Drying out....

 7:52 am - Saturday - February 15th - TWW - 32° F, humidity 92%, wind 5 mph out of the northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 52° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were on Marathon Key in the Florida Keys riding our bicycles.....

.....the sunny, cloudless view this morning.....

The rain fell until around 5:30 am Friday morning, and thus began the 'drying out' phase from our winter storm.  The cloud cover was still very thick, and stretched from horizon to horizon.  We ran our Predator 5000 generator for many hours Thursday to maintain our two battery banks, so we were hoping to see some blue sky break through that seemingly impenetrable cloud cover.  Meanwhile the steady hum of the generator could be heard in the background.  Most days now we don't even run the generator first thing in the morning anymore, and our batteries still get to 100%.  It's nice to sit looking out the driver side salon window with no sound, but we're not there yet.  We still need to turn on our three Suburban gas furnaces to transform the Newell interior from a space that is only suitable for hanging meat to one that is hospitable to human life.  It takes about an hour before we can begin turning off one heater at a time, and get back to the 'QUIET' we so enjoy.

After being cooped up inside the Newell for the second time in as many weeks I had to get out and do 'something'.  I decided to use the time to service our two Stihl chainsaws.  While the chains on each are pretty new, and still pretty sharp, a little work with a chain file never hurts anything, plus I needed to work on my chain sharpening skills.  I think I spent the better part of two hours working on the chainsaws before putting things away, and heading back into the warm Newell interior.

I passed the afternoon watching Round 2 of the Genesis Open being held at Torrey Pines (San Diego) this year.  Normally, this tournament would have been held at Riviera Country Club in L.A., but due to the fires in January it had to be moved.  It's nice to have golf back on TV again.  Frankly, I miss playing golf, and I miss putting, but I intentionally left my clubs at LPG&RVR knowing I would not have time this winter to play.  Being able to watch golf alleviates some of the angst.

We're back into a warming trend over the next two weeks where we'll see daytime temps consistently in the 60's, and even into the 70's for a few days.....nice!  I had to hook the Honda E2000i up to the trailer Bluetti AC200P battery for a couple of hours as it was down to 14% after two days of heavy cloud cover.  That's only the second time since I plugged that Bluetti into the trailer that I've had to do that.  I don't foresee that being necessary for the rest of the February based on the forecast.  We did get quite a bit of sun later in the morning, and all of our battery banks arrived back at the desired 100% state of charge.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rain days.....

 7:54 am - Friday - February 14th - TWW - 40° F, humidity 88%, wind 17 mph out of the south by southwest.....partly cloudy skies this morning with a forecast high of 46° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were boondocking off Thousand Trails Road near Cottonwood, AZ.....

....we boondocked near a hot air balloon launch site.  The view this morning....

Looking north Friday morning....

The weather guessers were spot on about Thursday's weather.  It began raining around noon time, and rained all afternoon, all evening, and all night long.  As I write we can see some blue sky, but the forecast for today (Friday) is more rain until early afternoon.  We spent part of the morning putting some of our rolling stock in the garage, and making sure everything was buttoned up around our site, but that was the extent of our outdoor activity.  

The rain was steady, and never very hard, but always present.  The kind of rain you hope for in a very dry place such as where we live.  You certainly don't want torrential.  This kind of rain soaks into the ground where its life giving moisture will remain for weeks, if not months into the future. 

Due to the heavy cloud cover we had our Predator 5000 dual fuel generator running most of the day, mostly to put as much energy into our house batteries as possible.  We managed to get them back to 84%, but that was the high water mark for the day.  On the other hand, our Bluetti AC200MAX battery bank reach 100% by late morning.  Love those lithium iron phosphate batteries!

Around 7 pm TLE and I had to got outside and stow our patio awning due to the freshening wind conditions.  The wind actually blew all night long at 17-20 mph out of the south, so stowing the awning was the smart thing to do.  As I write (around 8:15 am Friday) it is still windy, and should continue to be so until this evening, but for now we are getting some sun on our Eco-Worthy Dual Axis Solar Tracker....in fact, we're getting around 400 watts right now.  Our house batteries went down to 57% overnight....as low as they've been for quite a while.

At any rate, it looks like today (Friday) will be another wet, windy day, so we'll be holed up in the warm, dry confines of the Newell most of the day.  Hoping for a break in the weather early this afternoon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Shopping and coifing....

