...and now it's fall.

  The time is flying fast.  Leaves have taken on an amber hue and are swirling down to the ground.  Temperatures are in the low 30's at night rising only to the low 50's during the day.  The vista is spectacular.

  Finally caught site of the swans who've been waking us up some mornings.  Caught them feeding on a neighbor's lake the other day.  Ducks and signets all together.

We finally got the arctic entry and skirting painted. Now I need to get some Goo-Gone to remove the paint smears on the RV. 

  John says we are now "Haze gray and underway".

  I've noted a few areas of light/cold air intrusion and have filled them with insulation.  The small ceramic heater we got is keeping the arctic entry nice and toasty.

  Note to ourselves.  Replace water lines after a couple of years.  (Note the waster on the ground).  We awoke yesterday morning to zero water in the RV. We only got to 34 the night before so freezing should not be the issue.   A quick check outside. revealed the water was coming  from a section of hose that we'd added on to give us the length we needed.  After removing the insulation, we discovered a 4 inch split in the hose.  John thinks it was because that hose had a kink in it at one time.

  So, now a trip to town to get a replacement hose, replacement line heater (John accidentally sliced through the other one while removing insulation --- he's dangerous with a blade), and replacement pipe insulation.  Once supplies were at hand, it only took us 20 minutes to rewrap, reconnect, and re insulate the water line.  We were so thankful it wasn't blow dryer time to find a frozen section.

  On a positive note, John said it was definitely warmer under the RV than it was outside.  I guess our insulation is working good for us.

  Just as we finished working on the water line, as John was coming out from under the RV, the rig suddenly started rocking--badly.  My first thought was a jack had given way, but then I noticed I was losing my balance too.  A really nice 6.2 quake located just 60 miles from us.  We started giggling when we realized what had happened.

  Our only damage was a jar of peppercorns by the stove fell over.  What a chore that was to clean up.  Our poor cat Snickers was crouched down with just the tip of his tail twitching and for over an hour, he tip toed around the floor as if afraid it would start moving again.

  We have final word from MTA now on completion of our installation.  A tech will be out sometime today to qualify the line (don't know what that means), then Monday 9/30 another tech will be out to hook us up.  Hooray, it's only been 2 months.  One last thing to do---buy a telephone.  We've used our cells for so long, but for local calls, it will be better to have a local phone number.

  We hired an electrician to come out and install 4 outlets on the electric pole so we'll have a place to plug in the vehicles this winter.  He was great.  Came out, gathered the info he needed, went to a local box home improvement store & called us back within an hour with the quote.  We accepted and he came right back and had everything installed in less than an hour.  We were both very nervous however, as he was working with electricity in the rain.  Scary.  We will hire him again in the spring to install a 50 amp RV plug so all our RV friends who are coming to visit will have power.

  Finally got some word on my hip problem.  According to the orthopedic surgeon I saw, "Your hip is trashed"

  Replacement surgery is scheduled for October 10th.  I will be one step closer to my goal of becoming the "Bionic Woman"

  To keep myself amused, I started a humor FaceBook page.  It's tough being an administer of a page as there are a few people who get offended by something, then blow it out of proportion.  As I told one of my readers yesterday, "I do have a life outside of  Facebook and cannot check every post before someone sees it."  I REFUSE to approve each post before it is posted.  Some "adults" are just so childish.  Geesh.

  Enough rant.  Going to knit some more sweaters for my puppies.

Lookin' Good

  We've been busy as usual this week, and as promised, we have pics.

  The temperatures are starting to drop in the evenings and the fall colors are coming out.  This will be the first fall in over 20 years in which I've been able to witness the color changes.  It is spectacular.  Now, we don't have the red maples of the northeast US, but the birch have taken on a beautiful gold hue.  Watching the leaves fall and float down to the earth is fascinating.  John is excited, as he won't have to rake them.  Leaves are permitted to land where they may to decompose and enrich the soil.

  I finished the interior of the arctic entry.   Most people don't finish the interior of their entryways, but it just looked too awful to me seeing studs and insulation.  We didn't want to go into the expense of drywall, or paneling in a room that will be used for storage and as a buffer between the elements and the RV, so what to do?   I just decided to cover in fabrics I had laying around.  It really looks interesting, and at no extra expense to us except for one king size sheet purchased at the local thrift store to have enough to do the ceiling.  So, what do you think?

