More Decisions

It was time. I hadn't raised prices for rooms in 15 years so I went from $135 to $165. I probably should have done it after the remodel a few years ago which was thirty something thousand and closed the place for three weeks to get it all done. Everything has increased. Just the morning feed of three bird seed and two sunflower seed glasses each morning for birds, Colorado chipmunks, white-tailed antelope squirrels and rock squirrels at three locations, 15 glasses, has gone from $100 every two weeks to $200. Nearly everything has doubled and more.

I bought all new air conditioners with remote controls. It has been huge. I remember many nights where the room got too cold and I just pulled the covers over me without getting up and turning off or adjusting the air. Now you set it on 70 degrees and it goes off and on by itself and keeps it at 70. This has probably eliminated one or two air conditioners a night. If all seven are on you walk around the lodge at night and only four or five are on at any one time as the others have reached their set temperature. They will come back on when it becomes warmer than 70 or whatever temp you set them at but by then other rooms will have reached their set temperature and turn off. That keeps the batteries from going down as much which also keeps the generator from coming on and using up propane.

I previously had lead batteries which require having water put in them periodically and keeping them as close to full as you can. Plus you need distilled water. Now I'm mostly lithium which don't care how far you run them down, it doesn't damage them. Now I have a three or four day window of using the sun to catch back up and less generator use and less propane.

In case I have a situation where the batteries are low on supply I have a generator at each location, north and south side of the property. Because I don't have the skills or the time to keep everthing running and it takes forever to get somebody out here to fix something I'm big on back up systems. I now have an extra generator at each location in case the original generator doesn't start.