Our Country Cottage a Narrative
Our Country Cottage, a Narrative, podcast is intended to be for those that want to, are in the process of, or have already realized their dream of building a retreat or retirement place in the woods. I will be sharing what I have learned from all phases of our project, from planning to enjoying and coming to terms with our cottage in the country.
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Episode #29 An OCC Update
05/31/2019
Episode #29 An OCC Update
In this episode I will get you more up to date with the goings on at OCC and there are changes at the web site. On with the OCC update. When last we talked I had basically shut OCC down by draining the water, putting RV antifreeze in sink and tub traps. The toilets were drained of water but then filled with RV antifreeze and then flushed. This ensured no water was left in the mechanism and the bowel had only antifreeze in it. The toilet shut offs were the only taps I closed. If I left them open the antifreeze in the tank would siphon out. Any liquids that might freeze if the generator failed were collected and removed. I was running an experiment leaving the boiler on and only having the thermostats for the two bathrooms operating. My first day trip of the year had me almost going off the driveway, gad. I noticed when I entered OCC I could smell a sickly sweet, maybe, odour. It was the RV antifreeze in the toilet bowels that would evaporate over time and require adding some more to keep the trap full. I took a chance and floated some plastic wrap on the liquid in the bowel, not knowing if it would dissolve or leave a nasty mess. Time would tell. Both bathrooms were at their set temperature of 9.5 C. So that was working, but the hours on the generator had not shown the reduction I was hoping for so I turned off the boiler till I got a chance to run the numbers. The batteries got topped up and all data logs and system control logs along with the generator log was collected. I have been using my phone as my camera on these short trips but have come to realize it doesn’t like the cold. The battery dies very quickly. This is a bit unnerving as it is my only source of communication with the outside world while I am at OCC. Once inside and on the charger the battery springs back to life going from the red, dead indicator, to close to 50% charged within minutes … I cleared the driveway with the snow thrower and when I left, the sun was shining and the batteries were fully charged. Ten days pass the batts were at 99% and the gen hadn’t run since before my last visit. That sickly sweet odour of RV antifreeze no longer hung in the air. The plastic wrap was doing its job with no signs of dissolving. Both bathroom thermostats were calling for heat but the boiler was off. Understandable. I put them in standby mode. The trail cam by OCC was dead again. Looks like the unit was starting to act up. Took the system and gen logs. Noted that the tracks in the driveway, from last visit, still looked fresh. So no snow and very little wind. It was a full month till my next visit to Our Country Cottage. It had been very cold but it was time to top up the batteries. They were very thirsty. My phone died again while trying to take pics of the propane gauge. I noticed that the generator had not run since the beginning of the year so I fired it up from inside OCC and it started right away. The batteries were now at 100% when I put the gen back into Auto and it shut itself off after the programmed cool down period. Like I said it had been very cold. The battery room was down to +5C ( first time I had seen it below 10C) and the utility room was at +1C (and the first time I had seen it below 7C). I had heard a report that a local town measured frost down to 18 feet below ground. Water pipes were freezing all over the place. I was starting to get concerned about the state of OCC. The pipe to the well, runs under the driveway and is, I think, at least 10 feet down. Also I had left the hot water tanks full in the utility room. As noted the temp down there was just +1 degree. Lots to think about. That trail cam was dead again, recording only 1 file. Some of the trail cam batteries were below .1 of a volt. Maybe a short circuit in the camera. The tie wrap even snapped when I went to secure its door. I ordered a new cam a couple of days later in the city. Armed with a new trail cam I was back at OCC a couple of weeks later. The driveway was blocked with a berm of snow that someone pushed into the entrance. I dug a path just wide enough for my vehicle to get through and had one of the sketchiest drives to OCC, but I made it. I had to plow and snow throw the driveway, it was deep. The snow thrower decided to throw its chain while I was moving snow in front of the garage, luckily. It just took time to put it back and retention it. Then onto something easy. Change the trail cam. Well not so fast. All my trail cams are secured with those cable locks. When I went to take this one off I found that several years of tree sap had been running into the key hole etc. I could get the key in but it would not turn. Yes, I had the right key. So after about 45 minutes and a fair amount of WD40, I got it open, replacing the camera with the new one. I was pretty fed up by this point and just wanted to go home. I texted my partner from the gate, as I normally do, to say I am on my way, glad to get going. Well the gate is round a corner from the driveway exit to the road and as I rounded the corner I saw a horse trailer parked in the driveway blocking my exit. No truck, just the trailer. I honked my horn for a while with no response. Did I tell you I was fed up already. With little option I started digging on the most promising side of the trailer to see if I could squeeze, and it would be a squeeze, by. Not sure it would have worked at all. But after about ten minutes of digging a pickup truck came out of my neighbours drive with three horses in tow. My neighbour hadn’t been staying at his place this winter so I was surprised to see anyone. It wasn’t my neighbour but a friend who had been keeping some horses there. He told me he put his trailer there because he never saw anyone use it. I pointed out that it was my driveway access to my property. I also pointed out that I had just cleared the snow and that should have been a clue… Oh well I asked him not to do it again and all was OK. Funny thing is, that if I hadn’t had snow thrower problems and problems with the trail cam I would have been gone a couple of hours ago and never would have seen him or his horse trailer. It was a two beer night at the bar, that night. Just over two weeks pass and I am trying not to slide off our kilometre of fun, again. Had to do one of those stop and back up slowly things. With the well weighing heavily on my mind I fired up the well pump to see if all was ok. And it was. There is a valve where I can turn the water off to the house but fill the pressure tank. I let the tank fill to the operating pressure then turned the pump off and drained it into the sump. I know that if the pump draws about 2K watts, as shown on the solar control panel, it was working normally. Collected the usual logs and the SD card from the new trail cam. All looked good. Ran the gen for ten mins or so and put it back to auto. Except for the exercise I have been giving the generator, it hadn’t run at all. Much less stress this trip. Nine days pass and I am back with three containers of distilled water. Took awhile to clear the snow off of the battery room hatch, just to get in. Topped up the batteries… Cleared snow in front of garage and turned on the heat tape, under the grate, to help any water drain. There were large pools of standing water here and there. The driveway was cleared of heavy wet snow. In the utility room I noticed that the water in the sump was a couple of inches over the top of the weeping tile outlet. Hadn’t seen it that high before. I tested the sump pump and it ran perfectly giving me a bit of assurance that all would be OK. Did the usual data log collections. Some data loggers needed new batteries, so they got changed. I always try to keep spares on hand. Special batteries that I order online. Turned off the heat tape and left somewhat later than I usually do. I have now developed anxiety when I turn that corner after the gate. Pheww, no horse trailer. Forty days and forty nights later I return to OCC. Enough time had past that most of the snow on the driveway had gone. What was an iffy drive along with time spent clearing snow had turned into nothing. As it does every spring. Our turning circle was clear and for the first time I was able to take a stroll around it, finding two deer grazing just to the south. They didn’t stay long once they saw me, even though I waved. The batteries were almost fully charged but very thirsty. Didn’t even have to clear any snow off of the hatch, just went right in and topped em up. Swapped the SD card on the new trail cam but found it dead. Hmm it had new batteries last time. The only other thing it had in common was the SD card and the tree it was mounted to. I ruled out the tree. Could the SD card be the problem all along. Something else to think about. I put a question mark on the card. This trip I brought our smaller vehicle to change the tires from winter to summer. And that got done, and left at about 2. Two weeks go by and I return for my first overnight stay of the year. The snow was all gone with the grass greening up nicely. On my way up I picked up a couple of water test kits. Something that I had been putting off far too long. In fact I then put them in a bag wrote the year on it and put it under the counter, removing a bag with a couple of water test kits which was marked two years ago. This year for sure. Got to get water back into OCC. I turned the well pump on and let the pressure tank fill to pressure ( the pump shuts off) I then empty the tank into the sump till the pump turns on again. I do this four times, should be enough. Then I partially open the valve to the rest of OCC. As water fills the pipes and pushes the air out I start at the lowest tap (the outside tap) and watch it till the water runs clear then turn it off. Next downstairs bathroom, sink, shower. I take the plastic wrap out of the toilet. It was in good shape, not a sign of it failing. So that seemed to work OK. No nasty RV antifreeze smell and the level was kept well above the trap without having to top it up. Good stuff. Turned the shutoff valve to the toilet on, let it fill and flush. All looked good. Onto the kitchen sink then the upstairs bathroom. Same deal with the plastic wrap there too. All was looking good and OCC was back. Water wise anyway. It was still a bit cool so I built a fire. I lit the kindling, then quickly opened the chimney flu then opened the fresh air inlet. Well I tried to open the fresh air inlet. It was solid, not letting me turn the control at all. The fire was lit but without fresh air, it smoked and went out. Now the fresh air flap is below the grate at the back of the fire box. To get to it I had to remove all the wood, some charred, all the kindling, some burnt some charred, and remove the grate. Great! I almost had to crawl inside the firebox to see down to the fresh air inlet. I was not obvious what was holding it closed so I started poking at it with a fire poker while trying to turn the control handle. Now a point of interest. The fresh air inlet control is a rod that comes out of the hearth in the middle of the bricks with a right angle bend in it, making the control lever. The rod goes way to the back of the fire box to the flap. It was installed during construction. If it ever broke or the flap came off I have no clue how it would get fixed. My efforts to free it kept all this in mind. It took 30 to 45 minutes to get it free. First a little bit then a bit more and a bit more till it was operating like nothing had happened. The fire wood was all replaced with some fresh kindling and the fire was started without any other problems. Meanwhile, back with the water recommission, I noticed it was not holding pressure. There was a leak somewhere. Gad. A mad run around to the obvious places revealed the downstairs shower was running. Hmm, the tap was in the off position but it was still running. I took the handle off and a couple of plastic pieces and I could rotate the control 360 degrees and sometimes the water would stop, but not always in the same place. Very strange. I played with it for a while, confirming its inconsistent behaviour and took several pictures. I was planning to go to a local town for supper anyway and they had a couple of very good hardware stores. So maybe I could find some answers there. After explaining my problem to the gentleman behind the counter and showing him the pics he presented me with a new cartridge. I asked how much and he told me that the brand I have is guaranteed for life and there is no charge. Best news I had all day. Returning to OCC, after a less than spectacular supper, I installed the new cartridge, like I knew what I was doing. It worked right away, well after installing the handle in the wrong position and having to redo it that is. With all these fun and games during the day I hadn’t got round to cleaning up the bedroom and changing the linens. I slept on the couch, well love seat, in front of the fireplace. It was only a couple of feet too short. Not a good sleep. I think I will leave it there with two nights left for this visit. Tune in next time to find out, is the water situation fixed, why did I cut two big holes in the wall, do bear bangers scare off bears, and will I get the sheets changed on the bed. As promised last time (not that that means much in some cases) the web site has changed, the layout, sort of, and new pix. Year two of construction pix are now ready for viewing. So check it out at https://www.ourcountrycottageanarrative.com If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage a Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). If you are on the “Friends of OCCaN” mailing list and had enough, just send me an email at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com and you will be released. The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time….
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Episode #28 An OCC Update + Year In Review
01/29/2019
Episode #28 An OCC Update + Year In Review
In this episode I will get you more up to date with the goings on at OCC and an OCC Year In Review, remembering some of what happened last year. So on with Episode 28 OCC update. As usual I left the last episode with some unanswered questions. Once again our trusty generator was not so trusty, refusing to start. Three days before my next visit we had a major snow dump in the city. I think I shoveled the walk 3 maybe 4 times that day. It just kept coming. The next day, taking my life into my own hands, and on summer tires, I ventured out onto snow clogged streets in an attempt to get a new battery for the generator. Two positive things were in play, 1- the generator supplier had just got a new shipment of batteries and 2- they had moved closer to where I lived in the city. Even though they were closer it was a sketchy trip but a new battery was acquired. My main country vehicle was now in the shop, undergoing major surgery for the foreseeable future, so I was going to use our other vehicle which was good but not as solid as my main one and it was running summer tires. I keep its snow tires at OCC and figured all I had to do was get in to OCC and put on the snowies and the return trip would be no problem Giving a couple of days for them to get the roads cleared, up by OCC, I loaded up our vehicle with all the snow emergency stuff I had, traction mats, shovels, tow ropes, come-along, kitty litter, snow shoes and on and on.. and off I went. Oh yeah, I had the new generator battery too. As I got closer to Our Country Cottage it became clear there wasn’t anywhere near the amount of snow we had got in the city. I didn’t need any of the emergency stuff I had packed at all. Sort of like when you carry an umbrella it doesn’t rain. But better to have it and not need it than, need it and not have it. Arriving at OCC I didn’t even need to clear the drive, just drove straight in. On my last visit I had turned the boiler off so the batteries would not be drained. With the days getting shorter, not much sun, and that pesky gen not starting I though it was the prudent thing to do. I hadn’t accounted for the sudden season change we just had. Now, with winter coming early in the city and temps dropping all over I was genuinely concerned that OCC might have frozen. A quick check inside OCC revealed the batteries fully charged and no frozen toilets. The living room was at 12 C just on the power of the sun. I turned the boiler on. Outside I checked to see if the gen would start. Nope, it had not magically fixed itself while I was away. A quick battery swap and she fired to life with little effort. The solar control panel showed the gen charging at 5.2 KW but with no load at all and the inverter light was off. I guess with the OCC batteries fully charged the gen was just supplying power to the boiler, etc. Hadn’t seen that mode before. After about ten minutes or so, I put the gen into Auto at the generator and it stopped right away. Then, at the solar control panel, I pressed manual start and the gen started right up, so I put it in Auto and the solar control unit shut it down with the usual cool down routine. And with no internal fan fail errors, all seemed to be working normally. Snow tires were put on the vehicle ready for the next big snow dump here, or in the city. Before I left I checked that the boiler was heating where it was supposed to be heating and, again, all looked normal. I took the opportunity to drop the defective battery off at the generator supply shop on the way home. It might still be under warranty. Rrright. Two weeks pass and I am back to check on things. What little snow there was, was just about gone. Good thing I had the snow tires on. Looks like the generator had run a couple of times since my last visit. A good sign. The propane was just under a half. It was over a month till my next visit, this time with my main country vehicle and its newly rebuilt heart. It now ran smooth and quiet. The main reason for the rebuild was a tick/ knock that had developed over the years, sometimes being so loud you could not hold a conversation by it while it was running. It was to the point that I was expecting something to come flying through the hood whilst on route to or from OCC. It was all good now. After having received an invoice for propane, earlier in the week, I checked the tank gauge to make sure it was my tank they had filled and sure enough it was up to 80%. 80% is the max you are allowed to put in these propane tanks. It allows for expansion etc as the outside temperature changes. I had brought with me some driveway markers that I found on sale and I devised a tool from a cast-iron pipe, a cap and a piece of felt, to drive them into the ground. I was going to place them around the turning circle and at the edge of the drive where I slipped off with the vehicle or tractor before. Yeah, well just a bit late. The ground was frozen. I tried one and it stands as a crooked testament, on the far side of the turning circle, that time and frozen ground wait for no man. Next season. The OCC batteries got topped up and data logs and solar control logs were taken. A trail cam SD card was also swapped out. Mental note. Need more distilled water. When I left the batteries were fully charged. Over the next week I was contemplating the pending shorter days and colder weather conditions. I had not improved our generators living conditions, IE I had not built it any sort of enclosure to help ward off the cold. I kept thinking of last years gen failures to start due to extreme cold. I think I have mentioned once or twice, how fast this summer seemed to pass. One minute I am mowing grass and putting tasty weed killing salt and vinegar on the vegetation and the next minute up to my boots in snow, not being able to drive a thin road marker into the frozen ground. A decision was made and seven days from my last visit I am at Our Country Cottage to basically shut her down for the season. I will still have to go up every so often to top up batteries, check data logs etc, but the terror of the frozen toilets and drained OCC batteries with its, “Power Has Been Lost”, emails will be abated. The biggest part to shutting Our Country Cottage down for the season is draining the water out of the place. First let me explain that I had picked up a couple containers of RV antifreeze, when they came on sale, a month or so ago and have been waiting, in the utility room, to be pressed into service since then. I started by draining the pressure tank then worked from the highest elevation down. So with the well pump off and the pressure tank draining into the sump, I started with the upstairs bathroom by opening all taps. You can hear the water getting sucked out of the pipe by gravity. I then turned off the water feed to the toilet and flushed it I then filled the tank with antifreeze and flushed again. This replaces all the water in the toilet workings with antifreeze. I pour a bit of antifreeze in the sink, tub and shower drain to replace the water in the traps. Downstairs, I do the same in the downstairs bathroom. I also turn the tap on in the kitchen sink and put some antifreeze down that drain too. Our washer dryer machine has a small lint trap that also has to be drained. And lastly the outside tap gets opened. A bit of an experiment this time. I didn’t drain the domestic hot water tank or the pre-heater tank, heated by the solar collectors on the roof. I figured that they were below ground, in the utility room and therefore should not freeze. I am also leaving the solar collectors running to heat that little radiator in the back hall. I had inadvertently turned them off last year when I shut the boiler and the thermostat, not realizing they were on the same breaker. Live and learn. Again as an experiment I decided to leave the boiler on and turn the thermostat off for the living room. The thermostats for the bathrooms were left on. I hope to see a big reduction in energy usage. Last year I was trying to keep the temp above freezing in the cottage for the winter but the gen failed and I shut the boiler off. This year I am trying to limit the heat in OCC so that the generator would run less while keeping it online. Give it a shot, anyways. I collected all liquids and took them back to the city. My next visit was three weeks later. The batteries were at 90% and the living room was at 10C. Just a bit above where it would have been if I had the heat on. The bathrooms were at the thermostat setting temperature. Good stuff. The generator had run just over fifty hours since my last visit. Now normally that would be a good sign. From previous years anything under 100 hours a month, this time of year would be great. But this year the weather had been particularly mild, so I am not sure whether I am winning or loosing. The only thing I can say is that I am glad I have collected all the data I have over the years. Stuff like generator hours run, data loggers, gen logs etc along with the notes I make for each trip. It might seem useless at the get go but it gives me lots of info to go over to see if OCC is on track or not. Well at least it does most of the time. When you have a year that is warmer, in this case, than the norm it kinda makes you think a bit more. I changed the oil and filter in the generator, back bladed about a third of the drive, more for me than the drive, and collected the solar control log and the generator log. When I left the batteries were fully charged. I had been driving for about fifteen minutes when I got the feeling that I hadn’t put the generator back into auto after changing the oil etc. And, no, I hadn’t taken a picture. It was too risky to leave it in manual as the gen would not be able to start if it needed to and the batteries would drain and I would get a terrifying “Power Has Been Lost” email. I turned around and went back. Sure enough it was in Auto. So it would have been fine. I took a pic. As it turned out that was the last visit of the year and a good place to conclude this episodes OCC update. And now for the first time ever The Our Country Cottage Year In Review A lot of things can happen in a year. Good and bad. A lot can also get forgotten. So this is my attempt at collecting all of the highlights and lowlights in this episodes OCC YIR. Info collected from over 60 pages of notes, hundreds of pictures and revisiting previous OCC podcasts, distilled into YIR. The year actually started with OCC sending my power lost emails. Very cold temperature had caused the gen to fail then the heating system started acting funny. Heating areas that shouldn’t be heated and not heating areas that should. So that’s how it started. This is how last year breaks down, hmmm, poor choice of words… seventeen- 1 day drop ins one- 7 day, 6 night visit one- 4 day, 3 night visit five- 3 day, 2 night visits The first solo overnight stay (2 nights) by my partner And 4 overnight (3- 2 night and 1- 1 night) stay while I wasn’t there. And one unexpected, furry, overnight guest in the garage. I went off the drive, getting stuck, half a dozen times, about 50/50 between my vehicle and the tractor, one time both on the same day. I almost went off the road several times. That included, heading toward the ditch and the wheels just catching at the last moment, and heading to the ditch and managing to stop just in time and backing away slowly. I had to snow shoe in once, almost walking off the road because the lighting was so flat I couldn’t see where the edge of the drive was. And I fell a few times but my standing up procedure, in snow shoes, improved greatly. The batteries were topped with distilled water 8 times. Trail cams collected 17 times. Solar control records collected 17 times Temperature data loggers collected 6 times Generator logs collected 6 times The generator oil and filter and the house water filter were both changed 3 times. Weed killer strategy was changed after finding out how bad the commercial weed killer was. The homemade stuff turned out to be not as effective as I had hoped. Something to work on. The solar equipment had its fan problem, but was easy to fix once it failed for good. I still get corrupt files from the controller from time to time. Not a big concern. A section of the loft deck railing, failed and was fixed. This gave us the incentive to check the rest of the railings, which exposed several other places that were missing a screw or two. The tractor mower grass chute duck tape repaired for less than a tenth of the cost of a new one. The generator gave me some problems, not starting when it should and starting when it shouldn’t. The heating system had issues as noted above along with the hot water not being so hot. A new BBQ assembled and working but not without issues. The old BBQ recycled. Some good meals were BBQ’ed after all. The Quonset got its skirt flap covered with gravel after being held down with only snow for several months. I had some very relaxing moments, too. Waiting for the six o’clock fox to show up, Casually looking out the window and seeing deer elk and moose, etc. Just being able to take wildlife pics from the living room couch is so cool. Listen to some good music with some good adult beverage while watching the trees in the valley. Gazing at the stars slowly revealing themselves in the sky as the sun set. Then there was the time I captured a solar eclipse with my camera, indirectly, from a quickly improvised pinhole projector. Well those are most of the highs and lows of last year. Nothing major. Our Country Cottage present a completely different set of challenges than I encounter in the city. As they say, a change is as good as a rest. For more details check out episodes # 23 – 27. Gad, I averaged less than 1 podcast a month. When I started I thought I would be able to do at least 2 a month. Heading the list of things to do this year are 1-An enclosure or something for the generator And 2-Pull the shoulder of the driveway back up. These two things, alone, would help with two big issues, the generator reliability and sliding off the driveway, getting stuck. At the moment I am not sure how to do either but I will give it a good try this summer. Then there is that weed thing, that trap door thing, that other thing etc etc etc. So that’s Our Country Cottage, Year In Review done and dusted. For those of you that check out our website, there are some changes coming. The foundation that it was built on has changed, so, the site will change as well. I will attempt to do this in the next week or so. Dare I say that this might include new pictures, no I better not. Tune in next time for episode #29 and another OCC update. How is the new year treating OCC so far well at least the days are getting longer. For pictures, and more info, you can visit our website at www.ourcountrycottageanarrative.com If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage a Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). If you are on the “Friends of OCCaN” mailing list and had enough, just send me an email at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com and you will be released. The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time….
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Episode #27 An OCC Update & ITB Wrap Up
11/03/2018
Episode #27 An OCC Update & ITB Wrap Up
In this episode I will bring you up to date with the goings on at OCC and, as promised, the ITB wrap up. Finally I can close the book on ITB, In The Beginning. No more confusion with episode numbers and ITB progress month numbers. Hey, it was getting confusing for me. *******On With In The Beginning Wrap Up****** It was at the end of month 27, (no, lets not go there again) two years and three months, that there was a logical point to finish with contractors, etc. and take sole claim of Our Country Cottage. Not everything was finished but enough was enough and we decided to cut the cord. As reported last episode, keys were returned and good byes said. Now the only thing left was to pay the final bill, but how much would that be? Changes had been made, there was that bill that was only partially paid by the first site supervisor, incorrect items delivered costing more to install and on and on. I don’t mind telling you I lost a lot of sleep trying to figure all this stuff out. I had kept notes, records and receipts so I could have gone through it item by item… It would have taken a long time and forced me to relive all the problems we had had over the past two years, plus. I really didn’t want to go there. Everything was still very raw and I just wanted to see the end of that phase of the project, construction etc, and start the next phase, the phase where we start enjoying OCC. So instead of turning up to the final meeting with the project organizer with a pad of paper listing every item of contention, I came up with an alternate concept. With some of the bigger items in mind I arrived at a figure that I would be comfortable with. It was more of a gut thing. I know people who would have gone through every item, every receipt and done a full accounting so as not do pay one more penny than absolutely necessary and probably end up still unhappy, thinking someone had fooled them to pay more. I remember back a few years there was this one person who was looking to buy a house and came to me to ask if I thought it was a good deal and did I think they could pay less somehow. Not being a house appraiser or even seeing the property, I asked if the property was worth it to them and left it at that. Well that’s how my mind works anyways…. I am going to take this opportunity to tell you how the Our Country Cottage project was organized, financially speaking. There was a contract drawn up with expectations of cost. In all fairness the hard costs for the building package were accurate but things got added and changed which was partly reflected in the construction plans. Once we had settled on a floor plan and made the modifications to make it our own and once the plans had gone back and forth several times, (I just checked, and we were up to version 5)the final version had to be sent to the manufacturer with a deposit. Shortly after, there was a production deposit. Then the project company, who was going to assemble OCC and organize all the trades, etc, needed a deposit. These deposits were required by the various companies to add OCC to their schedule boards. The balance of the cottage package was due on the delivery of the kit to the site, there abouts. It was the delivery of said kit that started the “In The Beginning” instalments, by the way. Soo around the kit delivery month, the well was drilled and paid for and the solar power system required a deposit. A couple of other items requiring money were the septic system and getting setup with a propane tank. A bit later the folding doors between the sunroom and living room and the masonry heater required a financial injection. These were some of the extras I was handling myself. Back to the nice neat payment schedule that was laid out by the project co-ordinator\ company. These consisted of five payments that would be made on the completion of certain stages, 1- When the foundation was complete 2- When the framing was complete 3- When OCC could be locked up and the exterior was complete 4- When drywall was complete 5- The possession and occupancy stage For all these there was a 10% hold back on each stage that was payable 45 days after possession in one lump sum, all being agreeable. Just to add to the confusion, the project company adds a percentage to anything that went through them or that they arrange. Towards the end of the project, and with full knowledge of the project company, I started dealing with the contractors myself, which helped with the costs. Actually the project co-ordinator suggested it, as we were getting into areas, for want of better terms, that were not on the plans. This resulted in another series of invoices that had to be paid separately from the original contract. Custom work by the contactor and eves troughs (as reported in the last ITB) would be some examples. I was nervous going into that final meeting, not knowing how my proposal would be received. I guess he was as anxious to finish the project as I was and after a bit of explanation and going back and forth a bit we arrived at a number, the check was written, hands were shook, and that was that. It was actually an odd feeling knowing that I wouldn’t have to go back to that office again and that OCC was bought and paid for. I slept a lot easier that night. There have only been a couple of times where I started second guessing my financial decisions but they were quickly alleviated remembering the rational that got me there. Yes, parts of the Our Country Cottage project cost way more than expected but there was value added. The first amount set aside for contingency was blown through at an amazing rate and at least two more contingency allotments fell but at a slower rate. One thing for sure, don’t go into your dream cottage in the woods project with just the bare costs covered. Have a healthy percentage set aside for the unexpected and try to anticipate where costs could be cut back if required. Also, try to get as much completed by your contractors as you can. It is easy to say, Oh I can finish that myself. But in reality it will take you way more time and effort than you expect and in most cases become a lingering item on that list of things to do that will keep you away from enjoying your new retreat. For example I decided to paint the loft over the garage myself. For me it was a major undertaking. Filling and sanding the ceiling and walls. Wiping them down, ready for paint. Balancing on the very top rung of a ladder trying to reach the peak of the ceiling and limit the amount of paint getting on a clear coated beam. Then on my knees doing all the same sort of stuff for the baseboards. Trying to neatly cut in all the window and door trim. Save money, maybe. Reduce stress and enjoy OCC nope. I still have items to be done…. Well that wraps up the ITB wrap up, now on to the ****** Our Country Cottage Update ****** I will start this update by answering some of the questions I posed at the end of the last episode. The fan error, ahh the fan error, was it just a software glitch. No. The fan was causing more and more errors but it would still work, up to the point where it didn’t. More on that later. The deck railing did get fixed and some other weak points were strengthened. The duct tape repair on the mower grass shoot worked out pretty good. I think little repairs from time to time will be required. The summer seemed to flash by with the second half starting with a three day visit. Grass was mowed and weeds were wacked. During the second day, I was in OCC when I heard a familiar sound. Poking my head out the back door I found the generator had decided to start itself. Hmmm, this was just before noon with the sun shining brightly and the batteries were fully charged. No reason for it to run at all. I tried to shut it down from the solar control panel inside OCC but it would not turn off. There were no errors or any type of event logged. I ended up going out to the generator and turning it off at its control panel. It co-operated and shut down. Once shut down I put it back in to AUTO and all seemed normal. Now, the generator itself produces a log, so later, I looked at that and found it ran as an exercise event. Most of the time this type of generator sits in an urban backyard waiting for the power to fail so it hardly ever runs. Under these circumstances you would want to run, exercise, the gen every so often to make sure all is ready to go. My application is different. My gen gets a real good work out. It doesn’t need exercise. The only way I could figure out not to have exercise time is to program exercise in, lets say, a couple of years in the future. Well looks like it had been a couple of years since I set that up and I just happened to be at OCC when the event came due. Wow you can’t write this stuff, um, I just did, but you get what I mean. Wonder if I will be on site in a couple of years for the next exercise. Oh, and the exercise stuff is all generator stuff so the solar control panel would not have been aware of it. I sprayed another couple of batches of home made weed killer. Remember I was making this stuff with vinegar, salt and a bit of dish detergent. I am really loosing faith in its ability to kill weeds in the long term and I am beginning to think the salt might be drawing in the wild life as I have been seeing deer graze closer and closer to the areas where I spray. Hmmm vinegar and salt, wild life salad dressing anyone. During this visit I did some of the usual chores. Topped up the batteries, collected the temperature data logs, solar control logs, and a trail cam SD card. The batteries had died in that cam so new ones were installed. Always keep spare batteries on hand. The next visit was a first time ever solo visit by my partner for a couple of nights. Must say very brave and very successful. During the visit the Solar control panel generated an error again with the internal fan. I was starting to get a feeling about that fan. The first solo visit ended well with no other problems. A couple of weeks go by and my partner and I go up for a one day drop in. When we arrived I figured I would run the hot water to alleviate the lack of hot water issue we had before. To that end I turned both showers on and let them run. There was plenty of hot water. I then got an internal fan failure followed by an over temp error on the solar control panel. Then the AC went out. I turned the boiler off and it didn’t take long for the Over Temp to clear and I was able to restore the AC. The solar control panel actually told me what inverter had overheated and by how much. This is how I found out I had a left and a right inverter in the one inverter case. Live and learn. Each side had its own fan. Looked like the left one was now down for the count. I confirmed this by turning the system off and then back on again. Normal start up routine has the left fan run and stop, then the right fan run and stop, then both run and stop. I was perched on top of a step ladder with an eagle eye on the fans when it did the test. Yup, the left fan didn’t even twitch. She’s dead Jim. I would later send a report to my solar guy and he passed it on to the manufacturer. It was covered under warranty and a replacement fan would be sent. We had brought with us 3 LED floor lamps, purchased from that flat pack store, to replace my home made cast iron pipe floor lamps. The home made ones worked OK if you didn’t touch them or didn’t mind glaring bright light in your face. The new ones were more elegant and less obtrusive. The home made jobbies got delegated to the garage loft. It was during this trip that the railings were fixed. My partner held the ladder while I added reinforcement screws to the outside of the lower deck railing on the loft deck. Shortly after that visit one of my adult children and a friend stayed for a night. No hot water as the boiler had to be turned off till the fan was replaced, but they muddled through. It took the better part of a month before the fan showed up. During this time I had figured out and confirmed that I could do the fan replacement myself. Not a big deal at all. The fan was held in by four bolts and connected with an easy to get at connector. The hardest part would be removing the two dozen or so screws holding the main cover. Also, I had to turn off some breakers and try not to touch anything you don’t have to. The next visit was another three day event. One of the first things I did on arrival was to change the fan. During the swap I had to have the power off so I used one of those LED lights that strap to your head. If you are responsible for your own power you need to get one. You get light where you are looking and two free hands to work with. Very handy. The replacement presented no problems at all. Well, the back of my hand brushed against something and I became aware of some residual power on one of the circuit boards. Just a little tingle. Anyhow, on start up the left fan ran and stopped, then the right fan, then both. I was a happy camper. Breakers were reset and power restored. The solar control unit even indicated the “Internal Fan OK”. I topped up the batteries and feeling rather good went to make sure the generator was ready for the cold season ahead. Propane was good, oil level was good. I hit the start button and it gave me about a quarter crank and stopped. The control panel reset itself as though it had lost power. I went through this routine several more times with no improvement. And this was the same generator that decided it wanted to run all by itself for no reason just a few weeks ago. The battery was measuring 14.1 volts not bad for a 12 volt battery, but there was no power. I cleaned the battery clamps, no diff. As a last ditch effort I dragged an old battery booster box out of OCC. The box showed only 30% charge but I tried it anyway. Clamped it on the gen battery and hit the start button. The generator cranked a bit and then fired up. The starter battery had gone defective. Gad. OK next, I went into Our Country Cottage to turn on the boiler. I was looking for it to start heating the in floor radiant heating, as I had the domestic hot water turned down at the tank. It seemed like it was heating the domestic hot water anyway. Hmmm, I removed the cover to make sure the tank was turned down and it was. Out of frustration I tapped the relay with the handle of the screw driver and I heard a click and it turned off. Hmmmm. I built the first fire of the season that afternoon and another just after supper. The next day started with me building another fire and after breakfast I did the tractor conversion from grass mower, to snow thrower, with a rear blade. With the conversion behind me I changed the sediment filter on The OCC water system. Later that afternoon I got some nice pix of a doe and a stag on the south clearing. The stag was a bit of a challenge as he was looking right at me as I tried to position the camera, etc. The first few were out of focus because I couldn’t look through the viewfinder. I didn’t want to spook him. The last morning of the visit rewarded me with a doe and two fawns on the south clearing lit by the rising sun, magic hour. The sky was clear, so clear in fact that the panels started charging only a half hour after sunrise. I had also not built a fire since the morning of the previous day. Plenty of residual heat in the masonry fireplace which was helped by the clear sky and ever intensifying sun. I think I will leave it there as the weather changes drastically before my next visit and my main vehicle goes into the shop for some major work. Tune in next time for episode #28 and another OCC update. Will a new battery fix the problems with the generator, is the internal fan problem finally fixed, will the snow thrower get used and did the toilets freeze again. I tell you the weather took a real nasty turn. Also, what will I replace the ITB, In The Beginning, segment with? In the normal episode ending I refer you to the website for pictures and new ones coming soon… OK, hands up all those believing the “new pix coming soon” bit. Yeah, I thought so. I have been trying to find a better way to display a gallery of pix and have even spent money on a promising plug in, but to no avail. There always seems to be a gotcha somewhere. So until I find a better way or give up and carry on with the old way I am just going to leave that part out. Sooo ************************************* For pictures, and more info, you can visit our website at www.ourcountrycottageanarrative.com If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage a Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). If you are on the “Friends of OCCaN” mailing list and had enough, just send me an email at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com and you will be released. The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time….
