Proof of concept.....

 7:42 am - Sunday - November 30th - TWW - 38° F, humidity 50%, wind 8 mph out of the south by southeast......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 56° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were boondocking 8 miles outside of Borrego Springs, CA.....

....just off S-22, and about a mile north of Rock House Road.  These drone shots will give a little perspective to our location.  Although we are just 100' off the highway, it is not a very heavily traveled highway, and at night there is pretty much ZERO traffic.

Saturday was another nice, sunny day at TWW....the kind of day where you can get a lot done, and we did.  I had two goals for the day: 1) Finish hooking up the portable solar panels I placed on the roof of the trailer to provide extra solar charging for our house battery bank, and 2) Cut more firewood for the house. 

First up was to connect the trailer solar panels to the house batteries.  As you know, we have 620 watts of solar panels on the roof of the Newell, which we tilt toward the sun, and they are connected in parallel.  I had initially connected the trailer solar panels in series, but the Victron charge controller (30 amp) put out an error message saying "over voltage".  I discovered this issue just before we left for Phoenix last Wednesday.  Apparently the series connection provides too much voltage, so Saturday morning I wired them together in parallel, and it worked!  Below are screenshots of the Bluetooth display for the panels on the Newell roof (first), and the display for the trailer panels (second).....

Newell panels (tilted)

Trailer panels (flat)

.....as you can see, the tilted panels on the Newell rooftop are generating more power right now than the flat mounted panels on the trailer roof at 8:05 am Sunday morning.  Ultimately, the sun is up high enough the Newell panels will put out around 500 watts, and the trailer panels will put out around 275 watts for a total of almost 800 watts.  Now that the 'proof of concept' has been confirmed I'll permanently install the new Victron charge controller in the house battery bay, but that will be a few days from now.

Next up TLE and I pulled the wagon with our chainsaws, and related tools, over to the two trees next to the Eco Worthy Dual Axis solar tracker to begin whittling them down a little more, and produce some more firewood for the wood stove in the house.  Our goal is to cut them down to ground level, but that will take a while.  We cut off enough wood off the dead juniper on the left  to fill the Yamaha dump bed twice over, but only managed to split about half of it Saturday..... 

Both trees are almost down to the ground

Before

Now

....we finished splitting wood around 2 pm, and we were ready to be done for the day.  The chainsaws are working great, by the way.  We've got about 5 piles of seasoned wood to cut, and split now, so we'll let those two trees alone for a while until we get those piles of wood split, and stored

We spent about an hour on the 'lido deck' relaxing, and cooling down before heading indoors....well, I should say I....TLE was inside within 30 minutes.  After a hot shower it was time for an afternoon nap, and a little NCAA College Football.  My USC Trojans managed to win their annual rivalry game against UCLA.  UCLA played SC tight in the first half, but the Trojans pulled away in the second half, winning 29-10.

Thanks for stopping by!

Three day recap.....

 7:20 am - Saturday - November 29th - TWW - 34° F, humidity 46%, wind 4 mph out of the southeast.....partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 59° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were boondocking 8 miles outside of Borrego Springs near Rock House Road....

....we spent around 5 weeks at this spot.....daily temps in the 70's.  We sat outside on the 'lido deck' for hours each day reading.

As you have probably noticed I have been AWOL for over three days.  I will attempt to catch you up on the happenings in our life in one blog post, so here we go.

Wednesday - November 26th - The day before Thanksgiving:

Before we headed south to Phoenix to celebrate Thanksgiving with Charles, Phyllis and their extended family we had a few things left to do at TWW.  I had washed the VW a day, or two earlier, but still needed to vacuum, which I had not done for far too long, remove the dead battery from the Champion 7.5 kw generator to exchange it for a new one, get the Igloo ice chest in the car as we would be going shopping before returning to TWW, then lock up everything before we left (house, CONEX, Phyllis' Newell, the garage, the shed, the trailer, the Rubbermaid box in which we shelter the Bluetti AC200P solar charger, all of the storage bins on our Newell, and finally the Newell itself).  By the time all of this was accomplished it was 11:45 am, and time to get dressed, stow our travel bags in the VW, and hit the road.  

We were in the Beetle by 12:10 pm, and on our way south.  The distance to Charles and Phyllis' home is around 185 miles, and takes about 3 hours and 15 minutes depending on traffic.  We made one stop in Ash Fork (intersection of I-40 and Arizona 89) to top off the VW tank.  From there we headed south on 89 to 89A, which took us to I-17 southbound to Phoenix.  We arrived at their home around 3:30 pm without incident....just the way we like it.

