... change to this blog

November 2013 update:  This blog is now continued in this link:

http://livingenergieswinsol.blogspot.com


Thanks to everyone who has read and replied back to the stories and experiences related on this blog.

As we move into a fourth generation WinSol with the iLc ++, this blog will be going private and written by multiple authors.

The new blog/network will be by invitation only.  Please comment here or send an email directly to be included on the invite list.

climate? it's weather babeee...

I wish they would start calling it weird weather instead of global weirding or extreme weather or climate change or whatever the current soundbites are... It really is about changing weather patterns.
Here in nord California we are finally experiencing a more 'normal' winter - as in real cold and real snow storms (lots!)  But there is an interesting twist if you look closely at the new weather patterns this year:

A little bit of pineapple express mixed with a little bit of Artic cold waves.  Along with some sharp gradients and weird monsoonal driven (clockwise) flows.  Seems that the normal southern monsoonal and pineapple express flows are coming north on a regular basis and they viciously collide with the Artic fronts that had been our predominant weather systems in the winter.

The anomaly that concerns me and is getting more normal all the time, are the continuous cloudy days.  This pattern started about 2-3 years ago and appears to be the new normal:  1 or 2 days of sunshine followed by 10 cloudy days.  It used to be more like 60/40:  5-6 days of sunshine followed by 3-4 days of cloudy/storm weather.

Why is this important?  Well, a solar house without sun really sucks!  (who's heard that be4?)  The re-charging of WinSol3’s electrical solar PV system and solar thermal hot water systems are really strained since they were designed by the 60/40 pattern which was predominant over the last century. The upside is that all the rainwater storage tanks get filled early and easily. 

Time will tell – stay tuned.  I’m sure there will be more weirder weather coming and we’ll have to adjust.  But our adjustments will be limited by the design of our buildings.  So there is an even stronger need to design in more flexibility and adjustments to accommodate larger weather variations.

Some of these new design inclusions (for the iLc being built) will include:

European type window shutters (roladden)

Rocket mass heater using 80% less firewood.

More geothermal + earth tube type cooling.

more HW storage capacity

I really love this little Buddhist parable:

The ancient fox used to have a beautiful gait.  And then a fox saw a prophet with an even more beautiful gait.  The fox started following the prophet, but couldn’t keep up.  He changed his gait and started hoping and limping to keep up with the prophet.  When the prophet was gone, the fox had forgotten his original gait, and so that’s why you see the weird gait that foxes have today.

embracing the snow

One of the amazing miracles of living in the mountains is the blue skies spread out on a white forest blanket.  The last two days were rough… coming back from  wonderful networking days in the city to two days of blizzards and close to a foot of snow – ahhh another winter season approaching. And then I woke up to a sparkling, blinding scenery of white, blue and trees dressed in winter whites…

For the past few years I made the comment ‘the older I get the less I like the white stuff (snow)’, and ‘I never want to have silverware sticking to my fingers’ (referring to what frozen utensils do when winter camping).  Well – I’ve changed my mind and transitioning to the enjoyment of the ‘white stuff’.  What put me back over on the friendly side of snow, was the realization that someday there will be less snow here and eventually – none.   ?

It wouldn't be so hard to transition into winter - but going from 80F to 40F for a hi-temp in one day!?  com'on already... this global weirding is just everywhere!


We all know that climate change is accelerating – and what we are slowly learning is that extreme weather patterns is its current manifestation. 

The more snow that falls in the Sierra, the more water storage and river flows will be available in the summer – and this is crucial to keep this California paradise resilient.  So – let it snow, let it snow, let it snow – just not more than 2-3 feet at a time here – please

Seems like the same pattern of the last two years is returning – clouds for 4-6 days, 1-2 days of sunshine, 4-6 cloudy days and on + on…  This winter pattern is a pain for a solar PV system – barely gets the batteries charged with only 8 hours of daylight.  Hopefully this year won’t be like 2 years ago with 3-5 feet of snow in several storms… that was the 150year record!

WinSol3 update

Each year the winters get easier to handle:  as I observe, learn and take actions.  This year it is warmer inside as there are:

1.  heavy insulating curtains in the 2^nd story windows. 
2.  firestove has its first solid masonry chimney
3. not one microscopic smoke leakage,
4. tight (triple layered) waterproofing/flashing.
5. There’s more oak firewood than any previous year.
6. Height of finished living roof makes it easy to clear snow off PV panels

The road out is still a bit of an issue, but with no early morning meetings, and x-country ski fun – I have no problem in waiting for the snow to recede – or just park out by the plowed road.

