|
|
|
|
|
As we pulled into our driveway after a six month absence, we could see immediately that our Prius did not look happy. It was covered with with layers of light brown wind blown dust that had not seen a good solid rain perhaps for the entire hot summer and fall. 
Likewise the solar panel array, which would prove to be a foreboding tell of the low grade pain and misery to follow. And yet, as if to accentuate this scenario, the sky was overcast a dark cloudy rainless grey; it too a tell of things to come.We took the car in for a wash the next day. Eventually I did also wash down the solar panels with some new fallen snow. Washing dirty panels will always improve reception, though in this case it was not quite enough. Air Travel Mystery:This overcast scenario had actually begun two days before when we arrived at Logan Airport to be told that our dog Molly did not have a ticket. This is not possible; I always get this stuff done way ahead of time, print-outs in my bag, ready to fly, figuratively anyhow. I am good at that. No ticket for Molly!? I am standing there in the middle of a busy airport totally confused, with wife and flight personnel staring at me and dog in cage and carry-ons weighing me down, with nowhere to go and no clue how to get there. I give my card to the waiting lady and ask her to fix it. H. L. Mencken once said: "The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom." H. L. Mencken was a wise man. 
We spent the night at a motel that takes dogs. A United guy in the central kiosk had set it up and directed us to the right shuttle.At 6:30 in the morning we were at the United Cargo building in Logan. I filled out the forms and handed them back to the busy girl. She and another covered Molly's cage with labels and dragged the cage with a patient Molly inside into the adjacent Personnel Only warehouse, and we left. The motel's limo driver was still waiting for us, to our relief, and he took us to United Departure. I gave him a good tip. 
We were in our seats. The doors were closed and the plane was preparing for takeoff. Our seat belts were buckled. I was dozing against the window.Eileen's phone rang. Suddenly she was up in the air and saying that we had to get off. Molly was still in the Cargo building; not in the cargo hold below us. We had not paid for her ticket and they were waiting for us to return. I handed Eileen my card. She tried to give the girl my card number, but they are not allowed to do that over the phone. Then the head flight attendant and the pilot were involved. Eileen was in the aisle and wanted OFF. NOW! The pilot made some quick calls from the cockpit and the bill got paid. The plane departed on time. Later on, the attendant brought us a fax showing that Molly was booked on a flight that would depart three hours after ours. 
While waiting for her in Los Angeles that afternoon, we went to the nearest Wal-Mart and loaded up on paper towels, cleaning supplies, water, dog food and new bedding for her cage, knowing that whatever she was lying on would be saturated.It was. I dropped it into the nearest dumpster and took her for a long walk on a big green lawn outside the Cargo fence while Eileen cleaned the cage. Molly was fine; no problems; she was glad to see us. We were not fine. To this day, nine months later, I am still hearing about it. I think that what happened is that after booking our flight a month or so in advance, I went to United's PetSafe web site just to make sure that everything was as expected, ie: weight limits, price, etc., and found something that did not even come close to what we had done in the past. In previous years we would arrive at the check-in counter where we would pay the pet fee as Molly in her cage would be placed on the conveyor belt along with the luggage. She would end up in the belly of the plane beneath us, which is good because she can sense by smell that we are there. This time it appeared as though we were supposed to fill out some kind of form to book her. I assume that at that point I decided to deal with it later, closed the web page and forgot to return. Solar Depression:As to the foreboding days to come, I have already written about it and it is called Solar Down. You will find it on our main Joshua Tree page for 2012 that you can back up to by clicking on a button at the top left of this (or almost any) page. I believe that the worst of it is behind us, since at this moment a professional is putting together an estimate, or will be when he gets back from Burning Man in Nevada. 
Basically, it refers to waking up almost daily to no power. This was after having installed a bank of sixteen of the very best and very expensive deep cycle solar batteries to replace the previous bank of twelve good but not the best deep cycle batteries - also replaced because we were waking up almost daily to no power. Playing into all this was our having gradually increased the demand on the batteries with the addition of "insignificant" devices such as web cams, water pumps, more lamps, a better microwave, etc.. 
The ultimate explanation is that the four solar panels were simply not enough to fully charge the battery bank. This seems obvious now, but for some reason it never really clicked and settled into my head until recently. It had crossed my mind now and then, but only as a fleeting glimpse as I desperately tried every other possibility. 
