Today was small projects day. We made a run over to my parents house in Durango and picked up a small fridge from them. Then we got paint at the Benjamin Moore store, and finally got a pickup order from Home Depot.
The big small project of the day was wiring up my shed with some electricity. It was one of those things that, when we were getting the solar setup for the cabin, we just ran out of time to do. I really wanted to get it done so I would have a light and a couple outlets for charging my batteries with.
A few years ago we replaced the 120v outlets in the trailer with Dual USB In Wall Outlets. They replace your regular electrical outlets and give you 2 USB outlets without having to use any adapters. Its great for charging our phones, mifi’s, and bike lights. I added 2 of them to the shed. One at the entrance with the light switch and another at my workbench.
The most challenging part of the job was running the wire through the conduit. It took me a few tries, but I finally got it after vacuuming a string through, tying that to the wire, taping the end up, and spreading grease over the first 6 feet of wire.
Naturally it started raining in the middle of the conduit operation. Once that passed I dug the 18 inch deep trench between the cabin and the shed to bury the conduit in. I added a 20 amp breaker to the panel and tied that end off. I started by turning off the main breaker, and also the inverter and the battery breaker to be extra safe. I was even sure to test the panel with my amp meter before getting started.
On the outside of the shed I added an external GFCI outlet to add some extra protection. If there is ever a ground fault, of 0.005 amps or more, at any of the outlets or light switch in the shed the GFCI breaker will trip and prevent anyone from being electrocuted. They are required in bathrooms and kitchens by code and are good things to have around.
Wiring a GFCI or USB outlet are pretty similar. Both outlets are much larger than a standard outlet and require wiring proficiency if you want things to sit nicely in the wall. Since I have a 20 amp breaker on this circuit I ran 12 gauge wire and it isn’t very forgiving. I probably need to revisit the first USB outlet in the shed tomorrow morning.
We are now 6 months into the COVID-19 Pandemic and it feels like we are back in month 1. We still cannot get tests, we need to isolate, and we need to listen to the scientists. Unfortunately people are not listening or are forgetting or are defiant to the health professionals trying to save our lives. My experience is based on the US’s response and my hopes get dashed on a daily basis that this is going to end soon.
One of the reasons I enjoy reading about history is that it gives us so many lessons. A couple months ago I listened to the audiobook of The Great Influenza, which I cannot recommend enough. The book is a historical account of the 1918 Flu Pandemic. It is very well done and offers amazing insights into what happened at various levels: political, scientific, economically, and more.
Yesterday the Governor of Colorado, the state I am in, ordered mandatory masks to be worn in all public indoor places, yesterday. Orders like these were given during the 1918 pandemic as well to help protect each other. Back then as now there were people upset about these orders and protested them. In San Francisco an Anti Mask league was created and worked to have the mask order removed. I won’t be surprised to see those happen here too.
What’s old is new and what’s new is old. History repeats itself again and again. People never learn.
We hear these lines again and again, yet things keep repeating themselves anyway. Why is this? Can we learn from our mistakes and then pass those to the next generations?
Got my repaired/replaced apple watch back a few days ago. If you read my last post about it breaking you know that I have misgivings about this device now. Do we need technology to be so personal? Do we need more immediate and constant distractions? I am working these questions out. Hang tight!
Since I have spent a week without my watch I noticed a few specific times that I miss having the watch on:
Adjusting the volume or skip/stop a teack on any Bluetooth speaker or headset. This is something I do a lot apparently. There were at least three times when I reached for my wrist to
Setting a timer for gardening, cooking, etc. the timer on the watch has preset values and the ability to set custom times. Siri is actually useful here: “hey siri start a timer for 23 minutes”
Tracking workouts: “hey Siri start an outdoor bike ride”
Getting texts and phone call notifications without having to grab my phone.
Checking the time
Other than these types of interactions I wasn’t missing much. Knowing when other people had worked-out wasn’t that important. Being reminded to stand each hour wasn’t missed at all.
When I got my new watch I went to restore from backup. The problem is that the backup was from 2 years ago. How worthless is that? How did it not create a backup in the last 2 years? My web hosting backs itself up everyday!
So I went with a new install, which I prefer to do with my laptop every few years. Wipe the preferences and options clean. Then I went through every option in the Watch app on my iPhone. I turned off most notifications. I removed the activity rings from all of my faces. I added Favorites for my wife and my mom. Now I’m just a tap away from talking to either of them.