 7:34 am - Thursday - February 13th - TWW -  37° F, humidity 63%, wind 12 mph out of the south by southeast.....heavy, heavy cloud cover today with a forecast high of 45° F, and rain most of the day (the low is only going to be 40° F).  The view this morning.....

Getting ready to rain this morning....Thursday, February 13th

.....on this date in 2017 TLE and I rode our bicycles 8 miles into Borrego Springs from our boondock site near Rock House Road to have lunch at Red Ocotillo.....

....one of our very favorite eateries in Borrego Springs, or anywhere for that matter.

The last time I had my coif adjusted was January 6th, and I was getting a little shaggy, so a trip to Kingman was in order, not only for the haircut, but to do a relatively big shopping, and get the Expedition washed.  It hasn't been washed since we had the snow storm, and it was really filthy.  I checked in online with Sport Clips for 12 noon, and we left around 9:55 am to make the one hour drive into town.  By the way, the main north/south arterial really, really needs to have some road grader attention.  We're hoping to see them scraping the road soon as it has been nearly 2 months since they last smoothed out that road!

We arrived, without incident, at the local Smith's Grocery Store (Kroger) to do the big shopping around 11 am.  While TLE cruised slowly through the produce section I made my rounds of the store picking up butter, orange juice, V-8, etc. to speed up the process.  Before I retired I NEVER went grocery shopping with TLE, and couldn't find anything on my own, but after 13 years of going shopping with TLE I can find most anything on my own....sometimes I even find things TLE can't find.  By the time we finished, and got through the checkout line it was around 11:45 am, and my appointment at Sport Clips was a mile away at 12 noon. 

We managed to arrive at Sport Clips around 11:55 am, and by 12 noon I was in the chair getting my ears lowered.  I always get the 'MVP' treatment, which includes the haircut, a shampoo whilst reclining in a vibrating recliner, a hot towel on my face, and a shoulder massage....all of that for $25!

I was on my way back to the car by 12:30 pm, and within a few minutes we pulled into the local car wash place....not the DIY kind of car wash place, but the kind where you sit in the car as you go through the car wash.  We got the 'BASIC WASH' for $12, and within 10 minutes we were on our way back to the Smith's fuel station (we didn't have time after we finished shopping) where we topped off the Expedition tank at $2.70/gallon....by and far the best price we've paid for unleaded regular in quite some time.  Once that was done we were on our way home where we again arrived without incident around 2 pm, and that was pretty much our day.  

It appears we will have rain here at TWW on Thursday and Friday, so not sure if conditions will enable us to get anything done outdoors.  It may be a good time to reorganize the trailer interior, or it may be a good time for reading a good book, or two, or maybe both. There is always something to do at TWW!

 Thanks for stopping by!

Dreams do come true.....

 7:47 am - Wednesday - February 12th - TWW - 23° F, humidity33%, wind 5 mph out of the southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 48° F.  On this date in 2013 we arrived at the home of Phil and Patty Garland in Palmetto Bay, Florida.....

....we had to back about one block into this parking spot next to their house.....they were wonderful hosts.  I knew Patty from Junior High through High School.

One of the problems living in a VERY remote area as we do is getting packages delivered by UPS and FedEx.  Just the other day FedEx delivered an Amazon package for us to some guy with a last name of Johnson....where he lives I have no idea.  The legal address for our property takes them about 2 miles south of where we actually are located.  If something is mailed via USPS we always get it at the post office whether it has our PO Box on it, or our street address.  I use Amazon Pharmacy now for my prescriptions, but the problem is they ship using UPS, and will not ship to a PO Box.  My latest prescription refill got hung up in Kingman, AZ for 5 days because they couldn't find our address, so I called them, and gave them detailed instructions on how to get to TWW, including the actual longitude and latitude coordinates.  They said they would have the driver call me when he was 10 minutes out.  I knew that since the driver would be delivering packages along the way from Kingman, that he would not be here until the afternoon, so TLE and I stayed close to home so I would be sure to get the call.  I use WiFi calling here as we only get 1 to 2 bars of 4G here, and making/receiving calls is hit and miss.  As long as I stay within a couple hundred feet of our Starlink modem I can get and receive calls consistently.

It just so happened that TLE had created a future burn pile about 30 feet from driver side of the Newell, and there was also a separate stack of dry wood needing the attention of our Stihl chainsaws, so that is where we spent a few hours Tuesday whilst awaiting the call from UPS.  By 2 pm we had finished with the burn pile, and had a larger than expected pile of freshly cut firewood to add to our growing stack of firewood, and to the large firewood box on the house deck.

