Nothin you would notice.

It's been a nice 2.5 week vacation.

We had a really nice thanksgiving holiday, had visitors from here and there and had a great time.

I got shelves put up and the shed cleaned up nice for a long time to come.

We have a winters worth of wood sawed up and ready for splitting, along with a good covered place to keep it all.

I got most of my yard wiring project done, until I ran outta parts :D.

Now it's a bath for my sore hip, a nice glass of rum and waiting for the woman to get home. I always like her best out of all the choices anyway.

Today was wood stacking day around the old household. Earlier this week I cut a pile of stove length chunks out of the log pile. I figured today was sunny and nice so I spent the morning dragging all the chunks over into racks so that they're easier to find and split later on. Now I can chill out for the rest of the winter, this should make it through till Spring.

A little Thanks of this, a little Giving of that.

It's been a nice holiday around the old homestead.

It started out, as many holidays do when guests are coming, with a project. This Thanksgiving visitor project was new shelves in the studio. From my local lumber yard (Valley Lumber in Monte Vista) I got four 8' long particle board shelves and a pile of 2X2's. They turned into 2 sets of shelves 15" wide by 16' long above the pottery wheels. It was a bit of a trick hanging them above all the junk I needed to move up onto them. :D . Good thing I've got 6 hands.

Then all the stuff moved up off the floor, Bill Burch came by and all the recyclables moved out. I even found an old carpet remnant on a different set of shelves that will make it nice for Crys when she's working out there on her fiber stuff.

Our friend, Val, from Denver brought her 3 dogs and that space was perfect for them to be warm and safe and our cats to be neither assholes nor dead.

Then we made a great holiday meal, our friends Melissa and godson, Mason, came out to enjoy it with us.

Today I'm prepping a wire project for later next week. I'm off for a while yet so I can work on stuff around the casa that I never seem to get to.

A good bid came back on our solar supplies for replacing all the stuff we got on the solar shed. They even included a healthy repeat customer discount. It's gonna be hard for anyone else to beat. I may have to change my opinion on wholesale solar. They kinda made me mad a few years back.

The rest of the weekend will be playing, drinking, relaxing.

Life is good.

Framing, framing, framing

Now is the not showy part of the greenhouse building. It was fun and made good pics when the posts went in and the outside plywood went on. Now is the part where I put in the 2X4 supports which involves lots of cutting and digging and screwing. I got my top and bottom boards on yesterday along with a few of the mid supports then had to quit for lack of wood.

HOLDING FOR WOOD

I'll hope to get back on my framing on Monday, as there are no lumber yards open on Sunday unless I want a nice 3 hour drive.

And the knee wall is up. :D

Today while I was equalizing the battery bank I built the knee wall for the dome greenhouse. What I really wanted was to get the board up on top of the wall so I could start the greenhouse dome frame. Alas, it took all day to frame in the plywood wall lined with hardware cloth. Partly because I had to dig out so the panels could be screwed into the 4X4 posts. Top board is next! I got more done today than I planned to but less than I hoped for. Sometimes I overestimate my awesomeness.

Just keep posting (not what you think)

Last week we got the greenhouse posts and concrete done. So what's up this weekend?

Winter is coming!

SO, we set 3 more posts for a post and beam support for a WAY overhanging roof on the shed. That'll keep that overhang from getting broken by a big snow load and gives me a surface to do a cheap and cheerful retaining wall. So before the snow falls I gotta dig out and throw in my wood wall. Shouldn't be too big a deal. But while the concrete sets up on those posts........

I'll cut off last weekends posts in the greenhouse-to-be and see about starting on the hardware cloth wrap and top board. Then we can zip zippety doo dah throw up the greenhouse frame next weekend.

We don't push on projects anymore, the goal for finish glazing the greenhouse is early spring.

Till then we'll just keep posting, as in 4X4 posts and concrete. :D

So there are the posts, with a goofball in the middle.

Saturday plans

Today we're gonna plant posts for the dome greenhouse. It's a bit of reverse engineering :D I seem to specialize in that. We're building a 3' knee wall to set the dome on. 2' of it will be below ground level with 1' above. We'll wrap the whole thing in hardware cloth to keep the rodents out and are hoping to use brick pavers for the floor after we get it all up. Raised beds should make it workable for a long time, no one likes working on their knees. Pics as we get em.

Labor Day

We're having a good labor day weekend around here.

Yesterday we went to Salida for the wine fest there. It was a great day, the weather was good, the wine fest was fun (and full of wine), Moonlight Pizza was a fabulous dinner, and the whole dang day was just relaxing and fun. Even deciding to get up and go was no stress.