.....

Today, i made some of my own laundry detergent for the first time – it’s easy and costs less than $1 per gallon!  and it WORKS!  damn... another corporate/media 'wool over the eyes' bites the dust...

Batteries and temperatures

On a side note, for the second year in a row I am experiencing the extreme reduction of my battery output due to cold temperatures.  Not only is the bank of L16’s (Trojan deep cycle battery)  ten years old – they’ve gone through some pretty deep discharging over the last couple years and I think they are past the knee of the depreciation curve (where one replaces them)…. And so there will be another winter with minimal juice.

I have two solutions in mind:

1.  

  Buy and install an additional 100watt solar panel (will increase my current 180 watt total PV supply by 60%!) 

     or...

Split the battery bank (6vdc units) into 2 separate 12vdc banks and hook up the wind generator to one of the banks.  It gives me more flexibility and solves an electrical drainage problem:  the solar controllers cannot handle the wind genset’s integrated controller (after 12 months of frustrations in not getting a proper answer from the manufacturer or the web forums).   It is obvious to me that there is an impedance mismatch and when I hook up the wind genset in parallel with the solar bank and controller, I lose at least 0.2vdc immediately and it drains the battery bank overnite when there is no wind generation (can u tell I used to be a EE?)

Winter arrives...

Finally!  With a roar and sudden Alaska cold front, winter has arrived at WinSol3.  Tuesday saw shear winds over 100mph hit along with a couple inches of snow. 

Just like last year, we went from 80F to 40F in less than 48 hours.  Hopefully this winter will end up with more snow in the mountains. 

Some issues...

Several minor things occurred... like the 4 layers of visqueen and roofing tar paper getting ripped off the 1000+ sf iLc floor AND several leaks on the flashing of the new masonry chimney.  

But all in all WinSol3 stood up really well to the sudden high winds and chilly temps:

• not a single stone (of the 200+) on the new chimney got lodged loose.
• The entire window expanse didn't have a single leak.  
• The living roof 6" + of soil didn't get swept away
• the temperature inside remained at 62F for 3+ days of 35F outside temps
• The new rough cut roads held up well (thanks Will!)
• All the vegie raised beds are continuing to produce

Rainwater replenshing

WinSol3 was down to it's last 500 gallons for irrigation and yesterday it was very cool that the snow slowly melted into the long gutter while it was party cloudy and the solar PV system was able to pump up over 3,000 gallons of water all day!  That's a great start to replenshing all the tanks.
The big lesson here is that summertime water conservation really pays off... it was over 5 months with no rainwater and the tripling of vegies and courtyard watering worked!

summertime...

sing it Gershwin:  ...and the livin' is easy... Ah yes... the dog days of 2012 summer are upon us.  Here's a brief update on goin-on's at WinSol3:

Gardens

Blackberries are jumpin' out like there's no tomorrow.  Always be careful of what you wish for.  I can't get enough blackberries, and this is the first year EVER at 7L that this wish came true.  The best part is that I don't have to bend down or get scratched:  the blackberries are hanging off the deer fencing at 5' up - just waiting for my pickings.  Their timing is perfect.  Heavy pruning and digging up shoots for more plantings is a constant chore. 

Just as the rhubarb dims, then the strawberries dwindle, then the blackberries come to life and when those dwindle the grapes will be ripe - 100's of globes this year.

Another planter  bed is almost finished.  Learning from the last bed (which is just a'rockin with huge tomatoes and cukes +++ ) there'll be plenty of Pt. Reyes seaweed in there, along with local manures, silica beads to retain moisture, bio-char, and deep forest peat.  So that makes eight raised beds now.

The auto-drip system in each of the beds is finally working. I discovered some cool auto-drain couplers that will prevent any 'accidental' freezing of the water lines... but what's so cool about these couplers is that they drain the lines after each watering cycle so that the animals won't chew on the poly pipe like in previous years. I am the only water source around for miles of national forest to the east - so all the wildlife hangs here! The courtyard is standing the test of the first hot summer in 3 years - the deer have only nibbled some roses - the LED alarm seems to be working. A few roses are climbing up, the sedums are doing well along with the lawn, lilies, mahogany tree, etc. 

