June 29, 2008  Homeland Security and Ant Attacks
 
It's summer and I should be spending all my time outside and working on necessary projects around the house. And I have made some breakthroughs in that arena. For example, I temporarily nuked the largest ant hill in the northwoods....which happened to be just off my driveway toward the main road.
 
That ant hill has withstood every kind of pesticide I've been able to find. It's spread from a 3 foot circle back in the 70's to a 7 by 12 ft moving organism. I had a garage sale a couple of years ago but I neglected to cordon off the ant hill and several people sank in up to their ankles, only to have their feet covered with ants.... Fortunately, this hill is occupied by black ants. They're precocious little critters and will crawl onto every surface and crevasse of your body, but they seldom bite. Red-and-black ants are also common up here, and a few nests are in the front yard. This variety consists of movers and shakers; spray a nest, they leave only to create a new nest a few feet away. They bite. However, there's nothing like the fire ants in Texas. They attack, and their bites are particularly painful. And they don't stop biting.
 
So I drove into town to my local ACE hardware, headed for the pesticide aisle, and perused the options available to devastate those pesky black ants. Most of the products I've used unsuccessfully in the past, or, appeared kinda wimpy. Then I ran across the nuclear ant devastator. It came in a powder form in a big canister, and cost twice as much as any other product. The instructions said that you should use rubber gloves and a respirator when applying. The directions also said it was lethal to fish and, if it came into contact with human skin, hose down and call the paramedics post haste, providing you still have control over your extremities.
 
Homeland Security has always puzzled me. Since it was enacted, you can't buy "Strike Anywhere" matches, evidently because of the well-known tennis ball bomb formula. I no longer play tennis and I doubt if I'd choose a tennis ball bomb to do an opponent mischief. Yet, anybody can walk into any local hardware and buy lethal poisons.
 
Anyway,I drove home, jumped out of GeoTruk, canister in hand and shook the miracle white powder sans gloves or respirator. While I watched the ants die, it occurred to me how silly some of the Homeland Security programs have been developed. GW Bush has enacted ludicrous policies that have Big Brother listening in on your phone calls and monitoring your email, and doesn't care about killing fish, animals or significant portions of the population with a locally available pesticides.
 
I checked yesterday, and some black ants are moving back in to their old home. Maybe they were off visiting their aunts and missed the initial onslaught. Meanwhile, I have developed a strange, tingling feeling in my right hand....the hand I used to shake the powder. I'm heading back into town to buy another canister, hoping that I'll still be able to reach into my pocket for my wallet...I may need the help of the cashier to remove my ACE credit card. I guess I'm stuck in the mindset of GW in waging a ground war against these ants. I have gunpowder and should be able to wage more scientific warfare against these beasts, but I've been kinda saving that for my moron neighbor.
 
Until later.....DKHT

June 16, 2008  The High Cost of Living...and Alternative Energy
 
Gasolene prices hit $4.17/gal locally in only 4 days since the last increase to $4.07, with diesel topping $5.00. And diesel is what fuels the trucks that bring the goods to our northern communities. I've noticed a 15% increase in grocery prices over last year, and it's bound to creep up a few points in the near future. I'm going to need my 1000 gallon LP tank filled soon, and I dread to discover what it will cost. The last fill was over $1200.00 for 600 gallons, and I'll be needing 700 gallons on the next fill. Years back I could call the LP suppliers and get a per gallon quote which enable me to shop for the lowest price, but even the LP prices are fluctuating so often that the dealers no longer offer quotes. They set the meters on the delivery trucks each morning and that's what you pay. My $600.00 Tax Incentive check is a pittance compared with basic heating and food cost increases. Thanks, GW Bush, for being the idiot that heavily damaged our economy.
 
A friend stopped by a few days back and our discussion turned to economics. My friend has several medical problems and lives off of various social services that care for his surgeries, provide him with food and underwrite his heating and electric payments. He hasn't worked in 12 years and lives in a house that is part of his father's estate and presently for sale. He will get a portion of the estate and wants to build his own cabin...by himself. He hasn't worked in all these years, but he's also hired a layer to help him claim Social Security disability benefits based on being incapacitated due to a brain tumor that was removed, paid for by another Wisconsin social services program. He considers himself Republican, thinking that he has benefited from all these freebies because the Republicans are in office. He blames the fuel prices on Iraq, Israel and Iran and doesn't like Obama because he's black (He also quit a school bus driving job because of the Native American kids that were on his route). But, I still call him a friend because our families were close, and his thoughts deserve my respect regardless of how I personally oppose them.
 