Today we're chilling and internetting and petting kitties. Just started some laundry since the sun is out and it promises to be a good power day. Later I might go lay out the wood to get cut up for the geodesic dome greenhouse project. We finally got the bill for the dirt work, and it's what we expected so that's good too. Mostly, today will be chill. :D

Tomorrow? If we don't barbecue something today we'll do it tomorrow. And I'm sure there will be hammock sitting and cocktail drinking.

We've big plans, but I think we have the intestinal fortitude to deliver.

Setting up for the Crystals Grow World

So the wood is here, the hubs are here and I've found a site to order the polycarbonate 8mm doublewall covering from. (That's the expensive part). On Monday the 6th a local contractor will meet me and we'll set up to move the small mountain of dirt that stands between us and a constructed grow dome.

http://advancegreenhouses.com/  is a good place to find polycarbonate sheets.

We're still trying to research and decide how to form the base for the greenhouse, I'm leaning towards a small knee wall from 2X6's with a door and airlock on the North side.

Time to build our first Geodesic dome.

For Crystal's birthday she got a kit for building a geodesic dome for a greenhouse. I searched long and hard for an affordable set of hubs to build this thing out of. The kit I settled on trying out a set from http://domeconnectors.com/xlarge.php . It's pretty cool, they offer several different sizes to work with. The instructions are fairly clear and we'll do a set of pics as we put it together.

In an interesting aside.... I was all ready to order a kit and then checked my local craigslist. As it turned out a town I was visiting contained a nice fella that was moving and had the exact kit (value $150) to give away for free. He had even printed a full set of color instructions. He got his kit from www.domeclimber.com

Following that I visited my local Home Depot and for 2X4's. Less than $300 later I had all the needed 2X4's. We're debating now about location and final covering material. I've found some sources for both shrink wrap plastic and double wall polycarbonate materials. The plastic is vastly less expensive but will shred out in just a few years. Other folks experiences point to 2 or 3 years.

We'll make this part of the blog and update as we move forward, right now we have a pile of 8' long 2X4's to cut up and a big old pile of plastic hubs.

May vacation

It's the end of our hang-around-the-close-by vacation week. We've had a good time. Started out going to Denver for my monthly union meeting, then home for the night. Then we headed up to Crested Butte,CO for a couple nights. We wandered, ate good food, toured the Montanya Rum distillery there (Thanks to Renee for the great relaxed tour) and headed home for a couple nights. Then up to Orient Land Trust/Valley View Hot Springs for a couple nights in the RV. That was relaxing as always. It was a little rainy and chilly but the hot water cancels that. :D. Then home again for a couple nights to cook and chill and drink and pet the cats.

Today is the last day. We're still in bed and it's closing in on noon. We'll get up when we get hungry :D. Back to work tomorrow, but then we get a 3 day weekend. It's tough to complain about that.

Rock and roll

Our rock is being used by some local folks (and a few from outta the valley) to hone their climbing skills for the summer season. It's really fun to watch them clamber around, listen to them cheer each other on and see the excitement they have for their climbing. (sometimes they also bring us beer as a thanks)

New generator news to follow:

The Generac Eco Gen 15 KW generator is completely connected now. It took a month, and I was working almost 24/7. I sat and watched it sit there, laughing at me. It's so nice to have it finally hooked up and properly programed.

So now our new Eco Gen will turn on if the battery bank gets low, if a big load is applied or if the state of charge (SOC) falls below 60%. This should make it easier to travel and live a nice life that's more free of worry. I did it all myself. Insert proper pat on the back now.

I just cancelled a meeting that would have involved a lot of people that treat me like an equal and as if they like me. That's not a common occurrence in my home warehouse. My customers needed me due to a big storm storm. And the weather was shitty for a 250 mile drive. I've learned that putting ones self at risk for a meeting is really a bad way to approach life. Mostly I miss getting to hang with my friends. I don't have many close friends, and I find this group particularly wonderful. They recognize that I'm not the "norm" and love me anyway.

I dislike being torn, I'm quite certain they'll forgive me.

I'm hoping the over time slows down soon. I'd love to just chill. Retirement is less than 5 years off and there's a lot to do so it's hard to turn down the opportunity for extra funds but I want to make sure I don't ignore my family in the process.

Balancing acts. It's all balancing acts.

