every MPPT and inverter in the house is making just a few watts over it's rated production. The two tristars are rated at 3kw each.

I have come up with a techique for setting these cardboard tubes i dig the hole a little larger than the tube so i have room to move it left and right. Then i mark tge elevation on the tube and cut it. Turn it upside down so the imperfect cut isnt facing up. Get it in tgr correct lateral position and its ok if it is a little low. Gently dump fill dirt around it to lock in the lateral position. Fill it about half way with concrete. Now i lift the tube up and jockey it around to make it plumb and at the right elevation. Finish filling and trowel the top flat. The mass of concrete inside helps it stay stationary while you jockey it around.

One of the neighbors was caught at arrested for stealing hay. Said he couldn't make bale.

Only two more concete pads to go.

Lots of help today.

Not exactly off grid related, but Win10 end of life is upon us. No one asked for Win11. Also Win11 takes 10 second screen shots of what you are doing and stores it on Microsoft's cloud "for your benefit". Additionally the hardware requirements are such that many PC today can't be upgraded. May I recommend you have a look at Ubuntu Linux desktop? Looks and feels like the computer you are familiar with and has the same web browsers and an app store.

I've been dipping my toe in linux since 2000 and I gotta say, they've come a long, long way.

you can make a bootable flash drive using at app called Ballena Etecher and boot into Ubuntu from a flash drive to test it. When you do install it, you can either overwrite your HDD or convert to dual boot windows/linux.

https://ubuntu.com/download

EDIT: Mint Linux is also recommended

One more "not so on topic" post... Raspberry PI makes an all in one keyboard / PC called the PI 500 and PI500+. I played with the predecessor last year the PI400 and it's a pretty damn good PC running their RPI operating system. The PI400 can still be had as "last year's model" for about $90, and the PI500 can be had for about $130. In an off grid / low power environment, this PC pulls 2.5watts playing videos. Man does not live by bread alone... on long winter nights it might be nice to watch movies or old TV shows stored on a HDD.

farmer performs mental reset on dummy

The balloon has gone up.

The S*%T has hit the fan....

You go on a procurement run in to town... Do you have a battery powered angle grinder?

A few weeks ago I got some galvanized pallet racking for behind my workshop. This week I've been pouring concrete footers for the racks. I've used the laser level to set the elevation of the tops of the cardboard tubes and been careful to float the concrete to the right elevation. We put up one of the racks tonight and found something "fun". One of the verticals doesn't start at the same hole offset as the others it's off by 1/2". To be honest my concrete is low by 1/4"... and combined with that particular vertical makes the elevation of that rack 3/4" low. I think I'll flip it around backwards to make the error is offset go the other way... but isn't this fun..... Worst case, I'll shim the feet before I anchor them to the concrete.

Now I know why this racking was cheap.. it's 2nd run quality.

Holy smokes... teh new 56a "double" lfp cells have 684ah capacity per cell.... 2.5kwh per cell.... that would be 37.6kWh per 48v battery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IViC6YHfLN8

Raising the grade inside the footprint of the greenhouse. Final grade will be 2in below the bottom holes in posts. Yesterday we relocated the water and electrical lines from the left right center to the front corner. Later ill switch that spigot to a hydrant.

Can I just use a stainless steel bolt hanging on the bottom of a fishing float with a tiny hole drilled through the cap and a tennis ball hanging on the outside so when it's at the top my tank is empty and when it's down by the bottom my tank is full? I've done this before with 50 lb test line and never had to replace them.