More News from Dave and Sally Lawrence

Here is an email from Dave dated July, 2012, with news about how well their passive solar home is doing:

Well, compared to Greenville, we certainly are cool.  It is supposed to get up to a roasting 82 today, which for Maine is pretty darn warm.  Without air conditioning, this house can warm up a lot in the day.

On the other hand, the house does really, really well in the winter.  We never turned on
the heat last winter; we just warmed up the bathroom for showers, and burned less than half a cord of wood in the wood stove.  A friend gave the wood to us in exchange for baby-sitting. Our power bill last month was $8.91.  This month it went up to $9.58.
Our neighbor was so inspired by our solar system that he installed 28 photoelectric panels on his garage roof, more than twice as many as I have. 

If my rock samples are not currently getting in the way, could you save them while I
think about it?   I am going to be teaching a geology course at the local branch of the University of Maine, and may need some of my samples that are stored at ECU.
The Belfast branch of U Maine has almost no budget.

Now that Sally cut all her teaching ties to ECU and took a job at the Belfast Free Library, lots of people on the street in town recognize her.  "Hey mom, it's the library lady!"  It really is fun to be part of such a small town that you meet people you know just walking from the post office to the grocery.



This one is dated July, 2011:

Yes, we are all moved in, and the house is fun.  Despite a string of cloudy days, we generated 75% of the
electricity we used, and most of the hot water.  The soil here makes gardening a challenge, though.  You think
the soil can be clay-rich in Greenville, you ought to see this stuff.  If this were Mexico, we could build with adobe.

Time to build more raised beds.

News from Dave and Sally Lawrence

Here's an email I received from Dave Lawrence in January 2011, shortly after their move to Maine:


Our new solar home is being built by G O Logic architecture and construction.  The frame
and the big insulated panels are up, so they are close to adding the metal roof, then
starting on plumbing and electrical.  We will have solar hot water and PV cells on the roof.
The house will be very close to the requirements of the Passiv Haus organization in Germany.
The architect tried to get us to not put in the wood stove.  He said we might get too hot.
The carpenters, Eric and Morty, are phenomenal.  They keep cheerfully working in near blizzard
conditions.

So next spring we get to move in April or May, just in time to plant a wind break and a garden.
The garlic beds are already in.

This region is wild for music.  Every time you turn around there are contra dances and fiddle groups.
There even is a summer fiddle camp.

Interesting: most of today it was warmer here in Maine than in Greenville.

Cheers,

Dave