An ongoing journal of building an "off-the-grid" solar homestead, life, boring tedious stuff, knee-jerk eco-socialist opinion, work (as little as possible) and family---from the edge of the wilderness (where the Sierra meets the Cascades).
OK. So Jazmine needed an ice bag for her hip.
Roller rinks are a rite of passage. Only the music has changed since I was a kid. I half ways expected the Rolling Stones or Elton John to be played. Instead, the music was of an ilk that I have never heard before. But the ambiance is the same...
Our stockings are hung...
And the Reindeer are out...
And the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree is decorated...
We haven't done much work on this project lately. Early nights, cold temperatures and rain make for some cozy "off grid" living. We took down a little scraggly tree. It was growing in a small cluster of white pines on our property (and needed to be thinned). Joni asked the tree if it would like to be our Christmas tree; we cut it, and then Joni gave back a strand of hair in order to give something back to the land. A family ritual. It is a small tree. Beautiful, none-the-less.
After tonight the days start to get longer. And more hopeful.
From all of us here at the Solar Compound, Joni, Jazmine, Kylie, Angel the dog, Rocky the cat and me (Allan), we wish you a blessed Holiday season! May this be the year that all good things happen. And may this be the year we finally finish this darned house!
On the first day of the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, we experienced record low temperatures. The result: all our pipes froze! Yes, they were wrapped in insulation.The pipes froze from the cistern to the pumphouse. From the pumphouse to the Cabin. I had previously broken the inlet to the Cabin--but now we also busted the one water pipe outside the Cabin.
All of this is fixable. But for now, it is back to filling buckets and hauling the water for use in the Cabin.
This is the path from where we fill the buckets to the Cabin. Just like Jack and Jill--up the hill...
