This blog provides up-to-date news of goings on at South Mountain Company and occasional musings from John Abrams (and others).

South Mountain Company

A Bright Investment (& Stop ‘n Shop Update)

By John Abrams |

The postscript to my last blog entry about Stop and Shop is that they withdrew their application!  They heard the concerns, saw the writing on the wall, and pulled back.  Our hope is that they will come back with a new plan that more addresses the wishes of Vineyarders and works for them too.

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The following is a re-print of a piece Nis Kildegaard wrote for his Sounding column after a long chat with Rob Meyers, our Energy Services Manager.  It appeared in the Martha’s Vineyard Times on June 5th.  I thought he did a fine job with it.

 

A BRIGHT INVESTMENT

Maybe you never heard the news about solar power, or it was drowned out by the noise of the 13-year controversy over the Cape Wind project on Horseshoe Shoal.

But if you still think that putting solar electric panels on your roof is a prohibitively costly way to declare your environmentalist bona fides, it’s time to think again.

I sat down for an eye-opening tutorial last week with Rob Meyers at South Mountain Company (SMC) in West Tisbury. Meyers is manager of the company’s fastest-growing department, energy services. Here’s some of what I learned.

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The Carpenters will Endure

By John Abrams |

This has been one long, cold winter with very few breaks.

There was a day in January when we had the coldest temperature (5 below) since I’ve lived here (nearly 40 years).  Many of the New England snowstorms dropped more in the southerly regions than in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.  The snow stayed on the ground.  Turned to ice from time to time.  The cold kept on coming.

It’s not over yet.  A blizzard’s on the way, or so they say.

Through it all, our carpenters and solar installers are out there in it, day in and day out.  Sixteen of our 35 employees do carpentry or solar installations – almost half our workforce.

Sometimes they’re working inside, but mostly not, especially this winter when I really wish they could have been.

But no such luck.

It does help to have a heat source to go to.  Here’s a beauty, on one of our jobs, with the crew gathered at “camp” for coffee break.

During one deep cold snap in January Billy Dillon, one of our foremen, came into the office and announced, “Tomorrow is  architects’ day on the job.”

Only one, Ryan Bushey, showed up.  He may be smiling, but you can bet he’s hurtin’ and shivering too.

How long do you think he lasted at 10 blustery degrees?

Unlike Ryan, they dress for it.  Phil Forest, our solar foreman, who’s out there every day that he possibly can be, says it’s all about layering, and wool is the best for minimizing bulk.  Here’s what he wears on cold days:

• 2 pairs wool felt boot inserts

• 2 pairs thin wool socks

• 3 pairs wool long johns

• 2 turtle necks

• 2 wool sweaters

• 2 sweatshirts (one a hoodie)

• wool hat

• warm, comfortable knee pads

• 2 cups of coffee

A beard helps too, he says.  He listed fifteen different articles of clothing (!) and the list doesn’t even include pants and boots and gloves.  Wonder how long it takes him to get dressed, huh?

Here’s a series of photos that shows the dedication of the solar crew (Phil, Hunter, and Dario) to getting the job done.

7:30 AM – snow on roof

About 9 AM -shoveled snow

About 10 AM – remaining snow melted

4 PM – modules installed

Job well done, in tough conditions.

These guys, all 16 of them – that’s Billy, Phil, Hunter, Dario, Rocco, Jon, Jean, DonE, Pete, PeteD, Bob, Curtis, Ryan (not the one in shorts), Ian, Chris, and Aaron to name them each – work in sometimes punishing conditions, doing what they do with warm clothes, great determination, tremendous endurance, big hearts, and good humor.   And remarkable skill.

They might just say Aw Shucks but I don’t think it’s a stretch to call it heroic.

 

Aaron’s Hand Forged Summer

By John Abrams |

Our youngest foreman and Owner, Aaron Beck, is a very good carpenter (and manager too).  He carves duck decoys with great skill.  But his passion – these days – is metal.  Aaron loves blacksmithing.  Last year he spent a week in Mississippi living in a backwoods trailer and learning from an accomplished blacksmith there.

This spring he came to us and said he had a great opportunity:  a well-known blacksmith in Montana, Jeffrey Funk, had agreed to take him on for a three month internship.  He asked if he could take a sabbatical.  We said yes.   He needed to finish a house he was working on by the end of June; then he could take off for three months.

Part of Aaron’s interest – and part of our interest in his interest – is the idea of setting up a blacksmith shop at SMCo to complement our woodwork and enhance our architecture.  Might this happen?  We don’t know, but it’s a topic of some consideration these days.

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Tower Down

By John Abrams |

For several years our 100’ steel tower stood here without a wind turbine on top.  We took the machine down for repairs and never put it back up.  We decided to save it for parts, for the several other similar turbines we installed years ago in other locations.

Meanwhile, we have covered the roofs of our building here with enough solar panels to take care of all the energy needs for our shop and offices.  Having just switched our heating and cooling to all-electric air source heat pumps, we’re pretty much at Net Zero for the entire facility (we’ll find out for sure after a year of monitoring).

We’re not in the wind business any more (as important as we think it is), and our experiment had not been particularly successful, so it was time to take the tower down, pack it up, and prepare it for its next home.  Pete D’Angelo and Phil Forest orchestrated the project.

But before it came down, Phil, who was always responsible for servicing the machine, felt the need to experience the top of the tower one more time.

Here’s what Phil had to say, and what he saw, and what we saw:

“While I sat comfortably on top of the wind turbine tower, waiting for the crane to arrive, I took in the fall foliage of the oak forest and I saw water in Lake Tashmoo brought in from the last tide. I thought about the impermanent, ever- changing nature of things.

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From Landfill to Power Plant

By John Abrams |

Mostly, capped landfills remind me of the mausoleums of a consumer society.  For most of a century we dumped our solid waste onto these Mt Trashmores and mixed up a brew of concentrated toxins which seeped into the surrounding areas and often polluted (and still do) our water.  So we learned to treat our waste as a resource, close the landfills, cap them, and leave them idle.  We’re still very primitive about this, but progress is steady.

There’s not much you can do on a capped landfill because it’s essential that we not disturb the protective rubber liner that is usually only 12-18” below the grass that covers it.

But there are some uses.  Most are relatively passive:  cultivation of hay, green space, wildlife habitat, and biking/walking/running trails.  Some are more active:  golf courses, baseball fields, and soccer fields.

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For Better Or Worse

By John Abrams |

Several weeks ago my old friend Marc Rosenbaum arrived on Martha’s Vineyard.  He often arrives on Martha’s Vineyard.  For 20 years this distinguished, nationally recognized building performance engineer has been arriving here to consult with us – to help us make better buildings. For 30 years he has been responsible for some of the most advanced buildings in New England.

When he arrived here last Tuesday, it was different than most times. 

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