Good morning. It is a glorious November 5th big day for Americans today
but
doesn't really matter much
For us up here on the mountaintop. Sun is shining. I've got
probably
8 to 9 kilowatts coming in right now. It's about 8 a.m. as I record this and we've got a
had a pretty big snowstorm yesterday and
Totally because we're in the mountains and you can actually see across the valley and my camera doesn't zoom very well
But you can actually see the snow up there. That's literally where we are in the same elevation approximately and
Yeah about 200 feet below us
There's very little snow, but we got it and it's gonna melt pretty quick because it is so sunny and
one thing I do in the mornings in the wintertime when there's snow and when we've had snow is
I come out early and I I scraped the
You kind of see one of my solar panels behind my firewood shack there
That's facing southeast and that shack does not shade it at all in case you're wondering is I go and scrape the sun off my solar panels
So that I get maximum
sunlight coming in and that one I scraped off earlier the first one
I do in order is I start on the southeast one then I go south and the west one actually right now
It still has some ice on it, but there's not enough direct sun on it to melt it
And it's not being used as much so I just worry about the first two
Get the sun off there. I've probably got yeah eight nine kilowatts coming in right now with just those two panels
Then I go and I knock the snow off my greenhouses and I can only reach so far, but I did that I use this tool here
It's a
telescoping
Snow thing for a roof
I just stretch it out and I go and whack the greenhouse a little bit just to make some breaks in the ice and then as the sun
Starts to come up. This is gonna melt very very quick, especially when you get the sun off
Yeah, I get the snow off if you don't get the snow off then the light can't get through and warm the
Inside of it, which is what happens when we get direct sun and that's why this greenhouse
Orientated as it is strict true south is so important is that at this time of year now call it November 1st until
probably and
of February this greenhouse gets
Full sun all day it gets the southeast in the morning and then the southwest in the evening as it sets over behind there
But I come out here and I scrape off this greenhouse as well because in the winter
I move my chickens in here
So they're just waking up and I just moved him in here yesterday. Oh, they're there. I just moved him in here yesterday
I basically because it snowed so much yesterday
They've been in this coop all summer and I mean really they've been in that coop for since April the April till now
And they don't want to come out when it snows and so they're really easy to round up
I just go in there and grab them two at a time and I get them in here and then they come in here
It's a party that they're gonna finish off the whole greenhouse. So I
Left
Don't worry. I picked a lot of peppers. You're looking at that going. Oh my god
I can't believe how much you left we ate I planted way more than I needed and we ate more than we could and we
Processed all that we needed to so the chickens can enjoy the rest
These are all sweet peppers to actually so I got all my hots
So the chickens will eat those and look at this
They got leftover kukes that they can munch on those these will decompose a lot quicker now because they'll freeze at night
And then they'll fall in the morning and that'll make them rot quicker so the chickens can come in and eat them
And so they're stoked because it is I'm not kidding you. It's probably 15 degrees Celsius in here right now
It's minus three outside and
And it froze last night, of course
But as soon as the Sun comes out boom this greenhouse is warm and that's what's convenient about the way this greenhouse is
orientated and it it wasn't intentional this way
it was just all I had because of my limited topography on my property because this this greenhouse is a straight east-facing greenhouse, but
It's kind of good actually because it just means that when the chickens are in here
In the winter they get the first light and it warms up super quick
And then they get out active the scratching for grubs and they're I bring on their compost scraps and their feed and they eat
What's in there?
So they they're happy this way, but you know it was just the way it had to be because of my topography
As is everything here like even this greenhouse here is partially in shade for just a part of the morning
And it really is only in now. So it doesn't matter so much because that greenhouse
I don't use that as much in the winter as this one
This one is just more a lot more hardcore. I do have winter crops in there
I just finished cropping out our tomatoes the last
Batch I probably harvested a hundred pounds and not kidding you and I had a few hundred pounds from here this year
But I still have my cold crops in there like my carrots. I got some beets in there. I got some lettuce. I got spinach. I've got kale
And
Yeah, and celery and so those things are all cold tolerant and they can stay alive in that greenhouse most of the winter
So yeah, that's kind of what things are looking like on the homestead today
We are working a lot on the house all on the interior right now
We're not really worried about the exterior though
We might do that once we run it of other things to do on the interior
At some point I'll do a
More thorough update on the house or maybe I won't I don't know I kind of like keeping things private to some degree, but you know
So I got a staircase in here now
Which is huge because my entire homestead this whole thing here or the home
I should say was designed around my shore path and how is the way?
I'm going to walk out of the house daily to do the chores come into the go to the chickens
and go to that greenhouse and
Walk behind to the solar panels to scrape them off the thing now
That's so cool is now that this stairwell is done. I see I have another still well to do here
I don't know if we'll get it done this winter though. Unfortunately. I
Might landscape something there temporarily so that in the winter I can just walk down it
But this whole thing was designed around of course my topography what I had
Which is somewhat challenging, but it's south to southeast facing so it's kind of ideal in a way
And then that landing up behind the house is that now my chore path is all orientated around here
This this is my zone
One and I can walk into the greenhouse by going through a door on the deck
I can walk down into the garden real quick down here
I can go behind the house to scrape off the panel
So now my traction from moving from this thing to this every morning is going to be eliminated. I'm going to eliminate
walking about
500 feet probably
30 times a day so think about that time as you stock it and that's how I like to think about
Homestead design is is how do you move and exist in that space?
So that's kind of the thing that I'm really excited about but yeah quick update. Hope you guys are having a beautiful day and
Remember whatever happens in the election doesn't really matter
You got to take control of your life and be responsible for the things that you need. Have a great day