Spring Bantah - 2mo late

[forkyfork]

On 4/19/2026 at 6:21 PM, dendrite said:

What did you graft? I know you were trying plum before  

That’s a good initial sign, but there’s stored energy in the scions to initially push growth out the buds. You want to see an inch or two of growth before knowing for sure that the graft took. 

update 

[Brewbeer]

I finally put the snow thrower in the shed, usually wait until the first weekend in May.  Turned into a really nice day in the lower valley, cleaned the garage and washed 2 cars including my daily driver antique Honda, which came out nice:

[Baroclinic Zone]

Picked up my daughter from her mother’s where she’s been recuperating for the last 9 days. She’s doing well. Getting around pretty good. Optimistic she will be getting back into PT in the near future to make strides with her strength and mobility. She starts summer classes in a week.

[weatherwiz]

Izzy finally came home 

[512high]

2 hours ago, weatherwiz said:

Izzy finally came home 

Paul that's great! Helps fill the void, Poor thing is happy to have a home, congrats!

[MJO812]

[dendrite]

9 hours ago, MJO812 said:

[512high]

20 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Boy your brutal.....lol

[dendrite]

@OceanStWx

Found an error in the MHT climo and record history. 36° is listed as the min for 7/22/1937. It should be 50°.

I went and found the original form and the min for the date was crossed out and 36 was put in the range column alongside the 86 max. But the min for the month clearly has 50° listed on the 14th and 22nd. So that 36° is obviously the range and not meant to be the min.

[powderfreak]

Bear break-in.  These guys are tenacious.

[dendrite]

7 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Bear break-in.  These guys are tenacious.

[512high]

9 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Bear break-in.  These guys are tenacious.

Holy Crap! WTF!

[powderfreak]

2 hours ago, 512high said:

Holy Crap! WTF!

We’ve seen them climb the 5-foot retaining wall to get into the Gondola barn and then remove the storage door, hinges and all, just to get to a bucket of compost.

[tunafish]

9 hours ago, powderfreak said:

We’ve seen them climb the 5-foot retaining wall to get into the Gondola barn and then remove the storage door, hinges and all, just to get to a bucket of compost.

Before seeing this sort of stuff, and like that car interior last year, I never really appreciated not having them here.  What a menace.

[powderfreak]

3 hours ago, tunafish said:

Before seeing this sort of stuff, and like that car interior last year, I never really appreciated not having them here.  What a menace.

They are smart, strong and very determined.

Yesterday I was wandering around and ran into a big one up near 3,500ft.  I came over a knoll and she was right there.

I just chilled and watched her for a while.  She looked at me, assessed and gave me the nod of approval and went back to grazing the grass. 

She is a frequent flyer at the ski area, has had a very noticeable limp for years which is how we recognize her.  Last year she had two cubs with her, but a year later they are off on their own now and she’s back to grazing around alone.

 

[powderfreak]

Ran into her again today.

Bashful and just hosing grass.  12 hours a day eating grass, bulking up to 600 pounds.

 

Then down at home, cubs running wild following Mom into our neighborhood.

[BrianW]

7 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Ran into her again today.

Bashful and just hosing grass.  12 hours a day eating grass, bulking up to 600 pounds.

 

Then down at home, cubs running wild following Mom into our neighborhood.

Glad to see those Bears are still going strong and causing mayhem. Lol. 

I worked in a few restaurants in Stowe back in like 2004/05 and they were the highlight of our night when one would show up and tear apart the dumpster..

[powderfreak]

Yogi came through the yard again this evening.

[radarman]

Ski resort tycoon game based on the NELSAP site

https://icecoastrevival.com/

[dendrite]

I left guest viewing turned off, but I turned new registrations back on.

Let me know if you experience slowdowns. I think it should be okay unless I get barraged with forum signups from overseas.

[H2Otown_WX]

10 hours ago, dendrite said:

I left guest viewing turned off, but I turned new registrations back on.

Let me know if you experience slowdowns. I think it should be okay unless I get barraged with forum signups from overseas.

Will you turn guest viewing back on at some point?

[Baroclinic Zone]

On 5/12/2026 at 8:12 PM, Baroclinic Zone said:

Picked up my daughter from her mother’s where she’s been recuperating for the last 9 days. She’s doing well. Getting around pretty good. Optimistic she will be getting back into PT in the near future to make strides with her strength and mobility. She starts summer classes in a week.

So she’s started PT. Has PT homework she needs to do to work on back muscles. The surgical incision has just about healed up.

She just finished her 1st 6wk summer semester class, Anatomy & Physiology I, starts Anatomy & Physiology II right after the 4th. Another 6wk compressed course. 

[MJO812]

[Baroclinic Zone]

Fill us in on who this is for those that are not on social media.

[WxWatcher007]

5 minutes ago, Baroclinic Zone said:

Fill us in on who this is for those that are not on social media.

I think that’s Earthlight?

[MJO812]

53 minutes ago, Baroclinic Zone said:

Fill us in on who this is for those that are not on social media.

Earthlight 

[Dan76]

NYC forum he was good when it used to snow.

[Brewbeer]

moving this to banter so it doesn't get lost under the oppressive heat dome

2 hours ago, Layman said:

I've been curious about this for some time and had trouble discerning where a break-even is after initial purchase.  I know there were subsidies involved in a lot of installations that helped but I've also heard people mention panels degrade over time and/or there are maintenance costs to factor in (panel replacement, batteries, etc).

I imagine you've hit a break-even at some point during this stretch.  Do you happen to know when it was and how far ahead you are?

This question is dense, so I'll provide some details that should be considered when making your evaluation. 

