Glenn's Underground Cabin Update

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks, Andrew.  It is rough when you have to say goodbye to an old family friend, especially one who has helped so much over the years.  People don't seem to realize that cows have their own personalities..... I didn't... until I got one...

Yes... there is a lot of beauty around when we stop to look..... funny how a lot of times we just don't take time to do that, eh?

I don't remember if I mentioned this or not... looks like I mentioned I sent my cameras in... both came back from Square Trade Warranty repaired and are seemingly great - couldn't see dust in the last one and the lens was repaired on the other one.

Also did I mention the place that does the repair work for Square Trade is United Camera at www.unitedcamera.com  ?  There is a troubleshooter there to diagnose what type service you need and you can get a quote right there.  Lens service seems to be a big one.  Wish I could find the one I broke the screen on... that's cheaper.

Looks like they can repair most cameras for less than half price of a new one depending on what happened to it.  For ones I had no insurance on I plan to send them in for repair.  [ouch]

Gotta get more pix up soon...   Meanwhile back at the ranch....

How about pix from the garden at the underground complex....





Purple Cauliflower...





Sassy was up here for a baby shower today so I fixed her a bowl of the purple cauliflower.... then after the shower she was off to the (relative) safety of the flatland to let her new hip joints continue to heal.  She had overdone it a bit with the first one and pulled it recently but it seems to be OK now. 

A checkup this coming week should tell more.  For now she is walking better than she has in years and Monday will make two weeks on the second one.  She is able to do most things without assistance .....no cane ... no walking stick ... no walker since the day they installed it. She is also able to drive her car with no problem.  Isn't that great!!!

[glenn kangiser]

OK... getting through more of my pix after looking at some of the great ones Myo took... we were off toward Shwebo.... Rice Mill territory...

I was able to stick my camera out into the wind as we were low flying down the road,  and blow some of the dust out of it for a while so got some more pix with the ZS7, before the dust once again got bad enough to make it unusable... at least when the light was wrong...

What I am going to do now is present you with cropped pix from my camera as we were headed up the road at high speed once again.  These were shot at a rather wide angle to get the pix at all and then I had to zoom and crop them to get the pix I wanted.  It just wasn't possible to do it any other way at the speeds Myo needed to maintain.



Moving a load of hay... like the early 1900s or before in the US.....





Balers... we don't need no stinkin'  balers...... actually they do and Myo is interested in US Baler technology...





Oxcarts are very common in this area also... actually about anywhere in Burma.





Regular or unleaded.... I'm just betting that this is a fuel truck for a remote village from what I have seen in other places around here.....


Traveling the roads by oxcart can take a very long time if you are from a distant village and it is your only means of transportation.  This driver and his trusty beasts were ready for a nap....





....and last but not least... Myanmar is a very poor country, and this young man has just managed to catch a meal.... mamma will be happy....meat tonight.... 





To tell you the truth, I did not know I got that shot until I reviewed and blew it up.... I was just shooting anything that moved ... or that we flew past... pictures of real life as it is today in Burma......

[glenn kangiser]

A few more road shots as we near Shwebo......





Going so fast it was hard to get a shot sideways out the window of the field work...





This appears to be a weir laid out to be built by hand in the canal..... nice work and keeps laborers busy...





Water Buffalo grazing in a field along the road.




How many girls do you know who could ride side saddle while holding the baby and a bag without getting road rash?

[PEG688]

How many girls do you know who could ride side saddle while holding the baby and a bag without getting road rash?

And have some one pass by THAT close to the motorcycle!!  Maybe the camera makes it look closer than it is??? 

[glenn kangiser]

Actually it is about that close.  I would say 2 feet clear.

That is the way they drive down there and the other people know and expect that you will give them enough room. 

Myo is a very good Myanmar style driver and he beeps his horn every time he is near anyone he could affect.  Likely there were other motorcycles, vehicles, pedestrians, wagons or trucks oncoming in the left side of the street as we were passing the motorcycle family.

The drivers sit on the right hand side of the car and drive to the right in Myanmar. Vehicles, pedestrians, wagons and trucks all use all of the road in both directions at the same time and it is also common to have oncoming traffic in your lane even where there are 4 lanes with 2 each direction.  Everyone simply expects the other driver to give them room no matter what ... even when it comes to passing on blind corners.

There are no center lines in most rural roads and some city roads and speeds of traffic vary from walking to high speed vehicles to slow trucks.... ALL AT ONCE as needed. 

I got my international drivers permit but decided not to drive once I saw the way they did it....  [ouch]

I do have tons of video ... possibly I can find a good one and put it up for you to see. 

[glenn kangiser]

ummm what was I gonna say... ?

Oh yeah... I looked back at the pix of the cycle and the car - but full size before I blew it up and cropped it and it does look a lot farther away.... really a change in the way it looks there. 

[glenn kangiser]

In Burma, any vehicle becomes a full service utility vehicle if possible.....




