The Don

Shade for the Fish Tank

2011-04-07T22:00:00.001-05:00

I built this temporary shade for the tank to help slow down the algae bloom.

fixing leaks

2011-04-07T21:38:00.001-05:00

I had an idea about the dripping leaks when the system runs and quits and drains. I decided to add a 45 degree fitting in the drain to stop the drips when it is nearly finished draining.

Update today

2011-04-05T20:22:00.001-05:00

This morning I decided to put a pressure control valve on the recycle line back into the Fish Tank and cut it back a little. Gives me more flow on the line to the Grow beds. Seems to work better. However I did have some leaks and lost about 10 or 12 inches of water in the tank. I tried to do more on the leaks and misses and drips. Still have too many misses and drips.
Went on a shopping trip and got some plants which are in the new photos.

I was asked why I decided to do this AquaPonic Garden in "Farm Country"? Well I don't think this is farm country. We hardly have good grass here. The dirt here in my area is so bad it nearly kills tomatoes plants if you don't do major improvement to the soil. My dirt garden is 4 years old and I finally gotten it to grow corn a reasonable height but the tomatoes still don't do well. If this Garden works Ill have vegatables that taste really good and be nutritious.

Pumping Water Now

2011-04-04T18:51:00.001-05:00

Now just look at all that water being circulated. Wow. I am happy and so sore I cant stand it. I set the timer for 30 on 30 off and went in for a shower. I am a little surprised at the low pressure in the spray bar as I was thinking it might be a lot but I can take off the caps and make one bed fill real fast and put the cap back on no problem. I have 20 barrels of gravel in the rack now. I have 4 more ready to put in but no gravel till the next trip and I need a break. I tired and sore.

Spray Bar and piping to pump

2011-04-04T18:46:00.001-05:00

Here we are seeing the Spray Bar and the pump Piping.

2011-04-04T18:44:00.001-05:00

This is a shot of the North side of the barrels which will someday be the center aisle.
See the drains.............

Spray bar and Gutters

2011-04-04T18:41:00.001-05:00

In this shot I finished the gutters and the spray bar on top. I put in some blocks to hold the
gutter up and put some screws in to hold the gutter in place. I need to get a longer gutter for the north side return but it got too late today to got get it.

Drains and overflows

2011-04-03T22:55:00.002-05:00

I have trouble getting the pictures in the right order so I will just do them one at a time.
this one shows the beds with water in and running out the drains. If you look carefully you can see the water running out the bottom.. in the gutter.

More pics

2011-04-03T22:46:00.003-05:00

Here is a shot of the Grow Beds from the far end from the tank. The beds closest to you need to be cleaned. They are full of sand. Forgot something in the rush to get this thing setup. I got some of the PVC fittings installed and used the small filter to pump water into 4 of the barrels on the south side. they fill and drain just fine. Hope they don't overflow too bad till I get all the tanks flowing. I really don't like the Plumbers tape holding up the drain gutter. Probly will do something I like better. Gotta get some more gutter also.

More work on the AP Project

2011-04-03T22:38:00.002-05:00

I nearly killed myself cleaning gravel for the Grow Beds. Got 9 clean and setup. I've got to make another trip to the PVC store so I can get water cycling in these beds.

Fixing the rack problem

2011-03-30T11:28:00.001-05:00

I noticed that the racks are starting to tilt in a bad way so I am going to fix that problem before it causes a disaster...

picture got lost

2011-03-22T11:34:00.001-05:00

First rack finished

2011-03-22T11:31:00.001-05:00

I finished the first rack and moved it to the garden area. I also put in the barrels. Hope to get gravel in them today and get the next rack started. Need it done by the 29th.

Building the racks for the barrels

2011-03-22T11:29:00.001-05:00

Aquaponics progress

2011-03-13T19:02:00.002-05:00

I have now gotten a pump and a float valve for the tank. Had
kinda nice day so I dug the hole for the tank and put it in the
hole. Little tough digging. It was like digging a well because
I hit water at about 15" deep. I just dug faster than the water
came in and finally got to about 24" deep and put the tank in
the hole. A couple of trys but it fit finally. Now I am filling the
tank with river water so the fish will have the enzymes that
is needed to start fish. The water is close so I just pumped
it in with my old system pump.

