First Night

Since we move tomorrow...and I will essentially be on the "dark side of the moon" for I don't know how long, I thought I'd post my journal entry from my "First Night at the Solar Compound". May 30th, 2007, or thereabouts. A version of this found it's way into Homepower Magazine last fall. My thanks to Ian of Homepower for that. He called it "Solar Pride".

And this blog will be dormant for awhile. I have to find some sort of high speed service up at the Cabin. That means my e-mail will change too. I'm not sure how long the ATandT one will be good.


____________________________________________________

Spent my first night at the solar compound. I drove up to Concow, California last Thursday to take the last walk through with the former owner and my realtor. I got a primer on the solar system and managed to get the solar well pump working without too much trouble. Greg, the former owner, was gracious enough to let me spend the night in the cabin (and gave me the keys), despite the property not closing until the next day.

So I spent the afternoon playing with the solar system. Turned the lights on. Then off. Then on again. I peeked into the water tank maniacally...watching the slow dribble of water into the tank. I watched with satisfaction as the solar battery display said "Good" even with the lights on and the solar pump running.

After an afternoon of playing with the solar system (can't tell you how much joy it gave me to see it running so perfectly), I then drove down to Oroville to get some provisions (Ritz crackers, Cheese and a bottle of wine--topped off with a couple mini-airline sized bottles of Johnny Walker Red Scotch)--called Joni (my wife) to brag about the solar actually working...then drove back up the bumpity 2.2 mile gravel road to the three acre Compound.

Got out my sleeping bag and placed it on the deck. Ate the crackers. Watched the moon rise (A Blue Moon--as it was the second Full Moon of the month). I took it as a good omen that the property was to close on the day of a Blue Moon. I toasted the moon. Gave a wine offering to the property.

Neighbors drove by in their pickup trucks. All of them waved. The neighbor's chickens were quite busy with their clucking. Dogs barked. And generators ran. Sound travels well out here.

It's a little spooky in the Sierra Foothills, as night descended. The night before I had googled "Concow" and ran across a "BigFoot" sighting that happened in Concow in 2005. Tried not to think about that...and if the Big Hairy Monster decided to drop by, I decided I'd just offer him a bite of cheese, a Ritz cracker---and a mini-bottle of Scotch. Gotta be neighborly with the Fauna.

Slept like a baby on the deck. Woke up to a Jackrabbit nibbling on my weeds. "Have at it Fellah"...keeps the fire danger down and I won't have to weed whack it.

Again I played with the solar system. Filled the tank halfway full. Battery still said "Good" on the solar display. Got a drink out of the spigot and washed up with my own Solar Generated water. Kept giggling at my good fortune. Simple pleasure.

Old Bill dropped by.

Bill has lived up here for fifteen years. Off the grid with 24 solar panels and a 2500 gallon water tank. A former Ford factory worker...he launched into how the Democrats are all responsible for the fact that people have to work so hard to support their families. He proudly stated he raised a family. Had a car. A wife. Children. All supported on his good union job. He sold his house and now is an "off the grid", Solar Libertarian-Republican.

I quickly learned that up here in this "off the grid" community, your wealth is measured by the number of solar panels you have multiplied by the size/flow of your water tank. My manhood deflated; his was much bigger than mine.

Bill told me that the area is populated by RN's. My neighbors to the left and the right of me. And another one further down. All of them live there year-round. I'd be the fifth RN on the Ridge. Must be the safest place to choke on your beans (other than a hospital cafeteria) in the lower 48 states.

"You are on your own out here---everyone keeps to themselves" he said (yet he stopped to chat?). Bill left.

Pick up trucks kept passing by. Most of them new and shiny. Rush hour. Must have been at least one pickup truck passing by per hour. Most had dogs riding shotgun. All the people waved. The dogs kept quiet. Redneck Central. Mental note: buy a Pickup. And a gun.

On my way back to Calistoga (in the Napa Valley), my Realtor had left a message on my cell phone (which doesn't work at the property). "Congratulations...you now own the property". Called Joni and left a message that all was well. The solar cabin is ours.

allan stellar

Bales...

Joni got a call from the farmer who is providing our Strawbales. The wheat harvest is coming in a bit quicker than expected. The result? We will have the bales delivered next week. We reduced our order to 250 strawbales. Hope this works....

Books--Second Take

A Dusty Window Donation

An ICU Nurse donated this dusty window to our adventure. He had purchased the wrong size and gave it to us free of charge. We willingly take all donations!

Everything Strawbale and Solar

Started packing. We load the truck on Saturday.

I took all the books that Joni has purchased over the last year on "natural building", "strawbale building", "cob building", "solar power"...a small library of "Do It Yourself" materials for the Granola Set. Joni has actually read most of them. I like the pictures.

Egg Heads like to read about stuff. But will actually doing it be as fun as dreaming about it?

Sprinkles....

A pony tailed Psychologist friend of mine told me while I was working as a Psychiatric RN with children and adolescents, that children should be exposed to some sort of Church. "It lets them know what to rebel against later in life". And it provides a moral compass as to what acceptable behavior is.