So far so good. I called my mom this morning to test it out and had a great call with her. I didn’t get distracted by any activity notifications. I’m enjoying the watch again.
Will I buy a new one or “repair” this one again? I’m still not sure. There are some nice to haves but nothing my phone doesn’t already supply.
The watch does make a number of tasks easier and faster. I use Alfred and other utilities on my laptop the same way. Does it make me better at work? Probably not directly, but if it helps me get non-work tasks finished it seems it would help me be better focused at work.
I will say that over the last few years of wearing the watch I have become more consistent with my workouts and exercise. I’m in some of the best shape of my life. A lot of that is due to the activity rings and tracking built into the app. The only issue I have with the activity rings is the lack of rest and recovery. Its all go go go which isn’t the best way to exercise. The apple watch is great for recording workouts but needs a lot of work for planning.
I am not a woodworker in the sense that I have ever built much worth keeping around. I have done construction work over the years and am not the most worthless person to have around. However I don’t have a great grasp of the fundamentals and therefore lack confidence. The last proper instruction I had was 7th grade shop class and I built a nice holder for my Super NES and a few games.
Since we have been on the land I have picked up tools for various jobs. Now I have a circular saw, impact driver, drill, jig saw, and a variety of hand tools. So far this has all been used for getting the structures up. Now its time to build furniture to use inside and outside the structures.
Kate’s dad, Bill, is an expert carpenter and general excellent craftsman. While he was visiting us he helped with a ton of projects and got me interested in doing more woodworking. Now I am looking for good places to start with relatively basic projects. This should help me gain some confidence and understanding of fundamentals. Plus I will get some furniture out of the deal!
To start with I want an outdoor bench to place somewhere on my trails. I like the look of this Field Bench. It is pretty straight forward but looks like a nice place to sit and watch the sunset. One tool that these plans use and that I am seeing all over various woodworking Youtube channels is a Kreg pocket hole jig. They allow you to create pocket holes which look great and are apparently a better way to build furniture.
I am going to do this project this weekend and report back on how it went.
The pandemic sure is making this a strange summer. Generally we are going to music festivals a few times a month. Then the local bands that play at the various bars and restaurants during the week are happening. We listen to great music, meet lots of people, and see old friends. Live music was one of the major aspects of this area that
This year its been a little different, as you may imagine. There hasn’t been much live music with all of the social distancing. A few weeks ago we heard that a local bluegrass band, the Stillhouse Junkies, were letting people sign up for a 30 minute show. For donations only they will drive to your house and play in your yard. Apparently they were restless and also knew people needed live music now more than ever.
Naturally Kate signed us up. Last Monday the band let us know they would be coming over on Sunday at 4pm. Since we have a good size yard it seemed appropriate to have a few friends over. We setup a canopy for the band to play under. We marked out sitting areas that were all well spaced apart. We wore masks.
The band showed up and played their 30 minute set and it was great. Live music is so beneficial for happiness and joy. The interaction between the band and audience, even a small audience, is something a recording will never be able to simulate.
We also got to see friends we haven’t seen in a while. It was nice to catch up, and we all agreed that people need to start taking this pandemic seriously.
The Roger bikes solar series comes to its 5th part today: the solar charge controller. So far we have covered grid-tie vs off-grid, AC vs DC, Batteries, and Solar Panels. In the cabin we are building our solar system will be 100% off grid, it will have a mixture of AC and DC power, there will be 832amp hours/10kW of battery power, and 1.3kW of solar panels.
Once you collect energy from the sun it needs to pass through a solar charge controller before going to the batteries. This is done for 2 purposes:
The solar charge controller regulates the voltage coming from the panels. Since the sun rises and sets, and there are clouds the energy produced from it varies. Electronics however do not like variety in their power source. Once the power is regulated to a consistent voltage it is sent to the batteries.
Charging a battery requires controlling the voltage based on how much energy is in the battery. Once the State Of Charge (SOC) reaches 80% in a lead acid battery the voltage is lowered to prevent damaging the lead plates. This process is handled by the solar charge controller. We will program in the type of batteries we have to the solar charge controller and it will then adjust how it charges to ensure the batteries last as long as possible.
