North America

by

Tired of This Weather

One of the reasons I was eager to buy in this part of the country is the climate, which is supposed to be hot, dry, and sunny at this time of year. And it usually is. I have this uncanny knack for showing up somewhere that the weather is completely off kilter. We’ve averaged cool, overcast, and frequently thunderstorming since I got here in May. Oh, we’ve had some really nice days, but they have been the exception.

I woke up to grey weather, yet again, and got to work (I got a HUGE project for August, yay!). Around 2:00, the sky had cleared and I thought, great, let’s take a break and do some laundry! I got one load washed and hung and was just about to put out the awning when massive grey clouds rolled in. I just managed to squeeze in another two loads (hanging them in the rig) before the sky started to grumble. It is about to pour. Seriously?!

by

First Official Mail Received At My New Address

I went to the post office this morning and my box was full. I got a replacement part for my water filter, printer ink, and then two official-looking envelopes, one from the RM of Willow Bunch and the other from the Southland Co-Op.

The first letter wasn’t my water bill, as I expected, but instead my property tax notice. I am going to go so broke paying my $25 property tax bill every year! 😀

The second letter was confirmation that the Southland Co-Op has accepted my application. I am officially a resident of the area! It costs $10 to join the Co-Op, so I was very pleased to find a $5 gift card in the envelope! The benefit of joining the Co-Op is that you get equity back every year and you can get a payout at retirement age.

Now that I have a couple of proofs of residence, it’s time to start working on my transfer to Saskatchewan. I’ll likely go into Assiniboia on Thursday or Friday to talk to an insurance company and get the ball rolling.

by

Upgrading a Magnetek Converter

Stock RV converters are notoriously poor battery chargers. One of the worst, and most common, is the Magnetek. It is essentially a trickle charger that can boil batteries dry because it doesn’t know when to stop charging. I spent up to six months at a time plugged into shore power in the last few years and I know that is part of the reasons my last set of batteries didn’t last long.

Because the charger in the Magnetek only puts out a few amps, it is not efficient for charging batteries with a generator. I usually consume 45 to 70AH per day and the generator puts back in an average of 1.5AH. At that rate, I would have to run my genset for up to 47 hours to get a full charge using the Magnatek only! Of course, I have solar, but when it’s grey like it’s been here the last little while, solar just isn’t enough.

An easy and relatively inexpensive solution is to charge the RV batteries with a dedicated charger that can put in up to 15A. This works well enough when I turn off the solar, otherwise the dedicated charger thinks the batteries are full and won’t work. But it’s a pain to have to hook it up and run an extension cord.

What many boondockers do instead is upgrade their Magnetek converter to a better multi-stage smart charger, such as a Progressive Dynamics Converter Upgrade Section, matching the Progressive Dynamics unit to their Magnetek model. For example, my Magnetek was a 45A model, so I had to pair it up with the 45A Progressive Dynamics model.

I picked this converter upgrade because it was well rated and available on Amazon so it didn’t cost me much out of pocket ($2 for the unit, $21 for tax, plus the gas to go get it in Montana). I had it shipped to Opheim, MT, where it arrived Friday.

This morning, I headed out around 8:45 and enjoyed a scenic, albeit very isolated, drive to the border where I was grilled about my last trip to the US. Oh, I hope not to have any issues this fall…

My package wasn’t at the post office since they don’t accept Fed Ex, but I was told to try the bar across the street. My package was there and cheerfully given to me in exchange for $5. I got some beer for C&C while I was there, filled up with gas since the SK stations were closed for the civic holiday, and then I headed home.

I got grilled by CDN customs about why I’m now living out here and then paid the duty and tax on the beer and the tax on the converter. Then, it was an easy drive home. The trip took just under three hours.

I got to work immediately, having previously read the instructions and gathered the bulk of the tools I would need (many types and sizes of screw drivers and wrenches, plus a wire cutter that I only needed because one screw in my DC panel was badly stripped and I couldn’t get the wire out without cutting it). I also had different coloured electrical tape on hand to use as markers. This came in handy when I had to wire the new DC panel as I had many wires the same colour. I wrapped each one in a different coloured tape and then made a note of in which order I had to reconnect the colours.

Installation was easy. I just followed the step by step instructions and really didn’t have any problems beyond needing a strange screw driver that isn’t stock in most basic tool kits (thankfully, I’m well beyond a basic tool kit) and having to struggle with too short wire lengths. It took me 2.5 hours to install and a good part of that involved getting up to get more tools, trying to get the flashlight angled so that I could see, and wrestling with tight screws. None of the difficulties had to do with the technical part of the installation.

I’ve been so nervous about tapping into the factory-installed wiring, but now that I have, more upgrades are in my future!

by

Beer On the Porch

Laura came over around 7:30 to get some more information I had printed out for her. It was a nice evening, just a little cool, so I had put out some chairs in case she wanted to have a beer and a chat. She did, so we gabbed for about an hour. I love having a semblance of a porch since it’s so rare that I host others (but not rare for me to bring beverages to share at a gathering). L thinks that once my awning is down regularly, my porch will be all the more inviting.

I hadn’t had dinner and thought I was too tired to cook, but Laura brought me some fresh picked green beans! Green beans are on my list of most favourite things in the universe, so after she left, I put together a dinner of a teeny amount of rice, a chicken breast, and a giant mound of green beans. YUM!!!

I still have some transcription left to do and am going to power through then have a long hot shower. My wrists and lower arms are going to be soooooore tomorrow!