Fall in the Woods

Woods
November 2, 2014

north_fall

We’re in the midst of fall color here in the woods. This photograph was shot from the house up in the loft through the window by our bed. This was in mid-October, just as leaves started to turn and the maples and hickories were golden. Now more than half the leaves have fallen and the colors range from bright red to dark brown, with a few trees still green.

Leaves hadn’t really started to carpet the forest floor (or our yard) in mid-October. In early November we’ve already raked and mowed the leaves around the house, shop and shack. We’re getting cold fronts passing through with a fair amount of rain for each, so this year the threat of forest fire hasn’t been so great. Once the leaves dry from the most recent rain we’ll begin raking and mowing again.

The raked leaves go into large compost piles, two next to the yard and one in the garden. Eventually the composted leaves go to the garden, either as mulch or “soil” to enrich the beds.

An Outing

Gas Well Study
September 9, 2014

Yesterday, Molly and I took a break (sort of a break, anyway) and hiked in the Amherst Plymouth Wildlife Management Area that’s just north of Bancroft. We were there last year looking at wells and this year we did the same, though the hike was a lot longer.

The Wildlife Management Area has lots of roads (mostly to service the large number of gas wells within its boundaries), but normally the entrance gate is locked and vehicles are prohibited (except the well service vehicles). This time there was a lot of activity. Cabot is drilling a very deep well just east, up on the ridge, from the UIC well we looked at last year. Very deep means 14,000 feet or more deep. A Marcellus well in the area is relatively shallow, less than 5,000 feet.

cabot_well

The rig was up and trucks were going back and forth, though not an unusually large amount of traffic. The company doing the actual drilling is Sidewinder Drilling of Houston. They are using a closed loop system so there are no pits – large trucks were being filled with cuttings when we were there. The cuttings will be going to a solid waste facility that can accept that kind of waste.

The photo was taken when we were about 2,000 feet from the drill site.

We looked at wells, examined sediment controls, did our usual thing, but what I remember best is standing in a field which had several different kinds of flowers on tall stalks, they were almost chest high. Looking up I could see a large number of dragonflies overhead.

 

Solar Shed, part 2, and Splitting Wood

Off the Grid
May 5, 2014

We’ve put the panel up on the solar shed and it’s now connected to “stuff” inside the shed. The south-facing roof of the shed can take up to 3 panels so there’s room to expand.

solar shed's panel

If you look closely you can see that the south windows are in, though not trimmed yet. We also have the west window in and the door hung.

Inside the shed on the south wall is the “stuff.” There’s a circuit breaker disconnect on the upper left for the panels to the charger. The charger is below the disconnect. Below and to the right of the charger is the circuit breaker disconnect for the charger to the batteries. Two deep cell batteries are in an insulated battery box a short distance away, inside the shed.

solarshed_wiring

The next step which we might get done next weekend is installing a small inverter. We have an inverter for when we connect the shed to the house. An inverter takes the 12 volt DC charge in the batteries and ups it to 120 volts AC. The small inverter is so we can charge phones and stuff in the shed until we get everything connected. I don’t think we’ll be fully connected until next winter, if things go as planned.

splittingwood

I’ve been finishing up splitting the last of the hickory trees we felled this spring. After everything is split the wood needs to be hauled and stacked at a site next to the road, closer to the house. These trees were to the south of the garden and we cut them to let in more light in winter.