1st Week:
Well we finished our first week here and we have had some
ups and downs. Living off the grid is a learning experience and we sure learned
quite a bit this week. Research and testing is great but when it comes to the
real world, well throw most of it out the door.
The Property:
Wow I cannot
believe the views I get to see every morning, the clear blue skies and the
night time sky is just wow. Our driveway
and pad are great not quite were we wanted it but it works.
The club house and pool we started using, and it is wonderful as are all the folks we have met. So far no creature have been seen, but at night we do hear the distant howls of the coyotes.
The Rig:
Power:
Well interesting week but things are better, first power.
Monday morning I woke in a panic because it was light out and I have my Monday
Morning staff call at 5:30 am PST (8:30 EST), only to find out it was 4 am? What
the sun comes up at 4 am, guess I am going to be a very early riser out here. However
shuffled as quietly as possible, turned on my computers and went to make
coffee, this did not last long as my battery monitor informed me of low power.
Well I had a cup and took my notebook outside to work. Just before my meeting I
cranked up the generator to get some power (no close neighbors and quiet
generator). Meeting went well and I started to work, battery monitor indicated
full power so I shut down the generator. It was also a cold morning and cool
day. Two hours later same thing batteries say low, ran generator and charged
and this time lasted all day, weird.
Next day same issues all over again!!! That evening I took the who battery system a part (a real
pain to do) and found one of the cables on the second battery was loose, tightened
and back in business, well so I thought, it was better. However each morning same
issues with low power, finally bought another battery and switch the older one
out just in case, but the real savior for
us seem to be in us buying a drip coffee maker for the camping stove!!!
Today made our coffee outside on the stove and power is fine,
five hours of running fans and computers and still at full power. So it could
have been the battery but I am betting the little one cup just draws to many
amps for our setup. The solar panels seem to produce and I thank the big guys upstairs
for pushing me to buy a generator, and one that runs on propane!!! Get to that
later….
Water and Sewage:
Water was my main worry before we got here but it is so easy
to get at the clubhouse and since we go down just about every day to get in the
pool not an issues. Transferring from the 60 gallon bladder was a pain but then
I bought a pump that goes on the end of my drill and makes it much easier.
Sewage transfer is tomorrow but should not be too bad we have done it before it
is just moving the buddy tank that is a pain 25 gallons gets heavy.
60 Gallon Water bladder we use to transport water
Weather:
Well, all we need is snow and we have covered it all this
week. We have had cold and cool, hot Very hot and warm, sunshine and rain, hail,
wind, calm and even our own mini tornado. Yes we had a nice size dust devil
come over and bend our awning back over the RV, no real damage but had to fix
and bend the metal back some. Never knew those things packed so much of a
punch. But the biggest issue the last few days has been heat, heat, heat. You
know it is a dry heat and yes it is different than Florida, I am sitting typing
this and the temp in the RV is 85 we have fan on and it is nice. However 105 is
a 105 and the only thing you can do to survive is turn on the AC or jump in the
pool. Yesterday we had to do both, we ran low on propane and the night before
bought a 10 gal, (40 pound) tank so when the heat got too much we ran down at
lunch and had the tanks filled while we jump in the pool for about 30 minutes.
Came back hooked up the new tank, cranked up the generator and turned that AC
on, back to working on my computer in no time. The heat is supposed to slowly
wind down and by the end of next week it will be cool again. I will say we have
taken to watching movies outside at night and it is just wonderful with the
cool breeze, no bugs and starring skies.
Morning Thunderstorm passes:
Working, Internet and Cell Phone:
I work at from home so working from the RV is basically the
same, actually for me it is better(less distractions) I have my cell phone for
calls and Verizon MiFi for Internet. I added a Wilson Cell booster that is working
great. I also have a Panasonic Blue tooth phone set that works with my cell
phone and lets me have a real type speaker phone for my endless conference
calls. I live on the phone these days. This week I pretty much worked from 4:30
am or so until after 5pm, but plan to
modify that some next with maybe cutting off around
4 or so, so we can spend the hottest part of the day at the pool and not run
the generator. We will see, I do like being on the same time zone as most of my
customers and techs. We get our real Internet service on Monday if all goes
well.
Local Area:
We made several trip to the local towns this week in search
of items we need for the property, we visited Ephrata which is the closest town
to us and is small, Moses Lake is larger and has most of the stores such as
Lowes and Home Depot and Wenatchee likewise is larger and like Moses Lake has
all the stores but is a bit further away. We also took the back road (gravel
for some miles) to
Wenatchee through the canyons and very small town of Palisades.
Interesting drive and at that moment we decided we always need to keep a small
cooler in the truck with water. Let’s say no people, no cell coverage and dry.
My Sink and dishwashing Area
My Grill, cooking stove and Oven.
Overall first week has been good learned a lot had to make some adjustments but we are happy and ready for more!!!
