Roof preparation.....

 7:04 am - Thursday - April 2nd - TWW - 44° F, humidity 38%, cloud cover 31%, wind 11  mph out of the south.....mostly sunny skies today with a forecast high of 64° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were enjoying the ocean....

at Vandenberg Surf Beach near Vandenberg Airforce Base, CA.  The view this morning....

Charles and Phyllis arrived around 9 am for their overnight stay.  Our goal Wednesday was to strip out all of the old caulking material used to seal the barn roof many years ago so we could reseal the center seam, and the area where the barn connects to the CONEX.  The old caulking was in terrible shape resulting in a lot of leaking whenever it snows, or rains....

.....as you can see, the center seam where the two roof panels meet is no longer sealed.  Charles and I spent the next 3 hours slowly removing that old caulk, and it was slow going, but in the end we were victorious...

Charles began at the west side of the barn, and I the east...it was a beautiful day to be on the roof.....nice and cool, if not a little too breezy.

.....due to the rain overnight we were not able to re-caulk the seam until everything dries.  We'll give it overnight and then seal it on Thursday morning with GE clear silicone.  One thing Charles and I know for sure is that old guys should not spend 3 hours on their old knees....lol.  To say we were a little stiff after three hours of kneeling is an understatement....lol.

After a short snack break I spent time in the CONEX removing the shroud from the the pump we've been using to water the potato growing beds out of the IBC water totes.  When I went to run it on Monday I could hear it humming, but the impeller would not turn, so I figured some debris had made its way into the impeller jamming it.  There were about 10 Allen bolts to remove, and they were torqued pretty tightly, but eventually they were all removed, and within seconds I had cleared the obstruction, and began to reassemble it....yes I tested it and it began run normally again.  After that I installed an electrical outlet strip on the front of the workbench to provide power for two battery chargers we have there.  We had been running an extension cord from the outlet on the back wall of the CONEX, but it was a little messy.  Finally, I straightened up the workbench, and put away tools which had been accumulating there over the past week.

From there I went to the garage to trim some tree branches away from the back of the garage where the three 100 watt solar panels for the solar generator are located so they will get sun earlier in the morning.  As it is the solar panels are managing to maintain the battery, and even recharge it when the deep freeze is not running, so the experiment seems to be working.

Around 4 pm we all convened in the house for our communal dinner, Spaghetti, prepared by the loving hands of TLE. Life is good, and we are making wonderful progress at making the barn useful once again.  Once we reseal the roof it will be 98% dry again, and we can use it without fear of things being stored there getting soaking wet.

Thanks for stopping by!

Finishing projects.....

 7:03 am - Wednesday - April 1st - TWW - 43° F, humidity 45%, cloud cover 21%, wind 15 mph out of the southwest.....cloudy early, but clearing later this morning with a forecast high for today of 61° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were at Cafe Dolce.....

....in Solvang, CA having coffee.  The view this morning....

I was speaking yesterday about how the potato beds are exploding with greenery, but didn't provide any visual evidence, so here it is....

.....our first task of the morning was to continue our work at installing the insulation board in the shed.  When we left off we had the left wall to cover, plus a very small piece on the front panel next to the doors.  I was pretty sure these pieces would be easy to fit, and I was not wrong....

The left interior wall

The piece next to the left door

.....now all we have left are the doors, but before we can install them we need some long screws, and washers to affix them to the inside of the doors, and we'll pick them up Friday when we are in town to pickup the auxiliary turbo water pump from the PO.

Next, with TLE's supervision, and help I climbed up on the CONEX to replace some of the hardware I temporarily used to reinstall the guy wires for the wind turbine, which took even less time than I expected.  TLE was there to be sure I was careful, and didn't fall off the CONEX, and to fetch a tool, or two.

Finally, the main event of the day....refill our fresh water tank, and dump the black effluent contained in our black water tank.  We've got that down to a science, and had everything completed, and buttoned up within an hour.  We'll have to dump two more times before our departure, so time is getting short.

