• Tag Archives generator

  • Driving to Nebraska. Again.

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Beltane                                                                   Waxing Garlic Moon

    Motel 6 with Sollie, Lincoln Nebraska

    At 8:35 am Sollie and I took off in the truck.  We drove straight through to this little piece of heaven.

    Driving between Andover and Lincoln, a frequent trip, goes through some of the less visually interesting parts of the United States.

    Sollie is now in the bathroom blessedly quiet.  He’s a bit much to handle, a lot like a 3 year old.

    Kate called with an extreme emergency.  The powers out and the generator did not kick in.  Time and a half to take care of it, but Kate’s there and she’s hot.  Kate hot is not something you want to see.  So Allied Generator has an evening call to rescue my sweet heart.

    Ruth is with Jon and they’re on their way.


    📂This entry was posted in Dogs 📎and tagged

  • Bee Diary: Supplemental

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Lughnasa                            Waning Artemis Moon

    The varroa mite count is in and my bees had–1.  That’s one mite for the sample of some 225 bees.  I didn’t get the optimal 300, see the business about the bees not volunteering for freezing to death, but finding only 1 mite makes me feel pretty comfortable.  Wednesday I’ll check the divide and see  how it’s doing mite wise.

    I’ll have to become more facile with this procedure since I need it to do at least twice a year, more if the counts begin to go high.

    We had a thunderstorm that knocked out the power and turned on our generator earlier tonight.  My computers were not unplugged, but they seem to have survived.


    📂This entry was posted in Bees GeekWorld 📎and tagged

  • A Pleasant and Substantial Path

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    70  bar steady 30.13  0mpn SSE dew-point 62  sunrise 6:16 sunset 8:17  Lughnasa

    Full Corn Moon  moonrise 2014    moonset  0554

    “Mistakes are at the very base of human thought … feeding the structure like root nodules. If we were not provided with the knack of being wrong, we could never get anything useful done.” – Lewis Thomas

    Had to call the generator guys yesterday.  Our Kohler should exercise itself every two weeks, Tuesdays at 11:00 AM.  It has not done that since installation.  It works, we know that because it turned on during a power outage in June.  The exercise cycle, however, is how we know it works in between storms.   A fail safe.  They had a reason this time, like they had the last time.  This time use during an outage kicks it off the exercise cycle, “A problem Kohler refuses to recognize.”  The first time it was air in the gas line.  Maybe so both times, but I want it to do what we paid a hefty sum to do and that includes letting us know it works, all the time.  Otherwise, come an outage we may have no power and an expensive lump of metal and wires to help us enjoy the darkness and the heat.

    Today and tomorrow and Monday are prep days for the herds migration out to our place.  Groceries.  Garden spruce up.  Hydroponics restart.  Decluttering the living room and kitchen.  That sort of thing.

    Kate’s last two years of medicine are not the gentle glide down to a soft landing and out I wish they could be.  Her style of practice and the newer, corporate style do not mesh; the gears grind and jump.  It means she’s under pressure to see more patients, see more adults and smile doing it.  She needs a union, at best she will get out with her dignity intact.

    We have, however, set ourselves on a pleasant and substantial path here at home.  We have expanded food production here this year and will expand again next year and possibly the year after that.  There are energy capture projects I have in mind and much more to learn from the disciplines of permaculture and horticulture.  She has her sewing and quilting; I have writing and politics.  Together, too, we have the kids, the grandkids and the dogs.  She will be here longer than she will be at work.


    📂This entry was posted in Family Garden Great Work 📎and tagged

  • Eat a Peach, Live Forever

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    75  bar falls 29.75 1mph WSW dewpoint 41  Beltane

                          New Moon (Hare Moon)

    I chose the English medieval name for the moon this month because of a wonderful incense burner in the Weber Collection.  It is a bronze bunny, eyes lifted toward the moon, ears erect.  There are holes where the ears meet the head and at the mouth.  The label copy says this rabbit watches the moon to see her sister, a white rabbit, who, according to Taoist thought, lives on the moon.  There she brews up an elixir of immortality. 

    This focus on immortality is typical of religious Taoism, not philosophical.  My interest is in the latter.  Religious Taoism grew from the intersection I mentioned a few posts ago between Buddhism and Taoism.  Going in the Buddhist direction one outcome of this convergence created Chan Buddhism (Zen in Japan).  Going in the Taoist direction Taoists began to create anthropomorphic gods in emulation of the Mahayana form of Buddhism that came into China.  Mahayana picked up deities and demons and guardians from the Hindu and Bon (Tibetan native religion) religious pantheons.   

    The focus on immortality occurred at some point along the way, though I’m not sure when since I have not studied religious Taoism.  Another way to gain immortality involved a peach tree that bloomed once every 3,000 years.  If you were around when it bloomed and ate a peach, presto Immortalito!  I’ve hunted for places to by a 2,999 year old tree, but so far no joy.

    Our generator is online and ready to rock.  Jim, the service guy who explained it all to us, said, “Now you’ll never have another outage.”  Sounds about right.  But, at least we’re ready if it  happens.


    📂This entry was posted in Art and Culture Faith and Spirituality GeekWorld 📎and tagged

  • And the Soothsayers Predicted Snow

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    55  bar falls 29.79 0mph SE dewpoint 54  Spring   light rain

                    Waning Gibbous Moon of Growing

    And the soothsayers predicted Snow.  Oh, no.  Really, not a big deal.  Slush is more likely.  The precipitation now is all good.  As the weather continues (generally) to warm, the combination of rising soil temperatures and moisture puts plant life on the quick track up.

    Randy, from Randy’s plumbing, called.  He will come out Friday am to install the gas piping to the generator.  Center Point will come out on Tuesday afternoon to give us the bigger meter necessary to provide adequate gas to the generator when it works.  Soon we will have protection against power outages.  One more block for the retirement security perimeter.

    Membership in Permaculture in a Cold Climate is another one.  As we make the transition here to more and more home grown produce and hopefully some home captured energy, we will reduce our need to leave the property for grocery trips.  All this moves us toward a smaller and smaller carbon footprint. Although, I have to admit, the steam room probably eats up more than we’ll balance for awhile.  Gotta figure that out one of these days.  When we get that Prius two years from now, our balance sheet will look better.

    Allison has asked me to consider a short article on astronomy for the summer Muse.  She wants me to focus on the moon since there’s enough written about sun cults. (her language)  Made a quick survey of objects in the MIA collection.  If you thrown in those with stars, there are over 100 objects that have either a moon or star connection.  Finding a good 8 or 10 for a Moon and Stars tour would be easy.  This plays to an interest I developed in archaeoastronomy while I belonged to the Minnesota Astronomical Society.  We’ll see what she wants.  More later.


    📂This entry was posted in Art and Culture Great Work Weather +Climate 📎and tagged