power

My good friend Jeff helping me install the panels.

I have started to install the photovoltaics. The array is mounted on a 6" well casing that was installed by the the well drillers when they were here drilling the well. The 6" pipe is sunk deep into the granite ledge so I am sure it is not going to budge. On top of the pipe is the array rack and panels. I was really impressed with the ruggedness of the rack. It was made by DP&W Power-fab. All the welds were clean and even the paint job was nice. I have no questions about the sturdiness of it. The panels are Evergreen ES-A 210 panels. I installed 8 panels for a total of 1680 watts. That means for every hour the sun hits the panels 1680 watts of electricity are stored in the batteries. To understand watts just think of a light bulb. A 100 watt lights bulb uses 100 watts in one hour. if you use it for 5 hours then you have consumed 500 watts. So in Mainer we have about 5 hours of peak sunlight, that means for five hours we will be generating 1680 watts. the rest of the time the efficiency is reduced. That means on a sunny day we will be storing over 8400 watts in the batteries.

Progress is steady, but slow, at this point. I am afraid the weather has not been cooperating. At this point the plummers and the electrician are doing their thing, I am installing the solar and the builder is starting to install the siding. If all goes well we should be able to have the insulating and some heat by new years.

Pictures

Here are some pictures of the progress. We have been SO SO busy but things are going well and if everything goes as it should we could be moving into the house mid January.

Here is the house as you come into the land from the drive. The piles of dirt will be gone and it will all be pasture.

Here is the barn stained. Paulette and I were able to get it done in about 2 days. The roof is obviously not finished but I used "zip system" sheathing so it is actually weather tight. The sheets are coated with fiberglass and the black lines are the tape that seals the whole thing together. I also have a couple of doors to finish, all in time :-)

View of the side yard, "look no stumps"



Front of the barn with the JD sitting inside waiting for the first snow. You can see the water buckets outside, I am still hauling water to the animals BUT we have a well!!!. Good news is we have over 3 gallons a minute of nice clean water, The bad news is they had to drill to 700' to get it.



View of house and barn. The rocks and dirt piles will be gone and entire area around the house and barn will be pasture.

I took this picture with my phone. The rainbow is real. I love this place!

Another picture of the sideyard.

Close up of the house.

Progress

Things are moving along here. I have posted some pictures to show the progress

I keep posting pictures of the clear-cut and sheep and I imagine to most people they all must look the same. My point is to show some of the progress of the change in vegetation from woodland to grass/clover and the mechanism of its change, i.e. target grazing. I realize the progress is slow and may not appear that apparent. In this post I have a picture of what looks like sticks and fairly bare ground. The purpose of this picture is to show how effective the sheep and goats are at removing vegetation. The second picture is showing a before shot of that same area. This before and after occurred in 2 days. The idea is to take the animals and put them in a very small area for a short time (about 60’x60’ per 20 head for 1 1/2 to 2 days). In this short time they will not over graze the good “desirable” grasses and clover they will however remove a fairly uniform amount of vegetation. This vegetation is then deposited on the ground (yes poop!) where the desirable plants can access it instead of it being tied up in the growth of brush. Grasses and clovers have evolved to be grazed and to grow back afterwards, brush and forbs have not. Little by little the woody plants are being stunted and the grasses and clovers are getting an advantage. Another point that is important is distributing the seed of the desirable grasses and clovers. Before the sheep are moved to another spot clover and timothy seed is broadcast by hand onto the ground. As the sheep work around the small area there little hooves are pushing the seed into the ground. You can imagine that combination of removing vegetative cover, applying manure and working the seed into the ground makes for a very good environment for the establishment of a good grass/clover field.

We have broken ground on the house!!

The cellar hole was dug this weekend and the foundation is being poured this week into next (it does not look like much of a hole since the house is slightly on a hill so we can have a daylight basement). It has been a long process to get ready to build this house, and we still have a long way to go, however it is good to finally be moving ahead. I am working hard to get a roof on the barn so we can get some hay in before winter. The target grazing / pasture project is going well, I am learning a lot about target grazing and I am now able to move and fence the sheep to have a dramatic impact on the unwanted vegetation. I am getting patches of clover and Timothy popping up in different places where I have moved the sheep through. I think in another season the clear-cut will look very different than it does this year. The animals are doing well but I think Paulette's horses are tired of bing in a little paddock for so long.

Took the day off and look what it led to.

We went to a friend’s house in New Hampshire for a Labor day “red neck” party and look what it led to. We were supposed to dress up like a red neck. This group was able to play the part very well. What does it mean when you realize the your red neck costume is just some clean work clothes?

New Addition

Here are a couple pictures of the new ram. There is a debate over what to name him; he didn’t come with a name. Mack wants it to be Gigantor, Paulette wants it to be Mojo and I think it should be Business Time. I bought him along with a few ewe lambs from Wayne Fields. He has some really nice animals. I was varying happy I made the 2 hour trip. I will put him with the ewes December 1st.

The Barn is still coming along and I am hopping to have the siding up and the roof on by the end of the month. I am not complaining but things go much slower than I would like since I am just a “one man band”. Paulette helps out when she can but she has her hands full behind the scenes keeping everything going. Besides if she ever did manage to get a full sheet of 5/8 plywood up the wind would take her away for sure.

The sheep are doing a nice job chewing down the brush. It is impressive to see the areas they started on and how much grass has filled in. I have come to realize that what I am doing with the sheep, using them to establish a pasture, actually has a name it is called target grazing. I have been doing some reading on it and some people have actually started business using sheep and goats to graze off brush and invasive plants. I have found quite a few resources on it and have made some changes of my method for the better.

Steady progress

It has been crazy here since the move. All the animals are comfortable and we are happy to be in the rental house so close to them but life has not let up. We have been busy getting all the bank and contractor “stuff” done so we can get building the new house. I have been siding the barn, moving sheep and taking care of the other animals. There always seems to be more to do that I could ever get done (Mack has been in CT with his mother for the month of July so I am a one man band, he is a great worker and I miss his help). I figure as long as I keep my work focused I will continually make forward progress. The grass is really growing well.
I have been moving the sheep around forcing them to eat the stump re-growth. I have been confining them to small areas and broadcasting more seed before putting them on a new spot. There little feet do a great job working the seed into the ground and I have been surprised at how fast the new grass and clover starts to grow.
One really great thing that has happened is I was able to get a guard dog for the sheep. The coyotes around here are pretty active. You can hear them talking to each other right on our property. I really lucked out when one of my friends (Jocelyn B) found an ad for a free livestock guard dog (LGD). I spent bunch of time learning about them and what makes a good LGD. The short story is he is working out wonderfully. I am so relieved to have him out there with the sheep.
I have posted a bunch of pictures, just a sampling of what is going on. If all goes well we should be breaking ground for the new house in a few weeks.