Around 2 pm we drove over to Dawn's home in the Yamaha Rhino to pick up 5 dozen pasture raised, unwashed eggs.  This will probably be our last visit there this season before we head back north.  By the way, the Rhino is running great!  Upon our return TLE and I headed over to the garage to bag up the fiberglass insulation we removed from the shed last week, and then began to close up everything for the night.  I started the Jeep CJ-5 again, and it purred like a kitten.  So nice to have it running as it should a year after I bought it.  I've had a few fuel issues with it, but in the end, the price I paid was a about half of what it was worth, so in the end it is still a killer deal.

While we were out at the greenhouse in the morning TLE harvested some more broccoli, and some cauliflower to use for our dinner.  She added some hollandaise sauce on the cauliflower and broccoli (delicious).  To that she added a couple of fried eggs on toast....what a great dinner....

So cool to be eating, for the second time, things we have grown right here at TWW!

....so, we're down to our last three weeks before we haul anchor for yet another trek north back to Likely Place Golf & RV Resort.  This will be our 5th summer, which seems kind of surreal to me as I write. As is often the case as I edge toward my 77th trip around the sun, time seems to be accelerating to the point where years seem like months.

As we went to bed Tuesday night around 10 pm it began to rain, and it continued raining all night long until around 5 am this morning (Wednesday).  We were not expecting rain, so what a pleasant surprise.  It never rained hard, but was steady for hours.  Just enough to settle the dust, and water the potatoes, but not enough to make the ground squishy...lol.

Thanks for stopping by!

And the answer is.....

 7:51 am - Tuesday - March 31st - TWW - 56° F, humidity 30%, cloud cover 93%, wind 10 mph out of the south.....heavy cloud cover today with a forecast high of 64° F.  On this date in 2023 TLE and I were in Georgia visiting our son Tim, and his family.....

....we were having lunch at Smoke Jack BBQ in Alpharetta, GA.  The view this morning....

When last we left off I had isolated the source of the sudden coolant loss in the VW Beetle, but did not know what the part was called.  I decided to join a 'New Beetle' forum to seek help in identifying the part, so I could order it, and install it.  Within an hour I had a response from a forum moderator advising me it was called an 'auxiliary water pump for the turbo'.  Unlike the water pump for the engine, this pump is easy to access, and I should be able to make the swap myself...we'll see.  I ordered the OEM replacement (Bosch), as recommend by the forum moderator, from FCP Euro for $70 shipped, and it should be at our PO Box by Friday....

....it was quite breezy all day Monday with wind speeds getting into the mid 20's at times, so outdoor activity was limited, but I did manage to finish the project of installing the two additional 100 watt solar panels to help charge the solar battery in the garage that will power the chest style deep freeze Charles and Phyllis brought back from Texas....

....these newer panels are a slightly different design than the one that came with the solar charger, but my original mounting design still works with them.  With TLE's assistance I had them both mounted within an hour.  Now we can see if the three 100 watt panels are enough to keep the battery fully charged throughout the day, and so the battery can power the freezer overnight.  We've got a lot of cloud cover right now, so the experiment will not begin until Wednesday.

The potato beds are just exploding with green as the potatoes are growing at a rapid rate, and the plants inside the greenhouse are also flourishing.  TLE harvested a second batch of broccoli, and we should be harvesting some more cauliflower Tuesday.  So far no rabbits, or other nocturnal creatures have gained ingress into the confines of the greenhouse fence.  Now that the potatoes are maturing to the point where they will begin to attract attention we will see if our current defenses are adequate, or need more thought.

I spent some time straightening up the trailer, and CONEX, but beyond that I was indoors most of the day due to the wind.  We'll have a little more wind Tuesday afternoon, and then again on Thursday, but that appears to be it for wind over 20 mph for the foreseeable future. TLE prepared a lovely tuna salad with grapes for dinner, and thus ended another TWW day.  It is really nice to be back in the middle of no where, all by ourselves.

Thanks for stopping by!

Eventful....

 9:56 am - Monday - March 30th - TWW - 67° F, humidity 23%, cloud cover 55%, wind 16 mph out of the south by southwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 72° F.  On this date in 2023 TLE and I flew to Atlanta, GA to visit my son Tim, and his family....

Left to right: Kathy (grandmother of Laila), Laila, Jennifer (Laila's mother), Bowie (daughter), Tim, Crosby (son), TLE and moi

....after unpacking, and taking a nap we headed out with Tim's extended family for dinner.

