Reinforced with 16 3” screws and the support beams now routed into the legs, this is now a coffee table fit for elephants. (No, this is not a challenge to see if someone can break it). I can literally jump up and down on it. Of course I don’t way 200 pounds, but even if I did, I could stand on it easily. So it should be good, even for Texas coffee cups.
Category Archives: News
Heavy Coffee Drinkers
Texans must be heavy coffee drinkers. Very heavy. My coffee table again was broken 😞. Normal use, like putting coffee mugs, plates or anything like that on it would not break it. The only thing that would is jumping on the table. It could be a Texan custom I’m not familiar with to do that, but hey, if that’s what is customary, I will rebuild it in a way that can be done. 🤷
Smart Mirror Restored
After 3 years of running flawlessly, I noticed I wasn’t greeted by the smart mirror as I entered Ozuye. Technical analyses showed that the power supply for the raspberry Pi inside had failed. So I ordered a new one, and a soldering iron, so now the Smart Mirror is fully functional again.
The picture above shows the guts of the Smart Mirror with the new soldered in power supply in the top left corner.
Canyon Lake Sunset
The weather has been wonderful. Here’s a picture of Canyon Lake at sunset yesterday, taken from the dam.
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 🤠
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.