Water

For those of you who think of California as this dry, brown landscape I thought I would post some water pictures. I took these a couple weeks ago on a single walk on our land. Although there is a quite a lot of water flow, it's probably 1/2 of what you'll see after a couple days of steady rain. With quite a few weeks of winter left, we're already up to 32" of rain and all the local ponds are full. Some of the streams will continue into July; 1 or 2 will last all year although at very low flow.

I'm not sure if it has anything to do with getting more rain but the deer population is way up and the pigs are back. Unfortunately, the pigs do a lot of damage and it is already clear I'm going to have to re-route some of my trails due to their destruction. They do taste good though.

The largest waterfall

One of many streams

The largest waterfall viewed from the other side of the canyon

The lower falls

Another stream

I've never seen another rock like this on the land

Yet another stream

Kit's definition of a "swim"

Happy Winter Solstice!

It seems like it was summer just yesterday but it is definitely winter now.

Winter Morning

Susan has invented a new field of "tree engineering". In order to make our Christmas trees fuller and more symmetrical, she has pioneered techniques such as "branch insertion". (Required tools: electric drill and sharp knife.) Her latest development is "tree weaving". I was skeptical at first of the idea of combining 2 sparse trees but the result was an undisputable success.

Two trees woven together

When we started to design the house, we knew we wanted to use solar energy but we weren't sure if we wanted solar thermal, solar electric, or both.

By the time we started building, we had decided to install solar thermal since it would have the biggest impact on our energy usage. Solar electric technology and incentives were also in flux and it seemed like a good idea to wait and see how things changed.

After the house was built, the electricity usage was higher than I expected. We spent quite a lot of time trying to understand where the electricity went and then trying to reduce it. We had some big successes like reconfiguring the hot water recirculation system but in spite of this effort, we realized that it was time to consider a solar electric system.

The New Solar Electric System

Over summer, some friends visited and brought 4 proposals they had received for putting solar electric panels on their house. I was quite surprised at the efficiency, net cost, and short payback period for the systems in spite of our friend's house being less than ideally situated for solar power. Encouraged by this, I called 2 contractors: the one who put in our solar thermal system and the contractor our friends chose.

It was clear I had a lot to learn when I saw proposals that claimed to reduce our electric bill to zero in spite of being too small to cover 100% of our electricity usage. It turns out that this is due to 2 factors.

Solar Penels (in the middle, left of the solar thermal panels)

Solar Electric Control Panel

First, in the summer the system will generate more electricity than we need and the excess will be "sold" back to the utility for a credit. During the winter, we will "spend" this credit to buy electricity since the system won't be generating enough to cover our needs. Once a year we will pay for our net usage, if there is any. (This fall, California passed a law that says the utility has to actually pay for any balance in our favor instead of just keeping it for free which is what they get to do now.)

Second, most people pay for electricity based only on how much they use and not when they use it. With solar electric systems, most people switch to a time-of-use rate plan. This means that any excess electricity generated by the system during the day is "sold" back to the utility at peak rates. If you can time shift electricity usage to non-peak (night) hours, you can buy electricity back at a much lower rate. For example, if you switch 1 kilowatt/hour of power from peak to non-peak hours, you will get a credit for the difference in price between the peak and non-peak costs for the kilowatt/hour.

From the energy conservation point of view, we are helping he utility by lowering the amount of electricity they have to generate at peak times. It is this quantity that determines how much generating capacity they have to build. The electricity we use at night is most likely excess capacity.

For example, we put a timer on our well pump so that refilling the water tanks happens at night. The pool cleaner now runs at night instead of during the day. Our last electric statement showed that we had a net usage of $25. (This was also November when the sun is close to winter solstice.)

One big surprise was that the quantity of electricity generated is effected much more by the length of the day than the angle of sun. I had expected the peak output of the system to drop dramatically as the winter solstice approaches. What is happening is that the output at noon is still quite high but the overall output is less due to fewer hours of sunlight.

At the time we put the solar thermal system in, there were very few real time monitoring tools available. Fortunately, solar electric monitoring systems are much more advanced. Our system is connected to the internet and it frequently uploads performance data to a monitoring company. They have a web site where I can go and see both instantaneous or historical performance. It is a public site so the data is visible to everyone:

Click to open our solar monitor web site

Solar Information Web Site

Furniture

I finished another bed for the house recently. It was a design I've been thinking about for years but didn't have the space or equipment to handle: both the headboard and footboard are made of one continuous curve. There are several ways of bending wood: heating with steam, soaking in chemicals, or laminating thin strips. The first 2 require specialized equipment that would be prohibitive for a project of this size. The last approach is not only easier, it is much more interesting from an engineering point of view.

