So, you’ve selected a sunny place, laid your panels and fastened them down. Next, you ran all the wiring and hooked them all together into one clean, combined unit. From here, you decide all you need to do is wire in the battery! After all, sun shines on panels, panels emit energy, energy is stored in the battery, right? While that is in some senses true, unfortunately it is … [Read more...] about Charge Controllers
Catchin’ Crawdads
If your homestead is located anywhere near water, particularly the flowing variety, chances are you’ve wet a line or two, and made yourself better acquainted with several varieties of aquatic wildlife. In doing so, you may have stumbled across some strange critters lurking along the bottom, particularly under rocks--critters that look a heckuva lot like a miniaturized variety … [Read more...] about Catchin’ Crawdads
Combiner Box 2, Electric Boogaloo
So you’ve misdrilled a few holes and gotten your solar panels up, now you’re trying to figure out what to do with all those damn wires. First you try twist-tying them together, but as the first stiff breeze unseats your work, you think to yourself, “There must be a better way!” No? Just me? You actually do your research before taking on projects? Must be nice … Anyhow, this … [Read more...] about Combiner Box 2, Electric Boogaloo
Hen Hatchery
So you’ve got hens, a rooster, and not enough chickens. Should you order more chicks in the mail? Sure, that’s one solution. But if you’ve got all three of the above, its turns out nature has a free solution for you. Read on for a how-to on hatching your own chicks. Step 1: Feed The first thing you’ll need is … well … some eggs! Set aside a few eggs you want to hatch in a … [Read more...] about Hen Hatchery
Driving You Batty
Much like snakes, spiders and everything else that creeps and crawls around at night, bats have quite a few humans spooked. Whether due to an association with Transylvania, or getting dive-bombed during a late-night swim in the pond, anti-bat prejudice tends to run deep. As it turns out however, while there are certainly some negatives, having bats around can offer a whole host … [Read more...] about Driving You Batty