My friend stated that we (as a country) must develop conservative fuel use and alternative energy resources...basically parroting what he's heard on the news (another Republican trait). I asked him if he'd sell his pickup and car ($6000 max) and buy a new hybrid at $20k. He told me he couldn't afford to buy a hybrid and he needed the pickup to haul materials to build his new cabin. So I asked what he was doing now to conserve and seek alternative energy... his present house has a fireplace and, although it's inadequate to heat more than two rooms on only one floor of the cabin, I asked if he was ready to cut and split ten cord of wood to reduce his LP use....he said that the LP was paid for by social services and therefore free, and he did have a bad back after all.... I realized my point regarding all these programs of conservation and alternative energy did not come with an immediate switch that made things better overnite.
 
HOWEVER, I really have been looking into energy conservation and alternative energy for years. These thoughts were renewed when I bought the Texas property, and experienced several years of North Texas winds and weather. The first item on the menu was heat pump technology. Excess heat is drawn from the house via a heat exchanger, The liquid in the secondary part of the heat exchanger absorbs the heat and pumps the liquid into a closed loop deep in the ground. The liquid dissipates it's heat which results in a cooler liquid returning to the house that supplements the air conditioning. The costs are a manageable electric cost to run the pump. This is a frequently used technology used in new home construction in this region.
 
Next, I figured that the strong North Texas winds might have some potential. Indeed, after a bit of research online, I discovered that this area had a reliable wind profile that a wind turbine could produce a decent electrical output that could power most needs for an average home. As an electrical engineer I certainly appreciate the advances in this technology. The towers and turbines resemble smaller versions of those seen in the huge windmill farms, The system further is configured with control systems that can store excess electrical energy to battery storage and even return excess energy to the local power grid for credit. A system is a bit pricey with respect to a rate of return on the investment, but some locations provide tax credits and future fossil fuel price escalation will make windpower far more affordable.
 
When I sold myself on the windpower technology, including battery storage, my thoughts went to solar energy. Texas has more than it's share of heavy-duty sunshine, and solar panels on the roof of a house, or better yet, a large garage roof. Such a solar grid could supplement the battery storage of the windpower system. Anything produced in excess can be returned to the local power company for credit toward energy in less productive months.
 
The last in my "Green" wishlist is biodiesel. However, the more I look into this the more confused I am. The biodiesel generated from used cooking oil has been shown and touted on tv programs for years. While cheap as a fuel, it appears that modern diesel engines wear out far more quickly running purely on this fuel. There are also problems with fuel made directly from processed plants where the oil is extracted (soybeans, corn, etc.), so mixtures of petroleum diesel and bio diesel are used. Willie Nelson's fuel stations sell B10 and B20 (10% and 20% bio content respectively). Back in WWII vehicles in fuel starved areas developed recovery systems that allowed engines to run on a process of recovering gases from burning wood!
 
On other fronts:
 
There are two pair of Canada Geese who've taken up residence on our lake. One pair has a good sized youngster, and the other pair is raising smaller triplets. This is the first time in my 38 years here that geese have chosen this lake to nest. The mallards have learned to steer clear of their larger relatives during feeding times.
 

 
Until later.....DKHT

June 6, 2008  A Weird, Windy Day
 
Last night I fell asleep to the sounds of expected driving rains and wind gusts. I enjoy these overnight storms... It's strange but they're comforting in their own way.
 
I think that storms at night remind me of camping and canoeing trips of days long ago, when nighttime storms would be waited out in the comfort of a well-pitched tent or tarp and a comfortable sleeping bag. Hours spent lying on my back watching the lightning create nature's light show, complete with sound effects. When the following dawn arrived, the air was washed and scrubbed extra clean and fresh, and I couldn't wait to fix and finish breakfast and be on my way to explore new territories.
 
