Wednesday, 11 September 2013
Saturday, 31 August 2013
Friday, 30 August 2013
Sunday, 18 August 2013
Breakfast's up!
One of the girls laid a hooooge egg!
This is not a 'faked' photo, or a trick of perspective. The egg really was nearly twice the size in every dimension!
Today of course, being a Sunday, is what we call 'Bore Bacwn' (Bacon Day)...so we made breakfast.
The cracking of the egg revealed.....
A Space Invader!! :o)
Today of course, being a Sunday, is what we call 'Bore Bacwn' (Bacon Day)...so we made breakfast.
The cracking of the egg revealed.....
A Space Invader!! :o)
Monday, 5 August 2013
Happy Birthday
This afternoon completely out of the blue, I ended up having a great conversation with a lovely lady on another site who has put a smile on my face, given me a couple of belly laughs and just put my whole world to rights.
Funny, literate, engaging, interesting and entertaining...just a few of the adjectives I could use. Welsh? Naturally.
Ok, I'm English by birth, but have decided to move to a place I have fallen in love with over the last couple of years, and I feel such an affinity for the area that it's only natural that I should be looking for that special person here - and if not someone Welsh then at least someone like me who has adopted Wales as 'home').
There is another adjective I could use to describe her, but I won't...I'll keep that to myself. All I will say is that Myfanwy (the name has been changed to protect the innocent) is one of those people who make you realise that it is all worth it.
She said something to me today which touched my soul and just described what it is about where I live now that I couldn't have put any better...'in this world, but not of this world'. It's why I moved here...there is something about where I am now that seems almost magical at times.
Every silver lining has it's cloud, as they say. She lives several hours and a couple of hundred miles away by car (I know the journey well), the wrong side of the sign that says "Croeso i Loegr", but happens to live within an incredibly short hop of where I spent most of the first two thirds of my life. My parents and other family still live in that part of the world, so it's not beyond imagination that perhaps our paths may cross in passing at some point. I can imagine that putting the world to rights over a coffee or a glass of wine would be just like the conversation we had today, only with all the chuckles shared in 'real-time'. I also know that my old 'stamping ground' is in safe hands and she can rest assured that 'the land of her fathers' (if not my fathers) is being properly appreciated and respected by someone who has truly fallen in love with Wales.
Perhaps one day I will find someone I can truly fall in love with and maybe share my new life with, but right now it doesn't actually matter. I hope I made a new friend today, and that counts for a lot in my book.
Myfanwy also gave me the most wonderful birthday present today. It might not seeem like much, but it is something I will treasure. Confirmation that I made the right decision in deciding to quit my old life and move up here. I have had a few regrets in my time...but the biggest regret comes from looking back on the choices you should have made, but didn't.
I also have to thank Paddy and Sue for what turned out to be a rather enjoyable birthday. Not that they did anything out of the ordinary. But if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here; if I wasn't here, I'd be back in Surrey.....and would have probably spent the day in A&E for one reason or another, like most birthdays!
Funny, literate, engaging, interesting and entertaining...just a few of the adjectives I could use. Welsh? Naturally.
Ok, I'm English by birth, but have decided to move to a place I have fallen in love with over the last couple of years, and I feel such an affinity for the area that it's only natural that I should be looking for that special person here - and if not someone Welsh then at least someone like me who has adopted Wales as 'home').
There is another adjective I could use to describe her, but I won't...I'll keep that to myself. All I will say is that Myfanwy (the name has been changed to protect the innocent) is one of those people who make you realise that it is all worth it.
She said something to me today which touched my soul and just described what it is about where I live now that I couldn't have put any better...'in this world, but not of this world'. It's why I moved here...there is something about where I am now that seems almost magical at times.
Every silver lining has it's cloud, as they say. She lives several hours and a couple of hundred miles away by car (I know the journey well), the wrong side of the sign that says "Croeso i Loegr", but happens to live within an incredibly short hop of where I spent most of the first two thirds of my life. My parents and other family still live in that part of the world, so it's not beyond imagination that perhaps our paths may cross in passing at some point. I can imagine that putting the world to rights over a coffee or a glass of wine would be just like the conversation we had today, only with all the chuckles shared in 'real-time'. I also know that my old 'stamping ground' is in safe hands and she can rest assured that 'the land of her fathers' (if not my fathers) is being properly appreciated and respected by someone who has truly fallen in love with Wales.
