January 29, 2018

Today was a very sunny warm day. The bright sunshine brought the temp up to 85º. In Yuma it really doesn't feel that warm. And in the shade  it's usually 10 degrees cooler. There was a nice breeze all day so that helped keep it comfortable. When I told Mark what the temp was he didn't believe me. hehe

After breakfast and dishes we drove around to many RV resorts. They were all priced higher than where we currently are staying. One was way out of our price range and had NO room between sites to walk between your vehicle and the next camper. What that one did have was a huge amount of activities. None of which we would make use of though. We also went into one that we looked at the day before and are wearing thinking caps now.

No supper on the grill, just a grilled sandwich and lots of talking.

The fan is out of the box.

As we are wintering in Yuma, the sunniest city in the US, we have been taking advantage of our Solar System more and more for our electrical needs. This has lead to reworking some of the system for best results. 

This may be a good time to recap what our Solar System has evolved into. Starting out we had 4-100watt panels with a 40amp MTTP charge controller and 4-6 volt 235 amp hour battery bank wired first in serious and then parallel to product a 470 amp hour 12 volt system.

We now have a 5 panel 560watt system charging the same battery bank. We’ve replaced the original 40amp charge controller with a new 60amp MTTP controller as we were often times pushing the limits of the 40amp charge controller. Also the new charge controller is completely reprogrammable allowing us to tweak it as needed to meet our requirements.

Speaking of tweaking we also permanently installed the 200amp catastrophic air fuse from the battery to the 3000watt pure sine wave inverter, wired a 100amp circuit brake between the solar panel and charge controller and a 80amp circuit brake between the charge controller and battery bank. Were also working to lock down cable connection and reroute wires as needed giving the system a neater finished look and knocking down resistance giving us more power. 

Self note: As taught when electronics were first introduced in the Automotive Industry (yes I am that old) the connections would generate about 80% of the issues one would have with the system. Well they were right as the majority of the issues that have come up with the solar system have been wiring connection related.  

The system we have now supplies electricity throughout the RV for 36 hours. This is without limiting our usage from normal. I would like to reach the point were we can go a full 48 hours before requiring shore or generator assistance to replenish the battery bank. This will require an upgrade to the panels as well as the battery bank. 

Another self note, several park campers, have while walking, by stopped to chat for a while about the system. It seems like one of the first Questions they ask is if I build it and it gives me a feeling of pride to tell them yes, and we start talking about the basics of the system. (There may be a possibility of turning the building of these systems into a part time job as most of the people here have more than enough money to support building one if for no other reason than as a toy. And as here is the place we stay the longest each year might make it feasible.

Does Solar pay off? Our electric bill has been as little as $18 when others around us have been paying around $100 so in the long run it surely could at least pay back the investment. 

We also purchased and installed a power vent fan about a year ago and came to the conclusion that it worked so well at cooling the RV the we also wanted one in the bedroom. So for the last 6 months we have been hauling around the second fan, still in the box, not having enough time to install it. Well that day came yesterday and with a little work of pulling 12 volt wires to the  old vent opening using a aluminum flat bar as a fish (rod for pulling wire thru walls and ceilings) we now have the second power vent fan installed and running above our bed.

The outcome of which is great except for the fact I was taking something for granted. Right after we did the install I went to clean up my tools which are almost always placed on top of a box next to the basement storage compartment while doing this. It has always worked great as the box is just the right height to let the front door swing over it without hitting and make a super place to set things you move in and out of the basement. Well you guessed it I no longer have the box as it was what the power vent came in. I know I could still keep the box but with out it’s contents it became very unstable. 

January 27, 2018

Saturday

A typical morning. We sleep until after 8, have our coffee, head to the internet and kill two hours doing nothing but relaxing the morning away. 

Around 2 we decided to get off of our duff and go into town. We went to Lutes Casino for lunch. When we arrived to that area, we found roads blocked. There appeared to be some kind of celebration. We parked a couple blocks away from Lutes and learned that it was Date Day in town. There is a lot of date growing in the area so they celebrate that crop. There were a lot of people enjoying the food and festivities.

Lutes was packed with people even though there were many food vendors just outside their door.. We were told we would have a 20 to 30 minute wait, but it ended up being just 5 to 7 minutes and we were seated inside.

