Rock of Ages....

 7:58 am - Sunday - December 14th - TWW - 36° F, humidity 29%, wind 8 mph out of the east.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 65° F.  On this date in 2021 we awoke to this amazing scene.....

.....in the Anza Borrego Desert where we were boondocking.

Friday evening when I was walking back to the Newell after checking on our Predator 5000 dual fuel generator I tripped over a rock outcropping about the size of my fist.  I've stubbed my toe on this outcropping, and now my inattention caused me to trip over it and fall.  Fortunately, other than the damage to my ego, my physical injuries were minor (a bruise on my left palm, and a sore left big toe).  This is not the only fist sized rock outcropping around the coach, and in the circular driveway, which we cross often on foot.  After treating my injured hand I told TLE that Saturday we were going to attack all of those rock outcroppings, and eliminate them once and for all, and that is what we did for 3 hours Saturday, ending around 1pm when we pried the last outcropping out of its hole.....

The pile of rocks we pulled out of the ground in front of the coach and in front of the shed

The Ford 420 diesel tractor adds a little perspective to the size of the rocks we pulled out of the driveway

......almost all of the outcroppings we dug out were like ice bergs, only in this case the amount of rock showing on the surface was only about 5% of the actual volume.  Some of the rocks we removed from the driveway required both TLE and I to move them, even then we could only roll them out of the hole and across the driveway.  TLE and I can easily lift an 8d battery (truck type) which is 150 lbs., so many of these rocks must have weighted closer to 200 lbs.  In all I think we removed 600-800 pounds of rocks in the 3 hours we worked.  The holes left behind are so large we'll have to haul dirt in the Ford tractor loader to fill them.  In fact, we'll have to use the tractor to move the rocks we removed to another location.

By the time we finished removing the final rock, which was the largest, and hardest of all of them, it was 1 pm.  We only removed about 1/2 of that final rock....what we left in the ground was probably 60% of the total size, but using a large sledge hammer I was able to break the upper part away from the lower part enabling us to remove the part that was sticking out of the ground.  It seems that all of these rocks are of the caliche variety, which is usually found 1-2 feet below the surface, but these caliche rocks have obviously worked their way to the surface over the eons since they were formed.

TLE brought cold water, and snacks out to the picnic table in front of the house, and we sat there in the shade cooling down for the better part of an hour from 3 of the hardest work hours we have experienced here at TWW.  Without TLE's help, and determination we could not have gotten this job done.  Frankly, if I had known in advance how hard it would be I'm not sure I would have committed to removing them.  Often it is better not to know, right?  Once TLE and I begin a project like this we are like bulldogs trying to get at a bone.

Later in the day TLE and I removed everything from the greenhouse interior that did not pertain to growing stuff.  There were two tables, one holding all of the painted firring strips not yet used, and the other the rain gutters Charles and Phyllis bought last week.  Over the next 5 days we'll finish the firring strip installation, then install the rain gutters so we can begin catching water.  The long range forecast shows possible rain Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day, and we would love to catch that runoff, if possible.

Thanks for stopping by!

Heavy equipment time.....

 8:08 am  - Saturday - December 13th - TWW - 31° F, humidity 30%, wind 4 mph out of the east by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 67° F.  On this date in 2024 TLE and I finally poured the cement pad for the Eco Worthy dual axis solar tracker system.....

Setting the rebar

Mixing cement (7 bags)

Finished product

.....we let it cure for a little over a week before setting up the solar tracker.  We had spent weeks looking for the best spot on the property in relation to where our coach would be parked to be sure it had exposure to direct sunlight for as many hours each day as possible, and we chose well.

To begin Friday I spent some time reading the owners manual for the diesel heater we've installed to keep the greenhouse interior from freezing during the night.  My first attempt to use the automatic 'ON/OFF' feature which requires you to set the temperature at which the heater should turn itself on, and the temp at which it should shutdown, which I did, but that effort failed when the heater failed to turn itself on.  I got up around 3 am to go check it and found it was not running in spite of the fact the greenhouse temperature was 5 degrees below the designated 'ON' temperature, so I turned it on manually at that point and ran it until 7 am.  Friday I decided to try setting the time of day when it would turn itself on, and off.  I programmed it to come on at 3 am and turn off at 6 am....the coldest part of the morning.  To  make sure I understood how it worked I set the 'ON' time for 11 am (it was 10:47 am at the time) and the 'OFF' time for 11:05 am, and it worked, so I reset the 'ON/OFF' times to the aforementioned times.  Good news....it worked.  I'm still trying to figure out how to properly set it to come 'ON/OFF' at designated temp settings, but that will be for another day.

