Blog

  • Getting things done : 59/100

    This weekend was all about getting things done. Kate’s sister and 2 teenage daughters are going to visit with us later this week. So we wanted to have things nice for them. Of course we will practice safe distancing.

    The first main project was getting the solar system wrapped up. We still needed to hang the 4 panels on the top of pole mount. Then we needed to tidy things up like the weeding and all the little things to make the place look less like a construction site.

    Yesterday I posted about the weeding I did for the patio. We also made a run to the dump with the leftover construction junk from the drywall project. Today we tackled the solar panels and then focused on getting everything nice and tidy.

    We waited 1 week to hang the panels on the pole to let the concrete cure. Today we assembled the top of pole mount which the panels were then hung from. The mount is remarkably light for its size and strength. It took us a few hours to get it assembled 7 feet up on the pole.

    While this mount does not rotate to track the sun it does tilt depending on the season. In the summer, when the sun is higher in the northern hemisphere’s sky, the panels should be more parallel to the ground. In the winter, when the sun is lower, the panels should be more perpendicular to the ground.

    There are a variety of methods for figuring out what angles are best. I like this site as it has a nice equation based on your latitude. The site also points out that while adjusting the panels for summer and winter gives a good amount of increased performance, adjusting it for each season(4 times a year) only returns marginal improvements. Based on its equation we should have the panels at 13 degrees from horizontal in summer, and 51.5 degrees from horizontal in winter.

    The top of pole mount we have has 6 settings for tilt: 15, 25, 35, 45, 55, and 65 degrees from horizontal. So in the summer it will be set at 15 degrees and in the winter we can go either 45 or 55. 55 is closer to the equations number so we will give it a try this year. The date to change to summer tilt is March 30th, and for winter is September 10th. I have set calendar reminders to do this every year moving forward.

    Once we had the panels hung and connected it was time to clean the place up. Kate and Bill took care of the inside of the cabin while I handled outside. The first thing I did was remove the weeds from around the cabin. I created a 3 to 5 foot area surrounding the building. Then I came back and sprayed a borax/water mixture to help prevent them from growing back. Personally I don’t like plants growing close to a building. They tend to grow into cracks and cause problems.

    Once we had everything done the place looked great. We still need to put finishing trim in the windows and doors, but that is a project for down the road. For right now we are at a great stopping place and its time to relax and enjoy things.

    Workout detail

    I have been slacking on my regular workouts, but its all been supplemented by manual labor. Today was no different. Tomorrow I am taking my bike to a custom frame builder in Durango to repair the cracked weld. Hopefully I will have the bike back soon!

    In other news, our local trail group has assigned trail sections for maintenance. This is their method for handling COVID but still having us maintain the trails. I have a 1.25 mile section of trail to cut brush back on and ensure the trail is in good condition. The section is pretty remote and above treeline. I will get to drive about 10 miles into the national forest and then hike a couple of miles to get to the section. I am really excited about this and will be sure to take photos and blog here about it.

  • In the Weeds : 58/100

    In the Weeds : 58/100

    The thing about weeds is that pretty much any plant can be one. The qualification for being a weed is that you are a plant that someone doesn’t like. This opinion is based on years of research talking to dozens of people in the farming/gardening community here in Mancos, CO.

    For the most part I am indifferent to weeds. I like having a yard of somewhat uniform grass to mow and look at, but I am not a lawn aficionado. If some thistle shows up in my lawn I will probably pull it up. If bind weed shows up I will ignore it.

    The catch to this is on my trails and gravel patio. In those areas the presence of any plant is problematic as it interferes with the area’s purpose. The purpose of a trail is to allow for unimpeded travel. A plant in a trail can impede travel by tripping you or getting stuck in your wheel. The purpose of a gravel patio is to create a space set apart from the grasses and other plants. Having a single plant there is not a problem. The problem is when there are hundreds of plants.

    This was the issue facing us after letting the plants take over our gravel patio this spring. When we first got back on the land we were using the patio all the time. The weather was still chilly so we fired up the wood fire pit and the propane fire pit every night. Then the cedar gnats showed up and dove us inside.

