Skills of a Lifetime

I've recently completed a number of odd jobs that left me thinking about what I have to give to people that want to become more self-sufficient. I have a hard time separating myself from my knowledge base in order to view the skill sets I've accumulated over a lifetime. I do this when I teach bot formally and informally, but don't think about it until I realize that I REALLY do have a set of unique skills. During the installation of the off-grid system for my friend Bruce K. last week I had the chance to work near a friend of his who was doing the wiring for the ac side of the house- the regular outlets and lights. He came onto the site when I was about 15 hours into the wiring of the renewable stuff. He took one look and said something like "I couldn't do that". Here is a guy that has wired hundreds of homes and industries looking at my work and realizing that the work of my 50+ off-grid installations was beyond what he could understand at that time.

I'm finishing up some minor repairs at the local Yoga center in Adams Center. They'd had an outside hose bib freeze and start to leak and the need for an additional 5 outlets in their upstairs
apartment. No biggie for me- I've done hundreds, maybe thousands of this kind of job...the board at the yoga center thinks this is amazing stuff. Which brings me to the topic at hand:
"Small Change"

This was a title for the fair that I'd suggested to Patricia Green, who is chairing the North Country Sustainable Living Fair to be held in Canton, NY this Fall. It is more of how I'd like the 'mood' of the fair to be set. All of the stuff I've learned was simple...it is only the build up over time that makes the total processes complex. You start by replacing a bad switch or outlet. Then you run an additional outlet for a room that has too few. Each activity is seemingly simple. You ask questions...even more importantly you observe how the people before you did the job...after a while you get a 'feel' for what was good work and what was sloppy. Even later you develop a sense of humor about some of the 'more interesting' approaches - jobs like plumbing systems that have been modified with every material known to have ever allowed the passage of water-iron pipe, galvanized pipe, copper pipe, plastic pipe and more have all been found in one home at the same time! I've seen the hot water supply pipe connected to the cold water supply pipe in places (the owner couldn't get his shower hot enough while his toilet tank water was steaming!).

The process isn't so much gaining knowledge but of psychological change. You have to want to do the work. If the desire is there the learning will usually follow easily. Small Change is just what we need...on the personal level and on the world level. Humans don't take to big rapid changes easily, small, incremental changes are what brought us comfort level with the personal computer, i-pods, cell phones, central heating, air conditioning and a hundred thousand other things we take for granted every day. However, many of these things are beyond our ability to control...if they break down we are powerless to repair them. This is my worry- we've built a society so complex that if a series of small catastrophes happen in a particular order then we're
stricken by a world wide disaster...one that may take years to repair or rebuild. And we don't have a fall back position...we can't simply learn what our ancestors knew about growing food, keeping warm, and building stuff for ourselves.

So now is the time to start to accumulate the small changes you will need to weather the big changes ahead. I'm here for you! I will be offering a series of Woodhenge Seminars over the next year to help people get comfortable with the basics of the mechanical and social worlds around them.

A few topics:

Bug out bags: How to prepare to leave before the government picks you up and drops you in a FEMA camp. How to put together a backpack that has the necessities for 4 or more days.
This will also be a primmer on long distance backpacking so it won't all be gloom and doom.
I'm going to try to rope my friend Roy H. an Applachian Trail through hiker to help me with this one. My 6 bug out bags (for family and friends) will be discussed and demonstrated. Roy will go over the higher tech version of lightweight backpacking equipment.

Basics of regular wiring and off-grid wiring
How to repair and add circuits to your home and how off-grid power works.

Basics of growing and preserving food
How to put a garden space together and what to do with the surplus.

Basics of making your own bread
From grinding the flour to eating the breads, crackers, and rolls!

Basics of wood heat
From safe chainsaw use, wood splitter, manual saws and splitters to stacking and burning. How to safely set up a wood burning unit and what to do with the ashes.

Build your own wind turbine
Axial flux designs and others will be discussed and built.

I will also take and of your suggestions. E-mail me at jsjuczak@gisco.net with your ideas and suggest dates!

