From Full Time RVer to Part Time RVing

 As with most of the people in the world, I've had a lot of time to think about my current situation and where I want to go from here.  With Covid-19 running wild in the country I really don't feel like doing a lot of driving around worrying about the virus. 

So, I've settled down for a bit and bought a modular home in McKinleyville, CA.  And just like that I've gone from a full time to part time RVer.  

Getting started with the clean up, 

5 trips to the dump.  

Making progress. 

The rv parked in front of new home while I worked on it.  

RV now lives in the storage area.

It was a bit of a fixer upper and I spent a month getting it cleaned up and things fixed and painted and new flooring.  So this is home for now.  

I will be making a trip to Yuma to retrieve my things I have in storage there.  For that trip I won't tow the car so that I can tow a UHaul trailer home.  

This just seemed like the right thing to do for now.  One doesn't know what the future holds.

So this brings me to my closing statement.  I'm going to take a break from blogging.

So this might be good by.  I've enjoyed writing the blog but as some bloggers find out it starts to become a job.  I think it's time I retired from this job.  

It's been fun having you along with me on my journey.

I  wish you all lots of love, peace, and joy and hopes for an extremely better year in 2021.

Evelyn, Bubba and Missie

What Happens When You Find Delamination On Your Nose

 Nose of the RV that is.

While washing the RV a while back I noticed some delamination above the front window.  Delamination is never a good sign.  So I called my friend Dave who has an RV repair shop and made an appointment to have it repaired.  The kitties and I had to move out of the RV,  but where does one go where she can take her two cats?  My oldest and dearest friend, Diane, who I've known since 1972, said come on up to her house, so off we went.  These kitties are troupers I'll say that for them.  It doesn't matter where we go as long as their beds and food and cat boxes are in the car, then they are home.  We stayed at Diane's for about 10 days before it got really hot, like 102º hot, and she doesn't have air conditioning.  So my cousin, Bob invited us to come bunk in with him in his tiny apartment, but he has air conditioning.  So it was tight but cool.  Stayed there 3 nights and monday morning I called Dave and begged to be allowed to move back into the RV, and he said yes, it was back together just not completely finished.  So the kitties and I stayed 3 nights in the shop, the RV was plugged in so I was able to run the air, as it was still over 100º.  What a heat wave that was.  Here are a few pictures of the window removal and what it looks like now without it.

Old window and curtain and foil heat shield.

Window gone.

What a mess.

All finished and back under the trees at the horse ranch.

What an ordeal, but this was the time and place to have this done.  I am so very thankful that I had a place to go to that was safe for the kitties and me and I got to spend some quality time with my friend.  

Here's a couple pictures of Diane's home.

Kitties checking out the yard.  

Looking to the right.

Looking to the left from veggie garden.  

House in the background.

Getting the window removed and the nose repaired wasn't the only thing I had done to the RV,  but more about that in the next blog.

Fire Season 2020 Continued

 I wasn't going to do another blog about our fires in my area but, remember this picture of old 944 from my last post?

CalFire posted a few pictures of this plane in action.

This video was posted on Facebook by the NorCal Fire and I just had to share it.  

Inside a Super Tanker.   

And this very plane flew right over Jolene's home.

There it goes, west bound.

There he goes back home.

Let's talk about air quality.  As you can see in the two pictures above it got very nasty here.  I was hole up inside the RV with windows closed, for over a week.  A video was posted  on Facebook about making your own air purifier using a box fan and a furnace filter, well I don't have a box fan so I improvised. 

First you go get a filter making sure it will filter out smoke and dust particles. 

Then, I my case, you take the filter apart so I had just the fiber, and then, this is where the improvising comes in.

When plugged into electricity and I can use my air conditioner

 and the suction of the air conditioner fan holds the fiber in place.

When living with an extension cord through a window

 and running the small fan I have, this is what I did. 

Let the fan hold the filter in place

Yes, this works.

My makeshift filters aren't pretty but when you're trying to survive they work.  It got so smoky that eventually I couldn't even breath while inside, and once I started coughing I couldn't stop.  I eventually moved from Willits to the Ukiah fairgrounds where I have full hook-ups and was able to run the air conditioning fan 24/7, and could breath easier as the air quality was better.  The good news is that the wind changed direction and we now have blue skies and clean air, but the fires are still burning and the firefighters are still hard at work.

One problem I have with  moving around the county is,  I'm still waiting for the 'base plate' for the new car.  Which means that I'm unable to tow the car, which means that when I move, then I have to ask someone to take me back to retrieve the car.  It's all a big hassle.  So I'm hoping that while I'm here in Ukiah the base plate will come in and I can get it installed.   

One more note.  The firefighters base camp is here at the fair grounds so it's really busy here.  Firefighters coming and going at all hours of the day and night.  They are even parking 2 helicopters just down the street in a field.  It's all very interesting but I hope I never have to see this again.

One more picture of some of the equipment being used to fight our fires.

 

California Fire Season 2020 Style

I'm back at my friends horse ranch after being gone for a month while the RV was getting some work done.  I might blog about that later, but for now there are more important things to talk about.

First off, the kitties and I are in a safe spot according to a fire person, who came by to look the situation over, because the horses and cows have eaten all the grass.  

Here are some pictures of what's going on in California in general and Willits area specifically.  Some of these pictures are taken from web sites, some from Facebook and some are mine.  I'll make note of which is which.

This big boy flew right over the RV Monday evening

 around 5pm.  It made many drops of

fire retardant, which is colored red

 so they can see it on the ground.  

A 747 air tanker. 

This is what the area around Willits is like and 

some parts have even more trees.

Lighting strikes cause fires. 

 This is why we burn.  

Not my picture.

At 12:16 pm Monday,  Labor Day,  a fire started, 

not by lighting but by man, northwest of Willits.

