And The Real Flex Fuel Vehicles Are...

(I've digressed in recent posts but not completely, this post talks about one way to really save money which is of paramount importance when running a farm or homestead).

Very unfortunately, it's too easy to be fooled (I regrettably speak from experience).  A notion that many accept without question is that there are things that are good for society that need promotional help, as in help from the "gubmit" in the form of subsidies.  But, at the same time we're not stupid.  If something makes our lives better and really does make sense economically, people on their on volition will choose those things for themselves.  Well, at least some always will but others will need help to see thru the fog created by propaganda.  Now brace yourself for the next paragraph, it won't make sense.

Passed by a "flex fuel" vehicle while burning "veggie."

Flex fuel vehicles are great, you can burn gasoline or ethanol.  Ethanol is cheaper at the pump because it's subsidized with our money and provides 10 to 20% less fuel economy.  So essentially burning ethanol over gas does not save you any money and the costs required to force this option on us make it much less economical than gasoline but it's really good for society.

Obviously this doesn't make any sense, so how can it be an accepted notion that ethanol is good?  Thank propaganda, yes, the old friend of fascists and communists (I know, sounds hard to believe).  Something that is inefficient and misallocates resources is posited as something good because some people's pockets are being lined with dough, and lots of it.

The good news is that real flex fuel vehicles exist, they're actually older diesels.  These things run on many types of vegetable oil (corn, soy and others) peanut oil, hydraulic fluid, transmission fluid and clean motor oil.

There are two ways to feed these older "flex fuel" vehicles.  One is with a mixture of diesel and the alternative fuel and another is with a separate tank for the "flex fuel."

Take this 1997 Mercedes E300 "flex fuel."  With a tank already filled with 80% veggie and 20% diesel, if I also carry five 5 gallon totes of used frying oil (and a 2.5 gallon can of diesel) in the trunk, I can go 1170 miles and arrive at my destination with half a tank to spare (I stop at rest stops, pour in a tote and then chase it with a half gallon of diesel).  The 2.5 gallons of diesel cost me $6.50.  $6.50 to go 1170 miles!  Conventional "flex fuel" vehicles can't achieve anything close to this unless the entire trip was coasting down the side of a mountain.

This is the trunk of the 1985 300D Mercedes.  It has a separate tank so it can burn pure veggie.  The tank heats the veggie so that its viscosity drops and it has the consistency of diesel (without heat, blending diesel with veggie does the same thing, but you have to increase your ratio depending on the temperature: during winter I wouldn't go higher than 50% veggie and 50% diesel into your main tank, and during the peak of summer I've done as much as 80% veggie and 20% diesel.  Aug. '16 edit: I now run 50/50 in summer and decided not to blend in the winter but that may change, I'm experimenting with adding gasoline to veggie).  So why haven't you heard of these flex fuels before?

Because I don't control vast amounts of used veggie oil and I don't have the dough to line the pockets of politicians.  If I did, the politicians would then pass "laws" to transfer wealth from you to me and my friends who use veggie.  Other reasons are because the merits of using veggie speak for themselves, nor is the market for used veggie "regulated" so it operates freely.  People voluntarily cooperate depending on what is in their best interest.  Restaurants have to dispose of the waste oil and in exchange for solving their problem I can save money.  The pocket lining is always done for industries that are not cost effective or do not offer obvious benefits so their owners must create a market with the help of "gubmit."  They're called "political entrepreneurs" and shouldn't be confused with real entrepreneurs who develop products and services that become popular simply because they improve people's lives.

Ethanol may seem cheap, but that price reduction at the pump costs us billions see here (usnews.com article on the ethanol lobby "Good News For Corn, Bad News for You").  "Hmmm, so instead of paying $2.32 per gallon and getting 20 mpg, I can pay $1.99 and get 16 mpg thanks to subsidies" (aka a euphemism for gubmit coerced wealth transfer from you to crony capitalists).

I started burning "veggie" in the 1985 300D with a separate tank a year ago at 211,000.  So 26,000 miles later I've consumed 929 gallons (fuel economy has averaged 28 mpg).  In the cold months I had to switch to the diesel tank until the engine reached operating temperature so I figure I've actually burned 837 gallons of veggie.  With an average price of 2.50 per gallon for diesel, I've saved $2,092 in one year.  But, veggie is not for everyone, it must be filtered, you need a place to stage it and you have to make arrangements with restaurants for pick up.

And it can be messy.

But very satisfying.  This is a video of the 1997 E300 going from 0 to 60. Hard to believe it's a non turbo.  Not only can you save a significant amount of money, you don't have to sacrifice performance.

