Teaming up to get things done....

 7:23 am - Thursday - March 12th - TWW - 35° F, humidity 21%, cloud cover ZERO %, wind 11 mph out of the north by northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 71° F.  The view this morning.....

....and on this date in 2012 TLE and I had just arrived at Galveston Island, TX....

....snagged the last spot at Bayside RV Park during Spring Break....soooo humid there!

Late last summer we had a big windstorm here at TWW, and two of the 16 solar panels on the roof of the CONEX blew over causing damage to one of them....

The damaged panel

....the  two panels were attached to the roof via a wood structure composed of 2 x 6's and 2 x 4's, which had rotted over the years, and gave way during the windstorm out of the north.  The panels are tilted to face south, so the north wind caught the back of them, and ripped them off the roof.  Charles' handyman, Matt, came up to the property and turned them over shortly thereafter so at least they would be facing the sun, but they had not been set back in place until Wednesday.

At dinner Tuesday night TLE asked Charles what he wanted to do Wednesday to which he answered "Fix the solar panels on the CONEX", so that is what we did Wednesday morning....

In this picture we had already removed the damaged panel, and dragged the remaining one, and its metal support structure to the side so we could remove all the damaged wood

Where the 2 x 6 blocks of wood were fastened to the roof....there were 6 in all

In this picture we have replaced the 2 x 6's, and attached to them two 8 foot 2 x 4's (redwood)

The aluminum framework is reassembled and ready to be attached to the 2 x 4's

The aluminum framework is reattached to the wood platform, awaiting a replacement 175 watt solar panel

....from beginning to end it took us about 3 hours to demo the old wood platform (what was left of it), install the new one, and then reattach the aluminum frame with the remaining solar panel.  Charles will order a new 175 watt panel to replace the damaged one.  As you can see in the last picture, the wooden platform for the two solar panels to the left needs replacement also, and we will do that Thursday.  Thankfully, the rear portion of the wooden platform is still intact, and not rotten.

While Charles and I were on the roof the girls moved three more piles of rocks to our rock pile on the eastern edge of the property, and also moved a large pile of branches we cut off the juniper trees by the diesel fuel tank we will soon be installing....

The pile of cut branches (from last winter) was so large you could not see the gravity diesel fuel tank sitting there

Right through there is where the 3 piles of rocks were...now we can walk through there without tripping over rocks

.....Charles bought the diesel fuel tank last winter, but we haven't had time to set it up, however, we will be doing so in the near future.  I think it is about 180-200 gallons.

By the time we cleaned up, and put away our tools it was around 12:30 pm, and time for a lunch snack, which we took inside the house as the afternoon winds had arrived (15 mph +).  After our snack I headed home to take a nap...the wind, and sun took a toll on moi.  Charles, on the other hand, still had lots of energy, and wanted something to do so he headed out to the garage to assemble the new shelving unit he and Phyllis had delivered to us on Tuesday.....

....I didn't know he was doing that, so when I went out to the garage around 3 pm he was almost done.....what a nice surprise!  Now all we have to do is move it into position, and begin moving things onto the shelves!

We had a nice dinner of corned beef, cabbage with carrots and potatoes, and its not even St. Patty's day yet!  Around 6 pm we convened out at the 'sunset fire deck' to watch the sun heading downhill to the western horizon....

....this is the afterglow around 7 pm (sun sets at 6:38 pm now).  We were out there until almost 7:30 pm watching the stars make another appearance, and all of our security lights responding to the impending darkness.

Thanks for stopping by!

Moving water.....

 7:18 am - Wednesday - March 11th - TWW - 34° F, humidity 33%, cloud cover 4%, wind 3 mph out of the north by northwest.....mostly sunny today with a forecast high of 67° F.  The view this morning....

....and on this date in 2012 TLE and I had been on the road for almost 6 weeks.  We had been moving slowly eastward from South Padre Island, along the then Gulf of Mexico (now Gulf of America) towards Galveston, TX....

....it was getting near dusk when we found a small RV park located right on the Gulf at which to spend the night.  Los Palacios was the name of the little town.  It is, apparently, or was then, the headquarters of the shrimp fleet.

Before we did any work TLE and I took another 1 mile out and back walk covering the mile in just over 20 minutes....

