WinSol update

WinSol is coming out of a hiatus.  The original grand opening of the Living Energy Learning Center (LeLc) was postponed last June for various reasons, and slowly things are congealing again.  We are now set for a 2019 spring opening.  Here's a progress report:




(1) For the first time in 5 years, we have vegetable gardens (raised beds) producing again
.  With the addition of several kitties, the persistent munchers and pesky rats are retreating to less threatening environs.  We'll see how the kitties fare during winter and the racoons.  so far, so good: lessons learned from previous kitty ventures.

 (2) The LeLc dome floor is now 95% finished.  We've had to take out a few rough spots and repair some cracks.  The main progress has been along the outside permieter where snow and rain intrusion was next to impossible to stop. So we cut a 2" gap around the perimeter with the chainsaw to allow speedy runoff. 

 (3) Our re-Focus will be toward the location to deep forests and the new phenom 'forest bathing' - but wait!  There will be logging going on all the roads around here - 200' on both sides of the main road and all the way down the dirt roads.  That'll repair the main dirt road coming in, but create a bit of havoc for a couple months while the industrial grade equipments comes in and runs rough shod over these forests.  It'll definitely reduce fire hazards, but also destroy the top layer of soil and scare the shit out of wildlife.  I am hoping the winter and springs will heal the loggers' intrusions... we'll see.

(4) AirBnB rooms will be ready by spring 2019 and that'll kick off a whole new chapter at WinSol.  Between rocket mass heaters, supplementary propane heater for the solar shower and plenty of stored rainwater, it'll be a great start.

 (5) And the big news is that WinSol will be featured in two Permaculture magazines in the coming months.  Fred is re-engaging his writing skills toward mass (not social) media publications.... hence the reason for little blogging.
(6) And lastly, over wintering here at WinSol has gotten more difficult.  Non-withstanding last January's 60F+ temperatures, winter snow storms are not as serene as they used to be.  Extreme temperature and precipitation swings are taking a toll on 'right livelihood'.  So we'll see where the over-wintering ends up in the coming years.

 Stay tuned, and thanks to all of you who are reading this.  Much peace and love.

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