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!

Let's get some work done!

 8:04 am - Monday - April 6th - TWW - 55° F, humidity 30%, cloud cover 87%, wind 4 mph out of the southeast.....heavy cloud cover today with a forecast high of 65° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were hiking around Goosenecks State Park....

....I took this panorama shot of our campsite in the distance....just beyond the campsite is a 1,000' deep canyon.  The view this morning....

....there will be little, or no sun this day, so our Predator 5000 is running for the first time this month.

As you know, we have been in the middle of an almost 10 day wind event here at TWW, and have put off working on several projects including finishing installing the insulation board in the shed, and installing the new auxiliary turbo water pump in the VW.  When we awoke Sunday to the absence of wind we decided to get right on those aforementioned tasks, and 'knock them out of the park'.  It took less than an hour to cut the two pieces for the two doors, and affix them....

....now, all that is left is to cut the pieces for the floor, and install the turbine roof vent.

Next up it was time to dive into the project to which I assigned the rest of the day....remove and replace the damaged auxiliary turbo water pump on the Beetle.  I've never done this job before, and wasn't sure how long it might take, but TLE and I were committed to finishing it Sunday, no matter what....

....first I moved the '69 Jeep CJ-5 out of the right garage bay, and into the empty space I drove the VW Beetle.  As you can see, I now have a four wheeled tool cart courtesy of Charles and Phyllis who brought this back from their Texas trip.  In order to remove the damaged pump I had to remove three hose clamps,   the two bolts which affix it to the front of the engine bay,  just above the radiator, and unplug the wiring....

The culprit

....that was the most difficult part of the job.  As you can see (above) the intake nipple broke off the pump causing the massive coolant loss in just a couple of minutes.  Even after removing the hose clamps it was difficult to remove the hoses which have been in place for about 25 years....lol...but I did.  Installing the new pump took less than 20 minutes, and the entire job about 90 minutes.   Way, way less time than I expected.  Now it was time to pour in the new coolant, which Charles had purchased at O'Reilly's down in Phoenix a few days ago.  It took one gallon to fill the system, and the coolant reservoir. I got into the driver seat of the VW and started the 1.8 liter engine, then went back to the front of the car to look for any leaks......

About 2/3's of the way to hooking up the hoses on the new pump, and plugging in the wiring

.....there were no leaks!  I let the engine idle, and come up to temperature, and it ran fine...whew!  What a relief to see no dumbell lights on the instrument display!  Once I was satisfied the engine was running as it should I shut it down, then checked the oil which needed about 1/2 quart.  Finally we began to put away the tools.  It was about 2 pm at the time.  Now if this had been the actual engine water pump, that would have been a 2, or 3 day job for me, because you have to remove the entire front bumper assembly to get at it, plus deal with the timing belt.  The new pump is made by Bosch, and that is who I turn to when needing to replace parts on the VW.  Back when our fuel pump ceased working in 2015 I bought an aftermarket one on Amazon, and within 3 years it failed, so that time I bought Bosch fuel pump, and have had no issues in 8 years.  

Around 6:40 pm TLE and I headed outside to the 'sunset fire deck' (no fire this night) to watch the sun set....we were not disappointed....

.....(by the way, sunset is at 7 pm now) we remained there until almost 7:30 pm as the sunset continued to evolve, then headed back inside to watch the first episode of Season 50 of Survivor, which was 2.5 hours in length!  For Season 5 they invited people from all 24 years of Survivor, and based on the first episode it should be a very interesting season.

Thanks for stopping by!