Seeking Simplicity

May 21 – June 3

Howdy everyone.

I’m back!

Of course, many of you didn’t know I was gone.  🙂  I had a business trip to NJ that took me away from home May 24 – 30.   I spent May 21 – 23 afternoons and evenings preparing for my business trip – cooking food for Sasha, taking my weapons over to Tom and Alicia’s for safe keeping, borrowing dog kennel fence panels from Tom and Alicia and getting them setup for Sasha, packing, etc.

As seems to be the case of late, my travel day was yet another adventure.  Someday, travel will go according to plan, right?

Things got started according to plan.  Got up early.  Got breakfast.  Finished packing.  Hit the first of the two bumps in the road.  Went to let Sasha out and load things in the truck, but the trailer door would not open.  What the hell?  Tried for 5 minutes.  Tick-tock.  Quickly approaching scheduled time to leave.  It becomes clear that I will not be able to get out via the door for reasons yet unknown.  Okay brain, find me alternatives.  I have to get out.  There is a “basement” in the front portion of the trailer for storage.  It is about two feet high with access from both the outside and inside the trailer.  I don’t typically lock it and it is not that full of stuff yet.  Sounds like a good escape path.  So, through the inside trap door to the basement I creep on my belly.  Found the latches to open the outside access door from the inside, push the door open and less than gracefully slide out.  I walk around to the front of the trailer and reach for the door handle.  Praying it opens as I don’t have time to deal with crawling in and out through the basement to load the truck.  Thankfully it opens.  I take a minute or two to examine the mechanism and see something appears out of place.  I try to push it back into place and realize it is completely unattached to anything so I pull it out.  I see that it appears to be the portion of the inside door handle that engages the latch to release the latch when the handle is pulled.  Well, that being broken would explain why I couldn’t open the door from the inside.  Clearly something I will have to deal with in short order upon my arrival home.  I wrote a note for Sasha’s dog sitter instructing him not to close that door while inside because the handle is broken and posted the note to the outside of the trailer door.  Time to hit the road.  Thankfully the drive was uneventful.  I remembered to stop for fuel before running out this time.  I arrived at the airport 30 minutes later than originally planned but that is fine because I planned on arriving 3 hours early just to give me time to deal with the unexpected.  I think being locked inside the trailer qualifies as the unexpected.  I had brought lunch with me so I ate it in the truck before heading into the terminal.  Check in and getting in and getting to the gate went smoothly.  When they started boarding I took my motion sickness medicine – Dramamine.  I took the less drowsy formula because I wanted to try to work while on the flight.  Got a bit motion sick on takeoff, but I’ve been worse.  I chalked the motion sickness on takeoff up to not taking the Dramamine earlier.  I generally recovered after we got to cruising altitude but either because of the motion sickness or the Dramamine, it I didn’t feel that I could mentally focus enough to work on the detail oriented work task I had planned.  I tried unsuccessfully to sleep. Had forgotten my iPad and hadn’t loaded American Airlines app on my phone to watch inflight movies.  So there I sat for 4 1/2 hours.  At about the 2 – 2.5 hour mark I wondered:  Should I take another Dramamine?  It is only supposed to last 4 hours and it is a 4h 45 minute flight.  I decide not to because I want to be clear headed for the drive from the airport to the hotel.  A decision I would soon come to regret.  Yep, that is right, I got motion sick again on landing.  I have been motion sick many times before, but this one had a first for me.  As I had my head down and eyes closed focusing on my breathing as sweat was pouring off of me I thought, well, I don’t feel like I have to puke but I better get the bag ready anyway, so I do.  The next thing I remember thinking:  How am I getting cross talk in my bluetooth headset?  Who do I hear talking?  Wait a minute…. I’m not wearing a headset.  I’m on an airplane and that is someone behind me talking.  I feel strange.  I must have passed out.  Going to be sick.  Good, I have a bag in my hand…

My seat mates were very understanding and kind.  After providing me a napkin and pack of tissue they sat patiently while the plane emptied out.  They also got the flight attendants attention for assistance for which I was very thankful.  She provided me with a much larger garbage bag which I made full use of shortly thereafter.  As I had the isle seat, I asked if either were in a hurry.  I heard no, take your time.  A bit later one chimed in that she had to catch a train so I got up and moved to the now empty seats across the isle and laid down to let them out.  The flight crew summoned a wheel chair to assist me.  When it got there, I sat up for a minute or two before standing.  They put a can of gingerale in the outside pouch of my laptop back and carried it to the front of the plane for me as I staggered my way up and out to the wheel chair.  Naturally, I was  just a few rows from the back of the plane.   Even the motion of the wheel chair was a bit unpleasant for me.  I requested they roll me down to baggage claim.  As you might expect, mine  was the last bag on the carousal.  The skycap grabbed it for me then asked what now?  I asked him to just take me over to the seats nearby so I could sit for a while to recover.  I drank about half the gingerale.  The seats all had arms so you couldn’t lay down on them.  After sitting for a while and not recovering fast enough for my liking I tried laying down on the floor with my feet up.  That lasted for about 5-10 minutes until I was shivering uncontrollably.  Enough of that.  I got back up and sat back down on the bench, opened my suitcase and dug out my jacket to try to warm up.  I am guessing I sat there for an hour, maybe an hour and a half before I concluded that I wasn’t going to get any better until I had a nap and maybe even a full night’s sleep and that wasn’t going to happen in the baggage claim area of the airport.  So with that mindset, I mustered the will to get my belongings and shuffle my way to the Air train.  In hind sight, that is where I should have had the skycap take me.  The air train arrived shortly and thankfully there was an open seat which I took.  Thankfully Avis rental cars was at the first stop so I didn’t have to be on the train long.  At the car rental, there was only one agent helping the only other customer there.  I’m not sure what they were doing it it was taking an abnormally long time, so I left my bags in line and went and sat down.  Ooo.  Water fountain.  Sip of water.  Oops.  Bad idea.  Start searching for options… Garbage can nearby.  That will work if I get desperate.  There’s the bathroom.  We have a winning solution.  Off I go.  I think it is safe to say my dinner plans are hereby canceled.  I finally get to the car.  Decision time:  Lay in the car to try to recover a bit more or drive to the hotel.  On par with my muddled thinking I think that I am not apt to recover very fast and I long for a comfortable bed to lay down in, so drive to the hotel it is.  As I’m driving down the road, I’m realizing it was probably not the wisest choice but I’m committed to it by that point.  When I’m intently focused on staying in my lane and doing shoulder checks to change lanes, I’d say I’m more than just a little impaired.  Thankfully, I made it to the hotel without incident.  Checked in and fell into bed for a good night’s sleep.  On the bright side, I didn’t have to get up to pee in the middle of the night.

I am thankful to my fellow seat mates for their patience and understanding and the AA flight crew for their concern and assistance.

Friday I still wasn’t at 100% but I had sufficient mental clarity to be able to work.

Saturday morning I woke finally feeling fully recovered.  Before breakfast I had my 1st workout to prep for the wildland firefighter pack test.  I did okay.  3 miles in 50 minutes and finished with  3.7 miles in 1 hour with no weight.  5 minutes and 45 lbs shy of the requirements.  Machine said heart rate got to around 130.  It is clear to me that I will need new shoes as my heal was rubbing and foot was getting quite sore by the time I got to the end.  I briefly started out at the target 4 MPH, then dropped it to 3.5.  At the 43 minute mark I cranked it up to 5 and jogged for a couple of minutes before dropping it back to 4 MPH for the last 15 minutes.  Would probably be smart to shop for some while I’m here in NJ as I already have a full day of shopping planned in Phoenix and Tuscon in addition to the long drive home.  Sure do miss the arid air of AZ.  Having sweat pour off you and soaking your cloths is a bit of a drag.  It is a good reminder to drink though.  In the southwest desert area you have no clue how much water you are losing via sweat so you just have to remember to drink frequently.  After my workout, I returned to the hotel room where I spent the day working, eating breakfast and lunch there.  Saturday evening I went out to eat with Jeff, a colleague who was also in town to assist on the project.  I worked a short while after dinner to wrap up all the changes to meet all the project requirements that I was aware of before retiring for the evening.

Sunday

I went for my second workout in the morning.  My legs were a bit sore and I didn’t want to develop a sore on my foot so I worked on the exercise bike for 45 minutes instead.  Back to the room for breakfast then to the office for a long workday.  Oh, found my ipad in my laptop bag.  I had it with me after all.