Around 2:30 pm I got the expected phone call from the UPS driver whose name is Kevin.  He said he would meet me on the road somewhere south of the BNSF (Burlington North/Santa Fe) railroad tracks.  I only got about 2 miles along the main arterial road when I saw the ubiquitous UPS truck heading towards me.  I stopped, and flagged him down.  He said the next time he has a package for us he will meet me on the main arterial, and I can lead him to our property, and then he will log it into their system for future deliveries....WAY,WAY COOL!  Now if I can just get FedEx to do the same thing.  Right now FedEx is trying to find our misdelivered package, but I don't have high hopes.  Why would someone out here sign for a package they knew was not for them.  It's not like it will have any value for them unless they already have the metal frame for a 10' x 10' Ozark Trails popup canopy cover.

Living off the grid for 6 months at a time like we are this winter is a whole different way of living than we have experienced before.  The need for firewood for the house necessitates us cutting wood at least once a week, and as we do we are gradually clearing out the deadfalls around the immediate vicinity of the house, and limbing up the trees in that same vicinity.  At least every 7-10 days we need to transfer water from our IBC water tote to the coach, and every other week we need to transfer water from the water tower to the IBC water tote.  The tote holds 275 gallons of water, so that is how much we are using every 2 weeks, including the water we use to flush our black tank after dumping it.  The most notable thing about living here is the absolute peace, quiet and solitude.  Just visiting the quiet, laid back town of Seligman once a week is kind of a shock to our senses....lol.  We only have one neighbor that visits their property on a regular basis, and they are about an 1/8th of a mile to the south, and only visit their property once, or twice a month.  I've always dreamed of living in a place like this, and now I do....amazing!

Thanks for stopping by!

Out and back.....

 8:24 am - Tuesday - February 11th - TWW - 34° F, humidity 26%, wind 7 mph out of the south by southwest.....partially cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 52° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were near Stuart, FL at First Round Draft Bar and Grille having lunch....

....we rode our bikes to and from the restaurant....isn't she lovely?

We needed to drive into Seligman Monday to retrieve two packages from the Post Office, so we left around 10 am to make the out and back, 60 minutes round trip drive.  The one package we really needed was the one with a new 35' fresh water hose we ordered from Amazon to add to our existing 25' fresh water hose in order to add water to our fresh water tank from the IBC water tote, as well as to flush our black tank which really needed to be emptied.  The 25' hose was more than adequate when we were in our former site, but now we are close to 50' away from the tote.

The round trip drive was uneventful, and we were back home by 11:30 am, and were dumping our black water tank a few minutes later.  Another nice thing about our new site is that we are around 50' from the sewer cleanout now, and don't need to use the long 100' contractors hose anymore, so we've reverted to the 50's contractors hose we've carried with us for over 14 years.

Once we were finished with the black tank, and had refilled our fresh water tank to the 140 gallon mark we turned our focus to another much delayed project.  What is that, you might ask?  Well, at least 2 months ago Charles and Phyllis bought two more IBC water totes to use for a water catchment system we're going to build using the green house roof to catch the water, but they needed to be cleaned first.  I've put it off because I knew it was going to be an afternoon killer, and that's how it how it went.  One of them (the IBC water totes) had been used for this very same purpose for several years, but the roof the rain water was coming off was a composition roof, and over the years a lot of sediment (about 2" thick) had built up in the bottom of the tote.  Using a pressure washer Charles brought to the property we were able to get it pretty clean, and flush out 95% of the sediment.  It doesn't have to be perfect as the water we catch will be used to water plants in the green house.....

....it actually took us over an hour to flush all the sediment out of the tote (above), and then clean the interior walls....it turned out pretty good compared to what it looked like when we began....the other tote (below) is already pretty clean....

....there is still some sediment left in the bottom, so once it dries out we'll utilize the ShopVac to get the  last of it.  By the time we finished, and put everything away it was close to 3 pm, and time for TLE to make dinner, which was a steak sandwich made from what remained of the New York steaks I grilled the other day.  I think we've gotten at least 3 meals out of those steaks!

