Silvana Mansio, Calábria is a resort and small town at an elevation of about 1470 meters up in the Montagne Della Porcina (Mountains Of The Pig??).

We walked into the building and the Italians in the crowd began talking. I quickly heard English. It turned out that the owners were from, and had just returned from New York a few days earlier. Small world.

This was about the most English I had seen in one place in many weeks.

The location for the station was out in the backyard.

There was a small shed that appeared to have been a place where animals could go into from a small fenced area. Then it appeared to have been used as a place to keep a large propane tank. The tank was no longer used, and neither was the fenced in area, otherwise the noise from the flowing gas, and the pitter patter of little animal feet would have made the building unusable.

We did not install a station that day, but returned the next day from Cosenza with our car...I mean our Lancia field vehicle.

We packed as much into the car as we could so we could go on after installing the station at Silvana Mansio and scout for and install additional stations.

There was quite a difference in the weather between Cosenza and Silvana Mansio.

We cleared out a corner of the building and started moving in.

We were out of the rigid foam insulation that we had been using to keep the sensor temperatures stable, so we had to cut some regular fiberglass insulation and wrap it around one of our flowerpots.

Snug as a bug in a rug. The insulation was held together with duct tape, bailing wire, and some ceramic tiles on top of the flowerpot. And you thought this job was high tech.

The rest of the equipment was tucked away under the propane tank.

It felt colder than that.

2018-02-08