Monday morning my legs were sore so I opted not work out.  Breakfast then another long workday.

Tuesday:  See Monday.

Mind you, “work day” for Sunday through Tuesday I use rather loosely.  As I finished my changes Saturday, I was simply working in a supporting role Sunday and Monday.  Sunday was steady but manageable with the troubleshooting efforts I participated in.  There wasn’t much for me to do Monday.  I was present to assist with issues but there weren’t many issues that I could contribute my expertise on.  Business was back in full swing Tuesday as the holiday weekend was over and I spent much of my time keeping up with email and monitoring network logs for indications of issues with the project.

Wednesday:  The dreaded travel day.  For starters, I stopped at the store earlier in the week and bought a new bottle of Dramamine.  I then took the miriade of old bottles of Dramamine that I’ve collected over the years (forget to pack it, buy another en route to the airport), and threw them all away.  I am not taking any chances this time by taking outdated potentially ineffective meds.   I also picked up a bottle of benedryl because I wanted to sleep on that long flight home.  Get up, eat breakfast, return the rental car, get to the gate, no problems.  Pop my dramamine and benedryl cocktail before boarding.  Couldn’t sleep.  Go figure.  Another long flight mentally foggy but awake.  On the bright side, no motion sickness.  Yay!  Didn’t stop in Phoenix for shoe and weapon shopping as initially planned.  Got out of Phoenix before rush hour and stopped in Tuscon for lunch/dinner and shopping.  Veggie cheese free pizza – YUM!  Next stop was Camping World for a replacement door lock for the RV.  I prefer to avoid having to crawl out the basement if I can help it.  Finally, stops at the hardware store, grocery store, and yep – I remembered to stop at the gas station.  The drive home was pleasantly uneventful.  I unloaded the groceries and luggage from the truck, then replaced the RV door handle by the light of my iphone.  Time to get a headlamp.

Thursday morning I decided to make use of the kennel since it was here so I put Sasha in it.  I looked out 5 minutes later to see her wondering around outside the kennel.  I would have been surprised if Ms Houdini didn’t figure out how to get out.  I figured she had probably been getting out regularly while I was gone so I didn’t bother putting her back in or putting her back on the lead.  In the afternoon I broke down the dog kennel and returned it to Tom.

After work Friday, my friend Rick started chatting with me via text.  He called my attention to some holes associated with the slideouts I failed to put steel wool in to keep the mice and rats out.  So I did that right away.  Thanks Rick!!  After doing that, I decided I better get the checklist for preparing the 5th wheel for travel/moving done right away.  It has been on my to-do list for a while, but with that steel wool in those slide holes, I needed to do it sooner rather than later so I didn’t forget to include removing that steel wool in my checklist.  As I was on a roll writing preparation documents, I continued with starting to write emergency evacuation plans (evac in 30 minutes or less) and non-emergency evacuation plans (hours or days notice).  I did not complete the last set of plans before moving on to another project, but I got a good start at least.

Saturday June 2 I filled one of the three remaining ground rod holes.  I was done by 1 PM.  Although I drank a gallon and a half of water while working, my kidneys let me know I was dehydrated.  I drank the last of my drinking water.  I started on dishes, ran out of water in the fresh water tank, refilled the freshwater tank with water from the cistern, started sasha’s food cooking, loaded my empty water crates into the truck and headed over to Tom and Alicia’s to refill my water jugs (~ 15 gallons).  I sat and visited for an hour or two after filling my jugs before heading back home and resting for the night.

Sunday June 3 I filled one of the remaining two ground rod holes.  I was once again done around 1 PM.  This time I drank between 1.5 – 2 gallons of water.  I had also made some switchel to drink during one of my breaks.  That really hit the spot.  I saw my first scorpion while working in the dirt/rock pile today.  I spotted him twice and both times he stuck around just long enough for me to get my phone out and unlocked but disappeared before I could get the camera app up.  I know there is a short cut to getting the camera app up and one of these days I will commit to learning it.  Sorry, no scorpion photos this time.  I also got stung on the neck by a small bee.  I didn’t know he was there until he stung me.  After a few expletives and killing him, I got back to work.  After working for a few minutes, I decided I should go take a benedryl as a precautionary measure (I had a bad reaction to a wasp sting when I was a kid although I’ve been stung as an adult with no ill effects other than the usual annoyance of the sting itself).  Thankfully, no reaction to the sting this time.  After I finished filling the hole, I chatted on the phone a bit before moving onto my next project.  However, after I got off the phone, the benedryl won – nap time.  No more project or house keeping work today.  Woke for dinner and blogging which brings us to this very moment.

And with that, I bid you good night.

Cary

 

Ok.  So it has been pointed out that I have been failing miserably at posting pics and videos.  So, without further ado, pressing reverse and going back in time to share some photos and videos I have.  Note:  I’m not going to include any on my solar system as I plan a special blog entry for that nor of the hike with Artem as I’ve already dedicated a blog with pics to that.

 

 

Ok.  Gotta run for now.  It is my intent to do another post this evening with updates since the last post.  Have a great day everyone!!

 

Cary

 

Photos from our hike up Greenhouse Trail.

After resting, doing email, eating, and spending time with my lizard friends, I was bored and still had about 90 minutes left until the hiking group was due to return.  So I decided to proceed up the mountain trail I saw them hiking up.

March 27 – April 22

Yep.  Once again I am long over due for a blog update.

Lucky for you, I didn’t sleep much last night so I have no motivation to do any physical labor or anything mentally taxing.  So blogging it is today.

I’m going to switch things up a bit in terms of format given how long it has been since I’ve provided an update.  I’ll organize per project rather than per day.

Fencing:

• Fransisco Hung the 16′ gates in the 18′ openings March 27.  While that did not complete the fencing project, it is sufficient to keep the cattle out.  As of April 17, most if not all the cattle have clearly been driven out of the canyon.
• I placed some medium sized rocks in some really low areas between fence posts to deter Sasha from going under the bottom fence wire.  I also requested Fransisco to add one more row of fence wire half way between the bottom run he ran and the ground to deter Sasha from going under the fence.
• After weeks of waiting, the 18′ gates finally came in and I picked up two this past Friday.  The 16′ gates currently “cowboy’d” into the 18′ gate openings will be relocated to the east and west fence lines to enable me access to those areas via tractor if/when I decide to fence those area’s in as well.  Francisco said he would come back April 23 to continue work on the fence now that we have the gates and barbed wire needed to finish the job.

Solar system:

• I decided to bolt some steel L brackets to the vertical posts then bolt some metal to the L brackets so it lays horizontally in the concrete.  The purpose of this is to deter the post from sliding down due to gravity or up due to wind lift within the concrete hole.  It is likely over building it but I was thinking:  If I over build it, I will never know.  If I under build it, I would likely find out in a less than ideal fashion.  I prefer not to find out.
• Thus far I have cut the metal for the anchors, assembled the anchors, and installed the anchors on 8 of the 9 support posts that I have planned to install them on (10 support posts in all).
• 8 of the 10 holes have been completely back filled.  One hole is within 3 inches of the target height so should only need one more batch of cement/dirt mix in that one.  The last hole has only about a foot left to fill.  Need to install the anchor and conduit for solar panel cabling in that one while/before back filling.
• Again, I may be over doing it, but I want to minimize the rate at which the posts will rust out (even though it is generally arid here, there is a bit of surface rust here and there on the pipe).  With that in mind, I have applied a couple coats of Rustoleum paint to the pipes.
• I have mounted the solar panel combiner box to one of the solar panel support posts.  The combiner box will act as both a connection point to merge the electrical wiring for the solar panels as well as providing place to cut power between the panels and the electronics via circuit breakers.
• With the tractor out of commission (see below), I’m not sure when I will get to finish the solar system as I need to trench from the combiner box to the shed and I need to trench for ground rods.  I’m thinking I will just need Francisco to come over with Tom’s backhoe and trench for me.

Water:

• Nothing new really.  Enjoying the use of the garden hose for mixing mud and cement to fill the solar support holes.

