Since moving here, John and I have been striving to find ways to make this community really feel like home. Browsing Facebook, I found that the valley residents are very giving and compassionate. We've had the pleasure of experiencing this generosity first hand.
First, there was Chad, who brought us a pigtail to use with our generator so we could get power. Steve came over to help us put the snowplow on the Goblin, and then there was Kevin, who, with a friend, hand shoveled our driveway because he'd promised to plow it and his plow wasn't available. To top that off, he fixed the shift cable on the Goblin so we could plow ourselves.
In search of a way to spread the news of these wonderful men, and to allow others to do the same, on October 17th, I created a group called Good Deeds in the Mat-Su Valley. The group currently has 886 members and is still growing!
As Christmas approached, we began to see parents asking for help for food, clothing, and gifts for their children. The response was astronomical. I know that I co-ordinated the gathering of donations for one family. From the back of Trooper, I unloaded 4 large bags of presents, 1 large bag and 4 big boxes of food. That was just one of the many families helped at Christmas.
The Good Deeds Elfs helped so many people this year. I challenge anyone to find a more generous group of people anywhere.
Then on December 20, a member of our group noticed a homeless man digging through the trash.
Tis the season! While out finishing up our christmas shopping I happen to notice an elderly man walking across the parking lot carrying a small clear trash bag. As I get closer to him, and watch as he walks from lot to lot, i realize that the contents of the bag are items that people are throwing out. I continue to watch i notice that others are being very rude and disrespectful to him. I walk over and ask if he needs help with anything. He tells me that he is homeless and has 2 children that he is trying to find needed items for he and them for christmas... With a VERY heavy Heart i ask him to Stay and wait for me to return... Instead of buying myself ANYTHING i return to him w one toy a piece, 3 beanies, a large warm blanket and a hot meal. With tears running down his face he thanks me and then asks my name so that he may one day return the kindness.... I hug him and say, There is no thanks needed and just call me a blessing. Later on i see this same Man sharing his ONLY meal with a homeless teen.... THIS IS WHAT ITS ABOUT FOLKS . The members of our group got all fired up about this post, and voila, the Wasilla Homeless-Committee was born. We currently have 47 members in the group and are trying to set up a meeting for the second Saturday of January. Christmas Eve finds us busy at the Menard Center peeling potatoes for the Friendship Dinner to be held on Christmas Day. 6 hours of peeling, rolling eating utensils in napkins, pouring salad dressing, and making butterballs. What a rewarding time!
Christmas Day, started off with worship services before the guests started arriving. Boy, did they arrive! 4,000 people fed turkey, ham, yams, mashed potatoes/gravy, veggies, salad & desserts galore!
Entertainment was provided throughout the day, including a Celtic band, tuba band, and an acoustic group, just to mention a few.
Santa and Mrs. Claus made an appearance with gift bags for all the children. The bags were generously filled with books, gloves, games, and of course, candy.
The guests just kept coming. It was estimated we served over 4,000 from 11:00 until 3:00.
Best of all, about 10:30, it started snowing big fluffy flakes.
On the funny side, we'd purchased the pups snow booties to keep their feet warm. Sassy had a very interesting reaction to them. She absolutely hated them, sat down and refused to walk. The look on her face was priceless.
Only one fail since my last post. On the day after Christmas, we decided we needed to plow all the snow that had accumulated. One drive done, one pass made on the second drive and BANG, the winch rope breaks and the plow slams into the road.
I call John who comes down with a chain which we hook onto the plow. As he lifts, I bring the chain around the Goblin and hook it to the hitch. We were able to get him back into the garage, but in looking at the cable, we can see that the rope is wrapped back onto itself and we don't have enough length to grab onto to pull it loose.
We ordered a new one from Amazon, then yesterday John got a brilliant idea. He had a good length of paracord, which we doubled and tied to the 6 inches of wench cable available. He wrapped the other end of the paracord around a long screwdriver to serve as a handle and with just a couple of tugs, it broke free. We removed the rope from the plow side and cut the frayed end off the wench side, We then wrapped the rope back around the thimble, secured it with heavy duty zip ties, then wrapped with duct tape. Voila, it worked and I was able to finish the plowing.
We look fondly back on 2014 and expectantly forward to 2015. Hope all of you have a wonderful, prosperous, and safe 2015.
