The O-Zone

A couple of months ago we realized the batteries which provide our electrical power needed to be replaced.  And like all things involved with this house, that meant we had to accomplish three others things first, before we could get to the batteries.

What happened…  First, last year the propane generator died, and we switched to our old 27 year old Honda gasoline generator, which wasn’t strong enough to run the well pump.  We decided to use a transformer and convert 110 volts to 220 volts to run the well pump, and only would pump water on really bright and sunny days.  The method we used for pumping water resulted in the batteries we were using being drawn down too low on voltage, and overheating at the same time.  This was not a good thing to do, and they no longer hold a charge like they are supposed to.  Too many amps were being drawn from the batteries at one time, for too long a period of time, and they couldn’t handle the strain.  Live and learn.  It was one of those “it seemed like a good idea at the time” sort of things.

So, first we had to replace the generator since we needed a strong enough generator to pump water.  That was accomplished.

Then we ordered new batteries, and we decided to use a different type of battery, one that would allow us to draw them down a bit deeper, and also to give us a slight increase in storage capacity.  And then we had to get them into the house and into the basement.  Each battery weighs in at a hefty 120 pounds.  With the help of friends, that was accomplished.

Then we had to build a new battery box as these new batteries are ‘flooded’ batteries, which means we have to be able to inspect each one and refill them with distilled water on a regular basis.  They could no longer be behind a wall.

The bottom and two end pieces of the battery box being dry-fit before we got too far along.

So, carpentry was the first order of the day.  Much sawing of lumber and plywood ensued.  The old batteries were sealed batteries, and each was 12 volts, so they needed to be in pairs to make 24 volts, and then they were linked together in four pairs to provide our storage.  The wiring part got a bit complicated.

The new flooded batteries sitting in a few rows, waiting to be installed in their new box.

More carpentry, and construction of the box was completed.  Everything fit into the space in front of the old battery bank and beneath the inverter, controller, circuit breaker box, all that good stuff hanging on the wall.

The battery box needed to have a completely removable front, in order to be able to slide the batteries out someday and slide new ones in. It's not intended to be used as a seat or table, so the plywood itself is providing a lot of the structural strength for the box.

Now that battery box was ready, we removed it and the scary part of the process started – disconnecting the old batteries.  The most critical part of that process was to make sure that none of the metal tools being used would touch the metal racks the batteries sat on, nor touched any of the other battery parts when disconnecting one end of one of the battery interconnect cables from either the positive or negative battery terminals.

Dan used a small sock to insulate the wrench, and it did exactly what he needed it to do. In fairly short order, the batteries were all disconnected from each other.

Next step was to move the battery box back into position and start moving the new batteries into their new home.  We had to keep in mind the positioning for positive and negative terminals on each battery in order to make it easy to hook them up again.  Each of these batteries is 2 volt, instead of 12 volt.  With twelve of them wired in a series instead of in paralell, the wiring was much simpler.

All moved into the box, and the fluid level in each battery was checked. Ready to proceed!

Moving the new batteries around was hard work, but not scary.

The heavy battery cables are hard to bend, and getting them hooked up was hard work. Again, we had to be very careful not to touch anything metal to anything else.

A bit more wiring was necessary, once the batteries were hooked together, to feed the power into the circuit breaker panel, and connect a couple of sensors for heat, and also to get a fan ready to go into a pipe to vent the batteries to the outside of the house.  Flooded batteries generate an explosive gas (if it is really concentrated), and just generally speaking it’s not something we want to be breathing.

The front piece of plywood was put into place, and then the top was laid into place.

The plywood which had concealed the old batteries contributed to the top of the battery box, and the remainder has been slid into its former location, but needs to be permanently attached.  We still need to drill a hole in the exterior wall of the house for the vent pipe, and then I want to do something to make it all look finished and nicer.  But since the whole basement room needs that to be done, there’s no particular hurry on that front.  We also need to put a gasket underneath the lid on the box, and silicone around the holes in the back where the cables go that connect the batteries to the breaker box,  And some other minor trim work.

We flipped the breakers, and we had power again!  Woo hoo ensued.

Then Dan had to reconfigure the controller between the batteries and the solar panels, the inverter since the amp hours for storage was different, and a meter which helps us to keep track of where the batteries are in terms of charging and capacity.

So, we are back in business.

A pair of Golden Eagles has been hanging around lately, soaring and claiming their territory.  One morning before it was very light, one of the pair was sitting on the large Ponderosa Pine tree down the hill from our house.

Poor Opal was not at all pleased that this particular bird was sitting on that particular tree on that particular morning.

Cold weather returned, along with clear skies overnight.  The combination in February always means really pretty moonsets.

It was +10F, and the sun hadn't risen over the mountains to the east. The moon casts a glow over snow fields on the mountains across the valley from us.

The moon is a bit fuzzy because I was taking pictures off hand and I wasn’t awake yet, and it was cold.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it 🙂

The next day, slighter later in the morning, and even colder, +5F. The sun was starting to rise, washing out the colors in the sky.