And that was the end of another work day at TWW.  It appears, according to the weather forecast for the rest of the week, that we're in for some weather Thursday and Friday.  There is a 70-80% chance of rain over 48 hours, with a small chance of some snow, so we'll probably be house bound again those days.  However, the trend over the next 14 days is warming into the high 60's, with lows consistently in the high 30's....

....so we've got that going for us.

Thanks for stopping by!

Lopsided.....

 7:31 am - Monday - February 10th - TWW - 33° F, humidity 34%, wind 6 mph out of the southeast.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 60° F.  On this date in 2012 I had just finished, with a lot of help from Tom McCloud, replacing all six MAC leveling valves in the right rear engine bay compartment.  Tom took a picture before we took it all apart to guide us when we put it back together....

Before disassembly....

....after reassembly

.....before we replaced all six MAC valves we would lose all of our air pressure within 40 minutes of turning off the motor.  Now, 13 years later, the system still holds its air pressure for weeks at a time.

Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday featuring the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.  They met in Super Bowl 57 where the Chiefs came out victorious, so this was not only a game in which the Chiefs might become the first NFL team to 'threepeat', but beat the Eagles for the second time in 3 years.  

With my back steadily improving I decided to take Sunday off from any work, and TLE and I took a 1.5 mile walk instead.  The last time we walked the snow was just melting, and we came back a muddy mess.  However, when you get lots of sun like we do here at TWW the muddy red clay dries out quickly, and we had no such issues Sunday....

Nice and dry!!

....we covered the 1.53 miles in a tad over 28 minutes averaging around 3.1 mph for this first, official out and back walk.  We've been a little remiss in doing our walking this winter, but we do walk an awful lot every day around the property here at TWW.  I'm pretty sure I'm getting 10,000 steps in most days.  Even though we didn't walk until around 10 am, it was still pretty chilly as you can tell by our attire.  The view this morning (Monday).....

Around 11 am we turned on the PGA Phoenix Open, which we watched until almost 4 pm, when we changed channels to FOX to watch this year's incarnation of the Super Bowl, officially dubbed Super Bowl LIX (59).  While we were rooting for the Eagles this year, what we really wished for was a close game.  Of course, the only time you don't want a close game is if 'your' team is winning....then you want a blowout, and that is what we got.  By half time it was 24-0 in favor of the Eagles.  I think the Chiefs had only managed to generate around 30 yards in offense at that point, while giving up two interceptions, and 14 points to the Eagles.  At one point in the 2nd half it was 34-0, and it wasn't really even that close.  By the end of the 3rd quarter I think it was 34-6, with the final score being 40-22.  The Chiefs scored 16 points in the 4th quarter when the game was essentially out of reach for them, and it was one of the most lopsided Super Bowls in recent memory.  The Chiefs fans began to exit the building in droves at the end of the 3rd quarter. Patrick Mahomes was sacked at least 6 times in the game....one sack shy of the record.  Jalen Hurts, the Eagles quarterback, was the MPV of the game, and rightly so.

The half time show, for me, was not very interesting....mostly 'hip hop', rap kind of stuff, which is not my genre.  We thought some of the commercials were hilarious, especially the Stella Atrois commercial featuring David Beckham and Matt Damon.  Seeing the new commercials advertisers roll out each year at the Super Bowl is one of the highlights for us, and this year's crop was especially good.

Last year I rooted for the Kansas City Chiefs, and they won a close game over the 49ers.....25-22, decided in overtime.  It was a great game.  Thankfully I was on the winning side in this year's lopsided affair, otherwise I would have lost interest pretty quickly!

Thanks for stopping by!

'Tanks' a lot!

 7:25 am - Super Bowl Sunday - February 9th - TWW - 34° F, 44% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the east by southeast.....mostly cloudy today with a forecast high of 59° F.  On this date in 2014 I was a guest of Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside, CA recovering from double hernia surgery....

.....wow....I didn't see that coming!

The humidity overnight Friday was almost 100%, and still at 85% when we awoke.  The result?  It looked like it had been raining outside all night Saturday morning! Typically the humidity level first thing in the morning is around 50%, or lower like it is this morning (Sunday - 44%).  I was still getting over my lower back issue, so I set my sights low for Saturday.  First thing out of the box was to reattach the support arm on the patio awning I wrote about yesterday, so I got out our telescoping ladder, and with TLE holding same ladder, drilled the holes.  Within 10 minutes the four Phillips head screws had been tightened down, and our patio awning was deployed.....