Our niece (Charles and Phyllis' daughter), Christina, and her daughter Malena (Mălēna) had driven up from Tucson, where they live, for Thanksgiving.  We haven't seen them since May of 2020 when we were in Flagstaff, where they used to live.   We spent the afternoon talking, and catching up with their lives.  Their other daughter, Heather was also there to great us, so it was like old home week.  I don't think we've seen Heather for at least 7 years, so it was good to spend time with her, also.

Thursday - November 27th - Thanksgiving Day:

As is our habit we slept in until after 7 am Thanksgiving Day.  I usually don't sleep well the first night in an unfamiliar bed, but I actually did this time.  Go figure.  Christina (who was a barista in another life) took our coffee orders and quickly delivered them.  I had an Americano with steamed milk, which is the best one of that description I've ever had!  She hasn't lost her touch.

The rest of the family was not slated to arrive for Thanksgiving dinner until after 1 pm, so I watched some NFL football, and read until it was time to get out of my pajamas and get dressed for dinner.  The expected family members began arriving just after 1 pm.  There was Christina, Malena, Heather, Ron (husband), MacKenzie (daughter), boy friend Dillon, Sean, Dawn (Heather's daughter), and their son Mason, Georgia & Becky (Charles' sisters), Richard (son of C and P) and Patricia, Richard's wife.  In all there were 17 of us at the table....

  

....we ate on the backyard patio.  The outside temp was in the mid 70's, just they way they like it in 'The Valley of the Sun'.  Of course, as is the case with most large families, there was non stop conversation.  Eventually, following dinner we broke up into smaller groups and continued conversations.  Ron, Dillon and I watched the Cowboys (at home) defeat the K.C. Chiefs 31-28 in a back and forth game.  By 6 pm pretty much everyone had headed for home leaving Charles, Phyllis, TLE & I, Christina and Malena.  It was good to spend time with Phyllis' side of the family.

Friday - November 28th - Black Friday: 

TLE and I were up a little earlier Friday morning in anticipation of beginning the return drive to TWW.  Christina was our barista once again, and by 8:30 am we were dressed, packed, and saying our 'until next times' to everyone.  We made a quick stop at the local Fry's supermarket (Krogers) to do our weekly grocery shopping, and on our way home by 9 am.  Once again the drive back was uneventful.  We made another stop in Ash Fork to top off the VW tank (we'll be heading back to Flagstaff next Wednesday for my annual dermatological appointment), then stopped off in Seligman to have coffee at The Commodore, then across the street to Highway Hot Dog for for a scoop of their delicious ice cream, then drove the final 25 miles back to TWW where we arrived around 1:30 pm without incident.

I remembered last night that I had not yet provided pictures of the new rope lights, so here you go....

....for solar rope lights they are pretty bright, and should do the job in helping repel the constant onslaught of the local rodent population.

Thanks for stopping by!

Another productive day!

 7:54 am - Wednesday - November 26th - TWW - 38° F, humidity 40%, wind 8 mph out of the south by southeast......partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 60° F.  On this date in 2024 TLE and I were assembling our new cedar shed....

....at The Wilson Wilderness.  We were able to get it about 75% finished the first day, and finished it the next.

With another sunny day in store TLE and I were excited to get back outside and accomplish a few things.  It's pretty cold outdoors until around 10 am, so that is when we usually start working.  On this day I needed to apply the mouse attractant to the 30 some odd mouse traps and redeploy them between the two Newells.  It was the perfect job for early morning to sit outside in the sun getting the traps ready to deploy.

Next on my list was to start the Jeep CJ-5 for the first time this winter.  When we left last Spring I put Stabil in the fuel tank and ran it for a sufficient amount of time to circulate it through the fuel system.  Then I removed the battery and connected it to a trickle charger in the battery room for the house.  It took a few minutes to get fuel up to the carburetor, but it finally started and ran well.  Next up will be to take it for a drive.

By this time it was around noon time, and time to fire up the Ford tractor and drag the entry road to the property, which got chewed up pretty nicely by us when we returned from SoCal, and by Charles and Phyllis when they arrived Wednesday, and left Thursday morning.  It's all flat again, and looks pretty good.....

....once that was done I needed to move the 1969 Chevrolet C50 tilt bed over to the CONEX to add air to the left front tire, and then do a little driving with it that included moving the flat bed trailer Charles uses to move things from Phoenix up to TWW.  I had washed the mud off of it on Monday, and it was time to move it to the back of the property where it is normally parked when not in use.  This is the first time I've tested the new hitch I had installed last winter by Bryan.  Everything worked as it should, and after a lot of maneuvering in tight spaces got it moved, and parked.  I then brought it (Chevrolet C50) back to the garage and parked there so I can begin to work on the rear brake, and running lights.

And with that I declared our work day done at 3 pm. Before heading back to the Newell for the evening I closed up the CONEX, garage and trailer.  After a couple of weeks of getting virtually nothing done due to our SoCal trip, and then the incessant rain after we returned, we've gotten a lot done the past two days, and it feels good.

