Generation.....

7:29 am - Monday - January 6th - TWW - 29° F, humidity 43%, wind 8 mph out of the southeast......very cloudy this morning with a forecast high today of 55° F.  On this date in 2013 I posted this video of me backing our 36' long Newell, and our 26' American Trailer out of my sister's property in Michigan.....we've been in some tight places over the years, but this was the winner.....

....it took 4 sets of eyes to get us out of that spot!  We've been asked often over the years how we maneuver in tight places.  The video was made, and produced by my sister, Jill, whose home we were visiting at the time.  We had been on the road about 3 months at this point. 

The view this morning....

Charles and Phyllis left for their drive back to Phoenix around 10 am, and shortly thereafter TLE and I began the long process of reinstalling our wind turbine on the trailer, but this time with 'guy wires' to hold it in place properly.  It took us around 4.5 hours beginning to end to reattach the wind turbine to the mast, then raise the entire assembly into position, then cut the guy wires into the appropriate lengths, drive two stakes into the ground for two of the anchors, and finally attach the guys wires to the anchors.  The third anchor is attached to the right rear of the trailer for now.....

.....anyway, here is the finished product.  I wish I had taken more pictures of the process, but when I get focused on getting something done I get pretty single minded.  Now, all we need is some steady wind to see if it is going to work as it should.

After TLE went back indoors (it was a chilly, blustery day) I spent time zip tying a lot of the wiring, and then putting everything away.  The next big 'install' for us will be the two LifePo, 300 amp hour, 12 volt house batteries we bought some time ago to replace our two 8d, flooded cell house batteries, and that should happen Tuesday, or Wednesday.  Once that is done our major projects here at TWW will be complete, and it will then just be a matter of fine tunning everything.  After that we'll be working almost exclusively on TWW projects.

As I write we are well into our 3rd month here at TWW, and continue to adapt to living off the grid at elevation during the winter.  We're doing considerably better at this point than I thought we would at the beginning.  There were just so many unknowns when we arrived, but we did the proper preparation during the year before we arrived, and have been able to improve on our portable electrical grid slowly, but surely.  We're down to less than 2 hours of run time on the Predator 5000 per day, and hope to reduce that further now that we've got the wind turbine ready to produce additional power when the sun is absent.  Our dream of relying almost entirely on sun, and wind for our power generation is becoming a reality, and it has cost less than I expected.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wiring solutions.....

7:46 am - Sunday - January 5th - TWW - 28° F, humidity 43%, wind 6 mph out of the east by northeast......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 53° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were kayaking in our new Sea Eagle inflatable kayak at Cedar Key, FL......

The predicted high for Saturday was 52° F, and I believe it got there....barely.  Nevertheless, with mostly sunny skies it felt warmer than that most of the time, that is until the winds freshened. Then it got quite chilly.  While we awaited the arrival of Charles and Phyllis for an overnight stay I busied myself with completing the rewiring of the wind turbine.  There are three wires which come out of the base of the wind turbine motor, which connect to a single wire that runs down the inside of the pole to the controller where it connects to three heavier gauge wires.  Any power being generated enters the controller through these green wires, and then is sent via two (+ and -) 10 gauge wires to the batteries being charged.  The three green wires to which the single red wire connects are around 12-14 gauge, and trying to join them together using a traditional, heavy gauge yellow 12 volt connector/coupler is not possible, so I came up with another way to connect them, and I believe it turned out pretty well.....

.....about the time I finished connecting all three green wires to the red wire Charles and Phyllis arrived.  They came up this weekend mainly to deliver their new propane water heater (to be installed by Matt at a later date), and to get a load of water from the water station.  We tried to get water last week when they were here, but there had been a break in the water line, so there was no water to be had.  We called ahead this time to be sure everything was operational, and were assured that it was, so we headed over with the water trailer sometime between 12 and 1 pm.  It's only about 8 miles from TWW to the water station, so it doesn't take long to get there, and, fortunately, the water station was operational, however, the price for 1800 gallons has gone from $7.50 to around $15.....still incredibly inexpensive, but more evidence of the inflation which grips this nation.

