November 19, 2010
I woke up this morning to more than a foot of snow. Looking out on the new deck and the picnic table and seeing all that snow made me smile. A knowing smile: that all the hard work that Ron and I did on bracing the high front part of the deck is paying off. Yesterday with 75F outside, I was putting thru + lag bolts in the middle and back parts of the deck which are way lower.
This is the first day of real winter at 7L. Over the last three years there has been extreme weather swings than in the previous 20+ years. So it wouldn’t surprise me if all this snow is gone in a couple days. Last nite, I moved the RAV up higher up the road – thank goodness! Or else I’d be shoveling the driveway all morning to get it out.
The real winter storm is coming in a few hours. The weather predictions were for rain here until late tonite with 1-2’ of snow tomorrow morning. So much for that! Right now I’m sitting at the dining table looking out over a winter wonderland. The sky is totally clear, and in a few minutes the rising sun will set the scenery ablaze in a blinding wonderful light. To the west there’s a looming dark front approaching with the next blast of winter weather. I’ll be putting my dark glasses and x-country skiis on and go into the magical forest before all the trees shed their white loads crashing down. I’ll be looking for fresh animal tracks to. This early morning as I was putting out the cat food, I noticed that Bella’s tracks were coming from the greenhouse – smart cat. The GHS is much warmer and cozier than the basement.
Each winter there is always the decision on whether to move the RAV up to the county road area. I will probably not do that today, only because there is no need for me to go anywhere for the next three days. And then again, there’s supposed to be another 2-3’ of snow tonite. I may be snowed in for too long. I’d like to get my first downhill ski day in early next week. Standard winter time decisions. This time I have the live weather radar feed to help in that decision. My years in Wyoming make this winter weather a breeze – heck, all I have to do is go 5-20 miles west and the snow disappears.
November 18, 2010
Approaching winter storm
The first real winter storm is in progress. This winter season at WinSol3 bring two major improvements. The wind generator and satellite internet.
The wind generator usually just sits there and stares blankly at the wind. And then with a certain wind gust it spins madly and continuously whipping out 400watts of 12VDC power. That’s twice the maximum ALL my solar panels put out. They are short bursts of power, but they usually occur at night and under super cloudy days: a perfect compliment to the solar panels.
Changing communication technologies
About 6 months ago, I traded my AT+T rip-off cell phone for monthly Hughes satellite internet service. The hi-cost and unreliable AT+T cellphone was a pain. Now I have much more reliable Skype and Google voice, along with Verizon pay as you go service. The VOIP has its own issues, but at least it’s free and reasonably reliable. The big plus is that it comes with full hi-speed internet service.
The big winter improvement is that I can check live satellite radar and see exactly when, where and how long a storm will last and if it is going to turn to snow. I just moved my truck up the road as the temperature was dropping below 38F and it looks like there’ll be some snow overnite.
This is much better than relying on main stream weather forecasts which are aimed at the big population centers. I have several close-by area weather stations and other forecasts and web cams over the years that I rely on.
The closest weather station is at Grizzly Flats which monitors on going wind, temps and precipitation along with historical averages. The snow forecast weather site for Kirkwood
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