Life is but a vapor ...and reminders from history

Recently I spent time with my father helping him organize things in the house he grew up in.  It turned out to be one of those experiences I'm going to remember for the rest of my life.  What stunned me was a palpable realization that life is a vapor.  All the things that are important to us now may likely mean nothing to others in the future (I know of one person whose father died and all his "stuff" ended up in a dumpster).  I never met my grandfather and my grandmother died in 2000.  Finding their personal effects was an eerie connection to the French side of my family that I had never known.  It's the closest thing to going back in time since so much from their lives is still in the house.  It's also been a small reminder of how important an accurate understanding of history is.  Most notably history informs us of what to beware of or avoid as we move into the future.  It also shows us where we've been victims of propaganda (my grandmother's 1938 hospital bill below is just one great example).

These are my French grandparents, Eugene was born in 1904 and Marguerite was born in 1905.

They were married in 1927 (this pic isn't that interesting especially if you can't read French, it's ok to move on to the next pic).

Here are their French passports, they came to the US in 1929.  I was told they came here because the French economy was so bad there was no work to be found.  Grandma obviously knew how to dress for the '20s.

Relatives already in the US had to attest that my grandparents would be self-sufficient and that they would "not become a charge to any State."  (I wonder what if any wealth redistribution existed back then, funny how the US economy grew enormously without it and thus benefited all by increasing everyone's standard of living, even the poor).

And they came at the right time.  On July 3rd 1926, sorely needed regulation of "the manufacture, renovation and sale of mattresses" in DC was approved.  Without this they would have had to sleep on bales of hay thanks to "laissez-faire."  (When I was in elementary school I was taught that "laissez-faire" caused the depression - a massive topic for a different post.)

And they got to work.  My grandfather was a chef and my grandmother was a housekeeper.  I found their letters of recommendation from the '30s and '40s from places like the Argentine Embassy and the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics. 

And then my dad showed up.  Room for one week: $15.75.  Baby care for one week: $5.25.  Delivery room: $12.  Laboratory: $3.

But one week wasn't enough.  Four additional days for mom and baby: $12.  Drugs: $0.80 (who needs a co-pay when it's only .80 cents!?).  Baby bed: $1.00.  Total for an 11 day hospital stay: $49.80.  (Sounds like an old Master Card commercial "and the ability of the free market to reduce costs? Priceless!")

Two years later after probably being tired of washing diapers by hand, I'm pretty sure that this 1940 Spindrier was purchased.

I think this is the receipt. The Spindrier is the only appliance in the house from the early 1940s, if so, they paid $110.  Interesting..., two years earlier an 11 day hospital stay cost $49.80.  Health care costs were clearly starting to get out of control!  Actually, when considering what an 11 day stay costs today compared to a modern washer and dryer it clearly illustrates how gubmit intervention always makes things unaffordable.  What most don't realize is that attempts to "regulate health care" (a euphemism for "limiting competition") began in the 1930s under FDR.  Since then, gubmit has done such a wonderful job that additional laws are required to make it "affordable."  I accidentally realized how thoroughly broken the system was when I discovered that paying a doctor cash for visits (without going thru the insurance red-tape) was less than my co-pays with insurance.  I soon jettisoned conventional health insurance and became a member of Samaritan Ministries.  For those who want to perpetuate freedom and understand that the current system is antithetical to everything our country is purported to stand for, Samaritan is the answer.

Here is my grandfather's return from 1943.  I've looked for pre-war ones but have found nothing yet.  I've read that the income tax was essentially rejected when first imposed in the teens, FDR later tried foisting it on the very wealthy in the 1930s with limited success.  War was finally used as the impetus to force widespread "participation" thru mandatory withholding in 1943. Note the words "victory tax return," in other words, if for no other reason, at least pay for the sake of victory.  And being from an occupied country, I suspect they were more than happy to.  But note how war erodes freedom - withholding had previously been rejected.  War is always used by central gubmits as an excuse to infringe on freedom and impose greater control.  The loss of freedom after 9/11 (the differences in banking, running a business or travel before and after are great examples) is not new.  Freedom as was intended by our country's founding documents has been a victim of every war - most notably the so-called "Civil War" (more on this in a future post).

They became US citizens on January 4th, 1944.

My dad's report card from 7th grade, dated 1951-52. I also saw his report cards from elementary school.  Many very useful subjects were taught but sex education (as I was subjected to) is nowhere to be found. How could society dispense with such an important subject? I guess I'm very fortunate to be here.

The Jean patches on the left remind me of "Tough Skins" made by Sears that my mom used to make me wear.  The knee patches were so tough that the material around them would wear out before the patch would show any fatigue.  It was like wearing pants with ballistic plates over your knees. Amazing, only .29 for something as tough as the ceramic plates that protected the space shuttle during re-entry.  The Registered Mail on the right is dated Nov. 18 1944 and only cost .23 cents. As of 2015, the costs for Registered Mail start at $12.20.  Another good reminder of the effects of money printing (aka "inflation").

