The weather has been wonderful. Here’s a picture of Canyon Lake at sunset yesterday, taken from the dam.
Category Archives: News
Gotta love gadgets
Life without gadgets is simply less fun. Today my brother Karel surprised me with a new gadget; Tempest. It’s a state of the art weather station. Wireless and solar powered. As Ozuye faces north north-east, most of the possible locations for mounting are shady. So I used a pole to make it stick out above the tree line;
Next time I’m over I may mount it to the home to make it catch sun all the time, but for now this works.
This station of course comes with an app. Here’s a screenshot of the data it collects;
It also includes notifications, so I can get a warning when there’s a storm or cold front coming. But that won’t be this year, as the weather will remain nice.
I do think the pole is asking for something like a flag, but this is a pretty flexible pole and when it does storm, the wind usually comes from that direction, so I’m not sure the pole would hold. Next time I might get an official flag pole and raise the US flag when I’m there ðŸ¤
Bubbly View
So today I had a proper test of the hot tub and I have to say, it’s comfy!
I stayed in for at least an hour, and the temperature stayed at 97F (36 C) which is very doable.
I will always be an engineer
Problems that can be solved through technical solutions have always been my favorite. In this case the problem was that due to my high ceiling (almost 3 stories) and the natural tendency of hot air wanting to rise, heating downstairs to 68F (20C) meant having to set the temp to 75F (24C) making it 79F (26C) at the ceiling.
The solution I came up with (with a little help from Arnoud) was forcing hot air collected at the ceiling down to the floor.
The ceiling fan does that too, but creates a draft when you set it high, which makes it feel even more cold.
The end result looks like this;
In between logs 1 and 2 there now is ventilation channel with a ventilation system that is controlled by the black switch with 8 speed indicator. That switch drives this in duct fan;
Which is located in the technical room. It pumps air down from the ceiling, where I made this air inlet;
The duct is going through the (unfinished) upstairs bathroom;
Which easily connects to the technical room in a straight a line as possible. All ducts are be completely out of sight.
So when it’s cold, the guests can choose the amount of redistribution of hot air from upstairs to downstairs.
I’d like to test it, but for the next week there won’t be a cold front and temperatures will not drop below 15C (59F).
Hot Tub Deck Progress
This morning I went to Home Depot in Bulverde to pick up deck boards and other items, such as the post lights.
The deck is about halfway in now; tomorrow I should be able to finish it.
Two old posts were cut, as the deck now extends westwards. For the hottub area I will also use Sisal rope as a guardrail, but as the 1″ wasn’t in stock, I will use 3 smaller diameter lines. There in a bucket of water now, so they shrink to minimal size. As the rope dries, it expands. That way, the ropes are an indication of rainfall/humidity; the more straight the lines, the wetter.
Coleman SaluSpa
Of course I wanted to see how big the hot tub is and if all works, so I unboxed it and inflated it.
Don’t worry, it won’t stay indoors; that’s just for testing. It’s capacity is up to 6 people, but that wouldn’t leave a lot of legroom. But for two it’s more than large enough and four probably works too. It takes about 960 liters (254 gallons) of water, so it will almost weigh a ton. That’s why I built the deck on 9 piers. the center one being as thick as a tree. Before I can put it in place, I will need to strengthen the deck a little more with some 2×6’s in the center, going from the left pier to the right pier, to evenly distribute the weight to all piers. I probably let the concrete gain some strength before I fill it up; concrete reaches 70% of its final strength after 7 days, which means I will be able to use it before I leave.
Hot Tub Deck taking shape
Now that the concrete is dry enough, it was time to build the deck foundation.
It’s 12×12 ft (3.66 meters) and the hot tub will be positioned in the center, leaving space to walk around it or even put some chairs there. 
The hot tub was delivered here today (Amazon now does deliver in my subdivision; two years ago they still left things at the post office for pickup).
I will probably unpack it and have a look tonight.
F150 passes inspection
My Ford F-150 safety inspection was long overdue; the last one was valid til April 2020. So today Reliable Auto in San Marcos did the inspection and after replacing one break light I’m good to go for another year.
I ended up not replacing the car battery yet; it kept starting fine, so I’ll replace it next time.
Digital Highway Open
Pick axing my way through rock for a week has paid off; as of now, Ozuye is fully connected to the digital highway through fiber internet.
After a week of 0.01Mb per second, this is 17500 times faster. In a way it’s funny; here I am, one hour away from Austin and San Antonio, yet I have fiber internet. Back in Amstelveen, I’m still on cable, as no fiber is available yet. The download speed I get in Amstelveen is a bit higher, but upload speed is higher here.
Fiber is coming
GVTC has started on the internet fiber connection. The fiber cable is now through the conduit and they’re hooking up the cable to the fiber box on the other side of the road. I’ll be glad when the router is connected tomorrow; I can’t even browse web pages. The only thing that still works is email and these blog posts (obviously)