Trying to enjoy life to the fullest at the Off Grid Cabin and a New Power Source to run it all !!!

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Hey, hey, hey, everybody. What is going on? Back in the bush with Chicken Nugget, everybody's favorite little freaking blonde in the woods.

[00:00:09]Got some great news, all kinds of great news. Another collaboration is one good thing. Number two, we're going to jump in the hot tub here later. You guys don't care about that, but anyway, it's a beautiful sunny weekend.

[00:00:20]And we got something new, and this [music] is beautiful.

[00:00:25]Oh, it's a cardboard freaking box. Isn't that wonderful?

[00:00:28]>> Yeah, it's the wrong side.

[00:00:29]>> Everybody needs a cardboard box.

[00:00:32]This cardboard box is from most people know this name, Renogy.

[00:00:38]These guys are a fairly large company.

[00:00:41]Look what is in this box. Oh, boy.

[00:00:45]This is beautiful what we got from these guys.

[00:00:49]This is going upstairs, and this hopefully is going to replace six batteries.

[00:00:54]This is their new mini core Renogy 300 amp hour battery, 12-V. Right now, I got six batteries up there, but they're 12-V basically. They're series parallel, they're lead acid, old school.

[00:01:08]Two of the six are almost 10 years old.

[00:01:11]Two more of the six are five or six years old, and the last two are two and a half, three years old.

[00:01:17]So, you're not supposed to mix batteries as it is, mix age batteries as it is, and everything else. To make a long story short, they don't perform that well. We get here after the first night, the fridge is kicking the crap out of our battery bank.

[00:01:30]So, this new Renogy mini core, beautiful, beautiful 300 amp hour lithium iron phosphate battery. I'll tell you some of the specs on this later.

[00:01:42]I just wanted to show you guys this for now. Later today or probably tomorrow, we're going to go upstairs, and we're going to actually swap this out for six batteries, and we're going to see if it can actually do the job, and I'm pretty sure it's going to because you can run these 100% depth of discharge, kill them. Where those can only run at 50% and I've had them at 50% way too many times. Anyways, enough about the Renogy for now.

[00:02:05]Going to [snorts] have a dinner, going to get the barbecue going.

[00:02:08]We are going to have chicken.

[00:02:11]Boneless, skinless thighs. Eat them quite a bit. They're good, though. Going to throw them in the barbecue. What do you think, Cindy?

[00:02:19]>> Um any day you cook, good day.

[00:02:21]>> Oh, apparently I'm cooking. I guess I'm throwing them on the barbecue anyway.

[00:02:25]Anybody saw the last video, the BougeRV uh fridge down here, the portable fridge.

[00:02:30]Well, guess what? We're using our BougeRV water heater right now out here heating the hot tub. So, it's going to be a good day for a good day. The water's up to 90° already in it. We've been running that unit for probably an hour and a half right now. We've already gone from 55 to 90. So, it's going to be a good night.

[00:02:49]Well, out at the barbecue.

[00:02:52]Got to fire it up here.

[00:02:55]This is our chicken thighs.

[00:02:58]Now, I'll put them on here. I've already oiled the rack.

[00:03:02]Grill's on here.

[00:03:04]So, they don't stick so bad. Cindy's got these all seasoned up.

[00:03:10]They should be very tasty.

[00:03:12]Boneless, skinless chicken thighs.

[00:03:16]We eat these quite a bit and they're tasty, for sure.

[00:03:20]Going to be a good dinner. Going to be a nice end of a relaxing or fairly busy week. Going to be a fairly relaxing end of a busy week.

[00:03:27]Huh. Man.

[00:03:29]Shop's still going crazy. I've got four tractors to pick up Monday.

[00:03:34]Phone's rang. I got three more customers called me since I got here today, so.

[00:03:39]Nice to still be working, you know, a little bit each week and paying the bills.

[00:03:45]Haha. Time to go do a hot tub check.

[00:03:47]Let's see what this is looking like over here.

