Tracking the sun......

7:30 am - Sunday - December 22nd - TWW - 36° F, humidity 30%, wind 7 mph out of the southeast......partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 64° F.  On this date in 2014 we were boondocking at Rincon Parkway, north of Ventura, CA....I know I've posted a lot of pictures this month from our last time on Rincon Parkway, but isn't this morning view just magical?......

....the sun is just hitting the Pacific Ocean from the east, and we are just feet away from the breaking waves....Anacapa Island in the background.  A million dollar view for $38/night.

We began day three of the Dual Axis Solar Tracker (by Eco Worthy) assembly with the simple goal of getting the six 100 watt solar panels installed, wired together, and the system tracking the sun.  Let's face it, nothing is ever simple, or straightforward with something as complicated as this, especially when the 'Hockwald way' is involved.  Up until Saturday morning the instructions have been fairly straightforward.  It didn't take us long to attach the solar panels, and wire them together, but when it came time to activate the solar tracking module it didn't seem to be working as it should.  By that I mean, it was moving, but pointing the solar array in the wrong direction.....

Just after installing the panels and activating the solar tracker....its facing the wrong way right now?

Wiring the six 100 watt bi-facial solar panels together

Sunday morning....waiting for the solar tracker to catch the sun

The wind speed generator

.....by this time it was after 12 pm, and time for a break, so I headed inside to do just that, and watch a YouTube video on the installation to determine what we had done wrong, or why the system wasn't tracking correctly.  The first video I watched gave me two clues.  The first was the sun sensor must be oriented in a very specific way, and I could see by watching the video that ours was 180° off in orientation.  The second was a wiring issue identified by the YouTube guy that showed the east west wires were reversed when installed at the factory.  I was pretty sure these two items were our issue, so TLE and I headed back out to reorient the sun sensor, and then reverse the two east/west wires (black on top, and red on the bottom).  Once we made those changes and turned on the control panel once again the system corrected its orientation, and began to follow the sun the rest of the day.  What would we do without YouTube?!

Once we knew the tracking system was operating correctly I set about installing the wind speed generator, and then put away my tools.  the wind speed generator is very necessary to protect the solar array from high winds.  When it senses sustained winds over a certain speed (what that is I don't know right now) it will move the panels back to the 'neutral' position, or parallel to the ground, just as it does at the end of the day when the sun has set. We won't be able to connect the solar tracker to the Bluetti AC200MAX battery bank until next Friday when the 100' cable arrives.  Until then we are very happy with our progress.  

After putting away the tools I headed inside to watch some NCAA college football playoff games.  The one I was really interested in was Texas vs. Clemson.  My brother-in-law, and very good friend, Glenn Parker (owns the 1984 Newell I found for him up near Sacramento back in 2019) lives in Austin, TX and is a very big UT fan.  The game began in sort of a lopsided way with Texas getting out to a big lead, but in the second half Clemson made a run to get within 14 points, but never any closer, however, it took a gutsy goal line stand by Texas late in the game to keep the lead at 14 points.  Ultimately Texas won 38-24 and will advance to the second round of the playoffs.  The evening game between Ohio State and Tennessee was a rout in favor of Ohio State, who won 42-17, and it really wasn't even that close.  I really just want to see competitive games, and so far only one of the first 4 playoff games was what I would call competitive, and interesting.

I'll follow the sun....The Beatles

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Parallels.....

7:41 am - Saturday - December 21st - Winter Equinox - TWW -  35° F, humidity 39%, wind 9 mph out of the southeast......mostly clear skies today with a forecast high of 67° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I awoke to our first snowfall at the Grand Canyon, Desert View entrance....

....over our almost 13 years of nomadic wanderings we have lived in hot places, and cold places, and our 1982 Newell Classic has handled them all with style and comfort!

