Newsletter #259 2024 May 17 Friday
Newsletter #259 2024 May 17 Friday
Solid progress being made, and much more is required. It's going to be a very busy spring and summer.
Primal Woods
Sawmill Services
An update on the solar kilns, which have been in operation since the end of April. It’s not really “high season” for solar kiln drying, it’s still spring, and we are only seeing temps in the kiln about 30°F above ambient; in the summer that will be closer to 50°F. We have George’s lumber in both kilns, 1 inch boards in one kiln, and 2 inch board in the other. Here are some charts:
We are seeing above what we should see, which is the Relative Humidity (RH) in the kiln coming down as the wood dries. Drying is largely a function of temperature and RH.
This is what we are after, a reduction in Equilibrium Moisture Content (EMC) into the 6-8% range; the 72 hr average EMC for the 1” in lumber in Kiln #1 is down to 10% from 14% at the start.
In Kiln #2 is the 2” lumber, which dries more slowly as you would expect; it has come down from ~16% to ~13 %.
The bottom line is that while I might be able to dry “green” 1 inch lumber (i.e. not air dried first) in a week or three in summer, it takes much longer in spring. Fortunately, we are in no hurry.
Homestead Rebel Farm
I did some work to improve solar system performance in the first half of June; I’m done tweaking the system for now. Most this had to do with ensuring that the programming of the system had it doing what I want it to do.
Yesterday’s chart looks good, today’s is looking even better. The batteries State of Charge (SOC) stayed above 40% yesterday morning, having of course declined from 100% the evening before; this morning the batteries stayed at or above 55%.
Heavy electrical loads outside the solar power generation window are to be avoided; this largely amounts to electrical heating elements, like coffee makers, blow driers, and infrared sauna lamps, particularly the latter.
We’ll see how this goes of course, but my mind is pretty well set on a standby propane-fired generator for battery charging when necessary, instead of the grid. I need to do the math, but with fixed charges for the grid-tie of $50 per month, even with no grid electricity use, I’m expecting that the generator will also be a financial win.
Pigs
I brought the pigs home on Monday evening, then worked until about 8:30 p.m. getting them situated. They were not trained to electric fencing, so I had to erect a hog-panel enclosure while they waited patiently in the bed of the truck.
To train the pigs to electric fencing, I added a strand of hot polywire inside the hog panel. They’ve learned quickly, but I will probably leave them in the pen until sometime next week, before turning them loose in the woods.
Garden
Geri worked hard last weekend to get the vegetable garden in, and to do some other homestead beautification work. There’s nothing like fresh produce. Each of the raised beds is 32 sq feet, 160 sq feet total; it doesn’t take a lot of space to grow a lot of food.
Farmhouse
Lumber for the Farmhouse boardwalk and dock arrived this morning. Work on the boardwalk began within an hour of lumber arrival.
The board walk will be approximately 85 ft long, then comes a 16 foot section leading to the floating dock, and the floating dock is 20 feet long. The end of the dock should be about 36 feet out from the water’s edge; hopefully that will allow enough room to get a trolling motor in the water!
With our friend Justin Reich, we are running a “retreat” at the Farmhouse the weekend of 7-9 June, which I’m really excited about. The dock and all of the water-sports equipment we have should be in place. Justin and I plan on this being the first of many such retreats, focused on homesteading and subsistence farming, and on being a man in a culture that since the 60’s hasn’t wanted much to do with men being men.
News
Following up on last week’s recommendation, The Great Taking, by David Rogers Webb, I watched an interview with Webb, “David Rogers Webb on how to stop 'The Great Taking.'“
Frankly, I think stopping “The Great Taking” is a pipe dream. To expect that the law, which has be used maliciously to put us in this bind, is now going to be the solution, is fantasy. The only question for us is, what to do to prepare for when, not if, it happens. I highly recommend both videos; the interview might even be more informative than the documentary. The Great Taking book is also available as a free pdf download, here.
Another video, this one from Glenn Greenwald, China and Hungary Strengthen Relationship While U.S. Soft Power Declines. The United States’ days as global hegemon are over, and we simply need to accept that as fact. I admit it is difficult, since the vast majority of us, having reached adulthood after WW II, have only known the United States to be the most powerful nation on the planet by a large margin. And the relative power, which is what matters, will continue to shift away from the U.S. and towards the BRICS, nations, Russia, China, India and so on. In short, we’ve made a mess of things, and Greenwald does a good job of explaining the situation. Naturally, the almighty U.S. Dollar, the world’s “reserve currency,” is also losing its hegemony in economic terms, this is ongoing, and will within the not too distant future share its reserve currency status, probably with the Chinese Yuan, and then I expect, will lose its position altogether. This is not unprecedented, as the British Pound Sterling (GBP) and the USD shared reserve currency status between WW I and WW II, before the GBP lost its status as a reserve currency in the wake of WW II. When the USD becomes just another currency in the mix though, the full magnitude of our excesses will fall on us, the People, with tremendous force. Forewarned is forearmed. Be Prepared.
Books
I’m still working on Sacred Marriage. It’s good, but I’ll wait until I finish to comment more extensively.
And I picked up another book this week, Lost Connections, by Johann Hari, after watching an interview of the author by Glenn Greenwald. Johann has written several books, but the title of this one caught my attention. I made it about 60 pages in last night, and it is exceeding my expectations. No plot spoilers just yet; this book may be the subject of a Substack post.
I put up several “Notes” on substack this week, several of them relating to what is coming out about Covid and the State’s policy response to Covid. All that can be said is that it was a massive psyop (psychological operation); the policy response had nothing whatsoever to do with “the science,” and now even the perpetrators are admitting to that fact. Check out the Notes page.
All the best, and may God bless you and yours,
John & Geri
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