In For A Big Change

Our weatherman is telling us to be prepared for some cold weather that's headed our way. By tomorrow our temps are to drop nearly 35 degrees with a low Tuesday night around 17F and a high 26F. So much for that touch of spring we’ve enjoyed the past several days.

We drove over to get the propane bottle filled to provide some heat for Sandy’s area for the next several days. Even though it doesn’t keep you totally warm it does a good job on the legs and feet.

I don’t normally watch to many movies made for TV but last night the Hallmark Hall Of Fame movie “The Lost Valentine” was a keeper. If you didn't get  a chance to watch it look for it when it comes around again. I assure you want regret it. If it doesn’t bring a tear or two somethings wrong with you.

A friend from Georgia sent me the following email and I wanted to share it with you.  Amazing pictures ---

FEEDING THE EAGLES

January of this year, 2010, the weather stayed so cold in St. Louis, Missouri and Alton, Illinois that the bald eagles were cruising over houses in hopes of a meal.

They could not access fish that were at the bottom of the river and had gathered together. 

Some kind souls decided to feed the eagles so they would survive the cold spell.

They gathered fish and started feeding the group of eagles huddled on the shore.

The photos below show what happened. A retired teacher took these photos in front of his home.

Incredible!

Feeding the Eagles!

A beautiful morning feeding the eagles, Jan. 2010

Once the fish were thrown, the eagles did not seem to fear the good Samaritans and word spread fast! 

Eagles vying for the fish, January, 2010.

No zoom lens used here!  The photographer was this close! 

Here are the men who were feeding them. So close!!

As you know, it was not too long ago that the American Bald Eagle was an endangered species.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Things Just Happen!

We are at Canton for First Monday weekend which begins this Thursday February 3rd. Our weather for the past several days has been just great. Today's high is going to be 73F. While the weather was so nice I decided to do some outside maintenance chores. I opened my battery compartment door and noticed the large 3/0  cable was not fitting properly on one of the battery lugs of my house batteries.

When I pulled out the tray for a better view the cable became disconnected from the terminal lug. Yikes! Without this connection we have no 12 volt power. Our water pump works off 12 volt power and without the pump we no flush the toilet, shower or wash dishes.

The little town of Canton has no place that carries a terminal lug this size let along a crimping tool large enough to crimp on a new terminal. What to do? I called several places in the Tyler/Longview area that I thought might carry cable this size and would be able to crimp on a new terminal lug. Found one in Longview but they couldn't or wouldn't deal with it as their tech guy was off on weekends.

I do not understand first of all as to why this cable (3/0) has to be so large. I'm sure it has to do with load etc. but we needed an interim fix. Sandy drove me to an auto parts house to see if I could come up with a temporary solution. I told the parts guy my problem and he said since we were connected to shore power the inverter should not be required to provide a big load. For a interim fix he suggested I use the largest gauge auto battery cable they carried. Sounds good to me so now we a least have 12 volt power to run the water pump.

Yes, things just happen and the next dilemma we faced was the struts for one of my compartment bay doors came off when we raised the door to turn our inverter back on. I had my test today. Sorry to report Sandy will tell you I didn't deal with them very well. grrrrr!!!! This has happened before and my vision being what it is I could not snap them back in place. When it happened before Mark was able to snap them back in when we were in Ft. Worth.

Say we now have a 3G wireless signal with AT&T here in Canton. We're moving up as the Jefferson's would say. Before we only had “E” Edge and things went pretty slow when using your cell phone. The big test will come this weekend when our crowds pick up.

It looks as if our balmy weather is about to change. We have a system headed our way and our temps at night are to return to the thirties. This shouldn't come as a surprise as the weather in February at Canton is always cold. We may  also get that test for our recent roof repair as our chances for rain is real good for tonight through Monday.

The photos tonight are from an email I received from a friend. They are tulip fields in the Netherlands.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Blog Supporters

I’ve noticed several of the blogs I read have moved their Blog Supporters to the top center of their blog. I first thought about doing this and later decided to do nothing. But, today I’m moving it to the top center. I’m so embarrassed  because  before with it down on the right side near the bottom I normally never scrolled down that far. Low and behold I did this pm and noticed I now have 40 Blog Supporters. WOW! You are the most important and the main reason I enjoy blogging. Of course I enjoy reading all the other blogs I follow as well. So, a big welcome to all the recent Blog Supporters glad to have you along.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Eternabond Tape Phase Two

BIL James called Sandy this morning and said they would be wrapping up their job and would be here about 1pm to finish the tapping of the seams and all vent covers. What near a perfect day it was for getting up on the roof of the motorhome to finalize the sealing of the seams and vents. Our temperature was around 63F and there wasn't a cloud to be seen.

