Hey Friends. Happy Summer. Here are some pictures from our place. The garden is in full bloom. I love seeing the bees on the flowers. Lots of times they spend the night on a bloom and are sleepy and slow in the morning. Not too slow to sting me though when I got too close.

Serious progress on the house. The floor is in and the siding is almost done all the way around the house.

Next we will seed some fall vegetables and work on painting the inside walls, then trim, then furniture comes back in off the porch!

Wishing you happy end-of-summer days!

Snow Doubt About It

Well, well, well... finally, a blog update! A friend recently wrote, "I notice that the blog needs some updates. I take that to mean you're busy." I have been busy, but no busier than last year when I was blogging more frequently. For all those who have waited patiently, and not so patiently (/steve e/), let's begin.

It's snowing today. Seems as if we've been getting snow once every week or two. Apparently the New Hampshire winters have followed me to Virginia. Thankfully, they don't last as long, nor are the summers as hot.

Today I'm resting in bed after having severely strained my right hamstring. As I described to a friend today, "I was walking down some outdoor steps and on the last step, as my right foot hit the ice covered ground, I did an impromptu full split with my rear leg anchored between two steps. They always tell you to stretch before attempting such a feat. But did I listen? Nooooo... The ensuing pain was excruciating, and enough to remind me to get back on my stretching regimen." Being somewhat incapacitated, although I did cut firewood today, is giving me a "no-excuses" reason to update the blog.

The day after tomorrow, Christy and I drive to New Hampshire to visit my daughters and newly discovered nephew, Grigory. More on that later. We'll be traveling with our neighbor, Liz and her daughter, Maya. Liz's mom also lives in NH. Liz had planned on taking a train to visit during the same time as us, and so it made sense to carpool. Our sleeping accommodations will be provided by our good friends, Roy and Laurie, who, coincidentally, live less than 5 minutes from my daughter, Lauren. Thanks, you two!

So, where to actually begin on what's been happening over the past 5 months? Do I list a brief description of all the highlights? Pick a few of the highlights and go into detail? How about a little of both?

Verbosity Level: Mixed Mode

                                            On a Personal Level

• Christy left her job at Wall Residences as their office manager in October. The job helped us fund our cabin projects for a year, but now she's able to work fewer hours off the homestead and more on the homestead.
• Christy's now doing accounting work three days per week for a farmer-owned local foods distributor. She's also been doing accounting work at a local alternative school.
• I've become an employee of Direct Connect Solar & Electric, owned by my friend and neighbor David. My tentative title is Service Manager (tentative, because I'm not partial to the title), heading up the repair and maintenance department. I've also worked on a number of installations in the area including one up in Lynchburg, VA (think Jerry Falwell, yawn) as part of a training installation for some of the employees of the customer. That was fun. I also got to represent DCS&E at a recent Green Expo in Roanoke. 

 Green Expo in Roanoke, VA

 A recent repair job of an off-grid system.

 Installation in Lynchburg, VA

• What about SolShine Energy Alternatives? After being offered to do similar work by David, I felt it made more sense to accept and work with someone established rather than surf the murky waters as a novice. Besides, I still need to get my NABCEP certification in order to become a certified PV installer. Working for DCS&E will help me to accomplish that.
• My daughter Lauren had her baby, Gabriela Janelle (Gaby), in October. I now have 3 granddaughters! Woohoo.!

• I'm on the Community Board of Advisers and Energy Inventory Committee of SustainFloyd, a local 501c3 organization whose mission is , "To preserve, enhance and support a resilient local community". 
• Christy has begun making these cool little cloth bags (see pic below) by hand. She's given them out as gifts and has been asked to make some to sell here. 

