On Friday I received the parts I had ordered from Motionco for the transmission part of Meadowcam 2, only to discover that one of the parts I had ordered (the coupling allowing the motor drive shaft to connect to the larger diameter shaft for the pulley) was the wrong size. I have contacted them and I am sure they will be able to sort out a replacement but it is still a set back.
On Saturday I discovedered that the Pondcam PC had effectively died (again) so I pulled it all out, put it in the shed and took the opportunity to clean out the pond, so I donned my waders, jumped in and pulled out about 1 cubinc meter of crap. I left this on the side to allow the beasties to climb back in and then mixed it with shredded hay from my meadow before putting it in the barrel compost tumbler, to give it another try...
On Sunday I went to check on Meadowcam 1 at Bury Field, and found that it had not been running since the end of September. I tried to get it going again, and while I could turn it on (i.e. the battery is not the issue) it would not power up with the timer. I have brought it back home to fix it, but it means that the year of foootage I wanted now has an enormous gap - I have about 6months of continuous footage I can use and will study this before making any decisions. It is probably for the best but still fairly gutting.
Finally in the generally negative vibe that is going round, I am having serious doubts about the viability of the aquaponics project. I might do it on a very small scale in a barrel with some goldfish but there seem to be so many challenges and potentially so many expenses that launching in with a 1000 litre tank seems unlikely to proceed.
On the positive front I have identified an excellent potential worm box and a great source of worms so vermiponics might be a good way to start, and the anaerobic digester seems to be proceeding without problems...so far!
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