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.

Thanks for stopping by!