ArizonaRanch

  April 2018 Visit by rdpecken on Apr.26, 2018, under Communications I came up in April to get the Littlehouse ready for the warmer weather. When I checked my tractor, I found that the darned packrats had eaten the battery cable again!    Packrat Damage! I got some better rat poison on my next trip, and didn’t have further problems through the summer. Then I got a more permanent solution, which I will reveal in a couple of posts down the road… I also installed my weather station that I received as a Christmas gift in December. I placed the main sensors (Rainfall, Wind Speed, Wind Direction) out on the post that hold up my vertical antenna when it is not in use.  It has worked well this year, we are right at 12.73 inches total precipitation for the year. (I preloaded it with the current rainfall total up to April, since I was installing it late. I just averaged the totals from other stations nearby.) It’s nice to be able to log in real-time ...

  Gas Lines for the LittleHouse by rdpecken on Jan.18, 2017, under Gas Appliances We came up in late October to run some propane lines into the LittleHouse.  These are to feed a wall-mounted, direct-vent propane heater,  gas water heater, oven/stove, and possibly refrigerator. The house heater will be mounted on the North wall, near the northwest corner of the house. We hope to have solar radiant heating run under the floor throughout the house, but the propane will be our backup heating system. The other appliances are all located in the kitchen area, along the north wall of the kitchen. We started out by installing a manifold in the Northeast corner or the house.  There are two 6″ black pipe nipples installed on the back, along with two plugs on the unused ports on the back, and one plug on the unused port on the side. We also installed a gas valve at the inlet to the manifold. This is where the propane tank will tie in.  From there, ...

  More Solar Equipment Work by rdpecken on Apr.27, 2014, under Electrical I made it up to the Ranch on the weekend of April 11th. I had four goals on this trip: 1. Finish installing the solar panels and their equipment box 2. Open the place up after winter 3. Replace the water pump for the cabin 4. Collect pictures to support creation of a how-to guide for the Ranch Fans Installed in Solar bay I left Mesa on Friday and stopped at the well site in Seligman to fill up our 200 gallon water hauling tank. I verified that if the pump is shut off when you put in your coins for the actuator, you lose your money. So you need to remember to turn the pump switch ON before inserting your quarters. I also verified that you can feed it as many quarters as you need to pump the amount of water you need. It appears that there is now a $1.00 minimum to start the pump (used to be $0.75). $2.00 gets me about 220 gallons. So I guess about 30 gallons per quarter. So that has go...

  Solar Design by rdpecken on Jul.23, 2013, under Electrical We’re getting ready to finish up the Solar Installation this Fall. The Specs: Solar Array: 6 SW-230 Solar World Panels, 2 Strings of 3 at 90 volts: 1380 Watts Array Combiner Box: Midnight Solar MNPV-3 Charge Controller: Midnight Solar Classic 200 Batteries: 8 Crown CR-220 batteries in series: 48 volts at 220 Amp-Hours Inverter: Outback FX3048T – 48 volt, 3000 Watts Emergency generator: Honda EU2000i – 2000 Watt   LittleHouse Solar Design 4 comments for this entry (from previous blog site): wayne August 5th, 2013 on 5:53 pm Randy, I do have a spare 175 amp inverter breaker if you are interested @ a great price wayne Mike Cianciosi January 18th, 2014 on 7:34 pm are you as terrified as we are getting started- I thought this would be so easy get panels get our 2 rvs out on property to get started. get ...

  Solar Panel Installation by rdpecken on Mar.17, 2013, under Electrical Well, Spring is here, and it’s time to get back to work. For Spring Break this year, we came up to install a solar panel on the roof of the LittleHouse. Panels installed We got a pretty late start, because the Ranch had 6-8″ of snow over the weekend, and we didn’t want to fight the muddy roads coming in. I also had some testing to do at work that really couldn’t wait. So we ended up coming up on Wednesday, instead of the normal Saturday arrival. The good part is that the weather was perfect. Highs in the 70’s, lows in the 40’s. Warm, but cloudy sometimes on Friday and Saturday. On Thursday morning, we started planning the install. The first thing we found was that the supplier had shorted us by 4 clamps. So we had to redesign the clamp pattern to accommodate having a few less. I think we still have enough, but it sure gets frustrating. The next setback was my fault. When I ordered the cla...

  Building Porch Railings by rdpecken on Mar.18, 2012, under porch Over Spring Break this year, Tara & I headed up to build the porch railings on our front porch. Here is how we did it… Porch Railings We started with mostly 2×4’s, as the 2×2’s that were available were all very warped and crooked. We figured we could cut down the straight 2×4’s to create our 2×2 railings. 2x4 stock The first step was to cut the 12′ boards into 4 3′ boards, using our cutoff saw… Cutoff Saw     2x4's cut to 36" lengths Next, we spit each of these into two 2×2 pieces… Splitting 2x4's into 2x2's Next, we glued and screwed the 2×2 balusters into 1×2 tops and bottoms to create panels. Baluster sections A set of 2×4’s were attached to the house and vertical posts to serve as support and top banisters. The baluster sections were then screwed and glued between the top and bottom 2×4’s to create a railing section. Railings in place The end result turned out pretty nice… P...

  Building the Littlehouse Porch Roof by rdpecken on Oct.16, 2011, under porch We went up in mid-October to put a roof over the Littlehouse porch. Littlehouse Porch Roof in progress After a really late start on Friday, Oct 7th, we got up to a chilly Saturday morning to finally complete our roof install. It was about 27 degrees when we awoke, and the frost was melting off of the metal roof, and dripping down onto the deck. Brrr… Frost on the porch We started out by bolting some 4×4 posts upright, sitting on the beam beneath the porch. Porch Posts bolted to frame There are 7 posts, separated by 4 feet between each pair. Porch Posts Because we had to cut holes in the deck to put the posts down to the beam, we had to put some cripple studs under in some spots to support the deck boards where they were cut. Cripple Studs Once the posts were upright, our good neighbor Wayne K., and his wife Lisa stopped by to check on us.  Along with them was the other Wayne’s ...