Piles of snow and lots of clouds

This has been a very snowy and cloudy 2008. Last year, I was complaining that I coudn't get away from the scalding sun and the house was always heading above 80 during the days. So, we worked on some bamboo shades for this year, and have used them some very successfully. But, we really haven't had much need to drop them. Snow - snow - clouds - rain - snow - clouds have led to a real test of our bermed concept. We found that if we add nothing except the Tulikivi and get no sun for 3 or more days, the temps in the back bedroom drop a little too much for me. When it hit 62 degrees, I flipped on our portable electric heater - cheaper than using propane to run the radiant heat. That worked like a charm.

Today, the sun came out - the house warmed and we are all cosy watching the mountains of snow outside the windows.
click on the picture to enlarge it -----------------
You can see more pictures of this winter at the Gallery.

sharon+betts
bermed
Maine