Saturday, January 11, 2025

Two brains equal one?

 8:14 am - Saturday - January 11th - TWW - 26° F, humidity 23%, wind 5 mph out of the north....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 49° F.  On this date in 2019 we left Quincy, FL and ended the day in Louisiana.....4 states in one day.....


Mobile tunnel under Mobile Bay, AL



.....in all we covered 333 miles that day....a very long day for us, but the driving conditions were idyllic.....flat roads, with a tail wind, and the sun at our backs most of the day.

Friday was another cold one, but there was no wind, so even though it only reached 48° F, it felt much warmer with clear, blue skies, and all of that direct sunlight.  Even though the overnight lows were in the mid 20's, our Bluetti battery bank only got down to 67%, and our house batteries only dropped to 79%.  I decided not to turn on the Predator 5000 generator, and just wait for the rising sun to tilt the solar array, and begin recharging the Bluetti AC200MAX and its two expansion batteries (B200's).  The panels tilted at exactly 8:20 am, and by 12:30 pm they were back to 100%.

I finally turned on the Predator for about 30 minutes at 10:30 am to give the house batteries a boost before the sun finally hit our four roof panels in full.....there is a large juniper tree which blocks two of the four panels from getting sun until around 10:40 am each day.  I turned it off at 11 am when we left to drive into town.  By the time we returned at 12:30 pm the house batteries were also back to 100%.  In all, we only ran the Predator for 30 minutes in the morning, and 30 minutes Friday night just before we went to bed to top off both sets of batteries.....just 60 minutes of run time....that is a record for us!

On the topic of the house batteries I pulled the trigger and ordered a Victron Energy Smart Solar MPPT 100 I 30 with Bluetooth to replace the aging Blue Sky solar boost charge controller, which will give us the ability to program parameters for our soon to be installed Cloud Energy lithium 600 amp hour battery bank.  It will be here late next week, so we hope to begin the conversion from flooded cell to lithium by next weekend.

After returning from town I helped Charles move his Starlink Gen 3 satellite dish from the wood deck to a pole on the southeast corner of the house....actually about 10 feet east of the house.  It took our two brains to equal a whole brain for this installation.  While most of the installation was very intuitive, the actual installation of the pole into the ground screw was anything but intuitive.  There were three possible options, but only one would work.  We finally prevailed, solved the riddle, and here is the finished product....


......after putting my tools away, and fiddling around in the trailer for 40 minutes until it was time for dinner (3:30 pm). I then headed indoors to change out of my work clothes, and head into the house where TLE and Phyllis were preparing spaghetti and meatballs with side of coleslaw.  As always, the dinner and conversation were delicious and enjoyable, in that order!

We retired back to the Newell around 5 pm where we watched the 2nd semi final NCAA football playoff game on successive days.....University of Texas Longhorns versus the Ohio State Buckeyes.  It was a close game (21-14) in favor of Ohio with 4 minutes to play.  Texas got to the 1 yard line of Ohio attempting to tie the game with a touchdown before turning the ball over on a quarterback fumble, which Ohio returned for a 90 yard touchdown to ice the game at 28-14.  At least it was a close game, right?  Ohio really had the edge over Texas most of the night, but offensive mistakes on their part, and great Texas defense kept the game closer than it should have been.

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, January 10, 2025

Are we comfortable yet?

7:24 am - Friday - January 10th - TWW - 22° F, wind 5 mph out of the east by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 49° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were awakening to snow from an overnight snow storm.....




 .....yes, it was as cold as it looks....lol!

The overnight low was around 30° F here at TWW, but the skies were crystal clear Thursday providing those much sought after solar rays to infuse electrical current into our thirsty, depleted battery banks via your 12 mono crystalline photovoltaic (solar) panels once again.  Each day the cycle repeats itself, and you find yourself hyper aware of how much electricity you consume on a daily basis, and how much you might be using right at the moment.  You are hyper aware, because you know the limits of your electrical system, and how much time it will take to replenish 25, or 30% of the power you used the day before, and overnight.  You turn off lights when you leave a room, and after a certain point in the morning you turn off all the lights, and open all the curtains to receive as much natural light inside as possible.  The sun shinning through the windows means you don't need lights, and the heat transfer through the windows enables you to turn off most of your heaters.  Your life is a mixture of 12 volt and 120 volt readings.  You hope, after a while, you won't need to be obsessively checking the state of charge on your Bluetti battery bank, or on your flooded cell house batteries, but you continue to check on an hourly basis.  It's been almost 3 months since you began living off the grid, but there is still this level of anxiety lingering in the background.  A hundred 'what ifs' swirl around in your brain.  You mostly trust the systems you've installed, but seem to always be waiting for the 'other shoe to drop'.  I'm inclined to be a little obsessive/compulsive, and this living off the grid kind of puts it into overdrive.

