Much smaller bites, better result....

 7:52 am - Thursday - November 6th - TWW - 51° F, humidity 25%, wind 6 mph out of the southeast....partially cloudy this morning with a forecast high of 71° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE were just arriving at the east gate at the Grand Canyon for a 4+ month stay.....

.....and had parked in our employee site a few minutes later.  The elevation at the east gate is 7,400', so you can imagine what an interesting winter it was.  You can begin reading about that winter here, if you wish.

After biting off way more than I could chew Tuesday, I scaled back my work load significantly Wednesday, but seemingly got way more done....go figure.  The first order of the day was for Charles and I to begin troubleshooting the Ford loader we used a lot last winter.  Sometime in early April the coolant system for the tractor developed a leak, but we never had time to diagnose the problem, and fix it.  We have a lot of things to be done this winter for which we need the tractor, so we took off the front of the tractor to examine the coolant hoses, but nothing seemed obvious....like a blown hose, and when we filled the radiator with water none of the hoses showed and leaks, however, there was a slow drip, drip, drip at the rear of the engine.  Without taking off the entire engine cowling it will be difficult to find that leak, so that will be a job for another day.....

....after that Charles and I set about fixing the gate on the north side of the greenhouse, which we installed last March, or April.  The 4" x 4" post to which the gate is mounted  (left post) had sagged to the right a tad, making the gate rub against the other post, so we cut another piece of 4" x 4" post to spread the two posts apart about 1/4", and that did the trick.....now the gate no longer rubs on the right post.....

Now the gate does not catch on the 

post when you try to close it

.....next up was a task in preparation for attaching the visqueen (clear plastic membrane - 10m thickness) to the frame of the greenhouse (which is coming very soon now).  We needed about 200' of firring strips, which Charles purchased a few day sago, and before we use them we wanted to paint them white to seal them, and match the wood frame of the greenhouse, so Charles and I began painting them early afternoon, and by 3 pm we were done (had to give them time to dry in between coats).....

....in between all of that we wanted to figure out why the Yamaha Rhino would not start.  It has a mechanical fuel pump, which we suspected was not pumping fuel, and might have gotten clogged over the winter due to the awful ethanol fuel we are forced to purchase.  I was kind of sure that wasn't the issue, but we had to rule it out.  While we were detaching the fuel lines from the fuel pump (in order to blow pressurized air through it to clear any possible clogs) I discovered the line which carries fuel from the fuel tank to the pump had a 1.5" tear in it, and that explained why no fuel was getting to the pump....all it was able to do was suck air.  Once we replaced that 10" section of fuel line the Rhino fired right up.....I love it when problems are easily solved....

....by the time we finished putting everything back together, and I took a shower it was 4 pm and time for dinner in the house....

.....I haven't taken an 'usie' of us eating this winter yet, so here you are....proof of life.  Phyllis and TLE made bean soup, with sides of garlic bread, and coleslaw...what a great winter meal!  Naturally, there was some vino for those of us who partake, and a great time was had by all.  After a day of small tasks being accomplished I was refreshed and feeling myself once again.  As we bid our hosts adieu we noticed there was a beautiful sunset happening, so I had to memorialize it....

....thanks for stopping by!

Biting off more than one can chew......

 8:07 am - Wednesday - November 5th - TWW - 48° F, humidity 19%, wind 8 mph out of the southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were having dinner at Pomona Valley Mining Company.....

.....with my brother Philip, and his wife Jeannie.  One of our favorite SoCal restaurants, located high on a hill overlooking the Pomona Valley.

I think I bit off too much Tuesday, at least that's how it feels Wednesday morning as I attempt to memorialize the events of Tuesday in this latest missive.  We began our day with a 1 mile out and back walk, then got ready to work.

First up, TLE wanted me to cut up some large branches I had cut off the tree located hear the left rear corner of our coach so she could haul away the small stuff to our future burn pile, and reduce the larger pieces to a size upon which we can utilize the hydraulic wood splitter.....