....averaging 2.9 mph.  We took the walk around 9:30 am again, which is the perfect time....it's just getting warm enough by then to walk without more than a long sleeve shirt.

TLE set the agenda for Tuesday's outdoor activities, also known as work.  She said we should begin transferring water from the three IBC totes at the house over to the ones at the greenhouse.  We had to move the SeaFlo 12 volt water pump from the IBC tote at the greenhouse, from which we water the potatoes, to the tote on the southeast corner of the house to begin moving that water to the tote on the southwest corner of the house, which is the closest tote to the greenhouse.  Once we had moved most of the water from the southeast corner to the southwest corner tote we began transferring water from the tote at the northeast corner to the southeast corner....

The water pump

Northeast corner IBC tote almost empty now...was over 1/2 full

Water being transferred from the southeast corner tote to the tote on the southwest corner of the house

Southwest corner tote almost full now

.....once the southwest corner tote is full we will then pump it over to the greenhouse totes.

While I was moving water TLE used the Yamaha Rhino to move some old wire fencing we had rolled up a long time ago into the barn for storage, and then did  some tree trimming with her handheld chainsaw.  I had to move the battery we use to power the SeaFlo pump back to the solar room to be recharged before I finished filling the southwest corner tote, so we'll finish that process Wednesday, or Thursday.

Charles and Phyllis arrived around 1:15 pm with 7 packages of things we had ordered from Amazon.  Three of the packages were retrieved from our PO Box in Seligman by them on their way out to TWW.  We had dinner around 4 pm.....

....we all look pretty much the same as the last 'usie', just a little older...lol.

Thanks for stopping by!

A day of small accomplishments....

 7:54 am - Tuesday - March 10th - TWW - 38° F, humidity 48%, cloud cover 15%, wind 3 mph out of the south by southeast.....virtually clear skies today with a forecast high of 62° F.  The view this morning....

....and on this date in 2012 we had just reached South Padre Island....

....near Corpus Christi, TX on the Gulf of America.  We had been on the road for 40 days at the beginning of our nomadic travels....seems a lifetime ago.

TLE and I took another of our 1 mile out and back walks around 9:30 am Monday....

....we managed to average 3 mph for the walk.

You will recall I worked on the Jeep Sunday (cleaned the spark plugs, and adjusted the choke), but did not get the oil change done, so that was task #1 after we finished our walk.  It didn't take long to change the oil, and then it was time to reinstall its starter battery, and fire her up for the first time in 6 weeks, but she wouldn't start.  The Jeep has an after market electric fuel pump....you know, one of those that go 'clackity clack' when they're running.  I disconnected the fuel line from the carb, then turned on the ignition key to run the fuel pump.  Very little gas came out, so I checked the fuel level in the under seat tank....doh!  It was too low on gas for the fuel pump to pick up the gasoline, so I added 5 gallons.  Soon gas was coming out the hose, so I reattached it to the carb, then she started right up, and idled.  The problem then was you could not accelerate or the engine would die.  

By this time I had been at it for about 2 hours.  I decided the fuel filter must be clogged as the carb doesn't seem to be getting enough fuel to more than idle.  I believe the fuel filter is located under the Jeep under the passenger seat area, and that I would check that on Tuesday, time permitting.  Why time permitting?  Well, Charles and Phyllis will be arriving Tuesday for a three day stay, and we'll be devoting our time to them, and things they want to do around the property.

I took a short break for a snack, then headed back out with TLE to install 4 more security lights that we had just received last week.  We installed one on the roof peak of the garage....

....another one in the raised growing beds where the potatoes are growing.....

....one over the breezeway for the solar room....

....and one more on the west side of the house....

....we also put the metal cage back on the IBC tote located at the northwestern corner of the greenhouse....

....plus we moved the solar charger battery we used to power the diesel heater to the garage where we will set it up to power the 'new' chest freezer Charles and Phyllis delivered last week, but we cannot do that until we set up the new shelving unit Charles and Phyllis are delivering to us this week.  Once that is done we can finish organizing the garage, and set up the solar charger battery to power the chest freezer.  Also, I forgot to mention that on Sunday I closed up the 'dog door' opening on the dog kennel door....

