Solar Power, Country Life and Work

I got brave and posted a couple pictures of my messy living quarters. I have been so busy at work this last week and kinda got behind in the cleaning department. It happens to me like that all the time. But it is quite liveable, I think anyway. I know there are people out there that could'nt even imagine living like this, but I am pretty flexible. So far, things are going great. I still love my country way of life, even though I hav'nt spent a whole lot of time here lately. Last month when worked asked me what my plans where, I was pretty busy moving and all that, so I told them that I would really like to have no work until November. Well I guess they must have thought that what I meant was I wanted to be full bore in November, because that sure seems to be what happend so far. Ever since November 2 I have worked stupid hours. Get up early one morning to go to work, then work about an 8 hour shift, shut down for 8 hours then go back to work at about 10 at night and work all night. I've played around in the mud way out in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night. Had bad directions and ended up going a kilometer down a road that dead ended with no turn around with a 330 cat hoe on. Then just as I start to back out of there for a km a wild snow storm has to hit. Well I'm not whinning, it's just one example of what goes on in my world at times. I sure do wish they would see just what a guy does for them. I don't even really care if am even working or not really. But then when the week is over and the hours are all added up, including the overtime and all, then I'm kinda glad it all happend, but at the time, I'm sure that all the wolves and other wildlife out in the wilderness probably learned some fancy new words. I was'nt a very happy camper at times, being tired and all.

I got all my solar panels up before work called. I am glad for that. At night I run one or two lights through the inverter, my laptop, and whatever needs to be charged (cell phone, drill, camera, etc), I occasionally use the microwave to heat up some food or water and I use a toaster in the morning. So far I have not run my battery bank down to any less than 70%. Roughly about 12.4 volts. I usually don't even get it down that low. I have had an evening where I was on the computer for a few hours and still had 70% battery left. I have not had to start my generator this month yet. Every night that I came home, my batteries were completely charged except for one night. That day it rained practically all day and my batteries still did charge some, but not fully. I still had enough power for the night without the generator. My six panels so far are a bit of overkill for my power demands, although I do see some days in the future where the generator will probably need to be utilized.

I have been around town alot lately with work, so a shower was always available at the truck stops. As an experiment one night I had a sponge bath in the shack, just to see how well that works. I was actually impressed. I would much rather take a shower at a truck stop, but if I don't happen to be near one, then to get cleaned up in my little shack is totally do-able, which is really nice to know.

Sometimes the temperatures fluctuate inside the shack. The floor is a bit cooler and the top bunk is alot hotter. I like the top bunk, but I need to rig up a fan with some kind of reverse thermostat that will kick the fan in at a certain hottness to circulate some of that heat around. I just hav'nt had the time for things like that yet.

This is my basement at the moment. All these pictures were taken this morning. Now if I new, that I had a few days without work bugging me, I would maybe take a chance and try to get some basement walls up and a main floor. I would really like to have the basement built and backfilled before the major cold hits. Keeping in mind that I did'nt skirt the shack in yet and I hav'nt really checked into the weather forcast yet either. If I start cleaning this basement up so I can start to build, I would hope that rain and snow would stay away for a few days(weeks). It seems like a big chore to get things started and then have to cover them all up again at the end of the day.

I just checked out the solar charging system. As I sit here and use the computer, my batteries are showing 13.3 volts. When I got the computer they were at 12.5 volts. It all makes me want to waste some power somewhere. I guess I should have more batteries for days like these.
Usually when I use my laptop, it is using about 29 watts. Right now, and the sun is still kinda hidden behind tree tops and light cloud etc, my charge controller is showing 185 watts. At that rate 185 divide by 29 =6.38, that means that one hour of charging at 185 watts should give me 6.38 hours of computer use. One of my lights run about 13 watts and the light it emitts is equivilant to a 60 watt light bulb. I have plenty light. I have four 80 watt panels and two 75 watt panel. If things were right on, my panels should be capable of bringing in 470 watts, although I hav'nt seen that yet. Since writting this part I posted two new pics of the brains of the system(the top two photos). The sun is still far from its peak performance as it is still rising and not yet in the south.

Sorry about having to let you all witness my mess inside the shack. I kinda wanted to have it all nice a clean before posting the pics but maybe next time. It'll be like the before and after. I realize I have been a little sloppy on leaving comments on other blogs too. I have glanced at quite a few of my regular bloggers, but just did'tn have the time or energy to spend a whole lot of time on it. This morning I am more relaxing than doing things outside so far.

Things are going really well here at the shack. There are some days when I wonder why I am living like this right now, but when I think of the new income(rent income) and the lack of bills going out, it is like they are actually paying me to live like this. Thats what I like. Time will show the difference. My little house that I am in the process of building, is going to feel like a mansion when I finally get into it compared to the shack.

Snow, Batteries, and Solar Panels.

This is the veiw from my door. (Front porch???) I don't know, sometimes I think maybe this is the spot where I should have built my house. To late for that now though.

The building spot is actually straight ahead and between the black trailer and the garage. It will do.
The battery bank. I know, the wiring is a mess, the cables are all different sizes and it is just plain messy. But it works. lol.