Now that we have the need for the solar charge controller established we need to consider the types and sizes. There are 2 types of solar charge controllers from what I have learned: Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) and not-MPPT. Basically an MPPT solar charge controller is the latest and greatest and ensures you are getting the most out of your panels. It also helps your batteries last longer. MPPT controllers are more expensive than not-MPPT but the price is worth it.
Sizing the controller is a little more involved. First of all you want to make sure the controller works with your battery voltage. We are putting 2 6volt batteries in series to create a 12v battery, so we need the controller to be able to handle 12v, which is pretty much all of them.
The next sizing consideration is based on how much energy your solar panels produce in Volts. You want to have a controller that can handle the voltage your panels produce. If it cannot then you are wasting energy produced by the panels, and overheating your controller.
The final sizing consideration is the output current in Amps. As the controller converts the power from the panels into consistent and usable energy you want to make sure it is all getting converted and sent to the batteries.
For our cabin we have 4 325Watt solar panels for 1300Watts of energy. If we look at the Victron MPPT calculator and enter all the values of our panels they recommend a 150 volt / 85 Amp controller. Currently that controller lists for $680. For $100 more you can get a 150/100 controller and have some overhead if we ever want to expand the system with more panels.
Also when you look at the solar kits at Arizona Sun and Solar that is the charge controller they recommend for the 1300 watt kit.
Workout detail
Got up and walked around on my trails for about 2 hours listening to Botany of Desire by Michael Pollen. Its a fun book about plants and how we have co-adapted with them. He covers the apple, tulip, cannabis, and the potato. So far I am through the apple and tulip and have enjoyed them both. At some point I will write a review but don’t hold your breath, just get the book.
We planted 2 apple trees last week. Kate wanted apple trees so we went to the nursery and picked a Honey Crisp and a McIntosh. Apparently you want to pick 2 different varieties of apple trees that pollinate at the same time. Then they cross pollinate and produce their fruit.
McIntosh
Honey Crisp
Neither Kate nor I are gardeners. I spent a summer a few years ago working on a vegetable farm and mainly learned that I don’t want to be a farmer. However, it is nice to plant something and help it grow.
Naturally one of the trees is already showing some orange spots on the leaves. This can be indicative of cedar rust, or possibly just stress from the transplanting process. I am going to talk with the nursery about that tomorrow.
Cedar Rust?
We have deer in the area so that is why each tree is wrapped in a 6 foot tall circle of fencing. Those deer aren’t gonna get my apple trees!
Now I need to figure out a drip system for them and keep them alive!
Workout Details
Rode with Kate, her dad, and sister to the town of Dolores about 12 miles away this morning before work. It was a beautiful day for a ride and we saw a lot of wildlife. Including a baby deer that couldn’t jump over the fence that its mother could. So the mom came back and they figured out a way to get around the fence.
My Apple Watch broke the other day. The battery swelled up and the entire screen cracked around the face and popped up. I was just sitting having lunch and it broke. I immediately started a chat with Apple Support and after spending $80+ they had a box coming to me to send it in for repair.
The range of emotions this caused me to go through was an interesting study in non-attachment and disconnecting. The Apple Watch is the first thing I put on in the morning and the last thing I take off at night. I am obsessed with closing the 3 activity rings everyday. In fact I was on a 180+ day Move streak when it broke.
After the watch broke I immediately started thinking about how I was going to lose my Move streak. As that settled in I began to realize how obsessed I was with closing the rings. As I contemplated this I had the realization that everything was going to be ok.
I understand that it is absurd to think that not closing my activity rings would be a big issue, but before the watch was broken that is exactly how I thought. There were days when I would go for walks at 11:30pm to get my Move and Exercise rings closed. Sometimes the stand goal would not register for a particular hour, even though I had stood up and walked around, and I would curse the watch.
The Apple Watch is an amazing piece of technology for measuring activity. It tracks you heart-rate accurately on your wrist, which is far more comfortable than a chest strap. While Siri needs a lot of improvement, it is very useful for setting timers and reminders.
Apple calls the Watch “its most personal device ever”. The question is do we need to be personal with technology? Should be be more attached to something because it measures our heart-rate and connects to the internet?
When I was wearing the watch I would check my activity numbers all the time. Instead of occasionally checking my phone for messages they would now appear on my wrist. You can turn various notifications off, but the watch is still right there ready to be checked whenever there is a free moment to do so.
