Desert View - Day 43 - Single digits

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission.

(CLICK ON PIX TO MAKE THEM BIGGER!)

7:17 am - Saturday - December 23rd - Grand Canyon - 17º F, 57% humidity, wind - CALM.....forecast for today is sunny skies with a high of 49º F.  The snow is slowly melting, but there is still some on the ground.

The forecast overnight low was single digits, which would be our first such low, and when we awoke Friday morning it was 5º F, and yes, our water connection between the heated hose and the Newell froze again.  No problem, though, as we keep our fresh water tank full at all times, and I all I had to do was turn on our water pump and we had water.  Eventually, in about 2 hours things unfroze, and we had city water pressure once again.  As a precaution I have ordered some heat tape from Amazon to apply to both the city water hose bib, and to the bib where the heated hose connects to the Newell....I should have them before the next single digit low, which appears to be a couple of weeks away.

I also recently ordered some new flags for my flag pole, and one of them was a 'Merry Christmas' flag, which I received via UPS a couple of days ago....delivered right to our Newell!  Since I did not have to go to work Friday I decided to just putter around most of the day taking care of small tasks such as reading, taking a couple of loads of trash to the dumpster, putting up my Christmas flag, cleaning the Newell windshield again, setting up a small battery trickle charger for the VW when it gets really cold (extreme cold tends to deplete flooded cell batteries quickly), putting out our new outdoor fireplace mat to protect the concrete from the fireplace, moving some gravel around our site that had been put in a big pile by someone prior to our arrival creating several low spots where water will collect if it rains, checked some of the batteries in my solar lights to be sure they were dry, and clean (which they were), and dumping our black tank.  I was a couple of days early on the black tank, but there was no wind, nothing was frozen, so I decided to dump it while the conditions where pleasant.  I also topped off our fresh water tank so that there is now 150 gallons of fresh water available the next time if and when anything freezes.

Our new Merry Christmas flag

.......in between tasks I sat at our picnic bench reading, and enjoying the sun warming my back.....there was no wind whatsoever, so it was quite comfortable sitting outside even though it didn't get to 30º F until late in the day....I had the outdoor radio, and the trailer radio tuned to Christmas tunes all day long, so the sounds of Christmas were never really very far away.  I eventually, around 3:45 pm, changed into my exercise clothes and rode my stationary bike for 30 minutes, did some situps and lower back exercises.

After my workout I took a shower, got dressed and headed outside to start a fire, smoke a cigar, and drink a shot of Tillamore Dew Irish Whiskey awaiting TLE's return from her 'close' shift.....a perfect was to end a very enjoyable day of rest......

Who cares if it is only 30º F, and there is still snow on the ground.....time for a fire!

.....TLE returned from work about 5:35, but chose not to sit outside with me.....just as I was preparing to go back inside I noticed the 1/4 moon was rising in the sky.

 Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission.