Gardening 101 @ 4500ft

There are many differences gardening here at WinSol3 given the altitude, climate and surrounding national forest.  At 4500+ feet, with heavy winter snows and scorching summer heat along with ravenous wild animals – it’s been a challenge. Over the past 30+ years, I have learned a few things – just a few.  There is a lifetime of learning left, and that won’t even scratch the surface of nature’s delicate complex weave.

The most important design and operational element at WinSol3 is water.  Rainwater harvesting was the reason for the huge roof and much of the site layout for gravity water feed year-round.  Each week of gardening at WinSol3 is preoccupied with collecting, saving, and reusing water.  It's a precious resource without which most vegetation would die in the hot summer months.  In priority there are the roof + ground rainwater collection systems, cisterns + uphill storage tanks, the grease trap and GHS pond, drip systems and automatic timers.

Then there are the plants, flowers, shrubs + trees, and a tiny courtyard lawn area (a real luxury!).  Over the years I’ve grown quite fond of lavenders,  blackberries, yarrow, sage,  and their multitude of uses and adaptability to WinSol3’s location. Once established they hardly need any water or care.  Every 2-3 years I split them up and replant them in other areas.  I love harvesting the lavender each autumn, and find its aroma more soothing than red cedar tree branches. Now, if i can figure out how to control blackberry brambles....

Current update (1/30/11) @ WinSol3

From 65F summer days in the ‘dead’ of winter to a one-day snow ‘event’.  The artic trough slipped down for a 24 hour visitation.  Last nite the howling wind swept rains turned ominously quiet as the whipping rain pellets turned to gentle, heavy snowflakes.  There’s supposed to be about 5” of snow today and then get right back to warming up again with clear days.  So at 8am with 5” already on the ground, another 8+ hours predicted, I moved my car up to the access road – just in case… lesson learned from too many mis-steps and snow shoveling  On Tuesday when I need to go to town, I’ll probably laugh at all the melted snow and clear roads.

There were countless bulbs, rose + tree buds getting a sneak peek at spring – I’m sure this artic event will put quite a damper on their spring break.

Last 2 weeks (Jan 15-30)  progress report:

Work continues on the GHS pond, with the large flat area river rocks being embedded in cement.  The 5^th step (each step has 180 lbs, 3 bags of hi-strength concrete) down the east side of the GHS was poured.  The blackberry brambles were burned and the entire fence north of the GHS has been taken out.  I installed a deer proof gate on the west side of the garden area.  The mudroom was totally emptied, cleaned-out and the walls were insulated and dry-walled.  Deep shelves were put in, the cast iron mudroom sink was relocated. I started blazing a new path out from the high car parking area to the NFS road.  The hot water shower is working beautifully.  I put in a very functional sitting bench in the bathroom. I’m also cleaning out a LOT of old papers and magazines and mostly doing hi-heat burning and spreading the ashes on the garden. Bio char production in the fire pit happens about once a week. Oh yeah, moved the big green tank down below and piped it to the top cistern overflow and it started filling with yesterday's storm.

This spring WinSol3 will really have a celebration of bloom and delight!  I can't wait!

Late january update

News from WinSol3:  Summertime and the livin' is easy... oops it's January dawg awn it... It's been 65F consistently high above the fog and the garden and greenhouse things are popping up already.... global weirding.  As any old-timer, I am bracing for the next winter wallop, knowing that an extreme cold front could come knocking at anytime.
Thankfully I transferred those 2500 gallon tanks and filled the one supplying the greenhouse and the big white dude is 80% filled.  If we don't get anymore rain (highly unlikely) i can still manage for the coming summer - barely.
The solar PV controller seems to be out for the count... so I've shorted the PV panels directly to the Trojan batteries.  This is feasible as long as there's no risk of overcharging (and overheating) the batteries.  So at least i have plenty of power now. 

The update on small projects is now confined to doubling the raised beds in the garden, finishing up the upper level greenhouse pond + steps, and redoing the entire mudroom.