I got everything together and had it up on the roof before they arrived. Wendell immediately went to work with the sander removing all the old caulk. While he was doing that I was right behind him with the leaf blower getting rid of all the caulk powder created by the sander. Wendell then took the wire brush and brushed the seams some more to make sure all the caulk flakes were gone.

Behind this another leaf blower job and then the acetone to clean the seams before laying down the Eternabond tape. I followed right behind him using the special roller to roll over the tape. As you can see from these photos this tape cleans to the seams like when you vulcanize a tire inner tube with a hot patch. The more you rub it and roll over it the better it bonds.  By 3:45 pm we were through.

We had a small rain shower last week and had no leaks from the drivers side we done the week before.

As to cost for doing the Eternabond tape we spent $280 for the three rolls of 4"x50' tape and $100 in labor to take off the old caulk and lay down the tape. We had a quote from a local RV dealer at $105 labor per hour and they estimated approximately 8 to 10 hours to do the job. It took two and half rolls to do the roof and we have about 25' left over. The manufacturer says the tape has a five year shelf life and to keep it in my tool box for small repairs.

The tape is guaranteed not to harden, crack, peel, curl up at the edges, fall off and resist  mold.We will check the roof from time to time (when we are up on the roof washing it) and will give a update as to how it's holding up.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Tarp Is Off Ready For First Test

Our weather has finally been consistent enough where we could work on the roof of the motorhome. I went up on our roof today and removed the tarp.  Afterwards I gathered the necessary tools to begin that dreadful task of chiseling the old caulk off the seams and vent areas.

Wendell  showed up about 1:00 pm and begin to help me. The caulk was so hard we were having a difficult time in removing it with chisels and scrapers. At the rate we were going I told Wendell we would be up here the rest of the day and would not have enough daylight left to lay down the Eternabond tape.

The next thing I knew he crawled off the roof and was back in about ten minutes with a 4" electric sanding disk that had a diamond cut sanding pad on it. We ran an extension cord up to the roof and within 45 minutes he was able to sand off most all of the old caulk on the seam of the drivers side, around one of the three fantastic fan vents and the shower sky dome. He was very careful and did not get into the plastic vents nor the paint with the sanding disk. Also by sanding the seams we feel we have a better prep for the tape to really bond well to the seams.

I then took our leaf blower and blew off the powder from  disking the old seams. We then cleaned the area with acetone and started laying down the tape .

While Wendell laid down the tape over the seams I rolled it with the special steel roller I purchased with the tape. By 3:30pm we had completed the drivers side and the vents. It sure looks good and now we will wait to see if it passes the test as we are expecting rain tomorrow and perhaps snow.

I wanted to get pictures of the finished job  but I was just to pooped and didn't want to crawl back up there to take them. Will take pictures when we do the other side which right now looks like might be this Saturday. I feel good about what we accomplished today and the short time it took us to do the drivers side.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Tarp Doing It's Job

The rains started Saturday morning, most of Saturday night and a little heavier today. So far the tarp is doing it's job of keeping the wet stuff from coming into the coach.
After  we got the tarp in place Friday evening Sandy asked "Is it a good idea to cover the vents for our stove and frig". You know I never gave it a moments thought but she may have something there. So I got up on the ladder and checked to find with the protrusions of the other  stuff on the roof there was space to allow venting of these two appliances.

Watched Saturday's NFC playoff games and the Steeler vs. Ravens game lived up to all it's hype. The Packers to my surprise manhandled the Falcons. Today's games should be no different. The weather at Chicago burrr who wants to play in that stuff. It appears the Bears do though.

Now this is really strange. As we set here watching the Bear/Seahawks game our carbon monoxide alarm just started going off. Now why is this happening. Let's see Sandy did use the stove this morning fixing our breakfast but she also used it Saturday and the alarm didn't go off then.

