A New Life

Life with power how amazing you are!  I have been able to run the dishwasher, clothes washer on sunny days during the week, and watch tv at night with the outdoor stove on and power to spare!  This must be how most people live...  I can even watch some tv at night on cloudy days.  Amazing!

First though, I needed heat.  I called the stove guy and he said the motor of the pump on the wood boiler has probably gone bad and it needs to be replaced.  I reminded him that I had a couple spare pumps since I replaced two with a larger pump.  Then I remembered that I also had a spare rotor, for which pump I had no idea, but it was worth a try.  Replacing the rotor worked and now I have a working pump which will equal a warm house.  

I waited as long as I could, but when the inside house temperature was hovering around 58 degrees, I thought it was time to turn on the furnace.  The official start date this year was November 6, 2013.  My goal is always to make it until December 1st, but not this year. 

So far the wood pile appears to be holding its own.  I still have a few blocks of cherry to split from last year yet.  I have spent a weekend on clearing out a fenceline.  My dad's neighbor wants to bulldoze the trees in the fenceline, however this is where I've been getting my wood for the last couple of years.  I only had a couple of weekends to get the trees cut down (definitely not my specialty), clean up the logs and get them out of there.  I did call in help to cut the trees down, but otherwise most of the work I did on my own, and I was so glad when Monday morning rolled around and I could go back to my real job because my body needed a break!  Anyway, I haven't counted the trees I pulled out, over 20, but I do have about three left on the ground that I couldn't get out of there.  Now, I come to find out that the job probably won't get done until spring!  It would have been more enjoyable to do that work more leisurely than trying to accomplish it all in a few short days.  I have the rest of the winter to cut up those logs and move them to my woodpile for next years wood.

With the heat on, much more power, the winter seems easy to conquer...but there's always something.  Tonite we are receiving our first legitimate traffic slowing snow storm.  The panic begins...will I be able to make it out of my driveway in the morning?  Unfortunately, the man with the blade is not sure he can even get in his tractor.  He fractured a vertebrae a few weeks ago and is in a backbrace and on pain killers.  He never offered his truck (the old one of course), so I will have to wait until morning to see what Mother Nature has surprised me 

One step forward part 2

I finally found another off grid installer with experience (nope, not on the internet, but through an authorized dealer from Outback Power company).   I wanted him to come out and take a look at the system and explain how things work, what I really should be doing and why I don't have enough power on cloudy days - even though I hardly use any.  

He did stop by on August 1, 2013 to look over the system.  He felt the 900 watt turbine and 1kw solar array weren't large enough to power my house and so more solar was the answer. Before I knew it, I was installing 12- 250 watt solar panels adding to the 8-125 watt array.  

There was a lot of prep work, as we were constructing the pole and mount on our own.  The install date was November 2, 2013.   The new array looks gigantic compared to the original array.  Things went fairly well, except the listing of things that have to be fixed or replaced on the original system to meet code.  The initial installer didn't seem to follow any sort of code.  My list of to do's is never ending!

The new mega solar array!

The next day, November 3 was a beautiful sunny day.  The batteries were fully charged - FULLY- by 11am.  That's crazy.  The original system would never fully charge the batteries, even on a sunny day during the summer.  

But this brings its own set of "issues".  I am really good at not using power - especially at night.  Little power?  No problem!  I just go to bed and read by flashlight at 7pm.  Now, I will have an excess of power during the day - when I really don't need it because I am not home.  So it's got me thinking...  Can I run the dishwasher on a timer so it will begin its cycle around noon?  Same with the washing machine?  No more waiting weeks for a sunny weekend day to do laundry and no more washing dishes by hand!   Maybe I can even watch TV at night?

The complete system.

You might be saying to yourself, hey, this is all good, finally things have changed.  But alas, they haven't.  I decided that with this extra power, I can finally start the furnace - the outdoor wood boiler that heats the domestic hot water as well as the water in the heated floors.  It was a balmy 57 degrees on November 3 (inside the house!).  So, I started a fire and waited for the water to heat up.  Finally at 6pm the water temperature was at 170 degrees, but the tubes that carry the water from the stove into the utility room, weren't even warm.  I went outside to check the stove, it was still on.  I felt the pump and nearly burned my hand.  The pump was on, but it didn't seem to be moving any water.  Turn the stove off. Call the stove guy.  There's my two steps back! 

