The last of the pinyon pine.....

 7:47 am - Wednesday - January 28th - TWW - 30° F, humidity 22%, cloud cover 57%, wind 5 mph out of the east by southeast.....mostly cloudy today with a forecast high of 56° F.  The view this morning....

....and on this date in 2016 TLE and I were at Prison Hill Brewing.....

Deep fried avocados...OMG!

.....in Yuma, AZ.  The next day I had a dental appointment in Los Algodones for a root canal, and a dental post installation....kind of like 'The Last Supper' for me....lol!

When we first arrived at TWW back in late October one of the first things we did was to trim back the fallen pinyon pine tree away from the driveway, and water tower....here is what it looked like then just after we had cut it back just enough to get it out of the driveway....

Then (October 2025)

....when I asked TLE what she thought we should do Tuesday she suggested finishing the job of cutting up, and removing what was left of the dead pinyon pine, so that's what we did when we headed outside around 11:30 am.....

About half way done

Done!

Now (January 2026)

....as you will recall, pinyon pines used to dominate the landscape, but over the last 100 years the incursion of the juniper, which suck up a lot of water, has gradually killed all the pinyon pines on TWW.  There are places in this area where they still flourish, but as time progresses their population will continue to yield to the juniper. Over the course of two hours, using the 20" bar Stihl chainsaw, we cut up the dead tree, and hauled it away.  Frankly, I thought it would take much longer, and if it had been just me doing everything it would easily have taken 4-5 hours, but with TLE's help things go so much faster.  We really work well together cutting wood.

We also trimmed some branches back on the juniper tree which borders the new site for Phyllis' Newell so when we do move the Newell the branches will not be close to it.  The site is 10' x 40', and the Newell is 8' x 38' so the pad is the perfect size....

.....plus some branches from one of the junipers in the middle of the circular driveway....

.....which were hanging over said driveway.  We finished it all close to 2 pm, and called it a workday.

Our overnight low Tuesday evening was just 27° F, and while still quite cold, a far cry from 17° F.  Daytime temps will continue to warm into the 60's as the week progresses.  So far, at least to us, this winter seems a little milder than last winter as far as snow goes.  As far as rain goes, we've had a lot more than last winter, however, right now the roads are quite dry, which is a good thing.

Thanks for stopping by!

The weather window....

 7:34 am - Tuesday - January 27th - TWW - 20° F, humidity 21%, cloud cover 5%, wind 6 mph out of the east.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 55° F.  The view this morning......

.....and on this date in 2013 TLE and I were watching our 31st sunset in Cedar Key, FL.....

....this time from one of the boat docks at Sunset Isle RV Park.

The outside temp finally climbed back into the 50's Monday, so TLE and I decided to finish the new RV site for Phyllis' Newell....at least finish covering the underlayment completely, and then releveling everything.  It only took one bucket load of gravel to finalize our work....

Looking northeast

Looking southwest...you can see the rear of our Newell 

in the upper left of the picture above

....now we just need to dump a couple of bucket loads of straight gravel to complete it...almost there, and it looks great!

That was the extent of our labors Monday, but by the time we were finished putting things away it was near 2 pm.  The working window here at TWW this time of year when it is at its warmest is about 2-3 hours, so we try to get as much done as possible within that weather window.  Once again, special thanks to The Lovely Elaine for her help in loading the gravel in the Ford 420 bucket, and then raking it level  after I dumped it.....she is a trooper!

The sun has moved considerably higher into the sky in a northerly direction since the solstice in late December, and as a result our sunsets are arriving much later....today's will be close to 6 pm, with sunrises occurring a little earlier (of course).....today's sunrise was at 7:35 am.  Soon the EcoWorthy dual axis solar tracker will tilt (tilted at 8:10 am....the earliest since early November) eastward to face the rising sun, and follow it as it moves hour by hour toward the western horizon, thereby recharging our Bluetti battery bank in the shed.  Today, January 27th marks the end of our 3rd month here at TWW leaving us just 3 more months until our annual northward migration begins again.  We've now watched 9 episodes of Season 1 of Landman, and are loving it!

Thanks for stopping by!

AFC and NFC....

 8:24 am - Monday - January 26th - TWW - 27° F, humidity 19%, cloud cover 41%, wind 7 mph out of the south by southeast.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 50° F, and a low of 19° F.  The view this morning.....

 ....and on this date in 2025 we were nearing completion of our permanent site here at TWW....

....this was the third day of work on the new site, but we still would have to move our shed, the 120 gallon propane tank, and the sister Newell before we could move our Newell into the site.

As you know from reading my post from yesterday, the overnight low here at TWW was between 19 and 21° F.  Due to our more moderate overnight lows recently we had not been running the diesel heater in the greenhouse at night, just the catalytic one.  When it gets into the low 20's/high teens we have to run both to protect the plants, which is what we did Saturday night.  On these cold nights we run the diesel heater anywhere from 10-12 hours, and the catalytic one on low for that same period of time.  Sometime during the night the propane for the catalytic heater ran out, and the temp in the greenhouse fell to 26° F for  short period of time, but the plants (broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower) survived unscathed.