• As readers may recall (listen to me, I sound like some writer), I discovered my biological father, who lives in Brazil, in the summer of 2009 (the year we moved here). Well, I've since made contact with my two brothers, Marco Aurelio and Anselmo. I've had more contact with Marco, the HR director for Volkswagen in Sao Paulo, in part because his English is very good. So this is where my nephew Grigory comes in. He's 19 years old and attending university, majoring in engineering physics. During his summer break (remember, southern hemisphere) he's participating in a cultural program where he's working, are you ready? In New Hampshire! Yup, that's right. He's working at Loon Mountain as a lift operator. So, we'll be getting together with him and my daughters.
• While we're on the subject of Brazil, we're actually going there next month. Yes, indeed!  We'll there for 18 days to meet my father and extended family. It's all too exciting for words, so I'll just leave it at that.
• Have to give a quick plug to my brother, Adrian's, and partner, Keith's blog. It chronicles the renovation of their new home in Durham, NC. What a house! It's beautiful as is the interior design. Adrian can actually walk to work. They've also done a much better job on their blog layout than I did.
• We've added a new member to the family - felis catis. He/she (haven't determined the sex) has been living at the office where Christy works for the past two years, and was looking for a new home. We'd welcome suggestions for a new name. 

•  Earlier this fall we purchased a used bread maker off of Craigslist, and let me tell you that it's been getting a workout. Since we're such bread snobs, (sorry Wonder) we found it too wasteful to continually purchase $5 and $6 loaves of bread (easily twice a week). So it just made sense to start making them ourselves. What a difference! I've refined my whole grain seed bread recipe to be quite tasty. We haven't purchased a loaf of bread in over 3 months.

       










                           The Cabin

• Not a whole lot to report on regarding the cabin. 
• Put in the porch railing. I haven't done much regarding the stainless steel cabling that we'll be putting on beneath the railing. I have the cable but I'm not happy with the options available to secure it to the posts. I should qualify that statement, there are some that I like but they're cost prohibitive. See below for what it'll look like.

• Framed the laundry room, including two windows. Still waiting to find the right sized door

• Began sand plastering the interior walls. Sand plaster is a combination of sand, drywall compound, and water. This provides a stucco-like, southwestern appearance. We'll paint over this surface with terracotta red.

• Still waiting to get the remainder of our logs cut in order to finally side the cabin. I'm really disappointed that here we are a year later and the cabin is still shrouded in tar paper.
• More to be added when I think of them.

That's all kids!

Introducing the 2-Alarm Mini-Spider

While hangin' with my brothers in Durham this past weekend, we stopped at a local Target store, and what did I see? The last electronic design that I completed while doing the 9-5 in Charlotte. They were everywhere! I felt like a proud papa.

Ain't she a beaut?

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.alphaworld.com/our-solutions/spider-wraps/mini-spider-wrap/

Glory to the Sun in the Highest

Clothesline carrying the weight of the world.

I'm not going to say it

The temptation is there, but I'm not going to title this post after a certain hotel chain. Having said that, the porch roof is on. I'm still waiting for what's called a rake board trim to add to the end rafters. It protects the rafters from rain.

 Next up is the railing, gutters (w/ rain barrels), and a storage/laundry room on the far side of the side porch. 

Oh, and the chicken ladder has finally been taken down. My brother, Adrian, posed the obvious, "When are you going to take that ladder down?"

Speaking of brothers, Adrian and Roney came up for a weekend visit to honor my 51st birthday. We've recently started a tradition of the brothers getting together for breakfast on our birthday. We're calling it the Brown Brothers Birthday Breakfast. Much fun was had. How can it not be fun when we get together? So glad we're not like some boring old adult brothers who merely tolerate each others company. I just wish our brother, Andre' (Vegas), lived out east. Oh and let's not forget my other siblings much further away, on other continents - my sister Claudia in Europe (Sardinia) and brothers Marco Aurelio and Anselmo in Brasil.

 Below is an ultra-sound image of my granddaughter, Gabriela - soon to be daughter of my daughter, Lauren, who is due in October.

















Can't say it enough - Life is great.

