On the Road

With oil prices climbing, it’s time for me to climb, too…..climb trees and remove limbs to install a solar system.  As you remember, two years ago, I tried to harness the hydro capacity of our creek only to be met with thousands of dollars of fees, federal and state permits and annual assessments just to take water out of my creek and return it back 300′ downstream.   Not worth the hassle.  But, the government can’t tax the sun (although I’m sure they’ll try) so we’re off and running…..  And, man, this is not how I remember the rock climbing of my youth–this was hard work.

After precariously climbing three ladders lashed together, I re-cut these  spruce limbs with our 14″ Stihl chainsaw (beautiful little saw, by the way) and repaint the ends to camouflage the mess.

My first attempt to prune this massive spruce was entitled:  “Chainsaw on a stick,”  which was a total failure leaving the running saw stuck in a partially cut limb 20′ in the air.  To solve this dilemma, I crafted  “The Great Ladder Pyramid,” which ended in utter disaster with me waking up on the ground with the chainsaw stuck vertically right beside me….still running…..don’t ever do this.   Well, at least now we have photons streaming to our site….

I’ve designed the frame to change the panels tilting towards the sun at various times of the year.  This is summer solstice mode.  The formula for tilt is simply the angle of the the tilt from horizontal is equal to your latitude but this during the equinox.  Given that the earth tilts on it’s axis another 23 degrees, I move this up 11.5 degrees in winter and down the same amount around the summer solstice.  We live at:  Lat = 56.803, Lon = -132.993.  Plug these values in on this website which is better than Google Earth for Alaska, and you will find our solar site.   I’ve installed 12 panels of Kyocera KD135GX-LPUs hooked in series/parallel (2 circuits of 6 panels yielding about 132 V at 16.5A in an ideal situation.

One of the engineering challenges was to transport this power 250 feet (underground in #2 aluminum wire) to our battery bank in our well house.   To achieve this, we experimented with different configurations and finally came up with the 6 X 2 wiring which maintains resistance loss under 2%.  On a clear summer day, I’ll pack in over 7 KWh–enough to run our home without supplemental generation.

Interestingly, the colder it is, the more efficient yet dangerous this system becomes with voltages climbing–hence the 6 X 2 configuration.  With a 1 X 12 configuration we could only operate down to 20F but our winter temps can get down to -10F.  The only charge controller that can handle this current is the Midnite Solar Classic 250.   I didn’t know this was so complicated.

Manna from Heaven…..This is sweet!

Speaking of solar energy, here our Puget Sound guests bask in the afternoon sun in our back yard over G&Ts–more Manna from Heaven.  Summer is here!

It’s Syttende Mai here in Petersburg Alaska–where the locals don’t forget their culture.  The day celebrates Norway’s Independence in 1814 that transferred their rule from Denmark to Sweden–a bit closer to home.  

Our guest cabin is tricked out and we’re ready….  Of course, the recently self-proclaimed Commodore of the South Kupreanof Yacht Club (yours truly), challenges anyone with a wooden rowboat to a race.  To generate interest, we tow our three rowboats in the local parade:  the SVEN, Onkel Ole and a recently acquired Norwegian faering:

Here I pull the SVEN and the Onkel Ole with my newly restored 1961 Model L Gravely tractor.   This is no easy fete as I have to drive the tractor out on my dock, wait for a high tide, winch it into my skiff, drive it over to town, and then reverse the process at the city crane dock; then tow over the three boats, find them trailers, etc. etc….  I’m still stiff and sore.

So we’re up and running….here is Martina and our good friend Lizzy in traditional dress.  Lizzy sports a spiffy bunad and Martina a Bavarian dirndl.  This place looks like a small town in northern Norway…..just look at these outfits:

Is this class?  These guys, dress in the traditional (Viking) dress and serve up (literally) finger food–shrimp, potatoes and corn right in the center of main street.   The beer garden is to the right….

And where there are Viking Boys, there are Viking Girls sitting next to small icebergs hauled out of Frederick Sound from the LeConte Glacier to keep the beer cold…..   Move over Madonna….

Back to the parade.  This is the faering boat I recently acquired (actually, three boats–to be published soon) and plan to stash one behind the house in our slough and conduct raids on the unsuspecting tourists as they motor up the narrows.

More Vikings.

OK–next the rowboat race as mentioned earlier.  This is the pace boat–this is really going to be the race of the century and notice the durable Yahama engine on the back of my skiff?  No more Mercury engines for me…..  The race features six boats and they must be wood and hand powered.  Entered in the race was the faering, the SVEN, Onkel Ole, Runamok, a wooden canoe and another Davis Boat.

