To The Surbiton Manor Born

  Update 11:04 AM :  Today will mark the first proper winter storm to strike Steepmeadow this year. Temperatures are plummeting from 40 degrees Fahrenheit this morning to -2 by late this evening. The storm has begun with rain, but is predicted to turn to 6 inches of snow before evening, likely peaking between 3:00 this afternoon and 7:00 this evening. It is welcome. Every day has been virtually the same here since some early snow in October. Between 20 and 40 degrees, sometimes sun, sometimes clouds, always brown as in the "before" photos taken about 8:00 this morning.  Update 2:00 PM And so it begins. While I took a short nap between about 1:00 and 2:00, the snow started. A light zephyr (gusting to 40 mph.) is blowing it sideways. The latest weather models show up to a foot of accumulation on the way. 7:00 PM: The snow seems to have slowed, leaving behind...not as much as was forecast. So far. Radar indicates that this might be about it. It is nice to be cozy, tucked inside,

This is our new thermometer. It is destined, in all likelihood, to measure something between 20 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit for the next six months. Still, today is the solstice, so the sun is coming back. This is the darkest day of the year.  In theory, Kiki wanted the new thermometer to be installed out by the Steepmeadow sign at the edge of the deck. Unfortunately, it turned out to be only 6" across, and thus unreadable at that distance. As a consequence, we've mounted it to the kitchen window. Be warned: it is extremely important to read the specs on something like this before clicking the "order now" button. The only fly in this ointment is that near the house on our deck is a special micro-climate. It faces southwest, and it is protected from a lot of wind. Yesterday, the air temperature reached just over 40 degrees, but because of the thermometer's position in the sun, it read 62.  It will be interesting to see how hot that area gets in the summer. The plan

  So today marks a bit of a landmark on the renewable energy front. The eventual goal is to install solar panels (Surbiton Manor has an excellent southwest-facing roof). This, however, will take some doing. I've been reading and looking at calculators. One really fun tool is the Google Project Sunroof, which will show your exact address and the amount of solar you can plan for.  In the end, it looks like a solar system that will provide for most of our needs would be a grid-tied system and run about $20,000. It should be possible to get a 0 down 20 year loan on such a system. It seems like a decent deal. While this would not save a fortune (payments on the loan would slightly overbalance energy bill reduction - we'd do slightly better), it would do the right thing, and make us less dependent on energy price fluctuations.  Unfortunately, by my calculations, a completely off-grid (my preferred) solution would cost something like $40,000, mostly attributable to the batteries need