Okanogan 14x24 by a lurker :)

[OlJarhead]

Are you pretty happy with the woodmizer? I was going to buy a kit and finish my own, but that LT-10 looks like about the best buy around. Anything you don't like about it?

Thanks-
Buckeye

I love it

For the money it can't be beat and the new ones have an even better table.

If I had the money I'd get a LT28 I think but I can't afford a bigger one.

[Buckeye]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm kind of in the same boat as you. I have to cut down 3 black walnut trees (about 16" diameter) on my homesite to pour concrete. Most loggers around here don't want to deal with only a few trees, and I don't want to drag them to a mill. I was poking around looking at some of the DIY sawmill kits when I came across the LT10. I don't think their price new can be beat!

Buckeye

[OlJarhead]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm kind of in the same boat as you. I have to cut down 3 black walnut trees (about 16" diameter) on my homesite to pour concrete. Most loggers around here don't want to deal with only a few trees, and I don't want to drag them to a mill. I was poking around looking at some of the DIY sawmill kits when I came across the LT10. I don't think their price new can be beat!

Buckeye

It can't be beat and mines paid for   I mean, the knotty pine I milled on it would have cost me MORE then what the mill cost me.

That walnut would be fantastic to mill!  Send some my way!!!

[OlJarhead]

I'm sorta getting used to going less to the property this winter.  Though I'd almost decided to go this weekend I managed to force myself to wait one more.  Why?  Well just can't get enough done during the winter to justify the $150 in travel costs twice a month -- at least not right now.

It's not that I can't afford it mind you, it's just that the funds can be better spent elsewhere.

However   That doesn't mean I can 'work on the cabin' at home.  My son is back to planing lumber and I hope to have all the pieces of the ships ladder (the stair portion anyway) planed and ready to assemble this weekend.  I'll have all weekend to work on the rise/run angles since I took measurements previously just for this reason.  My hope is to have all the parts ready to assemble right down to holes drilled, grooves grooved and bevels beveled 

With luck, my next trip will involve installing the ladder as well as getting some siding done

[OlJarhead]

Got the log rack last night   Arrived with a dozen farm fresh eggs too!  Can't beat that!

Anyway, it's pretty darn nice if you ask me.  The wife LOVES it and I'll have a rack strong enough to stock all the wood we need for a weekends trip to the cabin

We load up before we go so when we arrive we're stocked and ready to warm up the cabin without having to start our trip by cutting kindling, searching for paper and chopping wood

This will also help in keeping things neat -- something I hate is when the logs leave dirt and chips everywhere!

[Gary O]

Nice

You're a busy guy, OJ.
Do you envision yourself (in a few years) headin' to the cabin one day, but not making the return trip?

[OlJarhead]

Nice

You're a busy guy, OJ.
Do you envision yourself (in a few years) headin' to the cabin one day, but not making the return trip?

YES!  Or at least not making the return trip for LONG periods of time.

I'm always trying to convince one of the kids to plan on living at home in our big house so we can keep a room and plan on being here when we want.  Then we can leave for the cabin and come back when we feel like it but we have bills to pay first!

Of course I'm also always trying to convince my step-son to farm the property so we can be there and have lots of milk, eggs, cheese, butter, fruit, canned goods, veggies and more without having to buy them

[OlJarhead]

Well after a LONG wait (a month no less!) we're heading back this weekend!

Hoefully the Solar panels have kept the batteries alive (I'm worried) but I pan to get a new controller (outback) and then will RMA the Morndstar and sell it to anyone interested.

Going to go up with the MRS and burn slash, shovel snow and enjoy a weekend! I hoe there isn't too much snow though!  We're taking the truck and I haven't tried driving it in 12" plus of snow so it might be an adventure!

Can't wait to get the new log rank in place though!  and see if the wood shed tarp roof held up to all the snow we've had!  Temps look to be in the single digits at night and the snow has apparently just been dumping on us up there -- might need snowshoes!

[OlJarhead]

Too much to tell, too little time so I'll try to post more later....basically:  awesome weekend!    Solar power was working, batteries were charged and I was able to correct some of the settings and improve things a little

Got the log rack in, had an awesome time and got lots of pictures

Here's a couple:

New log rack doing it's thing


Here it is just put in place.


Our driveway (well ok, a short section of it -- in all it's about 1/2 mile long)

[sako]

It sure sounds like a great weekend, cant wait to hear more. I dont think we'll make it up until march.
Looks like the weather could not have been better.

[OlJarhead]

When we arrived Friday I was sooooo happy to see the batteries completely charged and ready for use!  We got the place warmed up with the wood stove and kerosene heater (took about 4 hours) and had a light dinner.  Then just played crib until bed time

Another great weekend started!  Above is my wife staying warm by the wood stove.  It does take a while to warm the place but I hope that when it's fully insulated it won't take quite as long!


