Woke up to an alarm
this morning because I had a zoom meeting at 7:30 a.m., for a committee I’m on
at church. It was 10:30 a.m. back in Michigan, which is a perfectly acceptable
time for a meeting…however, the three-hour time difference is a kick in the butt in
situations like this.
The meeting was over before 9 a.m.,
so we went on a walk shortly thereafter.
Finally did the walk thing at the right time of day. A sweatshirt felt
good when we started but needed to take it off by the time we got to Nutt Rd. It
wasn’t necessarily too hot, it’s just that a sweatshirt over a t-shirt was too
much.
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Kim scared up some quail today; he wasn’t quick
enough to get a picture and I was oblivious to the fact that quail were flying
overhead because I was focused on my phone. Something I was listening to
suddenly stopped and I was trying to find it back again. Missed my chance at seeing the quail because I
was looking down, not out. Ding Dang!
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Sometime after our walk, Kim did some metal
detecting at a building foundation near our Nutt Rd. cell camera. I stayed at
camp and ordered pictures from Walgreens to send to the grandkiddos. I like to take
pictures and sending them to the kids serves two purposes: it’s a creative
outlet for me and the kids enjoy getting mail. I bring stamps and envelopes already
stamped with our return address with us so at least I’ve got that done ahead of
time.
Sending pictures to twelve kids and making
sure that there are no repeats means that I had to get organized. I’ve become
efficient at it but it’s still a time-consuming process: make a list of what picture
to send to which grandchild, order the correct number of copies, sort them,
write on the back, and then put them by family in envelopes. I find addressing
the envelopes to be tedious but it’s part of the gig. So, I ordered the pictures
this afternoon, then completed the rest of the process tonight. Envelopes ready
to mail are on the shelf, every couple of days I’ll pop five envelopes in the mail.
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We were going to ride the bikes to pick up
the pictures, but Kim’s bike wouldn’t start. He stayed behind to figure out the
problem; Moxie and I hit the road to Coolidge. Picked up the pictures and
headed right back, no joy riding around the countryside.
The bike seat was still off which meant he
hadn’t fixed the problem. He put a new lithium battery in his bike this past
fall; the battery tested dead today, which means that maybe the stator is the issue.
Tammy brought her lithium battery
charger over which worked better than the trickle charger Kim had been
using. Battery’s charged now but that’s
just the first step in getting Flame back on the road.
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Because I needed fuel, I took Eleven Mile
Road out of Eloy. Fields along that road now have oodles and oodles of solar
panels. ‘Oodles and oodles’ is a common phrase but to make sure I’m using it
correctly, I looked it up. It’s defined as ‘a very great number of something’. Yep, I’m using it correctly.
There is a substation and battery
installation near the fairgrounds; the name on the building is Orsted Eleven
Miles Solar Center. I estimated that I passed several hundred acres of solar
panels. My estimation was a bit on the low side. This is more detailed
information I found online:
Location: The Eleven Mile Solar
Center is located in rural Pinal County, Arizona.
Size: The solar farm covers
over 2,000 acres.
Capacity: The solar project has
the capacity to generate 300 megawatts of power, enough to power nearly 65,000
homes annually.
Battery
Storage: The project includes a 300 MW / 1200 MWh battery
energy storage system (BESS) that stores power for up to four hours each day.
Purpose: The solar power will
be used to power Meta's data center in Mesa, with excess power going to the
local utility's customers. And, yes, the
Meta data center in Mesa, which will be using the power generated by these solar
panels, is that Meta, the one formerly known as Facebook.
Then I turned on Highway 287 toward Highway
87 and passed oodles and oodles more solar panels belonging to NextEra Energy. NextEra Energy has a presence on Highway 87,
which is where the storage batteries and other buildings are located. This
project is a joint venture between NextEra Energy and the
Salt River Project, which is a utility company.
More information:
Project Name: Storey Solar
Location: Pinal County and the
City of Coolidge, Arizona
Capacity: 88 MW of solar power
and 88 MW of battery energy storage
Acreage: Approximately 996
acres
Commercial Operation: Began in December 2023
Between these two
companies, there are over 3000 acres of solar panels in Pinal County. And there
are other solar companies in Pinal County also. Wow!
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Kim is able to image tonight. He’s still gathering
data for the Dolphin Head Nebula but has changed his strategy. There comes a
time when the Dolphin Head gets too close to a nearby house with exterior
lights. So, starting around 8 p.m., would allow him to catch a couple of hours
of Dolphin Head data before the lights interfere and then, it would still be
early enough to switch to a different target. Making the most of the clear
nights.
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