On The Deck

It's been too long since my last post - sorry. It's been a busy spring and summer, and thus little time for blogging. Here's a short list of what's been happening:

• I'm currently in the process of finishing up the wrap-around porch. The decking itself is complete and so now I'm working on the roof.
• Started my own business - SolShine Energy Alternatives, LLC. My goal is to mostly do repair and maintenance on existing renewable energy systems; install PV and wind power systems; and design and build portable PV generators.
• This year's garden is doing very well. It's looking very lush after the last few days rain. Hopefully Christy will do some blogging on that front.
• I've been nominated to be on Sustain Floyd's Advisory Committee. In addition, I'm on the Sustain Floyd Energy Audit Committee.
• All of our North Carolina families have come to visit us this spring/summer. So we're very pleased with that and the fact that we got to show off the fruits of our labor.
• Lots of cool parties and Floyd events.
• Our new neighbors, Matt and Teagan moved down from NY/CT this May. We met them last year when they came to visit. They're a cool/hip/fun couple. Matt and I got in some good World Cup watching in Blacksburg recently. Sadly my teams 3 teams, Germany, USA, and Brasil lost.
• My oldest daughter, Lindsey, had her second child - Jeisa Isabel

• My youngest daughter, Lauren, is pregnant and due in October - 3 grandchildren in total by the year's end!
• Our friend, Dave Brown, and I have been cutting our logs for siding and building projects. I'm hoping that within the next 2 months to have the cabin sided.
• Life is great! 

Christy and I are really happy with the porch. We find ourselves spending the majority of our free time out there. It's something we've been looking forward to for quite some time. Our floor space has more than doubled as a result.

Sun Day

One of my many dreams has come to fruition. Our PV system is up and running. It's not easy containing my excitement. When I started this blog 3 years ago one of our goals was to incorporate a solar power system into our homestead. Well, that day is here! Our 2kW system is generating approximately 1.2kW as of this writing (10:20 AM). This is an on-grid or grid-tie PV system. It does not have battery backup capability. That's something I'll pursue in the future along with going off-grid.


Our local building official inspected the system yesterday, and it passed. Today, representatives from the local power company will come and do an inspection along with replacing the meter with one compatible with monitoring energy production (Customer-sited distributed generation), i.e. spinning the meter backwards. After that we'll have met all of the requirements to obtain a state rebate of $2/Watt. This doesn't include the 30% federal tax credit we qualify for.



One of the cool things about this  particular system is that the inverter (the hardware that converts DC power from the solar module to AC power), in this case, a microinverter (one per PV module), has some intelligence incorporated into it. Inside the home sits a device that monitors each microinverter and serves as a gateway that communicates with a web-based monitoring and analysis tool seen here at the left. So we're able to monitor the system from home or remotely. There's quite a bit of information presented. Guests can go here to monitor the system, as well.




Other news:
There have been numerous bear sightings in our neighborhood. Two weeks ago Christy and I watched an ~250lb black bear cut through our woods, cross the stream and head up the hill. I tried to follow but it was gone by the time I got up the hill.

The second sighting occurred when I was in Durham, and Christy was alone at the cabin. She was in bed when she heard crunching plastic. She came downstairs and looked out the French doors with a flashlight and there were two eyes staring back at her. A black bear was munching on our bird feeder. It proceeded towards the light and then veered off towards the back of the cabin and disappeared into the dark. It took a while for Christy to get to sleep that night.

The latest sighting was of 3 cubs observed by neighbors on their way home.

 This is what Christy has to resort to with desserts that belong to her while in the presence of a different  bear - a Brown bear.

 Life is good great!

Lofty Goals

I know I know, sometimes those titles are kinda lame. But I tire of the boring old "Just the facts ma'm."

So I put the loft flooring in... well... sheesh... I guess it's been a month now. It's hard to believe it's been that long. Christy and I are really pleased with it. What a difference an extra inch makes. The flooring is 2x6 tongue and groove yellow pine. It  feels so substantial and solid compared to the plywood. No more having to worry if we''ll break through the floor.

