outside Capitan, trusting the forecast

outside Capitan

I’m outside Capitan awaiting two Amazon locker deliveries then I’ll move on.

ammo brass

This spot appears to be a popular spot for shooters, based on the amount of spent and live ammo I picked up.

Couple pounds of brass for an hour’s work. At ~$1.80/lb it’s not minimum wage but there was no commute and the campsite is cleaner. :-)

Most of the live rounds I find are .22lr. I think this is because they are easier to drop, harder to see after dropping, and very cheap per round. TBF, I don’t pick up .22lr brass unless it’s very easy to do so. Too fiddly, and very difficult to clean if they are packed with dirt. Even .25 ACP cleans noticeably easier. If the .22lr were clean and in an accessible pile I’d pick them up.

I don’t remember that leg being there

There is a deer leg just across the road. I suspect something dragged it there a couple nights ago because Muffin and I have been walking past a few times a day and neither of us had detected it prior.

another tactic in the mouse war

Over the winter I bought a walmart solar garden path light to illuminate the ground under the van. An attempt discourage mice from climbing into the engine bay and fscking things up again.

That worked ok but I’ve been in places with other campers in the sightline and felt the underlighting was too bright/rude. So I removed the mounting spike and just wedged the light into the open hood so

• the light illuminates the engine bay at night
• and the attached micropanel still faces ~south in the daytime
• and is not excessively bright outside the engine bay at night

No mice since I started with the light, but corellation != causation and all that.

weather

It’s been largely overcast and cold the last two days. 1030am now and still only 39F. Muffin, normally outside, has chosen a warm bed instead.

The forecast promises the sun will peak through by noon and be full sun by 2pm. It did clear up at 2pm yesterday as predicted so there is some basis for optimism.

So I will be brave/foolhardy and borrow against the LiFePO4’s capacity.

• cornbread (120Wh); then,
• split peas (150Wh)

That will be a comforting lunch and dinner in the chilly weather.

Update 1200: still fully overcast, although harvest is up to 180w. Total harvest 550Wh so far. Cornbread out and on the rack. Split peas pressurizing.

Update 1245: pea soup done and served over broken cornbread. Yellow over yellow isn’t attractive but it’s warm comfort food. Solar harvest >230w, 710Wh so far today.

Update 1300: solar noon, making 265w. Up to 800Wh, but no sign of blue in the skies, still 100% cloud cover. Gonna be cutting it close here. The bank is only up to 55% SoC.

Update: 1315: blue sliver on the northern horizon!

Update: 1400 - partly cloudy overhead, bouncing between 20A-40A net into the bank. Up to 1.17kWh. o

Update: 1515: - mostly sunny, reached 13.8Vabs. :-) 1.81kWh, plus whatever I use the rest of the day

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