Back at the Park – Days 53 – 65

Jan 16 – 28

After recovering from being a dumb ass, I got to work.  What did I do that I had to recover from?  I ate multiple meals with marinara sauce two days in a row without taking the appropriate digestive aids (heavy doses of acidic foods wreck my digestion for 3-4 days).  That put me out of commission for 3 days.

Saturday Jan 20 I got to work.  I bought a pole to mount the microwave, wifi antenna, and video camera to.  I cleared the land where the water tanks are going to go.  I started clearing the land where the trailer was to be parked.

Sunday

• Posted the building permits (found a note in the original shed door from the county indicated they where there looking for permits – oops).
• Fixed one of the two license plate lights.  It was too cold that day to do the other.
• Finished clearing the area to park the trailers and truck – for now.  I am thinking I’ll clear another 10 – 20 feet.
• Knocked down some of the water diversion swales in the road and drive (aka speed bumps).  Their intent was to divert water running down the road off to the side.  they were much higher than necessary.  There is still more work to do on them but I left them better than when I started.
• I tried to drill a hole by the shed for the communications post and ground rod.  Tried being the operative word.  After between 30-45 minutes I had only gotten 2.5 feet deep.  There was a LOT of rock that just kept binding the auger.  Additionally, there doesn’t appear to be any clay in the soil, what is not rock appears to be just silt.  The result is the dirt would just fall back into the hole and the side walls would cave in.  At that point, I decided this was not an effective approach and I needed to ponder alternatives overnight.  So I covered the hole with plywood and moved onto another project.
• I started building shelves for the batteries.
• Mounted AC sub panel.

Monday evening I decided that a trench would also work and I was hopeful that the back hoe would deal with the rocks better than the auger.  I started by moving the ply wood.  Pick up the plywood off the hole.  Where to put it?  How about there, 10 feet in front of me.  Step forward.  Dumb ass, that is where the hole is!  I am thankful that the hole was only 2.5 feet deep.  I am thankful I was wearing my snake boots which gave me the needed support to deal with the unexpected change in elevation.  I am thankful it was not summer when snakes are active…. Can you imagine stepping into a hole with a rattle snake?  Yikes!  Back to work.  The back hoe did the trick.  I dug a trench to about 4 feet deep.  I bent the ground rod so I could install a section of it horizontally in the trench and I started experimenting with how to go about standing up and plumbing the 21′ long 2″ diameter steel poll by myself as Rick was busy helping Bob in the RV park with some projects and I did not want to pull him away from them.

Tuesday afternoon and evening I got the pole erected.  I started to back fill the trench by hand starting with placing some rock held in place by concrete around the base of the pole.  Once I exhausted the 80 LB bag of concrete that I had mixed, I just started filling with rock and dirt.  With all the rock, after filling in the bottom foot or so I had enough of that so I decided to use the tractor.  One problem: Where are the keys?  I searched all my pockets and the truck.  I concluded I must have left them at the trailer.  I decided to move to other tasks and finish back filling Wednesday.  I needed it done by Thursday morning as that is when they were scheduled to come out and move the microwave antenna from the old shed to this new pole.

 

Wednesday before heading out to the property, I searched for the tractor key – no luck.  I got tired of spending time on the search reasoning that it will turn up.  I grabbed the spare and head to the property.  Once I got there I thought of a place I hadn’t looked yet.  Yep, there they are – in the ignition of the tractor.  They had been there all along.   Oops.  I used the tractor to fill in the trench.  I separated the pallets from the pole.  I finished the shelves for the batteries and moved the batteries into position.

Thursday, I took a vacation day so I could be at the property for the internet service provider to move the microwave.  It also gave me an opportunity to get a lot of work done.  Rick surprised me with a visit and helped out with the following accomplishments for the day:

• Mounted a board to mount the network equipment to.
• Mounted, wired, and tested network equipment.
• Wired the inverter/charge controller to the AC sub panel.
• Wired the inverter/charge controller to the generator outlet (only to be redone Saturday).
• Wired the inverter/charge controllers web interface to the network.
• Wired the battery bank.
• Wired the inverter/charge controller to the battery bank.
• Wired the inverter/charge controller to the ground rod.

By the end of the day, it was time to start testing.  Anxiety abound.  Flip the breaker to connect the battery back to the electronics.  No pops.  No smoke.  Flip the breaker to enable AC output and plug in a light.  Works!!  Yay!!  Flip the breaker to electrically connect the running generator to the system.  No pops.  No smoke.  After a few seconds the generator bogs down as the inverter/charge controller starts sucking all the juice it can from the generator.  After a bit, it is clear something is not right so we open the breaker to kill the connection to the generator.  Time to review.  Ah… inverter is trying to draw 30 amps from the generators 15 amp circuit.  Dumb ass.  Ok.  Shopping trip Friday for supplies to correct that.   Snap a photo of the generator outlet so I know what I need when I get to the store.  A good day all in all.

