first run with the lab hotplate

I set up the MSW inverter, which was actually a 700w unit rather than 400w as I’d remembered. It’s been in storage in the “basement” for a long while. I put the little hotplate on the Kill-a-Watt and it pulled 285-290w instead of the rated 330w; I’m glad to see that. I’m in float here

solar crockpot: red beans (no-soak)

I’ve been doing my dry beans in the pressure cooker to save fuel (30mins @ 10lbs), but cooking with excess solar uses no fuel at all. It turned out so good I’ll just stick with it. Some salt pork or bacon scraps in there would be nice… My mental arithmetic suggests we are trading time

dogbowl oven biscuit experiments 1 – 4

These were done back-to-back, allowing the oven to cool (and biscuits to be eaten) in between. I wanted to use a commodity biscuit rather than DIY to reduce variables.  I wanted plain cheap biscuits but Walmart is out, so I got their Great Value Jumbo biscuits. The instructions say: preheat to 350f,  bake 13-17mins, or

dogbowl oven shakedown run (preliminary temperature test)

I assembled the dogbowl oven and heated it gently to watch the internal air temps. This run was limited by my having only a food thermometer that maxxes at 220F. the gear the bowls listed I ordered off Amazon. I used the smaller cooking bowl since it was shorter and would not touch the temp

experiment: laboratory hot plate

[I’m stacking up experiment ideas faster than I can execute them. I’ll catch up, I promise. ] One of the Great Disappointments of van life so far is the realization that hotplates (and other simple resisitive heat sources) typically run at full power and only vary the duty cycle to control heat level. I’d love

ELP –> Socorro, NM –> Chamizal, NM

2nd shot I got the 2nd Moderna vaccine shot 9am Monday at the main VA hospital in ELP.   I didn’t know if I’d have a reaction, so I wanted to start moving to slightly cooler temps in advance. The move wouldn’t have been so time-sensitive but I broke my swamp cooler by inattention.  I had

experiment: jekyll static website engine

this is a technical note that will not interest most folks ——– When I moved virtual servers a few months ago I opted not to move over my existing domain and personal websites. Most of what I was writing was on the blog anyhow. I got involved in a backchannel conversation about static websites (sites

bread experiment #3

I am very happy with the existing bread, but did want to see if I could get it to rise more. For #3 I left yeast at 1g and let it bloom in 100def F water for 10mins. increased water by 10g to get a slightly wetter dough. I cooked on LO for 4 hours

solar upgrade assessment + overcast observations

The new-to-me 750w array has been in place about two weeks and I wanted to share some notes about that. But I wanted to wait for some overcast weather to stress-test the system. Et voila: There has been no blue sky, no sun, no shadows all day. The bank didn’t hit Vabs == 14.7v until

bread experiment #2

Kaylee’s original recipe (which I used for loaf #1) is: yeast 0.5g water 150g flour 200g salt 4g For this loaf I am doubling yeast to 1g with a pinch of sugar for starter, and increasing water to 155g. I will be letting it rise right in the crockpot. {next day} I cooked this loaf