I don’t know how its been in your neck of the woods but the weather around here has been bloody awful of late. It’s either warmish, (a relative term given that we’re still in the midst of winter here in the Northern Hemisphere) and pouring with rain, (everything turns to mud) or freezing (quite literally) cold, with the wind blowing a hoolie, and clear-ish skies.
Today’s sky was full of gorgeous blueness from horizon to horizon with nary a puff of cloud to be seen, so out into the back yard we trotted to set up one end of our solar system to make sure all the shiny new bits and pieces connected to each other where they ought to be connected.
We’ll do a trial run of the whole system, with the inverter and batteries, etc, on the next (warmer) sunny day that might choose to grace these Western Shores.
To be thusly energy self-sufficient (and self-contained, along with our little back-up generator) is a large step forward on our Wunder-Lusters journey. We can’t (none of us can) afford to rely on any existing infrastructure to be available where and when we need it.
…
… 7.30pm. (5 hours later) …
… I’m now writing by lights connected to our system of loooong extension cords connected to our generator, because it’s freezing cold, the night sky’s as clear as a bell, gale-force winds are whistling through the eaves, which knocked out the electricity two hours ago – and counting …
… don’t’cha just love serendipity! …
… no internet wi-fi or cellphone hotspots either. The wind must’ve taken out the cellphone tower …
I don’t mind being disconnected from the world, but I’d like it to be on my terms, thank you very much.
…
8.30pm:
Perhaps I ought to think about sacrificing a virgin, with appropriate lustrations, to the ethers …
…
… couldn’t find enough virgins, or lustrations …
…
9.30pm:
Eureka! Lo, and Behold, Light hath returned!
Now, where was I?
(** goes forth to take care of all the things that have been put on hold for the last four hours**)
…
… Right, I’m back … but it’s still too damn cold. (one tiny space heater does not a whole house heat) It’s hot water-bottles for me, and a nightcap, (tea, of course, what did you think I meant, hmm?) in bed.
My cuppa and I, wish you all goodnight.
Widdershins Worlds 
Stay warm, Widders and Mrs Widds
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Will do 🙂 … hot water bottles-R-us 😀
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We’ve considered solar and just haven’t gotten off our duffs yet. There’s something to be said for self-sufficiency these days. We’re cold here too in Oregon and hoping it doesn’t last long. Stay warm.
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Might be time to consider doing a bit of un-duffing. Extreme weather events are just going to get even more frequent and extreme-ier.
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Yeah, I know. We’ve done some prep and are fairly self sufficient, but no solar yet. It’s COLD here today. It seems like whatever is going on in your area hits us the next day.
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Heh, sorry about that. 🙂
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The wind’s been wild here too. The village shop lost power and just when they’d finally emptied out the ice cream freezer so they could move it to someplace with power (this involved taking everything off two adjoining shelves, then taking out the shelves themselves–don’t ask) the power came back on and they hat to put it all back.
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And probably have to do it all over again in a few days. I try not to despair that so many people don’t have something in place for these softs of events. They’re certainly not going to get any less frequent, that’s for sure.
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Oh yes the capriciousness of the Canadian weather. If you don’t like it, wait 15 minutes and it will change. Ha ha ha. In the past week we have had -24 Celsius, rain, sun, snow, freezing rain and today is expected to be +8 or nine or 10? Like I said, wait 15 minutes…
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Ah well, if it were easy, everyone would live here. 😀
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Freezing winds here too. “Fraser outflow,” it’s called, so I guess we can blame you folks. Haha! 😉
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Heh. 😀 … a bit more to come, I think, then we’ll back to the rain and gloom again.
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I’m OK with more rain, as long as it doesn’t become a flood. But sun and warmth (not heat) would be nice! No more extremes!
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Yeah, we’ve been appreciating the sunbeams these last few days, but a tad more warmth would be good too. 😀
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todays date is 2022,02/22 and you hooked up 2 panels. So you should rejoice in the company of your loved one today at 2:22pm with a toast to life!
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There’s something rather magical about numbers, isn’t there? 🙂
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as artificial as it is,I’d have to agree. Hedy The Sloppy Buddhist) is the one who is into numbers.
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😀
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Good luck with the panels – we had solar for many years at our house in New Jersey – best investment we ever made. I felt zero guilt using AC in the hot muggy SUNNY summers.
Ours wasn’t free-standing, because we fed our excess to the grid, so it had to be off when the grid was off, so it wasn’t as useful as yours may be. OTOH, we did get that income because we always produced more than we used.
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We’re going to see if we can rig ours up on the travel trailer roof so that we’re charging the dedicated batteries when we’re driving as well.
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I love my solar panels and battery storage on my house- yes, I run the aircon guilt-free during the hot humid days- we are all SO dependent on the grid, it scares me. I’m glad you’re getting so organised 🙂 Stay warm, G
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Will do. 😀
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Attempting to push some of our heat your way!
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Heh, it’ll probably arrive sometime around May/June. 🙂
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I love my solar panels. 🙂
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I love your solar panels too … they are beloved the world around! 🙂
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Do you realise your potential role as a pioneer for all of us as power becomes like gold over the next 10 years? You and your partner as the Clark and Lewis of the new energy paradigm.
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Heh, that’s us alright! 😀
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That’s a clever alternate to a generator. Cheaper and cleaner. I wonder if we’ll ever have solar operated vehicles. Probably cost a lot so money can be made. I read couple posts back that you and the Missus have begun prepping for your adventure, wooo woooo! The Arctic Circle, yay! Congratulations for your new book! You go!
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I guess if someone had solar power to their house and they charged their electric car with it, then that’s a solar-powered car! 😀
Thanks for the book congrats. I’m rather chuffed with it. 😀 … book 2 is in the works. 😀
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-giggles- the gods of chance are smiling on you, Widds! I’d take this as a very good sign indeed. The Wanderlusters are going to be warm and comfortable wherever they toddle off to. Now tell me how you intend connect to the internet, because of course you can’t live without us, right? -cheese eating grin-
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Absolutely … you’re going to hear about everything (almost) warts and all! 😀
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Excellent. Btw can you send me a link to the Wanderluster youtube channel? I didn’t have an account last time so didn’t save it.
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Here it is .. and if the link doesn’t work, just do a YouTube search for The Wunder-Lusters 😀
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMJ7ubf9Ae-QZ4X6rIs3SkQ
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Thanks, Widds. Subscribed. 🙂
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Whoot! Thanks, Meeks. 😀 … I think that makes a grand total of three! 😀 … but from such tiny acorns do mighty oak trees grow. 🙂
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lol – maybe we’re not watering those baby oaks enough. 😉
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[…] Mrs Widds … remember that video I did a little while back where we tested our solar panels? … and we had a power outage immediately […]
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