Hard Things

[ysabetwordsmith]

Life is full of things which are hard or tedious or otherwise unpleasant that need doing anyhow. They help make the world go 'round, they improve skills, and they boost your sense of self-respect. But doing them still kinda sucks. It's all the more difficult to do those things when nobody appreciates it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our accomplishments and pat each other on the back.

What are some of the hard things you've done recently? What are some hard things you haven't gotten to yet, but need to do? Is there anything your online friends could do to make your hard things a little easier?

Comments

Re: Thoughts

[siliconshaman]

Very over-spec'ed solar panels, so most of the year we'll be exporting power to the grid and getting paid for it! It was completely over-cast yesterday, and we still made more power than we used. (albeit, by only 0.2Kw)

Cost 11k but worth it (and it was money up front so no loans to pay off.)

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

That's a great situation.

Re: Thoughts

[siliconshaman]

Part of my 'shelter in place' plan.

Re: Thoughts

[crunchysteve]

"LovelyLinda" and I got solar last year, along with a heat pump hot water cylinder and heat pump ducted heating, both replacing gas. Small roof, but still managing to export to the grid, even on the cold sunny days. Best investment we ever made for "Panama, where the whole world smells of barbecues." (Our little home.) You won't know yourself! Especially over summer.

Re: Thoughts

[siliconshaman]

I did think about going down the heat pump route but basically we ran out of places on the outside walls we could put a system.

I know it probably seems contradictory, but I actually prefer our coal fired heating system... with the insulation we have, we need it for maybe three or four weeks out of the year, it has to get down below 4 degrees C outside to require it. Which happens rarely here, and is likely to get less common in the future. (and coal is *cheap* now.)

I suppose if wanted to go greener, I would upgrade our air-con to one that has a heater function, and use some of that solar power. Or you know, I could just burn wood instead.

Re: Thoughts

[crunchysteve]

Totally get the wall space thing. We had huge, aging, gas heating for house and water, so we got a bit of space back, but it was touch and go there for a while. We're also lucky that the utility wall is behind the house, barely even visible from the neighbours' upstairs side windows. Also understand keeping the coal burner, seeing as you don';t need it often. Linda fancies herself a master chef and I was going to be prizing a gas cooktop from her cold, dead hand, lol. (And we have our gas bbq and tiny wood fired pizza oven, too. The latter will be prized from my cold, dead hand! Thinking about baking the daily bread in it, in fact.)

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

I like cooking, but I greatly prefer electric plate or coil to gas. I can do campfire cooking too.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

We have a woodstove, which can put out quite a lot of heat.

The heat pump is marginally useful at best, and useless when the weather gets really colds, then it switches to electrical emergency heat, which also doesn't keep the house really warm. Hence the woodstove and space heaters.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

That sounds like a good setup.