The “kitchen” at Lutes is just a very small area with a small flat top grill, fryer and prep area. But man on man can they put out food quickly and serve so many. It just blows my mind how they can work in such a small area serving so many people in a timely fashion.  The burgers are very good and one order of french fries can serve 3 people. The fries are hand cut so they are extra good.

After we ate we went outside and walked through the “midway” to see what was all there. Mostly food venders, a few trinket stands and a zip line. Mark really would like to have done that. The cost was $20 for two times. No way was I going to do that. So we continued our way through and to the truck.

Before coming home we drove into numerous RV resorts to check them out. Some of them were way out of our budget. A couple of the resorts were so large that it had street names as well as numbers. A few places were for sale and yes, we even called one just to hear the cost. It wasn’t badly priced, but the lot rent was out of our league.  Those resorts had wealthy written all over them. hehehe But it was fun to see some other parks besides ours and the ones right beside us.

January 26, 2018

During the night, which was rather chilly, the propane tank emptied. Mark said it went out around 4 am, but he just rolled over and went back to sleep. LOL By the time we got up it was only 60º inside. He then flipped the switch on the tanks and the full one started our furnace back up. In no time the new furnace heated up the place nicely.That being said, getting the empty tank filled was added to our to do list.

After a  nice egg bake for brunch we headed out to do our errands. First stop was to fill the propane tank. This year the price didn't go up in January, but I'm sure that will change as I see that gasoline prices are rising. I'll bet there is a lame reason for that to happen. Just another lie from the rich and worthless. After the tank was filled we took the tank back home and headed to WM.

The Walmart in the Yuma foothills, where we live, is always always so busy. It seems not many want to drive into the city to shop. If we don't need much we go to the WM here in the foothills too. If we  we need more of a selection to choose from we go into the city to shop at that WM, which is much bigger. Anyway, we filled the cart and then the truck and headed home.

Just as we got out of the truck at home, a car parked right behind us and kept asking us if we were from Minnesota. It took us a minute to realize they were talking to us and that we knew the couple.

We met the couple when they were out on their daily walk one day and stopped by our campsite, in Hutch. That was the year we were going to be heading out on our adventure. They also stopped to see us last year when we came back to Hutch to visit. Deb said she likes to follow our travels on our blog. What a wonderful surprise. It was so great to see Bruce and Deb, and that they made the extra effort to stop and see us in Yuma. They have both now retired and live in Surprise, AZ. They are in the process of looking at RV's to do some traveling in the US as well. Happy trails to you, Bruce and Deb.

After they headed back to their home, I went inside to tackle putting away all the groceries. It looked like WM had thrown up in the kitchen. hehehe It eventually got put away and then it was time to start supper.

Another great day in Yuma, Arizona
And as always, it's an adventure.

January 25, 2018

January 25, 2018

The weather has been very pleasant, upper 60’s to low 70’s during the day and upper 40s to low 50’s at night. But from checking the weather this morning I see a warm up is on the way. Darn, I liked the 70’s. With the warmer temps strong winds will back again too. Fickle weather this winter.

The pain in my neck has left, for now. Now I’m dealing with pain in my shoulder and elbow again. Time to call the orthopedic doctor again. The shot I got last time didn’t help at all. So now it’s plan b, whatever that will be, I have no idea. But I don’t want to wait too long and it can’t be fixed easily.

Today we went to the huge RV show in Quartzite. Wow were there people. We had to park way back and walk a couple blocks to get to the tent area. That is where we started our viewing. So much to see and information to gather. We now are members of the Escapees and are dropping Good Sam. I’ve read a lot about this group and the couple at the show was very informative. They also have a mail forwarding service that we are going to look into. We don’t want to take advantage of our good friends Harlan and Kevin forever. They have been great.

There were booths for work camps, rv supplies and repairs and even kitchen tool demo’s. I was asked to come into a booth and have some make up put on. Reluctantly I agreed to her putting on some face make up. I told her that if my face didn’t itch or feel crawly in half an hour, I would come back and buy it. To my amazement I forgot it was even on my face. So at the end of our booth excursion we went back and I am now the proud owner of some really great make up. 

