Thinking, Aquaponics, Electronics

My too hard baskets brimeth over yet again.

I need to focus.

I have a stack of unfinished aquaponics things to do, and a stack of unfinished electronics projects spread all over the place.

Struggling with all the thinking aside, I just don't have enough minutes in a day.

Since my brush with being slightly unwell, I find there are exactly too few minutes in the day by 90.

To this end I've decided to simply stay awake for an extra 90 minutes each day.

I'll still sleep the same amount at the end of each "day", and I bet it wont make any difference to anything except the people I spontaneously call upon at "midday" two weeks from today.

I now officially work on a 25:30:00 clock.

I need to make a phone call to a very skilled guy from Switzerland.

I'm going to need a new watch.




Not enough minutes in the day? Just make some more and start doing 120 Things In 20 Years

Read More

Aquaponics - System expansion

I've been busy.

Now I'm tired.

My plan is to sit down.

More later.











120 Things in 20 years sometimes makes me do aquaponics system expansions.

Read More

Thinking - Personal theme Muzak, and the future of Humanity

In the future...

I like things that start with the words "In the future"...

In the future, people will carry, and secrete*, a personal soundtrack in much the same way that many people currently carry an artificial scent, making them either less stinky, more interestingly stinky, or sometimes just plain stinky.

My soundtrack will be the incessant tapping I do waiting for things from the Net to load. It's become such a part of my expression of "self", that I find myself doing it when in the company of anyone doing anything too slowly for my liking.

A canned version would help me notice just how impatient and irritating I've become.

Other options for different personality disorders might be...

• Nature, bird noises etc.
• Kittens purring 
• Dolphins making that sound I've never heard in all my time hanging out with dolphins
• The sound of Aquarius rising
• The girl from Ipanema (will inevitably be overused)
• A dripping tap, for people who feel they are not quite, or nowhere near irritating enough as they are.
• The romantic sounds of toenail clipping
• Death metal, for what ever reason death metal exists
• Road construction sounds, for people who think progress includes jack hammers, and the "TkerghhT"sound the talk switch makes on a two-way radio.
• Snoring, for people who are oddly reassured that their partners are still breathing
• Enya, because you can pretty much cut it anywhere and loop it back to the beginning and it will still make something like music, and people will generally be even more lazy in the future.
• Various tributes to Star Trek (still)
• That sound small dogs make that's a bit like an Ewok** when they're pretending to be giant predators gnawing on dinosaur/human bones after their planned uprising where they eat their overlords and gain access to the magic white box where all the cold food is kept..
• Some kind of music that you feel a connection with.
• Some kind of sound, or sounds that you feel express your personality, or feel a connection with.

Generally speaking, my prediction for the future is that it will be slightly more irritating, a tad naff, but generally a pretty interesting place to live.

I advocate continued existence, full participation, and secretly love the sound of someone else typing when I'm trying to get to sleep.

*Verb:	(of a cell, gland, or organ) Produce and discharge (a substance). <===This one Conceal; hide: "the assets had been secreted in Swiss bank accounts".<===Not this one
Synonyms:	conceal - hide - excrete - mask

**See Popular Culture



120 Things in 20 years, where I figure - If I go out on enough predictive limbs without thinking, and about thinking, one of them is bound to pay off, and grant great glory - unless my predictions are about personal theme Muzak, and the future of Humanity.

Read More

Aquaponics - My first capsicum

I successfully grew some capsicums.

They look like this, and there are plenty more on the way.

That's it really.

Just the capsicums.








120 Things in 20 years, bringing you my first aquaponics capsicum.

Read More

Aquaponics - Absurdly low energy system test result

I rigged something of a test to see if I could use my powerhead to create the zero head system I keep banging on about.

I'm not sure what the results mean.

It's very difficult to measure the flow when you can lift the pipe out of the water to check, but I think the test went some way to proving the concept.

When I turned on the pump I got around a 2.5 cm difference in water level between the grow bed and the the fish tank. I think that means that If I have a pipe joining the two, I should see all that head equal out. As it is I did have a pipe, but I suspect there was some air in it and I'm not sure how effective it was, but there was definitely flow.

Another major problem with my test is that I didnt want to break apart my powerhead. If I broke it and put the impeller into a tight fitting tube, I think I would move a LOT more water. As it was there was an inch of free space around the impeller where water could flow back past it the wrong way.




This video shows the pump being turned on at around 5seconds into the video, and it shifting 1cm deep of water from a completely full half blue barrel in 20 seconds.

So I think if I break the case off and commit to the design, I should be able to double my flow.

I made that double number up. Really I have no idea.

I think the flow I got was around 800LPH from a 12 watt powerhead, but as I said, there is a lot I can do to make it better.

for one thing, using a corrugated pipe is a bad idea, as is using siphons to go up and over rather than using bigger pipes directly connected. These were necessary because I didn't want to drill holes in the grow beds as I plan on using them differently.

I'll do some more tests, but for now I want to do a system expansion, and make a decent sized system that will feed us.



120 Things in 20 years, where we have industrial design standards, above which we will not go.

Read More

Aquaponics - Absurdly low energy system test

I started work on my absurdly low energy test system and it looks a little bit like this.

Actually it looks exactly like this, because this is it.

And that's all there is gong to be until tomorrow at least.

The grow media this time is a product from Germany called Hydroton. It's clay balls that are puffed up like popcorn and are really nice to work with.

They are very clean, so all they needed was a quick rinse rather than the hard work that washing scoria was all about.

They are also great to work with.

Scoria was very sharp, and hard on the hands, but this stuff is a very different story. You can push you hand right to the bottom of the grow bed. I'm surprised it's stable enough for tall plants, but it doesn't seem to pose any problems.

I've read that it can float for a while, and mine is sitting in a half full tub, so perhaps it will settle a bit in time.

Because I've been feeding close to the maximum my system would allow, I should be able to compare scoria to Hydroton from the point of view of the bacteria colony. If I cant double the feed within a few months, it means the scoria is better, it will be interesting to see.


120 Things in 20 years, where sometimes, eventually, stuff like an aquaponics, absurdly low energy system test can start to take shape.

Read More

Home made preserves - Latest batch of sun dried tomatoes

This sun drying tomatoes thing has become just another normal activity, and is a really easy and tasty thing to do with excess tomatoes.

Easy.
Child friendly.
Makes nice things to bring to people's houses when you visit.

Get tomatoes.
Cut them in half.
Quickly and un-carefully remove seeds
Put them in the sun.
Store in olive oil.
Eat







120 things in 20 years, blah blah Home made preserves - Latest batch of sun dried tomatoes

Read More