WILD FIRE in our County
'Twas A Dark & Stormy Story
Lovarchist Farming Chronicles
A BLOG BY PEGASUS
 
January is a time for vacation for many farmers of the northern hemisphere,
since there's less gardening to do at this frozen time of year.
That means it's a good time to watch movies in theaters that have heaters
to stay warm. So the Chearcus went to the Sundance Film Festival
to volunteer as Transportation Liaisons.

Members of Veruca Salt performed at the music cafe
during the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. Chelsea sat in
the front row and liked it. Here they are singing about the Seether.

How'd That Happen?
A Battery At Last!

First, two trees had to die, so that they won't cause problems for the solar panel array and water-flow.
<
Here you see the team that cut down Shannon's first tree, safely, blocking the road temporarily.


The battery company delivered the battery to Senders Hardware on December 21st, last year (2015).
The snow-storm hit the county the next day.


The goats wait, in the snow, as they like it.
They like snow and don't care about solar power on the farm, or the lack thereof.


And Pegasus believed, because the snow was melting, that the 2-ton battery could be driven in to the farm.
But that was in January. "The last time," Pegasus vowed, "that i'll read a book!" Pegasus believes that reading is bad luck--but writing/typing is GOOD luck!

And the wet weather stayed, until the first of February.
 

AT LAST--ON FEBRUARY 12TH, 2016...


Senders hardware store in Mountain Ranch sent this bloke to do the job, since the ground is solid, dry and hard these days.
Everyone agreed, that about 2 weeks of no precipitation could allow a 10-wheel vehicle carrying a 4,008 lb. battery to make it safely to Earth Abides, unlike the last time Pegasus read a book,
and no battery was willing to risk the trek up the slushy "roads" of this area near Arnold, CA.


Before and after. Pictured here are Pegasus, Keith, and Paul Quinlan.
Everyone is shocked that the battery terminals were NOT what we ordered.
So now we have to find a way to hook up the battery to the solar system on the farm.

Photography by Fr. Paul Colbert.



But how DID that happen? This photo shows the cables, which is a snap-on type of structure, which is NOT what the doctor ordered!

 


... and those pretty
little-big blue panels...


On Feb. 27th we held a prayer-service for recovery from the PG&E (a.k.a. Butte) Fire, with a solar-panel raising party.




At the end of February, the panels still need to be hooked up by a certified electrician into our charge-controller and inverter.
(The alpacas have refused to take the certification test.)
We hope the electrician (a fellow-human!) will be hired and on-the-job by March 4th.

At the end of the day, you can see the sun is not shining as brightly--but the awesomeness of everyone's help (financial, sweat, prayers, and otherwise) is something for which we are grateful!