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!

Only three left.....

 7:11 am - Tuesday - February 4th - TWW - 47° F (the highest overnight low in 2 months), humidity 52%, wind 11 mph out of the south by southeast, and will get into the 20's this afternoon....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 67° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE were visiting the 'Desert Bar' near Parker, AZ with Steve and Candy Landry....

....what a cool day that was!

As I wrote yesterday, the dominoes are dropping rapidly here at TWW.  Monday saw several more dominoes fall in advance of our move to our permanent site.  Before we could do anything we needed to dump our black tank, and then fill up our fresh water tank with whatever water remained in the IBC water tote, in order to reduce its weight as we would be moving the tote to a new location closer to the permanent site. Once that was done it was time to move the tote....

.....with TLE's expert hand signals, and help I was able to pick up the tote and move it....

.....once that was done we began the process of building a new, level pad for the cedar shed.

Using the new pallet forks Charles bought we raised up the shed off the concrete blocks upon which it was setting, and pulled out the blocks so we could move them to the new pad we were building.  We were able to lift it without any issues, so we're confident we'll be able to successfully move it to the new location on Tuesday.  Of course, we'll remove all of the weight from the shed to make the move more easily.  I used the Ford 420 loader to scrape the new cedar shed site, then we put down underlayment, and then a layer of quarter minus gravel, then another layer of the larger grave (whatever that is called)....

....now we are ready to move the shed, coach and generator to their new locations!

TLE and I worked pretty much non-stop all day long, and by 2 pm we were both out of gas, and ready to call it quits until the big move Tuesday.  As I write, Ken, from Yavapai Bottle Gas has arrived, and has moved our 120 gallon tank to its new location, so there are only three more dominos to fall.  Stay tuned for Tuesday's exciting move!

Thanks for stopping by!

Toppling dominos......

 7:22 am - Monday - February 3rd - TWW - 43° F, humidity 56%, wind 9 mph out of the southeast......mostly clear today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2012 we tilted our new solar panels for the first time.  They can be tilted either direction, but we usually park with the Newell nose facing west, so they are normally tilted to the driver side of the coach.....

.....on this particular day we were facing east at Jojoba Hills Escapee Park near Temecula, CA, where the panels were installed.

Wow, what busy day Sunday was!  Charles and Phyllis planned to head back to Phoenix around noon time, so we were outside early getting the things done for which we needed their assistance.  The big event of the day would be moving Phyllis' sister Newell to a new, temporary location while I build a pad for it near our new pad over the coming weeks.

While TLE and Phyllis trimmed a tree near our new site to make room for the 120 gallon propane tank, which will be moved on Tuesday, Charles and I began to disconnect the sister Newell from the solar panels, and the Eco-Flow solar charger, and move those items to the new, temporary location.  In order to start the sister Newell we needed to run the block heater for about 40 minutes.  As you know these old Detroit Diesel series 92 engines are cold blooded, and need a little heat injected before starting them in the winter, so I connected the large Champion dual phase generator to the coach (it has a 50 amp plug, so the coach is getting 100 amps of power).  Around 11:30 am I started the sister Newell, air it up, and with the guiding help of Charles and Elaine I backed out of the site where it has been parked since early November.  I had to back up quite a ways before I could drive forward to the new site.  Once the coach was moved the area where our new site is, as well as the trailer, became visible once again from our Newell.  As you can see, we've deployed or artificial turf for the first time since we arrived....order is being restored....lol.....

.....Tuesday we'll move our Newell around the same circular drive way so I can then pull into our new, permanent site with the nose facing east.  Why east?  Well, we want to create a little courtyard between the Newell and trailer, and we want the passenger side to face the trailer.  

We repositioned the sister Newell next to the barn, and CONEX, and then reconnected the solar panels to the Eco-Flow solar generator, plugged in the coach.....

