Only two hours.....

 7:28 am - Wednesday - April 15th - TWW - 42° F, humidity 23%, cloud cover ZERO %, wind 8 mph out of the south by southwest....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 67° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were at Goosenecks State Park in Southern Utah....

.....with Steven and Linda Dempsey....Steven took these drone shots....in the first picture there are two motorhomes close together....we are on the left, and the Dempsey motorhome is on the right.  Eleven years ago it was $10/night to stay there.  I'm not sure what the cost is today.  The view this morning.....

We awoke Tuesday knowing we had just 3 more days to take down our campsite (Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday) with 2 day trip to Los Algodones thrown into the middle.  Our goal was to finish organizing the trailer interior for VW insertion Monday morning.  Here is what the trailer interior looked like Tuesday morning.....

.....we began work at 10 am, and by 12 pm this is the change....

.....personally, I am flabbergasted we got so much done in 2 hours!  All that is left to do is pull the trailer forward about 50' to insert the VW on Monday morning.  Of course, it goes with out saying, but I'll say it anyway.  Without TLE's help and suggestions it would have taken twice as long.  

I took an hour break then headed back outside to help TLE take down the sun shades so she could spend time applying water proofing to the patio and window awnings, and then I moved some more stuff over to the garage that we are not taking with us.  I'm guessing here, but I think we've removed at least another 500 pounds of stuff from the trailer.  I haven't seen it this empty in years.  To think that we used to carry three bicycles, a tandem bicycle, and two tadpole recumbent trikes in addition to all of the other stuff we carry with us.

By 3 pm I was whipped, and it was time to put away things, and get ready for dinner at 4 pm, which turned out to be TLE's world famous burritos!  We haven't had burritos for a while now.  She makes enough of them that there are usually two, or three left over for snacks the following day.  I usually eat them cold the day after....almost as good as cold pizza....lol!

Well, we leave here (Wednesday) soon to drive down to Yuma where we'll spend the night, and then over to Los Algodones (about 10 minutes away from our hotel) for more dental work, so time to get dressed, and pack our bags.

Thanks for stopping by!

Final tasks.....

 7:05 am - Tuesday - April 14th - TWW - 32° F, humidity 43%, cloud cover 23%, wind 5 mph out of the west by southwest.....mostly clear skies today with a forecast high of 59° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I visited Monument Valley for the first time.....

....we only stopped there for an hour, or so, before continuing our travels.  The next year, 2015, we actually stayed at a nearby RV park (Gouldings RV) for a few days, and took the sunset tour.  The view this morning....

Monday saw a continuation of the 'wind event' for the 5th consecutive day now.  We're kind of running out of time, and we cannot allow the wind to stop us from finishing a few last tasks before we leave.  As of Monday I still hadn't caulked over those old screw holes in the garage roof, which have allowed rain to enter.  Originally I counted 17 holes which needed some caulk, but when I finally got up close and personal I found at  least 10 more.  Instead of doing the job from the top of the roof I chose to do it from the inside on a ladder.  There was no way I was going up on that roof in 25-30 mph winds.  Surprisingly, it only took me 45 minutes, beginning to end, to finish the job....

Lots of rain was getting through those holes

....and with the completion of that job there only remains one more of what I would call major jobs and that is to replace the 2 x 4 which affixes two of the solar panels to the roof of the barn.  I wrote about the need for that a few days ago when I sealed the barn roof.

I continued to move things from the trailer which we will not need in Likely this summer to the garage, while retrieving a few things we will need.  Some of those items will actually go in the storage areas of the Newell.  Then the big job began....take down the three tables in the trailer which hold tools....

The tool bags are full

One table left

....that took me until almost 2:30 pm when Charles and Phyllis arrived for a quick overnighter bringing numerous packages which were delivered to their home in Phoenix on our behalf.  This will be the last time we see them here at TWW until next Fall.  We convened in the house for our last communal meal this season around 4 pm.  

While we ate, we talked about next Fall, and our plans for the property.  This winter was full of major accomplishments including, but not limited to: 1) Getting the greenhouse operational, 2) Resealing the barn roof, 3) Resealing the garage roof, 4) Creating the RV site for Phyllis' Newell, and moving the Newell into it, 5) Solving the fuel delivery issues in the Ford 420 tractor, the Yamaha, and the Jeep, 6) Clearing the land around the chicken coop, 7) Installing all the rain gutters on the house, and greenhouse to catch rain and store it in our 5 IBC water totes, 8) Fixing the perpetual leaks in the pump house, and 9) Making the fenced area around the greenhouse varmint proof.  Of course, we did much, much more, but these were many of the major accomplishments this winter.   One thing we spent almost no time on this winter was our solar charging capabilities, and we found out that we really don't need to run the Predator 5000 dual fuel generator/inverter as much as we did last year.  Last year we ran through a 100 gallons of propane per month, but now that we rarely use the Predator it is down to 50 gallons a month.  The last time we had a propane delivery was in early February, and we won't need another one until we return next Fall.

