HANDLING GRAY WATER SURPLUS TOMATOES AND YOUNG HENS

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Dear Mother,
I am seeking info on generating 110-volt AC power by casing an automobile engine. Any ideas?

Michael
Farmington Hills, Michigan

We presume you mean that you want the AC for occasional use. For a permanent, high-output generator, you want a commercial stationary unit or surplus military mobile generator in the megawatt range. For $2,500 (used, rolling) to $10,000 and up, you can power a small city.

For occasional use, the engine of every modern car and truck is equipped with an alternator that generates sufficient electricity to power its headlights, radio, air conditioner and assorted small accessories, while the vehicle is on the road or the engine is running at a fast idle. You can also use it to power 110V appliances at your mountain cabin or campsite.

All you need is a 12V DC to 112V AC inverter and some method of keeping your auto engine at a fast enough idle so that the spark plugs won't crud up with unburned carbon. Inverters are a standard item in every alternative-energy, tools and self-sufficiency catalog we know of (for specific companies, visit the "Products" link on our Web site, www.motherearthnews.com ). Inverters come out of the box ready to install and are available in sizes ranging from little two-pound/150W (300W surge) models that plug into your cigarette lighter, cost under $50 and will run a laptop computer or small television to 2500W (5000W surge) and larger models that run off clamps or attach directly to your vehicle's battery, weigh 20 pounds and up, cost the better part of $1,000 and will run a house. For about double the money, you can get inverters that deliver true sine wave AC current, suitable for computers, microwave ovens and other sensitive electronics.

Keep the car engine's use temporary, though. Why run a 520,000 vehicle with a $3,000, 200-horsepower, 4- to 8-cylinder engine, using several gallons of fuel per hour, to supply power that you can get from a $500 to $1,500 generator with a for 2-cylinder, $200 to $800 engine that uses less than a gallon of gas an hour?

Dear Mother,

1'd like to have a chicken in my garden, but would the neighbors stray cats be a problem

Allen
Ocoee, Florida

Not usually. Cats are night-stalkers and prey on small, single scurrying creatures such as mice, bugs and small songbirds. They'll also take helpless wild bird fledglings and setting mother birds from their nests. And a cat might take a single, lone day-old chick. But there's no such thing in nature. Young chicks come in scrabbling, milling, peeping clutches of a dozen or so and are accompanied by a full-grown mama hen that will fluff up to twice her size, screech horribly and flap furiously as she flies at an interloping cat, savagely pecking and terrifying it out of at least one of its nine lives.

If you do brood a single chick from a hatchling, it'll be inside under lights till almost large enough to scare off a cat. Keep it penned close to home till it is nearly full grown (ten to 12 weeks). Don't release it into the garden till plants are large enough to stand up to its scratching and pecking. And we'd advise getting more than one chicken. They are happier and more effective at holding cats at bay as members of a flock.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print