The drive from Fairbanks to Glennallen is about four hours long. It’s an interesting drive, highlighting much of what the land in Alaska is like – from breathtaking peaks to sandy flats, glaciers to emerald green forests with mirror-clear lakes and oddly coloured rivers. The pipeline is evident in numerous spots along the drive, as well.
I own a ten acre plot just south of Glennallen, which I got through the Alaska State Land Auction for an extremely good price (alas, residents only). One of the many reasons I chose this particular plot is the bearing marker on the southwest corner, and the number of others nearby for reference. Most lots have rebar on the corners, but I trust bearing markers far better than anonymous rebar with pink plastic on the top.
I’m only about a mile and a half drive from Glennallen, though considering the size of Glennallen, that’s in the middle of nothing. I did my research before buying (Google Earth made it fairly easy to check out a ‘lot’ of different offerings in an acceptable amount of time) and scored a lot with a decent road:
My property is on the right, and the road goes directly east-west (it’s a plat road). The property has a mix of trees – spruce, aspen, and (I believe) a kind of cottonwood that generates a lot of deadwood I’ll need to clean out – my firewood needs may well be met simply through keeping the fire hazard level down around the property. Whatever that species is (Populus trichocarpa?), it puts out a lot of deadwood.
This is what most of the property looks like; the entire lot is well-forested. I wanted trees, both because I like them and because good tree growth doesn’t usually happen on permafrost (there’s discontinuous permafrost in the area). Finding a nice clearing to build in proved a bit difficult with all the trees – I’d prefer to cut as few trees as possible to build my dome, and I’d also rather not have a long driveway, which would mean more cutting and difficulties getting in and out in the winter. I’m not interested in owning the kind of truck I’d likely need for a long driveway. The clearing I think I’ve decided on is a bit closer to the road than I’d like, and the trees will likely be closer to the dome than I’d like, but it seemed the best compromise…it also has the benefit of being near a mostly-pre-cleared pull-off where I can (and did) park my car. The clearing:
I couldn’t fit the whole thing into the picture, as it’s rather like…Mickey Mouse’s head, with one large clearing, and two smaller clearings that make up the ‘ears’. If this experiment goes well, the unused clearings may well end up holding additional dome-rooms. The main dome is only planned to have a 20′ diameter, which is actually larger than my current cozy studio. I’m sure it’ll seem spacious compared to my current living quarters out there:
My lovely campsite, also crowded by trees. I went with a larger tent than I normally use, as I’m likely to spend a lot of time in the tent telecommute-working via the cell modem. The shade was nice, what with close to 24 hours of sunshine this time of year (this picture was taken on the solstice). My car had the benefit of full sunshine most of the day, so I kept my (hacky) power system there. This also meant I didn’t have to move the extremely heavy batteries – I plan on doing that once and only once.
The leads on the right go to a 20 watt solar panel from ABS Alaskan, which does a great job of keeping the batteries charged so I can use my laptop, charge batteries, etc. whenever I want. The leads on the left (mostly invisible) go to an automotive battery meter, making it easy for me to keep track of the general state of the batteries without having to hook up my multimeter. The inverter, which normally wouldn’t be sitting on top of the batteries, plugs into an extension cord that powers the laptop (I need to research a good dc/dc converter for it), which has a lovely cell modem that works even way out there. The speeds are about the equivalent of dial-up, but should be in between there and broadband once I rig up an antenna. Someday the speeds will likely be just as they are at my studio – the equivalent of broadband. Go, go EVDO.
One thing I swore to do first chance I got was plant a real garden (the perennial flower bed in front of my studio doesn’t count, as it serves no purpose other than looking pretty and requires next to no effort).
I obviously started small. Some swiss chard, kale, leeks, and onions – things that should do well being planted this time of year, and not getting full-time attention. As there is no running water or electricity, and I’m not going to be there to water, I needed a low-tech self-regulating watering system. That’s the planter pot in the center (minus it’s cover). The idea is to fill it once in a while and it’ll absorb and release water at about the same saturation level the plants need – hooray for unglazed pottery. If it works out well, I’ll likely hook up a hose through the bottom drainage hole and keep many such planters filled with water from a single rainwater barrel/pond/whatever. I like high-tech, but only when it’s better than low-tech. I’m sure I’ll find plenty of ways to satisfy my high-tech appetite via logging sun, rain, temperature, water saturation, etc. to my computer. I’ve been brushing up on PicAxe (microcontroller) chips lately for just such applications.
Another project I wanted to try was a solar oven. I made one, but didn’t get the chance to test it before I left, as it got cloudy just as I finished. With a cold still lingering, I thought it best not to stay out another night.
I wanted a really fast prototype to test with, as the solarity (power in the sun) isn’t very good in Alaska, despite the long hours of light we get – I wasn’t sure it’d work well at all. Yes, that’s a lampshade, and it’s lined in aluminum foil. I forgot foil tape, so electrical tape it was. The lampshade sizes and angles were perfect, and I really wanted a cylinder. There are two coffee cans, one inside the other, with perlite (from the garden trimmings) as a non-flammable insulator. It needs a bigger can, but the general idea is to reflect the sun from a larger area (lampshade diameter) onto a smaller area (inner can diameter), and trap the long (heat) waves created inside of the container via a transparent covering (usually glass, but plastic here) and insulation. Using black cookware is a must. The main principal is the same as that of a greenhouse – the insulation and reflectors are just to improve the performance. Solar ovens work better than you’d expect, and some, like the parabolic cookers, may work just a bit too well. If I can manage a decent circuit to track the sun, I’ll likely use a parabolic cooker or a fresnel. I like the idea of a fresnel lens outside focusing sunlight onto copper wire, which goes inside and wraps around an aluminum box. Also insulated, of course. A sun-powered microwave, if you will. Fresnel lenses could also be used with sterling engines for power, or for heating water. I’ve been wanting an excuse to get one for years…
I brought my cat with me, as I wasn’t sure how long I’d stay and she hates it when I leave her for any length of time. Now that I work from home, she’s even less tolerant to absences. She wasn’t too happy for the first quarter of the car ride, which is understandable, but other than that she was wonderful to have around. I didn’t need a leash, as she rarely went from my sight, and never far, and would usually come when I called, or at least answer. She’d snuggle up with me in the sleeping bag at night and didn’t try to get out of the tent. She’d even follow me around the property or along the road, trotting along just behind me:
She didn’t usually want to go back to camp – she’d sit staring further down the road, but eventually join me in walking back. The road here starts at the main highway and ends at the pipeline, though I would never get that far in my car. This, truly, is the perfect cat for me.
Filed under: journal, home, solar, solar oven
