Felling the tree, at last.....

 7:38 am - Friday - March 20th - TWW - 51° F, humidity 10%, cloud cover ZERO %, wind 4 mph out of the east by southeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 89° F.  The view this morning....

....and on this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Death Valley.....

.....at the Furnace Creek Inn...it was a very warm, and windy March in Death Valley that year.

TLE had amassed another burn pile over the past couple of weeks on the south side of our EcoWorthy Dual Axis solar tracker, and Thursday morning promised to be almost windless, so while she lit the fire, and began tending to her burn pile I started up the Ford 420 diesel tractor to create another burn pile.  Last winter we had cut a lot of branches off juniper trees just to the south of the current burn pile and drug them out of the area we've been clearing for over a year now.  Later we added some rotten wood to the pile that was next to the garage, but never burned any of it, because the pile was too close to several juniper trees.  In order to burn that stuff I needed to move it with the tractor out to a clearing even more south of its current location....

....it used to be in the foreground of the picture above, but is now moved to an area where it can be burned, maybe next week.  It took less than 15 minutes, and then I was onto the next project....cut down that tree on which we have been whittling since last winter until there was just this 5' tree trunk left.....

.....I've been wanting to finish the job for several weeks now, but there was always something more important to do, however, Thursday the wait was over.  I wanted to cut if off as close to the ground as possible, which is a fine notion, but way harder to do than you might think. It took me the better part of an hour, but in the end I was successful....

The tree has been felled

At its base the trunk was about 18" thick

....next I'll bore some holes in the stump, pour in some diesel, and see if I can burn it down to ground level.

TLE's burn pile took the better part of the day to burn down as we kept adding more branches to it including branches I trimmed from the tree next to Phyllis'  Newell so we can extend the patio awning in the near future....

I'm hoping I've trimmed enough now to open the patio awning....we shall see

....but it did eventually burn down.  By early evening it was time to douse what was left with water, and call it good.

Thursday was also the beginning of the round of 64 in this year's edition of March Madness.  By Friday evening there will be just 32 teams left in this single elimination tournament.  As always there were several upsets, and I expect there will be more by Friday evening.  We watched games until after 9 pm before calling it another day at TWW.

Thanks for stopping by!

PO run.....

 7:14 am - Thursday - March 19th - TWW - 45° F, humidity 11%, cloud cover 2%, wind 5 mph out of the east.....mostly clear blue skies today with a forecast high of 88° F.  The view this morning.....

...and on this date in 2012 TLE and I were visiting the 'Big Easy'.....

Enjoyed the World War II Museum quite a bit

Riding the trolley line down St. Charles

.....aka: New Orleans.  Bourbon Street was a bit of a let down.  Strip Clubs outnumber music venues 2-1, and the aroma in the air smelled like the water coming out of my gray water tank...lol.  We did, however, enjoy our day in New Orleans.

We had an number of packages, plus mail to retrieve from the Post Office in Seligman, so even though we were just there 5 days previous we took the day off, and headed into town around 11 am.  I picked up a few items at the General Store (hardware store), and then it was off to the Post Office where we picked up a new Breville for TLE, and a medium sized electric jack hammer for moi.  The Breville (toaster oven/convection oven, etc.) gave up the ghost after 6 years of faithful service.  The jack hammer is to break up some large rocks right at the entrance to the road which takes you to TWW.  They're just too big for a pry bar, and pickaxe, plus it will come in handy when we have to dig post holes around the property.  We've got that nasty caliche rock about 12" down, which this jack hammer should go through like a warm knife through butter.  After another quick stop at the Family Dollar we headed for Highway Hot Dog to have lunch....

Alfresco dining at its best

Didn't realize the building occupied by Highway Hot Dog began its life as the Pioneer Hall & Theater

....I had their 'Smash Burger' with fries, and TLE their Pastrami Hot Dog.  We ate alfresco on this 85° F day, because here is not much that is more enjoyable than eating good food outdoors, in the shade on a breezy, balmy day.

After lunch we headed over to the Seligman Grocery,  then made another quick stop at the 76 Station to top off the Explorer fuel tank (we actually added just 6 gallons to get it back to 1/2 full....not sure if we will use that much gas in the next month before we leave), and then it was time to head back to TWW where we arrived without incident around 1:30 pm.

It was too late to begin any projects so we unloaded our purchases from the Explorer, and headed into the cool confines of the Newell for the rest of the afternoon.  We'll install the new Breville Thursday, and check out the new jack hammer, too.

Thanks for stopping by!

What if the worst happens, and you are not prepared?

 7:32 am - Wednesday - March 18th - TWW - 50° F, humidity 13%, cloud cover 6%, wind 5 mph out of the east.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies this morning with a forecast high of 85° F.  The view this morning....

....and on this date in 2025 TLE and I were in Yuma, AZ at one of our favorite.....

....micro breweries....Prison Hill Brewing Company.  Love those deep fried avocados!

According to 'online sources' Tuesday was a 'high pollen' day here in the high desert, and TLE and I would both have to agree it was.  After a short foray out to the greenhouse we were both blowing our noses, and sneezing.  TLE's allergic reaction to local flora is much worse than mine, so while she remained indoors for most of the day I spent time in the morning watering the 8 trees Phyllis had planted here two winters ago.....

