Author Topic: Ain't depression great  (Read 5645 times)

Offline Joules

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Ain't depression great
« on: September 01, 2022, 01:54:23 PM »
With over two years of this crap, and it now dragging on again.   Trying to keep busy, business has gone to hell, though I keep getting small repair jobs.   Installing a new off grid solar system.   We already have an 800W array off grid 12V (lead acid) system, the new one is also going to be 800W, but this time 24V around a LiFePO4 battery system.    The idea it can run most of the house appliances upto 3KW, if I can afford a good inverter.   I have used Victron gear this time round as used in marine environments.   Boy has this stuff come on, Bluetooth links and networks allow it to synchronise chargers and charge controllers.  I can monitor it all on an old Android tablet in comfort from the house, no need to venture out in fowl weather other than to strap the arrays down more.....

We are moving larger appliances to RV\marine type units.   Been a year in the planning and getting the majority of it together.  Just about got the timing perfect with everything going off now.  I have my fingers crossed we have enough capacity to run the workshop machines when work does pick up.   At least we will have some off grid power come what may, both getting much closer to retirement here so hope for a 20yr life span on the hard to reach parts.

Moved back into electronics repair as well, having kitted out my lab with last of meager savings.   Long time since I used those skills, but hope to keep more of my own gear running for longer this way.   Can even do surface mount stuff properly this time.   Most of all this has helped keep depression at bay, but now running low on cash and distractions.    Hope you guys are managing in these weird times.

              Joules
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Offline John Rudd

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2022, 03:12:29 PM »
Just before the bank holiday, I decided to check on our energy bills with current supplier….

Bad mistake…they had recently read the meters and charged us accordingly…Fortunately we are £200 plus in front…
Now here’s the rub…they are increasing our dd to over £170 pm, from £112…. :hammer:

Anyway, we went off in the caravan for a break as planned….We got back yesterday, straight on to BG….managed to get them to back down…..

But, after a quick run round the house turning everything off that’s not needed or in standby mode, I got the clamp on ammeter out….opened the box and started checking…..

The garage has 6 4’ fluey fittings, turned them on, ammeter went up by 2 amps….so that’s about 500 watts straight off….

Anyway upshot now is, anything not in use is switched off….garage is now down to 2 strip lights….can’t bring myself to do any work in there… turning/milling/welding/spraying all big hitters for energy….

So yeah, in all it’s depressing…
eccentric millionaire financed by 'er indoors
Location:  Backworth Newcastle

Skype: chippiejnr

Offline awemawson

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #2 on: September 01, 2022, 03:54:06 PM »
We were saying only this afternoon that we have enough wood stacked to heat our snug for four years and may have to withdraw into that one room only occasionally firing up the oil boiler to keep the damp at bay in the rest off the house.

Times are certainly going to be challenging - look out the woolly jumpers for winter  :bugeye:

Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline Joules

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #3 on: September 01, 2022, 04:01:35 PM »
No shortage of wool thanks Andrew.   :thumbup:

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Offline Pete49

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #4 on: September 01, 2022, 10:56:23 PM »
Climate change is the biggest con this century so far. Save money by putting in solar and the energy company loses money so up go prices. More pain to come when we rely on candles as we can't harvest whale oil. Farming insects is next on the list of goodies to come so no piggies or methane producing cows and sheep. Stop world I want to get off.
oops..........oh no.........blast now I need to redo it

Offline SwarfnStuff

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2022, 03:25:59 AM »
    Just had a read and noticed John Rudd's lighting uses 4' florescent tubes. Well, an easy option I found is to replace Fluorescent with L.E.D. and you will get (in my opinion anyway) plenty of light at way less energy consumption.
       Yeah, a bit of up front cost and I believe it is a good idea to remove the ballast if you can but there are little starter replacement thingies available to let you just do a remove and replace tubes as a start.  Electrical bods will have better info on eliminating the ballasts.

   My tiny playpen is well lit with 1 x 4' L.E.D. replacement plus a 2' over the work bench.
Just a thought.
Regards,
John B
Converting good metal into swarf sometimes ending up with something useful. ;-)

Offline tom osselton

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #6 on: September 02, 2022, 03:40:44 PM »
Apparently Trudeau is putting 8.5 million towards farming insects

Offline mtf70

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #7 on: September 02, 2022, 04:14:58 PM »
I bought myself a centenarian treadle lathe a few weeks back so I'll be able to turn, save on electricity and keep warm all at once  :thumbup:

Offline Joules

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #8 on: September 02, 2022, 04:49:22 PM »
Apparently Trudeau is putting 8.5 million towards farming insects

Does the man have no clue, insects can't drive farm machinery and harvest crops.   Typical looking for below minimum wage labour.
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Offline SwarfnStuff

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #9 on: September 03, 2022, 01:35:21 AM »
Apparently Trudeau is putting 8.5 million towards farming insects
Well, the French do eat snails and I have seen crickets etc being "farmed" for human consumption. So not out of the realm of possibility but doubt my brain would agree to eating a nice crunchy meal of crickets.
John B
Converting good metal into swarf sometimes ending up with something useful. ;-)

Offline hanermo

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #10 on: September 03, 2022, 02:10:25 PM »
Fwiw..
about a month ago we got our new proper PV array running, and it has an outstanding real-time monitor for PC and phone on power use.
Turn on anything, and You see how the power use jumps up.
Within 10 secs.

