Today's project was walking the firebreak looking for bits of old fence wire and trimming larger roots. The mistake was doing it just as the dew was flashing off. My boots are soaked, socks wet... everything wet... Just got a shower to dry off! go figure.

We seem to be getting 4 chicks a day.

Clouds coming and going and it’s solar noon here. Cooler panels make more power. So when the sun bursts thru you get temporary peak power. I think this is a new record for my system. Damn near 23kw.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmRLvKl7BH0

Here's a tear jerking story about a lady who's generator didn't work. She's upset with the manufacturer for making a poor product but if you read between the lines, she installed it in 2020 and hasn't done oil changes. But of course it's Generac's fault right?

Something to think about for solar panel placement. The environment around us is in quadrature with the sun. The longest day of the year is June 22 but the hottest time of the year is September. So if you tilt your panels so that you make the most power in September / February, you win! Further, tilt them a little steeper so they are more optimized for winter because the days are shorter. It's OK if the sun is significantly higher than your panels in the summer because the days are longer. You won't make as much power on peak but you'll make it for longer. Conversely in winter, tilt the panels so that they are optimized for the lower sun... you'll make more power on peak but for a shorter time.

side note: I modeled many different tilts and the best I could do was a ratio of 1.3:1 for summer/winter optimization.

The story of Tom Brown, the retired engineer that became 'apple hunter', rescuing over 1,000 'lost' varieties in the last 25 years

Retired chemical engineer, he began his quest to find and preserve lost apple varieties around more than 25 years ago.

The man who owns an apple orchard called Heritage Apples in Clemmons, North Carolina, USA has re-discovered over 1000 rare varieties of apples.

His Heritage Apples showcase at least 600 of them. He has been working so that the heirloom apples of Appalachia in the Eastern United States do not disappear with time.

Popularly known as the Apple-Hunter, Tom grows around 60 varieties of apples each year on his farm and sells around 1000 trees. To encourage more preservation, Brown offers to discounts on the purchase of rarer heritage varieties. Trees from Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina and a few other places have found their forever homes in his orchard.

just looked back on my production for the month. My billing cycle completes on the 16th of the month. 3560kwh produced in total, 821kwh exported. At my kwh rate of 13.5c, that's $480 of electric made in a month.

Now the downside... daughter moving back home and she'll start using ~500kwh to drive to work a month.

We have one chick that has something wrong with her left leg. She’s lame and it’s discolored. Not sure if she’ll make it. But we won’t give up.

I had this same idea several months ago for Daughter's tiny house. But here ya go! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpbqCHej86U

225 amps into the batteries!!! woooooo....

Another guy who is using
direct solar to resistive load.

https://solarpoweredge.com