One More Hog!

 My hog trappers had a ~200 pound boar in a trap this morning.  The first catch in months.  The trappers were on the verge of taking a break in trapping on my place.  And wait for better pickings.

They have taken more than 200 hogs/pigs off my place in the about two years that they have been trapping here.  I think that they have been trapping the Menke place for near a year.  Maybe 20-30 there.

But, the hogs have left their marks!  All the hazardous rooted up areas are now grown over.  That offers surprises to mower and tractor drivers.  The rootings are hazardous enough that it is conceivable they could result in a tractor rollover if hit at a poor angle and too high a speed.  More likely, I guess, that a tractor driver could be thrown off the tractor.

Some clarification for readers lucky enough not to live in a hog infested area. 

Feral hogs are mostly escaped domestic hogs and have been with us for centuries.  I'm not sure why but the population seems to have increased in the past ~30 years.  The joke is that female hogs are born pregnant.  They CAN produce an astonishing number of offspring in 12 months.  Hundreds.

About 10 years ago, Texas completed the last segment of the toll road, SH130, that is meant as an eastern alternative to IH35 between Seguin and Georgetown.  To attact traffic, the last segment, from Sequin to Lockhart, had the speed limit set to 85mph; the highest in the state.  Right through hog habitat.  Millions of dollars worth of vehicle damage have been incurred on that section.  As far as I know, no human fatalities

The threat to farm property is well known and the state has explored many options for hog control.  There is no limit on how, how many, season, or time of day as to when the hogs may be killed.  Something like squirrels and coyotes.  Other than "open season", the most persistent control measure has been the state making grants to counties in order to offer $5 bounties on hog tails.  So, if someone gets a hog, the tail is cut off and placed in the freeze for future redemption.  The $5 is insufficient to stimulate inefficient harvesting methods such as trapping.  I imagine it might take $100/tail to really get the hogs cleaned up.  I am fortunate enough to have found trappers that do it for recreation rather than profit.  The $5 bounties are sporadic.  A grant may last a few months, then will not be funded for a few months.

Personally, I have gotten only around 10 hogs over ~5 years.  Mostly with snares set on hog paths that cross fences but also a few in traps.  The traps being cages with trap doors.  So, generally no injury to hogs in the traps.  Few snared hogs survive to being found.  Live snared hogs can not be handled; they must be shot.

Possum Trap

https://photos.app.goo.gl/abrUHitEWX8MSRYs8

 Perhaps 10+ years ago, I set up a compost container near my front walk through gate.  A ~4' length of 24" corrugated steel culvert pipe standing on end.  I carry my kitchen rotable debris to the container.  These days, coffee grounds, avocado seed and shells, banana peels, food that has gone bad in the kitchen, caught mouse bodies.  Most meat products, such as chicken carcasses, go in the yard and get taken care of by wandering nocturnal wildlife.  The idea was that I would add another compost culvert when the first one was filled.  I was surprised that I was unable to fill the container; it rots down faster than I add to it.  In the 10+ years it has been in use, depth is 12" or less.

Yesterday morning, I noticed a possum trapped in the compost culvert.  Apparently unable to scale the ~3 vertical feet of culvert.  I placed a hoe in the the culvert which allowed the possum to climb the handle and escape.  Then, later in the day, I removed the hoe.  This morning, I was surprised to find the possum again trapped.  I regretted not taking some photos of his first trapping.  I will not let that opportunity get away from me again.  See here soon, the photos.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Rvt86BTCFJDdaC4s8

Soon after the above photos, the possum had freed himself.  I will again remove the hoe and give him opportunity to trap himself again.

The shorter culvert sections are planters.  And serve other purposes.  Recently, I have been planting pineapple tops in those planters.  Out of ~8 for this season, one (pictured) has survived.  I've been peeing on it; the only moisture it has gotten.  Correction:  I have TWO surviving pineapple tops.  One in each of two planters.  One surviving with no supplemental moisture.

