Well, didn’t make it out to the swamp today. Had to wait until I was sure that the remote for my charge controller was on the way which didn’t happen until this afternoon. No bad reflection on Renogy. Just how it went. I eventually contacted their customer service and had things worked out in a matter of minutes.

If anyone is thinking of starting a solar energy project I recommend at least touching base with Renogy to see what they can do for you. Frankly, the cost of solar is dropping so fast that customer service is quickly becoming a major factor to consider when making your buy decisions. I’ve already tested the water with Renogys return policy and have to rate it as excellent. Be advised that unless you purchase from Amazon through this site I get nothing from you purchasing from Renogy. I’m just trying to steer people toward a happy ending.

How hot is it? I found this pic in my camera which should answer that. This is taken on my first floor porch in the shade. This was taken about 4 in the afternoon. What you can’t see is the Boy in the truck with the AC blasting on high. Anytime it goes over 100 he goes in the truck while I burn precious diesel keeping his furry butt cool. Now that I have enough solar to run fans I try to keep him in the shack in front of a fan but that’s a lot like herding cats. Seems that there’s always some exotic critter out there to bark at and chase.

I have a new in town project to start next trip in. I found this gopher turtle (tortoise) shell alongside the road a few months back that has been sitting on a post in front of the shack. I’m going to paint its belly yellow, the top red, put a kenyan flag on one side, an ISIS flag on the other and a rainbow flag on the back. On top I will paint an owebowmao logo with a hammer and sickle overlay. I’m going to put it on eBay as the “ultimate baracka owebowmao post turtle tribute.” I think it will eventually come to be recognized as a fitting tribute to owebowmao fans and possibly find its way into the Smithsonian. I will list it in a 30 day auction starting at 99 cents with $175 shipping and handling. As with all things owebowmao you have to look at hidden costs and agendas. Post not included.

Not long ago I was headed into town for some silly reason like food or maybe water when I came upon a young turkey walking down the middle of the road. He seemed a bit unsteady on his feet so I thought maybe that he had found some fermented corn and was walking it off.

There’s feeders everywhere out here. Sometimes water gets into the feeders and the corn ferments. Once the game finds it they spend days hanging around to eat the corn and catch a buzz. Larger game such as deer and pigs relish it for the extra calories while smaller game sometimes gets falling down drunk.

Curious I began down shifting and fell in behind the turkey who at first was quite oblivious to me and the noise from my truck. Shortly though he looked back and was visibly startled to see me only about 20 feet behind him. So he sped up but didn’t leave the middle of the road. So I sped up a bit to keep pace while wondering how this would play out.

Looking over his shoulder again he seemed genuinely surprised to see me still there and really started pouring on the coal. It continued like this for some time with him looking back and increasing his speed every time but never attempting to leave the middle of the road.

I have no idea how fast we were going when he finally started flapping his wings and at times leaving the ground. Being so young he obviously wasn’t used to flying all that much but seemed to instinctively know that flying was his Shawshank Redemption.

The chase ended with him achieving lift off velocity and clearing the brush on the side of the road then crashing into a small clearing just off the road. I came to a quick stop to watch him crash in the clearing then look around to see if I was still behind him.

I often wonder what animals would say if they could talk.

“Wow, so that’s fermented corn! What is corn anyway? They say it tastes like chicken. I wonder what chicken is? Don’t matter. I’m drunk whatever that is. I’ll just walk it off. Yessir. Gonna just walk down the middle of the road here till I get home.”

“What’s that sound? Hmmm. Don’t see anything. No worries. Wait, it’s getting louder. Oh no. It’s behind me!”

“Oh crap! What’s that? It’s huge! And it’s growling at me! Walk faster. Walk faster. Don’t look back.”

“I gotta look back. Gotta look. Oh crap! It’s closer. Run. Run faster. There, that should do it……………… Wait, I can still hear it.”

“Oh no! It’s still there! Run real fast! Real fast. Why am I flapping my wings? I haven’t finished basic aviation 101. They say I can’t fly yet. Oh god. Oh god.”

“It’s still there. Oh god, get me out of this and I promise,,,,,,wait. I’m a turkey. Turkeys don’t pray do they? Who cares? Oh god, oh god, oh god.”

“It’s still there. I’m going to fly! I’m FLYING! I”M FLYING!!!  I’M CRASHING! I’M CRASHING!”

“Ouch, shit, crap! WOOF! I’ve crashed! Well, they say that any landing you walk away from is a good one.”

“Gosh. Where did all the dragonflies come from?”

 

“One day an old cowboy was out ridin’ fence and he saw a turtle balanced on top of a fence post. When he got back to the bunkhouse he told the other fellas that he saw a “post turtle”. They all asked, “What the hell is a ‘post Turtle’? And he said it was a turtle settin’ on top of a post! He then went on to explain that “you know he didn’t get up there by himself, he doesn’t belong there, he doesn’t know what to do while he’s up there and you just wonder what kind of dang fool put him up there to begin with!”

 

“

Just a quick post then I’m off to the swamp for a few days. Just spent several days in town not doing much of anything except sleeping and healing up from bug bites.

Since last post I put in a Renogy MPPT Charge Controller that Plume sent to me. It’s great. With it I can run a fan, charge devices and still keep my batteries topped off during the day. At night I ran a desktop fan all night, about 8 hours, and the batteries were still topped by about 11 in the morning.

I ordered an MT-5 LCD display to go with the controller. It came in broke. So it’s on its way back to Renogy while I wait for the replacement to arrive. It’s pretty irritating to have to wait even more time but I do have to say that so far the customer support at Renogy is very good. In the meantime I’ll have to keep using my meter to monitor the system periodically.

Put on the snake boots and did a walkabout last week. I haven’t toured what of the property I can get to in over three weeks so things had changed quite a bit. Things are drying out a lot so I’m able to see and get to more areas that have before now been far to wet to even try. What I thought might have been a spring fed pond turned out to be nothing more than an optical illusion. In truth the whole area is nothing more than a mud bog right now. I was able to get fairly close and take a pic but it’s still much to wet to even try crossing. After it dries some more I’ll trek in as far as possible and get some GPS readings and pics.

Another area previously off limits is opening up also. I was able to get about halfway through before the mud got to deep and I chickened out. This area is very interesting since the west side is the side leading to the back of my property which I’ve never managed to get to. About 40 feet past where I took these pics is a stand of pine trees. They’re to the right in the pics. Usually, where there’s pines there’s fairly dry land and the brush isn’t so dense. I’m hoping to get back to this area soon with the brush cutter and possibly discover the ever elusive westward passage to the back side of the property.

You just never know what you’re going to bump into out there. After awhile you tend to try to get in and out as fast as possible but then something will happen to remind you that it’s time to stop and smell the roses.