If you've been following my blog, you about our float cabin on Powell Lake in Coastal BC. It's off-the-grid and we generate our own electricity using solar and wind power with a back-up gas generator for those short, cloudy winter days. We have chosen not to have television or Internet at our cabin, but we love to listen to the radio.

Wayne did some research last year and we purchased a CCRadioPlus from C. Crane Company as a Christmas present for ourselves. A newer model called the CCRadio-2 is now available. The CCRadio met all of our criteria and then some.

Some of it's features include:

• runs on AC or 4 “D” size batteries. We use NiMH rechargeable batteries that last for weeks at a time with lots of use.
• AM/FM with excellent reception and sound
• weather band
• headphone jack (Wayne loves to listen to late night CBC broadcasts)
• pre-set buttons for easy tuning of favourite stations
  

We are very happy with this product. We can "rock on" with our local SUN.FM or keep up with what's happening worldwide. And of course, the fact that it runs on rechargeable batteries makes it perfect for cabin living.

Do you have any rechargeable devices that you recommend for cabin living? Wayne and I would love to hear your suggestions. -- Margy

At the cabin we've learned to manage power. Our electrical system has grown from one solar panel to three, backed up by a wind generator (for stormy nights). We've also grown from two to ten deep cycle batteries to store the energy for cabin use. But it isn't enough, especially during these short cloudy winter days.

Consequently, we use alternative light sources for evenings. One is propane, but it isn't bright enough for reading. Thus, we turn to battery powered lights. But we were using lots of batteries and were concerned about both cost and the environment.

Now we use rechargeable reading lights. With bright LEDs they give plenty of light and have lots of power to last through long winter nights.

The first ones we got (on the left) were made by NexxTech from The Source in Powell River. We still like them best, but they're no longer available. This Christmas, Wayne and I (unknowingly) got each other new ones made by ReLight from Amazon. They have four LEDs and are OK, but aren't quite as bright.

So, if you're a reader and need a little extra light, go rechargeable and help our environment at the same time. -- Margy

When the days are short and the nights are long and dark, we like to have things around us that light up our life. For Christmas, I found some Aqua Glow Rubber Duckies for Wayne at Fred Meyers in Bellingham. Right now, they are lighting up our cabin window. This summer, they'll get to take a dip in the lake and light up the waves.

In the background you can see our solar powered LED Christmas lights. We like them so much, they grace our front porch all year long. With so little sunlight right now they only last about half an hour, but they are a bright spot to start a long dark night. What kinds of things do you use to light up your life? -- Margy

We try to rely on renewable solar and wind power, but on occasion we need a generator to give our batteries a good charge. If they drop too low, especially in the winter, it's very difficult to get them recharged enough to use our cabin electrical system.

Our gas-powered generator is an older portable Coleman. It has 1400 watts of output with two AC plugs and a set of DC cables. To be efficient, we make it work triple duty.

We connect the DC cables to a bank of deep-cycle storage batteries. Above, they are going to the bank in Wayne's remodeled boat. The DC charge is fast, in about two hours. It's a taper charger, so as the battery's charge increases, the generator's output decreases. This helps prevent overcharging.

At the same time, one of the AC outlets is used with a plug-in 12V slow trickle charger attached to our other battery bank in the cabin's electrical cabinet. A heavy-duty electrical cord allow us to place the generator next to one battery bank and charge the second bank at the same time. After two hours, the positions are swapped so that optimal charging occurs in both battery banks during the four hours on one tank of gas.

While charging is going on, we still want to use electrical devices in the cabin. An additional heavy-duty extension cord from the second AC plug bypasses the inverter and plugs the generator directly into the cabin's electrical system. This way we can recharge our portable Nautilus battery pack, computers, cell phones, gameboys and have lights without affecting our battery banks.

