Posts from the ‘RV Maintenance’ category

Looking backward

Reader Melissa in El Cajon, in an email to me, commented that her vet said that “orange cats make the best pets”. I remember thinking that was funny-odd in that most of the vet clinic cats … in my experience, have been calicos. And then I had to laugh as I was thinking that I have been, with Bob (my orange cat), in a LOT of vet clinics… And this led further to the remembrance of our – Bob and my – “many clinic” experiences between Iowa and Montana in the summer of 2006 and how that changed Bob, Karl’s and my life.

Martha Beck, in a her book “Steering by Starlight (How to live your best destiny, no matter what)” has a chapter with an exercise on “telling your life story backwards”. Simplified, it entails looking at an event or outcome that you consider wonderful and working backwards over the events that led you to this wonderfulness which often begins with a “Supposedly bad event that eventually supported my favorite thing”.

It is an interesting exercise.

One of my stories involves my orange cat, Bob.

One of my favorite things: my little house on its 8 plus acres of woods on a foothill of the Continental Divide

The supposedly “bad” event that eventually supported my favorite thing: Bob became very ill in Iowa

2006…Iowa, in the motorhome, wending my way back to Montana after a 6 month cruise cross country and back. It was mid-July. I had stayed in the mid-west to attend the wedding of my best friend’s son. Right after the wedding, I pointed the beast west. I stopped in Iowa to attend to some motorhome problems – Iowa is home to Winnebago as well as to many things RV related. I landed at a wonderful rural RV park: Colony Country Campground , in Iowa City, Iowa. I based here for 7 days – getting the RV maintenance done and then just as I was set to leave, Bob became ill.

As a side note, the extra time spent in Iowa was instrumental in the beginning of a wonderful friendship with the daughter of the campground owners – she manages the campground. I stayed at Colony Country again in Spring of 2008 as I returned to Montana from Florida. A wonderful spot and I’m grateful to have found the spot and started the friendship.

Bob was lethargic, not using the litter box, and had a temperature…the fact that he allowed me take his temperature was very telling. He spent the night at the clinic, which is a teaching clinic and staffed 24/7. The owner/vet phoned me at 11:30 p.m. to tell me that he was very worried about Bob as he was not eating. I had a mostly sleepless night. But when I got up at 5 a.m. I did a bit of a doubletake – he was not eating???? Well, he wouldn’t – not his dish, not his food. I was at the clinic at 6 a.m. with Bob’s dish and some tuna fish. He ate, he had used the litter box. I returned after 8 and picked him up over the objections of the clinic…but with antibiotics. We stayed in Iowa a few more days – all was normal with Bob and he was tolerating the antibiotics. We proceeded west.

Backing up a bit…while in the mid-West, awaiting the wedding date, we were in northern Michigan – Traverse City – near where my family vacationed when I was growing up. I have a great-Aunt who lived there at the time. I enjoyed visiting, was working, and also was extremely homesick for Montana. I perused the internet for Montana property. I found the listing for the place I now call home. It was listed at a price above my range. I asked my friend Kris to look at it for me and let me know what she thought. She looked. She phoned me after and said: “Ann, this place is you!”. I was on the internet, making air reservations to fly back, but it all felt wrong – leaving the pets, disrupting my work schedule, the cost… I called her and said that I couldn’t do it. I said that if it was right, it would be there when I returned.

Fast forward to Spearfish, SD. Spearfish was a place that I had liked on a previous car trip east. I wanted to take some time to look around. I also wanted to look at the Red Lodge, MT area.

But Bob became ill again in Spearfish. The Spearfish vet did extensive blood testing and came up with some disturbing results which pointed to a condition that would require long term treatment. I made the decision to head immediately for “home” and for my home vet.

We saw our home vet upon arrival in the Flathead Valley. Bob seemed fine. The home vet blood work showed no abnormalities. They ran it twice to be sure. Bob continued to seem fine and normal. $1000 in vet bills later and I had a well cat with no explanation.

Back in the Flathead Valley, I felt at home and started looking for a place -not on wheels – to call home.

The first thing I did was to look at the place that I saw on the internet from Michigan. The price had been reduced. I decided not to buy it. I could see the work that would be involved. I had been a bit overwhelmed at my last house which had 2 ½ acres of yard to be mowed and trimmed. My handyman from there walked this house and property and we talked about the driveway (good news privacy, bad news maintenance and snow removal), the flat roof, the woods…

I looked at a lot of “subdivision” places – more $$, less work … kept coming back to this place in my head. It was my birthday, I was looking at yet another house and suddenly said to the realtor – “I’m going to take Karl to La Brant and just spend some time”..it had been empty for months. I walked around the woods with Karl, sat in the back of the open Jeep and just took in the stillness and made up my mind that I wanted this. I made an offer in my price range…

So, the supposedly “bad” event that lead me to getting the “good” thing, was Bob becoming ill. After getting settled in the house, I found 2 mostly healed wounds on Bob – large wounds on either side as if an owl had tried to pick him up. This probably happened in Ohio, when I was parked at my friend’s, as this was the only place he was out early or late. Bob’s illness sent me straight back to Montana in perfect time to get this place, which is perfect for me.