  A big bonus to the room?  We were finally (after 20 months) able to get the rest of our DVD collection out of the storage totes and onto shelves where we could get to them to watch them.  John and I are big movie buffs.  We sold approximately 50 DVDs when we had our estate sale, and we still have about 400 movies.  We also have around 30 movies that are digital on my iPod, or in our Amazon Cloud account.

  We were also able to bring in the rest of my cooking/baking supplies (bread machine, KitchenAide mixer, dehydrator, and others).  Now I can get to them without too much trouble.  I was also able to bring in my sewing and serger machines so I can use them whenever I want without digging into the cargo trailer. 

 We placed a small ceramic heater on a shelf so we don't freeze our fannies off while removing coats and boots.  A florescent light fixture affords us illumination.  The yellow straps you see around the fixture are a trick John learned in Okinawa to keep bulbs from falling to the floor and breaking during an earthquake. 

 John even built us a bench to sit on while removing boots.  I covered it in some vinyl I had left over.  It's just the right height for me with my bum hip.

  

 Kind of amazing how much a 5 x 8 room can hold and still allow you to maneuver.  Done with the inside, we now will focus outside.

  John was sent to the Home Depot with instructions to get a paint that would coordinate with the colors of the RV.  He did such a good job, he nearly broke his arm patting himself on the back.

  If our weather holds out, tomorrow we will get the skirting painted.  It feels good to be nearly ready for the winter.  I've still been working on putting "storm windows" on the inside to insulate against the cold.

  In other developments, MTA has been busy digging and running cable toward us.  That must mean we will have a telephone (with a local number), digital TV (the 4 channels we get leave a lot to be desired), and high speed internet.  Hope it's done before season 5 of The Walking Dead airs.

  I finally have an appointment with an orthopedist so I can get this danged hip replaced soon.  I got a lot to do and don't feel it's fair for John to have to do so much of the work.

  Got a message from a good friend who was Maid of Honor at our wedding 28 years ago.  She & her hubby plan to come here next summer in their 5th wheel.  How exciting!!!!  Our daughter in law's aunt JoAnne and her hubby Tom may also be coming up next summer.  Another nurse I used to work with in Pasadena will be here in October to visit her daughter and son in law.  She won't be in a RV, but does plan to stop in for coffee while she's here. With all that in mind, John and I are in the process of trying to get an electrician out here to install another 50 amp hook up.  I'm sure they won't be the only friends who will be visiting us here.

  The electrician process is just like every other skilled labor we've tried to hire during our adventure.  One has made 2 appointments with me and didn't show up for either (says he's been very busy).  Another one plans to come out on Monday to give us an estimate.  It isn't just the additional RV hook-up, but we are also looking at outdoor receptacles to plug in the autos this winter.  Eventually, we will have a heated garage, but in the mean time...

  Until next time, keep us in your thoughts, as you are in ours.

Another satisfying week

  We can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We have the arctic entry completed except for painting (and a little interior decoration).
  We have made room for storage of smaller and (to me at least) essential items in the arctic entry.   A shelf was made for a small space heater, A lighting fixture and coat hooks have been installed.  A novel approach to the interior design is in the works, but I'm not going to tell you what it is.  You'll just have to wait for the pictures.

   We had to configure the entry to fit between the hot water heater door and the slide out for the living room.  Tolerances are very tight on both sides.  Weather stripping was applied between the walls of the entry and the exterior of the RV.  I used that spray foam "Great Stuff" anywhere I saw light (though not on the RV exterior, that was weather stripped).
  The metal hand rail you see on the left side of the door in the pic above was removed from the RV and placed outside where it would provide additional safety, and not be in the way in the interior.

  It was a challenge to get the height of the entry just right to allow space for the roofing sheathing, the roof felt, shingles, and a rubber gasket to keep out water.  The gasket works, and the slant of the entry (not that noticeable in the pictures) works.  We got a nice heavy rain Thursday and Friday of this week, and the interior of the entry remained dry.  Hooray for us!

  John is thinking of enclosing the lower portion of the arctic entry to provide even more storage room  We do have 2 4x8 sheets of 1/4 inch plywood left, and one full sheet of the foam insulation, though he plans to place that under the floor of the arctic entry to provide more insulation.

 This project has been a challenge on our definitely non-professional skills, and has also led to a few disagreements on how the project should progress.  We've not killed each other, but as I told John earlier today. "I will be so glad when this is finished so we don't argue anymore."

