Gloomy in the Ship

It has been the cloudiest winter I ever remember experiencing in Colorado. We have a ton of snow. This morning it was snowing so hard we couldn't see the canyon. Our swing has snow clear up to the seat. This is the kind of weather that makes solar life a little uncomfortable. We aren't getting any solar gain for our passive solar heat so I'm burning beetle killed pinon in the wood burning stove for heat. I do have to say this, though, a conventional house would not have stayed above 58 degrees Fahrenheit without supplemental heat when the exterior temp was in the high teens, so the house is working well. When we went to Mexico for a week we didn't have to worry about our pipes freezing which is always a concern in the mountains in winter. Even with all the snow and cloud cover, our photovoltaic panels are keeping us supplied with electricity.