Last week I started work on our ground-mount PV system. I began by digging 6 3-4' deep holes for the piers to support the system. Afterwards I placed 8" and 12" Quik-tubes for the front and rear piers, respectively. Given the tilt of the array, the rear piers needed to be dug deeper and be more substantial (there's that word, again), hence the different diameters. Certainly I could have used 12" all around but that meant more concrete. I then set 1.5" schedule 40 steel pipe in the piers. Then it was basically building a jungle gym - at least it felt that way. I kept wanting to climb it - an urge I eventually gave in to.

I ended up having to use three different types of framing system in order to make things work with the module orientation (portrait). If I had gone with a landscape configuration I could've done without the intermediary framing system (Unistrut) and gone exclusively with SnapNrack. The latter being what the panels are mounted to. See here for clarification on the difference between PV module, panels, and array.

The only things I'm missing are: wiring, AC disconnect, junction box, and microinverter installation hardware. I should have all those things in by early next week. Conservatively speaking, I should be done by the 1st. That'll give me two weeks to get the system inspected in time to meet the state deadline to qualify for the RE credit.

Second PV Installation

I recently had the opportunity to help out with another PV installation with neighbor and friend David Zachow. This installation was for a previous customer of David's who was doing an upgrade. We installed an additional 1.7kW to an existing 3kW system. It was a fairly easy installation given the low pitch of the roof and previous work done. Overlooking the surrounding verdant country side didn't hurt either.The owners treated David and I to dinner afterwards and tons of produce from their garden.

This is the s**t!

Check out my pile of horse manure! I got it from a woman down the street who has 5 horses. While we were at her farm shoveling s**t, one of the horses had her head inside the back of the Subaru sniffing around. We also got to pet baby goats and saw chickens and roosters. It makes me want to have livestock. One day....

So this manure will sit in this pile for two months, and I will turn it over every few days, and it will go through a heat cycle which will kill weed seeds and fly larvae. That's my compost thermometer in the middle. Today it reads 61° with an ambient temperature of 42°. Then I will use it as fertilizer this summer on the vegetables. You know farmers call manure "black gold" because it's so helpful for getting the right nutrients to the plants. Worms love it, and worms are good for the garden!

I planted peas outside on Sunday night. Indoors I have tomatoes sprouting, and beets, chard, cabbage, lettuce, and kale growing right along. Thrilled that Spring is here! What are you all planting this year?

Mr. Brown, Tear Down This Permit!

One of the many days we've been waiting for has arrived - we passed our Certificate of Occupancy inspection this afternoon! We met the county building code requirements and so now can legally move in. Yeah, right!

So even though we have our CO it's feeling somewhat anticlimactic because we still have quite a bit more work to do. Here's the short list:

• Loft Flooring
• Porch
• Cabin Flooring
• Shower
• Bathroom Flooring
• Cabinets
• Sand Plaster Walls

This doesn't include side projects like garden prep/planting and installing the PV system, all of which are, thankfully, in progress. I dug the footer holes for the PV system this morning and got the building inspector to verify they're at the requisite depth. And Christy has been working on the garden pretty much everyday - even after work.

Anticlimacticism (a made-up word) aside, I'm feeling really good. This day validates that doing what Christy and I are doing is achievable for anyone. This is doable.

Solar Site Analysis

I did some site work for the PV system yesterday. The site is situated between the cabin and the garden. I chose this location because it meets two important criteria - solar access and proximity to the cabin. The former was gauged using a device called a Solar Pathfinder. It provides a visual representation of the "solar window" by showing unwanted shading throughout the year and potential insolation. It's a really handy, must-have device.

PV site location

Viewing the "solar window"

So Much So Quickly

We're on a roll here at 542 Diamond Knob Road. Within the last two weeks we've started seedlings indoors, installed the ceiling fan, installed one of two kitchen counters, got running water (hot and cold) in the cabin, and put in temporary front steps.