Managing power sources and needs during short winter days is a challenge, but one we enjoy. It allows us to live a simple lifestyle off the grid with a few comforts of home. -- Margy

November is very windy here in Coastal BC. Storms tune up in the Gulf of Alaska and march down the coast with very little respite in between. One blustery evening, Wayne and I were talking about improvements to our float cabin that have increased our quality of life. Little surprise, the top two relate to storms. One is the shock absorber system John invented for our anchor cables. The other is our wood stove chimney cap.

Last December, I shared a solution to our wood stove smoke blow back and downdraft problems. Our friend John found a wind protection chimney cap at RONA. As long as the wind was less than 15 kph (9 mph), our wood stove worked fine. But if a stiff breeze came up, especially a southeast wind, smoke was forced back down the chimney and into the cabin. It sometimes got so bad we had to stop using the stove (hard to do if there was wood burning) and start up our Big Buddy propane heater.

The solution was a GW Metal (Item #90142) 6" Revolving Weather Cap. GW Metal is a Canadian company and the Rona shelf name is Cap B Vent High Wind. The cost is $51.99 CAD plus taxes. Check your local home hardware store for a similar version.

Last week we had strong 24 kt (47 kph/29 mph) winds during a passing weather system. The result was much different than our previous chimney cap. After about six hours of strong, gusty winds, there was only one small blow back of smoke through the wood stove door. Here's a video of our new chimney cap in action.



The only problem we've encountered is some smoke escaping from the stove while lighting a fire during light breezes. Sometimes we use a long pole to manually move the cap to point into the wind. If it's a very light breeze, burning a twisted piece of newspaper under the smoke shelf before lighting the kindling is enough to start a draw up the chimney pipe. That usually does the trick.

So, if you are looking for a solution to a smokey wood stove, try a new Revolving Weather Cap. -- Margy

Last year Wayne and I purchased NOMA solar powered outdoor Christmas lights at Canadian Tire. They seemed perfect for our off the grid float cabin. We love colourful lights at night, especially at Christmas, but our supply of solar and wind generated electricity is limited, especially during the winter with low sun angles and short (often cloudy) days. So, solar powered Christmas lights seemed just the ticket for us.

I purchased a string of 50 lights (32 feet long) for $24.99 CAD. The white ones were $29.99, but I wanted the multicoloured ones anyway. The small solar panel can be mounted on a ground spike or attached to a wall. The lights use LED technology, so the amount of power needed is much less than traditional incandescent bulbs. The box said one day of solar charging would produce three nights of lights. That sounded too good to be true, but we thought it was worth a try.

The lights came fully charged, so the first night they lasted several hours as advertised. Because we aren't getting a full day of direct sun, they last about an hour or so each evening. The system has an auto start and shut off feature. There's also a manual switch on the back of the solar panel. This is important if you want to conserve energy.

We loved our lights so much that we moved them indoors for the summer. Wayne purchased a simple switch and wired it between the solar panel and the lights. Now we can turn them on and off from inside the house.

This year we purchased a second strand to go on the front porch. They probably aren't the best solution for city dwellers, but for us they are a welcome addition to our long dark winter nights. -- Margy

The next step in installing our new wood stove thermoelectric generator by TEGPower.com was setting up the water cooling system. Wayne has a background in physics (from college) and I was a school district technology director, but neither of us had the practical skills needed to easily complete the simple electrical "puzzle." Thanks to help and advice from John, and his father Ed, we had the confidence to give it a try. All the trial and error experiments made us feel a bit like Mr. (and Ms.) Wizard from our elementary school days.

First, we stopped at Canadian Tire to purchase some wire, connectors, a soldering gun (we haven't found a use for that yet) and a crimping tool. Wayne (lovingly nicknamed Wire Guy) did most of the thinking and wire work and I served as a sounding board and testing assistant. Because we live on a floating cabin, Ron from TEG suggested we draw our water directly from the cold lake that serves as the "foundation" for our home rather than using his standard recirculating cooling system. The colder the water, the more efficient the power generation.

