Whittling....

7:53 am - Monday - October 28th - TWW - 55° F, humidity 24%, wind 6 mph out of the south.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 68° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were taking our daily 3 mile walk at Lone Rock Beach on shores of Lake Powell.....

 As of Sunday we've been here at TWW for a week, although it has not felt like that long.  We've been getting a lot done, and with Charles and Phyllis here the past two days a lot more has been accomplished.  My goal for Sunday was to organize the trailer, and by noon time I had succeeded....

.....I'm not sure I remember when the trailer was that empty....lol...I think we've removed about 1,000 pounds of stuff from the trailer!  While I was thusly engaged, Phyllis was tackling the CONEX, which I had begun to work on a couple of days ago, but never finished.....when she was done she asked me to come and see, and I was stunned at what she had accomplished in such a short period of time....an organizational woman after my own heart.....now the workbench is cleared, and can be used for its intended purpose, and all the tools and supplies can now be found, and used.  The prior owner left a nice band saw for us, so we've got that going for us, too.....

.....you could not see the back of the CONEX, let alone walk to the back, when she began organizing.....what a transformation!

Once the trailer was at last useable TLE and I turned our attention to completing the first dump of our black tank since we arrived utilizing our SEAFLO Macerator Pump to move the effluent from the black tank to a 'cleanout' about 70' away....

The SeaFlo Macerator moving effluent efficiently

TLE standing guard at the 'cleanout' to be sure the hose did not pop out...notice how far away she is standing?

.....in all it took about 40 minutes as this was our first time using the macerator in a few years.  Now that everything is setup it will go much faster next time.  To flush the black tank we hooked up the water hose to the IBC water tote and pumped water into the black tank.  It worked well, and this time I powered the SEAFLO Water Pump using one of the Bluetti solar charger batteries.

Once that was done I was done for the day.  I changed out of my work clothes, poured myself a cold glass of ice tea, sat in my recliner, and put my feet up for the rest of the day.  There is so much to do here, but everyday we whittle down that long list, and we can begin to see the results around the property.

We had another early dinner around 3 pm in the house with Charles and Phyllis (Taco Salad), a little vino, and a lot of great conversation.  Charles and Phyllis will be returning to Phoenix on Monday, so TLE and I will be left to our own devices until they return later in the week.  We did have another sunset fire, but the heavy cloud cover to the west mostly obscured our view of the sun.

Thanks for stopping by!

2-0

6:39 am - Sunday - October 27th - TWW - 44° F, humidity 40%, wind 4 mph out of the southeast.....partially cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 79° F.    On this date in 2013 TLE and I were having coffee and pastries at Grounds For Coffee in Ogden, UT.....

....the sunrise this morning....

Saturday was the day I would finally, finally get to drive my recently purchased 1969 Jeep CJ5.  Charles and Phyllis would be arriving mid morning with the keys, and some Amazon/eBay purchases.  In the interim TLE and I got out our popup canopy to install it over the Bluetti battery station to better protect it against the elements, such as rain, and sun.  We'll be acquiring a storage shed in the near future where the Bluetti battery station will be installed, but for now the canopy will suffice.

We also moved the IBC water tote closer to the Newell in preparation for the transfer of water from the 5,000 gallon water tower, which is about 30' away.  Shortly after Charles and Phyllis arrived we hooked up the large transfer hoses, and used gravity to fill the tote with 275 gallons of potable water.  Our onboard fresh water tank (160 gallons) was down to about 70 gallons, so it was time to refill it....

The IBC water tote is full

Pumping water

.....I used a SeaFlo 12 volt water pump I've been carrying around for years as a backup to our house water pump....it really came in handy.  I wired it up to one of the Newell chassis batteries, and within 15 minutes we had added 90 gallons of fresh water to our tank.

Next up was some Jeep time for moi....

At the southwest corner of the property....look at that view!

....it took a bit to get her started as she's been sitting for over 3 weeks, but she finally fired, and does she ever sound sweet with those headers.  I'll take a video today (Sunday) of her running so you can hear that deep resonating rumble.  I took Charles for a ride around the property so he could find each corner of the 40 acre property.  I just locked the front wheels, put her in low range 4 wheel drive and let her idle from corner to corner.

We had an early dinner around 3 pm, and around 5 pm headed out for our first sunset fire with Charles and Phyllis......

......Saturday was also the second game of the 2024 World Series pitting my  Dodgers against the New York Yankees.  When I turned on the game it was in the 5th inning with the Dodgers leading the Yankees 4-1.  Through 8 innings the Dodgers had a 1 hitter going against the Yankees, and ultimately prevailed 4-2 giving them a 2-0 lead in this best 4 out of 7 series.  The team that wins the first two games goes on to win the World Series 80% of the time.....lets hope the Dodgers don't fall into the 20% category.....lol.....

.....thanks for stopping by!

Things I learned about my 1969 Jeep CJ5 Friday.....

6:59 am - Saturday - October 26th - TWW - 42° F, humidity 41%, wind 3 mph out of the west....high, wispy clouds today with a forecast high of 81° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were boondocking at Lone Rock on the shores of Lake Powell in southern Utah.....

