Still Boondocking in the Colorado Rockies

This is heaven

Bubba and the tree

Bubba and the baby

Bette and another baby

Missie and the rock

Bull snake and a pinecone

Cloud study.

I don't know what the turquoise orb is but it's in two of the cloud picts.

My original plan was to leave here Sept. 4th and slowly head to San Diego , getting there Sept 25th, where I will be house sitting for my daughter, Maggie, but it is still really hot in southern New Mexico and Arizona, so now I'm going to stay here till Sept. 17 or 18 then take the fast route to San Diego.   The weather here is just about perfect.  High 70's during the day and low 50's at night.  We're within easy driving distance to two towns, Buena Vista and Salida which makes shopping and eating out at our favorite restaurants easy.  And the laundromat in Buena Vista has showers available for campers, $5 for 10 minutes.  Being able to take showers there saves my onboard water so I've only had to go to the dump station, at the visitors center, once since I've been here.

That's it for now.  Soon I'll be revealing some BIG news, but for now the kitties and I are taking it easy and enjoying the rest of our summer.

We're in The Colorado Rockies

The kitties and I have been hanging out in the mountains at about 8,550 feet elevation.  Perfect weather, low 80º's during the day and  low 50º's at night.  The kitties can run around all they want and it's been wonderful.

Where we are, in the Gunnison National Forest, is open range.  That means that local ranchers can have their cattle running around eating the grass.  This helps to keep the fire danger down.  So we have cattle walking around us most of the time.

This is what Missy looks like when the cattle come a callin'.

And this is what Bubba does.

Tonight when the cattle came Bubba saw a young calf nearby and he went walking right out to see him.  The calf was watching Bubba come towards him and Bubba got to within about 4 feet or so, when he stopped.  There they were two animals just standing there looking at each other.  It was a kodak moment except I didn't have my kodak with me.  Bubba then turned around and walked away and the calf bounded after him.  That was enough for Bubba, he ran back towards me.  

Hmm, cattle have been here.

So one of the reasons we left Santa Fe was because it's warm there and I was using my air conditioner everyday, but it started leaking water into the rv which, in this case meant that it needed a new gasket between the air conditioner and the rv.  The rv repair place in Santa Fe was booked up for 3 weeks in advance and it was too hot to hang around so I came north to the mountains where it's cooler.  There's a rv repair place just down the road in Poncha Springs and they were able to install a new gasket for me and also figure out what was wrong with the refrigerator and water heater.  The refrigerator was having problems running on propane, I was getting an error message saying there was no propane, and also the same thing on the water heater.  So Holiday RV blew out the propane lines for me while they were doing the gasket and they also caulked the roof while they were up on top.

On top is the working side of the refrigerator and 

lower is the water heater.  I had taken a can of compressed air and

 blew out what I could but that wasn't good enough.

My friend, Bette, has been with us for two weeks but she has moved on down the road. 

It was nice having a neighbor.  There are other boondocking rvers nearby though, 

they come and go.

We'll be here till after Labor Day weekend then head back to New Mexico to visit family.  

I'd like to apologize for not responding to the comments on the blog.  For some reason I'm not getting notifications of your comments.  I'm working on that, I spent about 15 minutes tonight trying to figure out why but I'm not sure I got it.  So be patient, I'll see those comments eventually.

Be back soon.

Finished Painting Job, part 2

Ok, on to the bedroom makeover.  It took me 11 days to get the bedroom fixed up and painted.  The platform that the bed sits on needed some repairs so the first thing I had to do was get the mattress up and out of there.  I lived 11 days with that mattress standing in the kitchen, ugg.  But I glued and screwed the box and platform back together.

Bed platform up.  See the little 'gas shock absorber', on the left side, 

there are two, one on each side of the platform.

You can see my extra 25 gallon water tank, the other tank 

is between that little wall and the rear of the rv.

I replaced the shocks with stronger ones.  They assist 

with the raising of the platform and with the holding up job too.

You can see the old ones were bent. I bought stronger ones and they work

so much better, by the time you get a mattress and bedding 

on the platform, it's very heavy.

This is what I lived with for 11 days.

Stuff piled everywhere.

Aah but it was worth every minute of chaos.  New mattress too.

Basket beside bed with 12 volt fan, charging cords and kleenex.

Also, see that I removed two light fixtures, one above the bed and one

on the wall, and installed 12 volt plugs.

All my electronics can be charged using 12 volt plugs.

Hooks on board from Walmart holding towels and shawls. 

See on wall at bottom right, two more 12 volt plugs, these two are

each on their own circuit.  I charge my computer using one of these.

