Category Archives: Passion

Off road

For this episode of the passion blog, I’d like to talk about some basic off road driving techniques. I am by no means an off roader and I don’t really do it very often, but over the years I think I have acquired some technique for driving off road without getting stuck or breaking anything.

Even if you consider yourself a pavement pounder, practically everyone must drive their vehicle off road every once in a while. Often, larger venues like a stadium or something of that nature will have a grass parking lot, which could become hazardous under certain conditions.

I’d just like to tell a few stories about some interesting experiences I’ve had. When I was around 14 or 15 my dad started letting me drive trucks around the orchard just to practice driving and also to make me more productive. One of the first vehicles I drove was a 2001 Chevy S-10, 2 wheel drive truck. One afternoon after school I was hauling a load of scrap metal to sort into collection bins. It had rained for the past few days and consequently, the grass I had to drive over to get to the pile had become quite slick. Unfortunately, I slid the truck down the hill and got stuck at the bottom. After trying in vain to gain traction I had to make an embarrassing request to my dad to pull me out. He attached a chain to the hitch of his truck and to the front bumper of the S-10 and pulled it out with ease. There were a few teachable moments for me that day. The first thing I learned was that slick hills are very difficult to traverse. Never go down a slick hill if you don’t have to. (Ironically, the other time I had to call my dad to pull me out was at the bottom of a snowy hill.) Although this may be intuitive, it is very easy to go downhill, even if it is slippery, but it is not so easy to climb a slick hill. That being said, always try to stay on the uphill side of any off road situation, be it parking lot or otherwise.

Another off road story of mine happened last summer while I was driving a dump truck towing a chipper. The truck was a 2000 F 550 with a stake body and four wheel drive. Since I was pulling a trailer, I had a much larger turning radius, meaning that I needed a lot of room to make a u turn. I turned the wrong way down the road and so I attempted to make a turn in a grass parking lot at a church. I start my wide turn and quickly begin sliding sideways, chipper and all. I stopped as soon as I could and locked in 4×4. After going forward and backward and working the steering every which way, I finally got out of the mud but of course I completely tore up the parking lot and made huge ruts. The big thing I learned here was that it never hurts to check the ground you are about to drive on because it could be very soft, even if it does not appear to be muddy. Also, I learned that even if you have four wheel drive and don’t get stuck on soft soil, you are liable to leave unsightly ruts.

Although driving off road can be quite the adventure, my best advice is to stay on top of hills and avoid soft ground because both are major contributors to getting stuck.

Flat Tires

For today’s passion blog, I would like to talk about fixing flat tires. Although I mastered this skill while on the job at Highland orchards, my first opportunity to fix a flat tire came in my younger years when I popped a bike tire. Consequently, my dad showed me how to go about patching it.

The first thing to mention is that there are two major types of pneumatic (air filled) tires you will run into. The first is the tubeless tire. This is the standard for cars and all down the road vehicles. This just means that the only parts are the tire and the steel/aluminum wheel. The next type is tube tires. These have a tire, inflatable inner tube, and a steel or aluminum wheel. These are found on tractors and bicycles for the most part.

Each type must be fixed differently. Since I learned tube tires first, I’ll talk about them first. The first step to fixing a flat tube tire is to find if there is a nail or screw or something in the tire. If there is, remove it. Next, remove the rubber tire from the rim. This is accomplished with a large flathead screwdriver or a specially made tire iron. Once it is removed, then take off the thin rubber inner tube. If the hole is not obvious, inflate the inner tube and spray it with soapy water. The air leaking will create bubbles at the leak site. If the hole is larger half an inch then the tube should just be replaced. Otherwise, clean the area around the hole, wipe with alcohol, and then apply rubber cement. After that, press on a rubber patch. Then use a roller press down and remove all air from the between the patch and tube. Now the tire is ready to re assemble.

