Huichol page 36 June 28th - 29th trip
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I found a used outdoor switch box at a roadside
flea market (where a guy
parks his car and unloads the trunk contents onto the ground and passersby stop
and look at what he has) that houses the 12V motorcycle battery, the charge
controller which prevents the solar panel from overcharging the battery, and two
light switches which control the power to the north LEDS and south LEDS. An LED
is a light emitting diode which puts out a lot of light (and that is relative)
for a small energy consumption; in this case 2watts.
Control panel box is mounted in the north east
corner of the shelter. If you
look hard you can see where the solar panel bracket mounts to the 6"
truss U channel in the far right.
When we moved the women's kitchen (the trinchador that stores the dishes and pots and pans) and the sink and countertop to the south end of the shelter, the sink faucet then became 5' higher than the spring so gravity flow would no longer feed the faucet.
To solve that problem we installed a small 450
Liter storage tank at a
level approximately 15' above the faucet which will give about 7 psi
gravity pressure to the faucet. We also installed a small water pump
(which will run off the generator for about ten minutes every five or six
days) at a level below the kitchen area so the spring water would still
be gravity forced through it to prime it, that fills the smaller storage
tank
a couple times a week. We cutout a plastic waste basket with slots for
the pipes at each end so the pump itself is never in the rain. The water
going into this storage tank is filtered water from the larger 750 liter
storage tank we call the flywheel of the spring water. The spring flows a
little 24 hours a day but the spring hole holds little water itself; so the two
storage tanks provide sufficient capacity for all needs; especially for higher
immediate demands like showering and the neighbors coming in to fill 5
gallon containers, and some of these guys paddle in long distances just
to get the same drinking water you and I turn the faucet on for in our homes
that we take for granted every day. If we only realized how lucky we are
and the labors others go through just to get water.
The 1/2HP pump used to fill the 450L tank from the
750L tank.
When we got the little green boat, I made two
canoe paddles for it,
patterned off my Coleman canoe paddles. But I used 1/2" plywood for
the paddle part and the plywood came apart with time. So I bought a
good 8" wide board, had it planed down to 1/2" , bought some
more
grubenhoe handles, brought my sabre saw and hand held belt sander
along and taught canoe paddle building 101 so they could learn
how to make their own. Here Miguel uses the sabre saw to cut out the
paddle parts from the board. TeBrucio got stuck with using the wood rasp
to complete the gap in the handles for the paddle part to fit into and
we
ended up repairing the one paddle and making two more. The cost to
make a pair of paddles is like $4each for the handle part, $8 for a
good
8" wide board planed down which will make four paddle ends, and like
a
quarter of a dollar for the threaded rod and nuts that secures the paddle
part to the handle. They could make and sell these on the lake.
Miguel in orange and TeBrucio in blue finishing up on the paddles
After all the trips I've made there I finally
couldn't take it any longer
watching Katarino pack his bag of straw around that he slept on and
got him a good Costco foam sleeping pad. I think he dug it bigtime.
Installing new grommets in the big tarp to cover
the north end and northeast side of the shelter for when the monsoons are
blowing the rain in sideways.
That's the end of the tale for the next two
months. My goal was to help
get them started with a clean, useable water supply, get an outhouse
installed to protect the environment, a compost pile to make soil from
biodegradable peelings, a burn barrel for disposing of burnable waste in (we
pack out the non burnable waste), and a building big enough to house all
of
them and provide them with both a community center for themselves
sheltered from the scorching sun and heavy rainstorms, as well as to hold
evangelism meetings in and eventually a 3ABN satellite setup for the
neighbors to come in and learn about Yahweh with also. And we
accomplished that except for the satellite, which is promised to us free from www.adventistsat.com
when they put out their 12V system this year. What we WILL need from donations
is one to two grand to purchase a pair of 120W
electric solar panels to power up the satellite and TV that needs to go with it.
I also have a personal goal of getting them a
supply of ice from the sun.
On my last two trips I brought containers of ice with me (kinda selfish as I
reached the point I was not going to work in the hot sun any longer
without
cold water - about a month and half late in that decision) and it was a huge
hit.
Maybe this is stepping beyond the basics, but now it's time to dust off
some
of my special books on solar and dig into my solar work of the past, that
tells
us just how to accomplish this task. A heavily insulated box, a super saturated
salt brine solution to accomplish very low temperature liquid, using water as
the
heat exchange mechanism for the condensor coil instead of air - all these
things will be incorporated in this endeavor to make ice super efficiently.
The
big cost will be the 120W solar panel.
Their next phase is to let them build their own little individual adobe or rock
houses on the plateau and get them into some serious garden farming. Dago and I
feel that one of the biggest income sources for them would be to sell veggies to
the neighbors. I mean the nearest source is Cortina, only a 25 mile paddle away.
We have a great bulk seed resource in downtown
Guadalajara where seed is cheap and plentiful. It will be interesting to see if
they have sufficient motivation
to carry such a plan out. My next trip won't be until September when we return
from vacation. If Dago emails me pics of what he is doing in the meantime I will
post them.