The Ultimate Answer to Kings

Wow, yesterday was not a nice day. Temps in the mid-20’s, howling wind, bundle up like it’s January. Most days in January aren’t that unpleasant.

This morning…

Cloudless sky. Frosty at first, of course, because of all that new moisture but it’s probably going to be in the sixties at least. The last of the snow will melt but if we get good sun it’ll go a long way toward drying out the quagmire that the roads turned into first thing yesterday, even with the cold holding back the melt somewhat.

So Tobie and I had as much of a nice walkie as I could physically stand – I’m hobbling around on a cane like a broken old man – and then we got started on chores, some of which have kind of piled up during the past four days of nasty April…

As soon as I’m done here I’ll go to S&L’s and feed their animals. And then I’ll do what I’ve done pretty much every day for the past three weeks or so – apply the seat of my pants to the seat of my chair and read a book till it’s time for the next walkie.

Tomorrow – I sincerely hope – I’ll put this unpleasantness behind me. I have at least pinned down what this new prosthetic socket is doing to me, and it’s extremely likely that it’s just a matter of adjustment. Seriously, in most ways the socket fits fine. It has completely solved the problem that was causing the old one to rub me bloody. But it’s pressing hard on a really sensitive spot that sometimes, out of the blue, makes it impossible to take even one more agonizing step – that’s usually a problem with the angle, not the socket, and with these “new” (I’m about 30 years behind the tech curve) legs angles are adjustable. So I’m living in hope. If that doesn’t work I’m going to have to think in terms of starting again, and I don’t know how that works financially. But I really do have hope this will be an easy fix. Unless something else goes wrong I’ll know tomorrow.

First words out of my mouth this morning…

Really shoulda checked the forecast before bed yesterday.

Regular readers may have noticed a certain trend in my recent posts, which could best be described as “absent,” and they deserve an explanation. The explanation is that I am experiencing severe mobility issues due to technical difficulties, the relief of which keeps getting delayed because I don’t drive on pavement and everybody else has lives too. Consequently I’ve been sitting around and reading to the point where even daily chores are sometimes going begging and there’s literally nothing to blog about. Frankly it’s got me kinda depressed, especially since this is the exact time of year when I most want to be out and around.

Naturally this had to be accompanied by a change in weather. And by change, of course, I mean “for the worse.” I woke up cold this morning for the first time all winter, really, having retired the extra blankets for the season, and was really happy I hadn’t put the bedroom heater to bed with them because it’s cold outside and none too toasty inside. Glad I closed the windows, anyway. Also glad I left the shovel on the porch, because a broom ain’t gonna get this.

Yeah, April went off its meds. The hell of it is, this is all going to melt by noon and the mud is gonna be epoch-marking.

Some things must be done, of course…

Tobie likes the snow. Brings out the puppy in him.

Ironically, I actually have to leave the Lair today for the first time in a week. S&L are gone for the weekend and I have to feed their cat and chickens. Sigh – Then I’ll go back to my book.

Because this sucks.

There are two kinds of charge controller for solar power systems: Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) and Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT). The first kind does exactly what its name implies: It modulates the pulse width of the square wave current pumped into the batteries, discriminating between bulk charge, maintenance charge and float depending on the batteries’ state of charge. It works fine under ideal conditions, not so much when the sky is cloudy because it’s not the most efficient way of doing things but at the time I set up my system 13 years ago it was by far the least expensive so it’s what I got.

MPPT controllers – let me just look at the literature here – “feature a smart tracking algorithm that maximizes the effectiveness of photovoltaic cells.” Don’t ask me to explain that, because back when I was gathering materials MPPT controllers were WAY out of my league and I never really paid them much attention. I can’t describe the difference between a Bugatti’s engine and a GM 350 but I assume there is in fact a qualitative difference.

Anyway, unnoticed by me the price of MPPT charge controllers came out of the stratosphere to visit Earth, and my brother made me a gift of one.

