Duck and dive...

Look what we woke up to this morning... :)

Thick snow covering down to the lower level of the
mountain ridges
(by the way, the bentonite we added to the
dam has definitely helped the dam to retain
water and to prevent it from drying out
completely as it did previously!)

The sun is shining now and the reconfigured solar panels are performing perfectly at our current outside temperature of 6°C with no over-voltage occuring whatsoever - the power input at the moment is 710 watts - and I'm sitting at the dining room table with my back being gently warmed by the roaring, crackling Rosie behind me.

Life is good.

But, on to today's post...

The ducks that adopted us a while go are happily waddling round the property - munching on all the available insects (and my strawberries when they are in season) - and run up to us quacking madly for their grain twice a day when we go out to feed the alpacas.

But, I noticed that when I scattered their grain on the ground in their nighttime enclosure I was also feeding what they didn't finish to all the wild birds, not to mention the field mice, who have, naturally, taken up residence nearby.  Very nearby.  Like in the straw I have given them for bedding...

I then tried feeding the ducks the grain out of a container - but ducks aren't the tidiest of creatures when it comes to filling their stomachs, and as much went into their stomachs as landed on the floor.

More wild bird and mouse food.

Also, on a couple of occasions I noticed that they gobbled the food so quickly that they almost choked.

So, Google to the rescue.

Searching for "Duck feeders" brought up this pic.

http://poultrykeeper.com/duck-keeping/
beginners-guide-to-keeping-ducks

I quite liked the concept, so I've adopted it :)  On that same site, I also found out that ducks have no tear ducts, and they have to put their entire heads under water in order to clean their eyes.  I didn't know that.

I understand, especially in summer, that the submerged food could start fermenting in the water, so I am making sure that I feed them only as much as they wolf down at one sitting right from the start ;)  After all, their raison d'etre at Foothills Organic is to also to eat as many insects as they can find...

Duck food in a bowl of water

I gave them their first meal in the bowl (a re-purposed plastic ice cream tub) full of water and hung around to see if they would get the gist.

No problem.  They ducked their heads straight into the water and had a field day.

Yum, yum
Isn't there one last speck...

Because the food isn't dry anymore, they're not choking on it either.  In fact, the one just wouldn't stop and spent an extra 5 minutes making sure that there wasn't one last scrap that he could find...

The wild birds are only managing to scrounge the few seeds that float on top of the water, and the field mice - well, there's nothing for them, so they'll just have to relocate back to the fields.

You gotta love it when a plan comes together :)

Danger over

Our little two plate Univa caravan stove, with grill and small oven, which we took out of the caravan and placed in the farmhouse kitchen, has taken a fair amount of punishment in the last 2 years.

The burner grid was being eroded by the extreme heat.  In some places it was almost burnt through.  And I couldn't find spares anywhere online.  I mean, the caravan is from the early '80's - and is Univa still in existence?  I couldn't find them...

A close up of the wear and tear on the pot grid

But, we depend on that little stove all year round - to heat the water for our morning tea / coffee and to make our toast.  The oven we've never used - apparently is chews LP gas like water going down a plug hole.

And, as we had measured, and built the kitchen cupboard / counter when the house was being built (the cupboards have brick side walls) we couldn't exactly knock down the walls in order to accomodate a new larger stove.  Most of the new gas stoves have electric ovens - who needs one of those in their lives?  No thank you.  LOL

And tossing out a perfectly usable little stove is very rarely an option as far as I am concerned.  A little bit of TLC is all it will take and the stove will be as good as new.

Thoroughly buckled and twisted - the grid was
dangerous and pots sloped towards the sides...

I asked a couple of local businesses if they would be prepared to make me a new burner / pot grid, but their price was completely over the top!

Then RMan suggested why not ask RSon - he is in the stainless steel business now, and if anyone could make it he could.

On one of his visits, he took the measurements.

Just like a new stove top :)

And last weekend, when he came to install the solar panels for us, he brought the new burner grid with him.

Perfectly level and just like new

No more pots sliding sideways off the cooking area.  No more fried eggs lurching almost out of the frying pan.

Everything is level again.

It's the simple things in life that can bring such joy :)

Once again - thanks RSon :)

Piquanté Pepper giveaway winners

RMan did the deed last night.

 I placed the 11 names into my hat.

He shoved his hand in and twirled around the slips of papers.

