Back To Shangri-la

Our Mondo March Marathon of Travel is now in the rearview mirror, we are back home in Shangri-la where Spring has definitely sprung.  Were home exactly two days last month in between visits to grandsons old and new (and their parents, of course), an exhausting trek for these two geezers.  The final push of 700 miles in one day was just about enough to put us in traction.

But now we are home and (mostly) recovered and the chores of spring are in full bloom.  Flowers are popping up all over the place and Mrs. Barn is feverishly getting all the garden beds ready for her ministrations.  This is her version of being “in the shop.”

I, on the other hand, have gone to the shop only long enough to package up my Donsbarn.com store orders.  This will likely continue for another fortnight.

I have spent a couple days working in the greenhouse installing the new thermostat controlled solar powered ventilation fan.  We’ll see if it is adequate to the task; the day before I started working on it the space was well over 100 degrees.  Yesterday the fan brought it down to the mid-70s, but it was a cloudy day.  I’m thinking I will have to augment the fan with a shade cloth.  I’ll now spend a couple days finishing up the window framing before proceeding to moving in mulch and soil and building the main raised bed.  I am looking forward to now getting fresh vegetables year-round.

Being Spring time it has been my time to re-activate the hydroelectric system. Every year I check the line to repair any winter damage which results from trees falling on the 2” PVC penstock. Normally this occurs at the beginning of March but since Grandson #3 was born on February 28 and Grandsons #1 and #2 have birthdays in mid-March…  This year there is much less damage than normal but I am taking the opportunity to reroute a few stretches of pipe in order to flatten out the inclined line of the pipe.  Near the bottom and alongside the pond I disconnected, pulled out, then rerouted a 150-foot section, moving it up about three feet but weaving it in behind several trees.  Ever try to “sew” with a 200-pound piece of thread?  I am very pleased with the result but that one little step took more than two days and my shoulders still ache.

Next week I will do the same thing for three sections before reconnecting it at the top and harvesting the watts.  If I can get the incline straight enough, with no swoops and swails all the way to the top, I can (theoretically) keep the system running almost all year long.  Maybe all year long in reality.  The final project in the coming weeks will be to construct a Coanda cover for the penstock intake.

One problem to be solved this year involved re-setting the debris catcher on the top of the pond drain stack.  Heavy ice in the pond this winter pushed it aside (sorry, no picture of that) leaving it sorta in place but pretty womperjawed, hanging off to one side.  To set the strainer on its axis I had to strip down to my skivvies and shoes and venture neck-deep into the 50-degree water.  Brisk.  But, I got ‘er done.

That all said I can hardly wait to complete these necessary tasks and get back into the shop with the multitude of projects awaiting me there.  Tool cabinet parquetry and fittings, full and 3/4 scale Gragg chairs, writing, editing, writing editing, and more of the same.

Stay tuned.