Friday, January 17, 2025

Lumberjack TLE.....

 7:19 am - Friday - January 17th - TWW - 29° F, humidity 54%, wind 5 mph out of the south.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 53° F.  On this date in 2017 my youngest daughter, Sharon, was married to Rod.....love this picture of our five children.....


.....left to right: Meredith, Kate, Sharon, Chris and Tim.

It has been a while since TLE and I have cut, or split wood and Thursday morning seemed like the perfect time to refill the wood box on the deck, and resupply our wood pile at the 'sunset deck' firepit.  As you will recall we had cut up a lot of dry wood a couple weeks ago, and piled it next to the house to be cut into smaller length pieces so we could then split it...


.....TLE likes to operate the hydraulic wood splitter, and she does a great job!  We split all the wood that would fit in the wood splitter, then I fired up the 16" Stihl chainsaw to cut the rest of of the logs into shorter versions of themselves, followed by more splitting.

After that we took time to refill our fresh water tank from our IBC water tote.  We were down to 65 gallons out of 150, which is really plenty of water for another couple of days, but the lower the water level gets the longer it takes to refill, so we choose to refill it when it gets below 80 gallons.  We were still filling the tank when Charles and Phyllis arrived for another 3 day sojourn here at TWW.

With them they brought a half dozen boxes full of stuff we had ordered off eBay and Amazon.  I've taken to using eBay more often as their sellers use USPS more often than not, which makes it easier to get things delivered to our PO Box in Seligman.  Amazon seller use UPS Post, not USPS, for addresses utilizing a PO Box, and about half the time there is a delivery issue.  The most recent was that UPS said 'I' refused delivery, and returned the package to Amazon.  The post office does not refuse deliveries on my behalf, and I certainly did not refuse delivery....they just put a note in my PO Box that I have a package.  I think some at the Kingman, AZ UPS depot didn't want to deliver a small package (it was a 6" x 6" wall calendar) all the way to Seligman (an hour and a half drive) so they returned it using the excuse I had refused delivery.  The other issue with Amazon, is that many of their sellers will not ship anything to a PO Box....why I don't know.  Well, their loss is eBay's gain, right?

Anyway, we received the solar panel racks upon which I will mount the two 325 watt panels we own so they no longer have to sit on tables, and be leaned against the cedar shed, and the back of Phyllis' Newell, a small, 6" , cordless, handheld chainsaw, a new ShurFlo water pump, the new Victron charger controller, and a couple of things for TLE.

We didn't start splitting wood until almost 11 am as it was too cold to do anything outside until then, so by the time I opened all the boxes, and played around with the cordless chainsaw it was getting close to dinner time.  With all the deliveries I'll be busy with projects for the near future.

We had a subtle sunset, but no fire....very, very cold at 5:46 pm.  Before you know it the sun will be setting after 6 pm again.  Time marches on....



Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, January 16, 2025

Busy work.....

 7:54 am - Thursday - January 16th - TWW - 25° F, humidity 33%, wind 9 mph out of the east by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 56° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were boondocking near Quartzite, AZ with friends.....Steven Dempsey (friend) took this drone shot of our encampment.....


....they say a million people boondock in and around Quartzite during the winter, but the area is so large that you can always find a place with very few people, just like we did.  We're probably about 1 mile off Interstate 10.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again.  I love spending the winter where I can do what I want to do, when I want to do it, in the way I wish to do it.  After two consecutive years working the side by side rental operation at Glamis North Hot Springs we were both missing the quiet solitude of boondocking in the middle of no where.  We never feel freer and more independent than when we are doing what we are doing now.  Even though we are spending the winter on a property with a house, barn, and garage, it is completely off grid.  We are completely reliant upon ourselves to generate the electricity to power our Newell's 12 volt and 120 VAC systems.  We're not paying anyone for utilities, except for the propane delivery every 4-6 weeks, or hauling water to the property.  However, no matter where we boondock we will need to buy propane eventually, and need to acquire water.  The water is so inexpensive it is almost free, and while we are using a lot of propane, we are paying the lowest price per gallon we've paid in years, so our expenses are minimal compared to living in a sticks and bricks home.