The outside temp did not get to 40° F until near noon time, and since the AFC and NFC Championship games began at 1 pm we chose not to do any work.  The AFC game between New England and the Broncos was first up, and it was a close game.  The Broncos scored an early touchdown to go up 7-0, but their quarterback made a bad mistake near the end of the half to give New England a short field, and they scored quickly to tie the game.  At the beginning of the game it was sunny, and comfortable, but as the second half started it began to snow, and the wind began to blow.  New England managed a field goal to go up by 3, and that was the final score of the game as conditions continued to worsen.  The game ended on an INT by New England, so the Patriots will go to the Super Bowl.  The afternoon game pitted my L.A. Rams against the Seattle Seahawks in Seattle.  At half time the score was 17-13 in favor of the Seahawks.  The lead changed several times in the second half, but in the end Seattle prevailed 31-27, so the Super Bowl matchups are set, and in two weeks we will know who the new world champions are.

Sunday was a very sunny day, and our battery banks had no problem reaching their desired 100% charge level.  This coming Sunday (February 1st) TLE and I will be celebrating 15 years of living in the Newell fulltime, and 14 years of traveling.  All that being said, it seems as if this is how we have always lived.  Our former workaday lives seem like somebody else's lives.  Later this year TLE and I will become great grand parents for the 3rd time.  Life is good, and thanks for stopping by!

No intrusion.....

 7:52 am - Sunday - January 25th - TWW - 21° F, humidity 26%, cloud cover 2%, wind 5 mph out of the north.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 45° F.  The view this morning.....

....and on this date in 2018 our daughter, Meredith, came to visit us whilst we were working at the Grand Canyon.....

....that winter, and yes, it was cold!

Saturday was cold, breezy, snowy and rainy, and a day to remain inside the warm confines of our 1982 Newell Classic.  Other than the time we spent at the greenhouse first thing in the morning checking on our growing plants, we spent pretty much all day indoors.  We did get some snow....

....and rain, and that was that for which we were waiting.  Waiting to see if the rain would get into the garage.....

.....and it did not.  These pictures were taken this morning, but when I went to check yesterday afternoon there was water all across the garage door on the left (the first picture), but none inside.  You can still see some of the water which froze overnight in the first picture.  Normally, after even a light rain storm there are puddles of water inside both garages.  For now I am pronouncing the installation  of the rubber seal a resounding success with zero water intrusion.  The snow, while heavy, only lasted 30, or 40 minutes, while the rain (really a drizzle) lingered for  a couple hours....just enough rain to test the rubber gasket's effectiveness.

Four our evening entertainment we began watching 'Landman', a Paramount series.  Most everyone we've talked with loves it, so now that there are two full seasons available, with season 3 coming soon, we can begin to 'binge watch' it.  The verdict?  We watched the first three, or four episodes, and we love it.  Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone, 1883, 1923), who writes the story, is an amazingly prolific writer, and story teller.

Thanks for stopping by!

A long delayed project.....

 7:46 am - Saturday - January 24th - TWW - 31° F, humidity 62%, cloud cover 73%, wind 2 mph out of the south by southeast.....heavy cloud cover as I write with a chance of rain/snow this morning, and a forecast high of 42° F, with an overnight low of 16° F.  The view this morning.....

.....and on this date in 2013 TLE watched our 28th sunset at the Tiki Bar located at Low Key Hideaway in Cedar Key, FL.....

....sometimes these sunsets would last 40-50 minutes.

You may recall, but maybe you won't since it's been so long, but last winter we began to create another RV site, and in the middle of that process the Ford 420 quit running, and even though we got the tractor running again, we never got back to finishing the site, which is just to the northwest of our site.....

.....in that circle you can see the pile of dirt I scraped toward the north to begin leveling the site last winter.  That is far as we got until Friday.  We had just gotten the tractor running again, so I proposed to TLE that the first thing we should do is finish that site.  I never expected to get it 90% done in just a few hours, but we did.....

Making progress

Getting it level from side to side, and front to back

Level and compacted

Underlayment down

Haulin' gravel

Almost done after one year!

You can see the black sewer connection in the middle of the picture above

.....the site measures 10' wide by 40' long. We managed to get it about 90% done before we called it quits for the day.  We have about 3 more buckets of gravel available, and I don't think we'll need that much to finish.  Once we get the site finished we can then move Phyllis' Newell to its permanent site. Special thanks once again to TLE for her help, especially raking out that gravel, which is not easy by any means.

