A Campbell

My pedantic brain would rather read “One, small, efficient fire per day heats a couch-sized mass. Which warms you for days afterward” as one sentence, ie:

One, small, efficient fire per day heats a couch-sized mass which warms you for days afterward.

I’ve just discovered how to attach photos to posts so here they are in case the links for the photos in my previous post don’t work.
Somehow the kangaroo picture loaded last instead of first.

https://ibb.co/hCYqGFm
A stock watering bowl for kangaroos was added to an old bathtub used to grow water lilies. Some rescue goldfish living in the old bathtub needed a cage for protection from butcherbirds. Kangaroos were dislodging the cage to drink from the bathtub hence the  additional drinking point.
The goldfish are now gone, the cage has beenremoved but everybody prefers watering bowl now.
Magpies love bathing in the bowl even though they barely fit.
We also have two small dams on the property and four birdbaths in the gardens around the house. Any drum or bucket holding water has a stick inserted as an escape ramp for insects, birds, whatever falls in.
Our bird list count is up to 106 species, mostly spotted while sitting on our verandah looking at a birdbath.
https://ibb.co/801h6cH
Male Regent bowerbird
Even the local Lace Monitor lizards look for an easy drink:
https://ibb.co/YtyHxCB
We have no domestic animals so the local wildlife is thriving.

1 Remove one large side with an angle grinder, smooth sharp edges and use as drawers for tools or small components in the workshop.
2 Cut lengthways through the middle of one large side and both ends, fold over so the other large side is creased down the middle and you have a lower profile drawer with two compartments.
3. Fashion a carrying handle (from the removed material in example 1 or from wire for example 2) and they can be used as a small toolbox.

I saw this story elsewhere about a month ago. I asked my good friend Steve, an engineer with a special interest in solar for his thoughts:

“Thanks for the link. I beg to differ a bit with their claims- I think they are hyping their idea a bit.

Firstly laying a panel flat reduces output by typically 20-30% compared to a fixed tilt (latitude dependent), so 20-30% more panels are required for the same energy output. This then calls into account their claim of half the land required. Tilt frames need more space to avoid overshadowing from one row to another, but require less panels.

Next the claim of 70% less cable, most cable is used along a row (in on ground or tilt panel), very little between, maybe 10-20% between. 70% saving would be for a very difficult site for tilt panels, which would probably require massive earthworks for flat on ground.

70% less trenching- as above

70% less water use- I think they need the robotic cleaner as they are flat on the ground (video says every night) arrays on a tilt may need cleaning 2x a year to once every few years. I think these flat on ground panels may use more water (not that much is used anyway so quite a spurious claim)

Cost saving- Panels typically make up about 60% (commercial scale) of a solar install budget, tilt frame 15%, inverters and balance of system 25%. So the savings are 15% on tilt frame but with 20-30% more panels required 12-18% more all up on panel cost. Seems about breakeven to me.

A verbal claim on the video using the cooling of the earth to increase efficiency- I think the reverse is likely, heat is trapped under the panel and makes the ground hotter, this radiates back into the panel and heats it up more reducing output. A panel on a tilt frame gets fresh air both sides giving it air cooling.

Hurricane proof. Maybe. I could not see how the panels were anchored, they just seemed to be laying them on the ground. If that is the case then the pressure differential of a hurricane between the front (low pressure) and back (high pressure) will see them pretty much blown off the ground. Generally panels do not like hurricanes in any format.....

Definitely less visual impact on flat ground.

Reduced geotechnical risk- not a big one. Tilt frames now use screw piles, they just screw in to resistance and if that is not achieved back it out and screw in a longer one. Bigger issue is subsurface stone preventing achievement of depth, but usually pretty easy to determine and classify prior to starting project.

All up, they have their place but not a be all and end all in my view.”

A successful way to propagate lots of mulberry plants is to cut a bundle of pencil sized sticks in winter, tie them together with string or use a rubber band to hold them and bury them at the base of the parent tree.
By late spring they should have sprouted so you can dig them up, plant into pots and grow them on until advanced enough to plant out in your orchard.
An older gardener told me this many years ago. I tried it and it worked as he described.

Has anybody had any experience with a Drumi?

https://yirego.com/



Not cheap but well-designed and built to last.
I thought about investing in one but the economics of a plunger on a stick through a hole in a lid on a bucket convinced me otherwise.
A spare complete lid allows washing to occur while campervan travelling.