By the time we returned with the 1800 gallons of water we loaded it was almost 2 pm.  I puttered around in the trailer for over an hour when I got a text from TLE that sinner was being served.  She had prepared spaghetti with toasted garlic bread, and a side salad.  While we ate we watched another couple episodes of 'Silent Witness on BritBox.  

We all sat there in the living room eating, drinking some vino, and watching 'Silent Witness' until around 5:30 pm, when we bid our adieus and headed back to the warm confines of our Newell Classic.  There was an NFL game that began around 6 pm pitting the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Cincinnati Bengals that ended up being an interesting game.  The Bengals held the lead for the entire game, but due to the inclement conditions (snow flurries, and freezing temps) they never got very far ahead. In the end the final score was 19-17 in favor of the Bengals.

As I sit here typing the final words to this day's missive I was able to watch as the 'EcoWorthy Dual Axis Solar Tracker' tilted to the rising sun around 8:35 am.  There are clouds on the horizon, otherwise I think it would have tilted around 8:15 am like it did the other day when there were ZERO clouds the entire day.  It got down to 27° F last night, and we will see a number of lows in that range, and lower over the next two weeks, but with our blanket, and mattress heaters we remain nice and cozy all night long, every night.  Even with the electric warmers running all night the Bluetti AC200MAX doesn't seem to get any lower than 72% overnight.  The same for our house batteries which are charged by the four rooftop solar panels.....this morning they were at 74%.  As long as both sets of batteries don't get lower than 70% we know we'll get them back to 100% the next day.....usually by 12 pm.  The sun is now streaming through the driver side salon windows....time to get dressed, and do some work!

Thanks for stopping by!

'Glamdocking'

 7:01 am - Saturday - January 4th - TWW - 41° F, humidity 29%, wind 10 mph out of the south by southwest......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 52° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were boondocking in the Anza Borrego Desert with good friends Mike, Liz, Steven and Linda....time for a sunset fire.....

Left to right: Moi, TLE, Steven, Linda, 

and Mike (Liz did not make the picture)

.....the view this morning.....

Friday was to be the last day with highs in the 60's for over two weeks, so we were out early to get stuff done while the sun shines, as they say.  First task of the day was to do a 'burn pile' out of the very dry stuff we cut up Thursday.  It wasn't a very big pile, but it burned with a lot of intensity.  TLE and I had to stand back about 20 feet.....

.....we had two shovels, and two 5 gallon buckets of water should the need arise to put out any spot fires, but there were none.....

Burning down nicely

Almost done

.....we also picked up some more clippings from the trees around the Newell that I had cut Thursday in an effort get rid of more shadows on our Newell solar panels.  As the sun begins to move higher in the sky with each passing day those shadows will begin to disappear, but for now we need more sun hitting those panels.  At present we only have about a 4+ hour window with they are completely bathed in sunlight with no shadows.  Even the smallest shadow on one of the 4 panels will dramatically reduce the wattage going into our house batteries.

Once that was done TLE headed inside to do some reading, but my day was not done.  I headed out to the trailer to work first work on the wind turbine.  You may recall that we installed it over 6 weeks ago, but were not getting the results we expected.  There are three wires which come out of the base of the actual wind turbine motor, and I only utilized one of them thinking that each wire provided 12 volts, but I was wrong.  I need all three connected to get 12 volts (the instructions were very vague on how to connect all the wires.  Now it is ready to reconnect to the pole, and the control module.....

.....next up I worked on revitalizing those 42 year old electric motors which used to power two of our Suburban gas furnaces (kitchen and bathroom).....

....these motors cannot be taken apart very easily, so I did not attempt that, but I used WD40 to clean the exterior, and the shafts, then dripped oil down the shaft from both ends (the bearings are not sealed).  Once that was done I connected them, one at a time, to the 12 volt bench tester I have to run them for a few minutes each to get the oil to penetrate as far as possible.  As I did so they began to quiet down considerably.....no more squeaking, or screeching.  I'll keep them for future use should any of our existing motors begin to go bad again, but I don't think that will be an issue.  The new motors will probably outlive TLE and I....at least that is my hope....lol!

