I need a long, cold winter.
John Rzeznik
Taking a breath break. Swept solar panels, gathered snow and froze my fingers doing that. Oh and I brought in a 32 inch long log.
Cats were fed, some boards were sawn. The log sawing is only a quarter done. Then I had to rest.
I sawed the log with a short hand saw, then split it. I realize now that my splitting wood for and entire winter is done. My injuries, and arthitus have taken its toll.
Now I am on the next breath break.
The boards and half the split log are in the fire. The fire room is up to minus one. Its minus fifty outside.
I had idea of going outside to gather more wood. I decided against that plan. There was s sheet of osb that needed cutting up in my garage. It is still minus 50 in there, but no wind.
I am boiling water for coffee. I forgot to empty the rest of the hot water into the thermos. Today I realized another reason to do that. The water in my kettle was ice the water in my 2 gallon water tank also starting to freeze.
I am off to make coffee.
Coffee made, breakfast eaten, temp is upto zero, feet are frozen. I will have to check the fire again soon.
I put the rest of the firewood in the woodstove and let it burn. It got as high 12 in here.
I played Starfield for a couple of missions. My battery power dropped to below 30 percent. I had to quit. I should be able to run the gen tommorrow if the outside temp gets up to -25 like they say.
The 5 day extreme cold warning is supposed to end tomorrow. I can only hope. Soon I need to make a decision about the solar. I either need another battery or two more solar panels, or both. The battery is a better solution for winter install.
I just experienced the worst case scenario for solar, 5 days of short sun hours along with extreme cold. I couldn’t run the gen without destroying it. An extra battery gives me more capacity. More solar panels gives me a higher charging rate for shorter days.
Both of those would be ideal. The one thing I didn’t mention is that more capacity also means I need a bigger battery charger.
The bill for all that not including my time, parts and labour would run just under $2000. Since I still have 3 or 4 months of winter, it is worth it.