Charles and Phyllis were only here at TWW overnight, so around 8 am Friday morning we bid adieu to them, and were once again all alone.  We don't usually begin any outdoor activity before 9:30, or 10 am due to the temperature, so we headed back inside the warm confines of our Newell where we waited upon the rising sun to make our local environment more hospitable.  I was dressed, and outside getting ready for the day's activities around 9:30 am, and TLE followed shortly thereafter.  Our goal was to continue the assembly of the dual axis solar array we began on Friday.  We first attached the second set of parallel steel bars (perpendicular to the original set installed Friday) to which two of the six 100 watt solar panels will be attached (the other four panels will be attached to the first set of parallel bars seen in the picture below), and once that was done we began to try and attach the numerous brackets which would clamp down on each solar panel to keep it in its place, but they kept sliding off the tilted bars....

.....it became obvious, after a while, that we would have to get those bars parallel to the ground if we were going to attach the brackets, and in order to accomplish that we had to install the dual axis solar control panel, then plugged it into my 12 volt bench tester (ran an electrical cord over to the Bluetti AC200P that powers the trailer).  Once it was powered we were able to manipulate the two electric linear actuators to bring the entire assembly parallel to the ground.....

The mounting bars are now parallel to the ground enabling us to successfully install the solar panel mounting brackets

....and once it was level with the ground the mounting brackets were easily attached, and now all that remains is to mount the six 100 watt panels, wire them together, and we're in business....

The dual axis solar array control panel

.....and that was as far as we got Friday as we had to go into town to pickup mail (some Christmas presents for our grandkids) at the PO Box, and since we were doing that TLE decided to do a load of wash.  

We left TWW around 12 pm to head into town arriving at the General Store around 12:35 pm where I bought a bolt and nut to replace one I had damaged during the initial solar array assembly.  Next up was the humble laundromat where we put the dirty clothes in the washers, and then headed over to the Post Office, Family Dollar, and the Chevron gas station to top off the Expedition fuel tank, which took about 30 minutes (that, coincidentally, is how long it takes to go run the washing cycle on the laundromat washers).  When we returned to the laundromat there were no dryers available, and we didn't want to wait another 30 minutes for one to become available so we decided to take our wet clothes home to dry them in the propane gas dryer in the house.

By this time it was going on 1:30 pm so we headed directly to Westside Lilo's Cafe, one of the two best restaurants in town as far as we are concerned.....

....as you know, we only eat one meal a day, and we haven't had breakfast for lunch in a long time, so we both ordered the "Lilo's Eggs" plate (2 eggs over easy with hashbrowns, bacon and toast (biscuits for TLE) chased with a delicious cup of their coffee.  Their service is excellent, and the food really comes out of the kitchen quickly.  We had our orders with 10 minutes!

By the time we returned to TWW it was close to 3:30 pm, and the day was quickly coming to an end.  I gathered up the tools I had left out when we went into town, put them away, and them installed the new replacement bolt/nut I purchased earlier at the General Store.  By the time everything was put away it was well after 4 pm, and it looked like a good night for a sunset fire, so I got our camp chairs out of the garage, moved them over to the firepit area, then started a sunset fire.....

....we haven't had a sunset fire in sometime, so it was nice to sit talking with TLE as the darkness slowly enveloped TWW one more time.  We were back indoors by 6 pm where we finally were able to watch the 2 hour Survivor 47th season finale in which Rachel, who won 4 immunity challenges to get the to final 3, won the $1 million dollar, winner take all, prize.  She is only the 3rd woman to win in 47 seasons, and she deserved it....she outlasted, outwitted, and outplayed every other person.

Thanks for stopping by!

Assembly line....

 7:13 am - Friday - December 20th - TWW - 40° F (another warm night), humidity 33%, wind 8 mph out of the east by southeast.....partially cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 67° F (another warm day).  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were having dinner at the famous Merry-Go-Round Restaurant in Lone Pine, CA......

We had one goal Thursday.....begin the assembly of the dual axis solar array I bought many weeks ago.  This array will have six 100 watt bi-facial solar panels, and will follow, and track the sun all day long, giving us more hours of maximum wattage being 'pumped' into our Bluetti AC200MAX 6,600 watt hour Bluetti AC200MAX solar charger, and enable us to use our generator less.  The first thing in the instructions is to place the heavy duty mast on the concrete pad and make sure it is level, with the correct side of the mast facing east....

