I have to make an announcement that may upset some but others will be relieved. My HD photo camera is not a video camera and, although it takes HD video, it is very shaky and is making some of my viewers sick when they watch it. My views have dropped and many people have complained. Another problem is that my videos have become shorter due to the fact that this camera eats up two sets of AA batteries per day. Forget rechargeable batteries. They dont last as long at all. I could not record more than 6 to 8 minute clips at a time without the battery going dead on me. For this reason I will switch to my old camera again until I get into town to buy myself a true HD video camera. I found them quite inexpensive at walmart so I will be picking one up soon. I got out my Ryobi sawsall and cut up the branches off of some of the trees that I had cut down previously. This tool is amazing. It processes whole trees in minutes. I really love it. I piled up all the branches to prepare them for processing in my mulching machine. Then I pulled out the mulching machine and then mulched up the whole pile of branches that I had laying around outside the old camper. This machine is amazing if you know how to use it properly. Since I had not handbook with it, I had to experiment to find how best to use it. With longer branches I feed them right into the small chute on the bottom and it eats them right up with leaves, twigs and all. If you put twigs and branches into the top chute, they clog up and you have a mess. I mulched up the whole pile of branches in a couple hours. It was very hot outside though and it took its toll on me. I had to take an afternoon break and re-hydrate. I had lost a lot of water while working. My landlady came out to visit later to see the place for the first time ever. She was quite impressed with what I had done so far and even told her husband that she needs to bring him out and show him around. This makes me happy to hear. During my break I had to turn on the air conditioner. I was running it purely off solar power. It worked nicely but with the RV being so thinly insulated, it takes forever to cool down in the direct sunlight. Now I know why they have two 1,700 watt AC units on the top of the RV. These things are horrible to cool down. After my break I got out the chain saw and cut up some of the trees that were down in front of the old camper to clear it out some. Clearing out the trees really opened up the area in front of the old camper nicely. It looks so much better there and now I have more space. This is the location of my future tiny home so I want to get all the trees cleared out before I begin to build my new home. It was very hot out, in the 90s. My chickens were making strange sounds and panting so I chased them around with a garden sprinkling can. I say, chased them because they would not sit still for it. It was a task, but I got them cooled down. I made some of the most amazing sun tea you can ever have. I used organic tea with unbleached, all natural tea bags and put it in a sun tea jar with filtered rain water to brew. It does not get any better than this. I have some kind of worms and caterpillars on many of my plants now. They are eating up the leaves like mad all over the place. Many people say use diatomaceous earth but it rains so much here it would be a horrible waste and I have so much ground to cover its impossible. I walk around every day pulling off worms and disposing of them by hand. I finally got my solar powered electric fence going on its own. I found out that it runs off a six volt battery and happened to have one laying around that works nicely. The electric fence is now self contained and I have my truck parked out of the way now. Follow my daily progress on the path to self sufficiency on my off grid solar homestead. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlUzPxYD3Ngr8yJw88YYZYzCSC8G3W0O2 Please donate to help keep The Off Grid Project going: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=3TQSWXLLRZ6HW Join The Off Grid Project and The Do It Yourself World forum and share your ideas, tips and projects. http://www.thediyworld.com/forum The Off Grid Project is presented by The Do It Yourself World. http://www.TheDIYworld.com Experiments and projects in off grid living, alternate energy, survival, hiking and more.

• published: 10 Jun 2014
• views: 8391