I retired from my job shortly after my 10th anniversary with the company. At 10 years, I could choose a Service Award gift, (I chose 4 nice hefty steak knives), but it did not arrive by the time we left New Jersey. So, I had the company ship it to me via UPS at the cabin address.

As you can see from the photo, it arrived well annotated. There are several notes on it, one with a smiley face. "Good Address", "Send out with Roy on Tuesday", etc.

When I knew the package had been shipped, I visited the local UPS store and explained our situation and they "put the word out" locally to look out for the shipment. I also signed up for UPS's online service that notifies me whenever they have a package in their system addressed to the cabin. That way, I can leave special instructions, etc. FedEx has a similar service, but I've not received any FedEx shipments yet to see how it works. The UPS system worked fine. I was notified of the shipment being "on it's way".

It was to be delivered on Saturday before Memorial Day. But, Roy, our regular UPS delivery driver, was on vacation and Sean was driving his route. Sean had no idea what to do with the package. He did call in the afternoon, but by then he'd missed our drop-off location. I told him it was no big deal (he was about 75 miles away by then), and to deliver it next week. He also called Roy and I guess Roy explained what to do.

There is a UPS drop box at the Wooden Shoe Ranch were we pick up our mail. If there is a UPS package, Roy leaves it in the locked drop box and also leaves a note in our mail box. Everyone is given a key. (Ours was taped to a note in the mailbox on the day of the delivery. Oh boy, another key to keep track of.)

Roy even called us from his vacation to make sure we got the key and the package. That's what I call great service.

We grilled steaks the next night for dinner. They were delicious (nothing like local beef), and the knives worked great!

Here is the progress on our huge snow bank on the road below the cabin. It's melting, but it's also had some help along the way. 

Two days ago when we walked up to the top of our driveway we saw a truck parked at the edge of the snow bank. The tailgate was down and there was a guy doing something, but it wasn't clear exactly what was going on. Since either side of the road where he was is our land I walked up to him to see what was going on. It turns out that he's a new neighbor and he and two friends were digging with snow shovels to create a path for them to get through. 

They seemed nice enough, young men in their 20's, and said they wanted to be "good" neighbors. The parcel they bought shares a property line with the cabin parcel up the hill in back. There is nothing on the land, no cabin, etc., so I am not sure what their plans on for it. I hope that they are just weekend campers. More than likely they bought the land for hunting purposes, and if so we'll have to have a conversation about where the property lines are.

They were not successful that day at getting through, and I warned them about the steep drop-off if they tried to squeeze through in their truck. Plus, the weather turned stormy and I think they turned tail and went back to wherever they came from. 

You can see that soon it will be possible to get a vehicle through but there is still A LOT of snow to melt.

This post may not be about what you are thinking. No, that is a topic for another day. This post is about our planned recommissioning of the wind turbine for electricity generation.

Wind turbine tower ready for erection

At our off-the-grid cabin, we get electricity from the sun and the wind. This blog post explains it pretty well. We decommissioned the wind turbine back in 2006 when we moved to New Jersey. It simply did not make sense to have a mechanical generator creating electricity we would not be using. And, our plan was to recommission it this summer in preparation for winter.

Right now, with PV alone, we are doing great. The additional PV panels that were installed last year, along with a larger string of brand new batteries is allowing us to get a full charge every day before noon. Even on days with filtered sun or passing clouds, we are doing great! But, when winter comes the sun is at a lower angle, the days are shorter, snow can cover the panels (till I brush it off), and we can get several cloudy, stormy days in a row. But, the wind blows. So, it is good to have the ability to generate electricity from the wind.

In preparation for the big event, I trimmed a lot of scrub aspen from around the wind turbine tower. When erected, it stands 64' to reach above the trees (which are mostly dead but one these days). It has three tiers of four guy wires to secure it to the ground. A Bergey wind turbine sits at the top.

There was one pine tree that is in the way of a clean and snag-free erection, but it is a live tree. And, I really hate to cut down a live tree that survived the beetle kill infestations of recent years. We've already lost thousands of trees and I don't want to voluntarily kill another.

