Thawing out at Catalina State Park, Oro Valley, AZ

Our senior kitty disapproves of moving vehicles, but can't always tell when she's in one.

So nice I had to show you twice. 4X4 - oh yeah.

She ran through our campsite and past the small, fluffy dogs tied up next door.

We laughed at him. I hope that was the right thing to do.

Inviting a rodent for dinner.

This is a very pretty little park. It gets points off for tepid showers with cold air whipping in under the door. Points added for daytime coyotes (not applicable to small, fluffy dog-owners).

There seem to be no day-use capabilities, unless you're renting a pavilion. Camping only. That seems a shame, because there are several very easy-but-beautiful trails to enjoy here if you wanted to stop in for a hike.

I'll risk being Captain Obvious by reminding you that running off your onboard fresh water is a better bet than running a hose in very cold temperatures. Also, take a few pages from the Vandwelling book to stay warm in your RV. Reflectix, or even windshield sunscreens, go a long way to keep heat in. A Mr. Heater running while you're awake provides a comforting and cozy hot spot.

We can't extend our stay here, but we'll sweep off in a huff to another facility with electricity until Arizona decides to act like a lady. We hear she'll be done with finishing school by Wednesday.

~~~~~

Thanks for using our link as your Amazon shopping portal!

And there's no good reason.

I keep thinking about posting, and then it's too hot so I go swimming.  Afterward, I'm too sleepy, so I take a nap.  I wake up hungry so I eat;  immediately after, it's time for a beer and then I'm too drunk.

We're unboondocking here at my mother and stepfather's house.  This is the resort experience.  I tried to lay our black water bladder in the driveway and John almost shot it.  That reads like a non sequitur (Latin: non for "don't;" sequitur for "blog while drinking"), but I mean to say that a black water bladder is a boondocking, not a resort, item.

I don't want to give you the impression things are easy here.  They are, but I don't want to give you that impression.


This critter hangs out with us in the cabana:











but disapproves of this sort of thing:

COMPLETELY unretouched.  I need to eat something.

That's more like it.  I must have been desiccated.

My mom, who is not certain she approves either but tolerates it anyway.


Lily, who approves of nothing.



Annie has not been idle, though! While I was sleeping, she made a new thing:

Take: one long-lasting whiney complaint,
stir in:

Mix with a drill and one Sparky until your set-up looks like this:

and then this:



I wished aloud that there was a DC port in front that ran off the house, not chassis, batteries.  My wishes are magic.

Having learned of the Endless Breeze 12V fan by Fan-Tastic, it was milliseconds before Annie learned she needed it like she had previously only needed fudge.  I can't report on its performance and power economy yet, because we are sucking from the teat of Florida Power and Light.  Later, fully weaned, I'll let you know how it goes.

Also in the mail:  Coolaroo. 

Best resort in Georgia. We have gone to there.

Carrot is done with the sittin'-still life

We had a great time at the wildlife management area, but it wasn't long there before we realized our electrical system was toast.  Not that we could make toast.  Annie worked with what we had, and then got more, but the basic set-up was a wreck.

• Nothing charged from the alternator except the chassis (start-up) battery, so to charge our house batteries while we drove, we ALSO had to run the generator.  What.  
• The generator didn't charge the batteries, either, until Annie plugged the umbilicus into an outlet.  Recap:  The Duck has to be plugged into itself to charge.
• Even with a full battery bank (the 4-6 volts in the back), the inverter kicked out an error code ("bad ground" or "charge overload"), and so none of that power was available for any purpose, AC or DC.

So, phone calls to the electrician were answered within three days, with sub-optimal results:  I thought the generator would charge it.  

This is where the story needs a she-ro, and this story has two.  Annie is always the hero of my story, so you might be bored with that.

Darlene and Downwind Nicole

With the last trickle of battery power in the iPad, I emailed Nicole for advice, because I know she and Darlene are rewiring their van from scratch.  Better than advice, they offered us a posh place to stay, technical savvy AND labor.

The following technical stuff is brought to you by Annie:

The solenoid now has a connection from the starting battery to the house batteries up front, and the battery bank in back.  The system needed a ground, and that was also added.  We didn't change the generator hook-up, because the extension cord serves our needs pretty well, and we had a hierarchy of needs. 

There will be no question-and-answer period.

Representative sample of the day's work

During the most exciting portion of the project (not shown),  Annie (who now wishes to be called "Sparky") arc-welded her ratchet thing to the fuse box.  Several times!  Nicole kept saying don't touch anything!  okay, this time, don't touch anything!  oooh, don't touch anything!  until Sparky said oh!  DON'T touch anything!  There are no photos because the photographer was paralyzed with terror.

