The Freightshaker, on the other hand, was its usual bitchy self like it always is on cold mornings, and required that I put a heat gun on the ECU for about ten minutes before it would start. How it is that I came to figure out that whole heat gun/ECU thing is a story in itself. 😄😄🙄
Once the trucks were warned up, we rolled out and headed for the freeway. We always stop at the end of our dirt road for a final load check-it’s pretty normal for that couple of bumpy miles to settle and shake everything.
About an hour into our trip, the eastern sky was turning pretty colors.
We rolled into Flagstaff and headed to our solar supplier to pick up the remaining parts. Unfortunately, even though we had given them several days notice to have our stuff ready for pickup today, their warehouse crew had been super busy and not all of our stuff was quite ready, so it took a bit longer to get loaded up than normal. Oh yeah-remember that mostly empty trailer? Here it is after loading it up with solar parts-minus the 9 additional ground screws that also got strapped to the very back of the trailer.
After that load was all secure, we made a quick stop at the local Tractor Supply to get Denise some insulated coveralls to keep her warm in the freezing temperatures we were heading into.
Then it was a 30 minute run up the road to the job site. A narrow but smooth forest service road took us most of the way, and the snow capped mountains nearby looked pretty but felt cold. 🥶
When we finally arrived at the job at noon, we were disappointed to find the customer was the only one on the street who had apparently not paid his sun bill and the shade had left snow and 2” of ice everywhere. Great. 🙄
The first thing we did was get the F-350 sorta stuck on the ice. Even in 4wd, the road was too steep, the load too heavy, and the ice too slippery when one rear wheel was on the ice. It took some careful maneuvering to get the trucks and trailers parked and out of the ridiculously deep ditches that bordered each side of the narrow road.
It is a pretty location.
Once we got parked, we dove right into the work.
Denise got the cabin opened up and all our gear moved in, as we would be staying in the customers cabin instead of our job trailer for this job-with lows forecast into single digit temperatures, there was no way our trailer wouldn’t freeze up.how it was that we were doing a job here in these freezing temperatures instead of in the summer months when we should have is another story. 🙄
While Denise was moving in, I got the excavator unloaded and the tools and gear out we’d need for our first task-laying out the ground mount array and installing ground screws.
After getting our array and anchor locations all figured out, it was time to screw!
Here’s Denise holding the first one in place while I drop the auger drive into it.
And just 5 minutes later, the first screw was installed and we were off to the races!
Two more screws would drive home in quick succession and just like that a third of our anchors were installed in about 15 minutes!
Woo!!
And right there is where the misery would set in and things would begin to go poorly…