We toured many 5th wheels and motorhomes. One we went into had the price tag of $729,250. Oh my goodness did it have bling. What it didn’t have was storage or counter space in the kitchen. Nope, I wouldn’t trade our older 5th wheel for that one. I don’t need bling, I like storage and functionality much better. But even the newer 5th wheels didn’t impress us. We have twice the storage inside and kitchen work area, than any of the newer models. Yep, I’ll stick with the home that we have now. But it was fun to see what was out there now. Mark got some good information on a unit for showing us the amp usage of our solar system. It would be nice if we had a better idea of what we are using and what we have left on the battery charge. He is tweaking what we have now to save money. So we will see what happens

Lola was home all day and judging by the heat radiating on my recliner seat, she slept there all day long. We didn’t get home until after 5 and she had been a very good girl. She has been a wonderful travel dog. She loves to go for rides in the truck and after a few excited little whines, she lays  down on the back seat.

As always, it’s an adventure.

January 24, 2018

This week didn’t start out very good for me. About two weeks ago I had to go to ER because of extreme pain in the neck and shoulder area. It took 5 hours before we left there. Not good waiting that long when you are in pain. But the doctor did finally see me and after 10 minutes with him I learned that I had a pinched nerve to do the discs losing the cushion between them. I was given strong pain pills and an anti  inflammatory pills. It took days to get better and now just under two weeks I am in pain once again. Thankfully with the help of the pills I now have, the pain is somewhat under control. I still cannot sit  or do much of anything for a very long period of time and I have to head back to my recliner and relax the neck muscles. Laundry day today and it can not wait for me to get over the pain. Mark will be learning the art of doing laundry in a laundromat.  I’m sure he’s not looking forward to that, but he is good at helping out when I am unable to do what I need to do. He doesn’t complain at all.

The weather has been on the cooler side but with sunshine. The highs so far have been in the high 60’s and lows in the mid 40’s. Later this week it will be warming up to the mid 70’s. Not a bad winter in Yuma. The solar is still working well for us. The sad part is when we use solar I don’t get ice for my water. It’s the little things in life. hehe

Can’t sit here any longer, so back to my recliner.

Until next time…..

January 19, 2018

Morning is sunny and a comfortable 54º. This weekend we are in for a very windy and cooler couple of days. The high temps in the mid 60s and winds gusting as high as 30 mph. We will be staying close to home so as to keep an eye on our "Arizona room"  and hope it doesn't get twisted or wrecked. The winds can get mighty strong and come up very quickly.

A few mundane things  need to get done, such as emptying the tanks and softening the water. The water here is so very hard that we need to recharge our softener about every couple weeks. Where as most other places the water will stay soft as long as two months. Hutchinson is the only place it stays soft that long, the other places are more like a month. Last week a neighbor gave us 6 just picked lemons so I plan on making lemon bars while Mark tackles the above mentioned chores. I think I got the better end of the stick. hehe

Later in the day we will head to the Arizona Market place for some fresh fruit. I also plan on getting a frappe' from the Java Gypsy. Man does she know good coffees. Today I might try something besides my usual white chocolate, caramel frappe. Like make it an iced latte'. Either way it will be wonderful. hehehe

One of these days I will get started on crocheting a baby afghan for the new arrival of my nephew and his wife in July. It's been awhile since I've made a baby afghan, so it may take me until then to get it done. My left hand and arm don't work like they used to. But I WILL persevere. hehe

Time to get moving.

January 16, 2018

January 16, 2018

Today I was going to make cookies since it’s a cooler day in Yuma. But as with almost every day, the best laid plans don’t often materialize. So here I am filling my time writing on our blog.

When we arrived in Yuma, in November, it was a very hot day and several days after were quite hot as well. With all intentions of using our solar, the heat kept us from doing so. When the temps reach into the 90’s and you live in an RV or trailer, you really do need the a/c. Temps inside can climb pretty high when the sun is baking away all around you.

The electricity, here, costs 18¢ per KWH, so we try and use our solar as much as possible. Some days the sun doesn’t cooperate  or our needs outreach the supply. That is when we rely on shore power to charge the batteries.  Our first electric bill here was not too bad at all at just under $30 for the month. With the 90º days behind us we were able to use the solar much more. 

We can run on solar from midmorning one day to evening the following day.The following night we use shore power to get the batteries back to full charge.  The charge on the batteries is never left to go any lower than 50% charged. The use of the micro wave is not an option since it is a big pig when it comes to usage of power. We later found that my ice maker is also a bit of a gluten. It’s amazing how quickly you can learn to do things without the use of the oh so nice modern appliances.  And you really appreciate them as well. hehehe Anyway, the next electric bill was down to only $18.90. Some of our neighbors had electric bill of $80 and higher. 

