Killing Kate, On the Road Again & Misc...

Some might remember that last Christmas I gave Barb the present of her appearing in a mystery novel as a character. Julie Kramer is a White Bear Lake author and her fourth book was being written last November. She has a relationship to MinnPost, the news blog. So, for a donation larger than the others (an auction) I got to name Barb as a character. The book, Killing Kate, came out in July. As in her first three, the heroine is a reporter at a Twin Cities TV network affiliate.

Barb started it and found me in it first. In the book I left my pickup with my dog in it and went in to a business. Hot. Dog died! Then Barb showed up offering to deal all the dirt on her ex-husband - me! By the end of the book I feel like I've been hounded by the reporter and the station, enter the studio with a gun and do the worst. Well that wasn't exactly what we expected! Kind of fun, but not much of a present for Barb!

We missed going to Michigan to visit the Gabrielse' the week of July 4 because of Barb's back. We've been doing a series of Physical Therapy visits and will be headed to MI for a fall visit.

Barb's back is much better and we've changed some of our transfer processes to lessen twisting.

Solar On Line!

It's up and generating! The Xcel engineer came out today and witnessed a test of the inverter shutting off if Xcel power goes off, I signed a connection agreement and they turned it back on. It's cloudy now and we're generating 1700-1900 watts; earlier the sun was out and we were making 3400-3700 watts. Supposed to be sunny again this afternoon - Yahoo!

This is the array tilted to the East.

This is the inverter panel showing what it's currently generating and the total of 10.2 kilowatt hours generated so far.

Showing the sub-panel added and the inverter to the right of it.

Info label added to the main breaker panel.

Warning labels on the inverter.

Solar Going Up!

This is exciting! The footings for the tracker went in yesterday:

And the posts went up and they got the first crossbar up today:


The crossbars are the axis that the panels will rotate on. The truck says "Able Energy" and
"weknowsolar.com". Most of the wiring is done and the panels come in Monday.

Trailer Trash Art Deco

I have to include a picture of our newest art piece. We found this at a trendy little gallery just outside of Fredericksburg, TX. The gallery consisted of two or three travel trailers (it was hard to tell), a couple of pickups, and a large tarp strung stylishly between them. They had picked a spot at the side of the highway that was easy to see in time to stop and had good parking and visibility to get you back on the road.


As I said in an earlier post, Barb is still not sure about this, but she let me invest in it. I love it! It's mounted in our living room on it's sturdy Chinese plastic base and, as you can see, makes a beautiful reflection at night in the window behind it. It was hard to choose but this one called out to me with a mix of mystery, insouciance and boldness. Art does stretch our minds...

The Greening of the Avise Home

We installed a Geo Thermal system one year ago and are about to install solar so I decided to write some about that journey. Re: the Geo Thermal, we are on a shelf of dense rock that's about 9 feet down in most places. After doing some test drills to confirm this they decided they would have to do vertical bores: two or three well-like bores into which loops of pipe could be lowered to circulate and cool fluid. When they came out to start that process they brought the horizontal bore machine first to run a bore from the "well" sites to under the basement of the house. Coming up the drive they saw a clearing next to the pole barn and, across the drive, a hill. They did a test bore at a slant down from the clearing 9 feet, hit the rock shelf, and leveled off just above it and went under the hill. That worked so well that they fanned out five horizontal bores, pulling the bit back with a loop of flexible pipe each time.

With a year's experience, we unequivocally love it. It's gentle, without the on and off of the furnace and without ~ $2700 annual of propane. It uses a little more electricity in the winter but much less in the summer.

This winter, before we went South in March, I replaced all of the regular light bulbs in the track lighting on the main living level with LED bulbs. It took some looking but I found the light that I liked best and that looked the best on the art was the 8 watt (equivalent to a 55 watt bulb) Ecosmart LED from Home Depot. They dim and fit in the track "pots" and are the cheapest I found. They use between 15 and 20% of the energy of the bulbs they replace and last (hopefully) longer than I will.