I really am going to have to break down and get the tripod out, one of these days, or get used to fuzzy moon pictures.  The forecast is for -7F as a low temperature in a few days.  Winter isn’t letting go.

Another beautiful clear day, lots of solar gain for our panels to work with.

We are trying to convince our parrots that the Harrison’s food pellets we started giving them to eat yesterday aren’t deadly poison, and something to avoid touching at all costs.  We let them go 24 hours with just the pellets to eat, but this morning they were all obviously on strike and Opal, in particular, looked pretty unhappy.

So the score is:  Parrots 1 Humans 0

We will keep trying but they are awfully stubborn creatures and used to getting their own way.  Opal said, “Good bird” after we gave her some seeds to munch.  She didn’t say that at all yesterday.  Poor baby!!

I actually took the camera out today to take pictures of Mountain Lion tracks.  Last night a neighbor called to ask if we were seeing the big cats up by our house, and to let us know they were around if we didn’t know.  We had heard rumors a few weeks ago.  These large cats have a very big range, and we didn’t know they were so close.

There are two of them hanging around in the woods right below our house, and they’ve been seen crossing the road, most recently a few days ago.  So, we knew were to find the tracks, and sure enough they were there.  But it had snowed a bit and filled in the tracks enough to make a picture nondescript, not worth taking. In that regard, my picture taking was a failure.

These are the woods where the cats are hanging out. Anybody home? I would love to see one but going down to look for them doesn't sound like a really brilliant idea.

There are a lot of Snowshoe Hares in the Aspen grove adjacent to the woods, and cougars dearly love a hare for dinner.

We carried on down the hill and drove along the river, looking for Dippers.

These little fat gray birds have thick feathers, so thick that water doesn't penetrate through the outer layer.

This one was doing that a Dipper loves best, hunting in a shallow fast running edge of a river.  Diving under the water and walking along, picking up small underwater insects and other yummy things, then popping back upon the rocks and snow, tiny drops of water cascading off like he was covered with Teflon.

The feathers trap air in the thick downy feathers, and these little guys stay toasty warm and dry.

We’ve seen them diving in a warm spring-fed water source at the outlet creek of a lake in Alaska, at -35F.  It’s surreal and fascinating to watch these birds go about their business.

An adult Golden Eagle was soaring overhead, no doubt watching us watching him.

Last week we were within six feet of one of these birds, who was trying to remove a deer leg from the side of the road. That particular bird, when interrupted by our car, gave us quite the dirty look before flying off to a tree top close-by, to wait for our departure.

Further down the road, a couple of adult Bald Eagles were soaring around over the river.  It is spring time, as far as they are concerned, and that is why we are seeing pairs soaring around, showing off to each other.  Any day when you can see two species of Eagles, and a Dipper, is a very good day indeed.

It’s hard to believe, but in two months we are going to have hummingbirds back again.  There is a foot of snow on the ground up by our house, but it won’t last long now that the days are getting longer and the sun is higher in the sky.

Thoughts turn to a greenhouse design plan, and a garden concept.

This time of year it becomes increasingly hard to imagine the world being green again.  White is everywhere, and this morning it was -4F again.

It could be worse, though.  We could be bunnies. Not only would we be on virtually everybody’s menu, but we’d be short!

Bunny-cam view of the world as seen when cruising down the sidewalk.

It would be even harder to imagine the world as green and edible when surrounded by walls of snow.

Yeah, I had too much caffeine today.

Clear skies have returned for a few days, a cheerful prospect.  And the temperatures aren’t supposed to be too cold.  The full moon a few days ago gave us an amazing moonset, but unfortunately it was too dark to get a decent picture.  The moonset gets later each day and today it wasn’t way too dark.  Of course, if I used a tripod I could get less fuzzy moon pictures, but I’d have to find it first!

Fog laying in the valley, following the river, and clear skies overhead. There isn't a hint of color in the sky, just a deep winter blue of early morning.

As the sun rises, the sky changes color, even without much in the way of wispy clouds.  The sun rays reflect off ice crystals high in the air.

Alpenglow in the sky. It is subtle and changes minute by minute.

I just love the layers of color.

As the sun gets higher in the sky, the color descends onto the mountain tops.

Pink mountains.

While I was running around outside on the sidewalk, this Hairy Woodpecker was trying to enjoy his morning snack of suet.

He didn’t really want his picture taken, but he objected less to that, than to abandoning the suet feeder.

The window screens in the sunroom caught snowflakes and frost. The sky color gives a subtle background behind the frost.

Mish has been following me around all morning, keeping an eye on me to see what I'm up to, and hoping to participate. Here he's being a floor muffin in the sunroom while I was watching the moon setting.

We went over to visit friends today, as Susan wanted us to get together and do watercolors together.  I haven’t done any new paintings for over five years, so it was a very fun afternoon.

A male Rufous Hummingbird, on a Larch branch.