And pulled out two slips of paper - one after the other.

Congratulations to Wriggly Tin and Marlene aka Ouma Miaau.  Please, contact me on dani (at) ecofootprint (dot) co (dot) za with your postal addresses so I can send off your piquanté pepper seeds :)

Sorry to the others, and better luck next time :)

Powered up...

Warning - this is a l-o-n-g posting, and picture heavy...

A few days ago I mentioned that we had some very exciting happenings at the farm.

Well, here is the news...

We have learnt a lot about our solar power installation through trial and error. When we initially installed our solar panels we were not informed about a number of things which were vitally important.  In this instance, we were not informed that low temperatures affect the performance of solar panels.

When the ambient temperature is below 10oC the cold affects the voltage of the panels - causing the voltage to spike.  We had all our 12volt panels (incorrectly) connected in series - all the way through to our charge controller. Connecting them in series meant that maximum volts were produced by the panels - which is what RMan was (mistakenly) aiming for.  (connecting the bank in parallel would mean the Outback charge controller would utilize the Amps produced, not voltage.)

We have an Outback 80 charge controller, which, translated that means it can handle an input of 80Amps and 145 volts power from the solar panels - maximum.

Our indoor Outback remote display gives us the
first /indication that all is not well with our
power production.
Silent - at 9.40a.m. in the morning -
is not good news.  It means the voltage
from the panels is spiking

What we discovered last year (winter) is that at sunrise, when the temperature is the lowest, the cold caused the panels to spike over 145 volts - the maximum the Outback charge controller could handle - which caused the charge controller to shut down.  For hours.  Which resulted in lost input charge to the batteries.

Checking in the power room, the Outback
charge controller tells the tale : 148VDC
High VoC = shutdown - to prevent damage
to the charge controller

Given the number of people world-wide who are off-grid and who rely on solar power to charge their storage batteries, I did not believe that the problem was unsolvable, so after contacting a number of people locally - who didn't help much - I went international.  An extremely helpful gentleman at Outback technical support in Australia, responded to my high voltage e-mail query. And, over the course of 16-odd e-mails [I told you you he was extremely helpful :) ], he advised us to reconfigure the panels.

Diagram of the new configuration of our 8 X
off-grid solar panels connected in series and
the two banks connected in parallel.

He suggested that we have two equal banks of panels linked in series, and then link the two banks in parallel with two breakers separating the two different guage cables between the panels and the charge controller.

Wiring into breakers
prior to being routed
through conduit

Breaker details

To do that we needed an equal number of panels.  We only had 7 (6 X 140watt and 1 X 135 watt).  Wayne, our SiL across the field, had two 140watt panels that he wasn't using, so we purchased them off him - thereby removing of the 135 watt panel from the exisiting array.  These 8 panels give us 1120 watts of potential solar power going to the Outback 80.

6 guys in the front and two guys behind -
installing our first 5 X solar panels in August 2012.

Plus, RSon had the very good suggestion of re-installing the solar panels in such a way that we would have available roof space if ever we wanted to install more panels in the future (our old existing installation "hogged" all the available space of over half the roof area).

But, that meant getting all the panels down off the 45° pitched roof.

You recall how the builders assisted us in installing the original five panels on the garage roof.  7 guys helped RMan that day.  Five in the front with RMan...

 ...and two holding support ropes at the back.

This time we only had RMan, RSon, Wayne and one of the locals we roped in to help.

I was fraught with fear.  Those panels are frigging heavy.  And the pitch of the roof is hectic - and not condusive to ease of clambering all over it.

The scaffolding was errected, and the removal proceeded at 11.00 a.m. on Saturday morning.  I was torn between not wanting to watch / document the event, but being aware that the more I photographed, the more info we would have if we ever needed to check something in the future.

RMan and RSon discussing the best way to handle
this enormous task - and RSon giving us an
idea for the addition of further panels in future

RSon, ever the adverturous one, elected himself to climb to the roof apex in order to connect the supporting ropes to the exising array.  And to loosen the existing bolts securing the solar panels to the roof...

RSon, Wayne and the helper trying to get the
panels off the roof

A couple of times I remember pointing the camera, closing my eyes and clicking the button.   I couldn't watch...

Since the first time we installed the panels, we have erected a carport roof - and that carport roof was in the way when it came time to secure the supporting ropes.

The carport roof was in the way, so we had to
secure the supporting ropes to a quaddie

 It was very hot and difficult work - with awkward access all round.

