Pearl & Licorice Have a "Girl's Day" Out in Sedona

First, let me say I was just along as the "pup-arazzi photographer"! Deb and Emily engineered the event...a "Girl's Day Out" for my Pearl and Emily's Licorice Roo. They decided to go to Sedona and tour Tlaquepaque for the afternoon. Pearl had her nails done for the occasion:



First stop was the "Secret Garden" for lunch.


Then we were off to explore the venue and take in the sights, sounds and smells...


We visited Ken Rowe's sculpture gallery and talked with Ken and Monica for awhile...


We even found a store named for us: "Diva"!


And if you know Licorice, you know she LOVES hats, and so she had to shop for one while we were there.


We were having so much fun, Pearl had to give Licorice a hug:


Then we met a lady who got down on the ground with the girls and started to give them massages. Just what they came for, spa treatment!


Yes, Pearl was relaxed


Then Licorice got a card for her friend and decided to sign it with a nose print, using lipstick of course



The our spa treatments...here's Licorice still in her towel


Then off to a party, we were very popular and many people were taking our photos.


Pearl had a little too much to drink though...


We had a great time and we're planning the next event...wine tasting!


THE END

I Still Don't Understand How APS Does Their Calculations

Every month APS has a little chart in their online billing site. It purports to show a summary of the bill and how you use the energy purchased from APS. Part of that is a comparison of "my home" to "the average home". A recent month showed "my home" used $11 and "the average home" used...$11. Yet "my home" uses more energy than "the average home" according to this same chart. Yeah. Like the average home uses $11 worth of electricity a month. Check your bill. And since when is $11 more than $11?

And if you take their breakdown of where the money goes, it adds up to $23. Don't know where they studied math, but it sure doesn't match what we do in "my home".

Scroll down for the latest case of insanity...



OK, here's the current month. This time "my home" and "the average home" both used $9. Yet the two points on the chart aren't aligned. "My" $9 is higher on the chart, does that mean my money is worth more???

And this month, my $9 is made up of components that total $28. So I use less and it's worth even more? Is there anyone out there who works for APS that can explain this total nonsense?

Drilling Begins (At Last!)

We had a delay of a week due to some mechanical issues with the driller's truck. Another truck was brought out of storage and the remaining equipment was delivered today. A large air compressor trailer was hauled out to power the drilling unit. They arrived around noon (after delays going through Jerome) and worked until 5pm.


Above is the drilling tower, now upright.


The "business end" of the drill...check out the rotating teeth


Drill poised to begin


End of day, first bore underway. The foamy mud is a by-product of the water/air used to move things along. The excess goes into the ditch that was dug.



Here's the ditch with mud slurry in it.

End of the first drilling day!

Geothermal Day 1

The drilling rig has been delivered to the site. I expect drilling to begin tomorrow.



In the interim, the containment for the water slurry output of the drilling process has been dug out. There was an existing draining ditch in front of the property, though it was shallow (only about a foot deep at the deepest) it does run the length of the frontage. The driller needed a containment pond for the drilling slurry to sit in and evaporate. I suggested digging the drainage ditch deeper and to use it instead of digging something new. They agreed and today we have a draining ditch that goes five feet deep and about 65 feet long. After the water has evaporated (or been pumped to water the trees!), I will refill it to a depth of about 2 feet and line it with rock. This will improve the drainage and channel it to the open acreage area. (In my dreams there would be an underground cistern to hold a couple of thousand gallons of runoff water to use for irrigation...)


^ The drainage ditch before digging ^


^ Digging begins ^


^Completed digging: 5 feet deep and 60+ feet long ^

First Activity for the Geothermal Installation

The project kicks off!



First day of any work. Gravel has been cleared away for the utility locator markouts for any power/phone/gas/ etc. From the last three projects, I already know what's out there. No water, no sewer, no gas. Phone and power run a diagonal path from the transformer to the corner of the house...bypassing this area. The clearing was done around 8am.

