Communities
Mountain Man Bob
You might be a mountain man if you look like this:
Rather handsome I’d say, and pretty handy around the house too! :)…
June 24, 2008
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You might be a mountain man if you look like this:
Rather handsome I’d say, and pretty handy around the house too! :)…
UPDATE 6-24-08
One of my very informed readers passed this site to me:
They have solar panels for as little as $2.98 per watt, as long as you buy in quantity.
FYI, Harbor Freight is selling their 45 watt solar panel kit for $179.99 again! Here is the link:
This expires : 07/07/2008
I’ve heard that you might even be able to use one of their 15% off coupons with it, though I haven’t seen any coupons lately, if you have one, (lucky you!) USE IT! :)
I have one set and will soon have 2 of 3 more, this is a real bargain, they normally run about $250, $199 on sale, this price is well worth checking out.
The UK administration’s plans for new eco-towns are increasingly threadbare, and Labour ministers are rowing back from earlier commitments. As reported in The London Times, I am therefore resigning from the committee which is supposedly advising the towns on their energy footprint.…
Having waited until his endorsement is of no use, Gore now tries to attach himself to Obama campaign. Barak will be making sure he does not get too close. …
You will notice some changes in the appearance of my blog, I have been working this last week to learn how to customize the appearance (and other things), I know how to make web pages, I am fairly comfortable with HTML, but the blog code is a different animal, it’s similar in some ways, but the coding language is stricter and uses a lot of cascading style sheets (CSS), don’t worry if you have no idea what I am talking about, it really doesn’t matter. :)
The point is, I am working on improving the look of my blog and you will see some changes coming down the line, I work on a separate blog to tweak, test and learn so that I will not disrupt my main blog, and any mistakes will not appear here (I hope!).
Eeek, one mistake I just made, I lost all of my widgets, the things on the side of the page! I can’t seem to get them back, so I will go in and rebuild all of my widgets… in the words of that most wise of bears, Pooh, “Oh bother…” *sigh*
I hope you enjoy the new look and the upcoming changes I plan on making. Please feel free to leave comments, I appreciate the feedback, both positive and negative, if there is something that doesn’t look right to you or makes the blog harder to read or navigate, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Be sure to let me know which browser you are using, FireFox, Explorer… and anything else that might help, monitor type and size, Windows or Mac, and the version… if you don’t have all of this info, that’s ok, I still would like some feedback if you want to give it. Thanks! :)
Anonymous said…Hey Wretha, I like the new look – it’s cleaner and easier to read. Nice job. (This is not to say I didn’t like the last look, now.) :oP
Karen
Mayberry said…
Lookin’ good Wretha (and loads a lot faster too!)
The Scavenger said…
Wretha, I LOVE THE NEW LOOK. Keep up the GREAT work. Oh yea, still looking for a can for the water filter. I’ll keep ya posted on the progress, slow though it may be.
Chris
Wretha said…
Thanks Karen and Mayberry, I’m glad to hear that it loads up faster for you, that’s probably because I lost all of my widgets :(
That’s OK, I’ll be able to put them back in the following days.
Wretha
Wretha said…
Hi Scavenger, glad you like it, I have had quite a good time learning the ins and outs of editing and customizing this blog, now I just have to reinstall my widgets. :)
Let me know when
It DOES rain in the desert! We finally got a good rain yesterday, between 1.5 and 2 inches, it started about 4ish, and it didn’t stop until nearly dark. A couple of times, it really rained hard, we really, REALLY needed this rain.
Here are a few pix of the rainbow that appeared during the rain. It doesn’t show in the pix, but there was actually a double rainbow. These images are looking east.
This pic is looking south.
These pix are looking west.
…
Sorry, had to lose this message, after reviewing it a bit, my BS meter was pegged.
If you really want to see it, go here
https://www.breitbart.tv/?p=108653&comments=1#comments…
Here are the pix of the fire, this was taken on day 2.
This is just outside the community entrance, my neighbor and I drove out to see what was going on. This pic is facing west, our community is on the north side of the road, the fire had burned on the south side of the road, all the way to the road.