 International Learning Center (iLc)

The work continues on the international learning center.  I'm now transporting 14' long beams on my RAV's 4' wide rack... looks funny, but works.  That way i can cantilever 2 feet on either side and have 20% more floor area.  The geodesic dome size keeps increasing (it's now at 32' diameter, 3V isohedron) as I am getting re-familiarized with tensegrity math and the huge amount of enclosed volume for a small incremental increase in materials.  

So, after 2 months of cement pouring over 15 concrete piers (some over 4' tall) there's now over 200sf of flooring and another 300sf to go before it gets winterized.

I'm also making models and designing the 8' conduit dome (probably a burner type dome) for the big celebration weekend next month (email me for details).

Greenhouse

I just filled the big tub with cold water, after some dirt and cement work - and there's now a functioning cold+hot tub.  Soaking it up on a hot day hits the spot: almost as good as a swimming hole (hey! I said almost :-)  That's a project in progress right now... back-filling the area and then putting down no-slip tiles.  I hope that the Habitat Restore has some good ones in stock on my next town trip. 

The bamboo trellis and overhang is filled this year (for the first time) with grapes, willow, raspberry and virginia creeper leaves.  It is so awesome to have natural summer shade.  Still struggling to discover what will grow or not inside the greenhouse.  I watered the worm bins today... they are so low-maintenance that sometimes I forget they are even there... oh yeah, gotta remember to add a whole bunch of those red worms to the new raised bed.

Mainhouse

The only project that's going on here (besides continuous simplification and clean-up) is every morning at 5:30am  I get up on the roof and add another layer of granite rocks around the fireplace chimney extension.  It is looking so COOL.  That granite chimney will change the whole outside look of the place!  ...and i could care less about whatever happens in that chimney in the future... flames shooting out of the top for all that i care!  :-)

Other stuff...

One big and worrisome task is that I need to cut three trees (one well over 150' tall) down right in front of the main house.  Wish me luck that it falls where it's supposed to!  i am so worried about it, that I am studying and talking to experts... if a wind breeze comes up on the tall tree it could take out the whole greenhouse and deck.

Each summer it gets cooler and better at WinSol3.  I just discovered my refrigerator of the future:  Dometic.  A friend's RV had a small unit powered on 12VDC and propane.  Very cool, made in Sweden and available for less that 1k.  I'm there, along with a couple more PV panels - it's almost a no-brainer.  ha!
 

wether the weather

In conjunction with my eco-blog about bitchin', I couldn't resist complaining about the weather this year.  Hey, if we can't bitch about the weather, is life worth living? :-)

So when the raindrops started to fall on WinSol3's roof this morning as I was putting another layer of granite rocks on the roof chimney... what else could i do than complain?  I mean it's the middle of summer, and all of sudden I had to rush and cover up all the exposed cement bags, cardboard boxes, etc. that would not look pretty after a good soaking.
That's one of the problems with several outdoor projects going on at WinSol3 - unexpected rain.  I am going to start watching the hurricanes down mejico way more.  And then there's the sweltering heat.  At 4200ft elevation we just don't get the delta breezes this far up, and when Tahoe is warmer than Sacto in the afternoon - well that says it all.

Update:  Construction of the iLc (international learning center) is WAY ahead of schedule (family room floor in, 30' geo dome model in progress, common area piers poured, access road),  the courtyard flat area is almost doubled, the roof chimney extension had a sudden schedule change about a month ago, and the garden beds are just popping!  This year there will be hundred times more yield of grapes and berries than last year.  The lower bed is going crazy with vegies of all sorts, the greenhouse arbor is filled to the rim with virginia creeper leaves, grapes and blackberry leaves that i can't even see the overhead glass = natural summer shading at its finest.  I love going in the greenhouse in the morning and picking berries from above my head as i walk by the pond.

As I am writing this, I get tired just thinking about all the hard work - but it has been the result of many hands, and support of fairplay neighbors ++

I'd like to thank all the on-site helpers so far who have visited and worked hard for days on end in exchange for room+board and festivities... Ram, Del, Pierre,Lia, Monica, Jim, and to the various visitors that have given helpful tips.  A special thanks to Will and his tractor - the fire breaks, new roads, and sangha's are a real blessing - in so many ways.

