Author: Rae

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Impromptu Town Run

As I wrote earlier, the last post was interrupted by the postmaster hand delivering me a phone message. Turns out the folks hankering to reach me, staff at the Willow Bunch museum, had lost my email address, knew I live in the hamlet, and figured that the postmaster would be able to get a message to me. Got to love life in a small town!

I needed to get to town to pay my property taxes and get more fuel for the generator, so I decided to close the office early and go to town today rather than tomorrow

First stop was the RM office where I just had to say I was there to pay my taxes; they knew who I was. Scary. 🙂 I also asked about my promised water bill, the missing piece to establishing SK residency once the insurance matters are settled (not likely any time soon), and paid that too even though it wasn’t due till the end of September. Property taxes were about $24 and the bill for water and garbage collection was about $116 for three months.

So not counting fuel for my generator or propane, it will cost me about $250 to summer here, or about $43 a month. Way more expensive than boondocking down in the States (even factoring in dump fees), but crazy reasonable for Canada!

My next stop was the museum to talk with the president. I offered to do some translation for them in exchange for publicity and they sent me home with a thick file to work on! The existing translations are actually pretty decent, just need a little tweaking, so two to four hours a week should get me pretty far. I haven’t done a volunteer project in way too long and this will be a great way to give back to my new community.

Museum business done, I went to the Co-Op to fill a jerry can. The manager pulled in behind me and did the fill for me, yay. I don’t know why, but I hate filling jerry cans! Gas prices are much better than they were at the beginning of the summer, about $1.25 when it was $1.35 to $1.40 earlier in the season.

My final stop was a treat. I usually get my treat on Friday, but I was in town today and have no treats at home. So I popped into the variety store for a chocolate ice cream cone (it was either that or mint and I vetoed them bringing in vanilla). Mmm! Today was a very rare ice cream weather kind of day, so the timing was right!

The drive home promised to be tedious as I was behind a grainery that took up the whole width of the road, but they were able to pull over when the road widened just a tad so that I could squeeze through. Phew. I don’t think I could have done 18KM at about 30KM an hour in that heat. I need to get the AC fixed on the truck!

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Having a Generator Rocks (But Is Making Me Lazy)

I was doing quite well without a generator when it came to 120V matters. I got along fine without AC, most power tools, and the microwave. A cross-breeze, hand tool, and the stove worked just fine.

But now that I have a generator?

Breakfast somehow got microwaved this morning.

Hand saw the little piece of trim for my wardrobe update? Ha. The jigsaw came out.

And open a window to let in stale hot air when I can have COLD air? AC is a thousands year old marvel and I’m crazy for not taking advantage of it.

(this post got interrupted by the post master knocking at my door to give me a phone message from someone who thought that would be easier than sending me an email, LOL)

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Improvement to the Wardrobe Doors

Ever since I splurged on new wardrobe doors, I thought that I wasn’t maximizing their efficiency because I wasn’t using the inside of them. Looking for something to do in a 15 minute break that didn’t involve pulling out my grubbies, I decided to create a little bit of storage inside both door panels.

For the right side, I used a bit of trim and some angle brackets to make a support for my pashminas:

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They’re a little cramped but I don’t mind wrinkled pashminas (said as her jeans-ironing mother and sheets ironing grand-maman recoil).

The rod is a little long, so I have to close and open both doors at the same time. Kind of hard to describe, but this means that I’ve inadvertently solved the problem of that door opens on its own during travel. The left side door closes firmly and now the right side door catches on it. I may no longer arrive at my destination with clothes in Neelix’s water and food bowls!

I connected two angle brackets into a U using electrical tape that matches my decor. 🙂

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On the other side, I put a hook for a belt. I will eventually be adding some sort of vertical storage for earrings. I saw something very expensive on Amazon that I may be able to reproduce. The chalkboard label has a list of my knits. I tend to forget what I have if it’s not readily visible, so this is a good reminder to use things or else get rid of them!

