Saturday, December 23, 2017

Building a wood stand for firewood out of PVC

2 inch PVC pipe and green PVC roofing cover
6ft x 3ft x 15in wide

This project was simple, cheap and effective. It's been outside 5 years with no sign of wear, and supports the weight of a quarter cord of wood, out of contact with the ground, dry from above and allowing air circulation.

Close up of the pipe details.

The pictures petty much show I just used PVC pipe and 90 degree joint connectors, I didn't even need glue. You can drill holes and use some washers and screws to connect the cover. I bent the green roof cover over and attached it to the front, after the first year I took out those screws to make for easier access, once the PVC was bent into place. The back I didn't care about as it's under the overhang from the house.

This has worked out to be a much better solution than covering the wood with tarps and cheaper in the long run, my tarps were tearing within a couple of years due to sun, wind and rain, and I had to buy chains and connectors, otherwise the tarp ends up in the neighbors yards.

However, I think I can make it cheaper still. Next version I build I'm planning to use heat to bend the PVC pipes, so I won't have to buy the 90 degree pipe connectors, I expect I'll be able to almost cut the project cost in half by bending the pipes.

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Soda Stream carbonator refilling

My original Soda Club Edition 1 (left) and latest SodaStream Power (right)

One of the first things you'll find after you buy a "carbonator" from Soda Stream or others is the CO2 refill bottles are very expensive, assuming you can find somewhere than sells them. Too expensive in fact. It's likely you can buy case of Pellegrino at Costco for less per litre than you'll pay for the 60L CO2 refill bottles. So, all you're getting with Soda Stream is the opportunity to drink local tap water, which likely is not as good Pellegrino, what with Clorine and Floride being added. At least it's easier to carry a single 60L CO2 bottle home than a case of Pellegrino.

Now CO2 being one of the most common gases on Earth, one would think it would be cheap and easy to obtain, and it is. Soda Stream more or less is charging you $40 for a bottle of compressed air. The only trick is getting CO2 into the bottle under pressure. At that price point most people figure it out fairly quickly, the 60L bottles don't last long, they are expensive, so the Soda Stream machine sits unused.

Now we see the problem, here's the solution:

1) Order a Sodastream Machine adapter
2) Find a local home brew supply shop
3) Buy a 5 pound CO2 cylinder at the home brew supply shop
4) Connect up the cylinder to the Sodastream Machine using the adapter.

Done! You'll be returning to the home brew supply to get the cylinder refilled with CO2, it lasts 10 times longer than the 60L CO2 bottles and costs $10-$20 to fill (I'm paying $19 to refill my 5 pound CO2 bottle at the shop I go to).

Talking with folks, some really don't want a 5 pound bottle and hose on the counter, so refilling the 110L bottles is good for them. However I fixed up the cabinet to store the 5 pound bottles CO2 refill bottles and now connect via a hose directly to the SodaStream. All those took was drilling a hole in the bottom of the cabinet and door off and raising the hinges half inch, so the door could clear the top of the SodaStream machine.

Let start with the process of refilling the 110L bottles yourself. This is the first method I used. To start, you'll need a dip tube 20 pound CO2 bottle ($150). These are very hard to find, brew shops don't carry them, you'll need to deal with a specialty gas company. It must be the "dip tube" style tank which draws gas from the bottom of the tank in order to have pressure enough to charge the 110L bottles. Next, you need to weight the bottles while filling them to have any idea if they are filling to not. One has to purchase the filling adapter ($100). Of course you want to have at least 6 empty 110L bottles handy. Connect it up and fill away.

Simple as it sounds, it's really not "do it yourself" for the average person, it's a hobbyist thing. Dealing with 20 pound tanks under high pressure can be dangerous, one missed step and you disconnect a hose while a valve is still open and you have a high speed metal projectile jetting across the room. If you've ever dealt with refilling scuba tanks you know what I mean. If you have not refilled scuba tanks, this likely isn't the place to learn, as you're dealing here with CO2, one small leak in any connection when you open the valve on the 20 pound bottle and you get sprayed with -50c degree gas than can freeze the skin right off your hands, or face. That said, I never had a problem refilling tanks for 5 years. Wear gloves.

One gotcha is the "tink" sound. SodaStream has an anti-refill valve in the nozzle, that sort of works, 5 out of my 7 bottles fill without problem, but two of them I have to fill very slowly or I hear a metallic "tink" sound and they stop filling. Then I have to depressurize the line and try filling again. The right thing to do it replace the nozzle on these problematic bottles.