Finally I turned my attention to a long delayed project.....mount The Wilson Wilderness sign on the metal frame left here by the realtor through which Phyllis acquired the property.  I had a piece of 1/2" plywood left over from the shelter for the Predator 500, which only had to be trimmed a tad to fit the metal frame......

....now it is ready to be deployed.

During the afternoon TLE and I refilled our onboard fresh water tank, and then refilled the IBC water tote with another 275 gallons of water from the water tower.  Then, while the hose was still hooked up I washed the Cushman and Yamaha ATV for the first time since they arrived......

....and with that another TWW day came to an end.

Life here at the 'Wilderness' continues to be idyllic for TLE and I.  This is probably the best winter gig we've ever had, and we are serious about that.  We are basically boondocking, but it feels more like 'Glamdocking' (a take off on 'Glamping')....I think I just coined a new phrase....lol!  We're living way off the grid, but we have all the comforts of living in an empty RV park, plugged into an electric pedestal....kind of like LPG&RVR feels when we arrive there in late April each year, before all the customers begin to arrive.  We've pretty much got the place to ourselves 5 days a week, and when Charles and Phyllis come for a day, or two it is a whole different, but still great experience.  They will be arriving again this morning (Saturday) for another stay, and I believe we'll be heading into town to acquire another 1800 gallons of water, shortly after they arrive.

Thanks for stopping by!

Deadwood......

 8:02 am - Friday - January 3rd - TWW - 39° F, humidity 34%, wind 6 mph out of the east by southeast.....very cloudy today with a forecast high of 67° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I arrived at one of our favorite boondock sites for the first time....Rockhouse Road near Borrego Springs, CA with good friends Mike, Lizzie, Steven and Linda.....

....we were all lined up facing west.  Our last time there was 2021....miss it a lot!

Every day TLE and I pick a task to accomplish, and we pretty much are successful in completing each task that day.  On Thursday was wanted to trim some more dead wood off the large dead tree next to the EcoWorthy Dual Axis Solar Tracker, which was casting a shadow on the solar panels mid afternoon.  There was also a large stack of dead wood from that same tree which needed to be cut into smaller pieces, and moved away from what will be a burn pile in the near future.  We haven't used either of the chainsaws for over a week, but the 20" one started after 4 pulls.  I'm going to need to sharpen that chain again, but considering we were cutting through thick, dead, hardwood it did pretty well.  We began around 10 am, and by 12 pm we had accomplished a lot.....

Before.....

....after

.....we made a major dent in the dead wood pile, and then moved the rest to an area about 30' away from the future burn pile....

....there is enough wood there to provide fuel for the wood stove in the house, and many sunset fires for a month, or two, maybe more, and that is just a fraction of the dead wood around the property.....

....the area to the right of the solar array is now clear, and what is left will be burned eventually.  We ended up cutting more branches off some of the live trees around the front of the house, and by 1:30 pm we were done with cutting wood for the day.

The solar array tilted around 8:16 am and began tracking the sun for the rest of the day.  We only ran the Predator 5000 generator for about 90 minutes....half the time we normally run it in the morning.  By 1 pm every battery bank on the property was back to 100%, including the two 8d house batteries for the Newell.

The NCAA college football playoff game, which was postponed from Wednesday to Thursday (Sugar Bowl) began at 2 pm, and TLE and I were in our recliners just before that to watch the #2 Georgia Bulldogs play the #5 Notre Dame Irish.  With a little more than a minute remaining in the first half the game was tied 3-3.....looks like a baseball score....lol.  Then Notre Dame kicked a field goal to go up 6-3.  Georgia then fumbled the ball on their 10 yard line, and on the very next play Notre Dame threw for a touchdown to make it 13-3.  On the ensuing kickoff at the beginning the 3rd quarter Notre Dames kick returner returned the kickoff for another touchdown to raise the score to 20-3.....17 point scored in 54 seconds.  Georgia did manage to score a touchdown later in the 3rd quarter to make it 20-10, and that is how the game ended.  Another upset of a favored team.  And just like that the #1 and #2 teams in the nation are now out of the playoffs.

