The Raven's Roost

So we built a photovoltaic array.

Shortly after getting home from Disney last time, we decided that, before the tax incentives run out, we might as well get the solar system we've been talking about built. Fox found a company that designed and planned systems for DIYers, and once they got the plans hashed out, we got them approved by the county and got crackin'. We already had that space cleared of trees, but we needed to grade it and do some other site prep.

It's pretty heavy duty. The concrete pilings around six feet deep, supporting a framework of schedule 40 steel pipe. We picked up the actual solar panels themselves (along with all the cables, inverters, and all that good stuff) in Tampa and finally got it all up. It's not switched on yet because our homeowner's insurance is dragging their ass getting the liability increase approved. But Fox fired it up late one afternoon when the sun was almost down - we didn't want it making enough power to alert the meter on the house and potentially cause a shutdown. As it was, it made a little bit of power, but not enough to piss off the rest of the grid. (Ahh! Power is coming in instead of going out! Shut down, shut down!) And everything initialized and worked as expected. There's an app where we can see how much each panel is making through the day and a bunch of other info.

We might even get to turn the thing on before we leave for Disney. :P Not going to hold my breath, since at this point no one seems to be in a hurry to approve anything.

But yeah - the inaugural Springtime Surprise race weekend is coming up in two weeks, and Fox and I are running the challenge. Old-timers say this is what Disney races were like at the very beginning. There's a 5k and scavenger hunt on Thursday night in Animal Kingdom - I've never done anything like this and it sounds like a lot of fun. The finisher's medal is even a working compass that opens and closes. Saturday morning is a 10k, and Sunday is a 10-miler, for a total of 19.3 miles. I assume they're doing a 10 mile race rather than a half marathon so they can continue selling their somewhat generic 19.3 RunDisney merch leftover from the Star Wars and Princess weekends.

In November I'm doing something a bit different, for me anyway. I'm doing a stand-alone marathon. I've never done one that wasn't part of a stage race. In this case I'm running the Florida Legends "Skunk Ape Marathon" down in Debary. At Disney I'm always starting the marathon with a tired body and tired mind, having already done something like 22.4 miles that weekend. Here I get to be fresh - we're staying nearby. I'm spending the summer and fall training for just this race. I want to see what I can really do over this distance when I'm not already worn out. Fox is doing it, too, because he can't let me have all the fun. ;D As we get closer to it, I'll post details about how to track the results, if any of you are curious about that.

Fox is also feeling the itch to try an ultra, and we even found one that's held right here close to home. So we might try a 50k soon, as well. We haven't actually signed up for anything yet, though.

This solar project, along with a lot of little cleanup and maintenance projects that came with it, have eaten SO much of my free time and energy the past two months. It'll be worth it whenever we get to run the system, though.