I takes two 12 volt extension cords to reach around to the other side of the bed.

Nightstand big baskets and small basket.

You may have noticed in one of the above pictures that showed the ceiling, that I have a Maxxair fan in the bedroom and one in the bathroom as well.  They are well worth the price.  And if you get them be sure to get the ones with the remote control.  The first one I bought wasn't a remote control type, that one is now at the front of the rv over the bunk.  Don't waste you money on the cheaper ones go for the gold.

Replaced the towel rods with white ones.  

Also took out the magazine rack that was

below the drawer and now use that space for tp storage

 and put a piece of plexiglass over opening to keep

 the kitties out.  Plexiglass held in place with Command velcro.

There you have it.  Two months of work, two coats of primer and two coats of paint.  Good thing I was doing this in Santa Fe, New Mexico where it's a 'dry heat'.  

Evelyn, Bubba and Missy

Going for a walk.

Finished Painting Job, part 1

A reminder, clicking on the words in red will take you to that item listed on Amazon.

Soon after buying this rv, it's a 2001 and I bought it in 2013, I remover the old tv, which sat in that big space above the microwave, and the VCR which was in the smaller space.  I put that wire shelf up and you can barely see but there are two baskets where the tv was.  I have a can of aqua spray paint  and will be painting the baskets and maybe the wire shelf too.  Command hooks are a girls best friend, there's one holding the calendar.  Also, throw rugs are easily washable.

You can see, going from left to right along the floor, that I painted the heater vent, round thing near floor, and other round opening, which is for the propane hose to come through for my portable propane heater, small rectangle floor light, heater cold air return vent and far right the cover for the converter and fuse panel all black so they would match the appliances.

I replaced all hinges and handles.  

You can see I haven't painted the trim around the plug yet.

Hung curtain over door, it helps to keep bugs out when the door is open for kitties.

New cutting board on stove, most stoves come with covers

but this one didn't have one.  Now I have a bit more counter space.

Also hung a basket over door to keep my flashlight in.

And mounted a safety handle on side of cabinet, for coming up the steps.

Repositioned the curtain rod over bunk and

 removed original curtain that came with the rv. 

New little daybed that the arms let down for sleeping.

I have it covered to keep those cute dirty cats off it.

I slept on this for 10 days while I painted the bedroom 

and replaced that old mattress.

Also covered speaker panels between cupboards.

See the little dark square thing over the heater controls?

That is a temperature sensor from SensorPush 

With an app on my iPhone I can tell what the temperature is in the rv,

 from anywhere. I also have a sensor in the refrigerator so I can tell how 

cold it is in there without having to open the door.

A note about all those curtains. Those are king size Duvet covers from Amazon.  I like to use them because they're two layers of fabric, you can't see through them.  I don't have to sew anything, just remove some stitching at the corners to stick a rod through.  Some are trimmed at the bottom so they won't drag on the floor and others are cut up the middle to make two smaller panels, like over the door and between rooms.  They're easy to wash and I can change them around, sometimes having the lighter side showing and sometimes the darker side.

Something you can't see but I surly can, is I replaced all the 12 volt light bulbs with these super bright LED bulbs.  They're so nice.  I had LED bulbs before but not bright enough.  I love these.

Coming soon pictures of bathroom and bedroom.

Where I am now with my friend, Bette, near Nathrop, Colorado 8500' elevation.

Last nights sunset.

Be back soon.

Evelyn, Bubba and Missy

Moving On

I've been in Santa Fe, New Mexico for 2 months.  I've gotten a lot done, including much needed maintenance on the rv plus some fun things on the rv as well.  It took me the better part of this 2 months to paint the inside.  What a job but well worth it.  

It's the monsoon, rainy, season in the southwest and I've enjoyed every minute of the rains which come with lighting and thunder.  Very spectacular. 

One of my neighbors.

When I got here this poor cactus was wilting,

I didn't know they wilted I thought it was dying.

After the first rain it was standing up straight. 

The kitties favorite tree.

I'm leaving here in the morning.  My air conditioner is having technical difficulties and it gets hot here in the afternoons so time to head to higher elevation.  Santa Fe is about 7,200 feet, I'll be moving up to about 9,000 feet.  Much cooler up there.  But with cooler days come cooler nights so the first thing I need to do is remake my bed and put another blanket on.  Santa Fe is at the one blanket elevation but up in the Colorado rockies it's a two blanket elevation.  Last night it got down to 48º where I'm going.

I'll be leaving my potted plants with Joy and David, although I did pick 3 more tomatoes this morning.

Next post I'll show you what the bedroom and bathroom look like with their new paint job.

Until next time.