His Hot Water Saves Money – See Mr. Grouchy Smile

My father lives in a little cabin on Junior’s (my niece – named after me), land. The cabin’s builders in what can only be described as a cranial-rectal infarction, put the 30 gallon hot water heater in the attic where it promptly burnt out after less than a years use. (more…)

Starbucks addresses water wastage following tabloid indictment

Following the revelation in British rag-mag The Sun that constantly running
dipper wells waste a humongous amount of water, a Starbucks spokesperson confirms, “Stores will be instructed to switch off the dipper well tap and will wash
spoons after use.” And the plot thickens: According to PRWeek.com, a senior-
level source at an unnamed PR agency claims, “We warned [Starbucks] several
years ago that their usage of water was not good for their environmental
credentials and could be a potential problem for them. They listened, but
they didn’t do anything about it.” Starbucks has tried to polish its green
image, saying that by 2010 it wants to source 50 percent of its energy from
renewables, use green-building practices in all new stores, and “reestablish” (more…)

Well, after a month of fighting the weather, the frame of the RV cover, and just
plain physical stamina, a conclusion has been reached.

At first, the selection of pvc was made due to the pricing, cheap! However, after
you go above 10 feet, it becomes pretty useless to handle a load, muchless wind.
There have been 20 – 60 mph winds here for the last 5 months and the frame is not
handling it well. Have tried every which way possible to brace the top to handle (more…)

Who knew? Good ol’ Linoleum has always been green. It’s been around
since an English guy, (Fredrick Walton) patented his linseed oil and
cork dust concoction in 1860.

Water resistant, durable, and inexpensive Linoleum was an excellent
material for kitchens and bathrooms.

It was widely used until the latter 1950′s when it fell out of favor
to hardwood, tile and especially polyvinyl chloride (pvc vinyl).

Vinyl has greater brightness, transparency, and is less flammable.
Maybe less flammable than Linoleum but, as it turns out, extremely
toxic.

As luck would have it, linoleum (little L) became the generic term
for all resilient floor covering, including vinyl.

Thus, Linoleum has been wrongly accused (at least by me), of not
being environmentally friendly.

So, it was, is, and always will be – green!

And making a BIG comeback!

Back to the RV cover and the comparison between the PVC and lumber.

lumber pvc
2x4x10 treated = $4.49 1 1/2″x 3″ sch. 40 (thick wall)= $4.29
4x4x10 treated = $9.97 3″ x 4″ sch. 40 (thick wall)= $9.21

The pvc primer and glue total less than $13.00.

You can do the same comparison between the lumber hardware and the pvc connectors.

The horizonal cross section pipes are running in a higher, then lower
order due to the price difference between 3″ 4-way connectors (>= $10.50),
and 3″ T’s 3-way connectors ($3.47). 2 almost 3 of the T’s for the price
of one 4-way.

All the prices are from Lowes.

VALUABLE TIP: Lowes will match PLUS take 10% off if you find a lower price at any other store. So, call around, believe me, we got our material lower (sometimes substantially) than the prices listed above.

Ok kids, that’s all the news that is the news for now. More as we progress.

C U L8R

New project

The free sunshine that we are given everyday causes
us a wee bit of a problem. It causes the rv to heat
up very quickly…and stay that way from mid April thru
September. The poor little rv air conditioner starts
panting and foaming at the mouth around the 1st of June.

So, we have decided the rv needs a cover. What to use?
chop down some trees or do something unique. We chose
unique. Even tho we live in a rural area, on a dirt road, deep in
east Texas, we do NOT like the rustic look!

We decided on a curved top with round pvc pipes. Instead of the
typical ‘A’ frame top with the typical 4×4 square post. The top
will be 26 gauge steel 3′ x 17′ with a natural curve that works
to our advantage. Total overall length will be 40′.

Have you ever heard of a RV cover using pvc pipe for poles and
making trusses out of pvc? Well, apparently NOBODY else has either.
Because when we were first mulling over this idea, we approached
construction / carpenter types about this concept. Once the
convulsive laughter dies down and the “have you lost your
cotton-pickin’ minds?”, “can’t wait to see a 40 ft. kite!”,
or “it’s all gonna fall down and kill ya’ll!” comments
started flying, we shut up.

But, decided to do it anyway.

Having no guidelines to go by, the initial plans we drew have
changed during the build. For instance, with a pole height of 16 ft we
originally called for 8ft. of 3″ into 8 ft of 1 1\2″ pvc (thick wall).
But for the past 3 weeks we have had sustained winds of 20 – 25+ mph.
All that free energy, gone with the wind – pardon the pun.
So now, the vertical poles are 13′ of 3″ into 3′ of 1 1/2″ pvc.

We are painting the pipes for uv protection and the appeal. It’s
advisable to get some pvc cleaner to remove the lettering on the
pipes as it does tend to bleed through.

We researched long and hard for the cheapest and best paint for pvc.
All that research resulted in only one, Krylon Fusion. It’s not cheap,
and it only comes in spray cans but, it’s good.

Let’s end it here for today so I can gather some of my comparison data
between pvc and wood for yall.

Later

Our decision to go underground with the electrical was two fold:

1 – safety – nestled underground, no dangling wires for tree limbs, the wind, storms,
or nitwits to knock down. Just need to record the location, (nitwits are uncanny!)

2 – the view – one more time, – the view. All those who can’t wait for the day
that every stinking over-head wire goes underground, please raise your hands.

Going underground is by no means cheap. The power company will gladly do it for you, but,
get ready to give up your first born and a higher education for the rest.

Since we don’t have kids, this is the way we got around the expense:

We bought a “temp” pole for around $175. It comes with the weather head, meter box, and a large
circuit breaker box with double 100 amp main breakers, all installed. These are used for
mobile homes and new home construction sites (hense the name “temp” poles). We set the pole
in the NE corner of our property near the power pole with our transformer. So from main box
to RV breaker box is nearly a 100 foot run.

We dug a trench 2 feet deep to lay the electrical line. Paid $300 for 100 feet of 6 gauge
copper and that was cheap as they were out of 8 gauge. Threaded it through 1 inch pvc.
This was a rushed process, afraid to take a bathroom break, or God forbid, let dark catch
you half done. Because as sure as the sun will rise, that whole run would be unzipped and
nothing left but air in the trench. I can just imagine the little jerk, waiting in front of
the metal recycling place, sitting on my copper wire, sipping a hot cup of coffee, grinning!
Copper is so high now I swear they can smell it.

The whole time we were laying this expensive copper to hook up to an expensive power grid
the free wind was blowing the hats off of our heads and the free sunshine was still making
us squint through our sunglasses. We vowed to ourselves that if we ever get to the point
of getting the everyday necessities accomplished that we were going to build that wind-turbine.
That non-polluting energy generator and if we can ever find cheap solar panels, no roof on
this acre will be safe!

We vowed to get off of the grid or the grid will be paying us. Put that in your coal
burning power plants and smoke it.