This picture of rime on a rope was taken before the recent rain event. Tonight we watched some early episodes of "Meet the Gimp" and I had to start playing.

In other news, we had a pleasant few days with my family in California, happy (and surprised) to make it out of the ice storm and now we're back to normal temperatures - but still with ice on the roads. Highlights of the trip: chopping veggies for my sister-in-law who cooked up a storm, walking along the arroyo, and lunch at a golf course with my parents. We also showed mom how to get to Google translate.

Rain, rain, go away!

This is our puddle at the bottom of the driveway. It was rather bigger before Rob went to work with the shovel:



















The very end of the stream, where it goes under the snow on the slope. Can you tell those trees are well below me?



















We got the studded tires onto the Mazda, but it's still not winter-ready. This is a terrible picture, but can you tell what's missing? I ran it into the curb...














We got the afternoon off work yesterday and I cleared the porch. Now the snow is sliding off the roof onto it. Last night we were at a neighbor's house and every time the snow fell, the dog would start barking. Enemies at the door!

Bolts

The poor Mazda is a summer car. Even with studded tires, it just doesn't handle as well on the snow. So this fall, it doesn't even rate a spot in the garage.
















The view du jour.
















I stayed home to be here when the Remote Power guy showed up. He came to weld the collar to the main post for the solar panels. The black cap sits on the post where the collar is (but we didn't have the collar last December).




















There should be bolts functioning as set screws to keep the whole unit from rotating. Rob said the threads were stripped, but it turns out the bolts we had were just a tad too small for the job. We should be getting replacements today.














It may be hard to see, but the snow here is roughly six inches deep. The bottom part is gray with mixed-in grit. The winds were howling the night before last, causing the snow to drift. The gray layer is anywhere from this thick to non-existent. The clean snow on top fell yesterday after the wind died down.

Oh, yeah - Rob started working in my department yesterday. This morning he had to pick up his police record and get fingerprints - he's going to have more authority on the systems than I do. He's in the workstation group, not on the big machines.

Snow!

October 6th: Snow falling in the Fairbanks area. Expecting up to 2 inches on the Hill!

Sunrise Oct 3rd @ 8:21 AM

Finished Raised Beds

Afghan square is finished!

Still working on the home power system. Getting some timers into place to allow the generator block heater to warm the generator up before the power system kicks it on. It needs at least a one hour preheat.

Wood splitting is next on deck. Nearly finished reorganizing for winter.

Raised Bed Garden Boxes

Completed two raised beds, garden boxes for 2011 growing season. 2.5' by 9.5'. The posts are 4'3" plastic lumber which hopefully will not rot or require replacement anytime soon. The post are buried 1'3". With 4 foot center posts, we will be able to drape 10' visqueen over these to create mini green houses.

Recent weather has been very nice: 40s in the morning and 60s in the afternoon. Fall is nearly done. Still getting solar power with one recent generator run in the past 6 months. Hoping for another few weeks.

Moose!

A young bull moose was seen this morning on the way into work.

The low road (Cache Creek) is in excellent condition.

September projects on the homefront:

• Doing some more work on the automation of the power system
• Updating information on costs for running an off-grid house
• Finishing two above ground garden boxes (2.5' x 9.5').
• Collecting and splitting wood for the winter
• Finishing a knitting project: afghan square
• Continue to get stuff organized at home for the winter

Rainbow

Double rainbow - view from the porch. You can see the driveway and the start of yellow leaves in the trees. No frost here yet, but I heard one farm got frosted already. I'm cooking up the last of the indigo from the dye garden.