Author: Rae

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Quite the Storm!

The sky was getting quite angry earlier this evening so I checked the forecast and discovered a severe thunderstorm warning that even advised folks to put in their RV awnings!

I let L know and we got my awning in. Whew. I’m still not convinced it’s a one person job, but his awning is even more convoluted.

Shortly after that, the sky unleashed its wrath and I lost internet when my Yagi antenna spun 180 degrees. We also got some impressive hail!

My computer was losing its charge and it was pitch dark in here because I can’t charge the computer and turn on a light, so I decided to try starting the genset from inside. It worked! I did have to concede that I am still having problems with the fridge since it stops working when the genset is running even though it is always manually set to propane …

The storm didn’t last long and now we are having rather a nice sunset.

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Sharing the Power

It was really grey this morning. Both L’s and my house batteries needed a boost and we also had to charge our computers. So I fired up the genset and then strung a couple of extension cords to his rig. He has had trouble with his converter, so his batteries can only charge with solar or a dedicated charger. So one cord and my charger went to his battery bank. The other cord went into his rig to charge his computer.

I ran the genny for a full two hours and really saw how useless my converter is for charging batteries as I had a mere 3A coming in. As a contrast, I average 10A by running the engine! It’s definitely worth pulling out the charger if I’m going to run the genny for charging. The genny uses about half the gas as the engine, but charges three times more slowly. So that means that without the dedicated charger, the engine is a more efficient and economical means of charging my batteries!

While the genny was running, I came up with a low-tech, but stylish, hour metre using my Martha Stewart chalkboard labels:

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Attending the 5th Annual Willow Bunch farmfest

This afternoon L and I joined up with C&C, Laura, and two ladies I met on the wagon train to attend the 5th Annual Willow Bunch farmfest, an outdoor concert put on by the musical Campagne family. Of all the acts, I best recognized Carmen, a popular French-Canadian children’s folk singer.

The event was so much fun! The music, a good mix of anglo and franco tunes, was excellent. I enjoyed listening to all the French chatter around us. L loves going to music festivals and had a blast.

For dinner, there was the option to buy ginormous grilled bison burgers with sides of coleslaw and wild rice salad. Charles had me try his burger and to my immense surprise, it was nothing like beef, which is gummy, rolls around in your mouth, and leaves a lingering taste. I decided to have one of my own!

For someone who doesn’t like red meat and who has had perhaps five portions of it total in the last fifteen to 20 years, eating that entire bison burger was quite a feat! It actually went down very well as the meat is very dry and crumbly and actually doesn’t have that much flavour. It is just very hearty. Dressed with tomato, onion, cheese, mustard, and relish, it felt more substantial than an equivalent-sized chicken burger. It wasn’t quite ‘yummy’ as I would have put some onion and garlic in the meat itself, but I really enjoyed it and had no trouble eating the whole thing. I’ll be danged! The venison on the wagon train went down well and now so has bison. Maybe I’m more of a game than domesticated meat person….

The only thing that spoiled an otherwise enjoyable evening was the weather. It was COLD, which is NOT normal for this time of year. Those of you who have read my blog for a while might notice that whenever I land somewhere, they have weather that is NOT normal. I may be cursed. 😀

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Opening the Awning For the Very First Time

Yesterday was the day to FINALLY open my awning for the very first time. It has been rolled up tight for at least five years. I don’t know when was the last time the previous owners opened it.

(This post gets interrupted with a knock on the door by someone bearing toast and a Thermos of hot coffee to fortify me for the transcription day ahead.)

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Lots of people over the past few years have promised to help me open the awning but chickened out.

Between L’s experience with his own awning and Dometic’s instructions, we got the sucker open!

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I am not convinced this is something I will do often as it is very heavy and unwieldy, plus I am concerned that I wouldn’t be able to close it quickly enough.

It is in surprisingly good shape. There is a pinprick hole where the door got opened into it and also some discolouration from mould and mildew. It smelled terrible.

I washed the underside with a strong vinegar solution and then L lowered the awning (with me doing one side to understand how it works) and got started on the top for me. You can see how the very dark streak at the top faded quite nicely.

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I had seen a previous owners’ pictures of the awning where I would have sworn up and down that it was inexplicably black and red striped. This purple and pink would have matched the decals when I had them.

Sitting under L’s awning this week made me really appreciate it as you can sit outside even if it’s raining lightly. Heck, I could move my drying laundry under there if I had to.

I just don’t like having to worry about a gust catching it and ripping off half the side of my home!

While I worked yesterday, L also dealt with some of my weeds and fixed a weak spot in the fuel line to the genset. We went out for canasta in the evening. I’m not sure what he’s got planned for today as I have a lot of work to do, but there was a mention of salmon for lunch and we are going to a music festival with C&C and Laura in the evening. I guess those retired engineers know how to keep themselves busy. 🙂

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More of a Remote Stop Than a Remote Start

I just cleaned up Neelix’s litter box area and, as usual, my beloved pig, er cat, had spread the litter all around. Since the shore power cable was still hooked up to the genset I decided to see if my generator still works so that I could vacuum up the mess, rather than use the inverter for power.

Since the genny was cold, it refused to catch using the remote starter. I went outside, closed the choke, and it started immediately. Woohoo! Now that the exhaust is fixed, it’s actually rather quiet and the vibrations aren’t too bad.

Vacuuming done, I just shut down the genny from inside. What a luxury!

I am going to really enjoy using my new-old toy. 🙂

The only too bad thing about the genny is that the hour metre doesn’t work. L let me troubleshoot it yesterday until I needed some technical help cleaning terminals and making new connections, but we’re at the limit of his knowledge.

I know there is a bad connection and on which wire, but we couldn’t find the source in the rat’s nest of wires behind the starter. I pulled on one connector and the positive lead for the remote starter disintegrated, which really discouraged us from further poking around. In the grand scheme of things, not having the hour metre isn’t a huge deal.