 The project has also lended itself to a couple of terrors and one hilarious incident.
Earlier this past week, I fell going UP the stairs to get something for John.  I really came down hard on my knees and jammed my left hip.  The following day, John fell getting out of the pick-up bed after working on the roof., Then the funny part today; I was leaning out of the door and trying to show John where I needed a piece of wood cut, lost my balance and partway down the stairs I came.  I didn't even know I could still do the splits.  I was holding on to the hand rail and laughing so hard, John didn't know whether or not I needed help (I did).

   I know we will look back on this winterization project and laugh**later**when we don't ache so bad**and we have those cold winter nights to sit around the fireplace and chat.

We've even made some repairs to the skirting under the RV (not liking our first attempts).  I have discovered that putting skirting under a 5th wheel is WAY DIFFERENT that putting it under a mobile home.  So many more angles (read slides) and elevation changes than would ever occur with a conventional mobile home.

 BEFORE

AFTER

  One of the areas that gave us the most problem was the area around the "gooseneck" portion of the  5th wheel.  We have managed to get it enclosed though, and it will provide an additional area of storage for us.

We will be painting all of this a nice medium gray to coordinate with the RV's color scheme.

  We are still without TV, phone, and internet (except for the MiFi).  MTA sent us a letter saying they will have it done by September 30.  OK, it's already been a month since we requested service, but as I said in a previous post.  This is Alaska Time.  Nothing moves fast up here except for a bear that has it's sights on you.

  I'm glad this will be the only time we well have to do all this work.  We are missing hunting season, we already missed the salmon runs.  It's ok though, as we couldn't have afforded the out of state licenses anyway.

  When next I post, you will be amazed at the completed projects, so until then...

"And the beat goes on" (cudos to Sonny & Cher)

  Wow, have we ever been busy!  Mike left on 8/9 and we had one week to ourselves before our youngest son and his wife arrived for a visit.

  We put them to work too!  Our new motto, "Do not turn down free help when it is offered."
  This past week, on Tuesday, we (with Steve's help) were able to get the skirting on the RV finished and get the deck for the arctic entry built.  It just keeps getting better.

  On Wednesday, we tackled putting in the new window.  Our readers will recall that somewhere prior to Grande Prairie, Alberta, CA we had a window break due to rocks/vibrations/ whatever breaks expensive windows.  The temporary repair was the plastic that comes in large poster frames and lots of Duck tape.

The new window was a special order item and it arrived (finally) on 8/22.  Never having replaced a window in our lives, we tuned to the DIY life savers on YouTube.  There, the pros made it look easy enough that we felt we could do it.

  The land outside the window slopes downhill, and is not safe for a ladder.  Green Goblin to the rescue!  Backed him up beneath the window, and with John standing in the bed of goblin, and me sitting on the bed in the RV, we were able to get the job done.  The pros were right.  It was "easy peasy".  The hardest part of the entire operation was finding the butyl tape the pros recommended instead of putty, but that is another story.

  Friday was a day of R&R.  We met Stephen and Michele at the Alaska State Fair.  All the years we lived in Texas, we never attended that fair probably due to the heat of the Texas summer, and the crowds.  This state fair is a refreshing change of pace.  There are crowds, but not very dense, you can actually move!

  The highlight for me has always been the livestock on display by the various 4-H groups in the area. 

 This day was no exception.  They were a treat to behold.

  The biggest attraction at the Alaska State Fair is the giant vegetables grown locally.  They are really, really, really big.  the champion pumpkin weighed in at a whopping 1283.5 pounds.  The prize cabbage named "Marmaduke" weighed 117.5 pounds.  the growth is attributable to the long Alaskan summer days.

The day started out bright, sunny, and 62 degrees, but as we watched, the clouds moved in and the rain started.  Luckily it last only about 1 hour and we were off to explore some more.

  

  Saturday and Sunday were spent building walls for the arctic entry.  The days are getting cooler now with lows getting into the mid 30's, so we need to make haste.  The walls went up easily enough, the window, door, and artificial turf were put into place.  Two more walls and a roof, and we will almost be ready for winter.  I still need to insulate the windows, but that should only take a day.

  And that sloppy siding job has been replaced with something more cosmetically pleasing.  We will paint everything when we are done.

    

   Today is Labor Day, and we are waiting for the sun to come up over the yardarms, and warm the air enough that we can do some more work.  Labor is work, right?  

  Until next time, please continue to enjoy the blog.  Comment on what you would like to see, or hear about, and I will try my best to accommodate you.