New to Region 2

[Abigayle]

R.W.S.  They eat snails (slugs) small rodents....The balance of nature.  If you were starting an aquatic project, with small fish, they would be of concern if allowed to venture in that water. 
When I was young, my Romanian grandfather and I found one near the well. After I was allowed to hold it, he told me to let it go, that they were good.  Grandpa understood the ground and worked it all his life.  So, in respect to the great knowledge of my grandfather, who had no formal education, I would let them go....But that's just me.  They can clear out a new litter of mice in no time.  Mrs. R.W.S. might start naming them....

[RWS]

I cut the lines to the tank and turned it over to get them all out.  Then I installed unions to make it easier to clean the spring box.  I just had a contractor over to look at digging several ditches across the driveway.  He told me to take the intake pipe out and put a screen wire over it to keep the salamanders out.  I can do that because I already have a union there.

[John Galt 1]

Starlink put me off until Fall next year.

Looks like it will be a little longer.  SpaceX's last launch blew up after liftoff.
"SpaceX launched the largest and most powerful rocket in history Thursday morning from southern Texas.

RWS,     After dealing with Windstream's crappy internet for years we went to the T-mobile store yesterday.      T-Mobile's website says they don't offer internet in this area but the local store gave us a router to try for 2 weeks for $35 which we are now playing with.   
We've been trying it around the house getting speeds from 4 mps to 60 mps depending on which window we place it at. 

$50 a month and much faster than Windstream.

just my 2 cents.

[RWS]

There is no cell service here from any vendor.  My internet is starlink.  Much faster than my home DSL. 

[John Galt 1]

I've tried to sign up for starlink but not available at this time.      It's expensive too.

[Abigayle]

RW.S. You might want to look into purchasing the router.  We rent ours from Verizon, only because we are expecting a new and better service through here in the fall. 

[RWS]

The neighbor lady came over last evening and told us to carry a big stick when we go out walking.  We had been for a walk.  She said a big cat got all the chickens at a place just over a small ridge from here.  She said it is most likely a mountain lion.  After lunch today I noticed movement in the field near the camper.  At first I thought it was 2 young turkeys but the color was more brown than black.  I think they were pheasants.  Anyway as they walked thru they were picking seeds off the grasses at about knee height. This is a wild and wooley place.

[RWS]

I got an excellent water report from UGA.   Soft Water !  Can you believe it ?  In the mountains.......

[RWS]

x                  IT Works !

My phone rang and my wife answered it.  It was a neighbor from my region 2 BOL.  There were two cars at my BOL and did we know about it ?  The wife said yes it was our son and a friend of his and they were spending the weekend.  Most likely they would hike out to the AT and overnight there,  BUT  thanks for calling.  IT works .......

[RWS]

I was just up here a couple of weeks ago and the effluent pipes on my ponds were half stopped up with sticks and dead weeds.  Today the small pond is running over with the effluent pipe under water, no where to be seen.  The large pond and the effluent pipe was in the same shape, underwater.   The large overflow pipe was half stopped up which I cleaned out.  What could cause this??  One critter I know of........ I have a large beaver in my ponds.  The neighbor confirmed this when she said her dogs have been chasing it.  I asked her if she knew of anyone that had a gun and could come over and shoot the beaver.  She did...  If I had a gun I could do it myself.  I do have traps back in region 8 but that would catch her dog also.  Always something.

[RWS]

We finally got some gravel on our parking spot for the camper.  Now we won't have track mud in.  Actually what I got is crush & run.  You can see in the picture the electrical, water & sewer hookups.  The electrical box has 2 sets of wires.  A 30 Amp circuit and a 20 Amp circuit.  There is room for a tent behind the camper.

[RWS]

I had company come over a couple weeks ago.  They gave me a book titled "Gird Down Projects".  I guess it is appropriate as everything we do at out Region 2 campsite is a Grid Down Project.  Because I put a garage door in my barn lower level so I could park a small garden tractor inside, the building inspector said I had to make that area with a fire wall to separate it from the rest of the building.  That means the walls and ceiling need to be sheet rock or other approved material.  So before the ceiling is closed in I put up conduit and pulled wire overhead to:
1.  The location of my future AC  Heat Pump compressor and condenser.
2.  My backup Generator.
3.  My generator remote control.  Controlled by solar battery charge state.
4.  Wires for my second solar array.
You see all of those are "Grid Down Projects".  We had planned to paint the deck and hand rails but it rained every day so that is still on the list.  I need to get it painted so I can install solar thermal collectors to heat water.  Another Grid Down Project!

[RWS]

No good off gird place would be worth it's salt if it did not do a little solar water heating.  Just now installing two solar water heating systems.  One is for DHW domestic hot water for a nice warm shower.  The second is hot water to heat the concrete floor,  Central heat for the off grid cabin.

[RWS]

I just had the building inspector out to inspect the completed electrical.  Everything was fine BUT he wants a list of electrical loads (wattages) and system capacity (inverter size).  He wants to make sure my system can handle the loads.  I tend to over wire while the walls are open.  Never know what you may want down the road.  Anyway I have a 6800Watt inverter that will surge to 12000 watts to start motors, ect.  I made provision to be able to stack a second inverter in the future.  The future is now.  I paid $3500 for the inverter a couple years ago.  A couple weeks ago I checked the price online and it was $1500.  I started thinking they were going to close out that model.  Sure enough when I checked the price yesterday it was $1200 with a note that it was discontinued.  I now have a second inverter on the way.  With 13KW of inverter, that's equal to a 15kva transformer feeding a 200 Amp service without the same surge capacity.
The inverter has a digital meter built in.  When you turn on a load, the inverter shows the wattage in real time.  It will be easy to determine if I really need to add the second inverter or keep it in the Faraday cage as a backup.

[RWS]

I was up at my region 2 BOL the other day and my peach trees were blooming.  The peach trees are still small but I may get a taste this year.  There is a pear tree that was there when I bought the property so I pruned it up late last Fall.  I think it is a Bradford as I have never seen a pear on it.  I planted a couple other pear trees.  I wonder if the Bradford will aide in pollination of the other pear trees ? ?
The name of the place is appropriate "The valley above the clouds".  You can't even see the Barn across the field !