The CONEX conundrum....

 7:25 am - Saturday - March 7th - TWW - 32° F, humidity 30%, cloud cover ZERO %, wind 14 mph out of the east by northeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 55° F.  The view this morning....

.....and on this date in 2025 this was the view out the same window....

.....and this is what happens if you forget to stow the patio awning BEFORE the snowstorm....

....then when you try to rake it off with a leaf rake you pull your left shoulder and are in a lot of pain for a week....lol!

It was too cold Friday (high was 48° F) to spend much time outdoors , so I chose an inside job at which to spend a few hours. Continuing the reorganization of the CONEX interior into an actual workshop in which projects can be started and completed, instead of a pseudo storage area where some work is done from time to time, but you must work around a lot of construction supplies, and you usually must finish your project somewhere else due to lack of work space.  As you enter the CONEX there is a wall of peg board on the right (south side) which has never really been organized....

.....I spent the bulk of my three hour stint in the CONEX working on this wall (above) removing many random things hung there in haste, and reorganizing the space to be able to access the tools there easily.  With the removal of numerous items I was able to transfer tools, fasteners, etc. from the work bench surface making the top of the work bench visible for the first time in a year....

.....there were a lot of power, and hand tools on the workbench that moved to the 'new', unused shelving unit (just below the peg board) we moved to the CONEX from the garage on Thursday.....

....and soon the south wall of the CONEX had symmetry, and accessibility....a place for everything, and everything in its place....

....there is another shelving unit (out of sight in this picture) to the left of the peg board which needs my attention, and I hope to get to that Saturday.

Thankfully the breeze was blowing out of the north (the door to the right faces west) so no wind got into the CONEX.  Nevertheless, I wore my insulated jacket and gloves all day long.  I called it a work day around 1 pm after 3 hours.  Frankly, it didn't seem that much time had passed.  I love jobs like this, and have used my organizational skills numerous times like this at different workamping jobs.  Most specifically in South Lake Tahoe at Tahoe Valley Campground, and at Ramona Oaks RV Resort.  They both had CONEXs that needed my special skill set.

While I was occupied TLE did a couple loads of wash in the house.  Having access to a washer and dryer out here at TWW is such a blessing.  You will recall we had to go into Seligman to the laundromat a couple times per month to wash clothes last winter, which took away from time we had to work on the property.  Now we can wash clothes and still get work done.

I watched golf for a couple of hours, but around 3 pm TLE and connected all of our fresh water hoses together to refill our fresh water tank, and dump our black tank for the first time in almost 10 days.  By the time we finished it was close to 3:30 pm, and almost time for dinner.

And with that another TWW day came to a graceful conclusion.  A lot was accomplished resulting in big smiles of self satisfaction our collective faces.

Thanks for stopping by!

TLE's choice....

 7:28 am - Friday - March 6th - TWW - 27° F, humidity 27%, cloud cover 15%, wind 6 mph out of the north by northwest.....mostly clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 48° F.  The view this morning....

....and on this date in 2014 TLE and I were attending a Spring Training baseball game.....

....at the Peoria Sports Complex between the San Diego Padres and the Texas Rangers in Peoria, Arizona.

Thursday dawned breezy, and bitter cold with a forecast high of just 50° F (it got to 51...lol).  Charles and Phyllis were packing their truck to make the drive back south to Phoenix, and were on the road sometime after 8:30 am.  After saying our 'until next times' we headed back into the warm confines of our 1982 Newell Classic, determined not to reemerge until around 10:30 am.  It was just too cold to be outdoors.

TLE was in charge of work assignments on this day, and she advised we would be reorganizing the two car garage where we keep the Jeep, our chainsaws, and wood splitter, as well as two shelving units full of stuff we do not wish to haul north and south with us anymore.  This is how the garage looked just after we rolled our 1969 Jeep CJ-5 out of the garage to begin our work day.....

....and this is how it looked 3.5 hours later.....

Everything on the existing 2 shelving units is now much more accessible!

We actually did get the Jeep back in the garage...we had to move the insulation board to do so

....we pulled everything off the two shelving units, moved almost everything else outside, and then moved the now empty shelving units a few feet to the right to make room for a third shelving unit we just purchased off eBay.  It was delivered to Charles and Phyllis' home down south while they were here this week, so they'll bring it back with them when they return next Tuesday.  We're about half way done with the reorganization, but once we have the new shelving unit the 2nd half will go quickly, and the garage will be much roomier, and useable.  The insulation boards you see stacked on the ground in the above picture above will be installed in our cedar shed in the next few days, so they are not long for the garage.  It did not seem like we had worked 3.5 hours, but then you look at what we accomplished it is obvious it took a while.

By this time it was 2 pm, and the winds were freshening again making the outdoors very inhospitable once again, so we put away everything, and headed indoors to watch some PGA golf on the Golf Channel.  This week is the Arnold Palmer Invitational at in Orlando, Florida (Bay Hill Club and Lodge).  The winds began to abate around 5 pm, and by 7 pm it was only slightly breezy.  Facing a forecast low Thursday night/Friday morning of 26° F we had to run both heaters in the greenhouse, and we had to turn our ceramic heaters in the water bay on once again for a couple of nights at least.