....once that was done we turned our attention to installing the white PVC sewer line as we needed to dump our black tank.  You may recall that we originally installed a temporary sewer line using the preferred black pipe with glued joints, but that is meant to be buried.  What we discovered was the black pipe would expand during the day, and shrink at night pulling the pipe apart causing it to leak, but we lived with it.  Ultimately I bought the heavier duty, white PVC pipe which will not expand and contract with temperature to the degree the black pipe did, but we never installed it. Fast forward to Tuesday, it was time to install the white PVC, and was it ever easy.  We used rubber couplings to splice the sections together.....

The new white PVC above ground sewer line....you can see the former black pipe sewer line to the right.  It will be used, eventually, when we bury the line permanently.

Everything went together so easily!

The black rubber couplers

....this method was way less messy with no black glue being employed, plus if there is any minor expansion, or contraction it will not pull the pipe apart breaking the glue seal.

As we were finishing the installation Charles and Phyllis arrived for a two day stay, so while they unpacked the truck TLE and I hooked the 175' of hose together to flush the tank with pressurized water coming from the water tower.  Eventually, we will dig the trench between the Newell and the sewer line, and bury the black sewer line to make it permanent, but that will be a task for another day.  Charles will rent a trencher to bring up here so we don't have to break our collective backs digging through the caliche rock.

Now, if I had called it a day right then I would have been wise, but I am not known for being wise in that regard.  The battery on our 1969 Chevrolet C-50 tilt bed truck had gone dead during the summer.  I should have removed it and left it on a trickle charger like I did the battery for the Jeep CJ5.  Anyway I gave the dead battery to Charles when they left to return to Phoenix last Thursday, and he returned with a new Interstate battery.  Naturally, at least for me, I wanted to install that new battery, and get the truck running again, and was successful in that endeavor.  I had treated the fuel in the tank with Stabil before we left last April, and ran the truck long enough to circulate the treated gasoline through the fuel system, so it fired right up.

Again, if I had been wise, I would have gone home right then, taken a shower, and taken a nap before dinner, but I decided I wanted to start up Phyllis' 1982 Newell, which hadn't been started since the last time we were here back in April.  Of course, the chassis batteries used to turn over the big Detroit Diesel 6v92 were low, so I had to retrieve my two battery chargers, and get them charging, which took another 45 minutes, by which time I was exhausted...."A Bridge Too Far" as one might opine.

Dinner was set to be served around 4 pm, and it was 3:20 pm, which meant I would barely have enough time to take a shower, and 'rest' for a few minutes before heading into the house for dinner.  By the time we had dinner, which was delicious (some kind of egg casserole TLE made), I was ready for a long nap, so after bidding our hosts adieu we headed home where I quickly fell asleep in my recliner for about an hour.  Had I been wise enough earlier I could have had that hour nap before dinner....doh!

Thanks for stopping by!

Small tasks....big results....

 7:54 am - Tuesday - November 4th - TWW - 52° F, humidity 18%, wind 8 mph out of the southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2019 I was putting the finishing touches on a new path down to the lake at Ramona Oaks RV Resort....

.....this path did not exist when I began the project.  I created the path, installed the fencing, and built the landing pad for the bench to create a nice place to sit and view the lake (Lake Lorenzo).

For the third successive day TLE and I took an out and back walk of 1 mile, and once again we covered the distance in 20 minutes, averaging 3 mph.  We are really trying to become more consistent this winter in getting exercise.  Just like the first two walks, my knee did not bother me at all.  I'm mystified, but grateful.

TLE and I had a number of small tasks we wanted to get done in the morning hours before we headed into Seligman for the second time this winter (we drove through Seligman in the Newell to get our mail on the way to TWW).  First up we wanted to deploy all of the solar yard art lighting we acquired this summer in Alturas, which did not take long.  I took a short video of what it looks like at night....

.....next I wanted to get both our E-bikes on their chargers to top off their batteries so we can do some riding to give my knee a break from walking periodically, so I set up our Honda 2000 EU generator in the garage to get them both charging.  By the way, we left the Honda here at TWW over the summer.  I added Stabil to the gasoline at the time.  When I went to use it the other day after 6 months of it sitting used, it started on the second pull....amazing!