I went down to Sapiago Creek the other day, and was amazed at the destruction that the early storms caused.  A monster tree by the swimming hole caved in and blocked the lower road, along with countless other downed trees.  There was a county tree cutting crew feverishly working on clearing the road, mulching the branches, and leaving wonderful firewood - free for the taking.  Ahhh... the abundance of the forest. :-)

WinSol Overview + intro

(copied from earlier blog in mid 2010) 
 

It just dawned on me that some readers of this blog have no clue to what WinSol3 is.  WinSol is 'Winning Solutions in Wind + Solar. Here's a short history of how WinSol buildings got started:

I am a big fan of solar energy and Bucky Fuller dating back to my junior year in college and thanks to a great teacher in advanced thermodynamics.  At the end of my college ‘career’,  besides getting a BSEE degree, I was also 6 hours short of a math degree. I loved Bucky's geodesic domes and math.  What turned me onto math was a class called ‘abstract algebra’. It was a pretty advanced class with high order differential equations, but I thought it was cool to create your own multidimensional universes.  I went a couple dimensions higher than 27 (tensors) – try writing the rules for that universe!  At that time (1973) I was fascinated by computer modeling for weather predictions and tensors – which nowadays look ancient. This eventually led to my first geodesic dome.

Note: Having great teachers really makes a big difference down the road!

In 1977 I purchased some land in Trinity County (Douglas City + Weaverville) with my vision to create an intentional community (no, not a commune) and to have a little in-city lot for future retirement.  It was pretty idealistic and naïve - I thought I could make a living there. Turns out if you’re not in the lumber industry or own an airplane, you are SOL.  Nowadays with the internet, I wish I still had those properties.

I built my first small (12’ diameter) geodesic dome out of electrical conduits with a swimming pool liner cover using a small solar collector + battery for lighting.  This was in 1978.  The next geodesic dome was a monster 36’ diameter built from 2x4’s with wooden dowels (not a single nail in the framing!) and plywood skin.  I learned that if you make a ¼” mistake on cutting a couple of these geodesic framing members, the dome won’t come together on the top!  Fun! Bucky Fuller’s math was genius!

Eventually the dome's foundation got sheered by large snowdrifts – first failure and lesson learned: always beef up the foundation more than you need – shit happens, law of unintended consequences.  Years later, when remote fun seekers started ripping off my house, I sold the property and focused on my downtown Weaverville lot.

The lot was located a couple blocks from the center of Weaverville right next to the creek and I had one of the last water meters in place before a moratorium.  So starts the history of WinSol1. 

After reading more Bucky Fuller books, I was intrigued with his concept of a Dyaxiom House: where all the utilities and building operations are located in a center triangle and lsnake out like an octopus into adjacent rooms.  Seemed like a no-brainer compared to our mainstream floor layouts - having all plumbing and electrical in one center utility area.

Along this same time I discovered and followed Ed Mazria around after he published his passive solar book.  It’s amazing what he’s doing 30+years later with architecture 2030. Long live Ed!

Cutting to the chase, WinSol1 had a long sloping shed roof opening up to the south and SW blue sky areas with the back roof slope positioned to deflect winter winds, and collect rainwater.  

I got to know Jeff Shields pretty well at the Planning Commissioners office in Weaverville, and told him I couldn’t afford an architect and a structural engineer. He said that if I submitted detailed stress and deflection calculations, they’d review it and it could perhaps be approved.  They really wanted to see this house built in their town.  I still have the original, approved blueprints.  WinSol2 and WinSol3 also have this feature.

Then came the reality of plopping down $600 or so for the permit and promising to have substantial completion within a year.  I wasn’t ready to take out a bank loan (nor did I want to), willing to travel from SF to Weaverville every weekend, and purchase building materials – yet. So when it came time to step up, I stepped back.  Years later  (1984?) I sold the property easily with the last legal water meter in the city.  Now when I go look at that area, I’m glad I didn’t built it.  There are ticky tacky balloon framed apartment buildings adjacent to a busy street.  When I bought the plroperty there was nothing around except a school, ½ mile away.  Progress.  My life took a few interesting turns between 1984 and 1987. In 1987  I purchased the property called 7L where WinSol2 and now WinSol3 was built.