    When we first visited Mancos in 2017 we stayed in an area with no cedar gnats. Then we bought our land and the first summer were told how bad the gnats were, but didn’t see them that year. It was a very very dry year though. Last year was a wet year but we spent late May and June traveling to Europe and missed the gnats. Our dog-sitters who stayed on the land did not miss them and they also bit up our dogs. This is the first year we have been on the land and it hasn’t been a total drought, and the gnats have been a problem.

    These are biting gnats and they are really small and annoying and they bite you and spit anti-coagulant which irritates the heck out of you. They are bad during the day and even worse at sunset. They are so bad we are planning on traveling next June already.

    Since we stopped using the patio because of the gnats we let the plants take over. Things got out of control and then we just stopped trying to do anything and it went full on jungle. My mother and step dad are visiting us tomorrow so we figured it would be a good time to clean up the patio. There is only one tool for this job: the Rogue Hoe!

    Less than halfway started.

    The technique here it pretty straight forward: dig up the gravel and the plants come up with it. The execution is a bit more strenuous and tiring. After 3 hours it was done and the difference is amazing. Now we just need to stay vigilant so the jungle doesn’t return.

    Done and classy

    Workout details

    3 hours of weeding.

    We left one Sunflower

  • Tired : 57/100

    This has been a busy week. We have the solar system working in the cabin. Its not 100% finished but it is very close and we should have the loose ends finished before Monday. Today we replaced the awning on the trailer as the old one was falling apart. Trail building was a morning and afternoon activity for about 6 days in a row. To top it off the temperature has been rising pretty well here and we finally broke 90F.

    After all of that I will admit I am a little tired tonight. I am going to get up early tomorrow and work on it all some more, but tonight I am relaxing.

    Workout detail

    Replaced the 20 ft awning on our trailer this morning. Think weightlifting on ladders. Got it done with no injuries or accidents. Also the new awning looks very nice.

    Goodnight!

  • Alfred Snippets for Speed : 56/100

    Since I work on a laptop I try to be keyboard focused for speed. The trackpad works fine but the keyboard is much faster. The issue is that the baseline setup for keyboard shortcuts in MacOS is limited. To resolve this developers have created a number of programs that extend the MacOS desktop to have a shell/command line interface.

    Personally I have used Quicksilver, Launch Bar, the Google Search Bar, Text Expander, and currently Alfred. Quicksilver was a little advanced for my computer expertise at the time. Up until I started using Alfred these programs were mainly just app launchers. I would hit the shortcut key to launch a search bar in the center of the screen and start typing an app. The launch bar would start presenting apps with names that match my search. When I hit enter the app would launch.

    This would speed up starting an app but nothing really for speeding me up while I used the app. For that I started using Text Expander which let me save various pieces of text as a snippet. Then I would type an abbreviation and the snippet would expand into wherever I was writing. This is a huge time saver when I have to write the same things repeatedly.

    I don’t know the exact year but shortly after using Text Expander I found Alfred. Alfred is a cross of a launcher, Text Expander, and magic. When I use a computer that doesn’t have Alfred installed with my preferences and configs I feel like I have lost the use of an arm. Launching software is great of course. Having snippets expand text with clipboard items is a huge time saver. Then there’s Alfred Wokflows, but that’s a whole other post.

    Snippets for Speed

    I have to cd to the /public directory 50 to 100 times a day on dozens or more of websites. I use tab completion to speed the process but I want to be even faster! With tab completion there are a minimum of 11 keystrokes to get to the /public directory and start working on files.

    With Alfred I setup a snippet so that in 4 keystrokes I am in the /public directory. That is 7 keystrokes saved each time I cd to that directory. Over the course of the work day that is 350 to 700 keystrokes saved.

    I realize this is a very specific application of a snippet, but that is the key to useful snippets. They need to match your workflow, not mine. I am creating new snippets all the time. If I find I am writing the same text all the time then I stop and make a snippet.

