Category: Construction and Maintenance
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Spring Ditch Cleaning
Spring groundswork has started. We hired a trackhoe to clean the ditch that carries water down through our property. It hadn’t been cleaned in years, and it required a larger machine than our small backhoe. Now, it’s looking good! Continue reading
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Unintended Consequences
One of the issues with solar panels being high off the ground (to keep them out of the rams’ reach) is that they’re also too high for us to easily reach. We need to brush the snow off them. Now, if they were on the roof, we’d just have to wait until the snow melted.… Continue reading
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Clean Ditch
A pleasing vista is a ditch cleaned when I didn’t have to dig it. This is the back catch ditch, and we had a trackhoe in to clean it out. It hadn’t been cleaned for 20+ years. Prompt: The dictionary defines a vista as a pleasing view. Make a photo of a vista that pleases… Continue reading
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Pond Edge
We had the cattails cleaned out of the pond. Now you can finally see the pond edge. Prompt: Make a photograph of an edge of something today. The edge of a knife, the water’s edge, or some other edge. Continue reading
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Cleaning Ditches
I’m watching the trackhoe clean out the catch ditch from the shop window. This was the highest viewpoint I could do. Prompt: Make a photograph today of an interesting subject with as vertical or high a point of view as you can manage. Continue reading
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Sunny Power
This is the local DMEA installer, who’s swapping out our electric meter for a net meter. Our Black Sheep Power & Light solar electric system is now fully operational. Colorado always has lots of sunny days. Prompt: Illustrate your local weather today with a photo. Rain or shine, cloudy or clear, communicate what it’s like… Continue reading
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We’re Ready for Racks
It’s the end of July, and both poles are installed. The first of the brackets and racks that hold the solar panels are in place, too. Continue reading
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Poles and Brackets Are Started
We moved the second pole into position today for the new solar system. Here are some photos of the installation process. Here, we’re mixing mortar and adding brackets. Continue reading
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Erecting the First Pole
Things dried out enough to continue work today. After some initial filling of the holes, we ran wire and conduit from the poles to the hay barn. Below is a view of where the metal pole will fit into the plastic pipe sleeve. Here’s the process of getting the first pole into place. Once the… Continue reading
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Concrete and Rain
The concrete arrived for the piers that we need for the new solar system. We got it all poured in with no problems. However, that evening, it started to rain. Our trenches started to fill up with water. Ken took the backhoe and dug an emergency ditch through the hay barn to keep the water… Continue reading