Happy Winter Solstice

Photos of my first and second Winter Solstice sunsets. Cold and windy ALL DAY today. Our high temperature was 54 just before sunrise. After the sun came up the wind kicked in, the temperature dropped. The low during the day was 43 and it never made it up past 50 even though the sun came out all afternoon. Killed the dreary cold morning by doing a laundry run to Study Butte. When I got back, I noticed that turbine #3 was making some weird noise in 25mph+ winds and I wasn't getting as much power as I expected out of all 4 turbines. Waited till I got a break in the wind and shut it down and checked the fuse...sure enough it had blown so the turbine was over spinning and sending juice nowhere. I had a small spark when I wired it up to the pole mount - probably blew it then. New fuse is in and all is well.

Got a photo today from my genius inventor/neighbor Robin back in upstate NY. ( http://www.whipwatch.net/ ) She sent me a winter solstice view of my old garden, barn and house buried in the snow. Makes me kind of sad to see the old place - guess I miss it more than I thought. The big tree just to the right of center was an old maple that I tapped and made syrup from my second year there. The shortest day of the year was always my favorite. Just meant that each day from then on was going to get longer and longer...although spring never hit till mid April. I really miss the sound of the late night snow plows grinding by with their yellow lights flashing in my windows.