This month we will put ~7000 kilowatts of solar on the hill next to the house. The initial estimate for a 10' by 30' single axis tracking array was 5000 kilowatts but a reassessment of the orientation put the estimated production at 7000 kw. The array will track from east to west and will contain 20 solar panels. This is a stock picture of the type of array which will be installed:


And, if I drive 55-60 mph, the RV gets 16-17 mpg. The mini-van gets 17.9 (multi-year average); and the little '93 Honda Si gets 40! I get about two weeks to 1.5 liters of Korbel!

It's Not All About Traveling

Home again!  4,080 miles and all in all it was a good trip.  Now we're home and the NuStep has been delivered and it's time to do taxes (credit for last year's geo-thermal!).  And it's time to re-position this blog.

This started as a travel blog but it seems there is more to life than heading out on the road.  I didn't want it to be a "Listen To ME Because I Have Something Important To Say" blog; so I tried to limit it, but there are some other aspects of our lives that might be of interest.  Or not.

Anyway, it's now a generic Barb and Keith Avise blog.  Blah, blah, blah...

Deming and the Turquise Trail

We made the long drive across West Texas through El Paso and up to Deming, New Mexico.  The only reason I wanted to get to Deming was to have SteerSafe installed on the RV at the factory.  SteerSafe is attached to the steering mechanism and prevents the wheels from being turned by wind gusts, road hazards, blow-outs, etc.  We had been to Deming before and there's not much there; we have seen the City of Rocks before and everything else revolves around rock hunting, climbing or off-roading.  SteerSafe proved itself the next day driving north to Albuquerque.  The wind still moves the coach but not the steering wheel so much.  The springs do make a "sproingy" sound when you turn the wheel at very low speed.  (That's the technical term for the sound.)

Just outside of Albuquerque there is a National Scenic Byway called the Turquoise Trail.  It runs almost to Santa Fe and encompasses old mining towns which are now home to art galleries, inns, etc.  We're at the southern end of the trail at 7000 feet and it's back to long pants and jackets!  Clear skies and lots of sun though.

We found a nice little restaurant in Cedar Crest - GreenSide.  Nice menu and wine list with items marked as Vegan, Vegetarian,  Gluten Free and Meat Freak!  Unfortunately most of the shops and galleries on the Trail are apparently on the National Historic Register because none of them are accessible.

On to Lamy, just outside of Santa Fe to visit Al Webster and Roberta Armstrong and then we'll start home.

Fredericksburg!

We moved from San Marcos to Fredericksburg today and what a beautiful drive!  I have to retract the last post's comment about the Hill Country - Lockhart just isn't in the Hill Country - we most definitely were today!

And forget about New Braunfels being German - we had lunch in the Fredericksburg brewery today and the sausages, German potato salad and kraut were all excellent. 

On the way here I smacked a turkey that flew out in front of us; amazingly enough, no damage.

Also on the way here I bought an addition to our art.  It's kind of "Trailer Trash Meets Art Deco" - you'll just have to see it.  Barb's not sure...

Just Say No To More Red Meat!

We drove down to New Braunfels yesterday afternoon and had supper at Freisenhaus: the German restaurant that everyone raves about.  Pretty mediocre actually.  These people might all have German heritage but they didn't grow up in Sheboygan with German butchers and grandmothers and mothers.  I make Schnitzel that good and (since Barb taught me) make German Potato Salad a lot better!

Smitty's today - I think they all strive for funky.  Like the rest so far, you order and pay for your meat and then exit the smoky, hot cooking area and order and pay for your sides.  Smitty's has the fire outside of the cast iron "pit" and the line starts right by it.  Sure makes everyone move right along!  We took this to a state park near by and had lunch - good tastes once again.  The plan of bringing home a freezer full of TX BBQ isn't going to work; it's just not the same if it cools, is refrigerated or is frozen.  Is there a smoker in my future? 

Had some home-made ham soup and bread for supper; I think we're suffering normal food withdrawal.  I'm thawing out some Italian sweet sausage tonight and we'll add it to home-made tomato sauce for pasta tomorrow.  And we're going to go buy mass quantities of fruit!

Barb said she was home-sick this afternoon and it turned out she was home-sick for her dogs.  So we called Chelle and crew who are caring for them.  Shauna was as quiet and shy as always but reassured Barb that they're doing fine.

Super-moon tonight - bigger in Texas of course!