Since I just recently replaced the solar panels on my main rack, this upgrade from my still-working-fine PWM controller made sense. Unfortunately it caused me to have to do something I really don’t like to do: Mess with live electrical circuits that can arc and spark and – if I screw up – wreck expensive electronics and make me look like an ass. Despite my having lived with it for going on 20 years now it’s really not my field.

Still, here we were. So I carefully read the instructions, and it really only came down to four wires anyway so why are you procrastinating, Joel?

Here’s the old controller, with the cover mostly off…

Yeah, just four wires, and I can isolate it from short circuits by disconnecting it from the panels and the batteries before I mess with those four wires, so what could possibly go wrong? Right?

Right. Stop being a pussy, Joel.

So I opened the circuit breaker on the panel rack, turned off the inverter, disconnected the negative lead on my battery bank, and then pulled the wires off the old controller – carefully noting which was which – mounted the new controller on the wall and gingerly wired everything back up. And when I turned everything on again…

…I was rewarded with a little animated show of power going in one end and coming out the other. The new controller seemed to assume I’m the idiot that I, in fact, am, and wished to reassure me that it had things under control.

So great! I wanted to see how this would affect the way my system charges on that panel array with the new controller, and maybe fortunately it looks as though it’s going to stay cloudy all day so I can see if it really makes a difference under not-ideal charging conditions. Which is after all what it’s for. At this moment it’s been running for about two hours with no direct sun and the voltmeter on my wall is showing 14.12 volts and rising, which is higher than expected, so I think I’m going to find out. (EDIT: I haven’t even posted this yet and the controller now shows 100% charge and put the system into Float. At 10:30 on a cloudy morning. Which is phenomenal. So yeah.)

And so now I can address the fact that I have two solar panel arrays, and two charge controllers. And the second one…

…is still connected to the panels on the roof of the cabin.

I think this new controller, being rated for 60 amps, can do the work of my two smaller controllers. But I’m not yet certain of that and there’s no reason not to take this one step at a time.

I like where I live. And every now and then a total stranger will remind me why.

Regular readers might know that old Uncle Joel likes his knives. In terms of how much use it gets, this right here is my second-favorite knife. It’s the only folding knife I ever carry, and then only when I’m dressed for town. It’s nothing special but I’ve had it for well over 20 years, it was at the time by far the most expensive knife I ever bought, and its action is well worn-in and it holds a good edge and I like it.

And day before yesterday I damn near lost it forever. I was at the counter of the convenience store in town, reached into my pocket for some change, in a hurry because there was quite a line behind me. In my hurry I didn’t notice that my knife got unhooked from my pocket and landed on the floor, and I’d have walked away and lost it forever if the guy behind me hadn’t picked it up, tapped me on the shoulder and handed it to me.

Just about anyplace else I’ve ever lived, he’d have slipped it into his own pocket and let me leave without it. But it’s been my observation that most people who choose to live in the boonies – not all by any means, but most – have better character than that, and I appreciate it.

For the record: Not out here it isn’t.

It snowed till well after dark but the cold didn’t hold on, so at dawn it was already a soggy, muddy mess outside.

There’s so much moisture in the air that it’s foggy…

…which of course is not a big help to my solar panels, and since yesterday was also entirely cloudy I really ought to be running my generator right now and otherwise staying inside away from the mud. Unfortunately this is the only day Neighbor L has available for the weekly water run so I’ll spend the morning doing neither of those things. Yuck.

The forecast still insists that things are going to abruptly get brighter and warmer starting tomorrow but right now that sounds like one of those employer promises that somehow never increase your bank balance.

That would be moderately cold for 2:30am in April. At 2:30pm I think it might be a personal record.

And the snow is really starting to come down and stick. The weather’s been miserable all week but this is the first time we got more than a dusting.

Maybe this is Canada’s payback for those tariffs I’ve heard about? I want it on record that I had nothing to do with that.

So precisely on the first of April the weather went all to hell.

Days of gale wind, temps that never got out of the thirties, followed by a couple of dustings of snow. Quite seasonal for early April, really – you know for a fact that March is going to break your heart but you never know what April is going to do.

