Plan B, part IV

If you don’t know or remember what Plan B is… search “Plan B” in the search box and all related posts will appear for your reading pleasure!

Karl and I headed to Kalispell by way of Somers, MT (walk) for groceries shortly after 7 a.m. yesterday. I love shopping early - practically no one else in the store and I can meander a bit. The meandering ended in the cold beer section as I knew “we” were going to be finishing the electric service and yesterday was to be day 1 of a 2 day heat wave - temps forecast to be in the upper 90’s. An ice cold beer might come in handy later - and Bill has a friend who collects micro-brewery bottles so we are always on the lookout for local beer. Shortening the story a bit, I bought a 6 pack of Wild Huckleberry Wheat Lager brewed in Whitefish, MT at the Great Northern Brewing Company. They only make the Wild Huckleberry in the summer - it has just a hint of huckleberry and sweetness and Bill had not had any huckleberry anything yet. And the label is pretty and unique enough for friend Roger’s collection.

Back at the “ranch”, Bill was in the “fortress of solitude” - what he’s taken to calling the bus as it is his tv and computer room while I’m working… I announced breakfast and after that we headed out to finish up the electric service project. Bill had connected things at the garage end last week and then had a 2 day hiatus to take the bus to Missoula to get the satellite tv equipment looked at. That’s important to know as it did not go well and necessitates a number of phone calls for this morning - this figures later in this narrative…

Saturday, the garage panel was installed as well as the rv outlet boxes:

Climbing the ladder and tossing the wire over the rafters as well as stapling it to the trusses and the wall - that was my bit. It required major supervision. I managed to keep from dropping my hammer on the supervisor but it was a close call a few times…

So Yesterday, which was to be the FINAL day for the electric service part of Plan B…the plan (there is that dirty word again…) was to pound the 6 foot ground rod, 5 feet into the ground (my job…) and hook up the business end of the wire to the main power pedestal.

Remember what the ground looked like on Trenching Tuesday??? I apparently forgot… The ground rod is currently in the ground - just short of 2 feet, with a bit over 4 feet to go. I have to get a mallet of some sort… or have crazy Dave come back with his machine and push it in. It is in far enough for short term. The connecting of stuff to the power pedestal went easier although I had a role in that also - minor and my part always involves going low or high…in this case in the dirt to glue and assemble the final pvc elbows. But after that, I was released and took a short nap while his highness finished up the technical stuff.

Then…..about 2 p.m….all done and ready to turn on a light and plug in RVs!

Light in the garage! Power in the garage - that’s a charger plugged in and its little “charging” light was on! Next, plug in the bus - power and shortly, all 3 A/C units came on line!

Winnebago (30 amp) - this is getting too long and I maybe already lost a number of readers who don’t care about electric service to my garage…suffice to say, the 30 amp has a problem and the troubleshooting was unsuccessful and also baffling and involves my SurgeGuard unit which tests for “good” power before sending it on to the Winnebago. AND the SurgeGuard tests the 50 amp fine…ruling out a problem with the SurgeGuard - we think….

Bottom line - frustrated, hot, man who hates to stop with things not working and more phone calls for this morning. I’m not going anywhere near that bus, which will be the scene of the phone calls, until maybe late-afternoon and then I’m going armed with Wild Huckleberry beer…