winter solstice

Got a good day of welding in considering it was the shortest day of the year. The GrubShack is closed on Mondays so I didn't have an excuse. Finished up the vertical supports on container two and got one stick welded into place on #3. Quit at 4:15 for a shower then shot down to the Ghost Town for my regular Monday night webcast from the Starlight Theatre. My friend Trevor Reichman played tonight. Also had a rare chance to chat up my all time favorite waitress Stephanie for a change. Too cloudy tonight for my official solstice sunset photo, but shot one last night just in case - so you get the idea. Now we are on the journey back to summer with each day getting a bit longer. 50,79,31,0

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.