1 July, 2020;
Vail AZ
I now have some pretty lights in my Van!
In addition to the 3 Puck lights that I installed temporarily, I wired up and installed 2 strings of LED lights for fun. These tiny string lights come with a remote and can display a bunch of different colors and, just like Christmas Tree Lights, and be Steady, Flashing or Smooth Transition from color-to-color. Ha-Ha - I'll probably only use one color on Steady; but, I know I'll like having the remote.
 |
| Getting started |
As usual, it was more complicated than I thought it would be. First, I had to fish wire behind the center column of the van (luckily, I found a wire hanger in the back of my closet); took me 2 tries but I got the wire, plus an extra string (to make future wiring easier) through the column and down into my power box. Then, I had to order butt-end electrical connectors to hook it all together (finding all the wire and connectors in the Covid Lockdown was a challenge all by itself!!).
 |
The power box is a tangle of wires - fan, lights, solar input, fridge . . .
|
 |
| A bit neater now! |
Luckily, I ordered double what I thought I'd need - for some reason, getting a good crimp on an electrical connection is always particularly difficult for me. Eventually, I got good connections on all the wires, used a heat gun to shrink the connectors tight around the wiring, taped over them just to be double sure and then flipped the switch! Yay!! Lights!!
 |
| Not terribly exciting in daylight - I'll see how they look tonight in the dark! |
I have a short weekend camping trip coming up in a couple of weeks - I'll be testing out the completed van for the first time.
More Baking
I'm trying to cut down on how much baking I've been doing since my DIY Sourdough Starter really took off! I've been making bread, pancakes, crackers, etc trying to keep up with all the sourdough discard; I really shouldn't be consuming that many carbs. Also, I was getting a little tired of even the minimal amount of attention I had to give the Starter storing it in the fridge.
So, I decided to try dehydrating the starter - I'm told that it will last indefinitely when dried. My old training kicked in; I never create a backup plan without testing that backup plan. So, after my dried Starter had been in the cupboard for a few weeks, I re-hydrated some just to make sure that it was viable. After a couple of days feeding, it was super active! Success!
A couple days ago, I decided to use up this re-hydrated starter and the starter I'd still been keeping in the fridge (in case my drying efforts didn't work) and make another great loaf of Sourdough bread. This time I added about 1/2 whole wheat flour, some walnuts and olives.
It turned out great! I'm so glad I dried the starter - it will be less tempting to keep baking up these scrumptious loaves of bread; I just can't keep from over-eating when they're in the house.