Before I can finish working on the new site for Phyllis' Newell I need to finish regrading a portion of the driveway for TWW.  Why?  Well, we only have so much gravel left (it has to be hauled from near Prescott, and, therefore, is very expensive) and I want to use it for the permanent Newell site, but before I can do that Phyliss wants me to be sure I can remove all the low spots on the driveway without using the gravel.  The low spots collect rain water, and snow melt and become very muddy after a storm, so we need to make sure the water runs off the driveway in those areas instead of collecting in large puddles.  Friday became the day we began that process.  By the way, the tractor is running great, and I'm slowly becoming more adept at using it.  We hauled 6 bucket loads of dirt and spread them over the low spots using the tractor and rock rakes.....

.....it took about 2 hours, and it turned out pretty well, but we'll need to haul more dirt Saturday to finish the job.  After leveling the dirt we had dumped I drove the tractor back and forth over the repaired area to pack it, and then took a video of what we have done so far (above).

After working on the driveway it was after 1 pm, so TLE and I took a break at the picnic table in front of the house, and talked about what else we wanted to accomplish Friday, deciding we had done enough.  We were tired, but not 'out of gas', so why push it, right?  I spent the rest of the afternoon taking care of a few small things before heading indoors around 3 pm to take a shower, and get ready for dinner.  The temp hit 69° F for the second consecutive day, and for the first time I wore shorts and a t-shirt to work.  TLE and I watched 'Survivor' and 'The Amazing Race' on Paramount+.....'The Amazing Race' was the finale, and the winners were two brothers who had won about 1/2 of the stages, so no one was surprised.

Thanks for stopping by!

Male and female.....

 8:15 am - Friday - December 12th - TWW - 38° F, humidity 30%, wind 4 mph out of the east....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 69° F!!!  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were residing at Rancho Jurupa Regional Park in Riverside, CA....

....we had just put out our Christmas lights.  After being on the road for almost 2 years we spent the next 3+ months in SoCal spending time with our kids.  We had worked at Rancho Jurupa Regional Park as camp hosts for one year from 2/1/2011 to 2/1/2o12 before beginning our fulltime journey.  They allowed us to stay rent free when we returned in exchange for us cleaning their park models each week.  

Charles and Phyllis left for their return trip to Phoenix around 9 am Thursday, and once again TLE and I were on our own.  We needed to head into Seligman sometime during the day to pick up mail, visit the hardware store, fill up our gas and diesel containers, do a little grocery shopping, and have lunch at Westside Lilo's.  We like to 'eat out' once, or twice a month while we're at TWW, plus it was a nice day with the high temp being 69° F, and Lilo's has a nice alfresco dining area....food always seems to taste its best when consumed outdoors.....I don't know why.

As a result of our planned town trip we didn't really do much during the morning, except for locking up everything (CONEX, house, garage, shed, Rubbermaid where the Bluetti for the trailer is kept, and trailer).  After loading all of our empty gas and diesel containers into the Explorer we were off to Seligman around 11:30 am.  It's the first time we've driven the Explorer since Charles replaced the aging rear tires.  Our first stop was the hardware store to buy some male and female grounded plugs.  I really only needed one male plug, but I like to have spares so I bought two extra male and female plugs for future use.  Next we headed across the street to the Chevron station to fill our gas containers, then over to Lilo's to have lunch....

.....for lunch we ordered their 1/2 pound burger adding bacon and bleu cheese crumbles, French fries, and onion rings.  They serve their burgers on 'pretzel bun'....delicious!    I almost always get a cup of their amazing coffee, even if it is warm outside.

After lunch we visited Family Dollar to pick up a few items, and the Post Office to retrieve our mail, then one last stop at the Union 76 station to fill up our one diesel container (they don't sell diesel at the Chevron).

We were back home just before 2 pm at which time I got busy using that grounded male plug I bought at the hardware store to restore power to the greenhouse.  At some point in the distant past the power for the greenhouse was disconnected at the pump house, so instead of pulling out the electrical outlet, and trying to reconnect everything I just added the grounded male plug to the end of the ROMEX and plugged it in.....

The plug below powers the water pump

.....before attaching the new grounded male plug to the end of the ROMEX I attached a fresh section of conduit to the original conduit which runs from the greenhouse to the pump house.....

.....then ran it through the south wall of the pump house.....

.....once everything was connected I plugged a light bulb into one of the four outlets in the greenhouse to verify my wiring job, and power was restored.  And that was the extent of any work I did Thursday.

