Today, with the help of our former caretaker and now hired hand, I ran a fiber-optic cable from the house out to the studio. That involved first repairing some of the damage to the new fence that occurred when doing the trenching for the power feeder, then doing some microtrenching from the house to the fence and running the cable along the upper part of the fence for almost 400 feet out to the studio.
It wouldn’t have been too bad, except that it was raining hard and the ground is all churned up from the trenching so we ended up soaked and covered it mud. Still, the cable was in by noon (I’ll have to re-dress some parts of the run when the weather is better) and installing the equipment took another hour or so. Now there’s internet at the studio and wi-fi coverage over most of the pasture and garden, meaning that we have phones and texting. That’s not just a convenience, but a safety issue.
One of the problems impeding progress and getting the studio plumbed is that I can’t hang out there if I’m expecting calls, which I often am between contractors doing some of the work around here and insurance adjusters working with me to get Joulee the Free Salvage Tesla repaired. I also need access so that the solar inverter can connect to the ‘net so I can monitor charge status and know when it’s safe to charge the car.
The solar panel array is big — we ended up installing 28 panels (a mix of 300 watt and 400 watt). They should get connected up tomorrow morning and we can leave our days of burning petroleum for power behind us.
(banana for scale)
Once I verified coverage, I dragged my wet, muddy self back to the outdoor shower and then to the living room where I build a crackling fire in the wood stove.
—2p