BEEN A MINUTE

I haven't posted to this blog since the middle of April. Part of the reason is that we only recently got internet out here in the wild.

I hooked up with Rural Internet Connections (RIC) and they are GREAT!! Great service, great people, just great everything. I had considered Elon Musk's StarLink, but kept hearing negative reviews.

RIC doesn't use satellite. Instead they are using cell phone towers near the point of service. I never have any lag time. Haven't tried to watch a movie yet, but I did watch some of Thursday Night Football 9/19 without a problem.

If you use RIC through the link above, please give them my name as your resource. I get a $50 referral fee for your kindness.

WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON?

The lack of internet became a problem when we were "forced" to move out here instead of travelling back and forth from our house in Stockton. We got a dog and Gracie's brother got one from the same litter. We were taking ours back and forth with us, because 'Boots' liked to ride.

However, Bob's dog would get sick and would not ride. Bob left the 40 to take a job in heavy costruction and Gracie was loaded with the care for the dogs.

BOOTS as a pup @3 months

Of course, Boots is much larger now at almost 10 months old. She is an Anatolian Shepherd/Ackbasch mix which makes her a great livestock guard dog.

We have no live stock as yet for her to guard, so she runs the fence by the house all night long barking into the dark. I swear she sees nothing, but then, her eyes are probably better than mine.

Her sister, Ana keeps her company while they patrol throughout the night. Boots has a cat friend we brought from Stockton. They get along famously.

'Bubba' has open wounds around his ears and Boots keeps them clean without a fuss from the cat.

We have come quite a ways since my last post, but to us it seems rather slow.

I have begun the addition of the "wet room" which is for the laundry, shower and toilet. Where you see the steps is open deck and to the right of that is the room being framed in. 

Today (9/20) I was supposed to be doing the rafters, but that side of the house is burning hot with no breeze. So, I've taken the time--at Gracie's suggestion--to write this post.

I did manage to get one rafter up and secured, though.

It took me quite some time to get our power situation under control so that it functions well. We are not yet set up for solar, so I use a generator to recharge the batteries.

On days when we do not have to use the fans for air movement, we can go 24 hours to the next charge, which only takes a little less than an hour. If the fans have been on—like today—it will take a little more than two hours to recharge the battery bank.

Right now all we have are LED lights, a refrigerator and the fans. When Gracie bakes, the igniter for the oven draws power for a moment.

When I first started, I only had two batteries. They are 250AH, 12-volt batteries. It seemed that my inverter may have been too powerful for just the two, so I added two more. Now I know I will have enough battery power when we are able to get a soler set up.

Part of the problem I was having can be seen between those two batteries in the front. That charger was entirely too small and it was taking more than a day and a half to recharge the bank. I now have an 80Amp charger which gets the job done much faster.

Also, we now have hot water for our shower. We were strictly dependent on the sun to warm the water and that was not much of problem. 

However, we are entering the Fall season and not every day is as hot as today. Therefore, a way to have a warm shower has become a necessity for our old bones. 

It has its own shower head, but it was broken during the second day of use. It fell onto the wooden floor and busted apart. The company said "We can't help you."

So, while the CampLux is a good way to provide hot water for your camping or primitive setup, it is necessary to be EXTRA careful with it. 

Also, the water temperature seems to be a little hot for Gracie's comfort, but we cannot lower the temp. Other than that, it is nice not to be forced to take a cold shower. 

Why does a cold ourdoor shower only last 3 minutes, but a warm indoor shower lasts for more than 20 minutes?

That is about all the news that fits the print for now.

Thanks for hanging in there with us as we move forward on this journey into AdventureLand.