Replacing twelve batteries with sixteen only made things worse, because now each battery was getting even less of a charge. Well, that is pretty darn obvious too, isn't it? Not to me. Not until about a month ago when the pro, Dan Pritchett, looked my system over and told me about it, which is when I basically said "Okay! Fix it!". But not really even then until a complete stranger showed up on the web site's message board, the two men having no knowledge of what the other had said because I had not yet transcribed their email and message to the web site. Somehow Pete Saflund said it in such a way that this slow little brain was able to put it together and UNDERSTAND what everybody was saying. Reflection:So again I am recognizing an old friend - me; a lifetime of occasional but total groping confusion during the learning process until enlightenment hits. It played hell with my test scores in schools and college, both of which I quit in confused frustration without getting that precious degree. However, regarding the former, I did return later on to take the state's GED exam and obtained a high school degree from that. The Marines taught me electronics which I never really understood in depth, but managed to fake until I was freed, but this time with a degree of sorts and an honorable discharge. Then there was the learning to program computers which completely escaped me until a professor, Robert VanKiersbelk, was able to hit me with it in such a way that I suddenly got it, and then was able to focus and flow with it, pretty much for the rest of my life; even today. If I recall correctly, out of a class of thirteen, ten of my classmates gradually disappeared before graduation. I got that Certificate too. At some point I finally came to the realization that on anything I want to do, to just have faith - in myself. To trust that my mind is assimilating whatever it is that I am trying to figure out and that at some point it will come together and I will suddenly understand, and that understanding will be deep. That was a life changing discovery. It released me from the lifelong pressure of trying to find out what was wrong with me; that in fact there was nothing wrong about it; it was what was right, for me; this worked and it allowed me to do well at what I do, in spite of the consequences (it drives others up the wall). Broken Pipe Dream:
Then there was January 14, 2013 when our pipes froze and burst. Read about that under Problem on the main Joshua Tree page. Almost exactly six years before, we had also experienced a burst pipe. That was on January 17, 2007. At that time there was only one pipe to break; no water heater, no shower. It was an easy fix. This time, I got the message. I decided to line every pipe with heat tape. This is a low wattage flexible cable with a thermostat that automatically kicks on and warms the water in the pipe when the temperature drops to 38 degrees. (Note how I so easily put more demand on the solar system.) 
I needed to know how long the pipes were, how many there were, and where they were relative where I would plug the cables into the electrical system. Oh, and they were mostly down under. I had no interest in crawling under everything to measure the pipes. I have been under there too many times for various reasons and it was no fun.I concluded that I would rather tear apart the deck, board by board, to measure from above. I would then want to put together some kind of permanent record of the results so that I would never have to do this again. Dream Machine:My mind wandered into developing a CAD image of the entire deck - trailer rack - utility house - shower, including all wiring and plumbing. I had seen these concepts on various documentaries and such, which I had found fascinating. I would be able to look at a CAD image of everything from any angle, gracefully flip it over and look at it upside-down. I would pay nearly anything to be able to do that - mortgage the house, sell the car; whatever it took. I went looking. I found SketchUp, hosted by Google, created by Trimble. I fell in love. It was exactly what I was looking for, and it was free. Good old Google; they had broken another major expense barrier and provided something beautiful and simple in return. I had never even heard of it! Read about that under SketchUp Fix on the main Joshua Tree page. A lot of the deck boards got pried up in the process which, in and of itself, was a good thing because those somewhat loose finishing nails got replaced by nicely tight carpenter's screws. This made the deck considerably stronger and would also provide for easy access as needed down the line. Also the redwood boards that had split over the years got replaced or glued back together.
How's It Hangin':During that period, I also replaced the tankless water heater, so it ended up in the sketch too. In doing so, I needed to change its manner of support. I had been puzzling over this for some time. In the beginning, I had designed the trailer rack to cradle the trailer at its axle and at its tongue, without anything actually being locked in. This would allow it to simply bounce in an earthquake, and then settle back into place. All rigid pipes and initial loose wiring were brought up above the axle where the slight twisting and turning bounce would be at its minimum. Likewise, the new carport was also attached only to the deck and rack frame; not the trailer. 
Then in a moment of laziness,
the first water heater was attached directly to the exterior trailer wall. Its two water pipes and its drain pipe were attached to and locked into the deck, so as the deck would bounce one way and the trailer another, the water heater would be ripped from the trailer wall. This in fact would probably be insignificant since only one screw held it to the wall, with the three copper pipes carrying the weight. However, it still bothered me.
Wandering around Home Depot, I discovered an idea. A First Alert steel fence panel, 93" X 32". Perfect. I brought it home and stood it on end behind the new water heater. Where steel inserts would have attached it to a post, I attached it to the deck. The other end projected up into the carport shell where it stands now loosely attached by a nylon rope. When I return, I will either attach it to the carport frame or I may just remove the perhaps unnecessary rope. The water heater is firmly attached to a fence picket above with a steel U-bolt and turnbuckle, which probably serves more to lock the fence panel into place rather then to support the water heater. Creating Space:
Before the freeze-up, I had begun building an 8x12 elevated platform to carry an 8x10
LifeTime shed, made in the USA and purchased from Homedepot.com.On a gentle slope, the rear left corner was about an inch off of an immovable bedrock boulder, while the opposite front right corner was nearly four feet off the ground. I had left this literally hanging for two months while I went to work on the deck/plumbing sketch, repair and heat tape installation. 
