Right now my TriStar meter is reading 27.9 volts and charging at 7.2 amps. I love it when there is sun! I can have every light, every electronic plugged in and running.
I don’t have all these things going, but just knowing that I can makes me pretty excited. On the average, my family uses 2-3 kilowatts a day. That’s about 10 percent of what the average family uses a day. My solar panels only take in 333 watts. I’m finally figuring out all this wattage stuff.
Yesterday Phil and Ed plumbed in the 1,100-gallon rain water tank to our house with a one micron water filter for the whole house. The bathroom and kitchen have a half micron filter hooked to the faucets. Needless to say, I can burn through 40 gallons of water a day if I wanted to but I don’t. Normally the girls shower in the morning and Phil and I shower in the evening. Dishes would have to wait (which drives me absolutely insane) but yesterday after all the plumbing … the girls all bathed (while the dishes were being done) then Phil and I showered right after. We still had water! The pump stayed pressurized! Incredible.
Some of our vacation money we saved ended up going toward our vehicles. The Excursion needed a brand new set of tires and my Volvo needed a new passenger side axle. It let me know when I pulled off the ferry one afternoon. Then it turned around and needed a new alternator. So that put a dent in our summer fun, but at least I’ll be buying that special fridge (yay for adulating).
The orchard is really producing a lot of fruit. Yesterday, (yesterday was a work day) Alajiah, her boys, myself and my girls … and Ed picked about 12 pounds of berries; raspberries, black currants and cherries and lots of bush and snap peas for snacking of course. The kids ate one berry for every one berry they put in the bucket. They didn’t know this of course but we were picking all those berries to make wine for an upcoming wedding. My greenhouse is really kicking butts and taking names later. I have tomatoes, jalapeños and patty pan squash growing/showing (whatever you call it)! I’ve never been more excited to eat a vegetable in my life; I love patty pans so much.
The sunroom attached to my house is still nothing. There is nothing cute in it. I really need to find the motivation to finish it. The elk have little babies now and they are rather adorable to watch. I think today Phil and Ed are going to fall some trees so we don’t have the problem with wet firewood again in the fall and winter. That was ridiculous. I’m starting to have a mote of blackberries along the road. I still very much want to set fire to them. Anyway, it feels like summer will be good to us out here. Every couple of days some hornets think it’s a great idea to make a nest … They were wrong and BAM! Hornet massacre! Hornets and blackberries will be the death of me.
