Spring has totally sprung, y’all.
Yesterday, the thermometer at Castle Frostbite recorded 88 degrees. Unfortunately, we lost power in the short but intense thunderstorm front that moved through the area in the evening, so it was also 88 degrees under the roof where the grown-ups sleep. We were in the middle of cooking dinner when the power went out, but the salmon cooked with the residual heat from the stove, so at least we didn’t ruin a $20 slab of good Alaska salmon.
Did you know that it’s kind of hard to fall asleep when it’s close to 90 degrees and you can’t run a fan or air conditioning because the electrons are leaking out of a broken line somewhere up the road? And did you further know that when the power comes back on at 2:30am, after you had finally fallen asleep, it’s even harder to go back to sleep?
So yeah, we’re dragging a bit today. I’m at the auxiliary office, a.k.a. the coffee shop, doing my writing for the day after dropping the kids off at Splash Camp. When I get home, I think I’ll check the acoustic integrity of the mattress for an hour or so.
A backup genset is one of the wisest investments someone living out in the weeds can make. I dunno abut Noo Hamster, but here in the Pacific Northwet Craigslist is about the best place to find one. I’ve got a nice little Black ‘n Decker 2500w unit that set me back all of $50. The seller couldn’t get it to run. An $8 tune up kit and half an hour of wrenching validated my fifty buck gamble. I run it on ethanol free petrol and start and run it for half an hour about every three months. A five gal. container of fuel sits beside it out in the shed where there’s a 50’ heavy extension cord so I can get power to the house. 2500 watts is plenty to keep the freezer and fridges cold, and run a fan or two or three to keep air moving in the house. It’s Western WA, AC is a silly expense for two weeks of warm weather each year. The genset is handy for camping too.
Yeah… My bedroom is on the west end ofthe house, and my bed is right up against a brick wall, that soaks in the NM sun for the last half of the day. It’s usually still pretty darn warm when I try to go to bed.
Though, since leaning up some old fence sections against that wall, that’s helped a lot.