When I get the watch back I am going to reconsider wearing it all the time. I have had a concern that the Activity rings haven’t necessarily been the healthiest method of health tracking for some time. The monthly challenges, for example, are based on your prior months’ activity rate. The algorithm that determines the challenge is linear and not adaptive. That means that the challenges only go up in volume: more calories, more minutes, etc. Eventually that will lead to over-training, which can be as bad or worse than not training at all.
I have not worn the watch for 4 days now. For the first few days I was still checking my wrist for the time. Today was the first day back to work and halfway through the day I realized that I wasn’t standing up as often. I felt more relaxed and less distracted all day.
There is a time and place for the Apple Watch. I will use it for workouts and various activities. However I am not going to wear it all day anymore. At this point the watch and activity rings have become a distraction. I do not need to be reminded to workout and be active. This may change down the road and at that time I will wear it more often.
Its also really cool to pay for things by tapping my watch at the register. 😎
Last Wednesday was my first day as a trail volunteer with the Mancos Trail Group. For a few years now I have wanted to join them on a trail maintenance day but the timing never worked out. This year due to COVID-19 they have adjusted the format to an adopt a trail methodology. This allows the volunteers to help maintain the Mancos Spur trail safely. It also means I can go do trail maintenance anytime I want.
Mancos Trail Group
The Mancos trail group is a non-profit organization of volunteers who:
Mancos Trails Group promotes trail stewardship and etiquette for all trail users in the Mancos Valley.
As I mentioned before I haven’t ever made it to one of their trail maintenance days, but I was on their email list. On May 30th they sent out an email titled “2020 MTG Update: New Adopt-a-Trail opportunity in the works”. They asked for replies from people who would be interested in the program. Part of the proposal was that they “will be loaning out tools to our adopters to use for the whole season” and I was sold.
Apparently I am not the only one interested in the program and the group had the best turnout in its history. I and 16 other people signed up to adopt a section of the Mancos Spur Trail and maintain it for the season.
On June 10th they conducted a Zoom call run by the United States Forest Service(USFS) trail ranger for the Dolores Ranger District. 90% of the call was about safety including COVID-19 precautions. 8% of it was about the GIS app we would use to help the USFS trail department identify trail issues that they need to maintain.
The app is pretty slick. It uses GPS to create a pin and then asks for details about the trail issue. You add up to 2 photos and the report is sent to the USFS. According to the ranger this data is helpful because he generally gets a report along these lines: “There is a fallen tree about 3 lefts from the start next to the big rocks.” Since our maintenance activities are limited to “brushing back the growth on the sides of the trail, maintaining drainage features, removing small trees crossing the trail with a handsaw, etc” the Forest Service comes in with the chainsaws and other major trail repairs. It seems like they should promote this app to anyone using the trails…
On June 28th I was assigned my segment and given the tools to work it. I figured my first day of vacation would be a nice day to get started. Since it is during the week the trail would be empty and I would have the place to myself.
Mancos Spur Trail
The Mancos Spur trail is actually a route made up of multiple existing trails. It starts off of a section of the Colorado Trail known as Big Bend. It ends at Mancos State Park 23 miles to the southwest. Trail Forks has it listed as a Mountain Bike trail but I would only recommend it to people looking for a suffer fest. The trail starts above 10,000 feet of elevation for the first 7 miles and ends at Jackson Lake in the Mancos State Park.
Sharkstooth Trail
Sharkstooth Peak from the East side
The first section is the Sharkstooth Trail which begins at the Colorado Trail and finishes as the Sharkstooth trailhead. The trail is 7 miles long and goes over Sharkstooth pass near Sharkstooth Peak. 6 miles of the trail is above tree line and fully exposed to the elements. The peak is described well here:
Sharkstooth Peak is in the La Plata Mountains, part of the San Juans, and is a prominent landmark although it is not nearly the highest peak in the area. Despite its distinctive shape, its “low” height (for Colorado, that is– it would be considered a very high peak indeed in almost any other U.S. state) makes it easy to dismiss in Colorado. That is a mistake because this is a beautiful peak in a beautiful area that offers an easy approach, a fun but moderately challenging climb, and solitude that is hard to find atop Colorado’s more famous summits. In short, you get San Juan conditions and San Juan views but without the San Juan crowds (and human impact) found on the 14ers, a few of the better-known 13ers, and on the popular trails.