Perhaps one day I will find someone I can truly fall in love with and maybe share my new life with, but right now it doesn't actually matter. I hope I made a new friend today, and that counts for a lot in my book.
Myfanwy also gave me the most wonderful birthday present today. It might not seeem like much, but it is something I will treasure. Confirmation that I made the right decision in deciding to quit my old life and move up here. I have had a few regrets in my time...but the biggest regret comes from looking back on the choices you should have made, but didn't.
I also have to thank Paddy and Sue for what turned out to be a rather enjoyable birthday. Not that they did anything out of the ordinary. But if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here; if I wasn't here, I'd be back in Surrey.....and would have probably spent the day in A&E for one reason or another, like most birthdays!
Monday, 1 July 2013
The Source of the Problem
Water harvested from the wild has three problems which occur to a greater or lesser degree, depending on how and where it is harvested. Rainwater is pretty clean and clear, but picks up a few grollies when harvested as run-off from a roof. Underground springs, wells and aquifers are often pretty good, but a lot depends on where the water comes from and the type of rock or strata it passes through. Water pumped out of a ditch or land drain sounds like the worst possible option, so I decided to have a play with that first. I figured that if I could clean up that source as much as possible, then that would give me some valuable data to play with when it comes to implementing an off-grid water supply.
So what's in the ditch? Well, the ditch has a pretty good lining of clay which means it holds water quite well. There is a bit of loose mud and sediment in the bottom which is fine all the time the bed is undisturbed but this gets shaken up and makes the water pretty turbid when pumping. There is also plenty of 'livestock'...insect life, algae and frog and newt activity. Then there is all the stuff that I suspect is in there, but without some testing I can't be sure...nitrates, nitrites, pesticide and fertiliser residues and other nasties. Plus of course bacteria and pathogens.
All the problems I could encounter notwithstanding, most of the contents of the ditch - a good 95% I would say - is plain and simple, good old fashioned H2O. Which means I only need to get rid of perhaps 5% of the contents to leave me with reasonably clean water.
Would I drink from the ditch? No. Would I wash my hands in it? Definitely. Would I then eat an ice cream cone after washing my hands in it? Debatable.
So what's in the ditch? Well, the ditch has a pretty good lining of clay which means it holds water quite well. There is a bit of loose mud and sediment in the bottom which is fine all the time the bed is undisturbed but this gets shaken up and makes the water pretty turbid when pumping. There is also plenty of 'livestock'...insect life, algae and frog and newt activity. Then there is all the stuff that I suspect is in there, but without some testing I can't be sure...nitrates, nitrites, pesticide and fertiliser residues and other nasties. Plus of course bacteria and pathogens.
All the problems I could encounter notwithstanding, most of the contents of the ditch - a good 95% I would say - is plain and simple, good old fashioned H2O. Which means I only need to get rid of perhaps 5% of the contents to leave me with reasonably clean water.
Would I drink from the ditch? No. Would I wash my hands in it? Definitely. Would I then eat an ice cream cone after washing my hands in it? Debatable.
I like to move it, move it
A song from the film Madegascar? Yes, and moving things around will be a major part of operations here on
the site.
Water, as previously mentioned, likes to flow downhill. Moving it uphill involves a little effort. There's 'bucket and chuck it', manual movement using mechanical means like Archimedian Screws or bucket elevators, or there are any number of ways of pumping water. Pumping seemed like a good way of doing things but the choice of pumps and methods of operation are numerous.
Looking at other resources available, I decided that I wanted to play with a low voltage system, having installed a 12v solar power/charging system down in the Toy Shed a year ago. If we're not using the system to top off vehicle batteries or charge the static battery for the inverter that runs the lights, then all that deliciously green and free energy is sat idle and going to waste. And as the sun has made an appearance this year, there's my energy source. So my power source is now either 12v DC, or inverted mains. Water and mains electricity do not make the best bed-fellows, and for temporary playing around, I'm not keen on spending a fortune on expensive gear so it's 12v DC and whatever I could find sculling around on ebay.
Enter the bilge pump! Two choices were obvious. Marine or RV/camping applications. Drilling down into the fine detail throw up two options - freshwater or wastewater. Figuring that I would be pumping from an unknown source, highly turbid and full of sediment and particulates (and the odd tadpole or pondskater here and there), I opted for a pump capable of contaminated water rather than potable water, so decided on a bilge pump for marine use.