First and foremost, owning the panel vs. leasing them:  others may have varying opinions, but for me, I wanted to own them so I could claim all the benefits.  The drawback to owning them is you are laying out cash up front (or financing) to get generating.  So factor in the financing costs or the lost time value of the money you spend to get them installed. 

Is this purely an economic decision, or are there other factors that are influencing your decision?  I considered economics but I also wanted to make a conscientious decision to spend some of my personal elective resources in decreasing my carbon emissions that are making the massive heat dome even bigger.  

At the time I installed, there was a 30% federal tax credit and a $1,000 state tax credit, so my 35K installed cost was shaved to 23.5k.  Because I was an early adopter, I was able to enter the SREC pool and I was paid between $250 and $300 for every MWH the system generates for the first 10 years.  I'm in my 10th year now and have generated 82 MWH, so call it $2,200 per year, direct deposit, into my bank account.  

The system generates more power in a year that I use. My utility credits excess generation on a 1 for 1 basis, so over generation in the spring and summer is absorbed in the winter.  March through October are excess generation months, February and November are typically neutral to slightly negative, and December and January are deficit months.  The savings from no electric bill is probably about $2,000-2,200 per year, on average, over the last 10 years.

Now for the degradation/repairs.  The degradation I've observed is small.  When the system was first installed, my best solar production day of the year would produce about 51-52 KWH.  This year, my best production was 48 KWH.  Best production comes in the spring, before leaf-out, when temps are cool during the day.  For repairs, I have a Solaredge system which uses a central inverter in the basement, and individual optimizers under each panel.  My system was purchased with a 10 year warranty on the system except 25 year warranty on the panels.  2 optimizers were replaced under warranty 4 years ago, no charge.  I replaced 2 optimizers 2 years ago, they cost me nothing under warranty, but I had to get up on the roof and install them (which is not for the faint of heart).  At the end of last summer, the inverter failed.  It was replaced under warranty, but I lost 2 months of prime generation and had to pay an electrician $600 to install it since my installer wouldn't let me attempt it myself (j/k, I know my limits).  Fortunately I have a large credit built up over the years with the POCO, so I didn't have to pay a power bill when the inverter was off line waiting to be replaced.

With all this factored in, I figure my break even was somewhere around 7 years. With the decrease in the cost of these installations in the last 10 years, the increase in the cost of power, and the loss of the federal tax credit, I'm not sure what the payback period would be for a contemporaneous installation.   

Hope this help, post any questions you have, happy to respond.     

 

 

 

 

 

[OceanStWx]

4 minutes ago, Brewbeer said:

moving this to banter so it doesn't get lost under the oppressive heat dome

This question is dense, so I'll provide some details that should be considered when making your evaluation. 

First and foremost, owning the panel vs. leasing them:  others may have varying opinions, but for me, I wanted to own them so I could claim all the benefits.  The drawback to owning them is you are laying out cash up front (or financing) to get generating.  So factor in the financing costs or the lost time value of the money you spend to get them installed. 

Is this purely an economic decision, or are there other factors that are influencing your decision?  I considered economics but I also wanted to make a conscientious decision to spend some of my personal elective resources in decreasing my carbon emissions that are making the massive heat dome even bigger.  

At the time I installed, there was a 30% federal tax credit and a $1,000 state tax credit, so my 35K installed cost was shaved to 23.5k.  Because I was an early adopter, I was able to enter the SREC pool and I was paid between $250 and $300 for every MWH the system generates for the first 10 years.  I'm in my 10th year now and have generated 82 MWH, so call it $2,200 per year, direct deposit, into my bank account.  

The system generates more power in a year that I use. My utility credits excess generation on a 1 for 1 basis, so over generation in the spring and summer is absorbed in the winter.  March through October are excess generation months, February and November are typically neutral to slightly negative, and December and January are deficit months.  The savings from no electric bill is probably about $2,000-2,200 per year, on average, over the last 10 years.

Now for the degradation/repairs.  The degradation I've observed is small.  When the system was first installed, my best solar production day of the year would produce about 51-52 KWH.  This year, my best production was 48 KWH.  Best production comes in the spring, before leaf-out, when temps are cool during the day.  For repairs, I have a Solaredge system which uses a central inverter in the basement, and individual optimizers under each panel.  My system was purchased with a 10 year warranty on the system except 25 year warranty on the panels.  2 optimizers were replaced under warranty 4 years ago, no charge.  I replaced 2 optimizers 2 years ago, they cost me nothing under warranty, but I had to get up on the roof and install them (which is not for the faint of heart).  At the end of last summer, the inverter failed.  It was replaced under warranty, but I lost 2 months of prime generation and had to pay an electrician $600 to install it since my installer wouldn't let me attempt it myself (j/k, I know my limits).  Fortunately I have a large credit built up over the years with the POCO, so I didn't have to pay a power bill when the inverter was off line waiting to be replaced.

With all this factored in, I figure my break even was somewhere around 7 years. With the decrease in the cost of these installations in the last 10 years, the increase in the cost of power, and the loss of the federal tax credit, I'm not sure what the payback period would be for a contemporaneous installation.   

Hope this help, post any questions you have, happy to respond. 

I have a larger system, so may calculated break even was slightly longer. 

However, the way I look at it is electricity is not something I can really opt out of. So I'm either paying for electricity or paying for panel financing. I've been able to get that price down around what my monthly electric bill was anyway, so my only real cost is to stay connected to the grid.

[Baroclinic Zone]

22 hours ago, MJO812 said:

Earthlight 

Thank you for placing a forum name. Wish him well.