Then the big task of the day was to see if we had enough fresh water hose to connect to the hose bib in the greenhouse, and run it to the Newell to refill our fresh water tank.  We have 175' of the blue CAMCO fresh water hoses (two 50' lengths, and three 25' lengths), but I was sure we were further than 175' from the hose bib.  As it turns out the city water fill on the Newell is exactly 175' from the hose bib....

The city water fill pipe

.....once we had all of the hoses connected TLE turned on the water, and within 10 minutes our 160 gallon fresh water tank was filled.  This is a real game changer for us, as in the past we have had to handle the water twice by running three lengths of the green suction hose to the IBC water tote to fill it using gravity, then pumping that water using a 12 volt RV water pump from the IBC tote to the Newell, which took at least an hour, or more.  Using the pressurized hose bib in the greenhouse it took us about 10 minutes to fill the tank....a big difference!

Around 12 pm we got notice that a package of mail from LPG&RVR we had been awaiting finally arrived at the Post Office so we headed into town to get that mail, and have a late lunch.  Last year Charles and Phyllis provided a Ford Expedition for us to drive to and from town as our low slung VW Beetle was getting beat to death on the washboardy north/south arterial, which shortened our drive out to US-66 from 30 minutes to 10 minutes.  This year they have provided a 1998 Ford Explorer for that purpose.....

......considering that it has 308,000 miles on the odometer, it still runs, and drives well.  With a higher clearance vehicle the drive into town takes just 30 minutes instead of the 50 minutes it took us in the VW.  We arrived at the Post Office, without incident, around 12:45 pm, picked up our mail, then headed back to Westside Lilo's, our favorite local eatery, for lunch.  TLE and I split their BOLT sandwich (bacon, onion, lettuce and tomato) with a side of fries....

.....by the time we got back home it was 3 pm, and I had just one more small task to complete....affix the solar powered Edison light to the patio awning....you will recall we used this same light in the dining/gaming canopy this past summer.....

.....now we can have a lot of light out there at night without running the porch light which runs off the house batteries.  It is set to come on when motion is detected, which is perfect when fwe go outside at night to get something out of one of the Norcolds, or the trailer.  And that was our day....a day filled with small tasks, but big results

Thanks for stopping by!

Walking again.....

 7:21 am - Monday - November 3rd - TWW - 46° F, humidity 19%, wind 3 mph out of the southeast.....partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and zi were in Rancho Cucamonga.....

......having lunch at 'The Hat', a local SoCal chain specializing in Hot Pastrami sandwiches....enough pastrami falls out of the sandwich whilst you are eating it to make a whole other sandwich.....serious!

We began walking again on Saturday.  We really didn't walk as much this summer as in past summers when we could walk close to 100 miles each summer, and that was because my knee was saying 'NO!'.  Well, my knee has stopped saying 'NO!'  Amazingly, it doesn't really hurt at all.  It's always a little stiff, but it loosens up when we start walking.  Saturday we probably walked about 1/2 mile to test it out, and it was fine, so on Sunday we walked a whole mile, and still no pain.  I'm at a loss to explain this turnaround, but who am I to examine the mouths of gift horses.

After our walk TLE and I headed back to the downed pinyon pine to clear the driveway of the two, or three piles of cuttings we had amassed, so Charles can back his truck up to the trailer when they return this Tuesday.  For the first time since it was serviced, we started the 16" Stihl chainsaw, and it fired on the second pull, and ran like a champ.  Using the shorter chainsaw I was able to make quick work of the thicker wood. We'll use all that wood for sunset fires.....

Lot's of wood for our sunset fires

The drive is clear again

.....after that TLE spent a couple of hours finishing a project she began our first day back at TWW.  Last winter we created rock lined circles around the trees in front of the house, but they were too big, and made it difficult to drive around the circular driveway, which is kind of self defeating, right?  So, she tightened them up removing about 25% of the rocks, and now the circular driveway is more navigable.....

She left a gap in the rock circle so we can 

back the utility side by sides in there to stack wood more easily

....while she was doing that I was rolling back each piece of turf we laid down the other day to remove any rocks before tacking them down to the ground.  If we don't tack them down the wind will blow them out of position.  With that task completed I settled in watching NFL football.  It was a good day for me....pretty much every team for whom I was rooting won...Broncos, Seahawks, Bills, Bears, Chargers, Rams.  The only loss was the Raiders who lost a heart breaker by a point in overtime 30-29 when they failed on a 2 point conversion to win the game.  Both the Seahawks and Bears are quarterbacked by former USC quarterbacks (Sam Darnold and Caleb Williams), and it is good to see them doing well this year.

