One more scratched off of my list.

  

Looks good John. Hope to see it in person soon !

Yes it's long overdue.  Hoping to get up there the last of October.  Seems each year there is always something that delays the gathering.  Will let you know for sure later on.

Had a visitor last week.  This was the same week as the early Bear Season.  I would say that someone took his Mother and he is left to adapt.  Given his size I doubt that he will make it.




Oh here is some more that I forgot about from the last of July.  This years hatch

I've seen 2 bear in the past 3 days, unusual for me. Lots of deer. Bow opened here this weekend for them. A young man got his first here yesterday evening and another this morning at a friends place. Of course I drove up to a small herd this evening under the same apple.

Had a close call this past week.  Nothing that would affected the cabin thank goodness but never the less could have wiped out my trail camera and a couple new sheets of metal roofing.  A Bull pine (yellow or sap pine) decided that it had stood upright long enough and fell.  Barely missing a new trail camera by about 1 foot.  The limbs just missed a stack of new roofing panels by inches.  It was about 12-14" at the stump and about 50 feet in length.  Normally I salvage down trees for firewood but with this being pine and completely rotted to the heart I just dumped it over the hill.

Once I thought about it this might have been a real problem if the timing was such and wind direction could have made it fall upon an approaching vehicle up the driveway.  I was hoping the camera would have caught it as it fell but it didn't.      Maybe because it was off to the side and fell directly toward the camera and it didn't catch the movement.

Found this fellow checking out the cabin after I had winterized it around the 1st of December.  This evening was the first chance I had to check on the cabin since then.  My son says it appears to be around 200#. 

Well this part-time employment has turned into Full-time.  Still trying to get things done at the cabin and the house.  As for the cabin just another chapter in the Generac saga.  Seems that the new 15kw which I received in July has bit the dust.  It was put on line and then off on November when I shut down the cabin for the winter.  In April I brought it back on line and it ran perfectly for about 2 weeks.  Then an Error code appeared and shut it down.  It was cleared and started back up and ran about 30 seconds and the same code showed up and shut it down. It is still under warranty and a service tech was called and tried to isolate the problem but was unable.  He communicated with Generac and as it stands now I am waiting for a replacement motor.   This has past " Getting old"  since I have not had a solid working generator since 2011.  The actual running hours was only 120 before it malfunctioned.

Well moving to the farm I did luck into some "rip/rap" material to place along the banks of the small stream which runs through the property.  I have a "S" or double horseshoe turn in the stream.  Since I acquired the property in 1994 I have lost about 20-24 feet of land that the stream has eroded on both turns.  Well the cost of quarry stone is cost prohibitive.  There is a nearby bridge (1940 era) that is being replaced not far from the house.  Just so happens my friend who has a construction company was awarded the salvage contract and is assisting them in materials needed for the temporary bridge.  I managed to get 30 pieces of concrete scalloped handrail and sidewalk.  Each piece is about 48" high and 16' long weighing nearly 5 ton a piece.  I plan to embed the portions into the embankment of the stream.   Here is a few photographs of the salvaged pieces.  I will wait until late summer when the water level reaches it lowest point before I begin working with them.

Sort of looks like pews lined up for church.

That's a great find, better along your stream than a landfill.

After all you've been through with Genrac genset, I'd be ready to rip it out and go with a completely different genset company. At least they are standing behind the product.

Well the good news is that the generator is again up and running.  Turned out after the replacement motor arrived it was determined that the Stator was the problem.  So in essence I got a new motor and stator.  Seems to be operating as it is suppose to with the additional Magnum equipment in that it is running 2-1/2 hrs every 3 days to charge the batteries.  Now maybe if I can find time to actually enjoy it.  Here it is the 1st of July and it has been down since the 2nd week of April.

To other members and guest I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for the missing images from Dogtrot.  This apparently was a result of the host Photobucket now requiring a monetary compensation to post 3rd party images.  If anyone is interested in an image please E-mail me or send a Private message and I will do my best to send you a direct link to that particular image.  Sorry, Redoverfarm

I hadn't realized that it has been so long since my last post.  I have plans this summer to add some solar to the cabin to eliminate the generator run time for the idle time of the cabin.  With some discussion with other members of the forum probably 3 panels should be ample to keep the batteries up when there is not a sufficient need for power when it is unoccupied. Since I only have a 210 ah (48v) bank there will never be enough storage to be self sufficient.  So I will have to take into account that the generator will run while the solar is charging when there is a demand for power such as the well pump.  I haven't yet determined how that will be accomplished but I am sure there is a way.

I went up last week before a large snow storm came through to check on the cabin.  5 1/2 feet of snow in 8 days measured at Snowshoe Ski resort some 30 miles away.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/03/15/the-raging-snowstorm-no-one-is-talking-about-in-west-virginia-ski-country/?utm_term=.4c9e7baa6db6

The battery bank which has been disconnected since December had 50.1 volts.  I would anticipate that I should be up and running by the 1st of April.

