Chapter 157...Cutting The Barn Wood

Just a quick story about some things we do around our property.  As you know we have been trying to clean out the barn.  First we had to get rid of the bales of hay in the loft, next we took out the extra lumber and finally we can clean up the ground.

But first a another cool view from our front door:

And:

OK...time to start working.  We brought all of the tobacco poles and extra old lumber up from the barn and stacked it on our driveway.  Since we have no use for it, building wise, we will cut it up and use it to burn.  I know some of you think that is crazy but whenever Mike and I wait around for people to come and take things they don't show up fast enough, lol.  Basically...you snooze you lose.


Mike uses the back of the trailer as a cutting table:

Uh oh...while Mike is doing that I notice that we have bees flying all around us.  They are carpenter bees.  I researched them and found some interesting information about them.  First the males don't have stingers...at least that is good:)  The females can sting but they very rarely do unless they are highly threatened.  The carpenter bee drill holes into wood to rear their young.  They like untreated wood best.  Once the holes are drilled, which are an almost perfect 1/2 inch round circle, they drill in about one inch and then turn right and drill some more.  They create tunnels in your wood.  In the winter they will live in those holes.  "They mate in the spring and set about to clean out and enlarge the old tunnels or to excavate new ones as brood chambers for their young. Each chamber is provisioned with a portion of "bee bread", a mixture of pollen and regurgitated nectar, which serves as food for the larvae. An egg is deposited on the food supply and each chamber is sealed off."
About Carpenter Bees

Anyway I found that interesting...although I am not happy about the holes they drill: 

OK...back to the cutting.  We have a another system:)  I stack the wood on each side of the trailer.  Mike goes back and forth between the sides and cuts the wood:

Nice clean cuts of wood ready to be stacked:

Mike stacking some of the wood:

Almost done with our pile:

Mike cleans up:

Back to the barn.  We still have a lot of loose hay on the ground:

We take some garbage bags up top and get to work.  Mike starts stuffing the bags:

18 bags full and that will be good for future seeding jobs:

Mike cleaned up the rest of the barn and blew it out with the blower:

Next we clean up and clear out the back building.  Now that we have the top of the barn cleaned out we can store some odd ball items down there and make more room in our storage container:

First load going down the the barn:

Mike is in heaven.  He has a whole big shelf to spread out his things:):

And on a last note.  The carpenter bees were just the beginning of the problem.  Since the bees add nectar and food to the holes other birds want to eat what is in the holes.  Unfortunately we have a big woodpecker that wants that nectar.  Not good.  We really have to fill all the holes before our whole post falls apart:

That's all for now.  We have just been doing the normal routine maintenance around the property.  Most of our time is spent working on the store:)

Have a wonderful day and I will write again soon:)

Chapter 144...Taking The Old Solar Panels Down

Mike and I have finally gotten busy and it feels so good.  I am short on time right now as we just finished building some walls for the store this morning, I have been making food for the kids tomorrow including chicken parmesan, Italian sausage, a ham and potato casserole, chocolate chip cookies, and a cheesecake is in the oven.  Then this afternoon Mike and I have a wedding to go to for a very special and sweet girl we know so I will have to make this a quick story about Mike and I taking down our old solar panels.

So...let me take you back and we can almost finish up April:)

We have twelve 135 watt Kyocera solar panels mounted in top of our shipping container.  It was not fun getting them up there and I'm sure it won't be fun getting them down, lol.

Mike starts out by on doing all of the wiring in the disconnect box:

He gets the first panel off and hands it down to me on the ground:

The first row is the hardest because we can't "both" be on the roof.  Mike climbs under the first set of of panels to unbolt them:

Once the first set is sent down to me we can both work up top.   Mike is working on the last panel in the first section:

Our first batch of six are down and we store them inside the shipping container.


The next day Mike starts washing them.  They need to be cleaned before we can sell them:

It's another cloudy day:

We are determined to get the next six solar panels down.  We are now both able to be on the roof of the shipping container.  From the top of the shipping container:

And:

Mike unbolts the last set of three.  He will lift all three panels plus the rack.  Then I will hold the rack while he unbolts each panel:

I also decide to do a little yard work.  We have some bad sections so I need to rake up the bad stuff and get rid of it.  Then I can seed it and get some new grass to grow in.

Our little bull is getting big.

Mike is putting new wire connectors on the backs of the old solar panels because we had to cut the old ones off:

I help Mike wash the rest of the old solar panels down before we store them:

A couple days later we finally get some sun.  I bought some pine bark mulch to use around my blueberry bushes and fruit trees:)

My first seeds are starting to come up in my garden...peas, onions, lettuce and spinach.  I also planted a square of collard greens, mustard greens and kale.  I have no idea what those taste like but it's fun to try new things:)

My strawberries are looking healthy:

While I was playing in my garden Mike had to work on the motorhome.  When we took it to pick up our pool table we had heat but no blower.  Mike checked the fuses and that wasn't the problem.  He decided to take the dashboard apart to see if he could fix it:

Oh man...I really hope he can put this back together again, lol.

