Pool Chores

The chores that I do during the pool open season extend beyond managing Dude, our 'bot. We maintain this blue "solar blanket" in the pool during the week, which passively transfers heat to the water but also retains some of it over night. It also helps keep out some of the leaf litter - but not all of it.

That's the first step on Saturdays, to take this thing off of the pool, working carefully not to dump any extra dirt in while you are doing it.

I should mention that there are other solar methods to heating the pool, but all of them are passive, and may not be effective for our application because of the trees and partial shade. Not to mention how much space they take up - the pool area isn't very large in the first place.

The next step for me is clean these filter baskets in the returns.
This step actually takes place after the robot is already at work. I wear rubber gloves for this, as shown - there is usually a host of dead bugs in the basket, sometimes live ones. I recently wrote about rescuing a toad, and I have seen ring-necked snakes around the pool. So the gloves are a little precaution in case I run into something very much alive and angry.

Just a note about the baskets. I learned early on to hold on to them carefully when emptying them. The slope of the hill is not clear in this picture - it's pretty steep, and a dropped basket will run all the way down to the road.

There are a couple of other elements of the chores that I haven't mentioned - mostly dealing with another filter nearer the pump, and the flushing process for after we've had a lot of rain. All totaled, the activities take about an hour. I usually take care of them while Mary heads off to the Luray Farmers' Market.

Confessions of a tech-watch geek

Out in Page County we have a great benefit with the Appalachian Trail running along the ridge of Shenandoah National Park. It is a great thing to find that here and there in all the day hikes available in the SNP, many of them involve short stretches of the AT. And as one hikes some of the trails, or takes a break at the Tap Room in Skyland, you might run into a through hiker, who’ll share some of their experiences from the trail.

Last week, I picked up a copy of Outdoor magazine to read on the LA-DC flight. The magazine contained an ad for the new Casio Pathfinder watches…I have to admit I am a watch-geek when it comes to these products.

I still have a Casio I bought in Santa Barbara in 1998; it had a little phone number data base (mobile phones weren’t so prevalent yet back then, and their use as an address book wasn’t nearly as mature as it is these days). When I page through my phone numbers there, I find a list of clients I was working with at the time – IRS real estate people, FAA real estate people, and Army real estate people. Fun to remember those projects - I wonder if they still have these phone numbers.

I also have G-Shock watch that I bought after a 2006 trip to LA, I’d always wanted one of those clunky things and the one I chose has an analog and digital display of the time, so I can keep track of the home and local time zones during travel. I don't mind saying that I enjoy the perception of tech-cred this watch advertises.

These new Pathfinder watches bring watch-geekdom to a new level. They’ve added atomic time keeping and solar power to the features…but even better, for outdoor activities, there is an altimeter, a barometer, compass and tidal/moon phase graph available.

I know that my reaction is going to be very consumerist and American here, but I have got to get me one of these. I can see Mary's frown in my mind. But she just doesn't understand that with one of these watches, I can be confident we will never be lost on one of our two - to - four hour day hikes in the SNP. And I can know when to look forward to the new moon so we can stargaze from the brick terrace at the cabin. Etc., etc...sad, eh?

Here’s the ad copy from one of the Casio pages: “Pathfinder watches not only feature authentic outdoor styling, but have distinguished themselves as “genuine tools” for use in the Great Outdoors. Every model is equipped with sensors to help you observe Nature and monitor its changes."

A second area on this page that caught my interest was a “journal “ from an AT through hiker who supposedly used on of the watches on his hike. Thirteen stops are chronologized on this journal:

· Springer Mountain, GA
· Brown Fork Gap, NC
· Icewater Spring Shelter, NC
· James River, VA
· Rusty’s Hard Time Hollow, VA
· Boiling Springs, PA
· Dan’s Pulpit, PA
· Wiley Shelter, NY
· William B. Douglas Shelter, VT
· Tucker Johnson Shelter, VT
· Gatehead Hut, NH
· Moxie Bald, ME
· Kathadin, ME

It’s not unusual to run into through hikers in the Valley during the hiking season, in fact the Page News and Courier had a two page spread on a couple doing the hike recently. While the webpage here is an ad, the posts reminded me of the hardships of this hike…I still have to come to terms with how I am going to tackle it someday. http://pathfinder.casio.com/ .

Heating System Update

We've settled on our heating solution - it will be propane-based for now, with baseboard heating back-ups. Installation will begin on Monday the 5th, while I am in Los Angeles.

The old tank will be hauled away, and no refund is available for the propane currently in there...

A new tank, lateral style, will be installed behind the house. An underground gas line in conduit will be installed to the house, and a propane heater will go in the master bedroom where the current electric blower is. We will also install a new thermostat controlled fireplace with a blower in the living room. Finally, we are keeping the baseboard heating in the bathrooms.

Because we added R30 insulation in the main part of the cabin, we expect that propane will be the most economical system. We plan to keep the thermostats at around 50 degrees when we are not there. In the future, we are looking at a couple of solar heaters, specifically the solar sheet system that is at http://www.yoursolarhome.com/solarsheat1500G.html and some installation examples at http://www.yoursolarhome.com/thecompanyprojects.html# .

Several of the electric blowers have already been removed. The pellet stove has been deinstalled as well, we may be able to sell it locally. Also, the old propane heater from the dining room area was deinstalled; at first we thought we could sell it to someone who wanted to heat a barn or workshop, but it seems to be in bad shape - destined for the landfill.

More to come.

Field Trip - Solar Decathlon

We visited the solar decathlon last Sunday and it was very informative. Like most anyone with a similar property these days, we think there is an opportunity to adopt some sustainable energy technology, or renewable materials into the Hawksbill Cabin.

The low-hanging fruit for the cabin include solar – electricity as well as heating, reuse of rain water run-off, and of course sustainable materials for finishes and insulation.

Here are four houses that were on display at the decathlon – there is a URL in the previous post. The photos highlight the German entry (we didn’t check it out – it won first place, but I took the photo for the DC Mall context), the University of Maryland entry

(2nd place winner!), the entry from Santa Clara and the entry from Spain.

These four highlight some of the design constraints – e.g., a 900 sf footprint, and something that could easily be transported from where ever to the competition on the Mall. This is an event that is definitely worth a visit.

Thinking Ahead about Sustainable Energy

Fresh on the heels of my heating systems reconciliation post, I want to go back for a moment and talk about our plans downstream to incorporate sustainable energy into our overall plans for the cabin.

While the goal is more about efficiency and economics in the first phase of our work on the cabin, downstream we'd like to find ways to use some of the emerging technologies out there to power the place, or provide hot water.

A future post will share some photos from the Solar Decathlon we visited this weekend on the Mall in DC, the url is http://www.solardecathlon.org/ - it runs through Saturday 10/20 for readers who would still like to visit.

Additional resources:
http://www.blueegg.com/
http://www.yoursolarhome.com/
http://www.eere.energy.gov/

The two most likely apps for us are going to be passive heating that will impact how much propane we'll need to use during the winter (we are lucky to have a great southern orientation on the place!) and solar water heating for the pool.

More to come.