Until the hard freezes of the past two years, the planters had been overflowing with two varieties of spineless cactus.  The freezes killed all cactus in the planters, but the parts spilling to the ground had rooted and survived.  I have been moving leaves from the survivors back to the planters. 

"Back to the Earth" homeowners tend to buy or build compost bins that are short lived and are a maintenance problem.  Not to mention very expensive.  Much in contrast to my scheme.  The mind boggles at the cost of such compost.

8/13/22

After an absence of several days, this morning I found the possum sleeping in the compost bin.  I dumped some kitchen junk on top of him.  I'll get prepared to take a photo before I put the hoe back in.

A bit later:  Added two photos to the above album.  He climbed the hoe handle, stuck his head above the rim, then went back down.  I waited about 15 minutes to get that photo.  I pulled the hoe back out and may try again later.

8/19/22

I found the dead possum in the compost bin.  Since I released him at least twice, I can work up no guilt.  I did find another, apparent possum, skull in the compost bin.  So, that one apparently is not the first possum to find his end trapped in the culvert.

StarLink/SpaceX

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zEtLzpKuoNPzcNud7

Over the past few days, I have been installing and testing my new StarLink ground station.  In the photo, it is sitting on a glass top table on the apron of my pool.  The above link is to higher resolution photos.  The cable runs to the lower floor of the pool building where my main router is situated.  Feeding into my main router, internet access is provided to my entire LAN.  Performance and ease of use is SUPERB.

I ordered the station when I first heard of StarLink, 2-3 years ago.  Last week, I finally received as did quite few in Caldwell County.   The residential model is currently priced at about $600 for the station hardware plus $110/month for the service.

SpaceX has single handedly brought about a revolution in rocketry just as Tesla has single handedly brought about the EV revolution.  By claiming otherwise, President Biden has proven himself either extremely poorly informed or dishonest.  SpaceX has enormously brought down the cost of launching mainly by developing reusable rockets.  I think some of the SpaceX rockets/boosters have now been used 13 times; launched 13 times.  Had it not been for SpaceX, we would still be at the mercy of Russia for servicing the International Space Station.  SpaceX has developed a near a monopoly on affordable launches.  NASA was slow to recognize.

I've long sought a way to invest in SpaceX; it is a privately held, not publicly traded, corporation.  The best I have found is the Baron family of funds.  BPTIX and BPTRX hold about 5% of assets in SpaceX.  StarLink is a subsidiary of  SpaceX but is expected to soon be "spun off" into a publicly traded company.  It is hoped that the value of my Baron investments will increase, perhaps explode, after the IPO.

StarLink, increasingly, is offering internet access to much of Earth's surface.  That is accomplished through an enormous constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites.  Right now, there are thousands of operational satellites; the completed system will be tens of thousands.  Right now, SpaceX puts up to sixty satellites in orbit from a single launch.  Traditional satellite internet service is provided by a relatively small number of large and complex satellites placed in geosynchronous orbits.  Meaning the satellites stay above fixed point on the Earth.  LEO satellites are much lower (giving much faster response due to shorter signal travel distances) but they are in continuous motion  relative to Earth surface.

My impressions of my StarLink ground station:

1) It is exceedingly easy to self install.  Contributing is the lack of a default wifi password.

2) Latency is well under 100 milliseconds.