More practicing necessary, but I’ve been wanting to get back to painting again.

While we were there, we saw a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds.  Wow, they’re early!  And the chickadees are singing, and we saw a pair of Clark’s Nutcrackers doing kissy-face.

And the Birch trees got carried away and have catkins already.

Spring is coming!

There was a lot of munching going on around here last night.

This is a Rhododendron which has seen better days. Or more precisely, nights!

This one remaining bud, if it doesn't get munched, may still not be able to bloom. It all depends on whether or not the few remaining leaves are enough to sustain the plant.

Oh well.  The deer were hungry last night and those green leaves stood out like a beacon in the night, inviting them to come over and clean them off the plant.  I think this poor little plant is going to have to be replaced in the spring, when the ground is thawed enough.  And then I think we’ll have to install some sort of a fence, or any replacement plant will not survive.

This next year we’re seriously thinking about a garden and greenhouse.  We just got a couple of books about year round greenhouse gardening, in an unheated greenhouse.  Sounds very intriguing!  But, so much for my idea of having a heated swimming pool for a heat source – as if!!

Some things don’t mind cold weather, in particular the greens like spinach and collard, broccoli, to name a few; root crops like carrots don’t care at all.  One of our books says to use floating row covers in the greenhouse during the winter, which helps to keep the plants another 15 degrees higher than the ambient air temperatures inside the greenhouse.  It makes sense, and we’ll have a lot of fun exploring those options.  Wouldn’t it be just too cool to grow a large percentage of our own food?

It isn’t going to be easy.  We’ll have to build a rudimentary foundation for the greenhouse, and then completely screen the floor to keep out the pocket gophers, and then build raised beds inside the greenhouse for this to work.  An outside garden will also be nice, and it will require raised beds, or fencing underground on the perimeter, or more likely both, and then be completely enclosed by screening, and electric fencing outside of that, to keep the deer and bear from tearing out the fence.  But… the upside will be fruit plants, like blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, Josta berries, gooseberries, currants.  Those are all on our wish list.  Our favorite organic orchard is not too far away, only an hour and a half drive, and they have the tree fruits which means we don’t need to try growing our own.

One of our favorite things to do when reading a new book is to have a cup of tea and something freshly baked.  It’s a truly wonderful combination of activities.

Triple Ginger Tea Loaf, and Lemon Poppy Seed Tea Loaf (made in muffin tins).

Two extremely excellent gluten free tea loaf recipes, I fixed last night.  And then we couldn’t resist a Lemon Poppyseed muffing.  Much tastier than frozen Rhody leaves, I’m sure!

A cold winter morning, moon setting as the sun rises.

A cold snap is heading our way, below zero overnight is possible this next week.  We’re looking forward to that, actually.  It feels neat!

This little Brown Creeper was dazed by hitting the window this morning. He's now resting comfortably in a brown paper bag (any other color wouldn't do), until he starts scrabbling around.

Not exactly how we anticipated starting a Christmas Bird Count today, but we’re very glad this one is ok.  We’ve had a bad week for birds hitting the windows.  We’ve lost a hen Downy Woodpecker and an adult male Goshawk (yesterday).  We’re going to buy some stickers to put on the outside of the windows which look clear to us but are visible in ultra-violet to birds.  Theoretically this will help them to avoid impact.  I’m very much hoping it will work.  Though, on the other hand, if you pardon the pun, being able to see such a beautiful little bird up close is cool!

Happy Winter Solstice!  Now the days can start getting longer again.  Time to start a new bird list for the new year.  We have all the usual suspects around the house.  It’s always fun to go for a drive and see who we can add to the list first.

A hen Downy Woodpecker scoots up a Ponderosa Pine, to get out of range of my camera. She moved amazingly quickly.

What’s really funny about this is that she’s so brave when we are putting more suet out on this same tree.  She stays very close and keeps a sharp eye on those proceedings, and will land on the suet feeder before we’ve moved away.

A female Ruffed Grouse showing how protective her coloring is against the snowy branches of the bush.

In the heavy cover behind her bush is her suitor, all fanned and fluffed.  He’s been that way since last night when Dan saw them in and underneath a Douglas Fir.  He has a while to wait until spring, but he’s keeping up the show until then, I suspect.

Snow piles up on conifer branches, bending them down from the weight of millions of tiny ice crystals.

One of my favorite views is to stand under a towering tree and look at bright blue winter sky, white snow, and dark green shiny needles.

A couple of days ago we had frosty fog, which coats every surface.

The frost gives snow flakes something to adhere to.  This plum tree next to our bedroom window is especially lacy.

We aren’t seeing a lot of accumulation but frequently snow has been falling.

Frosty Ponderosa needles, and snow piled up on top, with sunshine behind.

Snow and shadows, the whole world is shades of pastel blue and white.

Tall, ripe grass seeds hiding under a blanket of seeds, waiting to be discovered by any number of seed-eaters.

We love the first day of Winter.