The concrete pad I poured a week ago is perfectly level!

.....once it was determined I had done a good job leveling the concrete pad it was time to drill the 8 holes in the concrete for the expansion bolts that would hold the mast in place....

All 8 expansion bolt holes have been successfully drilled....time to pound in the expansion bolts

All 8 expansion bolts have been inserted in their respective holes....time to bolt the mast into place

The mast is secured!  Let the assembly begin!

.....once the mast is securely bolted to the concrete foundation it is time to begin the assembly!  The instructions were very well written, and we were able to get it about 50% assembled  before it was time to clean up for dinner.  Charles and Phyllis had arrived about 2 hours earlier, and Phyllis was preparing dinner for us....

About 50% assembled

.....we should be able to finish the assembly on Friday, and start tracking the sun then, or Saturday at the latest.  We are very excited!

We had a lovely dinner in the house full of wide ranging conversation, great food, and vino.  After dinner I took a nap, then we reconvened in the living room to watch a couple of episodes of 'Silent Witness', a BritBox series that currently has 27 seasons, and is still in production.  As with all of the other BritBox series we have watched, we love this series....we are currently in season 13, so a long, long way to go.

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Limb from limb.....

 6:49 am - Thursday - December 19th - TWW - 37° F (a warm night), humidity 35%, wind 8 mph out of the east by southeast....partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 66° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were in Nashville, TN having lunch at Tennessee Brew Works, followed by a visit to the 'American Pickers' Antique Archeology location in Nashville.....

Antique Archeology - Nashville, TN

The weather was rather blustery first thing Wednesday, and if it had remained that way we would probably have spent the day inside, but by 10 am, the beginning of our usual work day, the wind had abated, so we decided it was time to cut down the large dead juniper tree near the location where we will set up our dual axis solar array.  Even though the juniper tree was dead, it was large, and cast shadows most of the morning over the new concrete pad we poured just 6 days ago.  You will recall that a few weeks ago we began trimming the junipers on either side of the site we had selected to place our dual axis solar array, but there was still a lot of work to do.  With the sun even lower on the horizon than it was then the shade caste by the trees, especially the dead one was becoming a real problem, so we decided to finish the job we began several weeks ago....

Before....

.....after

The dead juniper almost down....

Still a little more to cut, but the shadow it was casting is no longer an issue

That's a lot of wood we cut

....in all we spent about two hours cutting the dead juniper down to its present size, and topping the juniper to its right.  The shadows cast by these two trees will no longer be an issue.  A side benefit to all the pruning, is we have a year's worth of fire wood in those two piles above.

I had planned, as you will note from reading yesterday's missive, to begin installing the dual axis solar array Wednesday now that the cement is cured, but we both felt it was imperative that we get those trees cut back before beginning the assembly, so we will now officially begin to do just that on Thursday....promise!

I used the 20" bar Stihl chainsaw I bought a few weeks ago to do the cutting, but I had to sharpen the chain before beginning, so we didn't begin to cut wood until after 11 am.  Nevertheless, we were done by 1:15 pm, and took a brief break on the house deck before cleaning up the mess we created.  The chainsaw performed flawlessly, but I still need to hone my chain sharpening skills.  The chain was way sharper before I began, but I'm kind of learning a new skill, so we'll give it another go in a couple of days.  Some of those limbs on the dead juniper were pretty thick, and juniper is a harder wood, so I'm pleased with how well the chainsaw did....

....TLE and I were so filthy from all the sawdust, and dust we both took off our clothes on the 'lido deck' before heading in for showers.  By the time we had finished showering it was getting close to 2:30 pm, and the temps were dropping once again.  This week has been a very warm week with temps in the mid to high 60's each day, but it is only warm from about 10 am to 3 pm....not a very big window of time to get things done outside.

