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!