Beggining My Aquaponic Garden

2011-03-09T10:56:00.001-06:00

Here is the beginning of the new project. An Aqua Ponic Garden.
This tank is 1100gallons and will be sunk into the ground so only
about 5 or 6 inches will show.
Hope the water will hold this one in the ground. My previous garden
had problems when the water was pumped out to the garden the
tank would float up when it was wet. Arkansas gets soggy when it
rains. It is wet now so it is off to build the stands for the barrels.
I bought 24 barrels and will split them lengthwise to make gravel beds
with. Should make quite a garden.

Got a Gravel driveway

2010-05-07T09:40:00.001-05:00

A few days ago we had some gravel hauled in for a driveway. We
got tired of having to walk out when it rained. Works real good.

Finished the outside

2010-01-03T23:16:00.002-06:00

Ahh the last piece of trim and gutter was installed on the outside in this picture. Well almost. Need to put in a couple of pop rivits top hold the gutters on. But it is finished here. Will put down a gravel drive way to stop the mud from getting in so bad.

Doors

2009-11-03T13:09:00.001-06:00

Here it with doors. Altho the insulation is not there yet. It looks better with doors. Should keep out the water and the bugs.

Don Littlefield

Doors at last

2009-11-03T09:08:00.002-06:00

Finally got the doors delivered and installed them. Had a minor problem with the installation of the doors. The instructions say to use a light weight perforated angle iron to support the back of the door when it is in the open position. It was much too weak so we fabed a stronger angle iron bracket that works much better. Looks pretty good now. The doors they delivered did not have any insulation in them. So called again with more problems. The company is going to UPS the insulation and new springs for the extra weight. They are supposed to call with a delivery date some time today. Hope it isnt long on the delivery.

The last piece of gutter still is not here. I think is is suppose to be here this afternoon.

In the next few days we will go to Portland and Merle Point for a couple of weeks.

Building Electrical

2009-10-22T10:46:00.001-05:00

Hello again. I have finished putting in the electrical and am still waiting on the doors. Now to be delivered on Tuesday. The gutters have been installed mostly. One piece of the gutter was formed wrong and it is being replaced. I just got a call and it is to be delivered today in the rain. Must be the guy that came here before and had a hard time getting out of here with his truck. Said come to town for the item. He would not come to my place to deliver. More next time.
Don Littlefield

Electrical Stuff

2009-10-06T23:24:00.001-05:00

Lee and I went to Home Depot and got the electrical parts for the building yesterday. Now we have to put it up so we can have lights and power. Cool Huh.....

Today Jeannie and Doris went with me to Oklahoma City to get the gutters and downspouts for the building. Now we got lots of stuff to work with. Lots of fun now.

I finally got the info on the doors. they are to be delivered to Fort Smith on the 23rd. Then delivered here after that.

Don Littlefield

Building update

2009-09-27T09:19:00.001-05:00

I have ordered the rain gutters and downspouts to add to the building.
I did not think about them when I first ordered the building. They will make a big difference in the front. Right now the rain is digging at the foundation a little every time it rains. I will go pick up the gutters in OK city next week I think.

The problem with the doors seems to be resolved. They are going to replace the doors with ones built for a steel building. The ones they delivered are for a wooden building. They will be here some time after next week.

Door openers

2009-09-19T23:25:00.003-05:00

This time I have installed the door openers. When the correct doors arrive I can hook them up. I cant run the wires to the safety switches yet cause they run on the tracks which are not here yet. They are going to change them out for the Steel Building kind instead of the wood building. Just not the same at all. The track mounting is different and the door panels are not the same either. I bet the hardware is different also.

Found a leak in all this rain. When I got on top I found a screw loose and tightend it up and it stopped the leak. Of course it rained more to check the leak repair.

2009-09-10T09:29:00.003-05:00

Well here is a building without front doors. It is complete otherwise. Now we will have to do electrical. Need lights right. And work benches and move in all the stuff. Im going to start cleaning up the floor but it started raining before I got up today. Feels good to have it done.

2009-09-10T09:11:00.001-05:00

Here is the roof finished on the inside.

I better do some catching up here. We have made progress in the last few days. I will add some pics.We made a bit more progress here and got some skylights in.

2009-08-31T23:59:00.001-05:00

We put up 3 sheets more now and one skylight row. will take a break for a couple of days. Going to take Lee to Doc appointment in Houston. Suppose to rain anyway. Hope it doesnt mess things up while im gone.

