I Am Thankful for Solar Power
Once again, I am so thankful for having solar power. Admittedly, we have not gone totally solar. So far, our backyard shop and my art studio are solar… oh yeah, and the little log cabin in the back yard.
Well, it was great saving on the electric bill this past month. As I have mentioned, we do spend a lot of time away from the house. Much of my day is spent in my art studio or the workshop. Of course, since the kids starting coming over so often we spend quite a bit of time in the little log cabin.
The neighborhood kids don’t remember Spanky and Our Gang, but most of us old AARP-ers call the log cabin the Our Gang Clubhouse now. It has turned into a real gathering place for the neighborhood. Most of the time it is unlocked and often I find a kid or two in the cabin, online, doing homework. The neighborhood parents seem to be happy that the kids have a safe place to go. This past week the neighbors built a huge bookcase along one of the walls. For the past two days I have spent time filling the bookcase with quite a collection of books.
About the solar power and the log cabin. I did say that we had purchased a battery system for the cabin so it is 100% solar powered, day and night. Since the first day we used solar energy in the cabin I have been happy with how it works… and yes, the savings that were noticeable when the electric bill arrived. But, Thursday night, the solar powered cabin proved its worth.
About 6:00 in the evening, all the lights in the neighborhood went out. As usual, most of us were patient for a while. The neighbors seemed to wander into their backyards, each asking another if they had power. None did. After an hour or so of chat, speculating on the cause of the outage, some of the younger children began to get a little restless. They had not had dinner and they were getting hungry. The older kids acted as if they had been zapped into a third world country with no television and no computers.
Personally, the quiet didn’t bother me one iota. I took a seat in a big old rocking chair on the side porch and swatted at mosquitoes. We still have a few lingering night flying biters and the presence of so much fresh meat seemed to draw them like a magnet.
My husband’s wheelchair was getting close to needing a charge so I thought I should at the very least get him inside and close to his bed, just in case the power didn’t come back on for some time. Ah, but the cleverness of youth surfaced. Jason, the self-appointed leader of the pack of neighborhood kids, suggested that my husband go to the cabin and recharge, something that had not occurred to me.
As always, one thing led to another and before long, most of the neighbors had gathered in the cabin. Before I knew it, they were cooking hamburgers on the outside grill. Happy was cooking vegetables on the stove in the cabin. The kids were online doing homework. The men in the neighborhood were watching the evening news. And, we were having a neighborhood get-together.
The electric did come back on around ten o’clock. Everyone left to go home, full of good food and good company and good cheer. For a few hours, the neighbors forgot about the economic crisis, the worries of their jobs, and enjoyed the benefits of green energy!
Based on that one evening, the solar power set up paid for itself. And, should we have an ice or snow storm this winter, we all know that we can be safe and warm even if a few power lines fail to serve the neighborhood.
So, once again, I am so thankful for the wise kids in the neighborhood who insisted that they install solar power in the log cabin and I am thankful for solar power.