I'm a lucky man   Not sure how I lucked out here but hey, I'm not gonna tell her!

[OlJarhead]

This is the part of the driveway that you MUST be prepared for.  Chains are a must, big aggressive ones and best on the FRONT not rear...in this case I was in the truck and not sure if the front end had the clearance needed so I left them on the read....it was a little, interesting, to put it mildly but we made it up with a little faith and creative driving! 

Can't wait for the Jeep to get finished!  New T-Case (well, actually new to me anyway) and a welded up header and we should be back to a better snow driving rig!


Pistol packin' wife   Hey, if I get jumped by a cougar or somethin' she's got my back!


Some fat $@@#rd....oh wait, that's me!  Ya, cheesy staring off into the blue yonder pose for y'all...and yes, I look a little scrubby but we all know cabin days are dirty days!


On top of the world


All smiles, all weekend.  We both love staying at the cabin

[OlJarhead]

The weather was fantastic Sako -- yes cold at night (down to 15) but warm and sunny during the day.  It hit 43 or 44 on Saturday.

In fact, anywhere there was direct sunlight the snow was only about 3 or 4 inches deep....in the ruts of roads it would get as much as 12" deep and where the sun didn't hit it as much it was 6-8" deep...crazy.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend and I miss being there already!

[sako]

You guys have a beautiful place. October was the last time we were over, fuel is a killer.
Keep up the great post.

[OlJarhead]

You guys have a beautiful place. October was the last time we were over, fuel is a killer.
Keep up the great post.

Thanks

Ya fuel is tough isn't it?  Luckily I've been able to budget it in so we can make trips every month (twice a month in the warmer months).

[OlJarhead]

For those following my troubles with the Morningstar controller I wanted to update you:  after the last trip I'd reset the controller to an earlier setting (June of last year) in hopes that maybe something wasn't working right with my current settings (based on battery manufacturer recommendations).  When I arrived at the cabin the batteries were fully charged and as usual the controller was in an alarm state for Battery High Voltage.

I reset the controller (I always do at this point to clear the alarm and start tracking while there) and we settled in for the day with full power.

Later I checked the logs and saw some odd things:

My volts max daily was way off showing volts ABOVE 15.5v which is the recommended equalize voltage.  I had not set the controller to do so.
The setting was actually set below the 14.8v absorption charge recommended to 14.5v so seeing the charger push the volts to nearly 16v was a bit disconcerting!
Battery temps were screwy with many not reporting correctly but rather with some number like 255 or 254 -- ??
Power output daily was also way off...something was clearly amiss.

I set the controller back to an earlier setting and everything returned to normal.

Then I noticed that the Battery High Voltage alarm was coming from the charger reporting 51v on the battery bank -- ah....NO!  So, the controller has an issue no doubt but it is working to charge the batteries now at the correct levels so I'm crossing my fingers that it is a move in the right direction while I wait to get another one.

[MountainDon]

Temperature:  Is that reading supposed to be actual temperature in degrees F or C, or is it simply some arbitrary number that the remote battery sensor provides to the charge controller or log system? Outback uses a system where the number reported means nothing in terms of real temperature. It is relative to higher and lower numbers and can be referenced to charts.

The absorption and float columns are confusing as well. Are the values minutes? With some of the values very high I'm assuming minutes, but that would be good to verify.

Why are there so many days with values of zero or 1 for absorb? When I see that on our system it indicates a cloudy day and a battery bank that is discharged some. The system does not make it out of bulk, so the absorb time is zero. In that case float may be zero too.

But when we are not using power, our system quickly regains charge and then the system spends the programmed interval in absorb and then sits in float till the module output falls too low to be useful.

I wonder why float was zero so often? Was it so cloudy that there was not enough sunlight to trigger the system? That seems doubtful as some of the days with zero float also indicate 15+ volts on the battery. Float times seem odd. And under normal charging the voltage should not venture into the 15 volt range at all to my way of thinking. Of course the shortcoming with a daily max or min reading is we do not know for how long. Was that a brief spike or a longer interval? 

Is there an automatic, programmable, equalization feature? Could it be misbehaving? 

How does the fluid level hold up?

[MountainDon]

Is there a weather station near you that could let you see if the weather might have been cloudy or sunny on certain dates? Mesowest may have some among its many.

[OlJarhead]

Temperature:  Is that reading supposed to be actual temperature in degrees F or C, or is it simply some arbitrary number that the remote battery sensor provides to the charge controller or log system? Outback uses a system where the number reported means nothing in terms of real temperature. It is relative to higher and lower numbers and can be referenced to charts.