We've been going to a tiny Episcopal Church here in the Napa Valley. Our Priest is a woman, who often throws a bit of Feminist Flare into the liturgy. God is called a "She" quite often. And the Motto of the church is "Open Minds, Open Hearts". Frankly, this little Church very much enhances the community through their excellent Pre-School. Tolerant and Loving, they are. Even a Gnostic can find a home there. Or a Pipe Carrier.

I had taken Jazmine to Church a few weeks ago. Joni was ill and Kylie wanted to stay with Joni. During the service there was a baptism. Jazmine thought it would be fun to have water sprinkled on her, so she asked to be baptised. Jazzy's first couple years of life were spent with a meth-addicted Mother, running from weekly hotel to hotel, from State to State with a man who had warrants for his arrest and is in Prison right now. Suffice it to say there was no Church for Jazmine. Nor Kylie. Their Father has spent four years in prison for "Felony Menacing"; when a client wouldn't pay for his Meth, their Father took a chain saw to his Client's car.

So we honored Jazmine and Kylie's wishes and they were baptised last Sunday. This small Church had seen them grow up over the last four years. There wasn't a dry eye in the Church. Touching.


Rosemary is a wonderful Lady. She has been such a loving influence on the girls. And the girls asked for Rosemary and her husband, to be their Godparents. George and Rosemary are English and spent their working years in Asia, where George was a Banker with the Bank of Scotland. They had met Robert Mondavi (the wine mogul who recently passed on), and he invited them to retire in the Napa Valley. Friends with all the Pioneers of Napa Valley Wine. Grgich. Heitz. Very classy folks! And very down to Earth.

There is a tradition that I read someplace, that when a person is baptised, a Guardian Angel is assigned to you. Here are Jazzy and Kylie after the baptism. We all can use all the Unseen Help that is available to us...

Fiddling while Rome Burns

As the Humboldt Fire got uncomfortably close to the Cabin, we decided to do as Nero did. But we couldn't find a Fiddle. So we went out to our favorite Restaurant. We took two of Jazmine and Kylie's friends along to celebrate their excellent report cards. This was a nice glass of Pinot Noir from a local Vineyard. I will miss the Napa Valley in many ways. We go from hoity-toity refinement to a more plebeian life.

Kylie and her friend showing me their fancy "clap" game.

Jazmine and her friend and their Shirley Temples.

I'm not sure what this face is about? I think Jazzy likes the cuisine.

Walkers Unite!!

I ran across these two articles on the closing of hiking trails. These trails had been used by their respective community's for years. Along comes a person with some dollar bills, and suddenly they think they can restrict others from their "right to roam".

Let me ask? Who is more anti-social? The person who buys property and then restricts a person (who had been using the trail for years) from having access to it? Or the person who ignores the wishes of an anti-social, private property owner?

Established trails should be protected! Some rights go beyond a person's ability to "have it all to themselves".

http://www.redding.com/news/2008/jan/08/landowner-closes-trails/


http://www.wickedlocal.com/capecod/homepage/x101656440/No-trespassing-signs-irk-beach-walkers

Humboldt Fire...

It was dicey there for a bit...

A South wind today, blew the fire North of Paradise. 24,000 acres burned so far. The fire is only 20 percent contained, but at least it is burning many miles north of us. I was worried last night when it got to the flats below the Compound. It would have been a nice, easy and quick burn up the ridge to the Compound. Turns out that the closest the fire has gotten thus far is about three or four miles.

The Solar Cabin is safe for now, it appears...

Whew!!

Found it rather ironic that with our residence in the Napa Valley given up; Joni's job given up; my status changed at work: that a fire would threaten this move. Lucky that this didn't happen two weeks from now...when all of our stuff would have been threatened too. Not that we have all that much. I still wouldn't want to see everything we have burned to a crisp.

Onward!

Fire...

Well, this is interesting. We are eight days away from moving. Our notices are given. I've switched my job to part time. All the best plans a man can make.

And now we have a fire. It's about four miles away, out of control...and moving towards the compound. All the fire has to do is jump the canyon and flash, burn...our little homestead is toasted.

We watch the reports with fear. Here is a report on the fire. Our place is just across the canyon from Paradise...and many houses have burned there.

So what to do? We went out to dinner. Took the girls with us. And Joni and I decided that even if the place does burn, that we will move up anyway...

Wish us luck...

A link to the fire map...

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=114588530322698785804.00044f6aafd8ff4921e68

5 Days You Shall Work and 9 Days You Shall....

Hammered out a new work schedule with my Nurse Manager today.

Suffice it to say that I will work five days straight...to be followed by nine glorious days to myself (and to various other industrious activities). Turns out I will only need to make the 140 mile drive to work twice a month. That's only two hundred extra miles on my vehicle a month.

While at work, I will work at the hospital. Eat at the hospital. Sleep at the hospital. I have the option to work double shifts, if needed, and if available.

And the joyful thing is that I will still have a benefited position. Health benefits for our family. 401K. Plus I will continue to accrue vacation time (just in case my nine days off isn't sufficient).

