A Sunny Day A Better Mood And Full Batteries
Article from: April 24th, 2013
Today was mostly sunny with just a few clouds overhead. The solar batteries were topped off by late morning. The weather finally took a turn for the better today as well with a heat wave of 70 degrees F. This also improved my mood quite a bit as well.
This morning I got up to 41 degrees inside again. I got the fireplace going and had it above 70 in a short time. I had to keep it going for a few hours because it was a cold night. But by late morning I let the fire go out and it was warming up nicely. My solar window heater was pumping out some heat for me.
I had my thermoelectric cooler outside during the night because it has been so cold out all the time. It is near 30 out at night. The cooler will stay outside from now on. It is inconvenient to have to run out back to get some food in the middle of the night, but its better than loosing my food from the warmer temps inside.
By late morning it was 70 outside and held steady all day at that temperature. This was such a welcome change. It definitely lifted my mood a lot.
My cat Baby, enjoyed the nice warm air as well. She has a new collar from the dollar store so her chain is more comfortable.
I am restoring my old Coleman air compressor and battery station which sadly got drained in a move. The light switch somehow got switched on and stayed on until I discovered it recently. The internal lead acid battery was down to 0 volts. My little Bedini motor is restoring it nicely. The battery is now up to 4.2 volts and rising. A conventional charger would not be able to even recognize the battery at such low voltages let alone charge it. This will take some time, but it should be possible to restore the battery.
I took a clip on cigarette lighter plug out to the battery bank and hooked it up so my Coleman thermoelectric cooler can stay outside plugged in when the sun shines. I plan to build an insulated box for the cooler and bury it near the camper so it uses less power. I also want to make a thermostat control for it to it shuts off at the right temperature instead of running and freezing stuff inside when its cooler outside.
For now I have a tarp draped over the cooler to help keep the weather off it. I have a heavy board on top of that to keep the tarp down. Hopefully it will be fine until I get the box done.
This afternoon I dug out some treated lumber scraps and reinforced the camper skirting around my camper. I took the wheelbarrow and hand cart away which had been helping to hold the skirting in place. I get strong winds and the skirting was flapping around all the time. I drove the boards into the ground like stakes to hold the skirting in place. Now it looks a lot better.
My seedlings are having a hard time of it. Some have died and the rest have just not grown at all due to the lack of sunlight since I planted them. I have some cold hardy plants out there, but with no sun, plants just cannot grow. I hope they make it after all this time.
I dug out one of the old generators I bought off a man last year. Non of them worked and they all had various problems. I got them cheap with the idea of scrapping the generators and selling the motors. Happy I did not now. I want to get one working for myself for cloudy days. I do not want to have an AC gas powered generator, but want to use an alternator on the motor. But for now, I want to get one of these running as a backup until I get the wood gas motor going with an alternator. No power = no videos for you all.
I had the chicks outside for a bit today in the afternoon warmth. At first they were unsure of themselves and sort of chirped helplessly and stuck together in a group. After a while they became more adventurous and started pecking at anything that moved. It was fun watching them. The big white one stayed close to me. I hope she remains the leader and the rest follow her. I think she will be the tamest one. Funny when I first saw her at Tractor Supply, she looked right at me, right in the eye. I knew she was my bird. Two days later, she was still there waiting for me.
You can watch today's video here: 
A Sunny Day A Better Mood And Full Batteries
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About the Author
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Troy Reid |
