This episodes OCC update will get into why power was lost on the last day of last year and what has been going on with me and my relationship with Our Country Cottage. In The Beginning, ITB month 24, will close out the second year of OCC construction.
I am beginning to think that doing ITB is not helping my attitude towards OCC. I don’t know if it is cathartic, with a positive effect, as I thought it would be or it’s just dredging up all those memories and reopening the wounds, so to speak. For now we’ll go with the first one, Sooo
In The Beginning, month 24, July.
This is the part of the podcast where I try to figure out what went on during the construction of OCC by going through pix, texts, emails and the log book I kept. It appears the log book was the first to be neglected when things weren’t going well. Unfortunately, that is the exact time when notes should be taken to help in the future. Human nature I guess, well at least mine.
Case in point, I have sketchy follow up notes to an ant invasion I went through. One day I showed up and found them crawling all over the living room and sun room floor. I stepped out of the sun room onto a mat outside on the deck for a breather and to plan what to do. Looking down I noticed the whole mat was moving, absolutely covered with ants.
I don’t know what happened next, notes not there, but within a day or so I returned ready to unleash chemical warfare. I had an outside pesticide that I sprayed the full perimeter of both the cottage and garage twice a year. I also have a gentler pesticide I spray inside round the base boards and windows etc. This one also helps keep the fly population down as well.
I tried a more natural method using borax mixed with sugar and soaking cotton balls with the solution. Not very effective I am sorry to say. Again sketchy notes.
The one note I have is that a hand held vacuum previously nicknamed the “fly buster 2000” was renamed the “ant buster 2000”, for a time.
Anyway, on with In The Beginning
I was starting to stay over a bit more regularly and beginning to get routines established. Topping up batteries, collecting data logger info, collecting power system info and collecting trail cam images. In the beginning, as this was, everything seemed very complicated and took a lot of time to do. As time passed I got more comfortable with things, to the point where it’s not that big of a deal. Just got to get through the early days.
The beginning of the month had me hanging ornate mirrors, my partner had sourced, in the bathrooms. Made it look a bit more complete.
The grass was patchy and garbage still was spread out. Trying to mow the drive I got the tractor stuck in the ditch. With the mower deck on, there is not a lot of ground clearance, so when you drop a wheel off the side of the drive, you are stuck. I had to walk back to the cottage to get my vehicle to tow the tractor out. Then I drove my vehicle back to the cottage and walked back to the tractor. Did I mention the drive is a kilometre of fun?
On the positive side of things, the damp corner had dried up in the crawl space and the track lighting had been installed in the loft over the garage.
We were then out of town for a week and I did not make it back to OCC for several days after that.
Upon my return it was obvious that nothing had been done. The grass needed cutting again but at least the ant problem looked like it was under control.
I went to a nearby small town for supper and picked up some supplies along with an AC tester. You know the kind. You plug it into a wall socket and lights come on to tell you if all is OK or not.
When I got back I checked every socket in the place. Good thing too, I found four in the master bedroom that didn’t have power and marked them with blue tape.
Barn swallows had built a nest at the top of one of the deck posts, under the overhang. They were very protective of the nest and would dive bomb you if you got too close. I could stand about a arms length away from a corner post and they would actually fly between the post and my head. I could hear the air crack from their wings as they did so. Some times I could feel the air move on my head, they were that close. Ahhh, country life.
During the last night of the visit I was treated to an amazing show of lightning. I managed to take some very cool pix and will try to get some put up on the web site soon.
Back in the city, we went furniture shopping for Our Country Cottage. Pix were taken and a budget was agreed to. Again, your phone is your best friend while shopping. A pic of the item, another of the price and maybe several while holding up a tape measure for the major dimensions.
My last visit of the month started off all too familiarly. Nothing had been done. There is a note in the log book that I called the project head to see what was going on. No note was made for the response.
I measured the upstairs closet for a shelving system and assembled a set of rolling shelves for the pantry.
The pantry had the only access to the crawl space, through a hatch in the floor. So the pantry has to be vacated to get to that hatch. The rolling kitchen shelves made this easy to do.
The next day my partner came up and we started setting up the place. Glasses, cutlery, dishes and pots-n-pans were put in their new home in the kitchen.
Towel racks and toilet paper holders were installed. And with the items they were meant to hold put in place, the bathrooms were done.
The last day of the month and the visit had me playing with the generator. Starting it from inside the cottage and seeing what happened and again leaving it not knowing if an error that was generated was a problem or not. And you thought the generator only generated power. Well it generates power and errors along with frustration, relief and a full range of emotions. Who knew!
The rest of the visit finished with me trying to figure out my laundry machine.
Next ITB will start year three, as we careen to the completion of OCC. Just kidding.
