Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

But the goat poops (unless she gets into iced tea) are nice little rabbit-like pellets, so they don’t really track and the cow poops are easier to avoid than the cecal poop sitting on the steps! I gave up last year and just bought a little rug cleaner. Now sheep poop, that’s the worst it’s like a cecal poop but large dog sized, and crazy slippery, just big enough to really suck, but small enough to hide in tall grass makes chicken poops seem pleasant

She’s good! I don’t think I could be that elaborate about the subject of

 

[Kris5902]

Tell us about how you are running the heat plates off a battery? Is that a vehicle battery, lower left?

So lower left you will see a group 27 Marine/RV/Deepcycle 12 volt battery, it’s very similar to a car battery but there a difference in the thickness of the plates on the interior or something that allows them to be drawn down further for longer than your average starting battery (which is meant for a quick burst of power to start an engine and not a sustained load). I get about 5hours of heating with four eco glow 20 plates on a 300 watt inverter which is connected to alligator battery clamps. I do the same for my Diesel heater, and I wired clamps onto the trailer connections as well so it’s easier to swap out the batteries.

These batteries were previously hooked up to the Trailer and the 400 watt Solar System, but something needs tweaking there and I haven’t been getting enough power for the trailer for the last year or so. I’m going to re-wire the whole thing, but I think in finally disassembling the battery bank I may have found the culprit (one bad battery?, I’m going to try recharging it, topping it up, and testing it), but they are also 4 years old now, and quite possibly at the end of their life cycle. They were the cheapest biggest batteries I could source at Walmart when I got the solar panels. They need to be all the same age and size to function properly in a bank.

With the house I plan on upgrading to LiFePo4 (lithium) batteries with larger capacity and an approximate 10 year lifespan. Anyways, I have two intelligent battery chargers plugged in down at the farm in an outbuilding, and I charge them up down there and rotate batteries. The trailer, when it’s hooked up to the generator, also charges the battery hooked up to it, but it may be overcharging them as I tried wiring the heater directly into the light system and it was reading 24v! I’m not 100% sure about how the 12v wiring works with the shore power/generator, but I wasn’t expecting to see 24v running through the 12v light I removed to put in my camper project (so glad I re-wired that and know how it all works!)

 

[Kris5902]

She’s good! I don’t think I could be that elaborate about the subject of

Far too much experience with it at this point!

 

[micstrachan]

So lower left you will see a group 27 Marine/RV/Deepcycle 12 volt battery, it’s very similar to a car battery but there a difference in the thickness of the plates on the interior or something that allows them to be drawn down further for longer than your average starting battery (which is meant for a quick burst of power to start an engine and not a sustained load). I get about 5hours of heating with four eco glow 20 plates on a 300 watt inverter which is connected to alligator battery clamps. I do the same for my Diesel heater, and I wired clamps onto the trailer connections as well so it’s easier to swap out the batteries.

These batteries were previously hooked up to the Trailer and the 400 watt Solar System, but something needs tweaking there and I haven’t been getting enough power for the trailer for the last year or so. I’m going to re-wire the whole thing, but I think in finally disassembling the battery bank I may have found the culprit (one bad battery?, I’m going to try recharging it, topping it up, and testing it), but they are also 4 years old now, and quite possibly at the end of their life cycle. They were the cheapest biggest batteries I could source at Walmart when I got the solar panels. They need to be all the same age and size to function properly in a bank.

With the house I plan on upgrading to LiFePo4 (lithium) batteries with larger capacity and an approximate 10 year lifespan. Anyways, I have two intelligent battery chargers plugged in down at the farm in an outbuilding, and I charge them up down there and rotate batteries. The trailer, when it’s hooked up to the generator, also charges the battery hooked up to it, but it may be overcharging them as I tried wiring the heater directly into the light system and it was reading 24v! I’m not 100% sure about how the 12v wiring works with the shore power/generator, but I wasn’t expecting to see 24v running through the 12v light I removed to put in my camper project (so glad I re-wired that and know how it all works!)

You go, girl! Someday I really want to learn how the whole battery storage, charging, etc. works. I’m wondering about a wind turbine in addition to solar, too, even just a little one to charge up a single battery at a time. I have a single 100 watt Jackery panel and littke battery/invertor pack, but I’d like a larger one and they’re crazy expensive. If I understood how it worked, I could piece it together myself.

 

[Kris5902]

You go, girl! Someday I really want to learn how the whole battery storage, charging, etc. works. I’m wondering about a wind turbine in addition to solar, too, even just a little one to charge up a single battery at a time. I have a single 100 watt Jackery panel and littke battery/invertor pack, but I’d like a larger one and they’re crazy expensive. If I understood how it worked, I could piece it together myself.

