Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

Me too. It's been too long. Puppies are a lot of work and expense but these dogs are awesome.
I gave in and set a dozen eggs in the incubator yesterday. It had been sitting empty for a few days.
I just moved in slow motion yesterday. I think I did too much the day before and my body was letting me know.
I did cut off a water line and install another spigot yesterday in the peafowl pens. Now I can water the geese with a hose attached to that when their pen is put in. Heaven knows when that will be though. I got the screws out of a nest box so it can be moved out. I need DH to remove the other one. It's hanging on a wall...not sitting on the floor like this one was. Then I should be able to move my layers to the hen houses finally. Just one more effort to get things easier to care for in winter.
It looks really windy out there this morning. It may be a crummy day to get things done.

I figure I need to get the outside stuff done early this week. The weather looks lousy for mid-week. The solar people are supposed to start our install this week. Probably Tuesday or Wednesday depending on the project they are finishing right now. Just in time for the bad weather.

Tomorrow is "match day" with several organizations "matching" the donations that come in on that day. My pet charity (Friends of the Emporia Animal Shelter) will have a booth, and I'm supposed to help sometime during the day with that, too. We help with medical bills for shelter animals and with other projects that the Humane Society can't afford. Nice people doing good work for the animals.

DH wants to go to Topeka later. I'd like to pick up some flock raiser and a couple of other things for the birds, but nothing urgent. I think he just wants to do something slightly different.

 

[chicken danz]

@sharol , what kind of solar application are you having installed? I must have missed this if you mentioned it earlier. Years ago when I lived in Oklahoma city we had some solar panels installed. They heated a huge stone water heater that would have heated the house for the most part if we could have afforded to put in the heaters for it. We just used it for hot water. The system constantly added cold water to keep the temperature down to a usable temperature. Our old water heater was there in case we ever ran out. Maybe two times a year when it had been cloudy and snowy for a few days would we ever have the old water heater kick on.

 

[sharol]

@sharol , what kind of solar application are you having installed? I must have missed this if you mentioned it earlier. Years ago when I lived in Oklahoma city we had some solar panels installed. They heated a huge stone water heater that would have heated the house for the most part if we could have afforded to put in the heaters for it. We just used it for hot water. The system constantly added cold water to keep the temperature down to a usable temperature. Our old water heater was there in case we ever ran out. Maybe two times a year when it had been cloudy and snowy for a few days would we ever have the old water heater kick on.

We are having Cromwell (in Lawrence) install a solar array that will tie into the REA grid. I talked to 5 or 6 of their happy clients before deciding to do this. It is quite pricey, though. They have a lease program that pays by the month about the amount you are saving on electricity through the REA, but we decided to pay up front and take advantage of the 30% tax credit on our federal taxes this year. You get credits for the power you produce beyond your needs and then get power back from the grid when you need it. The only downside is that it doesn't carry over your production from month to month to build up a reserve if you need it.

I hope it works out as I think it will. We should have most of our electricity provided by a green renewable source, only using power from the grid at peak times. Fingers crossed. I'll have to plan dryer use so that we stay within what we produce each month, though. There is a meter on the unit that will tell us where we stand in usage, too.

 

[chicken danz]

Sounds like a plan. It's the expense that keeps me from doing more. Based on my experience there'll be some times when you just won't produce much but I am sure there is still a minimum electric bill,right? It's those times you can get something from your minimum. Are you having a bank of batteries put in to store some or will it all go directly back into the REC lines? I wouldn't think you'd need much in the way of power for your house anyway. It's probably the most energy efficient design I've ever seen. I wish I had all the knowledge it takes to design my own systems.
And while I'm dreaming I'd like to have a totally energy efficient house built as well. Not going to happen but it's free to dream.

 

[sharol]

Sounds like a plan. It's the expense that keeps me from doing more. Based on my experience there'll be some times when you just won't produce much but I am sure there is still a minimum electric bill,right? It's those times you can get something from your minimum. Are you having a bank of batteries put in to store some or will it all go directly back into the REC lines? I wouldn't think you'd need much in the way of power for your house anyway. It's probably the most energy efficient design I've ever seen. I wish I had all the knowledge it takes to design my own systems.
And while I'm dreaming I'd like to have a totally energy efficient house built as well. Not going to happen but it's free to dream.

No batteries. It would have more than doubled the price of the system. Yeah, there is a minimum (customer service fee), but Cromwell did a great job looking at our electrical usage. It is their philosophy that you are better off paying a small electric bill a few months when the solar doesn't cover it than you are spending way more up front for a system that will fully cover your usage and then giving away the excess in the good months to the electric company.

It is pretty efficient. We burn wood in the winter, so most of our heavy electrical usage is in the summer when the solar input is also greater.

 

[chicken danz]

That's great. It would cost a fortune to get a system to handle my power usage. My house could definitely use some improvements in that department. Plus all the outside usage gets insane. I am hoping the building helps with that. Last year it wasn't set up for chickens yet so I guess we'll find out.