Now on to another
Our Country Cottage Update
When last we spoke, the cottage just informed me that, on the last day of the year, power had failed. I was in no rush to go up as I had drained water and put antifreeze in problem areas.
I assumed, for some reason, the generator had failed and without intervention would not try starting again. There could be a number of reasons. Out of fuel, low oil pressure, a broken starter, like last year. And a pile of other reasons I have yet to become acquainted with. But bottom line was, the generator was not, generating.
The cottage emailed me several times, telling me that power had failed. I knew this was the cottages way to tell me it was trying, that is, the solar panels would charge the batteries and when they got to a certain level the power would turn back on. The boiler would then turn on trying to heat OCC but without the gen running or enough sun, esp at night, the batteries would drain and the “power lost emails” would be sent.
Two days after the first email I went up to see what was going on. When I got there the sun was shining and the garage door opened when I hit the remote. We had power.
The batteries were only at 53% and were being charged by the sun. The boiler was on trying to get heat into the place. I turned the boiler off to give the batteries a chance to charge. I then turned my attention to clearing the drive of and I quote from my log the “ deepest/heaviest snow of the season.”
Once done it was back to figure out the gen problem. Propane was at 29%, getting low but still plenty. The oil level in the gen was OK, too. There was an “Over crank” error on the display in the gen. I found out that this means it tried to start and didn’t. It would try three times and if still not running would throw the error and not try again until looked at.
I cleared the error and hit the run button. After a few seconds it fired up and ran. Inside OCC the system controller showed the generator was charging the batteries and all was happy happy.
As to why the unit failed to start a couple of days ago, well the temperature that night got very cold, actually down to -38 C. The generator uses low pressure propane to run and when temps drop that low, so does the propane pressure and there probably wasn’t enough pressure to feed the beast. Temps go back up, pressure goes back up, and no problem. Well until it gets that cold again, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
I calculated that the gen had about 122 hours on it since its last oil change so I took the opportunity to change the oil and filter while I was there. Mental note, pick up more filters.
Handy tip, with a felt pen, write the hours and date on the filter after its installed. This way you don’t have to go through piles of notes and scrap bits of paper to find out when to change em. I also take a picture of it as well.
When I left the batteries were at 78% and being charged by the sun. As the forecast was for warm temperatures, I decided to leave the boiler off to give the batteries a chance to fully charge.
Three days later I am back for another one day drop in along with 6 new shear bolts I needed for the snow thrower. (See last episodes OCC Update.) The batteries were at 98%. Good to see. The sun was shining brightly so I turned the boiler on. Now the next part is a bit confusing for me, still. There were heat zones that should have been calling for heat but weren’t and zones that shouldn’t have been calling for heat but were.
I ended up physically disconnecting the thermostats that shouldn’t be calling for heat and were. Yup took the wire right off them suckers. Then I reset the thermostats that should have been calling for heat but weren’t. That got em going again.
By the time I left the boiler had turned off and back on by itself and the batteries were at 86% and being charged by the sun.
The cottage behaved itself for the next 10 days or so with the emails it sent me reporting temperatures well within the expected range. I decided to drop in to see how things were going.
When I got there the sun was shining and the batts were at 90%. The living room was at 12 C. Not bad at all. Oh yeah, I had also remembered to bring up a six pack of generator oil filters.
It was so nice out that I decided to clean up the drive a bit. Run the blade down both sides, which moved snow into the center then one pass with the snow blower down the middle and done. All in all a very pleasant task, this time.
Something told me to look into the battery water levels. I had notes that said it was about due. Well with the extra energy being used to heat OCC the batteries were very thirsty. Good thing I checked, good thing I listen to those little voices in my head. OooKaaayy….
Then on to see what the gen was up to. Propane was down to 20%, better give the propane guys a shout. The gen had 52 hours on it since last checked and a quick look at the dipstick revealed the oil was down to half. I topped up the oil and moved inside.
I collected the Solar Power system data. Or at least tried to. The transfer hung up again. I had suspected one of my SD cards was flaky even though it passed all the tests I gave it. I knew this was the problem card because I had put a question mark on it with a felt pen. This one will not be used again. In fact I took a pair of clippers to it and cut it up when I got as much data, as I could, off of it, back in the city.
The following day, back in the city, I called the propane guys and told them we were down to 20%. As it turned out they had already visited about 2 or 3 hours after I left the day before. The invoice was emailed to me the next day. Good guys.
Two weeks pass before my next visit. Batteries were at 100% and the living room was at 13 C. Remember that I set the thermostat to 9.5 so anything extra is passive solar gain.
The drive needed clearing and I figured it was time to collect the trail cam cards by the drive. I couldn’t remember the last time I had done so. (a quick check tells me it was last May. Where do the time go. Gad) I decided that they both might need a new set of batteries, Ya figure! Well one was still taking pics and one had only stopped three weeks prior. New batts all around anyway….