When we boondocked in the Anza Borrego Desert back in 2021, which was the 3rd, or 4th time we've boondocked there, we were in a comfort zone.  We only had our two 8d, flooded cell, house batteries, and a 2,000 watt inverter to provide direct current and alternating current to the coach.  There was less to worry about, and it worked well.  90% of the time we had clear, blue skies, and our batteries returned to 100% virtually every day, without fail.  We had been using this system since 2012 when we installed our first solar panels, and had gotten quite comfortable with its reliability, and I'm sure that we will become more comfortable with our expanded battery system, and its reliability.  

Thursday was our third successive day of winds in the mid to high 20's.....bad for us, but its all relative, right?  They've had winds over 100 mph in SoCal for the last 4, or 5 days, and that is like Category 1 in hurricane terms.  I grew up in the Pasadena/Altadena area, and judging by the aerial views of the fire damage it looks as if an atom bomb was dropped.....complete devastation.  And that is another one of the hazards one faces in a large urban area built along the foothills of the Angeles Crest and San Bernardino mountain ranges.  I love the rural, low population, high desert!

With winds in the mid 20's for most of the day, and the high temp for the day barely reaching 43° F it felt more like low 30's, or high 20's much of the time.  I wore my heavy duty Carhartt lined jacket with hood all day long.  So, what did I do Thursday?  Well, I attempted to connect our new Cloud Energy, 12 volt, 300 amp hour batteries to the house system, but it appears I will need to change my existing Blue Sky charge controller to one like a Victron, that has settings for lithium batteries, as the Blue Sky readings went crazy, so 2 steps forward, and one step back.  It's okay....we've got 3 more months to figure this out.  In the mean time our two 8d batteries are doing just fine.

Charles and Phyllis arrived for a 4 day stay....the longest time they've spent here yet.  We're going to begin integrating 10 more 400 watt solar panels into their solar array, which will be another learning experience for us.

Phyllis and TLE served us chili con carne (Phyllis) with Mexican cornbread (TLE), and I wish I had taken pictures.  Was it ever good!  We were back in the Newell by 6 pm watching one of the two semi final NCAA college football playoff games between Notre Dame and Penn State, and what a game it was!  With 3 seconds remaining Notre Dame kicked the winning field goal to win 27-24, so they will be in the final down in NOLA (New Orleans).

Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, January 9, 2025

A little of this, and a little of that......

 7:16 am - Thursday - January 9th - TWW - 30° F, humidity 42%, wind 12 mph out of the north by northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 47° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were at Simple Simon's Bakery and Bistro in Riverside, CA having coffee and bagels....


....I love sitting across any table from this woman!

Wednesday morning felt a lot like winter with blustery winds, and frigid temperatures. It did not seem like a day one should be outside dumping their black tank, much less doing anything else, but there TLE and I were doing just that at 10:30 am.  We were both bundled up against the cold trying to get the tank dumped, and fresh water back into our fresh water tank as quickly as possible.  By the time we finished it was after 11:30 am, and finally above 40° F.

Even though I had no desire whatsoever to be outside, there were four things I really needed to accomplish Wednesday, but not necessarily in this order: 1) Reinstall the old water pump in the water bay as the new SeaFlo pump produces way too much PSI for our system, 2) cut a hole in the top of the wood box shelter I built for the Predator 5000 generator to make it possible to add gasoline without moving the box,  3) move the charger/converter remote control from the electrical bay into the bedroom so I don't have to go outside to adjust the charge rate, and 4) reconnect the 20 amp cord for the Intelli Power charger/converter to the electrical outlet in the electrical bay.  