Soon we'll have the annual party.  And then the 1 day demo of how to build a 8' geodesic dome out of electrical conduit with 1000's of pounds of people standing on it!  I wonder what the Guinness World Record is... timewise + people on top?  next stop Burning man?

I

Another 'living by the sun' lesson: UV

As a delayed spring cleaning is happening, it occurred to me that one of the best ways to disinfect things is with ultraviolet radiation. UV is usually used to purify and disinfect water, air, etc.  ....   and it's also a movie!?

 Here's more info on UV... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet

I usually try to avoid UV since it's one of the most damaging natural elements out there for buildings, human skin and countless other things.  That's why i use steel, stone and dirt as much as possible in my building plans - those three are impervious to UV. 

 and now, the rest of the story...

A common laundry dilemma is what to throw in the washer and what to soak/hand wash and what to take to the dry cleaners (yuk factor here for many reasons).  I occurred to me that i have the best antiseptic cleanser right outside:  the sun.  So i put all the down comforters out there in full direct sunlight for a few hours and then place them into large plastic bags filled with home-grown biodynamic lavendar buds.  So I get a germ free (i mean what bacteria/bugs can survive hours of UV? yikes, I don't want to know!) and sweet nerve-calming lavender smell.


As a side note, I discovered a couple years ago that most critters hate the smell of lavender as much as they hate cedar.  Who knew? Why do stores market up cedar based closet boards, cedar soaked whatevers... when the sweet, calming smell of lavender does the same?   For the last couple years, I split my lavender plants each year and have several varieties abundantly  growing.  They don't need ANY maintenance!  no watering, no pruning, no nothing... my kinda plant!

2012 Spring

This is the 3rd year for the little garden that keeps expanding.  Last year there were 50+ grape globes and lotsa rhubarb... and from the look of it this year there will be hundred's - amazing what a bit of pruning and proper bracing will do.
Straw bales are truly amazing.  i wish I had discovered them decades ago.  It saves SO much de-weeding work, it's wonderful to walk on barefoot, it protects runoff and soil, decomposes in 5+ years and adds nutrients to the soil, it's cheap!, can be used as building and sitting blocks, on and on... 

So the construction of the iLc begins.  It's a momentus decision to pour the first footing.  There should be some sort of a celebration or ribbon cutting.  This iLc (international learning center) will shape not only the future of WinSol3, but also a future eco-village (i call it Sieben Linden West) based on living by the sun.

Felling four tall fir trees the other day gave me pause to admire the beauty and bounty of trees.  Sometimes I wish I would re-incarnate as a tree - they are so buddha like.  There's a wonderful buddhist saying:  'the Banyan tree even gives shade to the person that cuts it down'.  I am careful which trees I harvest in thinning the forest, I use every little bit of the tree (lotsa biochar from the slash), I debark them immediately when the sap is running, and then they dry for a year before they become the long-standing main supports for the iLc. 


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Of all the seasons, Spring is by far the hardest working and most joyous time.  Farmers used to celebrate the spring planting and fall harvest seasons, and gardeners relish the daily observations of newly sprouted blooms and growth.  Each year the flowers and shrubs and trees seem to multiply ten fold.  


There are irises, poppies, rhubarb, grapes, lilacs, lavender +++ blooms just exploding here every day - almost too much to handle, not!  For the first time in 9+ years, I have my 100+ strawberry plants back.  I tried a supermarket strawberry the other day:  tasteless, methyl iodide, and unnatural - yuk!  But for me, one of my most relished rituals is to pick fresh strawberries from the garden each morning with cereal bowl in hand.  ahhhhhhh..................

And straw bedding makes it easier and so much less work!




 

Living by the Sun

This will be an on-going posting about lessons learned from over 30 years of living by the sun.  We all live with the sun - more than we know.  Everything we use and are, originated from the sun - our star.  Ultimately we are all from the same star dust. 

Each day that I have lived at WinSol3 has provided me with new teachings about how to live more closely with our star.  And that has made all the difference.


For instance, in the last couple days, I've noticed that the crazy weather and solar angles are getting weirder all the time.  if I had to design this structure today, I'd do it a lot differently.  The fall and spring are no longer the transition zones between winter and summer, but contain within themselves elements of winter and summer.  So I would design some slidable louvers or large exterior panels to accommodate the cold days of late spring and summer or the warm days of late autumn or winter.

