Good Morning!!!! 55F @ 5:00AM. Partly cloudy this morning, then becoming cloudy during the afternoon. High 77F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph.
I think it was Ian of London, a YouTuber drone guru, that pointed out it's much safer to fly higher, as there are fewer things to hit and more time to react before it hits the ground. He's right, but it's also much more difficult to keep track of the orientation of the drone because it's so small and higher up makes it farther away.
Now you've got me thinking about that fuel transfer gizmo, Ron.
I was up at 3AM refueling the generator. Had just enough left in 5 and 2 1/2 gallon NoSpills to fill it up without having to go to storage trailer in the dark. My day is off to a great start!
Butte County has been holding at 16 CoVid-19 cases for several weeks, and now word comes that they've all recovered with no deaths. Yesterday at the smog station only one employee was wearing a mask, and almost nobody at Costco or the Winco big box grocery. And several had no issues not keeping their 6' "social distance" from me. Next time it's N100 spray mask, old army coat, and camo boonie hat. Maybe I can scare 'em away?
Getting faster with the bleach wipes to decontaminate everything once home, then parcel it up and wrap it for freezing. Mostly pork and chicken this trip, but did find a couple of nice looking roasts, and two others that will be jerky someday. Hit the daily double when the grocery store had Dawn dishwashing soap, and got two of the big bottles. That'll probably hold me over for another year.:laughing:
Didn't get much digging done, but what I did do was find where the conduit starts rising, and broke it. Also damaged the wires within, and that popped the main breaker. Now there's nothing displayed on the "smart" electric meter, so something happened on the PG&E utility side, too. If the electricity is still out when it gets light, I'll have to call them to come look at it, and you-know-who they'll try to point the finger at.
What surprises me is how easy it was to just wheel the generator out again and hook it up; I never did get around to emptying the fuel tank from last fall. Started right up and has been purring along ever since. Normally I'd turn it off at night, but the freezer was full of the day's earlier meat purchases and I want to give it a good solid freeze before turning off the juice again. Which I'll do when I start digging again, though I'll be a lot less nervous about breaking the conduit again since it needs to be replaced anyway. I suppose it was inevitable, seeing as how it's pretty difficult to see down into the trench and guess where the conduit is going to go next. The top of the trench is a couple feet over my head now...:shocked:
Called the solar contractor to let him know what happened, and he didn't seem bothered at all, he even a bit sympathetic. Seems he's had many similar backhoe experiences himself.:laughing: If anything, this little misstep may actually speed up the rest of the install, as both the pump house and garage are ready for wiring, and if I can get the generator moved down to the pad this weekend, they can wire that as well as run the wire out to the solar panel grid. That would leave only building the panel rack, installing the panels, and connecting the wires, work I'd intended to do myself anyway, just not in quite the same sequence. Anyway, he and I will be doing a walk through early in the new week and see how it goes from there.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