Thanks for stopping by!

Much accomplished....

 8:05 am - Thursday - March 5th - TWW - 39° F, humidity 31%, cloud cover 21%, wind 9 mph out of the west.....mostly clear skies today with a forecast high of only 50° F.  The view this morning....

....and on this date in 2017 TLE and I were boondocking at Rock House Road....

....near Borrego Springs, CA.  The natural beauty of that Clark Dry Lake Bed Valley is always breathtaking!

I was in the middle of composing my latest blogpost Wednesday morning when TLE surprised me with the first harvest from our greenhouse....broccoli!  We're going to consume it....

.....Thursday evening as part of our dinner.  This is another landmark point at TWW....we're about to eat something we grew right here on the property!

TLE and Phyllis were busy early Wednesday moving, and consolidating rock piles to another part of the property.  You will recall the large pile of rocks we had by the water tower....

....and how cluttered the area still looked even after cutting out the dead pinion pine tree....now it looks like this.....

The consolidated rock pile on the east side of the property

 ....while they were thus occupied Charles and I moved and connected up the two additional 400 watt, bifacial solar panels we used to use for Phyllis' Newell to the other 8 in the field behind the barn.....

.....now there are 10.  After that he and I transferred a few hundred gallons of water from the lower water tank to the upper one using one of the two Predator motorized water pumps we have at the property.  I also put out the awning mat which goes with Phyllis' Newell, so now the move is complete...

....Charles and I moved a lot of construction supplies (2 x 4's, roofing, siding, etc.) out of the CONEX to the barn which will be used in future construction projects yet to be started, so now there is much more room in the CONEX.  We'll be adding adding another shelving unit to the south wall of the CONEXT to hold all of our corded and cordless power tools, of which there are many now.

In the afternoon TLE, Phyllis and Charles went through several bins of stuff they brought from Texas which held hundreds of dollars of almost new contractors extension cords, pigtails, power strips, etc. to sort them out, and determine what to keep....we kept it all.....

We put the cords, pigtails, timers, power strips, etc. in the solar room

There were two reciprocating saws (one corded and one cordless), and a Skilsaw, and a corded 1/2" drill

....we put the power tools in the CONEX, and the cords, timers, pigtails, and power strips in the Solar Room behind the CONEX.  By the end of the day there was nothing left behind the trailer...

....everything had been inventoried and put away for future use.  It is amazing how much can be accomplished with four people!

We met in the house for dinner at 4 pm.  Charles grilled hamburgers and served us potato salad he had made, so it was a Charles dinner beginning to end, and it was good!  We were going to have another sunset fire, but the wind freshened significantly enough to change our minds.  We're entering a two day cold snap here at TWW where the day time highs will barely reach into the 50's, and the overnight lows will be in the low to mid 20's.  After that it warms quickly into the 60's and 70's again.  Right now the day time highs in Phoenix are in the 90's, so we're enjoying the much cooler temps here at 5,500' elevation.

Thanks for stopping by!

A treasure trove.....

 7:41 am - Wednesday - March 4th - TWW  - 31°  F, humidity 24%, cloud cover 6%, wind 6 mph out of the east by southeast.....vey few clouds this morning, and a forecast high of 65° F.  The view this morning.....

.....and on this date in 2012 TLE rode our bicycles from the RV where we were staying on the outskirts of San Antonio.....

.....into the San Antonio Riverwalk.  We had lunch at Mad Dogs British Pub.  We also visited the Alamo, four different missions, and the site of the San Antonio Hemisfair from 1968.  In all we rode 26 miles that day.

We had a little wind Monday afternoon, and the result was the umbrella we use at the table in the middle of the circular driveway was damaged, so first thing Tuesday I was assessing the repairability, and what could be done.  TLE suggested I form an aluminum sleeve to join the bottom of the umbrella pole with the top....they had separated in wind....so I set about to do just that....

.....I used two hose clamps to close the sleeve I had formed tight around the two pole sections, then used 4 self tapping Phillips head screws to secure it in place.  Then I turned my attention to one of the 'arms' which had broken in the wind.  I used a piece of angle aluminum I had laying around, cut it down to size with the band saw, then drilled 8 holes.....

....then riveted it over the break.  Both repairs seem to be holding, so we'll call it a qualified success.

Around 11 am Charles and Phyllis arrived pulling a large trailer full of stuff they hauled back from Texas.  Texas?  Yeah....they flew down there with their son, Richard, and his wife Patricia, to settle the estate of her step father, and to put the house up for sale.  Instead of selling some of the stuff Charles and Phyllis rented a UHAUL truck and brought it all back to use at TWW.....

Some of the loot remains to be put away

A glider

A picnic table

.....it was quite a treasure trove very useful items.  We spent the better part of the morning unloading the truck and trailer, then part of the afternoon putting most of it away.  There was a wealth of tools such as shovels, rakes, gardening tools, levels, a work bench, crow bar, a sledge hammer, snow shovels, all of which we managed to fit into the CONEX for the time being.  The chest freezer is in the garage until we decide were to connect it to electricity.