We've been making steady improvements to the property as time permits, and have a lot more planned over the final three months of our stay here at TWW*.  As of this coming Monday we will have been here three months, and still have 3 more months before we return to Likely Place Golf and RV Resort for the summer.  By the time we leave here in late April we will have been living off the grid for 6 months...amazing!

As I look out the window over my desk I see the Eco-Worthy Dual Axis solar tracker has tilted to face the rising sun at 8:16 am....that's 4 minutes faster than normal.....the sun is, indeed, getting higher in the sky.  With each passing day now our solar array will begin recharging our Bluetti battery bank earlier and earlier, and later and later into the day.  The need for running a generator decreases by the day.

There were a lot of little things I wanted to get done Wednesday, and one of them was to deploy some of our solar fairy lights.  I've been remiss in doing so for the three months we've been on site.  I have 7 strings of these solar powered led lights, and managed to get three of them deployed in one of the juniper trees on the driver side of the Newell.....  

....with TLE's assistance I added some insulation to the ceiling in the cedar shed, and will continue to add insulation, as time permits, over the next week, or so.....

....other than those two projects I spent most of my day doing what I would call 'maintenance stuff'.  I started the Jeep again, and it was easier. I'm going to try to start it several times a week as long as it is cold to keep it ready to use.

I also moved our Honda EU2000i generator over to the Ford tractor to charge up the battery, so we can start it, and work on filling the right rear tire with water and antifreeze so we can begin to use it to level our permanent site by the trailer.  It took about 90 minutes to get it to 95%, and I think that will be good enough for now....

I don't remember ever posting a picture of the tractor (loader bucket and gannon)

....we hope to get it started and moved this weekend.  I also started, and ran the onboard diesel generator in Phyliss' Newell, and found it was also much easier to start after only sitting for one day.

The CONEX has needed rearranging for a while now.  In order to use the band saw I needed to move it out of its cubbyhole in the left rear corner of the CONEX to an area about 4 feet from the right rear corner where the cord can still reach the electrical outlet, and can be more easily accessed....

New location

Where the bandsaw used to be

.....finally I backed the Jeep CJ5 up to where the rollup door barely misses the spare tire,  so I could set up a table in front of it upon which to set tools, parts, etc. when I'm working on the Jeep, but still back it out of the garage when needed....


.....by the time I put everything away it was 3:20 pm, and almost time for dinner.

We've come a long way in the past few months continually adapting to changing weather, and conditions.  When we first arrived I was not sure we could realistically live in the Newell all winter at 5,500' without the convenience of being plugged into a 50 amp receptacle, but here we are almost 3 months later doing just that.  We are loving living in an isolated place, where we were completely alone 4-5 days a week.  As stress free as our life usually is, we have attained a whole new level of stress free living.  We are both sleeping so well at night it is a little scarry....lol.  With no ambient light, or urban type background sound present at night, we feel as if we are living on a different planet.

Thanks for stopping by!

*The Wilson Wilderness

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

'Curbing' our enthusiasm......

 8:09 am - Wednesday - January 15th - TWW - 22° F, humidity 38%, wind 11 mph out of the east by northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 54° F.  On this date in 2022 TLE and I arrived at 'Newell House' in Wittmann, AZ......


....which is also the home of Tom and Darlene McCloud....wonderful Newell friends.  It is one of our favorite courtesy parking places in the USA.  In the foreground is the home, and in the background is the enormous 'Newell House'....big enough to hold two 46' Newells.  There are also two full hookup, 50 amp sites on the south side of 'Newell House' where we usually park.

There were two things I wanted to accomplish Tuesday.....1) Install the metal work I had painted the day before on the shed to seal the round hole I had cut for the Honda EU2000i exhaust, and the long north and south seam in the cedar panels on the back of the shed, and 2) Start my 1969 Jeep CJ9 for the first time in a month.  

With TLE's help we removed the 325 watt solar panel from the table at the back of the shed so I could access the aforementioned areas where the painted metal pieces would be affixed....

The backside of the shed

The view from inside the shed after installation

.....it took me around 30 minutes to install everything, and it turned out well.  My initial hope was that sealing the large vertical seam on the back of the shed would allow the heat of the three Bluetti AC200P batteries to keep the interior above freezing, but that was a fools gambit on my part.  Without insulation the interior will only stay a few degrees above the outside temp.  For instance, when we woke up this morning the outside temp was 22° F, and the interior shed temp was 26° F....not a big differential.  On the other hand, sealing those gaps and holes will keep the moisture out of the shed, so that is a nice trade off.