Tractor:

• Changed engine oil and filter, front axle oil, transmission oil and filter.
• Replaced broken backhoe control boot which protects the backhoe linkages from dirt and weather.
• Replaced broken hydraulic hose on backhoe
• While on my way to the airport to pick up Artem, I stopped in and asked about options for the auger I bought but can’t use due to the rocky terrain.  They will take it and sell it on consignment for me.  That beats having it sit here rusting and collecting dirt.
• Transmission seized while Artem was working on relocating brush for me.  Looks like I will be contacting the place I bought it from and having them bring a trailer out to load it to take it back to Tuscon for service.  Guess they can take the auger at the same time.  They can find and fix that damn safety switch issue while they have it so I don’t have to jump across the starter to start it every time.

Truck:

• Flat tire in Douglas during shopping trip April 2.
  • I was thankful that I had the spare tire storage mechanism replaced earlier this year so I could get the spare tire from under the truck.
  • I was thankful that the flat occurred in town where could pull into a well lit vacant parking lot to work on it.
  • I am thankful I chose to use the air pump and tow strap case to block the tires to reduce risk of the truck falling off the jack as I was changing the tire.  They were solidly wedged under the tires when I was done and packing up.
• Bought new tires for the truck.  With these rough dirt roads, looks like I will have to budget for new tires every couple of years for the vehicles.
• Truck stalled due to running out of fuel as I was rolling into the fuel pump just south of Phoenix (on the way to the airport to pickup my son Artem who was coming to visit).
  • Filled tank.
  • Confirmed what I had been warned about, diesel trucks are a PITA to start if you run them out of fuel due to air in the fuel lines.
  • Quick google/youtube search educated me on what I needed to due to get it started.  Repetitive process of priming fuel filter/line under the hood and trying to start it.  A messy process to say the least with diesel fuel coming out along with the air while priming it.
  • I went through so many unsuccessful iterations that I killed the truck’s battery trying to start the engine.
  • Called insurance company for roadside assistance and waited with hood up at the fuel pump.
  • Tow truck driver shows up and connects his mobile battery.  Truck starts on about the third prime / start iteration.
  • Leave fuel station to find that because I jumped the truck the computer was messed up – power windows didn’t work and all the indicators on the dashboard were dead.  I know what to do for that.  Disconnect the battery, let the truck sit for a few minutes with the battery disconnected to reset the computer, then reconnect.
  • Pull into a plaza about a half mile down the road from the gas station I just left, park and turn off the truck to execute my plan to disconnect the battery to reset the computer.  Then it occurs to me….   I just had a dead battery and I’ve only driving half a mile.  Not exactly a lot of time to recharge it.  I try it.  The engine turns over indicating the battery has enough juice to do that, but doesn’t start indicating either fuel or glow plug problem.  I put my money on that also being a symptom of an issue with the computer, so I proceed and disconnect the batteries (have two in that thing).
  • Wait 20 minutes, reconnect battery, and truck starts right up.  Windows and dashboard are also now functioning.  Yay.  Back in business.
  • Arrived at the airport to pick up Artem with about 5 minutes to spare.
  • I am thankful I had the day off and had plenty of time.
  • I am thankful I had tools in the truck necessary to prime the fuel lines even if they weren’t ideal.
  • I am thankful that I didn’t run out of fuel until I was actually at the fuel pump.

DR String mower:

• Delivered March 27 and assembled March 28.
• Used for 3 hours March 30 cutting down tall grass around trailer and then expanding to various other areas within fenced area.  It is important to cut down tall grass to reduce risk and difficulty of combating wildfires.
• Went to mow again on April 3 to find that the mower wasn’t working right.  Upon further inspection, I realized who ever reconditioned it did not put in the necessary bearings/spacers for the belt tensioner.  Some of the assembly had melted in a couple locations (it was made of plastic) due to friction during my previous use of it.
• Called service and had replacement parts sent to me under warranty.
• The replacement parts are now sitting and waiting for me to replace them.

Artem’s Visit:

• Arrived at the trailer from the Phoenix airport and shopping in Tuscon early Wednesday morning (shortly after midnight).
• Wednesday evening, Tom was kind enough to take us into Horseshoe canyon in his ATV and showed us some of the historical sites in there.
  • Old Indian grinding stones where they turned beans and grains into flour.
  • The last homestead established in AZ.
  • The site of an Indian ambush on soldiers that were pursuing them.
• I took vacation Thursday to join the area hiking club to hike up one of the mountain trails with Artem.
  • There were a number of hikers at the morning’s rendezvous point, and I volunteered the use of my truck to drive up to the trail head.  The last bit of that was an interesting drive up a rocky, narrow one lane mountain road with trees and brush on both sides of the road scratching along the side of the truck as I drove.
  • For the hike, I made it as far as Winn Falls.  Many of the hikers turned back at that point, whereas a number of other hikers soldiered on to the hike’s destination which was a cabin atop of the mountain with the mountain ridge a 1/4 mile beyond that.  As I felt it would be dangerous for me to try to continue to hike those narrow mountain trails with steep drops inches away from the foot path given the level of fatigue in my legs and Artem wanted to keep going with the group, I opted to remain at Winn Falls alone and wait for their return, then hike back down with them.  The hike’s leader estimated they would get back to Winn Falls in approximately 3 hours.  I managed to kill about 90 minutes before I was well rested and sooo bored just sitting there that I proceeded alone up the trail I saw them take.  I topped the mountain ridge and proceeded along the mostly level trail until I finally met them on their return journey.  I turned around and accompanied them back down the mountain.
  • On the truck ride back down the mountain lane, I learned that the new character my truck’s paint job acquired that day was commonly referred to around here as “Arizona pinstripes”.
• Saturday I put Artem to work helping me fill the holes around the solar support posts.
• Sunday we picked up a guitar from an acquaintance out here for Artem to play while he was here, we then proceeded to spend the day exploring.  We stopped at the Desert Museum so we could learn a bit more about rattle snakes. After a couple other misc stops we stopped by Paradise Cemetery then drove on to Rustler’s Park which is a park pretty much on top of a mountain.  That was an interesting drive.  We drove up a one lane mountain road supporting two way traffic with switchbacks back and forth up the side of the mountain with mere feet (usually less than 5) between the road and the drop off down the side of the mountain.  No guard rails.  The scenery was beautiful when I dared take my eyes off the road to look.
• Monday we went to a fund raiser musical event in Portal with a cellist and pianist playing chamber music.
• Tuesday we ran to Douglas to for a certified check, food staples, and fuel.  While there, I drove near and pointed out the border wall to Artem.  “Dad, can I get out and go take a picture by it?”  “Sure, why not.”  A few minutes of driving after Artem got back into the truck, we were stopped along side the road showing our ID’s to a nice border patrol officer explaining to him what we were doing by the wall.
• Wednesday was a long day – working nearly a full day then a round trip to Phoenix to drop Artem off at a hotel near the airport so he could catch an early morning flight the next day (which he missed and ended up spending the day and night in the airport terminal to catch a flight Friday morning).

Purchase of used 5th wheel:

• After living in this trailer for nearly a year by myself, I can’t fathom three people trying to live in it for any length of time.
• Bought a nice used 5th wheel to live in the next couple years while we build.  It will also serve as our home away from home in the coming summers when we go to Michigan for the month of June to visit and avoid the worst of the summer heat in Arizona.

Wild life:

• I’ve had the pleasure of watching cotton tail rabbits and their young hopping around outside the trailer window.
• There are a number of jack rabbits tooling around as well.
• I’ve been watching road runners take nesting material into the brush pile.
• I’ve seen quail scurrying back and forth.
• As I was sitting and thinking near the compost pile one day, I noted a lizard climbing about on the pile.
• While killing time at Winn Falls I had the pleasure of watching a couple different lizards for a while.
• At Tom’s, his dogs alerted us to a gila monster which we then watched for a few minutes.  Tom says he saw one by one of our rock structures last week.
• Mule deer are common around here and I’ve seen them on a number of occasions.
• Artem and I saw a family of javelina on our way to Portal one day.

