Mike Haasl

Daniel Andy wrote:Mike i have a fuel agnostic generator system that ive been following the development of lately. Could be useful for your needs. Ill try to post an overview in this forum in the coming days.  Its not been built to scale yet so could be just a curiosity but has potential to be more.

I love the Stirling idea.  After watching those videos, I can't really tell where the power is coming from or how it's turned into electricity. I'm kinda surprised no one's come up with a homestead scale Stirling for us to all buy.

Jackie Lei wrote:From what I’ve seen, veggie oil generators can work, but they usually end up being a bit more hands-on than expected, especially with cold starts, fuel switching, and keeping the oil clean. It’s doable, just not as “set and forget” as people hope.

That's why I'm hoping it's a game changer to be able to let it idle 24/7. No starting, no switching and the oil can be warmed by the heat of the engine.  Plus hopefully only a small battery bank to handle the variety of loads a homestead requires

I know a young man from Peru
His limericks all end on line two

Sorry to pester the tree felling details but on big trees like that it's much more important to get the cut geometry correct.  Looking at the log on the mill, I think the cuts that were made are the ones below in red.  Ideal cuts would be in black.  Differences:

1. You really, really, really want the pac man notch to meet at the back of its mouth.  Overcutting either of those cuts doesn't allow the mouth to close when the tree wants to fall. This is the same reason you don't want chunks in the notch that prevent the mouth from closing.

2. You only need/want to go 1/4 to 1/3 of the way into the tree with the notch.  Going deeper can sometimes cause the tree to fall early and possibly barber chair (as I understand it).  Of these three notes, this is the least critical IMO

3. The back cut should be an inch or two above the back of pacman's mouth.  That way as the tree falls it can't slide back at you off the stump.

Maybe I'm reading the butt of the log wrong though so hopefully this is helpful.

I would say if you exceed that "average" truck bed volume, you'd be in pretty good shape

I got asked about this and yes, it's still working just fine! A scared deer smashed into it a few years back and just dented it and broke one of the wires. It didn't get in. So I bent it back as good as I could and tied the wire back on.  

Hmm, a couple of these maps have me wondering about my internet habits.

I didn't do syrup this year but they've stopped running in my part of northern WI.  I suspect for good cuz those buds are swelling fast.  I cut a birch two days ago and it's bleeding hard.

Those are some nice finished boards!  Another option for next time is to peel the bark off (yes it might not be the barky aesthetic...) and then you can run the rounded board thru the planer to work your way down to the desired thickness.  That's probably a bit safer than running them thru the table saw.

Another bark-on option is to use the table saw to get a decent ways through them from both sides and then finish the cut on the band saw with the flat side against the saw's fence.  Or do the whole job on the band saw.

I know a young man from Peru
His limericks all end on line two