Thanks for stopping by!

Defended successfully.....

 7:41 am - Monday - April 13th - TWW - 45° F, humidity 43%, cloud cover 52%, wind 14 mph out of the south by southwest.....mostly cloudy today with a forecast high of 56° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were strolling along the Savannah River....

....in, where else, Savannah, GA....isn't she stunning?

Sunday found us in the middle of the worst wind yet this week....I think that was the 4th day of continuous wind, but this time the windspeed entered the 30's.  It was bad enough that we had to stow the patio awning on Phyllis' Newell.  TLE and I continued to winnow our clothing down to manageable levels inside the Newell. For years we have put the excess, and by excess I mean clothing we weren't wearing on a regular basis, but did not want to part with on a permanent basis, into garment bags which we hung in the trailer.  Over the years the number of garment bags has increased to the breaking point, and whenever we would insert into, or remove the VW from the trailer we had to sometimes move them.  We've had to kind of reorient our thinking on this topic now that we have a place to leave that clothing over the summer.  Phyllis has given us the use of one of the closets in one of the bedrooms to hang the garment bags, and any extra clothing we may choose to leave behind for the summer.  Last year we left a few bags, but still carried most of the garment bags with us.  This year we will carry NONE of the garment bags with us making it much easier to ingress and egress the trailer with the VW.  I'm pretty sure that between the two of us we are storing 100+ pounds of clothing.

The rest of the day we spent watching the final round of The Masters.  When we last left off Rory McIlroy was tied with Cam Young at 11 under par, and Scottie Scheffler was 4 strokes back at 7 under par.  There were a lot of other golfers who had a chance, and at times they were within a stroke of the leaders, but then fell back.  Scottie, meanwhile, played a steady game finishing at 11 under par....one stroke shy of Rory who finished at 12 under par....so close, but we are happy for Rory being able to defend his title...only the 4th, or 5th person to ever do so at The Masters....

......while the tournament was in progress TLE and I worked steadily at sorting through our clothing.  Everything I'm leaving here has been moved into the house, while TLE still has some sorting left to do, but she is close.  Beginning Monday we will begin to take down our RV site in preparation for leaving next Monday, the 20th.  We plan to be in Likely by the 27th, and begin our first 4 day shift on Friday, May 1st.

Thanks for stopping by!

Really good news....

 7:49 am - Sunday - April 12th - TWW  - 53° F, humidity 23%, cloud cover 39%, wind 27 mph out of the south by southwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 62° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE had just arrived in Savannah, GA for our first visit....

....we dry camped for three days at Red Gate RV Park about 10 minutes from City Center.  We would return to Savannah a couple more times in the first few years of our nomadic experience.  One of our favorite cities.  The view this morning....

Saturday was another very windy day.....no climbing on roofs when it is that windy, right?  TLE visited the greenhouse first thing to check on the plants, and water those in need of moisture, but that was the end of our outdoor activities for the day.  We spent the rest of the day indoors watching The Masters tournament at Augusta National in Georgia.  In the golfing world Saturday is known as 'moving day', and was it ever.  Scottie Scheffler went from even par (12 strokes behind the leader) after the first two days of the tournament to 7 under to get back into contention, and is now only 4 strokes behind the leaders.  At the beginning of the day Rory McIlroy held a 6 shot lead....the biggest after 36 holes in the history of The Masters, so it appeared he had the tournament well in hand, but that is why they actually play four rounds.  At the end of the day Rory had shot a one over par 73, and was tied with Cam Young for first place at 11 under par with a dozen, or more golfers within 6 shots going into the final round.  Now it is anyone's match to win on Sunday.  By the way, Rory is the defending champion.

We are now 8-9 days  away from launch, and have a lot to get done, including a return trip to Los Algodones to get work done on that molar next to the wisdom tooth that was pulled last trip.  We'll leave on Wednesday, and hopefully return by Thursday, but if that molar needs a crown, then we may not return until Friday.  Personally, I'm hoping for Thursday....lol.