[00:03:50]This is a pretty primitive, but pretty neat way to heat this bad boy. Anybody who's watched this before. This is our Boondocker water heater. Propane.

[00:03:58]Running off a tank of propane, running off our All Powers power station.

[00:04:04]Oh, oh, look at that. That's looking pretty good in there.

[00:04:07]Steam starting to come right out of there.

[00:04:10]We put the water in last week, put the bromine to it last week. Life is good.

[00:04:16]Almost drought conditions already where we're at in the Maritimes here. The brook is way down already. Thank god I still have a good reservoir of water here, but out front the brook is already down a foot, foot and a half in the last couple of weeks. So, drought conditions coming again. We can't even have a campfire tonight. So, that's why we're cooking on the barbecue. It's [snorts] nice to have you guys back. Nice to have you guys here.

[00:04:40]So, anyway, show you guys a couple things out front here while we're waiting for dinner to cook. You want to see the bleeding heart?

[00:04:46]Anybody like flowers? Look at that bad boy.

[00:04:49]Beautiful.

[00:04:56]Isn't that nice? All full of hearts already.

[00:05:00]All full of hearts. The peonies are doing great. These are the ones I just transplanted a couple weeks ago. They're reaching the top of the tomato cages.

[00:05:08]So, those two are up most of the way.

[00:05:11]This is the one that was here since last year. It's taken off as well. And the strawberries are looking good.

[00:05:16]And there's something else I got to do and I've been putting off and I think this is going to be a pain.

[00:05:22]See this contraption down here I've got set up with my solar panels on it?

[00:05:29]I don't know if you guys can tell from the angle.

[00:05:33]This way.

[00:05:34]Still falling over, boys.

[00:05:36]So, what I got to do considering I'm upgrading my batteries in there and that and I'm going to make sure the solar panel doesn't fall the hell over.

[00:05:44]This has been like this for a long time and I initially started sorry about the cup.

[00:05:49]I initially started those three, added the fourth.

[00:05:52]And it's an oddball shape and everything else, but that tree is pretty well ready to go, too. So, instead of having it hinged off of that tree, I'm going to build a complete new framework on four legs.

[00:06:03]And I'm going to design it so I can just tip it up in the winter and set it back in the summer cuz you go from about 45 46° to about 36° in the winter. It's about 10° sweep. You got to change it 10 or 15°.

[00:06:19]I'll have to look at exact measurements, but anyways, that's why I'm going to do it.

[00:06:23]So, I got to build a complete new framework for those.

[00:06:27]Might be tomorrow's project, not sure.

[00:06:29]We rode earlier, we watered all the raspberries cuz it's already getting dry here, so.

[00:06:35]Hard to believe, but we're only the end of May.

[00:06:39]What's going on where you guys are at?

[00:06:41]Tell me where you're at. Tell me what it's been like. You guys been getting a lot of water?

[00:06:45]Or have you guys been getting drought conditions already like us? So.

[00:06:49]And it's not total drought yet, but it's it's not good.

[00:06:53]Those are smelling awesome already. Been on here 10 minutes.

[00:06:57]We had our little walk to the brook.

[00:06:59]Already starting to cook.

[00:07:02]Good job on the spices, Cynthia.

[00:07:06]Now we're over the envy of you now.

[00:07:08]You missed the clock. These ones are hotter.

[00:07:13]Cooking faster. Boneless, skinless.

[00:07:17]Checking the thighs.

[00:07:19]There you go. Dinner's on the table.

[00:07:20]Those thighs are done.

[00:07:22]Cindy did up some rice with some peas in it. Something she does quite a bit and chicken thighs, boneless, skinless, rice with peas, basmati rice.

[00:07:32]So, now we'll eat our dinner here. I'll talk to you guys a little later on.

[00:07:45]>> [music] >> Can this one battery replace all these?

[00:08:03]That is the question.

[00:08:06]Well guys, we're up in the We're up in the loft. It is battery day.