....using these two 400 watt, bifacial solar panels to keep the sister Newell batteries fully charged without employing the Champion dual phase generator is working well beyond our expectations.  Being able to keep the coach plugged in, and batteries fully charged without the aid of the Champion has saved a lot of fuel, and eliminated the attendant noise.  By the time we repositioned the sister Newell it was around 12:20 pm, and time for Charles and Phyllis to begin their southward journey home.  We'll see them again on Thursday when they hope to spend 3 days and 3 nights at TWW this week.

After they left TLE and I attached the new pallet forks, purchased by Charles, to the Ford 420 tractor bucket, which we will use to move our shed, and our IBC water tote.....

.....these pallet forks can handle up to 4,000 pounds (2 tons), which is way beyond what we need, but one thing I've been learning the last few months is whatever you think you need when you're living off grid, double it.  I was originally looking at 2,000 pound pallet forks, but Charles said we should get the 4,000 pound ones, and he was right.  The same thinking has been applied to how many solar panels we think we need.  I thought I only need 300 watts of solar panels for our Bluetti AC200MAX solar generator battery bank, but it turns out we needed at least 600 watts, and that has worked well.  The same for the Bluetti AC200P solar charger which powers the trailer.  I originally thought I only needed 300 watts of panels, but the addition of the two 325 watt panels keeps that battery charged at 100% most of each 24 hour period without the aid of a gasoline generator.  By adding 3,200 watts of solar panels to the already existing 3,200 watt house system now keeps the house powered 24/7.

It seemed like we hardly took a break all day long, but at the end of the day we had a lot to show for our effort.  We are now one step closer to moving the Newell into our new site.  There are still a lot of dominos to topple, but with enough pre-planning it is moving pretty smoothly.  It was such a nice day (mid 60's) that we decided to have a sunset fire for the first time in ages, and we are so happy we did....

....sunset was at 6:02 pm, but this sunset continued to evolve for at least 40 minutes.....

.....we headed back inside around 6:45 pm....what a day, and what a night!

Thanks for stopping by!

Head over heals.....

 7:33 am - Sunday - February 2nd - TWW - 40° F, humidity 66%, wind 8 mph out of the southeast......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 67° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were witnessing one of the most amazing sunsets ever at Cedar Key, FL.....the water looked like the sky.....

....it was difficult to determine what was up, and what was down.

Saturday began the countdown to moving our Newell to its permanent site here at TWW.  We needed to move one more bucket of gravel to finish leveling the site, and move the two 325 watt solar panels which power the trailer Bluetti AC200P solar charger so the cables which connect the panels to the Bluetti would not be in the drive path when we back up Phyllis' sister Newell to move it to its temporary parking spot.  On Sunday we'll move Phyllis' Newell to enable us to back up our Newell in preparation for moving into the permanent site.....

That 2" x 4" x 8' board is the width of our coach, and where the front wheels of the coach will rest when it is moved into the site on Tuesday.  That pad  where the 2 x 4 rests has been raised about 4" to help level the Newell front to back

Perfectly level from side to side now

.....Charles and Phyllis arrived for their weekly visit around 10:20 am, just as we were getting ready to move the gravel.  With them they brought a new seat cover for our 1969 Chevrolet C50 flatbed/dump truck.  Once TLE and I were satisfied with our work on the new gravel pad we headed over to the flatbed truck to remove the old, ratty, disintegrating seat cover, and install the new gray, corduroy one I ordered from Amazon.  It was a perfect fit, and within an hour we had the new one installed.....

....considering how old this truck is the cab is in pretty good condition.....no broken windows, both seat belts are functional, the original floormat is intact, no rust, and no holes in the floorboard.  I need to connect the temperature gauge to the sending unit, check all the turn/brake light bulbs, and reconnect the tachometer.

TLE and I scraped most of the snow off the concrete apron in front of the garage so what remains will melt more quickly, and compacted more snow on the circular driveway in front of the house to accomplish the same end....