Here is the paper my dad used to deliver when he was a kid.  This one is dated August of 1967. 

Interestingly in 1967 "negro" was part of the vernacular when referring to race but supposedly six years earlier in 1961 Ha waii was using "African" on certficates of birth?

I even found some more recent still in the plastic bag newspapers from 1998.  For a moment I imagined the incredible opportunity to freak people out.  I tried one on my brother in law.  When I went to visit him, I handed him a paper that I claimed to find on his driveway.  He eventually figured out where it came from.  But imagine - getting up a 6am and exchanging the papers of completely unsuspecting strangers with ones that are new, unopened and almost 20 years old.  I also found phone books still in the plastic from the same year.  Place a complementary phone book on their porch after swapping the paper.  I'd pay money to see the expression on someone's face.  They'd probably be halfway ready for work, wearing a bathrobe, slippers and looking forward to reading the news as they eat breakfast.  For the rest of their lives they would wonder what happened.

A Little More on Efficiency...

What is wrong with this picture?  It's a nice pasture with clover and a source of water but...

...the nearby source of water is not passive (with a little work it could be - but until then it requires effort, note the hose) and it's only accessible at one place in this ~15 acre paddock (and that makes rotational grazing harder to do).  In addition, the trough is low, cattle stand in it to cool down and it appears that some of them won't drink from it after it's too dirty.  Another significant issue is little to no shade.  The perimeter of this paddock is outside of the wood line so there is no way for the animals to escape from the sun by walking into the woods (in June it's already burning hot at 9am).  Perimeter fencing should be inside the wood line to allow animals access to shade (and other forages).

Another efficiency killer is the effort required to keep growth off of electrified high-tensile paddock perimeter (look closely and you'll see three wires, the bottom one is buried in grass).  An electric fence energizer positively charges the wire and negatively charges the ground the fence is on.  Animals are shocked when they close the connection between the fence and ground by allow the electicity to pass thru them from simply touching the wire.  When tall grass and weeds touch the wire it dissipates some of the charge and with enough growth the shock is not strong enough to convince the animals to stay in.  Weed whacking is time intensive, so in this pic the problem is solved by upping the voltage so that is reads 10,000 volts + (we've been getting 3 to 6kv under the conditions above and hope to upgrade the energizer).  10kv or more will slowly kill the grass and weeds that touch the wire.

And if your wire isn't "hot" enough, as soon as the livestock want to get to new pasture they'll move themselves and sometimes tangle your $90 reel of poly wire (we use poly woven with metal wire to sub-divide paddocks and high tensile for the perimeter).  Only a grandma that makes quilts will have the patience to untangle this mess.

And one more very important consideration.  Make sure you place your fencing outside of flood plains.  This pic shows what happens to high tensile when it's overcome by flash flooding.  It can also catch enough debris so that it eventually breaks.  This portion was perpendicular to the flow and was stretched, parallel portions faired better.  Definitely don't use woven wire...

...this is the "velociraptor rated" paddock shown in the last pic of the previous post that had lambs inside.  Note that the chicken coop floated and stopped when it hit this paddock.  If you must use a floodplain to pasture animals use high tensile in the preceding pic.  Woven wire captures small debris and allows resistance to build against the water flow, eventually causing the fence to topple.  At least with the high tensile posts usually won't get ripped out of the ground and in general it faired better.  So far all of the woven wire I've seen within a flood plane has completely failed (even with 4" steel "H" braced corner posts that were 3' into the ground).

What is wrong with this picture?  The first and obvious issue is that Sammy doesn't wear lipstick (look closely at the cup's brim).  Second, don't accept drinks from little kids (Calvin: "Whaaat?  You mean Sammy is just handing us random drinks he takes from strangers?")

Another important but overlooked aspect of farming is fashion, or more specifically color coordination. In this pic I'm wearing a T shirt appropriate for cutting a 55 gallon poly barrel for use as a water trough to...
 

...help solve the problem with the cows standing in the troughs (I haven't seen them stand in the narrow one that's on its side either).  Also note the 2" diameter hose.  The next best thing to a passive watering system (like something that gravity feeds water and is float activated) is a large diameter hose...

...but this is preferred.  Ponds at an elevation that is higher than the rest of the farm (this one is about 100' higher).  With plastic tubing, troughs with floats or nipples this pond can passively provide water for a number of animals.

A good reminder that life is harsh.  Imagine living before the industrial revolution and relying on your property for a large portion of your food.  We were looking forward to a lot of peaches this year until a storm came a few days ago.  Notice that it is still partially attached to the trunk.  I asked the boys to prop it up with a folding ladder to see if we can get some of the peaches to ripen.

Keena: "Hopefully this will work."