Yup, that’s me, I figured I would check the mail while I was there. :) Both trucks you see belong to the fire fighters, we had local fire fighters and the forest service there. We also had 5 heavy tankers flying in from New Mexico and 3 helicopters all dropping fire retardant on the fire, plus all the spotter planes.
This is looking east, it’s hard to tell, but the dark stuff on the other side of the road is where it burned, the whole mountain in the background is burned.
Looking west again, the fire is still burning here, you can see the smoke.
Still looking west, more smoke.
My neighbor and I drove up inside the community to a high spot, it doesn’t really show up in the picture, but the road from the previous pictures was visible (to our eyes) going left to right. The mountain in the background is on fire in this pic.
You can see the smoke a little easier here.
It’s hard to see in this pic, but this mountain is on fire, there is a line of fire going all the way across the ridge. It was getting dark and the camera could not capture the images very well.
The fire seems to be under control now, I can still smell a little smoke, it’s like we live near a BBQ joint! :) Last I heard, as of yesterday, the fire was 65% contained, I have to assume they have gotten it more contained by now. Some 50,000 acres burned, but there was no loss of life, no injuries, no structures lost, kudos to the brave men and women who fought the fires and kept all of us safe and protected our homes.…
From June 12 through August 16, 2008 bike riders will be going from Paris to Moscow and then on to Peking. All in an effort to raise awareness that peace and facing the looming energy crisis is not just a local but international issue.
In 2006 and 2007 this ride was only from Paris to Moscow, this year it has been expanded to Peking after their success. This ride is also open to any solar electric rides as this is also a way to promote the use of alternative and renewable energies. Another of the unique aspects of this ride is that everyone is expected to pitch in and help one another. That means helping with meals, cleaning up th dishes, putting tents up, giving a helping hand to your fellow riders, etc. This event hope to pull riders from all nationalities and walks of life who all wish to promote peace and the use of renewable energies instead of the standard oil.
The stated goals of the organization are :
They go in depth for each goal on the site, you can click here to take a look. This event is just an example of how the energy crisis that is looming, if not actually here, is being felt not just here in the USA but as the world as a whole. That being said the solutions we are more concerned with are those that touch us close4r to home. That is likely the case with most people, and luckily for us using alternative energy is not something only for certain demographics or locations.
What should be realized by those of us going to alternative and renewable energy, especially used on a personal scale, is that a hundred years ago that was the norm. Even in many countries around the world it still is the norm for the average person. Yes, we love our technology but technology does not mean we have to be plugged into the grid to enjoy it. Those living off the grid who love technology still can play with the same toys, though they are more responsible in making sure that phantom power is not being drained when not in use.
Looking around you right now what is plugged in but not on, what is on but not being actively used, what can be turned of because their is a free source for the same resource (lights on during the day)? These are questions you should ask yourself everytime you enter a room or walk through your home/office. You will be amazed at what you find. Habits are hard …
Well, this has been an interesting day and a not so fun night… we had (are still having) a big fire near our community. Earlier today, or technically yesterday now, I began to smell something burning, I went outside but didn’t see anything. About an hour later, I smelled it even stronger, we went outside to see what was going on, this time we could see smoke, a big column of smoke rolling over the mountains to the south south west. We have been having smallish grass fires, burning a few acres to a couple of hundred acres, the local fire departments have been able to put them out in pretty short order. This time, it was/is a BIG fire, I understand that some 20,000 acres have been burned, and it appears that the fire is still going, as of 2:24 this morning. Most of the people who live out here chose to follow the volunteer evacuation, packed themselves up and left. We talked to a couple of our friends, one set decided to leave, the other set decided to send his wife and kids out but he stayed, he says he knows the area and knows how to get out if it gets too hairy. Anyhoo, we watched the smoke roll over the mountains all day, it got bad enough to make my eyes sting on more than one occasion today. The smoke column went up high enough to begin to block the sun, it made the evening turn orange/red. We decided to stay and ride it out, at least until we could see it would get too dangerous to stay, ie seeing fire coming over the mountain.
