When Leilani was in summercamp at the Healing Horses I volunteered and painted with the kids:
The painting sold at the benefit auction for the Healing Horses for $150
A hole opened up in our yard where we once had a papaya tree, and it’s deep, and near the cesspool and near the trampoline and the ground is visibly lower in it’s vicinity.
Leilani was tasked with writing a sign to remind people to stay off the trampoline: That’s what she wrote.
There was a rare Solar Convergence today… We even managed to get a photo
And that’s what it looked like less than 2 hours after they showed up
So far we are really happy with Islandwide. Now I hope it can be switched on soon for Kass Household Carbon Neutral Stage 1
So I posted that on Facebook. And people asked. I thought I’d preserve some of that here as well:
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Fern Merle-Jones, Luna Lokahi Kennedy, Rony Baenziger and 22 others like this.
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Melissa Fisher Wow, awesome! Grid or off grid? -
Tatiana Volikovsky Scanlon Wow! We’re getting solar, but I think they can only fit 17. Still better than nothing! -
Matthias Hoffmann This is an entirely new Level of Awesome!!!
Can you give us more specs? Costs?
Anyway, I salute you!! -
Andreas HoffmannCongratulations! That´s very neat. Yes, some specs, please. Who is the manufacturer? -
Sonja Kass Grid tied, 24 LG 285 made in Korea panels, Solar Edge Optimizers and Inverters, we broke down and got the KIUC (our beloved utility co-op) smart-meter but moved as far away from the living space as we could get it. A bit over $17K as a prepaid lease including all electrical work to move our meter and get a new breaker panel (Sunrun takes the tax break, but gives an awesome warranty for 20 years). Cost per kWh 0.092 $ compared to almost 47c KIUC including all fuel surcharges. Will produce 6.8 kW during a sunshine hour for an average of 34kWh per day which is more than twice what we use now. And will power a 2015 Nissan Leaf… and on this one we get the tax break Carbon Neutral Stage One… -
Julian Miller well done! you help eliminate numerous problems with this rig. pollution, climate change, terrorism, etc. -
Andreas HoffmannSomething that might be useful for your next stage…
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1603421386
Recommendation by…
https://www.facebook.com/…/Living-Off…/228080417303590
Put your backyard to work! Enjoy fresher, organic, better-tasting food all the time. The solution is as close as your own backyard. Grow the vegetables and fruits your family loves; keep bees; raise chickens, goats, or even a cow. The Backyard Homestead shows you how it’s done. And when the harve…
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Sonja Kass I tried the Hawaiian version of the backyard homestead… long story (and we are on 1/6th of an acre with more than 1/2 of that built on)… I also tried to get a walking distance community garden project going, and one day I hope to get back to that. Farmer’s markets for now for stage 3 But I still have 10 easily propagated tropical edible greens and beans, as well as herbs, avocados, citrus, papayas and Surinam cherries in my yard, that we eat and share.
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Rony Baenziger Did you calculate/estimate your ROI? -
Sonja Kass Break even is after less than 5 years, ROI is too complicated for me:
Status Quo: if gas continues to go up 5% annually and our miles and current miles-per-gallon stay the same we’d pay $13,720 for gas within the next 5 years. Our electricity rates have grown 8% per year over the last 11 years. Continue our current consumption at that price increase we’d spend $13,672 within the next 5 years. Total cost would be $27,400.
PV + Leaf: If we invested $17,300 (today’s cost for the PV part) at 5% APR for 20 years it would return $46,000 – an annual opportunity cost of $2,300, so $11,500 for 5 years. The cost of the new Leaf over 5 years is $9,400 more than our current car (not including gas, but factoring in estimates for repairs, warranty, value after 5 years, e-fuel for the Leaf at 9.2 c/kwH for our current miles driven). Total cost is $20,880 (and for the first time in my life I’ll own a new car).
Disclaimer: I’m not doing it for the money but for the environment. But I really like the added benefit of saving a lot of money.
At the Healing Horses
Jet and Julie wrestling
Kealia post office
Kealia, old school which once housed Island school as well
Beachwalk, Kapaa south
Beach Heliotrope
Pets on the front stairs
Leilani saw a Monkseal with pup with the Children of the Land
Beach fire at Lydgate
While Sonja and Leilani were in Austria, I was working and pet-sitting on Kauai. The dogs were still big puppies back then.
I did take the dogs on some nice hikes.
This is the Anahola Baptist Church, below the Kalalea mountain:
An unnamed cemetery going wild but full of flowers (I am reminded of the song “Where have all the flowers gone?”):
This is Papa’a Bay:
Our biggest hike was the Kalepa ridge between Hanamaulu and the Wailua river:
When Sonja and Leilani arrived home, there were flower leis, and all animals got together for the only picture we have of all 4 of them:
For the 4th of July, I took this picture by the Kaua’i Lagoons. I could never get all the fireworks at once, so this is photoshopped together:
