The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. The Knights of Columbus at St. Mark's Church are once again doing a drive by fish fry on Fridays during Lent. Woohoo no cooking!

2. The electricity went out and came right back on. Whew! There was only 9 hours of backup on the battery because the Grid never charged the battery due to the weather service calling our Winter weather an advisory instead  of a warning. I thought they did

3.  Realizing we were in the Lenten season, time to watch a bunch of Holy movies. First up, Ben Hur with Charlton Heston

4. We found the 1952 version of The Miracle of Fatima starring Gilbert Roland. I haven't seen this movie in decades.

5. Play day with Teague.

How was your week?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

A few days after the blizzard, the surface of the snow looked quilted or pebbled. I've never seen this before. Maybe due to all the blowing and drifting of the blizzard.

You are coming back in to feed us, right?

Before the ice storm, checking on the solar panels to see how much snow was on them. I was surprised the Western array was pretty much cleared of snow.

Not so, for the main array. I debated about clearing the snow off, but decided to leave it

The greenhouse survived the blizzard.

After the ice storm

Sunrise

The greenhouse made it again.

The stairs into the house are electrified so no ice because I left the stairs running all night during the storm. The walk was a sheet of ice covered with a layer of snow. Surprisingly, not too slippery for me to negotiate.

I ran out of sand and salt so had to stop and refill my small bucket.

All done. Stairs and front walk salted and sanded.

February door decorations

Moosicles (icicles on Moose)

Bedazzled trees

How does your garden grow?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Hmmm, paint flaked off the terra cotta pot

None of the other pots have any signs of flaking. Ink is still keeping watch. Weather or some malicious mischief? The following evening as the Young One and I were going out, she heard water splashing. The hose had been turned on. Definitely points to signs of malicious mischief. Though a kind reminder to turn the water off to the outside hose so the pipes don't burst during the Winter weather.

The dreaded S-word!

I hope it warms up enough so I can free the Flamingoes

Cold weather didn't stop the solar panel technicians from replacing a broken micro-inverter. The only time a ten minute repair job actually took only ten minutes!

How does your garden grow?

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Sunday was National Ice Cream Sandwich Day. I bought ice cream sandwiches on the last shopping expedition. We've been enjoying them this week.

2. Picked the first zucchini of the season and made a batch of zucchini muffins

3. Because of tropical storm Isaias, the electricity went out around 6 pm.  We had sent out for Five Guys at lunch, before the storm got started so in case we did lose electricity, we wouldn't have to cook. No one wants supper after the big Five Guys lunch. The solar battery kicked on and by being conservative with what was running (using the micro, the toaster oven, the AC use too much electricity) we were able to keep the sump pump humming and phones, iPad's and laptops charged.

4. The electricity came back on at 4:30 PM August 5 and not August 7, Friday at noon as predicted. The Powerwall was a good investment. It worked well and I'm glad it was Summer. In Winter we might only be able to limp along for a day as the sun won't be high enough to power the solar panels or recharge the Powerwall.

5. Anne of Anne's Creative Cornucopia called to let me know she was okay and had made it through the storm.

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. I couldn't fall asleep so hung out with the Young One until 2 AM

2. Texted my friend who is in Infection Control for Stanford University Hospital. She's working long hours, but she and her family are fine.

3. A wind and rain storm knocked the electricity out. The power wall kicked in and saved the day. I didn't have to flush the toilet using buckets of water.

4. The Nephew and his wife had a gender reveal video of a box of white and blue balloons with blue and white confetti. She also posted an ultrasound picture of the little dude. He arrives sometime in September

5. Attended a virtual birthday party for Himself's brother.

How was your week?

Eclipse Day

If you're interested in viewing the Eclipse today but didn't get a pair of the special viewing glasses, you can still see the event by Live Stream or view it with a home-made projection device. NASA has lots of information, safety-tips, viewing areas, and live-streaming on NASA Eclipse 2017

The event will start at Noon EDT until 4PM. My area is not in the path of totality and a partial eclipse will occur. According to NASA a 65% obscuration for my area. Still pretty cool.

Stay safe and have a Happy Eclipse Day!

View From The Zensical Garden

First garden kite of the season. It was supposed to go up to celebrate the Vernal Equinox, but cold, snow, and rain kept that from happening until now. "Here comes the sun" kite made from packaging material. Ziller Glossy Black ink, Sharpie marker, colored pencils.

The gewgaws have landed. 

The newest addition to the garden. Himself gave the dragon to me at Christmas. The dragon holds his pearl of wisdom which is a solar powered light.

For Christmas, I gave Himself a Jeffersonian rain gauge. 

Leftover yarn, ribbon, and Ink's hair scraped off my writing desk chair as nesting material offering for the birds. All corralled in a suet basket.

I reconstructed the stone towers. Either they were knocked over by some animals or the weather.

Rocky, the face I carved from marble is showing some wear from the weather.

The dragon's pearl illuminated at night. The pearl cycles through white, red, green, and blue. The pearl can be set for one colored light, but I like watching the pearl change colors.

How does your garden grow?