For a tubeless tire, you can jump right to finding the leak. Look for nails/screws sticking out of the tire, and spray on soapy water if it is still not obvious. Once you have found the problem area, remove the nail or screw if applicable. If the hole is anywhere on the sidewall of the tire it should not be fixed but rather replaced. If the hole is on the tread, start by driving the reaming tool in and out of the hole to make it the correct diameter. It may seem counterintuitive to make the hole larger, but it is necessary to fit the plug. Once the hole is reamed, apply glue to the plug (it reminds me of a slim jim) and push it into the hole with the special tool, which works much like a large sewing needle.  Then simply pull the tool out and the plug is set. Trim the excess plug material and then inflate the tire. Once you are sure the leak is stopped, you are good to go!

Patching tires can save a lot of money. I bought a patch kit for $5 or less at Harbor freight (great store for cheap tools/materials) and patched my truck tire, which would have cost $100 or more to replace.

Fiberglass

Fiberglass is a fairly common material in everyday life. It is used to make boats, ladders, tanks, and insulation just to name a few examples. Although it has been replaced by plastic in some applications, it remains relevant because of its strength and ease of patching/forming. Fiberglass is basically a mix of two things: fibers and resin.

The fibers are about the width of floss, and come in the form of a cloth like mesh. In this state, the cloth is very flexible and can be shaped in any way. The beauty of fiberglass is that first you shape the cloth, and then using the resin, it will harden and stay in that shape. The resin can be imagined as glue that dries very hard.

The first time I used fiberglass was actually for one of my own projects. I bought an old sailboat and it happed to have a hole in the hull. Of course, boat don’t work very well if they start to sink, as I figured out when I was testing it for the first time. Since the boat was made of fiberglass, it was fairly simple to patch it with fiberglass. The hole was about the size of a quarter.

The first thing to do when patching with fiberglass is to roughly sand around the perimeter of the hole. This is to get rid of the “gel coat”, which is a glorified paint on top of the fiberglass. It is essential to sand this off so that that the new fiberglass will bond to the old fibers, and it will make the final patch smooth.

Once the area around the hole was prepared, the next step is to cut out a piece of cloth to patch the hole. It should be larger than the hole on all sides so it has material to grab on to when it solidifies. After the cloth is ready, you need to mix the resin. Like many adhesives, it comes in two parts. In this case, there is resin, which reminds me of syrup, and then hardener. It is important to wear rubber gloves and be very careful with the chemicals because they will stick to your hands for days and permanently stain clothes. After you mix the two together you then saturate the cloth with the mixture, and then press it onto the sanded area, covering the hole. To make sure it sticks properly, you must press all of the air pockets out with a stick or a roller.

Fiberglass usually takes a couple of hours to dry completely, depending on the ratio of hardener and resin. Once it is dry, you just sand it down and apply another layer using the same procedure as last time. This process of adding layers makes the patch very strong. Once you are satisfied with the patch, it is very easy to sand it down and paint/gelcoat it to blend with the rest of the object.

I find fiberglass to be a very useful material because it allows you to add thin shells in any shape you want, without needing complex tools. It is waterproof, will not rot, and is reasonably strong.

Solar Collector

On this episode of what I learned at Highland Orchards, I want to talk about solar panels. Although some of the workers joke that the business is killing the environment since we burn wood stoves and have a lot of fuel guzzling heavy equipment, we do in fact have a small solar array to heat water.

Most often when you think about or notice solar panels, they are made to produce electricity. However, the ones we have use the suns radiant thermal energy to heat water for the bakery and convenience store. Unfortunately, last summer it stopped working and I was tasked to fix it.