Concrete driveway is almost clear of snow now

More dirt than snow now on the circular driveway

....I spent the rest of the day making sure all the batteries on Phyllis' Newell are fully charged in advance of the move on Sunday, putting away tools from the new permanent site construction, adjusting the positions of the two 325 watt solar panels we moved to be sure they get the sun as early as possible each day from their new location, plus cutting a few more branches off the tree opposite where the two panels are sitting to make sure no shade is cast on those panels late in the day.

We had dinner in the house around 4 pm.....Buffalo wings, and cauliflower rice with corn, peas and carrots....yummm!  We spent the evening watching another episode of 'Silent Witness' with them in the living room, bidding them adieu for the night around 7:30 pm.  And thus ended another day at TWW.  We have now been here around 3.5 months with about 2.5 months to go.  A lot has been accomplished, but so much has yet to be done.  That it has been 3.5 months since we arrived does not compute.  It feels more like a month.  We're loving our time here, and have fallen head over heals in love with Northern Arizona!

Thanks for stopping by!

Gooey, sticky......

 7:33 am - Saturday - February 1st - TWW - 36° F, humidity 40%, wind 7 mph out of the south by southeast.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 59° F.  On this date in 2012 the first two solar panels were finally installed, and putting power into our house batteries....

.....today, February 1st, is our 'nomadiversary'.  We now begin the 14th year of travel in our 1982 Newell Classic, and our 15th year of living full time in her.

When you get as much snow as we got (6") there is a long transition between snow covered terrain, and snow free, dry land upon which to walk, and drive motorized vehicles.  Thank goodness snow is the exception, and not the rule here, because I'm pretty sure I could not tolerate living 4-6 months of each year with snow on the ground.  It's just not in my DNA.  The added complication to that much snow is when it melts the resultant water really soaks into the red clay here, and turns it into a gooey, sticky mess.  When TLE and I took our walk on Thursday out to the main road the entry road was still covered in snow, and the ground was frozen.  Thanks to my snow packing efforts with the Rhino the snow melted, but now we have the gooey, sticky red mud with which to deal.  When we took our walk Friday the road was soft, and spongy, and the soggy red clay stuck to our boots.  At times I felt like I was walking on platform shoes (remember those from the 80's?).  I think we spent more time after the walk cleaning that sticky, gooey mess off our boots than we actually spent walking.....seriously....

.....see what I mean (above)?  And that was not the worst part.  Overall, the entry road is totally snow free now, so the sun can begin the drying process, and we had a lot of sun Friday.....

The entry road is snow free....let the drying begin!!

.....I spent most of the afternoon puttering around the property doing small tasks.  I rehung the now snow free sail shade over the wood deck, this time closer to the house itself to keep direct sunlight off the front windows.  Not a big deal right now, but as we edge into Spring, then Summer it will keep the living room cooler.  I made sure the house, and chassis batteries were fully charged on Phyllis' sister Newell in preparation for moving it in the next couple of days.  I scraped 4" of snow off our still folded artificial turf (its on the ground behind the trailer where has been since we arrived 3.5 months ago), which will finally be deployed when we move our Newell to its permanent site on Tuesday.  I swept off the remaining snow on the wood deck, and opened up the umbrellas again....we'll be getting 4, or 5 days of temps in the 60's this week with lots of sun.  I straightened the large, round cap which covers the air cleaner on the Ford 420 tractor so it fits more snuggly.  I started up our 1969 Jeep CJ5....it fired immediately, and ran as smooth as a Swiss watch!  I fired up the 1969 Chevrolet C50 (I think I've referred to it as a C90, but there is no such thing), and it fired immediately, also.  I'm sure there were 5, or 6 other little things I did, but they don't come immediately to mind. Before I knew it the dinner bell was ringing, and it was time for dinner.

Thankfully, there is a lot of gravel in the areas around the house, and garage, so those areas can be driven, and walked upon mostly without threat of red clay sticking to everything, but once you get beyond the sunset fire pit area, and out towards the entrance gate it gets muddy quickly.  Anyway, with things beginning to dry out and we can get another bucket of gravel on the permanent site, and begin to move heavy equipment around the areas adjacent to the house and garage once again.

Thanks for stopping by!