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...

Solstice + Ancients

It is always a real joy to be at WinSol3 on Dec 22^nd and watch the first single ray of sunlight (hopefully it’s clear skies!) reach through the forest from the SE and shine onto the entire southern window span of WinSol3.  It is no accident that this first ray of sunlight falls into the bedroom and kitchen/sitting area first.

This morning I absorbed this ritual of the ancients.  At exactly 7:43am the sun’s first rays graced WinSol3’s southern window expanse, announcing that the earth was shifting on its axis.  As I stood out on the deck observing the sun’s rays changingly distributing its bounty throughout the forest, I felt a spiritual rush of the connection with our giver of life.  Realizing that this event was observed for thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of years by most of humanity – until recently - I wondered if perhaps that internal rush was a connection with the ancients.  After all we are all from the same stardust, and we all breathe the same air and all our exhalations.

Then my brain really kicks in with something like this (from Wikipedia):  

The winter solstice occurs exactly when the axial tilt of a planet's polar hemisphere is farthest away from the star that it orbits. Earth's maximum axial tilt to our star, the Sun, during a solstice is 23° 26'. More evident from high latitudes, a hemisphere's winter solstice occurs on the shortest day and longest night of the year, when the sun's daily maximum elevation in the sky is the lowest.^[2] Since the winter solstice lasts only a moment in time, other terms are often used for the day on which it occurs, such as midwinter, the longest night or the first day of winter.

 

I wonder how the ancients figured out the longest and shortest days of the year – were they able to tell time somehow?  They most definitely knew about solar angles and horizons. We'll never know. Why have we lost all records and insight into this ancient wisdom?

In Thom Hartman’s book ‘Last hours of Ancient Sunlight’ he states:  ‘We once knew more than we know now’  Over the years I’ve found this statement to be so true.  Our left-brained, highly technological and scientific world has given us many wonders and lifted many people out of poverty – but at what cost?  Are we happier, more content?  Are our technologically driven communities and children better off?  Yes and no.  Mr. Hartman now blogs about the 'Last hours of Ancient Sunlight' ,his latest about how trees are  the 'canary in the coal mine'  that we are ignoring.

 and now... back to WinSol3 solstice ...

My usual routine is to light a big bonfire outside and then around 7:30am sit at the indoor granite fireplace bench looking at the ‘X’ mark on the French door glass that says 7:43am.  At 7:40am I am skeptical, there’s no sun to be seen and I wonder if by some strange reasoning I marked it wrong, if the house shifted, or heavens forbid our planet is out of alignment!   Every Dec 22^nd I go through this same ‘Doubting Thomas’ routine.   Then, as I go out onto the deck, sure enough, right on schedule, there is the first sunlight.   And all is well with the universe.

The joy within my heart is immense at this moment.  I feel a connection with the ancients, with a power indescribable, far greater than anything I usually have felt all year (although this year, the feelings I had at the temple ceremony in Indonesia ranks right up there).  Each year, I allow my heart and spirit to linger a bit longer, before my brain kicks in.  It’s getting easier each year to delay my brain kickstart.   But sure enough, after a couple minutes, my left brain hints at the history of this moment going back over the eons – of the Stonehenge + Pyramid architects, of designers and computer software packages that can predict this event within a microsecond at any location behind any shading tree in the world.

Then slowly my mind and heart sift together in unison to realize that our home is right now shifting on its axis ever so slowly.  Usually by the time I awaken from this trance, the entire inside of WinSol2 is flooded in sunlight and the sun has shifted a few degrees from the far SE horizon.

Then slowly I realize the ‘event’ is over and tasks beckon.  I wonder how many urban people even know about this event?  I know the farmers and many gardeners know - their livelihood depends on the sun.

For some reason, I am not that enamored with the counter solstice to this on June 21 each year, when the earth shifts back from the opposite axis shift.

temp Adjustments

Over the past few early mornings at WinSol3 (4300ft elevation) it has been about 50F outside and I am starting to feel warm without the fire stove or dressing like an Eskimo. 