I’d have spent the past week cocooning indoors anyway, because…

…my new leg has been driving me crazy. You can walk back and forth at the prosthetist’s shop all you like but sooner or later you’re going to have to wear the thing home and walk on it all day and it’s only then that you’ll get to know the leg. Pray the inevitable problems are fixable from that point.

Trouble is, this thing keeps finding new ways to afflict me. Every day it’s rubbing me the wrong way in some completely different spot. So I’m still in the “fiddling with the padding to try and see what it likes” phase of our relationship.

The good news is that the toe of the socket, where the old leg rubbed the end of my stump bloody day after day, has been completely fine. He really got that part right, and nothing else is actually injuring me so I think we’re going to be all right in the end.

Speaking of damaged goods…

I took a commenter’s advice and did something with Tobie’s bed I should have done four years ago – I covered it with a dog blanket somebody had given me, that I had squirreled away and forgotten about. Tobie accepted it immediately…

…and every morning I find it wadded up…

…so that explains why I so seldom see him actually scratching at the bed, even though he has destroyed one and damaged another. My big scary bodyguard needed a blankie. Thus come the consequences of being an unsentimental hermit, I guess.

And finally, for those who always ask about it…

The pear tree is in full flower, and apparently loving life. I had hoped I didn’t shock it somehow with that major pruning.

I overslept this morning, finally waking at 6:15 from a vivid dream about folding laundry.

My poor engineering strikes again…

My new dueling tree started misbehaving. The top target worked okay but the bottom one kept stopping in the middle of its swing.

Not super hard to understand why. The weight of the swinging targets broke the block I’d cemented the 2X4 into, and now the board was leaning backward.

Okay, digga we musta.

It’s remarkable how many problems in the desert can be fixed with a shovel and a little sweat. 🙂 I set up the target in February when I was still hurting after a day of working on Neighbor L’s Jeep, and did a half-ass job. We’ll see how long it lasts this time.

On a roll, I soldiered on and replaced the chicken wire on the paper target stand that has needed replacing for … oh, years. I’ll start procrastinating again tomorrow.

…and maybe it’s too early to say whether my problem is solved. Honestly with a new leg it’s always too early to say that. There’s “this just isn’t right at all” and then there’s “this is just new, I’ll get used to it.”

At present I’m thinking this is that second thing. Of course I thought that about the last one. It’s kind of a process. If you have both your legs, best to hang onto them.

What can I say? He’s a scratcher. Tobie is working on destroying his second bed – it’s only one year old and he has already clawed holes in it.

With the first one I let matters go until he annihilated the poor thing. This time I decided to take measures.

Took it apart and gave it a wash, then…

…after it dried I brought it home to assess the damage. I had intended to apply patches on the inside but that proved unworkable due to there being two layers of cloth. So I figured…

“Well, he won’t care.” And it kind of fits the overall decor, such as it is.

I really like these beds, both gifts from Generous Reader MM. They miraculously fit the available space between the wall and the Official TUAK Desk. But they’re not proving very durable – when this one finishes wearing out I’ll need to try something else.

A bedroom heater that goes “foop” on command first thing in the morning…

Fresh hot bread in a chilly cabin…

The first bike ride of the season…

To go get a gift from a Friend of the Blog!

My ammo can runneth over.

Tobie likes to bark at exciting things happening outside the Lair, which I normally encourage. For several days now he has found one particular spot in the Lair’s front yard very interesting, and I finally decided to see if whatever it is is a recurring thing – meaning an animal in the habit of coming right up to the cabin…

Click for moving pictures…

So far nothing – but it’s probably just a rabbit anyway. As usual all the camera has recorded is a lot of close-ups of a dog and a lame old man going back and forth.

I’m starting to think Tobie’s “keep the Lair safe from intruders” filter is set too sensitive.

In hindsight it shouldn’t have come as any surprise: The compass app could hardly know where north is if I had all location permissions turned off. Truthfully I never really believed turning that feature off did anything – and I’m still not completely convinced that it does anything but disable some phone functions. Just because you know you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.