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Frustrating Weather Continues

It was a lovely morning here in southern Saskatchewan, but it looks like storm clouds are rolling in. *sighs* I’m glad I got a ton of laundry done on Monday since yesterday was very grey and, appropriately enough, I was under the weather (going to bed early and sleeping almost 12 straight hours nipped THAT in the bud).

Since the weather was good this morning, I did several more loads of laundry and got on top of the pile at last! I just need to do dish cloths and dish towels. Hopefully, what’s on the line will be dry by the time the sky gets really grey.

I can’t believe how much laundry I’ve done with my Wonderwash and spin dryer without doing the little ‘trick’ I do now: I use the spin dryer before the rinse cycle. This gets the bulk of the soapy water out, so I need a lot less fresh water to rinse.

Even though I wasn’t feeling well yesterday and am absolutely swamped with work (woohoo), I did make a little progress on my electrical issues. I had a gander at the main positive cable going from the batteries to the converter, confirmed that it is tiny (I’m actually thinking 14AWG at this point!) and that the lug on the end was a little loose. I didn’t have much wire to play with, but there was enough to remove the lug and crimp on a new ring terminal. In the evening, I noticed a slight improvement in my voltage readings; almost no drop with one LED light on, but too much drop with two lights on. When I have time, I’ll go hunting for more connections as this isn’t the first time I’ve caught a bad factory crimp.

Thank you to everyone who commented on the post about my electrical dilemma. You guys are great!

 

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A Tough Electrical Dilemma

I’ve suspected for some time now that the cable going from the batteries to my converter is much too small. It just isn’t normal for the voltage to drop from 12.6V to less than 11.0 when only a 0.5AH LED light is on!

My converter upgrade confirmed my suspicion. Even though it promised rapid charging, I’ve barely coaxed more than 6AH out of it, more than my last converter but barely.

I didn’t think I made any mistakes with my upgrade (talk about someone’s confidence improving) and so decided to contact the manufacturer for their thoughts on my low charge rate.

The first thing they asked? The gauge and run length of the cable going from the batteries to the converter. Based on my answers (10AWG or 12AWG and about 30′), the charge rate I’m seeing, and the voltage during that charge rate, they said that the charge rate is correct. I should beef up the cabling or move the batteries closer to the converter.

Well, that has lit a fire under my butt on an upgrade I have been avoiding for far too long. This one’s going to be a bitch.

I like the idea of moving the batteries and have toyed with it a number of times. I could put them in the rear driver’s pass through, running the wires straight across to the shore power cable compartment and up to the converter and then on to the generator. I’d have the battery monitor and inverter in the office, very convenient.

The problem here is the solar wiring, gauged for a much shorter run. I would have to completely undo what AM Solar did and move the charge controller to the driver’s side of the rig, which would mean not being able to use the fridge vent as the entrance point for the wires, which would also mess with my combiner box.

Moving other wires and making holes, etc., would be major, too, but the solar relocation is the most daunting part of moving the batteries. Well, that and redistributing the weight on the axles.

The other option is to beef up the wiring going from the batteries to the converter. The issues here are the cost of big gauge wiring, how the heck I’m going to run it through holes made for wiring a quarter of the size I need, and how I’m going to put terminals on everything. I haven’t done the math yet and suspect that I need to go down to at least 4AWG, and I don’t even know if I can tie that into my converter or not. I remember a comment made a while back for a very short run, I could possibly tie my big big gauge wiring to the converter via a smaller gauge ‘jumper’; I need to confirm this.

Tomorrow’s project, now that the laundry has been tamed (but not vanquished), is to follow the entire run of cable from the batteries to the converter to see if it’s one piece or not, the route it follows, and if the route could accommodate a bigger size cable. If so, then I think that going that route rather than moving the batteries would be the best bet.

If money was no object and I could hire a competent electrical team, I would move the batteries, no questions asked. Their location doesn’t make sense at all. But it’s just me, so I’m picking the easiest solution to implement.