Occasio

Solar Energy

The Neufelds have been running on solar energy for five days now! Over the last month I have researched the solar industry in central California. There is so much that I have found out but here are a few key points.

• Fresno is wonderfully situated for solar power: lots of long sunny days with very little clouds and precipitation
• California is offering great rebates, the fed is offering tax credits for installing solar
• We have a grid-tied system which means we feed electricity back into the grid as it is produced by our system; our meter runs backwards at certain times of the day!
• Our system can generate up to 4800 watts, which should supplement 75-80% of our electrical needs in a year
• Yesterday our system generated about 32 kwh and it was 108 degrees which means we spent about $2.50 in electricity on one of the hottest days of the year, and the house was cool!
• Yesterday was also a record setting day for California -- more energy was consumed than any other day in our state's history
• If  PG&E rate increases are conservative the system should pay for itself in nine or ten years; if increase are higher it could be producing free electricity for our home in just five or six years
• It feels really good to be using a clean, renewable source of energy!

A few pictures:

14 panels on the south face of our little suburban home

14 panels on the west side

The only other equipment is the switch box and the inverter (converts DC to AC) in the garage

CoeXisT

For the Mideast...

Taken November 5, 2005, Las Vegas

Where is the Love?

I'm watching the Tour de France but I can't get the pictures of the evening news out of my head. I've been taking it in all day. Hezbollah crossed into Israel killing and abducting soldiers and then commenced firing 80+ rockets across the border. Israel retaliated with air strikes bombing the international airport and many other parts of Beirut. One Israeli official said, "In Israel the land is unsettled, in Lebanon it will be hell." Another said that Beirut would be bombed back twenty years.

It is tragic that the prophetic call of U2's "Love and Peace or Else" has once again been proven all too true. Two brothers at war.

Lay down
Lay down your guns
All your daughters of Zion
All your Abraham sons

I don’t know if I can make it
I’m not easy on my knees
Here’s my heart and you can break it
I need some release, release, release

We need
Love and peace

Baby don’t fight
We can talk this thing through
It’s not a big problem
It’s just me and you
You can call or I’ll phone
The TV is still on
But the sound is turned down
And the troops on the ground
Are about to dig in

And I wonder where is the love?
Where is the love?
Where is the love?
Where is the love?
Love and peace

On July 2 former MBBS president and professor emeritus Elmer Martens preached in my church from Jeremiah 22. The prophet confronted King Jehoiakim because of the injustices in his kingdom. Martens did a masterful job of defining the Hebrew word for justice, mishpat. In western society we have come to understand justice as something we receive (I am a victim, I demand justice) or we dispense (he was convicted and justice was served). But mishpat could best be defined as "honorable relations." Justice is something that we do in relationship with others. It is active not passive. The goal is shalom -- not merely the absence of conflict, but the presence of harmony in relationships. What might a country look like if it practiced this kind of justice?

Once again, either through intention or intuition, Bono has captured the heart of the prophet Jeremiah by calling us back to love, justice and right relationships (note the relational language in the lyric above). More than once I have heard this post-punker confess, "Rage can only take you so far." The implication: love is the way. Love and Peace OR ELSE!

The Cabin Creek Trail

Yesterday I went on the best day hike I've had in a long time. It was just a little over four miles but I played around on the Cabin Creek Trail for as many hours. On this moderately strenuous hike I stepped into the past and walked where Indians and loggers traveled. Hikes in this area of the Kings Canyon are always bitter sweet. At the end of the journey lay a beautiful Giant Sequoia Redwood grove, while along the way there were ample reminders of how turn-of-the-century logging barons devastated the oldest and largest living things on the planet and brought disease to the native Americans.

The hike itself was rejuvenating and cathartic. I don't quite understand why dirt and sweat revive me so. I'm sure it comes through a combination of physical activity, beauty, perspective, introspection and a gentle breeze of the Spirit.

I think I would be better off for having more of these hikes.

Stump Meadow is a redwood graveyard from the early 1900s

A great sitting-rock from where the whole lower Kings Canyon can be observed

An unknown flower along the trail

A Giant Sequoia in the Cabin Creek Grove

Spanish Mtn in the background (north side of Kings Canyon)