Snowcoming Dance

Our girls attended the Snowcoming Dance. Guess they clean up OK, eh?




I helped make that blue dress -- I think the work was worth it!

"There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House"

We went to a poetry reading this afternoon to watch our youngest be one of 20 students school-wide (of ~1100 students) to read for Poetry Out Loud in a competition to select the students who will represent Petoskey towards the nationals. She chose Emily Dickinson's There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House.
I was proud to see her make it to the stage as a freshman, though she would have preferred to been invited to stay for the second half. Next year!

Seen Dad's completed stair rail

His 'trim guy' has completed the stair rail:


And the kitchen appliances are in:

Rachel's Birthday

There were many girls in the house yesterday, so I returned 382 cans while sent to get some salad for my vegetarian.


We went to La Senorita tonight.

Happy New Year!

As the tradition continues, Tom managed a visit for New Years day.

Had a flat tire...

On my way to my Dad's I hit a huge hole in I-75 where a chunk of concrete popped out of the road. About 9 miles later I noticed the van in front of me had a left rear flat tire. I flagged him as I passed him. Then 2 miles later (just shy of the Mackinac Bridge) I noticed my same tire was also flat!

Turns out there was a huge gash made in the tire wall, having to replace the whole thing.

A picture from later in the day, after Dad's curtain hanging project.

Always fixing something

The wife's 2001 Pontiac Montana needed a new wheel bearing. When I had it apart, Adam notices the tie-rod end was shot, so replaced that too.


Did you know the axle nut is bigger than 32mm but smaller than 34mm? I didn't!

Christmas at the farm

Drove up to see the Rudyard Ross's, Dawn and Rachel followed at their own pace (long story there!)

Chains on!

Got the chains on the tractor again this year. Figured out the one side was so hard to get connected because it was missing two links! Must be a joke in there somewhere!

All the kids were home for Christmas

Couldn't ask for much more. But we got it!



Especially that TV in the background!

Twas the night before Christmas

The tree and the stockings are all set to go!





Notice it didn't take too long for the entertainment center to get cluttered up!

My annual baking of the HumpUps

Some family member's favorite date-filled cookies:

Dawn's belated birthday present

This is her gift from her mother. I kinda like it too!

Gettin' a Christmas tree

It's that season again...

La Senorita for Dawn's Birthday dinner

Mary joined us for dinner at La Senorita to celebrate Dawn's birthday.

Flooring @ Dad's

Two day, two guys, 5 rooms floored.
We put down Trafficmaster Allure Tile flooring from Home Depot:

Starting my own project

I intend to take this wood


and put it here in our living room and see what happens...

Got a chance

I got to go see what my brother and Dad have been working on while I was working out of town: the solar panels are up:


The 10Kw backup generator is installed:


The batteries have a box, vented to the outdoors and are connected to the charge controller:


From the right, the charge control system, the 2500 watt 110v inverter and generator transfer switch:


And (left-most) connection to the house:


They've got it all connected except the backup generator auto-start, controlled by low battery voltage.

The details are:
6 Kyocera KC130TM (130 watt, 12v) panels wired in 3 pairs then paralleled to a Flexcharge Charge Controller (Charlevoix MI 547-9430) This goes to a bank of 12-6v NAPA 8144N (115min @ 75amps) lead acid batteries, 3 groups paralleled of 4 in series.
The inverter is from Outback Power Systems and supplies a maximum of 20amps at 120v to the house.

Pretty cool to have power in the house!

Back home!

After a solid 3 weeks of preparation and a week on the road, got a presentation off my 'to do' list at work. Haven't had any time to get to my Dad's all month!