Things fall apart, some more

Remember that nice little solar electric system I set up? Especially remember the nice 100 watt solar panel that I salvaged from my shipwreck? That panel just failed. It looks good, yet tests point to there being some sort of internal short. It's just another item that looks like it survived the shipwreck but fell apart later. Salt water takes its toll.

Once it became clear that the panel could not be fixed, I ordered another one. The replacement panel is only a 50 watt. Its smaller size will make it a lot easier to mount on the Oday 19 sailboat later one. The sailboat already has 30 watts of power, so a combined output of 80 watts will more than suffice for my humble needs.

My lovely wife and I are already looking past the November election. No matter who gets it, we are going to have an interesting time. Our nation will be going through some challenges. About all I can do is to prepare to endure. The basics of personal survival remain the same.

Will I be going to Canada? Yep, maybe as soon as next week. Don't panic; a trip to Canada is a comfortable day trip from where I live. We are thinking of taking my granddaughter to check out some of the sights in Quebec. It will also give me a chance to see exactly how bad my French is.

My project schedule got move back another couple days. A few months ago my shoulder got hurt. A few hours of clearing downed trees with a chainsaw let me know it's not completely healed. Between a sore shoulder and hot weather, the projects will wait. There's no sense pushing so hard as to get injured.

I scored another 30 gallons of really clean waste vegetable oil. That should power the veggie van for some miles. My lovely wife and I will be attending a meeting downstate next month. We plan on parking the van at a friend's house and sleeping there. Sure beats paying for a hotel room.

I'm still plugging along on my other projects. Home repair never stops.

-Sixbears