Tag Archives: Okra Paradise Farms

New solar panels at Okra Paradise Farms

We’ve added 60 new solar PV panels to our old 20 panels at Okra Paradise Farms, bringing our production up to about 15KW DC:


Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman on the new panels on the roof of the farm workshop at Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 29 January 2012.
Photo CC BY-ND Okra Paradise Farms

You can see the old panels sticking up on the left, and we’re sitting on some of the new panels, which continue on the lower roof on the right.

These panels were purchased with the assistance of a USDA Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) 25% grant:

Eligible projects include those that derive energy from a wind, solar, biomass, or geothermal source, or hydrogen derived from biomass or water using wind, solar, or geothermal energy sources.
The REAP program will probably be renewed this year, so if you have a farm, you could apply.

We also applied for and got a U.S. Treasury 30% grant from the 1603 Program: Payments for Specified Energy Property in Lieu of Tax Credits. That program was funded by the The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act).

Finally, there is the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA) 35% Clean Energy Property Tax Credit, which will apply in parts over four years.

That all adds up to 90% covered by grants and tax credits, which is a pretty good deal.

Now that remaining 10% is still a significant amount; like the price of a small car. But in 7-15 years (how long it will take to pay off this system, depending on how you figure it), what would the value of a car be? Much less than when you bought it. Meanwhile, these solar panels will be generating almost as much power as they are now, and they will continue to generate for at least a decade more, probably much more.

The big missing piece is up-front financing. For more on that, see other blog post.

Meanwhile, we have here on our workshop roof a proof of concept, operational right now.

The little dogs wanted to know what we were doing on the roof: Continue reading →

Happy frogs in the cypress swamp 2012-03-07

It rained six inches here when the tornado went through. That rain refilled the cypress swamp, and revived thousands of frogs that had been slumbering in the mud.

Panning around their habitat, you can’t see them, but you can hear them.

Here’s a playlist: Continue reading →

First rain lily of 2012

The first rain lily I saw this year.


Picture by John S. Quarterman at Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 March 2012.

A small lily that grows only in counties along the Georgia-Florida border, and maybe in a few in Alabama: Treat’s Rain Lily, Zephyranthes atamasca var. treateiae. These days it’s classified as an amaryllis.

-jsq

Sneaky Yellow Dog Sneaky Yellow Dog

What’s that yellow dog up to?


Pictures of Gretchen Quarterman and Yellow Dog at Okra Paradise Farms
by John S. Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 February 2012.

Not digging, she hopes? We just planted potatoes there! Here’s a slideshow: Continue reading →

Greening and candling burned longleaf

Back in December we burned some planted longleaf. Six weeks later, they’re greening up and candling. I couldn’t find a single longleaf that didn’t survive. Even ones that a few weeks ago you would have thought were burnt sticks now have green leaves or white candles or both.

Here’s a slideshow.


Longleaf greening after fire, Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman 29 February 2012.

-jsq

Burning some piney woods 2012 01 31

Why to burn more frequently: vines grow up trees and form ladder fuels


Prescribed burn of some piney woods at Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Pictures and videos by John S. Quarterman and Gretchen Quarterman, 31 January 2012.

Fortunately these vines were mostly in invasive exotics anyway (chinaberry, mimosa, Japanese privet) that had grown up along the field edge. After a few minutes, here’s the result.

Most of the rest of the woods burned much more evenly, with flames only a foot or two above the ground.

A flickr slideshow: Continue reading →