We’ve been talking off and on about “getting off the grid.” The corn stove gets off most of the heating grid, but electricity is a long way away. My interest in a small wind turbine is rekindled with our leader’s attitude that it’s better to beg people (foreigners) to keep gouging us for energy, rather than becoming self-suffient. I found a cool site that estimates the wind energy potential for each part of the state (there’s even one for the now non-existent town of Van Cleve, a mile away from our house). It shows average wind speeds per month, which is vital in calculating costs/savings/feasability.
Month: April 2005
April 24, 2005 – BRRR!
Last night was cool – I was up at 6:30 am and was curious what it was like outside, so I got up and went outside. The weather said it was 28 in Marshalltown and 32 in Newton – so it was probably in between at high hopes. There wasn’t a lot of frost, but there was 1/16 or so of ice on the dog dish. As long as I was up and everybody else was still asleep, I went to the dump pile at the pallet company and got another load of wood shavings. I guess we’ll see in a few weeks, how the cold affected the fruit trees.
April 23, 2005 – An Entire Saturday!
This was the first time in a long time we didn’t have Saturday morning class. So instead of our day starting at about 1:30, we were able to spend the morning cleaning house (I know, you are all real envious of that kind of fun). It was a very windy and cold day, so that precluded planting any more garden.
Then this afternoon the lawn got mowed, some more seasonal fences put up and improved, and the biggest task was cleaning out the biggest side of the chicken coop, which we have never used. We’ve been working on it a bit of a time, cleaning it out, and today was the last bit. Next step is to put cement patch along some parts of the foundation to make it more critter-proof and make a new small chicken door in the back, then it will be ready. I also got a good load of wood shavings scrounged from the pallet company at sundown when the wind let up a bit.
Here’s Marty’s idea of an amusement park – rolling along in a section of a bulk bin – we’re moving it back to where it belongs after it was on a hay wagon to haul wood chips.
April 22, 2005 – Unscheduled Trip to Dr. Paschen
If you don’t see his name, it sounds (Dr. Passion) like a sidekick to “Ladies Man” – but he is our favorite pediatrician and we still drive to Ames to see him. Marty was learning how to clean out bee hives and sliced his palm open. It was a bad cut, but seemed maybe not bad enough for stitches, but to err on the side of caution, we went over to Ames to check it out. The good Dr. himself saw it as a borderline whether or not it needed stitches (or kitty whiskers, as Martin calls them). He decided just to keep it closed without stitches.
On the way home we drove into a dramatic storm, looking black as night from the contrast with the sun as we drew near. There was rain and hail and many folks were pulled over on the side of the road- but we just kept going, hoping for really big hail and a new van! But we were out of luck – no big hail; nor any big hail at home (the roof needs replacing and it would be nice to get some help paying for it!)
Tonight, I squeezed out about 3 hours worth of corn for the corn stove as it is very windy and supposed to get into the 30’s.
April 21, 2005 – Sister Julie
Sister Julie informs me that her radio station finally has a web site up with a page for her. She works for a Country station in Rochester, MN.
I could share a lot about Julie, but let’s just say she’s not to be confused with Julia Child. One of my favorite Julie cooking stories was the time she burned hard-boiled eggs. Yep. Cooked ’em so long all the water evaporated out of the pot and burned the suckers. Here she is with a bite to eat before her wildly successful L.A. Weight Loss diet.