One step forward and two steps back

Work has been done!  
First off...the wind turbine.  The new turbine and controller were delivered in August.  BUT, (why is there always a but?)  The installer hadn't even ordered the pipe for the new pole.   Apparently the installer was just trying to appease me by delivering the system components.  You are probably beginning to wonder where I find these contractors?  The internet, of course.    This led to my boyfriend taking on the project of buying and constructing the pole, wiring in the new system and putting the windmill back up.  

Everything was ready, and the date was set for August 31 to "raise the windmill".  It was a tad bit breezy for the raising, but we took it slow, all things went according to plan and the new turbine was back in the air.  After congratulating ourselves we took a moment to ponder why it didn't seem to be spinning very much even though it seemed quite breezy.  We decided to sleep on it and see how it looks in the morning.

We spent the evening perusing the literature and double checking the install to make sure everything was done correctly.  After much scratching of heads, we realized that the blades were on backwards!  The windmill would have to be lowered, blades switched and raised again.   Murphy's Law strikes again.  My philosophy is if you do something once, it is easier to forget than if you do it two or three more times.  We were getting really good at raising a windmill!  

How did it go up?  We used a pickup attached to the guy wires that lowers the gin pole as it pulls the windmill up.

Just to bring you up to speed, everything appeared to be fine for at least a month and then the lcd screen on the charge controller went blank and the windmill wasn't really turning.  Of course there was no warranty literature in the box.  I emailed the company in India and a dealer in Colorado.  (Apparently my new system had been ordered not solely by the Iowa dealer, but through another dealer in Colorado.)  The controller has been reset, but we are still in the process of running some tests to see if the controller is bad.  The company has assured me that they  will take care of this and the dealer in Colorado has been more than helpful.

Progress or lack there of...

Some people have asked when I am going to write something again.   Well, I've been waiting for something to write about.  Nothing has happened.  The windmill is still on the ground...My siding is still flapping in the wind - I really don't know how I will manage to be on a ladder on a sloping metal roof.  Maybe I have been avoiding that one.  But on the other hand, the windmill is progressing, somewhat...

Besides the fact that the original installer only made the comment that the thing on the ground was ugly, he did nothing to alleviate my issue.  Thanks!  I have found someone else who seems to know what he is doing and is convinced he can fix it.    Sounds simple enough, right?  Except when you add into the equation that the company that produced my Whisper 100 went under and sold their rights to a company in India.  So now it looks like we will be trying to order parts from India.  Oh wait, the Indian company only bought rights for the Whisper 200 and 500, not the 100.  A guy wants to buy the rights to the 100 and move the business to Iowa to begin producing this model, but he needs investors...  That didn't go through, so the order has been sent to India.  

Do you see what I mean about Murphy's law?  I am doomed in this life.

So, I guess progress has been made, but two months later and no visible progress.  

As for the siding, I did find extra pieces in the garage, but now to cut the angles and install.   Hmmmm, I'll think about it for another day, or two, or maybe three or more...  It's too hot now anyway, 90 degrees on a dark brown roof?  Crazy!

Murphy's Law

We had a lot of wind late this winter and I have been having issues with my siding coming loose at the angled roof - so, yes, the highest part.  Using various tool handles, I've been able to push it back in place until the next wind storm.  For the last three years I tell myself I should really nail, screw, or glue those loose corners into place, but I haven't.  And so one day I come home to this...

I'm upset because it's a minor inconvenience.  I have some siding left, but not an entire sheet that would replace this.  So not only do I have to buy a box of siding, but this particular piece is out of my reach unless I use a ladder on an already pitched roof.  I'm not too thrilled at this prospect.  

But like I mentioned, not a huge deal and I will figure it out one of these days, oh yeah, summer break!  And so life continues on.  I think things are going pretty well, since spring has been delayed I've been able to get more wood out of the fence rows.  I was feeling pretty good - this is the current wood pile.  I never have this much wood in May!  My wood pile doesn't usually look this full until August or September when I start cutting for the winter.  

Murphy's law:  If anything can go wrong, it will. Well, this is what I came home to...  This bites!