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Episode #26 An OCC Update & ITB Month 27
07/31/2018
Episode #26 An OCC Update & ITB Month 27
In this episode I will get you caught up to date with the goings on at OCC and ITB, In The Beginning, well, this might be the last one. Lets start with probably the most action packed ITB yet. ***In The Beginning, Month 27, October *** ITB is the part the podcast where I use pics, my log book, texts and emails along with any other mind jogs I can find to give you the most accurate recollection of the creation of OCC. I even referred to an old check book record this time. Looks like we had five, three day trips, to Our Country Cottage this month. In the last ITB I had noticed a boom loader, or Zoom Boom had been parked by OCC ready to go. The first day of the month did not disappoint. The crew arrived early and went to work moving all the construction extras to a predetermined area near the Quonset, away from OCC. This included leftover bricks from the masonry heater, lots of dimensional lumber, siding, trim, metal roofing and about 50 lengths of powder coated rebar that for some reason was grossly miscalculated for the deck railings. Keep in mind that all this stuff was bought and paid for and on site. To toss it out would be a great waste of material even though there were no plans to use any of it. As long as you have a place to put it so you aren’t constantly looking at it or tripping over it. With 160 acres or so, we had room. It did take some time to organise it and move it and the contractors doing it were on the clock, so it did cost a bit. But, it got done and tarped over, out of the way. The following day a dumpster was dropped off and the grounds started to get cleaned up. Concrete pathway slabs were being placed on the ground at the base of the deck stairs. Two loads of gravel were dropped of and spread in front of the garage and around the turning circle, making it look much more like a real driveway. OCC hadn’t looked this good, well, ever. A few days pass and I return to find the septic guy back to finish off the septic mound. It needed to be covered with dirt and the ground leading to it required tidying up too. The next morning the contractor returned and started using the zoom boom to add the bits and pieces of trim and siding that had been missed for any number of reasons. The following day saw the zoom boom being put to great use installing decorative cedar beams in the gable ends of the roof. Interesting story bout these inserts. They were on the detail drawing, as part of the building and the material was on site, but the contractor tried to convince us not to do them for some reason. If it was up to me I probably would have let it slide but my partner insisted that they should be done. And done they were and in retrospect I am glad. The detail, it added to the roof, really helps make the looks of Our Country Cottage. I think the contractors were as fed up as we were and just wanted it to end. While they were doing that I was laying some rubber patio squares in front of the generator and propane tank. I had built up the ground so I would be well out of the mud when checking either one. They also looked way better than the shipping pallets that they replaced. Less rustic. By this time it was the middle of the month and I was back for another 3 day visit. The contractor was painting the edge of the metal roof where it had been cut so it wouldn’t rust. I was looking at the tractor and contemplating the winter, snowblower rear blade, conversion. I was told that the mounting brackets for the mower and the snow thrower could co-exist but in order to have both mounted at the same time longer bolts were required. After careful measurements taken and sketches made in the log book, I picked up the required hardware from the local dealer the next day. The following day I mounted the brackets permanently and did the winter conversion. I took copious amount of pictures for future reference. Just before I headed back to the city I noticed some corrosion on a pipe in the utility room. Five days pass and I’m back. In the utility room I notice water on the floor by the pressure tank. Looked like the water was coming from around the pressure relief valve. So with that and the corrosion I found last visit, I arranged for the plumber to come out for a visit. It was at this time the contractor passed me a pile of invoices reaching back six or so months for work that he had done for me outside the building contract. For the most part. Stuff like moving the construction extras down to the Quonset, gravel work, sidewalk paver work and finishing stuff not on the OCC contract. There was also stuff that was on the contract, like those roof details and installing the blind in the skylights. The blinds that were to be factory installed but weren’t. I made notes. The zoom boom was picked up and the grounds were smoothed over and everything was looking nice and tidy. Very encouraging. The final visit of the month was yet another three day visit. The plumber came out on the first day and replaced the leaking pressure relief valve and redid the joint where I had noticed the corrosion on the pipe. A picture taken that day, show the grounds all cleaned up, even the dumpster was gone. The next day I busied myself putting an insulating blanket on the domestic hot water tank and putting those pipe insulating foam tubes on all the pipes I could get to. On the last day of my visit the contractor came out and we did a walk around of Our Country Cottage discussing potential problem areas on the, yet to be installed, eavestroughs. He then returned his set of keys to the property. We shook hands, a few awkward goodbye moments passed, and his part of OCC was done. I won’t lie, I still get a bit emotional when I think about it. We had been through a lot together. Yes there were the days, weeks and even the odd month when he wasn’t working on OCC but still. I run into him every so often, in that small town nearby, and we have very pleasant conversations. Well that was my last day of the visit for the month but it wasn’t the last day of the month. The next day, the last day of the month, one of my trail cams caught a hardware panel truck pull up early in the morning. Three people got out and proceeded to swarm all over Our Country Cottage and the garage installing the eavestroughs and downspouts. From about 9 in the morning to about fifteen minutes after five in the evening, with hardly a noticeable break for lunch the video revealed ladders going up and down and moving all over the place, people on the ladders, the roof and in and out of the truck. A long section was put on with the braces every 16 inches appearing, sequentially, as if by magic. A very impressive day of work caught by trail cam and very effective. I have had no problems with any of the eavestroughs or downspouts since. Well you still have to clean them out every so often. Squeaking in on the very last day of month 27, two years and three months or 810 days, into a project that was supposed to be “240 to 300 days” long. I just dug out the contract. Our Country Cottage was now solely in our hands and our responsibility. Yikes! So that wraps up the ITB, In The Beginning, section of this episode and future episodes. The contract was completed for the most part with only the final payment to be made. I will talk a bit about what that involved next Episode. *********Now on with an Our Country Cottage Update********* Just give me a minute…. OK I’m back… If I remember correctly I was telling you bout the domestic hot water supply not being up to snuff. I started off this next visit trying to figure out what was going on. I was draining and refilling tanks and noticing things that I thought were abnormal. Thinking about it and redoing the process, not a lot made sense. The grass needed cutting anyways. Three or four hours later, I was done. Did some laundry and called it a day. Next morning I used the trimmer and cleaned up the grass around the cottage, garage, propane tank and generator. Looked much better. I noticed that I had not received my usual cottage email to tell me that all was OK. I get them even when I am at OCC. Now would be the time to fix it if anything was wrong. But first, on a hunch, I called my parner back in the city to check my computer and see if I had left my email program open. And sure enough I had. When it is open from time to time it will automatically download my email and when this happens at my main computer I have it set up to delete the mail from the server. If it is deleted I won’t see it on my phone when I check it. Problem solved. It also turned out that the hot water issue was, in this case, easy to fix too. After talking to my supplier of the solar hot water pre-heater I was told the best way to clear any sort of blockage, aside from using some form of cleaning aid, was just to run water through the system by, say, turning on both showers for five minutes, several times. This I did and the hot water improved greatly. This is one of those things that if used regularly would not be a problem but, as this season is turning out, infrequent visits can cause problems. The other idea in the back of my mind is that the boiler is micro-processor controlled. This lends the possibility that it tries to optimize itself by remembering behaviour. With it being turned off for a while and sporadic usage the optimization could be not optimum. To correct this I have started leaving it on with the domestic hot water turned up as well. Might be a case of the device being too smart for my own good or it has nothing to do with anything. Fun to think about anywayz. That being said I had a great, hot, long shower the day I left. Back to normal, maybe. That week end our two adult kids went up to stay at Our Country Cottage for a couple of nights. During that time, my partner went up for a day trip with a friend. All went OK with no problems or issues reported. On their last day, they even sent me a pick of the solar control display and the well pump switch in the off position. Good stuff. I take these pictures myself when I leave. The amount of times I have turned around and gone back to check the pump switch or even to see if I remembered to close the garage door. I tell you, it is a lot easier to take a quick pick to refer to if needed. The funny thing is that the act of taking the pic fixes it in my mind so I rarely have to look at the pic. I am almost completely over my anxiety of having people at OCC when I am not there. That first trip without me was a ruff one. Anywho…. The next trip up to Our Country Cottage and the last one for the month, I was all set to try a new, homemade weed killer. Weeds just love to grow in the gravel and drive around the cottage and it is a constant battle to keep them down. It is downright dangerous to use the edge trimmer on them. Rocks go flying all over the place. A face shield is a must. The hard hat I wear while using the edge trimmer and on the tractor has both hearing and face protection. I arrive with a new spray unit and the ingredients to do some major weed damage, but first, upon entering OCC I notice the solar control panel is looking strange. Only the top and bottom lines of the display are there. The space in between is blank. Gad. Now what? Unplugging it and plugging it back in reset it and all seemed normal. The error log, however, reveals several “Internal Fan Failure” errors that have seemed to correct themselves and carried on. Hmmm. With that running circles in my mind, a batch of weed killer was made. Vinegar, salt and a sup son of dishwashing liquid. The kitchen smells like fish and chips or maybe that flavour of potato chips when the bag is freshly opened. Not necessarily a bad thing. In short bursts. Mental note, get a new wooden spoon. That smell is not leaving anytime soon. With some effort the new sprayer was assembled and filled with, what I hoped was, weed death. The reason I was so excited about this concoction was that up to this point I had been using a commercial weed killer that my family gave me killer attitude every time the subject came up. First indications were amazing. The plant leaves turned brown and started to look sickly within a couple of hours. More vinegar was put on the shopping list. So while the weeds were taking their last, um, photosynthesis cycle I moved into the garage to try to fix the mower side discharge chute on the tractor. When I was at the dealer last I asked how much a new one would be and was told around $250. I calmly stated I would see what I could do with $50 worth of duct tape first. I had the tape, extra heavy duty, triple thick duct tape at that. A little back history. The chute I am about to try to repair is a spring loaded, heavy duty, plastic chute, mounted on the side of the mower deck, that was slowly disintegrating over years of mowing that kilometre of fun that is our gravel drive. It had redirected anything from gravel to goodly sized rocks that hid in the grass. After about an hour of using a metal scraper to remove the years of build up, I was ready to apply the tape. And tape was applied. The broken edges regained their strength and the holes were patched. I used black tape to match the original colour, so it looked good too. The test will come the following day. The next day arrived and buoyed on by the continued wilting of the weeds from the previous days spraying efforts, two more batches of home brew death were administered in other areas. And now for the mower chute test. It held up pretty well, but a couple of larger rocks did some damage in the taller grass. Really got to clean up those rocks. I think some more tape will do just fine. And the after mow shower was nice and hot, too. The last two days of this visit I changed the cottage water filter, weed wacked, greased the skid steer ready for action and did some minor chores during which time I noticed a rather large moose on the south of the clearing. And yes I did use the new BBQ without any animosity this trip. I only had two visits to Our Country Cottage the next month. There was some personal stuff going on in town that took my attention and would affect me more than I realized at the time. Anyway…… So my first visit had me doing some data collection to figure out what was going on with the “Internal Fan Failure” errors. I had found out it could be one of two things, a failing fan, or a software issue. The first course of action was to verify the current version of software. Which I did. I had the new version of the software ready to go but when the time came a few questions popped up that I needed answers for before I proceeded. I had had bad experiences doing this before resulting in me reverting back to the old version of software to make things work. I didn’t want to do that again. The solar display panel was behaving itself so nothing more to do till I got a reply. My enthusiasm for my home made weed killer quickly ended when I saw weeds where I had sprayed. It could be my imagination but they looked like a meaner type of weed, more pointy things etc. I had brought more ingredients for several more batches but I didn’t bother. Thought I would give it some more time to kick in. Oh well. I then collected all the trail cams. One hadn’t been collected since last year, two others had last been collected six months earlier. To my surprise all the cameras were still working with plenty of juice left in the batteries, even the one that hadn’t been checked for well over a year. It would take a while to go through the one or two thousand (if not more) of pics on each camera. OK, of the three I am telling you about, #1 had 2068, #2 had 2400 even and #3 had 3276 pics. I will look at each one, note the frame and what was captured. I quick look at one found a night shot of a cougar close to the solar panels, within days of a visit. The next day I noticed that the railing around the entrance to the garage loft was not right. The railing around OCC were made with an upper and lower bar of cedar with the verticals made of black powder coated rebar. A very rustic cottage look. On one side of the entrance railing the lower bar had dropped letting the rebar fall out at odd angles. I managed to raise the fallen beam while inserting the nine or ten lengths of rebar back in position, one at a time. A few pieces of wood were put underneath to keep it in position till I get some more screws. I noticed that screws had been put in only from the top on this section and the wood had just been pulled through. Most of the other railing sections had screws put in the side as well as the top making them much stronger. I did find a few others with just top screws and I am planning on adding the side screws when I get them. A few extra strips of duct tape were put on the side chute of the mower deck and I gave the kilometre of fun a quick mow along with the clearing around Our Country Cottage. That night the new BBQ and I resurrected our differences. I put my steak on and turned the controls down from full on. The temp dropped quickly to almost off like it had run out of propane. I had half a thousand gallon tank. Thought there might have been a kink in the BBQ connecting pipe, so I rerouted that, I even called the propane supply place to see if inadvertently clipping something under the tank with the edge trimmer might do something. I did some more tests and it heated up to max, no problem. My supper turned out fine. I reported to the propane people that all seemed OK but one of them came out the following day just to check things out at the tank end. And all was ok there, too. It wasn’t till almost the end of the month that I returned for a three day visit. The weeds were growing with abandon and the weather was cold and rainy, so no mowing was done that trip. The software did get updated and seemed to be working fine for the most part. Time will tell. This was the first visit to OCC where I did not put on old clothes or coveralls and do some messy stuff outside. I took time to smell the roses, ignoring the large nasty looking weeds covering the gravel, and the rising clover and grass down the drive and in the clearings. I had brought those screws to fix the deck railings but I didn’t bother. I read a book, listened to music and reacquainted myself with some software I had been meaning to get back to. Every so often a deer or fox would catch my eye out the window. One of my better stays. Now you are right up to date with the goings on at Our Country Cottage. Tune in next time for Episode #27 and see what is happening at OCC during the lazy crazy daze of summer. Was the fan error just a software glitch, will the deck railing get fixed, will the duct tape hang in there? And now that ITB has finished, its time to see how the final numbers were resolved and what got shuffled off the table and why? If anyone knows of an eco friendly weed killer, please let me know. You can email me or leave a comment on the web site. I really don’t want to use that commercial stuff if I don’t have to. For pictures, and new ones coming soon,(yeah, right) and more info, you can visit our website at www.ourcountrycottageanarrative.com If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage a Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time….
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Episode #25 Summer is Back & ITB Month 26
06/30/2018
Episode #25 Summer is Back & ITB Month 26
In this episode Our Country Cottage finally breaks free of winters grip, entering the summer months while In The Beginning, ITB, reveals some progress. ***In The Beginning, Month 26, September.*** ITB is the section of the podcast where I do my best to remember, through pictures, my log book, texts and invoices, well basically anything I can get my hands on.During this period of little getting done, it seems I also did little with my log book. That is to say sketchy notes. The second month of year three of the creation of Our Country Cottage started with our contractor calling to say he won’t be back for another two weeks. If you remember, the previous month we didn’t see him at all. So you could say, things are looking up. It appears that the month was broken into three, and a bit, trips. The first trip was generally rainy and cold. I tried out the in floor heating for the first time but didn’t keep it on for long as there was hardly any sun. A fire was built to take the edge off. There was a trip to a nearby town to check on cell phone boosters. My partner came up for a day and we went to visit friends in the area. The next trip up wasn’t until the middle of the month. We were definitely at the peak of fly season when I arrived, running the fly buster 2000 down a couple of times trying to clean up. The “spray and go away” tactic was then employed. Put out a good fog of anti fly stuff and go to town for supper. The shop vac was used to collect the, um, remains upon return. My log book indicates that, between visits, there were warnings and errors along with low levels and generator start faults reported by the solar control unit, but all appeared normal. Hmmmm. The next day Our Country Cottage had its first official guests for lunch. A good time was had by all even with the flies peaking in number in the afternoon. Ahhh country living. The dishwasher was run with a full load for the first time. I recorded the time and power used for each cycle it went through. Bottom line the batteries were at 99% at start and at 98% upon completion. And this was after sunset! Finally, the following day saw some Cottage items taken off of the to do list. The electricians showed up early and went to work. Among a long list of things done was, a wall switch in the mudroom to turn the well pump on and off. This was really handy as up to that point I had to flick a breaker in the utility room. I never leave OCC for any length of time without turning the well pump off. My reasoning is that if anything fails, only the water already in the tanks would escape. They ran an Ethernet cable from the generator to the utility room so I could get data inside OCC. Network cables were run from the utility room to the loft, over the garage, and to the kitchen. They fixed the ac plugs in the master bedroom that were not working. They installed heat tape in the drain in front of the garage. They installed all cover plates missing and installed the tracks for track lighting in the loft. By the time the electricians were done, most if not all of the electrical deficiencies were taken care off. Best day in months. Five days pass and we are back at OCC again, this time to receive the new furniture that we had been shopping for in the city over the past little while. Here is a bit of a cautionary tale. When the truck showed up the head dude proclaimed that they didn’t realize how far they had to come yahda yahda yahda. They wanted more money than the original estimate, of course. Always get a firm cost in writing for these sort of things and be very clear what is expected etc. etc… In our case we thought that we were covered but the trucking company was hired by the furniture company was an independent and a few loose ends crept in. Not being totally heartless and seeing that they put the furniture in OCC where we wanted it, including a very heavy piece in our upstairs bedroom (they worked hard) we settled on a price. It seems there is always something with moving or delivery costs. When I had the new cover for our Quonset delivered to our city house, the driver wanted to just push it off the back of his truck. When I insisted he use the power tailgate he told me it would cost more, well at least he did up to the point I produced the invoice clearly stating the use of his power tailgate was included. OCC was coming together. My partner and I spent the next little while tidying up and putting things where they belong. Like the futon, that was being used as a couch in the living room, could now be shifted to the back bedrooms as intended. Our contractor showed up, briefly, to drop off his work trailer. Great stuff, I thought, we are definitely getting some momentum going here. Well not so fast. Early the very next morning he was back to get his trailer as a problem had cropped up over night on another site. But we still have our furniture! Another five days fly by until OCC sees us again on the last day of the month. Our contractor and his trailer are back. There is also a large boom loader and a skid steer on site. There is still leftover construction material and garbage all over the site, but with prospects of things getting cleaned up, dare I say soon…. So with positive thoughts in mind, that evening, I sat on our new couch with a fire on one side and four or five deer grazing on the other. Scotch, anyone? ***Now on with the OCC update*** When last we spoke I was having difficulty just getting down the drive, in fact, the last reported visit had me snow shoeing in. See Episode #24, the details are too painful to go into again. It was actually so painful that it took me almost a full month before I could convince myself to go back to Our Country Cottage. 28 days pass and my partner and I return to OCC. There are bare spots on the driveway. Gravel showing through, a very welcome sight. There was still plenty of snow in the woods but the drive was drivable. When we got to the cottage I turned on the heat trace that was in the drain in front of the garage. This would start the thawing process going so that water from the melt would go into the drainage system. I ran the well pump to clear any sediment build up. Remember I had turned the water off to the cottage and put RV antifreeze in the toilets and traps. When I ran the pump I hooked up a hose to the bottom of the pressure tank and drained it directly into the sump. The house was still turned off and the hose connect point was before the sediment filter, so it wasn’t clogging up the filter for no reason. While this was going on my partner was vaccing up the flies, etc. The batteries were topped up with distilled water. Make a note, need more distilled water. The generator had run less than an hour in the past 2 months. A quick check on the progress of the heat trace in front of the garage showed the ice had thawed around the trace and water was flowing. Once you get it started it will improve by itself so I turned it off and we left. Two weeks pass and I go back to OCC for a one day visit with the main intent of turning the water to the cottage back on. It had been a while since the temperature had dropped to freezing for any duration so I felt safe. When I got there the batteries were fully charged and it was 21C in the living room. I changed the water filter and turned on the water. This I did with all the taps open. I then went to each tap, starting from the lowest (outside hose tap), turning them off as water started to flow, to the top bathroom taps. I reasoned this would be the best way to get the air out of the system. There were no apparent leaks, verified by running to all the places leaks might happen to check and the pressure seemed to hold, once all the taps were closed and the toilets filled. The true test would be to see if the pressure would hold over time. At the base of the pressure tank there is a pressure gauge that shows the pressure in the tank and, with the valves open, the cottage water system. I took a note of the reading, wrote it on a piece of masking tape and stuck it to the well pump switch to check next visit. I turned the pump off and left. The next visit to OCC was about ten days later, but for the first time, it wasn’t me. One of my adult kids with a friend was going to camp on the property but ended up inside OCC instead. Detailed instructions on various aspects of OCC were passed on, along with, what was for me, the most important. Check the water pressure before doing anything. This was done and the pressure hadn’t dropped at all. The cottage water system held, as in, not leaking. OCC could hold its own water. Ok OK…. The only thing was that the domestic hot water was not turned on. So heating water on the cook top was the way to go. Their visit went without incident and the place was left in great shape, as I found out when I went for my next visit only a couple of days later. This trip was to be a full week long and had been planned for a while with the purchase of a new BBQ to replace the one up there that was on its last legs. Best recollection was that it was over 20 years old, and not easy years. Dragged across gravel pads, knocked over by marauding cattle (OK I think it got bumped off of the deck by a cow, once). Basically, an inexpensive BBQ treated with little respect. It was time. The new BBQ came unassembled in a box that just fit in the back of my vehicle. When I arrived I found the batteries fully charged, 25C in the living room and thanks to the previous visitors, no flies to vac. Happy, happy. I backed my vehicle up to the deck on the south side of OCC with the tailgate down, which lined up perfectly. After pumping up the tires on the hand truck I slide the BBQ over the tailgate straight onto the hand truck. With the aid of some improvised ramps I rolled it into the sunroom ready for assembly. That night I went to the nearby town for supper and supplies. The next day I started the BBQ assembly. It didn’t go well. I could blame the instructions but I seemed to be doing everything twice, once the way I though the instruction said, then once the correct way. I gave up about half way through. I decided that I would change the tractor from winter, snow thrower, rear blade mode to summer, mower deck mode. This was one of the harder conversions I remember doing. Things weren’t lining up. Clips and pins were hard to get out and in. Hmmm, first the BBQ now the tractor, maybe it was me. Well I got it done and tested. A little late in the day to start mowing so time for a nice hot shower. I had turned on the domestic hot water when I arrived the day before so should be good to go. Firstly it wasn’t very hot, in fact barely warm and low pressure to boot. Hmmm I turned the temp up on the hot water tank. That night, sitting on the couch I saw one maybe two red foxes go down the toboggan run. The next day started with great expectations of a BBQ supper on the new BBQ. Meat was taken from the freezer to thaw. I had some maintenance to do on the tractor and mower deck, grease etc. Then on to the first mow of the season. Three hours later I was ready for another shower. It was a bit better but still not great. It was now time to finish off the BBQ assembly. It went a bit better than the day before but took much longer than expected. In fact by the time it was complete and I heated it to 600 degrees for 20 mins to burn off the manufacturing coating, let it cool and season the grills, I was done and the meat went back in the fridge. Not happy. But the evening red fox did cruise by, allowing for some quick pix from the couch. The next morning the batteries were solar charging at 6 AM. I love this time of year. I got my camera ready for the, now deemed, six o’clock fox. While the red fox was a regular show in the evening it was also a regular show in the morning, too. He or she did not disappoint, and I got some good pics given he or she was only in view for less than a minute. The domestic hot water was becoming an issue and I started doing system flushes while observing pressure irregularities. I noticed that while draining hot water from the hot water pre-heater it would start off great then the pressure would drop substantially. I called my plumber and he suggested a blockage might have formed, but I couldn’t figure out where. I came to the conclusion that the pre-heater might be giving me grief and made a note to call the supplier from the city when I got back. I spent the rest of the day picking up bits and pieces in a larger nearby town. The following day I finished off the Quonset cover. If you remember, last year we changed the cover on the Quonset. The Quonset is a metal frame structure covered with a heavy duty fabric of some kind. Where the fabric meets the ground there is about 2 feet of material that rests on the ground that you can put dirt and or gravel on to seal the bottom of the walls. I hadn’t put the dirt and gravel back on the skirt as it was late in the season and I figured the snow would hold it in place till I was ready, and it did. Some of the work I could do with the skid steer and some I had to do by hand with a shovel and rake. I finished off by smoothing out the ground with the skid steer and I and the Quonset were done. After moving one of those metal fire pits from the Quonset to the cottage with the skid steer I had one of the better showers of my visit. Long and hotter. Maybe the hot water just needed using more. For some reason I couldn’t bring myself to used the BBQ that evening. I did manage to get some more fox pics later on though. The next morning I decided to treat myself to breakfast in town. When I opened the garage door the box that the BBQ came in, the large heavy box that I had carefully placed on the woodpile, was on its side on the floor. I then began to notice other items that had moved. A tire had rolled out from its resting place to the tractor, another box on its side. Then I saw him. A black furry being with a pointy nose about the size of a small house cat. It wasn’t a house cat. More like a wood chucky kind-o-thang. I approached with caution only to have him run under the stack of firewood. I tried to flush him or her out by making noise but nothing so I headed off to my breakfast while leaving the garage door open. When I got to our gate I realized I had forgotten the empty diesel containers I was going to take with me to get filled. So back I went. A close inspection under the log pile and with a look around a bit it became clear that he or she had taken the opportunity to escape. Fare enough. This time I’ll close the door. Well I would, if I could. For some reason these critters love to chew on wires and the wires that connect the safety beam at the bottom of the door had been broken. Five to ten minutes later, with the wires twisted together I was able to close the door and go to breakfast. The remainder of the day was spent getting the old BBQ ready for its final road trip, back to the city and back to where I had bought the new one from, with a promise that they would recycle it for me. I mistakenly started the process in the sun room, soon realizing that it was a dirty nasty job, with spiders, that would be best done in the garage. As I was dragging it down our gravel drive to the garage, a wheel came off and the BBQ took a header, spilling its lava rocks, grills and racks as a last comment to its last moments. Lovely. That evening I had my first supper cooked on the new BBQ. I think I might have had a few adult beverages to take the edge off, too. The last day of the visit was overcast and rainy. The box, that the new BBQ came in, was ideal for transporting the old one back to the city. A few cuts here and there and it slipped into the back of my vehicle perfectly. Batteries were topped up, a trail cam SD card was swapped, logs were taken and the solar control info was collected. I headed back to the city. Before going home, the old BBQ was dropped off at the BBQ place for recycling. They also took the modified box. Good stuff. Still have a few more visits in the old log book to tell you about, but am going to save them till next time. So tune in for Episode #26. Will I get the domestic hot water figured out, will there be anymore furry overnight guests in the garage and will my relationship with the new BBQ continue to improve, adult beverages aside? Also, ITB month 27, will my proclaimed optimism be rewarded or kicked to the curb like so many times before. At this time any promises of new pictures on the web site seem unfounded. Apparently I lie. For pictures, and new ones coming soon,(someone has hope) and more info, you can visit our website at www.ourcountrycottageanarrative.com If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage a Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). Find out when I get the new pix posted. The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time….
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Episode #24 Day Trips & ITB, 1st Month of Year THREE
03/30/2018
Episode #24 Day Trips & ITB, 1st Month of Year THREE
In this episode Our Country Cottage has not finished sending me power failure alerts and In The Beginning, ITB, covers the first month of year three of construction. In The Beginning, month 25, August. This is the part of the episode where I go through pix, emails, logs etc to give you the best recollection of the construction of Our Country Cottage. I had three visits to OCC this month. Each was three days long. The first visit, I had a load of those flat pack boxes from that store, known for its assemble yourself furniture. My collection promised that they would turn into two closet organizers for the master bedroom closet. The instructions had a picture of two characters putting them together. Seeing that I was by myself, I took it as a handy suggestion and proceeded to do it with the, unwritten, one character option. More challenging, but more rewarding and much less debate as to what goes where etc. I found a picture with them assembled and in place. Proof positive that just cause it ain’t written in the instructions, doesn’t mean it won’t work. Our cook top was used for the first time to make breakfast. Also, due to very heavy hail our vehicle was parked in the garage for the first time, but not without acquiring some new contours. I seem to remember running around outside with pieces of cardboard protecting my head from the hail. Yes, cardboard cut from those flat pack boxes. The last day of this visit was a gorgeous, sunny day and I took the time to do a photography project with my phone. 30 pix in 30 minutes. Got some cool shots. So this part of the podcast ,ITB, is supposed to be about how the construction was proceeding not what I was doing by myself. Spoiler alert. Nothing happened for the whole month. After spending alone time at OCC, I called the project coordinator to see what was going on. Turns out our contractor had been very ill for a time, hospital stuff, etc, but he was doing better and should be back soon. While back in town, more furniture evaluation trips were made to flesh out Our Country Cottage. My next three day visit saw the grass getting cut, some brush getting wacked and my partners first overnight stay. The last visit of the month, yes three days again, gave me pix of starry early morning skies, drainage round the septic tank area, a gravel pile and those piles of construction leftovers. There are a couple of lovely pix of the front of OCC with the lights on at night. I printed some of those pictures from that 30 pix in 30 minutes project and put them in a multi pic collage frame sort of thing, and that got hung on a wall. A note in my log book informs me that there were 4 deer and two elk on the front clearing at the same time. A regular zoo. So that’s it for ITB, month 25. Will next month pick up? Tune in next time for, “Its month 26, do you know where your contractor is?” Now on with the OCC update While winter has been refusing to loosen its grip on Our Country Cottage, my visits have evolved into a one day trip, every other week. The month started with, what has become, the regular “Power has been lost” email from OCC. A check to see what local weather condition were at the time of failure revealed that the temp had dropped to -35C (-31F) that night. So understandable. I was not concerned about anything breaking in the cottage as I had drained the water a while back and was in no rush to go up. In fact, it was ten days later that we went up. In that time span Our Country Cottage emailed me 110 times to let me know that power had failed. You would think that once it failed that would be it. Remember that OCC is primarily solar powered so when the generator decides it does not want to work until someone presses its buttons, to clear errors, the batteries get charged by the sun on clear days. So here is what happens, power fails, sun comes out and charges the batteries until they reach a certain level to turn the power back on. Once the power is back on the boiler sees a demand for heat and turns on, putting a large load on the batteries. If the sun is shining brightly there will be enough to run the boiler and charge the batteries. If there is not enough sun, like on a cloudy day or at night, the batteries will drain and I will get a, “power has been lost”, email, or 110 of them over 10 or 11 days. Anywayz, my partner came with me on the next visit. The county plow had left a nice pile of snow at the entrance to our kilometre of fun that we had to dig through. The bottom of our vehicle left a mark in the snow for the full length of the drive, even when I had set the suspension to its highest setting. Yes, my vehicle has height settings. When I first got it, people were messing with me, calling the lowest setting, the handy bus setting. When we arrived, my first test was to see if the garage door opener would, um, open. It did not. AC was out and the batteries were at 34%. Without power I could not start the generator from inside the cottage. I flipped off the boiler and boiler control breakers in the utility room, working with a flashlight. No power, remember. I then went outside and started the generator from the generator control panel, after I cleared the error. It cranked a bit but fired up. All seemed OK. While I ran the snow thrower up and down the drive, my partner cleared a path to the generator and propane tank along with the stairs and a path to the battery hatch. Clearing the drive was slow going but when I got back I checked the generator. It was at 1541 hours.(I said 1514 hours in the audio, should have been 1541) That was 131 hours since its last oil change. I shut it off and changed the oil and oil filter. The new oil filter wrench I had brought up before worked much better than the strap wrench I had been using. The new wrench was more like a wide mouth set of channel lock pliers, and really grabbed the filter. A check of the propane showed we were at 48%. With power back on I was able to start the generator from inside OCC. I put the gen back on auto. I then took the system controller data and the living room data logger info. Before we left, my partner noticed that the radiator in the back hall was cold, even though the sun was shining brightly. Down in the utility room I found the solar collector system was off. On a hunch, I flicked on the boiler control breakers. The solar collector system fired up. Still learning stuff. Now don’t confuse the solar collector system with the solar power system. The solar collector system has two panels on the roof that heat glycol (a liquid that won’t freeze) and circulate it through the domestic hot water pre-heater tank or the radiator in the back hall. The solar power system has 30 solar-cell panels (photo voltaic panels) mounted on two poles, that generate electric power. Umm, not the poles the panels….. Anyway.... I had decided to leave the boiler off for the rest of the cold season, so we collected all the liquids to take back to the city. The batteries were at 58% and the generator was running when we left. Two weeks later, and not one power fail email, I went back up. Turning the boiler off was the key. On the way in, my vehicle slid off the road and into a ditch. It took me about 45 minutes to get it out. The vehicle is a very capable four wheel drive unit but very heavy as well. With a lot of digging, a traction mat under each rear wheel, a blanket under one front wheel and a tow rope wedged under the other I got it out. The traction mats weren’t doing it alone, it was warm and wet. The tires were just slipping on them. When I got to the cottage the batteries were fully charged at 100%. The drive needed to be cleared and I didn’t want to go without the shovel and traction mats. Now if you remember I was trying to figure out a way to attach those items to the tractor with a bracket or clamp system or something. In desperation, I had brought a set of bungee cords with me and within ten minutes I had them all attached in a very workable way. Talk about over thinking a problem. Good thing too as I got the tractor stuck while trying to clear snow, apparently a bit too close to the gate. This one took me about an hour and a half to get out. At one point the guide bar that is mounted on the snow thrower, to show you where the edge is, got between the bars of the gate. I don’t know how that was even possible. I just looked up and there it was, in the gate. I didn’t think twice. I just grabbed the guide bar and bent it out of the way. So as soon as I noticed the tractor slipping sideways toward the ditch I put the, now readily available, traction mats under the back wheels. The tractor just slid sideways towards the ditch. I ended up using the snow thrower to lift the front wheels off the ground and put the mats right underneath. With the front wheels pointing to the centre of the road I was able to creep forward a bit at a time. I had to reset about 6 or 7 times before getting out of the gravitational pull of the ditch. I finished clearing the drive. Back at the cottage I topped up the batteries. They were very thirsty, and, I checked the generator. It had only run 5.7 hours since last time. Propane was at 47%. I had a feeling that in my rushed last visit, when I changed the oil, I might have put too much in. Too much oil can blow out seals and cause a lot of damage. So, indeed I had. All still looked Ok, though, with no pools of oil etc. I grabbed my oil pump and sucked some out. Much better. When I left the batteries were still fully charged. Just to put a period to the day, I almost went off the drive just past the gate on the way out. The vehicle started heading to the side, I was going very slowly (5 mph or kph your choice) as it was, but I stopped and backed away slowly from the ditch. Gad! Two weeks pass and my partner and I go back up to Our Country Cottage. On the way we stop for coffee and just across from the coffee shop there is a pet store. We went in and got a bag of kitty litter to put in the rear of the vehicle. For some reason, I have become very traction oriented lately. The kilometre of fun, our drive, was covered in heavy wet snow, but the vehicle managed to make it to the cottage, just. While I cleared the drive, the path to the gen and propane tank was also cleared. Upon inspection, it was revealed that the gen had not run at all since the last check and the propane was still at 47%. The batteries were well into the green. Solar power system data was taken and some snow was pulled off the roof over the battery hatch. For some reason when we left I didn’t take my normal set of pictures. Another two weeks pass. No power failed emails had been sent. I go up. Supposed to be warm and sunny. Well the warm part was right. Clouds obscured the sun and gave very flat light. When I got to the start of our drive there was the usual berm left by the county plow. I got through that and came to a slow halt. The drive was covered with more heavy wet snow, more and heavier than last time. I could get the vehicle in just a couple of car lengths before the weight of the snow stopped forward progress. My snow shoes were in the back. It had been a while since I last used them, but I decided to give it a try. Looking at the drive I couldn’t really tell how much snow was there. As I said, the lighting was really flat. Figured I would go as far as the gate and reassess. The snow shoes worked great. I only fell once when the tip of one shoe got caught under the crust of the snow and down I went. Took me a bit to figure out how to stand up again. The gate was hard to open, what with hard packed snow round the bottom. For the rest of the trip I was very conscious of the potential of bear and cougar encounters. I had two pointy ski poles with me to fend off any ill will doers. Singing and making a lot of noise along with stops for a careful look around for sneaky critters. Yeah, lets go with that. Not to over emphasise the flat light conditions but I almost walked off the drive into the ditch a couple of times cause it all looked the same. White! When I finally arrived at OCC I found the batteries fully charged, 100%. I had been meaning to run the well pump for the last couple of visits but not got around to it. So I shut the water feed to the house, after the pressure tank and turned the pump on. It filled the tank with no problem. I was worried that sediment would build up, due to lack of use, and stop the pump from working. But it was OK this time. I got ready to clear the drive. I grabbed my ski goggles that had yellow lenses. That helped a bit with the flat lighting, so that I could see where the drive was. But first there was a big mound of snow in front of the garage that took me several runs at with the snow thrower to get out. Once on the driveway I found it was very slow going. Just crawling along. The snow was so thick and heavy, from my vantage point, in the tractor seat, it looked like there was a large ball of snow just rolling along in front of the snow thrower blades. I finally made it back to my vehicle and parked it on the road while I cleared out the entrance. I then proceeded to clear on the return trip. I would go to a point where I thought my vehicle would have no problems going from a full stop situation, hop off the tractor , walk back to the vehicle and drive it up to the tractor. Then back on the tractor, and so on. There were six or seven of these routines. On the last or second to last I got too close to and edge and got the tractor stuck again. Did I mention, very flat light….. oh and I had given up on taking my goggles on and off so I wasn’t wearing them. Only took me bout 15 minutes to get out this time. I’m getting better. I didn’t take my vehicle anywhere near the garage when I got it to OCC. The sun was now out and the snow was really starting to soften up. I was concerned I might have a hard time getting out. I went in to OCC to empty the pressure tank and to top up the toilet bowels with RV anti freeze. Over time that stuff evaporates and if the toilet trap becomes empty it will give an excellent path for all those fragrant fumes from the septic tank. I also remembered that the generator hadn’t been run for over a month or so, so I fired it up from inside the cottage and it ran fine. After I put it back on auto it shut itself off, as expected. Then I left. The drive out was tricky but I managed to keep it going. So basically the whole trip was spent just getting in and out of the place. Well, if nothing else, I proved I can do it if I have to and I am really looking forward to when the snow goes and I can just drive in and out without it being a major pain. This has been the worst year for getting stuck than I can remember, and I keep notes. On the drive back home it occurred to me that the reason I might be having so many problems is because the edges of the driveway have become rounded off. It was in the back of my mind, last year, that I should pull the shoulders back up on the drive, to reclaim some of the gravel, and this gives me another reason to do so. Just got to figure out how to do it. Well, that brings you right up to date with Our Country Cottage. Next episode, will I still be talking about snow and In The Beginning, month 26, will anything happen? Last time I promised to get some new pix up on the web site and failed. This time, for sure, new pix before the next OCCaN podcast release. For pictures, and new ones coming soon, and more info, you can visit our website at www.ourcountrycottageanarrative.com If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage a Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). Find out when I get the new pix posted. The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time….