On December 20th we will mark the end of our second month here at TWW, and we are loving our time here.  We are alone 5-6 days a week, and are really enjoying the solitude, but also the work we are doing.  We've made great strides forward in learning how to live off the grid as efficiently as possible.  For the second day in a row the Bluetti AC200P which powers the trailer was kept at, or near 100% all day long by the new 325 watt solar panel, and the Honda EU2000i did not have to be employed to charge it.  We're only running the Predator 5000 generator 2-3 hours a day now (a couple of hours in the morning, and an hour before we go to bed), and hope to reduce that even further once the solar array is up and doing its job.

For the third successive evening we watched another 'Countdown to Christmas' Hallmark movie, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  As I write the sun is just cresting the hills to the east of TWW, and soon will be casting its rays upon our two 325 watt solar panels, and once that happens we'll turn off the Predator 5000. Life it good at 5,500' elevation.  

Oh, by the way, I recently checked the temperature averages four our area for December, January, and February, and they're not that bad.  In December the daily average high is around 50° F, and we've been exceeding that 90% of the time.  The daily lows are around 27° F, and that is pretty close to what we've experienced. In January the daily average temp actually increases to 53° F, and the daily low average to 28° F.  In February the daily average high increases again to 58° F, and the daily low to around 33° F.  It appears that December is the coldest month here.

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A work in progress....

6:48 am - Wednesday - December 18th - TWW - 39° F, humidity 35%, wind 8 mph out of the east......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 65° F.  On this date in 2007 TLE and I were taking a walk along Rincon Parkway just north of Ventura, CA.....

We spent part of Tuesday repositioning the new 325 watt solar panels we bought Monday numerous times to keep them in the sun for as long as possible each day.  With the sun so low in the sky now there is more shade than ever over much of the property.  Even our solar panels on the roof of the Newell are being impacted to the point where we're only getting full sun on them 4-5 hours a day, which is not optimal.  However, for the first time since we arrived I did not have to run the Honda EU2000i generator to recharge the Bluetti AC200P solar charger which powers the trailer.  The new 325 watt solar panel took care of that all day long.  I'm going to begin assembling the new solar array Wednesday now that the concrete has had 5 days to cure.  Once that is up and running my hope is that it will be enough to keep the Bluetti Ac200MAX and its to expansion batteries charged sufficiently to reduce the daily running time of the Predator 5000 propane generator.  It is all a work in progress, and with each passing week we are getting more efficient at living off the grid here in Northern Arizona....

.....we, also, wanted to follow up with our battery maintenance Tuesday by checking the water levels in the two 8d chassis batteries (engine). The good news is the 12 cells (6/battery) only needed a total of 1/2 gallon of distilled water to top them off.  No elements were exposed, so that is also good news.

I helped TLE cut up some more fire wood using the Stihl 16" bar chainsaw, but it began to act up so I decided to install the new chain I bought for the other Stihl (20" bar).  It went on easily enough but the new aftermarket chain kept binding, and stopping the chainsaw.  I finally determined it is not the correct chain for this model....031AV, so back to the drawing board.  At any rate we managed to get enough wood cut, and split to fill the wood pallet for wood which needs a little more aging before we can burn it.  After the wood project we took a snack break on the house deck for about 20 minutes....

....next up, for me, I decided to finally hard wire, and permanently mount the SeaFlo water pump we use to pump water into our fresh water tank from the IBC water tote, and into the black tank to flush it.  Up until now I've just been connecting the pump to the Bluetti AC200P (we had disconnect it from the trailer each time to move it over to the IBC water tote), or the new small engine battery I bought at O'Reilly's the other day.  It took an hour or so, but now it can be connected easily to the small battery, and then all I do is flip a switch to turn on the pump.....

A lot of tools were employed to do the job

The finished product...the board upon which the SeaFlo pump is mounted is screwed into the metal cross bars on the IBC water tote

....when not in use the small engine battery is kept in the shed on a trickle charger (plugged into the Bluetti AC200MAX) to maintain its charge.  With the completion of the SeaFlo project I called it a day.  TLE made white chicken enchiladas for dinner.....she makes the best enchiladas!