In order to bend by using laminations, you need a form to bend against. You also need to cut your wood into strips thin enough to bend around the form. In the case of the bed, I ended up with 19 strips each 3/32" thick and 12' long. These are glued together and clamped to the form. When the glue dries, you end up with a completely rigid, very, very strong piece of wood bent to the shape of the form. This sounds pretty simple but the glue up is nerve racking; the glue dries in 15 minutes at 70F so it has to be spread on all 19 laminations, then combined and clamped to the form in a very short time. I cheated a little by doing the glue-up early one cool morning; the cooler it is, the more time before the glue sets.

New Bed

Bent Laminations

Glueing the strips around the form

This is the 2nd of 3 beds I need to make for the house. Adam and Holly have also requested beds. Fortunately, each one is different with different challenges.

One Year Later

It's been about a year since we moved in and we've settled in to a weekly routine where we spend 4 days in the new house and 3 days in the Bay Area. This schedule has worked pretty well since I can't work at home all the time and we both have various ongoing activities in the Bay Area.

Living Room (couches covered for the dogs)

Summer/Fall

Shortly after moving in, we were lying in bed listening to a series of incredible lighting storms but no rain. In California, summer lightning is rare and when it does occur, the first thought that comes to mind is "Fire!". The next morning Susan said, "Oh, well. We might get 2 weeks in the house before it burns down." Over the next couple days, the extent of the problem became apparent; in Mendocino county alone, there were about 125 separate fires. Although the closest the fires came to us was about 6 miles, we had a couple weeks of very low visibility and very poor air quality. The were so many fires across the state that almost every fire line was undermanned until the governor called out the National Guard. Locally, they camped out in the county fairgrounds and you could still see convoys travelling to the fire lines for mopping up operations for weeks afterwards.

Our typical weekend has Susan working in the garden while I'm in the shop. For the first several months, I spent my shop time installing the dust collection system and building shop cabinets. It wasn't until winter that I actually built the first piece of furniture for the house: a small table for the living room. Several weeks ago, I finished the first of 5 beds I have to make (3 for the house, 1 for Holly, and 1 for Adam). I've made several beds before but I now have the space and equipment to tackle much more ambitious designs.

Shop looking west

Shop looking east

First Bed

We found that we use the covered patio when we have larger groups but when it is just Susan and me or a a small group, we hang out around the pool. On a warm evening, after a hard day's work, it is wonderful to sit by the pool and gaze out across the pool, lavender, and the valley while sipping a cold glass of local rosé wine.

Pool

Last summer the vegetable garden provided a bumper crop of excellent tomatoes along with beans, peppers, tomatillos, melons, cucumbers, and even some corn. The asparagus started producing over the winter and usually provided enough for a weekly dinner or 2. Along with the asparagus, we also had broccoli, artichokes, and chard as winter vegetables.

Vegetable Garden

Artichokes past their prime

Pear Tree

One of the most fun aspects of living away from the city is the variety of wildlife. Deer are common enough that we take them for granted. Occasionally, we also see foxes, skunks, jackrabbits, and a wide variety of birds. We had a nesting pair of kites this spring and are now watching their baby learn to hunt. We still haven't seen either a mountain lion or coyote but did see the remains of a deer taken by some large predator.

White Tailed Kite

Winter

We noticed in the fall that our water usage was much higher than we expected and over the course of a couple weeks, I ran some experiments and determined we had a sizable leak in the water system. Our water comes from a well above the house which pumps it to 2 large tanks far up the hill over a 1000' feet from the house. (The tanks were placed when we thought the house would be higher up on the land.) Somewhere in this system we were losing about 1500 gallons a day, roughly equivalent to a garden hose left on 24 hours a day. Fortunately, the system has lots of valves that allow isolating various portions of the system so our contractor and I tried various experiments to pinpoint the location of the leak. Unfortunately, we kept coming up with inconsistent data. I finally decided the only way to find the problem was to bring in a leak specialist. They pressurize the system with an argon/methane mix then use a natural gas sniffer to locate the leak. It is expensive but it can detect tiny leaks.

When the leak specialist showed up, he took about an hour to set up his equipment and just a minute or so to find the leak since it was right near where he set up. Interestingly, there wasn't a trace of the leak on the surface in spite of losing so much water. Our contractor fixed the problem over the next couple days and, as per our agreement, sent me a bill for the leak specialist and repair. Immediately after getting the bill, our contractor contacted me and told me to ignore it. He had mentioned the location of the leak to his crew foreman who told him that his crew put the failed joint in. Since the leak was his fault, he said he'd cover all costs. It's so nice to work with someone who not only takes real pride in the quality of his work but also has incredibly high standards of honesty and integrity.

Both Adam and our landscape contractor mentioned several times that we needed to remove the small to medium sized (1-6" trunk) Douglas firs since they were starting to choke the oaks. Susan and I talked about it but what finally made us start the work was the local land trust telling us the same thing. After Susan and I cut and chipped about 200 firs, it was clear we needed help. Over the next couple weeks we paid a 2 man crew to cut a couple thousand firs. I didn't want the liability of giving them my chain saw, so they were limited to cutting what they could handle with heavy duty loppers and a bow saw.

