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where there’s a Will, there’s a way

20190303_142745y

you can see here the batteries that are exchanged every two days.  My electricity.  Which doesn't power any lights or ordinary things  but just the ignitions for the propane…heat and cooking.   Hot water when i think i need it which is when i want to wash my hair.  Minimal.

behind them,  the continuing  "loaves and fishes"  bags of stuff she Alyssia  brings from her Chico home to the new one here,  or,  HER storage unit.  Her mother,  Jenny,  my daughter,  refers to her as a hoarder.  She takes exception.  For her it is valuable and important stuff.  She should be done with it this week.  But as you see,  the SUV seemed full.  Tay took exception.  She LOVES Alyssia's vehicle which is full of crumbs of all kinds.  Worth whatever it takes.  A having left the hatch open,  imagining it to be FULL.


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took a lot of STERN demands.  

 

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20 responses to “where there’s a Will, there’s a way”

  1. Laura R Avatar
    Laura R

    HI! How do you power your lights, and computer? The battery powers your hot water for showers?

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  2. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    yes. its an electronic ignition for the hot water heater. for the “furnace”…the fan, blower that distributes the heat….really well.
    i have no lights. The batteries can’t provide that. Lights are these funny battery powered things we call Patty and Poppy. AA and AAA batteries. Bright enough.
    the computer is another thing. It’s on the table here. is what is used for instance by truckers to charge batteries in emergency. Alyssia also takes them to recharge. There’s three of them. They alternate. Should take a pic of them. At first they were an issue for me. They are not at all aesthetic…sitting on the table in the middle of my Life. But they charge the laptop. And MOST, they charge the phone which keeps me connected with the world beyond this Hill. Without that, i am very isolated. Very.
    This is something that i have had to work to deal with. I am totally dependant on Alyssia keeping up with all this. IF for some reason, she could not, I’d be up a crick. Well…i just would not have what they provide.
    which leads into thoughts about what’s next…interesting….what do we focus on next?
    Building that “hut” at B? or….making this travel trailer more self sufficient, which it seems might be WIND ENERGY. Wind mills. These winter months…not enough SUN to supply a Battery. Wind i think could. This is the kind of stuff we are grappling with right now. Not what we had HOPED, but what seems to be the reality.
    it’s hard to live dependent. I have no choice in the moment. This in itself is a teacher. And i breathe through it. Ok. It’s not what any of us had imagined, ongoing.

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  3. joanne Avatar
    joanne

    When is reality what we had imagined? In Africa a group is placing free solar panels on the roofs of huts where people have never had electricity. they can now have lights in their homes so the children can read and do schoolwork (work that was done by oil lamps before). A second panel charges cell phones if they have them–and they do. There was a picture at the end of this news report showing the tiny dots of lights…….not what they imagined. But now real.

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  4. Vicky Davis Avatar
    Vicky Davis

    wind….yes, my husband wants to use wind. solar works, but is so expensive.
    but…you can get those solar yard lights, not the dinky ones, bigger. we use one when the power is out, lights the whole damn room, would light your whole yard! i want it for a ‘what if’, the wind blows something down and we need to SEE outside, to look around?
    put your laundry in a bucket with a tight lid, and water, and roll it down the hill. should be plenty agitated by the time it stops…hehehe….i would for sure find a free way to do the wash!

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  5. joanne Avatar
    joanne

    I like the idea of the solar yard lights used in the house after dark and then back outside to charge during the day. And the idea of a lidded bucket and your clothing rolling down the hill. That had me laughing.
    I see on my weather map that it may be raining by you again today. We have bitter cold with sun. Cold that cuts thru any clothing you have on and takes your breath away. Brutal. Piles of icy snow. My hands are ice cold even here in the house.
    As to the laundry. I would go to pay for the washing but bring the wash home wet to hang outside to dry. Your daughter’s next project- a clothes line.

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  6. Peggy McG Avatar
    Peggy McG

    Dependent vs independent. Comfort. IN the weather and Out of the weather. Stuff. Seeking human contact. Seeking living beings. Knowledge and exercising our brains. These challenges most people would not survive well. You do it with Grace.

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  7. Peggy McG Avatar
    Peggy McG

    Ps As I sift and pare down getting ready to sell my sticks and bricks house, I came across a little piece of paper torn out of a magazine. It says: Remember: It’s not clutter; It’s the evidence of life.

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  8. Peggy McG Avatar
    Peggy McG

    The challenge for Grace right now is the rain and no sun. Clouds…batteries drain faster than solar panels can replenish and clothes dont dry in the rain. Physical energy is needed to go up and down that hill. Not impossible, but a challenge..

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  9. Peggy McG Avatar
    Peggy McG

    I apologise if this sounded crabby.. I would delete it if I knew how!!

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  10. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    (((Grace)))

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  11. joanne Avatar
    joanne

    Oh Peggy I would never find you crabby. I was thinking ahead to when it stops raining. I should have been more clear about that and the garden solar lights. When the sun comes back. Not now.
    I am reminded of our first year out of college. Hardly any money and a new baby. Diapers were only cloth. thankfully, my parents sent us an old fashioned baby buggy and I could push it into Town and hope I had enough quarters for the washers. Possibly a dryer. I had a clothes line out back and hoped one day to have money to buy clothespins. A cousin had given me a paper grocery sack of used baby clothes. That’s all I had.

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  12. Peggy McG Avatar
    Peggy McG

    Oh good. Thank you..because I am not crabby.. it just seemed to read that way. Struggles through our life gives us knowlege and the ability to think of ways to overcome.

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    yes. I’ve seen that. It’s so LOVE.

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i really don’t mind no light in the house. Am a chicken.
    Sun goes down, so do i.

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  15. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    cold is what i no longer want to do

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  16. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    what you are about to do is Epic.

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  17. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    Mo…yes. back to you

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  18. Laura R Avatar
    Laura R

    I didn’t see your answer until today. If people reply well after you have posted, do you get notified of late replies?
    L

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  19. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    Yes..comes through

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  20. Laura R Avatar
    Laura R

    I don’t find out unless I go back to the original posts. I will try to keep up better.

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