We are getting warmer mornings in the summer and weird weather patterns that I believe are being kicked up here by some of the hurricanes off Mexico's waters.  The last couple days, WinSol3 could have really used some strong sun through the windows... but usually this time of year it's very warm: Sacramento's music festival usually has 100F temps ... so WinSol3's structure passively allows not ONE single ray of sunlight inside from Spring to Fall solstice... the sawtooth western roof allows for a little late afternoon sun in the fall, but that's about it. 

wet + Wild

Leaving WinSol3 early this morning was a blessing in disguise...with my power systems drained ... and no sunshine for at least 2 weeks... it can snow up to 10feet for all I care....but of  course it won't do that!  ...only when I am there and have important meetings to get to.
A couple weeks ago we got close to 2ft of snow (first big storm of the year that I experienced).
One of the reasons I haven't blogged here in a while is that I only have about 2 hours of max power each day to charge my laptop and do important web work... and guess what? this blog ain't in the top five!  :-) for those of you keeping up with my 'life'... go figure.

Lessons learned... which have already been taken: don't run ANY big loads between October thru March...double the size of the PV panels.  install disconnect and force total power load shutdown when I'm gone.  That's in place, and should resolve THE big issue.  The other one is to get a Morningstar rather than a Xantrex controller - but that's only for power techies who won't be reading this.

The last two months have been INCREDIBLY warm... have planted a bunch of seeds and flowers are bursting out like crazy... only to be squashed by snow. The greenhouse is looking better and better each day... lotsa bulbs blooming... can't wait for spring!

Grandest Moments + Perfect Storm

There’s nothing like a clear morning after a storm - especially after several cloudy days.  I used to love those only for fresh powder skiing in my younger days.  Now, I am so addicted to the sun at WinSol3 - for different reasons.  The first storm last week was a pain: as unpredicted snow (level was supposed to be 6500 ft with less than 6")... and guess my surprise when I had to drive down to the big city at 6am with 10" of fresh snow.... not a problem, but still a bit of a pain at the hour in the morning when the main roads haven't been plowed.

Then there's the perfect storm yesterday where it was sunny all day... just after sunset the snow storm arrived - dropped about 1" of snow - and blue skies returned just in time for the sunrise - now THAT'S MY IDEA of a PERFECT STORM.  The movie + book by the same name is kinda maccabe... it should've been titled something like the 'Worse possible storm'... but that wouldn't have sold or marketed that well.

There’s something about the first rays of sunlight rising up through the forest and shining its warm rays on WinSol3’s windows.  Even though it’s relatively warm inside, there’s still something magical about the rays of sunlight coming through all the windows here.

Yesterday, I had such a moment, and was overwhelmed with feelings of joy, happiness – no, make that gratitude - , and that wonderful feeling of being alive.  It’s all relative of course.  If it wasn’t for the past few cloudy days, for the last month of being away, etc.  it would not have felt the same.  Walking out on the deck for my morning stretches (tai chi) and down to the Zen Deck and the forest roads always are magical.

In my walk through the forest after the rain, the incredible richness of smells were just intoxicating.  My nose reached out to get every whiff, my brain trying to identify what type of tree it was.  The smells were a cacophony of conifers + pine needles, dogwood, autumn leaves, rotting bark, mountain misery, dirt, water puddles… just plain ole nature in all its glory.

It is the grandest of moments for me.  To wake up next to an endless forest with nowhere to go.  For the last 35 days, I have spend ONE – yes 1 – day in a car.   That’s my measure of my life’s quality.  Talk about quality of life.  Like most of my friends know:  I used to measure the quality of my life by the # of sail and ski days per year.  Now I measure it by how many days I do NOT get in a car.

This grandest moment here at WinSol3 is in contrast to a similar grand moment taking a walk with a friend early morning at the Bay Area marina, and as we approached the end of the headlands and viewed the harbor, the seawall and the Golden Gate Bridge as the sun was coming up... WOW... another grand moment in the middle of a huge urban, asphalt jungle... and my friend commented that he always likes to start his day this way... here, here!

I hope everyone who reads this experience a grand moment tomorrow morning.   With love and gratitude...