Friday the 13th

Friday, January 13, 2017

Woke up this morning to a cloudy day.  I don’t like cloudy days. 

The reason I am still in the Ajo area is because I am waiting on my blood pressure medication to be mailed to me.  I left a 30 day supply at home when I left, so Dolly is mailing it to me.  Should have asked for it sooner in the week, but I dawdled.  Now I will have to wait till Monday to check to see if it has arrived.

After my usual breakfast this morning, I brought my lounge chair inside and Yuma and I laid around the MH all day.  Did take a few walks and I played around with the settings on my Canon camera to see if I could improve photos on a cloudy day.  I think I need some lessons on how to use a camera.

Tonight is Gold Rush.  Haven’t had the TV on since last Friday evening.  My big enjoyment for the evening.  Interesting show tonight.

Had a great dinner of Campbell’s Chunky Grilled Sirloin Steak Soup and some pudding with whip cream on top for desert.

Time to hit the hay and read a little from my western cowboy book.  Before leaving home, Dolly bought four western books by William W. Johnstone.   Simple plots and easy to read.  Good guy always wins.

Looked him up on the Internet and found he died in 2004 but his death was kept a secret till 2006 when another author replaced him by the name of J.A. Johnstone (his nephew).  This book was actually written by the latter author.

My Battery Maintenance Systems

My main batteries maintenance system is limited.  I have five 12 volt AGM cell batteries and a monitor for watching them.   No solar panels to keep them going, but I don’t use anything but the lights which are LED and the water pump.  Once a week, the TV and Dish receiver for an hour or so, and that requires I use my modified sine 3000 watt inverter.

With this limited use of the batteries, they will stay strong for over a week, then I run the generator for two or three hours to get them back up to around 12.7 volts.  I find if I let them get below 12.4, it takes too long to get them back up to speed.  Most of the time I only stay around ten days at a camp, so running the MH down the road charges them most of the time.

Now, I do cheat a little.  I have two 12 volt wet cell batteries that came with the MH when I bought it.  I use these batteries with a 120 watt suitcase solar panel, I hook up manually.

I have a 500 watt pure sine wave inverter hooked to these two batteries and I use this system as my work horse.  I keep my laptop, phone, Verizon Jetpack and tablet charged with this set-up and it works great.  The solar panel keeps these batteries charged even with long daily use.  I could run my TV and Dish receiver off this set-up but I have to use the bigger system for something.

See you later.