Bogieblog

Going Solar?

I've contacted a couple of companies to bid on installing a solar array for my house. I don't use a large amount of electricity, but I like the idea of using solar power instead of oil/propane produced electricity. I would still be tied to the grid as I will need it during the winter months, but hoping that the rest of the year I would net total usage. The one good think about having a hip-type roof is that I have roof space that faces all directions.

The federal incentives are being reduced from 2021, and those reductions accelerate in the coming years. So this is the year to do it with a bit over 20% tax credit. The state may or may not have an incentive, it depends on renewal of the program and waiting in line to see if you get it before their set cap is hit. It's also is very small, so isn't really a deciding factor. I'm pretty sure my town waives any property taxes on such an improvement, but will have to check.

I probably wouldn't be putting in a battery back up system right away, but it really depends on perceived value. After all, I rarely lose power here and when I do, it is for a short amount of time. But at the same time, a short power outage during winter can make for a mighty cold house pretty quickly. Eh, not much use thinking too hard about it until I get some estimates.

Spring Cleaning - in the Yard

71* here yesterday. Opened up some windows while I cleared up debris in the yard. Spent a couple of hours clearing invasive rose canes and picking up winter branch breakage. I'm going to have to break out my electric chainsaw to shorten those pieces in front. They are 4-5" in diameter and about 10' long The 2nd one back was actually about 20' long when it fell, but happened to break in half when it landed (the other piece is between the one you can see and the pile behind).

Pile of rose canes/whips

The cleared area behind the fence. I should have taken a before pic, but that entire area was covered with roses and they were climbing the trees. About 15' to that fence post and 5-6' in width. The property line goes thru the left side of that rock and angles a bit. This picture is very deceiving as the fence is four 6' panels in length. The pin is 5-6' further than that (but not nearly to that fallen tree in the upper right hand quadrant)

My back is to the other pin at the road - this is the only time of year I could possibly do the sighting between the two. Pins were set over the winter and found it goes about 1.5' further than I believed at the back corner. Although I was confident the fence was inside my property line, I thought the corner was the metal fence post to the left of the the pin that is circled in red. The front of the property is longer than the back. I was unsure where the front corner was at, so couldn't really guess at the angle previously.

 

50th Anniversary Iditarod Top 7 Finishers

Brent Sass and his team kept their lead and finished in 8 days, 14 hours and 38 minutes. Alaska Public Media has an article on his two main lead dogs Slater and Morello.

Dallas Seavey kept his 2nd place, at about an hour behind. Jessie Holms was 3rd with the sleeper, Dan Kaduce, with his 14 dogs, coming in just behind him.

Here are the finishers so far, from the official Iditarod website:

50th Anniversary Iditarod White Mountains Checkpoint

Bremt Sass and his Wild and Free Mushing team are holding onto the lead at the White Mountain checkpoint (mandatory layover). Seavy is still 2nd, but Jessie Holmes has moved up to 3rd. Standings thus far from the official Iditarod website:

There is a sleeper in the race, that came to my attention early Monday. There is one team in the top 10 who has not dropped a dog yet, is taking time at checkpoints and all around was not pushing. Dan Kaduce and his team were in the middle of the pack days ago, hit 7th Sunday or yesterday, and is currently in 4th. Argh, I can't find the article - if I can find it I'll link to it.

50th Anniversary Iditarod Day 7

From the Official Iditarod website, here are the current standings.

The most striking thing is that Wild and Free Mushing (Brent Sass) is still in 1st place even after he stopped and took his mandatory 8 hour rest. Dallas Seavy is still in 2nd after taking his mandatory 8. Jessie Holmes, on the other hand, who did not have any further mandatory rest stops to make, has dropped to 5th while the two teams that were 5th & 6th, advanced two places. However, as I cautioned on my last post, rest stops are strategic and an extra hour of rest that allows teams to pass, may actually make up time by allowing the dogs to reach and maintain higher average speeds.

Although all voluntary mandatory rest stops (rests that do not have a specific schedule, but do have a mandated length) have been taken by the leaders, all teams have a mandatory 8 hour rest at White Mountain.

