Evening viewers,
Some days are diamonds, some days are stones, well today was a boulder. Well sort of.
Today starts last night after the blog was typed when I felt a tickle on my shoulder and reached in and pulled out a tick. I thought it was just a loose one but judging by the lump on my shoulder it wasn't. Had I know it was attached I would have pulled it out properly without the risk of any mouth parts left behind.
By the time that the girls got to Bunnings last night it was closed. Which meant no supplies for frame making for me and no paint for the roof of the gypsy wagon. I made another flyscreen, It is hard work fitting the aluminium mesh. I fitted them both upstairs working on the roof. Fiddly job especially when the clips were too long and had to be cut down.
Susan meantime kept clearing in the rain forest. Well it will be a rain forest eventually when all the weeds are grubbed out and regrowth occurs.
Now to today's boulders. My super duper solar controller has been a bit erratic of late. Thinking it was the fact I am running it at its limit I fitted a cooling fan and yesterday a little thermostat controller. Today it would start charging when it was cloudy, the current would fly up when the sun came out and then it would stop. Unplugging it would restart it and the cycle would repeat at various intervals. As part of the trying to work itout I attached my new self built current/volt meter to the inlet side of the controller forgetting of course the digital meters are only rated to 30 volts, Whereas the supply can be over 40. You guessed it the smoke came out. The volt meter is still working but the amp gauge was broken and quick trip to Lismore for a replacement part on its assembly failed to restore it to operation. I chucked it, salvaged the voltmeter for use somewhere else and used the case to install my mechanical ammeter. 4 hours construction work and a $40 gauge down the drain. Even better I found a nice complete digital meter online with some extra functions for $23. I am yet to examine the solar controller. Just as well I have my trusty spare original. The solar charging is a battle at the moment with lot's of cloud and more heavy rain today. Unfortunately there is no 240 here to run my battery charger so when it's cloudy I am chasing my tail. When the sun shines the batteries are charged by 11am.
I also jacked the trailer up tonight to insert the wheel ramps further to raise it up to test my theory on the height being a bit low. The ground was fairly soft and the ramps sank a bit but the roof line does look a bit better. I must have been out of my tiny mind crawling in the long grass under the trailer. I could almost hear the ticks stampeding towards me. I found one walking on me and Susan tweezered one out of my scalp.
Apologies for the lack of pictures. I will try to do better tomorrow. As I hope will the weather.
night folks
Cheers Simon
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