Black-headed Grosbeak

Pictures: I took these shots over the last few year when I can find these birds.

Solar: I have sold some of the left over solar stuff that I had, mostly the parts that I had no way of carrying if I left, solar panels and the batteries. I also sold the Solar controler. Now only the big item is left, which will be harder to sell because it is high dollar item, solar wise that is, and that is the 3500 watt Inverter/charger.

I am loving my system with the 1000 watts of solar panels, it works better with the extra solar!

Night Folks

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Lining things up

Busy Visiting: I have been busy today trying to line up a job for next summer, lots of time talking with the ranger who seems like a great person. Anyways this will be another camp host position. The area I would be hosting has 10 sites and the host site. The host site has electric(from solar array) a waste hook up (dump), but no water, I will have to haul water from the ranger station if I get the gig, but if I get the gig there will be a truck I can use for that, meaning no fuel wasted from me driving my truck.

Pictures of the Host site: Here is where I would be spending my summer. If I get this gig I could be here for 6 months of next year April – October, so we’ll see.

I would still be on solar but I would be stepping up from my 4 panels to this 48 panel array. I think that I could live well off this much power 😀 The only thing I would need to worry about is if the Hosts before me have badly abuse the system and destroyed the batteries, trying to do things like run their AC all day and all night.

The one bad point I see, is that the host site is in the lower part of the camp ground and internet or TV signal is not the best here, so maybe no TV and maybe only 3G for the internet 😦 Even in the higher part of the camp ground (where I am now) I get about 2 bars of 4G internet signal and only PBS for TV.

From everything I see, I would like to do this gig but I am sure there are others that would like to do it too, so we’ll see how things goes.

And that my friends, is what I have been up for today.

Exercise: Just a short walk today. I walked with MapMyWalk+! Distance: 2.28mi, time: 45:25, pace: 19:56min/mi, speed: 3.01mi/h. Added some stretching.

Night folks

New location

New Location: Feels good being on the road again 🙂 Here is my new parking spot for now. If you follow my blog you know it is a favorite spot of my, just a beautiful area. Great area to get out and do some walking and that will likely happen tomorrow.

The drive down was good, all went well. I got an early start this morning and took my time on the way down with many stops alone the way. I did hit a little traffic in Albuquerque because I hit the morning rush (about 8am or so) but it was not too bad. Still I was unhooked and set up by about noon, I got my favorite spot too :). There are 10 spot in the little area and there is only two of us here, nice! The weekend could bring in a few more folk, maybe.

Here I am all nested in 🙂

Broke Link: I had a broke link to my friends Blog(Nancy – Wish You Where Here) over on the right but it is working now give it a click and see what she is up to.

Solar: My solar is kicking, as things are charging up. I feel so much better with the new batteries that I put in last month vs the 7-year-old ones I had in before.

Night folks

New Batteries

Batteries: My batteries have now been replace. 4 new Trojan T-105 from Continental Batteries Distribution  in Albuquerque, NM. This was about 250 miles round trip and took me half day to go down and back. Took an hour or two of get the batteries in place and wire back up.

No Pictures today: I am beat so I will not post any pictures today.

Night folks.

Road trip

Batteries: Tomorrow I am off to Albuquerque for some new batteries for the RV. 4 new T-105 Trojan Batteries. The man on the phone says $125.00 each which is a good price for the T-105s.

Busy: Today I have been busy around the park doing this and that, and this afternoon I pull the old batteries out of the RV and loaded them on the truck to trade in on the new ones tomorrow. I borrowed a old battery (no Good, but should be good for a place holder) from a friend and put in for the night and tomorrow till I get back with the new batteries. I did a good bit of cleaning on the battery box and the cables, all a mess from the old batteries spewing.

Pictures: All from times long ago.

Night folks

Travel

Birds: On with the Robins.

Haircut: I went out for a haircut today, which I only do once a month. While I was out I stopped at Walmart and brought me a set of clippers for this winter when I am out in the boondocks for months on end, I’ll use them to do my own haircuts. Won’t be pretty but it will be sufficient looking for the boon-docks. I have a couple of friends that do this and I never notice their hair, so it must not look too bad

The day gone: Seems like the day got gone fast for some reason. Every have one of those days where look at the clock and think “Wow, what happen?”

Travel: I am 30 to 45 days out but am thinking about it all ready. I am near sure my first destination will be Quartzsite, AZ.There I will replace my house batteries.

Night folks

Good day to Move

Move: Getting ready to go today. I will miss being pluged in 😦 I have gotten spoiled over the last 5 days . I’ll take my time and probably won’t leave till late morning when it is warmer.

Bills: I paid all my bills this morning now I’m poor again 😦 Such is life, LOL. Doing things on the internet is perhaps not the safest way to do things now-a-days but it sure is convenient. Living the life I’m living in the RV, I think doing everything by mail would be a really big pain in the backside.

Time: Well, I guess it is time to slowly get ready to leave. The sun is up and it is a bright morning, a good day to move.

Update 1pm; I’m at Walmart for the night and I’ve already did most of my shopping. Enjoying just hanging out at the stores.

Weather: It’s getting better with the temperature at least making it out of the 50s! 🙂 For tomorrow the weather man is giving 70° now that is getting to my kind of weather! 😀

Location: At Walmart for the night.