After all this cutting, the road to the house was lined with big piles of cut trees waiting to be chipped. Our friends, Joan and Neil, came up one weekend and after seeing the pile volunteered to come back up and help us chip. Unfortunately, the chipper broke down after 1 hour and we had to quit. The next weekend, we located another chipper and Susan and I and 2 helpers chipped all the trees in 7 hours in the pouring rain. It took over a week for my boots to dry.

Speaking of rain, although we got more this year than last, we still aren't up to normal. Hikes after a rain, even a small one, were a real treat since there are lots of streams, some with small cascades. This year we also finally found a path to a 30' waterfall at the head of one stream. Unfortunately, the waterfall only runs after a storm and the path isn't safe when muddy. If I get real ambitious, I might build a real trail but I'd also have to remove a bunch of poison oak.

Spring

This spring, Susan expanded the vegetable garden with an additional large in ground bed. We now have 18 tomato plants, lots more cucumbers (for pickles), peppers, tomatillos, lots more corn, and a variety of other crops.

The flower garden near the house really took off this spring. At one point, the colors were incredibly intense with a mixture of blues, purples, and orange. Susan says it has been a "learning experience" with some plants doing much better than expected and others that everyone thought would thrive not surviving. She has been making adjustments, trying new plants and adding more of the most successful ones.

Courtyard Garden

Driveway

Lavender by the pool

Courtyard Garden

In spite of a low rain year, the grass was over head high by early June. We could hike but it wasn't that pleasant and it was easy to lose sight of the dogs. I solved this by cutting trails with a string trimmer. Unfortunately, using the trimmer requires long sleeves, long pants, a face shield and hearing protectors so I could only work in the cool of the mornings and evenings. In spite of the limited time I could work, I cut a variety of trails to various spots on the land.

Trail from the lower garden

Summer

We are back to enjoying evenings by the pool with a glass of rosé. Susan is back to the garden and I'm working on a another bed. One of these days, we've got to start cutting more Douglas firs.

Move in Weekend

After over 2 years of work, we finally moved in. There is still work to be done but the that work is minor. Move in day coincided with Holly visiting from NYC, Adam done with finals, and Jessica home from medical school. Susan's sister, Donna, and her husband, John, also joined us so our newly occupied house was completely full. Over the 4 days we were in the house, the temperature went from blistering (97 F) to the normal summer heat (80 F).

Move in day started with a truck rental in Oakland. Although we didn't move much existing furniture up, we did have a lot of stuff we had stockpiled in Oakland. (Until I saw it, I wouldn't have believed how much space bed linens, pillows, and quilts for 4 beds would take up.) Although the truck worked very well, my Escape hybrid died 5 miles into the trip. Since I was driving the truck, I had the good fortune of hearing of the hassles via cell phone. After having the disabled car towed to the dealer and swapping cars, Holly and Susan left for the house only 3 hours late.

The rest of us arrived at the house about 2:30 PM and, with some strong help our contractor brought in, the truck was unloaded in about 1/2 an hour. Over the next couple hours, some of us got the rugs down and furniture placed in while others worked on the kitchen.

Covered patio

Kitchen

Living room area

Living room area

Master bedroom

By 8 PM we were all exhausted so we retired to the pool area and finished off 3 bottles of wine.

Friday found us doing more cleaning, organization, and moving in. I debugged the satellite TV connection and got the new tv mounted in the library/media room. The rest of the media electronics will have to wait until next weekend. The internet connection is due within 2 weeks. Throughout this day and the next 2, everyone felt free to take a break and have a swim whenever they were overtaken by the urge.

Pool

Saturday continued the pattern although the crew spent the afternoon in Mendocino and made stops for wine tasting on the return drive. As a father's day present, they let me stay home and work on assembling my new woodworking machines. Although I made progress, I still have a long way to go before my new shop is up and running.

Sunday's departure was hard but we have even more to look forward to when we return on Thursday. The landscaping should be nearing completion with the upper garden done and the driveway ready for planting. The garden prep work stirred up so much dirt that keeping things clean has been a real challenge. We look forward to the last of the dirt work.

Garden

The courtyard garden has taken off and the plants are growing at an amazing rate. In the lower garden we already have tomatoes, peaches, and pears. They are small but the plants seem to be very happy.

The pool, appliances, and almost done

It's been about a month since the last blog update. Things have been moving fast but I kept delaying an update waiting for the right milestone. Well, we hit several this week. First, the pool was finished and filled. Second, most of the subs have finished or are on the verge of finishing. Third, most of the appliances were installed. Fourth, I'm starting to outfit my new shop and, finally, the landscaping is taking form.

