Raining. But not cold. A bit bleak but not too bad. The sun is definitely going down earlier. Wood stove runs every day but not all day. We are starting to ‘feel’ winter coming on.
Our last guests for the season are coming at the end of the month – a day or so after a classroom of high school seniors come to ‘visit’ an off the grid home (us) as that same class did last year.
This has been a very, very busy year.
And, even though we got a lot done, we did not get ENOUGH done so outstanding chores still beckon. Too many.
Yesterday I received my six new solar panels. They will add 1900 watts to my already 2100 watts but this next grouping will be on the roof of the house rather than my tower-of-power array behind the house. I think it will work well. Eventually. We still have to install them and working on the roof (slick steel) in the rain is just asking for an accident. We’ll just have to pick the right DRY day (when there are no guests, yoga, bookclub, post office, community efforts, meetings, whales, ravens, squirrels, gatherings or quilting).
I also have to build a second bridge (amongst other things). The first one we built this summer (to the back of the house) is great! And we had W’fer help to remove the lower, rotten-to-the-core one last month (a bridge to access the under-house). But there is a major gap-on-a-severe-slant where the old bridge was that is now slippery-with-rain and so getting under the house is a smidge difficult.
Reason for telling you something rather boring….? Well, you see, like so many things out here, one thing affects the other. Putting solar panels on the roof requires running cable down through the house to the underside and then running it back to the power-room and so, roof installation requires under-house access. Slippery roof. No safe access to the underside. More danger than there should be. Classic Dave planning.
A recent guest casually remarked, “I love the way your buildings and decks are all connected in such an organic way. It all just kinda flows. Eclectic. Did you plan it that way?”
Words failed me.
Speaking of failure…..
Scheer and Trudeau are vying to be the front runner in a race that is destined to be so close that the party that comes in third is likely to hold the balance of power. We’ll probably have a minority government. I am OK with that. It’s worked well in BC. I like minority governments. Well, I HATE all governments but the weaker they are, the more I prefer it. Why? Because power corrupts and they are all corrupt. Take away some of the power and they are less corrupt.
Maybe. We’ll see. Jagmeet Singh – king maker. Who woulda guessed?
And – just an observation: At a Scheer rally recently, Andrew Scheer mentioned Trudeau’s name. His supportive crowd jeered Trudeau and chanted ‘Lock him up!’ Very reminiscent of concerts by Trump and the Deplorables. That kinda says something about the current group of Conservatives, don’t you think?
Speaking of success….?
Proof that there really is a God: little Great Thunberg was well received in Alberta.
Our Off the Grid Home 
Not boring at all. Democracy and liberalism is/was probably an aberration. Perhaps global politics is just returning to normal. I’m sure you’ve said the same thing yourself in a previous post Dave.
Here in Oz, Conservative thugs and the mob have been inciting motorists to run over ER protestors. So far no one has, but give them time.
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Enjoyed this blog, Day to day work to keep everything maintained seems daunting. I hope some civility returns to political discourse/criticism. I’m troubled by the personal petty excoriating attacks. My hope for the Canada’s election results is that Canadians get elected MPs who work together as MPs did in wartime Parliamentary Governments. Let’s harness our energies and make it work. Let’s all be in the moment we have much in common.
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Slippery roofs…….
Years ago. I was high rise window cleaner in down town Vancouver…
The Bentall Towers, Park Place, Scotia Tower…..pffft. No problem.
One of the owners of an office tower we had contracted asked us if we would clean the windows on his house……in Horseshoe Bay……on a cliff…..a 100ft cliff.
Ok.
We get there. The roof is metal, covered in moss, slippery than goose shit.
The “view” was on the ocean side with a glass roof over the living room..
So. We roped up to a massive cedar on the back side of the house.
Tossed our rope lines over the peak of the roof…down over the razor sharp skylight “roof” falling 100 feet to the rocks below….
Did I mention the living room of the house was cantilevered 10 ft OVER the cliff.
An entire wall of glass with an unobscured view of the ocean.
Magnificent…….. unless you had to clean it.
I used old carpet on the razor edge of the skylights (after I cleaned THEM) to protect my “fall line” and my safety line.
No problem.
As I cleaned each massive pane(pain?) of glass I would drop down below the floor of the living room and my boss. Standing under the house on the edge of the cliff would toss me a rope to haul my fat ass back in….to repeat the process……
It took 4 days to clean that house glass…. inside and out…… and the owner’s wife followed us everywhere constantly bitching and moaning about “how expensive everything in Canada was’ …………they were from Singapore….
Anywho.i digress.
If yer gonna slip and slide on the metal roof.
Tie off to a tree behind the “Casa Conundrum” and then tie a harness/lanyard to your brittle boned butt…..and keep the lanyard/rope tight….so if you do slip….a few bumps and bruises
I dont need to be visitng you in that new Campbell River Hospital………
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I am not crazy. I send Sal up on the roof!!
I can belay her. I can almost catch her (at least provide a soft landing). I can relay tools and materials to her. And i know what they are and where they are. Plus she can yell at me….I am used to it, I am going deaf and I don’t really listen anyway…..we’re a perfect team.
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