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Episode #23 A New Year and ITB Finishes Year TWO
02/23/2018
Episode #23 A New Year and ITB Finishes Year TWO
This episodes OCC update will get into why power was lost on the last day of last year and what has been going on with me and my relationship with Our Country Cottage. In The Beginning, ITB month 24, will close out the second year of OCC construction. I am beginning to think that doing ITB is not helping my attitude towards OCC. I don’t know if it is cathartic, with a positive effect, as I thought it would be or it’s just dredging up all those memories and reopening the wounds, so to speak. For now we’ll go with the first one, Sooo In The Beginning, month 24, July. This is the part of the podcast where I try to figure out what went on during the construction of OCC by going through pix, texts, emails and the log book I kept. It appears the log book was the first to be neglected when things weren’t going well. Unfortunately, that is the exact time when notes should be taken to help in the future. Human nature I guess, well at least mine. Case in point, I have sketchy follow up notes to an ant invasion I went through. One day I showed up and found them crawling all over the living room and sun room floor. I stepped out of the sun room onto a mat outside on the deck for a breather and to plan what to do. Looking down I noticed the whole mat was moving, absolutely covered with ants. I don’t know what happened next, notes not there, but within a day or so I returned ready to unleash chemical warfare. I had an outside pesticide that I sprayed the full perimeter of both the cottage and garage twice a year. I also have a gentler pesticide I spray inside round the base boards and windows etc. This one also helps keep the fly population down as well. I tried a more natural method using borax mixed with sugar and soaking cotton balls with the solution. Not very effective I am sorry to say. Again sketchy notes. The one note I have is that a hand held vacuum previously nicknamed the “fly buster 2000” was renamed the “ant buster 2000”, for a time. Anyway, on with In The Beginning I was starting to stay over a bit more regularly and beginning to get routines established. Topping up batteries, collecting data logger info, collecting power system info and collecting trail cam images. In the beginning, as this was, everything seemed very complicated and took a lot of time to do. As time passed I got more comfortable with things, to the point where it’s not that big of a deal. Just got to get through the early days. The beginning of the month had me hanging ornate mirrors, my partner had sourced, in the bathrooms. Made it look a bit more complete. The grass was patchy and garbage still was spread out. Trying to mow the drive I got the tractor stuck in the ditch. With the mower deck on, there is not a lot of ground clearance, so when you drop a wheel off the side of the drive, you are stuck. I had to walk back to the cottage to get my vehicle to tow the tractor out. Then I drove my vehicle back to the cottage and walked back to the tractor. Did I mention the drive is a kilometre of fun? On the positive side of things, the damp corner had dried up in the crawl space and the track lighting had been installed in the loft over the garage. We were then out of town for a week and I did not make it back to OCC for several days after that. Upon my return it was obvious that nothing had been done. The grass needed cutting again but at least the ant problem looked like it was under control. I went to a nearby small town for supper and picked up some supplies along with an AC tester. You know the kind. You plug it into a wall socket and lights come on to tell you if all is OK or not. When I got back I checked every socket in the place. Good thing too, I found four in the master bedroom that didn’t have power and marked them with blue tape. Barn swallows had built a nest at the top of one of the deck posts, under the overhang. They were very protective of the nest and would dive bomb you if you got too close. I could stand about a arms length away from a corner post and they would actually fly between the post and my head. I could hear the air crack from their wings as they did so. Some times I could feel the air move on my head, they were that close. Ahhh, country life. During the last night of the visit I was treated to an amazing show of lightning. I managed to take some very cool pix and will try to get some put up on the web site soon. Back in the city, we went furniture shopping for Our Country Cottage. Pix were taken and a budget was agreed to. Again, your phone is your best friend while shopping. A pic of the item, another of the price and maybe several while holding up a tape measure for the major dimensions. My last visit of the month started off all too familiarly. Nothing had been done. There is a note in the log book that I called the project head to see what was going on. No note was made for the response. I measured the upstairs closet for a shelving system and assembled a set of rolling shelves for the pantry. The pantry had the only access to the crawl space, through a hatch in the floor. So the pantry has to be vacated to get to that hatch. The rolling kitchen shelves made this easy to do. The next day my partner came up and we started setting up the place. Glasses, cutlery, dishes and pots-n-pans were put in their new home in the kitchen. Towel racks and toilet paper holders were installed. And with the items they were meant to hold put in place, the bathrooms were done. The last day of the month and the visit had me playing with the generator. Starting it from inside the cottage and seeing what happened and again leaving it not knowing if an error that was generated was a problem or not. And you thought the generator only generated power. Well it generates power and errors along with frustration, relief and a full range of emotions. Who knew! The rest of the visit finished with me trying to figure out my laundry machine. Next ITB will start year three, as we careen to the completion of OCC. Just kidding. Now on to another Our Country Cottage Update When last we spoke, the cottage just informed me that, on the last day of the year, power had failed. I was in no rush to go up as I had drained water and put antifreeze in problem areas. I assumed, for some reason, the generator had failed and without intervention would not try starting again. There could be a number of reasons. Out of fuel, low oil pressure, a broken starter, like last year. And a pile of other reasons I have yet to become acquainted with. But bottom line was, the generator was not, generating. The cottage emailed me several times, telling me that power had failed. I knew this was the cottages way to tell me it was trying, that is, the solar panels would charge the batteries and when they got to a certain level the power would turn back on. The boiler would then turn on trying to heat OCC but without the gen running or enough sun, esp at night, the batteries would drain and the “power lost emails” would be sent. Two days after the first email I went up to see what was going on. When I got there the sun was shining and the garage door opened when I hit the remote. We had power. The batteries were only at 53% and were being charged by the sun. The boiler was on trying to get heat into the place. I turned the boiler off to give the batteries a chance to charge. I then turned my attention to clearing the drive of and I quote from my log the “ deepest/heaviest snow of the season.” Once done it was back to figure out the gen problem. Propane was at 29%, getting low but still plenty. The oil level in the gen was OK, too. There was an “Over crank” error on the display in the gen. I found out that this means it tried to start and didn’t. It would try three times and if still not running would throw the error and not try again until looked at. I cleared the error and hit the run button. After a few seconds it fired up and ran. Inside OCC the system controller showed the generator was charging the batteries and all was happy happy. As to why the unit failed to start a couple of days ago, well the temperature that night got very cold, actually down to -38 C. The generator uses low pressure propane to run and when temps drop that low, so does the propane pressure and there probably wasn’t enough pressure to feed the beast. Temps go back up, pressure goes back up, and no problem. Well until it gets that cold again, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I calculated that the gen had about 122 hours on it since its last oil change so I took the opportunity to change the oil and filter while I was there. Mental note, pick up more filters. Handy tip, with a felt pen, write the hours and date on the filter after its installed. This way you don’t have to go through piles of notes and scrap bits of paper to find out when to change em. I also take a picture of it as well. When I left the batteries were at 78% and being charged by the sun. As the forecast was for warm temperatures, I decided to leave the boiler off to give the batteries a chance to fully charge. Three days later I am back for another one day drop in along with 6 new shear bolts I needed for the snow thrower. (See last episodes OCC Update.) The batteries were at 98%. Good to see. The sun was shining brightly so I turned the boiler on. Now the next part is a bit confusing for me, still. There were heat zones that should have been calling for heat but weren’t and zones that shouldn’t have been calling for heat but were. I ended up physically disconnecting the thermostats that shouldn’t be calling for heat and were. Yup took the wire right off them suckers. Then I reset the thermostats that should have been calling for heat but weren’t. That got em going again. By the time I left the boiler had turned off and back on by itself and the batteries were at 86% and being charged by the sun. The cottage behaved itself for the next 10 days or so with the emails it sent me reporting temperatures well within the expected range. I decided to drop in to see how things were going. When I got there the sun was shining and the batts were at 90%. The living room was at 12 C. Not bad at all. Oh yeah, I had also remembered to bring up a six pack of generator oil filters. It was so nice out that I decided to clean up the drive a bit. Run the blade down both sides, which moved snow into the center then one pass with the snow blower down the middle and done. All in all a very pleasant task, this time. Something told me to look into the battery water levels. I had notes that said it was about due. Well with the extra energy being used to heat OCC the batteries were very thirsty. Good thing I checked, good thing I listen to those little voices in my head. OooKaaayy…. Then on to see what the gen was up to. Propane was down to 20%, better give the propane guys a shout. The gen had 52 hours on it since last checked and a quick look at the dipstick revealed the oil was down to half. I topped up the oil and moved inside. I collected the Solar Power system data. Or at least tried to. The transfer hung up again. I had suspected one of my SD cards was flaky even though it passed all the tests I gave it. I knew this was the problem card because I had put a question mark on it with a felt pen. This one will not be used again. In fact I took a pair of clippers to it and cut it up when I got as much data, as I could, off of it, back in the city. The following day, back in the city, I called the propane guys and told them we were down to 20%. As it turned out they had already visited about 2 or 3 hours after I left the day before. The invoice was emailed to me the next day. Good guys. Two weeks pass before my next visit. Batteries were at 100% and the living room was at 13 C. Remember that I set the thermostat to 9.5 so anything extra is passive solar gain. The drive needed clearing and I figured it was time to collect the trail cam cards by the drive. I couldn’t remember the last time I had done so. (a quick check tells me it was last May. Where do the time go. Gad) I decided that they both might need a new set of batteries, Ya figure! Well one was still taking pics and one had only stopped three weeks prior. New batts all around anyway…. The day started to go sideways. I got the tractor stuck just outside the gate. The better part of a kilometre to walk back to the cottage and get what ever I needed. Didn’t want to do that so hand digging the snow packed underneath the tractor and using my large winter gauntlets, one under each front tire for extra traction ( it was the rear wheel that got sucked into the ditch) and about a half hour later, the tractor clawed its way back onto the drive. Drive cleared, trail cams serviced, I checked the generator. The propane had been filled but it was already down to 54%. The normal fill is 80%. Did the gen run that much. What the… There was another 40 or 50 hours on it, but… I topped up the oil and carried on. Putting the tractor in the garage I finally took those shear bolts off the bench and put the in the tractor tool box. My notes told me that the temp loggers were just past due, so I had to do them. One small problem, there was a sizable mound of white stuff on the battery room hatch. When I tried to shovel it off it became clear that it was mainly ice. Getting pretty frustrated with the way the day was turning out I dug out the handle and with one mighty yank flipped open the hatch sending the ice mound off the side. Just to add to things, one of the loggers needed a new battery. This sort of stuff never happens when you have time. A new one was retrieved from the utility room. And the crowning touch to the day. When I leave I take a series of pics, one of the cottage with the garage that shows the garage door is closed, another of the solar panels and the drive, and various others including the Quonset etc. Well, this time while taking a pic of the solar panels the front wheel of my vehicle got sucked into the ditch and I was stuck for the second time that day. I keep traction pads in the back for times like this. The traction pads are pieces of gnarly hard rubber bars held together by heavy cable and rolled up in a case thingy for storage. Even using two of these it took 20 minutes, hand digging and eventually using one of the cases under a third wheel to get out. This was the last thing I needed. So I have a set of these for the tractor as well but I have yet to figure out how to carry them on the tractor. One thing I did learn, though, was that after you use them they are full of ice and snow and need to dry out before you roll em back up into the case. So I am now trying to figure out how to mount two of them, unrolled, on the tractor. Since then I have picked up two collapsing compact trunk shovels. One for the vehicle and one for the tractor. I know, I have to figure out how to mount that to the tractor, too, but digging packed snow from under a vehicle, with your hands, gets old very fast. And before I finish off this section, that propane level being so low after fill up was bothering me, a lot. Back in the city I checked the propane invoice for the amount delivered, along with info from my first ever fill, did some math and concluded that the tank wasn’t filled to 80%. I called the propane people and confirmed that it was only filled to 60%. At the time of delivery the cost of propane was spiking a bit, so in hopes of saving me money they didn’t fill it. The thinking was that the price would come down and I could top er up then. Well that wraps up the first month of the year, but wouldn’t you know, another “Power has been lost” email and a big dump of snow greets us for next month. Oh, and my printer broke. I’ll tell you all about it in episode #24 of Our Country Cottage A Narrative, along with ,ITB, looking at the beginning of year three, month 25, of construction or, what ever you want to call it. Will anyone show up? Before I go.... Lately I have been thinking of OCC more as Our Country Chore than Our Country Cottage. And it’s true that going up for one day at a time doesn’t leave much time to smell the roses after you shovel the snow to get in, clear the drive, try to understand why the mud room is nice and warm while the living room is cold. And that stupid SD card… I keep reminding myself that this is probably the hardest part of the year to get through. Cold, snow and minimal sun aren’t really conducive to off the grid solar powered fun. Our generator hasn’t helped much either. Yes, and like I said about doing ITB, it isn’t relieving any of the grief that building the place brought as I thought it would. Well at least not yet. Maybe it’s like antibiotics. You have to complete the whole prescription to get the benefits. At this point I see less than a year of “medicine” left to go. On the plus side looking through all the pics for ITB and seeing the lush greenery and remembering the warm sun with no lack of power does help. Just look past the garbage and mud, etc. And it was fun to go through the seven or eight months of trail cam pics I collected (ten to eleven thousand of them). I saw deer grow up and a cougar with a growing offspring. Deer sticking its tongue out at the camera, a fox catching dinner. I saw snow come and go and come back again. I also took some time to look through lots of other warm sunny OCC pics. It is so nice when it is nice. You just have to remind yourself, over and over, of the good times. The bad times will take care of themselves. For pictures, and new ones coming soon, and more info, you can visit our website at www.ourcountrycottageanarrative.com If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage A Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). Find out when I get the new pix posted. The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time….
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Episode #22 Power Failure & ITB Month 23, an Inspection and More Mud
01/27/2018
Episode #22 Power Failure & ITB Month 23, an Inspection and More Mud
In this episode Our Country Cottage reaches out to say it has lost power, the solar control unit stops logging and snow. In The Beginning, ITB, Month 23, June, standing water and a walk through inspection. In The Beginning, month 23. ITB is the part of the podcast where I collect all my emails, texts, logs, notes, pix etc to try to give the best recollection of the early days of OCC, Our Country Cottage. It seems to be getting harder and harder to figure out as the changes are getting smaller and smaller and sometimes none at all. I have vivid memories of arriving at the site and finding nothing had been done. Finding no one there was now getting common place but there was always hope that you just happened to miss them and stuff was getting done anyways. The next few months seemed to be the worst. Shure I had spent my first nights there but always in the back of my mind I had to be ready just in case someone showed up to do work. At this point OCC really didn’t feel like ours, yet. If you recall I ended last podcasts, ITB, still at OCC on my first two day stay. The beginning of a new month had me trying the downstairs shower for the first time. There seemed to be plenty of hot water, as I took my time with no signs of it cooling off. Happy, happy. Toast and coffee for breakfast and I took notes as to how much power the coffee maker and the toaster took. Outside was muddy and wet. I had planks on the mud to get to the generator and propane tank. I put down a couple of those wooden shipping pallets, one in front of the gen and one by the propane tank, to stand on. A rustic look for sure. With the grass and weeds starting to show an interest in growing I started looking into what it would take to convert the tractor from the winter snow moving configuration, to the summer grass lowering configuration. The tractor had been delivered in winter mode, with a promise the dealer would send someone out to help with the first conversion. Manuals were read, pix were taken and some loose ideas were mocked up with the idea of putting the heavy attachments on moving dollies so that I could wheel them around easily in the garage, once they were taken off of the tractor. The garage offered a nice smooth cement floor. And thus ended my first ever stay at OCC. I was back for a one day visit, 4 days later. There were signs of snow and standing water, still. I topped up the batteries and took the data from the temperature loggers. There was an increase in temperature in the utility room that coincided with me turning up the temperature on the hot water tank. Another 4 days pass and I was back for another overnight stay. Things were greening up, but there was a lot of mud to contend with. That damp corner, in the crawl space, was back adding urgency to getting the land, outside, to drain better. That will have to wait till we get a dry patch. If you think things get messy when to walk in mud, try driving a tractor through it while attempting to move some of it with a blade. It could only end badly. On the bright side, I got my first deer pics standing in tall grass to the south. Capped off the day with some moon images. The next day the project co-ordinator and the site supervisor were up for a walk through and to see what was left to do. This produced three pages of notes of items such as, marks on floor, dings in cabinets, missing light fixture or two, rusty roof edge, missing bits of siding, footings for deck stairs, broken window trim and on and on. Like I said, three pages of stuff. The project head had his own list which ended up with 17 or 18 items to be seen too. Some overlapped. His form was titled the Pre Delivery Inspection form. PDI for short. There was a place for the builder and a place for the home owner to sign. Neither were filled in that day. He did take those skylight blinds, that were the wrong size, with him, though. Handy tip, take pictures of paper work, use your phone, you then have a date stamped copy to refer to. I ran the dishwasher for the first time after turning on its water and setting a few things. On the last day of this visit I saw a red fox cross from the south and through the mud to the parking area. It was this day that I did the first load of laundry in our combo washer/dryer unit. A lot of manual reading and informed guesses got the job done. It actually produced some dry, clean items. A week goes by and I go up for a one day visit. The generator hadn’t run for awhile so I decided to start it manually for exercise. It fired up right away but was not charging and produced a “Start Fault” event. I cleared the error and put it back into auto. The gen stopped by itself five or ten mins later. Not sure what to make of it I left it. The site supervisor and helper showed up to drop off their work trailer and promised they would start working, again, the following day. It had been a while since much had been done. Another week passes and I am back for a longer stay. I managed to get pix of a large woodchuck on the stack of leftover bricks from the fireplace. Yup, leftover bits a pieces from construction were still scattered about adding to the ambiance of Our Country Cottage, in the mud. If you remember when I purchased the tractor I was told that they would send someone up to help me with my first conversion from winter to summer mode. That is, replace the snow blower and rear blade with the mower deck. Now, at the time of purchase, I was still under the impression that all I had to do was drive off of one and drive onto the other. Those TV commercials made it look so easy. And yes, I have to admit, there was a lot of wishful thinking going on there. With the passage of time and the reading of manuals etc, I became more aware of the reality, that it was much more than that. Good to their word, the actual guy that sold me the tractor, was the one that came up to show me how it was done. Try to get that in the city. I had already removed as much as I felt comfortable doing in prep for the visit. So the actual snow blower with its hydraulic lift kit and the rear blade were out of the way on customised movers dollies. The smooth cement of the garage floor made pushing these thing around easy. The salesman/tech arrived on time, with his own tools and went to work removing the driveshaft extension and a couple of mounting brackets. He then hung the auto connect unit for the mower deck and adjusted it. It was now time to drive the tractor onto the mower. He instructed me how to line it up and then drove it on, can’t remember if he did it or I did it, but it hooked up with no problem. There were some other minor adjustments but that was that. When I engaged the blades, it sounded like a jet engine spooling up. Needless to say I wear a hard hat with hearing protection while mowing. Already to mow the next day but it rained. It was while I was sitting on the couch watching the rain fall that I saw that red fox approach from the south again. This time I was ready and got some great pix while sitting on the couch. You can’t beat wildlife photography that you don’t even have to stand up for. I had been running my emergency alert system for a bit with various degrees of success. During this wet day I started looking into the code to see if I could make it work better. Being very power conscious I checked the performance and found it was running the main processor at 100% and consequently using more power than it needed to. OK it doesn’t use a lot of power anyway but every bit you can save helps. Bottom line, with the addition of a couple of lines of code added I got it down to 35%. At last, the last day of the visit I got to mow our one kilometre of fun. Pix were taken of the tractor and its new appendages along with pics of the drive with freshly mowed sides and centre. I also noticed that the baseboards and window trim in the loft over the garage had been installed. That wraps up ITB for month 23, a soggy June for sure. Now on with OCC, an update. With two and a half months since my last update, in some ways a lot has happened and in some ways not so much. The last podcast has my partner and I loading up the utility trailer with trash ready for a dump run. It wasn’t clear when a run to the dump could be done as the weather was getting colder and colder and chance of snow getting greater and greater. A flash of inspiration told me to put the loaded trailer in the garage ready to tow. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Anyway, my alert system told me one cold morning that Our Country Cottage was colder than norm. It was down to 2 and a quarter degrees C, just above freezing. I decided to go have a look. When I arrived I found the mud room was warmer than the livingroom along with the master bedroom being toasty as well. The thermostat in the living room was showing the temperature well below what it was to but it was not calling for heat. It was like the zones swapped. Very confusing. I checked and readjusted the settings for all the thermostats. That seemed to kick them into action and they were now calling for heat. Not very reassuring. I built a fire to help get the temp back up. There was snow on the ground about 4 or five inches. Didn’t have the time to clear the drive but I did use the roof rake to get about three inches of snow off of the solar panels. Always amazes me that the snow collects on them at that steep an angle. I topped up the batteries with distilled water and then collected all the data I could. The data loggers and the solar control system logs. I found that the logging for the system had stopped about a week earlier. Great, again with no data for the time period I need. Packed up and headed back to the city. Two days later and another alert system email. This time no power. Did the generator fail, again? So back I went. A nice sunny day. The batteries were down to 38% and the solar panels were charging at 7.2 Kilowatts. That’s the rated max for the array. Good stuff. The solar control reported that the generator had a “Fault No AC” error (IE generator was running but the system did not see any power). That being said the temperature inside was OK. Outside the gen showed no errors and the oil level was good. Propane was good at 68%. Hmmm. In the battery room I found the input breakers from the generator were tripped. I reset them and went back into OCC. At the solar control panel I pressed the manual start button for the generator and it fired right up. The only thing I can think of is that every so often different demands on the system line up and draw just a bit more that those breakers can take. It happens so infrequently (this is the second time ever) I don’t mind living on the edge. I collected the data again. This time the controller had been logging. Starting to suspect a certain SD card as causing the problem. The gen was still running when I put it back into auto and with the batteries at 69% continued to run as I left. Nine days pass with no more heart stopping emails, only the good emails telling me that the inside temps are holding ok. I decide to go up for a couple of nights. Another nice sunny day. My fave. The batteries were at 79% and being charged by the sun. Yes, the generator had stopped. After building a fire, I vacuumed OCC for the first time in a long time. I then plowed the drive. Back in OCC, wearing long undies and a tuque, I built another fire and had supper. Going to bed that night was a challenge. Even with long undies on, the bed was very, and I mean, very cold. The next morning brought snow and another chance to clear the drive and the panels. Oh joy. The last day of this visit had me topping up the oil in the generator and checking the propane level. 62% ok. This visit was somewhat miserable with the weather being mostly grey and overcast and not being able to stay warm inside. Also, with the trash trailer still parked in the garage my vehicle had to stay outside in the cold and snow. I was starting to think of where else I could put it in the future. Anyway, it didn’t help. With a masonry fireplace, a three day stay is not enough. The real heat was probably starting to happen the night I left. That’s probably why I was staying a week at a time before the gen broke last year. It was just over two and a half weeks before I went back again. I took up some more distilled water and topped up the batteries. I also checked and topped up the generator oil and noted the propane was down to 58%. Two days later, a break in the weather gave us the opportunity to take the utility trailer out of the garage and to the dump. Over eight hundred pounds of recycling and trash were disposed of. The empty trailer was then stored in the Quonset freeing up space in the garage. There was another longer delay before I would return, almost two weeks. Prepping for the holiday season had some part of that I guess. Anyway I had decided that OCC was not going to interrupt my xmas and to that ends I decided to drain OCC of its potential toilet tank bursting water and add RV anti freeze to the tender parts. The driveway, that kilometre of fun, demanded to be cleared again and at a point far down the drive I broke a shear bolt on the snow blower. The purpose of the shear bolt is that if the snow blower jams because of ice or rocks etc the bolt would break before the impellers would bend or the snow blower transmission would strip out. A lot cheaper and easier to replace a small bolt. Anyway, I had to go back to the cottage for the tools I needed to make repairs before I could carry on. I now had only one spare shear bolt left. Mental note, get more. While driving back I had an epiphany! Why not keep the two wrenches required to change the shear bolt in the tool box that is on the tractor? How many years has it been? Well that’s where the tools are now! Gad. When I left the batts were at 100%, propane at 51% and I topped up the generator oil again. Our Country Cottage was well behaved during our merry making days, but on the very last day of the year I got an ominous “Power Has Been Lost” email. Dah Dah daaaaaaahhhh! So, this update does bring you up to date to the end of the year. Tune in next episode to see what the New Year brings to Our Country Cottage. Also in the next episode, ITB, In The Beginning, month 24, will anything get done, will there be progress to the completion of OCC. For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at www.ourcountrycottageanarrative.com If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage A Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time…. Happy New Year and don’t forget to smell the roses.
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Episode #21 An Over Due Project and ITB Month 22, Mud&Stuff.
10/29/2017
Episode #21 An Over Due Project and ITB Month 22, Mud&Stuff.
In this episode I will tell you about getting to a project that was some five years past due and In The Beginning, Month 22, almost 2 years in, and still going at it. And an OCC update, well, brings you up to date. ITB, month 22, May. In The Beginning, is the part of the podcast where I recount the birthing pains of Our Country Cottage. Pictures, emails, texts and my log book have given me a memory refresh to present the most accurate information of the time. 22 months in and the big things are pretty well done and now we get down to the details. One important detail that happened this month was that we got Our Country Cottage’s “Occupancy Approval” certificate. Basically a piece of paper that lets us legally occupy Our Country Cottage. Any who, on with the ITB blow by blow. When I left Our Country Cottage last month ITB 21, the weather was warming up and most of the snow had gone. Remember, I got my boot stuck in the mud. My first trip of month 22 found the snow was back. I even had to plow the drive. The generator was showing 29.5 hours on the clock. That was double what it was when I left last month. Well, at least it was working. Inside, I noticed a stack of blinds in the sunroom. Now just in case I didn’t mention this before, we have two skylights in the living room and three skylights in the sun room. There was an option to have blinds installed during manufacturing, ready to go. I thought blinds were a good idea as it would give some control to the amount of sun coming in, also they would provide a bit of insulation while closed. You guessed it, the blinds came separately, and not only that, some were even the wrong size. Keep in mind that all these were delivered 22 months ago and only now just being found out. Emails to the project co-ordinator, measurements taken and retaken and discussions over, did I pay, should I pay, would I pay, and who would pay to have them installed. It took a while to sort out but the correct size replacements did show up. Installation came later, several months later. Back outside I had had a propane line run from the tank to the front deck so that a BBQ could be set up. I figured with a thousand (actually 800 gallons) of propane already there, why futz about with the little tanks. The pipe had been run and came up in the most likely place I would position the BBQ and terminated with a locking tap and end plug. I took pics and measurements hoping there would be an easy hook up thingy. I will check out the BBQ store in the city, when I get back. Handy tip. Instead of trying to balance a pen and paper on some dubious writing surface to make a note of your measurements, grab your phone with one hand and hold the tape measure with the other hand, next to what your are measuring. Align one edge with the nearest inch or centimetre and take a pic. Not only do you have a record of the measurement but what and how you measured it. A pic is worth a thousand words and much better than a crumpled piece of paper with some chicken scratches on it. My next visit I had made arrangements to meet up with the generator tech at Our Country Cottage. But before he showed up I was busy digging in the dirt again. This time it was not as muddy. It was by the battery room hatch where I was told the end of a buried pipe was. This pipe was run at the same time the propane line was run and was to accommodate any extra wires I wanted from the generator to the cottage. The one I had in mind was a data cable that would relay generator info inside the cottage. With the aid of some software that I had purchased with the generator there was the promise of internet communication and maybe even email updates. Anyway, back to the pipe end. What I remember of the pipe unearthing was me kneeling on a bit of plywood, digging a hole with a garden trowel and being very relieved when the red cap on the pipe came into view. I exposed some more pipe and covered the hole with said piece of plywood, ready for the wire to be run. At some point during the digging the generator guy showed up. Now, the generator was running fine but a few of the extras were missing. The extras that would making starting in the cold easier, battery blanket, pre-heaters etc. These items either didn’t, or couldn’t, be transferred from the previous gen. There was also an inside cover that was broken during installation, that needed to be replaced too. I was hoping to get an Ethernet cable run from the generator to the cottage. Turned out that he wasn’t equipped to run the wire but the other stuff was taken care of. Oh, and this was the visit I got my finger caught in the garage door, slash, room divider, while I was showing it off to the generator tech. Please see Episode#15, Doors and Dividers, for the gory details. The following week, when my finger had settled down a bit, I found myself at Our Country Cottage doing the first water test of the well. Samples were taken and had to be delivered to a collection station that I would pass by on the way home. I didn’t have that much time to spare. Just enough to notice the depressing, soul sucking, and boot sucking, mud that surrounded Our Country Cottage. In fact after I dropped off the water samples I started looking into grass seed at a farm supply place. Aside from grass seed, these farm supply places are full of neat and strange things us city folk rarely get to see. After browsing through the horse medication and grooming supplies and talking to someone, I was offered pasture grass seed at a good rate, along with several other types and mixes of seed. The topic of grass seed had come up between my partner and my self before. There was an option of seed containing all local and natural varieties, almost an artisan mix, very environmentally correct to say the least. I often wondered if used that we would be just supplying a high end, gourmet, birdfeed. I was also looking into what it would take to spray seed on. You know, like by the highway. Bare dirt is sprayed with some kind of green solution and some form of grass appears a short time after. Did I mention, mud is depressing? The next few day visits only seemed to emphasize the mud issue with the last bits of snow disappearing into pools of standing water. Pools of standing water I took pics of so I would know where to work on the landscape to get the water flowing. I couldn’t even think about doing anything till it had dried up. I kept busy by clearing out the loft over the garage etc. It was about this time that the locks were made operable on the doors and sets of keys were to be had. That was a nice diversion from the mud and the ever more growing awareness of the garbage and debris previously hidden under the snow. At the end of the month and bolstered with the water test results being a go, I decided to stay overnight for the first time. The fridge was turned on for the first time. The stereo system was set up. Gotta have tunes. The second futon was setup in the living room as a couch while the first one was in the back bedroom as a bed. Can’t remember much from that first night but an entry in the log book noted the futon was not kind to my back. Next morning I was up early and turned on the domestic hot water. After about an hour I had my first bath, watching birds land on the peak of the roof of the sunroom while soaking in luvly hot water. The rest of the day I spent moving furniture, etc from the shed down to the cottage. This included kitchen table and chairs, an old waterbed frame, a home made side table, and an old BBQ. On one of these trips I met a young deer heading toward the cottage. Later that day, while I was setting up the BBQ, a couple of motorcycles rolled up and parked. They were from the flooring/tile company and had come up to correct some grouting problems. Our experience with this company wasn’t the best. In fact I wouldn’t have been surprised if they hadn’t have showed. Anyway they did what they could and left me playing with the BBQ. I managed to get the necessary propane fittings to go from that propane pipe on the deck to the BBQ. The pictures really helped me get the right stuff. All hooked up and with soapy water I did the bubble test. No bubbles, no troubles. Barbecued pork chops for supper along with a can of beans I had to open with a multi tool. That night I woke around 2 am to see an amazing display of stars, far from the city lights. Now, that wasn’t the end of that stay but it was the end of that month. And now An Our Country Cottage Update. I promised to tell you about my longest stay yet this season at OCC. and about a long overdue project that got done so lets begin. Mid to late summer brings lots of unwanted guests to OCC. Flies appear from every where and for some reason wasps showed up in the downstairs bathroom. I think they built a nest in the bathroom vent. Gad. Any who with a little chemical help, most if not all of these intruders are x intruders, intruders that are no more, leaving their remains littered on the floors, showers, tub, window seats and window ledges. Sometime I will find areas with just wings and legs, you know the picnic leftovers of our arachnid friends. Insects are one of the truths that were revealed to me early on in the OCC process and I have become much more tolerant and a lot less freaked out by them. Lets face it, when you put your cottage smack dab it the middle of their home, you will get “guests”. So after cleaning up after the “guests” I got down to that long overdue project. The Quonset. Way back, back before OCC, when we just had a trailer and a skid-steer, we put up a Quonset to house my big boy toys. It is 24’ by 24’ in size with a metal tube frame and a fabric cover, complete with a roll up door. If I recall the fabric was supposed to last somewhere between 5 and 10 years. We were now going onto 17 years, and it showed. Stitching was letting go and the door was just barely holding on. The fabric had become quite thin in places with lots of pinholes. We got our moneys worth for sure. Back during the construction of OCC, I realized the cover would have to be changed and I ordered one from a company, out east, that makes these replacement covers. It had been sitting patiently at various locations for the past 5 years. In the garage in the city, then the garage in the country, then in our utility trailer in the Quonset. A year or so ago I actually unpacked it for the first time and discovered there was no easy to follow instructions. And to my dismay the roll up door was not attached to the wall like the original. Lots of questions and lots of searches online trying to find any info or picture on this kind of cover. The original cover had pockets that the frame work went into during assembly, not really an option for a replacement cover. The replacement had straps through grommets that laced the cover to the frame instead. I ended up calling the replacement cover company for any help they might be able to give me. They were abit surprised that the door wasn’t attached, too. I really didn’t expect much from them, as it had been several years since the order was placed. I felt lucky that they were still around. The Quonset cover is in three pieces, two end sections and the main cover. I consoled myself with the concept that it could be done in sections, leaving the door till last, if I couldn’t figure out how to attach it. I pressed on. You can imagine that a 24 by 24 storage space will accumulate some stuff over 17 years and it did. My first task was to empty the Quonset out. During the trailer days we had built a couple of decks to sit on so we weren’t always dealing with gravel and mud etc. These decks have been basically abandoned since OCC took over. I repositioned these decks to put that 17 years of stuff on. I had three sections, stuff to go back into the Quonset, stuff to put somewhere else and garbage. The utility trailer, with the new cover still in it was positioned by the decks, just across the drive from the Quonset. The bottom of the Quonset cover has a flap that has to be weighed down with dirt and or gravel, to make a seal from the weather. After 17 years this original gravel and dirt seal turned into a grassed over berm. Several hours of careful skid-steer bucket work managed to scrape back and expose the flap. I did get caught a couple of times, ripping several feet of the flap before realizing what was going on. Our youngest and her friend came up and stayed a couple of nights during all this. They helped me position the trailer and other heavy things. The day of, my partner, our eldest and a friend came up for the big day. Thankfully the wind was co-operating. It was a long and hot day. There were times I didn’t know what to do next. Some preconceived ideas worked, some didn’t. Everyone pulled together and it got done. I am thankful to my family who recognized when I was starting to loose it and called timeouts when needed and put up with my project attitude. A project with uncertain outcome, but an unmistakable need to be done had been weighing on my mind for literally years, was now done. Just some tweaking, adjustments etc, easy stuff remained. The next day, when our youngest and her friend left, I was joking that I put a fresh blade into my utility knife for a clean cut. Yeah well within a half hour of them leaving, while cutting a slit in a pocket of the cover to put a strap, I partially removed about the top third of a finger. I remember looking at it and thinking, “That’s not good”. So be careful of what you say. And as far as the door goes, once everything was more or less in place, a method for attaching the door with some ratchet straps became apparent and worked out very well. So, sometimes, just going ahead with no idea other than it will be fine, works, sometimes. The rest of that visit had me trying to adjust the Quonset cover and other light tasks while favouring my finger. Putting tools away, tidying up and laundry, that sort of stuff. Just over two weeks passed before I went back up to Our Country Cottage. My finger had settled down and the Quonset need some work that I was unable to do with a damaged digit. The visit didn’t start out well. I was cold and it snowed. When I arrived I plugged in the cold weather stuff for the generator. Battery blanket, block heater etc. This will give it a fighting chance when the temp drops. Fires were built and flies vacuumed. The next day there was snow on the panels and the batteries were down to 70%. The gen was set to start when they reach 67% but I couldn’t wait. In manual mode, I started the gen from the solar control unit with no problem. Once it was running for a while I put it back on auto. In two and a half hours the batteries were at 90%, the level the system was set to charge to, and the generator turned itself off. A good sign. I have the generator stop at 90% because the closer the batteries get to full charge the less the generator charges. It tapers off. IE at 98% the system will only be asking the 20 Kilowatt generator for less that 1 Kilowatt. It is not worth putting the hours on the gen for that. So far I found that the 90% level is a good trade off. Now this is also the reason I couldn’t wait any longer to run the gen in the first place. I was giving the system a chance for the solar panels to charge the batts the rest of the way, and I needed daylight to do that. So its 2:30 pm and the batts are at 90% and we still have several hours before the sun sets. The following day was also cold and overcast. Another fire. I busied myself tidying up and sorting boxes of documentation. Documentation that was collected from the beginning of OCC and beyond, err, before. All the manuals for appliances, equipment, snow rakes, pressure tanks, pumps, Ikea assembly instructions, everything. The living room was a mess. Papers and stuff spread out over any and all flat surfaces. If I wanted to sit down I had to move something. One tricky thing is trying to figure out how much heat is enough. Like I said I built a fire in the morning cause it was cool and there didn’t look like there was a chance for much sun. That evening, when the masonry heater started radiating the energy from the morning fire, it was so warm, I was in a t-shirt and spending my time at the kitchen island, away from the heater. When I woke the following day the batteries were at 79% so I ran the generator manually again. Remember, I am still trying to regain confidence in this thing since it failed last year and froze OCC. I put on a load of laundry and went to the Quonset to finally do what I originally came up for. Snow was holding the flaps down. I managed to put on the extra straps that were needed and adjusted the fabric panels so that everything was square. Then I cinched up the ends of the Quonset and snugged everything down. Just have to put the gravel/dirt back on the flaps and take care of all the stuff on the deck that came out of the Quonset. All that stuff was covered with a large green tarp so I wasn’t overly concerned about leaving it for a while. Besides, it was covered with snow. I think I took the next day off. My log book only indicates there was a clear sky and that snow was covering about one third of the land that I could see. There is also a series of pictures on my phone documenting the work I had done on the Quonset the day before. Hey I deserve a day off. After my day of rest, I managed to get all the papers and stuff covering the living room sorted and put away. Clear flat spaces again! You have no idea… I then decided it was time to convert the tractor to winter mode. Off with the mower deck, on with the drive shaft extension, front hydraulic unit, snow thrower and rear blade. Everything gets greased before it goes on. No problems this time with the exception of the four hydraulic couplers that had lost their color identifier caps. They fell off when I did the conversion in the spring. The blue to blue, red to red, yellow to yellow and black to black got replaced with a little trial and error and we are back in business. The last day of this visit had me topping up the batteries, mental note - get some more distilled water, swapping the SD cards from one of the trail cams and collecting the logs from the solar control system. Since day one I have been using a net book for these collections. For those of you that are unfamiliar with net books they are a cheap, under powered, under resourced laptop. Lately mine has been giving me more and more problems. I have to carry an external card reader with it because it is so old the built in reader won’t recognize anything over 4 Gig. The USB port takes about 5 to 10 minutes to recognize the data loggers and the unit is so slow I don’t try to read the solar control logs until I get back to the city. I have waited over an hour for anything to pop up. This trip was the last straw with the net book. I vowed to get a new laptop when I got back to the city. OK I had been looking into it for over a year now and had been through a couple of back to school sales and those Dad day, Grad day, sales and everything in between. I started watching those email sales announcements closer and closer. About 2 weeks later, my next visit was with a family friend, who just happens to be an arborist. When you own a natural piece of land with trees on it you have to keep your eye out for potentially dangerous trees. Dead trees that can fall across your drive or on you during a wind storm or just when they decide to. Anyway I had noticed about three dead trees down by the Quonset that could inflict major damage to life and property if they decided to fall. Another had fallen in the spring across the drive. I think I mentioned that one in a previous episode. Dead trees are very dangerous to fell by yourself. Handy tip. Don’t do it, don’t even try to do it. The trunk could be rotten and you would have...
