Tetris Anyone?

I'm tired, I'm hot and it is after 10 PM which is past my bed time when we're off grid. But someone requested I post and entry everyday while we're off grid this time. Don't worry, I won't be able to post that often as I am sure I would run out of content, but this one's for you, TJ.

This segment of our off grid adventure started on Saturday when we packed up the truck. I donned the knee protectors and climbed in the back of the truck while Alan started carting boxes from the house. I felt like I was playing a game of tetris with plastic totes and cardboard boxes, but the game was stacked against me (pun intended) by the fact that I started with the stair stringers for the deck as one of the first pieces that had to go in. The three for the front of the deck were over 8 feet long so they had to lay diagonally across the entire length of the bed, meaning I then had to fit lots of square and rectangles in the rest of the truck bed which was now two large right triangles.

Part way through the unloading,
the fridge and back layer are out.

After several repackings we got almost everything to fit, we decided the solar oven could wait until next trip. We get the back of the truck closed, and Alan realizes he fogot the solar panels which were stored in the garage. Since there is  Harbor Freight 'near' the property, we decide to leave the ones we have up north for the next trip and buy another set down south on this trip as we will be needing more anyway and we have a coupon. Then, as we are going into the house, I realize we still need to pack our clothes and fit those into the truck somehow. Alan decides we can forgo the 5 gallon potable water container we were taking back down because we left two of them at the property along with several one gallon containers and we have found a close source for potable water at a local park until we get our pump going.

Early Sunday morning we hit the road and 'Truck' is proud of his new gear. Alan had taken him for an oil, lube & filter last week and noticed there was quite a bit of 'shimmy' at highway speeds. He told the mechanic the types of roads we were now driving on and asked they check the truck over. He was out of alignment and his tires were in bad shape. So, truck got a new set of larger all-terrain tires and was out of alignment. Oh yeah, he needed new front wheel bearings as well. I don't think Scoot (diesel VB beetle) will get used as much when we bring her down here. We'll save her for when we go out on longer trips, not for jaunts into town, and we will take it very slow on our road until we reach pavement.

The drive was not exciting, which is good. Last trip, when we were each driving a vehicle we broke it up into two days, but this time we did it in a single day since we could switch drivers and keep each other company. We always enjoy road trips and have great intellectual discussions along the way. For instance, on this trip some of the topics included 'Do bees in the south have accents and what does it sound like? Bu-uuzz?' Also, 'What do armadillo eat?' We also started a pool as to when we would spot  the first road kill armadillo. Alan won, but his guess was still over an hour too late, guess armadillo are heading farther north in the hot weather.

We arrived at the property around 8 PM. Both of us were nervous as we drove down our road, We have been gone about 4 weeks and did not know what we would find as the property had been abandoned for quite some time before we bought it and it had been vandalized at some point. So, as we come down the last scary, steep section of road and then turn the curve that is right before our property, I start running through my mental check list as we pull up the driveway:
Is the house standing - Yes!
Is Rodney (the Kia Sportage) still on the drive -Yes!
Is the shed door still locked - Yes!
Is the solar security lighting still in place - Yes!
Is the aluminum 'barricade' we placed inside the French doors still in place - Yes!
Get out of Truck and do a little happy dance because everything is how we left it.

Well, I was going to write about what we accomplished today, but I think I need to call it a night. So, TJ, you will get  your request at least for tomoorow as I will finish up what I was going to add tomight. It got up over 100 degrees today so we had to make sure we paced ourselves. I mainly unpacked boxes but Alan made great progress on our battery set up. More on that tomorrow...

Now off  to bed in our 'quiet' mountain home. Last night at about 8:30 the woods exploded with a cacophony from some kind insects. Alan measured the sounds at 67 decibels. Yes, there is an app for that! Now I want to find an app that will indtify what type of bug is actually making that noise.