....we have not been back since then.  It will always be one of our favorite boondock sites.  We were in Page, AZ back in May of 2020 (Wuhan Flu days), and it was closed like a lot of places back then, so we couldn't stay there then.  We hope to return again....we'll see.

I haven't mentioned my 1969 Jeep CJ5 since we arrived at TWW, but it is there, in the garage.  Why haven't I driven it?   Well, quite by accident, the keys for it followed Charles and Phyllis home to Phoenix after they delivered it.  Those keys will be returning to TWW Saturday, so we will be able to drive it for the first time then.  Nevertheless, I spent time Friday checking it over for the first time since I bought it 3 weeks ago.  Some things I learned that I didn't know before....

......the hood has gas shocks to hold it open....these were added by the the guy who restored it 10 years ago....

....it has the extra fuel tank under the driver seat, which was standard on the CJ5, but often gets deleted.....

....the guy did a frame off restoration back then, and had the Buick Dauntless V-6 rebuilt at the factory, and reset the ODO....it has only been driven 2,026 miles since then!  One the biggest surprises was....

....it has a heater....you can see it just to the right of the fuel gauge, and the controls just to the left of the fuel gauge.....it gets cold in Northern Arizona, so I am very happy it came with a heater....this was an option on the CJ5's back then, but not standard. It also has amp meter, a tachometer...

The tachometer is right there in the middle of the picture mounted on the steering column....

.....it has a hitch (above), and the headers have been wrapped with heat tape (below).....

.....in addition to the full doors, it also has the half doors (below)!......

The rest of the gauge cluster.....amp meter, temp, and fuel gauges....and a nice Pioneer stereo with 4 speakers

....finally, it has a 'Jerry Can' already mounted.  The soft top is brand new (well 10 years old, but looks brand new, and the roll cage is a custom job.....much more robust than the factory version.

I spent some time Friday afternoon washing the dust off of it, and she is starting to look pretty....

.....I see Jeep CJ5's on Facebook Marketplace all the time in really rough condition going for what I paid.  Jeep CJ5's in this condition area going for over $10,000, but I paid just $4,500.....and the engine is immaculate.....

....so, what did TLE and I do Friday?  Well, we moved all the tree branches we cut the other day off of the driveway, then raked the driveway, and the front yard.....

Before (above) and after (below)

Before (above), and after (below)

.....we're trying to only 'work' 3-4 hours a day, and TLE is really keeping to that, but I can't just sit around, so I take breaks, and then do more.  One more thing we did was clean out a 330 gallon water tote that came with the property, so we can use it to supplement our 160 gallon fresh water tank.  It took us about an hour to move it, and clean it....

.....this is what the interior looked like when we started to clean it.  It looks like, in its first  life, this tote contained some sort of vegetable oil.  I poured in some diesel fuel to cut the oil, then we added water, and drained it......

.....the we poured in some Dawn detergent, added water, then rolled it over and over to wash all four sides, the floor, and ceiling before repeating the same process of rolling it over and over to clean all the surfaces....

....and finally, after draining out the Dawn, we added bleach, more water, and repeated the aforementioned process.....it came out pretty nice....

.....that was the end of TLE's work day.  After some lunch, I headed out to the Conex to begin organizing it.  It was easy work, and in the shade so the time passed quickly.  Pretty soon it was time for another sunset fire....

....thanks for stopping by!

Rome wasn't built in a day......

6:25 am - Friday - October 25th - TWW -  42° F, humidity 46%, wind 3 mph out of the south by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 81° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were brewery hopping in Idaho Falls, ID.....Snow Eagle Brewing (1st picture), and Idaho Brewing Company (2nd picture)......

We were up early (before 7 am), and outside by 7:30 'limbing up' the numerous juniper trees in the yard on the driver side of the Newell......

Until I took these pictures this morning I did not realize how much we cut...there will be a lot of good firewood when we're done

,

.....plus we tilted the rear solar panels a little bit higher on the Newell....

.....and moved the solar generating station/solar panels closer to the driveway to get continuous sun all day long.  We were only getting 2-3 hours where we set them up originally....

....around 11:30 am we drove into town to check out the hardware store, the general store, and the laundromat (in case we need to use it in the future), and had lunch at a local hot spot with alfresco dining.....the hardware store, by the way, is really quite adequate.  It is like a small ACE Hardware....they had everything I needed.....

....I know some of you are thinking "Why isn't he telling us what town, and what restaurant?", and I don't blame you for wondering.  We decided a long time ago we would not reveal our exact location this winter in order to protect the privacy of Charles and Phyllis.  If they should decide at a later date that it is okay, then you will be the first to know.

We were back home around 3 pm, and I busied myself with a couple of DIY projects, which included making up a 20 amp cord  to use around our site.  I'll fill you in later for what it will be used.

Around 5:15 pm I got out our portable firepit, and set it up down the driveway for our first sunset fire in ages.  We were treated to another spectacular sunset.....I took a lot pictures, so enjoy them......

The entire sky lit up....looking northeast

....about this point we thought it was over (below).....

.....but then the sky lit up again (below)......

.....we accomplished a lot Thursday, for two old farts, and we need to keep reminding ourselves we're not 19 anymore.  We took a lot of breaks.  We'll be here 6 months, so we don't have to 'build Rome in a day' as they say.

Thanks for stopping by!