Has Fletcher dropped out of class?

[ArchCalc]

Last post was Sept 1, 2023.

[JUBAT]

He was leaving for Fiji for about 6 weeks and so we weren't to see him until his return. I assume he is just busy with whatever needed to be done. I figure he'll be back by the time the snow flies, but still I do wonder about him.

[Tarsier79]

Snow?

[thx4]

I figure he'll be back by the time the snow flies.

One day the chickens will have teeth.


We miss Fletcher, the pillar of this forum.

[agor95]

I figure he'll be back by the time the snow flies.

One day the chickens will have teeth.


We miss Fletcher, the pillar of this forum.

When Fiji freezes over.

https://privateislandsblog.com/does-it-snow-in-fiji/

[JUBAT]

Snow?

It's a reference where I live and not where Fletcher is. I don't know where he is at the moment.

[agor95]

It's a reference where I live and not where Fletcher is. I don't know where he is at the moment.

Look on the good side - until these few posts I had no idea it snowed yearly in Fiji.

Regards

[Sam Peppiatt]

That has to be it! Fletcher is snowed in and can't get out----------------Sam

[ArchCalc]

Maybe climate change was a factor? Or the recent meteor shower?

[agor95]

Maybe climate change was a factor? Or the recent meteor shower?

Well a Fiji meteor impactor induced valanche is possible.

[Fletcher]

I'm back, after 9 weeks in Fiji working on my property, near Savusavu .. mainly major roof repairs (14 year old colour-steel rusting out, & painted) and deck and railing maintenance, and some exterior doors painted; also put a 15 tonne digger over my bush tracks/roads for a week to skim them clean and clear away the fallen giant Raintree from the last big cyclone a few years ago (did half last year) - the weather gods were kind to me so while I did get a good tan outside I also worked most weekends - "making hay while the sun shines" as they say .. never before managed to tick off every item on my mental list, but did this time ..

Fact .. Fiji is in the tropics - it was and is hot (NZ is temperate) - snow sometimes falls briefly in the high altitudes of the interior of Viti Levu (I'm in Vanua Levu) but I've never seen it nor know anyone who has touched it .. if it does occasionally fall it would evaporate on the ground in minutes ..

Just beginning to catch up on things here, and world events ..

May post a couple of pics in a day or two when I download them from my Nokia steam and diesel phone (talk and text, no internet or data) ..

I've had a Bessler-break (not the psychotic kind) and never thought about it once except in the last week explaining my hobby to a few new friends over a beer .. most are skeptical as we'd expect, and even the German ones had never heard of him tho are well educated in many things ..

Plenty of threads to catch up on lol .. over and out for now ..

[justsomeone]

Welcome back Fletcher. I actually buy some pine lumber from the local home improvement store here that comes from New Zealand. We have plenty of pine trees here in the states, so I am not sure how it all makes since. Hmmm...

[JUBAT]

Glad you're back Fletch. I thought you were to be gone for 6 weeks so when that came and went, I started to wonder.

When you get to my thread under JUBAT Research, there is a diagram in there I'd like you to sim. It has 4 pendulums with sliding or rolling weights on each pendulum. There needs to be a latch mechanism to hold the 2 weights apart until noon where the upper weight can be released to fall down to the bottom of the pendulum arm.

I hope it's something you can try.

Welcome back.

[Fletcher]

Thx .. for those interested .. you might want to consider it one day ..

Last year was my first return to Fiji in 3 years due covid lock-downs etc - there was plenty of maintenance to do on our houses (ours and the caretaker family's) etc, which I did this time around, but there was a far more pressing and urgent matter then .. water was about to run out and it was the dry season (winter) because one of two 10,000 liter rainwater tanks had been destroyed and the remaining one was almost empty - so I decided to try and build a syphon water system from an inland capped bore 500 meters in a bush valley that I had put in 14 years earlier - it was too expensive to run mains electricity (with transformer) to the bore site, and solar powered pumps (with submersible) and gensets (with petrol or diesel pump) etc would eventually get stolen (sad reality of life) .. or I could just replace the destroyed rainwater tank ..

I went for the harder option that turned out way cheaper in the end tho took some head scratching and a few weeks and months of trial and error to maximise it and fine tune it to be reliable and predictable etc - long story short, there was virtually no difference in head height at the bore and entry into my tank over 500 meters i.e. very little fall while going up and down over hills etc .. Anyways I built a 1 inch pressure pipe delivery system back to my house tank which brought across 2,000 liters in 24 hours (we use about 1,000 liters a day at full usage) - this was a manual system made up of 4 x 150 meter sections of pipe joined with pressure fittings etc - it had to be recharged with water at the bore with 2 or 3 liters top-up every day or so which was a bit of drudgery hauling water but necessary to keep the delivery rate up - ** as I explained to my caretaker family who would use and maintain it, it was not just one continuous section of piping otherwise no recharging would be necessary - it was 4 sections with 6 joins - even tho pressure joints and T's etc they still leak a little air into the system (atmosphere pressure pushes air inside the low pressure line at these joints ( a bit like your car tyre needs to be pumped up occasionally as air escapes over time and with heating and cooling ) - but it worked well and was reliable as long as the joints were checked regularly ..

First thing I did upon return this year was to change the recharging system - I plumbed the bore syphon feed to my house tank and electric pump motor with two valves - now I blow tank water back thru the feed for 60 seconds to expel the air and then turn the valve off and open the valve for the feed and it feeds away for the next 24 hours .. I do that every day we need extra water and altho it didn't rain for 7 weeks we always had full water - this will become more important this year as the caretaker family re-establish a plant nursery they tried a few years ago during covid but ran out of water, to give them a further additional income source as well as cash crop farming and other activities .. it has been one of the most satisfying projects of my life .. "water is life", even in the tropics ..

Photo's of "Waikona" beach house after roof job etc, for those interested ..

[Tarsier79]

Sorry, not exactly sure how your water delivery system worked. Like a herons fountain?