Ben & Christy chllin' on Ben's handy-work.

Hot water tank finds home.

My First Post-Classroom PV Installation

Over the past week I've been helping my neighbor David install his second personal PV system. David is a master electrician and owns a PV Installation business. I had volunteered to help him with this installation since it was so close, and I've been wanting to get some more practice in. It's been over a year since I had taken the PV Design and Installation class in Tucson. Well we completed the installation yesterday. It's a 2.6kW on-grid system that's tied into he and his wife, Annie's, Stone Barn Inn. Their other system is also on-grid but with battery backup that sits atop their greenhouse and is tied into their home.










The shallow pitch of the roof made the panel installation much more manageable.
 

 SMA inverter along with DC & PV AC disconnect




And, while were on the topic of PV systems, Christy and I ordered the equipment for our own system. This is a big day for me. I've been wanting this quite some time. We're installing a 2kW on-grid system. Our plan is to convert to off-grid in the future. We're going with on-grid w/o battery backup initially because of time  and cost constraints. I had applied for a renewable energy rebate with the state of Virginia late last year and the system has to be installed and inspected by May 13th. An off-grid system with battery backup is more complicated and time consuming to install. As for the financial aspect of it, an off-grid system with battery backup is considerably more expensive than what we're presently doing. After the state rebate ($2/Watt) and the 30% Federal tax incentive, we'll have spent less than $5K for a system that would otherwise cost well over $10K. Another thing contributing to the lower cost is the fact that I'll be doing the installation myself.

Life is great!

Agua, Wasser, H2O

Oh how we love that miraculous molecule. We love it even more when it comes out of a faucet, and when it flushes a toilet. I'm very happy to announce that Christy and I now have running water in the cabin, albeit cold water. The kitchen sink, bathroom sink, and toilet are all operational. I'm getting a 20 gallon water heater this coming weekend.

There's been a mad dash lately to get the cabin ready for a CO (Certificate of Occupancy) inspection. The building inspector that I've been working with is being replaced after next week. I'm not wanting to take any chances that the new person will be too "by the book" and require us to redo something. The only things that I need to complete by next Tuesday are:

• Install hot water heater and run piping
• Build stairs for the front door
• Cover any unterminated light fixtures/outlets

Because of the rushed schedule I ended up placing the pressure tank under the kitchen counter (where the dishwasher will eventually reside). In the coming months I'll move the pressure tank outside and bury it near the wellhead.

20 gallon pressure tank with sediment filter















What a feeling it is!

Signs of Life

Yay, the garlic has sprouted! After spending this brutal winter out there in the wind, snow, and single digit frozen ground, the garlic said, "Hey, I'm fine. Spring is here!" Garlic is one of those crops that has to be planted in the fall and spend the winter in the ground.

I think the important things I did were put the cloves 4 inches below the ground per Mike Burton's recommendation, and insulate them with a thick mulch of hay (which I will later curse because it had a bunch of hayseed in it).

Indoors we have red and green cabbage, lacinato and hanover kale, beets, chard, and lettuce going.

Look at the way they lean toward the sun. I was worried about damping off fungus problems, because I had trouble with that last year, and I think I figured out what I was doing wrong. I was dumping water on them from a glass instead of misting them. This makes the soil really wet and creates an environment in which fungus can thrive. The fungus can kill the weak little seedlings. So I let them dry out a little, and started only misting, and the white hair-looking stuff is gone.

What do you all want to grow this season?

Goodbye and good riddance to cell phones!

