Thursday, March 8, 2007

spring on the mountain tops

Today i traveled to taos for groceries and animal feed. To get there i have to go over the tippy top of the sangre de christo mts as i am on the eastern slopes and taos sits at the base of the western slopes. Todays trip was extra gorgeous...i mean, its always gorgeous but today was so so spring like. A small storm system made up of fast moving scattered storms that were some keep-you- guessing mix of rain, snow, hail and bright sudden sunshine. I only got fleeting views of the highest, snowcapped peaks since on one curve of the road it would be sunny and then just around the bend would be a hard rain/hail.

the food store portion was uneventful....sometimes it is teeming with queers which is such a treat for me (i tend to grin a lot at everyone like a homo starved fool) but not today...boo.

on the community radio station during the drive there some woman was going on and on about how magical taos is..." a fairy tale life"...and when i got into taos on the multi-lane mainstrip highway full of texans and californians and walmart and mcdonalds and way too much traffic eventually jamming itself through the tiny, oldtown, once groovy streets i had to wonder what fairytales this woman grew up with....

anyway... heres a perfect example of spring weather. Someone down there is getting rained on...it was lightly snow-hailing on me while i took this and when i looked up there was only blue evening sky.

7 comments:

BBC said...

I've only been to Taos once. I took a load of redwood from California to a lumber yard there.

I spent a night there in the truck as I got there in the evening. Then after dropping my load the next morning I had a few hours to look around before getting my next dispatch.

I enjoyed the experience and there is some beautiful country there.

I was dispatched to Pueblo, Co. so took highway 64 toward Raton. Not a great highway for an 18 wheeler to be on in a few places.

I was letting my air horn off on corners to warn oncoming traffic as I was taking part of the other lane.

It sure was pretty up there though.

BBC said...

Hey, are your solar panels your only power?

Or you also on the grid?

aaron ambrose said...

Yeah...its real purty around here...i certainly wouldn't want to be drivin' a semi on highway 64...eeee.

and yes, solar is my only power. I've had the money a couple of times over the years to hook into the grid if i wanted to but the thought of a monthy bill....well, also the fact that grid power comes from nuclear and coal which destroys communities and the planet....has kept me from hooking in. tempting tho since my solar is very very minimal...no fridge...no washer....someday i'll have WIND POWER!!! someday!!!

BBC said...

So it looks like you have two solar panels. That must be in the area of 110 to 140 watts of output on a good day.

What do you have for a battery bank?

Would you be interested in a very good, like new, Arco 55 watt solar panel?

aaron ambrose said...

mmmmm....is it free?
I need a freestanding panel so i can run a shurflo dc pump from the rain tank to my house.
If its not free then ask me again in the summer when there will be more cash flow!

I've forgotten many of the specs on my system as i've had it for 8 some years and it just keeps on tickin'...but its something like 9 or 10 watt hours per day...2, 75 watt panels , 125 watt inverter, 24 volts and i've got 4 batteries.
cheers!

BBC said...

Am I willing to give you a three hundred solar panel for free?

Maybe, I'm thinking about it.

Because I admire how you live.

I only used it for a year when I lived in Arizona, it's mostly been in storage since then.

I'm not sure what you mean by free standing though. It's a rigid framed panel like yours are and can be mounted on anything.

I made a mount on a pipe that went over another pipe so I could turn it toward the sun.

I could find uses for it here but I never get around to doing that.

My water barrel is just outside of my door, but I'm putting it on a stand in my place this year so that it won't freeze in the winter.

Near the ceiling, high enough that it can gravity feed, I like simple.

As for a windmill, I have some great ideas (I do some inventing) for a good system. Not a lot of steady wind here though.

Rosie said...

Your trips to Taos sound like my trips to Asheville. I also have to crest the Smokies to get over there...it's not to far but the windy mountain pass makes it seem farther. It's really different from going to Knoxville which is a typical conservative bible belt town. They call Asheville "the Paris of the South.". I sit in the cafes and oogle all the baby dykes. Hang out in the bookstore too long. I've become the dirty old lesbian.