The system has three major parts. The most obvious is the solar array. The solar panels sit on a roof, sloped to the south for maximum sunlight. These panels are simply a snake of black pipes that go through a glass faced box. The pipes go from one end of the box to the other, turn around and come back, repeated until the box is full. The point of this is to provide maximum surface area for the sun to reach the pipes. The next important part of the system is a pump. The pump drives the water through the array and to the final major piece. The heat exchanger transfers heat energy from the water warmed by the array to the supply of domestic water destined for the conventional water heater. The reason for this is the water that goes through the array is treated with nontoxic antifreeze, and is unfavorable for consumption (the antifreeze water is in a closed loop).  The domestic water goes into the heat exchanger at a relatively constant 55 degrees (from a well) and leaves at a higher temperature, say 80 degrees on a reasonably warm day. The water then goes to the conventional domestic water heater, which brings the water up to the desired temperature. Thus, the solar collector makes the water heater’s job easier, saving energy.

Although this may sound simple, there are several complicating factors that make operation less robust. The first time I had to repair the system, I replaced the control panel. This component turns the pump on and off depending on the temperature of the panels. If it is really cold (like right now) the pump won’t run because it would actually cool the water. The next problem I fixed was letting air out of the line. Air is less dense than water and therefore, when water entered the system, it rose to the roof. This air pocket grew in size over time and eventually prevented water from flowing through the panels, as it formed something called an airlock. It wasn’t until after replacing a few sections of pipe and adding a new pump we determined that the airlock was the issue. To solve the problem, we open a valve on the roof and let the air out. This works much like a “spit valve” for any brass instrument players out there

Load em Up

One simple yet important skill I learned by working at Highland Orchards is how to load a truck. Although it may sound really simple, there is actually a lot to know before you haul a load on your truck (or car).

I’d like to start with a few stories of my hauling successes and failures. My truck is a 1999 Ford Ranger, which is a pretty small truck. To fit more stuff in the bed, it has plywood sides and a ladder rack. One of my frequent jobs at work is to make Home Depot or Lowes runs to get lumber or any other random thing on the list. One time, I was picking up some 2×4’s and other assorted lumber for a project. I loaded it up like I always do and drove away. In my haste I forgot to tighten the front strap around the lumber and before I even made it out of the parking lot, my load was all over the pavement. I was very embarrassed, hoping no one saw me, as I quickly reloaded the wood and tied it down. This brings me to my first point. Whenever you have a load tied to the top of your vehicle, make sure you tie it down in at least 2 places. Also, one good test of security is to grasp the load and pull it back and forth. The whole suspension of the vehicle should move, as though the load was part of the truck.

Legally, any loose load like sticks or trash or leaves must be tarped. This is very important because the last thing you want is to break the windshield behind you. Once, I was hauling some junk from someone’s house with my dad. The truck was filled to capacity, and as we were going down the road, a flat piece of plastic flew out of the back. Luckily, there were no cars around to be hit when it flew out, and we were able to recover the plastic without doing any damage. Things with large surface areas and low density like cardboard, plastic or otherwise have a pretty good chance at blowing out if not tarped or otherwise secured.

How much is too much? People always try to get the most out of their vehicle and load it to capacity. It is perfectly legal to load things higher than the vehicle, and it is legal to have your load stick out the back of your vehicle if you tie a marker flag to it. In terms of weight, every vehicle has a legal load capacity, but it is practically impossible to know how much it weighs without a scale. An overloaded vehicle is harder to steer and stop, and it is hard on the suspension. One simple way to tell if your vehicle is overloaded is to look at the rear leaf springs (these attach the axel to the frame). Without a load, the springs turn up like a smile. Under heavy load, they flatten out and sometimes if really overloaded, turn down like a frown.

Unloaded leaf spring

Household Wiring

Currently, we live in a society driven by electrical energy. I would be shocked (haha) if anyone in this room chose to live without electricity for any major part of their life. Electricity has the ability to control finite machines like the computer I am typing on, and also has the ability to drive the massive trains used for public transportation. Probably the most significant version of electricity in our daily lives is household current. I have been able to learn a great deal about household electrical supply through my job at Highland Orchards.