.....three of the trees have really flowered over the past 2 weeks, while the others are putting on green leaves.  We water the 'orchard' from a 2,500 gallon water tank using gravity.  It takes about 30 minutes to complete the watering process, and I only do it when Charles and Phyllis are not here.  Usually they would have arrived here Tuesday, but they have a lot of business to take care of around Phoenix this week, and won't be here until Friday, or Saturday, so it fell to me to do the deed.

After I finally got our 1969 Jeep CJ-5 running again the other day I noticed how dusty she was getting, so after turning off the irrigation water at the orchard I started her up, quite easily I might add, and drove her over to a shady area by the circular driveway to vacuum, and wash her.  Tuesday was the hottest day we've had in quite a while, topping out at 80° F, and while that is not what I would call HOT, when you've been used to temps in the 50's and 60's for weeks on end it 'feels' HOT.  It took me about 90 minutes to detail the Jeep, but it was well worth it to see her smile again.....

.....I haven't really spent a lot of time driving the Jeep since I bought it back in October of 2024, mainly because it was so hard to start, and always seemed like it was not getting enough fuel.  I don't think I've put more than 50 miles on her odometer in 16 months.  Over the time I've owned it I have been tinkering with the fuel system, where most of its issues lie.  Initially, I found a leak in the fuel line under the floor boards that was difficult to get at, but eventually spent he better part of two days last winter tracing the leak, and repairing it.  I had to remove both front seats, and the gas tank under the driver's seat to fix it, and reinstalling the fuel tank, and driver's seat took hours.  My main purpose in buying her, and this may sound odd to some of you, was in case we are ever hit with an EMP (Electric Magnetic Pulse), which can be man made (detonation of a nuclear device high in the atmosphere), or natural (caused by a 'mass coronal ejection' resulting from extremely high sun spot activity).  An EMP will render all modern vehicles built after 1970, or '71 completely inoperable as the EMP fries the circuit boards in everything.  In fact, everything that has a circuit board (cell phones, appliances, TV's, radios, computers, etc.) will never work again.  The same goes for our 1982 Newell....no computers...the engine is completely mechanical, so it will run even after an EMP.  It is also why I bought the 1969 Chevrolet Tilt bed truck last winter.  There are no electronics in it, so if the worst happens we will be able to haul water to the property with it, if need be.  For the present the Jeep and Chevrolet tilt bed will be used strictly in, and around the 40 acres which comprise TWW.  Neither is licensed, or registered, but if the world as we know it comes to an end it won't matter, will it?  I hope it never comes to that, and if the worst never happens the small amount of money we have spent buying them will have all been worth it, if only for the peace of mind owing them provides.

I finished with the Jeep around 2 pm, and even though I was in the shade the entire time, my energy reserves were drained, so I headed indoors to cool down.  The Newell interior was delightfully cool on this 80° day.  

I checked the propane level in our large stand alone propane tank and found it was only down to 55%, and it has been 5 weeks since we last had it filled.  Normally, we would have a delivery every 4 weeks, but it appears we will not need a delivery now until early April.  Not having to use the Predator 5000 dual fuel generator much over that time span is the main reason.

Tuesday was also the start of 'March Madness' with the first two games of the 'First Four' being played.  Wednesday the remaining 2 games of the 'First Four' will be played, and thus the final 4 spots left in the tournament will be filled.  Thursday the tournament will begin in earnest with the first 16 games of the initial 32 being played to whittle down the field from 64 teams to 32 by Friday night.  Then on Saturday and Sunday they will further whittle down the number of teams from 32 to the 'Sweet 16'.  That is a lot of basketball in 6 days!

Thanks for stopping by!

The last of the road work?

 7:28 am - Tuesday - March 17th - TWW - 47° F, humidity 22%, cloud cover 16%, wind 6 mph out of the northeast....mostly sunny today with a forecast high of 79° F.  The view this morning....

....and on this date in 2017 TLE and I were enjoying a Pahrump, NV sunset....

.....from the RV section at the Pahrump Elks Lodge.

We're getting more consistent with our daily walking....well, almost 'daily walking'....probably more like 4 out of every 5 days we walk.  Monday we completed our 17th 1 mile out and back walk here at TWW.....

....and managed to break the 3 mph barrier for the first time in a few tries.

Before we did any work on the property Monday TLE helped me attached the new roof to the Ford 420 roll cage.  I figured it would take about 15-20 minutes, but I am often wrong in these matters of work time estimation.  It took more like 45 minutes to an hour, but it turned out better than I expected.....

....we've been working on the entrance road to TWW on and off for several weeks now, but it was still in an unfinished state Monday.  We had laid down some crushed lava rock we found on the property in an area which used to get very muddy after rain, or snow.  Unfortunately, we began to have issues with the Ford 420 tractor, which stalled work there, and even after we managed to get the tractor running again had to finish the RV site for Phyllis' Newell, then other things got in the way.  Well, Monday TLE decided we should finish the job, so we did.  Here is what that section of road looked like before we finished it....