I think the temperature setting is supposed to be in Celsius but clearly some of the numbers are not.  I honestly don't know why those show up that way.

The absorption and float columns are confusing as well. Are the values minutes? With some of the values very high I'm assuming minutes, but that would be good to verify.

Yes minutes.

Why are there so many days with values of zero or 1 for absorb? When I see that on our system it indicates a cloudy day and a battery bank that is discharged some. The system does not make it out of bulk, so the absorb time is zero. In that case float may be zero too. 

These went to zero after I used my iota charger back in December and didn't start reporting again until New Years weekend when I reset the controller and changed some of the setup settings.  Not sure why this happened but we did have plenty of days where it should have gone into absorption.

But when we are not using power, our system quickly regains charge and then the system spends the programmed interval in absorb and then sits in float till the module output falls too low to be useful.

I wonder why float was zero so often? Was it so cloudy that there was not enough sunlight to trigger the system? That seems doubtful as some of the days with zero float also indicate 15+ volts on the battery. Float times seem odd. And under normal charging the voltage should not venture into the 15 volt range at all to my way of thinking. Of course the shortcoming with a daily max or min reading is we do not know for how long. Was that a brief spike or a longer interval? 

Is there an automatic, programmable, equalization feature? Could it be misbehaving? 

Wasn't too cloudy too often but certainly a lot of snowy days in there -- as for the settings, I do think they were misbehaving by just looking at the voltages.  They were way too high in December after my last attempt to adjust them and after I used the Iota charger.

How does the fluid level hold up?

Fluid levels are remaining stable without any need to add water.

Thanks for the reply!

[OlJarhead]

I sent a note to Morningstar and told them that their support sucked!  And guess what?  They responded!

So far your support has sucked.
Hey Erik,
             you can send me your config file and I'll help you out. Sorry for the delay in our response.


Regards,

[Woodswalker]

Erik,

That's a really nice log rack.  Great that you get up to your place in the winter too.  Having your spouse along, packing heat, makes the trip special (& safer).  A couple of young guys I know who guide hunters up near Whitefish, MT pack heat like that for grizzlies.  Those bears are probably not an issue where you are, but cougars could be.  Friends of mine who live up the hill from my cabin have been chasing cougs with hounds, and have treed 3 this winter.  They dart the cats and take a dna sample that is submitted to F & W.  Thanks for the nice pics, and keep up the reports.  Am sure you are an inspiration for many on the forum.

Steve

[OlJarhead]

Erik,

That's a really nice log rack.  Great that you get up to your place in the winter too.  Having your spouse along, packing heat, makes the trip special (& safer).  A couple of young guys I know who guide hunters up near Whitefish, MT pack heat like that for grizzlies.  Those bears are probably not an issue where you are, but cougars could be.  Friends of mine who live up the hill from my cabin have been chasing cougs with hounds, and have treed 3 this winter.  They dart the cats and take a dna sample that is submitted to F & W.  Thanks for the nice pics, and keep up the reports.  Am sure you are an inspiration for many on the forum.

Steve

Thanks for the kind words Steve.  And yes, I agree 'safer'!  I taught my entire family to shoot (what Marine doesn't) and handle firearms to add to that.

We've got black and brown bears, cougars, wolves, coyotes and the occasional grizzly though I've yet to see tracks of either bear near our cabin (did see some black bear tracks up on top of the hill about 1/4 mile away a couple years ago though).

It's been my experience that the woodsman (or woman) who carries rarely makes the news...while the one that doesn't can -- if you know what I mean?

Cheers and thanks again
Erik

[Yonderosa]

Just a few miles northwest of you my bro-in-law has been tagging a Bear every year - mighty good eating Bears too - all within bow range of his cabin.  The last one was trying to push in the front door, so he went out the side and shot him right there on the front porch.  The neighbors were real glad to get rid of that one as he had become quite a pest breaking into vehicles and buildings.

All the Bears I've seen around my place have been pretty shy.  One was too busy with what he was eating to pay me much mind so we just gave him a wide berth and made our way by.  The critter that I'm most skert of is those winter starved Mooses.  They get down right aggressive and that is a lot of creature to get away from.  Haven't come across one on foot yet luckily and I don't think I could get outta the way quick enough.

[sako]

I am only about a mile from Eric and we have them at our place all the time, skill saws running, hammering don't
seem to bother them a bit. We have a good size meadow and they come right out in the open, the only one to
ever run away was a small sow with a cub. They like the small ant mounds in the meadow.

[JavaMan]

I still say we need to have an Okanagon jamboree or something like that.

Eric, just saw your comments over on the blog - thanks for the kind words!  One of them had a bunch of extra stuff in it that I couldn't figure out how to edit out (from the office anyway).