Showing posts with label Pics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pics. Show all posts

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Riverwalker's Pics - Treasure Falls


Treasure Falls in Colorado


Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

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Solar Garage Project


Pole-mounted Solar Panels

The conversion of my garage to solar power is completed and hopefully it will lower my utility bill. It took a while to get everything set up and working. My panels were pole mounted in order to make it easier to service the solar panels.


A total of four 100 watt solar panels were used to charge a battery bank of four 100 amp hour batteries. Two inverters were used to furnish power. A 100 watt pure sine wave inverter was used for lights and to power a small air compressor. An 1800 watt pure sine wave inverter was set up to furnish power for my power saws. This covers the majority of my power usage in the garage. I’ll also being running a fairly low wattage heat lamp for the chickens in the winter.



A solar panel kit from Grape Solar was used for this project and came with most of the necessary wiring, a charge controller and an inverter. There is additional information posted in my product review. A separate grounding rod was installed on the panels and the solar disconnect that was installed.

My grid-powered outlets are still functional and can be used if my solar power system goes down for some reason but won’t be used unless absolutely necessary. With the completion of this project, my storage shed, greenhouse and garage are now on solar power.

Part Two will show my battery bank, solar disconnect and charge controller set-up.

Got solar-powered garage?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

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Hiking to Piedra Falls


Piedra Falls

Piedra Falls is located about 30 miles north of Pagasoa Springs, Colorado in the San Juan National Forest. It's a leisurely hike of about 3/4 mile to get to the falls and makes a very pleasant day hike through the forest and along the middle fork of the Piedra River.


Trailhead



Start of the trail in the San Juan National Forest.



Further along the trail it gets a little rocky.




Back into the woods again.



A little shade along the way.



Trail gets rocky again.



Trail runs along the side of the Piedra River as you get closer to the falls.



There's a narrow spot between the rocks as you approach the basin of the falls.



The basin of the falls at the end of the trail.

Got day hike?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker



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Riverwalker's Wildlife Pics - Chipmunks and Ground Squirrel


Chipmunks and Ground Squirrel

Here's a pic of a couple of chipmunks and a ground squirrel. It was brought to my attention that I had erroneously labeled a ground squirrel as a chipmunk in my previous post. As you can see in the above picture there is a noticeable difference in size and markings.

Got wildlife?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

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Riverwalker's Wildlife Pics - Ground Squirrel


Golden Manteled Ground Squirrel 

Got wildlife?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

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RW in Colorado - Close Encounters of the Bear Kind



I happened to cross paths with a black bear quite by accident on a recent trip to Colorado. It was quite sudden and totally unexpected on my part as I had just left the trail head for one of the trails in Black Canyon. Apparently the bear noticed us first and had already started moving away from my area. He quickly moved into a brushy area and was gone from sight. I did manage to get a couple of quick pictures as the bear moved away.



Black bears aren't normally aggressive and will leave your area quickly unless they are provoked, feel cornered or are protecting young. Fortunately, this bear was probably intent on his next meal of berries and only gave me a cursory glance before moving quickly out of the area. The bear went into a brushy area and disappeared from sight.

It’s a well known fact that Colorado is bear country and you should always be aware of this fact. A safe distance from predators such as bears, wolves, and cougars is normally about 100 yards (think the length of a football field). Any closer and you may be putting yourself at risk of a serious situation. You can normally approach other wildlife to within about 25 yards without any real concern. Most animals usually won’t allow you to get even that close. The exception is snakes who can normally strike from a distance equal to their length.

There is an excellent brochure in PDF format available at Colorado.gov that contains a lot of useful tips to help take adequate precautions when in bear country.

Here is a link to the brochure:

Living with Bears.pdf

Got bears?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker



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Riverwalker's Pics - More High Places


More High Places

Got higher elevation?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

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Riverwalker's Pics - High Places


High Places 

Got elevation?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

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Riverwalker's Wildlife Pics - Doe Nursing Fawn


Doe Nursing Fawn

While on a recent outing, I took a picture of this mule deer nursing her young.