Up until now we've had the charger plugged directly into the Predator 5000 to avoid putting too much strain on the Bluetti AC200MAX.  The charger draws over 1 kw all by itself when 'bulk charging' our house batteries.  That combined with the normal draw during the day of 300-500 watts drained the Bluetti faster than we could charge it.  However, now that we have the Eco-Worthy Dual Axis Solar Tracker with its 600+ watts of power generation ability we decided it was time to make the change.  Once the house batteries are at 100% the charger goes into 'float mode' and the draw decreases to about 250 watts, something the Bluetti can handle, and still get fully charged during the day.  It is kind of an experiment, but we are hoping that keeping the house batteries topped off at 100% all the time will reduce our generator run time.....we'll see.  This took me about 60 seconds to make the switch.  Thursday we'll install the two 300 amp hour Cloud Energy lithium batteries in place of our current flooded cell 8d batteries.

I next tackled the generator wood box, as it seemed to be the most straightforward of the projects.  Using a 2" hole saw I cut a hole above the gas cap on the generator, then used a jigsaw to increase the diameter of the hole to about 4".  I used a piece of flat metal which came with the EcoFlow sun tracker to cover the hole, using just one screw to secure it so it can be swing out of the way exposing the gas cap on the generator.....





......that took me less than 30 minutes beginning to end, and it works quite well!

Next I decided to drill a hole in the floor next to drivers side of our bed to run the cable for the 'Charge Wizard', ran the line through the floor to the charger, plugged it in, and then fastened the 'Charge Wizard' to the wall under the window using 2 sided tape provided by the manufacturer.....



.....it allows me to manually put the charger into 'float' mode, or 'bulk charge' mode without going outside.  Why did I wait so many years to do this?  An easy 30 minute job.

Last up, I began the process of removing the new SeaFlo water pump, and reinstalling the older ShurFlo pump which produces a modest 40 PSI.  The 60 PSI provided by the SeaFlo was just too much for our system, and caused the water flow to surge, instead of providing a steady flow.  This reeked havoc with our Girard tankless water heater.  I was expecting this job to take an inordinate amount of time, but within an hour the deed was done, order was restored in our 'water world', and I was done working for the day.  Time to retreat to the warm confines of the Newell for the rest of the day.

I spent the afternoon continuing my efforts to catch up on the YouTube channels to which I subscribe.  And that was our day.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Procrastination games......

7:34 am - Wednesday - January 8th - TWW - 32° F, humidity 50%, wind 15 mph out of the northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 50° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were boondocking in the Anza Borrego Desert near Clark Dry Lake Bed....our good friend, Steven Dempsey, took these pictures the morning after we got slight dusting of snow in the local mountains.....



....Steven has this innate ability, which most great photographers  seem to possess, to capture a scene so that it looks just like it did in real life, if not even more so.  I do it by accident on occasion, but Steven is a true artist, and these pictures are mute testimony to that fact.

We knew Tuesday would be a 'wind event' day, so our plans were to be inside as much as possible.  With the forecast high to be in the 40's, and winds in the 20-25 mph range the wind chill factor would be in play.  An inside project, that I have avoided doing for so long I am a little embarrassed to admit, was to reattach the power strip in the DVR closet over the driver seat to the ceiling.  I had used two sided tape a few years ago to attach it to the ceiling, but the tape failed a couple of years ago.  I reapplied the tape, and it held for another 6 months, but it's been 1.5 years since then and I just let it slide all this time.  My plan then, which never changed, was to utilize 'plumbers tape', and screw it to the ceiling.  My main reason for procrastination on this job was I thought I would need to take the TV down from it mount, to open up the area where the DVR resides, which is a long, boring task.  Upon reexamination Tuesday morning I decided that was not necessary, so the job became much less time consuming.  In the end it took me about an hour to drill the holes, and then form the 'plumbers tape' into a shape that would fit around the power strip....


....upon completion I wondered why I took so long to fix it.

The only other thing I really did Tuesday did take me outdoors for about an hour.  Back when we first got the Predator 5000 I had to change out the the 'fuel' jet for the gasoline application from the 'sea level to 3,000' elevation' one to the one for 3,000-6,000' elevation to adjust for altitude.  It took me a couple of hours to do this as some disassembly is required.  I got it back together, but it wouldn't start on the gasoline setting (this is a dual fuel generator).  It would kind of start, but then die each time.  At any rate, I finally hooked it up to propane, deciding to defer the trouble shooting to another time.  Well, that time was Tuesday.  Why?  Well, I checked the propane level in our 120 gallon propane tank and it was down to 30%.  It's been about a month since we topped off the tank (12/11), and we were told to call for propane delivery when it hits 30%.  They only deliver to the Seligman area on Mondays, so that meant another week.  The generator is the primary user of the propane supply right now, and it went down over 10% in the last week, so I decided we needed to switch to the gasoline option to avoid running too low on propane for our heaters, refrigerator, and water heater.....all important appliances in our household.  That meant I had to solve the problem then, not next week.