Last Tuesday was to be the big day. "Sam" from the company that installed our PV panels and batteries, her helper, and Victor from a wind power company in Lafayette, CO all showed up to do the deed. It was quickly decided that the tree would have to go.

But, there was also a lot of conversation about the reliability of wind power at our location. Sure, there is lots of wind. That is not the problem. Actually, too much wind is the problem. It is not unusual for us to have a couple of "wind events" in the winter where winds exceed 100 mph. That tends to burn out the wind turbines. Plus, they are noisy, need maintenance every couple of years, can be unsightly, etc. These guys--who are actually in the business of alternate energy--talked us out of erecting the wind turbine. At least this year. They encouraged us to get through the winter this year and then re-evaluate the need for wind next year. We are having a propane generator installed that will auto-start if necessary, so we can't really run out of electricity. It is nice though, to get it all for "free" from nature.

Victor said he'd hate for us to cut down the pine tree, erect the turbine, and then decide we don't need or want it. He'd rather see us try to get by without it. So, we will.

Now, we have a 64' tower lying in a well trimmed meadow, along with a 1K Bergey wind turbine (and all associated electronics, controllers, etc.) that we need to store. It has been in a box in the cabin (or on the front porch when we are here) for 10 years. Now it will be in a storage unit in Laramie for who knows how long?

Sam, did what she needed to do to be able to quote us the purchase and installation of the propane generator. And, they left.

I am already feeling some regret, wondering if we should not have gone ahead with the plan. We'll see. And, we'll keep you informed.

Painted birdhouses that Rick's dad built for us.

When we first arrived we still had snow in the meadow, and for a short time there was an actual little creek running through it. Now the meadow is grassy and green and star arnica is blooming everywhere. Just gorgeous. It remains to be seen if the wildflower seed we planted last year actually came up. We have more seed coming from Pawnee Seed Company — a mix of prairie grasses and wildflowers that we'll spread around the burn pile areas and the area that was excavated for the trenches for the new solar panels.

There is lots of lupine coming up around the house as well as Wyoming paintbrushes, pink plume, larkspur and fireweed. Most of it will probably be blooming later this week. Soon we will be surrounded by flowers of all different colors. Already the meadows are full of brilliant paintbrushes!

The pasque flowers have gone into gossamer seed mode, but still equally as beautiful.

Unfortunately the mosquitoes are also "in bloom" right now. They say the mosquito hatch only lasts three weeks up here, so we shall see. Right now we douse ourselves with repellent before we go outside. We both smell like Lemon Eucalyptus all day, not a totally unpleasant smell. We've found a repellent without DEET that appears to work great. We also have one of these handy little gadgets, the Thermacell Mosquito Repellent Appliance, that uses butane to heat a synthetic form of natural insecticide, forming a 15-foot-wide area of protection. We used it yesterday while out in back potting the herbs we bought. No mosquitoes dared come close!

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Have you ever had a moment in time when everything is just perfect and you have a feeling of serenity and peace wash over you? Rick and I call those joyful moments. Over the course of our years of marriage, whenever either one of us was feeling particularly joyful we tell each other. I'm having a joyful moment right now, we say. That way we each get to share in the moment, even if it's not our own.

There have been times when those joyful moments have been far and few between. Stress at work, stress in our personal lives, etc.

We've had more joyful moments since arriving here than we've had in a long time. They happen just sitting around looking at the inside of the cabin, or sitting on the screen porch after dinner and hearing coyotes and a bull elk bugle (what the heck, it's not the right time of year!) within minutes of each other. They happen on walks as we take in the sweeping vistas of green meadows dotted with wildflowers. It happened to me the other evening on our Ranger ride, just Rick and me. I was driving, flying down the road at 20mph laughing like a little kid.

Our land, as far as the eye can see in this photo.

I know we are still in the honeymoon phase of our life here and that there will be times ahead that won't be as joyful, so I am reaping them in as they come along.

Joyful moments are what life is all about.

Is it any wonder that we happened to end up with a puppy with JOYFUL in his name?

Destin: Summit's We Were Made for This v Joyful