Is That a Nose-Cone, Or Are Yuh Happy To See Me?!

After a rather dull November last year, we decided that we needed a bit more juice to have more light after 4:30 in the long winter evenings. So here's our solution: a funny hat party!
Good thing he didn't try this party-trick with the cookstove!
Seriously, we went to Canadian Tire and bought the wind generator we scoped out last year. 400 watts! We then went to Rona and found some fence-post and "fixin's", some 10/3 wire and some guy-wire. The previous day we chopped down a handy-looking juniper. We put it all together,

Plugged it in...

And Tah-Dah! Installed us a wind generator!

We spent most of this morning smushed up against the front-door window, gazing at our newest thing. Arms around each other's waists, we gloated in the prospects of possibly hosting SAD light parties, perhaps even get our own mirror-ball for those awkward silences at dinner parties. We'd be the life of the whole county! Then we'd open up the electrical closet door, thus smushing even smushier, and watch the digital display of juice coming in...neat-o! This will certainly help us through the short solar days, as we can now power-up both day and night, as long as the wind blows.

..and Speaking of Big Steel Things!

This is our Waterford Stanley Cookstove. May I add a couple of !!!! to that? Our friends, The Family Atkinson of Merrickville, had this puppy in their old Ontario farmhouse. They had come to visit our Mini House this summer and as Papa was looking around he mused out loud how well the wee cookstove would function in the wee house. Only being slow on some things, I said "Yes, Please!".

So on the way home from another fantastic Thanksgiving meal chez Danielle in Ottawa, we stopped by the Atkinsons and shoved the thing in! If you look closely, you can see all the air squeezed out of the foam in the back seat! We learned from the website that it weighs 500lbs! I could smell something burning as we stopped to pull Robbie out of the corner he jammed himself into. But the Atkinson's said a prayer (a rather serious one, as I recall) for a safe journey home, so nous violas!

We went to visit a welder here in the County, said making up some skoocum legs wouldn't be a problem. Jim had retrieved two beatiful cast steel BBQ grates from our local Walmart (the dump), so he cut them to size and they look great! One pot of stove-blacking went a long way, and one tub of fire-box cement will help. Won't be able to fire it up until we install the legs, so I'll letcha know ASAP.

In the meantime, feast your eyes on the feasters!

We are recuperating from turkey, mashed potatoes, baked squash, cranberry sauce and dressing made with Hot Italian Sausage. Go Danielle!