Daddy, what happens if I pull on that handle??!!

I wish my soon to be five year old son would have asked me this but he didn't.

How I found out is not a pleasant story to tell, at least not from my perpesctive. I still have nightmares about it! Nnnnooo! Don't pull that handle!!!!

We were about to leave the Cardinal KOA we were at, which required us to empty our tanks on our way out since we only had electricity and water. No big deal, I was thinking to myself, especially since I was pleasantly surprised to see they had a sewer hose already hooked, ready to use. Great! I thought to myself, that will save me some time!

What happened next cannot be exaggerated as it was a catastrophy by all means. The second I removed the cap, something went very wrong! Wait a second I though, there shouldn't be anything coming out just yet, the valves are still closed, or so I thought!

When disaster strikes like this, you instantly react the best you can. In hindsight, it wasn't the best of idea to try and catch the waste with my two hands (wearing leather gloves!!) It was not really efficient and I could tell from the way it was falling on my brand new sneakers that I'd have to find another way to deal with this. By the time I put the cap back on and closed the valve, there was ample evidence on the ground that a black water tank holds way more than I thought.

What splashed on the ground forced me to try and clean the best I could with my hands as yes, there were solid residues that needed a little push to move towards the sewer hole.

I can honestly say I had my hands full!

The 90 minute ride back home was echoed by many complaints from my kids who apparently thought I emitted a foul odor, still.

We drove with the windows wide open and enjoyed the fresh air way more than we usually would in spite of the cooler weather!

P. S. I am looking for a way to put on a lock to that dreaded valve. That's my next MOD!!

Success! Solar system did great!

Our first outing of the season was a success with my newly installed solar panels, charge controller and inverter. I am using a modified sine wave, but I was able to use the coffee machine, the toaster and even the microwave (although you could tell it had a hard time with the electricity produced by my inverter)

While there were some clouds over the week-end, my actual solar setup of 350 watts netted me 1200 watts on both days we were out there, providing for plenty of power for the furnace which never really stopped given the cold (it was close to 4 degrees Celsius on Friday night, and would dip to zero overnight)

Having said that, having enough power from the sun is one thing, but adjusting to no hookups is another. We ran out of water late Saturday evening, and I had to manually replenish our supplies with a 5 gallon water jug we had. Not pleasant!

The other thing that ended up being a problem was the one way check valve that is at the entry of the city water supply. The check valve was no longer working, allowing water to escape. I have to improvise using my hose to find a way to close the system, but still, water could trickle through, which forced the DC water pump to come on every five minutes or so, even without us using any water. Pretty annoying in the middle of the night if you ask me.

Last thing that went wrong is my estimation of propane usage, as I had not bothered getting my second 20 lbs. refilled, as the 1st one was full, and since I had a full one for the BBQ if need be. Well I woke up to a chilly 10C in the middle of the second night since the second tank went dry on me. Brrr, it was cold, but I made the switch and went back to bed, hearing the reassuring humming of the furnace as it went into overdrive trying to catch up.

All in all, my solar system worked fine. It even allowed the kids to watch TV, to my surprise, as my first attempt at getting the TV set to play using the inverter was not a success, and I thought the TV did not like the modified wave. It was great to be able to get everything to run on an inverter, using the power of the sun, but we still have to adjust to other things that come with not having any hookups.

I also have to add another two 170 watt panels that I have, that would bring me around 800 watts of solar power, plenty over what we need.

Stay tuned!