Thanks for stopping by!

Troubleshooting....

7:24 am - Tuesday - December 17th - TWW - 36° F, humidity 31%, wind 6 mph out of the southeast.....partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 65° F.....the view this morning.....

Our waning moon

Beautiful high desert sunrise

.....on this date in 2016 I had just returned from the Wittmann, AZ flea market with three new to me tools.  I still have these tools, and have used all three of them this past week...

I've been concerned the past week, or so about the state of our two 8d house batteries.  They were not charging like they have in the past, and rarely get back to 100%.  In my mind there were several things which could contribute to that situation....1) Our charger/converter is going bad (we have a spare), 2) It is probably time to check the water levels in the two batteries, or 3) Our Blue Sky battery monitor is not providing accurate readings.  Troubleshooting 101 dictates you begin the the simple things, and progress to the more complicated things.  

I had been fiddling with the setting of the Blue Sky monitor and off for the past 2 weeks, and believed they are correct, so I turned my attention to the water levels in our two 8d, flooded cell house batteries.  Each battery has 6 cells.  In order to access those cells I must disconnect the positive and negative cables from each battery then pull out each battery tray until all six cells on each battery can be seen.  As it turns out all 12 cells (6/battery) had water covering the elements, but needed water, so with TLE's assistance we topped off all 12 cells using around a gallon of distilled water.  After putting the caps back on each cell I checked the resting voltage of each battery and found them to be at 12.5 to 12.6....12.5 is considered 90% charged, and 12.6 is fully charged, so the batteries are alright.  I just need to recheck the Blue Sky monitor settings to reflect the actual reality.

As you will recall, I recently moved my Bluetti AC200P solar charger outside the trailer to the Rubbermaid storage box.  I have the Honda EU2000i generator connected to it to recharge it until I could hook all three Bluetti portable solar panels to it.  I had to order another 3 way splitter like I have on the three 100 watt panels at the shed, and it won't be here until later this week.  I happened to be 'cruising' Facebook Marketplace Sunday evening and saw a guy advertising 325 watt monocrystalline solar panels for $125 each.  The guy selling them is in Ash Fork, which is about 50 miles from TWW.  He offered in the ad to deliver them for $1/mile.  I message him that I was interested in two of them, and asked if he could meet me half way at the Chevron station at the first westbound exit for Seligman (there are two....we live 25 miles to the west of the second exit), and he agreed to meet us at 12:30 pm.  We left TWW around 11:50 am, and arrived at the Chevron station right at 12:30 pm....Jason arrived about 5 minutes later.  These panels are huge....6' x 3', and they barely fit in the back of the Expedition.  We were home in about 35 minutes, and quickly hooked up one of the new panels to the Bluetti AC200P, and immediately were getting 280 watts of charging power.  With the three 100 watt Bluetti portable panels I could only get 220 watts, so these large 325 panels are much more efficient.....

The 325 monocrystalline solar panel hooked 

to the Bluetti AC200P solar charger

.....next we removed the three 100 watt panels from the shed, and hooked up the 2nd 325 watt panel, and immediately got the same reading as the other....280 watts of power going into the Bluetti AC200MAX.  Once we get the solar array installed, we will repurpose this second panel to help charge the batteries in the sister Newell....

.....once we were satisfied with the solar panel installations we turned our attention to dumping our black tank, and refilling our fresh water tank.....I hooked up the new battery I bought on Sunday, and it worked like a charm......

....it took us around an hour to dump the black tank, and refill the onboard fresh water tank.  Now we'll need to refill the IBC water tote as it is stone cold empty....lol!

While we were at the Chevron station waiting for Jason we ordered a foot long Subway Club Sandwich for dinner, so around 4 pm TLE cut it up and we had dinner.  We had another nice sunset, but no sunset fire......

....we were too tired to make the effort.  And thus another TWW day came to an end.

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