I'm a Solar Convert!

It was a gorgeous morning of cool sunshine.  The terrible winds finally quit, at least for a few hours.  Cooper and I headed out for a nice long walk through the desert.  It is rather unusual that we saw absolutely no wildlife.  Not a lizard or even a dove to be found.

Once back at the rig, I decided to take care of that wonderful fun job ... emptying the tanks.  It's always a toss of the dice about which valve to pull first, but luckily on this day I did it just right.  In spite of what the sensors say, I suspect the tanks are empty.  Just for good measure, I'll put a little more fresh water in the tank for the trip home.

Then I did the unthinkable ... I turned off the electric breaker.  I wanted to see just how well this solar stuff worked.  Honestly, I didn't think it would last two hours worth of TV before I had to flip the switch back on.  I was ecstatic to find the two solar panels kept the battery on float all day long as I watched TV, charged my computer and phone, and even turned on the fan for several hours.  The fridge was on gas, so no drawdown there.  On a cloudy day, I'll have to be more careful.

Not only that, but there's no trying to remember which I turn on or off first.  It just does it for me automatically.  I turned the electric back on after eight hours.  YAHOO!!  I'm a solar convert.

Patsy and I worked on a new puzzle before coming back to fix lunch.   After that, Patsy stopped by so Gibbs could ask Cooper for a play date at the dog park.  Of course we said yes!

Not ever having played with dogs before, Cooper is a little shy.  He would rather go smell the territory and water the grass.  As you can tell, he does a good job of making the grass green.

Unfortunately, all that heat and wind brought up his noon snack.  Poor baby just isn't feeling good.  I finally flipped the switch and turned on the AC, hoping he would cool off and recuperate.

Finally, a chance to relax and try out my gas oven cooking skills.  Truly, they are non-existent since I've never even STARTED the gas oven in this rig.  It took some doing, but I finally figured it out.  I chopped and hacked up a pan of scalloped potatoes and stuck them in the heat.  

Yeah this looks a little weird.  Wrong potatoes (Yukon gold instead of Russet), and I didn't peel them.  Still, they tasted pretty good even if they did need another 20 minutes in the oven.

One thing I did discover, apparently there's no LOW here, it's 350 degrees or higher.  Woohoo this thing goes up to 500 degrees.  You could cook a prime rib in this little oven!!

I forgot to post Monday's beautiful sunset, so here it is.  Maybe I'll get in one more before I leave tomorrow morning.

My time in the desert has come to an end and I'm heading back to the "other" home.  On THIS morning, the coyotes are giving me a howling sendoff.  I love hearing those guys!!