Once upon a time there was a piece of wood. It was not an expensive piece of wood. Far from it. Just a common block of firewood, one of those thick, solid logs that are put on the fire in winter to make cold rooms cozy and warm. 

Carlo Collodi

I know I have used this quote before, but I like it. Pinocchio was a favourite when I was little.

9 AM

Time to feed cats and then chop wood. Ok, so I want coffee first.

I just read Cousin Bob is arriving, my name for the polar vortex. An extreme cold warning has been issued. And as I predicted, just like cousin Bob it will stay longer than expected.

I will be chainsawing and chopping in -50. Oh well, not the first time.

Hopefully, I can do a few projects today. I need to dome some additional wiring and get a second 12-volt port, so I can use that for charging my tablet.

If I am right it should save me power. I just don’t think running my gen in -50 would be a good thing. I will run it today to top up the batteries. I have been using my laptop to charge my tablet. My laptop uses 12volts DC converted to AC then that gets converted back to DC. I am sure there is a lot of power wasted during the conversion. I think a lot of power is wasted this way.

One day I hope to power my laptop directly from DC., also, my monitor. I have an old 18-inch laptop display I have had for years, I bought a cheap conversion kit to turn it into a monitor. It will run on 12V. It will also help my fading eyesight. I hope that will work.

Be chopping this in -30 tomorrow

I just finished the chopping for the day. Litter boxes are filled and even one of my sandals is filled with fresh litter. Bad cat peed on one. I brought the gen down to warm up a bit before sending her out to make power in -20.

I swear I could see the sun right up until I cleaned the solar panels