"We" spent a little time dropping Darlene and DW Nicole's gas tank so they could repair it.  [It's a bad idea for the documentarist to get too close to the action;  she might get her camera dirty.]  A neighbor came over to introduce herself to us, and remarked to me, "You're not the mechanical type, are you?"

You guys rock!

We had never met DW or Darlene "in real life" before Monday when we pulled in and plugged into all their amenities.  It chokes me up a little to think of the hospitality they have offered when we are could have been weird and dangerous.  Thank you, guys!

From here, we'll travel together to a women RVer's meet-up in northern Georgia.

Solar power the low-tech way.

Sunshine in the Northeast ... everyone look ... NOW.  Oh sorry - too slow.  Sunshine = FREE HEAT DAY!  It's a little technical:

1)  open the curtains
2)  have free heat

Through no planning of our own, our windshield points easty and our big windows point southish, and in that way we accidentally installed passive solar.

Lately (since Monday) we've been tempted by this (it will click through to AM Solar in Oregon, who sells them):





but the 120 W model.  I haven't really thought it through.  Would we use this to charge the big battery bank, or the small house battery up front?  Hold up ... Okay, I just discussed it with Pants, who reasons that we would use it to charge the big bank, which supplies the small house battery, which supplies the small house.

We have a friendly disagreement about the application of solar technology.  One of us would like to install a system right now.  One of us wants to wait until we're somewhere where people install solar systems on RVs instead of  where they say Boy, seems like you could do that somehow.  This intermediate solution might make both of us grin.

If you know anything about this company or this product, we'd like to know what you know.

Pants is home early today with something contagious.  Send tom yum soup wishes.

Foreshadowing.

You know it when you read it.  An involuntary shudder travels up your spine;  you have knowledge that the character should have, but doesn't.

BREAKING unresolved news: the power just went out in the Duck, but not in the house. Inverter won't come on. GFCI keeps tripping, and I can't find the fault. I just know it's not mine.

*If you care what, but not why, resume reading at the next asterisk.  You'll get no judgement from me.

WHAT WE KNEW: The fault was the two inches of water standing in the converter bay.  The converter scratched out its message to the world and converted its last current. No problem! we thought with delicious literary irony. We have battery back-up and a decent inverter in a separate system.  Plus, we have a brand-new converter hooked up - bring it on.  By morning we had no DC action. No lights, no furnace fan, and once we were down, the LP detector kicked us by shutting off all gas for cooking and hot water (because of the low battery action).

The culprit.  Notice droplets;  do not question why the converter would be in a wet bay.

Tight conditions.  Longshoremen blushed while Annie made these repairs.

After Annie Pex'd it up

WHAT WE DIDN'T KNOW:  The dead converter was converting AC to DC power stored in the chassis battery.  Once our house AC was separated from this system, we were living la vida dulce all night on our starting battery.  [Very, very dead.  Permanently dead.]  The fancy battery bank was useless because the (dead) converter converted AC power from the inverter that had already been converted from DC power in the batteries that had been converted from AC power from the house. 


We spent several cold days and nights not actually considering moving back into the house.   We did dishes in the house and showered in the house, and I can't fully explain why we didn't just put ourselves there for a few days.  I can't.  I don't know.  A need to test our mettle?  I DON'T KNOW.  


Annie found two Optima AGM batteries after talking to our electrician.  One is a new starting battery (R.I.P., Diehard) and the other a new coach battery.  We picked up a battery charger (standby converter) and it is hooked up to the coach battery and the stick house AC.  

Starting (chassis) battery

Marine (hybrid) battery

This isn't the endless loop we experienced earlier, when the house AC powered the batteries which powered the inverter which powered the converter which powered the batteries which powered the inverter which powered the converter.  None of that would be a problem without that pesky Newton and his Suggestions of Thermodynamics.  But, it is a double loop.  


* The second converter is fried and it is an essential component in our system as it is configured.  Annie found an Intelli-Power 9200 at Streetside Auto (the best price, plus free shipping) and may or may not install it today.  If she chooses Option A, she will probably install it upside down on the bay ceiling.  


Sometime this week we got full functionality back, after the new batteries were installed and continuously-charged.  Neither of us can remember when, only that it happened and it was wonderful.