I aim to describe in a practical manner how electricity gets from the power lines to your wall outlet. To be quite honest, I don’t understand all of the science behind it, but for the most part, it doesn’t take much scientific knowledge to gain a working grasp.

How does electricity get to the home?

Electricity runs in aluminum “high tension” wires from a power plant generator at a high voltage. (at one point in time people called voltage “tension”) Before entering the home, the electricity goes through a transformer (things that look like buckets on a telephone pole) which drops the voltage to household voltage.

These wires go through a meter and then into your house, specifically, to the breaker box. Breakers replaced fuses, and their job is to cut off power supply anytime the circuit connected to it becomes overloaded or shorts out (electricity leaves a wire when it’s not supposed to). Unlike fuses which are one use only, breakers can be “trip” and then be turned on again just like a light switch. There exists a breaker for each circuit in the house, so a series of receptacles and lights in a given room may be on one circuit. Turning off a breaker allows electricians to isolate a problem and work on wires safely without being shocked.

There are three different types of wires in a given house: Hot, neutral, and ground. Hot is designated by black or red insulation, neutral by white, and ground is bare wire or green. The ground wires all link together and are actually “grounded” which means they are attached to a 5 or 6 foot copper clad steel rod that is driven into the ground near your house. All three types of wires in your house are made of copper, because it resists corrosion and is stable. For some period of time in the 60’s and 70’s some aluminum wiring was used (mostly in mobile homes) and proved to be very dangerous because it can actually explode.

Hot and neutral form the circuit that provides energy for lights and outlets, and ground acts as a safety. If you take a look at the next electric cord you plug in, it will either have 2 or 3 prongs. Both kinds have hot and neutral, and the third prong is for ground. Whenever you plug something into an outlet, you are using 110-120 volts Alternating current, 60 Hz, which means that the polarity (+/-) of the hot wire switches 60 times per second. Other more heavy duty applications like an air conditioner, electric range, or well pump may run on 240 volts.

As you can imagine, working on electrical systems can get very complicated very fast. The biggest issue is that unlike a busted water pipe, there are very few signs that a wire is severed. For this reason, electricians must rely more on instrumentation and patience in order to get the job done.

 

Water Leaks

One of my frequent jobs at Highland Orchards is performing home repairs. One of the more common ones is fixing water leaks. I decided to write about this topic this week because the recent extreme cold weather reminded me of similar weather and subsequent frozen pipes from last year.

Why do pipes leak? Most often, pipes leak from corrosion, expansion from freezing, or from being poorly installed. The different primary types of water pipe in order of oldest to newest are copper, PVC, nylon(fittings only), polybutylene, and the newest PEX, which stands for cross linked polyethylene (similar polymer to disposable water bottles). Copper corrodes easily, nylon deteriorates, polybutylene cracks and PEX seems pretty good for now.

How does one know if they have a water leak? Besides the obvious dripping or gushing, water leaks can often be inconspicuous and difficult to detect. If the leak is outside, you may notice a spot of your yard that is always moist, and may even have greener grass growing above the leak. If the leak is inside, you may notice dark rings on your ceiling drywall. Other signs include lower water pressure, and if your have a water meter it will constantly spin, even if all taps are shut off.

If you determine you do in fact have a leak, the next step is to find out exactly where it is coming from. Most often, pipes leak at what are called fittings, which are elbows, tees couplers unions and other various joints. Getting to the leak is often challenging since pipes can be behind walls, under floors, in crawlspaces or underground. We always leave the water on until we find the leak to make sure we actually fix the broken pipe since some leaks are the size of pin holes and are hard to see. I most often work on mobile homes, which means I have to crawl on the ground under the home to reach the leak. Over winter break I was fixing a leak under a home and I actually got stuck because the crawl space was so narrow. I almost panicked from being stuck, but I removed my belt and that was enough to let me slide out and escape. Of course I’m the thinnest worker my dad has so he saved that job just for me.

