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Mother Load..

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Feb 23, 2009 | 3:21 AM PST
Tag: wowza..
It sure looks like we got the "Mother Load" this morning. Can't see out any window,,winds blowing pretty good- many have lost power. Our town has almost 4,000 without power-but so far we're still ok. They cut and did a good job of getting the trees down on this road this past summer,{which is where I got a huge pile of mulch.}I drew some water just in case. They warned us last 3 days it was gonna be a doozy-and anywhere between 10"- to 2 ft snow. Well- its looking more like 2 feet for sure,and its not quite done yet.Very little traffic going by.Now, I have to wonder if I'll ever see a blade of grass or spring bulb pop up...?I think this may take us awhile to dig out today-,,,lol.??

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Nice temps..

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Feb 21, 2009 | 1:38 PM PST
Tag: we're still experimenting..
Sorry to disappoint you guys- but this is a "Solar Hot Air" panel. The only thing electric on here is the fan we put in, it runs purely on convection air rising inside the box by natural gravity.One doesn't even need to use a fan as it will come out of the box on its own-but we chose to.When we go outside during warmer weather we also have to make one vent on each side at the top to "dump the hot air "during the summer if it needs to,otherwise it'll be covered over with a plywood panel. But solar electric panels can also be made at home too,we just chose the most cost effective for us.Its 4:30- and still running-today it hit a temp of 110* coming out of the box.

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Solar Panel..

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Feb 21, 2009 | 4:32 AM PST
Tag: Yay!!

The panel is up on the house and working-and Jim gets to see it actually work today as the suns out in full force. I've posted the slideshow of how he made it in case anyone wants to make one too,it would give them a general idea,and they are quite adaptable with different materials . We gathered info on 2 great sites,"Builditsolar.com" , and "mobilehomerepair.com" to use as our guide.

http://dbjc
364.memebot.com/passive-solar-
collector/

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Here comes the sun..

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Feb 19, 2009 | 8:22 AM PST
Tag: finally its there..
Have pics of the collector panel. Its up & done for now, pumping heat into the dining room.We opted to take off the vinyl,as its changing color anyways. We'll take the glass off in warmer weather to paint the vents-bracketts,and add some flashing up top.The sun appeared yesterday all day to give me a trial run and it ran from 11:00 am till 5pm.It pumped out a nice warm heat,so we look forward to building the next one onto the living room.Anyone with the basic tools can build one of these for very little investment,no sun obstructions, pretty much maintenence free,and will probaly outlast us.This one was $200-after I added the cost of paint & chalking.We'd say all in all, its definitely worth it. The Amary. bulb is still pondering whether to pop or not, and the tulips didnt last too long, as they're going by already.We're being hammered by a snowstorm now-suppose to be 10-15 inches,another on Saturday coming. Oh well- that was a short thaw & tease with no snow in front...I hope the sun comes out again tomorrow...

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Gadgets..

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Feb 16, 2009 | 2:22 AM PST
Tag: what does this do..?
I like gadgets.Most of the time I can turn them on & off. Most of the time I dont understand them either.And almost always I certainly dont know how to fix them..lol.But I still like to look-touch,and check them out.Being new parents of a pellet stove,we had to know how to do the basic maintenence of it.And its pretty basic with this particular model-thank god. The one thing the dealer told us was make sure we had a spare gasket on hand,or the gasket material to make one,as surely as the sun will rise- the gasket will fall apart when taking it off the exhaust blower. And it did. Jim recleaned the pipes again to see how much build-up we had,then onto the blower,and making a new gasket for it. We bought a small sheet of high temp ceramic exhaust material,he made a new one-this one is better than what came off it.It probaly wont fall apart the next time in the late spring when we do the end of season cleaning.A little 101 stove maintenence which didnt take long-so that made him happy. The insurance guy finally got around to looking at the bumper-the new car got smacked in the parking lot while jim was at work.The universe is pulling a funny again.Thats all settled now & onto the solar project..He's got his holes cut-no wind thank goodness.Today we finish cutting away a bit more vinyl siding,and put it up,providing he feels ok. I think he's got my head cold-but he still did a marvelous job yesterday.I pumped him up with some homemade soup & open faced tomato-onion cheese sandwiches.Tuesday, he goes Smelt fishing w/brother in law for some relaxation time.Back to gadgets,,which now it appears I have more than what I started out with for the garden hobby..I started with the basic shovel-hand claw-hoe and pruners.Inheriting implements from his mom, now I have things that slice,are round or square,odd size rakes,and small bags of amendments to add to the soil.I happened to pick up a gardening magazine,which I'm glad I did, as now I have pictures -descriptions of what these creatures are and what they can do for my life..or back.I seem to like sprinklers-as I've collected a small arsenal of different shapes and sizes,trying them all out-plus running thru them with Landon.Thank goodness their cheap-as this little hobby could cost a small fortune.Well,,as my reasoning self always says- at least your not sitting in a bar somewhere drunk-losing your money and sanity..you can just get drunk on the intoxication of flower scents,,and the lure of pretty advertisments in garden magazines...

