BTW: I added a night shot to the previous “harvest” post.

I have been traveling a bit so I had my fingers crossed I’d be around when the combine harvester arrived. That day was today. David Mason, a local multi-generation farmer here on the shore leases the 75+ acres in front of where I live. This year he planted corn at the start of the year and soybeans at the end of June when I first saw this place.

The harvest process, like most things in farming, is an orchestrated process which is a bit tedious. First they drive the combine harvester to the field. Not every road is wide enough or idle enough for the combine to make the trek in “operational configuration”. Fortunately, the front catch – which is 30 feet wide – can be removed and trailed behind a pickup. There is also a truck with a fuel bladder and a tractor trailer for the harvest. This caravan arrived around 4pm today with the sun steadily creeping toward the tree line. I grabbed a few pictures as David started the harvest.

Around 6pm, with the temperature dropping quickly into the 30’s and long past dark, David finished filling the first 18 wheeler and called it a night. Parked in the front yard is the tractor trailer, the combine, and one of the pickups. I’m guessing it will be an early day tomorrow ! … a cold one too.

The farm construction project has lots of details. Most of them represent unfamiliar territory to me.

From the very start, I intended to employ a heatpump system. I knew a little about them from years ago but knew they were difficulty to complete in the Northeastern USA. They work well for air conditioning but getting heat was is more challenging.

I’m still planning to use a heatpump but now I know there are many different types and to be more specific, I plan to use a geothermal ground water closed vertical loop heat. The system starts with a series of wells being drilled. Two tubes, connected with a 180 connector at the end (creating a very tall “U”) are lowered into each well. The number of wells is determined by the are to be heated and cooled. All of the well leads are connected in series. The closed loop is connected to the heat exchanged. Here is a video that shows the wells and the tube segments as well as the overall system.

There are lots of ways to explain how a geoexchange system. I find it easiest to refer to a refrigerator. Inside it is cold and it generates excess heat, exhausted out the bottom and back. In the summer, consider the house as the inside of the refrigerator and the excess heat is exhausted into the ground. In winter, the system is reversed and the “excess heat” is exhausted into the house. It’s an over simplification. For a more detailed and accurate explanation, read “how it works“.

It’s also possible to get part or all of a building’s hot water from the system. One solution uses the compressor’s excess heat generated as a by-product of operation. This heat can be captured for the hot water system. A conventional hot water system is still needed for times when the geothermal is not operating (spring and fall). In some cases a separate mini-heatechanger is used to provide 100% of the hot water needs – triple function geoexchange systems.

All photos courtesy of Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium, Inc.

“Thank You” to my mom who recently shipped me a new pair of felted wool slippers. I had the very first pair she ever made but after years of running around in them, the bottoms finally wore out. Over Christmas, I found out she was making them again and immediately put in a request for a new pair. These are even better than my first pair. She shrunk them most of the way and then mailed them to me. I had to shrink them the rest of the way to get them to a perfect fit.

It’s finally warming up in the North East but I’m still going to have plenty of mornings to enjoy these “foot blankets” !

Thanks again mom !

The snow may be gone soon but I managed to capture a few “Zen moments” on the snow this past week. She loves the snow so I tolerate the cold to see her so happy. This year, the Valentines Day snow left a crust just hard enough for her to run on top … most of the time.

Of course, I did say she could run on top of the crust “most of the time”. It warmed up for a day or so (before we got the deep freeze) and that caught Zen a bit off guard …

No one ever accused my little girl of being dainty !