I was going to head out to the garage next to start the Jeep, but TLE suggested we haul some gravel to that spot on the entrance road to fill that hole resulting from the removal of all that rock.  That, actually, was a good idea as I had set up Charles' propane heater (of the catalytic variety) in the garage under the Jeep engine to warm it up while the battery was charging.  A little extra time would not hurt.

We used the Yamaha Rhino to move the gravel to the hole, and had it dumped, and raked within 30 minutes.  But, you know I could not leave it there.  We had this large pile of those rocks I had pried out of the ground, and I thought they could be used to create a type of 'curb' along the left side of the driveway apron.  We hauled those large rocks back to the property entrance, and found they only covered about one half the distance to the gate, so we scrounged some more rock along the road, and completed it.  In all it took us around an hour to finish the previously unplanned curb.....

While I filled the hole with gravel TLE cut the juniper tree back that was hanging over the road



......this rock is all over the property, and the local area.  Might as well put it to good use, right?

Once we put away our tools I headed out to the garage to start the Jeep.  It has been really cold lately, and the battery had run down to about 55%, so there was no way the Jeep was going to start without charging the battery, and heating up the engine.  By the time I got into the Jeep to turn over the Buick Dauntless V-6 it had been 2, or 3 hours since I turned on the heater, and the charger.  As hoped it fired right up, and was soon purring like a kitten.  I need to remember to start it more often during the winter.

Not much else got done Tuesday, but that was fine.  Everyday we get more done.  Our rooftop solar panels brought our house batteries back to 100% by 1 pm, and the Eco-Worthy Dual Axis solar tracker did the same for our Bluetti battery bank.  The trailer Bluetti gets back to 100% by 11 am everyday, sometimes earlier.  At night I shut off 120 VAC power to the trailer, but the 12 volt DC power is flowing to the solar tracker 24/7.  The Predator 5000 dual fuel generator is running less than 2 hours per day, and on 'warmer' nights, less than 1 hour per day.  Once I rewire the panels on the roof of our Newell from parallel to series we should get down to rarely needing to employ it...at least that is our hope.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Breakin' rocks.....

7:38 am - Tuesday - January 14th - TWW - 16° F (COLD!!!), humidity 58%, wind 9 mph out of the east.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 46° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were boondocking at Quartzite with good friends.....


......left to right: Steven, Bill, Jodee, Linda, moi, TLE and Michael.  We met Steven and Linda at Cape Blanco in 2014, and Michael at Amazon in 2012.  Bill and Jodee were guests of Steven and Linda.

Monday was a good day.  We got a lot done, and I even took some pictures!  I've been wanting to break up some of the large rocks which dot the road into TWW for a long time now, and finally decided to take a whack at it Monday.....FINALLY.  Rocks embedded in any dirt roadbed are like ice bergs.  What you see on the surface is about 10-20% of the actual rock, and my experience Monday did not deviate one iota from that theorem.  Using a mid sized sledge hammer, a pick axe, and a long, steel pry bar, I slowly removed large rocks which were protruding 3-4" above the road bed.  It was slow, tiring work, but after about an hour I had a large pile of excised rocks, and a hole about 4' x 4' to fill.....


.....in the picture above I've outlined where the rocks were before I dug them out....not a very big area, and there are probably a dozen spots, or more, like this along the 1/2 mile road into TWW....


....there are a lot more areas like this, and we'll slowly clear them over the next few months...I hope.  From there we drove out to the main north/south arterial road to install 'The Wilson Wilderness' sign I wrote about previously....



.....we managed to find a spot free of sub-surface rocks to pound in the sign using a dead blow hammer. 

The temp barely reached 40° F Monday, and at 7:36 am it was barely 27° F......


......it was after 1 pm by the time we returned from ripping rocks out of the ground, and installing the sign.  While TLE retreated to the warm confines of the Newell I headed out to the garage to apply a coupe of coats of paint to some metal work I'm going to install on the cedar shed to close up the hole I cut for the Honda EU2000i generator exhaust, and the the 6 foot seam which runs from the roof to the floor at the back of the shed to seal it from the cold air. Lithium batteries do not enjoy temps below 32° F.  With the doors closed, and all the holes sealed the heat of the batteries will keep the interior well above freezing.....