Still working the stream cleanup which should terminate the last of June.  Looking forward to that.  Been a long stretch of almost 2 years battling the elements of snow, rain &  high water not to mention the turn over of workers which had to be replenished as they had reached their maximum hours of allotment.

I would post some photographs of some of the work done but haven't had time to set up an account with an alternative site since Photobucket had restricted the 3rd party posting rules.  Hopefully I can get that done as well.     

Quote from: Redoverfarm on March 18, 2018, 11:29:45 AMSince I only have a 210 ah (48v) bank there will never be enough storage to be self sufficient.  So I will have to take into account that the generator will run while the solar is charging when there is a demand for power such as the well pump.  I haven't yet determined how that will be accomplished but I am sure there is a way.

I believe that the way your system works at present is when the voltage drops to a preset point the autostart system starts the generator. Then after the well pump turns off the generator will stop. I am not sure if the generator shut down at that point is caused by the voltage rising to fully charged or if it is a timed event. Probably voltage rise does it but the generator coukd also have a timed minimum run time.

After you add solar panels and a charge controller the solar charge controller will manage the charge rate from the solar panels independent from anything the generator does.

The generator and the solar panels should coexist together quite fine. At least system gets along fine.

Don I guess it would depend on how low the voltage is when it starts and what is left in the bank after the pump kicks off.  Have noticed that it has run for a considerable time on some occasions.  Mostly would be in the AM when showers are needed or come supper time to wash dishes.

Wow, y'all got hammered, we got 8" of wet heavy snow and lost power when the wind hit the trees, It piddled snow for a few more days but that was it.
I was wondering if you were still on stream cleanup, that has been a long haul!
I met Dennis from the Bogtrotters, he's working on one of the houses at the same farm I've been working on. We hit it off, nice guy. Michelle had met him several years ago when she was helping a friend do tile on one of his jobs. We should get over to the next log barn, beside where he is working soon, not sure if he'll still be over there or not, big farm and we're all bouncing around. According to the shoulder doc I can go back to work in 4 days  .

Don we didn't get near that much. They always get a lot more on the mountain than us.  We got 10" then a couple every day on top of that.  It's been tough the last couple weeks finding area's to work with the snow,rain & high water but I always manage to keep them busy.

Hmmm thanks for the details.

Finally got around to another photograph hosting site.  Decided to give it a try since Photobucket limited third party posting.  Here is a little project I did last week.  I needed an additional light over the kitchen table.  I found this at an estate auction.  With a little modification I think it works well.  I did have to run an external wiring chase from a receptacle since all the original wiring was within the log walls.  The light is lead and glass.



Had a little problem with the generator last week.  Seems the trickle charger in the generator for the start up battery went bad.  Luckily I discovered it soon enough without any damage to the battery bank.  With a discharged battery the inverter goes into fault and will not start to recharge the bank. So I contact my friend which is a Generac Service Tech.  He advised that the company has put a hold on all parts and units and has devoted all there resources to the tropical storm areas of the south east.  He will try at a later date.  In the meantime I got a "battery tender" which seems to preforming the same functions.  Luckily I had a utility 120 volt line to the generator to power the charger .

Nice lamp for a nice room.

Well I got around to making displays for Christmas Presents to my son of Turkey Fans that he harvested in the Spring 2018 in New Mexico.  I used white oak.  Notice the "burl" of the fan plates.  Might have to zoom in for the true character to show.

Love the pattern in the wood grain.

It's been sometime since my last post.  Been sort of busy.  Went back to work for a contractor friend of mine that was short handed.  Face it Retirement is just a word for people that don't actually want to work any more.  .  Anyway I have remodeled the bathrooms & kitchens in 5 log cabins that were built by the CCC in 1936 at a local state park, remodeled 4 bathrooms in a Millionaire's house, built a 30' X 60' pavilion for the 4H camp, installed a metal roof to a residence, and now putting a roof over a 12' X 40' porch.  Some other odd jobs too numerous to mention.

But life goes on at the cabin.  Everything is working fine.  Been a rather rash of Black Bears this year.  In fact their numbers keep climbing each year.  Here is on the last of May at the cabin.


                                                     
But not all of them are just pretty to look at or enjoy watching.  This is the second bear attack in two years of my daughters pig feeder.  both bear ended in the same results.  Trapped and euthanized .  With the great numbers they do not relocated them as they did in the past.





This was Friday evenings entertainment beside the house.



Oh I almost forgot on Saturday morning I had went to my Mom's in town and had just left abut 1/4 miles away I saw a sow and 2 cubs making their way through the yards nearby.  Sorry I didn't have my phone to capture the moment.

Great to hear from you, John. It is good to keep occupied after retirement. That is one thing we like about only being partly retired. I enjoy the pictures as well.