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Today's Photos

We got the rafters in place today. (I say we, but it was mostly my contractor and two of his grandsons.) It was about 95°F today. Not fun. But my contractor is available and willing to work, so it is what it is.

Also, I found out I don't absolutely need the monthly subscription for my Blink security cameras. But about 90% of the convenience is missing. I can't view or delete clips using the app. And I can't upload or share them. I have to pull the USB flash drive from the sync module, then read what's on it using my PC. I didn't buy the "officially approved" USB flash drive. As it turns out, I didn't need to. The ones I already have work fine.

What I will do is leave one in the Sync Module and I'll have the one from the previous day pulled so I can view the clips from the previous day(s). That's the only way to view the clips now. When I shut down the computer for the day, I'll swap flash drives (after emptying the one going into the sync module).

The clips are pretty small, so I'm sure I can go days and days before the drive will fill up. The largest clip so far has been about 2.2Mb. The average size is closer to 0.5Mb. With a 32Mb flash drive, I can easily go a week and possibly two, before I have to swap drives. But since there is no way to tell how full the drive is unless it is the one I plug into my PC, I'll probably just go two or three days.

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Today's Photos

Another 95° day. My contractor arrived at 1:30pm (with his two grandsons) and worked until about 3pm. They attached the fascia boards to the rafters on all four sides. Then they put two sheets of plywood on top (for the roof). Soon, the metal roof panels will go on top of that. Wherever he bought the plywood sheets for the roof messed up. They didn't give him two sheets of the same dimensions, so now there's a gap between the two panels. He'll fix that tomorrow.

We're getting there.

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Today's Photos

Much cooler today. Scattered clouds and it even rained a little bit. They got all the moisture barrier material up and some of the exterior paneling.

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Nothing happened today. I'm not sure if that is because he couldn't find/purchase the materials he needed for the work he planned to do today, or for some other reason. But as usual, there was no phone call or text. Hopefully, he will show tomorrow.

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Nothing happened today. My contractor was no show, no call. Hopefully he'll show on Monday.

I disconnected my 200W portable solar panel. I had been disconnecting it (and putting it inside my shed) when I left the property to go into town and then reconnecting it when I returned, because I didn't want anyone taking it for themselves. Quite the pain, but better than losing it. I hooked up one of my two 200W "normal" solar panels in its place. I'll hook up the other one soon in series, due to the specs of the Bluetti. Then I'll have a total of 400W and should be able to better handle less than "perfect" days. Also, with 400W, the Bluetti should reach 100% of charge much more quickly when depleted. That way, I'll be able to use it longer after sunset, knowing the 400W will get it back to 100% rather quickly.

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The one 200W solar panel I have hooked up to my Bluetti is working out pretty well so far. It's charging it pretty quickly and keeping it charged throughout the day (as long as it is a nice sunny day). And knowing that it will charge quickly the next day, I'm able to use it after sundown. But even so, I'll do my best to get the second matching panel in the system soon. I'll need the extra wattage on cloudy days and it won't be summer forever. Once fall and winter roll around, I'll need all the extra Watts I can get.

Today is another windy day. Yesterday was pretty bad too, but today has been worse. My weather app says 29mph winds and I believe it. I'm been having to run around the property picking up everything that's been blown somewhere other than where I put it. Then I've been putting rocks on those things so they stay where I want. Fortunately, it's predicted to drop to 20mph by sunset and then to 4mph by tomorrow, just before sunrise. Then it should pick up to 18mph tomorrow and then keep dropping throughout the week until next Sunday when it's predicted to be 5mph.

Also, the wind has reminded me I need to get air filters to put over my screens to keep the wind blown dust out of my living area. I need the windows open for airflow, since it's been about 88° today, but that means I have to deal with the dust. Then, when the winds die down I forget about the air filters until the winds pick up again. And the intermittent low frequency rumblings of the wind on the shed is somewhat mentally tiring. I've read where that is the case with people who live near the giant wind turbines. One's quality of life takes a hit if they install those near where you are living.

I'm hoping my contractor will show tomorrow, but I don't know how much his work schedule will be impacted by the Independence Day holiday coming up soon.

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I really didn't expect him to show up at all today, but he was here around noon, ready to work. He worked until about 2pm. He filled in the empty area on the roof and got a couple more exterior panels. He said he will be here early tomorrow morning.

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Today's Photos

My contractor said he would be here by 7:30am, but he made it by 9am. Close, but I'll give him a cigar anyway, for trying.

It's now 12:30pm and he is done for the day. He finished all the exterior siding/paneling. He will be adding metal drip edge pieces and some trim during his next couple of visits.

In one of the photos it looks like the door is about half the width it should be, but that's just because he hasn't trimmed away the extra. It'll be a normal width door after he does that.

Then the metal roof panels, the door and the interior (toilet & shower). And then finally, the water cisterns and pipes to deliver the water to the shed/outhouse.

We haven't talked about painting the outside, though he previously said painting is not his favorite thing to do. If that turns out to be the case, I'll try my hand at it. It's not my favorite thing to do either, but if it can save me some money, I'll do it.

He asked if I wanted it insulated. I said no, mostly to save money. I'm pretty sure I should be able to do that also, if I choose to do it at all.

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My contractor didn't show up yesterday or the day before. He called me today to fill me in on what was keeping him away. At first, I thought it might be due to some continuing Independence Day activities, but it turns out he had some family emergencies to deal with. But those seem to be over and he said he would be over to continue his work on the shed early tomorrow.

But he will only be able to work about half the day due to some legal problems he has to deal with in court. That may take a couple of days, but after that he said, barring other unforeseen emergencies, he would be able to continue working until it was finished. I don't know if by that he means the shed only, or also the water supply system needed to use the shed for the purpose for which it is intended.

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Today's Photos

My contractor told me yesterday he would be here around 8am today, but didn't show up until 10:30am. Oh well, I'm getting used to that, but at lease he did show. He brought the metal panels for the roof and drip edges.

It's a little after 1pm now. He got all the flashing, drip edging and metal roof panels in place. He said that tomorrow he plans to do some finishing work on the exterior.

On a different note, I was getting concerned about my 100Ah battery. It wasn't reaching what I call "float level". LiFePO4 batteries don't truly have a float level the way lead acid batteries do, but people still call it a float level. Fully charged LiFePO4 are typically at 13.1V, but when the sun is out and everything is working fine, it regularly gets to 13.7V.

But it hasn't done that for the past few days. At first I was concerned. I even checked the cable connections and they were all fine. But then it ocurred to me this was because of the cloudy days we were having. The mornings were bright and sunny but then clouds came in later in the day. I was even increasing the temperature settings by a couple of degrees for both the refrigerator and freezer sections to make sure it would get through the night. Then after sunrise, I would put those settings back to where I wanted them (refrigerator: 34° and freezer:8°).

Today is the first day in a while that it got to this float level. It has also been in the high 80s / low 90s recently and the cooler is running longer and more often then it does during cooler months. Sometimes, the battery gets to this float mode by 10am, but only during cooler months. Long story short (too late), I'm breathing a sigh of relief. But this puts a higher priority on my plan to get more panels in place.

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