Miscellaneous lessons learned:

• If you turn a 2″ ball shut off valve attached to a 5k gal water tank with pressure from 10′ water head the wrong direction (full open instead of close) suddenly, the bucket you are holding at the opening of the valve will likely get blown out of your hand and water will shoot 4’+.
• Due to the change in temperature and associated air pressure, an empty plastic fuel can sealed when it is warm will substantially implode in the cool of the night. Same goes for any sealed plastic container really.
• Due to the change in temperature and associated air pressure, a plastic fuel can sealed when it is cool will pressurize and expand in the heat of the day.
• If you foolishly chose to release the pressure built up in a fuel can with fuel in it by opening the fuel spout, fuel will join the escaping air and spray gasoline about 10′ away.  It is also not a good idea to try to fill a generator using a pressurized fuel can as the force of the gasoline being sprayed into the fuel tank can result in gasoline being splattered back out of the tank through the opening being used to fill the tank.  It is better to loosen the collar holding the spout to the can thereby breaking the seal and releasing the pressure without spraying gasoline all over.
• It is important to remember to tighten the collar to secure the spout to the can before tipping the can up to fill the tank else you will spill gasoline all over.
• Rabbits can run about 20-25 MPH for a couple minutes.  So one evening, I was driving up the road and the dumb rabbits were as usual being dumb.  One ran out right in front of me from the left, not leaving me any time to react, so I kept going figuring he was a goner or he was lucky and I saddled him between the tires or he did an about face that I didn’t see.  A couple minutes later another rabbit further head ran out from the right, so I slowed down a bit.  I’ll be damned if that rabbit from the left didn’t pop out from in front of the truck to where I could see him on the left.  I figure I had been “chasing” the poor thing at somewhere between 20 and 25 MPH for a couple minutes.  I’m guessing after he made it to safety away from the road he keeled over from a heart-attack.
• It is better to remember to engage 4WD at the start of the climb of a long rocky mountain road rather than when you are just 200′ from your destination.
• Don’t take vehicles whose paint job you want to keep nice up narrow mountain roads.
• My snake/work boots are not impervious to mesquite thorns through the soles.
• Do not run out of fuel in a diesel vehicle.

 

With that, you are up to date.  Yes I know, I am behind in sharing months worth of photos…  Stay tuned for those.

Cary

 

 

 

 

Howdy Y’All!

You may note I changed the title up a bit as I found the previous one a bit non-descript (could have gone on till I die at this point).

Same story, different blog entry.  Not much progress.

On Monday March 12 I went over to Tom and Alicia’s to speak to Fransisco about doing the fence for me now that I had it mostly cleared.  He was not there, but I visited a while with Tom and Alicia anyway.

Tuesday March 13 was a day of running that hit obstacle after obstacle but turned out okay in the end (just burned an extra $20 in fuel and 90 minutes in time).  I did manage to finally get my eyes examined and get new glasses ordered.  Two pair this time – one for computer work and one for driving.  Doc said the rest of the time wearing them is up to me.  I haven’t been wearing the ones I have much because they don’t work well for me any more (probably 4 years old) plus they are pretty scratched up.

I worked for work the afternoon/evening Wed March 14.

Thursday March 15 I met with Fransisco regarding the fence.  He said he would do it for $10/hr and expected to have it done in 16 hours of work.  That is way under priced for the going rate of fence installation around here (I would expect to pay a local company about $1600 for labor alone) so I will likely pay him more so I don’t feel like I’m taking advantage of him.  We agreed I would buy materials on Saturday and he would start on Sunday.  We agreed I would get steel corner posts as they would last longer than wood. and I would get 16′ gates for the drives at the north and south ends of the gates and 4′ pedestrian gates for the east and west sides.

Friday morning I realized I couldn’t transport the 16′ gates in the back of my truck so I asked Tom if I could borrow his 16′ utility trailer which he has offered in the past.  That afternoon, I had the internet service tech out tuning my Internet antenna to improve signal strength.  After he left, I went an picked up the misc scrap building and fencing material that I bought from Boyd weeks before but hadn’t picked up yet.  That evening I went and picked up the utility trailer at Toms.  I was reminded that evening that I should not leave my keys in the truck seat and close the door.  Yep.  It locked.  UGH!!  As it was a bit chilly, I was underdressed, and it is a 15 minute hike one way back to my place to get the spare keys, I asked Tom if I could borrow his ATV to run back to my place.  Of course he got a laugh when I explained why and granted my request.  Luckily, although the trailer has been in need of a good straightening and cleaning for months now, I knew right where the spare keys were.  I then stayed up way to late trying to get caught up on some of my youtube channels.

Saturday, I ran to Valley Mercantile in Animas NM to pickup the fencing material.  That did not go as planned in the least.  They were out of the steel posts but had used telephone poles which are frequently used for fencing around here.  I agreed and was thankful I brought the trailer for the purpose of transporting the gates because I certainly would not have been able to haul the telephone poles in the truck.  That 16′ trailer was fully loaded with a mix of  10′ and 12′ telephone poles for a total of 28 poles.  They were stacked up probably 2′ or more higher than the sidewalls of the trailer.  I decided I better buy a heavier duty tie down while I was there.  We went to load the gates  on top of the telephone poles to find that they didn’t have any in stock.  They had 2 18′ gates, but no 16′ gates and no pedestrian gates.  She credited my card for the 16′ gates and said they would be in the following Thursday.  Between the telephone poles on the trailer, and in the bed of the truck: 7 rolls of barbed wire, 120 7′ tposts, 300 stays, the truck’s back end was sitting a bit lower that usual.  🙂    Bent my healing thumb backwards while loading the tposts.  OUCH!  All the way home I was hoping I made the right decision buying the telephone poles.  I noted as we were loading the posts it seemed to me that they were in pretty bad shape.  Hoping they are good enough for fencing and will last a long time.  That and the lack of the gates were stressing me out.  It didn’t help that I was operating on less than optimal amount of sleep for me.  I measured the drive when I got home.  Could have easily used the 18′ gates.  Oh well. I spent a bit of time unloading the telephone poles by myself.  The top ones were relatively easy.  Just roll them off the pile off the trailer.  Things got a bit more interesting once I got to the ones below the sidewalls of the trailer.  I enlisted the aid of the tractor for those.  I hooked the chain to the end of the pole then dragged it off the end of the trailer.  I did a few that way but it was time consuming and I wanted to be done.  I started mentally seeking reasons to not continue.  Wasn’t difficult to come up with one.  Needed to keep the trailer to go get the gates so there was no rush to get them off today so I can return the trailer.  They would need to be moved again the next day to their final destination so why move them twice.  Reasoning accepted.  Time to quit and take a nap.  After my nap I cleaned up and headed to a St Patrick’s day celebration/fund raiser for the local Art Gallery.  I enjoyed a nice dinner, musical entertainment by locals, and bought a piece of artwork from the silent auction.

At some point during the day Saturday when I sat down to rest and eat and think, it occurred to me that my plan for pedestrian gates on the east and west sides was not good.  I don’t plan on extending the fence any further north, so I would just tie into the existing North and south ends of the fencing and extend them east or west depending on what want at the time of expansion.  In doing so, I would not have easy access to those fenced areas with the tractor or other heavy equipment if I just put in pedestrian gates as originally planned.  If I put in drive gates instead now, then I would not have to add drive gates else where at the time of expansion saving me $$ on gates in the long run.  So new plan is 18′ gates that hey have in stock for the drives and 16′ gates for the East and west gates into the as of yet unfenced sections of our property.

Well rested, Sunday was a day of physical labor.  As Fransisco was digging holes for the posts by hand, I was delivering posts to their final destinations.  He was fast.  He was digging the holes almost as fast as I could manage to get the telephone posts loaded onto the tractor for transport.  I stopped long enough to replace the chain on the chainsaw.  A to-do that had been waiting on me since October.  Finally need it so could defer no more.  I watched him do a few posts.  He was a brute.  He would upend the post, bear hug it and pick it up and carry it into the hole and drop it in.  Glad he’s doing it and not me.  I wouldn’t be able to move for a month while my back covered, then I’d have to go have another hernia surgery.  Pass on that thanks.  He got the four corner posts set and the H’s built for the corners and gate on the south fence line.  He got the T Posts for the south fence line all installed and 2 courses of barbed wire started before calling it a day.  After he left I pushed forward with a couple other projects.  I replaced the battery shelf in the truck.  That was an interesting project that I regretted starting so late after I was beyond the point of no return.  To get the battery shelf out and the replacement in I had to move the coolant reservoir a few inches.  To move the coolant reservoir, I had to remove the air filter housing.  Happily, I completed the project at dusk with no left over pieces or parts.  It was just light enough for me to glue up some PVC parts for the water tank so I could connect a garden hose as a temporary water dispensing mechanism closer to where I need it than the tank itself.  I check the hose length.  It is not long enough to reach the trailer.  I’m undecided if I will spend the $$ on another hose for that convenience factor or leave it inconvenient to maybe encourage me to get the permanent (or at least long term) RV plumbing project done sooner than later.  I finished off the evening by ordering a reconditioned DR walk behind weed trimmer.  For fire safety, it is important I get this tall dead dry grass cut down around here.  At least in the immediate vicinity of the trailer and building site.

