Crape Myrtle Haircut

 Four and a half years ago, we planted four Crape Myrtle trees in the back yard.  They have grown like crazy getting at least 30 feet tall and were starting to shade the solar panels so time for a haircut.  It was a chore but they now are down to about 12 feet.  It will be interesting to see how they recover from this clipping.

Wildlife Update

 The beautiful piebald deer born last spring continues to wander around the neighborhood.  Here is the deer following momma in our Sweet Shrub bush.  We are lucky to see the deer almost every week.  Meanwhile back at the pond is the Hawk.  He is never far from the Goldfish buffet.  Hopefully when spring arrives and the Goldfish wake up we'll still have a bunch of them in the pond.

Ice on the Pond

 A couple of more pictures of from the cold winter that we've had this year.  A bunch of icicles hanging from the greenhouse grew when the sun was shining but the air temperature.  The little bit of melting dripped and formed the icicles.  And the pond was almost frozen over with just a small opening next to the filter.

Snow on the Solar Panels

 Starting in mid January we had a snow storm a week for three weeks.  In addition to shoveling the snow off the decks, sidewalks and driveway, I clean it off the solar panels.  It takes about an hour using a 16 foot long swimming pool brush to sweep off the snow.  The three sets of panels include solar electric, solar water heating and a small off grid electric system.  If I wait for mother nature to clean the panels, I could be waiting a week and during that time no solar production.