Adventures In Lunch

My electrical panel arrived today!  After much tribulation, I’m going with this one as discussed previously.  I’m not ready to start on the electrical work yet but I found it for a really good price so I went ahead and ordered one.

It snowed last night on my jobsite. I didn’t do any work today because it was too cold, and also because I have a cold. Which is a bummer. Highs in the mid thirties this weekend, whereas last weekend they were in the fifties. It will be in the fifties again next weekend so hopefully I will be able to get some work done then.

Since I last posted here, I have gotten most of the upper roof framing done. There is still some blocking to finish and I have to work out how to erect the fly rafters before I can put the sheathing on. It’s definitely getting close to finally being time for my framing inspection. It’s frustrating how slowly things are moving now that I can only work on the project during weekends.

I think I’ve finally worked out my electrical service with PG&E, and also the county building department. I’ll be putting in a 200 amp Siemens panel with service disconnects at 50 amps for the barn and 150 amps for the house I’m going to build later. I’m not ready to start with the electrical work yet, but I ordered the panel from a seller on eBay because it was a really good price. I always kind of wonder whether stuff like that is stolen when you get it on eBay, but the listing looked legit and the seller has a good rating so I went for it.

I have been running the work lights in the barn using the little third-world solar power system that I built a number of years ago. I think I described it in a previous post; I’ve got a little 11 watt panel and a big hundred-amp-hour AGM battery, and it works very well. My thinking there is that since I’m not at the site during the week, the thing has five whole days to recharge the battery with no load.

That is, as long as there is no load.

When I arrived to start working this morning, there was a distinct whining noise coming from the shed that the solar stuff is in. It appears that I left the inverter turned on when I left last weekend, and it has been drawing a slight trickle of current ever since then. Over an entire day that must exceed the amount of power generated by the little panel while the sun is up. The whining noise is the under voltage alarm on the inverter announcing to the world that the battery voltage is insufficient.

It’s probably still going right now, as I am writing this. I took the key for the condo that I’m moving out of off of my key ring this week. I don’t really need it every day anymore because I’m now staying in my house. The problem is that the same key opens the little solar shed, a fact which I didn’t even think about. So I couldn’t get in today to turn the inverter off. In all likelihood it is this very moment announcing its alarm condition for all the critters and the trees to hear. Perhaps it will give pause to the one of the local deer, which will stop to listen for a moment to the strange noise coming from the human building. I am confident that the grave urgency of INSUFFICIENT BATTERY VOLTS will be completely lost on the animal as it bounds blissfully off into the night in search of some tasty shrubs to munch on.

Here’s a rare action shot, courtesy of the outstanding folks over at Wanderings of Baloo.

Here we’re using my wall jacks to erect the south wall on the second floor.  Much easier than dead lifting it, that’s for darn sure!

My friend Brendan came out to the site for a 4-day weekend and helped me finish up all the wall framing and sheathing.  The project is coming along really well, it’s starting to look more and more like a building and not just a pile of lumber.  🙂

The leaves are coming down in earnest now.  There was some decent wind over the weekend which help to clean out the trees and everything is looking very much like fall.  The low angle sun also helps to belie the season.

I only got half of the south roof ledger installed.  That particular piece of lumber has been waiting to be used since the project began, and by now it’s quite well seasoned.  Driving nails into it was nearly impossible, I wound up standing on top of my A-frame ladder and smacking them with a 5 pound drilling hammer.  That was really a chore.

I’m optimistic that I can get the south shed roof framed this coming weekend, I think it should go reasonably quickly if I don’t run into any stumbling blocks.

Being more of a morning person than I am, Brendan helped kick my ass out of bed every day he was here so that we could get an early start.  Here he is slacking off on the job.  🙂

Get back to work you lazy bum!

The careful planning observer might look at the project progress since May and conclude that it’s unlikely I will be finished before it starts to be the wet and soggy season in the California gold country.  Obviously I would prefer otherwise, but I’m not terribly worried about the building.  The 2nd floor might squeak if it gets a lot of rain, but so long as things have a chance to dry out it will be okay.