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Episode #20 An OCC Update, Longer Stays & ITB Month 21
09/16/2017
Episode #20 An OCC Update, Longer Stays & ITB Month 21
This episode, An OCC update, I will cover the first extended stay of the season, almost back to normal, and ITB carries on with month 21 of construction. Not much happened while the power was down, in some areas. In The Beginning, ITB, Month 21, April This is the part of the episode where I sift through emails, text messages and pictures collected during that month, to give you the most accurate accounting of Our Country Cottages beginning stages. The beginning of month #21 still had OCC without power backup working. The generator was fixed but something in the solar control system, the system that ties everything together, still was not happy and we were still a couple of days from having the solar crew come for a visit to try to figure it out. That leaves me making daily trips, to build fires in order to keep the temperature up in the cottage. I had also found a better firewood supply option to those “winter special” traditional firewood green net bag bundles. There was a company offering clean firewood, of the type I required, and were willing to deliver it to the cottage. How could I not give them a try? One palette of firewood, delivered, please. I got a promise of delivery in a few days. My first trip of the month, April 1st, has me stepping out of my vehicle and spilling my coffee down my front while unloading. Yes it’s in the log book. I was the only one there which seems to be the norm, especially during those power problem days. At least the batteries were fully charged by the sun. I’ll take this opportunity to mention that the batteries were only able to be fully charged by the sun because I was not using the power to heat the place. And so, a fire was built and I decided to turn the boiler on. I noticed that first for the domestic hot water ran and then the radiant heating. Keep in mind this is still early days for me and the system. I had figured out that by putting my hand on the pump bodies, in the utility room, I could figure out which system was working. There is a picture, on the website, ourcountrycottageanarrative.com, under menu heading, “Our Country Cottage”, that’s where all the pix are, and then under “Heating”, fifth picture down, shows these pumps, labelled, in the utility room. I started investigating the hot water tank controls for the hot water as there was no need for hot water at this point. I was then diverted to the radiant heating system where the upstairs bathroom was calling for heat. The thermostat, in the upstairs bathroom, was set to 17 degrees C. Why it was set to that, I don’t know but I used it for a bit of a test. The next day went better. The batteries were almost fully charged by the solar panels and it was warm enough that I didn’t need to build a fire. The solar expert showed up and started to dive into the inverter case. Soon its guts were exposed to the world spread out over cardboard boxes in the battery room. Replacement boards were installed and tests done. During this, rather, stressful time, at least for me, a delivery truck showed up with a stack of sheeting, meant for the utility room ceiling. I asked for them to be put on the back deck and they were. Little did I know how long they would be there and their eventual fate. Back in the battery room things were not going great. The specialist had discovered an unexpected failed part that needed to be replaced. He was sure there was one back at the office and could return the following day with it. With that, the day ended, again, with no generator backup. The following day, my tenth consecutive day of OCC visits, started with the batteries being fully charged by the sun. The solar expert showed up and swapped out the defective part. And, poof, we had our generator back up system working. This day, was the day, that the firewood was to be delivered but not till later. I started looking around a bit. Not much had been done in the past week or so, with the power being not the best and it being on the cool side in the cottage. Checking the sump in the utility room, I found the water level higher than expected. I put a tie wrap on the sump pump pipe to mark the level. This was April and kind of spring-ish, that is, it was slowly getting warmer and warmer out even though there was still plenty of snow. I re-adjusted my expectations, too. I started getting texts from my wood delivery guy. Really bad traffic, where he was, and he had forgotten the map to Our Country Cottage. Here is a handy tip. Keep a picture of a map, to your place in the sticks, on you phone at all times so you can text or email it to anyone that needs to find you and has forgotten the directions. I texted him the map and waited. He was running really late and it was dark by the time he showed up with the fire wood neatly bundled and wrapped on a palette in the back of his pick up. I didn’t have a palette jack or an easy way to get the palette down from the pick up. The wood was wrapped in easy to manage bundles, so we broke open the wrapped palette and hand bombed them. That is to say, he threw them to me off the truck and I stacked them in the garage. It was a good thing I had outside lights at the front of the garage and on the deck nearby, or we would have been doing it in the moon light. It wasn’t too bad 30 or 40 bundles and a few stubbed fingers later and I was set. Gloves, wear gloves! I took some time away from the place and returned five days later. All was fine, with the batts being 97% charged. The sump in the utility room was still full and there was evidence of the sump pump having run. The discharge for the pump was on the west side of the cottage, in the form of a black pipe with a 90 degree elbow facing straight down. The ground directly below had collapsed a foot or two. The water from the sump was being pumped right to the foundation. At the time the only thing I thought might be causing the water in the utility room sump was a possible blockage in the weeping tile. So I got a shovel and a long piece of rebar and went to where it was day-lighted. I shoveled away some snow and poked the rebar up the pipe. Um, 9 feet of rebar vs a few hundred feet of weeping tile. OK, not my best deductive reasoning. Well I made sure it wasn’t blocked in those last 9 feet I tell you. I returned to OCC two days later where I found the water in the sump was now over my tie wrap marker. I decided to have a look in the crawl space to see if there was any water getting in, and found the corner by the discharge pipe was wet. If I remember correctly, the site supervisor was there that day and fashioned a long piece of white pipe to divert the sump discharge water away from the foundation. The snow was finally starting to disappear, revealing mud and construction garbage littered about the place. With potential flooding on my mind, I returned the next day to find signs that the sump pump had been running and the diverter pipe had been diverting. The mud had a small channel eroded into it from the white pipe discharge. Checking that corner in the crawl space gave a good indication that the pipe was working as the corner was just damp now. I can’t remember if the site super or I asked the plumber to check on the sump pump but it had been raised and adjusted since the last time I looked. It has been run much less, if at all, since. I had a feeling that the water that was being pumped was finding its way back to the sump in the utility room. Four days pass before my next visit. Batts were at 97% and the boiler was on. I checked the generator and found 3.2 hours on it with propane being at 29%. Looks like things were working again. The water level in the utility room sump had dropped to below the weeping tile outlet level. A good sign. Three days later I found the batteries at 70% with the gen running and the sump was almost empty. Unrelated but factual. Another four days finds the gen with 8.2 hours and the propane tank had been added to. It was another, due to the high cost of propane at the time of filling we did a partial fill in hopes the price would soon drop, thang. Gad. It was about this time that we went through the utility room ceiling debacle. That old wrong spray, have to sheet it, can’t sheet it, the right spray thang. For the full details refer back to episode #14 A Floor and a Ceiling. So the right spray was now used on the Utility room ceiling and I was tasked with picking up the certification sticker and applying it to the right place and take a picture of it, in place for inspection purposes. My next trip was all bout that. Stick, pic, done and done. My last visit of the month had batts at 98%, the generator had 14.5 hours on it and the propane was going down. That corner in the crawl space was drying up nicely. A cleaner had been hired to clean up the inside of the cottage after construction and make it all look nice. She was doing a great job. While surveying the mud and garbage, outside, I noticed large areas of standing water to the west of the cottage. Ground had settled by the septic tank and other areas that had been dug up for pipes etc. With rubber boots and various shovels and rakes in hand I went to play in the mud, I mean, I attempted to get the water flowing. I carefully laid down planks over the mud to get me where I thought I needed to go. After some success in digging little channels the water started to co-operate. There was a small pool just a bit past the end of the plank. I’ll just step quickly on the mud and get it done. Not my finest moment. Have you ever stepped in good quality clay mud? Don’t, that stuff gets a hold of you and won’t let go. I think I had been stuck for about half an hour and on the verge of saying goodbye to my boot and probably both of them, when the cleaner came out for a break. She quickly placed another couple of planks beside me so I could step out of my boots and get some balance while I dug them out. It took a bit. That about wraps up ITB month 21. Things were working again and looking good on the inside, but the snow was receding and revealing lots of mud and garbage. Quite depressing. It seems, if its not one thing it’s another. Now, to bring you up to date with the most recent goings on at Our Country Cottage. Since my last update I have stayed twice at OCC once for six days and once for seven. Suffice to say that Our Country Cottage is getting back on track. If you recall from my last update I just got the generator running, complete with a sound clip of the actual first cranking and first running sounds. That’s all I had time for, that day. But with taking longer visits it allowed me to do much more. My first visit had me figuring out why my solar control unit had stopped logging. When working, the logging is set up to take readings every second, and thus, revealing any abnormality that might happen. Logging had stopped after I updated the firmware of the controller. I had been in contact with the manufacturer about this issue and they had given me a few things to try out. The last one being to reset to factory defaults. Something I wasn’t really looking forward to. Lots of settings to verify. I had also noticed a couple of bugs reported on the forums associated with the update. I confirmed these bugs were also present on my system now. I tried all but the last suggestions without any joy. Still no logging. I knew that the previous version, of firmware, worked so I reloaded that. Doing these changes and testing takes a bit of time and I am now into day two. And the old version is, now, not logging. Running out of options I reloaded an older config file. The power went out in the cottage and I had to manually turn the inverter back on. Turning on the inverter is no big deal, just a button press on the solar control unit. The power came back on right away. I waited for a bit, then checked if it was logging. Nope. Something told me to walk away. So I did so. While all this was going on I had noticed 3 elk and a female moose wander by at different times. Oh and a squirrel in the drive by the cottage. I also topped up the batteries. This is about an hour or so job. Filling the 12 main batteries with distilled water to the proper level. They take some where between 10 to 15 liters or 2 to 3 or so gallons, total. Sometimes more. The temperature data loggers needed to be done, too. One was dead. I try to keep spare batteries on site for all the devices that need them. Flash lights, trail cams, data loggers etc. The data loggers use a special battery I have to order from the net. Swap in the new battery and it was up and running again. The next day started with me noticing a group of elk had camped out just to the south east of the cottage. Early morning wild life always means a bit of a delayed start to my day as I sneak around inside the cottage, watching and trying to get pictures, through windows, before they go. I checked the solar controller to see if it had started logging. Yes, it was now logging. And here is the confusing part, there are logs going back to when I started the inverter, yesterday. I don’t understand. But then again I don’t have to. Its logging. With the elk gone and system logging I was ready to test the generator. First I checked the oil level, All OK. I then started the gen from inside the cottage at the control panel and it fired right up. I had figured out various ways to put a load on the system and went from full load to lighter loads and then for something in between for over an hour. I put the gen back into auto, and after a bit the system detected that the batteries did not need charging and shut down. All went well, but I would have to check the logs to be sure. I was starting to feel better about our country cottage, again. It has taken the better part of a year to get back to square one. So I took sometime to enjoy the place. There seemed to be plenty of elk and deer in the mornings and evenings. One morning a young male elk was running about being chased by a female when he made a pass right out of a cartoon. He was actually bouncing across, all four legs in unison. I didn’t think they do that for real. Shortly after a fawn showed up and wandered close to the elk. That young male elk wanted to go check the fawn out but an older female was blocking him from getting close. Looked very much like a cutting horse, or sheep dog, in action. And all this was in ultra high res, big picture window 3D. Now that’s entertainment. I managed to get up to a local farmers market for the first time this year and renewed our subscription to the local paper. I took some time to clean up some messes I had made while dealing with various emergencies during the freeze up etc. Over the next couple of days I did a load of laundry and ran the dishwasher. Everything worked as it should, with no leaks etc. I also had the time to check the solar controller logs. It takes a while as there is so much info. The generator output showed no abnormalities at all, and the rest of the system was operating as it should. I know it gets a bit confusing with similar power problems in the ITB section and the OCC update section. I didn’t plan on them lining up like that. Honest! The last day of this visit there was an eclipse and I spent the morning setting up a hastily built pinhole projector and my camera to record it. The results were somewhat low contrast but results none the less. Nice to think about things other than toilets and generators. My next visit was seven days long and with much help from family and friends we managed to take on a project that had been back burnered for over five years. I will tell you all about that next time. Next podcast, Episode#21 more info on my longest stay this season, with that long over due project, and ITB Month 22 warmer, muddier, lots of standing water, keys, and we finally get some furniture in Our Country Cottage. By the end of the month I have my very first over night stay inside OCC. For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at www.ourcountrycottageanarrative.com If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage A Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time have a good one.
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Episode #19 ITB, Month 20, OCC Update & Some Generator Talk
08/14/2017
Episode #19 ITB, Month 20, OCC Update & Some Generator Talk
This episode I will tell you about my recent encounters with Our Country Cottage and as promised In The Beginning, month 20 I will tell you about one of the more trying months of the build. I found out that the month wasn’t all bad though, it just seemed like it. Also, I will talk a bit about back up generators, in particular, ours. On with ITB, In The Beginning, month 20, March. This is where I try to figure out what happened using the pictures, emails, texts and invoices I kept from that month. To give you an idea I received 47 emails and sent 35, just in that one month and just relative to OCC. I also paid 12 visits to OCC including every day from the 25th and a couple of days into the next month. If you remember, from ITB month 19, we have just managed to get water into Our Country Cottage. I had left the utility room in a mess, just dumping the hose and whatever down the hatch and leaving. So the next day, and 1st of the month, I went back to clean up. Upon entering I found the control panel with several errors flashing away. They all seemed to clear, OK. Clean up in the utility room had the hose being much easier to handle, now that it had warmed up a bit. There was a fair amount of water on the floor mixed in with plastic that been used to protect stuff from the fire retardant that was sprayed on the utility room ceiling. Shop towels and rags were used to clean up and I noticed some water dripping from a large nut near the bottom of the pressure tank. I figured, how bad could it be, with the pump turned off. I was now in the habit of building a fire or two every visit and I had graduated from taking the pre-packaged bundles of firewood, that I was buying at the gas station, to the “Winter special” from the company that supplies the gas stations. Same bundles, but, at a lower, quantity discount, cost. While I was picking up the “winter special” I noticed large containers of fire wood at a very much lower price. That would have been great if I could have transported it somehow, but I couldn’t, as the “winter special” was all I had room for. After building the fire I noticed that the boiler was on. An indication that there was a call for heat. It wasn’t obvious which thermostat was the culprit, so I turned them all down a degree or two. Keep in mind that the temp I had set them to wasn’t for comfort, 21C or 70F, but about 12C or 54F, just to stop the place from freezing. The boiler decided to turn off. This would turn out to be the beginning of an investigation into the various zones and intricacies of thermostats, that would last for several months. Just when I thought I had it figured out, I would find the boiler heating some zone for no apparent reason. Anyway… I didn’t go up the next day but my contractor called saying that he had just dropped in to pick up a bit of his equipment (it was Sunday) and found the house without power. The batteries were down to 36%. He started the gen but it quit almost immediately. His second attempt was more successful and he left the gen in manual mode. That means it would run 24/7 until it was manually shut off. I went up to OCC a couple of days later to find the generator running, trickle charging the batteries, which were at 100%. Hmmm trickle charging was probably not the best use of a 20 Kilo Watt generator. Propane was at 39% and the hour count on the gen was 1151.7. I took it off manual and put on auto. On the plus side the lower part of the railing, up to the bedroom, was now in place, but still waiting for the hand rail cap and the dishwasher was in place. In the utility room, there were signs of progress for the back hall radiator. A few days go by and the solar guys were at OCC reporting that the batteries were at 100%, oh joy, and that the radiator, in the back hall, was up and running, supplying some decent heat. Two days pass when I go for my next visit. There were several vehicles parked in front. One of those rare times. Batteries were at 90% and the gen had run about 45 hours in the past 7 days. Lots had been done inside. The hand rail cap was on the lower part of the railing. The fridge was now in place. A bit of a tight fit, but it works. The laundry washer/dryer unit was in place, so all of the major appliances that had been in the garage for the past several months are now in the cottage. In the bathrooms, glass shower surrounds had been installed and looking great. The cheapy ceiling fan, I had picked up locally, had been installed in the sun room. I reasoned that if the fan needed to be turned on in the sun room there would be plenty of sun to run it, so the expensive low power units we had in the living room and bedroom were not necessary. The back hall radiator was indeed working and the control box for it in the utility room had been clearly labelled. While in the utility room, I noticed an alarm had been installed for the septic tank. A couple of visits back I was informed that some glowing embers from the masonry heater, which had fallen from the grate to the ash pit, were getting close to bouncing out of the clean out hole in the crawl space. At the time it was just an opening with no door or hatch on it, until now. A friend of the contractor fabricated a decorative frame with a sliding door and that was installed, too. It’s the middle of the month and I am back at Our Country Cottage. Everything seems to be running OK and a quick check behind the new ash pit door shows very little build up, so not to worry for a while. Getting more confident in the system I let three days pass before my next visit. The batteries were well charged, along with more hours on the gen and less propane in the tank. The sun was shining and the inside was looking great. Clean and tidy. There was one of those net bags of wood leaning against the masonry heater with a label that stated “Traditional Firewood”. The new, heavy duty breaker had been installed in the battery room so having cottage power failure due to that breaker tripping should be a thing of the past. The last remnant of our first site supervisor, the one that had died, was gone. The travel trailer he stayed in while working on OCC had been picked up by his wife with help. One of the problems she had moving the trailer was that the trailer was towed by the vehicle that was demolished in the accident that took her husband. So with everything coming together, and working, and bits of the past moving on, along with the sun shining brightly it looked like Our Country Cottage was turning the corner and heading down the stretch. With great optimism I took a bit of a break and waited a full week before my next visit. I had brought with me, a box of window cranks and the last bit of track and connectors for the loft. Small things, to finish stuff up. Little did I realize that this was the beginning of nine consecutive days of trips to OCC. What I found when I arrived was red lights flashing and the control panel telling me that the batteries were at 4% yes 4 and dropping. The sun was shining and trying to charge them at 5K but the boiler was on and taking 5.2K. I don’t know how there was power in the place because the inverter should have shut down long before. The gen had died about four or five days earlier. It was running but not putting out any power. I called the generator people, at the time, and they told me that they could have another one there by the next day. I turned the boiler off and the batteries started to edge up. They managed to reach 22% by the time I left. I informed my contractor of what had happened and asked him to put off the cleaner as there was very little heat in the place. The next day found the batteries still at 22% with snow on the panels and very little charging. Clearing the snow off of the panels got me from .4K to 1.4K charging. Every little bit helps. And true to their word, the new generator showed up and was installed. Only problem was that they couldn’t get it to run. After several hours of diagnostics and long phone conversations it was determined that a factory tech would have to come out and have a look. By the time I left that day the batteries were at 35% and I had built two fires. The generator factory tech came out the very next day. Turned out to be one wire had a loose push pin and signal wasn’t getting through. OK, the generator is now running and putting out power, but the system is not reading it. With the generator factory tech finished and gone I still didn’t have power charging the batteries even though it should have been. Phone calls and texts to my solar guy had me digging deep into the inverter case taking measurements and such. Bottom line was that there was something wrong within the inverter case, some part of it, that someone from the solar company would have to come out and have a look at. That wouldn’t happen for another six days. The day at Our Country Cottage, ended with the batteries having staggered up to 55%. Thanks to solar power. Fires had been built and the temp inside was passable. Hovering around 10C or 50F or so. The next visit ie the next day and subsequent days till the solar expert could make it up I would go up just to build fires in the masonry heater and make sure the place was warm enough. Another “winter special” of “traditional firewood” was taken up. One day I decided to tackle a problem the ceiling fan in the living room had. It was making a tick-tick noise as it turned. The electrician had told me that it was probably just a connecter under the top cap that had flipped up. The fact that it was 18 feet in the air made it a bit of a challenge, but there was a scaffolding set up in the living room for painting purposes. I just had to overcome my fear of heights, and I did, sort of, and the problem was indeed as described and easily corrected. It was during this dark period that I managed to get the electricians to put a switch in the mud room for me, so that I could turn off the well pump. It was lot easier than going down into the utility room and flipping breakers. It took 5 days from when I found the batteries at 4% to get them back to 100% just by sun alone. And when it got there I turned the boiler on temporarily to add more heat to OCC. The last day of the month was on a week end and my eldest daughter and a friend came up with me to keep me company while I built the fire etc. It was a beautiful sunny day and they took turns using the tractor to clear the parking area of snow. And that will wrap up month 20. Stay tuned for ITB, month 21. Will the solar power system get sorted out? How many more winter specials of green bagged traditional firewood must I go through…? And now an Our Country Cottage update. I have stayed at Our Country Cottage several times since the last episode. Trying to get back into the swing of things. When I arrived on my first visit the batteries were fully charged and when I turned the well pump on it didn’t run. This meant that it had held pressure for over a week. I had supper in a nearby town and picked up some diesel fuel. I have two 20 liter diesel containers (they are yellow) as both the tractor and the skid steer use it. That night I had a drink of water and thought that it tasted a little, um, musty. I made a mental note to change the water filter first thing in the morning. I did so before breakfast and that cleared up the problem. Since I have started Our Country Cottage up after the shut down there has been a fair bit of sediment coming out of the well. I now have a bit of hose connected to the pressure tank inlet, before the water filter, which lets me run water to clear the sediment before I put it into the cottage water system. Probably only have to do it a couple of more times. The rest of the day had me finishing off mowing the tall stuff and touching up the shorter stuff that had been growing. I fired up my skid steer for the first time this year. No problems, once I found my manual with the lock code etc. I needed it to remove a tree that had fallen across the road a month or so back. At the time I managed to just pull it to the side so I could drive by, but now it was in the way of my mowing. You wouldn’t believe the amount of extra branches and limbs that came down with it but was hiding in the tall grass. Took an hour or so just to pick that stuff up. I then took my brush cutter down to the gate and cut back the vegetation that was getting a bit thick. After that I took my box grader out and reconditioned most of the drive. The box grader has two grader blades at an angle between two vertical sides. It goes on the front of the skid steer and if you get the angle right it churns the gravel on the road, clearing vegetation that tends to grow down the centre and sides of a gravel drive. The angle of the blades tends to push the gravel to one side and, again, if done right puts the crown on the centre of the drive. This is important for drainage. Of course if not done right you can screw up your drive badly. It was a good day. I got to play with most of my toys. The next day I updated the solar controller firmware and all went well, I thought. If you remember that last time I tried to do it my laptop threw a fit and wouldn’t let me copy any files. The laptop is OK now. I had a talk with it, in the city. Anyway, I did some other chores, cleaning etc., then went outside to fix up the turning circle. So, that box grader does a really good job on straight parts of the drive and gentle curves. The turning circle is somewhat more challenging to my present level of skill. I managed to leave various sized piles of gravel here and there on the circle drive. No problem, I thought, I’ll just back blade it with the tractor. So I removed the mower deck and attached the blade to the back of the tractor. Well apparently my present level of back-bladeing leaves something to be desired too. I did smooth it down a bit but left a ridge of gravel on the grass in the centre of the circle. So I took the blade off and the mower deck back on and parked it in the garage. That night I had my first BBQ of the season, Bratts, good stuff. In unrelated news, the upstairs toilet was showing tendencies to run on. Hmmm My last day, of this visit, started with me using a device I do have enough skill to use to clean the gravel off of the grass in the circle, a hand rake. Only took an hour or so. I had just returned inside for a break when a couple of fawns, still with their spots, went booting it cross the mowed area south of the cottage. I was just out there less than 15 minutes ago. Before I left for the city I started to look at the generator. I jiggled some wires and hit the run button. The all too familiar clicking of relays and nothing. Ah, the generator. If you remember it became iffy last winter when I found Our Country Cottage frozen up. Frozen/broken toilet tanks etc. At that point the generator did run when I asked it too, but became less and less reliable until it just stopped after only running for about twelve minutes one day while I was up there cleaning up the those icy toilets. Shortly after I firmly declared that I was kicking that gen to the curb and gave some very valid reasons in an earlier episode of this podcast. Well, time has passed and my attitude towards our old generator has softened a bit. Remember that this is the second gen as mentioned in this episodes’ In The Beginning. The first generator had 1212 hours on it when it was deemed un-repairable and replaced. The present generator has 1141 hours on it. I must say these 1141 hours were a lot kinder hours than the 1212 hours on the previous generator. Our present gen, gen #2, has had much more regular service and upkeep than the previous one, gen#1, had a chance to get. If I remember correctly, gen #1 was over 500 hours before the first oil change. It was also run 24/7 many times. It took the abuse given out by winter time construction. Did I ever mention that construction would have gone a lot easier if it was done in any other months other than the winter months. Gen #1 also took the abuse of system set up, getting the right settings so that the sun would charge the batteries when it could. I can’t count the times, OK, I don’t want to count the times, I showed up on days with beautiful, clear, sunny skies and the gen was running. Adjusting components, like that relay that would trip preventing solar charging. And don’t forget that little yellow heater that was the only thing heating the cottage before the photovoltaic’s were ready. That pressed gen #1 into hard service right out of the box. Now, some of you may be thinking that the hours I keep mentioning don’t seem all that high. 500 before first service etc. So to put some relevance to them I noticed that my average speed driving back to the city was about, 80 to 90 Km/h. The manual suggests oil change every 150 hours. If that was your vehicle averaging say 50 Km/h that would be 7,500 Km and if you were, say, on a cross country trip on highways averaging 100 Km/h that would be 15,000 Km. Given that, Gen #1 went somewhere between 25,000 and 50,000 before its first service. Your vehicle would probably be showing some signs of distress if you treated it like that. Yes, my bad, but in my defence all this stuff was new to me. If the generator was the only thing on my plate I might have read the manual and found this stuff out. Back to Gen #2. Like I said, time has passed and I am starting to think a little more rationally towards gen #2. What if it was a small, inexpensive part that had failed? What if it was something easy to fix? I then came up with an amount I would be willing to pay/invest to fix it. Having a service guy come out to have a look, would put cost over the limit right away. With that in mind and the looming, very high cost, of replacement with new upgraded version, I decided to have a closer look myself, to see what I could find. In fact I dedicated the next visit to just that, staying up a couple of nights. The first day had me mowing for three hours straight in order to have a full day to play investigator. I had acquired a service manual online and had been studying it for a while. It became clear to me that the error that was always present on the display could mean many things but primarily it meant that the generator was not turning over when asked to. I verified that the controller was indeed asking it to start and followed the path to the starter. Starter relay OK. A shame, because it was the easiest to change and cheapest as well. Next in line was the starter solenoid and then the starter. This required the generator housing to be removed. Ironically, I was boiling under the direct gaze of the sun in a clear, blue, sky while previously I was freezing in the winter’s wind the last time I peered under the hood. Long story shorter, I identified that the starter solenoid wasn’t functioning. When I bypassed the solenoid with jumpers the starter spun up quickly. The solenoid is mounted to the starter and I came to terms that they both might have to be replaced together. Either way the cost was below my limit. I packed up the starter combo and the gen control unit, just in case, and took them with me. When I got back to the city I spent a lot of time online looking into replacements etc. I had to wait for the first day of business of the week before I could call my gen guy to find out what hell I would have to go through to get a replacement. The week end passed with me formulating plans for various scenarios that might unfold. The day came, and to my surprise, it turned out to be very anti climactic. My generator guy had one and would let me have it, only charging me for it, if I was happy with it. I picked it up within the hour and made plans to go to Our Country Cottage the next day to install it. And the next day I did just that. Leaving out all the cursing and swearing one runs into while...
