Time to Change the Water Heater

I knew for sure that we’d repaired the wind generator properly when Michelle called me to say that the water heater is leaking again. No time to rest on our laurels, we must move on to the next crisis!

I’d gone to town to see an old friend who’d come to Haines to see his son compete in a regional swim meet, and to do some laundry. Michelle came down with flu symptoms the afternoon we finished working on the wind generator and stayed home. She called to ask me to pick up a drain spigot to add to our newest water heater. Continue reading →

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We DID IT!: Fixing the Generator

After some gales that exceeded predicted wind speeds, we got our chance to fix the wind generator. Waiting for the opportunity was particularly harrowing because we couldn’t brake it. We had to leave it to freewheel through the high winds, unable to tell if this would compound the damage that already occurred or not.

Friday’s forecast called for the wind to switch from south to north. We might have a few hours when the wind could be calm enough to try the inspections the manufacturer’s support person suggested. However, the north wind was predicted to build to 35 knots by afternoon.

In other words, we had a test coming. A timed test, in which we didn’t know how much time we would have—we could only attack the problem and hope to be finished before time ran out.

homemade wind generator tower, lowered

Mark works on the generator on the lowered tower (Photo: Michelle Zeiger).

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