Mid summer dreams and work

It's finally getting hot at WinSol3.  about time!  I've only tapped my large white tank once to fill the holding tank.  What that means, is that until August 1 the irrigation has used less than 500 gallons of water... and i've got more vegies, strawberries, fruit trees, berries, etc. than ever before.  What a wet year.
I think all my tanks will still be 1/2 full when the rainy season starts.  That's good, because one of these years we will have a VERY deep and long drought....we've been in a wet cycle for pretty long now, and nature always does things in cycles.  When that dry cycle comes, I'll be smiling and singin' in the stored rainwater.

Yesterday I had to pull out all the blooming radish plants and harvest their seed pods.  As the queen song goes... 'another bites the dust.'.. i will never again have to purchase radish seeds.  i have over thousands of harvested radish seeds and now will focus on storing them in large jars with dehumidifiers (natural desiccants - like rice, etc) inside.  My goal is to have 1/2 my pantry filled with seed jars, and then start sharing and trading seeds.  Next up will be dill, beet, tomato seeds.  From the permies forum it doesn't seem to much matter about following a darwinian approach to seed harvesting.

My next big job is the triple the amount of patio tiles in the courtyard to have a bigger gathering area - especially for the upcoming open house.  I am getting a steady stream of visitors up here, and the courtyard is getting to be the favored sitting area.  I've already torn down the 'temporary' fire pit that was there for 5 years... and am extending a masonry wall (fire barrier also) down the ridge, building a circular fire pit and sitting area (with a small rocket stove mass heater in it), and leave some room for a pizza oven (way, way later).

The Living Roof deck structure is finished.  I have already put down 7 layers of hi-thickness visqueen and roofing tar paper left over from WinSol3's original construction.  And now there's two layers of thick EPDM single ply roofing, drain pipes all around, and i've already started the big and long job of hauling up soil to cover it all to about 4" to 6" depth and then native plantings and sedum in the fall.  it'll be interesting to see how this living roof fares over the years and how much maintenance/repair is REALLY required.

I've finally figured out where to store all the big stuff out of sight... a long lived dilemna since all the unsightly junk was piling up on the east side of the house.  So I've built some posts+rails to put in the redwood pallets (from HP) lying around and am putting up some bamboo and cedar bark screening.

I hope those of you who are reading this will come over on the September open house and help celebrate another year of progress at WinSol3 and it's slow evolution as a true closed-loop and energy-plus learning center.

Water Security

Now that we are in the midst of typical rainless summer, WinSol3's designed water system starts shining. And this year, I will probably still have all my tanks 1/2 full by the time the first rains start - hopefully in late September.
 
It's a fairly cool summer while the rest of the country sizzles.. i just watch the hurricanes spinning in the eastern Pacific (as in Western Mexico) and that has a big influence over our low+high fronts.  that's my theory and I'm stickin' with it.

 It's been lessons of hard knocks over the past 30 years in keeping a water system going - reliably with minimal maintenance.  i think i'm getting close with WinSol3's current system.

This year, i've got the black greenhouse (GHS) tank working (since andrew + i switched it with the lower tank) - so for the first time the GHS has it's own 2500+ gallons of rainwater.  It's got double valves on it too... actually three valves.  One at the outlet, one main valve inside the GHS and then the hose bib valves.  So three things gotta fail before I lose all that water.

That's what freaks me out here... losing water.  A couple years ago I left a valve on by the washing machine, and before I knew it I'd emptied out a holding tank of 500 gallons... totally wasted.  shame... shame...

So with my engineering worse case scenario mindset, I've got multiple tanks, holding tanks and every one of 'em is double valved.  I even considered someone doing target practice on the lower part of my tanks... but that wont' happen, right?

Some year, I'll get the slow sand filter going.   I have the special barrel, I know how to do it.. it's just of a matter of doing it. In the meantime, maybe this summer I'll explore around a bit and discover a high mountain spring where I can fill up my drinking water bottles.  That's the one area I want to change this year... stop filling those bottles with city flouride/chloride and other unknowns 'safe' chemicals.

I love this version of a slow sand filter from 'surfers without borders'  they gotta be cool ...or crazy...

Drip, Drip
This will be the third year that i will be putting in another, yes: another! drip system. the last one in the GHS froze and cracked in the suprise early November blizzard.  And I had put a low drain valve in there.  A freeze prevention valve only works if you use it!

There's a few things I don't like about drip systems at WinSol3. Seems the critters always get into them and chew them up around August/September when there's not a spot of water within miles of here.  And then in the winter time they freeze and crack... so either way, each spring there's lotsa leaks.  But they sure save time and make things grow better.

I finally designed a new system to minimze leaks:  I've run 3/4" PVC to each raised vegie area (there's five now... each about 4' x 10')  and come up only at the planters where the drip tubes hook in... so I am exposing minimal poly tubing above ground for leaks. 

The GHS is a whole other matter.  I'm still working on sealing the water feature... had a lot of leaks in the deep basin... but now it's holding it.  A guy's only got some much time and way too many projects.  The Tangelo citrus tree survived the winter and it is flourishing in the SW corner. Grapes  and rhubarb are taking off like crazy all over... I will have oodles of  fresh grapes for the first time this year.

Cool Summer

Once again it's a relatively cool summer.  It's around 80F these days after getting close to 90F a couple days.  Last summer was also cool.  Is this the future global weirding effect?  I like that part of it - the long winters I can do without.

Progress is slowing down on projects at WinSol3.  I poured the last of the cement and tile walkways for the greenhouse - and now I can clean-up and do a bit more landscaping in there.  The living roof deck is really progressing big time.  It should be done in a couple weeks and then the odius job of hauling up dirt for a 8-10" base will begin.  It'll take about 6 months for that to be done along with the test of deep snow.

The vegetable raised beds are doing great.  I put in my 4th potato tire/cage today.  Radishes are turning to seed along with the poppies and winter beets + spinach.  One of the raised beds is growing things so quickly I'm amazed... dill that's 3' tall along with beets and beans that are really growing tall. 

Electric and solar wise, I have more energy than I know what to do with.  If I was anywhere close to 'the grid'  I still wouldn't tie into it and sell it back.  I'm all about disconnecting from the main grid on many dimensions and living a bit disconnected from the craziness.  

I started reading a book by Albert Brooks '2030 - the real story of what happens in America'  and it just reaffirms that we gotta do something!  We can't continue this apathy.  I also heard a talk given by the USA German ambassador about how they are at 18% renewable energy, and will be 80% by 2050.  They've created 350,000 jobs in renewables, and are constantly innovating.  He said one of the big differences between Germany and the USA was that Germans can't move to a new place that much - there is no more open land... whereas in the USA we have plenty of undeveloped land and so we constantly develop and expand.  Fair comparison.  But Germany's investment in education and research vs the USA give me pause for concern. 

So, with the big Solar conference in SF going on, I am taking a quick break and heading in to see what's new on the global horizon.  I'm sure this year the conference will be twice as big as it has been the past two years.  Mainstream renewables.