Lapdary and solar

Yesterday was my general orientation and lapidary orientation at the gem and mineral club. I am a real member now. :) So far, two classes under my belt, 8 or 10 to go. I want to try as much as possible and see if there is something that I like. I don’t think lapidary is for me, but I want to give it another go. My little cabochon isn’t bad for a first try. I might cut and do something with the red jasper that I left to be cut the other day. I should be picking that up today. I might try soapstone carving on Monday. Each class costs money, price of the class and materials. But I am having fun and keeping very busy.

I also spent about two hours waiting to hijack the FedEx truck at Quiet Times. If my packages made it inside the building, I would have had to pay a fee. After several phone calls and three FedEx trucks, I managed to get my solar panel and kit. I will be installing that today. I will need to drill a hole to the battery compartment from inside the rig to run the cables so I can have the controller in where I can keep an eye on it and use it to power stuff. The trickle charger seemed to do the trick keeping the battery charged up so I can start the generator in the morning, so the solar panel should be good. I am hoping to actually have power to use when the sun is out. I bought the Renogy 100 Watt, 30 Amp starter kit. I even upgraded to the LCD charge controller. Should be all I need in this little rig. Ever. I will still continue to use my freestanding Yeti for TV at night. It does a great job when I remember to plug in the solar panels. I forgot yesterday to switch the charger from AC to solar, so I didn’t have much juice for TV last night, which is actually OK because I slept thru most of it anyway. :) The only problem with the solar panel is finding a place for it to ride when we travel. It is quite large and heavy, and I won’t need it when I’m hooked up, so it is going to be in the way. Everything has it’s advantages and disadvantages. Just need the pros to outweigh the cons.

I want to do Q Mountain again. This time with a bunch of camera equipment. Now that I have a back pack, I should be able to get up there with all my stuff. I want to do a 360 degree photo, some panoramas, and bring my big camera up too. Hundreds and hundreds of RV’s have come in and more coming in every hour as this next week the Big Tent and the Pow Wow starts. This is what people wait for every year. 

If I can get the scooter sold, I am going to order the hard top for the tracker. I saw one yesterday that was the same color as mine, and had the exact top that I want. It looked nice, better than the soft top. I would have liked to have gotten a picture of it, but the lady was backing out and I didn’t want to make a scene of any kind.

So, I guess I am off to get dressed, walk and then start my solar installation. Would like to get it done early enough to benefit from today’s sunshine. It looks easy enough, but you know how these things go. :) After I get that done, I can go pick up my jasper and my fused glass from earlier in the week. I don’t have much else planned for today. I will have to look and see what is going on, if there is anything I am interested in.

Now that I am a member of the gem and mineral club, every third Saturday they have a pancake breakfast, and a tail gate yard sale. I am going to load up some stuff and try to unload some stuff tomorrow. That will be my project for late afternoon, loading it all up. I will need to setup early, around 7:30, so I will need to be able to just get in the car and go tomorrow morning. Watch that be the one day I over sleep.

We have had a couple of cold nights, but nothing I can’t handle. It has been in the upper 30’s and 40’s, and Ody tends to be about ten degrees warmer when I don’t have the heaters running. I can deal with that. It is the 20’s and 30’s that are hard to deal with. Days have been in the 60’s and mostly sunny. I am back to wearing my shorts and sandals, but several layers of tops so I can peel them off as they day goes on. I do wear my hikers when I hike tho. Mainly for safety reasons.

The steps to creating a cabochon (upside down..)