But it turns out that turning “Location Services” on opens a menu of services you can permit or deny. I left virtually all of them off, which should have the same basic effect, if any, as turning the main switch off.

Anyway, the compass app is working now. And now it’ll probably be another several years before I use it again – normally when I know I’m going to need a compass I just bring my actual (excellent) compass.

I needed a compass this morning and recalled that there was (supposedly) one on my smartphone. Opened the app, and it was more than 120^o out of whack. If there’s a way to recalibrate it to reality, I’m not seeing it. On the other hand I really don’t do “apps” so maybe I’m just having a grandpa moment.

It’s still March, you never know what the weather’s going to do except each day will at least start cold and the wind is probably going to be an adventure. So the old man is mostly staying indoors and reading. I recently got turned on to Ursula K. Le Guin, a writer I mostly ignored when young because no ray guns or exploding space ships. I’m currently halfway through The Dispossessed, which I somehow never read before. Oh, c’mon, Joel: It wouldn’t have held your interest for six minutes back when it was written.

Anyway…

Big News! The cylinder holding up the Official TUAK Chair gave up the ghost after a little less than three years, and has been replaced. Which led to the rather pressing problem of what to do with the old one.

Happily, by wild coincidence Neighbor L chose virtually that moment to say she needed help with a run to the county dump. Her barrels are apparently filling more rapidly than is traditional with “medical waste,” which I did not choose to inquire into. So…

…this very morning the old chair will hit the dump, to be buried and wondered over by archeologists a thousand years from now. Maybe they’ll clone my ass.

Meanwhile…

The pear tree is starting to bud! This always bugged me that it did it in March, since we’re certainly not past frosty mornings. But it is what it is; it almost certainly won’t fruit this year anyway. Still, if it does…

…the fruit won’t be as hard to get to as it was last summer. After the harvest I determined to remove those interior vertical branches that were so hard to pick from. Following them down it all came to one major cut, which I made in December after the tree went dormant. I cut that and all the little inward-growing branchlets, and hopefully the tree will now start to grow outward rather than up.

That’s about all the excitement there is around here at the moment. I’m pet-sitting for S&L tomorrow, and Thursday I’m going to the big town about 50 miles away to (hopefully) pick up my new leg. Which will be an exciting and very expensive day, and I’m sure I’ll want to write all about it.

I had to look it up to remember: Big Brother sent me my current weather station a little over four years ago and to be honest I didn’t really expect it to last as long as it has. But we’re giving it a good function test today.

It has measured gusts of over 30mph, screaming up the wash channel*. Takes a lot of wind to make the Lair creak, especially since we shored it up with the bedroom addition eight years ago. But it has creaked a few times today, as March demonstrates how much of a bitch it really can be sometimes.

Anyway, that plastic anemometer didn’t look like much when I put it on the 20′ length of well pipe in January 2021 but it’s still spinning dizzily away out there so I guess I underestimated it.

—-
*The Lair is down in a sheltered hollow: Up on the top of the ridge we’re getting at least a full gale. The mid-day walkie was memorable.

So no surprise, I woke this morning to a little snow on top of a lot of frozen rain…

And it took a while, since it stayed cold all day, for the ice to let go of my solar panels. I went out a couple of times in the morning but finally cleared the panels on the ground mount and started to get some push into the batteries.

Then it was time to make bread. Since it was still cold inside the Lair, I took some good advice from commenters and warmed my mixing bowl with hot water.

Then I was able to proof the yeast…

…and go ahead and make my dough.

And the result was (a warm cabin and) a nice loaf of new bread, which I forgot to take a picture of.

No thunder, mind you; not a bit. But around here rain usually comes with thunder and Tobie decided there was no need to wait for it before beginning his meltdown.

So I put up with him panting and pacing for an hour until the rain turned to snow and he settled right down. Snow never has thunder, so it’s okay.

Yeah, the weather we’ve been promised for the past two days finally arrived, and we’ll see how much snow we have by morning. Judging from the very scant snowfalls we’ve had all winter I’m guessing hardly any, which since I just typed that out loud probably means we’ll be snowed in for the rest of the month.