Still here, just busy.

 "Don't seek that all that comes about should come about as you wish, but that everything that comes about should come about just as id does, and then you'll have a calm and happy life." - Epictetus

 Busy days these.  The facility has been in an outage situation on and off since April, and while the end appears to be in sight, even that isn't certain.  US elections were yesterday, and the blame cannons are being pointed - mainly at segments of the population who apparently haven't been scolded and belittled enough.  

The blame cannons are *not* being pointed at a mirror - like find a better candidate or consider policies that might benefit the electorate.  Self reflection isn't exactly a hallmark of narcissists.

Enough about that, I've got some new stuff to discuss, like 15.3 Kilowatt-hours of battery storage with a 220V inverter that ought to be able to run the entire house!  If nothing else it will keep the refrigerators running for several days, let me have internet, and run the propane furnace.

Below is the Anker Solix F3800, which is a portable battery + Uninterruptible Power Supply (or Power Inverter) that can deliver 6000 watts of both 110 and 220V power.  So it should be able to run the well pump and provide 110 for the house.  I haven't wired it in yet though.  I actually bought two of them, and two extra battery packs.  These will eliminate the need to run a generator 24-7 when the power goes out.  They also have inputs for solar PV panels - so you can either recharge them at intervals with a generator, or slow down the discharge rate with solar panels.  These use Li-Fe-PO batteries, which are not combustible like Lithium Ion batteries, but they are a helluva lot heavier.  Fe is the chemical symbol for Iron.

Below:  Units charging, with connectors to the stacked battery bank.  These qualify for a green energy tax rebate of 30%.  Just need some solar now to charge them for free.

More importantly, I got permission from the Chief Financial Officer (the wife) to purchase a vintage titanium bike frame to go with that very cool groupset of vintage Shimano 600 Ultegra parts! 

So yep another bucket-list item ticked off.  Here's what's in shipping at the moment: A mid 90's Merlin titanium bike frame by Tom Kellog!

Pretty happy about this, even though these had a weird bottom-bracket arrangement for the crank.  With most bikes, the crank gets set by a couple of threaded fittings, but on early Merlins, they were held in by circlips, with a system known as "grease guard", and they only take a certain older style of crankshaft.  No biggie, I have the right one on the work bench right now.  I'm pretty happy, not gonna lie!

Also just to keep readers informed, they make these cute little AC inverters that can run off your portable power tool batteries!  You can run a 120 volt LED table lamp for many hours using one of these thingies.  Pretty sure all the major manufacturers make one.

Alas, I still haven't completed all the autumn chores that I'd wanted to get done, due to the work situation being so fluid.  No burn of downed limbs and trees, snow stakes not yet set, no winter tires, and no plow installation.  I'll get there.  I'd better, because we've already had some snow!