All the Pretty Panels !!

Before we had the rain for one week straight, they had the last of the panels installed!  It looks so shiny and glittery when the sunlight catches it just right.. Have to try and capture that in a picture if I can!  Until then, here it is with all the panels in place..

They had the center connections covered up nicely and the gap up the center filled with some aluminum siding, but the inspector made them open up all the junction boxes and take pictures to prove they’d done it right!  They were a little disgruntled with him to say the least!

We definitely should be hooked up in time to take advantage all the sunlight on the shortest day of the year!

Almost There!

Monday was an absolutely beautiful day.  We were down to short sleeves by mid afternoon!  Hard to believe it’s near the end of October.

While we continued to spread more manure, they had a good run at getting quite a few of the panels up.

I’m sure they will be happy that we finished working with manure directly under them! (at least for now)

They need one more day to finish up installing, and then we just need final inspection, and a meter from Hydro One!

How’d they get them up there you ask?

A little better close up shot of the panels, they are almost done the one half, (right above the liquid manure pump- so maybe they’re hoping they’ll be safe from the smell on the other side now..)

If you were wondering how the got the panels up onto the roof (safely, without dropping them!) They built a neat little chute for hoisting them up.

Here’s a pic from the roof looking down.  The wooden trolly pulls up one at a time…

Panels up

In between periodic rain showers, they are getting panels installed!

The first 5 went up to get the spacing right,

Then the top row went up to get the spacing right horizontally..

The guys had to put up with a bit of smell, since I started pumping out liquid manure , while dad was moving solid manure!

Apparently, they were pretty happy about the stiff breeze blowing fresh air up on the roof!  They didn’t really complain at all..  Which is good, because I’m not done yet either!

The Panels are Here!

The panels finally arrived Monday!  They were shipped from Toronto via Peterborough…(that is NOT a direct route, but ‘ours is not to reason why’!)  I think it was something to do with having a truck to unload them, but I ended up lifting the pallets off with our loader tractor anyway.

So.. this is what 170 solar panels look like stacked up!

They got one on before the day was out, just to make sure everything was what it was supposed to be…

Can you see it?!

Solar slowly coming along

Apparently the supplier of the cord that attaches all the micro-inverters together can’t count, and they are a row and a half short!  I’m sure it won’t take long to ship them out, but  it slows the process a little more.  They have installed the ones they have cord for, so it looks a little different, but we still have a little bit to go yet before we are running power!  Like having actual panels.. they seem to be the very last thing to go in!

More Soybeans, and More Solar!

You’d think that was all that’s going on around here, but it does seem to be the focus for us lately!

We did our Pioneer soybean plots Tues.  They went from 59-65 bpa, and managed to dry down to 13-14% moisture since Friday!  Not sure how they got that much dryer when it rained several times, but we’ll take it!

Monday and Tuesday also saw the arrival of the heavy electrical cable that goes in the trench from the solar panels to the transformer pole.  We had to back fill the trench a little while they installed it, and then help pull the cable the last several feet because they’re 1000lb winch wouldn’t pull it any further.  That cable is heavy!

They also have the rest of the rails up on the roof, but they aren’t all finished leveling yet.  Not sure when the panels themselves are due for delivery..

Solar panels and Soybeans

This week saw the start of getting the rails installed on the roof to hold the solar panels.  A fair bit of measuring work is needed to get the first rail installed, making sure the wood under the roof lines up with where the fasteners are put.

The next rails get progressively faster as they know where they’re going!

4 rails out of 10 up!

Friday afternoon also cleared away nicely, so we finally got a chance to try harvesting a few soybeans.  Got the headland off the field with the test plots, so we can harvest those whenever Pioneer wants to.  We then thought we’d get the headland off the next field too.. a couple hours later, we just finished the field!  Got along great.  The beans were dryer than expected (15-16%) and the yield seemed to be around 50-60 bu.

We are very fortunate to have a great crop, when so many this year don’t!  Definitely counting our blessings!

Diggin’ with the neighbours…

Some people call him Terry Kersten.. not out of any disrespect for the good Golphin name, but to clarify who they’re talking about.  See, Terry married Marita Kersten, and works with his brother-in-law Tony Kersten, who farms just behind the other brother-in-law Mike Kersten.  And of course, everyone around knows his father-in-law, John Kersten.  They’re the Kersten clan, and he’s one of them!

So, Terry Golphin happened to mention that he bought an old mini-excavator to save himself having to rent one to fix a few tiles and other things around his place.  Since I needed to dig a trench for the Hydro line for my solar panels, I asked if he ever let anyone else use it?  “Sure!” was his reply, and he even delivers!  So Sunday saw the arrival of a well used, but still fully functional mini-excavator.  Monday meant that my Brother-in-law John had to go back home, but we managed to do a little digging with it before he left… Great fun!