For dinner TLE had me grill a London Broil on the Sea-B-Que.....

.....it took about 12 minutes to get them to medium rare.  TLE added a side salad, and roasted potatoes, and a bottle of Malbec to chase the great food.

Sunday was the warmest day this week topping out at 79° F, and now the temperatures will slowly pass through the 70's into the 60's over the next 10 days, and then into the 50's by the middle of the month.  Winter is on her way.

Thanks for stopping by!

DODGERS REPEAT....DODGERS WIN!!!

 7:58 am - Sunday - November 2nd - TWW - 45° F, humidity 16%, wind 1 mph out of the east.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 79° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were visiting Wasatch Brew Pub and Brewery......

....in Park City, UT with my brother Dwyer, and his wife Lori.  TLE had their Jalapeno Cream Ale, and I their Polygamy Porter Nitro....WOW!

So, let's just get the big elephant out of the room to begin things today.  You probably noticed I was silent about my Dodgers after they won that 18 inning marathon game Monday night/Tuesday morning (the first game of three at home).  Then they lost next two games 6-2 and 6-1.....no hitting, and no pitching....just plain terrible.  They traveled back to Toronto down 3 games to 2.  That we had only lost two road games during the entire playoffs did not mean much to me.  I thought they were toast.  Maybe they could win game 6 to send it to a game 7, but I wasn't hopeful.  The Blue Jays' hitting and pitching just looked too good.  Yamamoto, who had pitched two complete games in the playoffs so far, was the starting pitcher Friday night, and although he did not pitch a complete game he was the winner 3-1 over the Blue Jays, in a game that ended on an amazing 'walk off' double play...one you rarely see.  Then came Saturday, game 7....there have  been 41 'game sevens' played in MLB history, and the Dodgers had won 2 of them over the years prior to this World Series.

Shohei Ohtani was the starting pitcher in game 7, and didn't get out of the third inning before he gave us 3 runs on a homerun.  The Dodgers scored a single run in the 4th, 6th and 8th innings, but were still down 4-3 entering the 9th inning, and were down to their last two outs when Miguel Rojas hit a game tying homerun to send the game into extra innings.  Yamamoto came into the game as a relief pitcher in the bottom of the 9th inning on 1 days rest, and pitched 3 shutout innings.  In the top of the 11th with the game still tied, Will Smith hit a solo homerun to put the Dodgers in front to stay.  Once again, in the bottom of the 11th inning the Dodgers got a 'walk off' double play to end the game. Yamamoto won his second game in as many days, and won 3 of the 4 games the Dodgers won in this year's World Series....amazing!  All three of the Dodgers final runs were from solo homeruns (Max Muncy, Miguel Rojas, and Will Smith).  The Dodgers are the first National League team to repeat as World Series champions since the Cincinnati Reds did so in 1975 and 1976.  I think the Blue Jays, statistically, were the better team over the 7 games, but the Dodgers just seemed to have a little more heart at the end, when it counted most.

Okay, so what else happened Saturday?  You may recall that I had both of our Stihl chainsaws serviced during the summer, and it was time to test them out.  During a summer windstorm here at TWW a long dead Pinyon Pine was blown down (it sat next to the water tower), and needed to be cut back so Charles could back in our water trailer without hitting it, so that is where we began.  The 21" Stihl chainsaw cut through that Pinyon Pine like a hot knife through warm butter.....

....all of that wood on the ground in front of the water trailer was sticking into the road before I cut it back.  Close to 80% of the tree still needs to be cut up, but at least we can get the trailer in and out more easily now

Next we turned our attention to the tree next to the dog kennel that we, on several occasions last winter, had been slowly cutting back as it cast a show in the afternoon on the Eco Flow dual axis solar tracker.  The shadows were still an issue, so we decided to really attack it this time, and it is almost completely down now.....

Now....