Sunday began innocently enough.  TLE and I wanted to get an early start on our drive back to TWW, so we were up a little after 6 am, packed, and on the road by 7:30 am.  We drove north through Wickenburg following US-93 to US-69 which took us on a scenic drive to Prescott.  We've never driven this way before, and really liked the drive.  Distance wise it is shorter than going up I-17 to Prescott, but due to the mountainous terrain the average speed is under 45 mph, so it takes about the same driving time as the longer way....

......we arrived in Prescott at the local Fry's Supermarket to do the last of our shopping around 9:30 am, and were back on the road by 10:30 am hoping to arrive back at TWW around 12:15 pm.  We stopped in Ashfork to top off our fuel tank then continued to Seligman where we picked up some mail, and a piece of hardware at the General Store for a project I'm trying to finish.  We were at the turnoff to the north/south arterial around 11:50 pm, and figured we'd be home by 12:15 pm.  That is when things became eventful!

We were about 4 miles from TWW when I suddenly began to smell coolant....doh!  I pulled to the side of the road, and got out of the car....I saw a long trail of spilled coolant behind the VW....double doh!  We found a safe place to park, turned off the car, and then began to formulate a plan.  I initially called our towing service and was advised they could have a tow truck there in about 90 minutes.  Well, we were less than an hour (walking time) from TWW, so we declined the tow and began the long walk.  I was pretty sure someone would come along to give us a ride, and I was right.  Within 10 minutes Bridget stopped in her 2008 Ford dually pickup and gave us a hitch to a point even with our property, and dropped us off to walk the last 5 minutes to the property....

You can see our Newell in the distance...not far now

TLE was showing her concern...I was just happy to be 5 minutes from home, and not an hour....lol.

.....we quickly retrieved the keys to the Ford Explorer from the Newell, then began the 5 minute drive back to the VW.  I hooked up a tow strap from the Explorer to the Beetle, and while TLE drove the Explorer I piloted the VW.  We moved at about 5 mph, and were back at TWW.....

....within 20 minutes.  By this time it was 2 pm, and we were tired.  We unpacked our luggage, and groceries, then sat down to watch the end of the final 'Elite Eight' game of the day.....UCONN vs. Duke (#1 overall seed).  I decided I was going to wait until Monday morning to figure out what happened to the VW cooling system to cause the loss of all our coolant.

When I turned on the TV UCONN was down by 19 points to begin the 2nd half.  Not looking good, but over the course of the next 20 minutes of game time UCONN slowly closed the gap until with 10 seconds to go in the game they were down by just 2 points.  Duke inbounded the ball, and then the receiver attempted to pass the ball up court, but it was tipped by the UCONN defense, and recovered.  With just .4 seconds on the clock the UCONN player attempted a very long 3 point shot and hit it to win the game....one of the most amazing comebacks in March Madness I have ever witnessed!  It was the only time in the entire game UCONN had been ahead.

This morning, Monday, I went out to the VW to figure out why we lost all of our coolant, and found the problem pretty quickly.....

....the nipple on the device above (right side inlet) broke, disconnecting the hose which carries coolant form the coolant reservoir to the engine, causing all the coolant to leak out of the VW.  Here is picture where I have drawn a red circle around the disconnected hose....

.....now I have to just figure out what that device is, order a new one, and replace it, and all will be well....I hope.  TLE and I always pray for uneventful when we are traveling, but sometimes the Jello jiggles, and the fun begins.  In the over all scheme of things this is a pretty minor issue, and we arrived home safely.  Now it is just a matter of ordering the part, and installing it.  That is was so easy to diagnose is a blessing.

Thanks for stopping by!

Saguaro Jane.....

 7:52 am - Monday - March 30th - TWW - 57° F, humidity 26%, cloud cover 43%, wind 6 mph out of the south.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE were riding zip lines.....

....at 'Out of Africa' (near Cottonwood, AZ) a combination African animals zoo, and zip line course.....a very cool day!

Well, once again, I have fallen a day behind my usual routine, and have not yet written about Saturday, March 28th.  We purposely made our dental appointments this Spring to coincide with the annual fund raising event Tom and Darlene hold at their home in Wittmann, AZ each March which raises money for Saguaro Jane, a local charitable 'food bank'.  Saguaro is the name of the well known cactus species which is found all over Arizona.  It is pronounced 'Sawaro'....