We went up last Thursday since the pool was going to be plastered and filled. Unfortunately, the plasterers worked so quickly that by the time we arrived they were done and gone and the pool was being filled. (Pools need to be filled immediately after plastering to help the plaster cure correctly.) We originally thought we wanted a very dark (i.e., black) pool but when it came to actually picking a color, we realized we liked a medium grey much better. I think our architect was a little relieved since he admitted that he found black pools a little "uninviting".

I thought about posting pictures of the pool being filled but the water was trucked in and looked more like pond water. We joked that Susan actually got the pond she always wanted; all we had to do was to add a couple turtles and we would be in business. The pool contractor assured us that within a couple days the water would be crystal clear. He was right.

We decided to go with a salt system for controlling chlorine since it keeps the chlorine level stable and avoids the necessity of handling large amounts of chlorination chemicals. The basic idea is that salt is added to the water as a source of chloride ions. After filtration, the water passes through a small unit that oxidizes the chloride to chlorine. When the chlorine acts as a sanitizer, it is converted back to chloride and starts the cycle all over. In order for this to work, the pool needs the salt concentration to be maintained at about 3,500 ppm. Sea water is about 10 times that concentration and most people only start to detect salt at 3,500 ppm. The slightly salty water is also supposed to "feel better".

The most important requirement for the pool was that it be safe. (We hope that some day we'll have grandchildren in addition to granddogs.) Towards this end, there is a pool cover controllable via key. One click and the pool is safe. Our dog Elsa thought it was just an extension of the surrounding concrete and walked out on it; she let out the canine equivalent of "Yikes!".

Pool

View from the pool

Pool cover switch

Covered pool

Our pool heat comes via the solar thermal system exclusively; there is no fossil fueled pool water heater. The design of the system allows us to balance the use of the generated heat between house heating, domestic hot water, and the pool. Most likely this balancing will require flipping a single valve at the beginning and end of winter.

One of the interesting things about solar thermal systems is that they require a place to dump excess heat. (A solar electric system is different; if excess electricity is generated, it can just be dumped to ground.) If you don't dump excess heat, the system will overheat and may be damaged. Without a pool, our solar thermal system would have been difficult to engineer.

Once the major subcontractors were all done, the floors were given their final coat of finish. A couple of little items remain such as glass doors in the bathrooms and some final painting touchups but the punch-list is getting very short. The concrete counters out by the pool and in the powder room were also completed and installed. The powder room counter is striking since the sink is formed within the concrete as a single unit. The library/media room turned out just as we hoped; it is ringed in 9' bookshelves and cabinets using the same Eucalyptus as the kitchen cabinets.

Powder room sink (backsplash to be installed)

Pool kitchen (refrigerator and ice maker to be installed)

Front of the library media room

Back of the library media room

Stainless steel railing

I thought the plumbing was already a work of art but it just keeps getting better. Unfortunately, it will soon be encased in insulation and won't be as visible.

Plumbing for the main house

Once the floors were done, the appliances were installed. They still need things like leveling and ice maker hook ups but the kitchen is 99% complete. The washer and dryer haven't been installed yet since the dryer was upgraded with "steam" capability since we picked it. (I always thought the purpose of a dryer was to remove water, not add it.) The plumber will have to come back and add a new water line.

Kitchen from dining area

Stove

Warming drawer, dishwasher, and sink

Refrigerator and pantry cabinets

With the floors done, I could also start outfitting my shop. I'm taking advantage of a new space to upgrade some of my equipment. The first of these upgrades were delivered on Wednesday and included a 1200 lb jointer and 600 lb planer. Fortunately, my contractor claims he loves the challenge of moving heavy equipment around. He is also picking up my new table saw next week. I built a new workbench over the winter but still have a lot of new cabinets to build. Once the shop is complete, I have a long list of new furniture to build.

Shop corner where my drafting table will go

Jointer and planer

The landscaping work continues and the native plant area beyond the courtyard garden has started to take shape. The plants look a little sparse but the ones planted a couple weeks ago are already growing rapidly. The layout looks a little geometric but the look should be much softer when the plants grow to normal size.

Courtyard garden and start of native plant area beyond

There has been a snag with the phone and internet connections. The company is paying for a T1 internet connection and I am working through the incredible bureaucracy in ATT in order to get one installed. It looks like the quickest they can get it working is the end of June. The local ATT engineering office (not the bureaucrats) have been very helpful but ultimately they can only do what the bureaucrats tell them to do. We are going to be running the T1 and phone lines in the same cable which means we won't have a voice line until we have the T1. Unfortunately, ATT won't install a T1 unless there is a voice line. I'm hoping rationality will prevail and I won't end up in a catch 22.

Mattresses are being delivered next week and we hope to start moving stuff up the week after. The goal is that by July 1 we'll be in residence complete with phone and internet.