Old man winter is knocking on the door.....

 6:47 am - Tuesday - December 10th - TWW - 20° F, humidity 25%, wind 6 mph out of the east by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 47° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were enjoying another Anza Borrego Sunset....

Monday was the first of two cold days here at TWW.  The forecasted day time temps for both days is under 50° F, with the overnight lows in the low 20's.  Kind of a foretaste of what is to come as winter tightens its grasp over TWW.  We used the remote start on the new Predator 5000 for the first time Monday morning, and for the first time since we arrived I didn't have to get dressed, and go outside to turn on generators....nice!  With such cold weather our plans for outdoor activity were purposely limited until the afternoon when the 'heat of the day' would arrive for about 2 hours.....lol.

We needed to refill our two 20 pound propane bottles (5 gallon tanks), to ensure adequate propane for the Predator 5000, plus I needed a sheet of plywood, and a few other things at the hardware store.  We weren't sure if there was anyone in town that refilled propane bottles, but we knew there were at least two tank exchange places where you give them your empty tank, and you get a new tank full of propane for about $31.  We left for our drive into Seligman around 10 am, arriving at the General Store 30 minutes later.  Much to our surprise we found out from them that they refill propane bottles for $3.19/gallon....score!  It cost us just $22+ total to fill both tanks....way cheaper than the $31/bottle at the tank exchange places!  The 5 gallon tanks are a short term solution, as we hope we can get Yavapai Bottle Gas to integrate the Predator 5000 into the large 120 gallon tank we already have on site, which only costs us $2.29/gallon when they come to refill our tank.

After a stop at the Post Office to pickup more mail, and then at the Chevron station to refill our gas cans (we won't have to refill them much anymore), we headed home reaching TWW around 11:45 am.  In addition to the piece of plywood I bought for future projects, I bought a locking latch for the shed, and a couple of male electrical plugs to repair the ones on the compressor, and drill press which have both lost their grounding posts.

I was able to finish drilling the 9 rebar bore holes with the new masonry drills to a depth of 6" (that was the longest they had at Harbor Freight) each, then installed the new locking latch on the shed, and then turned my attention to rearranging the rear of the CONEX to make room for the drill press table we brought home on Saturday.  Once that was done I moved, with TLE's help, the drill press from the floor to the table, so now it can be used without one needing to stand on one's head to operate it....lol.

By the time I finished with the drill press it was after 3:30 pm, and time for dinner.  We had grilled cheese sandwiches, and a bean soup....perfect for a cold day where the high temp was only 49° F.

On a side note, it has been costing us around $24 to fill each gas can with 5 gallons of Regular Unleaded, and we have 5....ouch!  It now costs us around $11 to refill each propane tank, so we are saving over 50% on fuel costs by running our Predator 5000 using the propane option, and we'll be saving even more once the Predator is integrated into the 120 gallon tank.

Thanks for stopping by!