After returning from spending ~20 days at the equator and 88F = 24/7, I was freezing cold at WinSol3.   I remember last winter I was comfortable around 45F, and I’ve  heard other people say the same.  But I know that most people would feel terribly cold at 45F.  A lot of that has to do with our metabolism and cold/warm bloodedness, our age, what we eat, fitness and exercise, etc. 
But I’d like to espouse a whole different reason: over the last few decades,  we've reset our body thermostats

Ever since the invention of instant on-demand heating and cooling systems, we’ve slowly weaned ourselves from our body’s automatic thermostat.  We used to be fine in temperatures from 50-90F with no problem. 
But nowadays, if someone from the northern zone steps off a plane in the southern zone, they'd immediately complain about the god-awful heat (and humidity).  They would head for the first air-conditioned space they could find. 
And then when they got back home to their northern colder climate, they would turn up the heat so they wouldn’t be too cold.  You get the irony here? 
It’s more psychological than physiological.

Let me repeat that: It’s more psychological than physiological.  Notice the word ‘logical’ in each of those.  Is there any basis for logic in the fact that the human body is designed with an automatic temperature control system (brain/heart and veins/arteries)?  Yes! a resounding YES!

Our veins and arteries are very sophisticated heat exchangers trying to maintain 98.6F by opposing flow patterns along our skin.  These are more complex than most hi-tech HVAC units.  Our skin is one heck of a large absorber or adsorber temperature plate. Heck the skin actually forms beads of water on it own if it gets too hot (sweating :-)!  It can serve as an alternating condenser or evaporator coil.  And yet, we like to keep our outside temperature exposure within 65-75F, 24/7,365.  In other words, we’ve gotten too comfortable over the years, and like to luxuriate in this narrow temperature range. 
But this has allowed our body’s thermostat to go on hiatus and in some cases maybe even malfunction.  I used to do this all the time myself: 

Decades ago when I was logging 100k airmiles/year I used to never every take a winter coat to the far northeastern states in the dead of winter - why hassle with it?  I step off the plane into a heated building, into a heating rental car, into a heated hotel, into a heated office building.  In one 24 hour period i'd be lucky if I got exposed to more than 20 minutes of sub-zero outside temperatures.  We've set up our environment to spoil our body's thermostat.

An energy saving tip:  start allowing your body’s wonderfully complex and fully functioning automatic thermostat and heating/cooling adjustment system to work – on its own. Instead of heating an entire room to 70F so that your body (all of 10-20 cu.ft) can be spoiled, let it adjust on its own.  Ok, so maybe you need to grab a blanket the first few days...
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It only took me ~3 days to start feeling comfortable when I first arrived (in Indonesia) at equatorial temperatures of 88F   24/7.  Then it took me ~3 days of adjustments back at WinSol3 to the relatively frigid 45-60F.   Had I opted for air-conditioning at the equator, or full-on heating at WinSol3 (sauna anyone?), my body would not be able to adjust so quickly.

Like an exercise/diet fitness program, we need to embark on a temperature adjustment fitness program – and just think of all the energy savings a 10-20F thermostat setting change would be on your monthly utility bill.

Back at Nature's Sanctuary

From my last entry here, I thought for sure that my next post would be in late December of April 2012... but here I am, back from an incredible experience in Indonesia.  I hesitate to say that it is Bali, because I never once experienced what 90% of the world thinks Bali is.  Let's just say that Hawaii is a heavenly paradise compared to Bali.
I barely saw the ocean twice for a scant 5 minutes driving to and from the airport in Denpasar.  What i did see was the sad effect that 'eat, pray, love' has had on Ubud.  I was lucky enough to spend 7 magical days in the highlands of central Bali with the local villagers and one world-famous retired American author. 
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I learned so much about what WinSol3 means and why I spent the last 10 years rebuilding and living here.  Being away give me new perspective.

Today, my 3rd day back, I am breathing hard and feel my lungs really marginalized from breathing continual diesel and motorbike fumes - even in the remote village of Pentahan.
Thankfully i had a 'green' drink and tropical fruit galore each morning, but the lack of exercise and actually doing anything physical has taken its toll.
I found myself breathing harder than ever walking up from WinSol3's zen deck, with a load of HUGE mushrooms I spotted... so now the house is filled with eight+ big trays of wonderful sliced mushrooms.  The altitude and my lungs will take a while to transition.