Looking backward. The more experience I have at the way supposedly “bad” events turn “good”, the better equiped I am to deal with and in fact be grateful for the “bad” events, even while enduring them. In the midst of a challenging or difficult time, there is that knowledge that somehow, somewhen, something wonderful is likely to happen or be learned.

Catching up

A few loose ends to catch up in the various sagas of life “from the front porch“…

Last we left the motorhome, I had just finished tearing off the steps by navigating too close to a stump with steps that would not totally retract. I had been on my way for propane in my desire to keep the motorhome stocked and ready to roll. After the step incident, I emptied all freezable items for that night. The next day, the roads were still in no shape to go out. I looked at the weather for the next week and finally sighed, squared my shoulders and realized that for the sake of my budget and sanity, I needed to abandon the idea of keeping things ready to go. The last thing to do was empty the fresh water tank – 75 gallons of water to go somewhere on frozen ground…my own private ice rink I thought. So, I opened up a bit more of the turnaround with the snowblower – which was still working then! -backed the motorhome into that area away from anywhere anyone had to drive or walk and drained the tank. Not as bad as I thought – the water was warm enough to sieve into the ground and there was no ice rink after all.

As for the steps, my insurance company will pay for the steps, the body work and any other damage underneath (less my deductible). I just have to get the motorhome to Missoula, 110 miles away. Thankfully, the agent is in Missoula and fully understands the difficulty so it will happen when it happens.

The snowblower is still in the garage waiting pickup if we get a break between storms. Adam is plowing my driveway and the up side is he shows up and it takes about 15 minutes and I’m watching from inside. The downside is my driveway is getting narrower each time. So is the road. The nature of plowing when you can’t plow a “shoulder”.

My roof…

Friday, I shoveled the porch and up to the bath vent. I looked up there several times during the day at the amount of snow…and looked again at the weather forecast. 3 storms due back to back and the 2nd and 3rd due to be a rain/snow mix. You can see that the original cabin was the back half and had a normal roof. When the front half was added, the roof was extended instead of redone …too flat.

Even the snow bird’s house had a lot of snow, but they have a proper pitched roof for snow country!

I had picked up a flyer at the grocery with a number for a guy who shovelled roofs. I called. He and a helper showed up on Saturday.

Roof shoveled and the snow cave got bigger.

The other situation that was getting a bit grim was the state of my firewood supply. Most of “this year’s” 3 cords of wood was waiting to be split…tarped, but lying under nearly 3 feet of snow. The various work and other committments of mine and my friends’ who are helping got away from us. I had about 2 weeks of firewood left on Saturday. I am not dependent on firewood for heat. My little house has electric baseboard heaters which are efficient, clean and quiet. I like the wood heat, though and I like having backup heating and cooking ability should we lose power. I was facing not burning wood and keeping the 2 weeks firewood as my backup.

I headed into Bigfork on a quick errand. At the shopping center there are often 2 or 3 pickups with firewood waiting to be sold. I noticed this day that there was a particularly nice looking load – split in sizes that I wouldn’t have to split further.

Randy and his son Boaz followed me home. They have the absolutely nicest log rack I have ever seen! Also the best truck I’ve ever had deliver firewood. The first time I bought firewood, the delivery truck had no hood and no muffler. The second time, the guy had a pet bobcat with him. And so on…it has always been interesting. Randy and his son have a small building company. The wood came from a job site – more than they needed for their family.

My firewood situation is not quite so desparate now. This is 10-12 weeks supply and hopefully, I’ll be able to get to my stash if this runs low before spring.

Karl and Bob – they had some catching up to do also:

Bob catching up on the chow and Karl on his napping…

… on his increasingly closed in front porch.

Ouch!

Those steps shouldn’t look like that…

My motorhome steps are automatic – they retract when the door closes and electronically whoooosshh out when the door opens. In this ultra-cold, they have been a bit slow. They have not been retracting or extending fully – I knew this…. I headed out yesteday afternoon for propane in anticipation of 2 storms due which are predicted to be snow “events”. I stayed a little too close to the right side of the driveway…

….the culprit or the victim – depending on your perspective…

…body work…but, hey!! – do you see the reflection of the woods in the bay door to the left of the steps?? – kinda cool!

As far as I got…

The mangled steps on top of the cheap, ugly gutters that I removed from the house and garage, on top of the remnants of the ugly front porch railings that I removed…all waiting for a person with a truck to take to the dump. Well, a girl can dream…

I have Good Sam RV Roadside service and a very competent person arrived only 4 hours after I called…a FedEx truck had to be extracted from a ditch before me and possibly a few other roadside disasters. It was dark and 7ish by the time he arrived. He donned coveralls, rolled under the Winnebago and proceeded to extract the demolished steps. Then he helped guide me in backing the beast into her spot adjacent to the garage.