It turns our many of the roof halogen downlights have huge power consumption.

They should be about 2-8W, but some single lights and some strings consume 60W.
About 15x more !!!

I will be replacing all of them with new leds ...
but my message is that it might a a good idea to see if You can identify any similar power disasters.

Also, I have 8 long lights in the other workshop.
They consume 600 W alone !!

Comparison:
The whole place consumes about 600W in total, running a few PCs (mine with Very Big monitors, 130W) and 2 freezerz and 2 fridges.
The new 55" TV consumes just 30W, 1/4 of what the 32" HP monitors do.



Offline vtsteam

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #12 on: October 04, 2022, 11:41:00 AM »
We don't need to farm crickets here, they farm themselves. Haven't tried one, but the new puppy likes them and has become quite the hunter. She smells them out in the grass then pounces like a cat.

I wish they'd find a use for slugs, that's the main menace to our vegetable garden. Well woodchucks, too and squirrels in the peach and plum trees. Those I know you can eat, but just doesn't appeal to me. Turkeys walk through here regularly. And deer. I guess I'm just wasteful because I don't eat any of them.

Now fishing is a different matter. I wish I lived in a warm enough climate to do fish farming. That and a veggie garden would keep us self sufficient with food.

Yep, I also went to LED tubes in the shops, mine are wired straight without ballast. Wasn't that hard to do, but I only had 5 double fixtures to do, not 40.

As far as depression goes, I never figured we could depend on much out of society anyway, so never bought into a dependent or affluent lifestyle. Hardly any money in the bank ever, but lots of tractors, land, tools, and capabilities, and I built my own house. The only danger here in the states absolutely requiring mega-money is the potential for disastrous medical bills. To solve that, we keep our fingers crossed.

Cricket hunter:

 


I love it when a Plan B comes together!
Steve
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sDubB0-REg

Offline awemawson

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #13 on: October 04, 2022, 01:28:19 PM »
Love the puppy Steve - those great big eyes  :clap:

Now let's think constructively:

Cricket Soup
Compress of Cricket
Curried Cricket
Cricket fricassee
Flambe Cricket
Cricket Pate

The opportunities are endless   :lol:


Try this:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/eating-crickets#:~:text=Crickets%20are%20rich%20in%20protein,%2C%20and%20pork%20(%201%20).

Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline tom osselton

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #14 on: October 04, 2022, 03:09:29 PM »

Chocolate crickets on a stick, cricket m&m’s?   :D

Offline vtsteam

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #15 on: October 04, 2022, 03:40:41 PM »
I guess if a waiter served grasshopper in one of those dishes, Andrew, one could just yell out, "That's not cricket!"  :lol:

I suppose I will try cricket one of these days, just out of curiosity. I think one of the things these websites don't take into account re. reluctance to eat insects is, the fact that it's rare in modern society to eat any animal whole, guts, skeleton (or exoskeleton) and all in one mouthful..

Well not entirely. 'Twas a brave man who first ate an oyster.

Yeah, well then there's whitebait and sardines (mostly). So I guess it isn't entirely a taboo. And I suppose powdering and drying them makes it less obviously insect eyeballs and guts, and calling it flour makes it seem more familiar as food.

Now tell me this though, can you shear wool for clothing from them, or tan leather for shoes? Gelatin and glue from bones? Edible protein isn't everything. Do they eat briars and poison ivy to clear land like a goat? I'm thinking cricket milking is labor intensive for little tangible result, so what will happen to our cheeses, and cheese shops? It'll be Monty Python all over again! :bugeye:

In other news, Darlene is now 5 months older than that picture and 20 lbs instead of 6. She's a rescue(d) dog from a high-kill animal shelter in Alabama. She's half Dachshund and half Catahoula Leopard Dog (I hadn't heard of them either).

She's got a long body, a long neck, a long face and long legs. Even weirdly long toes. She's super fast, and can jump vertically straight up to your waist, with all 4 legs pointing down, just like she's been levitated. She seems to think she can fly, chasing sparrows, and jumping once off our 6 foot high porch to do so.