The skies were mostly cloudy Friday, but all of our battery banks charged back to 100% by early afternoon.  It's nice not worrying about our electrical system.  There is something about living off grid that is extremely satisfying, and liberating.  We pay no electrical bills, no sewer bills, and a microscopic water bill of about $20/month, or less.  I know we had to make the initial investment in the batteries  (The Bluetti 2,200 watt hour battery which powers the trailer, the almost 7,000 watt hour Bluetti battery bank which provides AC to the Newell, and the Cloud Energy 300 amp hour batteries which provide mostly DC power while we are at TWW for the Newell, but also AC power when we are on the road), but they will have paid for themselves within another year, or less.

Thanks for stopping by!

Unexpected success.....

 8:15 am - Friday - January 23rd - TWW - 37° F, humidity 41%, cloud cover 83%, wind 3 mph out of the south by southeast....cloudy today with a forecast high of 52° F.  The view this morning.....

....and on this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Quartzite.....

....watching an interesting sunrise.

Charles and Phyllis departed TWW early morning, and by 11 am TLE and I were finally getting dressed to head outdoors to do some work.  We needed to seal the base plate on west and east sides of the garage.  In addition to water intrusion on the north side where the garage doors are, water has been getting under the base plate on the west and east sides, too.  Using Flex Seal spray (rubber in a can) left over from the installation of the rain gutters on the greenhouse, I sealed the east side.....

.....Charles had bought this bottle of gray flex seal.  I used whatever was left to seal the east side, then turned my attention to the west side, and using a spray bottle I bought a while back (clear) I resealed the west base plate.......

....as you can see from the above picture, there was some sort of black sealant used back when the garage was built, but that sealant is very old, and has fissures in it allowing water to ingress.  We're hoping the Flex Seal will do the trick.

Next up we needed to get the Ford 420 diesel tractor running again, as it has been sitting out by the entry driveway for a couple of weeks.  I've worked on it a couple of times, but was previously unsuccessful in getting it to run.  Since my last attempt I installed a new diesel fuel filter Charles purchased, and added some diesel treatment called 'Diesel Rescue' to the fuel tank, and the diesel fuel filter to clean out any blockages.  That was about a week ago, so it was time to drag one of our 8d batteries, which used to be part of our house battery bank, to assist in cranking over the engine in order to get fuel flowing again.  Our first attempt didn't work so I decided to begin removing the steel fuel lines, one at a time, to see if there were any blockages.  I began with the 'L' shaped fuel line running from the fuel filter assembly to the base of the injection pump.....

The culprit

....when I attempted to blow air through the line I could tell it was constricted, so using a long zip tie I reamed it out several times, then blew through it again....success!  The constriction that was right at the bend in the line was now gone.  I reinstalled the fuel line, then turned on the fuel, and we attempted to start it again.  It took a few tries, but the engine finally fired, and came back to life.  How often is a problem like this so simple to solve?!  You just have to break it down into manageable pieces.  Fortunately, the first fuel line I removed was hiding the problem.  These old diesel tractors are not very complicated....no computers, no electronic fuel injection, etc....it's all mechanical, making it easy for me to diagnose a problem, and fix it.....

.....needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, I was elated.  Special thanks to TLE for her assistance, and great suggestions.  Once we had her running I immediately drove her back to the CONEX, parked her and plugged her battery into the trickle charger.  Now that we're back in business with the tractor we can do some more road work, and finish the new site for Phyllis' Newell.

By the time we parked the Ford 420 it was after 3 pm, and flush with the self satisfaction of success we headed for the warm interior of the Newell once again.  We've got a few really cold days and nights on the horizon where the lows will be in the high teens, but the days will be warm enough to get some work done around TWW.  By the end of next week we'll be back into the high 50's during the days, and low 30's at night.

Thanks for stopping by!

Personal day....

 8:02 am - Thursday - January 22nd - TWW - 31° F, humidity 27%, cloud cover 65%, wind 5 mph out of the southeast......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 57° F.  The view this morning.....

....and on this date in 2013 TLE and I were watching our 26th sunset in Cedar Key, FL....

....at the Tiki Bar located at Low Key Hideaway.  This was the first one with TLE in it.

I decided to take the day off work Wednesday.  Sometimes you need that, right?  Just a day of doing nothing physical.  Just a day of remaining indoors where it is warm, and hospitable.  Just taking a few naps, and reading.  It was a very cloudy day, but we did manage to get our battery banks back to 100%.

TLE and Phyllis, on the other hand, worked at permanently planting some of the cauliflower and broccoli into the raised growing beds, and the rest into larger pots.....

....ultimately we'll acquire some more raised growing beds, but this is a start, and so far the plants are thriving in spite of it being winter.

Around 4 pm we had our daily communal dinner consisting of chicken tenders, a cauliflower casserole, and broccoli.  As usual everything was delicious.  Our non-stop conversation spilled over into the living room, and by 5:30 pm we were bidding our adieus.  Charles and Phyllis will be heading back to Phoenix Thursday, and we will join them next there weekend for their wedding ceremony on Sunday.

Thanks for stopping by!