Monday was a run to Douglas.  Forgot the gas cans again but luckily this time I had plenty of gas on hand to get me through until Thursday when I would go to Animas to pick up the gates.    Decided to grab a new cement mixer when I was there.  Fransisco came by and worked a couple hours on the fencing in the afternoon.

Tuesday was clean up and socializing day.  Looking at the mirror at when I was trying on glass frames the previous week I realized how over due I was for a trim.  Gave myself a buzz cut and trimmed up, then to Rusty’s for a shower and refill of drinking water jugs.  Capped off with a fine evening of socialization at the Tavern with Rick and Laura for Taco Tuesday.

Wednesday night was a 16 hr day for work.  As this was a rare occasion where I was not present outside in some fashion in the evening and Sasha was in the trailer with me, I observed wildlife activity in the yard that I don’t normally see.  Rabbits scurrying about.  Cool, there is a road runner.  Oh look there is another road runner.  OH MY!  Guess we know which one the male is.  Why am I still watching them?  Ok.  Back to work.

Thursday went to Animas to pick up the gates.  Great.  16′ gates had been delivered as forecasted.  Hmmm… Were the heck are those 18′ gates???  They are gone.   CRAP.  Confirmed sold.  Replacements due to arrive April 9.  OMG.  Really regretting not thinking while I was there Saturday to just buy the 18′ gates then.  Loaded up two 16′ gates and headed home bummed about the gate stituation yet again.  Unload the gates and return the trailer to Tom as it will be a while before the gates are in unless I want to drive to Tuscon to buy some.

Friday morning I was pounding away at the keyboard for work when Sasha started barking and didn’t stop as she normally does.  Hmm… What is it.  Open the blinds to the north side of the trailer.  What is that?  There’s two of them.  They are big and moving slowly.  CRAP!!!  They are cattle!  I step out side so check for others.  Then I hear the cattle in the carrel in the canyon and the faint drone of an ATV engine.  CRAP!!  Sounds like they are driving them out of the canyon today.  I only have one side of my fence up and no drive gates on hand (I had him set the posts at 18′ and I have 16′ gates).  Fire off an email to Tom to let him know.  A short while later Fransisco shows up and gets to work.  He completes the east side if the fence before calling it a day.  That leaves the north and west sides to complete – along with the gates.  Friday evening was another work for work night so no progress on out door activities.  I did start working on the video stuff again.  Need to save video off the recorder until I can process it as the drive is full and it was starting to automatically delete old video files to free up space.

Saturday,  what to work on?  I start the morning by continuing the computer work.  Upgrading the OS and applications on the video server in hopes to stop it from crashing as it was doing ever couple of days.  I also worked on the laptop getting the Linux OS installed in a VM as for what ever reason, I’m reluctant to delete the W10 installation on the laptop.  Worked some on the compost pile.  Forecast was for rain in the afternoon.  After it rains would be prime time to cut metal for the solar post anchors.  So I run to Animas as I remember seeing some old metal shelves sitting in their scrap area that would be ideal for the task.  I got there 30 minutes before closing.  The ladies there didn’t know if they were for sale and how much to charge for them.  They tried reaching the manager unsuccessfully and they did not feel empowered to make the decision themselves.  UGH.  Yet another trip for naught.  Upon returning home, I walked the installed fence lines and noticed they were high enough off the ground Sasha would be able to go under.  Will need one more row of barbed wire closer to the ground.  Even then, there are dips in the ground where rain water has eroded way the land.  Will need to fill those with rocks to allow the water to continue to move through but block Sasha.  Deb and Bud Johnson stopped by briefly.  I had reached out to Deb informing her that I would take any brush that anyone wanted to drop off.  So they came by to see where I wanted it dropped.  I’m thinking seriously about trading in the useless auger for a wood chipper.  As the weather was quickly turning unpleasant , I retired to the trailer to continue my computer work.  Video server upgrades completed.  Cleared space on the video server by deleting a number of night time videos of the build site.  Started researching the use of computer vision algorithms to detect motion in video files.  Started working on the laptop to set it up to write motion detection scripts to learn about it and hopefully take others’ scripts and adapt for my use in better detecting motion than what comes freely with the cameras.  Stopped to head out for dinner at the Portal Peak cafe and refill water at Rusty’s.  Continued work on setting up the laptop when I got home until the wee hours of the morning when my brain shut down and it was pointless to keep working on it.

Sunday (today), weather was gorgeous but I really wanted to continue to work on the computer project that I was mentally into.  As a compromise, I worked outside just long enough to take care of some priority tasks such as moving the tractor auger out of the way of where the north fence line was to be installed and fill those two low areas where rain water flows with rocks.  I justified my plan to work inside for the day due to the unpleasant winds.  It was a weak excuse, I know.  Back to the keyboard.    I got some scripts to work on my videos.  Very cool.  Much more to do and progress is slow.  I don’t learn new concepts as quickly as I used to.  Needed to switch gears to learn to edit video for posting on youtube.  Need to learn how to merge videos, speed up video playback (to be able to watch hours of video in a few minutes), run video in slow motion.  Even run it in reverse for fun.  I was successful at all those tasks.  Certainly not professional output.  Not remotely close, but it it is functional.  So typical of my work product.  🙂  It works.  Have to move onto the next thing now.    Anyway.  I was able to create a short and sweet video of that not so intelligent and not so graceful Sunday two weeks ago.  It is too late tonight to get it posted along with a number of pictures that need to get posted.  I know I said it last blog, but maybe sometime before the next blog will be a special pic and video update.  While I was slacking off working on the computer, Fransisco showed up and worked on rigging up the 16′ gates to work in the 18′ openings for now.  I also heard him pounding away at installing the tposts for the north fence line.  I didn’t stop before dark so I’m not sure how much he got done today.

I should add…. Luckily I haven’t seen any more cattle since those two and they have not been back.  I saw them hauling away a trailer of cattle Friday afternoon so I suspect those were the ones I heard Friday morning and they were heading off to slaughter.  None the less, out of time to get the fence up…. he says after essentially spending two days on the keyboard rather than working toward that end.  It is just that Fransisco is doing such a good job with the fence (from a layman’s perspective), I’d be afraid that my “help” would be counter productive.   That is my reasoning and I’m sticking to it.  🙂

Night all!

Cary

 

 

Feb 12 – March 11

Yes, I am still alive.

No visits with on-duty law enforcement.

No, I have not been held captive or otherwise fallen pray to my clumsiness to require medical attention (yet).  If I ever get video’s from today online – oh boy, you’d get to see that I was trying to meet the local EMT’s in not a good way on multiple occasions.   I’m thinking I’ll have a YouTube playlist just for near and not so near misses that I get caught on video for everyone to get a laugh at.  Okay, maybe mom shouldn’t watch those.  They would have to be without sound because I wouldn’t want to spend that much time bleeping out the profane and obscene language.  Then again, all the bleeps might add some to the laugh factor so maybe it would be worth it if it isn’t too difficult and I have time.

So what have I been doing for the last month you ask?  Excellent question…  Won’t bore you with the day to day details not to mention I wouldn’t get any sleep tonight if I tried that approach to this blog entry.  So, summary it is.

I don’t remember.

How is that for a short and sweet summary.

Luckily, because two weeks is a long stint between blog posts (ya, ya, it has been a month this time) and I know my memory is abysmal, I have taken to making high level daily notes as to what I did each day and noting anything of interest.  Sooo… Looking back at my notes….

Okay.  So the first entry is worth mentioning for a laugh… Feb 12 was low on fuel for the generator so drove to Douglas specifically to get gas but with the intent of doing other shopping while I was there.  Given my record of forgetting my wallet when going to Douglas, I remember checking my pocket 2-3 times during the drive to make sure my wallet was there.  Got to the hardware store, looked in the back of the truck and realized I forgot the gas cans.  OMG!!! REALLY Cary???   Luckily, I had my wallet.   I bought yet another 5 gallon gas can (bringing the total to 5 now) to get me by for a few days.