.....I had to employ Charles' propane heater to get the temp above the required minimum temperature for painting of 50° F.....I was able to get it to 59° F.....


.....I'll let them dry overnight, then install them Tuesday when it will be significantly warmer than Monday (46° F.....lol).

I ran the onboard diesel generator in Phyllis' Newell for about an hour to exercise it, and keep her batteries charged.  I've been using the BIG Champion generator to do that in the past, but it makes more sense to exercise the onboard generator and charge the batteries at the same time.  I was back inside the warm confines of the Newell by 3:15 pm.....just in time for dinner.

The final NFL game of the 'Wildcard' weekend pitted my L.A. Rams against the favored Minnesota Vikings.  The Rams finished the regular season at 10-7, while the Vikings finished 14-2.  However, you would have thought their records were reversed as the game progressed.  The Rams totally dominated the Vikings from beginning to end racking up 9 sacks.  The final score read 27-9 as the clock expired.  The game had to be moved from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA to State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona due to the wild fires, and smoke in SoCal, but the Rams played like they were at their home stadium.

As I type today's missive at my laptop the temperature finally reached 23° F at 8:41 am.....


Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, January 13, 2025

A pajama kind of day.....

 7:57 am - Monday - January 13th - TWW - 16° F, wind 8 mph out of the east by northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 43° F.  That was one COLD night!  On this date in 2013 TLEW and I were enjoying another Cedar Key, FL sunset.....


....we were there over 5 weeks and I do not believe there was ever a less than spectacular sunset.  We took enough sunset photos to fill calendars for years....in fact one of our friends we met there did just that, and sold them on Amazon!

I guess I shouldn't make a big fuss about how cold the weather has been the last week, or so, since most of the country is under snow cover right now.  I've see snow pictures from Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and many other places one would normally not associate with snow covered landscapes.  Meanwhile Southern California is burning to the ground....literally....go figure.  Anyway, earlier this morning the temp hit a low of 16° F.  That is a new low for us at TWW, but not the lowest temp we have experienced in the Newell.  The winter we spent at the Grand Canyon (2017/18 @ 7,300' elevation) we saw overnight temps as low as 5° F on many an occasion, and single digits on many other occasions.

Phyllis and Charles left for their drive back to Phoenix around 10 am, and we were all alone, once again.  I really had no aspirations for Sunday, big, or small, except to watch a few NFL wild card playoff games, remain in my pajamas, and stay warm.  There were three playoff games scheduled for Sunday, and the first two were really not very competitive.  The final result in those games became obvious before the end of the first half.  On the other hand, the night game between Tampa Bay and Washington came down to the last minutes tied at 20-20.  Washington won on a last second field goal, which hit the right upright on the goalpost, and caromed to the left, and through the uprights for the winning score.

Late in the afternoon I started up Phyllis' Newell to air it up so I could install the rear tire covers she bought.  I had installed the front ones a couple of days ago, but the rear wheel wells of the coach were too low, and I could not get the tire covers on the tires.  Once that was done I was done for the day.

Along with the installation of the two 300 amp hour Cloud Energy lithium batteries, and new Victron charge controller (when it arrives), I am going to rewire the 4 solar panels on our roof from parallel to series to get more wattage out them during the short charging window we have each day.  I should be able to at least double the input wattage, if not more, by making that simple change.  I really don't know why the original installers didn't wire them that way to begin with, but it is what it is.