I called a few of the other people we know out here, couldn’t get an answer from most of them, I did get a hold of the lady who owns the local store, she said she was leaving because she had her grandkids here for a visit, she got a hotel room in town (safe from the fire) and gave us an open invitation to stay with them if we decided to leave. She said she thought everything would be OK, but just didn’t want to take the chance with the kiddos. I don’t blame her.
All day we watched the smoke billowing over the mountains, earlier in the day, Bob and one of our friends went out to the main road outside the community and watched the fire, they couldn’t see the flames, just where the smoke was coming from. He was one of the people who left this evening, with his family. The wind has been up all day, and the wind was blowing the smoke and presumably the fire right towards us. I was told by the store owner that the fire wasn’t in our community yet, it would have to travel a bit further and jump the …
Found our first scorpion inside the house, it was bigger than the ones I have been finding outside. I am glad we found that one, I’m not happy it was inside the house, we have been working on tightening up the house, putting up screens and such. But in spite of all the bugs, I am still happy to be living here.
It’s been H O T! Fortunately the humidity is typically low, right now it’s 95 degrees F and 16% humidity, the wind is blowing so it’s all good. I’ve been heating our dinners outside using the sun, I still don’t have a proper solar oven, so I have been using a black roasting pan, it gets plenty hot. Yesterday heated a turkey and dressing meal (pre-made), these are supposed to be heated in a microwave, I had been heating these in boiling water (anyone remember boil-in-bag meals?). I took them and set them inside the black roasting pan and set it out in the sun, it gets toasty hot in about an hour. I wanted more dressing/stuffing, so I got some Stove Top, divided it between 2 plastic containers with lids, I added enough water, put the lids on them, shook them up and put them in the roasting pan too. Everything was hot and good.
Hmmm, let’s see, what else has been happening… we ate dinner at our friends house the other night, I’ll call him JB and her PB, they are a very nice couple. She made homemade spaghetti, she is a very good cook! They have lots of kids, started late in life, I can’t imagine raising young kids now, our (respective) kids are grown and living their own lives (even having their own kids). Anyhoo, their kids are great, and quite unusual out here, there just aren’t many kids living out here. Oh well… JB is helping us with some material, he has quite a spread with lots of stuff, some might call it a mini junk yard, but it’s all good stuff, and he seems to know what he has and where it all is. We saw him today on our way to the mailbox, we saw him outside and stopped by to say HI, he is really a very nice guy.
Oh well, enough rambling for now… don’t seem to have much to say. I’ll try harder next time… :)
lornkanaga said…Other than the occasional scorpion, life seems to be pretty good. Bless your neighbor with his “junkyard” as he sounds like someone who truly knows how to recycle (g).
TheMajor’sLady
lornkanaga said…Oops. Forgot to ask something about your make-shift solar setup. Have you considered cutting three sides off of a box (leaving a bottom and two sides), then covering that with aluminum foil to increase the reflective heat generated for your pot?
These panels have a limited lifespan, usually MUCH less than the other types of panels. If you have the $ to buy 760 watts, they can be had for $2.98 per watt and are kick butt panels. https://www.sunelec.com/
If you want to learn LOTS about solar electric stuff go hang out on the forum at https://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/
The bottom line is the the HF panels are ASI silicone that do not last very many years. I do have a 20% coupon for HF if you are interested email me at:
survival@roscoevideo.com
Take care,
Skip
June 23, 2008 11:36 PM
Hi Skip, thanks for the info, I included the link in the message. If I had a spare 2 grand, I would probably order a pallet of solar panels from that company…
Email me directly about the coupon.
Wretha
wretha @ gmail . com (just remove the spaces)
June 24, 2008 4:22 PM
Oops Skip, I didn’t see your email address until after I posted my reply, I’ll email you.
Wretha
June 24, 2008 4:23 PM
If you check with Steve Spence @ greentrust.org, he had mentioned on one of the yahoo groups about having the HF panels for a number of years already and they are still working fine.
June 30, 2008 10:25 PM