'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!