I found the story about Brad and Carol Soma putting up solar panels on their farmstead near Kiester quite interesting, and hopefully so do you. I was intrigued right away when Carol told me about it.

You see, I have been using solar power for a long, long time.

Nope, not on my house here in Blue Earth. No, not on my previous house in Tyler, Minnesota, either.

Actually, it is at my camp north of Elysian.

We have three solar panels operating right now, with a fourth one in the wings in case we need it.

You see, we camp in the woods by ourselves on a hidden little lake and we are doing what is called “dry camping.” No electricity, no water, no Wi-Fi, well, you get the idea. Fairly primitive.

However, before you start to feel too sorry for us, let me say that we do have power that runs the lights in our camper, our refrigerator, our water pump and stove.

We have that power because we have a solar panel that is constantly charging up our marine, deep cycle battery.

It won’t run our microwave or air conditioner, but we have learned to live without those items.

A second solar panel charges a lithium battery attached to an inverter and does give us a place to plug in things. It will also run lights and other items in a shed.

A third solar panel powers a battery that runs the water heater and pump in our outdoor shower. It also runs lights and an exhaust fan in our outhouse.

Yes, that is correct. We have an outhouse. In fact, to be honest, we have had one for many, many years.

When we first started camping on the Whitewater River near Altura, Minnesota, a very, very long time ago, our spot came with an outhouse. In fact, it was a two-holer. It was old, very old, probably built in the 1950s. Eventually it started to collapse into the ground.

So, I built a new one. Dug the hole for it, which was not easy as it was rocky soil. Followed all the rules at the time, which included using a rubber liner with holes, filling around the liner with rock, etc.

That outhouse was our first use of a solar panel, to run both lights and an exhaust fan in it. The solar panel perfectly fit on the roof of the outhouse.

Eventually the county ruled outhouses to be illegal. So, I had to tip mine over, pull out the rubber liner, and fill in the hole. We stood the outhouse back up, then we put a porta pottie inside the outhouse.

That is basically what we still have.

But I digress. And, I mean, I really digressed.

So, back to the main point. I have been using solar panels at my camp for probably 25 years. Maybe more.

We have talked about increasing the solar panels to get to the point where it would be just like we have full electricity at camp. Of course, we have what we need at this point, with our small solar panels.

Solar power seems like a good deal, doesn’t it?

We don’t see much of it around Faribault County. It doesn’t seem to be encouraged here. Around Waterville, near where we camp, there seem to be solar farms springing up everywhere. Have you seen them?

The Somas’ son, Michael, has solar panels on his home in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Our son Nate has solar panels on his home in Ripon, California. So do almost all of the folks in his neighborhood.

Of course, Massachusetts and California have some of the highest electrical rates in the country, I believe. That makes having solar panels on your roof a great idea there.

In fact, with places like California, Arizona, Texas and Florida having so much sunshine – and issues with their electric supply – it seems like a no brainer that solar could be very helpful for them.

I mean, if it works in the frozen north of Minnesota, it must work there.

And for generating more electricity than just for a solar powered outhouse…

By the way, that first outhouse solar panel from 25-plus years ago is still the one we use to keep the battery charged on our camper. Some new camper/travel trailers even come with built in solar panels on their roofs, and others have an outlet on the side of the camper to plug in a solar panel.

Maybe we should have patented that idea …