The new Solar/Wind system installation

I traveled last week. The first stop was to install a complete new off-grid system for my friend Bruce K. I arrived Monday at noon and was done by Wednesday at 4:00ish. Bruce didn't spare expenses on equipment- He went with his dealer's recommendations. It was really nice working with quality equipment and materials. We installed his main AC circuit panel, his e-panel, wired his PV panels, an Outback 60 amp solar charge controller, his battery bank, lightning arrestors, battery monitoring system, remote control system, his Magnum 4000watt 240volt inverter, the connections for his generator and got the control panel for his Bergey XL-1 wind turbine placed and preliminarily wired.

The moments of truth happened in several stages. I made Bruce make the last battery connections and then flip the main DC circuit breaker. Then he turned on his solar array...it was cloudy and he was still making .5 amps at 28 volts...not much, but it showed us the system was functioning. After I left he tested the generator/charging circuits and all functioned flawlessly.

Most of the equipment came with pretty good factory default settings. All we had to do was to set up the system parameters...battery type, voltage, etc. All of this was pretty easy from the LCD screen prompts.

His friend Bob came by and did some of the AC house wiring. I think he was impressed with the complexity of the wiring in the e-panel...I found it a bit crowded by the end of the project. I generally prefer to wire the DC stuff separately from the AC stuff and like more shut off switches. But this system was professionally designed...I guess I'm more of a "belt and suspender' designer with probably too much redundancy....

I also visited my friend Roy H. In Fairhaven, VT. We went for a hike around and across a nearby lake and had some great conversations.

From there I went to visit Hans K. in Indian Lake. I knocked on his door and had no answer so I did the survey of his landscape and determined that I will be pouring mostly above ground concrete pads for his PV arrays and his ETC water heating system. The property is located on the top of a low mountain and has the typical rock exposures of Adirondack mountain tops.
I will be fabricating the 10'-6" poles for the PV racks. It turns out that he was home and just didn't hear the knock! We've had that happen here too.

I came home and worked on a spiral staircase I'm building for a friend and did the estimates for a plumbing and electrical job at the local yoga center. Not getting the job at JCC doesn't mean that I'm any less busy...It is kind of nice to have so many differing tasks at hand.

I also have the panels for the workshops at FFA Camp Oswegatchie designed and the materials selected. I found a place that will sell me the 3" x 6" Evergreen photovoltaic cells for $1 each.
We'll be building six panels of around 65watts each in each workshop. The pv cells come pretabbed, so the work should go smoothly. I will be cutting the wood and other parts in my old shop with Anthony Cronk so the kids will have to sand, paint, assemble, caulk, solder and wire
the panels over the 3-day session. We will probably be offering this workshop to the general public here at Woodhenge. Drop me an e-mail if you are interested and if you just want to learn how to make the panels or if you want to make some for yourself to take home. It will change the focus and price of the workshop. The PV cells produce more than a watt of power apiece! This means that you will be building panels that will cost under $2 a watt and know how to build more! If you are a good scrounger they could conceivably cost under $1 watt!

You can reach me for questions at jsjuczak@gisco.net.

I'm going on a whilrwind tour ...

I will not be posting for a week or so. I will be going on a tour of eastern NY and Vermont. I will be stopping at my client/friend's home in Indian Lake, NY to do some measuring for his "Operation Independence" project. Hans wants to have almost 10 kW of photovoltaics, a 64 tube ETC (evacuated tube collector) system for domestic hot water and home heating, a 12 hp listeroid powered generator and more done by the end of this project. My job with him is to teach him how to do the work that will save him the most money and get the best value for his efforts. We will do things like dig and pour the bases for the pv racking system, building the ETC system from scratch, getting the listeroid and generator head from Canada and building the frame and controls for them.

There is room enough for people interested in lending a hand to get in on this process...we will be setting up the calendar for the various component builds. Please e-mail me if you are interested in learning and helping- jsjuczak@gisco.net.

