Been a tad busy as you may have been noticed. Not much woodworking but lots of small projects for storage and while Greenhouse No 2 is done, there is still a lot going on in the gardening front.
Greenhouses put to bed for the winter.
All buttoned up and stopped heating No 2 for the season.
Been experimenting with various growing methods and equipment's. My end goal is to turn on more people here in NS, into home growers to reduce food insecurities and eat better, A Win Win scenario in my book. So I got this inspiration from my last visit home in Montreal for Mom`s service.
That is the kind of operation I have in mind
To that end, I am still in the research phase as we are progressing into winter. I need the info before preparing my business plan for the project and rallying support.
I did kept heating the greenhouse No 2, not the whole greenhouse 10X20ft, but instead the doubles 6X6ft greenhouses that we installed inside. I turned off the heat early December. My experiment was to see how I can control the temperature inside. All I was aiming for was to keep it above 10C (50F).
The white square box near ceiling is my data logger: Temp, RH, Dew Point, VPD.
Near it, the black cable is the temperature sensor for heater thermostat.
This way, I read the temperature seen by thermostat on line
The plants we kept inside for the start of the experiment
were the potted plants still outside before Fiona was about to hit us.
They survived and thrived.
The electric heater I used.
Kept the temperature at 10.2C plus minus 0,2C easily.
The coldest temperature recorded during this experiment was minus 10C
Meanwhile started gathering parts for the Bob-O-Matic V2.0 and cobbled something together to run some tests inside before deploying out in the greenhouse. Every equipment I used, I keep an eye on the wattage required. My goal being to switch the green house to solar power. Every watts saved counts, the heating mats I am trying featured the new IR technology film versus the traditional electric heating wire elements. A saving of 5 watts per mats, I am using 2, hence 10 watts saved.
Being an experiment, it is nice to be able to get some data to assess performance. I am also trying to automate as much as possible the various process (Ventilation, Temperature, Humidity, Light, Water etc). I rely on WIFI technology to accomplish all these tasks.
Dual thermostats, WIFI control, monitor, set up alarms
comes with 2 mats
Repurposing one of the three tiers light stands Heather used for her violets.
Also slated to be upgraded with LEDs fixtures.
To run my indoor experiments I set up two different scenarios
for each mat/seedlings trays. The bottom of the trays rest on a double sided foil insulated foam board with the heating mat sandwiched in between. The tray on the left contain a very well insulated LV self watering foam tray, the other just a regular seedling tray. In both case temperature probe is inserted deep into the pods (root temps). Later I would add a timer for the lights. All the power is going thru my wattmeter. I monitor/control the temperature performance on my phone via an App.
Sure enough the thick Styrofoam one took longer to reach set root temperature, but was also remaining hotter longer with heat turned off.
Since I was going to run such a test, I may as well, grow something, so we did, and then what do you do with them? Moved them inside to finish growing since we stopped heating greenhouse. Yeah, we eat some green already :-)
Re-purposing the frame for the Veg-Trug to be able to cover it with its own greenhouse cover.
Making essentially: A greenhouse (cover on tray) inside a greenhouse (cover on frame) inside a doubled greenhouse (6X6, heated), inside a greenhouse (main greenhouse) . The whole thing sitting on a table covered with double foil insulation. The seedling trays being heated by electric mats.
Tried two types of grow lights, both in a fluorescent neon tube forms.
This one being a full spectrum Sun blaster T5 bulb
LED, full spectrum, T5 form factor
Part of my experiments are geared toward finding an affordable (I`m paying for the prototyping ) technology package that could be easily deployed , setting up in schools, food banks, community gardens etc.
I am obviously not going to pay for everyone, but I am also making it a project for my Rotary club.
As part of it, my first two sites are a food cafeteria inside a college being run as a social enterprise (operate year long) and a high school (only operate from Sep to Jun). Both sites represent a different challenge and solutions, and both sites need to operate during the winter. A soft skin greenhouse would not be economical to run in the winter, while using grow tents inside building can cause mold problems if not ventilated correctly, outside.
So my next plans are to set up both a grow tent and an hydroponic tower in my basement. Between these, we will have Bob-O-Matic V3.0 seedling starters/clone makers, hydroponic garden, grow tent, green house, raised beds, garden plots and orchards. We should be able to feed ourselves, year round, and grow practically, anything, anytime :-) Armed with this knowledge I will then specify a complete turn key package for the project. I don't want to see this project fail, I want to try the technology hands on before I procure it for project. An offshoot of the WIFI technology I will be using will allow me to monitors the deployed system and ensure they operate correctly. It will also reduced the manpower required to operate them.
Part of my research in grow tents and equipment's I found this company
AC Infinity that makes a complete solution package: Their UIS system control everything I need in one small affordable package. Bought the 6 in fan with UIS controller, plan to use same controller to automate more my greenhouse next season. Will gather remaining parts from them also, then specify a package suited for my applications.
Hydroponic wise, I believe
the future is vertical. You can buy complete commercial grow tower system for $600 and more or, like me, you can make your own, because, I can, and has to afford it :-)
So currently clearing a corner in basement, besides the cold storage room, so I can exhaust tent outside and bring in fresh air from outside. That corner will also host the 4 growing towers. That mean clear gym equipment, more sorting, turfing stuff, demolish built in wood shelves (save long planks) and replaced by resin shelving's in a more compact and efficient footprint. Work in current progress.
The other day coming back from a friend funeral service, I stopped at an inside yard sale to cheer me up, looking for tools. Found a box of hand brace bits, mostly Irwin, bought 4 for a buck ($1.00) each.
Never cease to amaze me and bring a smile to my face to see a tool resurrected and brought back to life as a working tool, not a decoration.
As found. Salvageable? You bet!
Yes rusty, but not severely.
The main working bits, the spurs on each sides are full size, not worn or damaged.
The two cutters (routers) are in good shape, no signs of having been ever touched up,
Feeding screw is undamaged.
Quick metal brushing, soak in Evaporust, cleaned on drill press with metal wire wheel
They came out pretty good.
And THAT, never gets old with me
It never cease to amazed me how well the cutting edges came out under that rust. they will not need much touch up to cut well. But how will they perform as is? You know I had to try :-)
One of my favorite brace Spofford or Fray brace.
One of my favorites? Yes, I have a few :-)
Not bad at all, I had NOS bit that performed worse out of packages.
I was so happy, I could not wait for the next day, go back and buy every ones he had left that look promising . So bought 6 more.
Oh yeah 10 more bits for my kits.
Could had probably gotten the whole 13 bits set from that dealer, but a few had the tapered ends cut, a
real NO-NO in my book.
Not only are you destroying an artifact, but they were never designed to be run by a powered drill, they will quickly self feed too fast and jam, you are gonna need more torque to overcome jamming, not good... Please never do that.
Meanwhile... I am so impressed by that little data logger, I got myself one for Christmas and put it in my hand tool shop to monitor temp and humidity.
Woodworking wise, not to worry, I need a new deck badly this summer,
Replaced dishwasher before Christmas, new one is stainless not white, so you know the other appliances will have to be changed, OH, and new dishwasher is not as wide as older one, so need wood filler strips, and while I am at it, may as well reface kitchen cabinets and install better hardware (sliders mostly) Probably construct real drawers to replace original builder`s drawers.
Veg trug and self watering raised bed in front
Generator and snow blower filled up with fresh gas, ran and put away, ready for action.
No real snow yet, strange winter so far...
Bob, poking holes in the fabric of time, one bit at a time