A typical street scene...





But as with the pix of the motorcycle family above, I can use Picasa to pull out the highlights...






I call him Tankerman.... hard work is a way of life in rural Burma.


On to the first tour of our friends rice mills...... Myo set this up special for me...

[Redoverfarm]

What. No stop lights?

[glenn kangiser]

John, I only saw stoplights in the big cities.  The rest of the country was free for all....

Some intersections in the big cities had just a permanent policeman directing traffic.... or maybe the lights were out and I didn't notice....

[glenn kangiser]

Sorry I haven't had updates for a few days,  [ouch]

Had to go look at real work and built a handrail and installed it....





I have been so busy I haven't even had time to clean my shop.......

[glenn kangiser]

I was having a problem with a Firefox update or something the other day and couldn't play Youtube video or would have posted this sooner... [ouch]


Here is a short clip showing some of the traffic conditions in Myanmar (Burma).

OK.... arrrrggghh....now the Youtube embedder isn't working right... try this.... CLICK THE PICTURE TO VIEW....







This is in Shwebo I believe.... mostly Rice farming and milling country....

This one was mostly bikes... I need to find a good one with trucks in it also.

[MountainDon]

Sorry I haven't had updates for a few days,  [ouch]

Had to go look at real work and built a handrail and installed it....

nice bends 

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks, Don.

The 7/12 pitch downward curve was bent in a Harbor Freight pipe bender and matched with a welding rod bent at 7/12.  A sliding "T" bevel would work also.  With a long enough piece and something heavy enough to hold it slight overbends can be straightened by hand.

I use a level to plumb the rail vertically with it strapped to a welding bench or similar then also use the level to place the small pre-bent els onto the straight pipe sections.  The pre-bent tight els are available for about $3.00 each from an ornamental Iron supply.  Better to buy extras than too few.  [ouch]

Where I could I tacked the els to the straight sections on a jig table Whitlock made for another project. 

To complicate this one a little the front porch entry deck sloped 5/8" to 12 inches to the verticals had to meet the horizontals at that angle.  The lower wrap around handle then went to pretty much level and square.  All weld joints were polished out with a Zirconia flap wheel.  About 60 to 80 grit works well.  The high parts of the welds are knocked down with a 4 1/2" hard wheel on a hand held  grinder.



The customer wanted a project drawing with the estimate, so I just drew it up in MS Paint.  It is a decent program for a quick sketch as we have seen here before.  I don't know why I showed the two verticals at the front corners... I never did plan on putting them in there.....

Silly me.... I forgot to take a picture of the installed handrail....

[Windpower]

Sorry I haven't had updates for a few days,  [ouch]

Had to go look at real work and built a handrail and installed it....





I have been so busy I haven't even had time to clean my shop.......

You clean your shop ?!?   


great travel log of Burma   

I am enjoying it

[glenn kangiser]

I believe Whitlock cleaned it last......





Glad you enjoy the Burma stuff, Windpower.  I have some great stuff coming up.... at least I enjoy it..... [ouch]


The reason I was first invited to go there (2 years ago).......  Myo set it up for his friends to fire up the steam engine (Boiler burning rice hulls)  that can run the entire rice mill..... special for me. 

Note that they also have a Gasifier burning rice hulls that can also run the entire mill.  It is powering a V12 Chinese diesel engine.

He also arranged for me to be there at the startup of another Rice mill that only runs on steam using jackshafts and flat belts throughout the mill.  This is stuff we were using in the late 1800's..... maybe still some of the best technology today.  It is still running. 

[glenn kangiser]

Meanwhile back at the ranch....

My friend, who brings my rock for the driveway had a lot of logs for me and Whitlock brought the loads of branches so I have been working on the hugelkultur bed.




I am trying to eliminate some of the bigger air spaces below to not have massive cave ins later.


...and also I have been taking care of a bit of the weed eating before fire season.....




...a bit of composting going on in that machine also....

[glenn kangiser]

Finally got my video of the steam engine running in Shwebo, Myanmar. 

Firefox kept crashing before it loaded so finally gave in and uploaded it with IE..... [ouch]

For the best view, adjust the Youtube settings to HD and run it full screen 


I guess it is good for something....  Click the pix below to see the video



Somewhere around 100 years old... still up and running. 

[glenn kangiser]

The video above is over 9 minutes long... because....

I figured if they were kind enough to start it up special for me, I was going to try to get it at every angle and view, every moving part... every which way possible.   

When I told Myo I wanted to see one of these engines two years ago,  and he told me I would have to come to his country to see it.... I really wanted to... but at that time I never seriously thought it would happen for a long time..... I didn't even have a clue when....

But this year, things just fell into place... a payment for the summers work came in... no jobs starting immediately.... flights became available that were not available before....


Looks like somebody just wanted me to be able to go....