[00:08:13]I've been waiting to do this for a long time.

[00:08:15]I've been hoping for a long time to get a life pole battery to get rid of the old lead acid. Like look at these bad boys.

[00:08:23]This is what I've been dealing with for 6 years. Well, I've actually 9 years total. Again, these are almost 10 years old. These are 9 years old. These are about 5 or 6 years old these two. Those two over there are about 3 years old probably now.

[00:08:37]They don't do what they should do anymore. They're just don't hold the capacity anymore. I haven't load tested any of them. I need to, but I haven't yet.

[00:08:48]But what I need to do first is come over here to my janky electrical my janky my janky electrical system.

[00:08:57]This is my solar panel coming in. You got to cut that first. You always do it at your charge controller.

[00:09:03]Okay, and now I can turn off my batteries which are right [snorts] here going into the charge controller.

[00:09:13]Get that out.

[00:09:16]All right, the inverter is off.

[00:09:19]All right, it's time to swap this over.

[00:09:21]It should be a very easy swap because all I'm going to do for now is to start, I'm going to disconnect all I'm going to separate all the batteries.

[00:09:35]The crossover.

[00:09:38]So, basically now the batteries are going to be they're not going to be paralleled anymore, you see? Take that off, so they're already disconnected.

[00:09:50]And I can load test them this way, too.

[00:09:55]Lead acid batteries are such a mess. And what I'm The only issue running a life po at a spot like this camp where we're at is winter.

[00:10:06]So, I'm hoping in the wintertime what I may have to do with this battery if it's working that good is I'm going to build a little super insulated box and it's going to go in that.

[00:10:16]With a light bulb for a little bit of heat.

[00:10:20]All right, guys.

[00:10:23]Now, my main line's going in. This is my positive.

[00:10:26]This is my negative right here.

[00:10:30]Main line coming in or coming off the batteries, I should say. This is positive.

[00:10:35]Uh and negative here. And rule of thumb, you always unhook your negative first, but that's that doesn't matter in this case, but I'm going to do it anyway.

[00:10:45]So, I'm going to unhook my negative off of here. That's going right to my charge my two my uh power grid.

[00:10:55]That's my negative wire.

[00:10:57]My positive wire is right here.

[00:11:06]We're going to see There we go. That's my positive.

[00:11:11]We're going to see if this lovely little Renogy battery will keep up and probably outperform what these things are doing.

[00:11:19]And I'll almost guarantee it's going to.

[00:11:22]All ready.

[00:11:25]This battery weighs 55 lb. And you can see how small it is. Check this out.

[00:11:30]Physically Look at the difference.

[00:11:36]Look at the difference between this and a 6-V.

[00:11:41]That's one 6-V battery.

[00:11:43]It sticks out 3 in past. It's the exact same height and almost the exact same width.

[00:11:49]But, this has the power technically of all six, and I'll tell you why. I'm no solar expert, but what I've learned and most people know with this stuff and these batteries, different types of batteries, the lead acid, the old school should not be taken below 50% DOD, depth of discharge.

[00:12:08]LiFePO batteries like this can be taken to 100.

[00:12:12]You can kill it dead.

[00:12:16]5,000 times this battery will cycle without damage.

[00:12:22]There's a 5-year warranty on it to cover it. Renogy are a very good company.

[00:12:27]Quite a large company.

[00:12:30]They're one of my uh nicer collaborations, for sure. So, basically, what I was saying is with the 100% depth of discharge, my other batteries I have about 600 amp hours.

[00:12:43]Well, with this battery I have 300.

[00:12:46]So, technically, if I can take this down to 100% with 300, it's as good as the other ones that can go 50% with 600.

[00:12:59]And LiFePO batteries are just better around, all the way around.

[00:13:04]They don't have any off-gassing, so they're a lot cleaner.

[00:13:08]You know, there's a BMS, a built-in battery protection, so you can't overcharge, it won't overproduce.