We also have a small wind turbine for the house… a Christmas present from FIL, so when I get that darn roof on… the Jackery are great backup options, and they are so expensive because it really is an all in one, foolproof system. You could check out “Mobile Solar Power made easy” by William Errol Prowse IV (plus you have to love his name!) or his YouTube channel, although I find that a little harder to follow. Your Jackery is so nice and light because it uses the lithium Battery, which is where a lot of the cost comes in as well.

I plan on having essentially three separate sets of wiring in the house, a straight 12v for lighting and USB chargers, and one or two plugs running off an inverter in key locations from the battery bank for our TV and DVD as well as hopefully some small kitchen appliances. I will also install a full circuit per room on standard A/C which we can power with a generator on a 30 Amp breaker, so we will only be able to run one big appliance at a time, but there’s the potential for powering a washing machine, a dishwasher, and running a vacuum or other high draw appliance in each room. (Note this is Way below acceptable electrical code in most places, but I will never have a grid tie in at this location so it doesn’t really matter, as long as it is safe and meets our needs). Where Solar gets confusing to me is when you need to do a grid tie in system.

It was nice when we had the solar running at full capacity during the summer and we could watch 3 hours or more of DVD’s without having to use any gasoline. Now, the downside to my “alternative powering” of the heat plates is this (also consider as electrical talk tax) 9:30pm as I finished getting all the big chickens up and had to run down with the jeep to swap out my batteries on the charger down there, As I won’t leave a fire hazard running while I am away from the trailer. Between me turning the diesel heater off and putting up the bigs and coming back in for a couple odds and ends to take down, this is what they did. By the time I got back up an hour later from the round trip (hauling and swapping out 4 heavy batteries, filling 20 gallons of water, and starting a load of laundry) they had basically all settled into a soft fuzzy sleeping carpet in the same spot. Now I need to head out and turn off said generator!

 

[Ponypoor]

She’s good! I don’t think I could be that elaborate about the subject of

Yep Kris knows her

 

[Ponypoor]

We also have a small wind turbine for the house… a Christmas present from FIL, so when I get that darn roof on… the Jackery are great backup options, and they are so expensive because it really is an all in one, foolproof system. You could check out “Mobile Solar Power made easy” by William Errol Prowse IV (plus you have to love his name!) or his YouTube channel, although I find that a little harder to follow. Your Jackery is so nice and light because it uses the lithium Battery, which is where a lot of the cost comes in as well.

I plan on having essentially three separate sets of wiring in the house, a straight 12v for lighting and USB chargers, and one or two plugs running off an inverter in key locations from the battery bank for our TV and DVD as well as hopefully some small kitchen appliances. I will also install a full circuit per room on standard A/C which we can power with a generator on a 30 Amp breaker, so we will only be able to run one big appliance at a time, but there’s the potential for powering a washing machine, a dishwasher, and running a vacuum or other high draw appliance in each room. (Note this is Way below acceptable electrical code in most places, but I will never have a grid tie in at this location so it doesn’t really matter, as long as it is safe and meets our needs). Where Solar gets confusing to me is when you need to do a grid tie in system.

It was nice when we had the solar running at full capacity during the summer and we could watch 3 hours or more of DVD’s without having to use any gasoline. Now, the downside to my “alternative powering” of the heat plates is this (also consider as electrical talk tax) 9:30pm as I finished getting all the big chickens up and had to run down with the jeep to swap out my batteries on the charger down there, As I won’t leave a fire hazard running while I am away from the trailer. Between me turning the diesel heater off and putting up the bigs and coming back in for a couple odds and ends to take down, this is what they did. By the time I got back up an hour later from the round trip (hauling and swapping out 4 heavy batteries, filling 20 gallons of water, and starting a load of laundry) they had basically all settled into a soft fuzzy sleeping carpet in the same spot. Now I need to head out and turn off said generator!View attachment 3101973

I looked at solar for the barn, but it was so expensive for what I need so I have a power line from the house my only big draw is the water pump out there which is only used for about 15min a day. In winter I have a small radiant heater in my office/water/feedroom.

Do you have lights in your chicken coops?

 

[Ponypoor]

A glorious sunrise out there, and supposed to be a high of 28C (82F) woohoo!!!!

I will try for a Wednesday Chickie coffee cup pic

 

[BY Bob]

So, in other words...Toast was toast!

Toasted!

 

[BY Bob]

Great video! Wonderful to see buttercup digging!