The CO2 bottle refill adapter (above) and connected to 110L bottle and 20 pound CO2 tank (above right)

(Above left) 5 pound bottle with the more expensive pressure gage, which is really not needed, you can easily when you're charging the bottles that pressure is getting low. Also avoid the "quick release" connector, mine broke and it's really not needed. (Above right) the 110L bottle inside the Edition One machine.

The "Fizz Giz" (above) let you use tiny CO2 cylinders with a bottle cap to fizz up some water. It doesn't really work well, maybe I'll buy a few more cylinders and try again but thus far it is not putting much carbonation into the water. People are using paint ball CO2 cylinders with SodaStreams. Sounds like a good idea, never tried it.

Lastly, there's a few sites selling kits to produce CO2 at home, I've not tried any of them.

SodaStream flavor syrups - Make your own soda!

These syrups you mix with the carbonated water to make your own soda at home. My son's favorite is the root beer. They are rather expense, though you can buy any type or brand of soda syrup. Personally, after trying a lot of mixes, I found the best to be Kool-Aid Lemonade Flavored Unsweetened Drink Mix. Add your own sugar. The they mixes with sugar pre-added then to be awful. The Kool-Aid Unsweetened 96 pack is around $20 and makes 200-400 glasses depending on how much you use, so it's a fraction of the price of SodaStream syrup and teases better.

Monday, May 15, 2017

Archery gear, for beginners

The number one question I get as an archery instructor is how do I get started, followed by what bow should I buy. Here are some simple answers, this is what you need to buy:

Bows:

Kids 7-10 years, a recurve bow, 14-20 pound "draw weight" (how hard it is to pull the string back), 45 inch in length. This is a "real bow" that you can actually hit a target with, not the toy bows they sell at Target. This is a fine bow for all ages, adults can (and should) start learning on this bow, it's much easer to learn to shoot on a low draw weight bow.

Here are some examples, either from Amazon or at least you'll know what to ask for at Bass Pro Shop:

Martin XR Recurve Bow Kit

Crosman Archery Sentinel Youth Recurve Bow

Teen age to adult bows, you need to be taller and stronger to handle these:

PSE Razorback Recurve Bow

Ragim Wildcat Jr 54" 16#

Ragim 2013 Ragim Wildcat Jr 58" 22#

Ragim Wildcat PLUS Takedown Recurve Bow Complete Archery Set

Samick Sage Takedown Recurve Bow

Arrows:

To start, you'll lose arrows, so go with a bunch of cheap Fiberglass 28 inch arrows, they work well for kids 7-12. Once they get older and have longer arms, step up to a 29 or 30 inch aluminum arrow. The Easton Jazz 29 inch 1816 is a great all around arrow, for teens or women or average men. If you're a bigger guy step up to the Jazz 30 inch 1916 arrow.

Wizard Archery Fiberglass Target Practice Arrows

Feather Fletched Easton XX75 Jazz Aluminum Arrows

My goal here is to get you answers to get you started, not to provide a complete education on the world of archery, types of arrows and bows or how to shoot. There's lots of YouTube videos that can help you along. I've not personally owned or shot all of the gear above, but most I have, I'm familiar with the brands and items and it gives you some choices to compare.

What I use and recommend is Ragim bows (Wildcat Jr 58 inch, 22 pound, great all around bow) and Easton 1816 29 inch arrows. I also use Martin bows (Saber 60 inch, 40 pound draw) and a few other Ragim and Martin models. My son started with the Martin XR when he was 7.

One confusing term I will point out is "takedown bows". This just means it comes apart. And "compound bows". Avoid these (the ones with the pulley systems at each end), they are expensive, complicated and send arrows way off into the brush where you'll never find them. Not good for learning.

What else you need:

All you "need" is a bow stringer (ask Youtube how to use this). You may also want a target, a quiver, an arm guard and a glove or finger tab. And somewhere to shoot. If you don't have an instructor handy you certainly can learn on your own, watch some "how to" videos on Youtube to see the proper way to nock and release an arrow.

Your first question after you get the bow is where do I put it so it doesn't get broken. Get a hard case. Archery gear is easy to damage if not stored and transported correctly. Spend $20 now rather than a lot more to fix your broken bow later. And it's great to have a grab and go case, with bow, arrows and quiver together.

