Latestarter's ramblings/musings/gripes and grumbles.

[Bruce]

Nice and sunny here today Not true most of the spring and summer though. The proof is in the solar generation charts. July was down from last year about 10%, Apr, May, June down 20% to 25% each. So far August looks to be following the pattern. Last August was .9 MWh, so far this month only .4 MWh and it is nearly half over.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Does any of your house circuts draw directly from the panels, or does it just feed back thru the meter to power company?

 

[Devonviolet]

Interesting. I would love to install solar on our roof. But, the cost just isn't in our budget. I checked into it, and if we were to put in solar panels, we couldn't sell electricity to the power company.

Our electric bills aren't all that expensive, in the broader picture, of things. We are in the hottest part of the year, and our last electric bill was $128. My daughter's old house, in Dallas used to have electric bills around $600!!! Although our house IS about half the size of that house. Our house also has spray foam insulation in all walls, floors and inside the roof. That helps as well.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

LS - look what I found for you:

https://austin.craigslist.org/grd/d/livestock-guardian-dog/6248220433.html

How cool is that? (a little spendy though)

 

[Latestarter]

She's a pretty girl. Not very big/large... I don't think I really want a dog that nurses the kids... and yes...perhaps a bit pricey... I guess it's all a matter of how good an LGD she is. After all, she appears to be fully trained. That's worth something.

 

[Bruce]

The house uses what it needs from the panels, excess goes to the grid. If we are making less than current demand it will pull from the grid. Grid only at night of course; no storage, too expensive right now.

And there is an often not understood thing: For the safety of the power company employees, the inverter shuts down if it doesn't sense line power. Why? because it could be sending power out to the net while they are working on a "dead" wire. Nevermind that there is a shutoff switch that COULD disconnect that feed and the installer told me the power company will likely throw it when they are working on a line. So WHY can't I use the power I'm making instead of being in the dark?? IF we had storage, we could use the power the panels are generating even during a power outage.

I checked into it, and if we were to put in solar panels, we couldn't sell electricity to the power company.

Well that sucks, no net metering out your way? Solar must be pretty rare there except for people who are totally off grid. No way you could ever get ROI by not paying the power company only for the daytime power you use (and you "dump" the excess). That would work only if you NEVER generate more than you use which means you would be paying the power company for a lot of daytime power as well. And the installation of a tiny array would still be expensive unless you could do it yourself.

This is the hourly graph for my arrays for yesterday. As you can see we actually used a tiny bit of their power (0.1 kWh and 0.16 kWh at 2 & 3 PM) even though we were making power at the time. I think DD1 was using the electric oven.

 

[Mike CHS]

LS - look what I found for you:

https://austin.craigslist.org/grd/d/livestock-guardian-dog/6248220433.html

How cool is that? (a little spendy though)

That's about what we were seeing for trained dogs but we haven't seen any in quite awhile.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I don't think I really want a dog that nurses the kids...

But just think - you wouldn't have to bottle feed! LOL

But, in all reality, wouldn't be such a good thing knowing how baby goats butt udders - and I have no idea how dog milk compares to goat milk... too much to think about!

 

[Latestarter]

So I mentioned that the last time I let the goats out on leads, Bang broke her collar. Today I went by the pet store to see what they had for strong collars. The ones that they keep breaking are the strongest ones TSC sells, so that wouldn't work and wally world didn't have anything stronger. Anyway, I picked out a replacement for Bang (large) and then 3 small/medium of the same style for the kids. 4 collars total. When the clerk told me the total cost, I was like $88.00 for 4 collars! I asked if they were gold plated or something... She was like, you can buy one now and come back for the others later... I should have asked if they offered financing... Anyway, Dot and April have their old collars. April's had already been replaced... twice, and she now has the same/similar style that I purchased today. Dot is the only one who still has her original collar I bought when they came here. They had better NOT break these!

The kids were pretty funny about theirs... They weren't sure what was "attacking" them Then they had to stand facing each other and nibble on each others...

Yesterday evening after feeding I decided I'd better have a look at their hooves... Man, what a mess I don't know why they are growing so fast and unevenly... I trimmed them back hard this time. To the point just before cutting into the quick and causing bleeding. I guess I'm just going to have to plan on this every other week or so until I get them back into proper shape. April was much better about letting me catch her and fasten her to the fence. All three of them put up very little fight once they realized I was working on their hooves. As soon as the ground drys out a bit, I have to do the kids for the first time. Theirs don't look bad, but I don't want them to get bad. They spend a lot of time jumping on and off the cinder blocks so maybe that's helping them keep theirs worn down a bit. I have to say, today my hand was sore... more so than it's been in a while... all that snipping.

 

[Baymule]

The joys of goat keeping!