Hello Everyone!
Late night antics, Washing more buckets, Racing against the rain, Water musings & More land feedback!
Alrighty, I am right on time with the writing routine this evening... and this time I was not even a minute late. Since I got rained in early (before sunset) I went ahead and got my photos for this entry sorted out as well... which is usually something that I do after all the editing it is done in a semi rushed state.
Yet again, last night I had a difficult time getting to bed all that early... and wound up watching some science fiction movies to nudge me off towards dream land. During the time I was resting... I only got three hours of deep sleep... before waking up every hour on (or near) the hour... for another three odd hours until I finally had enough and decided to begin my day.
Per usual, I dove into my Hive engagement routine before zoning out on the computer for a while. This morning I even cut it short on all that activity... and got outdoors early on... in an effort to get the remainder of the buckets (and lids) washed before the rain began in earnest later in the day.
The remaining buckets were all the ones that I had used clay in at some point and/or ones that had been heavily used before... and whose insides were scratched up enough that dirt/clay could settle into the crevices. Getting them washed (I think there was eight of them) took longer than the other fourteen buckets combined... if that says anything about the difference in how 'easy' they were to get clean!
Anyways, I had timed everything really well before the arrival of the rain as far as having the 'laundry' ready goes... and as it turns out... I think that I washed that last round of socks just in the nick of time. I am hoping that with all the wind gusts that nothing else winds up like the shop tent door was today when I found it cocked open... due to the broken zipper on one side... and the way it was positioned was much like an extended sail for a boat.
That tent has really seen better days all around... but to fix the immediate problem with it I carefully lowered the flap and anchored it down with cinder blocks. Ideally I should at the bare minimum go ahead and either clip that side together... or sew a few stitches in its zipper to create a better seal for the flap... because the way it is now I have to store everything away from it so things do not get rained on.
Just as the outer bands of that storm system rolled in I got my next round of dog food... and caught a ride to a nearby store to get myself some birthday treats. It was not really a necessary trip... but one that was more a reward to myself for having put in so much work getting everything here cleaned up and packed down for the big move.
I did get more feedback about the land itself and was able to confirm that there is a small 'clearing' near its center that is somewhat flat. Given that installing the portable dog yard can be done on nearly any slope... and I have all that lumber painted to make a simple platform inside the dog yard... it might make for an easy camping setup... as long as I do not mind carrying my gear... or using the wagon... to bring everything downhill along the path.
In other words aside from perhaps it being slippery... going both up and downhill... the slope is not so significant (nor the distance great enough) for it to be truly problematic one way or another. I also learned that there is a ravine near the top of the property which means a portion of the place is most likely gullied... but hey at least I know water flows through it all somewhere.
Trapping a small portion (maybe two hundred gallons) of rain water will probably not prove to be all that difficult... and hopefully things are situated (with the terrain) in such a manner... that the water that does shed off the property... can do so in a potentially controlled manner for irrigation purposes. It sure would make things convenient... and also gives me a great opportunity as far as micro hydro electric goes.
So far my best thinking on the scenario leads me to think that there is just enough of an elevation change on the property... to do a micro hydro setup halfway down... and another at the foot of the property. Since I want to drive the water back uphill (after using it with the micro hydro arrays) I can then either drive it back uphill at a diagonal angle... with a ram pump whose 'wasted water' is collected... and then pumped with solar pumps back to the initial head.
I also like the idea of simply spreading the water back out across the land in the form of a sprinkler/soaker system... and not using it on the turbines a second time. There are always going to be a lot of steps between collecting the rain water (or runoff) and getting it clean enough to run through the turbines... and honestly the more 'treated/cleaned/filtered' water that I can make the better.
All in all even if solar is not ideal on the site... I can at the very least do a simple gravity fed hydro system that can charge my phone. I think that when I did that experiment long ago... a three hundred gallon tote of water would drive the turbine array for somewhere between three to five hours (of constantly flowing) at around nine feet of elevation difference... and producing about four point zero five PSI.
Which was half of what the array needed (as a minimum) to produce power so my results were definitely in the 'how does it run at half power' domain. At the proper water pressure (which is seven point two five PSI) I think that wired as a seventy-two volt system it could easily charge my other devices... along with some of my power tool batteries.
Basically I want to use the higher voltage for generation (and transmission) purposes... and then turn that voltage into a lower voltage at the charge controller... but with a higher amperage output. The way that system is setup is to ultimately be outputting (after the charge controller) a five volt feed (a USB port) that can deliver (to a small USB powerbank) between four to six amps consistently... depending on how much water pressure is available.
Okay, I have rambled on enough for this entry... and should get to wrapping this up... so I can start unwinding for the evening. I hope that everyone is doing well and well doing. Ta ta for now.
EDIT: This is that prototype micro hydro turbine array.