Sandy asked when was the last time I changed the battery? Battery what battery gosh I haven't changed it since we brought the coach nearly three years ago. So I pulled it down from the ceiling in the bedroom and pulled the battery. Put a new one in and so far it's not going off. Strange to write about something and say it looks okay and then have the alarm tell you maybe all is not so well. Time will tell if it just the battery or in fact carbon monoxide  amongst us.

A very dear friend of mine who lives in the Texas Hill Country near New Braunfels  sent the following photo of wild turkeys in her back yard.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Bring It On Rain That Is

This evening James came home early to help Sandy and I place a tarp over the roof of our motorhome. I'm not sure the blue matches our paint but who cares as long as it does its job. It took a little doing but as you can see it's in place sooo bring on the rain. We're not even sure this will do the trick as with all the protrusions from the vent covers, A/C cowlings and Satellite dome the tarp is not perfectly flush on the roof. We let the jacks down lower on one side so what water might get under will run off toward the passenger side. Time will tell if this is going to work as rain is forecasted starting Saturday evening thru Monday.
While I was up on the roof guiding the tarp over the vents  there were still signs of ice in places. To avoid slipping I had to crawl around on my knees.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Some Neat Things For Sandy

Sandy's sister Pam gave her a solar lighted hummingbird for placing near our entry door. She purchased a package of three at Harbor Freight and gave one to Sandy to try. All I can say it is more ornamental than functional. Doesn't give enough light to help you see the steps. It is pretty though with it's changing colors of white, red and blue.

Most of the ice and snow has melted off the roof and our temperatures are suppose to start climbing through most of next week. Things are not looking good for getting the roof sealed tomorrow or Saturday. The guy that was going to do it hurt his knee. So since its suppose to rain this weekend we will put a tarp over the area and hope to get it sealed next week.

The snow has really brought the birds to our feeder. Here are some that have visited us these past few days. I guess the squirrels are all cozy in their nest or borrows as we haven't seen any out and about.

Sandy finally got her an IPad and she loves it. There are many features she likes about it but the two features she really loves is using it as an eBook reader and the App Paprika Recipe Manager. Here she is preparing  one of her favorite chili recipes for dinner tonight. Of course I like to play games on it one particularly I like is Deer Hunter.....very realistic. Many many card games and the Maps App is great when traveling. Of course you have to have Wifi which we do at all times with our Verizon air card and Cradlepoint router.

Paprika allows Sandy to create her own recipe's, save recipes from any website, and organize them the way she wants. She can make a grocery list, plan meals for the week using this app.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Don't Even Know What Day It Is!

Can't you tell I'm really retired or maybe it's retarded. As most of you probably figured it out by now I don't even know what day it is. My post on One Eleven Eleven should have been yesterday not today. On well can't win them all even though I thought the title was kind a catchy.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

One Eleven Eleven (1/11/11)

Now this event won't happen again for another hundred years. Sandy though reminded me that come November we will have an eleven eleven eleven. Hummm I wonder if today would be a good day to go to the casinos over in Shreveport?  Our temperature last night got down to 17F. So cold the snow on the ground and particularly the roof tops is still hanging around .... and they said this winter won't be as bad as last year.

We both had cabin fever and wanted an outing. So we were up early and headed into Longview for Sandy's retail fix. While in Longview I picked up some more supplies for sealing our roof. My BIL James has a worker that will do this for a reasonable price. He his scheduled to do this  Friday and/or Saturday which has our temps in the mid to high 50's. The product information says you can apply as low as 40F. Will be so glad to see this project behind us. We are scheduled for more rain Saturday night and Sunday.

After Monday nights college BCS championship game between Oregon and Auburn there is no more college bowl games. What is a guy to do? I'm not a big basketball fan professional nor college. So I have to wait for NASCAR which starts up in February and the NFC playoffs before the big daddy of them all.... Super Bowl XLV. I fell the New England Patriots have the inside track to win it all.

We have some very lazy people in this world. I'm waiting in the car at the Walmart parking lot for Sandy to run in to pickup an item she forgot. I just observed a young woman whose car was parked right next door to a cart return leave her basket right in the middle of the empty parking space next to her car. Someone will have to get out of their car and move the basket before they can park. Can't you tell I'm bored and just can't come up with enough interesting stuff to write about.

Our high today managed to get to 28F eleven degrees higher than our low last night. There's that number eleven again. When we got back from town we had that dreadful blue boy chore (dump the black water). We had to pull the blue boy by hand across the snow to the sewer clean out drain. Man was it cold. What's that saying. . . .”You gotta do what you gotta to do.”