We're in the middle of a 'warm' spell here at TWW, but as with most things, 'warm' is a relative term.  If it were July this would be a cooling trend....lol!  Anyway, we will have daily highs in the 60's through December 22nd, and the lows will be in the low to mid 30's.

Thanks for stopping by!

Vulcan mind meld.....

 7:29 am - Thursday - December 11th - TWW - 35° F, humidity 38%, wind 3 mph out of the east by southeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2012 We were having our last lunch before our last Amazon shift....

....in Campbellsville, KY....what a great group!  Spending time with these folks at breaks, and lunch made the whole experience more bearable.

My back was still bothering me first thing Wednesday, but by 10 am it began to loosen up, so I got dressed, and headed out to the greenhouse to help Charles set up the new diesel heater he bought to keep the greenhouse interior above freezing at overnight.  We chose this heater because it can be set to automatically start heating at a given temperature, and then shut off when it reaches 7° F above that set temperature.  It was not very intuitive, but by combining both of our brains we managed to figure it out....lol.....

The diesel heater installed

The exhaust pipe routed outside 

Air intake

The hot air duct

.....we set it up on the west side of the greenhouse where it was easy to vent the exhaust.  In all we sent over 2 hours putting it together, and then learning how to program it....the later part was no where close to intuitive, but we ultimately prevailed by using the Vulcan mind meld technic....lol!

After a long break I spent time starting up Phyllis' Newell, and releveling it.  I was pleased that the chassis batteries had held their charge, and was able to start it on the first try.  The back, just like ours, tends to settle down over time, so I used the same method we used on ours at Likely by placing two 3 ton jack stands under the frame at the rear of the coach.  We'll see how that works out over time.  Next it was time to run our Newell for a while to relevel it after a few weeks.  The big Detroit Diesel 6v92 started on the first try.  The PSI in the two air tanks was still over 100 PSI after several weeks, which is good considering how cold it has been until recently

TLE made her famous Chicken Marsala (with a side salad) for our community dinner, which was served around 4:30 pm.  It was delicious, of course!  After dinner I went outside to check on the diesel heater setup, and saw that we were about to have a nice sunset, so I quickly rallied everyone out to the 'sunset fire deck', hauled out our camp chairs, and started a fire.....

A cloudless sunset

I love how those contrails look like they're on 

fire as the jets fly into the sunset

....we (FINALLY) had our first sunset fire of the winter, and it was a perfect, lovely, balmy evening to do so.  We have enough firewood set aside to last us this Winter, and the next, and maybe one more after that.  We sat enjoying a little Frank Sinatra, sipping wine, and talking until well after 6 pm.

It's pretty rare to find one amazing place to spend 1/2 the year at such as LPG&RVR, but to find two enchanting places in one lifetime is amazing.  We love being here at TWW!  It's as if there is no one in the world but us.

By the way, our house batteries have returned to 100% charge every day since we returned from Thanksgiving in Phoenix....life it good!

Thanks for stopping by!

On the 'threshold' of something great.....

 7:52 am - Wednesday - December 10th - TWW - 35° F, humidity 32%, wind 5 mph out of the east.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 67° F!!!  On this date in 2012 TLE and I took the ferry from Whidbey Island to Port Townsend, WA to ride our Cannondale tandem around the town....

.....we came across this cool coffee shop during our ride.

We were expecting the arrival of Charles and Phyllis around 10 am (we were wrong....that was the time they were leaving Phoenix) so TLE unloaded the firewood we had cut and split into their barrel inside the house.  While she did that I busied myself with removing the ashes from the wood burning stove, and then laying a fire for them.  As it turned out they did not arrive until after 1 pm, so the fire was unnecessary, but it's the thought that counts, right?

Once that was done I headed over to the greenhouse to install thresholds on each of the two gates to keep the small animal population from entering the greenhouse growing grounds under the gate.  The threshold area of each gate is 4 feet wide, and I had an 8 foot pressure treated 2 x 4 to use for this project.  Once I had the threshold area level I drilled three holes in each 4 foot 2 x 4 and then pounded 12 inch pieces of rebar through each hole, and into the ground to secure them in place....

The north gate

As you can see, the gate closes against the 2 x 4

South gate

.....both gates open into the greenhouse area.  It took me around 2 hours to finish this project, but I think it turned out pretty well.  Time, and use will determine how effective this solution is.

We've been here 6 weeks and I hadn't installed the tire covers on the trailer, or Newell, so that was my next task.  I don't know why I procrastinated this long.  It only takes 10 minutes to install all of them.