She's amazingly strong for a little dog. Possibly her cattle-herding background, but unmatched by her overall small size. If cows were 200 pounds, she'd knock them the way she wanted them to go. She's a very brave little dog, loves people, and unfortunately has absolutely no fear of anything. We love her dearly, but hope she won't kill herself in her future endeavors.

I love it when a Plan B comes together!
Steve
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sDubB0-REg

Offline awemawson

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #16 on: October 04, 2022, 04:26:23 PM »
I can't imagine life without a dog - ours are definitely pets and not working dogs and entirely part of the family.

It amuses me that often when our cottage guests ring up to arrange key collection they will apologise for their dog(s) in advance . . 'it's no trouble' . . . 'isn't noisy' . . . etc. I always tell them that I have NO problems with the dogs that visit, and only rarely do we have problems with the humans attached to them  :lol:

« Last Edit: October 05, 2022, 02:14:35 AM by awemawson »
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline vintageandclassicrepairs

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #17 on: October 04, 2022, 07:10:40 PM »
Hi All,
Great photo of the puppy, Please post a pic of her now?
A dogs company and faithful loyalty is a great way to keep the blues at bay
Our little Jack Russel is a little over 7 years old now but still a puppy at heart
She is the best intruder (visitor) alarm alive

John

Offline Pete W.

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #18 on: October 05, 2022, 05:47:57 AM »
My lovely but shy assistant and I have reluctantly decided that we're now too old to have a dog.  Well, we'd like the company but are too frail to commit to the required REGULAR exercise.  You can't switch a dog on and off to match your health profile, it's either 24/7 or not at all.  So, nowadays we make do with greeting the other people's dogs we meet (with the owners' permission first, of course.)

We've had four German Shepherds since we married in 2000.  Lovely dogs but there is a downside - one of them, when fully grown, used to jump on to the bed at 02:00 hours!

The dog in my thumbnail was 'Unity', a retired Guide Dog.  We gave her a new home when she was retired from her guiding duties at nearly 10 years of age.  She had served her working life on the outskirts of Glasgow and had a two-day journey to get from there to here (Hampshire, Southern England) in the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association's puppy van.  She had an over-night stop at their breeding centre at Leamington Spa.  She was with us until she reached 13½.  We gave her the best and loved her to bits but I don't think she ever quite accepted us as her 'proper' family!
Best regards,

Pete W.

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Offline modeng200023

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #19 on: October 05, 2022, 06:38:07 AM »
Pete, did you have any connection to the german shepperd rescue organisation Vigil?

John

Offline Pete W.

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #20 on: October 05, 2022, 08:26:31 AM »
Pete, did you have any connection to the german shepperd rescue organisation Vigil?

John

No, John,

Why do you ask?

Best regards,

Pete W.

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, you haven't seen the latest design change-note!

Offline modeng200023

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #21 on: October 05, 2022, 11:20:57 AM »
My cousin was the treasurer or secretary, not sure which of Vigil.

Also I like german shepherds.

John

Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #22 on: October 05, 2022, 01:45:04 PM »
...
Also I like german shepherds.
...

Me too! Plan on getting another soon...
Science is fun.

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Offline vtsteam

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #23 on: October 05, 2022, 04:15:30 PM »
Hi All,
Great photo of the puppy, Please post a pic of her now?
A dogs company and faithful loyalty is a great way to keep the blues at bay
Our little Jack Russel is a little over 7 years old now but still a puppy at heart
She is the best intruder (visitor) alarm alive

John

Okay, John, here she is.... in a few photos, because no one of them gives a clear impression of her shape.
 


She has longer front legs than a Dachshund, but retains the powerful digging front-end: a deep heavy "keel" breastbone and muscle structure. Dachshunds were designed to hunt badgers underground. There have been occasions sitting next to her on the couch where if I picked up a ball to throw it, she grabbed my arm with her two paws, not her mouth, and pulled it right down. Her grip and power is amazing for a 20 pound dog. It was like arm wrestling with a guy.

Her rear quarters are taller than her front. They look like a gazelle's, and work like them as well. She's an amazing jumper, and with her long legs and body her full gallop gait is about a meter long. Needless to say, she's faster than a speeding bullet!

This photo shows a better impression of how long she is, including her neck. To me she looks almost cat-like:

 


She loves to play. She can easily catch a carrot slice tossed to her while cooking, and if you throw even a tiny (6mm) bit of puppy kibble skittering across the floor she's after it and has caught it in mid air on the second bounce. I can't even see the darn thing, but she can.
 






I love it when a Plan B comes together!
Steve
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sDubB0-REg

Offline vintageandclassicrepairs

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Re: Ain't depression great
« Reply #24 on: October 05, 2022, 05:38:54 PM »
Hi  Vtsteam,
Thanks for the photo's, She looks Lovely

John