Off-Grid 101

Night and fireflies…

My day to day life has become fairly routine to me, but I forget that you, my readers don’t get to see and experience what I see and experience, so I will try to post more details. Each night, when it’s time to go to bed, we turn off the light (yes, just one light that is attached to the ceiling, it’s a 12 volt led light that is attached directly to the batteries, this way it will work even if the inverter is buzzing because the batteries have fallen below the acceptable charge-gotta get more solar panels!), I use a flashlight to make my way to the bed, I always check the blankets, pillow and around the bed to make sure there are no bugs (mainly scorpions and spiders) in the bed, occasionally I will find a beetle or moth, so far, no really bad bugs… once I get into bed, I turn off the flashlight and wait for my eyes to adjust to the low light. Depending on the moon, it could be anywhere from nearly completely dark, to bright moonlight streaming in, that can be annoying, I like it pretty dark when I sleep, I have got to get some shades on the windows…

I will see the led lights from the various power equipment, the inverter has a small, led light, the Xantrex controller has a BRIGHT, blinking. green led light, I have placed a piece of black electrical tape over the led, it is just annoying when it’s blinking all night, even with the tape over it, the reflection of the led is visible, but it’s ok, it’s only visible if you look directly at it, it doesn’t reflect on anything else.

Since the beginning of summer, the fireflies are very active, they look like little greenish white blinking led lights. Each night, at least one firefly gets into the house, sometimes as many as 3 or 4 get in. So once the lights go out, they are visible, they fly around and crawl on the ceiling and walls, they flash all night, they are usually dead by the next morning, they must have a short life… anyhoo, it’s fun to watch them from the bed, fortunately they have never gotten in or on the bed, or on us, it’s funny to realize that if it was a roach or something like that, I would HATE to have it in the house, but since it’s an interesting and entertaining bug, it’s OK for them to be inside… I have though it might be fun to catch a bunch of them and glue them to a board or the side of the house in an interesting pattern, maybe even my street address… probably wouldn’t actually do this, but it’s a fun thought (fun for me, not for them!) I have also wondered if …