Sunday, May 03, 2009

5/3/09

I had a very nice day today. Lukas and I went to meeting and enjoyed an encouraging talk. Then I dropped him off at home and I went to pick up my sister and we went to the Green Expo at the state fairgrounds. I wasn't too impressed with the exhibits. The few alternative energy exhibits were contractors looking to sell whole systems installed. Target and Walmart were passing out grocery bags made of recycled plastic. I told the Walmart man they would be better off passing out the cloth bags that I bought at the Walmart in Florida, instead of using plastic. The plastic bags aren't as durable as the cloth ones. I got one from Target a couple of months ago, and it ripped open after the 2nd time using it. So where's the advantage of using one of those? It's plastic and it's flimsy!

I did find out that I can use electrical wiring from Home Depot or Menards (as long as it's rated for outside use) to wire my solar panel to the charge controller. So the next time I get down to Elk River, I'll stop in and pick some up and get my system wired and up and running, instead of sitting in the basement doing nothing.

The best part was going through the landscaping section at the expo. I don't even remember the exhibit's name, but they were selling trees 12 for $10. I bought 2 dozen birch, red cedar, norway pine and white pine. Tomorrow I'll get them planted in some newspaper pots and put them in the greenhouse to harden off. Oh, and my upside-down tomato has a baby tomato on it!

After dropping Elaine off, I went to Menards and bought a couple of fruit trees. They have them on sale for $20. I bought a Rainier cherry tree and a pear tree. Yummy! I do hope the Rainier cherries are better than Montgomery cherries, which is the cherry tree I bought last year. They were quite sour.

My cherry bushes are starting to blossom. If you want a good tasting sweet sour cherry, get Nankin cherry bushes. They are delicious!

This is truly the best time of the year. The bugs haven't really started yet, so I can work outside without being swarmed. Ah, yes, spring time... I live for the month of May.
Posted by betsymn at Sunday, May 03, 2009

2 comments:

angelinabeadalina said...

Sounds like an incredibly good day! You really impress me with all you know how to do-- the solar panel hookup, for instance. That is cool.

6:26 AM
betsymn said...

Hi Angelina,
How are you doing this wonderful warm, sunny, spring day? I love it!!!!

My mother always accused me of being 'a jack of all trades and master of none.' It's true. I just like to learn and do new things. Once when I was still working at the newspaper, there was an article about knapping, and a friend just caught the headline and was wondering what it was, and I told her (it's shaping rock to make a arrowhead or other tool). She wasn't too surprised to find out that I'd done it, as she's known me since she was a small girl.

I'm a Jehovah's Witness, and we believe the Bible with its prophecies of the earth being returned to paradise conditions after Armageddon, with the resurrection returning humans to perfect condition with everlasting life. I love the idea of living forever, and having the time and energy to learn all of the things that I haven't been able to do in this lifetime. I've learned to tan a deerskin (pretty stinky), graft a tree, clip my horse's hooves, stick my arm inside a goat to move a breech kid, quilt, throw pottery, learn Egyptian hieroglyphics, fence (fencing with a foil or epee, and fencing as in barbed wire fencing), build a deck, oil painting, watercolor, pen and ink drawing, and lots of other things. I'm not bragging. God gave me a gift, a desire to learn, and I enjoy doing it. I find it frustrating that with age, I'm slowing down and just don't have the energy to indulge. There are still so many things I would like to learn.

My solar energy project is something I've been wanting to do since the 70s. Recently I read an article that said you shouldn't wait until you have the money (or financing) to get started. He said to commit money or buy a component every month, whatever you could afford. Looking at it that way, I decided it was time. Does it make sense financially? No! It's cheaper to buy the electricity from the utility company. Does it make sense as in supporting a greener lifestyle? Yes. My one panel isn't going to provide much electricity (hopefully enough to run my laptop and charge my cell phone and some other small items), but later this month I'll buy another battery, and in a couple of more months, I'll have enough to buy another panel, and a few months after that another panel, and in a year or two, hopefully a wind generator. Eventually, I'll have a system built up that WILL take care of more of my electrical needs. One small step at a time.

My, this was a long reply! Sorry about that!

8:33 AM

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