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Boy It's Cold Outside

When we went to bed last night the snow was really coming down. Our temperature dropped to 25F and hasn't been much warmer today 31F being our high. Our total snow fall here was right at  4". Everything is white and so clean looking. Okay the roads were not so clean looking. They had that red Texas dirt looking slush appearance due to all the traffic from people going to work this morning. At least for now the snow and moisture has stopped and  we  need a warm up to get the snow out of here. This won't happen until later in the week.

Last evening BIL James picked Sandy up in his four wheel drive F150 truck and drove her over to their Mom's to take her evening meal. Sandy could have taken the Jeep as it is four wheel drive too but she just didn't feel comfortable with it. She said the roads did have some areas that had black ice and she was thankful brother James was doing the driving.

After a quick tour of the area I spent the remainder of the day working on our books and 2010 taxes. Our weather for most of the week doesn't look real promising to do anything on the roof. Our highs are to be in the mid thirties and lows in the teens. We may end up putting a tarp over the area that is leaking until such time it warms up again and gives us that window to seal it properly. 

Just looked out my window and guess what. . .it's snowing again. I don't recollect the weatherman saying anything about this. They are never right most of the time anyway. Sandy is over at her Mom's doing laundry and fixing her evening meal. Not that she will probably need to I'm glad I went over the proper procedure in putting the Jeep into four wheel drive

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Rain Then Sleet And Now Snow!!!

What an event! We've had all three of these today but so far it is not sticking to the ground.....roof tops yes.
Prior to all of this I got up on our roof do some sealing but just did not have the stamina to complete the task that was in front of me. It's so frustrating getting older where your body just doesn't allow you to do things like this yourself.

Sooo now we are experiencing a slight leak in our bathroom. It's anybody's guess where it is coming from as water can travel from any possible seam or crack. It looks like the Eternabond  tape will do the trick as I was able to seal the front cap seam with it Friday. It’s not the labor of applying the tape. It’s the effort one must exert in removing the old caulk.

Our next step now is to see if we can get an appointment with the RV dealer in Longview to do this work for us.

Say what about those NFC Wildcard playoff games this Saturday? They were the best I've seen in awhile. Sandy being a diehard Payton Manning fan was a little disappointed the Colts lost to the Jets.

As I'm  writing the snow fall has really picked up and now it is sticking to the ground. They say we could have 3-4" by night fall.   The last measurable snow fall we had was this past February. Maybe in the morning we will have a better coverage on the ground than this photo. It would be nice to be in Arizona but those folks are having a very unusual cold January.

Sandy’s Christmas cactus which didn’t bloom until New Year’s day has really put out some blooms since then as can see here.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

P.S. The snow is really coming down now!

HAPPY 1/1/11

Today is the first day of 2011, therefore 1111. Now wasn’t that just brilliant on my part. I see on the news the historians  are trying to figure out what to call the past decade. The Otzs, 2Ks,Y2Os, 2000 where just some that were thrown out but what do we call it? Something to ponder.

Sandy’s Christmas cactus must be a New Year Day cactus as when we awoke this morning there were blooms on her plant.

Maybe a record for me as since December 18 I’ve managed to watch part or all of 22 college bowl games and there are still 13 bowl games remaining. On top of the college bowl games the NFL playoffs are just around the corner. Sandy says football, football what are you going to do after Super Bowl XLV. I say NASCAR is just around the corner as Daytona is February.

Before the bowl games started I switched over to the Rose Bowl Parade and happened to catch The Wild Mustang float and while I didn't see all the floats this one certainly got my vote for the Trophy float. Of course I like horses. I understand the Ronald Reagan float won this honor.

The float's theme is Mustang Monument, in honor of Madeleine Pickens' proposed eco-sanctuary for horses. Here's her concept: Instead of leaving tens of thousands of wild horses — who have been rounded up from public lands — languishing in substandard, expensive government holding facilities, set them free in a sanctuary on their native range.

One of the things I dislike about the BCS bowl games on New years day is they have more games (4) going on at the same time than I have TV's. Flipping back and forth is not a choice, so you pick one and go with it. I chose the Outback Bowl which had Florida vs. Penn St turns out to be the better of the four. The other three were blow outs.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.