As one more step toward sustainability, we canceled our cell phone account. Recently I've been paying more attention to the talk about how holding a wireless device next to your head all the time CAN'T BE A GOOD IDEA. The official studies that are funded by communications companies which are making a KILLING off everyone buying a new cell phone every 2 years say it's really fine and won't cause you to grow a tumor behind your ear, but I'm suspicious. Plus we can't afford the bill for $90 a month anymore with only one income. So we got a land line, canceled the account, and just keep the phones in the cars now with some pay-as-you-go minutes on them for times when we end up in a ditch and need to call for help. They say that people in rural areas are actually exposed to more electromagnetic radiation from their phones because their phones have to work harder to communicate with far away cell towers. Here's some good information: http://www.ewg.org/cellphoneradiation/fullreport. To all my loved ones, please consider reducing your usage.

How's it feel to be a plumber?

Last week I put in one of two kitchen counters and installed the kitchen sink. It's a treat to have a real counter as opposed to a couple of small (short) tables. The plumbing was fairly straight forward, although I had to replace one of the strainer drains as the downspout had rusted. This makes washing dishes a whole lot easier. For the top surface of the counters we're envisioning some sort of stone or concrete. I don't like the typical marbled granite that's so ubiquitous. We're looking for something unique.

We're still without running water in the cabin, but that's next on the list. Presently, we have a 1" line from the well coming to just outside the cabin. I purchased the pressure tank and a bunch of PEX fittings along with PEX hose for the water supply. What I'm missing is some sort of holding tank for the pressure tank. I'm hoping that using a 4' x 36" plastic culvert will do the trick. My plan is to bury it near the well head. I'm placing it outside given that space is at a premium inside.


















On the weekend I replaced the fan's 24" downrod with a 36" one. What a difference. No more whoop whoop whoop on the high setting. We're lovin' this fan.

Last week and this I've been helping our neighbor, David, install a PV system on his barn. We installed the panels, ran some of the wiring, and installed the inverter. It's great getting in some OJT. Christy and I plan on ordering our system this week. We only have about 8 weeks before our system has to be installed and inspected if we want to qualify for the VA renewable energy rebate ($2/Watt). I can't wait!

Well, that's about it for today. Gotta run over to David's to finish up the wiring and test out the system.

As Above So Below

Two milestones were achieved today:

The first being that the bathroom sink was installed and is semi-functional. Semi-functional in that it drains. The water supply has yet to completed. We purchased this sink at Habitat for Humanity's Restore in Durham, NC. The pedestal sink sold for $65. Not bad for a good quality Kohler. Installing this was somewhat challenging in that I had to account for the future flooring and also line up the sink with the mounting holes in the wall. In addition, there are the fumes from the septic tank to contend with. Until all the drain piping is assembled and water added to the P-trap, it gets a little smelly. You may notice that I failed to install an escutcheon where the drain enters the wall. Well, I did purchase one, however, it was the wrong size. And I wasn't about to go out and purchase a replacement.

Now Christy and I can brush our teeth in a real sink and not have to spit in a bucket or outside.

The second is that the ceiling fan was installed and is fully-functional. We purchased the fan new, and online. It's an Energy Star rated fan manufactured by Monte Carlo. We chose this fan for two reasons: aesthetics and efficiency. This particular model is one of the most efficient Energy Star fans available at 240.7 CFM/Watt on the low setting. Contrast that to 155 CFM/Watt for the least efficient Energy Star rated fan.

Unfortunately I'm going to have to replace the 24" downrod because the fan blades are about an inch away from the ceiling at their closest point. It may not be an issue, however, at the high setting it gets a bit noisy due to the vortices created. I may go with a 36" downrod, but in the meantime we'll enjoy the heat from the wood stove being distributed more uniformly. The installation was fairly easy with the exception of attaching the fan blades. I would've been better off installing them prior to hanging the fan. The instructions have you install them after hanging the fan. This was quite tedious when doing the installation alone, on a ladder, 14' up in the air - a third hand would've been useful.












A quick thank you to my mom and step-dad for giving us their old toilet (low-flow) and kitchen sink. And also to Stephen Eckberg for providing us with the wood stove. All items were given to us free of charge. If it's free, it's for me!

This is what it's all about

Local eggs from Weathertop Farm