....after typing, and publishing my latest blog post I headed out to the Newell House to help Tom set up the tables, chairs and table covers, whilst TLE help Darlene with the final food preparations for the night's festivities.....

.....Darlene had been smoking/cooking a pork butt for about 18 hours at this point, plus making all sorts of desserts.  

The day passed by quickly, and soon it was 5 pm, and the guests began to arrive.....

You can see TLE, Phyllis and Charles sitting at the table on the left

....I think there were well over 100 in attendance.  The Newell House is so large inside you could have tripled the number of attendees, and still had room left over!  Charles and Phyllis arrived a little after 5 pm to join the festivities.  We met a number of new people.  In the bottom picture you can see Tom (left corner) talking with one of the guests.  

We first met Tom and Darlene in Newport Beach, CA in 2008 just after we had bought our 1982 Newell Classic.  At the time they were on an extended (several months) Newell trip in their 1990 Newell, and had stopped off in Newport Beach to visit the first Newell folks we met, Michael and Georgia Day, who are from Texas, but wintered in Newport Beach at Newport Dunes in their 1992 Newell.  In March of 2009 we took or first extended road trip in our Newell to Austin, TX for a Newell Rally, and were reacquainted with Tom and Darlene.  At the end of the rally we were invited to join them on their drive back to Mesa, AZ, where they lived at the time.  We courtesy parked in front of their home in Mesa for a couple of days before continuing our trip back to SoCal.  That was the beginning of a long friendship, which has only grown deeper over the years.

By 7:30 pm the festivities were winding down, and TLE and I bid adieu to Charles and Phyllis until we see them again on Wednesday.  It was a very successful evening, with great food and conversation.

On the 'March Madness' front there were no surprises in the first two games of the 'Elite Eight' Saturday afternoon/evening....#1 seed Arizona defeated #2 Purdue to advance to the 'Final Four', while #1 seed Illinois topped #9 Iowa easily to also advance to the 'Final Four'.  We were in bed by 10 pm.  We are so happy we were able to attend the Saguaro Jane fund raiser after missing it the past few years!

Thanks for stopping by!

La Dentista...

 7:56 am - Saturday - March 28th - Newell House, AZ - 72° F, humidity 15%, cloud cover 30%, wind 13 mph out of the east by southeast.....mostly sunny today with a forecast high of 93° F.  On this date in 2012 we had just arrived at Cedar Key, FL for our very first visit....

....and saw our very first Cedar Key sunset that evening.  The view this morning.....

We were up around 6 am Friday morning to get ready for the 15 minute drive to the Andrade border parking lot at 7:20 am.  We were actually in the car by 7:15 am, and arrived at the border parking lot just before 7:30 am.  It's only a 10+ minute walk to Dr. Urena's dental office, so were there by 7:40 am waiting for the office to open at 8 am.  TLE and I were the first appointments of the day, so we were both in their chairs by 8:10 am.  TLE's checkup and cleaning went quickly, and she was back in the waiting room by 8:25 am.  For me, however, the fun was just beginning.  Right at the beginning of Dr. Urena's check of my teeth she found an issue with my right, lower wisdom tooth.  It was showing decay since my last checkup....bad enough that she recommended pulling it, so I gave her the go ahead.  She gave me 4 novocain shots to numb the area of the wisdom tooth, then cleaned the rest of my teeth while the areas numbed.  Within 10 minutes she began the process of removing the wisdom tooth, and it took until after 9 am to get it out, but she did....I have very long roots, and they do prove difficult to extract...lol.  Once done she sutured up the gum, and I was done.  She gave me a prescription for some antibiotics, and a pain killer,  I paid the bill....$477 (45 each for the cleanings, and the rest for removing the wisdom tooth), and we were on our way to the pharmacy to fill the prescription, and at the border crossing by 10 am.

We had not checked out of the hotel as we were pretty sure we would be back ahead of the 11 am checkout time, and we were.   After packing the car with our luggage we were on our way to Wittmann, AZ by 11 am.  There is a Sports Clips in Surprise, AZ, so TLE got me into the lineup before we arrived.  I was in the chair getting my ears lowered within 5 minutes, and out the door 20 minutes later.  Next stop was the local COSTCO where we picked a few things, before continuing our drive to Newell House in Wittmann, AZ where we arrived around 3 pm.  We have been here too many times to count over the past 14 years, and it is always like coming home, even though we don't have our Newell with us this time.