We decided another sunset fire was in order, so we convened to the 'sunset fire deck' around 5 pm.  I moved our small Sparkletts umbrella over to the fire pit area to shield our eyes from the glare of the setting sun....why didn't I do that sooner?....

At one time I counted 5 'contrails' headed for the setting sun

We're down to a crescent moon, and will have a new moon soon

.....we were back in doors for the evening by 6 pm where we watched another two episodes of 'Silent Witness' on BritBox....what a great series!  The weather outlook through the 14th shows a cooling trend.....

.....and it looks like the 67° F high for today (Friday) will be the last temp in the 60's for a couple of weeks.  Look at all those lows in the 20's!

Thanks for stopping by!

Proof of concept....

7:32 am - Thursday - January 2nd - TWW - 33° F, humidity 38%, wind 7 mph out of the east by southeast......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 65° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were having breakfast at Kona Joe's in Cedar Key, FL.....

 .....regretfully, Kona Joe's no longer exists, but back the day it was the place to have breakfast in Cedar Key....Kona Coffee, grits, omelettes, datil sauce...yum!

Frankly, TLE and I are kind of surprised at how moderate the winter weather has been thus far here at The Wilson Wilderness.  While we are at 5,500' elevation the temps, so far, have reminded us of our winter boondocking days in the Anza Borrego Desert in SoCal, where we were just under 1,000' elevation.  The temp New Years day rose to just 55° F, but it was sunny all day long.  Both the Bluetti AC200MAX, and our two 8d house batteries got back to 100% by early afternoon, and the trailer Bluetti hit 100% before noon time.

Naturally, TLE and I were interested to see if all the tree trimming we did Tuesday to allow the sun's rays to hit the EcoWorthy Dual Axis Solar Tracker solar panels earlier in the morning was successful, so were outside over by the solar tracker to see exactly when the array would tilt toward the sun.  Somewhere between 8:15 and 8:20 am the solar array moved to begin tracking the rising sun....

.....I might add that even before the solar tracker realigned the solar array we were generating over 50 watts of solar energy to the AC200MAX, and by 8:21 am we were generating over 240 watts.  Ultimately, the high point of solar generation reached 589 watts around 12:20 pm.  Needless to say, but I will anyway, trimming those trees paid dividends way beyond our expectations!  As I write at 8:25 am we are generating almost 4 times the power we are consuming.  So now we have the 'proof of concept' that trimming the trees the east rendered an enormous benefit far beyond our expectations, and the labor involved.....

Around 12:20 pm on January 1st

This morning around 8:25 am

....one thing we always do on New Year's Day is watch the Rose Parade, whilst TLE prepares brunch.....

The 2025 Rose Parade, Pasadena, California....near the intersection of Orange Grove Blvd and Colorado Blvd

Four English muffins, honey, fried eggs on two of the English muffins, and grits

At 11 am we turned on the Peach Bowl (Atlanta, GA) to watch the Texas Longhorns play the Arizona State Sun Devils.  This was a quarter final game in the NCAA College Football playoffs, and Texas came into the game favored by 3 touchdowns.  I was really torn as my daughter, Sharon, graduated from Arizona State, and is a big Sun Devils fan, but my brother-in-law, Glenn, who is a resident of Austin, TX is a really big 'Hook 'Em Horns' fan,  Thankfully, the odds makers were way, way off in this matchup.  The Sun Devils were down 16 points in the fourth quarter, and needed two touchdowns, plus two 2 point conversions just to tie the game, and they did.  If not for the fact that Texas missed two field goal attempts in the final minutes, the game would have ended in regulation, but it went to overtime with the scored knotted up at 24-24.  Texas ultimately won in the second overtime with a touchdown and a 2 point conversion, then intercepted the Sun Devils' quarterback to win the game.  In the end this was one of the best Peach Bowl games I can remember.  

