LEED Workshop

Tim (one of the guys I work with) and I are heading to Spokane tonight. We are attending an all day LEED workshop tomorrow. Hopefully we will get a chance to stop by our new Spokane office and swing over to Sportsman's Warehouse (I can't resist!). While we are there, we plan to meet up with Pharmer who has been an intern in our office the last couple of summers. He's at WSU's Spokane campus working on his Master degree. I know, I know....a coug. Being in Eastern Washington I have to put up with them. It's like somehow, even though UW is closer, I'm in their territory....and I hear about it regularly. Go Huskies!

A Month for September

It's official. Aloa is going to take September for a month to see if she can be trained. If not, we get rid of her and start looking for a new horse. Here's to her getting her attitude straight.

Attitude Adjustment

September is in need of an attitude adjustment. To be fair, she is in a new place and probably misses the horses that lived in the field next to hers. She also hasn't been ridden much in the last 8 years. So, up to this point we have been moving slow on the riding. Mostly riding her bareback and being led around the field. Yesterday, Jerry put a saddle on her and I hear he had one wild ride. He was a bit sore from it. We all agreed that we should turn her over to a friend that trains horses for a few weeks to see what happens. Barbara is going to give her a call and see if she will take the job.

It's September in October

Here's a photo of Emma and September.

We picked up our horse, September, yesterday. She hasn't been loaded in 11 years and has not been rode very often over the last 8 years. So, she is resisting a bit. She was hesitant loading, but did better than expected. I was the first one on her yesterday and she wasn't so pleased about it. Emma was the next one on, and she settled down for her. This morning Emma was on her a couple of times but she was a bit more rascally. She was doing some small bucks. So, this afternoon, I got on and she was doing it for me too. Then Jerry got on. She bucked a bit more for him, but he did a better job of keeping her under control. I was joking to everyone later in the day that he had one hand in the air and was yelling YEE HAA! We are talking about having a friend that trains horses come over and spend some time with her to get her comfortable with being ridden again.

A Fence for our Horse

I spent yesterday afternoon driving fence posts so that we can build a fence for our new horse. Yes....our new horse. On Saturday we went to meet a Horse that a women was looking for a home for. The horse was very gentle and a definite people horse. While the girls were playing in her field, the horse went over to smell them and see what they were up to. It is a Chestnut color with dark legs and a white star and snip. It's name is September (Sepy for short). After meeting our family the woman agreed to give the horse to us. She had already turned two families down! So, we had to quickly build a fence out at Christy's parents house so that we would have a home for the horse. We are all VERY excited. Emma is beside herself! I can't wait to ride her.

Solar Home Tour

This last saturday I visited a few of the homes on the Solar Home Tour in Ellensburg. My Aunt Janet, Uncle Mel, and Cousin Tim also went.

We visited a grid-tied home out in the Wilson Creek area (in the valley not the wilson creek in the basin) that was built with Raster block, had solar hot water panels on the roof, a wind generator that was spinning like mad (go figure....in ellensburg!) and a set of somewhere around 24 solar panels that were sensor driven to optimize sun angle. Pretty impressive set up!

We also visited a house that was completely off the grid that had 24 solar panels and a wind generator. Their micro-climate really reduced the efficiency of the wind generator (barely moving while we were there) and their solar panels were manually adjustable for sun angle. They had a set of regular ol' car batteries for storage. They used a lot of propane appliances and a generator to charge the system when things were running low. They also use the generator to pump water up to a big storage tank on the hill side and then gravity feed the house. They were living pretty well for being completely off the grid!