A funny thing happened with the trail segment I was assigned. In the email for the assignment they told me I had adopted Segment 12, but the .gpx file they sent was for Segment 15. I am a map oriented person. If I look at something on a map I have that image in my head when I think about the route. So, I associated Segment 15 as the one I needed to work on. 😂
So I maintained someone else’s trail segment. 🤷♂️
Segment 15 begins on the north side of Sharkstooth pass and continues for 1.5 miles to the headwaters of Bear Creek. 90% of the trail is above tree line and crosses a large scree field. To get to it I drove to the Sharkstooth trailhead about 20 miles from my home. The drive turns to dirt at Transfer Campground and heads up into the La Plata mountains. The last mile of road is pretty rough and I got to test out the all wheel drive of my Element.
Parked at the trailhead.
To get to the north side of Sharkstooth pass from the trail head you have to go over the pass. So the first 2 miles of the day were uphill but the temperature was perfect for work jeans and long sleeve shirt. The jeans protect my legs from flying debris and the shirt means I don’t have to wear sunscreen. I also wear a big dorky hat, again so I don’t have to do the sunscreen thing, but also cause it keeps the sun outta my eyes.
Once you cross over Sharkstooth pass the only sign of humans is the trail. Its a very peaceful place to be, when there are no storms. In Colorado you pretty much always want to be back below treeline before the afternoon. The rain and wind can be pretty bad, but its the lightning that you mainly want to avoid. With that in mind my plan was to get to the trailhead about 8am, hike to the end of the segment in just over 2 hours, have a quick lunch, then take my time coming back to focus on trail maintenance and be off the mountain before noon.
The entirety of Segment 15 is pretty much downhill till it ends at Bear Creek. So I knew I would have a nice hike out. Fortunately all that bike riding I did this spring paid off. While I was definitely huffing and puffing at 11,950 feet at the pass, I was able to keep moving and working the trail.
Maintenance for trails at this altitude generally involves trimming small vegetation back, moving rocks that have fallen onto the trail, and repairing drainage features built into the trail. On the way down into Bear Creek Canyon I took note of various rock issues in the trail that I would tend to on my way out.
Once I got to Bear Creek I stopped and had my lunch of Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches and a couple apples. At this point I have been hiking around 2 hours and had not seen anyone else. The peacefulness was very nice and I was happy I chose that spot for lunch.
Nice lunch spot
Then it was time to get back to work and eventually my car. I noticed a section of trail that was really muddy. In the GIS app they had an option for “trail spring/seep” and that matched what I saw the best. I took some photos and made a few notes in the app. Once I was back in cell phone range it would upload to the USFS system. My thinking is that it would be good to place large stones in the path like pavers. However that seems like pretty extensive trail construction that may or may not be what the USFS wants done. Better to let them know about the issue and then I will hike back after they work on it to see what they chose to do.
After that I spent the rest of the time pulling large rocks off the trail. The Rogue Hoe came in handy for this as well. I was able to use the steel head to pull up one corner and then pivot the rock on the opposite corner. Using this technique I was able to move some impressively large rocks without compromising my back or hands.
Overall there wasn’t a whole lot of trail maintenance to do on this section. Maybe the person who was actually assigned the segment had already done the hard work! 🤣 It was nice to hike the segment since I had never been back to Bear Creek at this elevation before.
Just over a year ago Victor Ramirez gave a great presentation at WordCamp Atlanta about how he was managing blocks for Dow Jones, who use the new WordPress editor as the backend to all of their publications. He described a block they created for the byline that made it 1 million times easier for the writers to use.
The success of the byline block was due to the creating a process that the user was used to. The initial idea was to give the user a drop down list of all the authors available. This solution was untenable due to the large number of authors. Instead they took a page from Facebook’s friend search. In this case as you start typing the authors name it would show results that match the name. A little extra development work created a solution that users were already used to.
He had a great analysis that developers and designers might consider when building websites/apps: think of the Domino’s website as your competition. The user experience of the Domino’s website is a very engaging experience (as long as you can see). From start to finish the website keeps you aware of the process and doesn’t try to force you into a new way of doing things. It is an experience that users enjoy and look forward to.
Is it possible to make all websites and apps like the Domino’s website? Maybe not, but it seems useful to think of websites and apps outside of your industry as competition. People only have so much time in the day. At some-point they may have to decide between spending time on your interface or Domino’s.
