Thursday, March 30, 2006

solar conference and that list

i went to a solar conference yesterday in columbia missouri. it was great and energizing. the final round table panel was amazing. nothing really surprising except they had a booth show casing acetylene burning engines. allegedly, you can make acetylene from bio-mass and waste energy from the charcoal industry. there are charcoal plants everywhere but the scale of this implies that it would be an interim (like biodiesel) until another real solution can come along. the coolest thing is the fuel density. they plan to make calcium carbonate rods that are the fuel and spray them with water to make the acetylene on the fly. the danger would be minimized without storing high pressure explosive materials.

i met some very cool folks on the van ride up to columbia. we had many great conversations and generally a good time. there was a brief period that a few of us got a little motion sickness--curvy road.

we purchased the things that are labeled red today
from the "definitely" list.
--500 gallon propane re-fill pricey--we were out trying to find morel mushrooms when he arrived.
--table saw i bought it but it is back ordered for a couple of weeks--i can pick it up around the second week of april.
--new tires for car walmart had a good deal on tires but we had to hangout in walmart for two hours--yikes, i'm still not sure if it was worth it.
--chicken waterer kits (2) an online purchase. we also ordered our broiler chickens we'll expect them around may first.
kassiopeia finally got her social security card which means we can finally sort out our taxes. i talked to the irs and they said they'll send me the remainder of my return that they held back until we had ssn # proof.

i get to work doing timber frame construction tomorrow. i'll try to take photos.

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