CSU-Pueblo ThunderWolves - First game 2009-10

Less than 3 minutes into the third quarter with the Thunderwolves stomping the Eastern New Mexico State Greyhounds, a major lightening storm began and fans were told to evacuate the aluminum seating stands. I have to tell you about the evening after the lightening.

So this picture is the clock when all the human lightening rods had to leave the aluminum beachers. Barely into the 3rd quarter.

I sent Al and Sue to the car and I headed down to the band to see what I could do to help them get under cover. After a brief discussion that I could do nothing to help them, the rain and started big time. I started walking briskly to where I believed the car to be. But in the driving rain, frantic people, etc. there was no way I knew where the car was on the campus as I trecked to the west across the campus. I saw the banner of the School of Business and thought I might be able to get a bit of cover on the front steps to dare to pull out my Blackberry Bold into the we from the holster to call Al.

Al and Sue headed toward me and we met up and I got into the front passenger seat of the SUV. I was SOAKED! YIKES! We got back to their house and I changed into dry clothes and sat, had a couple of beers and tried to stop shivering. Finally I did.

http://community.webshots.com/album/574419428gNtCfm

Sue thought we should stay another night but we were determined to get home because we had taken advantage of our good friend doing the chores too long. We arrived home around midnight.

I woke up Sunday SO fluish. And I am still not over it on Monday night. OMG, have I connected with H1N1 through this weekend of activity? I think that if I am not feeling significantly better tomorrow afternoon I wil be getting tested.

Hope all are well.

Bill

Colorado State Fair Parade 2009

So for those of you not in CO, the Colorado State Fair always ends on Labor day and starts the Friday 11 days prior. I may not have that perfectly calculated but I believe that to be true. So the fair has its State Fair Parade the first Saturday after the start of the fair on Friday.

Our big draw this year is that my son, Bill, is one of 4 sousaphone players in the CSU-Pueblo marching band.

This parade is huge. At least for Pueblo. There were more than 120 entries. but for the most part it held our attention.

Al snapped this shot of Sue (my former bride and my son's mom) and me prior to the start of the parade as we are waiting for the parade to start. I think Sue did not know that a picture was being taken. :-)

Rodney Atkins Concert

The Rodney Atkins concert at the Colorado State Fair open day following the rodeo was fantastic. The man has had a great run of success and it really is awesome to see a 40 year old performer achieve success half way through his life. If you are not a Rodney Atkins fan, "You ain't shit!" comes to mind after that great performance. He sings his ass off and moves on the stage like the late and great Chris LeDoux did. Here are a few shots of the show and of Al, my son Bill, and me at the show! Enjoy!

Wind Generator - Closing Trench

The trench is now closed. The guys closed the trench today after the concrete was poured. It is almost looking normal in our South pasture again! But WOW, we cannot hardly wait for two weeks of curing of concrete to pass to they can erect the pole and generator!

Some electrical work will transpire between now and then so I will keep you posted!

==End of Chapter==

Wind Generator - The Pour!!!

Justin and Dennis showed up August 27th around 1:30 in the afternoon shortly followed by a cement mixer/truck. Today also consists of closing the trench but I will focus on that in another blog.


It took 3.5 yards of cement to fill the hole and form. Start to finish, it was full in about 12 minutes.

For the days' work, the most time was probably spent on the "finish" work of the top of the form.

Justin and Dennis will return Monday the 31st to remove the forms and then as soon as two weeks from Monday they will erect the generator. We cannot wait.

As I have been doing you can go to Webshots to see all today's photos at http://community.webshots.com/album/574358096SbISvW

==End of Chapter==

Wind Generator - Open Hole Inspection

August 26th was our Open Hole Inspection which we passed. This allowed the scheduling for the concrete to be poured and the trench covered at 2:00 pm August 27th. Be sure and stay tuned for the blog of that big event!

Colorado State University - Pueblo

On August 26th, Colorado State University - Pueblo held its Student Involvement and Employment Festival from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm in a commons area on campus. Matrix Soaps participated as a vendor during the festival. It was a very enjoyable day and we made some sales and many great contacts. I hope we can be a part of this every year!

