Getting together with Renewable Energy Friends

We are making some plans for some projects, and going over other projects with some friends. DJ MacIntyre of Le Boisé Alternatives and I are planning a trip to John Ferguson of Belleghuan Ltd., to convert his diesel truck to run on vegetable oil. DJ runs a Renewable Energy business in Ontario Canada, John sells listeroid diesel engines, among other things, also in Ontario, less than 2 hours north of us. Both are interesting folks to know. Larry Barr of Rebelwolf/ESSN fame has started some new RE projects, including a solar power mobile (HAM) radio shack, and a new RE Blog, which you can read about at http://offgrid.green-trust.org/. The guy piling holes are filled with concrete and dirt for the new wind tower, so Jim Juczak from Woodhenge and I will be raising the wind machine shortly. Dharam had a death in his extended family, so he will be cutting short his stay here to be with his people, and we will finish his veggie bus when he returns. Combined with a stomach bug that flowed through here and hit a few folks, it's been a busy week.

Painting Green-Trust Green

Dharam just finished spraying and rolling out the new paint job on our main buildings (the house, garage, and screened classroom). It's pale green with pale lemon trim. We developed a leak in the connections on our well pump in the past few days, and ended up with a lot of water on the floor of our first floor. Dharam and I replumbed the water system, relocated the pump to a more convenient area, and I repaired one of the capacitor wires that had broken off, and was causing the motor to smoke. We are wrapping Dharam's veggie tank with Reflectix to help contain the vegetable oil's heat in his skoolie tank. See more at http://offgrid.green-trust.org

Eco Tips for Everyone

Over the years we have found many ways to live more economically, and ecologically. We have started a frugal and sustainable tips and products site where we will share with you what we have learned, and share some of the products we use that make it easier to live more sustainably. See Tips & Products ....

Dharam's Veggie-Bus Conversion

Follow along at Green-Trust Offgrid as we convert Dharam's Schoolbus to Veggie Fueled RV. Today we are building the heat exchanger for the fuel tank, and splicing into the coolant lines for heat.

[Green-Trust Off Grid] Making Applesauce at Green-Trust

Linda and I are busy today cutting up apples and cooking them down on the wood fired cook-stove. We are only doing a half bushel this time around, Ida Red's make great applesauce. It's 35F outside, and 78F inside, so cooking on the stove is a great comfort.

We are also making apple butter and apple crisp today.

--
Posted by Steve Spence to Green-Trust Off Grid at 11/04/2006 04:39:00 PM

[Green Trust Fun] GardenShare Potluck

We had a wonderful potluck dinner Thursday night, produced by Gardenshare . This is an annual Local Harvest Dinner with the focus on local food production and community supported agriculture. We brought a Chicken and vegetable stew made with 100% local food. The main speaker was Bill McKibben, a very entertaining and knowledgeable speaker. He spoke on "Think Globally, Act Neighborly".

--
Posted by Steve Spence to Green Trust Fun at 11/04/2006 06:58:00 AM

[Self Reliance in Troubled Times] Al Rutan - The Methane Man: Materials available once again!

We received plans and descriptions of Al's methane digesters and the process of anaerobic digestion from Al's family. Video's are also coming soon. articles will be posted shortly at http://discuss.green-trust.org and the video's and documentation will be available on CD for a nominal fee, the proceeds going to building Al's methane digesters for off-grid communities. Woodhenge will be one of the first recipients of a Al Rutan digester. More info will be posted once the video tapes are converted to cd, and the documents scanned, ocr'd, and regenerated as PDF's.

The following articles will be published to our websites this weekend, time permitting:

• The History of Anaerobic Digestion
• Guidelines for the Process
• Building a Methane Digester
• Specifications of a Methane Digester
  

Additional info can be found in the back issues of ESSN Magazine, Homepower Magazine, and Alternative Sources of Energy Magazine.

--
Posted by Steve Spence to Self Reliance in Troubled Times at 11/04/2006 07:13:00 AM

[Green-Trust Off Grid] We are cooking with wood, not gas.

Yesterday we finally got the chimney installed on the new Todd wood fired cook stove. It was the first nice day weather wise in weeks, and probably the last. We picked up the insulated chimney section from Evans & White in the afternoon, and Luray Martin came over and we went to work. 2 hours later the chimney was done. Then we went to Church (both my wife and I have kids groups, I teach the 5th & 6th grade boys, she has the 4 & 5 year olds), and when we returned around 8pm, we started our first fire. It was a bit smoky at first as it burned off the oils and coatings used in manufacturing and shipping, but it heated right up. The oven came up to 350F with no problem, the water reservoir warmed up, and it brought the upstairs of the house up from 68 to 74 in no time. This weekend I'm making chili and stew. More photo's can be found in our photo album.

--
Posted by Steve Spence to Green-Trust Off Grid at 11/02/2006 06:13:00 AM