One Step Closer To Solar Power & Other Stuff
So I should have already done a few blog posts by now since we've been at it for a while, but I got lazy! Took me a bit to shake off the winter blues and get my butt in gear. A lot has been happening the last several weeks and instead of a few little blogs, you're going to get one big one!
Back in the middle of February, my sister Katie, brother in law Devin, Bob and I took the four wheelers up in the snow to check on the cabin. The machines were fine on the packed down snowmobile trail/class 6 road...but once we hit the driveway, they got stuck pretty good. The guys were happy they were able to get them back to the entrance and we hoofed it the rest of the way up by foot. We discovered a family of mice that were all too pleased to be spending the winter nice and cozy in Bob's tool box. We were sorry to evict them, but mouse pee and turds isn't very good for the tools. The cabin was doing great, we only had to repair a minor issue with a log on the porch that needed some extra support. Thanks for the help Devin!
Bob started going up the end of April to lay down more stone in the driveway. It was much better this year since some bad spots already had a layer of stone down from last year. We'll post more before and after pictures of that later when there's more progress. Next on the list for Bob was working on installing the 3000 watt solar panel kit. There are twelve, 64.5"x39" - 250 watt solar panels that need to be mounted. He decided against putting them on the roof...first because it sucks getting on the roof, but mainly because we don't get the maximum amount of sun that we would need. So he spent a few days cutting down trees and clearing brush in an area about 75 feet from the house. Next he used 2x4's to create adjustable frames holding two panels each. Today, he and BJ were able to finish securing the panels to the frames and then level and position them in place. They are completely mobile so they can be moved throughout the year according to sun placement. I think they came out pretty great! Constructing a battery storage box and running wires is next on the agenda. Then we'll have quiet power so we don't have to run the noisy generator!
While Bob was doing that, I was finishing up all of the trim work in the house. I still had to trim around the three view windows, both exterior doors, bedroom doors, some baseboards and finishing trim around all of the windows. The view windows were a major pain since I'm no professional and figuring out placement for the trim was a bit of a nightmare! I had to climb up the huge ladder, take a measurement, go back down, move the ladder so I can go out on the porch the use the saw, go back in, move the ladder to go back up and see if the trim fits, then go back down and cut it more because I suck at cutting things the right size! I'm so afraid that I'm going to cut it too short that I leave it a smidge too big! My confidence has improved and I've gotten much better at getting it right the last few days though.
Somewhere in there I added another coat of polyurethane to the loft floor, since it still looked kind of dull from the last coat I applied. It looks much better now, but I'll tell you what...! Wearing socks on a newly glossed loft floor with no railing is a bit scary!
I also started making the doors that are going to be used for the bedrooms. I only got as far as cutting most of the wood to size, since my wood glue dried out from last year. Now I need to wait until Monday to put them together and install them. Oh, and we got our composting toilet! So exciting....no more squatting in the woods! I'll go over more about that later. Glad to be back to our peaceful place!