The evenings for the rest of the week through Friday night there was no progress on projects around the property as either the weather was unsuitable for working outside (by my wimpy standards), I was working for work, I was running errands (such as to the gas station to get more gas – duh), visiting with friends, etc.

Saturday Feb 17 was another shopping run to Douglas in the morning, then setting post 7 of 10 for the solar system supports into position.  Notes say I learned many ways not to do it.  I’m sure that is a positive way of saying I tried, and tried, and tried again.  Another example where persistence will make up for lack of experience and intelligence.  By the time I finished getting the post into position and ready to be cemented, I was drained even though there was plenty of daylight left.  I decided to listen to my body and took the rest of the afternoon off for some R&R and watched movies in the trailer.

Sunday, rested and ready to go, I cemented in the post that I set into position on Saturday followed by getting my video cameras and video recorder up and running.

Geeze, this seems to be devolving into a day by day… maybe I’ll summarize the weekdays and do day by day for the weekends…

Moving on…   Monday – Friday (Feb 19 – 23), I spent the evenings setting up VPN into my network, tuning camera angles, prepared 2 more posts for getting cemented into position, ran errands, and visited a bit with a friend.  No notes to the negative on the errand running so I must not have gotten pulled over, remembered my wallet, remembered the gas cans, etc.

Saturday Feb 24 I set one of the two pipes readied during the week in concrete.  Okay, so in truth, I undid what I did during the week (big surprise) so I could make some modifications.  Specifically, thinking over the installation during the week, I became less confident in it’s resistance to sinking in time.  After numerous iterations, I arrived at a solution to provide resistance to sinking in time with the benefit of also adding uplift resistance as well.  Okay, truth be told, it has continued to evolve over the weeks as I continue to mentally explore options and will likely continue to do so until the day I get everything completely buried.  I guess that is one thing good about taking forever for a project, you continue to think of ways to improve the design and or execution.  Regardless, got that post completed with uplift and sinking resistance in place.  Need to revisit the other 6 posts that have already been concreted to a level a few inches below the surface to implement the final solution on them as well albeit not as deep as was done on the freshly cemented one.  Moving on.  That evening was about socialization.  I treated my neighbor Boyd out to dinner in Portal and drinks in Rodeo.  At the Tavern we met up with Rick, his wife Laura and were eventually joined by a number of Rusty’s guests.  It was a great evening of socialization.  I got a laugh.  I drove Boyd and I that evening.  It was the first Boyd had ridden with me.  I know I travel up and down our dirt road faster than most.  Boyd mentioned at dinner that he had never traveled down that road that fast before (he has been here since 1995).  Then he added – not even remotely close to that fast.  Funnier still, I was going slower than I usually do because he was with me.  Hmmm… Guessing I need to slow down… Its just a smoother ride in the truck if you go faster over all the rocks.  Oh well.  Moving on.

Sunday, I set that reconfigured second post of the week in concrete then cleaned up and had a great evening at Tom and Alicia’s with Tom, Alicia, Pete, and Judy.  Pete and Judy are friends from Michigan that were out visiting.  I recommended they stay at Tom and Alicia’s B&B.  I think they enjoyed their stay there even though it was only for one night.

That following Monday I took a vacation day to be able to spend more time with Pete and Judy.  Because they enjoy birding and this area is very popular with birders as it is in the migration path for a number of species, upon my recommendation they arranged for a local birding guide to take us out Monday morning after breakfast.  Although I’m not into birding, that was a really enjoyable outing and I got to see a few birds compliments of the binoculars that Tom was kind enough to loan me.  We followed it up with lunch at the Portal Cafe and then back to Tom and Alicia’s for Pete and Judy to pack up and leave.  They swung by the property on the way out to check out the digs.  After they left, I had a real hard time getting motivated to be productive for the remaining 5+ hours of daylight I had left.  I sat in the lawn chair thinking about the projects and timelines I have ahead of me.  Cattle have to be out of the canyon by May 1.  Not sure when they will start driving them out, but I’m guessing I need to have the fence done by April 15, preferably April 1.  It is a an inconvenience dealing with the generator for power and it costs me money daily for gasoline.  I don’t know enough about the “windy” season here which should be kicking into full swing anytime and lasts 2 months to know if I will be able to manage handling the solar panels to install them during the windy season.  The generator has started leaking oil.  It is inconvenient hauling water from the water tank to where I need it and that inconvenience costs time and energy.  So what did I decide?  With all the issues / concerns around continuing to run the generator to charge the batteries on a daily basis, it is a solution.  Hauling water 200′ isn’t convenient, but it is a solution.  I have no solution in place to keep the cattle away from my belongings.  I hear they are really destructive.  Fencing now has priority.  That’s not to say I won’t work on the other projects when I’m paused on fencing for what ever reason.  Along with the decision to prioritize the fence installation, I considered what I could do to speed up the fence installation.  One obvious option was to reduce the size of the area being fenced.  While I want to really limit the number of “temporary” solutions I spent time and money installing, I am happy with the reduced area I settled on.  It encloses all my foreseeable projects for the next 5 years that need protection except one.  I’m sure I can figure out how to deal with that.  I finished off that Monday evening marking the new four corners for the fence line.  It is approximately a 460’x360′ area.  In case you were wondering, North-South is the longer dimension.

The rest of the week was spent resting, running errands, and beginning to clear the NE-NW fence line of mesquite.  Clearing an area of mesquite entails digging it out with the back hoe.  If it is a relatively young shrub, it is pretty quick – one scoop with the back hoe and out comes the shrub and it’s tap root.  However, if it has been there for a while, not only does it have a sizable tap root, but it also has sizable lateral roots which often go to other mesquite shrubs.  They have their own underground network.  It has taken me up to an hour to dig out some of the older shrubs just nipping away at their support structure bit by bit with the backhoe, then having to back fill the big hole I dug in the process of getting it out.

That brings us to Saturday March 3 which I used to make an early morning shopping run to Douglas, then finished clearing the NE – NW fence line and completely cleared the NW – SW fence line.

That Sunday, I set the last post for the solar system in concrete.  I also noted that my auxilary battery in the truck was not properly seated.  Further investigation showed that it’s support tray had rusted out.  So I ordered a replacement online.

Monday – Friday March 5 – 9, I cleared the SW – SE fence line of very mature mesquite, got some social time in at the Tavern with Rick and Rusty, and made a shopping run to Douglas.

Saturday March 10 was spent mostly on maintenance tasks.  Dog poo doesn’t magically disappear into the grass in time here like it did in Michigan.  Gotta pick it all up from time to time.  Just thought you would like to know that bit of trivia.  Unloaded Thursday’s purchases from the truck which included a used harbor freight CCC cement mixer and 4 more 90# bags of cement. Went to replace the battery tray in the truck that arrived during the week only to realize that I ordered the one for the drivers side battery, not the one for the passenger side battery.  Ugh.  Ordered the right one.  Will replace it next weekend.  Moving onto the tractor, I spent a number of hours reading the manual and performing the scheduled maintenance on it.  I realized that I need filters for some of the scheduled maintenance tasks, so will order those Monday and will do those next Saturday as well.  Once I was done with the maintenance on the tractor, there was enough time to start clearing the SE to NE fence line.  The last fence line to be cleared of mesquite.

That brings us to today.  Oh what a day it was.  Started out good with coffee and breakfast, then went down hill.  After breakfast, started attacking the mesquite once again.  To-date, I had never lost a battle with the mesquite.  Patience and persistence with my trusty tractor (it is trusty once it has been started) always overcame their defiance to be uprooted.  Today, I finally suffered a casualty in the battle.  My trusty tractor’s backhoe blew a hole in one of it’s hydraulic lines less than an hour into the day’s work with only two more large foes to vanquish and some minor minions to rip up like popping heads off a dandelion.  Oh well.  Se-la-vi.  Make note of the part number and add it to the list of things to order from the tractor dealer Monday, then move onto the solar panel posts.