Nice tow truck Good Sam person also fetched the removed steps while I fiddled around getting the beast exactly where I wanted her.

I proceeded to empty all of the stuff that would not take well to freezing. Electric supplemental heat is protecting the fresh water bay. The propane is low enough that I wasn’t sure whether the furnace would run through the night, hence the emptying.

Today is another day…. Weather permitting, I’ll try for propane. The steps: new ones must be ordered and that may have to wait a bit. Yes, I wanted to cry a few times, but really, in the whole scheme of things, it is a “minor” glitch. No blood was shed – and who knows??? – considering a FedEx vehicle landed in a ditch, perhaps losing my steps and staying in my own driveway prevented some worse disaster.

Onward!

The road home – from the motorhome

Another winter storm is forecast for this afternoon through Thursday evening. The motorhome had 2-3 days of propane left. Temps forecast to stay colder than normal through the next week. Several decisions yesterday – get propane, winterize…

Karl rode with me in the motorhome on a trip for propane and a few grocery items. It was a beautiful day and the temperature had risen to near 10 when we left yesterday in the early afternoon. Flathead River was frozen in a sea of snowy sparkles, but no place for a motorhome to pull over for a photo. The road home, however, was beautiful and irresistible…

The Road Home…from the motorhome.

RV winterizing (partial winterizing) notes: Pulled antifreeze through the water lines (all faucets, shower, toilet – missed outside shower), drained the water heater, left the fresh water tank full. Furnace at 50. Auxillary ceramic, electric heater in the fresh water bay. Water heater plug broke on removal, let warm water drain and used pliers to remove remains of plug. Need to replace plug before filling water heater. Water heater left on bypass currently.

Decided to do this partial winterize after spending $110 on propane in 2 weeks and more arctic cold forecast. Was keeping furnace at 68 and water heater running (on propane). With the lines full of anti-freeze and the water heater drained, the furnace is set at 50 and water heater is off. Propane use should be half as much. Electric heater will sustain fresh water bay at the lower furnace setting.

Baby gets new shoes

WARNING*** – another riveting RV maintenance post…

Hard to tell I know, but that is a brand new tire! And its twin is on the other side. “Baby” did not get new shoes all around but she did get 1 new pair on the front. And a special thanks to Ben and Jason at the Hwy 93 Kalispell Tire-rama for answering all my questions, checking the 4 rear tires and generally being nice, professional and respectful…we’ll forgive Jason for wanting to “borrow the Jeep” to go to lunch…

Yesterday, I worked until 10, then hooked up the Jeep. Karl and I in the motorhome set off for Tire-rama. We left the Winnebago and went on our merry way: a long walk at a favorite spot, chiropractor appointment for me, a few shopping stops and back to Tire-rama. Jason was just finishing the rear tire check when I arrived. Taking advantage of a next door gas station that also had rv propane, I got everything filled – WOW gas down to $2.69 here!!! – a far cry from the $3.89 which I think was what I paid for the last fill.

Back to Tire-rama, hooked up the Jeep, Karl and I back in the Winnebago and we made one last stop for groceries before heading home. Despite the hooking and unhooking, a huge advantage to towing the Jeep was being able to load it up. Usually on these Friday or Saturday runs, Karl is in the back and it can be a bit of a juggle to get everything in the front passenger seat and the small bit of spare room between him and the front seats. I have to leave him home on the monthly trip to Costco.

Today, though, scads of room!

We had such fun being out and about in the Winnebago that I decided to spend the night in her. I have spent the last 4 weeks gradually bringing her back to fighting trim – i.e. filling the pantry, work and pet supplies. I like her ready to roll needing only a few last minute items. It was a good time to spend a night and find out if I had everything. I didn’t…a few little things.

We are back in the house this morning after what felt like a mini-vacation, even though not quite 12 hours “away”. Today I will continue RV fun: install a repaired window blind, replace several drawer catches and drain and refresh the water tank. I know, I live a wild and crazy life…

2003 Winnebago Adventurer 33V exhaust leak

Another in the “series” of RV repair and maintenance.

I took the Winnebago to my local Workhorse (chassis W22) shop and they confirmed an exhaust leak. When they opened the manifold to replace the head gaskets, the bolts which were rusted broke requiring a new bolt kit. Additionally, the lower part of the oil dipstick holder – right next to that area – was rusted and needed replacing.

Following is what things look like now with no rust:

The cost was approximately 5.5 hours of labor and $250.00 in parts.

I don’t know how long this was a problem, but I’m guessing that it occured subsequent to the last service, September ’07, because the same shop did the service and they always do a road test.