And it’s off to the races!  Here Commodore Doug is hand-powering the Onkel Ole behind the SVEN and the faering around Buoy 59.  This course is about 1/2 mile from the North Harbor Dock around the buoy and back again.  The wooden kayak won the race, the faering second, SVEN took third, me fourth and Runamok fifth.   Oh well, I’m nearing 65 years old and it’s not that easy anymore.

After the race, it’s a boat show!  Look at these beauties–it’s hard to pick these or those beautiful hand crafted Norwegian wooden skis.

After all the festivities, we all work up a powerful thirst and retire to the local restaurant–The Beachcomber Inn–fabulous food and the Pickled Herring Band, no less……

Oh boy, next day, it’s five boats back to the South Kupreanof Yacht Club headquarters; three trailers to return, a tractor to crane up and down and guests to deliver to ferries and jets.  Oh boy…..  I’m all pooped out!

We took a hike last Sunday with some friends up Petersburg Creek thinking that it was nearly Spring weather.  As the day progressed, dark clouds roll up the Narrows and a few sprinkles occur.    The sedge grass is just poking up and many birds are arriving on their northward migration to the interior tundra.

Our hike takes us through the muskeg on this newly built boardwalk, thanks to the U. S. Forest Service.    The muskeg is an interesting biological unit with very unique plants including a Venus fly-trap like plant called a Sun-dew.  When these get active, I’ll put up a photo on this blog.

After visiting the creek, we hike back down an old CCC road and stumble upon this old truck–about a 1937 or 8?  It’s full of bullet holes, of course.   This road is a great trail along the shore and connects with our loop trail and Petersburg Mountain (posted here).

The Red Crossbills are showing up, along with the Sandhill Cranes and Hummingbirds.  April 16th seems to be the day.  These Crossbills are hilarious to watch–they hop around on the kelp and eat small kelp fleas (or whatever they are).  As I took this photo the one on the upper right zoomed by and made a perfect landing.  I put up this pole on our dock two years ago and not one bird perched on it for over a year–they need time to check it out.  Now, everyone  is fighting over it.

Here I am out walking the deer…..  Otters run up and down the beach–one crossed our front yard while we were working in the garden–completely oblivious to us.  And we’ve a squirrel that is raiding my caulking cotton in the net shed for a nest and runs right by me, within feet even, without showing any concern.  Spring is here….

We stop and talk with some clam diggers after pink necks–our most edible clam.   This fellow is 93 years old, born and raised here, and still digging.  Clams are abundant on our beach–our house is on the right in this photograph, so it’s a quick dinner opportunity if the tides are right.

This time of year, we are thinking garden–and I think of my new ‘old’ tractor and drag it out.  Watch this movie–is this a monster or what?  This behemoth weighs in about 300 lbs. and is no easy ride.    I took off the front wheels so I could really turn some soil–this hurk could dig a hole to China!

Here is a modern version–the new Stihl Yard Boss–what a powerful yet lightweight rig.  I’m driving this to town next week to show it off.  Stihl is a great line–I’ve a woodshed full of their chainsaws.   In 1973 I built a log home with a 031 (and a horse).  This saw later sunk for a week in the Frazer River saltchuck (aboard my ill-fated tug, Winamac)  and after a few sprays with WD-40, fired right back up.  Just had it completely rebuilt which was cheaper than having it bronzed for the fireplace mantle!

We find more “Mayan Ruins” in our front yard and decide to dig them out.  Beautiful old rock garden beds.  This used to be the front yard of an old white house which had a very nice lawn.

Here’s a photograph taken in May 1969 of the same area.  We’re motivated to restore these gardens and most of that motivation comes from a friend, we met in Antarctica, Maryann, who spent her holiday with us working.

Here’s the view the other way with the old house and the newly built corner of our current cabin.  Can’t wait to see the flowers bloom again.

Here, Maryann and Martina labor while I take pictures.  Our house is now finished and the gardens are the finishing touch with our (now) six year restoration.

This was taken Monday morning about 7am with the fog just lifting off the ferry dock a mile away; our sunrise is now 5:30am or earlier.    Devils Thumb and the Coast Range loom in the distance.  Below is another close-up photo taken a day or two later–spectacular stuff to look at–notice the shadow of the “cat’s ears” on the Thumb’s face.

Now, if it would just warm up.  Stay tuned.