Solar Array Set Up - Day 1

This week HALCO, a local home energy company is in the process of setting up our backyard Photovoltaic Array system. The 7.2KW/32 modules system will be mounted on two 10x20 foot towers. Our goal is to cancell out our annual net grid electrical usage. We have been working with HALCO engineers to design and submit a plan to NYSERTA for approval since October, 2009. The system should be set up by week's end and by mid-May with NYSEG's (New York State Electric & Gas) approval, we should be producing are our own electrical energy when the sun shines.

Stay tuned!

DAY 1 photos

Drilling two, 3x8 ft holes to anchor the array towers

The auger

The hole will hold the array support pole and be filled with concrete Wednesday.

A trench was dug to connect the array with the house.

Where We Were Picking Stones?

Earth or Martian terrain ... can you tell?

Below is an actual picture of "martians" unloading stones on the Earth's Surface with their "terrestial rover".

Turning The Garden

Planting Peas

With the recent summer like weather, I decided to get an early start on the 2010 vegetable garden. I have been turning the garden over by hand for the last several weeks.
In the photo:

1. (Right side) - a wheel barrow load of finished compost is spread over the seed bed.
2. (Center) - a double row of pea seeds are seeded in a soft bed of soil and compost.
3. (Left side) - a trellis is set upon which germinating pea vines can attach and grow upward into sunlight for easier havesting in mid-June.

Creativity; Better Late than Never

When building our log house back in 1983, I had always thought that the logs linking the back portion of the house to the front portion would make a great interior totem pole. Over the last two days I have enjoyed fullfilling this fantasy on three of the five log butts using simple hand tools. Although rather crude, I did have fun! My only reget is that I did not do this years ago when the kids would have been here to enjoy them in their day to day comings and goings. Here you see the first creation and "butts" soon to carved.

Any animal suggestion for the 4th log butt from the bottom?

Carving ID from top to bottom:

an elephant

a bat

a trout

[OK ... that's a joke, the craving from bottom to top are:

Bottom: snapping turtle

Middle: black bear

Top: A sitting beaver with it's tail between it's legs]

View coming down stairs from kids bedrooms.

Sunny Day/Trashy Walk

I walked to Phelps to check out the garden seed varieties at the Phelps Mercantile store and then hiked on up Rt 96 to the Finger Lakes Credit Union to do a little banking. On the way back I started my usual mercenary picking up of discarded, returnable for deposit cans and bottles. Along the 5.5 mile hike home I picked up 30 returnable containers and 22 crushed aluminum cans that go into my aluminum stock pile. I am amazed at the volume of trash along the roads and the mind set [...or lack of a mind] that allows a body to toss out that much "stuff" along this random sampling of NYS highways. And this was only one side of the road.

I could have easily double this amount had I picked up cans/bottles going to Phelps, but how would I carry it all while walking?

Backpacking Eastern Wayne County roads

The itch to try backpacking in the winter was getting to me, yet I didn't want to add more carbon to the atmosphere traveling to and from a hiking destination. Results? ... why not backpack a loop of the most rural roads of Eastern Wayne county. Below is a sequence of photos of my latest 78 mile trek in 2.5 days.
[click on individual photos to see a greater photo details... Enjoy]

My hiking loop (counter clockwise)started and ended from home (yellow pin).

Looking east toward Rt 14

Our home in Alloway ('73 -83) ...sad!

Heading to Clyde, the plowed road ends.

Entering Clyde on Rt 414

Wetlands northwest of Savannah

Lunch break spot on Noble Rd.

Heading towards Butler, NY

Butler, NY

Backed & ready to head out from day 1 campsite

Lake Ontario comes into view.

Lake Ontario at the dead end.

Walking the shore line

Lake Ontario

Heading away from the lake.

North Rose appears on the horizon.

Day 2 camp site at Huckleberry swamp

Food prep before a night's sleep

Another seasonal road ahead - time to put on snow boots.

View looking south from atop Harris Road.

Heading west

Heading south

Entering Marbletown & the journey's end.

As usual my toes are a little swollen and I lost 4 toenails, but it was a good trip!