Hot, hot, hot.......

That's not an advertisement for a new product but a comment on the weather over here, in the Central West Plains of NSW, Australia, the last fortnight.

Temperature has broken local records at 45.8 deg Celcius. Thankfully the newly installed solar power system has saved us a small fortune as the air-conditioners have been in operation 24 hours a day, unlike previous years, as even the lowest night temperatures have been 24C or more. We had a hen die last week from heat stress. Ice containers cooling the water, wet patches on the ground where they can sit under the trees, and even shallow dishes to stand in didn't help on the day when the winds were hot and brisk. Two days before that one of our hens hatched 6 chickens in 44C heat! One died the next day, but it had a difficult hatch and was possibly blind so it may have been kinder that it did die, even though we took over the care and did our best for it.

Even the outside dog has been encouraged to come inside. She's 14 now so she feels the temperature changes more keenly.

 

Of course the cat is mostly inside as he "owns" the place....hahahaha....

The temperature dropped to 38C over the weekend but the humidity rose so the weather was still difficult to endure. I will definitely be glad when Autumn weather arrives with cooling breezes and the possibility of rain.

Mulching and deep watering infrequently has kept the  few vegetables and fruit trees alive, though my little Emperor mandarin has dropped all it's fruit. The lemon and the lime tree haven't flowered this year, but as they too are small, I'd rather the energy go into strengthening the tree than into fruit. The worms are still producing their type of fertiliser and I'm grateful for it as the compost isn't breaking down very quickly in this dry hot weather. Photo is about 2 litres of worm juice that I gather once a week.

I participated in a Christmas card swap last year, in a forum I am a member of, and received cards from 2 members in England. I should have posted these earlier, but it doesn't alter the fact that they are beautiful cards, and much work has gone into the making of them. Thanks again, Sarah and Josey.

Sarah's card

Josey's card

My card to Josey

Cheers,

Robyn Louise XO

Solar Power!

Yesterday was the completion of the solar power installation. This installation should give us the electricity we need to perform daily household tasks as well as power for hobbies like sewing, woodwork and welding. There were already 3 phase power lines installed on the property when Hugo bought it.

Installation - that's the roof of my craftroom with the mechanical workshop next to it.

It was surprising how quickly these were set up and screwed down. 

The solar panels all angled nicely to collect the sun's rays. They also have the effect of shading the buildings below them reasonably effectively but not interfering with the air flow over the roof.

The Inverter

The inverter is linked via internet to my mobile phone and also to the computer, so we have a record, whenever it is collecting power, of the kilowatts of power being collected, the kilowatts we are using and also the kilowatts of power going to the grid. 

Basic Statistics
Fronius Symo Inverter 8.2-3-M
36 x Phono Solar Technology Hyperion Solar Panels which delivers 9.9kWp
IR = 116% (allows for degradation over time of panels)

Cheers,
Robyn Louise XO

HAPPY NEW YEAR! ,Procrastination and Intentions

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

No resolutions but I intend to stop procrastinating....again...and begin intentionally planning as I have a couple of times previously. 

To fine tune this I have purchased a book, which uses a method that I have researched extensively, over the past year or so. At first I thought it was just another scrapbooking gimmick as social media was flooded with it. I have learned though, that if you want to know the real facts you go to the source, so I searched other areas on the internet and found these: -

https://bulletjournal.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym6OYelD5fA&t=&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

both of which interested me as I'd read similar before but didn't realise the importance of it, to me, at the time. 

 I discovered that I could relate to what Ryder said, then he wrote a "manual" about it, which resonated with me as I have always been a reader, but I find some learning methods need a mixture of reading, hearing (audio) and doing (kineasthetic)  for it to capture my interest and for me to learn it. The basics of this is simple but I needed the original version, with all the later "fluff" and  everyone else's version absent, to visualise how it could work for me otherwise it seemed just another collection of lists, but in a notebook and not on loose pieces of paper.

I have also discovered there are many everyday items, that use up my time ineffectively, so I am evaluating what is necessary and what is "pen twiddling" or just something to do to fill in time when I cannot think of something more practical to do. It is surprising how much can be achieved in 5 minutes if you just do it! My friend Rose, from the DTE forum, taught me this but I let life direct me in recent years and lost the habit of intentionally finding something purposeful to keep me occupied.

Blogging needs to be scheduled as well or it becomes intermittent and then non existent. Routine is something I've always had a problem with but if I can make the daily living tasks routine then I figure I will be able to meet unexpected challenges with the time and focus needed than if my mind is cluttered with trivialities that I can solve/complete in a spare 5 minutes of clear thinking.

Trying something gives a better understanding than just looking at it from the sidelines so that's my plan this year.

Cheers,
Robyn Louise XO