Got deer?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

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Wilderness Water


Wilderness Water

Many times when hiking trails you will come upon water sources in the wilderness. This could be a small pond, stream or simply a depression where water has collected. It is important to remember to avoid the problems that are inherent in any source of wilderness water before using it. Any water source should always be filtered and treated to remove any possible contaminants to avoid serious problems that could affect your health and ultimately your survival. 

Simple Survival Tip

Proper water treatment methods should always be used before consuming water from a wilderness source.

Got wilderness water?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

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Riverwalker's Pics - Black Water


Black Water



Got swamp?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

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Using Your Powers of Observation - Hidden Dangers on the Trail


Hidden Dangers on the Trail

While often nearly impossible to detect, keeping your eyes open will often reveal dangers before they become a serious threat. In the pic above there is a copperhead hidden underneath an old tree stump. The markings on a copperhead can make it very difficult to see and its head was hidden in the shadows. This is a potentially lethal encounter if you aren't using your powers of observation. They will sense you before you are even aware of their presence.


Close-Up View

Here is a close-up view of the copperhead coiled underneath the old tree stump. His head is barely visible in the shadows. This picture was taken pretty close to dark thirty and it was probably intent upon finding a meal. It also appeared to be a mature adult and was probably looking for smaller prey. It did seem slightly annoyed and disturbing it further probably would have been a very bad idea.

There are a lot of hidden dangers on the trail. If you aren't observant along the trail or during your hikes, you could have a seriously bad day.

Got powers of observation?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

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Riverwalker's Pics - Cicada



Ever wonder where a cicada is hiding? You might want to check the grass at your feet.

Got green bugs?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

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DIY Gear - Off Grid Power Tools


Off Grid Power Tools

Battery packs can be expensive and the chargers for them can also fail to recharge the battery packs sufficiently. Sometimes you have to use a direct solution to solve a problem. In this case, a small portable drill that operates on 12 volts was modified to work directly off a 12 volt source such as a car or tractor battery. Include a short extension cord and you are good to go.

Got off grid power tools?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

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How to float a tractor!


Floating Tractor


How do you float a tractor?

 Use lots of water!


Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

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DIY Solar Project - Portable Water Pump - Part Two - Assembly and Accessories



In Part One the basic planning for making a portable water pump was covered. The actual project assembly closely followed my initial plan and only a few changes were made from the original design plan.  Most of the changes in the original plan were made in order to enhance the functional operation of the portable water pump or to simplify its use.

Building a DIY Portable Water Pump - Assembly and Accessories

1. Portable Power Options - Using Solar Panels 

One of the best ways to keep any system portable is to have a convenient power source. While the choice to use battery power was inevitable, using solar panels to keep that battery power maintained would keep the system portable and there would be no need for a grid connection.

 Once a decision was made to use a couple of small solar panels to charge the portable water pump’s batteries, it became a simple task to install the panels. I didn’t want a system where you had to worry about hooking up a remote solar panel with wires running to it. A self-contained system was going to be easier to use and make things less complicated.

It turned out that two small 12 volt solar panels could be easily attached to the handle of the rolling tool box and still leave plenty of room to grip the handle. The handle was also able to be completely folded in the down position without any additional interference.




Another advantage of this set-up was that a tab stop on the handle allowed the mounted solar panels to be angled in a manner that increased the exposure of the solar panels to the sun. 




Installation of the small solar panels was a simple matter of drilling four holes in the handle and bolting the solar panels to the tool box handle.

2. Mounting the Water Pump




The water pump was then mounted to the bottom of the included toolbox storage tray. It would have been nice if the tray had offered a flatter surface on the top side. This would have made it easier to mount the pump to the tray. As a result, the pump was mounted to the underside of the tray which had a relatively flat mounting surface. I also didn’t want to leave the tray out as this would leave less storage options and also allow a set of pliers or a screwdriver to be kept handy.  




