John Weiland

Jenny Wright wrote: .... We just trickle charge it all night using a 120v exterior outlet and if someone does a ton of driving during the day and feels nervous, there's a fast charging station that's compatible about five minutes from my husband's job (that is free).

I was keeping my eye on used Leafs sometime back on FB Marketplace but have not seen any there recently in our region.  Especially as a commuter car, it seemed very sensible.  Is the battery-swap business on these still up and running?  And how far back did they incorporate fast charging in addition to home 120/240V charging?

Alas the plans from my most recent post have not come to pass.  With an unusually warm end to October, I was lulled into thinking more time was available for the battery testing, but the colder temps moving in now are a reminder of the winter approaching.  To that end I needed to shift back to a small addition project on an outbuilding that will house, eventually, a rocket mass heater split between the larger 'host' building and the addition being fused to it.  A few trips to the building supply and it seems to be coming along well enough.  The tractor does a great job of substituting for that extra pair of hands so common with contractor teams....and will be super-handy at helping to position the two solar panels I have onto the roof.

In the meantime, a quick question.  I now need to get my LiFePO4 batteries out of the garage building (unheated) and was hoping to just store them in a room in the house.  My plan is to go with some advice off the internet and here to discharge them to around 60% SOC and just monitor them through the winter.  Thoughts?  There are no plans at the moment to use them except for emergencie and was hoping that simply storing them unconnected might be the safest way for them to be inside.  No other buildings on the property are heated at the moment and the very cold extremes I suspect would not be good for them.  Thanks for any advice on this....I hope I'm not being too paranoid about this!

Wish I had some insights or suggestions, Allen, for your build but I'm still several steps behind on the technology it seems.   A part of me wants to move cautiously (financially speaking) into so much of this as I really dread investing too much into something that becomes obsolete the following year due to unexpected advances.  That sentiment is countered by the impetus to simply take some level of 'plunge' so that experience can be gained.  Continued good luck with your build and testing!

This is more of an "I'm about to try...." post but may be helpful to the OP.  I love fresh cilantro but even when growing in the garden, it bolts and goes to seed well in advance of the ripening of tomatoes.  It appears that the bolting and flowering is coordinated with long summer days.....and when grown indoors can grow more leaves and be less inclined to bolt if grown under ~12 hr maximum time of exposure to light.  Would be curious to know if anyone has tried this from seed.  I will be testing this with current volunteers in the garden that I will transplant into pots before the snow flies!  Thanks....

I've been using dried currants as a substitute for raisins for a while now.  One disclaimer:  I'm going on the label on the bag at the organic food store that I buy these from locally and the next time I'm in there will confirm that these are true dried black currants and not zante currants, which are actually a type of raisin.  It may be that the currants can be dried more easily than grapes and may be able to supply your needs......and hopefully acceptable to your son also.  Another sub is dried cranberry, though these likely would be just has hard to dry as grapes.

These are pretty etiolated from the lack of light....they may be a bit delicate right now for transplanting.  I would give them some time with the light cycle back on again and take care not to over-water....they may pull out of it okay.  Once they look a bit more stout they should be able to handle the transplanting better.  Good luck!

Chandrapal Mehula wrote: ....3. Stop at the BMS or inverter low-voltage cutoff, or at about 2.9 to 3.0 V per cell if you are watching individual cells. Don't push below that..

Thanks for all of the excellent and helpful responses.  One question about the statement clipped above:  Won't the BMS automatically stop discharging at the low voltage cutoff? In other words, won't this prohibit me from pushing discharge below that voltage limit even if I wanted to?  Thanks!....

I'm speechless about those sunchokes!!!.....Never have seen anything in mine that come even close to that size!

Anna Hutchins wrote:That's interesting about roundabouts being stuck in the middle of nowhere in Montana. I always picture them as an urban phenomenon.

We have been able to see all of the roundabouts being installed in our area in both rural and urban settings.  With the exception of those being built in new developments, nearly all others are being installed in historically 'problem' intersections, where many accidents had occurred.  I'm getting accustomed to them now and am grateful for the ones at intersections that I hated waiting at or navigating.  My wife spent a few years in Boston in the early 1970s and was accustomed to them from the get-go.

Anne Miller wrote:Some helpful suggestions that we have found for the bathroom:

Eliminating the need to step over a high tub edge by installing a zero threshold shower.

Anne, did you consider one of those tubs that has a water-tight sealed door?  They can be rather pricey, but more offerings these days may have brought down the cost?....  

Carla Burke wrote:....Yeh. THAT'S going to be easy to figure out. 🙄

I understand this feeling.  Over the weekend, had chance to visit an old friend....a professional musician in Minneapolis who made a livable wage for live peformance, then transitioned to teaching which has been more steady.  But we are both mid-60s and his hands are beginning to wear out--and he's getting a bit worried about how much longer he can go.  We started joking about doing "only fans" and taking the whole platform by storm (high sarcasm) but then pondered more seriously the concept of "minimally monetized"......the least-work engagement with social media that could legally and ethically birth some cash payouts.  Sort of like 'penny stocks' for the autumn years.  Due to the million monkeys on a million keyboards that describes the larger internet, I suspect most of these stones have been looked under already.  Sigh..... it does seem a difficult position to navigate for sure!