Since TLE and I were confined to the Newell interior Saturday we began sorting through our clothing making three piles.....KEEP, STORE, DONATE.  I only had two piles....KEEP and STORE...so far.  The second round of sorting begins Sunday morning as the wind event continues unabated.  Right now my STORE pile weighs about 10+ pounds.

We both continue to be in good health, and are sleeping around 9 hours a night!  It is so quiet here....even quieter than LPG&RVR.  I spoke with my friend Bob Longacre who lives at LPG&RVR Saturday evening, and it appears we have new chefs to man the onsite restaurant, so that is really good news.

Thanks for stopping by!

Impromptu trip.....

 8:10 am - Saturday - April 11th - TWW - 55° F, humidity 22%, cloud cover 3%, wind 24 mph out of the south by southwest....crystal clear, blue, sunny, windy skies today with a forecast high of 66° F.  On this date in 2022 TLE and I were in Carson City, NV....

.....having dinner with good friends Terri and Bill.  Have Known Terri since 1967...went to college together.  The view this morning.....

I've been waiting for an exhaust coupling for the Ford 420 diesel loader/gannon for about 10 days, and it finally arrived at the PO Thursday, so TLE and I made an impromptu trip into Seligman to retrieve it.  We left around 9:45 am, arriving there without incident about 10:15 am.  We stopped off at the Chevron to fill two 5 gallon gas cans, then over to Family Dollar.  While TLE picked up a few things there I walked over to the Post Office to get some stamps, an pickup our mail/package.  From there we headed east on US-66 to 'Highway Hot Dog'.....

....for some Gelato (and an Americano coffee for me).  A trip to town never seems complete without stopping in to see what's new.  They now serve draft beer, and wine, which is a great addition.  They have, on tap, Modelo Negra, my favorite!

We were back home just before noon, and after unloading the Explorer I headed over to finally modify the exhaust stack on the Ford 420.  It took less than 30 minutes beginning to end, but now the exhaust fumes exit the exhaust stack about a foot above my head, instead of right into the cockpit of the tractor....

....I've been wanting to modify that exhaust since the first time I operated it, and now it is finally done.....no more exhaust in the face!

We're in the middle of another wind event, which began Thursday, and will continue through Monday.  I'm not a big wind fan, like most people, but if you live in the high desert in the Southwest, that is what you get a lot of in March and April...it is what it is.  As I write the wind speed is around 24 mph, and the likely hood we will spend a lot of time outdoors working is pretty thin right now.  Of course, there is The Masters (2026 version) that began Thursday, which we can watch for hours on end if no other diversions present themselves.  More than likely TLE and I will spend a lot of time sorting through our individual wardrobes, in the windless comfort of the Newell interior, which have grown over the past couple of years.  It is time to create 'KEEP' and 'DONATE' piles to 'thin the heard', so to speak, especially since space in our Newell closets is at a premium, and the are getting irritatingly over stuffed lately.

Thanks for stopping by!

Turning inward.....

 8:05 am - Friday - April 10th - TWW - 52° F, humidity 27%, cloud cover 57%, wind 11 mph out of the south by southeast.....mostly cloudy today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were boondocking at Lone Rock, UT....

.....in the first picture Lake Powell is to the right.  In the second picture you can see Lake Powell.  One of our top 5 boondock sites ever!  The view this morning.....

As we edge towards departure day we need to begin to turn our attention inward from projects here at TWW to sorting through our stuff to decide what we will take with us, and what we will leave here.  While I performed that task in the trailer, TLE began to go through the clothing we store in garment bags in our trailer.  I found a hole Cushman dump bed full of stuff in the trailer to move to the garage and CONEX.  A year ago we removed about 1,000 pounds of stuff from the trailer and Newell, and didn't miss any of it for a single minute.  While we certainly will not reach those numbers this year, we will remove a few more hundred pounds, including clothing, to store here in the house/garage/CONEX.  There are three bedrooms in the house, and each has a closet.  We left a few items of clothing in one of those closets last year, but will increase that by 3, or 4 fold this year before we depart.

I continued to tend to the smoldering juniper stump throughout the day adding one log after another to keep deep inside the stump.  Additionally, TLE and I spent time at the greenhouse first thing int he morning watering the plants inside the greenhouse and harvesting some more broccoli and cauliflower, as well as watering the potato beds.  Even though we had pretty heavy cloud cover the Bluetti battery bank, and our house bank both reached 100% capacity by early afternoon.  The main house battery bank reaches 100% by 10 am each day....sometimes an hour later if it is cloudy.  When you have 6,000+ watts of solar panels that is what you get.  

