I have batteries!

That was a long day. This morning dad and I got started pretty early. I finished sealing up the drywall in the garage against fire.

I was wearing my rubber gloves again, so I didn't have any problem with the caulk and didn't even get any on the gloves.

Adam came over and worked a little while on the driveway, but his back was being a pain, so he wasn't able to do much of the work I had planned on. Oh well, dad and I had plenty of work to do. We checked the gas line. It had leaked again, and dad is not able to get the bubble solutions to bubble. So we finally had to start just tightening one connection at a time, a little at a time and waiting to see if we still had a leak. We did this on a few connections today, a few different times. I am hoping we finally got this part of the system leak free.

We got set up for painting. We put down paper along the whole wall, then put down a large drop cloth right were we were working at the moment.

Dad worked with a brush, and got in the corners, up in the nooks and crannies, and along the bottom. Then I came along behind, and rolled the rest of the wall. We got the primer on the wall where the batteries and power equipment will go, and a ways over on the wall that is shared with the utility room.

FedEx called and asked about the best way to get to the house. I told the driver, and then he asked about the road in front of the house. I told him that it was narrow and getting in the driveway is not easy for a big truck. He had a semi! I had told them that was not a good idea, but apparently the dispatch folks didn't think it would be a problem. When he got there, he tried to back in. It was a short trailer, and he got it into the driveway, but he could not back it up the steep part, and with the rain we have had, there was no way he could turn around at the top if he went up forwards. So I backed my truck down so we could load the batteries from the back of his truck into mine. We loaded 4 at a time, and I used the 4 wheel drive to slowly take them up the drive. Dad road in back, and made sure they rode OK.

Once we got them up, we had to get them inside. I was not going to turn around with those in the back. The area I would have to turn around in is bumpy, and I did not want to risk tipping any of them over. So we unloaded them outside and used my wagon to haul them inside.

12 batteries all lined up. Over 1400 pounds of plastic, lead and acid sitting in my garage.

Dad and I went for lunch then. After we got back, we worked on painting the wall we had primed in the morning. It is looking good. After we finished with that, Matt and mom came up and Matt helped us get part of the battery box assembled. Here it is lying on its back. Once we have a finish on the floor where it needs to sit, we will move it there, and load the batteries in.

Hopefully sometime next week, I will be able to charge the batteries for the first time, and try running off the batteries rather than the generator.