My final task of the day was to set up our Christmas tree.  The last few years we've been setting it up outside, and that is what we did this year, also....

.....I put a solar timer on it so it will be lit from dusk to dawn each day.  Once I finished trimming the tree I declared my work day finished.

Charles and Phyllis arrived around 1:30 pm, and we spent about 1/2 an hour helping them unload their cargo.  Some of the items were for us.  The two timers I'm using right now to turn the ceramic heaters on and off are pretty old, and only have one "on and off" option, which means once they are turned on by the timer I have to run them continuously for 2-3 hours to keep the shed, and water bay from freezing.  Each ceramic heater consumes around 120 watts of power per hour, which was driving our Bluetti battery bank down quite low overnight.  The new timers are mechanical, and give you the option of up to 24 on/off settings each day.  My theory was to have the ceramic heaters run for 30 minute intervals 4 times each night beginning at 2 am.  They come on at 2 am for 30 minutes, then at 3 am for another 30 minutes with 5 am being the last 30 minute cycle.  Tuesday night was their inaugural test, and they worked just as I hoped.  The temp in the water bay never got below 40° F, and the shed stayed above 37° F.  For the record I have two ceramic light bulb heaters in the water bay, and only one in the shed.

Charles also brought up six 4' x 8' pieces of solid foam insulation, which we will be installing in the shed during the next week to better insulate it.  Just before we left TWW last April we installed fiberglass insulation, which was difficult to install in the small confines of the shed.  The foam board will work much better, and be more effective in sealing the interior against the cold nights, and we should be able to stop using the ceramic heater to keep it above freezing, plus it will help keep it cooler in the summer.

Also, part of the cargo was a new diesel heater we're going to deploy in the greenhouse to keep the temp above freezing.  It is programmable to turn itself on and off during the night.  I'm hoping we can get it set up for Wednesday night/Thursday morning on Wednesday.  If it works as advertised them we can begin to grow stuff throughout the Winter....fingers crossed.

We had dinner around 4:30 pm (Turkey Shepherds Pie) prepared by the loving hands of Phyllis.  We had a great dinner filled with good food and conversation, as we always do.  We bid our adieus around 6:30 pm, and headed home for the night.

Thanks for stopping by!

"Remember Clarke, you're 76......"

 7:48 am - Tuesday - December 9th - TWW - 26° F, humidity 31%, wind 3 mph out of the east by southeast.....partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 63° F.  On this date in 2019 we had just set up our Christmas tree.....

.....probably the most beautiful Christmas setup in the Newell we've ever had going back 14 years.

It has been a week, or two since we cut firewood for the house, and with Charles and Phyliss returning on Tuesday we needed to refill their wood box.  Since it has been getting warmer sooner in the mornings we were out just before 10 am getting set up to cut and split more wood.  TLE had started a burn pile when we first arrived several weeks ago, but on the days we talked about lighting it there was too much wind, and it was too cold.  Since someone has to watch the fire at all times the sub 50's temps were  a big deterrent, even when there was no wind.

At any rate Monday was the perfect day for a burn pile, and since we were also cutting/splitting wood about 30 feet away it was the perfect day to light her up.  While I serviced the chainsaws, TLE lit the burn pile, and began to slowly feed a mountain of burn pile material into the fire.  When I was ready to begin cutting the wood into smaller pieces fit for splitting she would come over and help hold the long pieces of dead juniper while I cut them into smaller pieces.

I kind of strained my middle back while starting the 16" Stihl chainsaw (how I don't know, but I'm 76 and stuff happens), so by noon time I was done for the day back wise.  We did manage to fill the dumper on the Yamaha Rhino, which should be enough wood for the two days Charles and Phyllis will be onsite....

Not quite full, but full enough

You can see the remnants of the burn pile in the background....the large pile of burn pile material which was in front of the burn pile is now gone

....my back was getting worse by the minute so TLE used our 'Thumper' to massage the muscles in my back, then rubbed some CBD cream on it, after which I rolled onto my back and took a 90 minute nap.  When I awoke it was feeling a little better, but not good enough to be functional so TLE got out our heating pad and I sat in my recliner for a couple of hours.  Slowly, but surely my back began to loosen up, and I was able to do some back stretching exercises.  By the time I finished it was after 4 pm, and we had planned to grill a New York and a Top Sirloin steak on the Sea-B-Que, so I headed outside to do just that.  My back felt good, and while the Sea-B-Que heated up to grilling temperature I smoked a couple of cigars, drank a little Scotch, and listened to the 'Perfectly Frank' channel on Sirius/XM....

