Archive for January, 2010

January 31, 2010 – Cedar Rapids Post Flood

I had a chance to attend a meeting (actually I presented about wind energy) near Cedar Rapids. I arrived about a half-hour early and was curious about the recovery after the 500 year flood in 2008. I was struck at the lack of progress in recovery – still blocks of abandoned homes.

You can still see ...Read more.

January 30, 2010 – Easy (and cheap) Row Covers

I’m not shy about stealing great ideas from others, so if you are looking for a cheap and easy row cover to protect your  insect-prone crops like squash and cabbage, check out Herrick Kimball.
The Whizbang Row Cover System looks like a great way to protect your crops at a reasonable price.

Herrick is a man after ...Read more.

January 29, 2010 – How Much Noise Does a Skystream Make

I went out on a windy day to see if I could capture the sound the Skystream makes with my video camera. This is a short video of a Skystream 2.4 kw wind turbine on a 70 foot tower on a windy day. I mainly posted it to show how it sounds. You can compare ...Read more.

January 28, 2010 – Thingamajig Thursday #193

Here’s this week’s thingamajig Thursday. This is something found in the kitchen, and not for cleaning?
Also check out the last thingamajig answer.

As always, put your guess in a comment below.
Hold mouse over this sentence to pop-up answer.
one year ago…”A Peek Behind the Curtain”

January 27, 2010 – Coke Coolers

We’re starting a new venture – distributing old-style glass coke bottles in these refurbished coolers at convenience stores.

Here’s a bunch of them in the barn. OK, the joke’s over – we are NOT going into beverage distribution, but instead our barn is hosting a staging area for distribution to area farms. These were all give-aways ...Read more.

January 26, 2010 – Aftermath

The wind stopped blowing this evening. As usual, the ground was blown clear, or drifted.

We were lucky the chicken coop wasn’t drifted shut, but instead left this sculpted pathway to the coop.

Sundogs this morning towards the morning sun.

Finally, this 25 car and snowplow pileup near Mason City shows what can happen when you drive too ...Read more.

January 25, 2010 – Blizzard Warning with no Warning?

The weather people missed out on predicting this storm  We went from winter weather advisory to Blizzard warning in a flash.

I’ll only bother you with four seconds of the view while I was waiting for the early out bus near the closest blacktop road.

We’ve learned it’s just best to take the lead of the animals ...Read more.

January 24, 2010 – Sleep, who Needs Sleep?

After the recent ice storm, the subsequent weather was a night of rain at 33 degrees with wind. This brought with it a slooooow removal of the ice from the trees over a period of, oh say, over one night. All night the house was pelted with chunks of ice that sounded like ...Read more.

January 23, 2010 – The Ultimate Christmas Tree

Now that we’ve grown our Christmas tree, dug it out of a snowbank, dragged it into the house for the holidays and decorated it, it’s time for the 2nd to last use of the Christmas tree.

Here it is after the animals had a chance to browse the branches and even chew the bark off the ...Read more.

January 22, 2010 – Ice Still Hanging On

Two days after the ice storm, the ice still hangs on.

The trees are ponderous with ice.  This is a spruce tree encased in ice.

Here’s a side view that shows the oh-so-gradual melting of the ice, but not quickly enough for my taste.  Tonight and tomorrow we are supposed to warm above freezing and get heavy ...Read more.

January 21, 2010 – Thingamajig Thursday #192

Here’s this week’s thingamajig Thursday.
Also check out the last thingamajig answer.

As always, put your guess in a comment below.
Hold mouse over this sentence to pop-up answer.
one year ago…”Emma at State Honor Band.”

January 20, 2010 – Want Ice with That?

Another ice storm fell from the heavens today.  Ice is much harder to deal with than snow or rain.

It’s hard to read electric meters.  It’s also hard to open garage doors that face in the direction of the wind.  It took lots of pounding with a rubber mallet to pound the hundreds of pounds of ...Read more.

January 19, 2010 – The Home-made Solar Air Heater Quest Begins

We may be getting a new heat-pump water heater (this type removes the heat from the surrounding air to heat the water and uses 1/3 the electricity of a regular water heater).  The downside (at least in the winter) is that it exhausts cool air.  It runs more efficiently if it has relatively warm air ...Read more.

January 18, 2010 – Foggy Landscape

We’ve been locked in between 25-31 degrees for the last week it seems – living in a fog most of the time.

The fog does add a nice softening to the landscape – I particularly like the barn in the fog.
one year ago…”Hibernation”