woohoo 80%

My two 10W panels and bright sun brought the battery to a reported 80% but after darkness fell, it was at 57%. This is positively gripping! The voltage before dark was 12.5 and after dark 12.3 on the Renogy thingummy but 12.2 on my desktop meter. Make of that what you will.

I really didn't do much today - I way overdid it yesterday and I'm no spring chicken. I felt every ache today. I was out too long in the heat, doing too much. I was dizzy for the first half of today so I probably got way dehydrated and probably a touch of heat exhaustion.

Today I dug out the rake and raked my piles of crush and run, making a coherant looking driveway. I'd estimate it'll take another day or two days to finish up the crush and run. I still have a massive pile right in the middle of my driveway. The majority will probably be used between the right of the driveway and the telegraph pole on the right, stretching in a triangle to the right, out of the picture.

I have no way of compacting the driveway yet. That's something I've not really worked out. I'm hoping that the rain forecast for next week will do my compacting for me. Out of curiosity I looked up how much it would cost to hire a bobcat to do the work I'm doing with my $40 wheelbarrow and borrowed shovel. It seems that per day excluding fuel it would be something like $300.  At that price I could hire a couple of Mexicans, pay then $20 an hour and get the whole thing done perfectly in about 3 hours! Since I've already forked out $381 on my crush and run, I think I'll keep the rest of my money and do it myself.

Thinking about money, I understand the last of the first round of Covid unemployment and extra $600 a week payments will be ending next week. I never received any of that because I have a steady job. I'm wondering what will happen when those people stop having the steady payments they've had for 3 months because they will be used to them and likely used to spending all that money. It'll be a real hard shock! I'd have been saving that money, myself.

Meanwhile, my very generic bluetooth connector for my Renogy whatsit is apparently on its way from Chnia. Aliexpress tracking indicates it went straight from the warehouse to Chinese customs the same day. The tracking indicates that it's arrived in the USA but also that it's awaiting customs clearance in China so who knows what's happening there. When that arrives, it should (assuming it works as advertised) answer a lot of questions. If not, there's always the replacement battery (which I think is what it's going to end up being).

In other news, I remain highly entertained by the clueless clots offering expert advice online. One of the prize statements today was the flexible solar panels are no good because they all catch fire. If that was true, nobody would make them because they'd be afraid of being sued. Another piece of nonsense came from another prize clot. Apparently a Renogy charge controller will blow up a battery but then the clot announced he used the same Renogy controller as me. Two lots of clueless clots in a day. I wish I could record them giving this bad advice on a video. It'd probably be salable as a comedy video.