Heritage :)

This is a photo of my grandfather from 1957. When I first saw it I wondered why he was carrying a briefcase...silly me. It's a Coleman Stove of course. So, I kind of come by this madness honestly...

Outback Lodge Tent

A good Kijiji find, and addition to my supplies; a single walled throwback tent, Cabelas Outback Lodge. They are $350 new. At 10' x 10', it's quite the mansion  :)

It's seen some use, but is still in great shape. a classic with a single pole in the center...

It "only" weighs in at 16 pounds. That's pretty light for a beast of such size. I'm hoping to try it out winter camping, but we'll see...

Keji Youth Canoe Trip

Over the Labor Day Weekend, Joel and James joined with some other youth and men from church for a three night canoe trip through the back country of Keji National Park. The two videos below were put together by Wayne Smith, from photos and footage taken along the trip by Brian Crooks.

First up, the movie trailer...

Next, a slide show of some of the memories...pretty good  :)

Many thanks to guys like Brian, Pat, and Wayne who make it a point to seize the day and pull stuff like this off...the next generation is in good hands !

Summer. There it was, Gone !

Wow. I can't believe it's September 11th. The last half of summer has vanished and I can't come up with a reasonable explanation as to why or where. It's true that time and tide waits for no man, and you have to really seize the day as it were. Our life seems to be entering a new phase. Our boys are 17 and 18, and forging a life of their own. That, coupled with both of us working makes for a busy household. We're like the proverbial ships passing in the night. Thankfully, we still seem to sit down and eat meals together quite a bit, mostly thanks to Debbie's perseverance. Lots of activity though; Debbie went to Nfld for a week. Joel was away for much of the summer working. James lucked out and got invited to go to Nicaragua for a couple of weeks. It's good to have friends. We managed a few nights camping, and the boys took in a week of youth camp, along with a 3 night canoe trip.
Here's hoping for a less hectic autumn...right  :)

photo by Brian Crooks

Deep Cycle Batteries

Another off-grid power component of course is the battery. There's not much point in generating electricity with solar panels unless you have somewhere to store it. There are many considerations. Many people opt to go with 2 6-volt golf cart batteries, joining them in series to produce 12 volts. I chose the less "hard core" option of 2 simple Costco Deep Cycle 12-volt batteries, wired in parallel. My considerations were centered around choices. For example, I can easily remove a battery temporarily and use it for another purpose, something that you can't really do if you go with the 6-volt option. I'm a bit of a scatter-brain, and might at any moment rip a battery out and embark on a different project etc. 

Costco has several Deep Cycle choices. Again, for the sake of options and versatility, I compromised and got two "Starting / Deep Cycle" ones. Each will function as a starting battery if needed, and they claim a respectable 115 amp hours. Time will tell how good they are, but so far so good.

I have them kind of "temporarily" mounted under my back seat. They are not properly vented but I try and have the seat cover raised and the side door open for the times that I'm charging them in any high amp manner. I'm hoping to build a box and properly vent it, but you know what they say about good intentions. 

Next, I'll look at Inverters and 110-volt AC, although I try my best to live with 12-volts only  :)

More Solar / Power

Given the cumbersome nature of my recently created 110 watt solar setup, I decided to augment it with a semi-permanent addition. Over the last year, little amorphous 7 watt solar panels have been at Princess Auto for less than $20. 

7 Watts at 12 volts admittedly is not much. Nevertheless, over numerous visits to the Princess, I ended up with three of these panels. I kind of had a plan, but never acted on it...until now...

Three of these panels mounted quite discretely, stealthly even, in my Vanagon's luggage rack, and you can't even notice them unless you're either 7 feet tall, or standing at an above the van vantage point. I ran the wires through one of the drain holes in the corner of the luggage rack and sneaked them into the van, attaching them to a small charge controller. From there I have a setup comprised of several options: First, I have a plug going to the main starting battery for trickle charging/maintaining that. Next, there's a barrel post connector that I can plug in to my PowerBox 800...

This PowerBox is handy as a booster pack since it has booster cables. It also has a 600w inverter for short-term powering of 110v devices. so I can keep this charged. Finally, I can also run a cable to my main auxillary power setup...two 115 amp-hour Costco Deep Cycle batteries nestled in the van...

pay no attention to the ammo box...heh...heh...

All of this pretty much satisfies the power needs quite nicely, and I like that all my eggs are not in the one basket.

More Solar

I found some time to putter...yay! Along with my two Coleman 40 watt solar panels, I dug out two 15 watt Canadian Tire ones that had been lying dormant. One of them was never even removed from the box. I thought of buying more, but resisted the urge. Sometimes it's best to use what you have, especially since none of this is critical. Nevertheless, a total of 110 watts is better than nothing, so I decided to try and make a "system" of sorts. Basically, I constructed a crude "suitcase" affair from 1x3 strapping and old panel board. Into this, I fitted the two 15 watt panels. Then I added the two 40 watt panels on hinges so that the whole thing unfolds...

   Notice in the picture above, the 15 watt panels are physically larger than the 40 watt ones. They are several years older than the new 40 watt "polycrystalline" ones. This seems to be working out ok, but the whole thing is a bit heavy. However, it folds up and packs away nicely. This is all part of my plan for a semi-portable off-grid power setup. These panels, along with 2 Group-27 Deep Cycle Batteries, an inverter, a small gas generator, and a hefty battery charger should make for a good multipurpose Power Station. Fully charged, I'll have about 250 amp-hours of power. That will easily run my fridge for 3 or 4 days. Assuming those 3-4 days include some sunshine, the solar will extend that considerably. Then the gas generator will only be needed as a last resort, i.e. after 4 days of no sun. That's much better than having to rely on a gas generator the minute the power dies.

One possible problem though is that my little charge controller is rated for a maximum of 105 watts of power, but my setup is actually 110 watts. I'm going to take my chances with that one though. Each of the 40 watt panels came with a charge controller, so if one fries, I'll learn my lesson and buy a better controller, something I have planned anyway...or I might just use both controllers, hooking two panels to each for example...

More to come...