Today I was putting some solar panels on the shack. I did'nt get them all up there yet. For a change it did'nt snow all day long and it was pretty warm, but I did have to shovel the roof off this morning so I could do my thing up there. Alot of the snow that used to be up in the trees melted or fell off. Actually today I could hear all kinds of crashing sounds around me with clumps of snow falling from trees and sliding off the garage roof etc. I hope my frozen meat stays that way.

P.S. Still lovin it.

Life is way different now.

I'm just sitting here in my cozy little shack. All 192 square feet of it. And I am loving every minute of it so far. This is where I live, there's no turning back now. Today I just bought 6 new 12 volt deep cycle batteries for the power system. That will be much better than the two smaller ones I was using from the RV. If I want to nuke a cup of coffee with the microwave or make toast with the electric toaster, I just do it. No need to start the gen set right away. I don't have any solar panels up yet, but they would'nt have done much good the last couple of days anyway, with all the snow and cloudy weather. It snowed a bunch yesterday and today here. The snow has alot of disadvantages, but it also has some advantages. Since fall came and the leaves blew off the trees, I sorta lost some of my privacy. But with the new snow, I am totally secluded again, just the way I like it. The snow is making a bit of a mess around my house construction that I want to get moving on again soon. I hate to even uncover anything and start. This whole month was off and on wet and muddy and snowy, so if I were not in the process of moving out, I don't think I would have got much building done anyway. I can't even remember where I left off, but I am sure that it will come back to me soon. I also have a real strong feeling that work is going to phone me right at the beginning of November. I'm pretty sure that I am getting due for all our safety courses (first aid, h2s, whimis, and all that stuff). I am really not looking forward to all that. Who knows, maybe they don't want me there anymore (yaaaahhhh). lol.
I just tried downloading a picture again, and it just dos'nt seem to want to work for me. I even edited the photo first and brought it down to size. I don't know what's going on. My new internet service seems to run not to badly other than that. I'll get it all figured out eventually I hope. I love this lifestyle that I am living right now, even though I find myself really keeping an eye on things like propane, water, power and internet usage. Everything is more work. I now have to wash my dishes by hand, fire up the generator periodically and whatever else.
I can see by using the computer and monitoring my inverter display, that my new batteries are going to make life a whole lot simpler for me. Anyway, thats all for now.

Lots of snow.

Well I am all settled out at the acerage. I do have a mobile high speed internet connection, but I can't seem to upload a photo to my post yet. Maybe the pictures are to large, I don't know. I have been doing a few preparations for winter. Today I put on a propane switch over valve so that the propane will empty a tank and automatically switch over to the full one. My propane system is one concern that I do have with the oncoming winter. We do get some pretty frosty weather here sometimes. It is not real uncommon for the temperatures to drop as low as 40 celcius/ 40 Farenhiet or colder. At temperatures like that propane can quit flowing. I am trying to come up with a simple solution to try and avoid things like that before the time comes. Alot of times all that is needed is a 100 watt light bulb under the covered tank. If I happen to be here then I guess that could be arranged, but if were gone for a couple days, which could happen easily, then I don't know. I'll have to figure something out.
The shack is great. So far it has been keeping me toasty warm at temperatures about 0 celcius/ 30 Farenheit and about 3 to 4 inches of snow. Tonight is supposed to drop to about -9 C/15F. That will be a little bit of a test. It should be good though. This is just a bit of an update, I will get some pictures up soon.

Empty House (Mobile Home)

I don't have the time for a real post at the moment. I have been living out at the acerage the last couple of days and came into town for a final cleaning on my town property, where I still have an internet connection. The place is pretty empty. So far things are going good at my new arrangement. I will post again soon.

The Process of Moving

I went and picked up a shed that I had stored at one of my brother's place. I used to keep my quad and a garden tractor in it, and my brother would store his garden tractor in it for the winter also. But I went out and scooped it up. I had it parked out in front of my place in town for a week while I was slowly putting alot of my stuff into it. Then I hauled it out to the acerage, tied the skids to a tree and drove away. There she sits, still loaded. Done deal.

I got the mound plumbing all glued up and covered. Hopefully it is all done right.

I put more gravel over the pipes, then a layer of landscaping cloth, then about 3/4 of a big round bale of wheat straw. Over the straw, I put all the dirt from the top layer of my basement diggings. Then I covered it all with some nice topsoil that I hauled in from the new Ritchie Bros Auction site awhile back. I need to touch it up a bit with the quad and a drag of some sort, just to smoothen it all up a bit, then seed it to grass and watch it grow (next summer).

Traction (the dog) is putting it all to the test. Mom was out giving me a hand with this project too, she was a big help doing some raking on the gravel layer, and picking roots out of the first layer of dirt, and of course lunch and other small jobs. I can't even take all the credit anymore. I think I am starting to rely on the help, (maybe not a good thing), but it does get things done alot quicker. Thanks Mom. (I feel like such a slave driver sometimes).

Today was kind of wasted day running around town looking for something, but I don't even know what. Tomorrow I am planning on taking some more goodies out there, and getting started with setting up my tempory home out at the acerage. I hope to have it situated and with some kind of a power source tomorrow. Reality of moving is kinda sinking in lately. I have to admit that I am a little stressed out lately with all that is going on. But on the other hand, I can hardly wait to get out there and get living a totally different way of life. It's going to be interesting.

It's a Sofa's Life.

And then we'll give that worn out old couch a little taste of some snow.