We want to use all the generator's power to recharge our cabin's battery bank. So, we repurposed the 12-volt battery from my float garden watering system (don't need to water in winter) to run the water pump and plan to keep it charged with our 15-watt Eliminator solar panels. Since we have two, Wayne wired them in parallel for more charging power on the one battery. We don't know for if there'll be enough sunlight this time of year. We're still searching for a low amperage submersible pump that can raise water seven feet from the lake surface to the generator. Once that's solved, we'll be ready for actual operation. -- Margy

We are in the process of installing a brand new electrical generator at our float cabin on Powell Lake. So far we have several solar panels working alone and on two separate battery bank systems. We also have an AirX wind generator, but that only works when we have a storm system moving through. So our new thermoelectric generator system by TEGPower.com that works with our wood stove seems to be a perfect solution.

The first step to get ready for the system was to run electrical cable from the front of the cabin where the wood stove is located to the back of the cabin where the electrical panel and battery bank are located. Because we don't know much about electricity, our good friend John came over to give us a hand. Fortunately the weather isn't freezing yet.

We had some heavy duty cable left over from our wind generator installation, so that was perfect for the job. We don't have a basement, but there is a crawl space under the float deck that serves a similar purpose. After running the wire underneath, John prepared the two ends for connections. He also tied the cable up under the deck flooring for additional protection from the elements.

In the cabin, we had to drill a hole in the floor. Once the installation is complete, we'll seal the hole to keep out our resident mice. I'm sure they would love to come in where it's nice and warm. Now all we need is to get the rest of the generator components and get in installed. Stay tuned. -- Margy

If you live in Canada, you know Canadian Tire. Even small towns like Powell River have their own store. It's where you go for everything from gardening supplies to small appliances, oh, and of course, tires.

Lately, we've been using two Canadian Tire Eliminator products for extra power at our off the grid cabin, two 15 watt solar panels and a PowerBox 800 battery pack.

One nice thing about this 12 volt, 15 watt solar panel is its quick-connect plug that mates directly with the PowerBox. But it also has DC clips to use to charge other types of batteries. The regular price is $99 CAD, but watch for occasional sales. We mounted our panel on the same pole as our wind generator. At the bottom of the pole is a wooden case to house the battery pack during charging. This protects it from the elements (we do get our share of rain).

The PowerBox 800 is the most powerful of the four models. It has AC outlets and 28 amp-hours of stored energy when fully charged. There's also a built-in radio, light and alarm clock. If you want to use it as a booster pack for starting or charging a vehicle, it comes with its own cables. In addition to the direct connection for an Eliminator solar panel, it comes with an AC charger.

UPDATE: We've now owned two PowerBox 800s with problems. The first lasted two years before the inverter died. Last night, it's replacement had a malfunction in the charging system. Because they are sealed units, they can't be repaired. We couldn't find the receipt, but took it back to Canadian Tire anyway. Because we used our Canadian Tire credit card, they were able to search their computer records. They found it and the full amount was credited to our card without question. That's GREAT customer service! We still like our Eliminator solar panels, but have switched to a Nautilus Booster Pack. It doesn't include an internal inverter, but we feel that is one less thing to go wrong. We can easily plug our DC to AC car adapter inverter into the built-in DC outlet to run cabin devices. Plus, it gives us five more (33) amp-hours of stored energy. Regular price is $169 CAD but we got ours on sale for only $99, a 40% savings. I'll keep you posted about it's performance. -- Margy

Between our float cabin and the rock wall is a protected pool. In the summer, the water is warmed when the sun reflects off the dark rock, making a perfect, natural swimming pool.

And what would a swimming pool be without pool toys. This is our new one. It's called the Poolmate Utopia Lounge. Even though the water is still bone numbing cold, I can float around my pool on Utopia.