PROPANE:
We are going through propane as if all the jets were wide open and we are just venting it out into space. On Thursday, November 20, I called our dealer and let them know we would need a refill. We were down to 30% in the tank. We were instructed to call them when we hit 20 - 25%, but John worries about freezing to death, so I called early. No problem, right? Wrong!!!
Monday, I was on my way back from my orthopedic appointment (all is well with the hip by the way), when John calls me. "Please call Crowley & see when they will deliver. We are down to ZERO. Yikes. Make the call, and find we aren't scheduled until the next day (when our area gets filled). What do we do?
OK, don't panic. We need to run the furnace to keep the pipes from freezing, but if we keep the thermostat set at 68* like normal, we will definitely empty the tank. We still have a 30 pound tank and a 5 pound tank full and available. No sweat, right? Wrong!!!
When Brandon hooked up our big 'pickle' tank, he completely disconnected any access we might have had from the smaller tanks. I can't for the life of me figure out how to reconnect it. I am pretty capable of plumbing type chores, but this one has me beat.
Our solution was to set the thermostat at 60* so the furnace would kick on to keep the basement heated. As a fail-safe, we also put a good sized space heater under the RV. Indoors, we turned on both electric fireplaces and put on an extra layer of clothing, and kept the pups in their sweaters. Fingers (and toes) crossed, we settle in for the night. I think each of us got up several times that night to check that we had water.
Tuesday at 4:00 pm, propane still had not arrived. We know we will not make it another night. Just as I was dialing the phone to call Crowley, the truck arrived. Whew!!!
Not wanting this to ever happen again, I went ahead and spoke with Hazel at Crowley. "This was a bit too close a call", I say.
"Yes", responds Hazel, "you should call us when you are at 25%. It is a $100.00 service call if you run out." I let her know that I'd called at 30% and could we please set up routine deliveries, like around the 1st and 15th of each month? Nope, we have to call.
My solution? I set my calendar to alert me to call on every other Thursday so we can get every other Tuesday delivery. (John is still worried)
WATER:
We entered the Thanksgiving holiday with cold temps, but no snow. That's probably just as well because:
Thanksgiving morning, I arose early to get the turkey ready for the roaster. No water! What the heck? We have a heated hose that is rated to -42* F. We should have water. It only got down to 12* last night. We should have water, right? Wrong!!!
Since it was still dark outdoors (the sun doesn't rise until 9:30 or so, I decided to let John sleep in. (Losing the water is one of his biggest worries after freezing to death.) He awoke as I was in the dining room talking to our oldest son and heard me mention "no water". He comes out of the bedroom, very upset. "I just knew this would happen."
I strive to calm him a bit until it gets a little lighter outside, instead, he dresses and goes out to the RV hook-ups to discover water has flowed filling the area under the RV, down the western driveway, partway down the eastern driveway, under the cargo trailer, and into the little hut we put up for a doggy outhouse when snow does arrive. We still can't do anything about it until it is lighter outside, but luckily, we have water in the fresh holding tank, so all is not lost.
I decided to wait a bit to fix the turkey, since we aren't having guests, it doesn't matter what time we eat. Coffee, coffee, coffee.
When the sun finally comes up we head out. The water lines that are not protected under the RV have had heat tapes applied, and wrapped in 5 layers of insulation. Where or where could the water be coming from. Did you know that it takes longer to remove 5 layers of insulation than it did to apply it?
When I'd gotten to the last layer of pipe wrap on the hose we use for the Sani-flush system, I was greeted by a 4 inch length-wise split in the hose. (The cheap kind you get from a certain discount store that everyone calls Wally World). The expensive cold weather rated hose is still supple, and when disconnected from the RV, still runs. Good thing too, or I'd have a few words to say to the Pirit company.
We figured out that sometime during the night the flush hose had split so widely allowing water to drain so rapidly from the well that all water pressure was lost. Easy fix, just don't hook up the flush hose until needed, then use the shorter Pirit hose we have. Water at last.
POWER:
Approximately 30 minutes after we get the water problem solved, I'm starting to work on the turkey. John comes in. "We have no power outside, nor in the arctic entry. WHAT NEXT????
Placing the turkey aside (again) I go out to help with the power issue. The 20 amp breaker on the main box has tripped. Reset, fixed, right? Wrong!!!
