Prescott days.....

7:25 am - Friday - February 28th - TWW - 42° F, humidity 28%, wind 9 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 in St. Augustine, FL at a local campground dry camping.....

 .....they were out of full hookup sites, so we decided to dry camp.

A week, or so ago TLE broke her pair of trifocals, and need to get them repaired, or replaced, so a trip to COSTCO was in order (that's where she got the original pair) Thursday.  We also had plans to meet Charles and Phyllis for lunch in Prescott on their way up to TWW.  In order to make all the stops we had planned we left around 8 am to make the slightly less than 2 hour drive.  It was very windy along the I-40 corridor from the northeast, so we were steering into the wind all the way to Ashfork where we exited I-40 for 89 southbound to Prescott.

We arrived at Abe's Saw just before 10 am, and I dropped off 3 chainsaw chains for sharpening.  My sharpening skills are not there yet, and Abe's only charges $7/chain.....way cheaper than buying new ones at $43 each.  Right across the street from Abe's is a Fry's Supermarket (Kroger), and that is where we headed next to do a big shopping....the pantry cupboard is getting bare.

Next up was the COSTCO fuel station where we took on 15 gallons of fuel, then into the store around 11 am where TLE headed directly to the Optometrist department to get her trifocals repaired, or replaced.  While she was so engaged I went around the store picking up items she wanted.  By the time I returned she was wearing her 'new' glasses.  COSTCO was able to find a frame in their stock which matched the shape of her lenses, so it was just a matter of popping her lens into the new frames....

.....there is a restaurant in Old Town Prescott (Barley Hound Gastro Pub) we have wanted to try for some time, but they were always closed when we were there (they're open Wednesday through Sunday), and they were open Thursday so that is where we met Charles and Phyllis for lunch.....

......they had arrived just before we did, and it was just 11:55 am, so we headed inside and got a table.  What a great choice for lunch!  I had their Chicken Caesar Salad, and TLE their 'Duck Burger' with duck fat fries.....very, very good!  We both had a pint of their Oatmeal Milk Stout.  Charles and Phyllis split their 'Fish and Chips'.  The Barley Hound Gastro Pub gets a 4 star rating on 689 reviews.  We were finished by 1 pm, and making our way back to TWW where we all arrived without incident around 2:50 pm.

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No pictures.....

 6:23 am - Thursday - February 27th - TWW - 38° F, humidity 32%, wind 11 mph out of the east by northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 63° F.  On this date in 2020 we took a hike with Rich and Marnie Aaron up to the rock snake sculpture near Borrego Springs, CA.....

.....this was less than a month after we left Ramona Oaks RV Resort where we worked for Rich and Marnie for 9 months, and just a few weeks before the Wuhan Flu was unleashed upon the world.

TLE and I did quite a bit Wednesday, but I took no pictures, however here is what we did:

    --We dumped our black tank

    --We refilled our fresh water tank which was down to 40 gallons

    --I pressured washed half of the greenhouse in preparation for repainting the wood framework                 

    --I removed about 200 roof nails/tacks from the greenhouse wood frame that had been used to attach the prior Visqueen (clear polyethylene plastic sheeting) to the wood frame

    --I washed our 1969 Jeep CJ-5....it was due

    --We drove over to Matt and Dawn's home to buy 3 dozen more eggs (cage free, fertilized) in  the Yamaha Rhino    

    --I refilled the gas tank on our Predator 5000 dual fuel generator

    --I drove the Jeep about 5 miles down our feeder road to give it a good workout, and it ran well

    --TLE made some salsa, and taco salad for dinner

It was a beautiful, clear day in the high 60's with gentle breezes....a nice day to be alive at TWW, that's for sure.

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Mixed bag......

7:00 am - Wednesday - February 26th - TWW - 42° F, humidity 28%, wind 6 mph out of the east by northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were having lunch in Port Salerno, FL at the Manatee Island Bar & Grill..... 

.....one of my favorite pics of TLE and I.

Tuesday was a mixed bag for us workwise.  While TLE worked to level the site where she is placing her Cowboy Wok, I worked at exposing more of the septic line so we can install a 'T' there, and install the 'hardline' from our black tank sewer connection to the new sewer connection.  You may recall that when Charles and I left off digging the other day we had just barely exposed the black ABS pipe.  In order to install the 'T' I need to completely expose the 3" pipe, and then clear dirt back about 3' on each side where the 'T' will  be installed.....

....I managed to get a 3' section of the sewer line exposed before I decided I had dug enough for one day.  I'll need at least another foot each direction to install the 'T'.  Meanwhile, TLE managed to get her site leveled, and a small mat tacked down under the 'Cowboy Wok'.....

.....next up TLE and I joined forces to move all that lumber we removed for the east side of the garage into the barn where it can be stored out of the weather until we decide what to do with it.  That was probably the hardest thing we did all day.....

.....plus we also moved all of the polycarbonate roof panels we recently removed from the greenhouse roof into the barn......

....we hope to repurpose them in the near future.