At this point, all posts have been cemented in to some degree.  Some holes have been back-filled, around the concrete, but most have not.  While I could simply push dirt and rock back into the holes to back fill as I started to with some of the posts, it occurred to me a week or two ago that by back filling in that manner, material would not be well packed and would be prone to settling and shifting.  Not something I want around these posts.  I want that material packed tightly.    As such, I have switched to screening the dirt and mixing in water to make mud.  I apply in the same fashion as I do the cement stabilized earth and it fills in all the nooks and crannies very nicely.  It may be a ton more work than is necessary, but I am more confident that the end result will be worth it.  I am not sure what is in this soil (I don’t think it is clay), but when it dries after mixing with water like that and being packed, the end result seems very solid to me.  Not sure what it will become after a few years of AZ weather, but right now, I am pleased with the results from the holes I’ve done to date.  All that said, until now, I’ve been doing all the cement mixing and mud mixing in a wheel barrel.  Very time consuming and physically exhausting work when each hole takes over 20 wheel barrels between the mud and cement mix.  Today was the first time using the used cement mixer I picked up earlier in the week.  Disclaimer, I may get some of the finer details wrong here due to poor memory, but will do my best to be accurate…  First load went okay but I had trouble unloading it because the wheel barrel wouldn’t fit under the cement mixer.  So, I put on my problem solving hat.  Could dig out under the cement mixer or could raise the cement mixer off the ground a bit.  I have concrete blocks that would raise it up nicely.  Let’s do that.  Get it up on blocks (it is like a tripod – two wheels and one leg) and intelligently put some wood into place to keep it’s one leg from vibrating forward or backward off the block.  Satisfied with the solution, I load it up with dirt and water.  It seems to be working as desired.  The load is mixed. Because I positioned it so close to the tractor, I have to walk around behind it to get to the handle to dump the load.  As I’m walking around behind it, my eye catches that it is tipping over in my direction.  Hey, I’m right there.  I can catch it, right?  DUMBASS!  That is a 100 pound cement mixer with another 30-50 pounds of mud in it all with a very high center of gravity and falling momentum.  Fortunately, I came to my senses somewhat quickly and let it finish it’s journey to the ground.  Sadly, my right thumb and left leg were victims of my momentary lapse of stupidity.  I jammed my thumb pretty hard, might be slightly sprained, and although I haven’t checked my leg I’m expecting to see a few bruises that weren’t there this morning.  After I walked off and cursed through the worst of the initial pain, I turn off the mixer and walk around a bit more continuing to walk off the pain.  After a few minutes, I recomposed myself and assessed how I’m going to get this damn think back on it’s legs so I can dump the load.  I decide on brute strength.  Good enough approach to get it up.  At this point, it is now off it’s concrete blocks (shocking I know), and I’m once again challenged at getting it unloaded without being able to get the wheel barrel under it.  While working on preparing to unload it, it never occurred to me why it tipped to start with (besides not sitting on the greatest platform).  It was unbalanced… The mud was stuck to the back of it instead of sloshing around vertically causing it want to tip backwards.  A realization that didn’t come to mind until a while after it once again started heading for the ground.  Would I repeat the same mistake?  Well, I started to.  When I saw it start to go the second time I started once again to rush forward to try to catch it (instinct I guess).  Luckily I was able to stop myself this time and managed to stay clear of it’s path to the ground for the second time still with a full load.  Ugh…  At this point I was questioning whether I should quit for the day else risk needing to take a chopper ride to the hospital should something even worse happen on this seemingly bad luck/decision day.  I pushed that thought aside and again went about assessing how I wanted to get this thing stood back up.  After a feeble attempt at brute force again, I thought better of it.  While I knew I could fire up the tractor and move it around to lift it with the chains easily enough, I really wasn’t in the mood to deal with starting the tractor and wanted instead to be able to use my brain and a bit of muscle to get it done.  I opted for leverage.  I used a 8′ length of 2×10  in combination with the cement blocks I had to lever it up off the ground far enough that I felt comfortable muscling it the rest of the way up.  As soon as I got it stood up I adjusted the load so it was balanced over the wheels.  I was still left with figuring out how to get the load out of the mixer.  Thinking, looking around at the resources I had to work with.  Pallets.  Why not?  I built a shed and two compost bins out of them.  Why not use them as platform shoes for my cement mixer?  They would be a lot more stable base then some dinky cinder blocks.  So, I selected four crappy good for not much else pallets and selected the better boards on them to support the cement mixer and got them in place.  Next puzzle.  How am I going to lift 150 pounds up about 10 inches onto these pallets?   Leverage worked before, lets use it again.  This time I used a 2×4 in conjunction with the 2×10 under the axle of the mixer to get the wheels up first.  Once the wheels were up, I was able to lift the leg onto another set of pallets covered with a board so the leg didn’t fall between the pallet slats.  Finally time to dump that damn load of mud.  Turn on the mixer to help unload – motor is spinning but not the barrel.  UGH.  I broke it.  Unplug it and take the service cover for the motor off.  Easy fix, it is belt driven from the motor to pulley inside that drives the gear outside which in turn spins the drum.  The belt popped off.  Put the belt back on and put the service cover over the motor back on.  After unloading and packing the mud in the hole, decision time.  Call it a day and nurse my wounds or press on?  Luckily, for the work that needed to be done, it was mostly finger work and didn’t involve the thumb much.  I opted to press on.  I am thankful I did.  I lost count, but I did a number of loads after those initial set backs.  I topped off 4 holes up to the level of the concrete for that hole.    In the process, I even got some video that is sure to get a laugh as boot lace hooks on one of my boots hooked on my other boot.  A somewhat frequent occurrence that until today I have been able to manage without falling.  Luckily, no injuries from that spill which I’m sure was caught clear as day on video.  I even gave the camera a thumbs up while still on the ground indicating I was okay.  After that I started walking a bit bow legged and tried to be very conscious of not stepping one leg across the other as I was maneuvering around the work site.  I was preparing to mix the last batch of mud for the day when I went to turn on the mixer and the on-off switch broke.  WTF.  What a day.  Time to call it good.   Need to add a replacement switch to my shopping list.  I didn’t like that switch anyway.  Now that I’m writing this, I think I will replace it with a weather proof switch rather than a like for like replacement.

That is it.  You are up to date.  While I have some pics to share, it is much too late to deal with trying to post them tonight.  Maybe I will get to a posting sooner than two weeks to post mostly pics and maybe some links to videos.

I am thankful I am relatively uninjured.

I am looking forward to a better day tomorrow.

Nite all!

Cary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 2 – 15

I said my final farewell to Hersey the afternoon of Jan 2 after work.  He got some fresh air for a while before I finally laid him to rest at the property.  I am thankful I needed to go shopping in Douglas immediately following as I would have otherwise drowned my sorrows and been in no shape to work Jan 3.

Now to make you smile…

I made a rice dish for the potluck on Jan 5 which seemed to go over okay.  I intentionally made extra so that I would have left-overs to eat.  One thing I learned while making the rice:  Don’t open the lower cupboard that Hersey liked to open and explore and dig out dishes while you are cooking.  Cat hair flying every where.  I tried to hurriedly cover the cooked / cooking food before it acquires any of the flying cat hair.   I learn later as I was eating left overs that I was too late.  Hoping no one at the pot luck noticed or that I got all the cat hair in the left overs.

Here are some photos that I did not have time to include in the last blog.

 

As I laid the skids (two sets of two 2×4’s nailed together) on the previously pictured leveled bricks, it was clear that one of the bricks while level was way out of ideal position.  I didn’t feel like correcting it so I proceeded with assembling the floor frame.  Once I got the floor frame nailed together, that out of place brick was REALLY annoying my and my slight OCD got the better of me.  I picked up the frame to move it so I could relocate the brick.  I learned at that moment that the nails I used easily pulled out of the wood.  The whole frame pretty much fell apart.  While I let a few curses fly at the moment, in retrospect I am grateful that happened as it prompted me to pause the construction and go buy some ring shank nails.  Not to be idle, I opted to break down some pallets so that I would have some pallet wood readily available for use when I started building the shed.

 

Friday night and Saturday morning (Jan 5-6) I researched and wrestled with parts of my plans / design for the shed – especially the roof.  I finally chose a path forward and headed to Sierra Vista for building supplies late Saturday morning.  That blew the day Saturday as it is 3 hours round trip for driving and I get lost in Harbor Freight and Lowes looking at stuff.  Stop for lunch, gas, groceries, etc and the day is shot.