WinSol3 stood up well to the first winter storms and first snowfall.  It was my first experience putting WinSol3 'on ice' so to speak.  The feral cats were all doing wonderfully, and the vegetable garden actually had beautiful things still growing - bigger pumpkins, potatoes, spinach, lettuce, etc.  All the vines and grapes have since died away and oak leaves and pine needles cover the expanded courtyard.

So my new project, and to regain some physical stamina and muscle tone, will be working on the greenhouse. I keep thinking how some people go to a gym to work their muscles - and what a sad waste that is, when there is so much more enriching work that could be done on soil and useful things,  instead of putting it into a steel machine. 

One of my other big learnings about WinSol3 is that I live an enchanted life compared to expatriates and the other 80% in 3rd world countries.  But i decided in Nepal 7 years ago, that i would work from within the 1st world to undo part of the damage our western technologies have done... and WinSol3 is just the start.  The Indonesia project has really Kick-started my next chapter with CMGs and shown me how powerful this concept and learning center will become.

In attending a bamboo workshop in Ubud with a friend (Chakra), and the excitement I felt in realizing that WinSol3 was light years ahead of the sustainable compound (and green school)... well I am inspired!

Stay tuned to a new program involving WinSol3 in the coming years as a true international learning center.

changing seasons + hiatus

The false siren of winter storms came early this year. Snow fell in the hi-Sierra on October 8^th and Wolf Creek ski resort set an all-time record for earliest ever opening by a USA ski resort.  But - for the past two+ weeks it’s been ~70F at Tahoe.  Perhaps it will change this week as overnite temperatures are dropping into the teens.  There's some snow today above 7,000ft.

The fall aspen colors are amazing as yesterday I ventured up to Sorensens and Hope Valley to take in the awesome view.  Lotsa leafer-peepers, and a mere shadow of a New England autumn… but close enough. 

Here at WinSol3, these fall + spring seasonal turns and ‘middle periods’ for solar gains and passive heating/cooling of the house are always a challenge.  I’ve gotten good at it over the years, fine tuning and intuitively learning what WinSol3 needs to maintain a comfortable temperature ~60-70F each day and nite. It requires some minor manual adjustments:  like keeping the loft curtains closed all the time, and maybe opening/closing windows in the day or night cycles.  This is a fine intuitively honed balance.  I’ve only had to turn the firestove on for a few days in early October.

Old timers say that this winter will be like last winter.  Meteorologists are saying it can’t possible be like last winter – that was an all-time aberration.  I believe the latter.  And what convinces me of that, is that I just haven’t seen the proliferation of pine cones on trees that I saw last year.  uI still see robins and squirrels all over the place – last year at this time they were already bunked up for the long cold haul.  Mother nature has a few predictors around (I’m sure if I could communicate with any animal creature, they’d tell me exactly what kind of winter it will be).

 So as the seasons change so do beckoning calls for projects in faraway places on community microgrids... and time to follow Bucky Fuller's adages:

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
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“You may assume that you are fulfilling your significance if you apply yourself to converting all your experience to the highest advantage of others.”

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I will be signing off this blog for quite a while.  Please email me directly if you need.

Energy learnings

What a surprise when I did my bi-annual maintenance on my battery bank.  Every cell (all 12) was empty or water. Thankfully the plates looked wet, so they couldn't have been dry too long.  It took close to a gallon of rainwater to fill them all.  WOW!  I've never experienced that before - and likewise, I've never shorted the PV panels directly to the battery bank either.

After realizing that the Xantrex C35 wasn't doing its thing on equalizing batteries, or charging them properly - i just shorted the whole system for the summer.  I've found out since then that many others do the same thing - but not all summer.... just for a few weeks.  This really juices up the batteries, equalizes them in a hurry and you're all set to reconnect the controller.  Well, i waited 4 months for this... and boiled off a lot of the lead acid in there.  So lesson learned - only a few weeks of shorting... not months.

These huge babies can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'  - but they ain't cheap!My battery bank is fine and are they are all recharging properly. I'll be all set for a long winter - especially with the 400watt wind generator: I'll have power to spare.



Smart Energy
On another front:  An energy monitor (with a shunt) is SO important when managing your energy usage. This is the one I have:

 Simple and effective.  Four numbers: % charge state, voltage, current amp hours, cumulative amp hours (resettable).  Now, if I could just hook that up to my computer and have it log the data over time.