Keeping the pump mounted above the floor of the upper toolbox also allowed room for storage of the suction and discharge hoses. There is enough room for 30 feet of discharge hose and 10 feet of suction hose to be stored in the bottom of the toolbox. It was a simple task to flip the tray over in order to use the pump and deploy the suction and discharge hoses.







There were two minor problems encountered with the hoses. The first was a small weight needed to be added to the suction hose because the weight of the debris strainer  was insufficient to keep the end of the suction hose submerged. The other problem was kinking hoses caused by the pump design. This was solved by adding an elbow to the suction and discharge outlets of the pump.

Testing the pump found it to have a minimal current draw of slightly more than 2.5 amps and a surge draw of about 4 amps until the pump was primed. This is low enough that it shouldn’t place a significantly large burden on the batteries.

3. Installing the Batteries



The lower bin of the rolling toolbox offered space that could be utilized to hold a battery (or batteries) depending upon their size. Other versions of this toolbox offered a removable upper toolbox and a lower bin that was capable of holding a larger battery. The lower bin on this model of toolbox did not offer sufficient room to hold a larger deep-cycle battery (Group 24 or 27?). This also would have increased the weight factor significantly and ultimately affected its portability.




Four 6 volt / 13 amp hour AGM batteries were mounted in the bottom bin. They were wired in series and parallel and would supply ample power to the pump. A small piece of 2X4 lumber was used on each end of the bin to secure the batteries in place. The AGM batteries were also able to be mounted in any configuration since they are sealed units. The cost of batteries could have been cut in half by using only two to power the pump but I felt the additional reserve power offered by using four batteries was worth the additional cost.








There was also sufficient storage space left in the bin to hold a few additional items. These items included a grid charger, an external power supply hook-up and a bag of spare hose parts.

4. Installing the Solar Charge Controller



In order to avoid the possibility of cooking the batteries, a solar charge controller was mounted in the lower bin of the toolbox. The charge controller was mounted using Velcro patches to avoid having to work in a confined space and dealing with the real possibility of accidentally shorting the wrong wire, This made it easy  to detach the controller from the inside of the bin and pull the unit into the open to add or remove wiring as necessary.

5. Accessories







Four switches were installed on the lower sides of the toolbox to control various functions. These were a power switch that cut the main power to the charge controller and pump, a charge switch that disabled the charging function of the solar panels, a switch for an optional light was added in case it got dark before the water pumping chores were completed and a voltage switch was also included to indicate battery status without a continuous display from the voltage meter creating an additional strain on the batteries.

There could have been additional cost savings by using simple toggle switches which are considerably cheaper than the chrome plate switches actually used in the project.






The addition of a small work light added increased functionality should working conditions not have ideal lighting circumstances. This light was wired directly to the batteries and was operated with the simple flip of the switch. This allows any pumping chores to be completed even if you don’t finish before it gets dark.



An external 12 volt 120 watt plug was added to give the added option of using a larger external battery as a power source for extended operational capabilities of the pump. It can also be used to power other 12 volt accessories as needed. This was wired directly to the batteries and was protected with a 10 amp fuse.

It is important to note that it would perhaps have been better to mount the batteries in the top and the pump in the bottom. Unfortunately, this would have made the toolbox even more top-heavy that it was originally. The weight of even two small batteries would exceed the weight of the pump and make the toolbox even more unstable. Placing the batteries in the bottom section made the toolbox quite stable.

While this project cost approximately $200 to make and was completed with all new parts, it doesn’t need an extension cord to make it work. It can also go where and when it’s needed very easily. There are also areas where the costs can be decreased (batteries, switches or other accessories) and place this type of portable pump on a similar cost basis with a grid-dependent water pump.

There is one additional note about the portability of this unit. The total weight as assembled was slightly more than 25 pounds and this made it quite easy to lift over obstacles or be easily pulled over rough terrain on its wheels.

Got portable pumping power?

Staying above the water pumping line!


Riverwalker
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