3) Bandwidth varies wildly as you might expect when it must constantly shift from one satellite to another as the satellites march across the sky.  I typically observe around 100 Mbps but that can go as low as about 10 Mbps.  Others, in other areas, report 200 Mbps or a bit higher.  My old wifi provider ranged from zero (during much longer periods than I find acceptable) up to about 6 Mbps.  With about 2-3 Mbps being common.  Depending on where I am in my LAN, the signal may have to go through up to four wifi bridges (or links).  That is in order to make my LAN extent a mile or so.  Those bridges cut my usable bandwidth down to single digit Mbps; that is, less than 1/10 of the bandwidth StarLink is providing.  A pretty good solution might be to move my main router to my house where most of the demand is.  But, that's a major LAN reconfiguration.

https://www.spacex.com/

https://www.starlink.com/

https://www.baronfunds.com/

Fiber to Dale

Yesterday, I noticed some construction along Barth Road between Fm1843 and FM672.  They made me come to a stop so I took the opportunity to ask what they were doing.  I was rewarded: "Installing fiber optic cable to the new cell tower in downtown Dale".  I have not previously noticed the technique being used:  They were using a backhoe to dig holes about 100 yards apart on the side of the road.  Then, they use a boring machine to bore from one hole to the next.  I imagine they were using an empty conduit to push through the borings.   I further imagine that they will somehow push a long continuous length of fiber cable through the conduit once they splice together the conduit segments.  I can not imagine that they would make cable splices every 100 yards.  That's because my perception is that making a fiber splice is difficult/expensive/lossy.

Five or more years ago a cell tower (tower only) was put up behind the Dale Volunteer Fire Department building.  I discovered that the chain link fence surrounding the tower had a sign identifying as "McKemie HomeGrown".  Finding that label surprised me.  The tower sat for years with the tower complete but no antennae or electric stuff.  A few months ago, activity resumed; first, electric service was installed.

I'm surprised that fiber is being installed to the tower.  I thought that all cell towers were served data only via radio. 

 https://photos.app.goo.gl/mKBGJxe2gCpfBrpJ6

High Line Voltage Interfering with PV Production.

 3/24/2022
I've long been aware that PV production raises nearby voltage.  High voltage causes inverters to shutdown.  I think the standard "give up" voltage is 260-265vac and may vary from one inverter to another.

I think typical Bluebonnet line voltages are about 245- 250vac.  Even though "nominal" voltage is 240vac

A couple of months ago, a neighbor's PV inverters mostly shut down due to high line voltage.  I think the utility, Bluebonnet, admitted that they raised his voltage to better serve other customers during a threatening weather event.

I recently discovered that I had two string inverters, serving up to 50 panels each, that were starting in the mornings but refusing to work mid day.  So, I went out (after 3pm and after peak sun) and measured voltages.  Here are the results:

House meter/transformer should be able to do about 37kw.  Wiring goes from main breaker to sub breaker box on rear of house to breaker box that serves the south field where I was having the inverter problem:

1) main breaker box: 256-257vac

2) rear of house breaker box: 257-258vac

3) south field breaker box: 257-258vac

Total production is just over 20 kw and I wish to add two inverters that will produce about 7kw more.  Those voltages tell me I probably have sufficient capacity to the south field breaker box.  Significantly higher voltage on one end than the other indicates the wire is nearing maximum current capacity.

The new "hilltop" breaker box is taking only 25 amps, about 10kw.  That is a 50kw transformer which should do about 125 amps.  I have problems there that need to be corrected for better production.  Line voltage was 251-252vac

The " across road" 50kw transformer is my best producer and was doing 122 amps.

1) main breaker box: 255vac

2) breaker box in "party shed": 261-262vac.  That tells me that the wire from main breaker is fully loaded.  So, I will not be trying to add additional capacity on that path.

3/25/2022  9am

All three breaker boxes chained to south field  near house show line voltages of 250-252vac with PV production of about 10 amp.  Full sun production from south field should be about 35 amps.

3/25/2022 3pm

This morning, I told our "renewable energy" Bluebonnet person, Brittany, of two problems:  I have no 1099 from Bluebonnet reporting my income from 2021 and that I have the high line voltage problem.  A Bluebonnet person came right out and reported ~252 at the meter and promised to "kick it upstairs".   Their target voltage is less than 250, 247 or so.   He reported that the source of my power is the installation near Bunton Cemetery and that he thought that there are no "regulators" between me and the power source.  A "regulator" is a place where they can step line voltage up and down as needed.  Brittany is of the opinion that Bluebonnet does not report amounts that they pay to customers for energy.

