On the road again... but first!

We have finally gotten as much done with consolidating and downsizing as we think we can do, and left the farm on Tuesday on our way west.

Gracie and the Jeep in our campsite at Lynchburg Thousand Trails in Gladys, VA

But... I have some pictures to post of projects that we worked on before we left!

Solar panels...
Carl had solar panels on his 5th wheel that he moved to his last motorhome, and which he removed from that motorhome to put onto Gracie. They had been carried in the underneath storage from Mesa to Dallas to Virginia, and we unloaded them into the container in Virginia. We had thought we would like to get them onto the roof, but we hadn't gotten it done. It was still on the list, so.... Carl started by making the brackets on July 4th:

He took a couple of pictures as he was working - first, with the material on the bandsaw, preparing to cut...

and on the drill press.

I went back with him another day and took some posed pictures:

...at the bandsaw...

he cut the longer material into the size that he needed

... at the grinder ...

he did smoothing of the edges of the brackets here

and at the drill press

he drilled holes at the precise location and in the precise size that he needed

On Sunday, the 5th, we got the panels out of the container and put the brackets on.

Later in the evening of the 5th, we carried the panels to the roof (Miss Doozie was parked just behind Gracie - that's her windshield you see, Carl was handing the panels up to me on the roof).

Carl pointed out how pretty the sky/sunset was, so I stopped to take a picture (I had already taken the solar panel from him and put it down on the roof so he wasn't still standing on the ladder with the panel in hand!).

Panels laid out as I had thought they might go...

Monday morning, the 6th, Tools in hand and in bucket, ready to head up onto the roof...

Panels on Monday morning - Carl wanted them straight down the roof as much as possible. Miss Doozie's solar panels are on the roof behind. We made them straighter as we mounted them.

The first panel in place, drilling the holes into the roof (the second panel is face down on the roof just beyond).

After drilling the holes, and we had put self-leveling sealant (Dicor) on, Carl put in the screws to hold them to the roof.

At the end, after putting all the screws in, we came back and put the sealant on top of the screws.

It was a HOT job, but we have the panels on the roof. Now, at some later time (hopefully when it is a wee bit cooler), we will do the wiring and drill yet another hole in the roof to bring the wiring down into the rig. We are glad to at least have them up there (though they are doing nothing other than possibly shading a little of the roof at this time!).