The winter of 2022 had a few hard lessons for us. First was realizing that living where it rains for 8 months out of the year was going to be hard on a solar-powered system. After her usual exhaustive research, Debbie settled on BatteryMINDer to keep the solar battery full and happy.

She has since added a second one that handles the traditional batteries for both the van and the Subaru, since we don't drive all that often.

So that was lesson #1. Lesson #2 was a bit harder and more involved. I somehow forgot that I should drain the water tank for the winter. After our Thanksgiving trip, I should have drained the water and run the pump to clear it. Lesson learned. The hard way.

We had a bitter cold snap around New Year's, and about a week later Debbie went to the van to check something. She realized that the water pump was running, the little carpet runner in the 'hallway' was soaking wet. Yep, the freeze somehow zapped the on/off switch for the water pump and dumped a few gallons of water into the van.

First problem to fix: stop the water pump! She yanked the fuse (thanks for labeling everything so beautifully, Scott!) and then set about getting a replacement toggle.

Next was getting all that danged water out of the van. Debbie set up a dehumidifier and some desiccant packs, and then we got down to the hard work of mopping up. The first day of the dehumidifer yielded almost half a cup of water!

Once we had the van in dryer mode, Debbie set about replacing the toggle and splicing the wires. It's a tight squeeze, even for Deb.

The end result - with marine-grade connectors.....

.... and wire loom to keep everything extra safe and secure, was worth it.

Now Jet is ready for her next adventure!