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Frank S:
 Since finally completing the move to the country  a couple of years ago I haven't been around much.
 About my only claim to RE now is my method of heating with my Earth-stone wood stove. My array is still packed away save for 1 panel which I Use to charge batteries with.
 My electric bill averages around $57.00 per month 8 months out of the year and $90.00 for the other 4.
 We have way more projects to do that we can ever get done it seams

SparWeb:
Hi Frank.  It's been a while.
Am I thinking of someone else, or was it your plan to convert sea-containers?
That sounded ambitious, so no wonder you've been busy, if that was so.
Welcome back.

Frank S:
Hi SparWeb; Yes I had plans to convert shipping containers. One of the monkey wrenches in that fan became apparent once it became clear that none of my equipment or goods was ever going to arrive from Kuwait. Also my retirement investment that I had so carefully planned and built up over many years had completely evaporated by 2015. I've been on a TRS (tool re-acquisition  syndrome) quest since 2013.
 We have pretty much refurbished the house to comfortable living completely re plumbed the water system built a water tower and pump house with filtration Still make a 30 mile round trip once a week to haul water to top off our storage but can go 2 or 3 weeks without doing so if need be, through the opening or closing of a few valves the pump that supplies pressure to the house draws the water out to my transport tank up to the storage. in event of total system power outage we still have water in the house at a lower pressure.
 Or can  reverse flow at the 2" connection to fill a transport tank even without power, like for fire fighting if need be.
 My homeowners insurance inspector said it is like having my own personal fire hydrant  50 ft from the house and 30 miles from the nearest city hydrant.  Still planning on adding another 1200 gallons storage on top of the tower.
 We ran 3 1" water lines in a 4" sch 40 PVC conduit 3 ft under ground 1 comes from the well to the tower 1 from the tower to the house and 1 from the tower to the under construction Green house . The well is not currently in use as I still want to install 2  300 lb sand & charcoal filters and another 100 gallon re-circulation filtration system before the well water goes up to the storage tanks Also still want to build an ozone generator and install a UV filter in the continuously recirculating filtration system. Eventually the whole system even the well 300 years away will be powered by my array and bank with grid as back up.
 The Array will also have a critical circuit interface with  with the house  such as the fridge and freezer and limited lighting.
 Right now we have LED bulbs through out the house  I could turn on every light in the house and not draw more energy than 5 100 watt incandescent bulbs Just like I had done with my machine shop trailer. 
 I have a 15 watt fan behind the wood stove and hanging in the hallway I installed 4  140 mm "BESILENT"  muffin fans , between those and the ceiling fans heat from the stove can be circulated through out the whole 1875 sq ft of the house.
 Last year during some days where the temps only got up to the low teens for a couple of days the house was comfortable enough. burning 5-5 gallon buckets full of wood per day
 Just now getting around to starting on the work shop I have 1 53 ft container for one side and will incorporate the 2 HHG vans into the other side Thinking the shop will be 70 ft by 60 ft when finished. but maybe just clay floor.
 That gives you an up date to a point except that I fell into a 15 ft deep hole last DEC from my backhoe  which may have been the cause of a heart attack causing me to have to get 2 stints Been so busy all this year I almost forgot about that.

Mary B:
Nice to hear from you! Seems like plans never go as advertised... we do what we can with what we got!

SparWeb:
Watch that last step, it's a doozie!  Well you must have recovered well enough or it would've been top of mind.  My wife fell off a tractor 10 years ago and was immobile for months with 4 screws in her leg holding it together.  I thought that was bad, but she got it easy compared to you.

That's a nice setup; thanks for telling us about it all.  I do like the water tower idea, and its usefulness against fires. 

There was this day, about 6 years ago, as I was driving home from work, I could see in the distance a plume of smoke rising from the area close to my house.  This is Alberta where the horizon is many miles away and I live 30 miles outside city limits.  As I drove closer it seemed more and more like my house.  As I rounded the last corner it was obviously my next-door neighbour who had set his whole yard and garage on fire.  The flames came close to my house but an irrigation ditch between us kept the flames from jumping across to mine. 
A fire-hose like yours would have been very reassuring that day, to make-damn-sure it didn't jump to my yard.

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