Construction resumes...

Yesterday saw a return to construction out here in the sticks. We've decided to turn an unused (other than for storage) room into a master bed and bath. While we haven't decided to build a traditional house out here yet, we have come to the conclusion that living in a parkmodel trailer is just not cost effective. Besides being a bit on the small side, the lack of insulation makes for more challenges than what we really need.
The new room will have R-19 insulation and drywall throughout, and will be connected to the new winter room which will also be insulated. While we won't be gaining much square footage, the increase of insulation should make things a bit more comfortable for us.

Off grid factoid....

I've lost count... how many am I up to?
Tonights lesson is on propane. When it's colder than 40° all day you don't have enough vapor to run all the stuff you need to make life comfortable. Found that out the hard way today. Generator was running fine, but after awhile the house started to get a bit cold. A quick check of the pilots prove the problem, the demand from the generator out paced the bottles ability to produce vapor. Resulting in a drop of pressure beyond the generator. So after shutting down the generator, a relight of the essential pilots and we should be good. Question is, how cold before there isn't enough pressure to run the essentials?
I guess there is only one way to find out.

Merry Christmas...

An off grid, Merry Christmas to all of you, from the hearth of our stove, and light from our lamps, to all you friends and family.

And the snow starts to fall...

I really wish there was a way for me to take a pic and post it right now. The snow has been falling for about two hrs so far. It really is looking like a winter wonderland out there!

It really amazes me on how quiet it is when it snows. It's like the entire country side is holding it's breath...

Dreaming of a white Christmas...

Nice rainy day...

Been raining all day, just a bit of hail, and a snow flake or two... No more major leaks, we've been in the winter room all day, with a fire in the stove, been a nice day... And we are really in the Christmas spirit....

The excitment of rural living

Had a few visiters the past few days. Coyotes are getting over their fear of the changes we've made, and have come within a few yards of our fence. Driving our dogs nuts, and making our little one nervous. They seem to come over every other morning at 7, just to be neighborly and say hi.
The local ranchers have also dropped a new herd of cattle in our area, which have taken a liking to our dogs barking, and stroll by every now and then.
I guess that is just the joys of living out in the sticks...

Nothing comes easy off grid

Spent our Saturday finding, cutting, and hualing wood. Have enough for at least two weeks. When we finished, and started to get cleaned up and make dinner, wouldn't you know it... No power.
So the next three hours was the strangest hrs of the day. With 12v of power at every point in the system, but not a working light????
Turns out to be a faulty main switch...

Oh the fun of off grid living!

A great day followed by an even greater night.

Yesterday was great and last night continued the greatness... While the wife finished up makeing the Christmas gifts, we had a chance to do a deep 8hr charge on the batteries and I am happy to report that they are holding a charge. Last night was yet another cold night, dipping into the high 20's. The furnance worked great and we had plenty of heat throughout the night. Even have juice left over!
Its amazing how the simple things in life amuze me!

All in all a good productive day...

Had sometime to get a few things done. Put some new tires on the gray suzuk, new alternator (don't have to use a solar panel anymore... Redneck hybred). After the work was done, we started the quads, letting little one drive around for an hour. Also got the trailer out and working for the ATC, we'll use it to gather firewood in hard to reach areas. So I wanted to test it make sure it would work... So I got a test dummy... I mean driver to try it out!

It could have happened anytime....

It wasn't the coldest night, just cold enough, for us to have a complete battery failure this morning. Woke up around 6am to the furnace making a "funky" noise. That noise was the death of our batteries. I teasted them and don't get a single volt... I'll wait till I get a chance to give them a good charge before making the official call of DOA.
On another note, we reached dew point last night, which laid a blanket of frost over everything. Almost gave it an apperance of a white Christmas! Thankfully no pipes froze, and it really didn't get that cold in the house. Only 44° which is warm compaired to the 24° outside.

Enjoying an Arizonian December day

While we didn't get much in the way of snow, the local mountains got a fair amount. So off to go have some fun!

First winter storm....

Found out the winter rm, needs a little more work on water management. We have a few leaks. Jeeps did an awsome job on the slick, muddy dirt roads, and the icy snow covered fwy. Been raining at the ranch for 18 hrs. I hear the rain will be truning into snow later tonight!

Always a fun time at the ranch...

Or I could say, off grid living lesson... I think I'm up to 104?

Living off the grid, it's the attention to details that really count... Like to check the bolt that connects your trailer (loaded down with gas cans) to the hitch... Failure to do so could cause the trailer to take flying lessons... I know from experiance.

But all is well... and the trailer isn't too damaged, only needs to be rewired (and I can't blame those damn dogs for it) and a new rim, one was bent pretty bad....

On another note, been doing a lot of research on solar power, and I think we will have more reliable power source by feb next year. Which I say fingers crossed...

I'll keep you all posted.

The look of 20 degrees at 6am...

On the good side, no frozen pipes!

-------------------------------------
My insanity on display! http://www.pioneeringaz.blogspot.com

Much better night!

It was colder tonight than yesterday, awoke to 20 ° outside, but a nice 50 ° inside... Very warm for out here. The extra battery maintance was just what the Dr. ordered...

No major damage

None of our pipes broke last night, but they did freeze. On another note our dogs water troft were completely frozen 2in thick!

Bad night at the ranch...

Last night was the coldest night this year. Dropping to 24 degrees. Between the cold and clouds our batteries failed us, no batties mean no heat. No heat means froozen pipes! This could signal a very rocky winter for us.

Some random shots of the house...

It never really warmed up today... But life goes on, had to reinstall the front drive shaft on the YJ, Help the neighbor lady with a broken pipe, and change the oil in the generator, were I found a rat had made his home for the winter. Damn rats, can't wait to ask God why those were ever created in the first place.

An off grid way to judge how cold it got the night before

Living off grid we rely on 12v battery power and right now we are only using 2 deep cell marine batteries. While they work great, we are really limited on power usage. (only around 300 watts available) We do have a small solar panel to handle battery maintance, any type of a draw will bring those batteries down quickly. To recharge them we rely on generators which need to be manually started. All that to say, our heater is forced air running on 12v and at night it has been running on average two to three times an hr. Last night it must have been on every five min! I checked our batteries this morning and they are almost 40 % discharged! (in 7 hrs!) Yep it was a cold one last night.
On the good side, clear skies and the solar panels are making quick work of replinishing the power used last night.
Just another reminder that life, off grid, is very different than life on!

Merry Ranch Christmas...

All decorated and ready to go...