Day Twenty Six...

I actually did stay in bed longer than usual today, since it is Monday this is the day I work from home. I woke up about the usual time but dozed off-and-on for about another hour, and that was pretty darn sweet. It is foggy this morning, cannot even see to the far end of the pasture, but it is better now than it was when I went outside for the paper. It was kind of like a heavy dew...condensation dripping off the trees onto the truck and the driveway. Neat. Maybe we will even get some rain out of the deal later on in the week.

One of our neighbors has found some round bales of hay that may be delivered to us this morning or afternoon. AND my friend Roy is still working on the two of us splitting a truckload of hay, so of course, I may soon be up-to-my-eyeballs in hay. Truthfully, I would much rather have more hay than I need than to have a bunch of starving cattle on my hands. I took a good look at Daphne yesterday, and she is looking a little thin. I do not think they are going hungry, I think I just need to provide them with a little more food. I like a little meat on them, as opposed to that lean look. One thing about Longhorn Cattle, they are genetically able to survive a lot with a little. They are genetically lean animals, but I like them to look a little fuller around the ribs.

I am also expecting the Home Energy Audit guys to show up today to perform an energy rating on the house. This should be FUN, EXCITING, INFORMATIVE and USEFUL. I hope to use the information I receive from this process in the class I teach, the NAR GREEN Designation course. I teach this class for the first time in March, so I still have a good bit of time to prepare. I hate putting things off til the last minute...

The energy audit guys showed up right at the pre-determined time, so that was a good thing. So far they have been here for about an hour-and-a half, and I think the test will be very informative when we get all the results back. They have to take the data they get from the audit, enter it into a (according to them) sophisticated computer program, and it will spit out a bunch of results. So far, I know a few things from their audit: We are heating and cooling the attic space, because all the venting collars, ducts (and stuff) are not sealed properly. We need more insulation in the attic, at least six more inches. The house has a negative pressure base-line reading of -.5 pascal. I could try to tell you what the pascal measurement was, but it is kind of complicated. Go look it up for yourself. So, we expected there to be some issues with this house, but really I am not hearing anything negative that cannot be easily fixed. Overall, it was a pretty interesting and rewarding experience!

Okay, now go find yourself some unsuspecting soul and perform an energy audit on them! You never know what savings you might be able to uncover for someone, and I AM SURE they will be appreciative of the attention!