A Quiet Day for Me

WHERE ARE WE? Road Runner BLM, Quartzsite AZ

This morning was kind of a ladies coffee time although I was kinda there too just on the outside listening.  They spent and hour or so taking in the warm sunshine and discussing what they discuss.

Susan has been hard at work transforming our kitchen into a happy place.  Although the dark wood colours of the cabinets looks rich, we are not that kind of folks and like the lighter happier theme.  Now you may ask, why did you buy it with dark in the first place.  Right from when we first looked at this MH, Sue had her eye on changing this and that so the colours were not an important part of our decision to buy Percy.  Today she did the base white coat on the bottom cabinets.  She will finish the staining tomorrow.

I had decided that today I would just relax and lay around as much as possible to see I can get rid of this back problem.   Laying around is a tough thing for me to do because I always think of some little thing that I didn't do and jump up to do it.  But I did force myself to stay quiet for quite a while.

I did manage to join happy hour at Tom and Debs in the afternoon for a little while.  Tom showed me his tire covers that he bought.  When you stand back you would never know he had tire covers on.  How neat is that!!  I have always hated the traditional tire covers so have not used any.  Maybe these can work for me.

They have a couple straps in the back.

Its made of a thick vinyl type material

Well another day drew to a close and the sun went behind the mountain once more.  Its been a good day again in the desert. 

The view out my window tonight is the Jeep again.  It keeps moving to different windows.  Good Nite!!

Project Done and Thanksgiving

WHERE ARE WE? Road Runner BLM, Quartzsite AZ

And we have power!!!!  Ok this is the day you have all been waiting for.  The day when I can finally say that the power is on and the project is 95% complete.  Yes there is a bit of tiding up to do but the power part of the project is complete.  I just had to wire up the inverter this morning and it was done.

Inverter in place

Turning the switch on!!

Now comes the payback part.  The project cost a little over $4000.00 US which was significantly more than when we did the Ponderosa, however we didn't need and inverter and batteries for that project but we did for this one.  And of course with this project I broke down and installed 2 - 230AH Li Time Lithium Batteries.  We will certainly need to boondock for a long time to get a payback on the expense, but the feeling of freedom you get when you just let the good Lord fill your batteries everyday is priceless.  Ironically it is Thanksgiving here in the states today so I can be thankful for a project completed!!  To celebrate, we had a big turkey dinner.  Deb and Tom ordered a complete meal for all of us from Coyote's grocery store.  They prepare meals for you to take home and warm up and this was delicious.  Everyone else chipped in a dessert and we dined like kings and queens.  Thanks to everyone who came and made the day a pleasant one.  Happy Thanksgiving!!

Riley, Bill, Deb K, Deb D, Sue, Patsy, Kim, Ken, Tom and me.

We were just finishing up supper when a pickup stopped by the wash and a guy got out and grabbed his chair and came over to join us.  It was Ivan who is from Alberta and is old friends of Deb and Riley and Tom and Deb.  I had met Ivan many years ago at a Bloggerfest here in Q, but had not seen him since.  I do follow him on his blog Road Trip 2017.  It was good to see him again.

Today was not a good day for my back.  I think I need to just relax for a while and let it heal.  Today I just could not get comfortable sitting or standing, so I just ate and ran.  I went home to bed about 5 pm and stayed there for the rest of the day and night.  I did manage a sunset picture.

And my view out the window/door was good old Archie keeping an eye on me.  Good Nite!

 

Dani has Surgery Today

WHERE ARE WE? Road Runner BLM, Quartzsite AZ

This morning was surgery day for our grandaughter Dani.  When she was little she fell and broke her nose and ever since she has had difficulty breathing through her nose.  The surgery had to be delayed while she was still growing but they now feel it is a good time to fix it.  I am so excited for her as she will hopefully be able to breath through her nose again!!  We were texting Sheri before, during and after the surgery and everything went well.  She is done and discharged from hospital with a stop at McDonalds for the 2 hour trip home.  I'm sure it will be a bit painful for a while but in the end I think it will be worth it.  Love you Dani!!

Well we are coming to the end of the solar install.  I bet you are glad that you won't have to hear about it any more.  Today we hooked up the panels to the controller and to the battery and installed the shunt.  I had to move a few wires around to make it easier to run the new wiring but it was all successful.  By 5 pm I had it all finished and we threw the switch!!!  

I'm sort of a messy worker.

Getting the Shunt installed and some wire work

This is where the Inverter will go tomorrow.  All wires are ready.

In the battery box where the controller red light is glowing

Archie is glad the step is back in place for the night.  Now he can go out.

Time to clean up the tools and call it a day.  Not much left to finish now.

Well would you look at that!!  We have contact.  I know there is not much charge happening but guess what?  The sun had already gone down.  We will see what it reads tomorrow.

Here is the view out the back window tonight.  Good Nite!!

A Movie in the Desert!

WHERE ARE WE? Road Runner BLM, Quartzsite, AZ

My days all have that Solar overtone because I do a little more each day.  No different today.  It took all day to do a couple hours work.  First off I got the solar controller mounted way back in the back of the battery box.  Also mounted the cut off breaker.

The wires from the solar panels on the roof are run down just behind the edge of the slide so it is hidden.  I will tuck it in nicely where no one will see it later.

The hole is for the solar shut off switch.  To get the wires to it I had to use a little ingenuity to lengthen my drill bit to drill a hole in the back of the cabinet.  

Another shut off switch goes in the hole.

I spent a little time getting some of our Jeep ducks ready to hand out to any Jeeps we might see.  It is kinda fun to get Ducked!!!

We had planned to do an outdoor movie tonight if the wind stayed down which it did.  We have our big blow up screen and projector with us so we got it all set up with a 6:30 showtime scheduled.  Bill and Patsy joined us and Tom and Deb brought the popcorn.  Ken and Kim, Deb and Riley were with us as well.

The movie tonight is "The Long Long Trailer" starring Lucille Ball and Dezi Arnaz.  It is a very fitting movie for a bunch of RV'ers out in the desert.  A lot of us have never seen this movie before so it was fun!  It did get a little chilly near the end of the movie but everyone grabbed a blanket and got comfortable.

It reminded me of days gone by when we all went to the drive in for a movie.

Earlier when I was setting up there was a nice sunset happening.  What a great day!! Good Nite!

A Little more work on the Solar Installation

WHERE ARE WE? Road Runner BLM, Quartzsite AZ.

I plugged away at some more things Solar today.  I have troubles staying at it with my back still acting up.  As long as I can work standing up or laying down, I am fine, but a lot of what needs to be done is in a cabinet which requires sitting.  So I work a while and rest a while.  Good thing I am on no specific schedule, other than I want it done before the weekend.  Today I fished a few wires around and cut a vent hole in the stairs where the inverter will be mounted.  

Wood lining for the inverter box

A hole in the step

And a vent over the hole

Susan is starting a project to redo the kitchen cupboards to lighten things up.  There is soooo much dark wood in here, it some times feels a bit dungenee!  She is doing that stressed wood look like she started in the Ponderosa.  I think it will look very nice.

With Microwave removed she started the painting.

A quick shopping trip in the late afternoon and we were set.  Half a pie for 10 bucks US.   I'm gonna eat this one slowly.

We have a nice little community here now with Deb and Tom at the end, Ken and Kim next, Deb and Riley and of course us which you can't see!!  There is room for lots more.

The view out our front window tonight.  Good Nite!