Data

Here's some energy use data from the 48th parallel.

Note that from Nov '08 until the middle of Feb '09, we had Angel's mom visiting. That meant the guest quarters had to be heated to a comfortable level for an octogenarian. It meant that the big TV out there was running all day and most of the night.

The energy use data for the winter we just finished was noticeably better, but I think this is interesting from the point of view of three adults living here.

Remember that, apart from some site-harvested wood that we burned in the (smallest we could find) wood stove, this represents our total energy use.

It's worth noting that during the July 1, 2008 - June 30, 2009 "Fiscal Year", we generated a total of 4719 KWH. This resulted in a production payment of $707.85 from PSE to us.

Home Energy Units Conversion Table

It seems to me that the most common units in which (US) home energy use is expressed are BTU's, Therms, Gallons of Propane, Kilowatt Hours, and Cords of Wood. When I try to analyze our own energy use, I found myself converting between these units. For the past few days I've been thinking that it might be good to have a simple table that focuses on the relationships between these units.

So, here it is:

If you have time and are so inclined, please take a look at the table and spot-check my entries. I'd appreciate hearing about any errors I made in setting it up.

Thanks!

Two, So Far

We've had two showings since we signed the papers last Thursday. The first was some locals who are (allegedly of course) seriously looking. The second was for a realtor. If I understand the data right, this particular realtor was the top seller in the area last year, so her visit is perhaps significant.

Angel & I have poured hours and hours of work into the place and it looks great. Today I mowed most of the "meadow area" down towards the nature trail. This is on a gentle hillside and is probably at least a quarter of an acre. Even with a self-propelled mower, it's hard on the knees. This was the first spring mow, so the change is quite noticeable.

No feedback as yet on either showing. We've officially entered limbo, I guess, but so far it's okay. I have a lot of thoughts about my age and the situation in which we find ourselves, but you can imagine that for yourself if you're interested.

I've got a couple of tasks to accomplish in the short term:

1. Since we've put closets in both of the former "offices" in the main house, these spaces are now considered bedrooms. That means they need smoke detectors. That's a small, manageable job; although smoke detectors aren't free of course.
2. All of our downspout pipes feed a groundwater recharge pit downhill from the main house. One of the downspout pipes is about 18" too short and the large diameter (4", 6"? I must measure) PVC pipe it feeds needs a cap with a hole in it. This is probably an easy job... as long as I don't drop the drainpipe segment down into the larger PVC pipe!
3. I need to mow the surrounding areas that I maintain. North of our house is a fairly steep hillside. Left alone, it gets 6' high underbrush that's a huge, potential fire hazard. Two years ago I cut it back and now I mow it several times each year. Also, the area near the nature trail at the east side of the property needs mowing. The City certainly can't afford to take care of it, so I also maintain that bit (as do most of the property owners along the trail).
4. Cardboard that we were going to use as mulch in the vegetable garden paths needs to be cut up and bundled for recycling pickup. It would work great, but it's just not that visually attractive.
5. Biggest job: continue the landscaping project out near the street. I don't want to put in another irrigation circuit down there, but it needs to look neater than it does right now. Curb appeal, and all that.

You can see from this that there isn't a lot left to do. Limbo is a strange place. We need to keep the house up. We need to do what we can to make it just as appealing as possible, but we must also distance ourselves emotionally from the home we put so much effort (and savings!) into building. As I said, it's strange.

The Train Is Rolling

We signed the papers to list our home on Thursday afternoon.

Friday evening we had our first showing. From early feedback, the showing went "extremely well." Of course we don't have an offer as a result of the showing, so that's a relative term. Still, had the people reacted strongly to the price point (about 80% of what we paid for the place), we'd have heard about it, so that's a positive.