I hollered over at Jeana

I said "DON'T LOOK, JEANA!" but it was too late ...



We're ready for it!



I told you the problem with our thermostats, the problem where they don't work. The furnace runs like a well-oiled heating machine, but too often, too long, and too hot. Carolyn suggested pointing a vent at the thermostat, which isn't possible but put us on the right track. If we could localize the heat just around the sensor we could OVERPOWER IT WITH OUR SUPERIOR INTELLECT and cunning mastery of caps lock. Plus, festive, am I right? Maria and MaryGail were impressed with our minimalist decorating.

Still, Annie felt there must be a solution, a real fix, so she kept researching until she found another Bounder owner who resets his thermostats by removing, then replacing, the fuses labeled "ECC" (electronic climate control). She did that last night, and my job today (my only job) was to test it. With the bulbs unplugged, the furnace came on at 61° F (~18° C) and brought a bag lunch. I plugged them back in and they're working again to suppress the sensor. It's so cold in here I can't feel my nose. Success! So sleepy. I'll nap in this snow drift ...

In happier days, we put on this window stuff:




This was the next happy day:



Speaking of happy days, Ralph, I've been taking extra vitamin D for the past two winters to help my mood.



After and before photo

Lily wanted to go out seconds before she wanted to come in:




BREAKING unresolved news: the power just went out in the Duck, but not in the house. Inverter won't come on. GFCI keeps tripping, and I can't find the fault. I just know it's not mine.

Some Systems Go

This week has given us the chance to actually live in the Big Duck, for fun and to test some systems.

• Water: we have a leak somewhere near the shower inlet, so no running water yet
• Electric: yes, both AC (plugged in) and DC (battery power)
• Toilet: yes and no. The composting toilet is partially functional right now
• Heat: both furnaces work
• Cooking: coffee every morning
• Internet: MT (mooch technology) is effective at close range
• Geese: fully functional

We had propane delivered by the local supplier of propane and propane accessories. An electrician is working to install our inverter and batteries (transferred from the Duckette). We have an appointment with our trailer guy, Bill Fletcher, in May. He will fix the leak, install a solar vent shed for the toilet, and fix any problems we discover before then.

The next phase is to put the Duckette on the market and sell it.


Little Carrot is living large and orange here at the Big Duck. Her new moms made heroic efforts to integrate her into their kitty family; they were very sad that it didn't work out. We were sad to see them so sad, but not sad to take Carrot back with us. We found out she loves to ride, so she may do just fine on the road. Quack Carro-ac.

After three days, we brought Lily over.

They ignore each other. We love that.

Physics 102. (Roxi)

Amps X Volts = Watts

Who knew there would be a quiz so much later?

Our ultimate goal is to have a small solar set-up installed on the Duck. Even though this is a "green" area, we've had a hard time finding anyone willing to do this around here. Most solar businesses are familiar with the stick home applications, but solar RVing just hasn't caught on in the Northeast.

Instead, we've decided to buy a smallish Honda generator (reviews say the Honda is relatively quiet) for the trip, and have solar installed when we get somewhere. Arizona is crazy with solar technology, and even bigger with RVs.

Batteries: Unless we plan to plug in every night (we don't), we'll need a battery bank. A solar panel or two can keep batteries charged. So can a generator. So can plugging into shore power. [lingo alert] It's the shore power we want to minimize.

But, how much storage do we really need? This is tricky. I know what we need living here in our house - about 10 kilowatt-hours a day. Batteries are rated in amp-hours. What ... ?

(Amps)(Volts) = Watts

I know the DC system is 12 volts. If I wanted to use the same amount of power that I do here at home, I would use 10,000 watt-hours (10 Kwh) every day. If you stick an "hour" on both sides of this equation, you can make it work. I did. Squeeze the math until it cries.

(Amp-hours)(Volts) = Watt-hours

(Xamp-hours)(12volts) = 10000watt-hours

X = 833 amp-hours

So, we would need batteries that could store 833 AH, and would need to replenish them daily, for this kind of load.

But, this is not an experiment in living the same life we live now. What might we really expect to change?

• propane refrigerator
• propane range and oven
• no dehumidifier
• no cable telephone
• no sump pump
• no Ms. Coffee

We don't have a TV now, so I excluded it in the Change list. It's not an issue for us, but it might be for you.

[You see that we are shifting a lot of the energy to propane. I'm not claiming that this is ultimately greener, only that it permits another kind of economy.]

I really think we could get by on much less, maybe the equivalent of 5 Kwh/day. Less? You out there - tell me what kind of usage you've experienced.