I constantly monitor the amp hours and all kinds of other numb3rs and trends for my energy system.  It's gotten to a point where I play a game of guessing what the meter will say and then seeing how close i get to the actual number.  Imagine my surprise when i discovered recently that my laptop computer external hard drive sucked up as much energy as the entire laptop on a dead battery (4.5 amp hours or ~45 watts)!  That was a new one on me!  So, now i copy all my files off the hard drive while I got plenty of juice (as in sunshine) - that way i use 1/2 the energy at night when watching the Daily Show or a movie.  

Figure it this way (hey, I'm an engineer - in another life!) :  45 watts X 3 hours a nite X 250 days/year = 33,750 watts per year... that's a small chunk off a solar system, but every little bit helps.

Season Transitions

What season?

As WinSol3's energy meter turns to 12.6 vdc at 7am of the first rainy day of the new winter season, the outside temperature reads 38F. My reflections turn to a summer filled with learnings and the upcoming winter season.  This time I may not be spending the winter here - lifestyle changes beckon great adventures.

Some weather reports are predicting snow levels dropping to 6,000ft (on October 5^th!).  Kirkwood received 10 inches of snow!  wheeeeee....The upcoming winter season is picking up where the last one left off – from snow on Memorial Day weekend to a trace of snow today.  That’s 4 months without snow: No spring, no fall – just snow, heat, snow.  And it was a VERY cool summer.  I think Sacramento had 6 days over 100F (normal is 30 days).  This is all new to my 30 years here, an all-time short season and cool summer record.  I couldn't even get into the high country with all the snows lingering around.  Who says there’s no climate change?

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So what has transpired and what have I learned over the past short summer seasons?  There is a shorter growing season sometimes, and I need to get the greenhouse warmer in order to grow more food.  AND the big one: the 2^nd biggest fire ever could easily have rendered me homeless and all my efforts negated. 

Of all the things occurring over the past summer months though, I took the first big step toward shaking off the isolation and remoteness and started finding community.  The WOOF and HelpNetx and other web networks have generated some interest, but nothing concrete yet.  There have been over a dozen visitors (plus the September celebration) to WinSol3 from various areas.  I am grateful to all of you who came up to visit, and I treasure your friendship.

The distance of this place to main urban areas is probably the single largest lesson I’ve had to come to grips with: don’t build too far out.  Since this was initially picked to be my Kirkwood ski hamlet, I could have never guessed that the location of WinSol3 would be THE big issue.  But people who frequent mountain resorts are not the same people who would readily live off-the-grid in a closed loop, self-reliant style.  I believe they are more inclined to pay for the convenience of endless energy and conveniences next to hi-end infrastructure.  So I am turning toward the Coloma/Nevada City area for possible future eco-village community networking since they are seem more enlightened and closer to ‘civilization’. 

Here’s a list of WinSol3 accomplishments over the past 4 summer months:

• Living roof connecting deck with hi-psf structural supports
• triple sized courtyard patio with new firepit and sitting areas
• five raised beds and bountiful veggie + grape + rhubarb + harvests
• Greenhouse water feature and tile work
• Demos of Rocket Mass heaters
• Perimeter clean-ups, screened under deck storage
• Outside LED lighting system
• 12vdc Sound system everywhere
• Gravel driveway straw cover, weed prevention
• Main area, loft, mudroom drywalled, painted
• Main deck final bracing

Whew… I get tired of thinking of the hundreds of cement bags mixed, hauling of dirt buckets, the # of granite slabs,

Lessons learned: 

It is possible to live self-reliantly with many hi-tech + modern comforts

It requires only knowledge and construction materials

More + more people are discovering reused, salvage, hospice,

My overall fire prevention strategy of not exposing wooden sill plates, masonry barriers, etc. to the surrounding forest area really paid off since it helped stop the spreading uphill fire (flame retardant helped too! :-)   

So the shift from summer to winter is on.... and this is where WinSol3 shines.  Solar PV panels and large windows + overhangs designed to let maximum daylight and sunlight in during winter months.  It's nice and bright and soon to get warmer as i fire up the stove for the first time in months....