2009-08-30T00:38:00.002-05:00

As you can see the first row was installed and we got out the second one and rolled it out and found that it was cut short by 2 1/2 inches. After the aggravation was calmed down we figured to add a piece on the sheet and continue. I really hope none of the rest are cut short like that. The roll was labeled as 43 feet but was only 41 so did not stretch far enough to reach to the walls. Oh well problems will always be there.

4 walls up

2009-08-29T07:27:00.003-05:00

Here we go. Nearly have completed the 4 walls here. They shorted me 4 pieces of trim for the top of the wall so can only do about a 1/3 of the roof till they get here. They were supposed to be shipped on the 26th and should have been here yesterday. I called and they got put off till Monday. It goes at the top edge of the front wall. Started working on the roof sheets getting them ready to put up yesterday.

better pic

2009-08-23T07:47:00.003-05:00

I did a little adjustment on this pic with photoshop. Lets see how it worked.

2009-08-22T14:12:00.002-05:00

Well here is the latest pic with two wall completed.

Here is the back wall going up. Still is not finished.

2009-08-20T00:22:00.004-05:00

Had to stop here for a rain. Sure slows down the progress
And some more the next day.

A few more sheets and some are even getting installed straight and smooth.
This is the first piece of insulation and the first sheet of metal on the siding. Well it was not too bad. The other side is in the shade so it is hard to see.

It is hard to put all the pics on the page at one time. Here is some more.

starting on insulatin and sheeting the outside

2009-08-20T00:01:00.003-05:00

Hey look at that, Im driving the forklift instead of fixing it. Much better way to use this one.
It is big and is hard to position real close to where you want it. Leaks lots less now anyway. Only is leaking from the Power stearing cylinder on one side now. I will have to fix that too I guess.
Hey that is Lee up the lift in this one. He is a great help doing this. This is the first steel building either of us has built so we have done some rework already.
Here is the view from up on top of the lift. Makes me look short Ha.........
Ok Ok lets get started. Now that you are up there. Looking down from up on the lift.

Most of the steel is up here in this one.
All thats left is the big door frames in this one.
Who is that guy and what does he want? Oh that is me again.

Saterday IT is a week today

2009-08-15T16:25:00.003-05:00

We started building the shop last Saturday and we finished the steel today, Saturday again. Will start the sheet metal this afternoon. Was lots of work but it is standing there now. A concrete slab and a skeleton of a shop. Another week and well have a building.

Tuesday at the shop

2009-08-12T07:28:00.001-05:00

Well we had a little scare when we got up to find it rained all night. Was worried about the insulation getting wet. That is a bad no no. Turned out the tarp and the plastic kept out most of the rain. We were able to get up more of the purlings on the rafters. That is the cross wise beams that the roof sheets will be screwed to. Work seems to go fast but the day goes faster. Just cant keep up with the clock.

Don Littlefield

More pics of the shop building

2009-08-11T01:22:00.002-05:00

The steel is nearly done. The rafters are up and the pearlings are getting started.
Now it started raining. I hope the insulation dont get to wet.

That is what it looks like at noon Monday. Wish I could get better shots.
This is out front of the trailer looking over the hydoponic garden toward the shop in an easterly direction.
On Friday morning all the parts came on a truck. The blue tarp is covering the insulation rolls. Our garden is behind the pickup and the chicken house is behind that. Our trailer is in the background on the left in the trees. That is looking west.

Gardening

2009-07-31T00:58:00.002-05:00

Here are some more pics of the Garden. There is the Corn patch behind the tire garden Beans.

You can see the Purple Hull Peas on the fence in the back. Cantaloupes in the middle and the Asparagus in the front. Hope the Asparagus will be ready to start eating next year. Takes at least three years to get old enough to eat.

Here is another tire garden of Green Beens.
Just look at the size of them peas and they are not ready yet. They will turn purple when ready. Looks good enough to eat now to me.
Jeannie and Lee did almost all of this garden because I was off working when it needed to be planted.

Gardening

2009-07-31T00:49:00.003-05:00

Today we gathered some of the corn from the garden. Got about 70 ears of corn and there is still some left to get later. Found bugs in the end of the ears. We picked most of the ones we thought had bugs. Turned out to be some kind of catapiller.

Getting Shop Started

2009-07-31T00:35:00.004-05:00

On July 23 I think the concrete guy came and started the forms for the slab. On the 25 they came and poured the slab. Lee took the picture for me as I was busy not thinking about it. He took on of the slab after they poured it also.