Condition 1 #759 40" Black Hard Rifle Case (looks good, I've not used it)

Flambeau Outdoors Tactical AR Case, Large (I have several, I can fit 2 smaller bows in it)

Youth Archery Arrow Target

Label your gear! Especially mark your arrows. Once you get on a public range and there's a lot of shooters, for certain someone else will have arrows that look just like yours, and it'll be impossible to tell them apart. And people will pull your arrows out of the target and leave you to go searching in the brush for their arrows. Admittedly we've come back with other people's arrows a few times because they looked like ours.

I started out just labeling everything with a Sharpie, now I use a Dymo to label and number each arrow, so I can tell if a certain arrow is not flying right. And the length of each arrow, makes in easier to grab the correct arrows. However, there's still some reasons to use the Sharpie, people can just peel off labels and take your gear, harder to do that when it's marked with a Sharpie, and it takes far less time to mark a dozen arrows that it does to make and apply labels.

Monday, April 24, 2017

Time and parallel universes

Genius Max Loughan Explains the Mandela Effect

The infinity of parallel universes exists, and it is possible to move between parallel universes, voluntarily or involuntarily.

Each separate parallel "line" of infinite universes is either 1 tick of time unit ahead or behind our time, thus all time exist at once, as the parallel lines are both a line and point at the same time. Therefore, one can move to the "left" or ahead in time or "right", behind in time. This not the same thing as time travel, one cannot move "up" or "down" on any universal line.

Therefore, if you move a sufficient number of lines to the right, to reach the point where you were born and you prevent your own birth, you don't cease to exist, that "you" won't exist on that line going forward.

What Max is describing though is mostly memory theory, each person's brain records and stores data in a unique way, influenced and based on relationships to past experiences unique to that person, thus 10 people can all be witnesses to an accident and all 10 can relate different versions of what happen, some opposite and contradictory, yet all are telling the truth.

Mandela Effect Genius Max Loughan Is A Fake

No really a fake, just a kid thinking about things, he's going in the right direction though he doesn't have it all right. For certain adults, publishers, interviewers are going to play him for everything they can, not his fault.

Saturday, March 4, 2017

Dark Shadows - Best clips

Best bits clips:

Dark Shadows - Ghost of Josette first appearance Ep 70

Dark Shadows - There's only one answer GHOSTS!

Dark Shadows - First appearance of Barnabas Collins?

Dark Shadows - Death Is The Only Answer!!

Dark Shadows - Maggie crypt

Dark Shadows - Laura vs Angelique

Meet Barnabas Collins - Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows Laura meets Angelique

Many complete episodes are on YouTube, Hulu and Netflix.

Good Tea

John Wagner & Sons, always had fine teas, sadly long since out of business.

The detail on the label is amazing!

Finding good teas today is always a challenge with many old brands gone and many new brands of very questionable quality showing up, it's always a process of try and see, and half the teas I buy I end up throwing away.
I'll list here what I've tried and the results.
I only drink tea that contains TEA, with no fillers, no flowers or fruits added, and certainly not pesticide soaked weeds from Colorado (never drink Celestial Seasonings).

The problem with most websites selling teas is they are more about selling you an imagine than selling actual tea.

Mostly my perference is black teas from China like Keemun Mao Feng. For blended tea I prefer the slightly smoked Russian Caravan. I've had many good teas from India and Africa (most tea sold today is grown in Africa), but I've never found a great tea from anywhere but China.
Upton Tea is the best mail order tea company in the world. The level of detail for their teas is unmatched, they list by region, grower, time it was picked and they assign a code to each tea crop so you know precisly what you are getting. With other tea sellers, Twinings for example, you have little to no idea where the tea comes from, when it was picked or how long its been sitting on the shelf.

The problem I have with Upton is their Russian Caravan bend is unremarkable, all of their teas are good, but expensive, their Mao Feng is really the best I've found and rates ^ will buy again.

The simple rating system I use is: "\ = bad" "- = good" and "^ = great, buy again"

Kusmi Tea, Russian Evening, Rate ^, buy again

Kusmi is a French/Russian tea company that's been around for over a hundred years. All of their teas are very good, I would say their Russian Evening tea is the best tea currently on Amazon. (recently I've been in touch with Kusmi and they are no longer producing this blend)

Solstice Tea Traders Russian Caravan, good enough, Rate -, I would even buy again except that Davidson's is both cheaper and better. Speaking of Davidson's Russian Caravan, it's great, the best tea on Amazon for the price, $15 a pound. Rate ^^^

Basilur teas, Rate \ magnificent tins, however this "Vol I" claims to be "100% Pure Ceylon Tea", which it's not, it's cut with some smelly flowers. Here we have yet another tea that's going in the bin, I certainly would not drink the stuff. But they seem to be a serious tea company so might have a look at their other volumes. Russian Country Blend, Harney & Sons, Rate ^. Excellent tea and you can get a pound bag, well worth trying. However, it's around 3 times the price of Davidson's. So. I can't say which is really better tasting, they are about the same.