Removing the old cables so that we could get the
panels down

But, my fears aside, naturally they got the panels down in one piece, and without injuring anyone.  There is a God in heaven.

Checking and rwiring the panels and re-fixing them
to the horizontal aluminium square tube supports

We had purchased more cable with which to rewire the panels - and that was just as well. We discovered that one of the old cables had become pinched during the original installtion - and that was not good news!

As we are going to be installing the panels in a different configuration, the supporting beams inside the garage roof had to be moved as well.

The horizontal beams fixed to the trusseses
support the solar panels

(Ah - a small bit of news I forgot to give you - RMan managed to break his new-ish glasses a few weeks ago, and, although new ones are already on order, all close up work has to be done with his prescription sunglasses.

Inside a garage roof??!?!)

Wayne to the rescue again LOL

Oh, brother!!!!  The roof mounted bolts were
installed in the incorrect position

Once everything was rewired and refixed to the aluminium supporting structure, the first bank of 4 panels was once again hoisted up the scaffolding and onto the roof.

RSon at 5.59p.m. - perching like a monkey
 on the rooftiles in the fading light.
I definitely gained a few grey hairs watching him...
Does he know how long 9 months carrying a
child is, and what is involved in getting that child
to adulthood?????

All of this takes time.

They started at 10.30-ish in the morning and, at 5.59p.m. the first bank was more or less installed.  They had installed the securing bolts from inside the roof outwards.  Then trying to find the holes on the aluminium structure below the panels wasn't easy in the fading light - and it took ages.

So, Sunday morning the work continued...

Getting the securing bolt lined up with the hole
in the roof tile

The securing bolts for the second bank were installed from the outside in i.e. first through the aluminium square tube and then into holes drilled through the roof tiles.  Far easier.  Even given the raging gale that inconveniently sprang up to hamper the operation.

The new two banks of 4 X panels - using less roof
space than the previous installation - and producing
200 watts even in the cloudy weather evident on
the photograph.  This installation allows for a
further 8 panels to be installed in the future.

So, finally we have two banks of 4 X 140watt panels (which are connected in parallel this time) mounted on the roof again.

And - thanks to RSon's foresight, we have space to install a further 8 - 12 panels should we so choose in the future :)

Clever boy :)

The battery / inverter connections remain the same

So - there you have it.

The next day it was immediately apparent that there is a definite, and visible, improvement - 10 minutes after sunrise we are already getting a charge going to the charge controller and 30 minutes later over 300 watts is being produced.  With nada voltage spiking / shutdown occuring.  At the end of the day, we are obtaining 5KwH+ of charge to the batteries - in winter!!!! :) That we only achieved last summer.

And - there is no more over voltage spiking :D  So every scrap of power produced by those panels from the moment the sun hits them in the early morning to the last ray in the evening is now going to the charge controller and into the batteries.  Yipeeeeeeee!

Well done guys.  And, thanks - seriously - a very sincere and grateful thank you for all the work, willingness, thought and effort that you all expended to sort out our power problems.


By the way, tomorrow we will have been here for exactly 2 years :)  How fast the time has passed and how worth the move it was.  No regrets - neither RMan nor myself :)


P.S.  You have only 2 days left if you'd like to add your name to the piquanté pepper seed giveaway.  Entries close at 6.00p.m. on Monday, 30th June 2014 :)

More recycling idea's

My blog reading hiccup is sorted - thank goodness :)  Frustrating while it lasted, and I didn't know what to do whilst drinking my morning cup of tea (giggle).  Even using Bloglovin was giving me hassles (on my smartphone).


Ah well, it's passed, and all is well in blogland again...


Over the past months I have lost and gained followers - but I would just like to give a quick welcome and thank you for hitting the followers button to my latest readers :

Sarah Shoesmith of http://thegardeningshoe.blogspot.com/
nihal of http://homesteadinafrica.blogspot.com/ (it is a "by invitation only blog")
cullingofhumankind - who doesn't appear to have a blog 
Chris Carter - who doesn't appear to have a blog
Tanya of http://floodproofmum.blogspot.com.au/ SciFiChick of http://baconandeggs-scifichick.blogspot.com/
M.E. Masterson of http://adventures--of--life.blogspot.com/

Thanks all - I appreciate your support :)


I came across these whilst browsing the net - regretfully, I forgot to keep the links.  But - the idea's are too good not to share.

