Winsol update - late summer 2019

Summertime and the livin' is easy... fish are jumpin...  well, not this summer and not for WinSol.  Yes, there are several very bright spots, but there are also some very downsides.  Let's start with the downers and then get to the uppers.

Downers:
August doldrums - an annual occurrence that keeps getting harder every year.  This year is less difficult than last year's doldrums (no wind, hi temps, hi humidity).  I didn't have to bring in the home-made evap cooler, i was able to cool off with cold showers and a little USB fan directly on my upper body.  Also, the extra layer of plastic window coverings on the 2nd floor seem to help.  the house has stayed cooler this summer.  AND the bedroom is even cooler - as long as I religiously open and close the windows timely.  The last couple days (sept 4-6) were the warmest mornings:  72F at 5am.  But the worse is over, it was 66F this morning with the delta & ocean breezes finally breaking down the eastern swirling monsoonal winds.

Then there's the perpetual car problems that started in June and i'm on the last repair:  replacing the water pump.  it's been a bit of keystone cops, car proprietorship, and having to order special Torx tools for everything.  At least I now know the car better than before and can fix just about everything on the road - well almost everything.  

The learning center is on hiatus.  hopefully no permanently.  I am SO burned out on not having other people show up after the commit to coming and helping out long term... that happened 3+ times in the last 5 months.  I am SO done with transient, unreliable helpers from WOOFERS, HelpX, Hippo, etc.  I will be enticing AmeriCorp ACE crews and other people that I meet - more reliable... and may pay them a stipend.

Uppers
The car situation is way better in that i'll have a new coolant system, new brake line, repaired trani, great OBD scanner and all the right tools.  But the BIG one is that I pulled out the 3 person back seat (left a 1 person seat) and permanently installed a futon type couch and queen bed, along with a shelving system and a place for a big super insulated cooler - ahhh... the lure of the RV road beckons - or not??

Then there's the really BIG upper from WinSol's gardens.  The spring did not have a late freeze and snow storm like last year.  Although it was the coldest winter in over 10 years which killed off a lot of over-wintering bugs... it was kind to the fruit tree blossoms in May.  And so I now am eating 5-10 freshly picked peaches and grape globes every day.  The strawberries were minimal - still getting bugs eating them.  The blackberries exploded and provided many delicious meals, crisps, cereals...  But three peach trees reached big time production (50+ peaches)  and the grapes also exploded with 100's of globes.  The cherries - there were about 20 this year - were all eaten by birds.


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