Well pump discussion.... Many people want to use the largest well pump they think is appropriate. But consider for a moment that the hardest thing on a pump is the start of a cycle. The philosphy should be to use a pump that pumps just as much water as you need in GPM and use as large of a pressure tank as you can afford. Let me give an exaggerated example: If you have a 1 gallon pressure tank, then each time you flush a toilet or run a drop of water in a sink, your pump will come on and off. It's hard on teh pump. But if you have a 100 gallon pressure tank, then your system can maintain pressure thru a few toilet flushes and the better part of a shower. Now your pump only runs about twice a day.

So if there comes a time to replace your submersible pump, think about how many hp you need and the answer may not be a bigger pump.

Radios in your neighborhood. If everyone has a FRS or GMRS radio, then coordinate with your neighbors to have a common channel. Since different manufacturers call the PL tones different things, you need to figure out in advance.

First thing to coordinate: The group channel. Pick a channel (frequency). Do NOT use a CTCSS or DCS squelch on this channel. This is where your radio should spend most of it's time. It will be the group coordination / call for help channel.

Second thing... each family should pick their own family channel and CTCSS or DCS code. If there's too much chatter on the group channel or you need to talk amongst your family, go to this channel, but do not turn your radio off. If I need you I may come to your channel and call you.

At the end of each day, reset your radio to the main group channel. Observe quiet time. Don't chat up the group channel after hours. The point here is we want as many neighbors as possible on the group channel with a quiet radio on their nightstand. If the SHTF in the middle of the night, you want to be able to summon the neighbors. This won't work if you chat with aunt susie about the pot luck dinner at 11pm and everyone just turns their radios off. Observe quiet time.

CTCSS and DCS tones do NOT encrypt your comms. Everyone can hear you. What they do accomplish is keep your radio quiet until someone with the same tone transmits.

In sum...
1)pick a group channel without a CTCSS or DCS tone.
2)Observe quiet hours after dark on the group channel
3)Default to putting your radio on the group channel
4)Coordinate with your neighbors so that each family gets their own combination of frequency and CTCSS / DCS tone.
5)Publish a list of families and corresponding frequencies. Use these to call your neighbor if you can't find them on the group channel.

Ham radio rigs have the ability to monitor two frequencies simultaneously, but most baofeng radios only have one receiver. They might say they can monitor two frequencies, but all they do is rapidly switch between the two frequencies on the display.

Simplex repeater: Put a radio in a good location with a simplex repeater connected to it. A simplex repeater is a voice recorder that records your radio transmission and then immediately retransmits it. Ideally, you will use a CTCSS or DCS tone on that radio and it will remain silent as long as you talk on the group channel mentioned above. But if you want to use the simplex repeater, just transmit using a PL tone that matches the CTCSS tone of the simplex repeater. It will spring to life and relay your comms to the rest of the group. Could be handy if you are out in the woods and not everyone can hear you.

Argentdata dot com sells one and I know the owner personally. Good stuff.

Simplex repeater https://www.argentdata.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=98

Something you’ll never see again… $10 brick of 22 LR

Solar success. A friend in Knoxville TN said the power went out today. He has panels stowed in his garage and his wife and he drug the panels out and she wired it all up. Used a Growatt 3kw inverter to back feed their panel box to run all the 120v in kitchen. Cooked lunch and ran the fridge all day.

Watch "Tactical Homesteading - Dairy Goats and Chickens" on YouTube
https://youtu.be/BcJ_AbOrQq8

The trifecta of heating and cooling. Insulation, thermal mass and minisplit. My cost for heating and air conditioning last year was $348 for the year. We do not have any supplemental heat source. The house in ICF with lots of insulation in the attic.

So on a funny note. We have two coops on opposite sides of the yard. So the newest coop has a rooster who's been getting more and more aggressive. He's attacked my wife and she enters the coop witha PVC pipe in hand to whack him. The rooster attacked my mother today and she went down to the coop seveal times today for hte hell of it just to chase him around with a flyswatter. I mean like "well I'm finished with this cup of coffee, I think it's time to whack the rooster". Then she chased him into an old pen we used for the goats and left the hens and another rooster out in the barn yard. He was pacing frantically along the goat pen and never realized he could fly UP. He has pecked (lol picked) on the wrong old lady this time.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ECWE4WC Here are super cheap FRS radios. They are SIMPLE to operate. Sure you can get a baofeng UV5R but it's far too easy to knock off frequency. These radios are so cheap you can gift them to the neighbors. You can change frequencies by turning the knob all the way clockwise and counting clicks to channel 16.

A few days ago I mentioned a group channel vs each neighbor having their own channel. It's worth pointing out that radios have a battery saver mode where they wake up every 2-5 seconds and check to see if the channel is in use. This greatly extends battery life. But if you have a radio scanning a bunch of frequencies, it can't take advantage of the battery saver. This is why a group frequency is good. You can monitor and save battery life.

Why not have the radio on two channels like I run a group channel and a family channel and then have a plug in one that constantly scans to save the batteries

A word about baofeng programming cables. Back when USB first came out, a company named Prolific released a USB to serial chip. THey forgot to read-protect the code on the chip and the chinese copied the hell out of it. So prolific asked windows to black list that chipset. But the chinese still sell them and they work with linux and mac but not with windows. So if you see a baofeng programming cable that's $5 it won't work with windows. Once you get to hte "high" price of $20 these cables use FDTI chipsets and they work like a dream.

How to build a rope ladder
https://redd.it/129js7v
@coolguides

I had a hiccup with my power company Duke /Progress last year where they stopped recording the power I sent them and said my net metering agreement had run out. (this is the short version). They continued to /not/ bill me for power until December when they discovered they hadn't billed me for power I'd bought... and they hadn't credited me for power I'd sold. They dinged me for $1200. I got yanked around by them and finally got the Public Service Commission involved and they fixed it. But I'm going to reconfigure my system to sell only a limited amont of power and only pull from the grid when I would otherwise need to run a generator. That shouldn't be too often.