.....it took about 15 minutes to get both steaks to 125° F (medium rare).  TLE added sides of green beans, and smashed potatoes....perfect!

After dinner we watched the MNF (Monday Night Football) game pitting the Chargers against the Eagles in L.A. at SoFi Stadium.  It was one of the ugliest NFL games I've seen this year with many, many turnovers of the interception type.  As regulation time expired the game was tied 19-19 so one 10 minute overtime period was in order.  The Chargers had the ball first, and came away with a 54 yard field goal, and then it was the Eagles' turn.  They were driving for a touchdown when the quarterback threw what looked like a sure touchdown pass that was tipped a the last second by a Charger defender, and ultimately intercepted by another Charger defender to end the game.  I think that was Jalen Hurt's 5th or 6th interception of the game.

About half way through the game my back began to bother me again, and the Tylenol was not making a dent in the pain.  I then remembered I had three pain pills left over from my left shoulder injury last Winter, so I took one hoping for the best.  By the time I went to bed at 11 pm (usually I go to bed at 10 pm, but there was the 90 minute nap earlier, so I wasn't tired yet) my back had begun to relax again, and by the time I woke up this morning the soreness was about 95% gone, and as I write it still feels good (Tuesday morning), so here's crossing my fingers that this trend continues in my favor.

As I was getting read for bed TLE stopped me and said "I'm going tell you something, and I'm only going to say it once.  Please remember you are 76 years old, and when you hurt yourself you need to stop what your doing, and sit down and relax.  When you keep going like you did today you just make it worse!".  Wise words from a wise woman....I think I should heed them.

Thanks for stopping by!

Day of rest.....

 7:48 am - Monday - December 8th - TWW - 26° F, humidity 39%, wind 4 mph out of the east.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 60° F!!!  On this date in 2024 TLE and I were watching a beautiful TWW sunset.....

.....maybe we'll do that tonight for the first time this winter!?  The view this morning....

Once and a while you've got to take a day off work, don't you?  TLE suggested, with some authority, that we would be taking a break from work Sunday.  Well, it is the Lord's Day, so why not?  Of course, there are always a couple of things that must be done each day, and those were taken care of pretty quickly.  I spent time just sitting in the sun enjoying the utter solitude and quiet.  Once in a while I'll hear a vehicle passing on the north/south arterial, but that's a good 1/2 mile away.  We hear the BNSF trains passing, but those tracks are around 3 miles away, so it's really just background sound, and barely noticeable.  Otherwise it feels like we are the only ones in the world.  The quiet can be spell binding at times.

Due to our current location within the Mountain Time Zone NFL football does not begin until 11 am, so there is always plenty of time to get anything which needs doing done before then.  With the daily highs now rising into the 60's for the foreseeable future it will get warmer earlier in the mornings making it possible for us old fogies to begin working earlier, meaning we'll tend to get more done each day we do work.  It also means we won't have to run the gas furnaces as long each morning.  They are very effective, but their whirring fans are an assault on the auditory senses, so the sooner we can silence them each day, the better.

If you are a Rams, Seahawks, Broncos fan it was a great day for NFL football.  My Rams crushed the Cardinals 45-17, and it wasn't even that close.  The Seahawks also obliterated the Falcons 37-9, and the Broncos won easily, 24-17 (the last Raiders touchdown was scored with seconds remaining in the game).  The night cap between the Chiefs and the Texans (at Kansas City with the temps in the 20's) had an unexpected outcome with the Texans winning a close one 20-10.  It seems like the entire AFC is upside down this year, but it is fun!

TLE and I did take a 1 mile out and back walk between the morning and afternoon games which ended up being our fastest out and back of the winter with us averaging 3.1 mph over the 1 mile, and doing it in 19 minutes and 22 seconds...

....for me it is easier this winter to take a day off work, since we find ourselves in a good place with what needs to be done.  We're actually spending a few days each week working on the finishing touches for the greenhouse, and soon it will be used for its intended purpose.  Our living circumstances are considerably less chaotic than last year when we were in the middle of that steep learning curve, and we don't feel like we've got to be working on four critical issues at the same time.  This winter we try to focus on one thing each day, taking our time, and enjoying the process.  We're getting to the place where we could picture ourselves living here comfortably 12 months out of the year.

In retrospect I'm glad TLE insisted we take a day of rest, and it really helps that we do not live under a constant sense of urgency this winter.  We're back to taking life as it comes, and living more in the moment.  Our confidence level is high, and it is all systems go!

Thanks for stopping by!