I wish I could say the same for the Rose Bowl game between #1 Oregon Ducks, and #6 Ohio State Buckeyes, but it was a blowout from the very beginning.  With 8+ minutes remaining the 2nd quarter Ohio was up 31-0. Oregon scored a last second touchdown with 2 point conversion at the end of the first half, and then another touchdown with a one point conversion at the beginning of the 3rd quarter to make it interesting, but ultimately Ohio won, convincingly, 41-21, and it wasn't even that close....lol.

There was supposed to be a third quarterfinal game between #5 Notre Dame and #2 Georgia at 6:30 pm, but the game was delayed one day due to the horrific terror attack in New Orleans Tuesday evening, so we won't know that result until Thursday evening.  It seems the 'chickens are coming home to roost' after 4 years of a massive illegal immigration invasion, allowing untold numbers of potential terrorists into our country.  I think its going to get worse, before it gets better, which is why we are doing what we are doing out here in the middle of nowhere....far away from urban centers.

TLE and I are so grateful for the opportunity this winter to refine, and add to our existing off grid skills.  We are amazed that for such a small investment we are slowly becoming completely energy independent.  We have been off the grid for over 72 consecutive days, which is the longest duration yet for us, but we are living as if we were plugged into an electric pedestal 24/7, and that was our goal.  We're still refining our systems, but with each passing week we are getting closer to true energy independence.  Our goal is to reduce our generator run time to 2 hours, or less per day, and we are well on our way to that goal.  Less generator run time means fewer propane deliveries, and lower costs.

Thanks for stopping by!

HAPPY NEW YEARS and welcome to the year 2025!!!!

 7:35 am - New Years Day, 2025 - January 1st - TWW - 27° F, humidity 47%, wind 6 mph out of the east by southeast....partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 57° F.  On this date in 2014 I was mountain biking with my good friend Paul Hood....where have the years gone?

When I connected the EcoWorthy Dual Axis Solar Tracker and its 600 watts of solar panels to the Bluetti AC200MAX solar charger for the first time late Monday afternoon, I was expecting more than the 187 watts I was getting.  This was one of my fears about buying this system....it wouldn't perform up to my expectations.  My expectations were that I would see 4-500 watts of power surging into the Bluetti.  I decided to think on it overnight before pushing the panic button.

I'm a novice when it comes to the differences and/or benefits associated with wiring something in parallel, or series, but I had noticed a week, or two ago that all the solar panels for the house were wired in series, whereas I had been wiring the my panels in parallel.  Sometime around 2:30 am Tuesday morning I woke up thinking about my dilemma and it occurred to me that I should try wiring the new solar array in series and see what happened, so first thing Tuesday I did just that, and what do you know.....

.....I can connect to the Bluetti AC200MAX via Bluetooth, which is very handy, but look at that number in the upper left portion of the above picture.....576 watts!!!!  I wasn't expecting anything near that high, but WOW!  A later check saw the wattage at 583, which just blows m mind.  Getting 583 watts out of 600 watts of panels is amazingly efficient (these are bifacial panels), especially considering there is a 100', 10 gauge cable connecting the panels with the Bluetti.  Talk about a sense of relief....I've got about a thousand bucks invested in this system, and was beginning to doubt the wisdom of having spent that much on something I wasn't sure was going to work.

In order to speed up the time sun first hits the solar tracker each morning TLE and I decided quite a bit ago that we needed to 'top' some of the trees to the east, which were casting shadows over the tracker until around 9, or 9:15 am each day.  Being able to catch solar rays earlier in the morning would mean we could get recharged earlier each day.  We spent around 2 hours 'topping' those two trees before we were satisfied with the result.  This morning, Wednesday (New Years Day) will be the test of how effective our trimming was.  As you can see from the above picture the Bluetti was at 99% by 10:37 am Tuesday morning......