The visiting Bluebonnet guy seemed quite helpful but did not seem to fully understand "customer generation".  He opened the meter housing so he could measure line voltage as far upstream as possible.  He was holding a clamp on amp meter so I suggested he measure current at a couple of places including the not normally accessible meter housing.  He measured 80 amp in my breaker box and 100 amps in the meter housing.  I had not realized it but, apparently, my rooftop system does not go through my breaker box.  He exclaimed "how are you using all that power?!".  I had to inform him that that was power/energy I was delivering to the grid and not power Bluebonnet was delivering to me.

3/26/2022 7:30am

Line voltage:  246-247 before PV production

Even though I was not so informed, I imagine that my visiting Bluebonnet guy from yesterday reported the problem and something was done about it.  The ~247 is "normal" while voltages the previous two days, 252 and 257 respectively, were very much abnormal.  We are threatened by power outages that could result from heightened brush fire risks.  I suspect Bluebonnet had upped my voltage in response to that threat.

March 21 Tornado Storm

 Very little impact in Dale.  7/10" of rain.  A little hail.  Not much wind.  No PV panel damage yet noticed.

The tornadoes were mostly 20-40 miles north.  Round Rock and Elgin with others scattered about.

This is reportedly a once in 15-20 year event.

Interesting news videos:

1) A tall light tower falls near Round Rock at expressway interchange.

2) A pickup truck is blown over on it's side, then blown down the road sliding on it's side.  Then, blown back on it's wheels.  And the driver continues his trip.

Wild Plums

 Shortly after moving out here in 1976, a new neighbor clued us in on wild plums which are common in the area.  They are most easily identified in early Spring during bloom.  They are "shy" and grow well only when protected by other brush.  A major tributary of the San Marcos (and Guadalupe) River is Plum Creek which flows through the middle of Caldwell County.

I was surprised, just a few years ago, to find this example out in the open and near my house.  I believe it probably got it's start before our big tree die off of the past ~15 years.  Note the big dead tree trunk on the left.  I've spent some time in the vicinity cutting dead oak trees into firewood. Typical growth is multi-trunk; they can make quite big thickets.  Typically, fruiting is rare or short lived.  I watched this small thicket last year and did not notice any fruit.  I'll try to watch closely to see if fruit is set this year. Fruit, when found, is tart to the point of not being edible fresh.  Much like the also common Mustang Wild Grapes.  Jellies made from the plums are prized.

Very fragrant right now.  It has been suggested that fertilizing may enhance fruit quality.  My experience with peaches, another Prunus, indicates otherwise.  Fertilizer application DOES increase growth and appearance of vigor but may decrease sugar concentration in fruit.  

Higher resolution. "zoomable":

https://photos.app.goo.gl/x77NcysRPrv5UaUDA

Ray's PV water heating

 https://rmenke.blogspot.com/2019/07/diy-solar-water-heater.html

Ray is now heating water with DC electric power from a string of three serial panels.  His electricity has a cost of about $.03/kwh.  The three panels are dedicated to heating water and can not be used to sell power to the grid (or otherwise used) without reconfiguring.   The $.03 is the amount that he would  be paid for excess power converted to AC and sold to the grid.

If Ray needed or wanted more water heating power, he could go to four or more panels in series (instead of the three he is using) or maybe put in two parallel strings (total of 6 panels).  To avoid attempting to switch DC power, which is much more arc prone than AC, Ray depends on not using enough power to over heat the water in the old electric heater.  The higher the voltage, the more likely is arcing, so it is possible that Ray could use the AC switch in his heater, designed to handle 240VAC, to switch the ~100VDC from his three panels.