We purchased our Utopia online from Overton's for about $70 USD. I love the stablility and the durable nylon cover. Because the lake water is still cold, I've only used it in the chair configuration. If I cross my legs I can float around the pool without getting wet except for a bit of my butt. When summer arrives and the lake water warms, I can flip the padded seat out and use it in the lounge configuration while I float around and read on nice sunny days. And boy, am I'm really looking forward to that! -- Margy

They say, "Necessity is the mother of invention." I've written frequently about the wood stove that is the heart of our cabin, especially in winter. Over the years, we've learned a lot about living with a wood stove. Not all of those lessons have been easy. One of the most difficult was smoke blowing back into the cabin, especially during windy storms. One solution was the installation of a revolving weather chimney cap.

The cap works well, but only if creosote is cleaned from it's underside and the chimney pipe. Because we use our stove almost 24/7 during the winter, we find that we need to do that cleaning once a month. We pick a fairly warm day and let the fire die. First we disconnect the interior pipe and manually clean it's interior, paying special attention to the 90 degree turn through the cabin's wall.

Next, Wayne goes up on the roof to clean the chimney cap and exterior pipe. When our good friend John installed our new cap, he also installed a new section of outdoor pipe with a T-joint and a built in clean-out hatch. This really works well for cleaning the vertical pipe, but it actually makes it harder to clean out the exterior portion of the 90 degree turn as the pipe goes through the cabin wall.

Here's where my invention comes in. I call it my wood stove sock puppet. We needed a device that was flexible enough to feed through the bottom of the pipe and up into the 90 degree bend to scoop out the creosote. A bent wire coat hanger, an old sock and some twisties from bulk food bags were recycled into the perfect tool. Now our chimney pipe can be clean from top to bottom.

If you need to more information about troubleshooting wood stove issues and problems, try some of these websites. -- Margy

• www. Chimneys.com -- Woodstoves and Woodstove Problems
• BC Ministry of Environment -- Reducing Wood Stove Smoke
  
• The Wood Heat Organization -- especially All About Chimneys
  
• Famco -- not our new cap, but similar
• Volko Supply Online -- describes downdrafts and wind loading

Our float cabin in Hole in the Wall is off the grid. We use solar, but from October through March the amount of sunlight available for power generation is limited because our cabin is in a water filled valley. On the shortest day, "sunrise" over Goat Island is at 10:00 and "sunset" behind the trees on the other side of Hole is at 1:00. So, as you can see, even on a sunny day we can't store up much electricity in our batteries.

One day while walking through Canadian Tire we spotted an AirX wind generator. We thought it was worth a try. The AirX is a 400 watt wind generator manufactured by Southwest Windpower. The blades start turning at 8 mph, but power generation doesn't start until about 10 mph. To reach the 400 watt capacity, there needs to be a steady breeze of 28 mph. Two special features include a charge controller that stops power generation when the batteries reach full charge, and overspeed protection to prevent damage during high wind conditions.

We only get winds in the Hole during storms, but now that we use the wind for power generation you won't hear us complain too much. Now you'll hear us chant, "We're making power, we're making power!" We'll, at least until something is swept off the deck. Here's our AirX in action during a recent storm.



Do you generate your own power? I would be interested to hear about your experiences. - Margy

It's a known fact that plastic in freezing conditions will easily crack or shatter. My head knows this, but obviously my feet don't. We needed a replacement broom, but the only one at Canadian Tire had a metal handle with a plastic tip. Because the dock to our the boat was covered with snow and ice, I used the broom like a walking stick. When we got to the cabin, I again used the broom for balance. But when I stepped out, I landed right on it. SNAP!

Brand new broom with a broken plastic tip. I don't give up easily, but what should I do? I decided to whittle a round dowel rod that would fit inside the threaded plastic tip and up into the metal handle. After quite a few knife strokes I got the dowel finished. I filled the plastic tip with glue and hammered the rod inside. A nice tight fit.