This activity along with many other activities this week are part of the Welcoming back activities from the Office of Student Life.

I am a part time faculty member for the Hasan School of Business at CSU-P, my son is a Sophomore at CSU-P and his mother has been a Professor/Faculty Chair in the Hasan School of Business since 1992.

==End of Story==

Forms Are Set

Our wind generator foundation shaft is ready for concrete!And the trench and wiring are ready to be covered.

I will make an attempt to explain this form. Those of you who are technical may laugh at my humble explaination but all in all it shall enrich some. :-)

Those 8 lugnuts are on the top of the bolts I described in a precious blog about the bolts. There are two of those 8-point snowflakes that are spaced by 2 X 4's as part of the form. After the concrete is poured and hardened enough, the lugnuts are removed and the forms are are taken off to be reused on another pour.

The then exposed 5 or so inches of bolt will then be where the pole that holds the generator will be lowered, lined up and bolted down.

Next steps include (I assume) waiting for El Paso County to perform the open hole inspection so that they can pour concrete and reclaim the surface over the trench.

More photos at http://community.webshots.com/album/574337453pWdtKX

==End of Chapter==

Wind Generator - The Trenching

We have a trench and a piece of cable running from one end to the other! I was notified this morning, 8/24, that the crew would be here in the afternoon. At 3:30 pm Justin and Dennis showed up with the familiar utility truck and trailer with a somewhat dated looking but very powerful Ditch Witch trencher. They got that puppy off the trailer and went to work!

Our generator project entails less trenching that most for two reasons. Number one, we made the decision to spend a bit more and move our home's "main" under the new net meter which will have to breakers in it. The breaker for the 200 amp service to the home (thus converting the home breaker box into a seconday) and a 20 amp breaker through which the generator feeds. Secondly, after that decision was made, it aligned with the decision to place the generator in the South pasture which is near the pole.

As with the previous post with many pictures and lack of control in the blogger to place pictures, this blog includes a link to my Webshots picture portal for todays captures. The photos follow the sequence of the events so if you so desire you can watch it from start to finish at: http://community.webshots.com/album/574314664QdRxOV

The guys will be back in the morning to set the bolts in place. Not sure how they do that and secure them prior to concrete being poured but I guess we shall see. Open hole inspections has been ordered but their lack of experience in El Paso County leaves them with no track record on how quickly they respond. The goal is to get it early tomorrow so concrete can be poured tomorrow or at the latest Wednesday.

Stay tuned for more tomorrow!

==End of Chapter==

Meet Our Goats - The Series

Matrix Compound is home to a beautiful herd of LaMancha and LaMancha/Cross dairy goats. All of our goats are registered/recorded with the American Dairy Goat Association (http://www.adga.org/) and we rarely will sell a goat without registration.

I plan to start a series featuring each of our amazing goats. It will take a bit for Al and me to coordinate getting "showy" pictures that I can blog about. We currently have six does (females) in milk and six young doelings to freshen next year. We have more bucks than I care to admit but there are plans to use them all this year on one girl or the other.

We plan our breedings (remember I bore people with pedigrees :-)) and separate does into pens and add in a buck in order to pen breed around the middle of November. Since goats have a 5 month gestations, we like to start kidding mid-April.

Stay tuned as we begin to introduce the girls and boys of the Matrix Compound goat herd.

Pictured: Denali (black) and Yucatan (blonde) - both yearling LaMancha bucks

--End of Chapter--

Wind Generator - Access to More Pics

I do not know if it is just me and my lack of knowledge of the blogspot.com editor or if it truly is a pain in the rear for managing photos, but I do not care for it. For those of you with adequate bandwidth, I have loaded all the pictures thus far to my Webshots site. http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/574227292tSXEMZ Each file name is the date taken and a three digit serial number; i.e. 8-12 001. The serial number is the sequence in which Al took the shot.

Let me know if this link works for you! I think that connecting the blog with Webshots will allow me to share more photos.

Wind Generator - Boring the Shaft - Part II

Wind Generator - Boring the Shaft

Around 5:30 pm Aug 17th, three Cheyenne Wind vehicles pulled up our street. They were an SUV, the utility truck an trailer that was here previously to build the Cage, and a huge straight truck with a crane on it. It had a gigantuous bit on it that would be used to put the hole in the ground that will become the foundation for the wind generator.