....then....the tree on the right with the ladder next to it

.....next we moved over to a tree that was blocking the early morning sun from hitting the light sensor on the Eco Flow dual axis solar tracker.....

....you can see all of the tree limbs we cut off that small tree.  By the time we finished it was close to 12 pm, and it was getting warm, so we put things away, and relaxed for the rest of the day....we don't have to 'build Rome' in one day....lol.

My USC Trojans actually won an important road game Saturday over the Nebraska Cornhuskers 21-17 with a gritty defensive performance, so sports wise Saturday was just one great result after another for the Hockwald family!

When I look back at where we were this time last winter, and were we are this year I am amazed.  After three days of work we are right where we want to be, and feel right at home.  It took a couple of months before we felt completely at home last winter, and felt like we knew what we were doing, but this year we have been able to hit the ground running, so to speak, and it is just a matter of building upon what we did last year.

Thanks for stopping by!

2nd full day.....

 7:36 am - Saturday - November 1st - TWW - 50° F, humidity 16%, wind 4 mph out of the east by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 76° F.  On this date in 2011 TLE and I were dry camping at Rincon Parkway.....

....right next to the Pacific Ocean just north of Ventura, CA.....we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

When we have the Winter off work we rarely, if ever, get up before 7 am.  Every day feels like Saturday again, especially here at The Wilson Wilderness, where we get to decide every day what will do, and for how long we will do it.  Friday was our second full day here  this winter so we still had a lot to do getting our site set up for the Winter.  We had big aspirations: 1) tilt the roof top solar panels on the Newell, 2) pull out all of our artificial turf pieces to begin setting up the 'lido deck', and 3) organize the trailer interior.  That, my friends, is one big bite of the proverbial apple, especially for two folks in the later half of their 8th decade.

I'm super happy we only have to tilt those roof top solar panels up, and then down twice per year....I don't go up and down ladders as fast as I once did, and now, for my own safety, TLE is there holding the ladder.  It took us about 40 minutes to get them cleaned, and tilted....

....then we turned our attention to dragging out the artificial turf, which doesn't take too long, but that big piece we've had for over 10 years is big, and heavy.  Once again within an hour they were all unfolded, and in place between the Newell and the trailer....

....with the additional pieces we bought last summer, we can now walk from the Newell to the trailer without shoes, or flip flops.  TLE also added the red sun screen for the afternoon sun (the Newell faces due east).  By the time we finished that I was ready for a break, and changed from my long sleeve shirt, and overalls to a t-shirt and shorts for the afternoon session.

Next up was to bring order out of chaos in the trailer.  We packed everything away in there back on October 8th, so it's the first time anything in there has seen the light of day in a while.  We first removed things that will go into storage in the garage for the winter, and then began to set up tables for our pantry annex, and my tools.....

Chaos has been replaced by order

The pantry annex with a small table of various types of hammers and mallets

The tool table

The Black & Decker Workmate

....by the time we finished with the trailer (about 90% done) it was after 2 pm, and time for a snack, and a short nap.  Frankly, I'm amazed we got it mostly all done in one day....actually less than 5 hours.

By the way, I neglected to mention in yesterday's post that Ken from Yavapai Bottle Gas was able to come out Thursday afternoon to replumb our 120 gallon tank into the Newell.  I was pretty sure I could do it, but it's worth $75 to have a professional do it, and make sure nothing is leaking, and that all of our appliances still worked.  I wasn't expecting him to to be able to come out that soon.  Next Tuesday Yavapai will come and fill our tank which sits at 36% right now.

Late afternoon TLE and I went out to water the small orchard we have here (almond, pecan, apple, plumb, nectarine, and peach) as well as our garden next to the greenhouse (onions and potatoes right now).....

....by the time we finished it was time for a shower, and dinner.  

It was a good second day with a lot accomplished, and now the rest of the setup is easy by comparison.  We need to reattach the hardline sewer connection in the next few days before we need to dump our black tank.  Our IBC water tote is full, and ready to resupply our fresh water tank.  For our evening entertainment we watched recorded episodes of Survivor (1), and Amazing Race (2), and were in bed a little after 9 pm.

Thanks for stopping by!