November 11th, 2009

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Busy!

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

It’s a busy week at the ranch! First, we have a guest visitor this week — Brad’s long-lost (just kidding) brother Doug. He’s here all week, and you better believe we are putting him to work! I’m not sure he knew this was what he was signing up for. He has his own business, and it’s the first time he’s taken time off in a long time, so we are honored that he chose to spend it here.

Secondly, we’ve had all kinds of adventures related to the delivery of the various solar components. They were supposed to call ahead about deliveries so we’d be there, but you know that wasn’t going to happen! On Monday, I was home by myself (getting ready to go out to a school I’m working with here) and I got a phone call — 4,000 pounds of batteries are on their way here now (with no forklift), and they need directions. I give them directions, but there is a major problem — they don’t have paperwork to drive through NM….but that’s the only way to get here, on paved roads at least. So I tell them about the back road. Several phone calls ensue. Brad gets involved. The end result is that the batteries go back to Tucson.

In the meantime, we’ve got our very nice neighbor to drive his tractor with forklift attachments over. It’s sitting on our property now…waiting.

We got a call today from the freight company who says that they will be coming again tomorrow, this time with a truck that is licensed for NM and with a liftgate and pallet mover. Hallelujah! Let’s hope even half of that happens.

We’re also expecting the panels in the next couple days. Brad and Doug started assembling the supports for the panels today. It seemed to involve a lot of reading and re-reading of directions and a fair amount of unhappiness, so I mostly worked on finishing the battery house walls and moving some dirt while they did that.

brandanddoug

Other than that, with the whole battery thing, we’ve kicked the battery house construction into high gear. Yesterday, we put in blocking, insulated the walls, and put the inside OSB decking on. (Lots of hammering for me.) These will be the first walls to be completed. We didn’t have enough insulation to finish the whole thing, but three walls are up, which is enough to build the shelving for the batteries.

The weather here is glorious this week. It’s hot, sunny, and clear. Our garden continues to thrive, and we have more arugula and lettuce than we can eat. I’m hoping for one more batch of tomatoes this year as well.