Even when I was quite young I was infatuated with storms, although somewhat frightened by some of them. The most memorable of my early youth, when I was about five or six, and I was sent to my great-grandma Newbold's to be baby sat. My Grandfather and my dad were both on the local volunteer fire department and either worked at or otherwise attended fund-raising dances and activities for the department. Mom and grandma Esther went along. On those occasions I had my overnight bag packed and I was summarily shipped off to my great-grandma's to spend the night.
 
Grandma Newbold's place was just a few houses toward town from my grandparent's house, but 50 years back in time. My great grandfather, Harry Newbold, had passed away about the time I was born. He and his brothers had the local livery stable and later the first automobile sales, service and rental in town. The house that Harry and Anna built was a stately and prominent two story structure on Spring Street.
 
On the street side, this house had a formal front room with all the trappings, trinkets, and memorabilia that were important to the family; The Newbolds originally emigrated from an area near Sheffield and Chesterfield in England, and family albums and treasures were on display. I was not allowed in that room. My father, as a youngster, was not allowed in that room. Similarly,I was not allowed in the formal dining room, although I don't recall that it was ever used in my lifetime. A grand staircase separated these two rooms and was aligned with the huge double front doors. I'm sure these rooms were used in a happier time, but my excursions were relegated to the back entry, the kitchen, the narrow back stairway to the second floor, one bedroom, and the bathrooms.
 
I was able to get to the second floor by way of a narrow stairwell off one corner of the kitchen. There were three bedrooms on the second floor and one locked room I never learned the purpose of. Two of the remaining rooms were memorials, in a way. One was great grandpa Harry's room, left exactly as the day he passed away. Another Newbold brother's bedroom was similarly memorialized. The last bedroom was grandma Anna's where I shared a huge feather bed. I vividly recall a windy night, the street light which hung from a wire, rocked wildly sending shafts of light through the bedroom window. Branches from a nearby tree scratched the exterior wall of the bedroom in a menacing and scary manner. I snuggled deep into the down mattress and packed the down comforter closer as my great grandmother snored gently nearby. The old house creaked in the wind, and I was convinced that ghosts and creepy things hid just past my view. Those were memories from my past.
 
This night's storm continued with high winds and rains during the day. The power went out for several hours, and I had to drive toward town to phone in the outage from the cell phone....this was the first time in over 30 years that the phone was also out at the same time the power went out. No communication, no computer (the 45 minutes that the laptop battery lasts doesn't count as usable computer time since I tend to watch the remaining power meter rather than accomplishing anything worthwhile), no satellite TV. I went back in time to the early days when I had none of those services in my old cabin. I was happy back then, but I've grown so dependent on these modern conveniences that I felt just a little uneasy being cutoff from the outside world. Yet, I have gas and oil lamps and my huge library of books to keep me company. And, finding a snug shelter is always a heartwarming feeling during a storm....So, explain to me why I love to go out on the deck while the storm is raging, to feel the mists of windblown rain, the thunder deafening and the lightning intense as it fills the air with ozone and excess electrons.
 
On Other Fronts:
 
In past years I've had some problems with paper wasps near my back door. The back door is on the leeward side of the house and a favorite territory for these nasty buggers. Last year I sprayed out a large nest under the canopy for the back door and stairway. The displaced wasps relocated in the exhaust duct for the basement bathroom. I'm allergic to their stings, so I really don't want these beasts near my home.
 
I just received a pair of wasp repellant devices from ebay. I discovered these devices in an upscale gardening catalog, but found them a few bucks cheaper on ebay. Essentially, you get a set of two simulated wasp nests, made like Chinese or Japanese lanterns with appropriate coloration. The theory is that most wasps are very territorial and will not attempt to occupy an area within a 200 foot radius of an existing nest. So I'll hang on of these nest/lanterns at the back door porch and another at the front porch. They are not waterproof so they must be placed in protected areas, just as a real nest would be. When assembled they are nearly a foot tall and 8 inches at the widest. They're pretty lifelike, so if they don't deter the wasps, maybe they'll give the Jehovah Witnesses pause to approach. And tax collectors. or maybe the local tax appraiser. One can only hope!
 
Until later.....DKHT