....for the first time since our arrival almost 4 months ago.  Our 'lido deck' is beginning to take shape...now all we need is some lawn furniture, right?

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it, but way back last April when Phyllis first bought the property she bought 8 fruit bearing trees, and had them planted here.  There are two apple trees, and then one tree each: apricot, plum, peach, almond and walnut.  As you know we must haul in our fresh water for the house, as well as the trees.  Many months ago Charles purchased an additional 2,500 gallon water tank to service those trees, but until Saturday it has sat on its side near the trees.  They've been watering the trees weekly (two times per week in the summer) from the 6 IBC water totes used to haul water to the property.....

.....it has been awaiting the construction of a base for it to sit upon, and Saturday we began to build that base....

....I began by scraping (using the bucket of the Ford 420) a 15' x 15' square pad, upon which Charles, Phyllis and TLE spread out some underlayment, then I hauled (again, using the Ford 420) a bucket of 1/4 minus gravel, and another bucket of the larger gravel (3/4 minus?) which they spread over the underlayment.  Once we were satisfied it was level, they laid down eight 4" x 6" by 8' pressure treated beams.  Next we'll cover those beams with a circular plywood base (3/4" I think), and then set the tank on that.  Charles and Phyllis have that circular base at their home down in Phoenix where they've been giving it several coats of paint.  Hopefully, we can install that in a week, or so, and then get the tank setup, and filled with water for the orchard.

We had dinner around 4 pm.....TLE and Phyllis prepared Thai Chicken, maple baked bonbon squash, and a field greens salad....those ladies can cook!.....

.....we talked, ate and laughed as we always do.  Charles and Phyllis will be heading back early Sunday morning to Phoenix to celebrate Super Bowl Sunday with their family, and we will be all alone once again.  Time is quickly receding into the past tense as we approach 4 months here at TWW, and what a four months it will have been.  So much more to do in the final two months!

Thanks for stopping by!

Not much.....

 7:41 am - Saturday - February 8th - TWW  - 41° F, humidity 85%, wind 6 mph out of the southeast.....partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 60° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I crossed the California border into Arizona at the beginning our our full time travels.....here we are in Mesa, AZ at the (then) home of Tom and Darlene McCloud....

.....we would not reenter California for almost two years, while crossing the USA from west to east, then east to west, then back east to Campbellsville, KY where we worked at Amazon for 11 weeks.

I had plans to do a lot of things on Friday, but I tweeked  my lower back while moving our stuff to the new site on Tuesday, and while I was able to continue doing stuff on Wednesday and Thursday my back finally said "ENOUGH!", so I pretty much took it easy Friday while icing my back, taking vitamin 'T', and resting.  

I did, however, do one thing before retiring to my recliner for the balance of the day, but a little background first.  When we were getting ready to leave LPG&RVR last October I discovered that the four Phillips head screws which affix one of the support arms for our patio awning to the coach were all loose, and the support arm was about to come loose.  If you are facing the passenger side of the coach it would the support arm on the left where it attaches just above the rain gutter....

New JB Weld applied, and curing

.....I attempted to fix it before we left LPG&RVR, but the weather was cold, and the two part JB Weld I applied to fill the wallowed out holes never cured properly, so the screws came loose again.  So, if we want to deploy our patio awning in the near future (sooner than later) I needed remove the screws, and support arm in order to scrape off the old JB Weld, clean up the area, and then reapply a layer of JB Weld over the holes, let it cure, and then redrill those holes.  We've had a lot of sun the past few days, and will continue to have a lot of sun through Saturday, so getting that JB Weld applied would give me a couple of days to allow it to cure properly.  With TLE's help I got that done, and then rested my lower back the rest of the day.

As we always do when Charles and Phyllis are at TWW, we had dinner in the house with them around 4 pm....hamburgers, chips, salsa, bean dip, and coleslaw.....kind of an eclectic meal, right?....

....and with that another TWW day came to an end.  By the way, my lower back is feeling much better today (Saturday)!

Thanks for stopping by!

More dirty laundry.......

 8:07 am - Friday - February 7th - TWW - 42° F, humidity 70%, wind 9 mph out of the south.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 62° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Zephyr Hills, FL visiting with friends we made at Amazon just a few months before....

....in this picture we are at the home of Jim and Sharon McBee visiting with them, as well as Richard and Pat Franscone.  We are still in contact with them all these many years later.  Making friends with these folks made our first go around at Amazon memorable, and bearable.  We would get together for all of our breaks, and lunch, and laugh....it really is the best medicine!

