Living and Loving the Lister Life

By Jack Belk

Sunday, December 03, 2006

As those with a penchant for the trials of others have no doubt read by now, I live a long way from the end of nowhere but close to the edge of nowhere at all.

Since April of 2004 I’ve been living and working trying to improve a nearly impossible off-grid ‘facility’ built to house youth offenders suspected of having a ‘traveling gene’.   They found that youngsters so afflicted STILL escaped, but this time to a harsh desert environment with enough sharp lava rocks, buzzing rattlesnakes and either blazing heat or winter winds to scare all involved.  They all lived through it, but the State decided to not risk any more ‘remote schools for juveniles’.

The facility was designed with quick occupancy and least thought required to operate it in mind.  Twin 30Kw Onan diesels were to supply power, 24/7.   So sure were they that one of them would run all the time, the block heaters are each hard wired to the other generator so the ‘spare’ will always be warmed up and ready to go.      When they were shut down by the last to leave the facility everything went cold, dark and quiet…..for four years.

Christmas Sunrise, 2003

Electric power is one of those things like a dry well.  It’s easy to think about how much you don’t have when you don’t have any at all.

In Phase One of the Magic Hot Springs Power and Light Project, I discovered the joys, the mysteries and the frustrations of building an inexpensive generator suitable for low impact, off-grid living.  It took a little over a year to obtain, learn, re-build, and install one of the early Lister 6-1 CS clones from a reputable source that assured me the engine was highly suspect and should be completely examined and probably rebuilt.  I did that and found problems and corrected problems and fought to understand yet other problems, but in the mean time had GREAT success living the life of a hermit on a Listeroid supported ‘power grid’.   <see link to first engine project and stories>

Most of all, I LEARNED a lot!!

Our old pal ‘Murphy’ lurks around places depending on something mechanical or electrical or hydraulic to make it safe and comfortable.  I’ve gotten pretty good at recognizing the places most likely to hide a lurking Murphy, and trying to work a ‘repair before the fact’ into the schedule.  I’ve finally gotten so good at predicting what will break next that I’ve come within a day or so of actually getting it done before it broke. 

That’s an improvement.

The winter was taken with learning two snowplows, one low on power but long on handling and brakes.  The other is overpowered with four wheel steering and NO brakes….and an inch wider than the gate.

I sure learned a LOT….

The spring of ’06 was a busy one with wall destruction and dirt moving to do in time to plant landscaping plants, but a 1959 Gravely lawn tractor had to be re-built to do the heavy  work.   I drove to Florida in March and got the old shed-bound Gravely that tortured me as a kid by NEVER breaking down.  I traveled over six thousand miles in ten days, pulling a trailer and eating miles.

  It took a month to tear the old Gravely down, find ebay parts, and put it all back together again.  The grass wasn’t waiting to grow….

Mid May, ’06.  The first time I’d run it since 1964….and 2200 miles away.

It mowed about a tennis court worth and ate part of itself….way down deep inside.  I had ebayed a second parts machine.  It was a good thing I had it..  It took three hours to get back mowing…..then it broke again.   The next afternoon it cranked and it hasn’t shut off except by my switch, since.

For two summers I pushed a 15 inch string mower four days a week.  This summer I chased a 30 inch bush-hog for four hours a week.  I prefer the latter. ….and I sure learned a LOT!!

About the same time the tomato and pepper plants were set out Memorial Day weekend, I heard the beginnings of an ominous knock gradually insinuate itself into the steady throb of the Listeroid’s 15 hour work days.  It was showing it’s age and Murphy was grinning from a dark corner. 

Of course when something has to work it’s likely to start making funny noises just to get your heart twitching.   Suddenly dimming lights can conjure up visions of waiting weeks on parts (though I never have)  or spending a couple days sorting through blackened engine parts to get it going again.  And I’ve done that!

It pays to learn a lot.

The Second Listeroid

Through the most fortuitous of circumstances I was sent one of the first “Kit” engines which include all the parts but without the engine wrecking ‘test run’ they’re subjected to at the factory in India.

 At the freight dock were the forklift guys and all their questions…..  They still haven’t quite figured out if I’m serious when I say these are my homebuilt diesel airplane parts….So far, I’ve got ‘em fooled, I think.  The crate of flywheels marked 138Kg WAS hard to explain with a straight face, though.

The first Listeroid engine is what is informally known as a ‘hopper’ or ‘jumper’.  The engine wants to get some ‘body language’ going to put it’s work point across and it makes it subject to breaking things……hold down bolts are the most serious, so I put in some BIG ones.   The engine broke off the slab it was bolted to and happily ran a year with a six inch thick concrete floor firmly attached to it’s cradle.  It turned the whole creek bottom into a kettle drum of low, but steady beat.

I decided with the second engine to follow the original Lister recommendations and pour a block of concrete resting on subsoil and firmly attach the engine by engineered bolting arrangements.   It sounded SO easy……

Simple math says a man six foot five tall can’t swing a sledgehammer under an eight foot ceiling.  I learned the hard way.   So did the ceiling.

For good or bad, the concrete ‘plug’ around the well is there.  It’s said to contain 12 cubic yards of concrete and go down,  “a ways…”.  I drove  a groundstake  down eight feet and constructed a steel framework that supported two top rails that would hold the engine.

And in one day I mixed (Lister power) and poured 40 sacks of redi-mix,  by myself.

I learned not to DO that again.

Since keeping warm is not a real problem when doing the job of three laborers at the same time, I suggest not doing it in August.

I marvel at all the new things I’ve learned.

In a perfect world a guy freshly abused by 2900 pounds of concrete could kick back and watch it dry for about a week.  In the real world the project is falling behind schedule because the ‘technician’ has been playing with mud.

NEXT----The Engine---

To be continued.