Almost there!

I said a few weeks ago that we were only waiting for the cistern plans but I forgot to mention the other remaining documents prior to permitting.  Our site plan should be completed soon and we're waiting on the documents to show we're current on our federal income tax and our property tax.  We couldn't do the site plan until we had the cistern design to show how the cistern and dome sit on the property with elevation drawings, septic, drain field, driveway and other items.

I pulled out the rock tumbler from the container last week and Denise has been working with her rocks she found on the island, and also ones we found when we were hiking with Cody and Kenzie in San Antonio back in February.

Denise had a few rocks that needed to be cut down or shaped before they went into the tumbler so I pulled out the Dremel and the tile saw from the container.

She found a lot of interesting rocks with great patterns inside that will be turned into jewelry and other items.  She also started cutting some older shells found near the property and discovered great designs inside.  Denise's craft room will be a busy place when it's complete. 

We collected about 16 magpie shells for the hermit crabs, and a few for craft work, although those shells are typically not that interesting once the white areas wear off.  Denise took a red permanent marker and numbered the 15 remaining shells from smallest to largest.  We placed them in the hermit crab feeding area and this morning only number 14 remained.  During our morning walk with the dogs we found number 13 about 200' down our road.  I'll put some canned cat food out in the feeding area later this afternoon and see how many numbered shells return for food.

Hmmm, what will the weather be like this week?  Oh yeah, wonderful!  This screen shot was from last week but this week is pretty much the same.  You can see the couple days were it shows some rain.  The greatest difference from Washington state weather that we love is the rain comes down, sometimes hard for about 10 minutes then it's gone and sunny again.

With all the daily sun we plan on using solar for our new house.  Our neighbor Gerry has a roof replacement coming due to some hurricane damage and was interested in the adhesive solar panels attached to his new metal standing seam roof.  We had a call with the manufacturer a few days ago to discuss the benefits of their design.  This may be an option for us if I build stand-off panels on the vertical edge of our cistern/deck.  This new design of panel does not require direct angles to the sun and with the wrap around deck we should receive power all day.  More to come.

I was given a solar panel from our neighbor Don and I purchased a small solar controller, pump and landscape irrigation tubing to trial a solar hot water heater for the tub that will be in Denise's oasis.  This is a hidden area on the property with a soaking tub.  The picture below shows my basic setup for the trial.  The solar panel charges the battery and runs the pump.  I also have the water going through a solar pad (laying over the pool) I found in the bush.  I have no idea what house it came off of but it is still in great shape and doesn't leak.  Joys of hurricane debris distribution.  The trial was very successful and I have some great ideas for the layout of the oasis.

That's all for now.

Kevin & Denise