TheDesertRanch.com

October 5, 2008

It looks like fall has come to the desert a month early this year.  We have been experiencing cooler nights and some overcast days.  Windows are being closed earlier in the afternoon and definitely closed at night to retain enough heat so we don’t have to build a fire in the stove in the cool mornings.  On these types of days, if you do build a fire in the morning, by the time the sun is up high in the sky, you are wishing you hadn’t.  So it is get up, get dressed and put on a jacket until the sun warms up the house.

We have southern exposure windows as a passive solar heating system which is good in the fall, winter in spring.  But when the sun gets hot we hang sun shades over them to keep the hot summer sun out of the house and control the hot temperatures in summer.  Since autumn is coming early we will we need to take the sun shades down to let the sun in to help with the warming process.  I have found that controlling the amount of sunlight in the house is the best way to keep from having to use as much artificial heating and cooling devices.

This fall is going to be a little different for us here at the desert ranch.  Two of my grandchildren have come to spend the winter with us.  They are use to a suburban life and have to make the transition to limited electricity and limited water supply.  We have a small solar array and batteries that we use for most of our electricity with a generator for back up.  The hardest part of their adjusting to the limited electric power is the amount of time spent on the electronic games.

We have to haul all the water we use here at the ranch, so they are having to learn to take showers with a set amount of water rather than just let the water run for fifteen to twenty minutes. Actually they are doing quite well with the limited water supply without too much complaining especially since the came from a home with a swimming pool in their back yard.  They are willing and able to find other ways to entertain themselves in their free time.  They like to play outside and read, without expecting someone else to entertain them.  They are learning to deal with the water limitations without too much complaining.