.....by cutting a  piece of plywood to fit the opening.  The 'dog door' was allowing vermin to enter the dog kennel interior, and now that it is sealed I believe those incursions will cease immediately, if not sooner.  When we cleaned out the dog kennel last winter I left the door wide open hoping it would discourage the rodent population, but it did not, so now it must be cleaned once again.

We had planned to have another sunset fire, however, it was windy enough to discourage a fire.  The wind finally abated just after 7 pm.  I managed to finish another book Monday evening, and then caught up on a few more of the YouTube channels I follow.  We were in bed by 10 pm, and thus ended another great day at TWW.

Thanks for stopping by!

Natural rhythms......

 7:39 am - Monday - March 9th - TWW - 38° F, humidity 28%, cloud cover 9%, wind 6 mph out of the south by southwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 65° F.  The view this morning.....

....and on this date in 2025 we were digging out from our last snow storm of the season here at TWW....

....a year later we have clear, blue skies and temps in the mid 60's.  

With no winds, and a forecast high temp of 66° F Sunday I decided to work on our 1969 Jeep CJ-5.  The plugs needed cleaning, the choke function on the carb wasn't working correctly, and  the oil needed changing.  I bought 3 gallons of Rotella 10w-40 a few weeks ago....it came in a box.  By the time I figured out what was wrong with the choke and adjusted it properly it was after 1 pm, and I was tired of standing in the sun (I moved it out of the garage at 10 am where it was warmer), so I deferred the oil change to Monday.  I needed to transfer the new oil from the box to three one gallon jugs I've been saving for just this situation, so I did that, but called it quits for the day on the Jeep and pushed it back into the garage (I've got the battery on trickle charge in the solar room).

I spent another hour in the CONEX rearranging a few things on both peg boards (there is one over the workbench as well), and am now happy with the accessibility of all the tools.  I still need to go through a number of boxes on the other shelving unit, and then I should be done....at least until the next time....lol.

With no winds in the forecast TLE and I headed out to the 'sunset fire deck' to watch the sun slide towards the cloudless western horizon one more time....

...even when there are no clouds to be lit up by the setting sun it is still so serene, and peaceful.  We were treated to several glowing CONTRAILS, too.....it's like they are on fire.....

....and then the long afterglow lingering over the western horizon.....

....which lasted until almost 7 pm when we headed back indoors for the evening.  I love the natural rhythms of TWW....we wake up to the sun cresting the eastern horizon each morning as it lights up our front windshield, then watch it kiss the western horizon each evening, and in between do the things we want to do.  Talk about stressless living!

Thanks for stopping by!

A day off.....

 7:39 am - Sunday - March 8th - TWW - 32° F, humidity 19%, cloud cover 1%, wind 7 mph out of the east....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 66° F.  The view this morning....

.....and on this date in 2017 we had just arrived at Roy's Motel.....

.....and Cafe in Amboy, CA on Route 66 on our way to Tecopa Hot Springs, CA.

We were planning on taking a a day off work here at TWW on Sunday, but Saturday brought us winds over 20 mph beginning around 8:30 am, and continuing until after 6 pm, so we changed up our plan and refrained from work on Saturday spending a large portion of the day out of the wind.  I ventured out once early afternoon to check on charging power tool batteries in the CONEX, but that was it for me.  

We had ZERO cloud cover Saturday, and all three of our battery banks were at 100% by early afternoon.  The temp did finally get back over 50° F (all the way to 55), and from Sunday forward they will not dip below the low 60's for the next 15 days.  In fact, we will have at least 4 days in the 80's with lows in the 50's in the next 10 days.  Is winter over? I'm not sure, but the trend seems to indicate that.  For sure, no tears will shed here at TWW over that possibility.

We've gotten so used to getting up after 7 am each day this winter that I'm sure it will take some adjustment once we get back to LPG&RVR to getting up by 5:30 am half the time on the days we work, but that is still at least 7 weeks in the future, so I'll just continue to enjoy sleeping in until 7 am each day, or later, as the case may be.  Here at TWW sunrise is now 6:53 am, and sunset is 6:35 pm.  Today was the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, but since we are in Arizona ZERO clocks must be reset twice a year.....we are now on California time, and will be until late October.

Thanks for stopping by!