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Episode #18 ITB Month 19 and an OCC Sleepover
07/17/2017
Episode #18 ITB Month 19 and an OCC Sleepover
This episode In The Beginning ,ITB, month 19 reveals progress in some areas and failures in others. An Our Country Cottage update has me staying over a couple of nights at our country cottage for the first time in over six months. And now on with ITB, In The Beginning, month 19, February. More pictures, texts and emails sifted through to give the best recollection of how Our Country Cottage came to be. This month was cold and snowy (February, go figure) with lots of challenges. There were seven trips made to Our Country Cottage, this month, some in weather I would have normally stayed home in, even in the city. There were reasons I had to make the trip whether I wanted to or not, mainly when power fails. One such trip I made was shortly after a major snow storm. Keep in mind that roads are plowed in order of importance. The main highways will always be the first followed by the secondary ones etc. Well, Our Country Cottage access road is about third and fourth down the list. And the kilometre of drive is all on me. It is a good thing to make note of the roads you travel on, to your retreat, and, the order in which they are serviced. Best done while you are not in emergency mode. So I planned my trip keeping to the main roads as long as I could. As I turned off, on the first secondary road I realised that one lane had been cleared. The plow was a couple of miles ahead, making a return pass. I was lucky that there was no other traffic. Then onto a lower priority road (read not plowed yet) where only several vehicles had driven, leaving me tracks to follow. The tracks became less and less numerous, until it was clear, I was following one track made by one vehicle. I was in luck, as he had gone where I was going, turning onto yet another lower priority road (read, lucky to be plowed within three days of snow fall). The track went for about a Kilometre, or so, before it turned off into his drive. I was on my own. The road was poorly defined with the snow being nice and smooth cross the road and ditches. Just stay in the centre, between fences, poles or what maybe ditch edges. My vehicle is a very capable four wheel drive unit, with good ground clearance. The eight or so inches of snow was doable. I remember informing our painter not to bother coming out as planned. That vehicle, a compact town car, would have had problems just following the tracks. So with the driving conditions from the city to the country aside. Even before my first visit for the month my site contractor reported problems with the solar/power system. The batteries were down to 43% and the gen wasn’t kicking in. So picture this, my contractor is trying to work on Our Country Cottage with a power system that he is completely unfamiliar with, asking me questions about the same system, that I have very little knowledge about, and I am trying to relay info from the contractor to my solar guy. What could go wrong? On with the story.. My first visit of the month found the previous days power problems somewhat resolved with the batteries now being fully charged. On the positive side the railings were being installed on the stairs up to the master bedroom and around the upper landing. This made me very happy as without the railings, the upper landing was a disaster waiting to happen. There was a short section of railing at the bottom of the stairs that was wrong. Don’t know if it was a measurement thang or a manufacturing thing, but the corrected section wouldn’t be installed till next month. It was also pointed out to me that one of the side windows in the living room had a crack in it. Apparently these “pressure cracks” are not uncommon. I took the opportunity to take a picture of this three foot crack and to document all the other chips, scrapes and broken bits of window trim I could find to report to the window company and hopefully get fixed at the same time. I took another trip up the following day, being somewhat nervous about the power situation, and found the garage door divider in the back bedrooms installed and the lighting fixtures were being installed. And it was this day that I built the first fire in the masonry fireplace. I had bought some firewood from a gas station in the city with me. As this was the first time, I took it easy by making a small fire. It worked very well even with my usual over thinking the type of wood and the dryness and building the fire exactly as the instructions showed. I remember telling the contractors that the masonry heater was just that, a masonry heater and not garbage burning place. Only firewood of a specific dryness and wood type would be used. Anyway, I took pix of the first smoke out of the chimney that day. Three days pass and I am back. I note that the generator has run for 62 hours of the past 96 hours. The solar side of the power system had shut down again by a breaker being overloaded. This probably accounted for the high generator hours. On the positive side, most if not all, of the light fixture were installed and working with LED bulbs I had supplied. To get an idea of what the flu was doing on the chimney I put my camera on its back thru an inspection hatch at the bottom of the chimney. I took a series of pictures up the chimney along with pictures of the flu handle position. So now I know how far to pull out the flu when I need to. I then built the second ever fire in the masonry heater. A ceiling fan in the master bedroom was now in place and a false ceiling in the downstairs bedroom was installed to conceal the garage door and track when in the up position. Four more days and we are edging to the middle of the month. The gen is at 942.8 total running hours with the propane at 35%. That’s another 54.4 hours. Lots of controller pix taken, trying to figure out what is going on. And, to my great relief, the solar control panel can now be, and was, relocated from the battery room, to the back hall. This is going to make things so much easier, not for just me but for my contractor, who has to feed me info when I am not there. Yay! The cook top is in the kitchen and the laminate flooring has been laid in the garage loft. A full week passes before I return. The gen is now over a thousand hours at 1005.4 and propane is down to 24%. Outside, all the deck railings are done except for the front and there is an extension on the septic tank. Previously the septic tank hatch was just above grade and I was concerned that surface water might get in if there was a flood. Plus there was an electrical box and some wires laying on top. I also noticed that the excavator was gone and there was a lot of bare soil exposed around the hatch, cottage and up the slope to where the septic mound was to be and indeed might be. The outside entrance to the battery room is a large metal hatch that can be opened entirely to get easy clear access to getting things like batteries in and out. In the hatch, there is a smaller man sized hatch which created a much easier man access. The whole hatch/man hatch was powder coated metal. This gets very slippery when wet, icy or snowy. In fact, after falling flat on my back twice, in less than five minutes, I asked if something could be done. The answer came in the form of a metal grid that was installed around the man hatch. It works great. A stack of sheeting was on the ground to the east of the cottage ready to be installed in the crawl space. Inside, the carpet had been installed on the landings and stairs up to the master bedroom. A crease was clearly visible running the full width of the lower landing. It stuck out like a sore thumb. I took pictures and reported it. I was told that this was the last of the roll and that they would have had to order another full roll to finish the job. I replied that I thought I was dealing with and paying a carpet store, not an end of the roll discount warehouse. I was told that they would send someone out to fix it. And, by my next visit, it had been fixed. Before my next visit, with the aid of my pix and info I managed to send to my solar guy, he figured out that a breaker had been under rated for our project. Some heavier wiring and a heavier breaker would be needed to correct the problem. He said that they would cover the labour costs if I would pay the hard costs. As this project was a bit of an experiment, I agreed. I also believe that most of the problem was that we were still under construction and the place was still being heated by that little electric heater. Three days before my next visit the breaker tripped again and the batteries got down to 39%. That is below the level that the inverter works, so, no power in Our Country Cottage. Did I ever mention that this probably would have been done much easier in the warmer, spring, summer or fall, months. It was about this time, in the week between visits, that the plumber was trying to get water into the house. Our first site supervisor had the well drilled and a pump put in along with the pipes and wiring needed to get from the well to the cottage. The pump wasn’t working and the only thing I had to go on was an invoice from the site supervisor with minimal details. Remember, this is the one that died in a car crash about a year ago. He had done this on his own, not involving the cottage supplier/ builder. This wasn’t an uncommon practice, especially out in the country. He also arranged for the septic work too. The cap on the well head was generic with no company name on it. I then remembered that when I first saw the well pipe sticking out of the ground I took pictures of it. When I found the pix they had a name of a company cast on it. I didn’t know if it was the company that drilled the well or made the cap but I found a phone number and I called them. Yes, they were the ones that drilled the well. Great! I explained that the pump was not working and asked if they would come out and have a look. Things then seemed to get a little awkward on the phone and I was passed to their account department, where it was explained to me that there was money still owing on the job. The site super had paid most but not all of the bill even though I had paid him in full. I was told that they couldn’t do anything until the account was cleared up. Long story short, the account got cleared up and a crew was scheduled for later that week. It has been a week since my last site visit, but as you can tell, stuff still happens in between. This visit the generator is up to 1072 hours and the propane was at 50%. Some had been added, but again because of the high cost, not filled. Oops! I said 172 hours in the podcast, but I meant 1072. Inside, the carpet had indeed been fixed and looked brand-new. There was a wooden hand rail cap installed on the railing, also looking good. Just need that missing lower section of railing etc. Some areas of Our Country Cottage were looking very good, clean and ready to go. Very encouraging. I took more pix of controllers, etc, for further analysis. My next visit was three days later but the system went down in between, again. Batts down to 40%. That dang breaker, middle of the winter thang. Reset the breaker, run the gen, etc. So back on site and the well people were good to their word showing up with a two man crew and a specialized truck designed to deal with our problem. Pulling up 240 feet of pipe and wire with a bad pump on the end. It was a very cold and windy day but the guys were used to working in these conditions. They just went at it. My contractor and I would go out every so often to check on things, but even fully suited up, we couldn’t stay out long. Turns out the original pump was cheap and not up to the task. It didn’t stand a chance. A new, stronger pump, and new wiring were lowered back into the hole. While the pump was being swapped out and rewired the pipe was coiled on a large wheel thing, made for the purpose, on the back of the truck. The water in the pipe froze but, it would thaw again once put back in the ground, given some time. So, it was no surprise to everyone else, once everything was back in place and the pump was turned on, that nothing happened, right away. I noticed the pump pulled 2 Kilowatts when first turned on, then dropped to 1.3 Kilowatts. This related well to the 9 amps plus, while running, and 7 amps, when stalled, that the crew measured at the well head. They told me, give it two or three hours and it should be fine and they left. After two hours or so my contractor and I tried again. Still nothing. A hose had been run from the water inlet in the utility room along the back deck and out the west side of the house, so that when the pump ran we could run it for a couple of hours, to get rid of any sediment, instead of feeding it all over the house system. The contractor helped me bring the hose (empty but very stiff) into the utility room so we could close the door while we waited. I think he then left. While waiting for the pipe to thaw I found the sheeting in the crawl space was completed. This was not an easy task as the access to the crawl space wasn’t big enough for a full sheet to fit. So they had to be cut just to get them in. Add to that that the headroom was four feet, or lower, making it very difficult. Several rolling inspection stools were purchased, to help getting about. I tried the well pump an hour later, nothing. After another hour, I tried several times with no luck using the solar controller reading as a guide. For these trials I had been hanging the hose just over the railing outside just in case it all happed at once. I was bringing the hose in for the last time when I noticed some water dripping out of it. Good sign, I took it back out and turned the pump on again. Nothing. I brought it back in and in a combination of frustration and getting braver I turned the pump on while I was holding the hose. I got a trickle. I quickly took the hose out side where it stopped again. Being concerned about burning out the pump I turned to shut it off when I noticed a trickle that was starting to grow. Finally! A mad dash to get the hose in position .. yanking it out of the utility room dragging it down the deck, trying not to get everything wet. (-27 you know) I got it back in position and it was flowing quickly now. It was now dark. I let the water run for about two hours before I took an old drink bottle and filled it with the fruits of my labour. Nice and clear. I then turned off the pump, disconnected the hose from the inlet and pulled it back into the cottage, letting it drain on the way, and stuffed it down the hatch to the utility room. A bit more work had to be done before the toilets and sinks can be used, but a major hurdle conquered, anyway. As it turned out, this was the last day of the month, short month, February, and the next month gets worse. Next.. An, Our Country Cottage Update. Since last we spoke I stayed a couple of nights up at Our Country Cottage. My partner needed some books we keep at the cottage and there was a potential for transplanting a tree or something from the country to the city. As it turned out there was nothing suitable to be had. Anywho, arriving before me, and wanting to check out the new plumbing facilities, the pump was turned on and my chance to see if Our Country Cottage was holding pressure was flushed away. Oh well, next time. The main thing I wanted to get done was top up the batteries. It was getting close to two months and I like to do it every six weeks. They were thirsty, but still had plenty of fluid over the plates. I promise to do a care and feeding of batteries episode, once ITB settles down and stops sucking up all the time. My partner left after a couple of hours and I was left trying to figure out what needed to be done first, so I could stay the night. After all, it had been over six months. Change the bed linens. I took the duvet off of the bed and gave it a good shaking over the railing. I then stripped the bed and put all the linens in the washing machine, only the realizing that I had taken all fluids, including liquid detergents, back to the city during the freeze. Well, they were in the machine anyway, so I ran it like there was detergent. Freshen them up, if nothing else. While the machine ran I made the bed with clean linens that were in the drawer and put the duvet back on. Once finished I stood back to examine my handy work, and looked up at the ceiling fan. It was warm, so I knew I would be using it that night. I turned it on to see if anything was, um, resting on the blades. The ensuing plethora of falling bug carcases etc prompted another stripping and shaking out of the bed clothes. Also, mental note, turn on the fan first, before cleaning. Or better yet, vacuum the blades, maybe not. They are rather high. The night past uneventfully. I did have to get use to those Our Country Cottage noises again. When you are by yourself deep in the country lots of things go through your mind. It is nice this time of year, with the sun staying up so late and being up so early, hardly had to turn on a light. The next day, I fired up the tractor and got mowing early. I widened the drive and cut some of the areas I didn’t have time for last time. The grass was taller than the hood of the tractor in places. OK, it is a sub compact tractor, but still. Mowing that stuff took much longer, having to go over some areas several times. Because of the density of these mowables, I couldn’t judge some of my boundaries and high centered the tractor two or three times and only just getting unstuck, thanks to four wheel drive and a diff lock or what ever that, extra traction lever I press with the heel of my boot, is. It took the best part of the day and I still didn’t get everything mowed. Another peaceful night shattered only a couple of times by OCC noises. The next day brought a new problem, of the techy kind. I was going to update the system controller with a new software that had just been released. I was interested in getting it done as some of the problems it fixed, I had seen on my set up. Anyway, my netbook decided that this was the time it didn’t want to transfer any files to or from the SD card for me. Never happened before. I did as much as I could, collected logs and data from the controller etc. I then did some pest control outside. Some more tidying up inside and it was time to head back to the city. And I think that will be enough for this podcast Sooooo…. Next podcast, Episode#19 ITB Month 20, maybe the worse yet, and another OCC update. For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at www.ourcountrycottageanarrative.com If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage A Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play, so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time have a good one.
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Episode #17 Water Returns to OCC and ITB Month 18
06/29/2017
Episode #17 Water Returns to OCC and ITB Month 18
In this episode I will tell you about getting water, including toilets up and running, after the freeze up, at Our Country Cottage. Also, In The Beginning, ITB, looks at month 18, the beginning of a new year with new and improved problems. But first a correction. Last episode ITB month 17 I reported that the solar collectors were installed on the Cottage roof under adverse conditions. Well it wasn’t the solar collectors that were being installed it was the brackets and frame work that was being assembled on the roof in the snow and wind. While reviewing the pix for this episode of ITB I found clear shots of the solar collectors being mounted on the brackets in month 18 not 17. Now on with Episode #17 It has been about six months since Our Country Cottage had to be closed down due to power failure and cold temperatures, resulting in broken toilets and frozen taps etc. My partner and I have just treated ourselves to a vacation overseas. Before we left I let our plumber know that I would be looking to get the cottage up and running when we return. He ordered two new toilet tanks and everything was ready. The first week back, jet lag took its toll along with a mountain of mail. The next week I made it up for a preliminary check. A large tree had fallen across the drive but I managed to tow it out of the way with my vehicle. I noticed how tall the grass and weeds were along the drive. Our Country Cottage was just as I had left it. Batteries were at 100% as there was little if no power being used. I vacuumed up all the dead flies etc that I had been ignoring during the frozen times. I also wiped down the fridge/freezer, and plugged it back in. It ran as though it had never been unplugged. A couple of hours pass and it was down to temp. Next, I headed to the garage to turn my snow moving machine into my grass cutting machine. I managed to turn a relatively short easy job into a long frustrating job by trying to skip a couple of steps and rushing. I almost gave up at one point. Things just weren’t working for me. Along with other problems a hydraulic hose refused to be put back on because of the residual pressure that was there when I disconnected it. My fault, not thinking. I eventually managed to release the pressure by pressing the coupler onto the cement floor. This released the pressure in the form of a sudden spray of hydraulic fluid over the floor and the tractor and me. I spent the next half hour cleaning up the mess. Mental note. Don’t do that. So I got the conversion done and did a test mow in the centre of the turning circle. The front of the tractor became coated with dandelion fluff. But it was ready, well once the fluff was cleaned off. The plumber and I agreed to meet at ten-ish, Monday. I got there early to try to get most of the drive mowed before he arrived. And did so and the dandelion fluff wasn’t a problem as it had disappeared in the couple of days in between. I was just on my last pass, heading back to the cottage, when his van pulled up behind me. Timing is everything. An Aside As we stood outside talking I noticed a large tree starting to fall, I pointed it out and we both watched this tree hit the ground with a thud. Yes, they certainly make a sound if there is someone there, to hear them. The following is my best recollection of what we had to do to re-establish water in Our Country Cottage. He was doing most of the work with me tagging along. There was a bit of water left in the pressure tank that had to be drained off. While that was happening, the plumber removed the shower tap faceplate to examine the casting for the shower. This is one of the things that can crack when frozen. Both upstairs and downstairs looked ok. By this time the pressure tank had drained. Back in the beginning a pressure relief valve had started to leak and the only replacement I could find was a lower pressure. It worked, but it was always in the back of our minds to replace it with the proper one when it was convenient. Now was the time. He had the new pressure relief valve on in no time. Next, install a new 5 micron sediment filter. I had removed the old one at time of freeze up, just in case, but couldn’t clean the case etc as I had no water. So the housing was cleaned and a new filter installed. With the house side water turned off after the pressure tank and hot water tanks the pump was turned back on for the first time in six months. All appeared to be fine and the plumber started to replace the toilet tanks. I had the bases all ready to go with the broken bits long gone. Some time later the plumber was checking on the pressure tank and noticed that it had stopped filling. I checked the pump and it was still on but not drawing the usual amount of power as indicated on the Solar control unit. Instead of drawing 1.9Kw it was only drawing .8Kw. I remember back when it was installed and the pipe was out of the hole long enough for it to freeze there was a reduction in power, down to 1.4Kw. I would turn it off while waiting for the pipe to thaw in the hole in the ground. Once the pipe was clear the pump ran at 1.9Kw and worked. This time freezing was not the issue. I thought that, maybe because the pump had been inactive for six months there might be an accumulation of sediment stopping the pump from working. The well is 240 feet deep so you just can’t pull the pump up to clear it, so I tried stopping and starting the pump. As I was doing this I noticed that the pump power was increasing and after several cycles the pump finally made it to the original 1.9Kw power draw and the plumber said the tank was coming up to pressure. Lucky. We then noticed that the brand new filter cartridge we had just put in looked like it had been there for months. There was also some larger bits of sediment, too. This helped reinforce my sediment theory. As the pressure built up to operating pressure and the hot water tanks were refilled we started checking around the cottage for leaks. Everything held. Then the plumber turned on the water to one of the toilets and flushed it when full. I almost cried. The upstairs toilet was next and then the taps in all the various sinks. All was looking good. The showers sputtered to life, too. When he turned on the tap to the upstairs bath tub, water came from the base of the faucet instead of through the faucet. Looking at it, it looked like the faucet was sitting about an inch high, with a gap between the bottom, or base of the faucet, and the counter. The plumber confirmed this and took it off, cleaned it and reset it down to where it looked like it belonged. He turned on the tap and it worked properly. We figured that the water had frozen in the section of pipe it was attached to and pushed it up. We have an outside tap that is fed by a pipe that runs from the utility room to the west side of the cottage. The pipe is encased in spray foam and sheeted over in the crawl space. If this was broken it would be a mess to fix. So we turned it on and the plumber went into the crawl space to check it out as best as he could. All looked ok. We then turned the water on to the washer dryer unit. The plumber was looking all around the unit and under it with a flashlight. All was dry. I ran a rinse and spin cycle and all worked as expected, taking water in and pumping it out with no problem. Then it was the dishwashers turn. Again turning on the water, looking for leaks and running a quick clean cycle to see if everything worked. And it did. With all that done we put in a new 5 micron sediment filter, after cleaning all the grunge from the housing and that was that. That could have been so much worse than it was. We were reassured that all was holding by the fact that pressure was being maintained with all the taps closed etc. Still holding my breath, a bit, though. I am not overly worried as I always turn the well pump off when I leave Our Country Cottage. I only have the pump on when I am staying there, this way if something happens the pump won’t continue to run filling the cottage and draining the batteries. At the end of the week I went back up to Our Country Cottage to do some more mowing and check on stuff. When I went in, I turned on the pump and it started to run and run for some time. This indicated to me that the pressure had been lost over time. I started looking for pools of water on the floor. Everything looked good even the utility room was dry. Then in the upstairs bathroom I noticed the water in the toilet was moving. All the workings of both toilets were brand new but the upstairs toilet was running very slowly. A couple of flushes later and the flow had stopped. Hopefully it just needed a bit of bedding in. I will be keeping an eye on both toilets for a while now. I managed to get some edge trimming and mowing done too. But when the grass is tall it takes longer to do. I will probably need one or two more goes at it. Then it will be time to start over. I have yet to figure out what to do about the backup generator. I will probably take a closer look at the broken one, now that the weather is more conducive to outside tasks. It still might be something simple and with the new improved power alert system I might be tempted to give it another chance. Gad what am I saying! And now ITB, In The Beginning Month 18 January, A year and a half in. A lot of pictures, emails and texts provided the information and memory boost to put the following together and it’s starting to get painful again. This month had me going up to Our Country Cottage nine times. The first visit started with the solar panels with a layer of snow on them. The generator was running and no power was coming from the panels at all. I started taking pictures of the solar control unit reading and the displays on the charge controllers. I had little if no idea what they meant so I would photoshop them together and email them to the solar system guy I was dealing with when I got back to the city. But while I was there we would text each other and so began the tweaking of the power system of Our Country Cottage. At this point the solar control panel was in the battery room, the battery room where cell phone calls and texts go to die. No reception at all. Texts worked well, however, when I climbed up and outside the room to ground level, and I would have a written record of what to do and the values I needed to change, on my phone when I went to adjust them. Much better than hand written scribbled messages on a scrap piece of paper while trying to keep the phone to my ear with my shoulder and balancing a writing surface on something with the wind and snow blowing etc. The pictures from this month were riddled with close ups of readings and settings. Settings that were four, five, six layers deep in the menu. I also had a fear of inadvertently making a wrong move and causing a catastrophic event. Anyway by the end of the day the batteries were up to 100% and the solar panels were clear of snow. Three days pass and now the batteries are at 80% but being charged by the sun. A red error light is flashing to tell me that the generator has completed its exercise amongst other things. Exercise is the last thing this generator needs. Exercise is needed if the unit hasn’t been run for a month or so. So far this one is running about everyday. Something else to figure out. We now have 647 hours on the gen with the propane tank dropping to 44%. I notice the solar collectors in the garage waiting for installation. Texts are exchanged and solar controller settings are adjusted. I am back the next day, not being overconfident in anything, to find another fifteen hours on the generator, the batts at 84% and being charged by the sun. Good good. And the painter is painting. The following day I go up again, still not filled with confidence, to find the batteries down at 69%, some solar charging and the generator running. OK. Gen at 662.8 hours and propane at 41% There was an Event, red LED flashing, to tell me that there was a State Of Charge error and a low battery error. More adjustments needed, more texts sent. I noticed an electrical plate had been installed in the back hall. This is a good sign that the solar control panel will soon be moved from the battery room to inside Our Country Cottage to a much more convenient location. By the time I left the batteries were down to 49% but recovering with the help of the generator. The sun wasn’t high enough to help much as that little cube heater continued to heat the cottage. I let six days pass till my next visit. Probably fed up but anywayz. The day was cloudy. I find the generator now up to 724.5 hours and the propane down to 30%. That works out to about 10 hours a day. Not good, but a ceiling fan has been installed in the living room. Can’t help but think how much easier all this would have been in the summer months. The following day is sunny and I arrive to find a bee hive of activity, well, in comparison, that is. It is this day that the solar collectors are being installed on the roof. Inside, tiles are being installed in the kitchen and bathrooms. Three days go by before my next visit and we are now into the second half of the month. It’s a very sunny day but I find the generator running with no solar charging. I reset the system and the sun starts doing its thing. More pictures of readings are taken and more texts are going back and forth. Ideas and concepts are exchanged. Tweaking continues. The tiles in the kitchen and bathroom are finished and look great if you don’t look too close. A thermostat on the wall shows the temperature and indicates that the in floor radiant heating is staggering to life. I get around to taking pictures of the broken bolts on the generator that my plumber told me about. There are 4 bolts that hold the generator to the motor. At this time I see at least two of them hanging down. I try to reattach one but it is too short. Another three days pass and on a cloudy day I find the batteries at 63% with some solar charging taking place. The utility room is looking more complete and more readings are recorded via camera. Hello…… A full week goes by till my next visit and we are close to the end of a very long month. The generator is running again while the sun is shining brightly. My attention is diverted to an excavator to the west of the cottage, either getting ready to do some septic work or just finished. There is no one to ask anyway. This work was agreed to a couple of months ago and had been delayed by snow fall after snow fall. Back to the continuing saga of power at Our Country Cottage I again find no solar charging. Another system reset gets those photons working as they should. More texts, pix, and tweaks. The gen was now at 776 hours and the propane tank had been filled, well sort of. Now get this, I got a note with my propane bill saying that due to the very high cost of propane at the time of filling they only filled it to 60% in hopes that by the next fill prices would have dropped. I thought this was very considerate of them, I also thought that there probably won’t be another time where I will be putting so much time on the generator, using that much propane. I also thought, once again, how much easier it would have been doing all this in the warmer months. I left that day with the batteries being charged to 100% by the sun. I have another note for that day. Apparently, a flooring guy showed up to do the garage loft floor. He didn’t know where it was going and seeing how he didn’t have the underlay or the heating pad, he left without doing anything. More things that happened in month 18. The lighting fixtures were ready to be picked up. All the LED bulbs were ordered, and the radiator for the back hall was added to the list, with specifications figured out and a quote being accepted. Well I think that’s enough of that. Soooo Next podcast, Episode#18 ITB Month 19, is not getting any easier, and an OCC update. For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at www.ourcountrycottageanarrative.com If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage A Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time have a good one.
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Episode #16 In The Beginning Month 17
05/14/2017
Episode #16 In The Beginning Month 17
In this episode I go into details about one of the more trying months of construction and the Our Country Cottage update lets you in on the two trips I took there this week. ITB, In The Beginning, Month 17, December Another attempt at remembering what we had to go through to get Our Country Cottage. As I mentioned last time it seems to be getting easier. Well, this month was a ruff one. This month started off as the last month finished, with cold temperatures and snow, lots of snow. So much snow that, just plowing the drive was starting to reveal the short comings of just using a blade. As you plow the drive banks form on the side. You can only push the snow back so far. As you continue these banks get bigger and the drive gets narrower and narrower. It got to the point that I could see larger vehicles, like the propane truck, would start to have problems having less and less room to negotiate. Our contractor had his own skid steer and I asked him to move the banks back for me. He and his assistant had much more experience doing this sort of thing. Well, it took his assistant about 8 hours to do it. Remember it’s a kilometer long. He kept getting stuck and the contractor had to keep going to pull him out, and they knew what they were doing! When I got the bill I realized that I could buy a tractor with a snow thrower, etc for the cost of keeping the drive clear, for a winter or two, this way. I had been looking at getting a tractor for cutting the grass anyways. The skid steer was great for ruff stuff but would tear up the ground otherwise and the only mower I had was a flail mower. You can take down 3 inch trees with it but is far from being a finish mower. I had my eye on a sub compact tractor. You might have seen the commercials. Just hop on the tractor and drive over the mower and it auto connects. It makes it look real easy to reconfigure the unit as required. I figured a snow thrower, a rear blade, a finish mower, a couple of extras and I should be good. I placed my order. More to come later in this podcast. From the last visit to Our Country Cottage last month to the first visit this month saw 20% of the 1000 gallon propane tank used. By the middle of the month I had to call for a fill up. And to make it worse, propane was seeing record high prices. A little info on propane tanks. When they fill them they only fill them to 80% capacity to allow for expansion. Also that 80% it temperature corrected. There is a curve on the tank gauge that shows how much to put in at what temperatures. The tank gauge also has a red band from 0 to 25%. I was told to call them, for fill up, once in the red Anyway, the first visit of the month had the solar panels mounted, not aligned yet, but mounted and there had been a vent installed in the battery room. The vent pipe was connected to that large battery box, I was telling you about last podcast, with a fan that would turn on automatically to vent the batteries when they charged. The battery box is sealed, so as long as the lids are closed and latched, there is no gas build up, in the battery room. Gases produced by lead acid batteries can be dangerous for several reasons and will be a topic in a future podcast along with the care and handling of these beasts. Painting had carried on with most of the walls covered. As I had hoped, the color was far from jarring as it was when just the boarders were done. It was looking quite cozy. Before our next visit we had been informed that out fridge had arrived from the states and was waiting to be picked up at the shipping depot, north of the city. As we had other, somewhat large items to take up to Our Country Construction project, I took the opportunity to rent a truck, the smallest one we could get, with a ramp out the back. It was 14 feet long and the rental was for 3 days. Monday, we picked up the truck and took it back to our city home where we loaded up the items we wanted to take up to the country. Tuesday, turned out to be a snowy, windy, stormy day. Not the type of day I would be driving if I didn’t have to, let alone driving a rental truck with questionable ability. I remember getting in the cab and pressing the gas, just to hear the wheel, yes wheel singular, no posi-lock four wheel drive here, spin. I crept out on to the road with some trepidation. My partner was following behind in our vehicle, giving me a false sense of security. We turned north. These shipping depots are put out in the sticks and not easy to find, under best of conditions. I was getting used to the truck and my back up was behind me, when we found the place. Snow, windswept and desolate. We weren’t sure it was even open, but we found the front door, went inside and presented the paperwork. We were told to go round the side and back up the ramp, as there would be someone there clearing the snow. I had the feeling we were the first people to show up that day. As we came around the building we could see a lone snow shoveler trying to clean the ramp, the long ramp. I tried backing up the ramp but the sophisticated traction control of the rental truck failed. Yeah right. There was some recollection of my partner trying to reverse the truck while I helped to shovel, push etc. Nope, there was just not enough traction to make it up the grade. I suggested trying to use one of the regular loading bay doors, the ones that are about 3 feet high. There was little snow in front of one of them, for some reason, and a level surface to back over. So I backed the truck up to it, leaving enough room to pull out the truck ramp, and after some adjustments, used it as a bridge from the loading platform to the truck. The loading of the fridge was somewhat anti climactic. With fridge securely strapped in place it was back to the city. We had one more pick up to make. The futons to be used in the back bedrooms were also ready. The snow and wind hadn’t let up at all but my partner had had enough and once in town headed home, leaving me to collect said futons by myself. It was in the city limits, after all. In an older part of the city with small, narrow side roads and alley ways. At the futon place I was told to back the truck up to the veranda in the small parking area in the rear, down the alley a bit. There is some recollection of blocking traffic while setting up to back into the alley but it wasn’t on my list of concerns, at the time. I still don’t know how I got that truck positioned the way I did. Dumb luck I guess. Getting the futon frames in was no problem but the extra thick mattresses were a handful. I can feel the pounding headache I had back then as I tell you now. Long story a little shorter, I got it loaded with the help of the futon staff and got home just before the sun went down. Wednesday, my partner was still under the weather so I headed off to Our Country Cottage solo. The snow had stopped but it was still cold and blowing. When I got there, there were several trucks parked. The contractor, his assistant and the solar power system crew. As I said, the wind was still blowing and the solar power crew were about to put the solar collectors on the roof. A singe ladder had been extended and was leaning against the peak of the roof, the highest part of the cottage. The solar collector were about 8 feet tall and 3 to 4 feet wide. The crew were about to hand hoist them up the ladder, one at a time and bolt them to the frame work that was already in place. One good gust, at the wrong time, and it would have been all over, even though the crew was very professional with safety harnesses etc. And professional they were. The panels were installed without a hitch. Meanwhile, inside, I found our contractor in the master bed room finishing off the window seat. I had noticed that the window seat, that runs the full length of the window, in the living room, was already in place. Medicine cabinets were ready to be installed in their respective bathrooms. Our contractor and his assistant helped me unload the rental truck into the garage. OK, they did it and I watched. I did the small stuff. Then I was off, back to the city to get the rental back in time. The contract said, I got there at 5:41pm. Keep the paperwork and emails folks. That next trip up To Our Country Cottage, about a week later, had me dropping in to the tractor dealer. We had one in the city but I wanted to deal with one that was as close as possible to the cottage. Also a dealer out in the country would be a bit more in tune with what is required in the country. The tractor was ready to go and the purpose of the visit, to the dealer, was to drop off the final payment and guide the delivery guy to the cottage, if required. It was while I was waiting for the tractor to be loaded onto the delivery truck with its extras that I found out the easy connect thing that the mower has, the just drive over it and it hooks up and works, doesn’t apply to the snow thrower. In fact a major bit of configuring has to take place to switch between the snow thrower and mower. The dealer rattled off what needed to happen ending off with, “Give me a call when you are ready to switch and I’ll come out to show you what to do.” And when the time came I did, and, he did. For more details stay tuned for future podcasts. So the tractor and bits got loaded and off to Our Country Cottage we went. When we arrived I noticed that the solar panels were now pointing in the right direction. If I remember correctly the driver asked me if I wanted to drive the tractor off the truck myself. Not having ever driven something like that I decided, backing it off the truck shouldn’t be my first time, so he did it while I watched. After he left I was more than happy to try it out on level ground and I practiced a bit before putting it in the garage. Checking progress inside I found sinks and taps in place. Steps to the tub in the en suite bathroom were ruffed in. Remember the tub was elevated to allow for a view, whilst soaking. Also, remember there was a four inch gap between the masonry heater and the wall, well that gap now has a black grate encircling it. This prevents most objects from falling back there. There are magnetically latched access flaps at the bottom to allow cleaning or retrieving dropped items. I can now verify that a set of wooden steps is/are in place, going from the pantry, to the crawl space. Three days later and it was a cold grey day. No one was on site. The generator was running. It had 477 hours on it. Starting to climb fast. Going inside I found that they had cleaned up the place. The only things out of place was cardboard covering the counter tops and some protective plastic on the main beam. More painting had been done. About a half a dozen doors were standing in the sun room, in the process of being finished. The loft over the garage was dry walled, mudded and taped. Not sure when that happened. But it was ready for me to finish at a later date. Our next visit was with the whole family. No one was working, because of the holidays, so we had the place to ourselves. The sun was shining, the weather was gorgeous but still cold, with a lot of snow on the ground. I fired up the tractor and tied the toboggan, the kids had given us as a present, to the back, and gave toboggan rides up and down the drive. The kids even tried out driving the tractor. Lots of fun was had by all. I noticed that, even with the sun shining brightly, there was no solar charging. Three days go by before my next visit to see if I could figure out the solar power system. It was cloudy, but just a bit overcast. When I arrive, it appears the solar power was dead. There wasn’t even a solar bar on the display, just blank as if there were never any panels to begin with. Both charge controllers were dead as well, with their displays blank. A little looking around and I found a tripped breaker in the solar/inverter/control unit. When I reset it everything came back to life. The charge controllers displays came up and the solar power indicator on the remote panel appeared again. This wouldn’t be the last time this breaker gave us grief. Anyway, the batteries were now charging by the panels again. Handy tip, take pics of your breaker panels, when everything is working and if you think of it, when things aren’t. It makes a great reference when standing in front of them trying to figure out which ones were on or not esp if you use your phone camera. So we are at the end of month 17 in the cold and snow. The generator now has 541 hours on it and I am trying to figure out the solar power system. I am going to wrap this podcast up with “Our Country Cottage “ update. I went up twice this week. I’ll tell you about my visit as it happened. I collected the SD cards from the two trail cams came down the drive. Once at the cottage I did the third. Basically, at the trail cams I just check to make sure the batteries were ok, they all use 8 AA batteries each and the trail cam display gives a percentage reading of what is left in the batteries , and I swap the SD card with an empty one. I have 2 SD cards per trail cam, one in the cam and one I take home, download the pics and clean ready for next time. I then topped up the batteries in the battery room. Inside I collected the data from the remote display unit for the solar power. It also has an SD card in it that I swap with an empty one. Looking at my calendar log on the table I realize that the data loggers need to be done. The way I have them set up is that they take temperature readings every minute, I think. This means they can hold about 55 days worth of data before getting full. When I collect the data I mark on the calendar when they are next due. I used to go by memory but I would always end up going over and loosing info. These data loggers, use internal memory, and have to be downloaded directly on to a computer via USB. They also are powered by, a special, lithium ½ aa battery. I have four loggers and it takes about a half hour or so. I have one more trail cam to do. It’s a bit in the bush and at this time of year, spring, things are starting to wake up, things I really don’t want to run into. So I load a bear banger and grab a can of bear spray and head off with an empty SD card, spare batteries etc. If you are wondering, a bear banger is a device that makes noise to scare off animals. The one I have is the size of a pen, it even has a pen clip on it. The firing mechanism is a spring loaded tab you pull back and let go. There is a loading position for the tab that you cock the unit, screw in a bear banger cartridge and you are ready. When you use it, you pull the tab all the way back and let it go. There is a bang and an inner cartridge is propelled about 100 or so feet into the air where a much louder bang takes place. Couple of cautions. Open your mouth a bit when you do this to prevent hearing damage and point the unit straight up, not at the animal or in its direction. If you do point it at the animal the inner cartridge can be propelled past you target and create a loud bang behind it, driving the animal toward you. Not the desired effect. SD card swapped with no issues and the batteries were good. No bangers or spray required. Back in the city I realized that one of the trail cams dates were all screwed up. I guess there was a time when the batteries died and it reset. My second trip to our country cottage was much more relaxed. I had a bit of work to do on our vehicle and that trail camera to reset. All went well. Oh I have called the plumber to get ready to fix those broken toilets and help me get water back into Our Country Cottage. And that’s all I have to report at this time, So… Next podcast, Episode#17 ITB “In The Beginning” month 18 and we might have some progress to report on the water situation. For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at www.ourcountrycottageanarrative.com If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage A Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time have a good one.