To actually fix a leak, you must replace the section of pipe or the fitting that is leaking. First, turn off the water. All homes have valves to shut off main water supply. If the leak is on the pipe, you use what are called tubing cutters to cut out the bad section of pipe.

Red one is for plastic pipe, the steel one is for copper pipe.

If the leak is on a fitting, you can simply unscrew the fitting with channel locks or an adjustable wrench.

Top is adjustable wrench, bottom is adjustable pliers aka channel locks

We almost always replace leaky pipes with polybutylene fittings and PEX pipes because they are resistant to corrosion and leaks and are relatively easy to install (no solder or glue).

Before you patch up your access hole to the pipe make sure to turn the water back on and check that the patch is water tight.

To prevent water leaks, make sure your home is well insulated. If you have copper plumbing (most older homes do) and you have acidic or mineral rich water, your pipes are inherently prone to leakage. Besides the cost benefits, this is why people are changing from copper to plastic pipes.

When Life Gives You Melons…

For this semester, I have chosen to write my passion blog about my various experience working at my family’s farm/construction/home repair business. It might sound peculiar, but I actually really enjoy working there. I just like to learn about practical aspects of life, and I find manual labor surprisingly soothing. The first experience I would like to share is that of my Cantaloupe and Watermelon crop I grew in 2013.

When I was a junior in High school, I had somewhat of a midlife crisis and decided that I need to grow my own crop before I go to college since I might not get the chance to do it again. Our farm grows a large variety of fruits including apples, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, cherries, pears, and plums. For some reason or another (mostly likely the hard work) we stopped growing melons sometime in the 80’s or 90’s. Since we didn’t currently grow them, I decided to pick up the slack.

Cantaloupe are part of the cucurbit plant family, which means they are related to watermelon, honeydew, cucumbers, zucchini and pumpkins. All of these plants are annuals, which means the plants only live for one year. So, how does one go about growing cantaloupe?

In Pennsylvania, the growing season is short (not much time between damaging frosts in spring and fall) so seeds should be started in a greenhouse. I planted my seeds on April 1, in peat pots and watered them every day until around the 10th of May. By this time, they had 3 or 4 true leaves and were ready to transplant from the greenhouse to the field.

These pictures show the seedlings in their peat pots, and their first watering after transplant into the field.

watertruckseedlings

 

The modern way to grow cantaloupe and other “row crops” is to mound up rows of soil, and cover the rows with black plastic. A drip irrigation line (leaky hose basically) is placed under the plastic to water the plants in drought. To transplant the plants, you simply punch a hole in the plastic and place the plant in dirt exposed by the hole. I used a spacing of 3 feet to ensure each plant had enough room to grow.

melon  One of the first ripe melons.

By mid-July, I had to go to my field every day and pick melons. Naturally, every melon ripens at a different rate, so to do it right, you should pick them at the peak or ripeness, which is not all at once. To tell if a melon is ripe, it should have a slight hollow thump when smacked, and it should have a tinge of yellow on the skin (grocery store melons won’t do this since they were picked green). The taste benefit of a ripe melon is one advantage of smaller scale farming, since most of the cantaloupe you eat (in the dining hall or grocery store) are picked before they are ripe. I picked melons every day from mid-July until early October, totaling 2,600 fruit. This commitment meant that all my melons were as good as they could be. For this reason, I’d like to make a plug for supporting local agriculture. Less travel for your produce means riper, better produce, and less greenhouse gas emissions because of shipping. I also encourage everyone to try their hand at growing a garden. Not only is it good for the environment and healthy, but makes you feel the satisfaction of knowing you can feed yourself, and it’s fun knowing you raised something from seed to harvest.