From there I will be going to Morrisonville, NY to help my friend Bruce connect up all of the parts to his wind and sun powered energy system. We'll be doing the detailed wiring and placement of components for a photovoltaic and wind system. His batteries arrived yesterday and he found out that the battery box he'd built was not the right size.

From there I will be visiting my friend Roy H. in Vermont. We hope to take a trip to Williston, VT to visit the Earth Turbines factory.

Then I go home. Friday is our 32nd anniversary of meeting- I hope to get home in time to take my wife and kid out to dinner...whirlwind!

I'm also starting to set up the "Woodhenge Workshop" calendar. Many of you readers have met me at various events and listened to me lecture or watch me demonstrate...tell me what you'd
like to learn and I will see if I can accommodate your needs.

Do It Yourself PV Panels and more

We just got back from a weekend deep in the woods of the western edge of the Adirondacks. For around 15 years I have been the camp cook for the FFA group that goes to FFA Camp Oswegatchie. The camp is very well run and maintained and we stay in a warm, huge cabin with dorms for both genders. The kitchen is large and up to date with things like a convection oven and new commercial dishwasher. The camp is located on a small lake and has something like 1200 acres to wander around on...athletic fields, dining halls cabins, luxurious bath house and much more. It is available for non-FFA use. The kids can choose from a variety of indoor (board games, reading, movies and interactive video games) and outdoor activities (ice skating, sledding, cross country skiing, nature hikes, etc.) We do semi-home-made food for them. I don't go whole grain nuts (yet), but try to hit a compromise with things like a mexican lunch buffet and home made lasagna.

The camp will be hosting two "build photovoltaic panels from scratch" workshops in March and April of this year. Right now it is limited to the school groups that have already signed up for them. If there is an interest additional workshops will be scheduled either there or here at Woodhenge. Our goal is to build several PV panels by soldering pre-tabbed pv cells into a configuration that will result in enough panels to power up several of the small cabins they have there. The cells will be encased in a home made frame and covered with class. The design I have in mind should make these units last as long as any commercially available units. The units will be about 2/3 cheaper than commercially available ones. We'll probably try to set a 'standard' of 100 watts, or so per unit to keep the panel size and weight manageable. I did a project like this years ago and the kids are more than able to handle the work involved. Scrounging will keep the prices low!

On Sunday we went to an "Ark" meeting directly from the FFA Camp. It was held at St. Lawrence Nurseries near Potsdam, NY. The Ark group is a spin off from a peak oil study and action group- and has a growing memebership- there were at least 40 people at this meeting.
Our topics of discussion and tours included:
*The upcoming Sustainability Fair to be held near Canton, NY this Fall
*How to use and maintain a 'family cow'
*A very detailed guided tour of the McKentley's renewable energy systems: Wind, photovoltaic,
hot water, wood gassification and more!
*Discussions and samples of home made cheeses with Camembert and Cheddar featured
*Tree pruning and grafting were discussed & demonstrated
*The amount of home made foods and great company with it's associated side conversations was and is the thing that makes this group so much fun to be a part of.

If you are interested in taking a photovoltaic panel building workshop or finding out more about the Ark group and it's meetings please contact me at jsjuczak@gisco.net

Pumping news:
The three Stainless steel and Brass pump kits have been spoken for. I have 4 of the stainless steel and PVC kits left. Production time is around 10 days so get your orders in if you are interested.

Bug out bags and the camping mind-set

As I've stated before I'm a bit paranoid...I worry about things like economic collapse, natural disasters, EMP attacks ( an electromagnetic pulse attack involves the setting off of a nuclear bomb or bombs several hundred miles up above the earth...no extreme amounts of radiation, but the radio waves generated by this kind of device destroys all exposed microelectronic circuitry...nothing from a computer to a car to a municipal power/water system will be functioning in the areas affected....there's not a lot of protected back-ups out there), and natural/man-made pathogens.

