It has been a busy week at New Moon House. I have been up at the property getting everything ready to move up there, as well as getting some yard maintenance done. The grass had been neglected pretty much all spring and summer and as a result was kinda out of control and knee high. Luckily enough I got it taken care of before the city decided to motivate me monetarily. I also got the area designated for the late summer/fall garden.
My main goal on this trip was to get the garage ready for habitation. I did get it ready for me to move my stuff into, but there is going to be more work involved in getting it ready for winter. I framed in one of the garage doors and installed a door with a real lock as opposed to the previous owner relying on cheap padlocks and stuck doors.
I also wanted to get some of the "utilities" sorted out. I started out with getting the solar system up and running temporarily. My main goal for the temporary run was to test to see how much sun and power I could expect from the system in its various locations and whether or not I was going to mount it on the roof or keep it in a ground location.
I decided that although the ground area that I was considering received around 9 hours of direct sun during the day, I would greatly benefit from a roof mounted system which is in direct sun almost completely from sunup to sundown.
I also chose a location for the battery box/charge controllers. It is in an out of the way location that will still allow me to use a short length of heavy duty power cord with 2 male ends to tie the inverter directly into the existing wiring in the garage. This will save me the trouble of running a bunch of new wiring and all I will have to do is add some switches in to isolate areas rather than the current all on/all off setup.
I got the beginnings of the rainwater harvesting system worked out and dry fit together. I still need to get the gutter purchased and installed on the garage and tie that into the collection barrels. Plus glue everything together but I am happy with the way the system came together. It is easily expandable and will almost certainly benefit from doing so. I am confident that with a seriously conscious effort I can make the 110 gallon system work but in truth I would feel better with more capacity and I would like to see it grow by another 4 barrels eventually. I will definitely be relying on greywater for plant watering, and possibly figuring out a way to reuse it for something else as well, clothes washing perhaps.
I also got the overflow location sorted out as well. This is important since the lack of an overflow would almost certainly cause me major problems in the future.
The last "utility" that I had to deal with was waste collection. I had already decided that I was going to use the "sawdust" style of composting toilet. I have had plenty of experience with the system and I know that it works. The system has as much variety in the way that it is set up as an ice cream shop has flavors. I have seen systems that separate urine and isolate it, systems that collect it all in the same place, even systems that are nothing more than a 5 gallon bucket. They all work equally well in their own way. The system that I chose to go with is the dry composting system. This type of system works by separating the urine from the fecal matter. I am doing this by utilizing 2 closed systems. A closed and sealed box which holds the 5 gallon bucket for feces and sawdust which is vented to the outside, and a "flush" urinal system. The urinal system uses a tight sealing 2 gallon bucket, some vinyl tubing, and a funnel. It even makes the flushing noise!!!
Both systems exceed my expectations at how well they work. They are completely odorless, I knew from experience that the composting toilet was for the most part odorless, but that occasionally could develop some smell. And urine going stale produces an unmistakable smell that tends to linger. After living with these components for 4 days I can say without a doubt there is no odor whatsoever. I suspect that the vent on the toilet is going to be an unneeded precaution.
I will have to find a way to make allowances for female guests if the need arises, perhaps it will give me a reason to throw some chamber pots.
As I said I framed in the first of the 2 garage doors. I chose to use 2x6 lumber to accomplish this so that I could go back and insulate the whole thing with light clay straw which will then get some earthen plaster over the inside and some sort of siding outside.
Outside I got a compost "bin" built. This is not the permanent style or location, but the sheer amount of compostable material that the yard cleanup produced made it necessary.
I feel I should point out that this is only 2 days worth of material and was somewhat compacted already.
Adding to the pile are the weeds that were threatening to overtake the grapevines that grow next to the garage. That is not to say that the grapes aren't out of control as well.
I know for a fact that the only sure way to preserve grapes for later is to ferment the juice... Yay homemade wine.
Well that is about it for this week, next week I will be moving in. I will be doing video for the permanent solar installation as well as for the rainwater system. I will also be getting the garden in and dealing with the second garage door.
Here is this weeks video that goes along with this post.
I also want to remind everyone that I am still running the fund raising campaign to help with the renovations of the house. You can find the link to the campaign here: New Moon House Fundraising Campaign. Please help out if you can.
See you next week.
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