Soil on Memorial Day Weekend

We had 10 yards of top soil delivered on May 29th to make it easier to fill the remaining holes left for the Air-X guy wire augers. I'm just itching to do something, anything to help.  I counted out 14 shovels full of dirt and loaded up the wheelbarrow then kept dumping them in the holes, then, I ran the garden hose as Rich suggested and tried to compact the soil as much as I could.  Kally had a blast playing in the mud.  Our little pup looked like a mud dog not a Border Terrier by the end of the day.  I washed her off with the garden hose...she doesn't seem to mind the cold water. The remaining soil I'll use to spread around over the gravel.  

Roses Wilt and Die; Cement Will Last My Lifetime

The BP oil spill in the Gulf has been on my mind daily since I first heard about it over a month ago.  It reinforces my desire for clean renewable energy.  I'm happy I have a nice alternative energy company in my backyard that actually talks to me, works with me, and is willing to design plans to meet my specific needs.  The company is  Freedom Renewable Energy out of Derry, NH

 http://www.freedomrenewable.com/

and right now, they are in the process of filling my every desire for alternative energy.   Rich, Freedom's "Project Manager" is my guru and designer.    He's like "E.F. Hutton", when he speaks I listen, he's our energy farm designer, he's a SDE (Solar Designer Extraordinaire), his mind is in constant motion and is in constant scan for creative solutions.

Our galvanized pipe arrived via truck on May 24.   The pipe transfer was delicate, not a scratch or bump leaving the truck.


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Check out the video of Rich, Project Manager, for Freedom Renewable Energy, gently guides the pipe into place. 

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Ah, concrete, how I adore concrete.  It's my favorite sustainable building material.  With limestone as it's main ingredient and one of the most abundant minerals on the earth you just gotta love it.  Below is BC, (Before Concrete) and AD, (After Dumping).

Rich and Mike worked hard on the beautiful cement pad and posts that will hold 4 off grid panels.  The speckles are sections of tree that came down in a small windy storm the night after the cement was poured...the cement was so hard by the following morning it was easy to brush the bits off with a broom. In addition, concrete was poured that will hold the galvanized steel pipe support for 14 panels and the anchors for 4 guys on our small wind turbine.

The Video below is cement flowing into the form that will hold our pipe.
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Check out this video of  Rich and Mike directing cement as the driver/cement operator pour into the Solar Pad.

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Rich designed the pad...very, very cool.  I could care less about  "blood" diamonds  and roses...the  cement pad fills me with joy.  I can see it outside from the kitchen sink and I smile when I look at it....I know what it will hold and what it will give me back.   Roses wilt and die, people die and are maimed over diamond mining in Africa, BUT, cement will last my lifetime and it will support something good.


Notice the conduit that will house our wires....wow...it's going to be a wild time pulling them through,  and I know if I'm on the pushing end I'm going to PUSH WITH ALL MY MIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I struggled last year pushing through the wires through to the house and could only do one section of pipe at a time, a very inefficient way to do it, I'd push then get it to one end then pull it through.  I was limited in mule power a/k/a housewife power...this will be fast and powered by "Freedom".

AND, Rich again came through with another great idea....more on that later but we'll use a battery powered variable speed drill  to check the factory setting on the wind turbine!!!!!!!! OMG...what an INCREDIBLE idea!!!!!  I wracked my brain thinking what could easily be used as a variable power source to measure or tweak the setting...WAY cool!!!

Creative Solutions, Guts and Skill

You just don't go down to Ace Hardware or Sears and say, "hey I'd like to buy some solar panels to put on my roof".  Let's face it, the industry is NOT plug and play "yet".  Not every one has a solar array on their roof or a wind turbine in the yard, especially in the Northeast USA.   It's just not like owning a refrigerator or kitchen stove, you just don't cart it home and plug it into a socket.  That's why you need creative and adaptive problem solvers at the helm of any alternative energy project.  Enter Rich, from Freedom Renewable Energy out of Derry, NH, he has both of those qualities.    Rich's mind is in a constant state of "idea flow"...just the kind of  adaptable quality you need when things are not black and white.  He's the designer of our "confluence of energy"...a three forked stream where wind, grid tie solar and off grid solar all flow through conduit and into our house, it's our custom made energy stream.


Freedom Renewable told me up front that wind is NOT a good option for our site...and I agree with them.  My only purpose with wind it to help trickle charge our battery bank during no sun but perhaps windy, stormy days when we typically lose power.  But they are a flexible and open minded company and they agreed to help me.   I had a few concerns reading through the "Air-X Land/Marine" PDF instuction booklet.   At the top of my list was how to attach the small gauge wire...a lightweight #10 to the BIG and HEAVY #2.  With 42 feet of #2 attached to that flimsy #10 with what Air-X deemed "suitable"... a split bolt connector...I could envision the wire breaking at some point...not good!!!!  Well, guess what....Rich had the SAME concern and he had a work around!!!!! Yup' that's right....you gotta' just love creative thinkers!!! I want the sucker to work, and I don't want anyone getting zapped in the process... have a broken wire hitting that 42' steel pole and you have a potential problem..Rich's work around is just what we needed...creative problem solving..that's at the crux of this industry right now.  Like I said, it's not like plugging in a fridge you just bought from Sears you need a guy like Rich in your corner on a project like this.

Rich has all kinds of nifty way to do things.  Remember the old Volvo commercial, "it is better to push ze car than to pull ze car"  well...it is better to pull ze wires than to push ze wires...much easier, and Rich has a very cool way to snake them through!!!  Watch this video to see his "vacuum method", he is shown pulling a rabbit out of a hat, well almost...he pulls rope out with a vacuum..the rope will then be attached to wires that will snake through the conduit...voila!!!