By the time we finished that job we were both ready for a nap!  Instead of a nap I just took a rest in one of the anti gravity chairs for about 30 minutes then decided to service the Ford 420 loader.  I needed to top off the hydraulic fluid, check the oil, and coolant levels.  While I was at it I decided to take the plunge and attempt to install the new gauge cluster Charles bought off eBay.  The old one is unreadable, and non-functional.  It would be nice to see the RPM's, and temperature of the engine.   It took me about two hours to do that.....

I took a picture so I could remember where all the wires went

I think one of our furry friends was living in there....I had to vacuum it out

The new gauge cluster....

.....installed

.....regretfully, the only things that work are the check battery light, and the turn signal indicator.  I'll have to do some trouble shooting on the wiring.....but it sure looks nice.....lol!

With that I was finally done for the day.  It was around 3 pm, and I was tired.  TLE used her  'Cowboy Wok' to cook Fajitas for dinner, and were they ever good!  And for the second evening in a row we ate dinner outside....a very nice way to end another TWW day.

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It's the small stuff......

 7:11 am - Tuesday - February 25th - TWW - 43° F, humidity 41%, wind 3 mph out of the east by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in West Palm Beach, FL with Ernie and Carol Prociw having lunch at the Tiki Bar.....

TLE and I promised ourselves Monday would be another easy day, which would include a trip into Seligman to retrieve our mail, and buy a couple of things at the General Store (hardware store).  We figured by the time we returned it would be late morning, and not a lot of time to commit to any big projects.  Sometimes things don't work out the way you hoped they would.  Sometimes a day just evolves of its own accord, and there is nothing you can do to change the outcome.

We left for the hour round trip drive into Seligman around 9:30 am to find that the main north south arterial had recently been scraped, which made the 7 mile drive out to US-66 much more pleasant than it has been for awhile.  I think the last time they ran the road grader up and down the road was two months ago....just before Christmas.  Our first stop was the General Store where we bought a couple of 2" diameter nipples, and a pitch fork for TLE.  Next we hit the Post Office where we had 5 packages awaiting our retrieval in a parcel locker, then over to Seligman Market for some produce, then back to Family Dollar for a few more things.  We're going to Prescott on Thursday, so we'll do our big shopping then.

By the time we returned to TWW it was getting close to 11:30 am, just as I thought would be the case.  So far, so good.  There were a few smallish projects I wanted to attend to before dinner.  One was to back the Jeep out of the garage and remove the full doors, the two side panels, and the rear panel.  It's getting warmer and the Jeep interior is really kind of claustrophobic with the entire enclosure installed...

.....I'll install the half doors, and she'll be ready to drive. 

Another thing I wanted to do was to drill some holes in the railroad ties out of which we made the new raised growing bed so I could pound some rebar into each corner to keep its square shape.  I managed to get one hole drilled, and rebar pounded into the southeast corner...sort of a proof of concept.....

.....it worked well, so I'll drill three more holes (one in each remaining corner) on Tuesday.

While I was in the greenhouse vicinity I decided to see of I could reinstall a window pain in the entry door to the greenhouse that has been detached for years.  When we were working on the greenhouse Saturday I tried to install the pane, but it appeared to all of us that it didn't fit, so must not really belong to the door.  I was sure it did, but I deferred my second attempt to another time.  Well, no time like the present.  After fiddling with the pane for 20 minutes, or so, I finally managed to figure out how it fit, and this is the result....

.....its a little dirty, but it fits. I'll have to secure it with a couple of screws as the plastic hardware that keeps it in place is in pretty bad shape.

Next up I needed to complete a long, long deferred project of hard wiring the newer Norcold into our 12 volt system.  Since we installed it back in the Spring of 2020 we have just utilized the cigarette lighter plug in the through bay to power it, but it comes loose once and a while.  TLE has been gently coaxing me to finish the job, so I decided to tackle it.....

....it was way easier than I thought.  In fact, when I removed the steel plate I noticed the ground wire to the cigarette light plug was loose, which explains why we've had intermittent problems with the Norcold not coming on to cool down.  Anyway, it is now officially hardwired.

Another issue which only developed Sunday was we couldn't start the Yamaha Rhino to move it to the new carport.  It ran out of gas Sunday after Charles and Phyllis left, and even though I refilled the tank it wouldn't start.  I began by removing the air filter to find it was badly clogged, and might be restricting airflow, so I clean it thoroughly, and reinstalled it.  It still wouldn't start.  For an internal combustion to run you need air, fuel, and spark.  I surmised that perhaps the fuel system was vapor locked, so I retrieved a spray bottle of ether, sprayed a healthy dose into the carburetor, then turned over the engine.....it fired right up!  Now I could move it into the carport....

......we weren't sure whether both side by sides would fit end to end, but they do.

It was now getting late into what I had thought would be an easy day when TLE and I decided to put up our patio awning sun shades.  It's getting warmer, and with the passenger side of the coach facing the sun all day long now it is getting pretty warm inside in the late afternoon....