Thanks for stopping by!

Unforced errors.....

8:14 am - Tuesday - November 25th - TWW - 35° F, humidity 46%, wind 3 mph out of the east.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 59° F.  On this date in 2021 we were just sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends...... 

.....as the sun set over Ocotillo Wells....there was a lot of dust in the air from thousands of side by sides.

After four days of being 'cabin bound' we finally had a day with no clouds, no rain, and no wind.  We were both eager to get outside and get a few things done.  If only I had kept it to a few....lol!  By the end of our work day (around 5 pm for moi) I was running on fumes.  But I get ahead of myself.

I cannot remember in what order it did the following things, but this is what I did:

1 - Gathered all of the mouse traps we deployed over the past year, and found that between Phyllis' Newell and our Newell we had 30 mouse traps!  I wanted to soak them in a bucket of soapy water to clean them, then fill their individual reservoirs with 'attractant', then redeploy them.  In in collecting them I found there were 6 mice which had been terminated since the last time we checked.  I managed to get them washed and dried, but will have to add the attractant Tuesday before redeploying them.

2 - Reinstalled the Jeep battery, but didn't have time to start it

3 - Deployed the new solar rope lights I purchased off eBay (pictures coming)

4 - Took the Toro blower over to the garage to blow out the rain water which had gotten under the garage door (used the Champion 7,500 kw generator to power it).

5 - I'm going to install a rain gutter on the shed to catch the rain water, but there isn't enough room between the edge of the metal roof and the door to install a regular rain gutter, so I'm going to have to cut a 1" x 6' piece of PVC pipe in half (length wise) to catch the rain and transfer it into a barrel.  I spent time finding out what the land could provide and found what I needed.  That project will be for another day.

6 - Install the four jack stands I use to stabilize the trailer when we are parked for more than a week.

7 - Rewash the VW Beetle to get the last of the mud off before our trip down to Phoenix for Thanksgiving with Charles and Phyllis.

8 - Wash the flat bed trailer Charles and Phyllis use to move things between Phoenix and TWW....

....it was really filthy!

9- Clean the spark arrestor on the Predator 5000 dual fuel generator, which I believed would take less than 30 minutes, but while unscrewing one of the two bolts which hold it in place I dropped it into the bowels of the generator necessitating the removal of the side panels, so I could remove the rear panel to get at it.  30 screws later, and over an hour later I had the rear panel removed (with TLE's help, and suggestions) and retrieved the bolt.  Every time I thought I had found the last bolt, there would be another, and another, and another.  From there it took less than 5 minutes to find that bolt, then remove the other bolt, clean the spark arrestor, and then begin the reinstallation of the 3 generator panels.  That took another 30 minutes.  I thought I would be inside taking a hot shower around 3 pm, but that didn't happen until almost 5 pm.

10 - Just as I was closing up the trailer for the night I discovered the Eco Worthy solar tracker had not returned to its overnight position (flat), so I spent another 30 minutes figuring out why it wasn't getting 12 volts to the controller.  Apparently when I was installing those four jack stands I needed to move the 12 volt line which powers the solar tracker, and in so doing caused it to pull out of the connectors where I spliced two lines together.  Once I discovered my error it took about 10 minutes to fix it.  

So, a lot got done, but two unforced errors added two hours to my day.  As I finally staggered into the Newell to remove my work clothes I was out of gas.  I took a longish hot shower, took some Tylenol, put on my pajamas, and settled into my recliner for a nap.  By 8 pm I was beginning to feel myself again.  In all I worked 7 hours with only a short break around 1 pm....two hours too many....lol!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cabin fever?

 8:12 am - Monday - November 24th - TWW - 37° F, humidity 59%, wind 2 mph out of the south by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 57° F.  On this date in 2017 I took a 7.1 mile round trip hike on the Grandview Trail at the Grand Canyon....the trail was extremely steep, and treacherous.....

The arrow indicates my destination, and turn around point....Horseshoe Mesa

Back at the parking lot after 3.5 hours of hiking....I was gassed

.....TLE began the hike with me, but did not like the condition of the trail, or its steepness....most of the hike the gradient was over 10%, so I did the hike solo.

For the 5th straight day we had rain, but it was over by 9 am.  The skies remained heavily overcast for much of the day, only beginning to clear near 4 pm.  It was too cold to do anything outdoors, so TLE and I spent the day indoors once again.  I hate to admit it, but we are beginning to get a case of 'cabin fever'.  On a positive note, relief is near.  As I write Monday morning there is not a SINGLE cloud in the sky, and there is no wind.  The view this morning.....

.....due to the lack of any sun to warm up the Newell we had to keep cycling the gas furnaces on and off throughout the day to keep it comfortable.  We both spend a lot of time reading with NFL games being played in the background.  My L.A. Rams won the night cap handily 34-7, and it wasn't even really that close.  They now have the best record in the NFC at 9-2.