Each year Tom and Darlene host a fund raiser of sorts for a local charity, this being the 9 year they have done so, and we haven't been able to attend for a few years now, so we made it a point this to schedule our semi annual dental checkups when we did so we could stop by here our way back to TWW.

After putting our bags in the guest bedroom, we spent a lot of time talking, and catching up with them.  I then spent part of the evening watching the next four Sweet Sixteen games.  Once again it was a night of mostly close games.  Tennessee won handily over Iowa State, but the Michigan vs. Alabama was really never in doubt as Michigan won 90-77, and it wasn't really that close.  The game between St. Johns, and Duke, the #1 over all seed in the tournament, was close, and could have been won by either team, however, Duke won 80-75.

We were in bed by 10 pm.  I've taken 2 of the pain pills so far, but none today (Saturday) so far.  I'm hoping I can avoid anymore, but we'll see...the day is young.

Thanks for stopping by!

An uneventful drive to Yuma.....

 7:00 am - Saturday - March 28th - Newell House, AZ - 68° F, humidity 16%, cloud cover 37%, wind 13 mph out of the south by southwest.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 93° F.  The view this morning....

.....and on this date in 2013 TLE were in Kinards, South Carolina....

....don't ask me why, I don't remember.  Oh yeah, I can go back to that date in my blog....we were on our way to Ashville, NC to meet up with friends.  The RV park name was Magnolia RV Park...a Passport America park, and was very suitable for an overnight stay.

So, I know, I owe you a post for Thursday, so here goes.  First of all, Charles and Phyllis left around 7:30 am for their drive back to Phoenix.  Our goal  for Thursday was to be in the VW heading for US-66 by 9:30 am, and we left at 9:15 am, but not before a little drama.  I went to start the VW around 8:15 am only to find that the battery had been drained down, so it wouldn't start.  The culprit?  We, apparently, did not shut the passenger door all the way, and the interior light was on the entire time since we arrived back from Phoenix from Charles and Phyllis' wedding...that is a along time ago!  It only took 15 minutes on the battery charger to get it back above 12 volts.  It started right up, and I left it idling for about 15 minutes just to be sure it would restart, and it did.

The drive out to Route 66 took us 25 minutes....the last half of the drive the road is extremely wash boardy which makes for very slow going in a low slung VW Beetle.  From there it was smooth sailing to Kingman where we took a brief restroom break, then merged onto I-40 to US-95, which we took south through Havasu City, Parker, and finally Quartzite where we topped off the VW tank with 9.3 gallons.  We arrived in Yuma at the In-'N-Out Burger around 2:25 pm to meet Rich and Marnie Aaron for lunch.  You will recall we worked for them at Ramona Oaks RV Resort from May of 2019 to January of 2020....still one of our favorite workamping jobs ever!  We ate, and talked for over an hour and half before bidding our adieus until next time.

By this time it was almost 4 pm, and I had intended to get a haircut at a nearby Sports Clips, however, I had neglected to 'Check In' while at In-'N-Out Burger, so the wait was over 45 minutes....that was a no go for us so we began the drive over to the Historic Coronado Hotel, but made quick stop at the local Fry's Supermarket to pick up a few things.  We arrived at the hotel around 4:15 pm, where checked in quickly, and in our room with a few minutes....just in time for the first game of the round of 16, or 'Sweet Sixteen' as it has been known for decades....

.....there were four games Thursday night, just as there would be Friday night to determine which teams would advance to the 'Elite Eight' games to be played Saturday and Sunday.  All of the games were close, being decided in the final minutes, which is just how I like them, except for Thursday, the Arizona vs. Arkansas game, which got out of hand early for Arkansas, seeing them lose by 21 points to Arizona.  There was one sort of upset in the Illinois vs. Houston game.  Unfortunately, the only team I as for, Arizona, won.  Texas narrowly lost to Purdue by 2 points....so close.

We were in bed by 9:30 pm, and slept well.  Thanks for stopping by!