The internet goes everywhere again

Usually it's a lot of trouble to get wood into the woodshed. This guy just dropped out of the sky.

I spent a lot of time cleaning up the yard this spring. There were building scraps and then a list of other outside tasks like seeding grass and planting a few cherry trees like this one, which stands on the spot where we buried Anniemoosh.

This little guy was crawling around in a sand hole I was about to fill in. What a guy!





Here's a shot of the boys' room ready for paint. It is very temporarily a music room and will soon hold all the rest of the stuff downstairs to make way for the drywall work there.

Then we have been taking some weekends off, at least partly, making a little time for canoe trips, bike rides, and a dress-up barn dance. Erica took this sweet photo and also posted it on her blog, where wild blackberries grow.

I never fully imagined a satellite dish mounted on our house, but there it is. It connects us to the internet now, even way out here, by bouncing a signal off a satellite 22,000 miles away. I know this has been common technology for decades, but I'm still really impressed.
The computer's increase in demand for electricity has got me thinking about a more sustainable solution than our little generator.

This bridge had a beautiful green arch over it last summer built by my brother-in-law for the procession of his and my sister's wedding. There are rocks under it which hold back some water and I've had this idea to use this tiny reservoir to make electricity using a small hydro generator like the one on this video. I haven't found any other examples of people doing it quite this way, but I think it will work well.

The beauty of this setup is that since the moving parts are all underwater the ice shouldn't be a problem. I think it would be wise to put some 1/2 inch screen on the intake side though to prevent the little trouts from getting knocked around. I really welcome anybody's suggestions on this, or any other part of this shelter adventure for that matter.