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Episode #15 Doors, Dividers & ITB Month 16
05/07/2017
Episode #15 Doors, Dividers & ITB Month 16
In this episode I will cover some of the unique doors and divider applications used in Our Country Cottage and In The Beginning, ITB month 16 sees power, paint, panels and plowing. The spec for the Our Country Cottage package called for interior doors to be your standard hollow core doors. My partner, and I must agree, wanted a more rustic solid wood door with a bit of character and cottagey feeling. And so it was. Knotty alder doors are in most of the openings, and, with black hardware, give us the look we were going for. On to the not so common ones. The master bedroom is upstairs with a clear view to the south, if you don’t block it off. The stairs run, against the wall up to a landing big enough for a double door. I originally had envisioned a large barn door type of thing that would roll aside to open up the view. That idea didn’t work when I realized, because of the roof design, it had no place to roll. Plan 2. Two sets of double doors with glass, top to bottom, French doors that is. The first set was no problem, it would open onto the landing as intended. The second set, right beside it, would open up over the stairs. The answer came in the form of a Juliet balcony. A sort of non balcony, actually. All that was needed was a railing mounted on the outside of the double door, above the stairs. I think this solution was inspired by a trip to New Orleans we had taken a couple of years earlier. We also added a few New Orleans esque design ideas to the railings going down the stairs too. We like to keep the bedroom cooler than the rest of the cottage so to that end we got the two sets of double doors with insulated, clear, glass. I have talked about the folding doors between the sun room and the living room before but I’ll just give you a bit more information. The sunroom was not intended to be heated in the winter, but kept closed off and used as an air lock. This would minimize the amount of heat required for the living room during the cold days. We needed an outside folding door, but for inside. First we went to the door/window supplier for the Our Country Cottage package. They had some gorgeous ones but wanted about what you would pay for a small German car for them. Way too much. These were the ones you see in mansions, opening up to the pool, BBQ, fire pit area. The hunt was on and we found a supplier relatively quickly at about the price of a used German car. Now because we found them we had to co-ordinate the manufacture, delivery, installation of them ourselves. We also had to supply the size details, blue prints etc. There were also a few challenges. First the folding door was to be mounted outside in. We had to do it that way because there wasn’t enough room in the sunroom for the doors to fold up into. Besides there were exterior doors out of the sunroom on both ends of the folding door, so if the door was folded it would interfere. The manufacturer was concerned with reversing the door as it was designed to seal out weather from the outside, side of the door, but when told that the door was actually being used inside they were OK with it. Second my partner didn’t want a threshold on the floor. You know, the raised thing you step over when you come through an exterior door. It was to be flush with the lower track running in a channel in the floor. No tripping hazard. This brings us to the third challenge. The floor would be cement, so the channel would have to be accounted for before the floor was poured. This flush threshold came up late, in the design process, and caused some scurrying about to make sure things could be done the way we wanted, but it worked out. Oh, and there was a screen option that got deleted, too. One more thing, the locking hardware had to be reversed. The door is in three sections, each being about three feet wide with glass top to bottom. There is a track top and bottom and two sections can be locked in place leaving the third to operate like a regular door. There were a few adjustments required, with the manufacture paying us another visit, and during construction, all three sections, were off and on a few times, once we found them out in the garage. A bit upsetting. They now work great. My partner made a draft stop thingy for the bottom of the door and put chain in it so it would stay put. In the summer we have it curled up, like a snake, at one end of the door. The next item is a room divider in the back bedrooms. The original design had two separate rooms with closets in between them, but we had reduced the size to keep the overall cottage size down which made the closet separator impractically small, so we removed the closet, separator all together, leaving one bigger room. But we kept both bedroom doors. The idea was to utilize some type of room divider. The internet is full of neat things to divide rooms, from free standing Japanese screens to heavy duty metal, powered dividers suitable for convention halls. The idea of using a garage door kept coming back to me. Easy to get and inexpensive. I had talked to out site supervisor, at the time, about the concept of using a garage door and he didn’t think it was a great idea, but we talked about it more and more and one day I showed up and there it was, already installed. It did look a bit ruff, kinda like a garage door in a room, with all the tracking exposed. As it turned out, we had some left over planking from the sunroom, or wherever, which we used to create a false ceiling that would hide the track near the ceiling and hide the whole door while it was up. The vertical tracks were boxed in ready for me to make doors to conceal them when not in use. Maybe I’ll get to it this year. For the time being, the garage door is pushed up and down into place. There are some hinged bits of wood that keep it up and hide the door completely when its up and, when the door is down, it covers the gap between the ceiling and the door. I still haven’t put a handle on the door yet relying on gripshon from just pushing on it to get it up and down. Funny story. I was showing off our garage door divider to someone, I think he had come up to do something to the generator, could be wrong. Anyway, I was pulling the door down while talking to him, ie, not paying much attention, and became aware of some major pain in one of my fingers. I looked to see what was going on and noticed my finger tip in between two sections of the door. The sections were closed, but my finger tip was in between them. Metal sections by the way, no flexing. I pushed the door up to release my finger that was now quite flat and throbby. My guest asked if I was OK and I assured him I was, trying to be cool, while wrapping this piece of jelly, that used to be my finger tip, in paper towel. He left shortly there after. After sitting down for a bit, I called my partner to make an appointment for me at a clinic back in the city. I won’t go into anymore details, other than to say, the hour and a half drive back was interesting. The trip to the clinic got me a tetanus shot and a referral for an x-ray. The x-ray revealed that I had broken that end bone of my finger. And to add insult to injury, as I was leaving the x-ray place I jammed that same finger into the door handle. I had a finger splint on so it only hurt a lot more. It was decided that it probably didn’t need surgery, which suited me fine. It does point a little off center, at the tip, though. Another interior door that is a little different, is the one leading into the hall from the mud room. The mud room is another air lock so I selected a door with insulated glass from top to bottom, to let light in from the mud room window and keep the cold out. Now, this next door thing was a total fluke. The design of the garage loft gave us storage areas with very large openings. There are two, one either side of the reading nook about five and a half feet high by four and a half feet wide. I could have had them closed in but I didn’t want to waste the room. My first thought was short barn door kinda thing but, again there was not enough room to slide the doors open. Four and a half feet is too wide for a single door to swing open, so I started thinking about cutting it in half and going saloon door style but still, not quite. At this point I was starting to put stuff in the loft. Desk, exercise stuff, shelves and a table. Also there was a table tennis table that my partners father had built. It was rather large but constructed in two pieces and collapsible. One day I was sitting in the loft trying to come up with a solution to the storage door issue, when I glanced at the table tennis table leaning up against the wall and the opening that needed to be filled. They looked about the same size. Hmmmm. I dragged one over and put it in position. The width was perfect, but a bit short. I put the other side of the table on a movers dolly and awkwardly wheeled that into the other hole. Perfect. They are still there right now. I will build a brace on the dolly so that it is more secure. To top it off, the green of the table tennis table top is not that dissimilar to the green I painted in that area. Cool. I just have my log book in front of me now, open to the page where I documented this dolly idea, brace and all, dated almost a year ago. I really have to get on some of this stuff. Enough of doors and dividers Now ITB, In The Beginning, Month 16, (Nov) This is the segment where I try to remember how Our Country Cottage, came to be. Last time I mentioned that I took lots of pix for reference purposes. Well this time, along with the pix, I am relying on receipts and invoices to verify my facts. The supplier/builder sent me copies of all the invoices that, Our Country Cottage, accumulated in an effort of transparency. Very handy, not so much for checking up on stuff, but more for details. And try to keep them in order. File folders etc, as soon as they come in. Under the heading, I’ll organize it later, well it’s later and I still haven’t. But I do have the folders in the original archive box that was created, at the time. It works a lot better than a stack of receipts. And the list of receipts from the supplier/builder was in electronic form, organized by company name, easy to go through. Month 16 started off with enough snow that I had to plow the drive. It was the first attempt at using that new blade, I had acquired before summer, on my skid steer. It worked well, and I got the job done without wrecking too much of the drive. I remember having to clear some of the snow round the front of the cottage, so that some work might continue. My skid steer has metal tracks on it, which made it easy to slide and skid sideways on the ice. Lots of fun with big boy toys. The utility room had the hot water pre-heater in it and the battery room revealed the battery box complete with batteries in it. Keep in mind the battery box is large, almost nine feet long and over three feet high at the back, housing twelve batteries weighing three hundred plus pounds each. That’s almost 4000 pounds of batteries. Just did the math. Our next visit we had carpet sample boards with us to select the color and style of carpet for the stairs. I noticed that there had been some wiring done in the battery room. The main inverter/control unit and the two charge controllers were mounted on the wall. A battery was sitting on the floor, out of the box. I also found the top caps for the poles that the panels were to be mounted to. A week later, we found all the interior doors and jams stacked in the garage and more wiring done in the battery room. And a week after that, we found people working there when we arrived. The frames, that hold the solar panels, were being assembled on the top of the poles. Yup, up scaffolding, in the snow and the wind etc. Inside the cottage, found doors being hung. It must have been about now that the generator was being run. I have a picture of the generator with the snow behind it melted. Two days go by, and the actual solar panels are being mounted on the poles. Inside, more doors are hung and some handles, too. The handles we chose are a lever style with a curl at the end. Our installer had put them on with the curl going up. Well the curl needed to go down. 50/50 chance. The kitchen area was full of boxes and lumber. The place was getting messy, mainly because work was getting done. Just hard to look at sometimes. I noticed that the propane level was starting to drop. The last visit of the month, we find we have our appliances, in the garage. Again I take pix to verify the models were correct. Inside is starting to get exciting. The kitchen cabinets, counters and island are installed along with the vanities in the bathrooms. The handles were even on. It’s really starting to come together. A hatch was installed in the mud room, leading to the utility room, complete with ships ladder. We won't have to pry up that piece of plywood that covered the hole ,anymore. The utility room had seen some activity as well. The recirculating pumps, for the in floor radiant heating, and domestic hot water, were mounted and in the process of being hooked up. Their packing box was on the floor, so I took a pic of that, too. A second hatch had been installed in the pantry leading to the crawl space. I am not sure if the stairs were there, at that time, but a regular set of wood steps would make it an easy access to the crawl space. And, yes, there was a ships ladder, leading down into the battery room. Much better than a regular ladder that had been stuffed in the hole for the past little while. Painting was also beginning. The corners and trim had been cut in. I remember our site supervisor having a few doubts about the color. I must admit, when you look at the color we had chosen next to the primed white wall, it was a little jarring. I had to keep the faith. It will look great once it’s all done. I hope. It was sometime this month that a little yellow construction heater showed up. We had tried to use a propane heater but the pressure was too low for the application, so it was a little yellow electric heater. This, about, fifteen inch cube would heat the whole cottage, letting construction and paint continue. It was at the end of month 16 that I noticed the propane level dropping faster and the first record of the time on the generator was 194.4 hours. And so the Our Country Cottage, power system slowly staggered to life, its primary components, the solar panels still not quite ready. Snow was on the ground and temperatures were falling and required everything that had to be done outside alot more effort. I couldn’t help but think of the warm summer days that had passed with little being done. That about wraps it up for ITB, month 16. This podcast the, Our Country Cottage Update, has not much to report, other than the temperatures are being sent as expected and they are getting warmer and warmer. My attitude is starting to change, too. I am starting to look longingly at the pix as I do these podcasts and am planning on calling the plumber soon. Correction for Episode 14, the section for the heating in the garage loft floor was an 8 x 8 foot square not a 10 x 10 square foot section . Next podcast, Episode#16 ITB “In The Beginning” month 17 and something else. For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at www.ourcountrycottageanarrative.com If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage A Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time have a good one.
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Episode #14 A Floor, A Ceiling & ITB Month 15
04/29/2017
Episode #14 A Floor, A Ceiling & ITB Month 15
In this episode I will cover a couple of issues we had with the floor in the garage loft and the ceiling in the utility room. ITB, In The Beginning, will take a look at month 15 of construction, which is starting to get close to seeing snow again, and I will also have an update to the goings on at Our Country Cottage. The floor in the garage loft was to be low cost. No stamped cement with in floor radiant heating pipes here. In fact I didn’t want any fluids at all in the loft or garage. No plumbing to worry about. I saw the loft being the first place to be shut down to conserve energy in the winter. Sure I have had visions of a small pot belly stove in the corner somewhere, someday. During a visit to the floor/carpet/tile place I selected an inexpensive laminate that would do the job. These types of floors are very durable, being able to take a lot of punishment. Just the thing for a man cave, kinda place, with the odd table tennis match and work out area, not to mention various construction projects, yet to be thought of. The only down side to the stuff is that it doesn’t stand up to water very well. Given the plans not to have any in the place, should be good. Now, I thought it would be nice to have some heat. Maybe extend the shoulder seasons a bit. I looked into a form of electric heating that would go under the laminate. Yes, the heating pad specs stated that it could be used under laminate. I didn’t want to put electric heat under the whole loft floor but I figured that if I had it under where I would be sitting, I might get enough to keep my feet warm and I could even hang something round my desk to trap the heat in. To this end I worked out that I would be willing to use up to 1000 watts of power for this heat pad, and that a 10 by 10 foot square, in front of the window, directly where I wanted my desk, would do. I set about to get the flooring/carpet/tile company to do this for me. The first reply, was, that this would not work and I would be better off putting the heater under the whole floor. I had to explain that we were off grid, with limited power, and it was not intended to keep the place cozy in the dead of winter. After all it was a loft over a garage. I ended up by saying I wanted a 10 by 10 foot square centered under the main window, with a maximum of 1000 watts in electric use. They replied that the floor would have to be cut and a border placed around the perimeter. I agreed, restating my goals. The installers from the company had some issues. I guess they were not used to working so far out of town or something. The first guy showed up, totally unprepared, with no supplies or plans. I guess he just wanted to have a ride in the country. I wasn’t there for most of it, relying on the job site supervisor. He had a few stories. Anyway, what we ended up with was a 10 by 10 foot square centered under the main window, with a perimeter of a low profile edging. Easy enough to roll a chair over. The border, however, was made up of smaller bits. There was at least two pieces per side. Some joined in the centre some three or four inches from a corner. It was like they used what ever they had laying around. Then there was a thermostat on the wall by the window to control the heat pad. That was OK, but the heat pad turned out to be only 400 watts, less than half what I asked for. I know from my own research that what I asked for would have fit. Again, I think they used what they had lying around. All this took place in the latter stages of cottage completion and my enthusiasm for battle was, in decline. I let it ride to some extent. I certainly didn’t want these guys back to fix it. I do remember working on some financial bartering about this when the final bill was being tallied. How well does it work? I’ll let you know when I try it out. On to the ceiling in the utility room. If you recall from the last episode, the battery room and utility rooms were sheeted with plywood. I had carefully left out the fact that the utility room ceiling had not been sheeted even though the battery room ceiling had, and so the story begins. Sheeting utilitarian rooms is handy as it gives a surface to mount things to. It also fulfills the requirement to cover the spray foam insulation with some protection from fire. Yes, I had all the external walls and ceilings spray foamed. I had some of the internal walls spray foamed as well, but that’s another story. As it turned out, when it came time to sheet the utility room ceiling, there was enough stuff already mounted to it that made it difficult to do, so it remained un-sheeted, till the home inspector saw it, and informed the site supervisor it had to be sheeted. I remember being there when the plywood showed up and was unloaded onto our back deck. It seemed like it stayed there for several months. The contractor was clearly not looking forward to cutting this plywood in and around the plumbing and venting and electrical stuff that was in place and somewhat still growing. Then, a revelation. The company that spray foamed the cottage etc, said they had a product they could spray onto the foam that would satisfy the fire requirements. They came back, and sprayed the problem away. Not so fast. And this part was a bit strange. I received an invoice for the spray job and mailed a check off to them, I thought. After about a month or so I noticed that the check had not been cashed and started to doubt the fact that I actually mailed it. If you had any incite to my state of mind, at that time, you would understand. So I called the company to see if they had got the check, only to find out that, and get this, the local inspector did not approve of the type of spray that was used and would not sign off on it and because of this the company wasn’t going to charge me for the work they had done. Wow! Just goes to show there are still honourable people out there. I was blown away. I still don’t remember what happened to the check… Anyway, back to sheeting, and yes, the plywood was still on our back deck. Our site supervisor, really not wanting to finagle the ceiling with plywood started looking into other spray solutions, and found one. Happy happy. He even called the inspector to confirm the spray and company. I could tell that our site supervisor was very upset when he was telling me this “good news”. He told me that when he called the inspector to see if they would accept this spray done by the company he had found, he was told, yes, we use them all the time. What! They use them all the time. I know, for ethical reasons, the inspector might not be able to recommend a company, but really, they couldn’t even give us a clue? I can only imagine what was going through our site supers mind. He is the kind of guy that would have spent a lot of time trying to come to a solution for us, only to find out the inspector had the answer all along. So the ceiling got sprayed and a sticker, with information of the product was given to me to put on the electrical panel. I took a picture of it, in place, and emailed it to the job co-ordinator, who passed it on to the inspector. Done and done. Just keep in mind this ceiling issue went on for several months. Oh, and the plywood, on the back deck, was picked up and returned for credit. Next ITB, In The Beginning, Month 15. In this segment I try to remember how we got Our Country Cottage. For the most part I refer to pictures I took when we visited the site. From time to time I kept a journal, but, I have found that when things aren’t going well the journal suffers. Pictures are easy to take and can reveal more info than you expect when you review them. So if you are building, take lots of pix and make sure the date is correct on your camera. Our first visit to Our Country Cottage, for month 15, revealed several changes. -First, we had steps up to the deck, all the decks. We no longer had to fear a groin pull, every time we went into the place. -Number 2, we had a garage door complete with opener that we couldn’t use, cause we had no power. -And C, a different car was parked in front. It was the painter, checking out the place, sizing up the job. Oooh paint… -There was also a big pile of gravel waiting to be spread around. Our next visit found the wood, tongue and groove, ceiling had been installed in the living room. That was a big job. Back in the city we visited the light supply place, trying to come to terms with selecting vast amounts of light fixtures with the picture references I had made. Sorta worked. Back at the cottage I had made a cardboard stand in for some of the lights and we took turns holding them in place to get an idea of scale. The bathtub upstairs had been spray foamed as requested. This was an attempt to retain the temperature of the hot water for long, soothing baths, while looking at the scenery. Hey, and the generator was put on the generator pad. The solar suppliers had also left us their solar trailer. It had panels on the top and batteries inside with an inverter. The idea was to have the trades use the power from this, as there was a delay or something with our cottage solar power system. As it turned out, no one actually used it. I guess, unfamiliar stuff. A nice thought, though. The garage and garage loft got dry walled. I was surprised to see the actual garage dry walled, but the contractor said this was standard for them. I still have to paint it but it does make it nicer. We then had another visit to the lighting supply place, with our findings and to firm up the order. In the last week, or so, of the month we found solar equipment boxes in the battery room. The utility room had a water pressure tank and the air exchange unit was installed with the duct work. The last visit of the month, had us being the only ones there, with snow on the ground. And now, An, Our Country Cottage, Update Funny how things work. If you remember the last update I mentioned that I went up to the Cottage to check on the batteries and reported the batteries were fine but a trail cam had stopped working. Well for some reason the batteries were weighing heavily on my mind. Maybe I should have topped them up, after all. Then, the alert system, that was supposed to send me the temp twice a day, failed. I got that sick, gut check, feeling, I get when technical things go wrong. My vehicle was in the shop for the morning, and my partner was at the dentist. I took the time to verify the system I had at home, for testing purposes, to take up to the cottage, and swap out the supposedly bad one. I had visions of the batteries running out of water and failing or the spring thaw finding its way into the battery room and flooding the place out, causing catastrophic failure. Or maybe the place burned down. My vehicle was ready when promised and my partner returned from the dentist in good time so I made an afternoon run to the cottage. More nasty scenarios played out in my head during the drive, solar panels covered with snow, but when I got there, all was OK. The solar panels were clear and the cottage was standing, with no sign of bad things happening. The monitor in the back hall even reported the batteries were at 100%, fully charged. Real good. There were piles of snow here and there with a bunch hovering over the battery room hatch. I pulled most of it down with a roof rake, cleared off the hatch, because that is where the snow lands when you pull it off the roof, and went into the battery room. Everything appeared normal, so I topped off the batteries, good for another six weeks, and went into the cottage to see why I wasn’t getting my alerts. A quick test revealed nothing, so I just swapped it with the one I brought. I ran another quick test on both systems and they both reported with the usual, All OK, email, along with the temperature. I would test the failed unit in the city. While I was there I decided to check the trail cam that was giving problems last time. It was working perfectly, and, when I got the SD card back to the city it showed how much snow had fallen and disappeared, several times in the course of a couple of weeks, at Our Country Cottage. So, the batteries needed topping up and the trail cam was fine. Just the reverse of the last update. When I tested the failed alert unit, in the city, it worked perfectly. I updated the operating system and all seems OK. Electronics! Next podcast, Episode#15 Doors and Dividers and ITB “In The Beginning” month 16 of construction. For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at www.ourcountrycottageanarrative.com If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage A Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time, have a good one.
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Episode #13 Our Package Deal & ITB Month 14
04/21/2017
Episode #13 Our Package Deal & ITB Month 14
Our Country Cottage started life as Our Package Deal. We were like babes in the woods, having never built a house from scratch before. I found it quite amusing that, while we were in discussions with the kit home supplier, appliances popped into the conversation. Yup, we were having a hard time trying to figure out where to put the walls and they were talking fridges and stoves. What was happening was, we were slipping into the “package deal”, something we hadn’t even considered. We were still in the big picture stage, while the details were slowly creeping in. Now, this is not a bad thing, but it was a hard thing not to break the transmission while swapping gears so fast. We went from, I think the cottage would look great over there to, what do you want the color of the door handles to be. In all fairness it wasn’t dumped on us all at once. There was a somewhat gradual release of decisions to be made. I think they had done this before. It was explained to us that there was an allowance, or target price, for things that were suggested in the package. While they were not the cheapest they were also not the top of the line, but, tended towards quality at a good price. Sounded good. The contract had a list of fittings with brand and model numbers. We could check them out online or go to the supply house to see them in person. Our Country Cottage was a little different than most, being off grid and way out in the country. For one, we wad a masonry heater, not a forced air furnace. But stuff like taps, tubs and lights were somewhat universal. Some decisions were made right there in the office. They included the type and color of roofing and siding etc. Most of the rest, involved trips to supply places that were recommended and previously used by the cottage supplier/builder. This is a good thing. Not only do you have an address to go to, but most of the time, a name of someone to talk to. And this someone is used to working with your builder. All you have to do is select what you want. Billing, scheduling, even delivery are taken care of. There might be the odd time when mistakes happen. An example would be, that for some reason the interior door handles were delayed and I went to the supplier warehouse to pick them up and deliver them myself to the job site. One of the first suppliers we visited, was a window and door company, where we selected the style of exterior doors and windows we wanted. The catalogues for these items were somewhere between a half to one inch thick. The doors could be one panel, two panel, six panel, arch top or square top, plain or textured, steel or fiberglass. Let’s face it, you probably never gave your present front door the time of day but while you are trying to decide, it will occupy your thoughts, 24/7, until you make a decision and then some. Is that what I really wanted? Will it compliment the cottage or look ridiculous? Wait, that window is swinging out the wrong way. Stuff like that. Our cottage supplier/builder had an interior designer, that helped us with the design, so we weren’t totally on our own. We had design meetings in her office and she would meet us at some of the recommended suppliers as well. One example would be the kitchen cabinet supplier. We met there on a cold snowy day and she helped us select the cabinet configuration we would need. Color and design were still on us, but, she kept us on track. Do you know how many types of cupboard and drawer handles there are? Oh, and after finalizing the design we were informed that the supplier had changed. So we sort of had to do it all over again. Plumbing fixtures were interesting. Taps, tubs, shower heads, sinks. A full tiled shower turned out to be way too expensive, but a half shower insert for the lower part finished with tile on the upper was a good compromise. I didn’t even know they existed. One bonus that came with the insert, was the ability to have a seat moulded in. So, do you want the seat at the tap end or the shower head end. Once you figure that out did you order the right one? Does left-hand mean the seat is on the left or……. Selecting the tile and the small bit of carpet, for the cottage staircase, along with the flooring for the garage loft at the approved flooring supplier/installer ended up turning into another, Our Country Cottage, podcast segment possibility. My partner had selected and purchased snazzy accent tiles for the bathrooms and kitchen at another location. If you thought that would be an issue, you are wrong. That part went fine. It was everything else that screwed up. As you know, Our Country Cottage is off grid, so I wanted all the lighting fixtures to use LEDs. This turned out to be no problem. The lighting issue was selection, too much to choose from. Gad. The recommended supplier for lights was a joy to deal with. The gentleman in charge of our account was great. I actually looked forward to going back to see him. Very entertaining. And, yes, most of the supply runs took several visits. Just as an exercise, go around your home and count the amount of light fixtures you have, not to mention the different types. Add to that the fact that you can put them where you want them, for the most part. One light was shuffled back and forth on a wall several times. We recently had to change a light fixture in our city home and it took the better part of the morning to select one and we knew exactly where that one was going. Interior doors, handles and hinges turned out to go fairly easy. Again, once in place you don’t think about them much. The nice thing is that once you select the doors and handles, they are the same through out the cottage. Doors are physically big so there is a big sense of achievement, once selected. Much different than light fixtures. There was one supplier that we only visited once. That was the main garage door supplier. One big door, one visit. I do remember them being a bit surprised when I asked for the slower door opener option. It used less power. OK, so I dug out our Country Cottage contract just to make sure of my facts. While I have it in front of me, let me tell you some of the actual items. Under the heading “Appliances:” -Builder’s appliance package allowance (basic black or white 4 piece) including tax. Under the heading “Fireplace”: -Main floor – fireplace : Gas fireplace, manufacture and model number or equal. -Trim to be brushed aluminum -1 row 12” tile around firebox. -Mantle: As per detail. Just to mention, that there was a fireplace in the show home, but we didn’t request a fireplace. This is the standard contract with this builder. There are six pages of this stuff. Some more headings are -Concrete: -Framing: -Electrical: (down to the door bell and ruff in for fireplace fan) -Heating: (including dryer vent and thermostat manufacturer) -Plumbing:(including hot water heater and dishwasher hook up) -Bathrooms:(toilet, sink and taps Make and model numbers or equal) --Etc etc etc…….. Now, I understand that a lot of this stuff has to be in place ready for their slotted time in construction but, at the time, it came at us from far left field. So if you are about to start the journey, be prepared. Next ITB, In The Beginning, Month 14 This is the segment that I try to remember what we went through to get Our Country Cottage. It is not getting any easier, folks. As I mentioned above I dragged out the contract to keep things straight. While browsing through it I found a section titled “Completion Date” where it stated, after some diligence and dispatch verbiage, and I quote “and to have the said dwelling house completed on or about 240 – 300 days after start of construction on site begins”, un quote, followed by many reasons, including acts of God, it might not get done. As you can see by the above title of this segment, we are starting month 14, getting close to 400 days, and we are a long ways off yet. Any who, on with Month 14. Spray foam insulation carried on with the battery room getting done. At some point I remember getting a phone call from the site supervisor, asking whether or not I wanted the garage spray foamed. This caused me a couple of sleepless nights, as I tried to come to an answer. Spray foaming the garage and the garage loft would add a lot to the cost of the project, but if I didn’t do it now, and did it at some later date, it would cost way more. My partner suggested that I spray foam it now and be done with it. The garage, and garage loft, were spray foamed later that month. We also found the utility room walls and the battery room walls and ceiling were sheeted with plywood. This is good for utilitarian rooms where equipment often needs to get screwed to the walls. We will talk about the utility room ceiling at a later date. There might not be enough material for a full segment but there is enough frustration for one. Cribbing for the cement work around the garage was done and a few days later the cement was poured. We now had a nice, double wide, garage door drain area, with a cement landing for deck stairs, and a cement area out the side door of the garage. Cement looks so good when it is new. We took the opportunity to have a cement generator pad poured as well. The generator specs said a gravel pad would do, but given the amount of water that can collect I thought getting it up on a proper pad would be best. It would take about a month before something got put on it and quite a bit more time would pass before that something would be fired up. It was towards the end of the month that we started getting some pressure to figure out the light fixtures. During one of our trips, I took pictures of all of the identifiable light fixture locations, so we would have a reference when selecting them at the supplier showroom. It also provided our sales guy some reference as well. I think it helped. Take a wide picture, as much of the whole room as you can, along with a more specific shot so that there is some context. The close-up of an electrical box on a wall does nothing. The end of the month found us at the flooring store, selecting the bit of carpet we needed, with flooring for the garage loft. If you remember most of the cottage floors are stamped and stained cement. Oh right, when we were specing the cottage at contract signing time, I specified that the floors needed to be able to support the cement. I was informed that there was a,light-weight cement that would not require this beefing up. After some investigation I found the lightweight stuff would not have the thermal retentive properties I originally wanted the cement floors for. So, beefed up floors it was. Last episode I told you about the white board list that was implemented. While going through the folders, I found other listing procedures. Every so often we would get together with the cottage supplier/builder and I would have printed out lists of this and that. The following is a list from a month 14 meeting -Inside hatches - site supervisor to design -Folding doors - need manufacturer to look at -Battery room hatch need sealing -Septic system -Interior doors - pantry door to be changed -Garage door -Drywall -Loft floor heating -Chimney finish -Bath tub insulated -Step up design -Stairs battery room, utility room, crawl space -Back bedroom garage door divider -Wiring for fan in living room -Winch bracket for battery room hatch -Roofing leftovers - keep? -Solar installation -Water -Inside railings -Air exchange. And then there was a list for us -Measure kitchen for island size (will the dishwasher door hit it?) -SD cards for trail cams -Check crawlspace for lighting -Get picture of folding door hardware -Measure fireplace moisture -Check upstairs shower for squeak -And upstairs bath tub for insulation -Check pantry door swing for room to manoeuvre -Battery room hatch seal -Tiles -Get electric winch And then there was a list for our interior designer. I might save that till next time. The above is to give you an idea of some of the things we went through and, to be honest, some of them, I am not sure of what they mean now. I think that is enough for now. Just looking at it roughly, we were doing weekly trips to the site, some times more. There were many times when we would show up and no one would be there but stuff had been done, and things had been delivered, and still in their boxes. I took the opportunity to take pictures, of the information on the boxes, to verify they were something that we wanted. This came in handy several times. Once I noticed that the air exchange unit had been delivered. A bit of research revealed that there was a low energy version available. I called the site supervisor and gave him the model number I wanted and the unit was swapped with little extra cost involved. Then there was the time the shower inserts were delivered and, armed with pictures of the model numbers, I spent several hours trying to figure out if they were the right ones or not. They were. Oh well. And now An “Our Country Cottage” update. I went up to Our Country Cottage about a week ago. As I pulled up next to the cottage, I could see about 4 white tale deer on the west side. A couple of them watched me get out of the vehicle, and then, all I saw was a group of white tails heading to the bush. The main purpose of the visit was to check on the battery levels. They were fine. Something funny is going on with one of the trail cams, though. It only recorded a couple of days then died. Hmmm. I swapped out the batteries and we’ll see next time. It was a nice day and for the first time in a long time, I enjoyed myself. I realized that I had been missing the place and spent some time looking at the scenery instead of the problems. It was so nice that I started thinking about calling the plumber to start getting things fixed and back on track. Two days later, it snowed. I still haven’t called the plumber. Next podcast we will carry on “In The Beginning” Month 15 and A Floor & A Ceiling. For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at “ourcountrycottageanarrative.com” If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage A Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time, have a good one.
