Shake Rattle and Roll

I had my truck alternator go out on me and replaced the battery and had someone replace the alternator. I am “back in the saddle again”.

The guy who did the mechanic work helped me lift the third solar battery up on the table and today I wired it in. I will have to fully charge all three batteries in the morning to bring them to the same charge level. I can run longer now with no sun, but it also will take longer to charge them all. I now have to reposition the solar panels to their more efficient angle; otherwise I won’t fully charge the batteries for weeks. We have been getting a lot of cloud cover and vog and the panels just are not collecting enough sun.

I had another flat tire on the front of the tractor and will have to have the rim swapped out and will probably have an intertube put in the tire just in case. The tractor takes a real beating and shakes at times. I also found some bolts missing and will go to town in the morning (well, a few hours from now I guess) to get the parts. I’ll also stop by Costco and pick up some more oranges. In stock are some Cara Cara varieties which are a nice change. I have a few Cara Cara trees here on the farm but most are other varieties of navel and none are in bloom at the moment.

Speaking of blooms, I have already had coffee floweringa nd now have green coffee cherry. As soon as they ripen I’ll pick them and need to propogate about 500 trees. Those will be added to my exisiting trees so I can have some coffee to sell again.

I was unable to go to my High School Alumni Weekend last weekend. I made it to my 50th and last year was my 55th which I missed so this would have been my 56th Reunion. I will make a concertive effort to be there next year. The campus have changed quite a bit over the almost 63 years when I first stepped on the campus. Some of the buildings are now gone and replaced with new ones, yet many of the old building remain. My years there (1962-1969) hold many memories. When visiting, I have seen teachers and administrators, their children and grand children of people who taught me.

Some of my fellow students were in the radio club with me. One such friend and I were mentioned on a radio show in the U.K. a couple weeks ago. When our campus radio station shut down for the evening, our closing song just before the National Anthem was the song “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys. Truely a great song. It was also played for us on that shoutout from the U.K..

I have to get to bed now. Aloha!