To all Prius owners: you may be glad to know that you can drag a boulder around. There are four sturdy rings underneath that were probably put there to tie it down during a transatlantic voyage and/or for attaching to an 18 wheel tractor trailer.I needed to move a small boulder. It was getting in the way of my work on the platform. I thought of moving it with pry bars, as I had done a few times in the past. But then I began to wonder about another approach. I got on my knees and looked under the Prius and there were four rings hanging down. All I needed was one. I wrapped a chain around the rock, hooked it up and dragged it down the driveway. Then every so often over the next few weeks I would hit it with a sledge hammer and chisel, break off a chunk, dump that at the bottom of the driveway where some fill was needed, and broke it up into smaller chunks. The Prius tires would then pulverize it as I drove into town and back. It was while swinging that sledge hammer over my head that I slipped and fell on my butt. It kind of smarted for over a month. My brand new Canon camera was in my rear pocket and got smashed by the hurting tailbone, which is why you may have noticed a surprising difference in quality between the newer Canon shots and the older Sony shots that I had to revert to while the former was off in the mail being replaced. 
I then completed adding six 4x8 inch reinforced posts on concrete footings to the platform.
A seven step staircase, also on concrete footings, had to be sturdy enough to support maybe four guys and a 400 pound generator, if necessary. 
On April 27 at 1:30 in the afternoon during my nap, my cameras recorded a powerful whirlwind blowing through. It carried the eight foot box covers away and whipped the unfinished shell of the shed around violently. The shell did not break. I eventually found all of the box covers, one nearly a quarter mile away. I put the video recordings on YouTube. It even includes some Quail chicks running for cover. 
A nice pair of redwood railings on the staircase completed this phase. I will extend these around the platform after I return. 
When the shed was done, it was real nice being able to create badly needed space as I moved stuff out of the utility house, the shower and the Dodge van into the shed.All propane tanks no longer needed for heat were moved into the shed. Having nowhere to safely store the propane over the summers had always been a nagging concern of mine. Should any of the famous summer wildfires actually approach our place, they won't find those tanks close enough to explode and destroy everything. A 100 gallon propane tank does sit on the deck next to the water heater, but at least it will be visible to the firefighters and they can remove it. 
However, I have made a point of gathering up any loose dry dead brush on or near our property and burning it in a safe pit (after a rain) so that it cannot become fuel for a wildfire.I was gratified to see my neighbor Tom hire a guy to take all of his dead brush away. Also, while all those deck boards were pried up, I reached underneath with the shop-vac and pulled out as much of the flammable twig accumulations as I could reach, for the same reason. Since the van is no longer needed for storage, I am going to sell it ASAP. I stopped using it to transport lumber long ago and canceled the insurance and registration. It is simpler and cheaper to rent a Home Depot truck for one hour, which is what I have done for the last few loads. 
The proposed propane generator in the shed will be wired underground to the solar system in the utility house. If the power gets too low because the solar panels are unable to adequately charge the battery bank, the generator will automatically kick in and charge them. It will be fueled by two interchangeable 100 lb propane tanks and it should prove to be relatively quiet and clean, though it will be vented. Ideally and hopefully, it will rarely be needed. Festivities:With all that was going on, and all that was not going right in December, this was the wrong time for Christmas. What I really wanted to do was sit there and stare at everything on the remote possibility that everything might suddenly start working right. The last thing I was interested in was celebrating; trying to have fun; ugh! My thoughts about this were being ignored. 
I guess the festivities began on Thursday the 13th. Palm Springs was hosting a reliably fun street festival. We enjoyed the afternoon down there and then dinner at Las Caseuelas Terraza, also reliably good, before returning up the hill. A week later, we were visiting Eileen's son Jody Kerr and family in Tempe, AZ. Eileen dispensed a trunk full of gifts to granddaughter Tanith and grandson Jensen and a soft white hand-knitted baby blanket for pregnant Tiffany. We brought home a collection of home-made jellies, pickles and beef jerky. 
We spent one night at home on the 23rd, with a nicely compact Christmas tree-in-a-box and ornaments-in-a-tube that we had found at Home Depot, a nice place to go Christmas shopping. It actually looked pretty good. We then drove from our high desert up a rather precipitous mountain road into pine trees and snow, landing at Big Bear Lake. We spent two+ days exploring the community, doing Christmas and playing in the snow. 
Eileen and Molly loved it; just like home. I too found it to be just like the cold and wet encrusted Northeast.We ate breakfast there at Denny's on the 26th and dinner that evening at Applebees back home in Yucca Valley. |
|
|
|
Copyright © 2013, Van Blakeman |