The bilge pump is usually used with a float switch so that it can't run dry, and that is what I have done with my pump. Not likely to run dry in my applications, but a useful protection mechanism nonetheless.
The first thing I tried with the bilge pump was draining the surface water from the bottom of the Toy Shed. Although standing rainwater is pretty clean after settling, there is a lot of mud and sediment right at the bottom, so a method of mounting the pump and float switch that allowed some filtering of the sediment was needed. I had an old Curver plastic storage box sculling around, so I mounted the pump and float switch in the bottom, made up a set of flying leads that allowed me to connect to a battery, and drilled a row of 6mm holes around the base of the box, about 10mm up from the bottom. This allows water to drain in through the holes and let any sediment settle in the bottom. The pump only operates when there is 12-15mm of liquid, so this sedimentation doesn't affect the pump too much. The pump sits on a strainer base which also prevents large matter like grass or weed getting sucked up the pomp. The outflow of the pump is a 19mm bore hose outlet, so I have a length of 3/4" bore corrugated pond hose on the outlet. This will now drain the Toy Shed enough to leave just a couple of smallish puddles which soon dry up after a warm day or two.
The unit is also portable...I took it to a friends place to help with draining a pond in order to desludge it. I used the pump in the pond to suck out the water which I pumped into an old feed bag suspended in a water butt. The bag trappped all the weed, slime and sediment, allowing cleaner water to drain into the butt. The tap four inches above the bottom of the but also allowed for additional sedimentation, meaning that clean water could be returned to the pond after digging out the residual slime. Three evenings of pumping, digging, filtering and refilling left a much cleaner pond. After the job, the pump unit, butt and battery were dragged back up here in the back of Pudgy. Simples!
the site.
Water, as previously mentioned, likes to flow downhill. Moving it uphill involves a little effort. There's 'bucket and chuck it', manual movement using mechanical means like Archimedian Screws or bucket elevators, or there are any number of ways of pumping water. Pumping seemed like a good way of doing things but the choice of pumps and methods of operation are numerous.
Looking at other resources available, I decided that I wanted to play with a low voltage system, having installed a 12v solar power/charging system down in the Toy Shed a year ago. If we're not using the system to top off vehicle batteries or charge the static battery for the inverter that runs the lights, then all that deliciously green and free energy is sat idle and going to waste. And as the sun has made an appearance this year, there's my energy source. So my power source is now either 12v DC, or inverted mains. Water and mains electricity do not make the best bed-fellows, and for temporary playing around, I'm not keen on spending a fortune on expensive gear so it's 12v DC and whatever I could find sculling around on ebay.
Enter the bilge pump! Two choices were obvious. Marine or RV/camping applications. Drilling down into the fine detail throw up two options - freshwater or wastewater. Figuring that I would be pumping from an unknown source, highly turbid and full of sediment and particulates (and the odd tadpole or pondskater here and there), I opted for a pump capable of contaminated water rather than potable water, so decided on a bilge pump for marine use.
The first thing I tried with the bilge pump was draining the surface water from the bottom of the Toy Shed. Although standing rainwater is pretty clean after settling, there is a lot of mud and sediment right at the bottom, so a method of mounting the pump and float switch that allowed some filtering of the sediment was needed. I had an old Curver plastic storage box sculling around, so I mounted the pump and float switch in the bottom, made up a set of flying leads that allowed me to connect to a battery, and drilled a row of 6mm holes around the base of the box, about 10mm up from the bottom. This allows water to drain in through the holes and let any sediment settle in the bottom. The pump only operates when there is 12-15mm of liquid, so this sedimentation doesn't affect the pump too much. The pump sits on a strainer base which also prevents large matter like grass or weed getting sucked up the pomp. The outflow of the pump is a 19mm bore hose outlet, so I have a length of 3/4" bore corrugated pond hose on the outlet. This will now drain the Toy Shed enough to leave just a couple of smallish puddles which soon dry up after a warm day or two.
The unit is also portable...I took it to a friends place to help with draining a pond in order to desludge it. I used the pump in the pond to suck out the water which I pumped into an old feed bag suspended in a water butt. The bag trappped all the weed, slime and sediment, allowing cleaner water to drain into the butt. The tap four inches above the bottom of the but also allowed for additional sedimentation, meaning that clean water could be returned to the pond after digging out the residual slime. Three evenings of pumping, digging, filtering and refilling left a much cleaner pond. After the job, the pump unit, butt and battery were dragged back up here in the back of Pudgy. Simples!
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