The ramblings of g1powermac

Finally feeling better…

g1powermac — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:49:57 +0000

Today, I’m finally starting to feel like myself about a week and a half after my surgery. Most of the pain and digestive issues are mostly gone. Now I just have to wait for the incisions to heal up completely so I can actually lift stuff again.

Running vegetable oil in a diesel engine…

g1powermac — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:10:15 +0000

While contemplating about making my own vegetable oil using sunflower seeds and a Piteba expeller and then converting it to biodiesel, it came to me that I maybe able to run the diesel engine directly on the vegetable oil. That would not only save having to buy chemicals to produce the biodiesel (methanol and lye) but would also remove the wasteful by-product (glycerin) from producing the biodiesel. After researching this possibility, I found there’s one major problem. Vegetable oil is much to viscous to work in a diesel engine without some modification. The way to fix this is to heat the oil up until it becomes more fluid. But this becomes a problem when starting the engine from a cold start. The major method then to run straight vegetable oil is to, well, not use straight vegetable oil. Standard or biodiesel is used to start the engine until the engine and the vegetable oil is warm enough to be used. And, before shutting down the engine, it is switched back to regular diesel to purge the fuel lines so the engine can start again. The major downfall with this method is the fact that you still need diesel to run the engine. However, Elsbett has created a converter system that will allow the engine to run on the vegetable oil only. From what I understand, the system replaces the fuel injection system to allow for the thicker vegetable oil. I like to see if I could maybe convert a diesel generator using this system which would make a nice backup for an off the grid power system.

Sprayed cement foam insulation…

g1powermac — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:00:35 +0000

I was watching the new Discovery channel called Planet Green today and caught a show called Renovation Nation which is hosted by Steve Thomas from This Old House fame. He was showing a really interesting product, called Airkrete. Airkete is a sprayed cement foam insulation that you can use in replacement of standard fiberglass insulation in your house. The really neat part with this stuff is that it is completely non-toxic. No need to wear special respirators when working with it. Actually, it is so safe you can actually eat a bit of it if you can get past the taste. And, Airkrete is even more efficient than fiberglass.

An extremely green energy solution…

g1powermac — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:18:12 +0000

I just came across a hand operated oil expeller on eBay built by Piteba. An oil expeller is basically a press that will take any high oil content seed like sunflower seeds and extract the oil from the seeds. So, how can this be an extremely green energy solution? Well, lets say you grew a whole patch of black oil seed sunflowers. You can take the tremendous amount of seeds the sunflowers produce, run them through the expeller, and get the oil from the seeds. You can then take the oil, do the minimal refining needed to convert it to biodiesel, and pump it right into your diesel vehicle. Any person who has the ability to do the biodiesel refining can literally grow their own biodiesel on their property. It’s ingenious.

Yay, less pain…

g1powermac — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:23:59 +0000

Today has been the first day that I’ve actually felt half way decently after my surgery. I was even able to exercise for a short time. In a few more days, I should be feeling like normal.

Number four…

g1powermac — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 21:27:18 +0000

Yesterday, we adopted our fourth dog from a rescue house. She’s a six month old dachshund, beagle, pekingese mix and has been a wonderful addition to the family, especially for our other six month old dog. The two love to play all day when they’re not sleeping. At least now the other two old dogs are left alone to rest. I’ll post pictures of both of them together tomorrow.

Ugh, pain…

g1powermac — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:31:19 +0000

The CO2 bubbles from my surgery are still with me and are really causing lots of pain, more than the actual incisions. I wish they would dissolve soon…

Strange post operative symptoms…

g1powermac — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:38:05 +0000

So it has been over 24 hours after I had my gallbladder removed via laparoscopic surgery, and I’ve had one really weird symptom even though it’s normal. When doing laparoscopic surgery, the surgeon fills your abdomen with carbon dioxide so they can see inside using the inserted camera. Once the surgeon is done, he lets the CO2 out but some still remains. This creates one really weird feeling after the surgery. When I move around, I feel bubbles of gas moving around inside of me. And depending where they lodge, they can cause some pretty bad pain. Fortunately, the bubbles should dissolve into the blood stream within a few days.

Surgery done and still alive…

g1powermac — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:57:23 +0000

My surgery was finished at 8:30 am this morning after being in the operating room for around an hour. I must say the whole experience was really not fun as expected. The first ten minutes after waking up was the absolute worst. You’re completely disoriented, shaking uncontrollably, and in intense pain as they don’t give pain meds till you’re awake. Anyway, after a couple of hours, most of the nasty symptoms wore off and now I feel pretty good. Also, there were no complications during the surgery with my heart rate which was a relief.

Surgery tomorrow…

g1powermac — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:58:22 +0000

Well, my gallbladder surgery is tomorrow morning. I have to be at the hospital at the lovely hour of 6 am for pre-op prep and will probably be in surgery around 7 am. Unfortunately, this day has been incredibly stressful on top of the stress of the looming surgery. If I don’t crack under the stress tonight, everything should be a go for tomorrow morning. I just hope everything goes well tomorrow. This has definitely been one of the more stressful things of my life.