It's been a while since we emptied the clothes hamper and did a wash, so we headed into Seligman around 9:45 am to do just that.  Charles and Phyllis were heading up from Phoenix to spend a few days at TWW, so we wanted to get our clothes washed, shopping done, and refill a few gas cans (4 unleaded regular, and 1 diesel) before joining them at Lilo's West for lunch.

Things went pretty much according to plan, and just as we were pulling our clothes out of the dryers Charles and Phyllis arrived, and helped us finish folding them.  By 12 pm we were sitting down at a table for four in Lilo's ordering lunch.

By the time we got home it was around 1:30 pm, and the day was pretty much over as to any work we might have wanted to do.  I puttered around our new site deploying our rope lights, and setting up one of our market umbrellas to keep the sun off of the bays where are two Norcolds reside.  We can't deploy the patio awning yet, because we've had winds directly from the south the past few afternoons, which is not a good wind direction for the awning which faces directly south.  Anyway, the direct sunlight was heating up the two bays where they reside, and causing them to cycle on and off frequently preventing the house batteries from completely recharging via the roof top solar panels.  Hopefully, we can deploy the patio awning on Saturday.  One of the reasons we normally park facing the west is to keep the sun off the passenger side of the coach where the Dometic fridge and two Norcolds are located....for this very reason.

We spent the evening in the house with Charles and Phyllis talking and watching TV, and were 'home' by 7 pm.  There were no pictures taken Thursday.  We're in the 5th day of 60+ degree days, and we've been enjoying it, especially the lows in the high 30's, and low 40's at night.  As you can see from above the overnight low Thursday night was just 42° F.  We haven't had to use or electric blankets the past week, which is also a bonus.

Thanks for stopping by!

The compound.....

 7:37 am - Thursday - February 6th - TWW - 39° F, humidity 53%, wind 11 mph out of the southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 63° F.  On this date in 2020 we met Rich and Marnie for breakfast in Borrego Springs, CA....we both own New Beetles...theirs is diesel....

....a little context....we had just finished working 9 months for them at Ramona Oaks RV Resort.  One of the best workamping jobs we've ever had, and the best managers ever!

TLE and I spent some time first thing Wednesday moving the rest of our 'stuff' from our former site to our new compound....the Sea-B-Que, its propane tank, the table, and the artificial turf....

....eventually we'll fill in the blank spaces with more artificial turf.  Once that was done we turned our attention to cutting, and splitting more firewood.  The need for firewood never ends in the winter at 5,500' elevation, and we have a lot of dry wood stacked around the property awaiting the cutting edge of our Stihl chainsaws.  Way back in October we trimmed a lot of dead wood, and branches out of the trees right in front of the house, and made two stacks in front of the dog kennel....one of very dry wood, and the rest to burned at a later date.  Well, that later date was Wednesday.  Both stacks of wood, and cuttings were as tall as the 4 foot fence which surrounds the kennel (not in use right now), but after an hour, or so of work they were gone....

There used to be two large stacks of dry wood, and small stuff where that fence is

.....I used the Ford 420 with the pallet forks to move the large pile of stuff waiting to be put on a burn pile back to our burn pile area, and then I plowed through the dry wood stack cutting the big stuff into suitable lengths to be split.  We were able to increase the size of our stacked firewood by about 1/3.

In the picture below you see the now clear area where there were two other large stacks of tree cuttings awaiting their trip to the burn pile area, which I moved using the Ford 420 once again....now that area is clear once again.....

....by the time we finished putting away our tools, and changed back into shorts, and t-shirts it was around 1:30 pm.  Once again we got a lot done in just a few hours.  

In spite of the clear, blue skies we had all day we decided to have another sunset fire.  Knowing there would be no spectacular sunset displays due to the lack of clouds on the horizon we went out around 5 pm, about a 1/2 hour earlier than normal, to see in the evening, and watch the sun slide slowly to the western horizon....

...we are loving our new view, and the privacy that comes along with it.  It feels like we're a hundred miles from where we were before, but we only moved 75'...lol.  It was well worth the wait.