Solar/Batteries: I have got to remember that I only have half the battery power now, after disconnecting 2 of my batteries. I checked the battery monitor and it is showing the two batteries are charged now, so we’ll see tonight how they do. If I could find a good deal on one battery I would buy it, even knowing that I will have to replace all four next fall.

Night folks

Ubuntu 14.02 LTS

Walk: I walked with MapMyWalk+! Distance: 2.77mi, time: 01:00:17, pace: 21:44min/mi, speed: 2.76mi/h. My walk for today

Added another short walk. I walked with MapMyWalk+! Distance: 1.32mi, time: 28:38, pace: 21:45min/mi, speed: 2.76mi/h.
Another Short Walk

Workout Summary:
WORKOUT SUMMARY for 04/21/2014 – 04/27/2014
9 workouts
8 routes
16.9 miles
7.9 hours
2,219 kCal burned

Computer: Today I have been playing on the computer with Ubuntu. I installed a new version of the OS(14.02 LTS) and I am playing in it now as I do my post. Needless to say this has been most of my day, it is already near 3pm. Hey, I’m having fun 🙂 It is so nice to be hooked up to electric and be able to run the desktop all day and do these kind of fun things.

One of the first things I had to work out was to find a way to get my Evernotes to Ubuntu and I did that with a program called Everpad on Ubuntu. They work well together but the Everpad is not as full featured as Evernote by no means, but it gets the job done.

Bird: Sticking with the White Throated Sparrows, here is another picture, taken in KY.

Silly Problems: My first problem is that one of my batteries up and stop being able to charge so I had to remove it for my 4 battery system, meaning that I had to remove two of my batteries because they are wired in series/parallel arrangement (I have four 6volt batteries in a 12volt system). This is going to be a problem when I go back to the boon-docking, I’ll be down to half my power. The good part is that I will only be boon-docking for 10 days after I leave here, then I’ll be hooked-up to electric for the rest of the summer.

My next problem is that my browser of choice for Windows 8 on my desk-top is doing something silly and messing up the letters it puts on the screen. But only on the desktop with Windows and Firefox. I have Firefox running here in Ubuntu on the desktop and it is fine. More than likely something in the Windows Register messed up with the latest update. I tried to un-installing  and  reinstalling but it did not help. Well, it will give me something to fix later on.

Weather: A couple more days and this little cold snap should be over, hopefully. I have not enjoyed it LOL. Boo to cold weather 👿

Night folks

Not getting full charge

Coolish : This weather I don’t like, I won’t get caught boon-docking this far north again this time of year. I don’t like the cold weather or all the cloudy days. It might not be too bad if I was hooked up to power. Okay, maybe I’ll be less fussy after it warms up a bit today

Walk: A nice short one today. I walked with MapMyWalk+! Distance: 2.41mi, time: 49:56, pace: 20:44min/mi, speed: 2.90mi/h.
Link to short walk

Solar/Batteries: Over the pass ten days there has not been any days that where not partly cloudy and this is causing me battery problems. Today is the same, partly cloudy. With the batteries being at their upper limits of age and with so many days of not getting full sun, they are fighting hard to keep up. The solar is doing it’s job and right now with the sun high and not behind the clouds I’m getting almost 30 amps of charge, but as clouds float over that drops to near 10 amps and this means that the batteries never makes it to the float stage of charge which they need to do, and then hold the float charge for a few hours. Just not happening 😦 I’m using the generator near every night now for an hour or two but still that is not getting the batteries where they need to be. So …… I think maybe Sunday I’ll move to one of the electric sites for my last 4 days here at the lake. That will get the batteries back up at least, and hopefully the sunshine will come my way for my last 10 days of boon-docking for the summer. Come fall, I will replace the batteries.

Move: At the end of the month I’ll have about another 10 to 15 days before I start my summer gig and I’ll probably spend most of that time at the BLM land south of Grants where I was before moving here. My two week here is over at the end of the month so I’ll have to move elsewhere.

Today was very nice after the cold start this morning, but the weather man says it going to get colder for the next few days. Maybe they miss this time and it’ll be warm 🙂

Night folks

Bike Ride

Weight 185: Leaves me speechless, cause I just kind of growl now, LOL. I sure would like to get back to 180 so I could have my “bad-meal” every now and then. I’ll keep working at it.

Bike Ride! : Hey I finally got to do that bike ride I’ve been wanting to do. I rode with MapMyRide! Distance: 11.82mi, time: 01:09:48, pace: 5:54min/mi, speed: 10.16mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/502800875
This was a good ride considering I have not rode for many months. The shoulder of the road was a little wider than I thought and I felt fairly safe. I did add a little stretching to my day and maybe I’ll do another round of stretching later today.

Week’s workout Summary:
WORKOUT SUMMARY for 03/03/2014 – 03/09/2014
7 workouts
5 routes
21.1 miles
8.4 hours
2,512 kCal burned

Battery Maintenance: Today I checked and added water to the batteries and did a little maintenance by cleaning all the connections and there are are few of those seeing as I have four batteries. Anyways, as the batteries get older the more that needs done and it is important that it gets done.

Boat Ride: I met a fellow(Jim) here that has a boat and he invited me along for a boat ride. It has been many years since I had been on a boat and it was a good bit of fun riding around Lake Havasu.

Night folks