July 21

2009-07-21T18:35:00.003-05:00

The concrete guys called and said they would start my slab last Monday, and all week they have been working to get ready to pour the slab. Ive been watching the concrete guys setup my foundation forms. Ready to pour the concrete tomorrow if it is not too muddy. Rained here yesterday and last night, probably 2 or 3 inches at least. I should have about 3 weeks before the building arrives so the slab should be cured well.

2009-07-04T20:21:00.001-05:00

Lee built a smoker and we used it to make dinner a brisket for the 4th.
Turned out good. Doris and Dawn came also. Had a nice visit.

June 27

2009-06-28T23:44:00.002-05:00

Got the building ordered on Friday and the concrete slab ordered as well. Making progress.
Now have to wait. Maybe a month or 5 weeks till the concrete man does his thing. The building will be here in 6 weeks. I requested the finished concrete to be done so it can set 7 days before the building gets here to put up. I have found a forklift I can use to unload the truck and build the building but as usual I have to fix it first. Both lift cyclinders or shot so I have to rebuild them.

Today and yesterday I worked in the garden. Hope to get lots of goodies to eat out of this garden. Last year we did not get much since I was not here to do the owrk.......................

Home Again

2009-06-26T07:56:00.002-05:00

Well I have saved enough to start my shop building. I wont have to go do any more contracts I don't think. I am ordering a building 40 x 50. I am going to talk to the concrete man tomorrow to sign a contract with him for the slab and dirt work. The building should arrive here in 6 weeks. I will erect the building my self. Hope I can do it without problems. I am going to get to use a forklift for nearly free, got to rebuild the cylinders on the lift. Both are blown out. Will take pictures as I go if I can remember.

2009-06-07T17:52:00.002-05:00

Here I am in Anadarko Oklahoma. Never thought Id ever come back here again. My daughter Bonnie got married here a while back.
I have been working in a Power Plant doing the check out and now the startup. We have accomplished the first fire in the three gas turbines. They have F15 engines to run the generators. the small size allows them to be called peakers. The term is used for units that can be started and up to speed in 10 minutes. They are used at the peak times in summer and winter when power is needed for short times and at a moments notice.
A couple more weeks and Ill be home again. Hopefully to stay this time.
There is a lot of stuff that needs my attention at home so I better get back there soon. That will keep me off the streets for a while I hope.

New Job

2009-03-15T00:11:00.001-05:00

Well here we are again changing jobs. I got laid off in Victoria Texas on Tuesday and have to be in Anadarko Oklahoma on Monday. Got a couple of days home in the rain with Jeannie. Did not get much accomplished this time because of the rain. Looks like brother Larry is having good luck with the dingy problem. Winding up with another new one. Marcy is leaving Africa soon. Change is happening for everyone I guess.

2009-02-27T22:55:00.002-06:00

It seems like only yesterday I wrote the last entry. I received my windows xp recovery disk and installed it. Again I have windows. and the programs I am comfortable with. I had been trying to use the open office 2.4 Base but it crashed loosing everything I did, so I was disgusted with Linux again. Ill try to do better. I just dont know why it crashed. I had saved the work several times. When I tried to start the program next morning it said it was recovering from a crash and lost my data.
Don

Testing of the email

2009-02-14T20:46:00.001-06:00

Hi World,
I got to go see Larry in San Antonio while he was there. Really enjoyed seeing Larry and Trinda's family.
I decided to get one of them fancy external drives and try to load a version of Linux on it so I would have a dual boot system to play with. I had a minor problem though. I got mixed up some how and installed on my original hard drive loosing my stuff. I have tried to recover it but was useless. I called the Toshiba line and they are going to send me a new CD to recover with. In the mean time I have been experimenting on the Linux versions that a friend at work William has. We tried about 7 or 8 different ones and couldn't get them to work satisfactorily till I tried a version I got out of the latest Linux magazine Ubuntu. Seems to work ok. Now I got to learn how to use it effectively. Has lots of stuff to work with. One big problem is my mapping software is windows so I will have to find a replacement to work with my GPSMAP76 unit. I have gotten spoiled by having a good map to go anywhere with.
Since this is a test I better try it out.

