Through the Wookie Glass...

[nimitzbrood]

March 18, 2009 11:18 AM 3/18/09

So I’ve decided that I don’t need a Bradley GT II for a while yet. It’s been one of my cars I’ve wanted to get for years and then convert to a hybrid. It’s light enough and it’s got enough space for batteries and a generator. But I can’t quite afford to do that yet.

I am likely going to buy insulation for the garage rafters though as that’s going to make working out there this summer considerably cooler as well as keeping it warmer in the winter. Maybe I won’t be spending an insane amount of money a month then.

Wish it wasn’t going to rain today. I’d have loved to ride the bike to work today but it t’was not to be. And it’s not going to be suitable riding weather the rest of the week it looks like.

(...)

I’m woolgathering again...

Tomorrow I get my one wisdom tooth yanked so hopefully I won’t be in pain a week from now. As I said before it truly is distracting.

Getting some of my sketches and notes together and hopefully I’ll be trying to build a few solar powered things this year. I’ve got a pack of 25 of the 7x10 Fresnel lenses and they focus to a fairly hot point even with minimal light. Still need to test a bunch of things.

Short post today so I can get some other things done at work...

Comments

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

Have you ever looked into some of the solar-power things you can do by covering an old umbrella frame with Mylar?

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

I've thought about it but if I'm going to go that route I'll likely get one of the 6' diameter old satellite dishes which are usually solid metal and cover that. It's small enough to fit in the yard somewhere but big enough for the larger power projects.

If I had more land I'd happily be rescuing the fair amount of old 10' or 12' satellite dishes that abound.

It does just occur to me that I have a Dish Network dish in the garage still that might prove interesting to experiment with. ;-)

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

Depending on what it's made of and/or whether it's painted, you might be able to just give it a good thorough polishing (and then probably a coat of clear lacquer). You also might find some useful ideas here (http://www.backyardnature.net/j/solardsh.htm).