This was taken from the horse ranch. 

 It's about 10 miles away as the crow flies.

This is the Oak Fire.  

My picture.

Around sunset, 6:00 pm, Labor Day. 

 The Oak Fire. 

 My picture.

Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020, at about 12 noon.

 It's so dark that the barn lights have turned on. 

We are now blanketed in smoke from the 

fire in the Mendocino National Forest 

to the east of us.  

The August Lightning Strike Complex Fire. 

 My picture.

Around 1 pm it looked like this. 

 We felt like we were on the red planet, Mars.

Not my picture.

By 2 it was dark as midnight. 

 I went out to call the kitties in and needed a flashlight.

A picture of the Willits arch downtown.

Not my picture

This is a screenshot from my phone 

showing the planes fighting The Oak Fire.

This app, FlightRadar24, 

is free and it shows planes in the air

and when you touch a plane it shows 

this info below and shows their flight path.

This is the CalFire spotter plane, 

circling the fire telling the other

planes where to go. 

 At one time Monday afternoon

there were 9 planes and helicopters 

fighting the Oak Fire.

A satellite picture of California. 

 All our smoke is coming from a fire

 not labeled but

 it's burning under the O 

in the Oak Fire name.

The Lightning Complex Fire.

If I haven't completely bored you by now here are some web links with more info.

This first link is of a Fire and Smoke map.  This is for the whole country.

Smoke and Fire

This second one shows our county fires.  You might need to zoom out, it loads the map a bit off.

Mendocino County

If you zoom in on this second link, I'm at the southern end of zone 8, and our fire is moving north, away from town.

There's no end in sight for the fires to be out.  The planes couldn't fly around Willits,  for our fire,  because of the smoke.  I hope they were off fighting other fires.  We're supposed to be getting high winds in a day or two and that won't help the fires, it might help with the smoke.  But without winds the ground crews can get in there and work like mad, which they are doing.

New Car

Two years ago I traded our older Honda CR-V in on a newer Honda CR-V.  The seats in both Hondas were uncomfortable for me but I stayed with Honda because they are the most popular car for towing behind an rv.  Well, there came a time when I just couldn't stand it anymore.  Now that I"m parked in one place, thanks to the pandemic, it was time to address the car problem.  I did a bunch of research online and then went to my local car dealer where a salesman who knew all about tow cars, what could be towed and what couldn't, was there to help me.  After driving a used Jeep Grand Cherokee and others in the same class and size of suv's I came to a Ford Explorer.  All the other cars made my back hurt with in several minutes but the Ford didn't.  

So, meet my new 2013 Ford Explorer, XLT, 4 wheel drive. 

It weighs a few pounds more than the Honda and for that extra weight I get seats that don't hurt my back and more storage.  Because let's face it, full time RVers use their cars as their garages.  The Explorer is the next size up from the CR-V.  I'm sure the extra weight will affect the gas mileage on the RV but oh well.  I'm not in this life style for the gas mileage.

That's it for now.  I'm still in my 'safe place' in the mountains.  I hope all of you are safe as well.

Until next time.

Ev

Propane Management

Remember this picture from last post?  Ok, let's talk about being parked for a long time, for me that's more than 2 weeks, in cool weather.  

My onboard propane tank is small by some standards, it's about a 7 gallon tank.  And when that tank gets low on gas I have to pack up everything and drive the rv to a propane place to get tank filled.  Not anymore, I've installed what's called an "extend-a-stay" kit on my tank which allows me to use a portable tank and when that one is empty I just put it in the car and take it to a gas station to get it filled without having to move the rv.

Notice the "do not close this door" sign?  This door is held open with a small clip barely visible on the right side near the hinge.  That is the third clip because propane fillers don't pay attention on how this door is held open and they just close it by pulling down, breaking the clip.  My sign still doesn't stop them from closing the door.

Shinny new brass fittings.  The main tank is shut off allowing
 propane to flow from portable tank into existing rv propane lines.
I'm not filling my on board tank, I'm bypassing it.

I also bought a propane tank for my ProCom propane heater.

Enough about propane.   Next post, new tow car.

Here's Bubba getting to know the neighbors.  

Springtime in Northern California

Springtime in Northern California means green rolling hills dotted with oak trees.  The type of grass that we have here grows in the spring and by summer it has bloomed and gone to seed and died leaving the hills golden brown.

California highway 101, north bound, as it passes through Redwood Valley.

I've moved up into the hills near Willits.  I'm on a friends property, and plan to stay here for a while.  I have water, electricty and a sewer connection so I'm all set.

I will talk about those two propane tanks next week.

Wood pile for the kitties to hunt lizards in.

Going for a walk to show the kitties the yard.

Chicken coop, soon to have chickens.

Eucalyptus tree shedding its bark.

This next picture is taken out my door.  I have a new screen setup.  Years ago I bought one of those magnetic screen doors 'as seen on tv', and it had two black stripps of magnets down the middle, it worked but obstructed the view. Let's go back a bit.  The rv has a screen door but when the kitties are outside I leave it open so they can have free running in and out privileges. Ok, back to now.  The old screen was getting a bit worn out so when I went to order a new one I saw ones made for sliding doors which had one big panel with a narrow panel on the side.  That's what I got and when it came I cut the narrow side panel off and hand stitched a casing at the top, removed all magnets from the sides, as they were getting stuck on the door, and now I have a nice view. And it keeps the bug out where they belong, and the turkeys too.

I clip the corner up so the kitties can

duck under it to come in.  Also in this picture

you can see the curtain tucked up on the left? 

At night I drop that down over the door for privacy. 

The other curtain you see closes off the cab part 

of the truck at night.

I'll be back soon explaining the two propane tanks.

Evelyn, Bubba and Missie

Missie

Bubba