They had bored two shafts that afternoon and had brought their equipment here for the evening and the three men said they would be back first thing in the morning.

Around 8:30 am Aug 18th, activities commenced. Luckily both Al and I were both here to observe this monumental moment! Al, being the photobug of the two us was snapping pictures like crazy. 315 photos later, the rigs were heading off to our friends' place who are also getting a generator and next on the list to get the shaft bored.

Here are a few facts about the foundation for the wind generator on its 45 foot pole:

• The shaft is 24 inches in diameter at the smallest point.
• The shaft is 16 feet deep.
• The cage, being 16'6" sticks out of the hole approximately 6 inches.
• It is required that a minimum of 6 inches of concrete is above ground and the part above ground is 3 feet in diameter.
• It is estimated that it will take 4 to 5 yards of concrete to fill the void of the foundation.
• The bolts for the pole that are placed in the base are L-shaped and approximately 2 feet on the long side and 6 inches on the short side. (One of the pictures shows them laying in the rear of the utility truck on top of copper grounding rods.)
• The concrete base will have to cure for 3+ weeks.

Next steps:

• The trench from my pole to the shaft will be dug.
• The concrete will be poured.
• The electrical work (new net meter, new electrical main on the pole and cables the will be put in place but left disconnected from the existing meter.
• The trench will be covered.

Photos will be in Part II of this Chapter.

==End of Chapter==

Introduction to Matrix Soaps

If you like handcrafted soaps, lotions and potions, you will love my products! Seems like I am picking up new customers weekly. I have yet to get to doing much updating on my website but hope to soon. Check it out at http://www.matrixsoaps.com/

Wind Generator - Meet the Crew

Meet Kevin, the Boss! (In the yellow hat...) Seems really good with his customers and his employees! Patient and friendly.

Meet Justin. He is the guy in the orange coat. Most of his work entails running the equipment. He and Dennis are brothers.

Meet Dennis. He is the young guy in the black jacket. He handles virtually every aspect of the installation. Very nice young guy and a very hard worker.

==End of Chapter==

Wind Generator - Rebar "Cage"

On August 12th, a crew of two showed with a heavy pickup and flatbed trailer with a lot of rebar on it. They went to the marked tower site and became constructing a most interesting contraption they called a Cage. They explained that the cage will go in the hole and provide the reinforcement of the base on which the equipment will be constructed.

The Cage is 16'6" in length so that 6 inches or so is out of the ground to reinforce the six inches of concrete required to be above the ground.

==End of Chapter==

Wind Generator - New Gate

When we had our site visit on July 29th, all agreed that the best location for our system was smack dab in the middle of the South pasture. Our six acre-parcel is split into approximately three two-acre areas with the house on the middle section. So we use the terminology of North Pasture and South Pasture. With that determined, our big "to do" was to get big rigs access to the south pasture. The existing 8-foot gate would not cut it.

I did not want to just cut the fencing and then try to mend it back. Just too tacky. And, since we have been here, we have wished for access gates to both pastures from the street. A friend and I went gate and post shopping on August 1st and we went to work. Al dug the post hole by hand of course and we filled it with an 8" round post, quickcrete and water that same day. Then on Sunday (the 2nd) while Al was working I got the gate hung. One small task left to do is shorten the new post but that will have to wait until fall when I get my chain saw tuned up for wood cutting and tree trimming. We are very pleased with our purchase and contruction. And, we are ready for the rigs!!!

==End of Chapter==

Wind Generator - Setting the Stage

Contruction prep started last week (August 12th) for our Wind Generator. Cheyenne Wind Energy out of Cheyenne, WY is the company contracted to perform the construction and responsible for getting it operational. A local contractor in El Paso County, JJ O'Donnell, is serving as the General Contractor from a permitting and subcontractor management perspective for Cheyenne Wind.

I should step back a couple of months and talk about what motivated us to pursue such a costly project. Obviously many of us want to go "green", but it can be cost prohibitive with the current economy. What got the ball rolling was while discussing various topics with a friend who lives just a few miles from us told me that he had been talking to Cheyenne Wind Energy and gave me their contact information. I was on a mission!