Yay...he found the problem:)  It was a loose connection.  I am so thankful that Mike can do so much.  If not we would have to waste so much money and time having other people do things for us.

Once again...I am very happy that Mike and I aren't normal, lol.


I hope you enjoyed this quickie story.  I have to get the cookies done, clean up and get in the shower.

Have a great day!!!

Chapter 142...Our New Solar Panels Being Installed

I love not having any electric bills:)  Finally the day we have been waiting for.  Time to get our new solar panels in the mounts and get hooked up.  It's so nice to not have to worry about power outages.

So back to our story and back to the second week of April.

April 8
Today I spent the day working on the garden of rocks around the solar panel mounts and Mike did the drilling for the solar panels.

On a cute note...here are some updated cow and calf pictures:)
Our big girl "Red" and in the background our unsociable cow and her light colored calf:

Mama and her baby.

And the one with the white face, like a mask:

Mike and I took a ride down to our pond and got to see some of the fish.  It's good to see the babies after the winter months.

And:

Enough animals...now it's time to work.

We have a couple of bags of concrete left so Mike and I decided to use them up and fill up all of the holes.

Mike is spraying the bottom of a pole with the rubber paint for protection:

All the concrete is used:)

Next Mike works on leveling the 4x4's so I can start filling the gardens with rock:

Mike is pounding rebar into our 4x4's and into the ground the make the garden more solid:

Now I can start filling them with rock.  First I put the weed cloth down, then I take the shovel and the 5 gallon buckets back to our rock pile.  I use the hand truck to bring the full buckets of rock back to the garden:

While I do that, Mike works on drilling holes into the solar panel mounts.  This is so we can install the solar panels.  He needs to drill a total of 50 holes, ten holes in each rack:

Finally after thirty 5-gallon buckets I get the garden finished and we have no more rocks.

Mike is hosing them down to make it nice and clean:

It was a good day and it feels so nice to have nice weather.


April 9
More blue skies.  It's time to paint.

We are going to paint all of the solar panels mounts green to match the building and while we are at it we will paint the side of the shipping container.

Laying out cardboard to protect the rocks:

Mike using his new paint spray gun:

All the solar panel mounts are done:

Once the mounts are done we start on the side of the building.  We might as well while we have the chance.  Once the new solar panels go up we won't be touching this side of the building ever again.

We start at the front top corner of the building.  While I hold cardboard up to protect the driveway, Mike starts spraying.  He also sprays my hands but at least the driveway isn't green, lol.

Almost done with the building:

The painting is done:)

We have to let everything dry before we can install the solar panels.


April 10
Today is the day we have been waiting for.  It's time to get our new bigger solar panels on the new mounts that Mike designed:)

The solar panels are big so Mike and I will have to work together to get them on the racks.  The first one is the hardest as we don;t have much land to stand on.  I really hope we don't drop one.

The first one is in the rack:

And presto...eight of them are in.  We work so fast, lol.  Since Mike and I had to work hard to get them in I couldn't take pictures.  You can see how much bigger these are compared to the old panels which are on top of the shipping container.

We also got the two panels installed that stand alone to catch a different angle of the sun.  After all the panels are screwed in, Mike wants to clean up the ground.  Here he is grading out underneath the panels:

Next I raked it all out and Mike starts seeding:

And:

I put the hay over the seed and Mike waters it:

Now it's time for the really important part and since I can't do any electrical, Mike is on his own.  Mike has to get all of the wires hooked up so we can make our own electric.


Mike installed two combiner boxes on the outside of the shipping container and under the solar panels.  A combiner box takes all the wires from the solar panels, combines them into one, and then sends them to the charge controller inside the shipping container.

Mike has 5 panels going into each combiner box.  Each solar panel has it's own circuit breaker.


Mike uses the torch to seal the shrink wrap over the connectors to make them weathertight.

Skip to April 16 as we had other work going on at the "store" property:)

Mike is getting getting ready to put the wire from the combiner boxes into the charge controller.  This is a really thick wire and you need strength in your hands to do this kind of work:

Peeling back and clipping the strands that aren't needed:

Mike hooking up one of  the charge controllers:

And the finishing touches:

Here are the circuit breakers onside the combiner box:

Our wire mess.  Mike will clean this up soon:

Now we are set to go.  Next I will help Mike take down our old panels and he will hook up our new system:)

I hope you all enjoyed this story and I will write again soon:)