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Episode #12 Our Masonry Heater & ITB More Construction
03/31/2017
Episode #12 Our Masonry Heater & ITB More Construction
A masonry heater is quite different from your standard fireplace or wood burning stove. A Fireplace or wood burning stove has a fire box with the chimney directly above it. The heat generated by the burning wood heats the immediate area around it and the smoke and some heat go up the chimney. In free standing, air tight and semi air tight, wood burning stoves, there are controls to regulate the amount of air entering the device and thus the intensity of the fire. This is done to prevent overheating and to prolong the burn. These types of wood burners do not retain much heat, so if wood is not burning there is no heat. Who wants to get up in the middle of the night to stoke the fire. Unfortunately, slowing the burn lowers the temperature of the burning wood resulting in more pollution and residue. I know this for a fact because our contractor built a fire in our masonry heater once and closed the fresh air intake to the point where he was used to running other fireplaces he had used. The same day he reported black goo leaking out of a couple of the cleaning hatches built into the heater. The glass, in the fireplace doors, were also black with soot. A masonry heater is quite a bit different. Fresh air comes in the bottom of the fire box and allows the wood to burn at a much higher temperature, minimizing pollution. The heat and what little gases remain then circulate around the oven, if you have the oven option, then down both sides of the heater, before they reconnect at the bottom and go up the chimney. By this time most of the heat has been transferred to the masonry. Once the wood has been burnt and all that remains is ash, the fresh air intake and chimney flu are closed to ensure the heat in the fire box and oven area is retained to be transmitted to the masonry as well. All this is achieved using precast refractory components to channel the air flow. These components made up most of the kit that I purchased. The kit also included the doors, hatches, grate, and a lot of specialized high temp linings and cords etc. We also got the oven option, so there was the oven door and other pieces that seal the oven cavity from the air flow as well. To tell you the truth I didn’t look at it much as it stayed covered, sort of, on the pallet for just under two months, until the masons started to put it together. It was the first thing my partner would check on our visits, to see if the cover had blown off, or not. A word about masons. This is another reason to have a project coordinator. I had no idea where to find one and technically speaking this was not the responsibility of the project coordinator but they have the connections a couple were found. These guys knew what they were doing. There was a bit of friction between the site super and one of the masons but we managed to get through it. Prior to them starting, we had a meeting where we were tasked with selecting the bricks we wanted to encase the heater. Most of the heavy things that make up the heater were not part of the kit. The fire brick and finishing brick were to be locally sourced, as to keep shipping costs down, etc. So, off to the local brick supplier we go. Yup I didn’t know we had one either. We opened an account for our mason to use as requested. If you think picking wall colour is hard try picking brick. So after a painful amount of time, and taking sample “brick boards, yes they have them, up to the cottage to see what it would look like “in place”, we settled on one. Back at the brick place we find out that it is no longer in production. I suggested they take the brick sample out of their selection. I can’t remember what happened next (suppressed memory I guess) but, we selected another, and were told this one could be two or four weeks for delivery. We said ok and that our mason would contact them with an order. At some point it came up that a fair amount of water was required to build the heater, I guess for mixing mortar etc. The well was there but there was no way of getting water out of it at that time. Our site supervisor said no problem, and asked how much water would be needed, and a large water tank showed up on the front deck, somehow. Kind of ironic, as this was all happening shortly after the flood and the ground was still very wet. Water water everywhere but not a drop for mortar…. Also the south of the cottage was all mud with the excavator redoing the weeping tile. At about this time we received the masons quote for the project. It was about five times the cost of the masonry kit. I was floored. I immediately called the supplier of the kit, to see if this was inline with what he had seen. Lets face it, he was the only other person I knew that had “brickage” experience. I was about to be floored again. He said he thought it was very reasonable, sighting that a plain version, on his website, was ten times kit cost and you could easily double that. I had to take a moment. Lesson to be learned, always ask what a typical finished cost would be for your project, especially in a field you have no knowledge of. OK, back at our country cottage we arrive to find the masons positioning the base plate of the heater. My partner asked if it was four inches from the wall (we had been discussing these sort of things). Our mason said it was two inches, the standard distance for fire places. I tried to call our supplier to confirm, as I couldn’t find the drawings, but there was no answer. We made an executive decision to move it out to four. It turned out that would be correct. Because this was a masonry heater it required the extra room. If we hadn’t arrived at that time, and my partner hadn’t noticed it, the heater would have been too close to the wall. The wall would have to have been moved along with narrowing the stairs. But a timely intervention and sliding the base plate two inches, before the adhesive set, was a lot easier. Close call. So with that taken care of, we were asked if we had selected the bricks and when were they going to show up. After going through the story and telling him they were two to four weeks out, he informed us that if he didn’t have bricks by the next week, we would have to look for a new mason. I seem to remember going into panic mode. I might have called our brick supplier to see what they had in stock, I might have talked to the site super, which was there at the time, but out of the haze, our mason said he found us some recycled bricks in a brick recycle yard in town, but they close soon and we need to look at them. We immediately left, got back to town and fought rush hour traffic to get there in time. They knew we were coming and took us to a stack of bricks that had been salvaged from a building demolition. They looked great! These were old bricks, the type that didn’t even have the holes in them. All the new bricks, that we looked at, had holes in them, something I didn’t want but had resigned myself to. A solid brick has more mass and heat storing capability. This worked out perfectly. So, that all happened on a Thursday, the next Tuesday we went up to our country cottage and the bricks were there. In fact the heater was about half done. Side story, a contractor went to pick up the bricks from the city and when he got there the guy in the brickyard told him the trailer he had wasn’t capable of carrying the bricks we had ordered. He had to get a bigger trailer. That Thursday, the masons were finished with the brick work. I wrote out a check and shook hands with the man. Caution, prepare for a very firm grip when you shake hands with a brick layer. It was like putting my hand in a vise. I was told to let the brick work dry for a good long time, a month or more, before the first fire. No problem, it was four months till the chimney was connected from the heater to the roof, and about another three months, till I noticed the outside part of the chimney was done, before that there was a piece of plywood covering the chimney. It was another two weeks till I got my act together and had the first small fire in the masonry heater. Other stuff had been keeping my attention. Building a fire in the masonry heater is a little bit different, as well. You put a layer of logs length wise on the bottom, yup right flat on the bottom of the fire box so that it slopes to the left (Ie bigger logs to the right) The next layer goes cross wise, slope to the front (IE bigger logs to the back. Then ball up about four to five sheets of newspaper (more if it’s a local paper, they are smaller) and tuck in on the left, putting kindling on top of the paper. Then another layer of logs length wise, keeping the slope to the left and maybe another crosswise layer keeping the slope to the front. A layer of logs can consist of three to five, depending on the size. Starting the fire is very easy. I use a BBQ lighter and light the newspaper in a couple of spots, close the doors, open the fresh air intake and off it goes. The first time it failed to start, was when I was bragging to my daughter that it hadn’t failed yet, typical. Since then, maybe failed five times max. Once, was when the power failed and all the wood, kindling, paper etc was very cold. I was also very cold and probably didn’t pay much attention to the build. The fresh air grate is toward the back of the fire box, so as the wood burns down I will arrange what is left to over the grate. I close the fresh air inlet before I open the doors, and use a long poker, with work gloves, to perform the task. It can be very hot. There have been times when I have noticed steam coming from the gloves afterward. With the wood re-positioned, I close the doors and open the fresh air vent. It can look like a blast furnace, when I do that. Typically a burn lasts for one and one half to two hours. From experience, heat will be felt on the upper side of the heater about twelve hours later and will continue to be heated for another twelve to twenty four hours, some times longer. Oven temperatures will be retained over one hundred degrees F for that time period as well. One burn can get the oven up to two hundred Fplus while two burns in a twenty four hour period will see 250F to 300 degreesF, plus. I keep an oven thermometer in the oven at all times. One little pleasure I take from the heat radiating from the doors, while a fire is in full blaze, is standing in front of them after a shower drying myself. I only tend to do that when I am by myself. When the bathroom is only 10C, it feels quit nippy when you get out the shower and the heat is very welcome. Have to be careful not to scorch the towel, or anything else, for that matter. Well enough of our masonry heater, for now. There are still tails to tell of the fuel that it uses etc. OK the wood. Will leave that for another time . And now, ITB “In the Beginning” This is the section where I try to remember how we got Our Country Cottage to this stage. In the last installment of ITB, we finished up year one. A year of frustration, delays, disasters and sorrow, to have a cottage looking almost done from the outside. Hey, maybe there’s a movie to be made here! “In a Land, before cottage!” OK Month #13 (August #2) Some time very early in the month the cottage was spray foamed. When we arrived one day, we found a cement pump truck just packing up. I can only assume we just missed seeing the cement being pumped in through the bedroom window on the upper level. The master bedroom had the floor poured and the crawl space was poured. The crawl space floor wasn’t on the list or things to have a cement floor but several people had convinced me to do so for lots of really good reasons. I am glad I did, even though it resulted in less head room. The main floor hadn’t been poured yet and all the in-floor radiant heat pipes and mesh were exposed. Interesting. I had been given drawings of the pipe layout to approve, or go over, but it was neat to see the actual thing. It was this month that I started taking pictures of our white board in the city. The white board was used to keep lists of stuff for out site supervisor to look at (in purple) and a list of stuff we had to do (in orange). At this point it was purple 9 items, orange 11. Purple had spray foam and drainage issues etc and orange had tile selection, door selection etc,etc. Over the course of the whiteboard years some items never made it off. It wasn’t long before the main floor was poured, stamped, and stained. The master bedroom was also stamped, and stained at some point. Towards the end of the month, the cottage was dry-walled. That made a huge difference. For the first time, we got an idea what rooms would look like. We also found out that it took about twenty minutes for emergency to make it to our country cottage, from the nearest hospital, when a worker fell off his ladder, while working on the master bedroom ceiling, and knocked himself out, when he hit the concrete floor. We were not there at the time, but were told he was ok. The month ended with us noticing the utility room and the crawl space were spray foamed. And, as you might expect, these caused some issues, that are another story, waiting to be told. I think I will wrap up ITB at this point. Stay tuned for month #14. Will we get water, power, septic. Spoiler, probably not. Next Our Country Cottage an Update or Still waiting to be fixed In the past couple of weeks I have been up to our Country Cottage a couple of times. The first time was mainly to check on the batteries, how charged they were and if they needed to be topped up with water. When we arrived, late morning, the control panel reported them to be at 100% state of charge. Very good, and the sun was starting to contribute. My daughter did a vac of the place sucking up the collection of dead flies I had been ignoring over the past few months. Yes we get flies through the winter, too, mostly dead ones. Not sure how that works. One of my other concerns was the melting snow etc, and where the run off was going. For some reason the flood was fresh in my mind, funny that. I noticed that the trough in front of the garage was full, but not over flowing, and frozen. I flipped on the breakers for the heat trace that was in the trough and made a mental note to turn it off before leaving. The batteries did need some water, so we topped them off. Battery care might be an upcoming story some time. After looking at the trail cam by the cottage and the expanse of snow I would have to trudge through to get to it I decided to leave it. Before we left, I turned off the heat trace and noticed the ice had melted around it and a little stream of water was wending its way to freedom. Back at home I was still thinking about that trail cam. I did a few quick calculations and found out it might last about another five days before the SD card is full. Hmm As it happened we were in the area about a week later so we dropped in for a quick SD card switch. By this time the snow had receded quit a bit, and the ground was soft and soggy. The SD card was swapped and then we noticed the water flowing through the garage trough. Good stuff. It could have done it by itself but turning on the heat trace, the week prior, helped. I now have a new sign of spring! My emergency alert system hasn’t reported a temperature below +5C for two weeks now. If you remember I have two separate systems that report the temperature, via email, alternately, twice a day. I now, actually, look forward to these, little, Our Country Cottage, insights. Next podcast we will carry on “In The Beginning” with month #14 and maybe, something else. For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at “ourcountrycottageanarrative.com” If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage A Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes , Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time have a good one.
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Episode #11 Water Water Everywhere & ITB Construction Continues
03/14/2017
Episode #11 Water Water Everywhere & ITB Construction Continues
Water Water Everywhere describes what can happen if the natural flow of water is not taken into account during the design stage and ITB, In The Beginning, carries on to the end of the first year of construction. In previous episodes I have mentioned how we controlled outside water and how we improved the original water control design, or lack there of. It started one day during the early construction stages. We had driven up to our country cottage to see the progress. Things had been moving along at a good clip for a while. In fact it was less than a week since our last visit, but something was different. First we noticed that no one was there, then we noticed a large pool of water in front of the garage. The forms for the garage floor were still in place, as the cement for the floor had been poured a couple of weeks earlier. They were almost submerged. There was a two foot wide sink hole across the drive where the water pipe and cables had been trenched and filled in a while ago. The supports for a fifth wheel trailer had sunk into the ground and the bottom of the trailer was resting on the dirt. There were pools of water all over and it seemed everywhere the ground had been disturbed it had dropped a couple of feet. Getting up to the door was a bit of a stretch. Everything had settled. Once inside, the crawl space hatch revealed that the water was inside as well, and at the same level that it was outside. The crawl space had about two or three feet of water in it. Once the cover had been pried up to the utility room it revealed about six or seven feet of water. The floor to the utility room was about four feet lower than the crawl space and all the water was at the same level. I called the site supervisor and told him we had six or seven feet of water in the utility room. He said he would come out and evaluate the situation and figure out what he would need to get the water out. He later revealed me that, when I first called him, he didn’t really believe what I had told him about the amount of water, saying that most home owners tend to exaggerate in these situations. It wasn’t until he dropped a saw horse into the utility room and watched it disappear below the water that he realized I was telling him the truth. There was no equipment in the utility room, still early construction, but the sump tub had been installed and hooked up to the weeping tile. I figure it was the weeping tile that gave water the way in and as the outside ground was saturated with rain and spring run off it just did what water does, and found its natural level. I’ll just go over the weeping tile concept once again for those of you that missed it the first time. Weeping tile is a large flexible pipe with holes in it that is laid around the foundation of a house to collect water and get it away from the foundation. It is one of the main reasons basements are dry. In the city, the weeping tile is connected to the storm drain system and water drains away through that. At our country cottage, the weeping tile was put around the foundation and fed to the sump tubs. The sump tub would have an electric sump pump to pump the water through a pipe to the outside so that it would drain off on the downward side of the cottage. At the time of the flood, the sump pumps were not installed and even if they were, there was no electricity to power them. I also have serious doubts that they would have been able to handle the amount of water they would have had to handle, anyway. Our country cottage was a very depressing place at this time. The snow had gone, leaving uncovered construction garbage among the mud and sink holes. A plan was devised to correct the water drainage situation and prevent it from happening again. It took a while to get the water out as it was still the rainy season and water was still finding its way in. About two weeks after finding the place full of water an excavator showed up to start correcting the problems. I was impressed with the size of the thing. It was a CAT 322B, not a small device. The ground was dug up and the weeping tile was redirected away from the cottage and “day lighted” in the middle of the toboggan run south or the cottage heading downward to the valley. There were mounds of mud everywhere. I was told the weeping tile was covered with lots of gravel to aid drainage and then filled in. Four or five days after the excavator showed up, a bulldozer (a CAT 955L) showed up to contour the ground and direct surface water in the future. A swale was put in north of the garage and down the west side of the cottage that would handle most of the water that would drain from the land north of the buildings. A swale is sort of a wide ditch or depression that gives water a path to follow and bypass the buildings. The dozer/excavator operator really knew what he was doing and did a great job for us. It took a couple of weeks to get the weeping tile and contouring done. The excavator was on the property for over a month. At least we had plenty of room for this sort of stuff. It was at this time that a trough was put in the full width of the garage and connected to the weeping tile system with a grate on top. This would handle all the water the drive, beside the cottage, would collect and any water the swale didn’t handle. One problem. The water would freeze in the trough, blocking the drainage. I realized this the first winter when it did freeze and it took several hours just to chip the ice away from on top of the trough to get to it and another hour or so of our contractor with a texas tourch, basically an open nozzle connected to a propane tank, to thaw it out. There are still chips in the cement where the axes, shovels and whatever would move ice went past the ice. A heater trace was put in the full length of the trough and all the way to the weeping tile. I turn this on manually in the spring, when needed. The heat trace is kind of neat, in that, when turned on, only the sections needed, will heat up as required, not the full length all the time. Every foot or so there are sensors that determine weather it needs to turn on or not. Smart wire, cool. Did all this work? Well, so far, yes. The most I have seen to date is the sump filling up to the weeping tile level in the utility room. The sump pump was set to turn on if it ever got higher than the weeping tile and has yet to do so. The trough in front of the garage has handled major rain downpours with no problem. When the ground does get saturated a pool forms for a short while and the weeping tile redesign takes care of it. If you are building your own country cottage it would pay to evaluate the lay of the land and any path water might have to take. It would have been much more cost effective to have this all figured out before buildings are built. And now ITB - In The Beginning Construction Continues I have been going through my pix and related dox and hopefully got most of the story for this part together. A lot was going on from time to time and I wasn’t keeping a written daily log. So here is my best shot Oh, just to mention that many times we would go to the site only to find no one there. It would take some poking around to see if anything new had been done. Now on with… Month #9 I was out of town for the first half of the month and when I returned a new coat of snow covered the ground. The first trip up to see the progress on the property found new snow but not enough to cover the construction scrap and garbage. The ground was very messy. The cottage and garage had most of the metal roofing installed and some interior framing had been done. There were actually people there, working. Four trucks were in the drive. Siding was going on and other stuff, too. I think this was the most activity we saw during the whole project. Might explain the mess. The next visit saw the masonry heater kit show up. It sat outside on the dirt for about a month and a half. This was the end of winter and I took the opportunity to get a six foot snow blade for my skid steer, delivered, ready for next season. The end of the month found us trying to select bricks for the masonry heater. This turns into another story on its own. Month #10 Started well with the arrival of the trail cams I had ordered. It also found us trying to figure out two pieces of equipment that no one could identify with. I had thought they belonged to our first site supervisor who had passed, but it became evident they were not. These were not small items, a skid steer loader and a rather large flatbed trailer. Yup another story. The folding doors that separate the sun room from the living room were installed. These were heavy duty exterior folding doors that would let us keep the sun room unheated through the winter but let us open up the space in summer. Decking was going on around the cottage, along with the stairs to get up to the garage loft. The garage cement floor had been poured. It was actually getting its final smoothing while we were there. I noticed that there was some electrical and plumbing ruff ins done and there was insulation put over the gravel in the crawl space ready for the floor to be poured. Things were moving along. Then the flood happened. Yes, the one that was described at the beginning of this podcast. Month #11 The grass was green but pretty soggy. The county property inspector had left a nice long list of items to be seen to. At this point this was not my concern. The poles and cables for the solar panels were lying on the ground ready to be installed. The grounds were looking a bit tidier. The excavator showed up and the south side of Our Country Cottage turned into piles of muck and mud for several weeks. It was during the later part of this month that the masonry heater construction took place along with the drama it created. The end of the month was sunny with the pools of water receding. Month #12 The solar panel poles had been installed and were being held vertical with several straps while the cement cured. The upstairs bath tub was installed on its pedestal, so we could look out the window while having a soak. That wouldn’t be for awhile, yet. As the month progressed the HVAC duct work was installed along with vent fans and other framing and electrical ruff ins. The straps disappeared from the solar panel poles. The crawl space and battery room floor got poured and the battery room was framed. The plumbing for the showers also were installed, once we figured out where we wanted the taps and shower heads to go and which end the seat in the shower stalls would be so the correct inserts could be ordered. During this period the front of our country cottage was a changing landscape of rising and falling piles of dirt but it all settled down by the end of the month, looking rather nice. So that concludes the first year of construction. From the outside Our Country Cottage and its garage were looking fairly complete with only bits on siding and most of the trim yet to be installed. The main garage door was also not installed, along with some cement work and all the steps up to the decks. The interior was far from complete, no drywall, no flooring. Etc,etc,etc Power, water and septic seemed along ways away. Next podcast we will carry on “In The Beginning” with year 2, or as much as I can stand, and the tale of the masonry heater. For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at “ourcountrycottageanarrative.com” If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage A Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The, Our Country Cottage a Narrative, podcast is on iTunes , Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time have a good one.
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Episode#10 Back Up Generator & ITB Construction
02/19/2017
Episode#10 Back Up Generator & ITB Construction
Back Up Generators, Why am I giving up on this one so fast, and In the Beginning (ITB), looks at the first days of construction. So generators are much like cars. Well at least the engine part is. You can get a high end jobbie that will cost a fortune or a low end unit that costs a lot less. I went for a low end unit under the self misguided assumption that I would hardly need to run it. At the time I selected the model, I seem to remember several people advising me to step up a bit but I had convinced myself and also convinced my supplier that I was looking at the whole cottage project as a experiment and well, OK, Our Country Cottage was turning out to be way more expensive than originally thought. This is one area that would not be too hard to upgrade later. Not like the windows or the insulation etc. The generator is not even in the cottage. It is across the drive on a cement pad so replacement wouldn’t even require going inside. Not even getting a muddy boot print on the floor. In the price range I was looking at, there were several manufacturers, but only one that had a warranty that would get me through at least one winter. This was important to me as this was an experiment and I really didn’t know how much use it would have. I was hoping that when all was said and done I wouldn’t need it at all. There is still part of me that is holding on to that ideal, even though reality has smacked me in the face a couple of times now. The first smack in the face.... The first smack in the face came when construction got delayed until winter and then some. I will get into this more in this podcasts instalment of “In the Beginning”. But for now suffice to say that when our generator was put into service, it became the main power supply for the cottage construction and heat. Yup the whole cottage was heated by one of those little electric cube construction heaters that kept the generator running, for many times, 24/7. The hours piled up very quickly. Settings for the solar power system were still being worked out. I would show up at the site with the sun shining brightly and the generator running full bore and had been for several days, even though there was enough power from the sun. gad. I have since realized that this range of units are mainly designed to be used in city back yards when a storm strikes and the city power goes off for an hour or so, so you can still watch TV and surf the net. 3000 hours is a lot for these things and will only get that far if serviced well. Ours wasn’t. Before I knew it there was over 500 hours on it. The first oil change should have been at less than a hundred hours. To top it off our plumber had noticed that two of the main bolts holding the generator part to the motor were hanging down as though they had come undone or something. There was so much going on at this time I didn’t pay as much attention to this as I should. If you are wondering what the plumber was doing at the generator, he is a pipe fitter that hooked up the propane to the generator. At some later point, when it was warmer and I remembered, I tried to put these bolts back on and found I couldn’t. They were too short. And they were too short because they had broken off. Yup they had snapped off flush. The only thing I can think of that would cause this is that the unit had been dropped at one point, but I don’t know this for sure and no other information was brought forward. Anyway, only several months into service the unit died, just gave up the ghost. The supplier offered to replace it at cost and being in the latter part of winter and still relying on it for construction, I agreed. The solar power system was starting to get figured out and it was getting warmer and I thought the end was near for construction. Yeah well. So the day came for the generator to be replaced. I had been kept busy trying to keep heat in the cottage by building a couple of fires everyday for about ten days. As it turned out they were going to replace just the motor and generator part of the unit, leaving me with the original case, wiring etc. I was so burnt, I was just happy to get a gen running again. Ha HA burnt cause I was building fires ..Ha Moving on.. The second smack in the face…. So yes, this is the second generator of this make and model that let me down and froze the cottage out, this time breaking toilets etc. It was pointed out to me that even though the generator and motor had been replaced all the support stuff was from the first one and probably coming to the end of its life as well. And this is why I wasn’t so kean on building fires everyday and why I shut Our Country Cottage down relatively quickly and why I am so ready to kick this generator to the curb. Why did I replace it with the same thing the first time and what happened to the warranty? There was a lot of stuff going on at the time and all I saw was that the cottage needed power and heat and, at the time, it was the easiest and quickest solution. It is hard to take a step back to evaluate things when your back is against a wall. The warranty, I can only say I walked on it because I knew how much abuse the unit had been through. And I might have got a bit of a break on the replacement. Maybe not though, in hind sight. And now In The Beginning.... Starting Construction This is the section where I try to remember what went on. This time I am drawing on the pictures that I took during this phase. I think that if you undertake a project like this it is important that you try to record as much as possible especially during construction. I always had my camera with me when I visited the site. I got into the habit of printing out these picture on plain copy paper and putting them in chronological order in those cheap paper binders, starting a new one each year. In our case it was especially valuable as you will find out soon. I would also like to mention that our project coordinator said that site visits probably weren’t necessary as the site supervisor always takes pix for their records and copies would be passed on. Well, that didn’t happen but I can understand why, again, in our case. It all started out good in the early spring of the year, with papers being signed and deposits being made to get things started. We were told that it would take 240 to 300 days to complete construction once it began. I remember we had a family vacation in the beginning of June and I was concerned that I might miss being there to make some decisions during beginning stages. I didn’t have to worry. When we got back from holiday we went up expecting to see great things. Nothing had been done. And so it began, the weekly trips to the site, driving down the access road hoping to see our gate open, a sign someone was working, only to find it time and time again locked with nothing going on. I have come up with a method to keep things in order. I will start with the first indications of construction as month number 1, and proceed from there. Month #1. OK, it was August and the best part of the summer was winding down. On the 21st, I noticed the grass and some top soil had been removed. There were red strings outlining the cottage foot print. And five days later more top soil had been removed. I used my ruff cut mower to cut down as much grass around the building site as I could. On the 30ith the cottage package was delivered and unload into an open area south of the building site. Very exciting for sure. Plenty of time to get it assembled to the lock up stage before the snow flies. Wrong. Month #2 Saw some minor excavation in the early part, with it being ready for forms by the end of the month. Some major holes dug out. Month #3 The beginning saw some early snow. I was surprised to find the footings were done, during one of my weekly visits in the middle of the month. I was also surprised to see an error in the footings by, what would become the battery room entrance. I always had our copy of the plans with me to verify stuff. Yup wrong… I called the site super and explained the error, followed up with emailed drawings etc. It was easy to correct at this stage. Month #4 Snow was getting more common. The foundations were done! And the poles were on site ready to be installed for the solar panels. These were no joke poles each weighing about 1000 pounds. There was a pump in the well, now, with wires run into the “basement”. The well had been dug over five months ago and had been waiting patiently like the rest of us for something to happen. It would have to wait a fair bit more, before it would be put into use. We were also asked, towards the end of the month, to select our kitchen cabinets and counters etc. It was hard to do given we only had some cement walls in the ground. Month #5 Nothing got done this month! Month #6 Floor joists and sub-floor were installed on the foundation. On the last day of the month we met with the site supervisor at the site and on the way home established an account at a propane company, making arrangements for a tank to be installed. Month #7 On the first day of the month, the day just after being at the site, I got a phone call from our project coordinator, informing me that out site supervisor had died, when his truck ran off the road, going home late that night. He left a wife and a young family. Our project coordinator found another crew within a week or so and they jumped on our project with both feet. By the middle of the month walls were up. It was at this time some of those pictures I was telling you about before came in very handy as the new crew had not seen what, or how things had been done. I was able to email the new site supervisor pictures of areas he had questions about. By the end of the month the cottage had a roof, windows and doors. The garage was well underway too. It also left us trying to pick out kitchen and bathroom fixtures along with finishes. It is hard to pick out colours when the room you are choosing for is finished in framing studs. Month #8 The beginning of the month found us with the cottage in lock up stage and the garage moving along well. The snow was starting to disappear revealing lots of mud and construction debris. At least while the snow was fresh it all looked nice and white. To add to the list of decisions we had to make, we also had to come up with what we wanted for a railing for the only inside stair case, and the masonry heater, and the cement floor finishes. The end of the month saw great progress in construction, a rise in mud and a rise in construction garbage. Also a death in my family would take me away for the first couple of week in month #9 I think this is a good place to end this installment of “In The Beginning” It has been one of the hardest ones to do so far and there is so much more. We haven’t even got to the generator part yet. During the process of making this I have realised that not only are the pictures I took important but all the emails and texts as well. Hold on to all of them. You never know. Also, I didn’t realize how many decisions have to be made when you build something from scratch. Just look around where you live now. Every door, door knob, hinge, design and finish. And the bathrooms OK enough. A quick update bout how Our Country Cottage. It is much the same. When we arrived (my eldest daughter came with me) about a week ago now it was below freezing inside, the water left in the tankless toilets was frozen along with a bottle of water in the kitchen sink. We cleared some snow, my daughter managed to run the snow thrower down the length of the drive for her first time. Probably better than my first attempt. I must admit it was hard to let her go at first. I checked the battery levels and took the data logger and solar info. Also collected one of the trail cam cards. The batteries had died about five days prior, so fresh batts. Oh and my little alert systems are reporting in faithfully twice a day every day to say all is OK and the temperature. Good stuff. I am slowly getting used to the messages coming everyday and not getting freaked out when I see them. For so long they were a sign of problems. Next podcast we will carry on “In The Beginning” with month #9 and I will tell you bout what happens when the spring thaw fills Our Country Cottage’s basement. For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at “ourcountrycottageanarrative.com” If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage A Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes , Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time, have a good one.
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Episode#9 Alert System & Design Path
01/30/2017
Episode#9 Alert System & Design Path
Last time I said I would tell you about our power alert system. Don’t get worried, this isn’t going to get too technical. I realized early on that not being at Our Country Cottage all the time would leave us open to some major problems if something was to fail to work properly, especially if power was to fail. Seems a little funny to be talking about this now, after an undetected power failure. But anyway. The original thought was to have some way that our cottage could tell us if power fails. To that end, I found our phone company had devices that work from cell phone signals that would provide internet access. I didn’t want to spend a lot of cash for internet up there so this seemed like a perfect solution. For very little cash we got very little data, 100 meg. Just right for the odd email. It has been working flawlessly. Cell phone signal at our country cottage is a bit hit and miss. If you have your phone in the right place , I know of 3 or 4 places cell phones will work in the living room and a couple of places you can lean your phone to send or get a text. The place I put this device seems to work all the time. Up high on the kitchen cabinets, against an outside wall closest to where I think a cell tower might be. OK, that gets us limited internet. There are several single board computers out there that are very inexpensive. One is called a Raspberry Pi. This runs a free operating system called Linux and can be very easily programmed using a scripting language called Python. The Raspberry Pis are run headless, that is to say without monitor or keyboard. I use my laptop to connect to them via a local WiFi and a Windows program called remote desktop. I built a small circuit that would let the Pi detect if there was or was not AC power. When the Pi detects power has failed it is programmed to email me and tell me so. A big part of this system is an uninterruptible power supply. It will provide power for a short time after the AC power has failed to keep the Pi running and the cellular internet device powered so that the email will be sent. This system saved me a couple of times last year. Once when a breaker was tripped and disconnected the generator from the cottage (a value was set too low and was easily corrected) and once when the oil level in the generator got too low and the generators self protection system stopped it from starting (topped up the oil and it started right up). There were a couple of problems. Every so often the program just seemed to stop running. I would just manually start it up again and it would carry on but I would not know that unless I was there and tested it. The big mistake I made was only knowing when there was a problem. No problem, no email. This is the main reason for the freeze up issue of late. The system was down for about eight days before I stumbled on it. To be a bit more proactive I now have two Raspberry Pi systems and two uninterruptible power supplies. So if one fails the other will work. Each system now emails me on alternate days, twice a day, to let me know it is OK and the temperature at the time of email. (I added a temperature sensor to them so I have an indication that it’s getting close to freezing inside). The power fail program is different from the OK program and originally had to be started manually. I now have it set up to run the program automatically on boot up. So if a Pi resets for some unknown reason, the power alert program will start by itself. They both should email me if power fails. But, you ask, what if the cellular internet device fails? There is only one of those. There is only one of those, but if that fails I won’t get my, all is OK message with the temp and I will know something is wrong within half a day or so, max. I just got an email from Our Country Cottage, by the way, saying all is OK and the temp is 7.5 C. Must be cloudy today. Remember, there is no heat in the cottage at the moment, so not too bad. Feeling confidant in my alert system again. And now…. In The Beginning This is the section that I try to remember how it all began, this time the cottage design, or at least how we got to the final design. Way back, it started as a sketch of a compound, with a main house and numerous out buildings. One for every one of my “hobbies”. This included a recording studio, a guest house for recording artists, a photography studio including a dark room (I told you it was back a ways), an electronics lab, and a small movie theatre. There were probably more that slip my mind at the moment. My significant other was/is still is not aware of most of them. Dreams dreams. When we started working on the design together, things got a bit more real. We were first drawn by the kit log home ads found in many magazines. Then came home and garden shows along with log home shows and on and on. There was always one exhibitor that had the “How to Design Your Dream Home” kit. Cost was somewhere from $10 to $25 or so and included the latest shiny full color catalogue of their products built and finished by masters. Beautiful! And then there was the pad of squared paper to draw out floor plans and a getting started guide, some included a pencil and a design template so you could quickly place your fridge, stove and sink. What they didn’t include was your final design and an indication of the pain it would take to get there. I am now looking at, what is probably, the last planning kit we picked up. There is “A Step-by-step Guide to Bring Your Dream Home to Life”. Actual title. Its 4 pages long with the first page being just a picture. Yes there is a pencil. Did we get anything out of these kits. In the long run they did manage to keep the fire lit and fueled our enthusiasm. So maybe not a complete waste. It was decided that we would like to be as eco friendly as possible and we were lucky enough to find a couple in town that design very efficient and eco friendly houses that could and should be off grid. Their town house is a marvelous example of what could be achieved within the city limits. Very cool. We hired them to design an eco friendly off the grid cottage for us on our property. It started with the question, what do you want the cottage for? It took a bit of soul searching and pondering to come up with an answer. My sole mates concepts were somewhat different than mine, on the get go, and possibly to this day. We replied with a two part answer with some overlap and went from there. After many meetings and generating many design revisions a set of construction plans were drawn up and the design was complete. Except for one thing. We didn’t like the overall look of the place, even though it was designed for maximum efficiency and eco friendly up the whazoo. We didn’t like the look. It reminded me of a shoe box from the outside. So, after a deep breath, we started all over again, right from the beginning… Log home shows, dealer show homes in our city, design kits. I mentioned magazines and there are plenty out there. They can give you a view of what could be yours in their main article, show casing spectacular and spectacularly out of reach properties. But, also in these mags are ads for more modest samplings. This is where our next idea came from. One day we saw something that was completely different to us, a circular house. A little research found one within a two hour drive, and not to far from our property. We went for a visit. A very neat home. So neat we went to visit the factory where they were made. It was a six or eight hour drive, so we made a week end of it, saw the facility, got the latest and greatest info on these unique domiciles, and had a good time. It took a while for us to come to the conclusion that the design although different was not us either. That being said we have become friends with the couple that owned the home we visited. Again, we started from the beginning. Frustrating or what, but not giving up. We visited one of the remaining kit show homes in our city. This time we looked at it differently. The actual show home, that is. If we just flip the design, add a few things here, take away a few things there, compress this expand that and there you go. It is a lot easier to modify something you can look at, and stand in, than to start from square zero. The salesman also ran a construction company that was experienced at building these things. A big plus for me. I wouldn’t have to be the site manager trying to arrange all the trades etc. He also gave me some valuable advice, when we got down to it. I had always envisioned putting the cottage on a pad. That is to say no basement at all just a concrete pad. He persuaded me to put in a crawl space just for ease of plumbing etc. The footings had to go below the frost level, anyway, it was not that much more to add a floor for a crawl space. This expanded to our full height utility room and the full height battery room. I have not looked back since. Another one of his ideas was to use powder coated rebar for out railings outside. They look great. And, yes he warned us of the ice and snow sliding off of metal roofs but we went with metal anyway. So that is how we ended up with what we have. Back to the present. I have been thinking a lot about the failure at Our Country Cottage and have come to a few conclusions. I some respects it is good that it happened like it did. Now I know what will happen if power fails again in the cold of winter. Sure I am looking forward to a new and much better generator. It should be way more reliable than the previous one, but sooner or later all things fail. Now, because I have seen first hand what happens when inside temps get too low, I know what to do. Get the water out of the toilet tanks, turn off the well water and drain as much as you can. Open up all taps. Relocate all freezable liquids and on and on. Maybe keep a gallon or so of RV antifreeze around to pour in the sinks and toilets. I still haven’t seen the end of this but I won’t be so panicked if it happens again. By the time you hear this I should have some new pix up on the web site. They will include what frozen toilets looks like and how I dealt with them along with some winter wonderland Our Country Cottage pix. Yup there are still roses to be smelt, just don’t put you tongue on them :). Also, if you would rather read this stuff, or read along, go to the web site under Podcast. The formatting is much more readable there. I don’t know, but iTunes just mashes it all together and I think the other two aren’t much better. If you go to the website at our countrycottageanarrative.com you will find four headings. Home - the home page where you start at Our Country Cottage – this is where all the pix are Podcast – you can listen to, and or, read the podcast notes there Contact – easy place to send me an email Please note that the pix under Our Country Cottage have several layers so take time to explore. Next podcast I will let you know why I am seemingly, so willing to give up on the generator so quickly, and “In the Beginning” looks at the first days of construction. And again For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at “ourcountrycottageanarrative.com” If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage A Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes , Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time, have a good one.