As it is clear that I will not have my large water tanks installed by the weekend, and Rick is going to Tuscon Friday returning Saturday, I ask if he would be willing to buy some IBC water tanks, and some barrels for me in Tuscon.  He indicates it is not a problem.  I provide him the details Friday morning.

 

Friday after work I head to Douglas to buy the supplies necessary to change the generator connection to 30 Amps, get some groceries, and fill up the trucks fuel tank.  Getting out of the truck at the hardware store I realize – no wallet and no cash.  I just drove an hour.  UGH!  I check the trucks fuel gauge.  Double UGH!  No choice.  Drive back to the RV park to get my wallet and the low fuel light comes on on the way.  Too late then to drive back to Douglas.  I’m hungry and don’t feel like cooking as I had planned on eating in Douglas.  I was obviously not thinking clearly for reasons to become clear soon.  I’m thinking I have a 5 gallon can of diesel at the property and I have enough fuel to go get something to eat in Portal and get to the property to put that in the tank.  I will work on configuring the inverter and charge controller while I am there.  After dinner, I get to the property and start filling the truck with the diesel from the 5 gal can as planned.  While filling it, I realized the flaw in my plan.  Doing the math on how far I will get on that 5 gallons and that I have to travel 30 minutes in the wrong direction, and the hardware store is closed now so no sense in going to Douglas tonight but I won’t have enough fuel to go directly there tomorrow.  UGH!  Ok.  New plan.  Drive to Animas in the morning and hope that they have the supplies I need so as to defer the trip to Douglas for a couple of days.  I work my way through the manual for the inverter, doing math regarding the battery bank, and programming it as I go.  Wrap up and head back to the trailer for the evening.

Saturday I head to Animas after I get around as planned.  I fuel up (including the diesel can and the gas can for the generator).  They have the cable I need.  Bonus!  Get to the property.  Look at the generator and realize the cable I got doesn’t have the proper plug.  Yes it is a 30 Amp cable with 30 Amp plugs for an RV.  The generator is not an RV.  It requires a twistlock 30 Amp plug.  UGH!!  Ok.  So I guess I am going to Douglas after all.  So off to Douglas I go.  I get the necessary plug.  While there I also get a pump for the water, knowing I’ll need more supplies but figured I’d get the pump out of the way.  I also pick up a few things from Walmart, and top off the trucks tank at the gas station.  As much as I want to stop to eat as is my routine when in Douglas, I stay disciplined and head back to the property to get the generator wired up.  I get the generator wired up and test it again.  The inverter/charge controller is still drawing more current than it should from the generator.  Ok.  Having been through the manual and configuration settings the night before, I have an idea how to correct that.  I configure it to pull no more than 24 Amps leaving plenty of headroom given the generator’s capacity.  Success.  Now to monitor the charging of the batteries.  What a nervous nelly I was.  I eventually killed the generator and headed back to the park to start packing the trailer.

Sunday Jan 28 – MOVE DAY.

Because of the concern I have for the trailer to make the trip given the fatigue showing in the i-beams supporting the trailer, I opt to move everything out of the back end of the trailer which has primarily been being used for storage.  This adds a fair bit of work to get ready to move.  I had loaded quite a bit into the truck Saturday evening.  I just finished loading it this morning, did some dishes, cleaned the yard of Sasha poo, then headed over to the property to unload what I had loaded.  While there, I ran a wire from the shed to where I was going to park the trailer so I could power the trailer from the shed.  In the coming week or two, I will come back and dig a trench to bury it.  Rick stopped by and we unloaded the water tanks he bought for me in Tucson.  We then headed back to the park.  I flushed the antifreeze from the holding tank as best as I could, then filled the holding tank.  I disconnected everything, settled up with Rusty, hooked up the trailer to the truck, and headed down the road with Rick following just in case the trailer’s i beams give way.  Thankfully we arrive onsite without any undue excitement.  Rick helped me get the trailer disconnected and stabilized on blocks.  He said farewell as I clearly have a lot of work to do to put everything back now.  Before I get started putting everything away in earnest, I restart the generator and have it start charging the batteries.  I get everything put back away.  During the course of putting stuff away, I pause to check the status of the inverter/charge controller.  The current being drawn from the generator is indicative that the batteries are charged so I turn the generator off.  I have been running on battery since.  Hoping I have enough juice to get through the night.  I have the inverter configured to turn off if the batteries get too low to prevent from over draining them.

I did it!!!  I’m finally living on the property.  I watched a beautiful sunset as I was writing this tonight.  I’ll also be getting back an hour a day that I was previously spending driving back and forth between Rusty’s and the property.  So many smaller projects to do in the next 5 months before I can even start building the house.  It will be an interesting effort to prioritize them.  I think I will be pondering those projects as I drift off to dream land here in the next few minutes.

And so begins the next chapter in my adventure.

Night all.

Cary