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!!!