Then I hammered the rod up into the metal handle and sealed it with some Super Glue (careful not to get any on my fingers). After an overnight dry it was ready. It may not survive heavy outdoor snow work, but it might last indoors for some carpet sweeping. At least I gave it my best try. I'll keep you posted. -- Margy

It's fall and the deer mice in Hole in the Wall are all looking for warm winter homes. When night falls, you can find them running outside the cabin walls, climbing on the picnic table and exploring our wood storage barrels. Wayne and I don't like to kill our animal neighbors, even mice. So we've decided on a catch and release program as ridiculous as it may sound.

We've been very lucky that mice haven't gotten into the cabin and we want to keep it that way. Earlier I shared about using a Havahart live trap to capture and relocate mice. It works fine, but at one mouse a night it could take a long time to get rid of the problem.

One night I couldn't sleep and came up with a brainstorm I call Margy's Mousie Mechanism. With this "better" mouse trap we can capture multiple mice in one night. The design is simple. It starts with a large plastic tub. We have lots of these around the cabin for a variety of purposes. Some scrap lumber was used to fashion a ramp and "diving board" into the tub. A few dabs of peanut butter completes the trap and it's ready to set up on the mouse trail along the cabin wall.

On the first night we caught three mice in one fell swoop. In the morning, they all got a quick boat ride to nearby sandy beach with lots of hidey-holes and natural food sources. A perfect place to build a warm winter home. That's much better than poison or a kill trap for sure. -- Margy

One thing we try to do at the cabin is use and reuse items to their fullest potential. Here is a recent example of making something from nothing. On a recent boat trip, our good friend John found an old black rubber float washed up on a beach. Upon inspection, this crustacean and algae encrusted discard was still watertight and able to float. John brought it home to us and Wayne transformed it into what we call "The Big Bobber."

A little elbow grease and paint, and now it looks like a huge red and white fishing bobber. We've also given it a place of importance at the end of our entrance boom. Now passing boaters can see our breakwater logs in the water (for safety reasons) and we can easily find our front "gate."

Do you reuse or repurpose old items? I invite you to share some of your stories with us. -- Margy

The Vancouver Aquarium was recently excited to announce the birth of a baby beluga whale on Tuesday, June 10. The new baby named Qila entered the world on live video for the world to watch. The Aquarium continues to have a live feed from the whales' tank so you can watch all the action.

In my post yesterday, I announced the "birth" of a whale of a different kind. The "birthing" process began with an empty propane tank that floated into Hole in the Wall. It was discovered by our good friend John. After a year without any claimants, he agreed to give it to us. It was extremely rusted, especially below the water line. Wayne's first task was to sand the entire tank to get rid of the loose rust particles and blisters.

The next step was to prepare the metal surface for painting. Fortunately, we found a half-priced can of metal primer at the local Rona store. They have a great section if "mistints" to choose from. Because we wanted to protect the entire tank from further corrosion, Wayne had to roll it over and tie it up to get at the bottom.

The next step was to paint the entire tank with a white base coat of rust-resistant paint. Because we had the primer underneath, no rust have leaked through. Once the white coat was dry, it was time to decide what to paint on the tank. We had several ideas: a submarine with waving passengers, a salmon, and even Ogopogo, the monster of deep lakes. The winning design was a fanciful whale.

Again using rust-resistent paint, Wayne coloured in the design until the form of the whale emerged. Painting while the tank was in the water was a little problematic, and periodic rains didn't help either. The left and right sides aren't exact duplicates, but that adds to the character of our whale.

Our newly "born" whale is now part of the boom in front of our cabin. He performs two important tasks. First, he welcomes passerbys to the Hole with a great big grin. Second, he helps cut down the wakes from their boats so that we can keep welcoming smiles on our faces as well.

We plan to let our new whale swim in the Hole all summer. Next year, he may go through a reincarnation and come out with a different look. Who knows, that sub may yet surface in the Hole. -- Margy