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Wowza,,

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Feb 15, 2009 | 1:52 AM PST
Tag: don't want flower buds...
Between some rain days- strong winds and breezes & heavy fogs-sun & warm temps, we don't have much snow left.They forecasted a snowstorm for the coming week, but its already changed to a rain forecast-with temps climbing back up. Our driveway keeps going back and forth from mud to freeze..but the mudroom door is back to working now-which is great. No snow near the front side of the house now- which is great- because today we take the vinyl off-cut the holes for the registers,for the solar panel.Good weather today & tomorrow, so we'll finally be able to install it and get some heat from it before winters over.I'll be glad to get this one done already- and start on building the next one.This first one goes in the dining room where all the mountain winds hit the house straight on,, my comp sits in here-so at least on every sunny day- I should require no additional heat in here and it should be more comfortable regardless of wind situations. Now,- when we knock out that front wall,and rebuild it to include major insulation,,,we should see a huge difference...I'm getting concerned for the blueberry bushes now- as this is our Feb. thaw- and they need to be trimmed in the dormant stage.We dont want them waking up this soon...

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Count down.....

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Feb 8, 2009 | 1:48 AM PST

Yes- the catalog came from Schreiners!! And what gorgeous Iris they have. If I can squeeze the drops outta my budget...I'll have a small order of them.As I mentioned a while back-this summer I'm taking a break from the veggie garden.I'll be growing green pepper plants in the self-watering window boxes for Mom,and the self-watering basins,but the raised beds need filling and preparing so I'll be plenty busy doing that along with the garage sale. One of the gardens I've been wanting to do the last few years,is "The Blues Garden". Didn't get as far last year- but now can move the rest of any flowers that arent blue out of the circle,and plant more blue in there.The strawberries & raspberries have to be moved,so this summer its more a transplanting- maintenence thing.The Tulips are ready to burst open now,and it wont be long before I will see them open in the flower bed outside...hmm... 7-8 weeks...lol

P.S. their cycle may be off for a bit- but I'm still gonna plant these outside and see what happens... and I hope the groundhog stays in his hole..

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Starting to miss it..

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Feb 7, 2009 | 4:50 PM PST
Tag: white grass..

I read about you Southeners doing your gardening,and all I can do is whistle dixie..and not that well. I can drool over the Iris catalog that just came,and clean the house.But I did pick up some forcing tulips and they are a bright pink,just starting to bloom now.Still waiting for the Amaryllis.I've been spring cleaning the dining room-and almost done now. I bought new Thermal curtains for the slider-I should have bought them a long time ago-now I'm sold on them.Jim put a small shelf in back of the stove for a small fan to drive the heat forward,plus we have the ceiling fan-but I think this will do a better job. A new shiny teapot for some moisture,tomorrow I'll shampoo the rug,its amazing what just a few items can do to brighten a room.I shall console myself to read your blogs & catalogs,as when spring hits theres no time for cleaning.We never did make it for a drive to the coast this summer-but we'll get there this year.Pappa took his turn with Landon in the pool today and he seemed to do just a bit better this time.He's over his head cold-gave it to his Mommy-now she has pnuemonia.She's got her medicine so she should bounce back ok now.

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Miscalculations..

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Feb 1, 2009 | 2:52 AM PST
Tag: just pie..
Ok- we got 8 inches outta that last one!!They were off by quite a bit this time. jim was able to clear all the snow. All is calm & quiet now for a few days-nothing in the forecast except a warm spell,possible rain tuesday night. its birthday month for me!! Whoo hoo!!.Have a cleaning job to go do this morning-wash the cruddy car up,then to Moms for the monthly birthday dinner- as its my step-dads birthday month also.Tuesday would be my normal day off from Landon-but because of possible freezing rain,I'm taking wednesday off and my man is taking me to the slots...they've got a beautiful lunch buffet,along with the fun of cranking that handle!!...He knows I lov going there-to me its just fun.So we wont work too hard today- and the sun will be out again they say..next step is take the solar panel into the garage this morning also and give it the paint job before or after..the air mixers are attached now also..

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