I apologize for the time between updates, but things are in quite a state of flux. My house is basically complete, other than finishing up the interface between my backup power and Jill’s house.
Jill’s house is progressing nicely. The electrical work is mostly done, most of the wallboard installed and roughly half of the mudding & taping is done. The ceiling fan has arrived, and the mini-split unit is waiting in the C-can to be installed.
The well water reverse osmosis plant remains an issue. While I was down in So. Cal at the end of December the mini-split unit was powered down and somehow did not get restarted. As a result, the reverse osmosis plant froze, and significant damage was done due to freezing. I’ve exchanged emails with tech support at RainDance Systems and we’re looking at $500. – $2,500. for new pumps, filters, etc. I was considering just replacing the entire system (~$13,000.) but got a surprising amount of pushback during the weekly call on Saturday evening.
For the past few weeks, I have been driving a couple of miles down to Yellowstone Hwy to the fresh water supply point and getting 4-500 gallons of water for $5.00 and pumping it into the FW supply tank in the C-can. It’s turned into about a weekly process and is fairly routine (when the weather isn’t into negative numbers). I could continue that for the next couple of months while we make progress on Jill’s house and other possible developments on the site. I may just continue as we are for the short term and wait to see where we go from here.
The other issue going on is modifications to the solar power installation up on the hill. I am modifying the solar collectors to attach to the sides of the C-cans. That is the optimum angle from sunrise to ~ 10:00am in the morning, and on the other side for evening. That will free up some square footage in the Orchard and Garden areas, as well as providing room for possible expansion of the barn area assuming we remove the trailer as planned this summer.
Amplifying info to follow.