    In a chat this might apply to letting someone know I am working on their {site} and will let them know what I find shortly. {site} in this case is replaced by whatever I have in my clipboard at the time. If I copy their domain name and then enter that snippet the message gets the domain name added. The auto expansion for that snippet is ;;work. ( I like using 2 semicolons as it ensures I don’t accidentally type the snippet instead of a regular word like work.

    For the cd to /public command I am in the terminal and I type ;;cd. That auto expands to cd /www/*/public/ with a return at the end. The command is not only expanded but the return means it is started. Once I have typed the d I am in /public and ready to work.

    Over the course of a day I will use some aspect of Alfred 135 times. Snippet expansion is about 15% of that, but using snippets saves me a lot of time. These are some recently made or updated examples that I thought conveyed the benefit of Alfred. If you have a question about another application of a snippet feel free to ask in the Comments.

    Workout detail

    Kinda took the day off. Back was a little sore this morning and we spent more time working with the solar system and the cabin. We now have 120 volts of electricity in the outlets and fixtures.

    After dinner Kate and I took a moonlight walk on the fenceline southern route. I have spent so much time on it recently I could almost walk it with my eyes closed.

    Oh and I think I found a welder to fix my bike!

  • Progress : 55/100

    Progress : 55/100

    The fenceline trail is progressing well. I think I will have the southern loop connected back to the road this week. That loop is 0.8 miles long and gives you some great views of the land and area. I am very happy about it and more importantly Kate is happy with the trail.

    Workout details

    I spent 2 hours trail building after work. My arms and back are feeling pretty tired tonight, but we are so close. I might be able to reach to road tomorrow.

    Oh and we tested the solar system out by connecting just 2 of the panels. Everything came on and no smoke arose. I configured the bluetooth apps for the battery monitor and solar charge controller and everything looks good. Progress.

  • Cracked : 54/100

    Cracked : 54/100

    Changed my chain the other day, as the wax had worn off the old one, and noticed a crack in a weld on my bike. Its a strange place for a weld to crack but there is it on the drive side seat stay. Having a crack in your bike is never a great time.

    Wonka Flower

    Naturally I still went on a 20+ mile ride, but only on pavement. Its much safer that way, I guess. Now to find someone who welds titanium…

    Workout detail

    Spent 2 hours trail building this morning then another hour after work. Almost have the first part of fence-line done. Thinking I should have it finished this week.

  • Late posting : 53/100

    I was working on a post about solar charge controllers for the 5th part of the ongoing solar series. As I dug into the subject I realized I need to spend some more time getting the post together. It turns out that electricity is a little complex and I am not an electrician. So that post will be delayed, because it is 10pm and I need to get to sleep.

    Workout detail

    I got up to build trail this morning but had to run to a friends house for some tools that we need. That pretty much shot the morning for trail building. So after work tonight I went out for a good 90 minute session and made some good progress on the fenceline trail. My hope is that if I get to sleep soon I should be able to get up around 6am and get some good trail work in before work.

    If I can maintain that schedule I should have fenceline done this week. That will give us just over a mile of trails and Kate can start running around the land instead of dealing with distracted drivers on the road.

  • Concrete waits for no man : 52/100

    Concrete waits for no man : 52/100

    Today we had some gentlemen come and pour concrete into the giant hole we dug yesterday. You may recall that we had to dig a 24 inch wide hole 58 inches deep to the pole that will hold our solar panel array. The problem is that the amount of concrete needed to fill a hole that size requires mixing 26 80-lb bags of concrete. The solution is that Kate found some concrete ninjas who do this regularly.

    Form it up Chris!

    I once worked construction with a guy who said: “Concrete waits for no man.” What this means is that concrete is a force of nature and does not negotiate. Once you get concrete wet a timer starts. If you don’t have the concrete where you want it to be when that timer goes off, then too bad.

    The concrete ninjas showed up on time with the bags of concrete and their mixer. Within 45 minutes they were headed home, the hole was full, and the work space was clean. They had a perfect system setup with an open bag on the tailgate. One guy would grab the bag, turn around, and pour it into the mixer. That is the best way to have to handle an 80 lb bag. I would have not been that smart.

