Presto Pesto

Homemade pesto from the garden -- delicious!

Our purple prickly pears are getting ready to bloom.

Rescue Ranger

A very exciting trip to Alpine today. We were just 15 miles or so away from town when the clutch gave out on the little Ranger. Truthfully, we knew it was due to quit but wanted to eke out every last mile before replacing it.

But on the way to Alpine, with a bed full of trash and recycling, was a very inconvenient time to die!

We are very lucky, though. After a few cars passed us by, our friend and neighbor Kevin Elmore (of Green Scene land restoration demo fame) stopped to help. We managed to get a tow back to the Ranch, and we'll be ordering up all the necessary parts soon.

Looks like we'll be in the shop this weekend.

Scene of Green

April 6th was the 5th annual Green Scene, and we got to power the event for the third year running.  We built a SunStation just for the job, our smallest and most cost-effective model ever. Version 3.0 has 570 rated watts of PV modules, four deep-cycle flooded batteries, a digital PWM charge controller, and a 2300W 24V modified sine wave inverter.

We always have so much fun, and this year was the best ever. We gave a demonstration explaining the basic principles of solar power and living Off Grid. Our friends and neighbors Tim McKenna and Kevin Elmore teamed up on a very informative demonstration on reclaiming the desert land using simple techniques and proven principles.

There was so much else, I can't even begin to cover everything.  Between the stand-up comedy and belly-dancing, there were lots of great demonstrations and educational materials. And as always, tons of great, fresh food.