Livin' on the edge.....

We have loved living on the edge of the abyss!

Sunday was the final day of the Masters Golf Tournament.....at times it looked as if it would become a real 'horse race', but each time a competitor began draw close Jordan Spieth responded and ultimately he won by 4 strokes tying Tiger Woods' 4 day course record at 18 under par.  I turned on the TV around Noon time and watched until the final putt just after 4 pm......why do I open today's blog with a golf story?  Well, there was a time, not too many weeks ago, when I thought I needed to be plugged in somewhere to watch TV all afternoon.  That was until I finally realized I could watch TV during the day via the inverter and still charge my batteries!  The only time I watch TV during the day is on the weekends when there is a worthy sporting event that grabs my attention.  Believe it, or not, this was a major obstacle for me to boondocking for extended periods of time, especially this time of year when two of my favorite sporting events occur.....'March Madness' and 'The Masters'.  Of course, a couple of years ago when we still had the more power hungry older flat screen TV's I could not have done this because their power consumption exceeded the charging capabilities of my current solar system.  Next winter after we have installed the additional 2 solar panels it will be even better.

Sunday ended up being a very good day to spend the afternoon indoors watching golf as the winds returned once again......they never got into the 20's, staying in the rather docile range of 15-17 mph, but the wind comes with the dreaded 'chill factor' that tends to make it uncomfortable this time of year....with no wind it is totally pleasant to sit outside even though it barely gets to 70 degrees most days.

During the afternoon our batteries once again returned to 100%.  On the water front we have about 98 gallons left after 10 nights in the wilderness........our gray tank is about 1/2 full, and the black tank is about 1/4 full....we're using a tad more water per day than at Lone Rock, but we only have to last 12 days this time, so the showers can be a little longer, and a little more frequent than last time.  Ultimately, as I have said previously, it really comes down to the black tank, and we are doing a much better job of generating less waste water.

On the propane front we filled our tank (60 gallon capacity, but you can only fill it to 80% full, or 48 gallons) the day we left Wittman.  We are down to about 1/3 of a tank, so even though we have used our gas furnaces liberally, and run our big generator 4, or 5 times we are in very good shape, and could probably go another month dry camping, but since we are going to be sitting in one place for 4 months once we arrive in Tahoe we'll fill up before then.  Once we are plugged in again there are only two appliances that will be using propane....the water heater and the stove/oven, and TLE tends to use her 'induction burner' to do most of the cooking when we are plugged in, and I use our electric percolator instead of the stove top one I have been using for the past almost 3 months.  We found when we spent the year at the Riverside Country Park back in 2011 that we could go 6 months before having to fill up again, but dry camping basically cuts by at least a third, if not a bit more.

We both spent the evening reading.....I finished book 6 of James Lee Burke's 'Dave Robicheaux' series, and started book 7.  I have a hard time putting these books down, and am really enjoying them.

Thought I would put up another link for this 1978 Newell Classic for sale in Arkansas.....this one may be a little over priced at the $25,000 asking price, but it looks to be in good condition, and I'm sure the price is negotiable!

Thanks for stopping by!