Mark put in a new, larger controller this week, so we have been able to use the solar somewhat longer than previously Evenings, from about 4 or a bit later, the sun is going down and we lose the solar energy. That is also the time we are spending more time inside, either on the computer or watching tv.  So we use more power. To minimize the power usage we turn off the computer when not in use and use the low voltage lights or a battery light that is in the kitchen. By morning after the sun has risen the batteries are charging nicely and we continue with the solar power. By evening of the second day we need to switch back to shore power to charge the batteries back to full. And the following morning we go back on to solar. Mark would get more technical with the description, but I think this is good enough. 

The weather today is nice and cool but the sun is in and out so we are forced to use shore power most of the day. That meant that Mark got bacon for breakfast. hehehe. To make the bacon I use my George Foreman grill, another power pig. Using a fry pan makes to big of a greasy mess that I hate having to clean up. And I’m the one that has to clean up the mess, so no bacon when on shore power, unless we go out to eat. LOL

As always it’s an adventure. 

Jan. 3, 2018

Ok today will be a little more trying than most since we landed here in Yuma.

It is over cast and looks like it will stay that way all day so running on solar to recharge the battery bank is not going to be an option today. Good thing we have shore power or we would be running on the Generator.

As part of our maintenance schedule I will be going up on the roof to clean the solar panels again as the last time up there they were covered in a thick dusting of sand.

Speaking of maintaining the solar system I finally got the 200 amp Catastrophic Fuse install between the battery bank and the 3000 watt inverter. A step I didn't finish during the build of the system. (Relax I had it fused just not the way I wanted it done.)

The alarm went off so we have just run out of propane 9:45am. At least it's not in the middle of the night like most times..........hehehe. Cindy went out and switched the tank regulator control to our spare tank so we will be headed to the site we usually get our tanks filled some time today.

Bummer as we have almost always pulled up and either filled right away or the line was short. Well as mentioned the SnowBirds are coming here now and as of yesterday when we drove by the cars and trucks waiting in line to get propane tanks filled was all the way out to the street. I am sure it will be no different today! Yes they do have many alternate propane sites but there will be a line at all of them.

On another note put up our Internet Repeater a few days ago but will be taking it back down today. I can not join the network here as they have that blocked and pulling internet from another site across the FreeWay gets me only dialup speeds.

Yes that is right I am old enough to remember dial up speed days. Not only do I remember those days, I use to set my alarm for 3am so I could download free software apps from Germany. I would then post them to my Bulletin Board Service (bbs).

Now I bet most of the readers of this have no idea what a bbs is. Think of a bbs like a local subzoned Internet before the Internet became public. People would call up my bbs using a phone line and modem with their computer, log into my computer system and do what you normally would do on the internet.

Trust me at the time it was a lot of work and fun at the same time. I truly miss those days as computers have played a very large part of my life. But that is a whole nother story.

It's Always and Adventure!

A rocky start to the new year

Happy New Year.

We had another quiet NYE. Just a nice supper of lobster tails for Mark and a grilled T-bone for me. A couple drinks and off to bed. The new year comes no matter if I am awake to see it in or not. I much prefer to sleep.

Last Friday I woke up with the start of a stiff neck that gradually got worse as the day went on and that turned into a very painful pinched nerve and muscle spasms. After putting up with it and much help from Mark, I went into ER on Monday. After a 5 hour wait and several tests I was given pain pills and anti inflammatory pills.  Our dear friends Bettie and James took Lola to their house and while we were gone. PTL for their kindness.

Mark got a bit of a taste of the little things I do throughout the day, since he had to do them. I was so grateful for his help and he still has to help with some things. I was told to not do anything if it hurt, and some movements are  still quite painful. It’s a good thing that he loves me because this looks to be a very slow hearing process. :(

The weather has been pretty warm for the start of the new year, but the next several days will be cooler and much more to my liking. The high 60’s and mid 70’s are ideal for me.

We have been running the solar most days. But for some reason it seems that the controller isn’t functioning properly and not enough power is being put out. Mark has been looking into that and may have come to a solution. But a bit more research needs to be done before a purchase is made. With Yuma being the sunniest place in the US we should have more solar power if things are working correctly. I know Mark will get it all figured out.

As always, it's an adventure.