We discover that when we turn on the light in the cargo trailer, it trips the breaker. Our youngest son has called by this time and I'm trying to talk to him and to John. "We lost our...no power honey...our water last...still no power babe...last night...no honey, it's not working. "Steve, let me call you back, this is too confusing."
We reroute our power supply so we have heat to the car engines, power to the freezer, and heat into the arctic room. "Take a break sweetheart, please?"
I call Steve back to explain what was going on and he suggests that the new light we put into the cargo trailer just yesterday, may not be grounded correctly. We solve the problem by just unplugging it.
It is now 11:55 am and I'm finally able to get the turkey into the roaster. I can also start on the rest of our Thanksgiving meal, which turned out just fine (if I do say so myself)
The following day it is time to start putting up my Christmas decorations. John gets all the boxes (I'm down from 20 boxes when we had the house to 3). It's not the arduous workout for him it used to be.
As I'm emptying ornaments and garland from one of the totes I a nice surprise. His mother's crystal pitcher, my hand thrown pottery bowl, and all my candy dishes I thought had been sold at our estate sale miraculously reappear. It's like getting Christmas early!
I'm plugging right along, minding my own business when John calls out, "We don't have any water!!" Not again! This is really getting old. He goes outside to check and comes back in. "My fault", he admits, "I forgot and left the basement door open when I flushed the tanks." The water lines we've strived so hard to protect are now frozen.
I have him open the panel wall in front of the water lines and turn on one of the smaller space heaters we have. We crank the thermostat up to 72*, open the desk drawers that back to the water system, turn on the faucet in the kitchen, and wait. I reassure my darling dingbat hubby that all is not lost, as long as the lines haven't burst. I really don't think we'll need to worry about that as it has only been about an hour since he was outside flushing the tanks. Within 30 minutes, we have water again, and no burst lines. He's learned a lesson though, NEVER LEAVE THE BASEMENT DOOR OPEN IN THE WINTER.
Back to my decorating (indoors at least). I'm finding as I age that it takes me ever so much longer to do what I used to do in 3 hours or less even 20 years ago. I'm very glad I was able to save my favorite ornaments, including the 3-D ones we picked up at gift shops everywhere we vacationed.
This was a gift from one of my former supervisors.
The stockings are hung by the chimney with care...
This RV had so many easy ways to decorate
Some of my favorite ornaments
These are the gold toned 3-D ornaments we've collected
There was no place to set this other than the top of the printer
My 'Charming Tails" nativity scene
Snowmen
Across the dining room slide.
And finally...the tree
SNOW:
After much anticipation, on December 2, 3, and 4, we got SNOW!!! 8 inches fell over these 3 days, and although it is beautiful, I still can't build a snowman as the snow is too dry to pack.
ATV:
On the second day of snow, we decided it was time now to fire up the Green Goblin. I mean, he's had the plow on for 2 months now and we've been unable to use it. Out in the garage, we get him started and pull him out to warm up. 15 minutes later, while John is doing something, (I can't recall what) I tell him I'll start plowing. This isn't my first rodeo, but...the Goblin goes 3 feet on the first pass, and then won't go into reverse. He won't go into neutral. He will only go forward. This is of no help at all. DANG!!!
We toss a tarp over him since we can't push him back into the garage and call Steve. He reminded me that sometimes the engine cowling will slip and not let the shifting lever drop into the proper gear. It is now dark, so we'll look at it tomorrow.
The next morning, we pull the tarp off and try again. No dice. John throws in the towel. "We'll just sell the damned thing and hire someone to plow" I've learned over the years just to let him rant when he's like this. He goes in and calls Kevin to come out and plow the drive.
Kevin arrives about 2 hours later, sans plow, and spends an hour trying to adjust the shift cable (I'd found out on the Prowler forum this was probably the problem). He is able to get it into reverse and neutral so we can back the Goblin back into the garage until we have time to get the linkage fully adjusted. He refuses any payment for his time and promises to come back the next day with the plow.
We spent the rest of the afternoon getting the rest of the outdoor decorations placed. (Yes, it is dark here by 4:30 now)
Kevin came back the next afternoon and shoveled our 100 ft driveway by hand. His boss left with the keys to the plow so he was shoveling by hand because he'd promised us he would clear our driveway! What an amazing young man. He also spent another 90 minutes working on the Goblin. We can now use it to plow, we just won't have low range. Kevin is our hero.