Before.....

....and here is what the finished product looks like after 2.5 hours of work....

.....after

TLE took these shots of me compacting the repaired section with the Ford 420

.....we finished the work on the road around 1 pm....in this final push to finish the road we spent another 2.5 hours, but the end result was well worth the effort.  Oh, and by the way, the tractor continues to purr like a kitten.

Later in the afternoon I returned to the roof of the CONEX to reattach a few guy wires which broke loose when the wind blown solar panels (we repaired that last week) hit them.  I needed a few things to reattach them, which I purchased at the General Store in town when we were in town last Friday.  Once again, I thought it would take about 10-15 minutes, but an hour later I had barely finished....

....reattaching them.  These guys wires stabilize the pole holding the wind turbine, which came with the property.  It is not connected to anything right now, but we hope to do just that in the near future.

By the time I put away my tools used to reconnect the guys wires for the wind turbine it was well after 3 pm, and almost time for dinner.  We ate around 4:15 pm....TLE made steak sandwiches with the left over beef tenderloin from two nights before.  So good on sourdough bread. It was a little windy as the latest sunset approached, so we decided to forego a sunset fire, but I did walk out and take a couple of pictures around 6:30 pm for posterity's sake....

....our time here at TWW this winter is quickly fading into the rearview mirror, and within a month we will be on our way back to Likely Place Golf & RV Resort for our 5th summer.  So much left to do in such a short period of time, but we shall proceed with style.

Thanks for stopping by!

The land provides.....

 7:16 am - Monday - March 16th - TWW - 43° F, humidity 19%, cloud cover 21%, wind 6 mph out of the northeast.....mostly sunny today with a forecast high of 71° F.  The view this morning....

....and on this date in 2017 TLE and I were staying a few days at the Pahrump, NV Elks Lodge....

....we were on our way to Las Vegas, NV to attend a college reunion.  We stayed there twice that year.

Sunday we took another 1 mile out and back walk.....

At the entrance gate to TWW

......once again we average 2.9 mph.  On a side note, the sun now rises at 6:42 am, and sets at 6:41 pm.....

....our days are now as long as our nights. 

Charles and Phyllis will be back at TWW on Tuesday so we needed to finish transferring as much water out of the lower tank into IBC totes as possible.  Up until Sunday we had been using our 12 volt SeaFlo water pump to move the water, but running it continuously for 45 minutes runs the battery down quite a bit, and then it takes the rest of the day to recharge it.  I had noticed a 120 VAC water pump in the CONEX that might be a good alternative, but it turned out one of the threaded nipples on the output side of the pump was broken, so I guess that is why it was sitting there unused....doh!  Then I remembered seeing what I thought might be a water pump in the solar battery room, so I went to look for it, and sure enough it was an even bigger (1.5 hspr) water pump, so I took it out to the greenhouse where we were trying to fill both IBC totes.....

.....and set it up to take over the water pumping duties.  We were able to finish filling the IBC water tote on the southeast corner of the greenhouse in no time, and then began to fill the tote at the northwest corner....

....once we were done filling that tote we began to water the two potato growing beds using the water from the lower tank.  I'm not sure how much water is still in there, but has to be getting close to empty....I hope...lol!

Now that we have the 1.5 horsepower, 120 VAC pump we can retire the 12 volt SeaFlo pump.  I really can't explain why I didn't think of this sooner, but I am a creature of habit, only changing habits when conditions demand it, and running our small 12 volt battery down so quickly made me consider other options.  It takes much less time to set up this pump....we just plug it into the greenhouse outlet, connect two hoses (inlet and outlet) and flip the switch!  Plus it takes about 1/2 the amount of time to fill a water tote as the 12 volt pump....the land provides!

After taking a midday break I spent time starting the Jeep again.....it started right up again, and idled wonderfully.  Then I moved over to the tractor to service it (check oil, coolant, hydraulic fluid, etc.), then started it again without the aid of starting fluid.  It always runs a little rough at startup, but smooths out within a minute, or so to a nice, steady diesel rumble.  I also hit all the grease fittings to lube all of the moving joints on the loader bucket.  While I was doing the service I decided the driver seat needed some shade.   There is a roll cage of sorts, but no roof attached.  I've got this piece of plywood (3/4") that has been sitting in the garage for a year unused, so I moved it over to the tractor, then found four hex bolts long enough to fasten it to the roll cage....

The roll cage

I drilled 4 holes in all

....we should be able to affix that plywood to the roll cage Monday morning, and then I will have shade when operating the tractor.

I finished drilling the four holes just after 4 pm, just as TLE came out to let me know dinner was ready, which turned out to be one of my favorite salads....crispy chicken salad with croutons, tomatoes, olives and lettuce.

Around 6 pm we headed to the 'sunset fire deck' to see what kind of light show the setting sun might provide us, and did we ever get a good one....

The sun touching the western horizon around 6:30 pm

....the sun touched the western horizon around 6:30 pm, and then the light show began.  The sunset continued to evolve for about 40 minutes until the grand finale (picture above), which was mesmerizing.  Another great ending to another great TWW day!

Thanks for stopping by!