Not exactly sure what happened but my former wind turbine is now an arch.  You know it's not good when the installer says that is ugly and he needs to think about how to go about undoing it.  The worst part of this is, the installer probably will only offer some advice, if that.  It wouldn't be a big deal if I could call someone to repair it. The real issue is that I will have to fix it myself.  It involves a gin pole, couplings and guy wires and I will have to determine if the wind generator itself is damaged.  A cinch, right?
Sometimes I think that if I didn't have bad luck I would have no luck at all.  But this is a severe inconvenience not devastating, and it can be mended.  I must have some good luck.  I am healthy and so are my family and friends... That must be the Capricorn in me, just keep plodding along, up and down mountains.  Another project for summer break! 

Spring, when will you arrive?

Old Man Winter will you please pack your bags and head south?  I have spring things to do and it is way too cold and snowy to do them.  But the main reason, I am running out of dry wood for heat.  Since I don’t have a back-up heat source, I need the outside temperature to warm up.

But I did notice this huge log, I mean huge in girth log that I’m not sure when it was cut, so it must be dry wood, though at the moment it is frozen in place.  The girth is much larger than my saw blade.  I can only think of two options:  A) call someone who has a larger saw to cut this baby up, or B) try it myself.  

Well of course I was going to try it myself.  I wasn’t sure how it would work, but given the sunny afternoon but too cold and windy to prune, I gave myself a tank of gas to see what I could accomplish.  Let me restate that I really wasn’t sure how to tackle this, another item that should have been learned sometime – how to effectively use a chainsaw.

I didn't quite get a "before" shot, but this is pretty close.

Did I mention that it is a good sized piece of wood?  I finally figured out that using a combination of chainsaw, wedges and splitting maul, things progressed rather quickly.  

 

And this is all that remains for another day.

Not bad for a couple of hours of work.  This wood should last me another week.  Will the temperature finally warm up by then?

 

At least it has been sunny the last few days and extremely windy.  Loads of power!!

Winter driving skills?

Why don’t they teach winter driving skills?  When another snow storm was heading for us, and the forecast said 8-12 inches, the man with the tractor told me to take the full size 4x4 pickup home.  His only advice was don’t bury it!  Good thing, actually, before it had even started to snow, my driveway already had some good drifts blowing across it.  I probably wouldn’t have made it in my car.  Back to winter driving skills, I do what works:  drive really fast and hope to stay on the road while busting through drifts.  If I get stuck (as long as it is not in the ditch) I usually carry a scoop shovel, scoop some snow and manually push my car out.  Yes, push it out, (I've had a lot of practice in this) there is something to be said for lightweight cars. 

So we had about 6-8 inches of snow, but of course 8-18 inches was sitting on my driveway.  I walked the drive – yep, pretty deep.  I didn’t need to go anywhere, but kind of thought the tractor and blade would show up, sometime, but they never did. 

The next day, I had to get out, and early.  With trepidation, I called and was told my drive probably wouldn’t get done today, but I had 4 wheel-drive.  Not really knowing the capabilities of said vehicle, I asked if it could tackle 8-12 inches and was told, don’t break anything…go through the field instead.  You know, I kind of like “waiting to be rescued”, the responsibility isn't on my shoulders.  That’s a lot of pressure – don’t break anything. 

So, I put the snow boots on, had snow pants, stocking hat, gloves and the scoop shovel in the truck ready to go, just in case I found myself walking.  I used my only winter driving technique – drove fast and decided to opt for the path of less snowfall, through the field.  (It’s kind of nice to have 80 acres to choose from).  With palms sweaty, I made it. 

I asked many coworkers about the capabilities of a full size four wheel drive pick up.  I was told 8-18 inches shouldn’t be a problem.  How come vehicles don’t have that sort of capability written on their sticker?  With a driveway like mine, it would be good to know… how does a Jeep compare to other all wheel drive or 4 wheel drive vehicles? How much different is a small sized pickup versus a full size?  A general rule of thumb would be nice.  Do you think dealers would allow me to test drive – only in the winter on my driveway?  Depending on the snowfall it may take a few years to finish my research.

With my new found courage and the knowledge that driving to my house is mostly downhill, I decided to try the driveway itself when I came home.  It was a wild ride, 18 inches was more the norm and yet I still made it.  The drive out the next morning really showed how deep the snow was, but I made it again.

The man with the tractor finally showed up and was rather impressed with the capabilities of his truck, or was it my driving?