With the design and structural learnings of WinSol1, and wisdom from Bucky Fuller, Sim Van der Ryn’s Berkeley Farllonne house, David Wright,  Ed Mazria and others, it set the stage for the design of WinSol 2 + 3.   

A writing note:  I stopped using semicolons in all my writing, after reading ‘A man without a country’ by my current favorite author: Kurt Vonnegut.  He is truly our modern Mark Twain.  Here’s his quote (pg 23) on semicolons: ‘they are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show that you’ve been to college.  And I realize some of you may be having trouble deciding whether I am kidding or not…. ‘ he wasn’t.

Changing weather + solar challenges

Happy New Year to everyone. The winter sun has finally appeared at WinSol3 - it's been over 40 days since there's been more than one day of sunshine in arow.

It's been challenging at WinSol3 for the past 2 months. Partly because I usually don't spend this much continuous time at WinSol3,  and a bigger part due to the unique weather pattern in the Sierras - record breaking! Even the skiing at Kirkwood has been off-limits to me due to avalanche controls at the Carson Spur - and I don't ski in blizzards anymore. That will change tomorrow.

Today the outside temp was 29F at the 7:40am sunrise. Within 5 minutes my outside temp gauge shot up to 59F (hit by direct sun), an hour later it was 87F! I am keeping the sauna fired up each morning at a comfortable 70F. But my firewood is WAY down so I haven't been able to keep the main house as warm - something about building that courtyard and deck all summer and fall. This morning the deck was a great ice rink (frost)- and I didn't even slide off the edge!

Electrical challenges:

Two days ago while watching some of the college football games, I noticed my monitor's voltage at 11.1! Never seen it that low - I was amazed the inverter hadn't shut off on LVD. I fired up the generator, charged everything, and enjoyed the electric heaters - ha! Yesterday I readjusted the PV controller set points, and now the system is back to charging at 13.6+. The wind generator helps - but not as much as I thought it would. Now that we will have 10+ days of continuous sunshiny days, there will be no more electrical issues.
WinSol3 was designed for about 5-7 cloudy days - not 40+! I usually skip off to urban friends - but between roads and other issues, that was not possible this year.

On an aside - I've discovered my itouch music collection and Cambridge sound system use a tiny amount of energy - so great music on stormy days (along with great books + tea) has been the main course.  Between storms I have gone on long forest walks and rediscovered the awesome beauty of pure nature.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Here's a draft blog I wrote a few days ago....


The perfect winter storm

Finally, a winter storm that was as predicted and up to the hype of a typical 'California-style’ winter storm.  No, this is not a movie/book metaphor – it’s the real, human thing – it’s what I wish all winter storms would be.  Here’s my definition of a perfect winter storm:

1. Not too much snow accumulation and more than just a mere dusting.
2. Assurances that I will be able to drive out of here if needed.
3. Some sunshine needs to happen before, during, and after.
4. Fast moving clouds = fast moving cold front.

After the first pre-Thanksgiving storm of the season slammed the door on an Indian summer, dumping close to 4 feet of snow here, and the sub-tropical monsoonal rains continued like a long column of marching soldiers… it was kinda nice to get a ‘mild’ winter storm for a change.


The weather forecasters got it right! They predicted the variations of rainfall, falling temperatures, snow levels, accumulation – all of it! My satellite internet monitoring verified it. I move my truck out by the county road – just in case. And of course according to Murphy - there was no need to.  Only when i don't move the truck does it snow several  unpredicted feet - like it did before Thanksgiving.


It was absolutely breathtaking to walk in the wilderness the last few days, hug trees, drink from mountain streams, collect oodles of wild mushrooms, follow fresh animal tracks… amazing!