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Episode#8 It's Hard To Smell The Roses When They Are Frozen
01/16/2017
Episode#8 It's Hard To Smell The Roses When They Are Frozen
At the end of the last podcast I said I would tell you about day 2, after the power failure and where we stand at this moment. It has been about a month since I found Our Country Cottage frozen and low on power and some things are the same, and some things have changed. The generator is dead and there is still no water in the cottage. The toilets are still in disrepair and given all that, I have decided that Our Country Cottage will remain as such, till we can count on consistently above freezing temps. I will explain later. But for now.... Day 2 and beyond. I arrived with one thought in mind. When things thaw out, those frozen toilet tanks will put water all over the floor. If you remember I had destroyed the downstairs tank as much as I could in panic mode, but the guts were still attached and they still contained a fair amount of ice, not to mention the upstairs toilet. Well I didn’t have to worry about them thawing out right away. They were still frozen solid. I built a fire. The batteries were at 71%, the living room was +5 C and the generator was not running but it fired right up when I asked it to. A quick call to my plumber confirmed that the toilet tanks were held on by two screws that had to be removed from inside the tank. After some chiselling around on the downstairs toilet, I located said screws and managed to get the remainder of the tank off and placed it in the shower to thaw. Armed with my new found knowledge as to the location of the screws I did a surgical strike on the upstairs lump of ice. First removing the porcelain that was in the way and then chiselling directly to the screws, removing the tank and then placing the tank in the shower to thaw. A couple of notes. 1-Always wear work gloves when you are dealing with broken porcelain, it is very sharp, and 2-Use a box to collect the broken pieces in. Garbage bags won’t do, even doubled up extra thick construction grade garbage bags. Did I mention broken porcelain is very sharp. It cuts right through the plastic as fast as you try to pick it up. That is about all I can remember from day two. My daily Cottage log became sadly neglected while I was in emergency mode. Unfortunately these are the times you should be keeping the best notes. All is not lost, however. As a matter of course I always text my significant other when I arrive with the state of Our Country Cottage. This normally includes battery condition, whether the gen is running, temp in the place etc. I found, a while ago, some software that will take texts from my phone and create a spread sheet out of them. I can select all or just one person per sheet. In this case, I have a series of texts to and from my generator service guy as I was trying to trouble shoot the gen. They are all in order, dated and time stamped. I also take pictures, with a small camera or my phone. As a rule I always have my phone with me, so why not. It is another time stamped record to look back on. These are the notes and pix I am relying on to fill in the gaps for this podcast. Ok, to try and keep this in order, day 1 was the 14th and day 2 was the 15th. I will now refer to the dates. 17 Dec- Gen seemed to be working ok. Built fire. And just so I am not repetitive, I built a fire for all the following days I went to Our Country Cottage. 19 Dec- Batteries were at 62%.Lower than normal. Another gen error but it cleared and fired up. 21 Dec- Batts at 90%. Installed redundant power fail alert system. I have a bit more faith in getting an alert. 26 Dec- The batteries were at 78% and the generator had run earlier. The living room was +10 C and all was looking good. 28 Dec- I wasn’t planning on going up but my new power alert system reported a power loss, so I headed out. The gen had error condition but it cleared and fired up. It then ran for about 15 minutes and quit. First time it quit while running! I cleared the error and it cranked a bit then stopped. The next error would not clear and it would not crank, or even try to crank, even though the battery was in good shape and the motor was free to turn. Without a generator back up esp at this time of year (Very little sun. The shortest day of the year was Dec 21 or 22. Go figure.) there was no way that I could keep the boiler running to put heat in the cottage. I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to build a fire regularly, every day or every second day depending on the weather. I could not stay there. The lack of water alone would have made it very difficult, not to mention the cold and no toilets. That would mean a 3 hour commute time, one and one half up and one and one half back. Spend at least two or three hours there, build a fire and wait for it to burn down so I could close up the flu and fresh air intake. Oh and um rustic toilet facilities. 29 Dec- Batts were 64 % and charging by solar. Did some trouble shooting on the gen but didn’t find anything. 30 Dec- Batts were at 73% and charging by solar. They were at 90% when I left. Took a couple of days for New years. 02 Jan- Batts at 73%. 03 Jan- Batts at 91% and it was very sunny so I turned on the boiler go get some more heat in the place. Yes, there was enough sun to charge the batteries and run the boiler at the same time. Up to this point I had been trying to get the generator to run but this day, I called it. I realized that even if I did get it to crank and run there were other issues. Basically I had lost confidence in it. I turned the boiler off before I left. 04 Jan- Batts at 96% and charging. We were in another cold snap so I had a small electric heater going in upstairs bathroom. Topped up the batteries with water and cleared the snow from the roof above the battery room hatch. There was a lot of snow up there. 06 Jan- Batts at 85%. Starting to think more about closing the place down. 07 Jan- Picked up a short bit of, basically, garden hose to drain the water tanks and a wall thermometer for the utility room. OK the hose was clear plastic hose with a garden hose fitting put on it. Guess what you can’t find at your home center in the middle of winter. Yup, cheap garden hose or any type of water hose under 50 feet or under 50 bucks. As it turned out the clear pipe was really good for letting me see the water flow. When I got to the cottage and went to assemble the hose it was cold and didn’t want to come out of its coiled condition. There was some heat left in the masonry heater oven from yesterdays fire, so I popped it in there to warm up. After a bit of time I took it out and managed to straighten it out some. It was a bit like wrestling a snake. Batts were at 94% when I arrived. I drained the water pressure tank, the hot water tank and took the water filter cartridge off. I had to pin the hose down with a heavy box and some paint cans. I also emptied the fridge and unplugged it and made a mental note to check the fridge next time as there was a good amount off frost build up. 11 Jan- Batts at 91% and the living room was just below freezing. An icicle was hanging off of the kitchen tap. I drained some of the water out of the hot water preheat tank. While that was draining, I looked at the fridge. The timing was perfect. The frost had thawed just enough to release from the fridge, but not too much that it leaked all over the floor. You are now up to date. Just to clarify a couple of things. The water tanks that I drained are in the utility room which is below ground. Theory states that stuff below the frost line will not freeze. In this case, the utility room is separated from the mud room by a large metal hatch in the mud room floor. When the mud room door is open the outside cold comes in and, as we know, heat rises so cold must fall. Will this utility room freeze? I don’t know for sure. I emptied the water tanks so I can sleep at night. That being said, I have yet to see that new wall thermometer go below 2 degrees. I will have more confidence by spring. And where did that water from the tanks drain to? The previous time a tank was drained, the plumber had to drain it into a bucket and carry it up the ladder and outside. Not nice. This time I tried draining it into the sump pit thinking that because it was below frost level it should just run out through the weeping tile and if I was lucky it would not even turn the sump pump on. And that is what happened. No pump required, it just filled up to the weeping tile and drained out. Also, when I came back the next day the sump pit had drained to the bottom, I guess through the ground. It took me some time to admit to myself that shutting Our Country Cottage down, in essence, till spring was then thing to do. I still plan to go up about once a week or so, to keep the solar panels and drive clear of snow and to make sure all is OK. To wrangle another generator into place during the cold of winter doesn’t make sense if you can wait till the snow goes and it warms up. Once the weather is constantly above freezing I will get the toilets and plumbing sorted out and anything else the cold might have damaged. I can take the summer to select a better generator and get it installed properly. Not that this one wasn’t installed properly, more that I was trying to save a bit and in the long run, didn’t. At the moment the generator pad looks like it will have to be enlarged and maybe a shelter incorporated to add another layer of protection from the weather. These generators are made to be out in the open but if another layer of protection will help I am all for it. It will help keep the critters out too. Next podcast I will get back to a more normal format. I will talk a bit about the power lost alert system I have and what I did to improve reliability and information it will send me, and “In the Beginning” looks at cottage design. For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at “ourcountrycottageanarrative.com” If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play, so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time have a good one.
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Episode #7 Power Lost At Our Country Cottage
12/31/2016
Episode #7 Power Lost At Our Country Cottage
Nice day to visit Our Country Cottage and perhaps clear the driveway. I was looking forward to riding the tractor in the sun esp after new fallen snow. Everything just looks so good. I noticed as I passed the solar panels that they were three quarters covered with snow, but I figured the sun would take care of it for me. As I pulled up I opened the garage with the remote and all was good to go. My first indication that something was different was when I opened the door and found about a ½ inch of frost on the hardware (knob etc) and the edge of the door. I then noticed that the thermometer was reading -10 in the mudroom. I have never seen it that low. I rushed in to see what the power system remote had to say. Batteries were at 30% and red lights were flashing all over the place. I noticed that the living room was also -10 degrees C. A horrible thought crossed my mind as I rushed to the downstairs bathroom only to find 2 quarter inch cracks in the toilet tank and ice in the bowel. It had frozen solid. The upstairs toilet had one big crack and a narrow crack….. I went into the closet to get my long johns… it was cold.. the light didn’t work and I checked in the bathroom and the lights didn’t work there either and I couldn’t find my long johns.. Sometime around here I built a fire….. I can’t really remember. I was in some form of altered state of mind, controlled panic etc. Power…. I need power. I put on as many layers as possible including fleece etc and headed outside. It was in the-20s but sunny. The generator showed an error that had shut it down and kicked it out of auto. I reset it and hit the run button. It cranked very slowly and stopped. Boost it with my vehicle but wait clear the snow off of the panels.. I can get power from there for sure. So off I went with my roof rake and scrapped all the snow from the panels. OK done. Now to see what that did for the power system . OK getting more charging and the power was back on in the cottage.. but the boiler was on trying to heat the place up and taking all the power and then some.. Turn the boiler off. I spent the next 15 to 20 minutes trying to find my booster cables and only after tearing the back of my vehicle apart to remember they were on the workbench in the garage. Opened the hood to see where the battery was so I could position it right and went to the generator. I would have to remove a panel and it was very cold so I gave the run button another try and it cranked over quickly and fired up. I guess with the power back on in the cottage it was able to heat up the block heater and carb pre-heater and battery warmer. Yes it has all those things powered by the same thing it is supposed to back up. I know, I know… The generator is now running and I now have time to think what are the consequences of the cottage freezing up and what would happen when it thaws out. I called my plumber. He suggested that I turn the valve off after the pressure tank so that any residual pressure would not dump water out of any breaks. I always turn the well pump off for that reason and this time I also flipped the breaker to make sure. He remembered the type of toilets we had and told me that the tanks can be replaced separately. The PEX piping is normally very good in freezing conditions and should be OK. Also the sink traps should be OK. His next concern was the shower tap sets. The casting can crack but lately the cartridges give up first. The utility room is below ground and did not get down to freezing temperatures. And in fact my temp logging device showed it got down to +2 C. Also the battery room got down to +5 C. Not knowing the state of things I told him I probably won’t do anything till the warmer weather. Yes I was thinking of taking Our Country Cottage off line, sort of speak, till spring. At this time I was also texting with my generator tech and trying to follow his suggestions as well. When your cottage is way in the sticks service is not just round the corner. In most cases it takes a commitment of a complete day or more and can be very costly. The next thought in my head was that there are these to toilet tank sized ice cubes on the back of the toilets that will melt at some point, putting a fair amount of water on the floor. There was no easy way to contain them so I destroyed the downstairs toilet tank with the blunt end on a pipe wrench and put as much of it and the ice in the shower to melt as I could. The driveway still needed to be cleared so I decided to do that and calm down a bit. It takes about two hours to do a fair job but the sun was shining and I was dressed for the part. There was just enough of a breeze to make sure that I would get covered with snow from the snow thrower. It took my mind off of things and let me have some clarity. When I finished I put down some strategic towels and went back to the city. I can’t remember if the generator was running or not. A couple of notes When I went to light the fire the butane BBQ lighter didn’t want to work cause is was so cold. So I had to nurse some heat into it to get it to work. The wood was also cold and a little harder to light. I also found out that frozen pens don’t like to work either so trying to take notes was challenging. Do you think I could find a pencil? Going over the data logs I found that the system failed on the 6th and I didn’t get there till the 14th. There was a major cold snap at that time but the interior never got below -10 C even though outside temps were -25 to – 30 ies. I have an alert system that is supposed to email if the power goes out. It had worked fine for me in the past and I thought it had let me down this time. But I am not so sure. One of the first things I did was to build another unit as a backup. If one fails the other will work or at least there is a better chance. So within a couple of days I had those two systems up and running. Long story short just a couple of days ago the new one reported power failure but the old one didn’t, at least that is what I thought. Later, I did find the old ones report, in the junk mail. I don’t know why. It is entirely possible that there was an alert but because it was in the junk mail I missed it. As of today the generator has now failed completely and I have been going up daily to build a fire and try to figure stuff out. Anyhow, that is enough for this time. Next podcast I will tell you what happened on day two and what the current status of Our Country Cottage is. For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at “ourcountrycottageanarrative.com” If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is on iTunes , Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time have a good one. I am still working on it.
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Episode #6 Twas A Night
12/18/2016
Episode #6 Twas A Night
TWAS A NIGHT We are going to be doing something a bit different. A bit of a departure from the normally scheduled podcast and given the events of this last week I am glad I wrote this poem in advance. And now on with TWAS A NIGHT IN THE COUNTRY Twas a night at the country, and all through our cottage, The only thing running was the fridge, but that was low wattage. The wood was stacked by the masonry heater with care. In hopes enough for the long winter night, was there. There was more in the garage, in a firewood rack, But going to get more, in pajamas, was whack. In the dark you would probably slip on a giant ice mound, Then a slide of snow from the roof would pin you to the ground. Now cougar, now grizzly, now moose and black bear, On Fox, on skunk, on elk, and mule deer. From the top of the drive, to the clearing below, My trail cams see you all, come and go. The solar panels were silent in the darkest of night, Ready to jump into action at first morning light. The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow, Still wasn't enough to give the batteries some go. With all lights off, to see stars in the night sky, Aries, Taurus and Orion drifted on by. And giving full chase, was the Milky Way. I should get to bed before dawn reveals a new day. I jumped into bed with covers held tight, Adorned by long johns to keep me warm all night. A list of things done, ran through my mind Mixed in was a list of stuff to do, helped me unwind. Trail cam SD cards and data loggers collected. The batteries topped up and the well water tested. About the snow and ice, over the battery room hatch. A rubber mallet on a long handle, would soon dispatch. Tomorrow, I thought, I should rake off the roofs snow, Brush off the decks to prevent ice mounds forming below. The panels as well, should be cleared of white stuff. Check the oil in the generator, is there enough? With chores and tasks swirling away, I became drowsy at the thought of next day. I pulled up the blankets and covered my noses, Mental note for tomorrow, take time, smell the roses. My mind now did wander from this and to that, A sure sign sleep was coming ,hey, was that a bat? Less and less made much sense, but that was OK, That is what happens when consciousness drifts away. Noel Noel, was simply not true! Our well provided lots of water for washing and drinking too. Ok, Ok, that was just a bit of fun. Just an excuse for a bad, dad, pun. With that I will wrap up this little ditty, Out here in the country, not there in the city. In the midst of the sticks, with beauty beyond wealth, At Our Country Cottage, The truth is slowly revealing itself. ********************************************** I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did, writing it. The next podcast is also going to be a bit of a departure as well. This past week I went up to Our Country Cottage on a nice sunny day expecting to do a few minor chores and maybe some snow clearing. We have been in a cold snap for several weeks (cold snap meaning -30C (-22F) at night and daytime highs in the -20Cs (-4Fs)) . In the next podcast I will be telling you what happens when the power fails at those temperatures and your alert systems fails you too. We are still trying to figure stuff out ourselves so …. For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at ourcountrycottageanarrative.com If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is now on iTunes , Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time have a good one. I'll be working on it.
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Episode #5 On Second Thought & In The Beginning
11/30/2016
Episode #5 On Second Thought & In The Beginning
On Second Thought 1-Roof design There is a valley over battery room hatch where snow collects and turns to ice. The valley is also on the north side so parts of it never see the sun. It is also over the battery room entrance, so every time you access the battery room it is literally hanging over your head. First year an ice damn formed and the melting ice backed up and started to drip between the rafters over the deck. Our contractor risked life and limb on a ladder to hammer the ice free. Sheets of ice up to 5 or 6 inches thick came down. I now duck tape a rubber mallet to the handle of the roof rake (16 feet long) and I can loosen the ice from the ground. Much safer. I have also acquired ladder stand-off arms that attach to a ladder and make it much safer if I have to use the ladder. 2-Where the cottage roof and the garage roof meet and over the entrances Both of the above have the same problem, snow accumulation. The snow collects on the roof then slides off (some times while you are standing there), forming large piles that if left unattended they form into large ice mounds, right where you want to walk... My first line of defense is the roof rake. A roof rake is like a backwards snow shovel, in that it works by pulling the snow towards you. That reverse plough is mounted on the end of a long handle, 16 feet long. After a snow fall I will go around the cottage pulling down snow at places where I have to stand etc. I try to caution anyone who visits in winter not to park under a roof line or spend anytime standing under a roof line. At the time we decided on a metal roof we were warned that these things happen and on second thought I think I would still go with a metal roof. 3-Floor hatches Heavy and hard to open I have been looking into manual foot activated methods to open and close with an integral safety barrier when open. Dangerous when open I put those orange cones on both sides of the hatch when its open and other people are around. I have heard of horror stories of people falling down similar hatches. Crawl space access Originally, the plans had access to the crawl space from utility room but it was put in the battery room over the batteries. Did not want any direct open connection to cottage from battery room, poisonous gas etc. I got it sealed off. We had to come up with quick fix. A floor hatch in the pantry was the best solution at the time. I do have to empty the pantry when I need to go to the crawl space, like when I empty the fireplace ash pit. The rolling shelves really help. 4-Heat from the masonry heater radiating into pantry The pantry should be kept cool cause that is where you keep food but because it is directly behind the heater it collects heat that radiates from the back of the heater. The separating wall should have been spray foamed during construction. Yes there are retro fit spray foam solutions. There is also a 4 inch gap between the masonry heater and the wall in which I could hang a reflective insulating sheet that would reflect the heat back into the living room. I have the materials , I just have to do it. 5-Upstairs bathroom heat or lack there of Because the upstairs bathroom is off of the master bedroom. The bedroom that is kept cool/unheated the bathroom is cooler still. It does have its own in floor radiant heating zone but that is only heated by the electric boiler and I think is the main power draw on the system when we are not there. There are three sources of free heat that would require some modifications to use. 1-Passive solar from the living room 2-Excess heat from the battery room 3- a branch radiator from the roof solar collectors. All have their challenges. 6-Landscaping for water control In episode #4 Water, I told you about the weeping tile system and how it is day lighted and works very well. That is not how it started. Originally the weeping tile system was designed to collect any water from around the foundation of the cottage and feed it to the sump pits. Then a sump pump would turn on and pump it to the outside and away from the cottage. That might have made sense for some properties but when you are trying to provide a path of least resistance for, at times a lot of water to flow, a couple of small sumps in a closed weeping tile loop, just won’t do especially if the pumps haven’t been installed yet and even after. Day lighting the weeping tile, that is to say, giving the water a direct path from the foundation to an exit, was the answer. In The Beginning - The Land In this segment I will try to pass on, to the best of my recollection, the story of how our country cottage came to be. Starting with the land. We had a vague idea of what we wanted for our property. 20 acres or more of wooded remote land with no neighbours in site. The 20 acres came from the fact my parents retired to 3 to 5 acres and it seemed small plus we had the an opportunity to buy a 20 acre property that was not far from my parents that seemed about the right size. There were no employment prospects in the area and we were just not ready. So 20 acres min. A local real estate agent started keeping an eye out for us and after a couple of dead ends and a couple of years, she took us to where Our Country Cottage is located. I had no idea what a quarter section was but it was defiantly more than 20 acres. The first visit or so was in the winter and a logging company was finishing up taking what I can only assume was the best lumber material. The advantage being that there was a logging road that we could drive around, dodging the odd logging truck, dozer etc. Driving around, eyes wide open to what could be, we saw a herd of mule deer in one of the clearings. I think that sold us on it. It became clear that if we were to spend any time there we would have to have some amenities. Washroom facilities were top of the list for a family of females. I thought a travel trailer would fill the bill and give us a place to sleep, cook and wash all in one, so in the spring we purchased a second hand trailer from a dealer with the condition he would hold onto it until we were ready for delivery. Well it was a good thing we stipulated that because on a run out to the property to see where we would put the trailer, an interesting transformation had taken place. The firm frozen roads of winter and turned into the mud quagmires of spring and our 4 wheel drive jeep got stuck up to the axels on our access road before we even got to our land. Priorities changed quickly. The travel trailer dealer was informed it could be some time. They didn’t seem concerned, they had our money. During one of our winter trips I had talked to one of the logging contractors, probably getting permission to drive around. Can’t remember how, but I managed to get in contact with him to find out how to get a road built. I lucked out because he was a road builder himself and in a few months we had a nice gravel road with ditches, culverts and a gravel pad to put the trailer on. Not knowing where we were going to go the road turned out to be less than a third of our final drive. At Our Country Cottage I spent four days at our country cottage last week. Lately I had been telling people that the cottage needed a good two days to get up to temperature while secretly telling myself that it could be done in a day. I guess the 2 days came from last years reality and the one day came from this years wishful thinking. And reality wins especially if the sun doesn’t shine. Day one-I built a fire as soon as I got there and another that night. I kept busy assembling some cabinets, so I didn’t notice how cool it was in the living room. 13C (55F). The batteries were down so I didn’t turn on the domestic hot water in hopes that the sun would come out tomorrow. Day two- Well it didn’t and I started the generator manually at 6 am and started another fire at 6:15 and enough was enough I turned on the domestic hot water at 7 am. Starting the generator manually requires I press a couple of buttons in the back hall. I don’t even have to go outside. The bedroom was about 10C (50F) and the bathroom was about 11C (52F). My shampoo was more of a gel but the hot water was great, and the toothpaste can be a bit challenging at those temps too. The masonry heater started working later in the day and I didn’t need a fire that night. Day three – kinda cool, built a fire first thing 6 am batteries were down again, no sun remember. The generator fired up automatically, this time, at 6:30. I had to clear the snow off of the panels with the roof rake. You just have to get most of the snow off and because they are dark colour and photovoltaic cells generate a little heat when working they clean the rest themselves. The afternoon was better with the sun coming in and out. Day four – As I was going back to the city a fire would have been a waste forecast called for sunny all day and it was. The sun coming up through the trees with fresh snow highlights was gorgeous. To add to that seeing the White tail of a doe bounding into the bush followed by a stag that was kicking up snow as he went. What cold…… I checked the gen oil, collected the surveillance camera SD card and the solar power system data. Loaded the vehicle and headed back to the city. Next time Stuff To Do and “In The Beginning” looks at cottage design. For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at “ourcountrycottageanarrative.com” If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is now on iTunes , Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Till next time have a good one.
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Episode #4 Water and Some Chores
11/14/2016
Episode #4 Water and Some Chores
There are several types of water we had to contend with at Our Country Cottage. 1- Water we want to get in 2- Water we want to get out 3- Water we just want to control 1- Water we want to get in - Drinking water - Cooking water - Washing water - Cleaning water - Water for the toilet At this time, all our domestic water comes from a 240 foot well. The hole is lined with a six or 8 inch steel pipe There is a 1 horse power submersible pump at the end of a long flexible pipe that is at or near the bottom of the well. Below the frost line there is a clever connector on the side of the steel pipe that joins the pump line to the cottage underground and in through the wall of the utility room. Once in the cottage the water goes through a 5 micron filter to eliminate any sand or grit, etc, and into a pressure tank. This is a large tank that has a diaphragm in it that splits the tank into two sections, one with water and one with air. You can’t compress water but you can compress air. As water gets pumped in the air compresses and allows pressure to build up. Without a system like this, every time you would turn on a tape the pump would run. The pump draws a lot of power but it only takes about 2 mins to get the tank up to pressure. This is done automatically. The water is then split into hot and cold runs. The hot going through the solar preheater and then the in-direct hot water heater which is heated by the electric boiler. Note water was tested for bacterial and chemical content before consumed. The rest of the cottage is very much like any city house plumbing. PEX pipe was used and might be a bit more forgiving to getting frozen. I had a switch put by the back door that makes it easy to turn the well pump off when we leave for any amount of time. This reduces the amount of water damage that could happen if something broke, not to mention the power that would be wasted pumping water everywhere. 2- Water we want to get out - Used drinking water - Used cooking water - Dirty washing water - Dirty cleaning water - Used toilet water Like the water system for water we want in, is similar to any city house, once inside the cottage, the water system to get unwanted water out is the similar inside the cottage to city houses. One thing, however, because we are dealing with a septic system you must only put septic system, friendly, things in it or you might kill the bacterial action required to break stuff down.That will include everything that goes down the drain one way or another.All soaps, cleaners, detergents etc. I stopped using SOS pads cause I couldn’t find anywhere that said they were septic safe. Also, only use paper products that are septic friendly and that break down easily. No flushing of tissues or paper towels etc. Septic safe items are not that hard to find. I found that 21 million households in the USA are on septic systems and over 12 percent of Canadian households are on private septic systems. Once out side, though, the waste water goes into a two stage septic tank. Solids collect and breakdown through bacterial action. That is to say solids become liquids. It is then pumped from the second stage of the tank to a septic mound.We had to go with a septic mound because the ground, where a septic field would be, had too much clay and didn’t drain fast enough. I would have rather have a gravity feed system but the septic mound was higher than the septic tank. I didn’t have too much say in the matter. I have yet determined how much power the pump uses as it runs so infrequently. After a couple of years, I am not too concerned. There is an audio alarm in the utility room that will go off if the septic tank ever gets full. When that happens, there is easy access to the septic tank inspection hatch, so that it can be pumped out from the drive. Trying not to think about it. 3- Water we just want to control - In the summer, rain - In the winter, snow and ice - In the spring, rain and melting snow and ice Our country cottage has eaves troughs much like city homes, to get roof water away from the cottage and garage. Because we have metal roofs the eaves troughs are strapped every foot and a half, or so, so that when an amount of snow lets go on the roof it doesn’t take the gutters with it. The country cottage garage is lower than the cottage and results in the drive entrance sloping down to it. This collects a lot of water when it rains heavily. We have a grate that is the full width of the garage just in front of the main door that ties into the cottage weeping tile system. There is a heat cable in the grate trough and all the way to the weeping tile drop off. I turn this on manually if the trough freezes solid. Something I keep an eye on in spring. I mentioned a weeping tile system. Weeping tile is basically a pipe with holes in it that is run at the footing of a foundation around a cottage or house to collect water ad divert it away from the building. In a city it can go into the storm system but at our country cottage it is directed down a hill, well away from the building, and is day lighted. Yes you can actually see the pipe resting in a gravel bed in the day light. The cottage has two sump pumps, one in the battery room and one in the utility room. These are plastic tubs (sump basins) about 18 inch across and 24 inches deep, that are set into the floor with pumps in them. If water gets to a certain level, in the tub, the pumps turn on and pump the water out to the side of the cottage and dump it on the ground where it drains away. These sumps are a safety thing that will prevent water from filling up the rooms where electric things live. The sump in the battery room has never seen water while the one in the utility room has an episode long story associated with it. The grounds around our country cottage have been contoured to drain surface water away from the cottage and garage during heavy rains etc. Chores or stuff that needs to be done on a regular basis. -check charge level of batteries (SOC, State Of Charge) -check propane level -check gen hours run -check gen oil level -check house batteries acid level and top up every 45 days -measure specific gravity of batteries -gather data from data loggers (room temperatures mainly) -collect data from solar electric system -collect SD card from cottage surveillance cam -collect trail-cam SD cards and check battery level -change water filter -clean filters in air exchange unit -clean leaves and debris out of eves troughs and grate in-front of garage -get well water tested For pictures and more info, you can visit our website at “ourcountrycottageanarrative.com” If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is now on iTunes , Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. With this episode we have covered the major systems of our country cottage. In the next episode I will look in to what I might have done differently and start telling the story of how Our Country Cottage came to be. Till next time have a good one.
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Episode #3 Heat and a Bit of Cool
10/29/2016
Episode #3 Heat and a Bit of Cool
Firstly, I would like to point out that we are in a northern clime where heating a place takes way more energy and thought than it does to cool a place. As I mentioned in my last podcast, #2 Power, the best way to keep costs down is not to use it, not to use it as much, that is. The same is true for heat. 1-What we did to minimize heat loss. - All exterior walls along with the roof and the floors are spray foamed. - We like to keep our bedroom cool so the interior wall separating the bedroom from the living room is spray foamed. - The basement walls are spray foamed. - Minimal windows on the north side of the cottage. - All windows are triple glazed. (3 layers of glass filled with inert gas) - Window frames are vinyl to minimize heat transfer. - Entrances (the sunroom and the mudroom) are designed as airlocks. (you have to open a second door to entre the living area) - First floor bedrooms (they are on north side) act as buffer zones. 2-What we did for heat. - Passive solar heating. (Large windows facing south) - Masonry heater (Most efficient way to burn wood) for when we are there. - In floor radiant heating (Heated by electric boiler) for when we are not there. - Ceiling fans. - 2 solar collectors on then roof that heat a small radiator in back hall. 3-What we did for cool. - The south roof overhang was extended to limit the sun in summer. - Lots windows that open. - Ceiling fans. - And all the stuff we did to keep the heat in also keeps the heat out. 4-What we had to do. - Fresh air exchange unit. (the cottage does not have a traditional furnace) - Fresh air intake for masonry heater. - Kitchen and bathroom vents. 5-How it works. The in floor radiant heater keeps a minimum temperature of+10C when we are not there. In the dead of winter when one first arrives it can be quit chilly esp if the sun is not out. The masonry heater takes a bit of time to come up to temp from cold. Some heat is given off from the doors right away but that only lasts for an hour or two. The heat starts to radiate from the masonry after 12 to 24 hours. But then it just keeps coming. A burn can take from one and a half to two and a half hours depending on the type and size of wood used. After the burn and all the embers have died down the air inlet and flu are closed to keep the heat in. There was one time I had to leave and the fire wasn’t done yet so I left the flu and air intake open. When I got back the next day it was like there hadn’t been a fire at all. All the heat energy had been wasted by letting it go up the chimney. On really cold days -20C to -30C ( -4F to -22F) or so a fire in the morning and a fire at night is enough. 0C to -10C (32F to 14F) days can be handles with one fire, usually in the evening. If the sun is out, the living room can get quite warm and sometimes even hot. I have been caught several time when I though there wasn’t going to be much sun so I built a fire in the morning, and then the sun comes out. I have had the kitchen at +30C (86F) inside while outside is -30C (-22F), and have been reduced to t shirts in the evening after the sun goes down. When that happens I try to bank the heat by opening up the inside doors to the back bedrooms, the main bedroom and sometimes the sun room and mudroom. I have been known to open the shower doors to get that extra bit more. The more excess heat I can trap in these areas the warmer the cottage stays. It is rare windows get opened in winter. The air exchange unit provides fresh air while retaining most of the heat. There are little radiators that transfers the heat from the stale air going out to the fresh air coming in. In the summer windows are opened and if there isn’t any wind the ceiling fans certainly make the cottage seem cooler. The fans I have for the living room and the master bedroom have a varying speed mode that does a good job of simulating a natural breeze. There is a hidden feature in the south facing windows. The bottom row has a coating on them that rejects heat energy from the sun. This minimizes heat gain in the summer when the sun is high and they are the only windows the sun hits as the rest are blocked by the roof overhang. The upper two rows of windows have a coating that accepts the heat energy from the sun. In the winter the sun does not get very high at all and at times can penetrate to the very back wall of the cottage. This strategy works great for the winter and the summer. The shoulder seasons can be challenging. Build a fire or not build a fire is the big question. A 12 hour plus lead time really gets you guessing. Yes it can be a bit of a dance sometimes. I pay way more attention to weather forecasts and what’s going out outside the window these days. Follow up to episode #2s cautionary tale. I was up at the cottage for one day this week. Fortunately the replacement grates were delivered the day before I went. I removed the old grate and saw that under the back of the grate, the part that had deformed, appeared to be flat masonry work ie it had been built incorrectly. So I tapped at it to see what size hammer and chisel I would need to open it up. First tap and it all just fell away revealing a sloped surface . I should have know it was done correctly cause the mason that did it was old school, perfectionist, calibre. Talking to the designer he mentioned that ash pack on the sloped brick was common and some have removed the slope and filled it in with a fire brick and cut the grate to fit. For the time being I am just going to keep an eye on it and keep it cleaned out. To that end I have acquired an ash vac in hopes it will make clear out easier. You can visit our website at “ourcountrycottageanarrative.com” for pictures and more info. If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com. Members on the mailing list will get website and podcast updates as soon as I do :). The Our Country Cottage a Narrative podcast is now on iTunes , Stitcher and Google Play so you can subscribe there and get the podcast downloaded automatically when they get released. Our next podcast will look at our water system along with some of the chores that have to be tended to. Till next time, have a good one.
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Episode #2 Power and A Cautionary Tale
10/13/2016
Episode #2 Power and A Cautionary Tale
Power 1-What we started with As far as power goes we started with nothing and about a kilometre away from any power lines very expensive to tap into local power length of line because of trees, underground would be preferable local power not 100% guaranteed monthly bill 2-What we wanted AC power the same type as what city slickers have clean 110v 220v 60 hertz a circuit breaker box, just like in town AC sockets that you could plug in normal lamps, appliances, radios etc. Low maintenance 3-What we didn’t want Any sort of low voltage DC power requiring specialized non standard electrical units. high maintenance 4-What we were willing to concede Living off grid, something has to give and that something was quantity. The best way to reduce cost was, and still is, reduce consumption. All lights are LEDs All appliances were chosen because of their low energy requirements -induction cook top I believe is the most efficient way to cook -no electric oven (propane BBQ and oven built into masonry wood fired heater) -low energy fridge -high efficient dishwasher (used occasionally) -high efficient washer dryer combo unit (does not require vent) 5-What we went with First let me explain that I have been looking into solar for many years and was fairly on top of the technology, plus electronics is/was my chosen field of study. During the design stage I stressed this was an experimental project that if worst comes to worst we could just go back to the city as required. Our solar supplier/contractor was very easy to work with and considered concepts and ideas willingly while filling in the gaps I had in my plan. photo voltaic solar panels -no moving parts unlike windmills -30 panels mounted on 2 poles (15 panels each) If one “pole” goes “down” it is wired so the other can carry on. lead acid battery bank (12-320lb plus batteries in their own room) They last twice as long, if not more, than sealed units **to clarify “last as long” refers to the lifetime of the battery, not how many days it will keep the cottage running. In this case the sealed batteries will last 5 to 7 years while, the ones we have, will last up to 15 years if taken care of.******* Cost less Down side -they have to be topped up every 45 days or so. -need a separate vented area -you get to deal with acid and dangerous gases Propane back up generator Automatically charges batteries when there is not enough sun -successive cloudy days -winter, the days get really short 1000 gallon propane tank -also feeds BBQ Various electronic stuff Charge controllers Inverter -true sine wave output The brains that keeps everything working together Electric boiler -chosen so that no propane had to be piped into the cottage requiring a chimney or vent. - used to heat the fluid in the radiant floor heating while we are not there (prevent freeze ups) -also used for heating the domestic hot water via an indirect circulation tank. 6-How well does it work Note When we are not there the well pump and the domestic hot water are turned off. This will minimize water damage if a pipe breaks and minimize power use as hot water is not needed if no one is there. After a couple of years, for the most part very well. In the long dark days of winter the generator fills in where the sun leaves off. Generator usage is higher than I hoped with Dec and Jan going well over 100 hours each. So far we are seeing generator run times of between 400 and 500 hours a year. In the winter showers, dish washing, and laundry have to be carefully timed and, for the most part, limited to sunny days. Several components have failed along with a couple of batteries not performing. All has been replaced or fixed under warranty with little or no problem. The upstairs bathroom is isolated getting heat only from the in-floor radiant heater. Read electric boiler. I think this is one of the main reasons the generator runs so much in winter. The rest of the cottage is heated by passive solar when we are not there. I am looking into different options. The goal is for the generator not to have to run at all. We shall see… *******Unexpected problem at OCC (Our Country Cottage) ******* A Cautionary Tale Or The Masonry Heater, Oh That’s Just Grate! 1:30 am alarm -alarm battery low? The search for burning material Glowing embers in ash pit under fireplace. -2C to -4C or -28F to -25F degrees outside Continual carbon monoxide alarms till 7:00am Deformed grate letting larger coals into ash pit New grates (getting a spare too) on the way and, a fix concept in the works. Make sure your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are in place and working. Also keep an eye on the details. My grate is only 6” by 12” and less than a half an inch thick.
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Episode #1 An Overview
09/10/2016
Episode #1 An Overview
An overview of our country cottage. We are on a quarter section which is a half mile by a half mile square. Ruffly 160 acres. Property was bought 15 to 20 years ago and construction started 4 years ago and completed 2 years ago. The cottage is about 1500 square feet. Three bedrooms, one large master upstairs and two small bedrooms downstairs .The downstairs bedrooms can convert into one larger room with a garage door that rolls up into a false ceiling. Two full bathrooms. The one upstairs is an ensuite with an enclosed shower and a soaker tub which is elevated so you can see out the window. Downstairs has a large enclosed shower. The entrances to the cottage are through, a mud room or a sunroom, each act as an airlock to keep heat in. Kitchen is equipped with fridge, induction cook top, and dishwasher. All appliances were chosen for their efficiency of power. There is also a pantry. The living room has a masonry heater. A utility room and a battery room. The battery room has its own entrance and is under the sun-room. A detached 24' by 24' garage has a loft on top. Water comes from a well, 240 feet deep. The septic system includes a septic tank and a septic mound. Power is supplied by 30 photovoltaic solar panels with a battery bank and is backed up by a propane generator fed by a 1000 gallon propane tank. Heat is provided a number of ways... passive solar masonry heater (wood fired) in floor radiant (electric boiler) 2 solar collectors, on the roof, heat either a small radiator in the back hall or, preheat the domestic hot water The domestic hot water is heated by the same electric boiler that is used by the in floor radiant heating. The cottage is well insulated with spray foam and the windows are all triple glazed. Future episodes will go deeper into all the different systems that make up our country cottage. The next episode will concentrate on what powers us out in the sticks.
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Introduction to the podcast
07/30/2016
Introduction to the podcast
In this first, short, episode I give a short description of the podcast itself. In the next episode I shall describe "Our Country Cottage" and give you an overall general view. In future episodes I will get into more specifics and the reasoning behind them and if it turned out the way we thought it would. I will also cover some day to day happenings. Enjoy!
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