Proof of concept....

7:32 am - Thursday - January 2nd - TWW - 33° F, humidity 38%, wind 7 mph out of the east by southeast......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 65° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were having breakfast at Kona Joe's in Cedar Key, FL.....

 .....regretfully, Kona Joe's no longer exists, but back the day it was the place to have breakfast in Cedar Key....Kona Coffee, grits, omelettes, datil sauce...yum!

Frankly, TLE and I are kind of surprised at how moderate the winter weather has been thus far here at The Wilson Wilderness.  While we are at 5,500' elevation the temps, so far, have reminded us of our winter boondocking days in the Anza Borrego Desert in SoCal, where we were just under 1,000' elevation.  The temp New Years day rose to just 55° F, but it was sunny all day long.  Both the Bluetti AC200MAX, and our two 8d house batteries got back to 100% by early afternoon, and the trailer Bluetti hit 100% before noon time.

Naturally, TLE and I were interested to see if all the tree trimming we did Tuesday to allow the sun's rays to hit the EcoWorthy Dual Axis Solar Tracker solar panels earlier in the morning was successful, so were outside over by the solar tracker to see exactly when the array would tilt toward the sun.  Somewhere between 8:15 and 8:20 am the solar array moved to begin tracking the rising sun....

.....I might add that even before the solar tracker realigned the solar array we were generating over 50 watts of solar energy to the AC200MAX, and by 8:21 am we were generating over 240 watts.  Ultimately, the high point of solar generation reached 589 watts around 12:20 pm.  Needless to say, but I will anyway, trimming those trees paid dividends way beyond our expectations!  As I write at 8:25 am we are generating almost 4 times the power we are consuming.  So now we have the 'proof of concept' that trimming the trees the east rendered an enormous benefit far beyond our expectations, and the labor involved.....

Around 12:20 pm on January 1st

This morning around 8:25 am

....one thing we always do on New Year's Day is watch the Rose Parade, whilst TLE prepares brunch.....

The 2025 Rose Parade, Pasadena, California....near the intersection of Orange Grove Blvd and Colorado Blvd

Four English muffins, honey, fried eggs on two of the English muffins, and grits

At 11 am we turned on the Peach Bowl (Atlanta, GA) to watch the Texas Longhorns play the Arizona State Sun Devils.  This was a quarter final game in the NCAA College Football playoffs, and Texas came into the game favored by 3 touchdowns.  I was really torn as my daughter, Sharon, graduated from Arizona State, and is a big Sun Devils fan, but my brother-in-law, Glenn, who is a resident of Austin, TX is a really big 'Hook 'Em Horns' fan,  Thankfully, the odds makers were way, way off in this matchup.  The Sun Devils were down 16 points in the fourth quarter, and needed two touchdowns, plus two 2 point conversions just to tie the game, and they did.  If not for the fact that Texas missed two field goal attempts in the final minutes, the game would have ended in regulation, but it went to overtime with the scored knotted up at 24-24.  Texas ultimately won in the second overtime with a touchdown and a 2 point conversion, then intercepted the Sun Devils' quarterback to win the game.  In the end this was one of the best Peach Bowl games I can remember.  

I wish I could say the same for the Rose Bowl game between #1 Oregon Ducks, and #6 Ohio State Buckeyes, but it was a blowout from the very beginning.  With 8+ minutes remaining the 2nd quarter Ohio was up 31-0. Oregon scored a last second touchdown with 2 point conversion at the end of the first half, and then another touchdown with a one point conversion at the beginning of the 3rd quarter to make it interesting, but ultimately Ohio won, convincingly, 41-21, and it wasn't even that close....lol.

There was supposed to be a third quarterfinal game between #5 Notre Dame and #2 Georgia at 6:30 pm, but the game was delayed one day due to the horrific terror attack in New Orleans Tuesday evening, so we won't know that result until Thursday evening.  It seems the 'chickens are coming home to roost' after 4 years of a massive illegal immigration invasion, allowing untold numbers of potential terrorists into our country.  I think its going to get worse, before it gets better, which is why we are doing what we are doing out here in the middle of nowhere....far away from urban centers.

TLE and I are so grateful for the opportunity this winter to refine, and add to our existing off grid skills.  We are amazed that for such a small investment we are slowly becoming completely energy independent.  We have been off the grid for over 72 consecutive days, which is the longest duration yet for us, but we are living as if we were plugged into an electric pedestal 24/7, and that was our goal.  We're still refining our systems, but with each passing week we are getting closer to true energy independence.  Our goal is to reduce our generator run time to 2 hours, or less per day, and we are well on our way to that goal.  Less generator run time means fewer propane deliveries, and lower costs.

Thanks for stopping by!