Two types of financial assistance made it possible to stay the course. The first is President Barack Obama's stimulous package included a 30% tax credit for all "green" activities with no cap. This tax credit is for all associated costs including the equipment, permits, labor, etc. (FYI, this tax credit is available to all citizens.) Although this is a great incentive, especially for smaller items like water heaters and such, it did not push me over the edge to sign on the dotted line.

Colorado Governor, Bill Ritter's Energy Office (GEO) initiated a Small Wind Rebate Program and allocated this year's grants to Electric Companies and Cooperatives throughout Colorado. (Read more at http://www.colorado.gov/energy/) The electric cooperative that provides our power, Mountain View Electric Association, Inc. http://mvea.org/ (MVEA) was set to receive somwhere in the vacinity of $50,000 to distribute to its customers. I do not know how other energy companys and coops did it, but this is what Mountain View did.

They had a drawing! In late June Cheyenne Wind gave me all the information about this and wanted to know if we wanted them to put our name in the drawing on our behalf. We could not say no. The award (if drawn) $2 for each Watt for which the wind generator is rated. The system proposed for us was a 2.4 kW! I know you can do the math but in case your mind has not gotten around that calculation yet, the number is $4,800!!!!

Then the waiting began...

The drawing was done on July 16th and the next day (a Friday), I received a call from the Master Electrician managing this project at MVEA. He informed me that out of 33* names in drawing (*I think that was the number), we were number 9 which placed us high enough to get the $4.800 grant.

On July 21st I received the letter officializing the award. Then it was a mad scramble to the preliminary site visit in to discuss the location of the equipment and various other details including the contract. The contract had to be signed and a copy to MVEA no later than August 7th. I had carried mine on the 6th and met with the Master Electrician where I learned more about how MVEA "buys" excess energy produced. My current meter will be replaced with a new "net" meter that will run backwards if our equipment produces more energy that we consume. There is no maximum that you are allowed to send onto the grid. It is possible to have a negative electric bill but most believe that is highly unlikely. We are still hopeful.

I also learned that the generator has a WiFi interface that will connect with my home wireless network and feed data to a computer application that will track statistics about the performance and production of the system. So it will be very educational to see all the data and various charts, etc. that comes with the application.

==End of Chapter==

Hi! This is Al!!!

This is the better half of the Matrix Compound! I have a studio in Ellicott in El Paso County, Colorado. I was born in Gallup, New Mexico and grew up in the northern mountains of Breadsprings (southeast of Gallup). As an artist, my passion is landscapes, skyscapes and portraits of people influenced by my travels near and far from the Navajo Nation.

Introducing the Matrix Compound

Before I get to far I have to dispell any notion that our "Compound" actually compounds anything. It is not a cult or sect or anything on the dark side. It is a farm (of sorts). At least we have dairy goats. Dogs. Cats. But it is also home to Matrix Soaps which is handcrafted soaps, lotions and potions. And most specially, home to Livingston Art Studio. Oh at this point I should introduce the owners....

I am Bill Hanks and you will find both Al Livingston, my life partner, and me contributing to this blogspot.

Who is Bill? He is too complex for him to explain. Many interests. Professionally I am a Strategic Planning · Organizational Alignment · Consulting · Project Management · Process Improvement · Business Plans · Information Security Policy Development/Implementation · Contract Negotiations · Human Resources · Training · Business Continuity Planning · Disaster Recovery · Procedure Development · IT Security · Proposal Preparation person.

Outside of that environment, I am a dairy goat professional. I love LaMancha Dairy Goats and we have a nice herd of them. (I am sure Al will prepare and upload pics of them) I know quite a bit about dairy goats and always love bending ears about goat tending, maintenance and don't get me started on pedigrees!

Who is Al? He is the most wonderful man who has been a most significant part of my life for the past nearly 8 years. I will reserve the rest of his introduction to his first blog entry on our site.

The key motivation for starting this blog is the fact that we are adding a wind generator to our property and will be blogging about the installation and subsequent benefits of bringing more green to our compound.