[00:13:14]But, they're basically a smart battery, so it's hooked up. It's time, guys. Let's uh flip the switches and see what happens here.

[00:13:24]Batteries turned back on.

[00:13:27]Solar's turned back on.

[00:13:29]And we're going to see how it works.

[00:13:56]There you go. Get that all done and all hooked up. It's been quite a freaking day for wildlife around here. Look at this morning, there's a rabbit sitting right over here.

[00:14:05]Sitting right down here munching on the clover. He sat here for 2 hours and ate clover.

[00:14:10]You know what else he ate, Ken Chandler?

[00:14:14]Strawberries over here. The second bed over, not the first one. Cindy cleaned them out a couple weeks ago and I didn't bother putting the cages back on them.

[00:14:22]Well, guess what happened?

[00:14:24]He had a good little munch last night.

[00:14:26]There's not one freaking leaf left and they're just starting to leaf out. But anyway, he's a happy little bunny and Cindy seems to think it's fine that he eats everything, so >> Not fine.

[00:14:36]I didn't say fine.

[00:14:36]>> She didn't say fine.

[00:14:38]>> I said we should have been more vigilant.

[00:14:40]>> On [clears throat] a positive note, we've seen no porcupines lately.

[00:14:43]Hummingbirds are back. You like the slow-mo I did on there?

[00:14:47]They The hummingbirds are back. Coolest thing to see.

[00:14:51]The brook is alarmingly low right now.

[00:14:54]Alarmingly.

[00:14:55]It is only May.

[00:14:59]It's only May and that is alarmingly low the water level. We have Stonehenge over here. The rocks are sticking out. It's like a rock quarry.

[00:15:06]Uh the ducks We had two ducks here this morning. They're almost walking across the brook.

[00:15:11]It's so shallow already.

[00:15:14]Very very afraid we're going to have another drought this year. At least, thank God we won't run out of water at the house. But anyways, very soon I got to go out and >> [snorts] >> I got to build some kind of contraption to hold these solar panels. I got a bunch of 2 by 4's here. I'm going to build a square frame, lay them out. I got to change the whole setup and the way they're on a tree stump, that's going too.

[00:15:34]Let's go see what kind of mess we can make. Hmm.

[00:15:37]>> [clears throat] >> Oh, well the day is going along here guys and I didn't even turn the cameras on but here's my new framework I just built for the solar panels.

[00:15:49]As you can see, huh, looks a little better than the crap I got down by the brook, so.

[00:15:54]Three panels will sit here, one, two, three.

[00:15:57]Number four will go on there.

[00:16:00]And the way I'm going to build it right now, again, it's on a tree. That tree is on the way out. It's been dead for years. It's going to break off here eventually. I'm going to cut that right off.

[00:16:09]I have to disassemble everything down there and [snorts] then this has to go on four legs and it's going to be hard to do it because it's all totally uneven ground down there.

[00:16:19]So this is one of those things I can only level it in place and I'm going to put the panels a lot closer to the ground this time.

[00:16:26]I don't [snorts] need them up that high in the air, so.

[00:16:29]I don't know if I'm going to get it totally done today or not. Uh beautiful day out and just I don't know, we'll see. But anyways, this will work for now.

[00:16:40]This is going to be the new framework.

[00:16:41]It's got a lip all around the bottom for the panels to lay on and that so they can't slide off.

[00:16:46]Plenty strong and nice and light.

[00:16:49]Should do the job.

[00:16:51]Guess what? For dinner, we are having pork loin on the Barbie. Check this out.

[00:16:57]I didn't even decide to show any of it.

[00:16:58]Man, oh man, I've been kind of selfish with the camera today. Sorry guys.

[00:17:02]Built that whole frame for the solar panels and didn't show much and now I got dinner almost ready and there's dessert right there. What a doll.

[00:17:10]What do you think?

[00:17:11]>> I get too much sun.

[00:17:12]>> She gets too much sun.

