Fairbanks

Friday (SSD Day 5) - This afternoon, I’m done with the state requirement for “strict social distancing” after arriving in Alaska. Today did feel pretty cold outside. I needed to pick up my prescriptions as well as bits from the hardware store to shorten an extension cord. Rather than run the trickle charger on the truck to the same junction box as the heating devices (block heater, oil pan heater, battery heaters), it can be plugged in separately and powered on all the time. The trickle charger is needed year around as there is enough parasitic draws to drain the two 70amp hour batteries in a month or so.

I just noticed that you can barely see Denali from our rear deck. This is a zoomed in iPhone picture but you get the idea. This picture was taken an hour after sunset. We get really long sunrises and sunsets due to the shallow sun angle. 

No real projects for today besides the little extension cord. I was a VE (volunteer examiner) for a radio exam this morning. I almost missed it as I was sort of used to the 9am exams being at 11am local time. I didn't even have time to make coffee. To add more "stress", they switched from a web-based chat to Discord. I already had Discord installed but I couldn't find a way to find the Anchorage VE chat.

This is part of the "Control Center" on my iPhone. Once I had identified the Apple TV in the RV using the Home app, which is the app for Apple's version of home automation, it scanned the network and identified the Raspberry Pi running HomeAssistant. The lower part of the screen shows the status of some of the items on HomeAssistant such as the step light, awning light, and the dressing table light. I had set all of these up to control through HomeAssistant. Now, even though I am thousands of miles away, it still shows the status of these lights and I can remotely control them. I can also see all of the temperature sensors. This is not completely from the Apple TV but the remote access function of Nabu Casa. Kind of cool!