My water is now heated with a standard AC water heater but retrofitted with about 3kw heating elements to replace the original 4kw elements.    The smaller elements allow my heater to have a chance of operating from my PowerWall battery if the grid is down; my single battery PW has a maximum power of 5kw.  My water heater is on a timer that starts about 9am in order to prevent night time heating from the grid.  My cost is about $.06/kwh which is the amount that I would be paid if the power was sold to the grid.  Night time water heating would cost me about $.10/kwh if I allowed heating at night.

My water heater daily power is about 3kw for less than an hour.  So, 3kwh or about $.18.  Ray's power/energy consumption should be about the same and should cost about $.06 whether from panels dedicated to heating water or not.

If Ray wanted to consider how to automatically switch his DC power (via built in thermostat), he could look at fewer panels in series.  One panel for 30-35 VDC or two for 60-70VDC.

Feb 2022 cold event

Living on the Edge 

The Feb 2021 event left me in a world of hurt.  5+ days below freezing.  Lost water supply in the first 24 hours.  At the time, I was able to tend a wood stove fire; I burned a lot of wood but the warmth of the house was not seriously threatened despite the grid failures.  Eventually, I found about 6 steel pipe breaks under the house.  I VERY slowly recovered.  First, getting cold water in bathroom only after a couple of weeks.  Had to rig an outdoor shower with a 120v water heater.  That served me several months.  Eventually, I found a plumber willing to work and he, eventually, got normal water in the house.  As I recall, that was late summer.  "Normal" being hot water in bathroom sink and bathtub, in kitchen sink, and to clothes washing machine.  Cold water in bathroom, kitchen, laundry room.

For 2022, a ~2 day ice storm was forecast.  Not wanting to have to tend a fire, I had installed two mini-split hyper heat pumps.  12k and 9k btu.  Those turned out to be insufficient to keep the house very warm under the experienced conditions.  A 3rd (18k btu) unit is ready to install.  The big threat this episode was  ice induced local power failures.  That did not happen but I was prepared to burn in the wood stove.  The wood stove was held in reserve in case of the power failure.  The Power Wall carried me through (barely) the power failures of 2021.  The PW now goes into "storm mode" when the forecasts indicates.  Normally, the PW charges only from PV power.  In storm mode, it additionally charges from grid power and does not discharge while grid power is up.  That is, it tries to maintain a full charge in order to be prepared for a power failure.

The event started early Wednesday morning.  Early Friday morning, the lowest observed temperature was about 24-25.  I lost water supply in the early morning hours of Friday.  I think/hope the frozen place is at the pressure pump about 1/3 of a mile from the house.  Most of the ice failed to materialize and I had no power failures.  I had some concern about poor PV performance due to ice covered panels; we had relatively little ice.  The sun came out before noon Friday and I briefly observed about 24kw of PV production.  Recent "good sun" production has been only about 21kw.  So, the ice seems not to have limited PV production.  The PW has remained at near 100% charge for more than two days.  I have some PW augmentation that might double the capacity of my (still single battery) PW to near 30kwh.  BUT, I have been pulling about 5kw to try to keep the house warm.  In the event of a power failure, I could not expect the PW to take over for longer than about 6 hours.  I believe power failure risk has now declined to near zero.

If/when I get the 3rd heat pump installed, I should be able to keep most of the house warm down to 5-10 deg.  I need to keep working on increasing the number of PW batteries to three.  I'm near to committing to replace several of my 1940s vintage double hung wood sash windows.

Over the past few years, I've experimented with using EV batteries to augment the PW battery.  Tesla has resisted making it easy to use their cars for V2H (vehicle to home; powering a home from the car).   It can be done but only through the DC-DC that supplies the 12v battery.  That power source is limited to 1-2 kw.  Ford seems to be promising V2H capability for their announced EV pickup truck.  IF Ford delivers and Tesla does not, I will buy a Ford.  Individual PW batteries have a capacity of about 13kwh.  Both Ford and Tesla pickup trucks should have 100+kwh batteries.