Around the house
I think that being
lazy is the mother of Invention. I do not like to do things like split wood or
rake the grass, so I have invented several labor saving devices that help reduce
the work of keeping my property in good shape. My dear wife
Sue also keeps me busy inventing things to help her with her love of flowers
and gardening. We have three pets that keep us
company, Buddy a Shetland Sheepdog, Max
and Fluffy our cats.The three pets can be a handful
for Sue at feeding time.
Our
home in the winter before the addition was started. We added a sunroom
and a play room to our home last year. It is still under construction since
I want to build it myself and have to do it in my spare time. My favorite part
is the sunroom floor. I bought 3 large granite slabs,
and had then cut into 3 foot slabs, so I could handle them. I then cut them with
a home made bridge saw into 16" tiles. The
stone is called Verde Marinachi, and comes from
Brazil. The sunroom is warm in the winter and a relaxing
and beautiful room that we both enjoy.
One
of the first machines I
acquired after my home was built,
was an old 1965 John Deer Tractor with backhoe and loader. I supplement my heat
with wood, so I built a log splitter attachment to do the work of splitting. It
can be operated with ropes by the person loading the logs, and it has
split all of the logs that I have put through it to date.
A 7 foot solar
furnace was fabricated from an old surplus radar dish. The dish was covered by
one inch mirror squares that were adhered with silicone calking compound. To
protect the mirror backs, aluminum foil was adhered to the back of the dish. The
dish can melt an empty aluminum can @ >1200 degrees F, and will be used as a
water heater when I get around to finishing the heat exchanger and tracking
system. See the SOLAR ENERGY page.
Sue
likes to feed the hummingbirds, but the fluid gets hot and spoils prematurely if
allowed to sit in the sun all day. After trying several shading techniques, I
finally built a solar powered sun tracking sun shade that puts it self between
the sun and the feeder to keep it in the shade all day. It has worked continuously
for the past 2 years. The gear motor was removed from a surplus videodisk player
from the MIT swap fest..
My fireplace insert features ducting that draws cooler air from the basement,
passes it through the stove to heat it, then blows it throughout the house. I
also built a temperature monitor that beeps when the
stove needs more wood. The combustion air is supplied by an insulated
manifold that feeds both stoves with outside air.
The coal stove in the basement features a reflective enclosure that directs the
heated air throughout the house. Combustion air is supplied through a slide
shutoff valve and is ducted into the stove
combustion air inlet, which was not designed for direct ducting.
To store and dispense the coal, I started with a large steel tank, made a roof that can
retract for filling with my backhoe, made a conveyer
system from an exercise treadmill that was found at the dump. The conveyer
is powered by a battery drill, through a gear reducer transmission salvaged from
an old riding mower.
Contact me: genesis1@snet.net
Home
Our
home in the winter before the addition was started. We added a sunroom
and a play room to our home last year. It is still under construction since
I want to build it myself and have to do it in my spare time. My favorite part
is the sunroom floor. I bought 3 large granite slabs,
and had then cut into 3 foot slabs, so I could handle them. I then cut them with
a home made bridge saw into 16" tiles. The
stone is called Verde Marinachi, and comes from
Brazil. The sunroom is warm in the winter and a relaxing
and beautiful room that we both enjoy.
