Thursday, June 11, 2009

treehugger

Got a nice bump in readers today (Howdy!) due to a blip on treehugger.com http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/field-lab-offgrid-house.php thanks to Tim for passing my info onto my new friends at tiny house design http://www.tinyhousedesign.com/2009/06/08/the-field-lab-extremely-sustainable-homestead/

Finished up tricking out the new simple summer kitchen this morning. Poured my heart and soul into a good scrub down of the house'n'grounds. Linked up with Jerry from UPS for the new sump pump hose I ordered. Met my new best friends Aaron, Shiree, and Brooke at the GrubShack for lunch then they came out for the tour. Great folks I'm happy to know now... and turns out Shiree will be able to help me design some flame throwers to be mounted on my entrance towers. During the tour, I found my first genuine artifact on my property down in the canyon - this must have washed down here after the last rains because Aunt Kathy would surely have found it by now.

13 comments:

Mr_Brown said...

John, I like the propane burner. Can you give us some information on this new addition? Your review of how it works so far and a little information on the manufacture?

Regards,

Bill

John Wells said...

Anything for you Mr. Brown...works good so far. NorthernTool Item# 330971

Bob O said...

Glad to see the propane is outside. In line with Mr, Brown, it'd be nice to have all of the technical specs on the equipment you are using,

Just coming from a practical point of view...what works, and what does not, and where do you get your stuff from?

neil said...

I wonder how much diamond back rattles and genuine arrow heads would fetch on ebay?

Anonymous said...

Hello. I thought I would send you this site. Would like to know your thoughts on this. Maybe you have some experience with it. I understand they have freezers also.
Here it is...http://partsonsale.com/sundanzer.html
Hope to hear from you. Randy

KE5MIL said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
KE5MIL said...

Sorry bout messin up your blog...this is the first time I have blogged!

Good morning John,
Just wondering if you have considered HAM radio? I recall using a vast repeater network on 2meters when I was down there last. Anyway, it could be a useful resource, especially as a communications back up. It also can be fairly entertaining and counterproductive as well.
With best regards from San Antonio,

Cliff (KE5MIL)

neil said...

Re: ham radio
John has the perfect spot for a solar repeater site, APRS/WX Igate or echolink node. It would take about a week to get a tech class license.

We'll try to get him to add that to the list of tasks.

Water
Food
Shelter
Power
Greenhouse
Photography
Astronomy
...

Neil(2E0BUB)

Grant Wagner said...

Congratulations on your cleaning and your find! What a good life!

I gotta say though, exactly how "sustainable" is burning large amounts of precious propane for visual effect? ;D

Mr_Brown said...

KE5MIL - Please know that I am in no way John's spokesperson, but I have had the opportunity to visit the Field Lab and John and I both talked about our interest in learning more about Ham Radios. So far we've gotten the names of a couple books to read to get our Tech. So it is certainly on the project list at the Field Lab.

I myself have recently inherited an entire room full of Ham Radio equipment and I have no idea what 80% of these things do. So instead of getting rid of my Grandfathers gear, I figured I'd just learn how to use it.

John please tell me if I'm stepping out of line by jumping right in on this ham radio question.

Anonymous said...

John,

I don't know how often you get to Terlingua, but be on the lookout for a man named Blair Pittman. He was a photog for the houston chronicle for years and is a die-hard transplant. He's got a couple of books in the store there, Tales from the Porch, I think it's called. He has access to a pretty awesome, and private, quicksilver mine. Something tells me you'd make great friends.

And, is "grub shack" the real name of the place you're getting your vittles?

KE5MIL said...

http://kb0mga.net/exams
The link above should take you to one of the best online test data banks available. After you pay your dues with the practice exams, all you need is a place to sit for the exam; I think the going rate is still $14.00.
You're not required to join a radio club, the FCC is the grantor. You guys are in one very sweet spot, geographically, for some bodacious and righteous HAM operations.

Alec said...

John,

Saw ya on TCR last Sunday in Dallas,
been looking for ya on Google Earth
hard to spot ya in the desert of
West Texas . Post some coords for
us that are using google earth

Your adventures look fun and
the swamp cooler is a cool piece
of craftsmanship .

Regards
Alec