… this was one of the quietest days yet;
I was up and about as soon as the alarm went off, down to the magasin de presse for my baguette, and sitting on the wall at lunchtime with my butties.
Thrilling, isn’t it?
I’ve spent a lot of time doing hair washing too.
Not mine, I hasten to add, and not Randy Raquel’s either before you ask, Rhys. But it was something that I’ve been meaning to do for a couple of weeks now and each time something has come up to prevent me. This morning I was finally able to accomplish it.
For the rest of the day, I’ve been on the blog (that’s with an “L”, Rhys)
With something like a new record, I’ve done 23 pages today. My “7 pages per day” target being well-exceeded.
It’s quite interesting to read just how much I was being frustrated over the lean-to. The period that I’ve been doing covers my return from Canada in October 2011 and making a start on rebuilding the lean-to that collapsed in 2002.
I’m at the stage now, end of September 2012, where I finished it all amidst frustrations, cancelled holidays, bad weather, interruptions of all kinds. And personally, I reckon that I did pretty well.
I’d never touched a stone wall before October 2011 but by the time that the end of September 2012 came round, I’d not only completely rebuilt a stone building but I’d roofed it too – and all on my own.
How proud was I of that?
Tea tonight was something that I haven’t done in ages. I made myself a huge wok full of aubergine and kidney-bean whatsit. And it was totally delicious. Enough for another three nights too.
But when I buy my freezer later this year, I’ll be making stuff like this and then freezing it so I can rotate the diet around. That’s what I did when I lived in Expo – and it was bags of Aubergine and kidney-bean, chick pea and mushroom, lentil and green pepper.
Sometimes I’d do a potato curry, and of course I’d rotate the ingredients around too. And pies! I can do pies too, as we know. Every night would be a different meal instead of the same thing consecutively (not that I’m complaining too much, of course).
I can’t wait for a return those good old days.
But one thing that I have learnt is that the vegetable steamer is no good for cooking pasta. At least not in the 20 minutes that I allowed it. I had to finish it off in the saucepan;
That’s something else that I shall need to investigate
So tomorrow I’ll find myself in October 2012. Winter 2012 will be approaching and I have just 130 pages to go and a couple of personal tragedies to handle before it’s all brought up to date.
Aside from working from 6:30am to 4pm mon to Thur, I’m getting my bus ready for the road. Getting an interesting problem with a gel battery though…
12v 10ah. It sometimes charges to 13.4v when the controller turns the fan on (2.5a). It gets down to the 12v cutoff in about 5 mins. I had to adjust the start to 13v.
Something seems amiss with that battery.
Typical battery voltage should be around 12.5-12.7 volts when not charging. Under charge it should fluctuate round about 13.4-13.6 volts, but a charge of about 14.1 maximum for half an hour or so as it equalises the cells won’t hurt it any.
I set it now to charge to 14.4v (no change). I lowered the fan on to 13v and the fan off to 11.9v. Now it seems to be cycling well.
14.4 might be a little high. How long does it take to equalise when it hits that voltage?
It never hits 14.4v. I have a 2.5A fan, 2x10W panels and a 10AH battery.
thought you said that you set it to charge to 14.4 volts
No. The charge controller has 3 settings….
Turn solar panels off at 14.4v
Turn Fan on at 13V
Turn fan off at 11.9v
So far it’s working well though the interior temperature was still high despite a powerful extraction fan.