On the solar front, now that we have moved, our need to run our Predator 5000 generator 2-3 hours per day is gone.  Over the last few days we've run it less than 1 hour each day, and today (Thursday) we will not be running it at all.  Now that our rooftop solar panels (620 watts) are getting full sun about 2 hours earlier than normal, we don't need to run the generator to give the house batteries a boost before the sun hits them.  On Wednesday our house batteries were back to 100% by noon time, and our Bluetti AC200MAX batter bank was back to 100% by 1 pm.  I'm sure there will be days coming when it is very cloudy that we may have to run the generator, but I'm thinking it will be very little from this point forward, and that has been our goal since we arrived.  The trailer Bluetti AC200P solar charger is on autopilot, and I am just leaving the trailer with full power 24/7 now.  The two 325 watt panels get it back to 100% by 1 pm every day.  The same goes for Phyllis' sister Newell.  We haven't used the Champion generator to charge her batteries in 3 weeks now, and her batteries are usually at 100% each day by 1 pm.  The house battery bank is back to 100% by 10 am each day.

Our three Suburban gas furnaces are working so well I don't even think about them other than when I'm turning them on and off each morning.  They are so much quieter with the new motors, and sail switches installed.  I've got a 3rd spare new motor for the bedroom Suburban, but for now it is working flawlessly, however, if the need arises I've got that motor, and sail switch, as well as spare Dinosaur control boards for the bathroom, and bedroom furnaces.

Another benefit of moving to our new site is we are now about 50' closer to the sewer cleanout into which we pump the effluent from our black tank every week, to 10 days, so we're not going to need a 100' hose anymore to reach the cleanout.  Over the next few weeks we're going to begin building 2 more RV sites, one for the sister Newell, and one for Charles' 5th wheel.  Ultimately we hope to have an additional 2-3  more RV sites.

Thanks for stopping by!

The final dominos.....

7:55 am - Wednesday - February 5th - TWW - 44° F, humidity 53%, wind 11 mph out of the south by southeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 64° F.  The view this morning.....

....looking northeast from our new, permanent site.

The first domino to fall Wednesday was the repositioning of our 120 gallon propane tank to our new, permanent site.  No other dominos could be toppled until that first one fell, but once it did fall, every other domino fell quickly.  Ken from Yavapai Bottle Gas arrived around 7:30 am, which we expected.  The two other times Ken has been here he had arrived before 7:30 am.  His early arrival was crucial in toppling the remaining dominos, and getting moved to our new, permanent site before the sun left the sky.....

....within 30 minutes the bottle had been moved, and it was time to fire up the Newell, and move it to our new site....

.....while Ken was moving the propane tank I switched the Predator 5000 dual fuel generator to gasoline, and plugged in the block heater to begin warming the big Detroit Diesel 6v92 engine block, and by 8 am she was running, and airing up the coach for its first move since October 20, 2024.  It took us about 30 minutes to maneuver around the circular driveway, and into our new site.  Next up was to move the cedar shed using the Ford 420 loader with the pallet forks installed to do so.  With TLE's expert hand signals, and instructions we successfully moved the cedar shed to its new, permanent location between the trailer and the Newell....

Getting ready to reorient the roof top solar panels to face south

Where we are now, facing due east.....

....where we were

.....by the time the dust had literally settled, and we were done reconnecting to our Starlink dish, and the Bluetti AC200MAX battery bank it was only 11 am, and we still had the rest of the day to putter around putting some finishing touches on our new 'courtyard'.  By the bye.....the Newell is perfectly level in our new site, and so it the cedar shed!  

We took a 30 minute break, then it was time for me to reorient our 4 roof top solar panels to face toward the passenger side of the coach.  This is the first time we've tilted them toward the passenger side since they were installed as we have always pointed the coach west when dry camping/boondocking, so they were always tilted toward the driver side.  Now that we are out from behind the juniper trees in the middle of the circular driveway, they will begin getting sun between 8 and 9 am, instead of between 10, and 11 am.....

It's 8:10 am Wednesday, and the roof top 

solar panels are already getting sun!

....by 2 pm we had done as much as we wanted to do Tuesday, so it was time to change out of our work clothes and into t-shirts and short pants for a change.  With the warmer weather this week we've enjoyed being able to walk around the property in flip flops, t-shirts and shorts....no watch caps, quilted jackets, gloves, or long pants....it is really wonderful!  And, for the first time since our arrival, and the arrival of the sister Newell the area in front of the house is wide open again....

....life is really coming into focus, but there remains a lot of work to be done over the final 2.5 months of our sojourn, and we are very excited to get on with it!

Thanks for stopping by!