At last, we got some wind!
As much as we’ve been enjoying and taking advantage of the long period of sunny, calm weather, the lack of wind has put a serious crimp in our style. We’ve had plenty to do around the homestead, but much of or normal business has been curtailed somewhat.
It’s not so much that we have no power. Ever since we got our new Trimetric monitor, our power usage has changed somewhat. I have it set to warn us if we’ve gone more than 5 days without recharging to 100%. If that doesn’t happen, it flashes a message ad nauseam until we recharge for a long enough period. That message has flashed night and day for more than a week (I think—it seems like it’s been that long, anyway). Every day has become a challenge, watching the solar raise the percentage about 3-4 points, then watching it fall after a “just one thing” trip on line. We’ve been putting off charging batteries for our head lamps, which have thankfully become less essential with the increasing daylight. Movies have been pretty much out of the question.
Then, yesterday, the wind developed from the northwest. Lovely. The ridge blankets the wind generator from that direction, so while a fresh breeze swirled around the dooryard, the generator blades stayed still. Shortly, though, the wind freshened from the north, and rose to about 25 knots. By noon we’d reached 100%. In fact, the Trimetric showed 104% for about two hours. We got a good recharge!
Now it’s time to dig out. I’ve got six new T-shirt designs to add to our online store, (uploading painfully slowly as I write!) this post is late, we’re trying to gather financial aid information for Aly, personal emails are way behind, a Web client needs attention, and we have another offer from a reality show to deal with.
And, the weather continues to be sunny—the garden and next winter’s firewood are calling us away from the computer and outside. The wind has died again, and is predicted to remain light through the scope of the forecast. But at least that damned blinking light is gone!