Myo told me, "Glenn, just get to Yangon International Airport and I will take care of you from there."  .... Myo is a man of his word.  I had a trip that no American has ever had..... so they couldn't even dream of it.  Yes... some were there in WWII but not for a trip like this one.

Note that I am not bragging... I'm just still amazed....  [ouch]

We are currently and will be for the next 8 months or so, planning what I can do to help the rural people of Burma.  Currently it looks like the best thing I can teach them is water well drilling to help them in the dry four months.  They do not have great food preservation methods there in the rural villages .... no or little power..... so fresh is best.. but they need water.  Hopefully we can figure out a way to help them with that.

What's wrong with eating fresh food rather than all of the preservatives we eat over here? 

We just need to help assure a supply year around.

Also there are areas of farm land that can use good wells in the dry times.  They have made many 4" tube wells.  I need to show them how to make high production wells.  They want to be a developed country.  Maybe I can help to improve their lives a little.   

[rick91351]

I watched the video and found it very interesting.  I wish you had been there during the rice harvest and got the whole plant during processing.  The old steam engine reminds me of a couple that were here in Idaho in the saw mills and mines when I was a young'in.   Sure wish more were saved for display.  Do they have problems finding enough water during harvest and the dry time of the year to run their boilers?  How big of boiler do the use?  All low pressure I would imagine.  Still low pressure is dangerous enough to cause huge injuries.......

Thanks again
Rick

[glenn kangiser]

Hey Rick, I have lots more video... even one with a rice hull gasifier running a 12 cylinder Chinese diesel/rice hull gas fueled engine at this same mill.  That is why this one was so special... this engine was started for me as the rice gas engine usually powers it.

So you would like to see the whole mill running, eh...

What was that ...ask and you shall receive?

.... OK  coming soon - I will try to get that one up for you... have to review it myself first to make sure I get the right one.

In this area I think there is plenty of water for the mill but there are places nearby - farms very similar to the ones we have in the San Joaquin valley that need water in the dry season, or food production must stop and wait for the rains... sometimes monsoons, to arrive.

Pressure on the two steam engines was pointed out me.  One gauge read 120 psi.... the other mill was running at 125 psi.  As I recall 1 gallon of water ...nevermind ... lets get accurate...

1 gallon of water will expand 1700 times it's volume at 212 degrees F, 2400 times at 500 F, and 4200 times at 1200 F.  Found that on a fire website... Imagine the destruction when an overheated or damaged boiler explodes... of course there are safety devices on the boilers but there have been very destructive steam boiler explosions when something went wrong.  Thanks to the engineers who keep these things running safely... nearly all of the time.....

[glenn kangiser]

Forgot the boilers size info for you, Rick.... about 6 to 8 feet in diameter by about 20 to 25 feet long. as I recall.   I have also seen pictures of one using a locomotive boiler.

Better yet... how about a few still pix of the boiler and engine before I look for the Mill running video...



There is the top of the boiler....



A fireman headed in to clean out the burning rice hull ash...




It is big enough to walk inside of




He uses a metal rod to stir up the burning huls and make them fall out of the grating....



to the ground




Then loads them into the double bamboo baskets ....




.....and carries them away...




A pix of the engine at rest....





and running....




Enough of that for a bit... back soon with more....

[rick91351]

WOW and I figured it would be powered by low pressure.  I was sure wrong there.  When I was a kid seemed like like low pressure boilers were down around 49 psi to 59 psi or something like that in the lumber dry kiln.  Pressure relief was set at 80 psi and it was a huge old Gabriel boiler. It burnt Bunker C, then was converted to Natural Gas until it got real cold and the gas company shut us off of cheap fuel and we converted back to Bunker and boy that was fun for a few days getting that burning right.  Then about then the gas company would call and let us convert back over.      

Believe it or not a lot of weekends when I was a like 16 to 18 even into my early 20's I tended that dry kiln.  I did a lot of home work setting there listening to it roar.  Don't think the boiler laws today would allow for such foolishness.  I could have blown up the whole mill and half the town with it.  Of course a 50 year old could have had about as much luck in doing so as well!       Imagine a teenager allowed to......  The low pressure boiler looked sort of like this one. 



Then we got a modern high pressure outfit about a third of its size and ran about 250 pounds.  ........... not long after that Boise Cascade bought that mill out and shut it down.       

[glenn kangiser]

Interesting, Rick.  My dad ran the boiler for his dad ...must have been in the 30's to 40s or so. [ouch]

Did you notice many of these guys are barefoot?  These are real men.  I really admire and respect them.... Why are we so soft...

Oh yeah... also, most of these men are about 3/4 the height of me and about half the weight. 

[glenn kangiser]

As I mentioned... they started the steam engine just for me.... because...


The mill is run by this 12 cylinder Diesel engine most of the time.... running on Rice Hulls also.. just like the steam engine.




So ... how cool is that...

[ben2go]

Fairly light loads for those engines.They should last forever,IF they are maintained properly.