    Once they had 7 bags poured in the mixer was full for that load. They would get the water ratio right and add some pure cement to increase the strength. Once everything was set they just rotated the mixer 190 degrees and everything poured into the hole. They did 4 loads and were done.

    Concrete ninjas getting shit done!

    Manuel recommended that we let the pole sit for a week before putting the solar panels on top. By then the concrete will be halfway cured. It will take a month until it fully cures.

    Now that the pole is up we will begin working on connecting the wiring from the pole to the solar charge controller in the cabin. Then we will be able to hook everything up and have 12v and 120v electricity in the cabin! This week we will spend time finishing the inside wiring and pull wire to my shed/workshop/man cave.

    Workout detail

    Looking for that tailwind!

    I dug trail for an hour then the 3 of us went on a 26 mile bike ride. We went north west into the wind. We stopped halfway in the town of Dolores and had some snacks at the local grocer. It was a beautiful day and the ride felt great.

  • Auger : 51/100

    Auger : 51/100

    One thing I briefly mentioned in my post about Solar Panels is that we are mounting them on a pole. We are doing this because we have a flat roof on the cabin that we may eventually build a deck on. Additionally since it is a flat roof the snow will accumulate and block the panels in the winter. A top of pole mount allows us to leave the roof clear, avoid having snow block the panels, and have the ability to adjust the angle of the panels seasonally.

    When searching for top of pole solar mounts I learned a few things:

    1. They are on the pricey side considering there is no electronics involved.
    2. Wind is the biggest thing to be worried about but snowload is also a concern.
    3. The pole used is big heavy and requires a really large hole.

    The price is what it is and we ended up with a good deal.

    The wind in our area is not too bad. We do not get tornado’s, yet, so nothing special needs to be done. The snowload for our area is on the bubble for the mount we purchased.

    Top of pole solar mounts do not come with a pole. That is because they require a very large steel pole that would be really expensive to deliver. Instead we had to make a trip to a local steel shop to buy a 12′ 4″ 40 series steel pipe. Its big and heavy.

    Next the mount manufacturer informed us that the pole needs to be set in a 58 inch deep 24 inch wide hole. Digging a hole that big by hand would be a difficult job. In our case digging that hole by hand is pretty much impossible because our soil is clay and compacted.

    To dig this hole we need a mechanical auger. A 24 inch auger:

    Getting Started
    Progress
    Done
    Left boot for scale. Don’t want to fall in that hole.

    The hole now needs to be filled with concrete. The volume of concrete needed for a hole that size is about 2/3’s of a yard of concrete. That’s about 26 80-lb bags of concrete. Fortunately we found someone who can handle a load that size and are hoping to have it cemented in tomorrow.

    The plan is to have the panels mounted and connected this week. Very exciting.

    Workout detail

    The wiring from the panels to the cabin are going to be buried. I dug the trench for that today. I am very tired now. Good night.

  • Halfway : 50/100

    Holy moly we are halfway through the 100 days of blogging challenge! In some ways it feels like the time has flown by but I remember days where I scrambled to come up with something to write about. Also we are only halfway there so who knows what might happen.

    What I do know is that this is the most consistent I have written for a long time. Probably since University or even longer. It has been great practice to sit here at the end of each day and spend time reflecting.

    Part of this challenge was also to help distract me from the pandemonium that is the US today. Not only does writing about positive things help me stay positive. Spending time writing also means I have less time to read the news. There is only so much news that I need in a day to stay on top of things.

    This blog started off focused on my cycling. It has progressed into being more about what is happening in my life in general. The cabin project is coming along. We almost have the solar finished. The wiring is pretty much done and we are digging the hole for the pole that the solar array sits on tomorrow. The trail building has grown into a new hobby for me and I am enjoying talking about it. Kate and I are designing a house so I will definitely start writing more about that process.

    I am sure more will come up and I hope you stick around and keep reading.

    Workout detail

    Spent an hour trail building this morning.