Efficiency Is Key

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before that "efficiency is key."  This post will illustrate why.  TJ and I discussed a cattle rotation plan and I thought we'd use an unused pasture to help maintain a winter reserve and possibly forego hay this year.  Problem is that particular pasture does not have a well nor a passive watering system but is in proximity to a river.  Since I thought I had a pretty smart idea the family created some partitions with electric wire and moved the cows in.

This part is to be expected, unrolling electric wire to create a temporary paddock.  One strand is sufficient for cows.

 

First mistake.  Since water infrastructure does not exist, how about putting troughs on a skid and moving them as the pasture is consumed?  Great idea, but now I'm dependent on something really big to tow with and...

 

something to fill the water troughs with, like a gas powered water pump.

Trinity is at the ingress end about to drop the hose into the river.

But... (or should I say "butt") the fence is still hot so TJ bent over and got shocked in the butt.  And then for some reason he used the fence meter to see how many volts bit him (which I think is the funny part, for me knowing it's hot is enough, I guess he's getting to the point where he can discern between a 6 or 4.5 kv shock).

Finally, got the pump working.  It is usually reliable but if you have a loose connection air will get in, or if you run out of gas - just more things to protract morning chores.  Not to mention this process takes time if all goes well, and when you add up the time required over months and years, you never want to implement something like this on a permanent basis.

Relying on equipment is never a good idea, avoid it whenever possible, the truck was on the way to pull the water trough to new pasture but... the water crossing was too high and I had to pull it out.

 

Or, there are those soft spots you've got to watch out for (I love our Toyota, all it needed was for something to drag it out so it could just keep going).

Besides getting stuck, parts break, like this intermediate drive shaft (new part is on the bottom).

 

Sure does feel good when it's finally installed and you're back in "bidness!"

Ultimately, paddock nirvana is the goal.  Look for how to incorporate natural sources of water (this stream is rocky and doesn't have banks that cattle will destroy) or a passive year round water system.  This pasture also has plenty of grass, a variety of forage and shade.  TJ made the decision to put them here after my great idea.

Now on to bonus material. We've also begun broilers for this year, except we're starting with smaller numbers.  Sammy can't wait to eat them (we actually recommend they be about seven weeks old and have spent a couple hours in the oven at 350 degrees).

We've also been given an opportunity to work with sheep.  In this pic we've finished corralling them in order to separate lambs from ewes.

Girl power shutting the recently separated lambs into a new paddock.  Tonya says she sleeps better knowing that this fencing is rated for Velociraptors.  Ain't nothing gettin in or outa that paddock!

Initial Pig Progress

Minor changes so far, besides the hat upgrade for Trins we've changed this activity to...

...bulk feed delivery, it saves $91 per ton (a "stop-gap" measure until we can get the pigs into bigger paddocks and save even more money after they are less dependent on feed)

"plus it tastes better"

Sammy making sure the pigs agree while assessing morale.

Cutting of surplus concrete grid reinforcement with bolt cutters to make additional temporary fencing.

They measure 16' x 8' and if cut in three sections you get 48 linear feet of fencing that is almost 3' high (sufficiently high to keep pigs in) but still heavy so as a bonus you get good exercise installing them.  These are going into the wood line so the pigs have access to shade (you need to offer them the means to cool down like in an area for them to wallow or shade since they don't sweat).

Once a new area is available, they don't waste any time entering it.  One immediately hears a slightly squeaky sound as they pull on grass and other plants with their mouths.

Here is portion of a long term paddock plan, still in draft.  Thought has been put into available forages, topology and efficiency - for example this area has a northern facing slope and for some reason is well disposed for huge oaks (which means these paddocks can be used for finishing the pigs on acorns in the fall), there is also a significant ravine on the north edge to be avoided (crossing ravines increases fencing costs in addition to engendering gaps) but I'm still able to define paddocks that are about 1 acre each.  The yellow lines are to be 20' removable gates to funnel pigs as needed and water troughs will be placed across the fencing that divides paddocks in order to maximize their use (as opposed to buying a trough for each paddock).

Now it's time for a break.  What's going on in the kitchen?

Get down from there! Can't focus on this post with plates dropping on the floor!

Where was I?  Oh yeah, about bees.  We had a visit from a bear (wasn't happy to find this).  Notice the comb has been scooped out and piled on the ground (it also left behind tracks).

All bee HOAs have now been upgraded to gated communities (used 16' x 8' grid cut into two sections, so fencing is 4' high), wrecked comb from the bear encounter is where it was originally dropped in the bottom right, the hive was put back together and now inside the fencing.  The resident bee keeper says it's not the honey that bears are after, apparently they like to munch on the brood.  A week later bees were still coming in and out of the damaged have.  I will be amazed if it survives, only 10-15% of the comb was left in it.