......so now our 'lido deck' is finally taking shape, and it has been a long time coming!

TLE got out her 'Cowboy wok' for the first time to cook dinner around 3:30 pm, which consisted of BLT sandwiches.....YUM!  We also, actually ate dinner outside for the first time since we arrived back in October....lol!  And thus came to an end another TWW day, which ended up being a very full day with a lot of small accomplishments.

Thanks for stopping by!

A modest workday.....

 7:37 am - Monday - February 24th - TWW - 40° F, humidity43%, wind 5 mph out of the east by southeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2021 I installed my new (current) Speedhut digital tachometer.....

Before being connected to the alternator

After connection....idling at just under 500 RPM's

.....I had to run a cable from the tachometer down into the inverter bay, then back to the engine bay through a PVC conduit provided by Newell for just this purpose.  Once I connected it to our newly installed, rebuilt Leece-Neville shaft driven alternator it came alive.  It took a couple of hours, but in the end it worked!

After 4 hard days of work it was time for an easy one.  Both TLE and I had modest goals for the day.  For TLE it was to do a few loads of wash in the house (we don't need no stinkin' laundromats anymore....lol!) while I began to load, and move the wood TLE and Phyllis had sorted through the other day.  To do this I installed the pallet forks on the bucket of the Ford 420 loader, and then stacked the 16' wood planks (siding) on them.  It took about an hour, but soon the area on the east side of the garage was no longer a 'dump site'.....

The east side of the garage after I removed a few inches of the topsoil which was covered in rat turds.....much better now....the wood you see stacked to the right is worthless, so will cut it up and move it to our next burn pile

.....it took me three trips with the loader to move everything to the east side of the barn, but we got it there.  We'll move everything into the barn Monday, or Tuesday where it can remain out of the weather until we repurpose it.....

The interior of the barn looking in the east doors

.....the Ford Expedition got covered in red mud when we drove over to Matt and Dawn's home to pick up the two dozen eggs last Sunday, and I knew it was going to require the use of the pressure washer to remove the concrete like mud, and I was right.  Using said pressure washer worked very well, and in about 40 minutes I had the red mud removed.....

.....now she's all pretty again!  I also took time to wash the Yamaha Rhino and the Cushman while I had the pressure washer deployed.

It was such a lovely day that we decided to have our first sunset fire in quite some time....there was no wind, and very clear, blue skies....

The sun is getting low in the western sky and the Eco-Flow Dual Axis solar tracker is about to return to its 'neutral' position (parallel to the ground)

Another of those ubiquitous contrails heading towards the setting sun

.....our solar system is working so well right now that we hardly even think about it anymore.  It is almost as if we were plugged into an electrical pedestal.  All the batteries get back to full charge 98% of the time, enabling us to live about as normal a life as is possible off grid....life is very good!.  And with that I will bid you adieu for another day.

Thanks for stopping by!

The greenhouse....

8:05 am - Sunday - February 23rd - TWW - 34° F, humidity 36%, wind 2 mph out out of the east.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 69° F!  On this date in 2021 I was able to reinstall our Leece-Neville shaft driven alternator after having it rebuilt....

 ....it took me less than 20 minutes start to finish to reinstall it!

The past 4 days have been some of the most productive work days since we arrived here at TWW.  Having four people to take on each task really, really speeds up the work.  We've been able to get done in one day what would have taken TLE and I 2-3 days to accomplish, and Saturday was another of those days.  

Since we arrived at TWW back in October I have wanted to begin the job of refurbishing the green house.  It has sat unused for years, and the Visqueen (clear plastic) outer covering of the green house died of UV over exposure years before.  The corrugated polycarbonate clear roof panels had been damaged by hail a while back, and needed to be removed.  Finally the entire green house area (fenced in) was overgrown with weeds.  

Charles and Phyllis were up early and began clearing weeds around 8:30 am.  By the time we joined them it was closer to 10 am.  Over the next 4 hours we cleared 60% of the weeds, built a new raised growing bed, and removed all 20 of the corrugated polycarbonate roof panels, as well as moved the two IBC water totes over from their former resting place.  Once we have the new roof on the green house we can set up our first water catchment project using those two IBC water totes as reservoirs.....

The raised growing beds....the one in the background is the 'new one

The two IBC water totes ready to be moved into position once the new roof is installed

The new raised growing bed.....just need to add some topsoil

One of the hail damaged corrugated polycarbonate roof panels

All the roof panels are removed

Weed free green house floor

Removing the roof panels one at a time....there must have been at least a thousand screws....lol!

A nice discovery....we have power and water already there

An unused roll of Visqueen left by the prior owners

.....we finished around 2 pm, and we were all tuckered out, however, we had one last small project.....TLE wanted me to scape the path to the burn barrel free of weeds, or mostly free of weeds, so I did just that using the Ford 420 loader bucket.....

....and that, he said with a sigh of relief, was the end of another very productive workday at TWW.

Thanks for stopping by!