We convened for dinner at the house around 4 pm.  The girls prepared 'Orange Chicken' and white rice for our dining pleasure.  Around 6 pm we headed to the 'sunset fire deck' to see what kind of a sunset we might get.....

...without many clouds on the western horizon it ended up being a pretty average one, but the fire and conversation were well above average.

Thanks for stopping by!

Red moon in the morning.....

 9:00 am - Tuesday - March 3rd - TWW - 49° F, humidity 21%, cloud cover ZERO %, wind 6 mph out of the north by northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies troday with a forecast high of 63° F.  The view this morning.....

Notice something?

.....and on this date in 2018 while TLE and I were working at the Grand Canyon our good friends Roscoe and Geni drove up from Southern Arizona to meet us....

.....for dinner at The Arizona Room in the Village.....the best fine dining restaurant in the Village.  We really became close to them while working at Yellowstone, and we stopped off to see them in Georgia in early 2019 to visit them at a workamping job.  They now live in Tennessee.  They haven't been back to the western USA since then, and we have not been east of the Mississippi since then, but are always in our hearts, and on our minds.

We received notice that we had two packages awaiting pickup at the Post Office Saturday, so we headed into Seligman around 9:00 am to retrieve them, but not without making a stop at the General Store to get two of our propane tanks filled, and two five gallon fuel cans filled (1 regular and 1 diesel) before heading to the Post Office.  While I retrieved said packages TLE went into Family Dollar to buy a few things including two new yard art solar lights.  After another quick stop at the Seligman Market to buy some of their amazing sour dough bread, we were on our way home by 10:30 am.  That's probably the quickest turn around we've made....lol.  We were home by 11 am with most the day still ahead.

As soon as we emptied the car of our purchases I changed clothes and went out side to finish the special project I wrote about.  You have probably guessed by now, based on the 'view this morning' picture what that special project was....

....as you will recall from last winter, we had to move Phyllis' Newell to the back of the property so we could move our Newell into her new site, and that is where her Newell has sat for the last 12 months.  Now that her new site is  finished I moved the Newell back over Saturday morning after we took our out and back walk.  It took a while to to move her battery bank (2 EcoFlow solar charger batteries), finish manicuring the site, and set up the her solar rope lights to ward off rodent intrusion.....

......I finished around 1 pm.  I didn't post about the move so we could surprise Charles and Phyllis when they arrive today (Tuesday) for a 2 day stay.  They should be here before 11 am.

After finishing that I installed TLE's two new yard art solar lights out by the other yard art....

....then we spent the balance of the afternoon reading, and napping (moi....TLE is not normally a napper, but she has been known to steal a nap here and there over the years....lol).  We were in bed before 10 pm as we wanted to get up around 4 am to watch the total eclipse of the moon, as well as see a 'RED' moon for the first time.

I woke up around 3:30 am, and by 3:56 am we were outside watching the eclipse....

The full moon just before 10 pm Monday evening 

The moon at 3:56 am....almost in full eclipse

Definitely RED

The moon just reemerging around 5:30 am

....all of these pictures were taken with my phone camera, which is really difficult to keep steady while zooming in on the moon.  We finally called it around 5:30 am as it had dipped into the mid 30's, and we were both getting cold.  Next time we do this we'll have a proper fire, a tripod, and some hot coffee!

We were back in bed just after 5:30 am, and slept until almost 8:30 am.  As I write there is not a single cloud in the sky, and our solar battery banks are charging rapidly.....another great day at TWW!

Thanks for stopping by!

Day 2 of the special project....

 7:41 am - Monday - March 2nd - TWW - 44° F, humidity 27%, cloud cover 51%, wind 6 mph out of the south by southeast......very cloudy today with a forecast high of 68° F.  The view this morning....

....and on this date in 2025 TLE and I finally hooked up our coach to the new sewer connection we installed.....

....we used black ASB sewer pipe, but didn't bury it as it would have taken two days to dig the trench, and we needed to dump our black tank.  As it turned out leaving the ASB above ground didn't work as it expands and contracts with heat and cold, so the joints pulled apart.  We were able to solve that problem good enough to make it the rest of the winter, but this year we installed white PVC and used rubber couplings to connect them making it easy to break down when we are not here during the summer....

....and, as expected, it doesn't expand and contract!  Eventually we will dig the trench, and bury the black ASB, which we still have, but this works quite well for now.

Sunday was a beautiful day.  I spent the entire day working on the special project about which I wrote yesterday....in fact I worked 6 hours....my longest workday this winter.  For the first time I spent the entire day in shorts and a t-shirt. I'm almost done, and it will be revealed Tuesday.  I wasn't planning on it taking this long, but things happen, and you adapt and move forward, right?

We had almost ZERO clouds Sunday, and as a result all of our battery banks on the property achieved 100% by noon time (the house always hits 100% around 10-10:30 am, even when it is cloudy).  

When I finished working on the project around 3 pm I was whipped.  I put away my tools, and walked over to the 'lido deck' to relax in one of the anti gravity chairs before heading indoors for a shower, and nap before dinner.  I don't think we ate dinner until almost 5 pm, but the nap was sorely needed....lol!

Thanks for stopping by!