The Boat Show in Corpus Christi

2009-01-25T22:24:00.000-06:00

Hi again,
Today I went to the boat show in Corpus Christi Texas. It was disappointing to me as it turned out to be a fishing boat show. All power boats and fishing equipment for the high dollar fisherman. I went with a friend (William) from work. We decided to go to the marina to find out when the next sail boat show will be. We found out that the next boat show will be at the City Marina in April so will probably be gone by then. Who knows.
While at the marina we found the replica of the ship NINA of Christopher Columbus tied up to the wharf. I took some pictures. The ship is in really bad shape like no one has been taking care of the ship at all. Sealer all pealing off and dry rot eating up the wood bad. Will try to add pictures later.
We found the aircraft carrier Lexington was there, and is a museum now. We went on the ship and had a good look around. Saw a lot but missed the engine room tho. Had an enjoyable day.
Don

2009-01-24T22:50:00.000-06:00

I saw a garden like this one in the Virgin Islands. I wanted to build one like it. I did not have any space to build on for a long time. I now live in a place where the ground is really bad for a garden. I wanted to have some good vegetables to eat, so I decided now is the time to build the garden. I decided to do a test garden first to make sure I could grow stuff before I really do a permanent one.

This setup is built with 7 pieces of 4" 10 foot PVC drain flashing pipes. I also used two 90's, 1 tee, and three caps. I bought a small water pump from Ace Hardware to pump the water. I also bought a plastic 55 gallon barrel for my nutrient tank. I used 14 building blocks standing on end to raise the pipes off the ground. I don't want to lean over to work on it. It is going to be easier to weed the garden with a weed eater.

I decided where to setup the garden. I needed a level or close to level place in full sun close to the water supply. The first image shows the layout of the garden.

I laid out the pipes so that there are three lines of pipe 20 feet long. On one end I cut the last pipe in half to get two five foot pieces. Cut the bell end off this one. All of these pipes are belled on one end so they slip together. I glued two pieces together for each run. I put the ends without the bells on toward the back. The elbows were glued on. The middle run gets the tee. Put the short pieces between the elbows and the tee. when these lines are glued together be sure they are straight and level so water will run through easily. This makes a fork like layout.

I laid the pipes out where I wanted the garden. I put the blocks along the side so I could level the blocks. I used a long level to set all the blocks to the same height. Then I put the pipes on top of the blocks. I cut the bells off the open end. I put the caps on the pipes without glue so I could clean it out or look in. I put them on with duct tape. I put a fitting in one cap to accept the garden hose in from the pump. That is where I took this photo.

I put some fittings together to make an automatic siphon to drain the garden back to the tank.

You can make layout a different if your space is not the same. You can use 7 or 8 pipes and use a 55 gallon barrel for your tank. The pump I bought was the 1/6 horsepower pump. It is a submersible pump with a garden hose fitting on top. I bought a Walmart timer to turn the pump on and off

New Job in Victoria Texas

2009-01-23T19:35:00.000-06:00

Well here it is January 23 of 2009. I still cant believe how far into the future we have come. I have started a new job in Victoria Texas. This is a place that has bought a gas turbine from the now defunct Enron company and moved it here to make electricity. The job I was on in Hobbs New Mexico had turbines number 2 and 3 from the same place. It turns out that this one is number 1 in that mess. I just found out that some of the others were purchased and left on the spot and are being set up to go where they are. This plant was a design of Edison and Tesla. They tell stories of the two being here for the start up in the 20,s. There is a picture of Edison on the wall in the main foyer.

Happy New Year

2009-01-03T01:03:00.000-06:00

January 2 already. My how time flies. I first started this blog when I returned from my trip with Larry on the KatieLee. I got sidetracked and did not keep it up. I think I will try to do something with it now. I am interested in Hydroponics. I have some pics of the hydroponic garden I constructed to do some testing to see if I could do it my self. Here is how it looks.

Ahh that worked. I can put up some more pics that show how it was built another day.

2008-12-22T11:23:00.000-06:00

Here is a picture of Boots the Cat. I hope he stays around a long while. He is one of the nicest cats I have ever known. He is nice to the kittens and plays with them nice also.

2008-12-21T19:53:00.000-06:00

Hello All
I'm trying to make a better blog. I started this a long time ago but got side tracked. I will try to post some pictures next.

Hydroponic Gardens

2007-10-13T06:58:00.000-05:00

Hello, Anyone interested in Hydroponics today?