This coming Thursday is a big real estate broker/agent tour. A very few items remain to be done, but it already shows very well, so there are grounds for guarded optimism. In the meantime, we're trying to live in our home and enjoy it. Obviously, we'll undertake no large projects, but we will proceed with a vegetable garden and a few visually pleasing plantings on the deck. The garden factors so visibly and readily in the yard, that anyone interested in our house would almost certainly be interested in the garden, the greenhouse, the new drip irrigation system, and so on.

This is naturally somewhat traumatic, but Angel & I are about as confident as possible that it is the right move. After two years of looking for work and getting nowhere, it is time to try sunnier climes. The Venerable Friendly One has some friends in other states... and – just perhaps – a semi-viable professional network.

In the meantime, I've learned a lot about building things and landscaping. Expensive tuition, yes, but it is likely to work out well. Little is lost by hoping for the best.

Two New Terraced Areas!

Several days' worth of heavy work came to fruition last evening. We now have two new retaining walls in the steep area north of our garage. I've back-filled the space behind the walls and done the heaviest part of the soil prep.

These photos were taken at about 10:45AM today, March 18, 2010. You can see that the newly-plantable / newly-usable areas are mostly in the sun. Since we're not yet at the Spring Equinox, I think we can expect a good six months of sunshine on these areas.

In addition to hauling the blocks over from where the hardware store guys dropped them off (south side, near a longer, taller retaining wall), I had to cut the bottom rows into the contours of the land so that the tops would come out level. I did that using a variety of implements. Much of that work was accomplished while kneeling on the ground (those little foam pads from the garden store are real knee-savers).

Once the blocks were stacked and leveled, I had to move soil into place. That was piled up from the garden path excavation in the foreground of the shot to the left. I wanted to make sure that I filled both new terraces to about the same depth, so I filled part of the bottom terrace, then the top one, and then finished the bottom area.

Finally, I dug the dirt back out (yes, I really did) so that I could sift the rocks to the bottom of the deepest spots at the back surface of the retaining walls. This helps with drainage while making the top layer of soil nicer for planting. Leaning against the dozen leftover landscape blocks, you can see my "sifter" in the photos. That thing sure has seen lots of use!

I'm really pleased at how this came out. We need to decide what to plant. Since this entire area is protected from the marauding deer, we might put fruit trees or blueberries against the fence.

Now that I've had a successful drip irrigation project in the main garden, I'm thinking that I will want to add another drip system for these terraced areas. First, though, I need to bring a few inches of Roger's Magic Dirt (aka the topsoil piled on the driveway) to bring the usable soil up to near the tops of the blocks.

Once we have the soil in place, we'll lay in the drip tubes and then plant. We'll lay landscape fabric all around and cover that with shredded bark mulch. The combination of the drip irrigation, landscape fabric and mulch should make this area attractive, productive, and low-maintenance.

Today, however, I need to rest. I pushed very hard to finish this project before Angel returned from her trip East. Knees, elbows, wrists, ankles, and lower back have all protested vociferously. Last night I had to teach my active yoga class at the local athletic club. The pain was ridiculously intense. But, hey, at six decades and counting, that's okay.

My joints and muscles will be happy in a day or two. I am already happy.

But then you knew that, didn't you?

Drip System In The Garden

Here's the "Assembly" mounted on the exterior wall of the greenhouse. The old "Y" Hose Fitting at the left side of the Assembly needs to be replaced. It leaks. That's okay; it's so old I don't even remember where it came from. I think maybe I just found it left behind somewhere I once lived. Now I know why it was left behind.

Also, it's hard to see in the photo, but I've put wooden standoffs between the Assembly and the greenhouse. This lets air get around the Assembly so things can dry out. I'm also hoping that it'll make it easier to remove the Assembly in advance of winter freezes should that become necessary.

In the photo to the right, you can see some of the drip tubes. This is near the "head end" of the drip system. These are half-inch (roughly) drip tubes w/ in-line emitters. I think they're ideal for vegetables planted in rows.

I didn't happen to take a photo of the head of the drips system. I've used a collection of T's in a solid header pipe to feed the laterals that you can see in the photo. The header pipe is fed by short garden hose that goes under the circum-garden path.