What to do? We are attempting to build up the systems here at Woodhenge to become as self-reliant as possible AND to teach these skills to any and all interested. My wife calls this the "camping mind-set" - one of the reasons we got together 31 years ago was that we both liked camping in tents...the mind-set of making your home in the woods and carrying in what you need necessitates for a week, or so and then dealing with the situation of compensating for what you forgot makes you flexible in a way no other event can.

I'm almost finished with 6 "Bug Out Bags". This takes the self-preparedness away from our homes...these are surplus Swedish military back packs from Sportsman's guide or Major Surplus that were on sale for $8 or something ridiculously low like that. I've filled each of these packs with a general 72+ hour's worth of supplies for a 'generic' person. I need only a few more items to complete each kit. Shelter tarp, sleeping bag, flashlight, fire starting stuff, mylar blanket, wool hat, personal hygiene kits, and lots more. I thought about what would be necessary in a Katrina-like situation in our neighborhood or the devistating brush/forest fires that happen on the west coast where you and your family is only given a few minutes to 'get out of Dodge'. Images of (stupid) people fleeing in pajamas - what? they couldn't listen to the news or smell the smoke? - scare me. Becoming a refugee is about the worst situation I can think of being caught in. Most of the commercial kits sold for 'emergencies' are 24 or 48 hour types and do not have much more than food and flashlights.

I wanted to be able to set up a campsite and last for a while. The food portion I'm working on right now. It is a combination of off-the-shelf products and some freeze dried stuff. I'm vacuum bagging things like instant oatmeal in individual packets, dried fruit, instant coffee, minute rice, and instant packaged soup mixes...not the best stuff in regards to organic and chemical free, but quick, easy and packed with calories. I have a Swedish military stove, in each pack, that runs off of dry gas available in any auto store or hardware store...cooking pretty much involves heating water and dumping it over the dried goods.

When the six kits are finished I will publish pictures and lists of what I have included. As a side thought this isn't an expensive kit...the backpacks are just one of the things I picked up from the surplus market...I don't think I'll have much more than $100 in any one completed bug out bag.

Again, if you have questions, critiques or more insight feel free to contact me at: jsjuczak@gisco.net Have a safe day! -Jim-

I tried to post an article I wrote...

The Psychology of Energy Change is an article I've written about the fact that the current 'energy crisis' is more based upon mindset than any real lack of energy (re)sources. I tried to reproduce the article and found that the blogsite rejected it and instead produced a pile of computer gibberish.
I will have to find soneone that can tell me what I've done wrong. The basic facts of the article are as folows:
1) we are creatures of habit- we've gotten used to using older technologies and are not embracing change as the most solid means of transiting energy problems.
2) basic transportation (ie.:cars with internal combustion engines), lighting (anything that uses a resistive element i.e.: incandescent light bulbs & their near relatives) and housing (wood framed walls that have minimally standardized insulation standards rather than being designed to lose virtually no energy in either direction) are what we're used to...imagine still having fountain pens as a standard writing instrument...these technologies are all from the same era!)
3) an LED (light emitting diode) light bulbs use 1/30 of the energy that a comparable incandescent light bulb utilizes...thirty light bulbs for the energy cost of one....CFL's (compact florescent lightbulbs) were a good idea and they are currently being touted as the 'solution' by being 4x more efficient than the incandescent equivalent. They are being marketed aggressively because the companies have the manufacturing infrastructure to pay for before they switch to making LED bulbs. Despite that the prices for both CFL's and LED's are coming down. Competition in the Chinese markets? You can find CFL's for a dollar and Led's for $5 and if you look around for even less.
4) Think of a dripping faucet and the efforts you will go through to stop the annoying noise and waste of water...if you put the same effort into stopping the silent losses of electricity from inefficient devices and phantom loads (your TV is on right now, but the tube is off for example),
overbuilt internal combustion engines (8 Cylinders! when 2 or three would do!) or heating/cooling the great outdoors with house insulation as efficient as a t-shirt in the winter.
5) We cut our electrical consumption by 3/4 without sacrificing any level of comfort by just changing stuff we were replacing anyway AND changing our habits.

More to follow....contact me at jsjuczak@gisco.net for questions and other stuff.