Solar Heating

I have been given 15 old and battered solar panels!  There needs to be a lot of refurbishing and fiddling to get thm up and running.  I am going to build a tank stand with three water drums on top and the solar panels on the sloping side facing north.  I'll put up two panels and plumb them to a tank so we'll have hot water when our power goes off in the summer.  The next drum will be connected to a donkey boiler to heat water in the winter.  (Dunno what we are going to do with all the boiled donkies after winter!) The third drum will contain plain cold water for when the power is out and the pumps stop. So progress is being made.

I suppose the next trick will be to build a horse operated generator.  Good old horsepower.  Or maybe the unboiled donkies will do.

Wattle logs are piling up at a good rate and more are on the way.  We can never have enough firewood in our winter here.  When we run out there is a flurry of fetch-'n-carry before we have to start burning the antiques to keep warm.  One positive thing is that chopping wood keeps me warm!

Splashy Fenn is under way this weekend and we are well out of the way.  The noise and traffic are about 30 kms away which suits us fine.  The roads are very busy and the police are searching vehicles at roadblocks every day.  Nice to be home!