Going Solar

South side array

Summer 2016 we began researching going solar. Several solar companies had come through the area. Some had rent your roof options, leasing panels in a solor farm, or buying the system outright. Renting/leasing was the least expensive option, but buying the system offered tax advantages as well as savings on electricity. We decided to buy the sytem.

We signed a contract in September. We were assured that all construction would be completed before the end of the year as certain benefits would not be available in 2017.  And then we waited. What usually happens when a company comes into an area to offer something new, everyone wants on board. The salesmen happily sign up customers. The reality is these companies rarely have the amount of technicians able to do the installations. And that's what happened with us. We waited and waited and waited. September rolled into December. (We should have anticipated this as it happened when fiber optics for Internet, phone, and cable came to town, too. That install took nearly 9 hours over a course of 3 days.)

The worse part was trying to chase the company down for answers. When will this happen? Will we lose some of the incentives. And then in January, a call on Monday saying installation would happen on Wednesday. As if the homeowner could turn his schedule on a dime,  had nothing better to do, didn't have to take time off from work..

The installation did go very smoothly. The guys were in and out within a few hours, and we were the proud owners of a solar array. And then more waiting. Inspections had to happen. The town building inspector needed to add his thumbprint to paperwork as well as the electrical inspector. And then the electric company would have to come out and put a new meter on the house. And the snow flew and and flew and more waiting and chasing the company contact down.

By now it was late February, and we had a beautiful boondoggle on the roof not producing electricity. My thought was to call and tell the company to come and get the damn thing off the roof and put the roof back the way it was. Himself sent a letter to the company to that effect.

Another project manager contacted Himself and, we got to have a face to face meeting where we expressed our frustration and anger. Turned out the company had closed the office with the project manager we were dealing with. We were assured the company wasn't going under. And I told the new project manager their communications sucked.

We passed the building inspection, but failed the electrical inspection twice. Part of the problem was the electrical box is right near the rollers for the garage door. So as the garage door goes up and down, some of the protective wrappings on the main electrical to the house was being worn away by friction. The electrical inspector also didn't like the quick and dirty fix the company used. The company wanted us to cough up the money to have the electricians fix things. Our counter was the company should have noticed this was going to be a potential problem when they bid on the job. Not to mention the loss of time as in 6 months, and we had a system that was as useful as a teat on a bull. Yes, I said that to the project manager. 

West side array

In the end, the company stood by their product. They absorbed the cost of having the work at the electrical box fixed the way the electrical inspector wanted. They also refunded some money. The electrical inspector signed off on the project. The electric company showed up a few days later to change the meter on the house. Himself flipped the switch, and the system went live on 28. March 2017.

As our luck held, there was the April Fool's blizzard and then days of clouds and heavy rains. I always thought luck of the Irish meant good luck. The weather cleared. Today, the sky was an impossible blue with nary a cloud in the sky, and the solar array was busy producing electricity. Waiting in anticipation for the first electric bill to see how much we will save. I don't mind waiting for this. 

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. I saw my first robin of the season. Too bad, its poor little beak will be buried in snow this weekend.

2. Dusted Ma's chairs and thought of her. Looked out the window and the male cardinal was sitting on the trellis. Lots of birds were visiting the feeder. Chickadees. Nuthatches. Juncoes. The cardinal hopped to the ground and was joined by the female cardinal. They pecked at the seeds on the ground for a bit. She flew off and he followed. Always a good day when they show up.

3.National Grid showed up to put in the new meter for the solar panels. Himself switched on the solar panels. Now we need some sunshine.

4. Another breakfast date with Himself. As we were seating ourselves, the waitress brought a couple of menus and said: A tea and a Coke, right? Made me think of the TV show, Cheers: Sometimes you want to go Where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came. (source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/cheerslyrics.html) 😸

5. There is radiant floor heating in the bathroom. A year or so ago, there was a power failure. When the electricity came back on the surge must have scrambled the heating control's brains. The read out was in Klingon instead of  English date and time. Fixing it was a low priority. There was the hassle of trying to find an electrician. Was the repair simple, just fix some wiring in the control? Or would the tile floor have to be ripped up? How much would it cost?

As I walked down the hall the day after the solar panels were turned on, the radiant floor heating control was back in English showing the date and time though the time was a half an hour slow. (About the same amount of time as it took the National Grid technician to turn off the electricity, install the new meter, and turn the electricity back on. Hmmm.)

I don't know if the rewiring of the electrical box for the solar panels fixed the problem or the floor somehow got wired into the solar panels. Whatever happened, I'm grateful the Little Princess no longer has to walk on cold tiles in the morning.

How was your week?

Going Solar

south side of the house

After a lot of research and discussion, we've decided to go solar. Panels were supposed to be in place by November as tax incentives were supposed to run out at the end of the year. And we waited and waited. And debated whether we should just scrap the project. 

The company finally came through two weeks ago. Materials were delivered at the crack of dawn before the weekend.  Fortunately, the weather was more like Spring than mid-January. Monday morning, the crew arrived as the sun came up. They worked quickly and with a minimum of fuss. Solar panels were in place and wiring run to the service box.

west side of the house

Now we're just waiting for the town electrical inspector and electric company to look things over and put their thumbprints on the paperwork.