The two trees to the right of TLE are the ones we 'topped' about 4' down

....it was 11:30 am when 'we' finished 'topping' the trees, but I still had another couple of hours of work to do, such as zip tying all the wires into some kind of orderly fashion, and then wiring the two 325 watt panels together in series to power the trailer Bluetti (AC200P) exclusively.  The result I got was amazing!  With just one of the 325 watt panels powering the trailer Bluetti I was getting 275 watts of solar power.  With the two of them wired together in series I was now getting 575 watts....300 more watts per hour!  At the time I hooked them together the trailer Bluetti state of charge was at 54%, which was around 12:30 pm.  By 3:30 pm it had recharge to 100%.....just 3 hours!  By the time I was done it was almost 2 pm, and I was one tired, but very happy puppy.

I put my tools away, and headed inside to change clothes, have a snack, and take a much deserved nap.  We are now, finally, to the point where we can begin, theoretically, to cut back on generator run time, which will reduce our propane usage, and will also make it easier for us to leave the property for days at a time knowing our Bluetti solar charger batteries will recharge each day.....

The EcoWorthy Dual Axis Solar array and tracker tracking the sun, and now providing power to the Bluetti AC200MAX for the first time!

.....there were NCAA college football bowl playoff games to be watched the rest of the afternoon, and into the evening, so that is what I did.  We had a nice sunset, which I memorialized, but there was no sunset fire....

.....thanks for stopping by!

The heat is on.....

7:36 am - Tuesday - December 31st - TWW - 33° F, humidity 54%, wind 5 mph out of the southeast....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 55° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were enjoying some scoops of Rum Raisin Ice Cream in Cedar Key, FL.....

......the view this morning.....

The Suburban gas furnace which has vents going to the bathroom, and the entry of the Newell has had this squeak upon startup which lasts anywhere from a few seconds to few minutes ever since we purchased her back in March of 2008.  Since the squeak always went away (eventually) we lived with it, but now that we have the new electric motor it was time to pull it out of its cubbyhole and service it just like I did the kitchen one Sunday.  We also needed to go into town to retrieve the two packages from the PO Box which included the cabling needed to connect the solar tracker with the Bluetti AC200MAX in the shed, as well as another Suburban gas furnace Dinosaur control board, so I wanted to get tp servicing the heater early.

The aforementioned gas furnace is located under the Dometic refrigerator, and is actually easier to access than the kitchen one, so I anticipated being able to remove it from its cubbyhole in way less time than it took for the kitchen one, and I was right.  It took about 30 minutes, and I was walking out to the trailer with the heater in hand to change out the motor and sail switch.  As I write it has gotten so warm inside the Newell I had to turn off two of the three heaters....nice!

In all it took me around 2.5 hours beginning to end to refurbish the heater, and we were on our way into town to pickup our mail.  In all we were gone around 90 minutes, and I was now installing the 100' long cable between the solar tracker, and the shed.  I also had to connect the solar tracker with the Bluetti AC200P solar charger that provides the trailer with AC power.  The tracker requires 12 volt, so I connected some 12 gauge wire to the Bluetti, and connected it to the solar tracker.  Seems like an easy job, right?  Well it took me the better part of 2 hours to get all that done, and by that time TLE was reminding me we were going to BBQ a top sirloin on the Sea-B-Que for dinner.  By the time I finished it was closing in on 4 pm, so the sun was getting settling into the western horizon.  Once powered the tracker went from the neutral position to facing the sun pretty quickly, and I was able to verify that power was making its way to the shed Bluetti.  Tuesday will be the real test.

.....the top sirloin, which we bought at COSTCO a few weeks ago, was cooked to 123° F (medium rare), and TLE provided a side of mushroom risotto....a great meal.  A little Pino Noir was also consumed.  After dinner we headed out to the sunset firepit to enjoy another TWW sunset......

By this time the solar tracker has returned to the 'neutral' position

....we didn't head back inside until 6 pm where I watched the entirety of the NFL game between the Detroit Lions and the San Francisco 49ers.  If you like lots of offense, this was your game.  I do like lots of offense, and this one had it in spades with a total of 74 points scored....the final score......40-34.

Thanks for stopping by!