FINALLY FUN:
We think all the fun was had by the furbabies playing in the snow with and without their snow boots.
Finally to all my readers MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.
...if I recall correctly (after so many years in the south) this is what winter feels like! We've been experiencing temps down to 10* at night with highs in the lower 30's. Still, it is comfortable to go outside with just a light jacket on (short periods only).
The rig is staying nice and warm. We are using about 70 gallons of propane each month, which isn't too bad, but the cost is at $4.55/gal, meaning each fill is around $300.00. A bit of a bite out of the budget, though one we'd accounted for. Electric is high also. Our bill this month was $307.00. Reminds me of Houston in the summer with the A/C on all the time. **Reminder to self** add this cost to the budget! This is the one area I'd not figured would cost so much, but we should use very little in the summer, so I can do my own balanced billing.
We had another water hose fail. The extension we'd added to the Pirit heated hose froze during one of the 10* nights. Yes, it was heat taped, and wrapped with insulation. No clue why it froze, but we bit the bullet and purchased another Pirit hose in a 25 ft. length this time. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008VM889E/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I'm kicking myself for not doing this as soon as we realized our 12 ft. Pirit would not suffice for length. During the 2 days it took for the hose to arrive from Amazon, we just filled the fresh water holding tank and used that. Since the Pirit is rated to -42* we should not have another issue. **fingers crossed**
Yesterday, we added an inline water control connection to the Sani-Flush on the rig. Now John can access the valve easier when draining and rinsing the black water tank. Now all pipes are wrapped extra well with insulation, padded, protected, heated. Hooray for us.
The little space heater we'd placed in the arctic entry cycled so often, it would trip the breaker in the RV. Another bright idea from your's truly, run a cord from the outside outlets (on their own breaker) to the arctic entry. Secure it with heavy duty cable ties, drill a hole in the side wall of the arctic entry, plug the heater into that cord, and close the opening for the RV outside outlets with insulation to cut down the draft. We also changed out the quartz heater (which had a fan, thus high electric use) for an oil heater our son gave us (left over from his time up here). It worked out great! Temp inside the arctic entry is now averaging 65* and no more draft. I'm so smart (John's words, not mine).
We still haven't seen any real wildlife on the property, but a neighbor's chicken continues to make visits. She eats our grass, doesn't leave any eggs as payment, which is rude. To pay her back, the pups have found out she's fun to chase. That'll teach her!
Update on my hip replacement...I'm now walking indoors and outdoors without any assistive devices. Now I can really take the furbabies on their walks. I've even been able to walk in the backyard (which is very uneven & weed strewn) without any problem, though I do take it slow and steady. I don't want to risk falling and ruining the beautiful work Dr. Vanderbilt did. My left leg is now 1cm longer than the right one, but with a small lift in the right shoe, I'm good to go!
We are still anxiously awaiting the first really good snow. The couple of spits we had in October were not enough for me to build my snowman. Olaf is getting a bit depressed awaiting his rebirth.
Got the box with everyone's Christmas presents mailed out. Greeting cards are next on my agenda. I plan to make my own photo greetings, but I really did want some snow on the ground to make it more seasonal. Guess I just have to be a bit more patient.
There have been too many fires destroying homes so far this year. A very sad time for so many in our community. Job losses are also occurring at a record pace. The community pulls together for this and helps each other out. We all help with food, clothing, furniture, whatever we can give. Wasillians take care of their own.
John and I are planning to volunteer to help with the Community Christmas event. We've been looking at a variety of areas where we can be of assistance. This is one of the nicer perks of being retired, you have more time to volunteer.
We went to vote today, and I was pleased to see a larger turnout in our precinct than I'd ever observed at polling places in the lower 48.
One big event we'd been looking forward to was observing the aurora borealis. Finally had a clear sky last night, and the borealis was active. I was asleep & missed it. Never again, I've downloaded an app for my iPhone that will alert me when the borealis is active. I plan to get some great pictures of it for sharing with my readers.
The change from DST to standard time has resulted in our seeing the sun set at 4:30 in the afternoon, and not come up until after 8:00 am. Just makes me lazy and want to sleep in. Hey! I'm retired, I can do that!!!
Will post again at a later date, when I have more to report. But as a closing note---Happy Birthday to me!!
Long time since my last post I know, but have been just a bit busy getting new hardware for an old, worn out hip. Had to use a walker to manage any locomotion at all, and the hip pain increased exponentially. Finally got a surgery date for October 10.
