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!