Sunday Jan 7 I painted the plywood I picked up Saturday that was to be used for the floor and inside wall to mount the electronics to.  Tom and Alicia stopped by with Scott and Gail (neighbors to the Southeast of Tom and Alica) and invited me to join them for a ride into the canyon.  While it sounded like a great time and was something I really wanted to do, I declined given the amount of work that I need to get done to get ready to move out of the RV park.  After I finished up painting Sunday, I reassessed the location I had placed the cement blocks for the shed.  I decided that location was not such a great idea as even though it is a “temporary” structure, I expect it to stay where I build it for at least the next two years.  Where I had planned for it to go, it was in the way of the future carport, so I decided to select a new location.  I reassembled the floor frame on the existing leveled bricks using the ring shank nails and called it a day.

I took vacation Monday – Friday and Rick, a fellow guest at Rusty’s offered to come help all week.  We made great progress this week.  Although building with pallets saved a fair bit of $$ in lumber, it certainly cost us time.

Monday:

• We laid and leveled concrete blocks in the new location.  I was fairly OCD about the location and level of the blocks.
• We secured one of the plywood sheets to the floor frame in it’s location, move the floor off the skids and set it aside.  We then set the skids on the new blocks, followed by placing the floor on the skids and then secured the floor to the skids.
• We then proceeded to use the floor as a platform to assemble 12 pallets into 3 walls.
• We got the tractor started (I discovered it wouldn’t start Sunday when I was working) by jumping it.
• We replaced the sheared bolt on the back hoe.
• We replaced the replacement hydraulic coupler that I received late the previous week.

Tuesday, we got a bit of a late start due to rain.  We put up the three and a half walls by the end of the day.  Rick had some volunteer work elsewhere in the afternoon for a an hour and I needed to make a run to Animas for more pallets.

Wednesday:

• We finished the forth wall by framing out the doorway.
• We installed the plywood that would be used to mount the electrical equipment to.
• We learned to mark and cut rafters using a speed square to mark the angles (after doing some trigonometry to calculate the angle of roof slope).
• We cut 4 rafters and secured them into place
• We cut down the east and west walls (aka pallets) to match roof slope.
• I decided against putting pallets on the roof so needed more ply wood.  We ran to Douglas for plywood.  Had lunch while there.  When we returned, we unloaded the plywood but decided it was too windy to try to put it on the roof with just the two of us, so we called it a day.

While we were working Wednesday, a jet buzzed us traveling at a high rate of speed east to west into the canyon.  It was kinda funny.  I heard him coming  but Rick didn’t hear him until he was on top of us so it startled the crap out of him.

Back at the RV park Wednesday, I decided I better use the sunlight left to troubleshoot my license plate lights given replacing the bulbs did not resolve the issue.  I confirmed power to a connector at the back of the truck.  Looking at the sockets, I believe both sockets need to be replaced.  So I ordered the parts online.  I finished the evening reviewing invoices and documentation for the solar system to refresh my memory on the pieces and parts of the system.

Thursday morning, I woke up early as usual so I started research on battery management systems for my lithium batteries.  When it was time to go, the truck wouldn’t start.  The battery was too run down from me troubleshooting the license plate lights Wednesday night.  I grabbed the charger and extension cable and hooked up to the battery and started the truck.  Put it all away.  Then got ready to leave only to realized that the dome lights would not turn off, the windows would not work.  Driving down the road I realized that very little was working on my dashboard.  Not a great start to the morning, but rather than focus on the negative, driving to the property, being sure not to speed as best as I could, I contemplated possible causes and solutions with plans A and Z (Z being worse case and B – Y to be figured out later).  Once at the property, Rick was already there and I apologized for being late and explained what happened.  I popped my hood and disconnected the batteries (I learned that my truck has two batteries thanks to Rick).  I was thinking that the computer got screwed up in the course of connecting the battery charger and starting it, so I figured removing the battery may clear the computer (plan A).  Worse case, I was planning on going to the mechanic Friday morning anyway so I would have them look at it then (plan Z).

After disconnecting the trucks batteries, we got to work.

• Attached plywood to roof
• Built and attached door to shed.
• Mounted inverter/solar charger to wall.
• Moved batteries to shed and evaluated them  for polarity and made plan for where and how to place them in the shed.
• Tarped all walls and roof to keep internal contents dry

Once we were done and put stuff away for the day, we reattached the truck’s battery cables and started the truck.  Everything worked fine.

Friday morning sitting in the mechanic’s office waiting for my truck to be repaired I was reading documentation on the inverter and had an aw – f*ck moment.  It can reach temperatures of up to 200 F and as such it shouldn’t be mounted on combustible material such as plywood as it was.  Ok.  Minor set back.  Nothing some $$ can’t fix.  Buy some more 2×4’s and some concrete backer board at Lowes.  I was going there anyway to buy a breaker box, breakers, and wire.  Did I mention I get lost in Lowes?  Four hours after arriving, I leave hundreds of dollars poorer. Stopped at Fry’s for groceries and gas, then straight back to the trailer to unload the groceries before dinner and a movie starts.  Well, almost straight back…  I forgot to set the cruise control coming out of Douglas.  Yep, you guessed it.  I got to visit with the same officer that gave me a warning for my license plate lights.  I’m thankful he was nice and only gave me a warning for speeding.  I’m also thankful that it was not dark out as parts for repairing the license plate lights were in transit.  At the dinner and movie event being hosted at the Desert Museum event center, Although I knew Tom and Alicia as well as Carolyn were there, I only did a cursory search for them then opted to leave my comfort zone and sit with people I hadn’t met yet.  I found a younger couple to sit with (I think we were probably the youngest people there).  Shane and Tonya were their names.  It seems that they are as introverted as I am.  They didn’t make much conversation and I struggled to initiate conversation, but I did eventually ask and learn that Shane is a bug/critter dealer.  He catches things like venomous spiders and scorpions and the like and sells them to buyers that find his internet site.  He says there seems to be a lot of research going on with the venoms for medicinal purposes.  So, now I know who to call now for removal of them when we find them.  After dinner, Wes Studi, the star of the movie we were to watch was there and he spoke a few minutes about his experience as an actor and answered some questions from the audience.  The movie was Geronimo also staring a young Matt Damon, Gene Hackman, and Robert Duvall.

Saturday and Sunday I attended a Firewise seminar.  I am now a certified firewise assessor.   See http://www.firewise.org if you are curious about the program.  Essentially, we learned about how to protect homes from wild fires.  It was held at the firestation and I happened to be sitting in a location surrounded by people associated with the local voluteer portal rescue / fire service.  During one of the breaks Saturday, the gentleman sitting next to me approached me and said:  “You should join the fire department”.  My response:  “Uh…  Okay”.  At the end of the class Saturday, he introduced me to the chief and fireman who were sitting in front of me as someone who wanted to join the service.

I chatted a bit with John, the fireman who was sitting in front of me.  He invited me to training next weekend.  I explained that I was under some time constraints as I committed to be out of my spot in the RV park by Jan 27.  He understood.  Seems that he also built his house via  alternative construction methods – using straw bales and is off grid.  I also chatted a bit with the fire chief.  He was asking about my construction plans.  He also lives south of Rodeo somewhere.  I didn’t recognize the road name.  Sooo… I’m thinking once I get settled on the property, I will likely get some training and be a volunteer fire fighter.  Believe it or not, being a volunteer fireman is something I have considered in the past.  I just got an email and see there is a board meeting Wednesday night.  I think I will go.

Class got out early Sunday so I reached out to Rick via his wife Laura (I didn’t have Ricks number) to see if he could come help redo the wall.  He wasn’t available.  I headed to the property to contemplate the details of the wall retro fit and work on marking locations for the water tanks.  I expect Victor to be contacting me sometime this week to meet out there to discuss details so he and his crew can get to work on it.  After developing a plan for the wall, I started working on mark the land.  I didn’t get very much done when I heard Rick driving up the road.  I quickly changed gears to start preparing to retro fit the wall.  We pulled the inverter back off the wall, mounted 2×4’s to the plywood, attached the cement backer board, then remounted the inverter.  We also hung a sheet of cement board over the inverter as a bit of added insurance.

Today, I worked a bit on the wifi here at the park.  Sadly I didn’t resolve the issues I was working on in a timely manner and felt compelled to move on to get some work done at the property.  I reviewed more documentation on the system to realized that I was sold an incorrect part for the solar panels.  Thankfully, I won’t be needing it right away.  I then moved onto marking the land for the water tanks and RV parking so I can clear the land for a place to park the trailer.

Look at the time.  That 5 hour energy lasted way longer than 5 hours.  Got to get a few hours of sleep.

Night all.

Cary