[00:17:15]Living the dream in the woods, I'll tell you. What a freaking beautiful day.

[00:17:19]Check this out for a wonderful dinner.

[00:17:21]Cindy's homemade potato salad, carrots, and pork loin off the Barbie.

[00:17:28]I'm going to sit down and have dinner. I got the hot tub heating up again. Sucks to be us, huh?

[00:17:33]Got to love living simply and remaining grateful in the woods.

[00:17:37]Good times. What a beautiful morning.

[00:17:42]And I got some real good news on a couple things.

[00:17:46]Went for a walk yesterday. Actually had a really good time in the hot tub last night. I went for a walk down to the apple tree down there and started looking it over, the one that got absolutely butchered by the porcupine. It is covered in blossoms.

[00:18:00]Next weekend it's going to look amazing.

[00:18:03]I would take a walk down and show you, but right now we have a duck sitting right up here in the lawn and he thinks that this is his place, I guess. And he just He's been out here an hour now. Big old mallard drake.

[00:18:16]Living the dream.

[00:18:19]So, how did that new battery do that I installed yesterday? And I wasn't sure, but confirmed.

[00:18:30]Normally right now, after running our solar stops, you know, we get the input stops about 4:30, 5:00 with separate time here. We get a couple We get three or four good hours of solar down there at Weatherbrook.

[00:18:42]So, normally with the old battery bank, the you sleep overnight here, spend the night and with the fridge going on and off all night and it does. It kicks in quite a bit. And it's still an efficient fridge, but it's still it kicks the battery bank down.

[00:18:54]And between that, get up this morning, flush the toilet, and that, blah, blah, blah.

[00:18:58]Normally right now in these conditions, that old battery bank, the battery voltage would be sitting at 12.3, 12.4.

[00:19:07]Every morning I'd get up. Some nights it was a bad one, it'd be 12.2. But 12.3 to 12.4 volts. And then after normally what would happen here is if we went like through a weekend, we had another day that was overcast. By the second day, she was hurting. She's getting way down.

[00:19:21]And that's on six batteries wired series parallel to give you 12 volts.

[00:19:27]This new one, I get up this morning and looked and this is incredible. When I first get up, it was still at 13.1.

[00:19:34]And and it's only 20 after 9:00 in the morning here, so we're getting virtually any solar input getting a couple of amps going into it. It's already showing 13.4.

[00:19:44]So, it hardly discharged anything all night. So, because this morning when I get up, there was zero solar, nothing.

[00:19:50]It showed zero in the input and it was still sitting at 13.1 volts. Renogy mini core battery for the [music] freaking win. What a beautiful upgrade for this off-grid cabin, so.

[00:20:03]The only thing I got to get now is a better inverter up there cuz I've got a mold modified sine wave inverter from Canadian Tire.

[00:20:10]And I got to upgrade that. I want to go to a 2,000 W. It's only a 1,500. That'll be another thing for another day and maybe some [music] of you reach out and collaborate with me on one, so.

[00:20:21]Been a wonderful weekend. Can't wait to get back here again and see what the apple tree looks like because that thing is in full freaking blossom. It's going to be in full blossom by next week.

[00:20:30]One of the branches, the little thing is 2 ft long and there's literally going to be 20 blossoms all on the top row of it.

[00:20:36]So, if it puts any apples, I don't know how it could even hold them up. We'll find that out down the road.

[00:20:41]But, anyway, crazy busy week coming. I got to pick up a tractor on the way home when we leave here. I got to go on the road tomorrow and pick up, I think three more tractors, four or five lawn mowers. It's going to be a busy week and we might even have to get camping. We might even get out camping for a day [music] in Stay tuned for that.

[00:20:59]Like and subscribe. Share the videos.

[00:21:02]I'll put the link in the description on that incredible battery. That is best way we ever could have gone. Uh [music] we're never going to kill that bad boy, I don't think, unless we really put a big load on that. So, live simpler, remain grateful. We will talk to you guys very soon.