Russian Royal Tea Delux Rate Rate \. Drinkable but not buying any more of this.
Czar Nicolas Russian Caravan Tea Rate \. Nope, tasted off.
Enjoying Tea Russian Caravan. Rate \ Expensive, yet poor taste.

The single best tea I've ever had, on the right, Red Pearl Rate ^^^ Comes from the Mountain View Tea, a small shop in California run by people from Taiwan, I think 100% of their tea comes from Taiwan. But ar $23 for 50g, I won't be having this too often.

Every tea from Mountain View Tea rates ^ by again, however, they are really too expensive and their website doesn't seem to work, though the Yunnan was cheaper, I think $12 for 150g and that rates ^.

The English tea merchants, Twinings, Fortnum & Mason, Harrods, Whittard of Chelsea. I'd like to say better things about them, Fortnum's Russian Caravan is good, but not worth buying again, same with Twinings and Harrods, good teas, but nothing great. Whittard's currently is the best of the lot today, their Russian Caravan is perfect. Twinings Russian Caravan was my daily drink for years until they discontinued it, I hear it's back now, but I've not seen it.

And many others I've tried, Grace Tea Company is expense and tasted old. And a nice tin above left I picked up when I was at the Imperial War Museum, Ration Tea. No idea what was in it but it was fine.

Twinings Tea Tasters - Russian Caravan Tea

2019, New finds

1) Impra Large Leaf Special Tea $10
2) Akbar Yellow Gold Tea $11 -
3)Akbar, Gold Range, Premium Quality Ceylon Tea, 100% Single Origin, Black Tea $11 ^

Akbar teas come from Sri Lanka, the Yellow Gold is good, but no so good I would buy again, the Gold Premium is better. The Impra was the best.

Marhumar 100 Pure Ceylon Tea Large Leaf

The 4 teas above come from Samovar Grocery and Catering , one of the best tea stores I've ever found! Of the four I find the Marhumar ^^ to be most to my liking.

My tea merchant friend says the Barooti is the best, I liked the Darjeeling the best, didn't much care for the Ceylon.

Recently sold, half my tin collection.

.

Now you got it, how to brew it!

All we're doing is boiling water and keeping the leaves in for a few minutes. It actual works fine to buy a $20 Mr. Coffee no frills unit, put the tea in the filter, let it boil and steep for a few minutes, then slip the carafe in which allows the tea to pour in from the filter. Results are as good as you get fiddling with an electric kettle, infuser and tea pot are. And the hot plate keeps the tea warm. Just add a cheap kitchen timer.

The new way I brew tea is with the no touch automated Nesco. You put the tea and water in, press one button and tea!

Now I also have the Breville BTM800XL too so I can do a long term compare with the Nesco.

Side by side, 35cm vs 25cm tall, yet the Breville holds 200ml more tea (1000ml vs 1200ml)

The quick comparison; the Breville has start time and water temperature controls (neither of which I use) and is all glass and stainless steel. The Nesco has only power and steep time controls (it simply boils the water, all I need it to do). The brew chamber is plastic, the carafe is glass. So for $150 more in cost than the Nesco, the Breville has more glass and extra features I'll never use. The tea tastes exactly the same from each unit and both provide an automated process with exact temperature and brew time that's needed for a perfect cup of time.

The Breville is more compact, however the because the Nesco separates the tea carafe from the brew section means it's lighter and easier to pour from. Adding water to the Nesco takes longer due to the small opening on top, this is the only thing I really dislike about the Nesco. With the current trend in "luxury appliances" I expect people would pay more for the Breville because it looks more expensive, and in fact the build quality is excellent.

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Quite a lot is said about water temp and steep time, but rarely do any experts talk about the water you use to brew with. I've found the water makes a much bigger difference than temp and steep time, tap water from location to location is quite different, the water will totally change the taste of the tea, and over the course of the year tap water changes. I've seen a brown froth forming around my tea water after boiling during the rainy season. Not that this muddy water will kill you but it can put you off your tea. So I use the Megahome Distiller. It takes out the excessive amounts of chlorine and fluorine they add to the water here too.

19th century Cockatrice teapot

What's in the bag?