I'm a lucky man...

12 Days Until...

We move in 12 days. Joni has started to pack. I've thought about packing. She does a much better job of it than I do...

But I did manage to cancel the utilities. Utilities that we won't have to pay for at the Solar Homestead. I took great delight in canceling the Pacific Gas and Electric bill. When the lady on the phone asked: "Do you need service at your new address?", I politely declined the offer. And of course, I rambled on and on about our valiant solar panels.

The downside: AT and T doesn't have high speed Internet at the new place. I got the ATand T high speed Internet thinking that I could have it at our new residence. Nope.

So it's either back to "dial up"...which is sort of like going back to High School after getting a Graduate Degree. The other option is to get a satellite connection.

Now that intrigues me. To get Internet service off a satellite. Sputnik meets the PC. How cool!

Bikes!! The Roads Are Ours Again!!

With Gasoline at $4.50 a gallon in town, one unintended consequence is: The Roads Have Become Safer For Bikes, Kids, Dogs and Pedestrians! Yahoo! Too bad we didn't jack up the price years ago, with reinvestment in public transportation, solar panels and wind energy.

Kylie riding her bike at the local school.
Lance Armstrong look out!

Jazmine, minus her bike...

And the pup continues to grow...

City by the Bay

There aren't all that many cities I would live in. San Francisco is the exception. And getting there by Ferry is a treat. SF is walkable. Leave the car at home...as the city is best explored on foot. They also have a decent mass transit system.

The Bay Bridge and another Ferry.

We sat outside and watched the view from the back of the boat.

The TransAmerica building...

Alcatraz and the Golden Gate...

Giants versus the Mets

Jeff in Hunter Thompson Garb, looking like the fine psychiatric professional that he is. We bought a couple tickets from some scalpers at a reasonable price. Got the cheap seats....

But we didn't care for the bleachers. So we moved to some empty seats along Third Base. We cheered for the Mets (Jeff is from New York). The Mets won. We survived the ordeal a bit poorer. They serve decent beer at this stadium, but it is priced at $8.75 a pint. Robbery! The stadium itself is beautiful. Not a bad seat in the house.

Hog Island Oysters!!

The Ferry drops you off at (of course) the Ferry Building. At one time it was rather run down, but now it has been Yuppified with lots of decent restaurants, wine bars, vegetable stands and fish markets. We had an hour to kill, so we tried the Oysters.

We got a dozen that were living in the morning in Tomales Bay. Wonderful! Washed down great with a beer or two. Best Oysters I've ever had!

When I asked the woman on the left, who she thought Jeff's favorite writer was, she nailed it: "Hunter Thompson". Earned her a good tip... They chuck the Oysters right in front of you.

We ended up eating a few dozen. Liked them so much, we stopped there again after the game and had a few more. Here Jeff admires that which will soon be sliding into his tummy.

Morning Ferry Ride

This is Jeff. Psychiatric Nurse extraordinaire. Has been working in this field since 1982. His favorite writer is Hunter Thompson. So, when Jeff and I do the city---we call it our yearly Abbey/Thompson expedition. Today was such a day. The justification for this day of debauchery was that the Mets were playing the Giants.

I had to prove to Jeff that I still have hair on the top of my head. And I guess a touch of grey in my beard.

Breakfast! We had time for three of these on the Ferry ride.

The buildings to the left of the bridge is San Quentin. Used to be the home of Charles Manson. A Psychiatric Nurse who I worked with, told me that she took care of Charlie. Evidently, he would let his finger nails grow long, so that he could scratch anyone who came near. A delightful chap...

And the Golden Gate, on the way to the Game.

Please Brother, Could you spare me a dime? Or a bone?

Swim and Nap

Yet another swimming hole photo. Kylie and Jazmine playing happily in their Natural Environment. Summer Days should be lazy. Watch clouds. Play in the Creek. Sun yourself on a Rock. Get sunburned. Poison Oak. Cut up by Thorns. Be Barefoot. Spend time with dogs and family. Is there anything more worthwhile than this?

Good thing this pup looks so sweet when asleep on our Futon. She is entering doggy adolescence (she even has the acne). Pushes limits. Wants to run off all the time. A dog's life ain't half bad.

Dinner, Vultures, Right to Roam and Swimming Holes

Joni is simply amazing! Here she is cooking dinner for her family. I can't say enough good things about her, and the work she does to keep this family running smoothly. This is from our kitchen in the Napa Valley. We will be vacating this kitchen in 21 days.

This is a better view of the scene of the Turkey Vulture encounter. Our cement pad, which we inherited, will be our Family Room.

Angel, our new Yellow Lab, taking a hike down a Country Road. Taking a walk! Walkers of the World Unite! All you have to lose is your flab! I happen to know that Angel is totally behind the Walkers Movement. And she asks me for one everyday.

Kylie and Jazmine at the Swimming Hole. Every kid should have a Swimming Hole. We have one!

Jazmine and Kylie again. Kylie to the left. Jazmine peering from the rock.