Long rounds of clearance, cardiac, dental, pulmonary, etc. Cleared with flying colors. I was to report to the hospital @ 6:45 am, and since it is an hours drive to the hospital, John and I spent the night at the Air Force Inn on base. The bed was so awful, you could feel the springs, just pushing a bit on the mattress. The pain was horrific. Luckily, there was a recliner in the room, so that's where I spent the night. We boarded the furbabies at a local kennel so we wouldn't have to worry about them.
The surgery went very well. Spinal anesthesia, with Versed and Fentanyl. I awoke once during the procedure (not due to pain) and the CRNA says, "It's ok, we're just working on your hip." Lights out! Awoke at last in PACU and felt great.
I was to spend 3 nights in the hospital, but my surgeon came in on Sunday & said I was doing so well, I could go home early! It was the best news yet. Walking for the first time in months without pain. I could have danced if my balance was better.
I'm now 15 days post-op and walking without any assistive devices inside, though I still use a cane when outdoors. I'm able to walk through the stores shopping, just by holding on to the shopping cart. What a blessing.
Snow arrived for the first time on October 20th, just a light dusting. The snow and cold was a great test for our insulating efforts. Outside temps have ranged from 19 - 29 at night while under the rig, the temps have ranged from 35 - 54. Not bad at all!
Last night we got our second snow. It was a bit more accumulation, but still less than 1 inch. We moved the EZ Up canopy over Trooper so we don't have to scrape snow and frost from the windshield.The kids have really enjoyed their walks in the snow.
We finally got an engine block heater installed in Trooper, and a timer on the electric outlet (wireless control) , as well as a remote start. We can get the heater going before we have to go out. Getting into a warm car in the winter is a real blessing.
Now that the leaves have mostly cleared away, we can finally see the lake. We do want to trim more of the brush away, but because of the bogginess in that area, we are waiting on the ground to freeze good so we can walk without sinking into mud. The white areas in the picture is where ice has formed and the snow has fallen on it. You can see how much brush we still need to remove.
There is a local thrift shop that benefits the Boys and Girls Clubs of Alaska we've frequented. We were both able to find snow pants for under $15.00 to complete our winter outfits. No excuses that it's too cold to go outside. Actually, we've both acclimated well to the weather. Often John will go outside to walk the pups with just a flannel shirt on. He's very happy with how he's adjusting.
Another treasure I've found there is yarn. People will donate (I think businesses too) yarn in vast amounts. The shop packages them together in bags for from $2.99 - $3.99. Most often there will be full skeins of yarn, sometimes more than one in the same dye lot. What a find! I've had to get more storage bins for the yarn, but there is always enough in the bags to do a hat, or hand warmers, Quite often there is baby yarn is sufficient quantity to knit or crochet baby sweaters and hats. This could be income producing for me.
We've found that the people of the valley are very friendly and helpful. In reading posts in some of the local Facebook pages, I saw people posting thanks to folks who've helped them out when a need arose. I took that opportunity to start a Facebook group called "Good Deeds in the Mat-Su Valley" We started the night with 4 members, and in 36 hours, grew to 280 members. Lots of people are posting there to thank those who've helped.
One example: A young lady asked for recommendations of reasonably priced restaurants where she and her boyfriend could celebrate the 1 year anniversary of being together. They had very little money, and no transportation. A lady in town replied that she and her husband were both chefs and would love to prepare a meal for the couple free of charge. That's helping out a stranger and what the people in this valley are all about.
Another example: When MTA came out (finally) to bury our phone cable, they moved the snow plow off the supports, placing it on the ground. Neither of us, even working together could budge it. John posted a need for help getting the plow attached to the Goblin and offered to pay. A gentleman responded right away and was here within 2 hours, helped get the plow attached, and refused any remuneration.
We are still exploring building a cabin out of shipping containers. Again, John posted a question on Facebook, asking if there were any contractors in the area who did this type of construction. A retired gentleman responded immediately that he would like to help, stating that he needed something fun to spend his retirement doing, and our project sounded like the perfect thing.
We are really loving it here and are looking forward to becoming participating members of the community. We discovered there is an annual Community Christmas dinner each year for anyone who wants to partake and they are always looking for volunteers. Guess who is going to do this?
I will continue to post as often as I have something of interest to share with my readers.
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