I've got sunshine...?

About a month ago my family took a step towards making our home a little bit greener, and our neighbours a little bit more concerned about our sanity.

After much research, we had decided to install a supplemental solar heating device - a Cansolair solar panel. It is cost efficient, and really is a very slick design. The inventor is from Newfoundland, and the panels are constructed of recycled aluminum cans. You can see their website at http://www.cansolair.com/. Anyway, it seemed like a perfect fit, since how much different is Manitoulin from Newfoundland? Both places are islands, they can both feel isolated in the winter, and both places are fairly large consumers of alcoholic beverages in cans. ( hey, maybe we could put a factory here)

Back to the story.... we finally received our Cansolair panel, which we ordered through Manitowaning Timbr Mart, and went to install it. This is where the sanity question comes in. It was about 5pm, starting to get dark, getting colder by the minute, and we are outside looking up at the side of the house where the panel was to go. My infant son was strapped into his stroller, my 2 1/2 year old daughter was running around outside throwing off her mittens and hat, claiming she was hot. My hubbie and I climbed up on the two ladders, and attempted to move this rather heavy unit into place. This is when it all fell apart ( not the panel).

The baby started to scream in his stroller because he was hungry. Then my daughter started to yell that she was cold and began to attempt to climb one of the ladders. My dear husband was telling at me to hold my side of the panel straighter and still so that he could screw the supports into place. The dog even got in on the action and started to bark like crazy....the panel started to slip.....my cool and calm went out the window....I started holler at anyone and everyone....it was getting darker by the minute....and colder....and the cacophony was getting louder.....I then had to run inside to finish the connection....tripped over the dog on the way who was excitedly barking....fell down, scraping my knees......

After what felt like 3 hours but was probably only 40 minutes the panel was in place. To any of my neighbours who may be reading this, no children or animals were being harmed that day, it was just not a good idea to attempt to do this while looking after 2 young children. Next time we will simply call one of you to come and help!

How does this tale end? Well, I can't really say. We need some sun for the solar panel to work, and we haven't really had any since the day we put the panel in place. It has probably been the cloudiest November on record. It kicked in for maybe 5 minutes yesterday, before the massive snowstorm hit.

If we ever do see the sunshine again, I will be sure and post a proper review of our panel. Until then, I'm just going to keep hoping that it doesn't need to be taken down and adjusted because I'm not really sure that I, or the neighbours, could handle that again!