I had a feeling that the issue was the cable linkage which opens the fuel bowl port (on the bottom of the carburetor) to allow fuel to flow into it, and then into the carburetor.  after examining the linkage for a while it suddenly became obvious to me that I had reconnected it incorrectly when putting everything back together, because there was too much slack in the cable, making it impossible for the fuel bowl to be filled.  Once I removed, and then reconnected it to the fuel bowl correctly the generator fired right up, and ran like a top (and still is as I write)!  Success!  

After successfully crossing two items off my 'procrastination' list I decided to quit while I was ahead, and spend the rest of the day inside the warm, windless confines of the Newell.  It was the perfect afternoon to catch up on all the YouTube channels to which I am subscribed....I am way, way behind, so even after my viewing binge Tuesday, there is still a lot of unwatched content to view.  Wednesday promises to be another 'wind event' day, so maybe I'll get more viewing done then.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Washed, shopped, coifed and dined......

 7:35 am - Tuesday - January 7th - TWW - 34° F, humidity 45%, wind 11 mph out of the east by northeast.....88% cloud cover today with a forecast high of 48° F.  On this date in 2019 TLE and I were in Georgia visiting good friends Roscoe and Geni whom we met while working at Yellowstone NP back in the summer of 2017......


......there are just some people, sometimes, that you immediately 'click' with, and that was the case with Roscoe and Geni.  Spending time with them the summer of 2017 just enhanced our wonderful experience at Yellowstone, and we miss them bunches.  Our view this morning....sailor take warning.....


We haven't done a big shopping in over a month, so a trip to an urban area was much needed.  We hadn't been to Kingman since we picked up our cedar shed, and I needed a haircut.  I really liked the haircut I got at Sport Clips (next to Home Depot), back on November 23rd, and wanted a return engagement.  The cool thing I like about Sport Clips is that for virtually the same price ($26) I paid at Supercuts in La Quinta ($29) last winter, I get what they call the 'MVP' treatment......haircut, shampoo, conditioner whilst sitting in a vibrating leather recliner, and then an upper back/shoulders massage.  Plus I can check in online within an hour of my arrival, pick my hair stylist, and go right to her chair.....cool!

We left TWW around 9:45 am, and arrived at the local laundromat around 11:30 am where we needed to employ two double washers to cleanse all of our dirty clothing, and bedding.  While the washers were running we walked across the street to Tractor Supply to browse around.  TLE found some new leather gloves to replace her worn out ones.  By the time we returned it was time to move our wash to a large dryer.  We set the dry time for 48 minutes, and walked over to Safeway to do the BIG SHOPPING (spent almost $300!).  By the time we finished, and had put the groceries in the Expedition we had 3 minutes left on the dryer....perfect.  We had our clothes folded, and back in the car before 1 pm.

Next up was a nice lunch at a local micro brewery...'Grand Canyon Brewing and Distillery' in Old Town Kingman. Yelp gives them 4 stars on 77 reviews.  We would be right there with our review.  They have locations in Kingman, Williams, Flagstaff & Page, AZ.  I believe we've visited their Page location many years ago.....






....we each ordered a pint of their Pumpkin Porter, and then split their Bleu Wedge Salad, Deep Fried Pickles (app), and Jalapeño Poppers (app) for lunch, which combined with our choice to dine alfresco, made it the perfect pairing of beverage, food and ambiance!  We were the only ones on this day to choose the alfresco option, so we had the entire patio to ourselves....perfect!

From Grand Canyon Brewing we headed directly to Sport Clips where Albany (her parents hail from Albany, NY) styled my coif, and gave me the aforementioned MVP treatment.  We were back on US-66 headed for home by 2:20 pm, arriving back at TWW around 3:30 pm....without event.

As I write I am looking at threatening clouds from horizon to horizon, and a 46% chance of snowfall.  It will definitely be a generator day, for sure.

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, January 6, 2025

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!

Sunday, January 5, 2025

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!