 

[Trish44]

We are having Cromwell (in Lawrence) install a solar array that will tie into the REA grid. I talked to 5 or 6 of their happy clients before deciding to do this. It is quite pricey, though. They have a lease program that pays by the month about the amount you are saving on electricity through the REA, but we decided to pay up front and take advantage of the 30% tax credit on our federal taxes this year. You get credits for the power you produce beyond your needs and then get power back from the grid when you need it. The only downside is that it doesn't carry over your production from month to month to build up a reserve if you need it.

I hope it works out as I think it will. We should have most of our electricity provided by a green renewable source, only using power from the grid at peak times. Fingers crossed. I'll have to plan dryer use so that we stay within what we produce each month, though. There is a meter on the unit that will tell us where we stand in usage, too.

That sounds like a good system, I'm sure it will pay for itself over time. We have all electric here, no gas. Our house is really fairly energy efficient being a berm house. We had all new windows & vinyl siding put on a few years ago & that helped a lot too. The front is mostly windows & they face south so even in winter it stays fairly decent if there is sun in that part of the house. We have a woodstove too & burn wood we cut from our own property in the winter to supplement the heat & keep the heat pump from running all the time when it's really cold. The people that built this house had some type of solar water heating system here but it wasn't operational by the time I got here. It must not have worked too well, but that was years ago. I would love to install some solar panels here but it probably won't happen. I have thought about getting a small one for my main coop just to run a few things. I can't use one out at my breeder coop, it's too shady where it is, too many trees there.

I spent my day yesterday covering my goat shelter with metal to help block the wind & stop the goats from chewing on the wood. I had planned to build a bigger shelter but it's not going to happen now till spring & after I recover from my total knee replacement surgery.

 

[sharol]

That sounds like a good system, I'm sure it will pay for itself over time. We have all electric here, no gas. Our house is really fairly energy efficient being a berm house. We had all new windows & vinyl siding put on a few years ago & that helped a lot too. The front is mostly windows & they face south so even in winter it stays fairly decent if there is sun in that part of the house. We have a woodstove too & burn wood we cut from our own property in the winter to supplement the heat & keep the heat pump from running all the time when it's really cold. The people that built this house had some type of solar water heating system here but it wasn't operational by the time I got here. It must not have worked too well, but that was years ago. I would love to install some solar panels here but it probably won't happen. I have thought about getting a small one for my main coop just to run a few things. I can't use one out at my breeder coop, it's too shady where it is, too many trees there.

I spent my day yesterday covering my goat shelter with metal to help block the wind & stop the goats from chewing on the wood. I had planned to build a bigger shelter but it's not going to happen now till spring & after I recover from my total knee replacement surgery.

Your house sounds like ours. We are also all electric and burn wood in winter. It is a Berm that is earth sheltered on the roof and 3 sides except for a couple of very small windows behind the wing walls.

We bought the house 10 years ago. It was built in '86 and hadn't had much done to it in the meantime.

This was the house when we bought it (the inside was actually worse, cosmetically).



We refaced the outside with cedar and natural limestone, added a garage, and completely redid the inside over a couple of years.

This is the house after the exterior make-over.



It too faces south, and we get a great deal of passive solar in the winter and almost no direct sun in the summer. It is really efficient.

 

[Trish44]

That is like night & day sharol, it looks great! Yeah our house was built about the same time as well & there are a lot of things we need to do on the inside. These people didn't do a good job on some things in this house & it needs updating in places too. I sure would have done some things differently if I had built a brand new house. Oh well, that's always the way it goes isn't it. I probably will never have a brand new house so I have to fix what other people have done.

I had a little scare yesterday when I went out to put the animals back into their pens. I couldn't find my little goat doe, she just wasn't anywhere. I called & called & walked all over & I couldn't find her. My heart just sank thinking of what could have happened to her. I finally went back over by the pens & just happened to look over by my one hoop coop & there she was. She evidently had cuddled up in the straw in the one igloo dog house over there to take a nap & finally came out. I was so glad to see her!

I have one more rooster coming this week to go with my Mille Fleur Leghorns & then I'm done. I ended up with 3 pullets, what are the chances of that? Last year I got so many roosters & this year I got more pullets. Anyway I went in search of a rooster for them & couldn't find a Mille Fleur, they're hard to find, so I ended up ordering a Buff Leghorn from the same guy I got the MF eggs from. He didn't have a MF rooster so I decided to use a Buff & just see what I get. The Bufffs are really pretty too & this guy's birds are just gorgeous. This one will be coming from North Carolina, so wish me luck he gets here OK.

 

[chicken danz]

I can attest Sharol's house is lovely. And of course yours is too Trish, but they look nothing alike inside... or out for that matter. Sharol's is almost totally invisible from the back side ( it just looks like more pasture) and is only one story. And Trish's is buried in a hill so I'm guessing it's not real visible from that direction either. It's amazing to me how similar designs can be so different. I guess the important thing here is that they are both energy efficient. I can't say that about my house even after adding tons more insulation, new windows etc. There's still so many things that need to be done. I guess in my case that is what happens when you buy for location and not the actual house. If I could do a face lift and add on where I want it would look nothing like it does.
It's cool and misty outside today. I have no desire whatsoever to get out in it. This weather makes me ache.
I still need to sort some more birds but I am hoping the weather is more cooperative in a couple days. I sure don't want to do it today.
It's just depressingly gloomy out there.