Tak about gravity watering plants.  This gives
the concept a whole new meaning :)

Even though these are recycled milk bottles, I reckon that there is a certain beauty in their re-purposing :)

kymber - perhaps you and I should make some
entrance features with a couple of our tyres? ;)

The ingenuity of people never ceases to amaze me :)

Don't forget - if you'd like to score some piquanté pepper seeds which I am giving away, please leave a comment on

http://ecofootprintsa.blogspot.com/2014/06/preserving-piquante-peppers-and-give.html before 6.00p.m. on 30 June 2014

Blogger bug

Only one blog precis is avasilable - clicking "view
more" results in... Nada!!

My dashboard has been hit by the Blogger bug (https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/blogger/SUX-jVlBBco and https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/blogger/TM9QlkTp6zc) and I am only able to view one blog posting at a time, as opposed to scrolling down to see blog postings ad infinitum.  Although I do have a few of the blogs that I follow available on Bloglovin, I had not captured all of them, and it means that I am unabe to read the majority, and am thus unable to comment on your blogs until Blogger sorts out the problem.

Please understand - I'm not being rude - and will be back commenting as soon as Blogger sorts out the bug... :)

Frostbite

Very exciting things are happening at the Foothills Organic homestead today, but, as they aren't finished, I can't tell you anythng more... yet :)

What I can tell you though is that I was caught napping.

Although we had frost last year, I didn't loose anything to it.  But this year it's different.

I had sweet potatoes chitting for ages, and planted them in the repurposed tyres we have.  Last summer the tyres produced more than enough butternut squash to see us through winter, so I thought sweet potatoes would be a good crop to follow the butternut.

I filled them with lots and lots of gorgeous alpaca poo mixed in with the soil - it had to be a winner.  I thought.  I almost gloated.  And I definitely salivated at the prospect of the harvest.

Frost bitten sweet potatoes - are they
ex-sweet potaotes? Time will tell.  But, I
live in hope :)

But - as you can see, the frost got them.  The field mice had been nibbling at the leaves in one of the tyres, and what the mice didn't damage the frost did.

I'm not sure if they will sprout again?!  But, I've left them in situ with a protective straw covering - just in case.

Strange that, because I'd grown sweet potatoes on the farm before, and they didn't suffer from frostbite - maybe we just didn't have frost that winter...?

An eggplant in the protective cover of a broadbean
plant.  But, it still got the brunt of recent frost.
My mini forest garden didn't help...

Another crop which was grown out in the open for the first time were the eggplants.

They also came a cropper.

So, I'll just have to harvest what is left growing on them, share some with RSon (who is visiting this weekend) and Natasha, scoff some of them, and preserve the rest for later.

But, the lesson will be filed away securely for next winter.  Frosty isn't going to wreak havoc in this garden again - if I can help it :)

Don't forget - if you'd like to score some piquanté pepper seeds which I am giving away, please leave a comment on

http://ecofootprintsa.blogspot.com/2014/06/preserving-piquante-peppers-and-give.html before 6.00p.m. on 30 June 2014

Uses for tomato powder

One of my readers, Sol, asked me to give some idea's for using the tomato powder I blogged about at the beginning of June.   Well, Sol, here they are :)

Use the left-over tomato skins from your
preserved tomatoes to make tomato powder /flakes

• Baking (think biscuits, scones and buns / rolls - not cakes)
• In dry rubs
• Add to soup
• Sprinkle on stir fries
• As an ingredient in homemade noodles
• An ingredient in barbecue and other savoury sauces
• In pizza dough (or on the pizza itself)
• Sprinkle over salads - green salads, pasta salads, guacamole

I’ll just add it to my soups, stews and stocks and curries — but, in fact, you can add it anywhere tomato is welcome ~ steaks, chicken, pasta, pizza, and garlic bread. 

It also makes a stunning garnish for all manner of dishes — stuffed eggs, hummus and creamed cheese. And adding it to garlic butter will give it a rosy tinge and appearance :)  You can even rim the edge of a cocktail glass with tomato powder.

Only your imagination limits you :)

Don't forget - if you'd like to score some piquanté pepper seeds which I am giving away, please leave a comment on

http://ecofootprintsa.blogspot.com/2014/06/preserving-piquante-peppers-and-give.html before 6.00p.m. on 30 June 2014