That Knot’s Right

I think I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about knots in my outdoors blog. Although in everyday life you may use one or two knots at most, many outdoor activities require the use of several knots to be successful. And although one may think “oh, I’ll just wrap this rope around it a bunch of times and do a ton of little knots” and it might even work, you are sure to waste a lot of time and cause much frustration getting the knot undone. Although it may seem like a hassle learning knots, I find it to be a relaxing exercise of critical thinking and dexterity.  Since I think it would be pretty hard to describe how to tie various knots in writing, I’d like to discuss how to choose the right knot for the right situation.

The bowline- This knot is used to form non slipping loop. Its advantages include not slipping and ease of untie. The bowline knot is extremely versatile, as I have used it for everything from pulling down a tree to pulling a tube with a boat. The knot can also be tied with one hand for use in emergency situations.

“The” knot- best used for marriage. I cant say I’ve used this one before.

The taut line hitch- this is a very interesting knot because it can hold a load and be adjusted. Its basic function is to provide an adjustable loop. Before applying a load, the loop can be resized, but as soon as tension is applied, the knot ceases to slip. The taut line is useful for tying down tent stakes and tying down loads on a truck.

The clove hitch- this is the knot you would see in an old western movie, when the cowboy is tying his horse to a post. I don’t really think it’s useful for much else besides applications like that- quick, temporary fastening to an object.

The fireman’s chariot- this is probably the most recent knot I have learned and probably the most useless-for me. However, it is designed so a climber can tie to a point on the top of a cliff, rappel down, and then untie the rope simply by shaking it. If you keep tension on the rope it holds, but as soon as tension is lost it comes apart.

The figure 8 knot- this knot is most commonly used for rock climbing applications. More specifically, the figure 8 on a bight is used. A bight is simply a loop of rope. It creates a strong loop like the bowline, but it is more likely to jamb. Climbers like this because that means it is very unlikely to come undone.

Zip lining

Zip lining is one of my favorite alternative outdoor activities. For anyone unfamiliar with the term, “zip lining” is the process of holding on to a pulley that rides along a steel cable, often suspended between two trees. Over the course of setting up around 15 ziplines, I have had some interesting experiences with the activity to say the least.

For some reason or another, about 5 years ago my dad and I were inspired to put a small, 100’ zipline in our back yard. We set it up between two trees, with a relatively flat expanse of land in in between. You climbed a ladder on the one tree, grabbed on to the trolley, and then zipped down to the other end. This worked great, so long as the rider put their feet down before they hit the tree on the lower side. Needless to say we learned a lesson on zipline setup after a few people smacked into the tree(no injuries thank goodness). The prime geography for a zipline has a drop off at the upper end, and a gradual upwards slope on the finish. This looks much like a Nike swoosh. The reason this geography is so good is because the steep drop off creates a fast and thrilling start, and the gradual slope on the finish gives the rider plenty of time to put their feet down and slow safely. Often, the best way to get this geography is to set up over a ravine or body of water.

Surprisingly, you really don’t need too much of a drop in elevation to get a fast ride. In fact, if you drop more than say 10’ for every 100’ run, then the ride will probably be too fast to be safe. I have had the privilege of testing ziplines that go too fast, and too slow (too flat). Neither are fun because you either end up hitting whatever is at the bottom end, or conversely getting stranded in the middle.

After finding good location, you must find good anchor points for the steel cable. We have experimented with many different anchor points, from trees, to trucks, to excavation equipment to wooden posts. The critical thing to consider when choosing an anchor point is the fact that it will have to stay put despite the fact that it will have a lot of force pulling on it. The cable itself is tensioned, and there is additional tension from the weight of the rider. I really don’t advise using trucks, since the attachment points are so low.  Heavy machinery is great because you can adjust the tension by driving it forward or backwards, and height can be adjusted by lifting the bucket up or down. Trees do a fine job as well (although hopefully they don’t move). One must consider the type of tree (pine is weak), the diameter, as well as the height of attachment. The higher the attachment point, the larger the diameter the tree needs to be (Because of torque). I would only use a tree less than one foot in diameter if you are tying onto the base

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