The day started to go sideways. I got the tractor stuck just outside the gate. The better part of a kilometre to walk back to the cottage and get what ever I needed. Didn’t want to do that so hand digging the snow packed underneath the tractor and using my large winter gauntlets, one under each front tire for extra traction ( it was the rear wheel that got sucked into the ditch) and about a half hour later, the tractor clawed its way back onto the drive.
Drive cleared, trail cams serviced, I checked the generator. The propane had been filled but it was already down to 54%. The normal fill is 80%. Did the gen run that much. What the… There was another 40 or 50 hours on it, but… I topped up the oil and carried on.
Putting the tractor in the garage I finally took those shear bolts off the bench and put the in the tractor tool box.
My notes told me that the temp loggers were just past due, so I had to do them. One small problem, there was a sizable mound of white stuff on the battery room hatch. When I tried to shovel it off it became clear that it was mainly ice. Getting pretty frustrated with the way the day was turning out I dug out the handle and with one mighty yank flipped open the hatch sending the ice mound off the side.
Just to add to things, one of the loggers needed a new battery. This sort of stuff never happens when you have time. A new one was retrieved from the utility room.
And the crowning touch to the day. When I leave I take a series of pics, one of the cottage with the garage that shows the garage door is closed, another of the solar panels and the drive, and various others including the Quonset etc.
Well, this time while taking a pic of the solar panels the front wheel of my vehicle got sucked into the ditch and I was stuck for the second time that day.
I keep traction pads in the back for times like this. The traction pads are pieces of gnarly hard rubber bars held together by heavy cable and rolled up in a case thingy for storage. Even using two of these it took 20 minutes, hand digging and eventually using one of the cases under a third wheel to get out. This was the last thing I needed.
So I have a set of these for the tractor as well but I have yet to figure out how to carry them on the tractor. One thing I did learn, though, was that after you use them they are full of ice and snow and need to dry out before you roll em back up into the case. So I am now trying to figure out how to mount two of them, unrolled, on the tractor.
Since then I have picked up two collapsing compact trunk shovels. One for the vehicle and one for the tractor. I know, I have to figure out how to mount that to the tractor, too, but digging packed snow from under a vehicle, with your hands, gets old very fast.
And before I finish off this section, that propane level being so low after fill up was bothering me, a lot. Back in the city I checked the propane invoice for the amount delivered, along with info from my first ever fill, did some math and concluded that the tank wasn’t filled to 80%. I called the propane people and confirmed that it was only filled to 60%. At the time of delivery the cost of propane was spiking a bit, so in hopes of saving me money they didn’t fill it. The thinking was that the price would come down and I could top er up then.
Well that wraps up the first month of the year, but wouldn’t you know, another “Power has been lost” email and a big dump of snow greets us for next month. Oh, and my printer broke. I’ll tell you all about it in episode #24 of Our Country Cottage A Narrative, along with ,ITB, looking at the beginning of year three, month 25, of construction or, what ever you want to call it. Will anyone show up?
Before I go….
Lately I have been thinking of OCC more as Our Country Chore than Our Country Cottage. And it’s true that going up for one day at a time doesn’t leave much time to smell the roses after you shovel the snow to get in, clear the drive, try to understand why the mud room is nice and warm while the living room is cold. And that stupid SD card… I keep reminding myself that this is probably the hardest part of the year to get through. Cold, snow and minimal sun aren’t really conducive to off the grid solar powered fun. Our generator hasn’t helped much either.
Yes, and like I said about doing ITB, it isn’t relieving any of the grief that building the place brought as I thought it would. Well at least not yet. Maybe it’s like antibiotics. You have to complete the whole prescription to get the benefits. At this point I see less than a year of “medicine” left to go.
On the plus side looking through all the pics for ITB and seeing the lush greenery and remembering the warm sun with no lack of power does help. Just look past the garbage and mud, etc.
And it was fun to go through the seven or eight months of trail cam pics I collected (ten to eleven thousand of them). I saw deer grow up and a cougar with a growing offspring. Deer sticking its tongue out at the camera, a fox catching dinner. I saw snow come and go and come back again.
I also took some time to look through lots of other warm sunny OCC pics. It is so nice when it is nice. You just have to remind yourself, over and over, of the good times. The bad times will take care of themselves.
For pictures, and new ones coming soon, and more info, you can visit our website at www.ourcountrycottageanarrative.com
If you have any comments, questions or if you would like to be added to the “Friends of OCCaN” Our Country Cottage A Narrative, mailing list, you can email me at John@ourcountrycottageanarrative.com.
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Till next time….