Our Eco Worthy Solar tracking system finally tilted toward the late afternoon sun shower, but only for about 20 minutes.  We did have an interesting sunset....

Looking south

Looking west

....we really need to get out the stainless steel portable firepit, and be outside for the sunset.

According to the two week forecast for this area we will not have any rain during that duration, which takes us into the first week of December, but the overnight lows will be heading for the high 20's in the not too distant future.

Thanks for stopping by!

A new record....

 7:27 am - Sunday - November 23rd - TWW - 43° F, humidity 76%, wind 2 mph out of the south by southwest.....heavily overcast this morning, but sun is promised by early afternoon...the forecast high today is 54° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I had just arrived at Ocotillo Wells for Thanksgiving.....

The next day

....several of our kids, in-laws, friends, etc. would be arriving the next day.  Our assignment, from my son, was to secure an area for about a dozen RV's.  The view this morning....

When I left off in yesterday's post about Friday I wondered if we could get through Saturday without rain, and we almost did.  At 11 pm, as I was going to bed, it began to rain, and as I write this morning (Sunday) it is sprinkling.  That makes it 4 straight days it has rained here in the high desert somewhere between Kingman and Seligman (elev 5,500').  Going back to when we were in SoCal it has rained 7 of the last 8 days here at TWW....a new record (for us).

We awoke Saturday to blustery winds, high humidity, and cold temps (high 30's).  It was pretty obvious to me that we would be spending a good portion of the day indoors.  The only thing I did outdoors Saturday was to retrieve the Honda EU2000i from the garage to recharge the Bluetti AC200P solar charger battery that powers the trailer.  With virtually no sun the past week the battery had discharged to a point where it powered off itself.  It took a little less than 4 hours to get it back to 100%.  This is the first time this winter we've had to employ the Honda to recharge this battery.  Hopefully, by Sunday, we'll have enough sun to keep it charged via solar input only.  

Other than that TLE and I spent the day indoors reading, and watching college football.  Sadly, my USC Trojans (#15) were not up to the task of winning over the Oregon Ducks (#7).  They made too many mistakes, and lost 42-27.  

All of our off grid systems are working well, but we've had to run the Predator 5000 dual fuel generator longer on the days when there is NO sun, which has been the case pretty much every day since we returned from SoCal.  Things are supposed to return to 'normal' Sunday afternoon, and we should be able to resume working around the property once the ground gets somewhat dryer than it is a present.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rain forest, or high desert?

 8:07 am - Saturday - November 22nd - TWW - 46° F, humidity 55%, wind 12 mph out of the east by southeast.....some blue sky today, but still very cloudy with a forecast high of 55° F.  On this date in 2022 TLE and I were living at Glamis North Hot Springs, and running the side by side rental operation for Colorado Outback Adventures.  It was the day before Thanksgiving, and my son and his wife, Rochelle, would be arriving at Ocotillo Wells (opposite site of the Salton Sea) for their annual Thanksgiving bash with friends and family, so we decided to drive around the Salton Sea to spend a few hours with them....

.....we had rentals to tend to on Thanksgiving day, so we couldn't spend Thanksgiving with them....we've hooked up with them several times over the years in the desert, and if we know they are close we always make an effort to do so.

We are currently in the longest wet streak we have seen in our one plus winters here at TWW.  It rained here (TWW) several times while we were in SoCal, and has rained every day since we returned this past Tuesday, except for Wednesday.  True to form it rained on and off most of Friday.  It is beginning to feel like we live in a rain forest, not the Northern Arizona high desert.

I did manage to get a few things done before the first rain hit, and one of them was to get the Champion 7,500 kw generator started, and running again.  The battery had been charging overnight, so first thing Friday I walked over to the battery room where the genset is stored.  It took a little bit, but she fired up, and ran quite well.

Next I checked the coolant level in the Ford diesel tractor, which is parked by the CONEX right now, and found it had not gone down overnight (a good sign), so I started her up again, and let her run for about 10 minutes to see if there were any coolant leaks, and there were NONE!  Back in business baby!

While I was over at the CONEX I decided to start up the 1969 Chevrolet C-50 and move her around the property a little.  It's still too muddy to do much driving so I didn't push my luck.  Hopefully we'll get some sun and wind to dry out the roads a little so I can scrape them smooth again with the Ford tractor.

Once that was done I moved the Champion 7,500 kw genset over to the garage interior for the duration of the winter, and then the rain began to come down....and with that my work day was finished.  I returned to the dry, warm confines of the Newell for the balance of the day, and spent time reading, and napping.  The rains came and went all afternoon, but finally abated early evening.  Will we get through one single day without rain on Saturday?  Stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by!