/C? I don't think my Leaf can achieve triple digit speeds, and it's efficiency is only about 3.5 to 4 miles per kWh. But that efficiency can also be achieved with 2-3-4 people on board, so my per capita efficiency would be correspondingly higher.

[The_Toecutter]

Will it have A/C?

No, but it will have something that can serve a similar function. An AC would be much too heavy for this sort of vehicle given that at its core, it's still a human powered vehicle and must be operable as such with the motor disabled.

A small, well-insulated, refillable thermos full of ice water with a microcontroller programmed to periodically mist the rider or buttons for the rider to press to demand cooling, when coupled with properly placed NACA ducts in the bodywork to aid cooling, will work almost as well in this application. There will be no need to provide the sort of heat exchange that a car needs due to greatly reduced interior volume, and the fact that any/all cooling is directly targeted at the vehicle operator.

I don't think my Leaf can achieve triple digit speeds, and it's efficiency is only about 3.5 to 4 miles per kWh. But that efficiency can also be achieved with 2-3-4 people on board, so my per capita efficiency would be correspondingly higher.

Actually, your Leaf's efficiency wouldn't be higher on a per capita basis.

In the link below is a human powered vehicle called a Milan SL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IHIdGVGKdI

It has no motor, and can do 55 mph on 650W of power at the pedal crank. If it instead had an electric drive with 90% efficiency powering it, it would get about 76 miles per kWh @ 55 mph!

I plan to build a vehicle that, regarding air drag, is not nearly as ambitious as the Milan, and given the speeds with which it will be capable, will need some attention to adequate downforce. But if I have stronger axles/wheels/hubs/brakes/tires made to tolerate the forces that highway speeds will impose as well as an integrated roll cage and must deal with their accompanied increase in various resistances, it is conceivable I could have a vehicle that requires twice as much power as the Milan for a given speed, perhaps requiring 1500W at the rear wheel to maintain 60 mph on flat ground. If the rider puts in 150W of effort, and the motor gets a 90% efficiency, this would mean 1,350W from the battery, or 0.0225 kWh/mile.

So 45 miles per kWh per person in theory, at 60 mph.

It would be an order of magnitude more efficient per person per mile than your Nissan Leaf when commuting with one person, but even with 4 people in the Leaf, it would still be more efficient than your Leaf by a factor of 3.

The real world prototype I'm currently riding around in, today, gets about 12 Wh/mi at 40 mph with what the torque sensor and Cycle Analyst computer are telling me is 170W of human effort in the mix. This is 83 miles per kWh from the battery at 40 mph. I have a 490 Wh pack that has been discharged to almost empty at this speed after traveling 35 miles, but not discharged to BMS shutoff. 35 miles @ 40 mph on less than half a kWh, real world operation. What does your Leaf consume at a steady 40 mph? At a more sedate 30 mph I consistently get 50-60 miles range on that 490 Wh pack.

I don't have a high enough voltage pack to extend the motor's power curve to an rpm necessary to see what its power requirements would be at 60 mph, but that day will come. I've been putting together a new pack with my spot welder. My current existing prototype is nowhere near as efficient as what I am proposing above as my long term vision, and I suspect I'd be lucky to get 30 miles per kWh at 60 mph with this current body shell. I designed it without access to a wind tunnel or CFD software, so there are a lot of improvements that can be made.

[AdamB]

So 45 miles per kWh per person in theory, at 60 mph.

It would be an order of magnitude more efficient per person per mile than your Nissan Leaf when commuting with one person, but even with 4 people in the Leaf, it would still be more efficient than your Leaf by a factor of 3.

How well are these selling in the marketplace? Ultimately the world's electrified transport buildout isn't likely to be home built pedal power. In part because the cost difference between liquid fuels and kWh allows less efficient but fully functional and very normal cage-like EVs doesn't increase enough for folks to go lightweight and pedal powerlike.

What does your Leaf consume at a steady 40 mph? At a more sedate 30 mph I consistently get 50-60 miles range on that 490 Wh pack.

Today during some steady state cruising at around 30-35 mph I was doing about 8 miles/kwh? Jumped out on the 4 lane, into a headwind and climbing in elevation, and was lucky to get 1 mile/kwh.