Signs

I have never been in a relationship that I just didn't know the person I was involved with. My mind is reeling right now. I keep asking myself what the signs were that I could have seen. Why would a person I loved just go off the deep end so completely. What will I do different in the future? What could I have done differently? How can I be sure my next friend or lover isn't completely nuts? I guess there is no way to screen out the secretly seething angry person. No way to back away slowly when somebody doesn't show you their true self. It truly does break my heart to look back knowing I gave them a good chunk of it. What can ya do? Just get busy living I guess. Moving on. 

Losing a friend.

This past weekend, I lost a friend.  Not to death but distrust.  He's been going through a lot lately.  He's hurting and angry.  He turned his anger on me.  I didn't do anything wrong.  When he showed his anger, I tried to assuage it with the truth of the situation as I saw it.  I apologized for hurting him unintentionally.  I begged him to believe and understand me.  I threw myself at his feet.  I drove 3 and a half hours to go see him and try to make things right.  On the trip, I broke my new car.  I took my only free day to see him. 

What I received in return was more anger.  He screamed an inch from my face.  He grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me out of his way.  He threatened to take me to the police or to file a complaint.  I begged him to give me five minutes, but he told me that he didn't owe me five minutes.  The whole confrontation took minutes.  At the end, I said, you're on your own.

As I process this situation, I have to recognize that I didn't know this man as I thought I did.  I didn't know that he could be so closed off.  I didn't know that loving him didn't entitle me to five minutes of his time.  He said before, "Come by ANYTIME" but it was a lie, just like everything else.  He wanted complete control of the situation.  He refused to share any of the responsibility. I would be shocked if I ever heard from him again, since he is so right.

When I am with somebody, as friends or lovers, I have a responsibility to them.  To love them, and to hear them, but I should get the same in return.  I get to make mistakes.  EVEN IF I DON'T PERCEIVE THAT I MADE A MISTAKE.  I should get to fumble through life and figure things out.  Ask for forgiveness and understand what I did wrong. 

And I am OVER people who are unwilling to admit when they are wrong.  I am OVER IT.  What is it with people who are so damn pig headed that they can't apologize or communicate.  TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT.  I would LOVE to be a mind reader, but I'm not.  I never promised NOT to love people.  I never promised not to communicate with people. As a complete aside,  I never promised not to love SEX with the people I love.

Solar System

I think I might finally be getting a handle on the battery bank saga.

Our original bank boiled dry after 2.5 years and I figured that the answer would be to essentially double the battery capacity. It's really kinda funny how wrong that can be. :D

Our new battery bank is huge and fancy and less than 2 years old. And going down hill fast.

It's supposed to last at least 7 years. SO I know, from past experience, that it must be the loose nut putting it together that's causing the problem. I ordered the original system from wholesalesolar.com and they bailed on me when I was trying to figure out what I'd done wrong the first time. I discovered that one does not run an equalization charge on maintaince free batteries, and you have to reset the defaults on your system to avoid that.

Lesson learned.

Bank 2 was bought from a solar "guru" in Durango. He was helpful and good to deal with. Unfortunately, I didn't know the right questions to ask so as to garner the right answers.

I was researching today and stumbled upon the user forums at Northern Arizona Wind and Sun. I enrolled and listed out the difficulties I was having. As of this evening I think I have a workable solution and a means to bring it about. It appears that I have oversized the battery bank for the given generation from solar panels that I have. The answer is to add 3 panels and upgrade the charge controller to handle the loads. In the interim I'll run the generator in the mornings and let the bank run absorb charge most of the day. That should bring it back up quite a bit. Also I now have a better plan and understanding for how much absorption time to run. along with a decent equalization schedule.

It's quite nice chatting with folks who just want to help. Now I just have to have someone hit a pole on  a Sunday so I can afford the upgrades.......

Day one.

Today has been a quite pleasant day. We chilled out, internetted in bed for a bit, prepped the house for company that's coming in late tomorrow, I even installed a timer on our well pump to help preserve our batteries through the really cold months. Today started out filled with snow and cold, moved into some lovely sunshine and now there are soft clouds drifting across the mountains just to the west. I have to work tomorrow but it should be pretty calm, Crys* is off till Monday. The deck has dried off nicely on the south side, but the north side is still frozen and chilly looking. We've been sipping some nice fancy booze today. Started out with some of the Pyrat Cask 1623 that Crys* gave me for Christmas and followed that with some Stranahan's Mt. Bierstadt Snowflake limited edition whiskey. We'll finish with a sipper of some Hyland Park 18 year in front of the TV tonight.

It's a rough life, but we try to manage.