Each morning while I am composing my latest blogosphere offering I see (I can see the array from my desk in the salon out the large driver side salon window) the Eco-Worthy Dual Axis solar tracker begin to tilt from the neutral position to face the rising sun in the east.  It is like clockwork.  The sun hits the sun sensor on the array around 8:20 am each day (right now), and the array begins to tilt to maximize the absorption of solar energy.  It goes from ZERO to 350 watts quickly, and within an hour it will be closer to 600 watts.  The highest wattage I've seen so far is 630 watts at peak.  Every single day since I rewired the six 100 watt panels into series we have gotten back to 100% on our Bluetti AC200MAX battery bank anywhere from 11 am to 1 pm, depending on how depleted the battery bank became overnight.  Most mornings, like this morning, the battery bank is at 75%, or greater.  By the time we finish making our morning coffees using our electric pot it's into the mid to high 60's, and then the recharging process begins.  I haven't been using the Predator to charge first thing in the morning most of the time.  I am only using the Predator to charge the house batteries for about 1/2 hour from 10:30 am to 11 am each day just as the sun finally begins to light up the roof panels.  I run the Predator again in the evening around 30 minutes to top off the Bluetti battery bank before going to bed....that's it.  There have been a couple of exceptions to this rule when the house batteries got down into the 60's overnight, but for the most part we're sticking to the 60 minutes run time per day.  Both of the Bluettis are far exceeding my expectations for durability, and consistency.  I've only turned either of them off once, or twice since we've been here at TWW.

We've been running the Predator on its gasoline option for the past week as our 120 gallon propane tank was down to 30%.  We get a propane delivery this Monday (today), and we'll switch back to the propane option then as it is way cheaper than gasoline.  As I write Monday morning we still have 20% in the tank.

Oh, by the way, I did remain in my pajamas all day long.....thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, January 12, 2025

'Watts' that you say?

 7:33 am - Sunday - January 12th - TWW - 23° F, humidity 48%, wind 8 mph out of the east by northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 43° F.  On this date in 2019 TLE and I were in Sorrento, LA having breakfast at the 'Coffee House' with Forest and Cindy Olivier, whom we met through the Newell users group many years ago.....


.....we were on our way back to Arizona, so stopped off for a few days to see them.

According to Charles it got down to 19° F early Saturday morning (he has one of those indoor/outdoor thermometers).  Our water bay temp got as low as 34° F.....just above freezing.  It stays in the 40's most of the night without any heaters running, and we believe that is due to the two Norcolds venting heat from their individual compressors, which finds its way into the water bay.  

When the overnight temps first began to dip into the low 30's a number of weeks ago, we were concerned about how to keep the water bay from freezing.  It can be heated three different ways: 1) a 120 VAC electric heater, 2) a Suburban gas furnace (the kitchen one has a vent that feeds hot air into the water bay), or a chassis heater which uses the heated coolant from our big Detroit Diesel 6v92, while we are under way, to heat the water bay, bedroom, and salon.  Running the electric heater draws around 1.2 kw of power per hour out of our Bluetti battery bank, and will run that battery down to zero overnight.  Running the Suburban gas furnace during the night draws down our house battery bank quite a bit, too, plus we do not like to sleep with the gas heaters running as they are noisy.  Once we realized the bi-product heat from our Norcolds would keep things above freezing, we stopped worrying so much about that.  Of course, if we get overnight temps in the low teens for hours at a time we may have to turn on the kitchen Suburban gas furnace in the early morning hours to protect the water bay.  So far that has not been necessary.  The last couple of nights the water bay has gotten down to 37° F.

A couple of weeks ago Charles and Phyllis bought 10 additional 400 watt solar panels to supplement their existing eight 400 watt panels, and six 100 watt panels, which are installed on the CONEX, and barn roofs.  Since they were' going to be staying 3 nights this week they wanted to begin installing some of those 10 new panels, so I spent part of the day helping Charles do just that.  Since the barn roof needs some work to eliminate a few leaks, he didn't want to install the new ones up there just yet, so we set them up in the field behind the barn, and ran positive and negative cables to the battery room.....


I'm getting aluminum stands just like these for our two 325 watt panels

.....this, of course, is a temporary installation, and once the barn roof is fixed in the very near future, we'll move them up there.  Just adding the 1,600 additional watts of solar generation increased the input wattage to the batteries from around 1,400 watts to around 2,300 watts.  When we add the remaining six 400 watt panels (2,400 additional watts) that will really boost the input wattage, and get the batteries back to 100% hours earlier.  Ultimately they will be adding additional storage batteries to the system.  The panels are wired together in series, just like the ones on the CONEX and barn roofs. 

The daylight portion of each day is slowly getting longer.  While the sunrise time has barely changed in the three weeks since the winter solstice, the sunset time is now about 30 minutes later than it was then.  With that the sun is moving higher in the sky each day, gifting us more time in each day to to what needs doing.

Thanks for stopping by!

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!