Lazy day tomorrow; then to Fredericksburg Monday.  It's another German town in the Hill country.  And by the way, we decided today that they call it the Hill Country because it's not table-top flat like the rest of TX.  The State Park we had lunch in today I swear was made a State Park because it had a pretty good sized hill in it.  It was a pretty wooded hill with a golf course around one side of it but, come on, that's just an ordinary country road in Wisconsin!

Mid-Week in San Marcos, TX

Sitting in the shade to let the breeze cool us - it's 82 at 5:00 PM after downing about 5 pounds of chopped brisket - really a little over 1/2 pound each but it feels like more! Pinto beans and slaw and a Shiner Bock to wash it down (Good Beer!) This is from Kip's in San Marcos and it's our favorite so far. Went to Kreuz yesterday - German/Czech heritage and pretty funky. Sign on the front door says "No salesmen! We shoot every third one and the second just left." We didn't like their meat as well but I think it was because we brought it back to the campsite and rewarmed it. Seemed to dry it out.

We usually like to stay in parks - from City/County parks to State or National. It didn't work out for any stops on this trip so we're in commercial parks with a couple of Walmart parking lots thrown in. This is a particularly nice one however - lots of big trees and the San Marcos river to play in. Lots of families and kids and dogs but amazingly quiet. I think the kids are busy all day and asleep by 7:00. Barb is suffering from dog withdrawal but that started Saturday!

We went up to Austin yesterday and found El Interior: a shop that sells clothing and arts and crafts from Guatemala and Mexico. Barb had wanted a long colorful skirt - she ended up with 3 and 2 blouses and I got a shirt. It's a great store and they're on the web and ship all over the world.

After shopping we visited the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. A little early for everything to be in bloom but a nice start to Spring.

San Marcos: BBQ and Wildflowers

We're in San Marcos, on the river of the same name, for a week.  The reason for this trip came about in 2008 when Texas Monthly magazine selected a #1 BBQ place for the first time.  They had previously selected a top 5 - they did that also in '08 but named one of them, Snow's, numero uno.  Then the New Yorker picked up the story and let Calvin Trillin write it (New Yorker Article).  That did it - I wanted to eat at all 5.  Snow's is only open on Saturday's from 8:00 until the meat runs out (Miss Tootsie starts smoking at ~ 11:00 Friday night).  So Saturday will be an early day.  San Marcos is close to all four towns with the farthest being 80 miles away and the closest 17.

Sometime this week we'll go back up to Austin to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.  I've wanted to see that since Mark Tomlinson did our kitchen tiles.  He did the wildflower tiles in the entrance of the Wildflower Center. 

Texas Bound and Down

Love that song from Smokey and the Bandit - OK, actually it's Eastbound and Down by Jerry Reed.  But this is blogerary license (as opposed to literary).  It's On the Road Again, Spring Fever, and Spring is Here all rolled together.  We left WI Friday with the alarm on and neighbors, including the St. Croix County Smokey who lives on our road, watching the house for us.  It was 22 degrees (above, thankfully) and we drove straight through to Lewisville, TX, arriving at noon Saturday.  I napped a couple of times in Missouri and a couple in Oklahoma and it was an uneventful drive.

We had reserved one of the sites that is right on the lake and the city hasn't raised the rates on this municipal park/RV park so for old farts like me it's $8.00.  We pulled in to 74 degree sunny weather with a light breeze and it was heaven.  We've had a long, cold, snowy winter!

I de-winterized the coach, got fresh water loaded with bleach to shock everything and we sat in the sun till we had to move to the shade.  We're going to lunch today with Jim and Janet Moffitt and be here again tonight and then mosey on down (Hey, I'm in Texas!) to San Marcos where the highs have been 80.  Y'all stay warm, now!

Catching Up The Last Few Months

We had a busy winter but I want to focus on two things: Barb has been taking a watercolor class and we did "Fat Sunday" on Feb 27. She is really enjoying this; some photos of her work:

This isn't based on anything but I want to be in that hammock!

Coming back to Bayfield, WI from Madeline Island.

From a photo of a big horn ram in the Desert Museum in Tucson.

From a photo of a blooming cactus taken in Arizona.

We did our largest Fat Sunday on 2/27 - 19 people! Pics and the menu at Fat Sunday Album

Now it's packing the RV and heading to Texas and New Mexico - posts to come from the road!