 

 

50th Anniversary Iditarod Day 6

Although I haven't followed religiously this year, I have been watching Brent Sass as I follow his Wild and Free Mushing page on FB (link to regular website for those not on FB). They were 3rd last year and look to be leveling up. His training style includes making sure his dogs are used to breaking trail as well as changing positions within the team.

From the Official Iditarod website, he and his team are currently leading, and has been first into many checkpoints such as Cripple, Yokon and Ruby.

But veterans Dallas Seavy and Jessie Holmes are hot on their tails. And, Jessie has taken all required breaks , while Brent and Dallas still have an 8 hour mandatory break they need to take. That may or may not be an advantage for Jessie. A break later in the race can give the dogs extra energy for the last leg of the journey.

Heavyweight Delievery

The road agent approved HD delivering pellets on my posted load limit road, so yesterday's delivery was a go. I took a PTO day (although I did attend an 8am meeting), so I could transfer the pellets from my driveway to the garage. Started out with a text that they would deliver sometime between 6am and 8pm. Jeeze people, could you narrow it down to am or pm? So I waited, and waited, then I got a call at 11:40 that he would be here in about 20 minutes. At exactly 12:00 noon I took this picture.

I told the driver just place them in the driveway and I would be transferring them one-by-one. He did me a solid by managing to push 3 pallets entirely into the garage and a 4th pallet half in and half out. He did try to push that load further in, but it wouldn't go. No biggie - he literally saved me tons of work. I had to make sure all were off the driveway as rain then snow are scheduled for today. At 12:25, all the pellets were on the ground. By 12:50, I had the first 1.5 tons loaded onto 1 pallet in the garage. Yeah, I had to use that two-step ladder for the top 3 rows.

As an aside, I am back to not getting the option to manipulate the pictures, so click on them and they will turn to the correct orientation.

I took a short break, then by 1:30, I had the other 1.5 tons moved.

Early that morning I had seen an ad on FBM for 12 bags of Cubix (a really good pellet) for $50. I arranged to pick those up at 5pm. While I was there, they threw in 2 bags of TSCs (which are the middling pellets I usually use) for a total of 14 bags.

After stacking the Cubix in the basement (on a dedicated skid for really good pellets), I decided to move a fourth ton to the side of the garage so I could stage the snow blower for today's storm (pic taken at 6:45 pm).

All in all, I moved 4.8 tons because I transferred 6 broken bags into the basement, and moved other GS back out to the garage (to keep the garage level at an even 6 tons)

I'm sure I will feel it tomorrow, but this morning I am still good.

Update 3/13/22: Went back into the post to see if the option to turn pictures would appear, and it did. So I've turned the pictures for easier viewing.

You Load 16 Tons and What do You Get?

A nod to the Tennessee Ernie Ford song (you tube link).

No, I didn't load 16 tons, but did move just shy of 2.5 tons of pellets from the garage to the basement yesterday. Why? Because HD is having a great sale on pellets, so I just ordered 6 tons and need someplace to store most of them. I can fit at least 4 tons in the garage. The rest will have to stay outside.

I'm debating upping my order. But, in order to have any chance of getting a garage built this summer (which is looking less and less to actually happen because prices are rising drastically again), then I need to have clear space in my yard. I have some time to think about it though since the delivery isn't scheduled until next Friday and I still have to get the road agent's okay since my road is posted for 6 ton limit during the spring thaw.

Seriously, two of the pictures I tried uploading a non-turned and a turned image and all of them show sideways. At least the picture modifier option actually showed up for me, so I could fix them.

The orange bags were already there, but everything on top is from the garage. Also, before loading more on this pallet, I carried 2 bags upstairs to be loaded into the P43 when the hopper runs low. This pallet holds 5 bags per layer

These bags were on the large pallet (which is shown after this pic) and are now close to the basement stove for use this spring.

All of these bags came from the garage. This pallet holds 8 bags per layer

When the delivery comes in from HD, I'll have them drop 4 pallets in front of the garage so I can move them in bag by bag (the garage is not tall enough for their machine). Then the rest will be placed in the yard and covered with a tarp.