So, I feel like it's about time to document this a bit. Electric in my area is, shall we say, less than stellar. It flickers at a stiff breeze. This whole area is well known for losing power on clear, sunny days for no apparent reason. The grid is ancient and the main power utility in this area is way more inclined to brightly offer you reduced power at peak times for a small incentive than to actually invest in grid updates. But it wasn't critical for most of us until this year.

This year we had the catastrophic ice storm in February that flat-out ripped down about 15-20% of the already shaky infrastructure. Power was down for a week, more in some places. Then there was quite an impressive storm in July that actually closed the Art Fair for a few hours (almost unheard-of) and the heart of downtown lost power in places. Then we had what was essentially a 30 second hurricane in early August, which miraculously did not hit our power lines while throwing two thirds of a mature sycamore almost straight at my porch, that was very exciting. Then we had a "500 year" storm in late August (man those percentages need updating now) and lost power for several more days, but hey at least none of the seven tornadoes landed on top of me--quite.

It is becoming increasingly urgent to have backups that will let me function without power for up to a week, is what I'm saying.

( So the saga begins )

Obviously, I'm rolling the cost of a whole-house generator into the mortgage, when I house hunt. But in the meantime, I feel reasonably well set for the next time the power goes down for days, which I expect will be in another couple of weeks now it's storm season.

We finally got a warm enough day that I hauled out all my materials, including zip ties, the step ladder, and the netting, and put up my trellis netting on the porch. There used to be a lovely pear tree for shade and privacy, but it bit the dust in windstorms last year. So now I have a privacy/shade panel secured to the railing, and a trellis to have my incoming clematis climb. The "measure twice, cut once" adage took a hit, putting this up, but the casualties were zip-ties, which I order by the several hundred, so I don't feel too bad. I got the netting right, at least!

Behold the twitter thread full of pictures. My shoulders are going to complain about all that over-head threading along the largely invisible dowels at the top, but I have triumphed.

I've been waiting for a warm day when I didn't have anything else to do, and Wednesdays are close enough for rock and roll, so here we are. I don't think this is stir-craziness except in the Michigander, "omg, is it spring yet? now? how about now?" that tends to hit in March. On the other hand, I can't deny there was definite therapeutic value in a specific task with simple parameters that didn't change before I finished.

Now: time to turn on the outdoor speakers and have a margarita!