In the photo below, you can see the terminated ends of several of the drip tubes. These in-line emitter tubes have built in pressure regulation. If you supply them with water within their spec'd pressure range, all the built-in emitters drip at their spec'd flow rate. That's 0.5 GPH for my system.

You might notice that the spaces between the rows aren't constant. That's because I decided to put some paths in the garden area. I'll probably stake cardboard down in those areas to keep the soil from being compacted too much.

The drip lines, both the header and the laterals, are held in place with some little hold-downs I made from old wire coat hangers. I cut each hanger into four, roughly equal pieces and bent each piece around a scrap of 1/2" PVC tube. It made for a nice, smooth bend and I think the hold downs will work until the tubing gets warm and used to being laid out in straight rows.

All-in-all, the drip system went together pretty easily. I'm very happy with the parts I got at Dripworks.com. Unfortunately when I placed my order I forgot that I'd need elbows (instead of T's) at the first and last laterals. Also, I decided that I wanted to have twelve laterals instead of ten, so I needed two elbows and two terminators.

I thought it would be fine to use whatever I could find at the local hardware store for these last bits. It'd save ordering and waiting, etc.

Wrong!

The only fittings that leak in the whole drip array are the compression fittings I bought at the local store. I think that they were old and not particularly good quality. Or maybe I didn't use them right... but how can you not?! Once the tube is shoved, wiggled, twisted, cursed into the compression fitting, it's supposed to Just Work, Darnit!

But they leak, and I guess that's just the way it is. Anyway, I'll order the four fittings from Dripworks tomorrow and they'll be here soon, so it's not a huge deal. Lesson learned.

Now I need to figure out the best mulching for the vegetable garden. It's really exciting - even with a few leaks at the periphery - to turn the valve and see all the emitters start to do their thing. It's easy to imagine how this system coupled with heavy mulching will improve yields and reduce irrigation needs.

If the theory is borne out in practice, it's going to be a great garden this year!

Not A Ray-gun

Well, today, I built the "Assembly" for our drip irrigation system. It looks a little like something that, with the proper paint, might work on the set of Deep Space 9.

Water flow is right to left in this photo.

My supply line is a 1/2" pipe, but the Assembly is built around 3/4" components. I chose the 4" long, 3/4" nipple so I'd have something I could brace against the wall of the greenhouse. The next thing to the left is an in-line ball valve (in the photo the handle is removed). Then the small-ish, black thing is a vacuum breaker. That's followed by some adaptors sandwiching a swivel hose coupling. I included the coupling so I'll be able to remove the fancy (i.e. expensive) downstream bits during the winter.

Next downstream from the swivel hose connector is a check valve. The combination of the vacuum breaker and the check valve prevent any siphoning of water out of the drip system and back into the supply (ick).

After the check valve you can see a filter. The bottom, dangly part can unscrew so the stainless steel filter can be removed for cleaning. Next there's a pressure regulator. That brings the pressure feeding the drip lines to 30 PSI (which is within spec for the drip tubing I'm using). Finally, you can see a "Y" valve with individual shutoffs so I can use the assembly to drive two separate garden areas.

Today I got the upstream bits -- up to and including the swivel hose fitting -- connected to the water supply and fastened securely to the outside wall of the greenhouse. I've put the handle back on the ball valve. No leaks on this part at all. The braces work superbly so there should be no strain on the plastic supply line to the greenhouse.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I got most of the Assembly components from a place called DripWorks.com. Their prices were good (very good in some cases) for the specialty bits. The standard pipe fittings were competitively priced at the local hardware store. The stuff from DripWorks arrived promptly.

Next I need to brace the rest of the bits and then start on the actual drip array. I'll probably work on that tomorrow.

Last Day of Sixth Decade

Not such a big deal really. Happens all the time (to other people). This is the first time I remember it happening to me, though.

Our options are limited. So far this isn't too bad.