We are sleeping with the windows open every night now, with sunrise occurring around 6 am, and sunset at 7 pm....so 13 hours of daylight each day, and increasing by the day.  We run the heaters for maybe 30 minutes each mornings, sometimes not at all.  Meanwhile, in Likely, CA, where we are headed, their overnight low's are in the 20's and 30's with rain showers every few days.  We will be heading back to early Spring temps and weather when we arrive around the 27th.  As you know, we've gotten snow in late April, and early May most years we have been there.

Thanks for stopping by!

Going for distance.....

 7:56 am - Thursday - April 9th - TWW - 57° F, humidity 18%, cloud cover 51%, wind 9 mph out of the south by southeast.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were having lunch....

at Twin Rocks Cafe in Bluff, UT.  The view this morning....

Something I haven't done since I bought the Jeep was to take it on a long drive.  I was always worried about breaking down due to the sketchy fuel system.  I think the farthest I ever drove it was about 2 miles, and each time it sputtered and died just as I returned to the garage.  Anyway, I decided it was time to take it on an extended drive Wednesday.  It's been starting so easily since I ran Sea Foam through the fuel system, and idling even better.  Nevertheless, as a back up, I had TLE follow me in the Yamaha Rhino with a tow strap just in case the worst happened.  We left around noon time, and I wasn't sure how far I would drive up the main north/south arterial, but my goal was to make it to the railroad tracks before making the turn back for home.  I was able to run it through the gears, and ran for quite a while in 3rd gear (it only has 3 forward gears in high range, or low range) for most of the time.  We did make it to the railroad tracks, and began the 4 mile drive back home.  Yup, we covered 8 miles in all, and the Jeep ran flawlessly with the coolant temperature right at 180° F, where it should be.  As I drove down the entrance road to TWW there was this thought in the back of mind that this is where it usually starts sputtering, but she didn't.  I pulled her into the garage, and shut her down.  Success!  I'm about 98% convinced I've solved the fuel problem, and the next time we drive to Dawn's for eggs we'll take the Jeep.

After a break I did some work in the 1969 Chevrolet C50 tilt bed truck.  The left window crank was broken when I bought the truck last winter, and I actually bought a new one, but never got around to installing it until Wednesday.  Once that was done I decided to move the truck from in front of the garage to its summer location next to the tractor, in front of the CONEX so I could attach a battery tender to its 4 month old battery.  Last summer I just asked Charles to start it once a month, but that didn't work out as I had hoped. By July the battery, which was only a month old when I bought the truck, had given up the ghost so I had buy a new one.  Anyway, this year the battery will be on a battery tender to keep it charged properly.  I'll still ask Charles to start it periodically just to run fuel through the system.

You will recall that I set that juniper stump on fire again Tuesday, and Wednesday morning it was still smoldering deep inside the stump, so I continued to stack small logs (one at a time) on the stump all day long, keep the interior hot, and burning.  By 5 pm I had gone through 4, or 5 logs, and it was still burning down deep, which is what I want.

Around 4 pm I lit the Sea-B-Que in order to grill a New York steak.  I love the new gas control regulator I installed a few weeks ago, which allows me much more temperature control than the old one.  The old gas control regulator gave me two options....high, or low....nothing in between.  Within 20 minutes I delivered a perfectly medium rare New York steak to TLE to which she added sides of sauteed mushrooms/onions and cooked spinach with a touch of lime and butter....OMG!  One of the best New York steaks I've ever grilled.

We watched two more 'Survivor' episodes for our evening entertainment, and have now caught up after finishing the two hour episode 6.  It is shaping up to be one of the best 'Survivors' ever....thanks for stopping by!

Our biggest burn pile yet.....

 7:30 am - Wednesday - April 8th - TWW - 48° F, humidity 15%, cloud cover 5%, wind 7 mph out of the south by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 76° F.  On this date in 2022 TLE and I had just arrived in Bishop, CA....

The Eastern Sierras

.....at the Tri-County Fairgrounds.  We had spent the last week getting the big radiator removed, rodded, and reinstalled.  Within a few days we would arrive for our first season at Likely Place Golf & RV Resort.  The view this morning.....

....our second day in a row with now wind, and lots of sun.

Tuesday presented us with a perfectly windless day, and what better day to ignite one of our largest burn piles to date!  This pile has been sitting there for over a year, and, as you may recall, I recently used the Ford 420 diesel tractor to push it out in the open to we could finally burn it, and Tuesday was the day to do so.....

