Monday
Off to the market in OceanView for milk, juice, ice, eggs – Eggs cost $8.99 per dozen! I’ll do without the eggs!
Unpacked my two checked bags (cardboard boxes), my roller bag, and my backpack. Put up my solarpanels on the roof of the shed, and connected the batteries – got my fingers crossed. It was cloudy and overcast much of the day, but in spite of this, after a few hours, I had enough solar power to be able to turn on the refrigerator. It got to 39 degrees. At about 4 PM, the voltage in the solar system dropped to 11.2 volts and the power inverter for the refrigerator went into overload – OK, it probably should be called underload instead of overload, but whatever you call it, it quit working, and turned off the refrigerator. I was glad that I had the ice. I was able to charge the battery in my laptop giving me about 20 minutes, and my cell phone got a full charge.
The last time I was here, there were tomatoes growing in a small wooden planter. The tomato vines are almost whithered up now, but there are a dozen tomatoes ripe and ready to eat.
I cut down most of the branches and tree stumps under the power lines and phone cables in front of the main lot. I carried the branches down to the chipper and some of the larger branches to the area above the chipper. Then I got the chainsaw and proceeded to cut the larger branches into 4 to 6″ pieces. There are still more to carry back but the property is quite open in the front along the road, and the area behind the rock wall next to the concrete steps is getting filled in with the small pieces of branches.
TTFN
TropicalCastaway 