Later today...


Verde Sol-Air's Dave Hudson came out to mark the locations for the three wells to be drilled. His work was captured by one of the security cameras...at 10:27am. No sneaking around here!

Now we wait for the locators to come and mark everything. I expect we will begin drilling Monday.

Stay tuned...

The Next "Green Project"

Over the past several years we have taken many steps to go "green" and reduce energy consumption and increase efficiency of our home. With the exception of lights inside appliances, all lighting in the house is either compact fluorescent (CFL) or light emitting diode (LED). That was the first item to reduce electrical use and lessen the heat output from lighting in the summer.

Then we installed 7.5kW of grid-tied solar electric generation, and most months we generate several hundred kilowatt hours (kWh) of surplus electricity which goes back to the utility and is used by other customers. The typical electric bill is less than $10 and consists of administrative charges and taxes only.

Last summer we installed additional rain gutters and added 1,250 gallons of rainwater storage for use in irrigation and filling of the ponds and birdbaths. An inch of rain is about all it takes to fill everything up to capacity. In a pinch, the water can be filtered and used for drinking. The yard has been relandscaped to use native plants and function with little to no additional water (xeriscaped). Even the drip irrigation has been shut off for the last year.

We removed all the old blown in cellulose insulation from the attic last year. In its place we installed new sprayed on, semi-rigid insulation on the inside of the roof. The new insulation is about 9 inches deep and all openings to the attic have been sealed and foamed over. The foam starts at the top of the walls inside the attic and covers everything overhead. Gone are the little drafts we used to feel, and an infrared thermal scan shows no more hot or cold spots. The house stays at a pretty even temperature and even the garage is comfortable year round. The garage never had insulation overhead before, and could go to the high 90s in the summer and down to the 40s in winter. After insulation was added summer peaks at around 80 and winter went down to about 68. The attic used to go into the 120s and now stays below 86.

The improvement after re-insulating has been especially noticeable in the decreased costs for heating and cooling. In mid-summer we were able to lower the thermostat and still generate a surplus each day. Natural gas usage was down this winter even though our winter was far colder than usual. So now we move to the next step.

Geothermal Heating/Cooling

This will be the major project for this year. Our existing heating, cooling and water heating will be eliminated and replaced with a unified geothermal solution. This eliminates two furnaces, two air conditioning systems, two evaporative coolers and a gas fired water heater. The projected energy savings is about 70% of what we used before. And like the solar project, there are significant incentives to make the change. Based on the projected savings, our electric utility (APS) will offer a rebate of 50% of the project cost. The federal government has a 30% tax credit for the energy efficient project. There's really no good reason not to do it.

So watch the blog for updates. The project kicks off on Monday, May 9 when they begin drilling the 3 wells for the heat exchanger.

Want to know more about geothermal and how it works? Click here.

Our new honey, Bee!

After the loss of two of our senior Greyhounds the house seemed so empty. Both Figgy and Macho were such a presence and provided so much love and company. The seniors are so wonderful that we decided we should add another one back into our pack. After all, five dogs just isn't the same as a "six-pack"!

So after careful consideration and a pre-interview down in Scottsdale a couple of weeks earlier, we decided that Bee should move into the Hound Hacienda. She is a delight, a 3 year old in a 9 year old's body. She is very playful, and can entertain herself with no problem...she takes toys and throws them in the air, races around the room and after almost three weeks, finally jumps on the bed.

It took awhile to convince her that it was OK to be on the couch and the bed. We encouraged her to come up, and lifted her into place. I guess she got the message, because now she comes right up on her own. She has slept next to us several nights and is a good bed-mate; she doesn't kick, stretch, or otherwise disturb the people next to her.

We hope she enjoys many happy years here, and we thank Leah for letting her go and allowing her to live with us. She was her foster for almost a year and could have stayed forever. Today is the annual Greyhound Picnic and she will go with Bella to see everyone and visit with Leah and Jim for the afternoon.