....within 30-40 minutes it had burned down to this.....

I went out this morning (Wednesday) to spread the ashes, and

 it was still VERY hot in the middle

....TLE has become pretty adept at the burn pile routine.  Just give her a lighter, and some paper she will soon have an inferno.  She is also in charge of our 'burn barrel' in which we burn all of our paper/cardboard trash.  We had to sit about 50 feet away from the blaze to escape most of the heat generated by that fire.  The slight breeze we had was blowing away from us and the trees, so it was the perfect time to burn that pile.  While TLE tended to her blaze I went over to that rascally juniper stump we've been trying to burn out for a few weeks now....

Burning that juniper stump again

....I first doused the hole in the middle of the tree stump with diesel, then piled logs around it, and on top of it then lit it.  It burned all day long, and into the early evening.  When I checked it this morning (Wednesday) it was still hot.  I'll probably repeat the process again Wednesday as we seem to be making some progress.

The rest of the day I moved from one tiny job to another, which included ascending to the CONEX roof once again to caulk the 6, or 7 screw holes in the barn roof we had discovered when we were tightening all the sheet metal screws a while back.  Now the barn roof is sealed, but only another rainfall will tell us how good a job we did.  I also hand watered the potato beds, blew the dirt and dust out of the garage with our Toro electric blower, fussed around in the trailer clearing my workbench for the umpteenth time, steamed cleaned one of our area rugs, put away tools that had been sitting outdoors for a few days, cleared the work bench in the CONEX again, and numerous other things which caught my attention around the property.  It was a good day for small jobs.

For our evening's entertainment we binge watched three more episodes of Survivor Season 50, and were in bed a little after 10 pm.  Our time here grows shorter by the hour, and soon we will begin to take down our site, and organize the trailer for VW insertion.

Thanks for stopping by!

Up on the roof......

 7:40 am - Tuesday - April 7th - TWW - 45° F, humidity 18%, cloud cover 1%, wind 2 mph out of the southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 75° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I hiked the Honaker Trail from Goosenecks State Park down 1,000 feet....

....to the San Juan River....one of my favorite boondocking memories.  The view this morning....

Before we began our workday TLE and I took another of those 1 mile out and back walks....our 18th of that variety.....

....we averaged just under 3 mph, and for the first time this winter I wore a short sleeve t-shirt.

After a many days of procrastination made easier by frigid, windy days, it was time to climb the ladder to the roof of the CONEX to finally reseal the areas Charles and I had removed  old caulk from....mainly the area where the barn is attached to the CONEX, and the center seam where the north and south roof panels meet in the middle....

Where the CONEX roof (right) joins the barn roof (left)

There were a few tunes being played on my Bluetooth speaker

The center seam....yeah, it looks ugly, but it is now SEALED

.....it took me less than an hour to get it all sealed.  I know there are a few screw holes to be caulked, and I will take care of them Tuesday.  Below is a look at our next barn roof project....

....that 2 x 4 is totally rotten, and will be replaced soon...in fact, the new 2 x 4 which will be used for this repair is in the 1st and 2nd pictures above....my Bluetooth speaker is sitting upon it.

The Drifters  - "Up on the roof"

I spent some time later in the day attempting to assemble some scaffolding which we found on the property last Winter....

.....there are actually two of these, but the other one is missing some critical pieces, such as cross members of the same length.  There are longer cross members, but that would make it impossible to stack them to the desired height.  We wanted to put the diesel fuel gravity tank (below) on them, but now that only one can be used I'm not sure 4 feet tall will be enough height.  I guess it is back to the drawing board.

....around 3 pm Christina, Charles and Phyllis' oldest daughter, arrived for an overnight stay on her way north to Provo, UT.  TLE made Meat Loaf for dinner with sides of smashed potatoes and coleslaw.  I neglected to memorialize our dinner with a picture.  We enjoyed endless conversation with a side of good food until after 5 pm when we bid our adieus and headed home for the evening to watch the final game of this year's 'March Madness' between UCONN (#2), and Michigan (#1). One could tell early on that Michigan was clearly the better team, but UCONN's inherent tenacity kept the game in hand.  Michigan held a 4 point lead at half time, and grew that lead to as many as 11 points in the 2nd half, but with a couple of minutes to play UCONN got it down to 4 points....they had a chance, however, that would be as close as they got.  The final score was Michigan 69 and UCONN 63.

Thanks for stopping by!