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And, check this out....Rich in da' hole, holding forms as Rich, the backhoe op gently sifts loose soil, culling out the big rocks...wow...guts and skill!!!


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Things are a' happen' here today!!!!

Things are a' happen' here today!!!!!!

The Caterpillar 4200 backhoe arrived at 6:20 am complete with operator.

Freedom Renewable definitely picked the right company for the job, he blew through digging three trenches that will fork into one.  Massive holes for footings that will support  the 14 panel grid tie array,  another hole for the stand alone 4 off grid array, and four holes for the Air -X  wind turbine guys and center for the tilt over tower. All of this directed efficiently by Rich, like a maestro directing a symphony he got it all done in a matter of a few hours!!!!  Since the backhoe op was done early Rich put him to work pulling some stumps where we had taken down trees...how cool is that!!!!!!!!!!!!!  An unexpected bonus!!!!!  Rich said, "might as well put him to work"!!!!


Rich is overseeing the entire project.  He told me to relax, and "everything is good"...it's totally Rich, he says it a lot, and, he MEANS it and he smiles when he says it.   Everything IS good with Rich.  These folks have things under control, every base covered. Everything IS good!!!!

Even my "add on's" the stuff they said they'd "help me with" is primo quality work.   The "off grid" panels I had on the "housewife 2 x 4 frame" will now sit on a substantial footing.  Check out the photo that give depth perspective with a 5' snow shovel.  First class..it's going to be a 6' deep concrete pad, MUCH MUCH better set up than I ever dreamed for my "add on"..this will last a lifetime as Rich put it!!!!  Rich is in constant motion.   I'll be working with Rich tomorrow on the Air-X,  I can't wait this is incredibly exciting.  I want hands on experience with the "add on's" and appreciate Rich's expertise, since I want to be able to do maintenance on the Air-X and I seem to always be adding to the "off grid" in some manner.   Turbines, unlike solar panels seem to need occasional maintenance.  I don't expect very much out of the Air-X...I'm only hoping for a trickle charge when we have a power outage and the sun isn't shining but typically we seem to have some wind when we lose power, especially in the winter and during hurricane season.

Fred, Live Wires, and "the boys" from Freedom Renewable

Fred's a live wire...plus, he can identify them quickly.

My street was officially road blocked.   A police cruiser, complete with flashing blue lights and a cop, blocked the street entrance.  Well it was blocked, but, not quite blocked for everyone.  Fred had zero trouble getting though. It's not that he blends in or is invisible, quite the contrary, he has presence, Chutzpah, that positive gutsy way of doing things.  I didn't know anything was wrong on the street.  I had no clue the street was road blocked!!!!   Fred drove past the cop, past the road block and past two sets of downed wires.   Fred's first words out of his big classic blue car was, "you have wires down".   He was holding  took a tool that looked like a Tide Pen.  He waved it at one of Unitil's primary downed wires,  "that's not live" ...a few minutes later Rich, and Mark called to say the cop wasn't going to let them though.   Fred headed out to pick them up and bring them back to the house, on his way down, he  stopped at another downed wire, "but that one is" ...the cop who was in charge of not letting anyone down the street came rushing over with "get in your car, get in your car now".  The cop was no match for Fred, his comment to the cop was, "I know what I'm doing, I"m an electrician".  I would find out later that was truly an understatement...Fred is much more than "just" an electrician.  He teaches everywhere including MIT, he's a ZBA consultant, a Vietnam Vet (med flighted out during the Tet offensive),  has a heart, and the coup de grace is he's an accomplished surfer, yep' that's right a surfer dude who surf YEAR round'...this is New England..you are not talking Florida or south...he's hard core.  So that's how I met Fred, Freedom Renewable Energy's electrician, he's the kinda' guy who makes an indelible impression.

Fred and I sat at my kitchen table waiting for "the boys" as he called them.   Rich, Mark and John were not able to make it through the police road block, but within minutes Fred spotted Rich, carrying an orange can of spray paint, waking through the woods and climbing over my dog fence in the back yard!!!!!!  You are not talking a walk in park like woods.  Rich was climbing through poison ivy, gnarled bitter root vines and some dense pines about a tenth of a mile worth.  Despite downed live wires, and police barricades the guys from Freedom Renewable Energy were at my house!!!!

Rich answered all my questions, marked potential areas where the wires would be located underground, and then headed back out, climbing over the fence, into the woods and off to another appointment with another client...wow!!!!  Fred joined him but had to leave his car since the cop wasn't letting anyone out or anyone in.  

The "boys" would later arrive to say hi and walk Fred down Bartlett Street, since his car was still parked in my driveway, held hostage by the Newton Police roadblock and Unitil.  It was great to see Mark.   I would find out later that Mark was the force behind that beautiful and moving Veteran's Memorial that includes all the name of vet's who have served even in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it's kept current thanks to a fund Mark set up. It's  in McGregor Park in Derry...wow!!!  These guys have quite a history!!!!

More Trees Out, More Light/Wind In

All for progress a few trees were sacrificed.  We took down a small group of about  red pines which will help create an opening to the northwest, our prevailing winds.  The Air-X will go in this spot behind and a bit westerly from the grid-tie 14 panel array.  

Above, "Dig Safe" arrived,  pretty much as Rich had said they would, quietly.  I didn't know until I spotted the little orange flag planted in our front lawn, see top photo.

Quality Tree finished up the job we would never have been able to complete on time.  The company with a crew of 6 guys flew through taking down some of the red pines towards the northwest, 2 huge white pines and 2 large oaks.  They started on Friday morning and were still able to make for their 3:30 tee time.


Click on the link below to see a YouTube Video of Quality Tree dropping one of our bigger Oaks.
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