Merry Christmas

Gee ... What have you been doing on your winter vacation?  Getting beach sand out of your sandals? Lathering those arms and legs with Coppertone?  Sipping on a frozen strawberry daiquiri under some palm tree?  Now if any of these things ring a bell ... we are very jealous.  Very jealous!  Our Southern adventures were put on hold this year as our coach needed some remodeling so here we are.  In the nations 'Winter Wonderland' of Michigan.

We left South Haven and the comforts of Cousin's RV Park last October and got the coach in our driveway to begin the unloading process.  In order to redo the interior we wanted to empty the coach of furniture and clean out all the drawers and cupboards.  Do you remember the old adage about getting 5 pounds of s%#t into a 3 pound bag?  Being on the road for such a long time we've discovered we're really human pack rats.  Every nook and cranny had some treasure or another stuffed into it.  But it all had to go.  And where did it go?  Our living room, our family room, and our  garage ... And the garbage.  With winter upon us there's little chance of having a garage sale so we're sitting here amongst the rubble.  But little by little we'll work through it and be ready for Spring.  Hopefully this coming one.

As my bride and I seldom agree on decorating styles, the coach remodeling has been stressful. What kind of flooring, what color flooring, what kind of refrigerator, what kind of toilet, what kind of window coverings ??? Way too many decisions and compromises so we hired an interior decorator.  Maybe not an official one ... as she's still in college ... but at least a third party negotiator who might smooth out the disagreements.  As the coach remodeling continues other little speed bumps have arisen to further heighten our winter at home.

Our furnace of some 40 years probably needed replacing 20 years ago. But since we'd still been waking up each morning, and the noxious gases hadn't gotten to that fatal level yet, so we got to thinking maybe we should replace it before we couldn't wake up some morning.  So now we have a new Trane furnace with matching air conditioner and a new Nest thermostat.  What in the world is a Nest you might ask?  I won't bore you with those details now but it's the latest-greatest in world of thermostats.  Look it up on the internet if you're interested.

So now we're warm a cozy.  A good thing as the temperatures have fallen and winter is in the air and on the ground.

I'd mentioned to my RV/farmer friend Jerry that I wanted to photograph some cattle for an upcoming project I was working on so he invited me over to a cattle show at the Michigan State University Agriculture Center in East Lansing.  It was a cold wintry day as we drove over to the show and found that this was a pretty big deal for cattle people.  The parking lots were filled with trucks and animal trailers. The visitors parking lot was almost full so I'm getting pumped just thinking about what's ahead to see and do. When walking in I immediately knew I should have had on Levi's with a big belt buckle, a cowboy hat and rubber boots.  Rubber boots?

I gotta get one of these bling belts

This city boy didn't realize beforehand that hanging around cattle is not very kind to hiking shoes with deep treaded soles (it took me two days to get those shoes cleaned up).  As cattle apparently are not house broke (go figure), they tend to do whatever they want, where ever they want to. Stepping gingerly around was not good enough.  There were just too much to avoid not stepping or sliding in something. Oh! ... and did I mention the smell?  Though the building was large, there were several hundred animals waiting around to be judged ... so they don't care if they were in a barn, an exhibition arena, or the pasture ... they do what comes naturally.

They just needed a little after shave lotion

I was probably the only guy in the place that had a permanently wrinkled up nose ... but at times it was pretty pungent in there. Actually the show was a state-wide 4H affair with kids showing off their prized young cattle for judging.  With over 100 classes of animals (apparently categorized by weight and breed) the critters are shampooed, hides trimmed, hair teased and hair sprayed and hooves painted.

What a life!

And don't forget to trim the eyebrows and get those sideburns straight.

It was really interesting and besides the farm yard conditions, inspiring to see young people so wrapped up into cattle raising.  Not that I didn't see an Ipad or two but these kids were really focused on their cattle.

Angry Birds break.

Usually most of us are looking a beef cattle between a bun a McDonalds or in the meat market and pay little attention to what it takes to actually bring cattle to market, so this was a real learning day for me.  Anyway my friend Jerry (a cattle rancher himself) did a nice thing for me that day and I appreciate him taking the time to show me a little part of the business he is in.

Speaking of warm and cozy.  We had a little freezing rain storm pass through the area recently and left a nice thick coating of ice on everything.  Including power lines.  Normally we have had little trouble losing electrical service as all the areas around me have underground service. However this particular storm was a doozy and in this area knocked out nearly 300k customers. Including us! So when our lights went out the other morning I just knew it would only be an hour or so and all would be fixed.  But as the day wore on and the news came out that this was a massive outage, I thought I better head out to the shed and fire up my 40 year old propane fueled generator.  I hit the start button and it surprising fired up.  I made all the necessary electrical connections, changed the breakers in the house and the new furnace came to life, the refrigerator was working as was the well pump. Life is good I'm thinking.  I let it run for a couple of hours then let it rest for about 4 hours.  But still no commercial power.  I fired it up again and it was running so good I invited my neighbor to plug into so as to save his refrigerated food and maybe run the blower on his gas fireplace to provide a little heat.  As the outside temperature was in the low 20's, our houses cool off pretty quick and if left unheated could cause some real problems. While calling our kids we discovered that though my daughter had power my son did not.  He had just called the local power company and they said that due to the size of the outage they were promising service to return by the evening of the 28th.  THE EVENING OF THE 28TH!  That was over a week away!  All of a sudden I wished I had payed a lot more attention to that cable channel show "The Preppers".  So upon hearing that crummy news we began taking stock of food, water, and most importantly .. propane supplies.

Wondering if we could actually survive in the house (rather than a motel) we decided to give it a try as I headed out to the shed to check in the generator.  It was sounded funny ... missing and coughing and making the 20 watt bulb in the shed flicker.  I switched to my other full tank before restarting it decided to head out to find more propane.  I had two more empty tanks in the garage so I went out to get them filled.  Upon returning I started the generator up but after running smoothly for about two minutes it went back to sputtering.  I disconnected all the outgoing lines and even with no load it still wouldn't run right. I fiddled with it the next twelve hours ... sometimes it would run, sometimes not.  I had heated up the house enough so I thought we could go to bed without it running so I finally shut it down and went inside. We made it through the night but when I got up a 6:00am the temperature had dropped into the low teens and it was pretty cool in the house; mid 50's. I got dressed and stumbled out into the cold, dark morning to see if once again I could get some juice out of that old generator.  She fired up and I let it run a few minutes then headed into the house.  I had previously disconnected the power lift for the garage door so I could raise and lower it manually.  So upon returning from the shed I wanted to lower it. I applied pressure on the outside panels and it began coming down.  Apparently I was still half asleep, and my hands were cold and I just wasn't paying attention as the next thing I knew was that I had left two of my fingers in the panel joint as I was lowering the door. For whatever reason I didn't scream out (not that there was anyone around to hear me) but as I watched almost in slow motion the tips of two fingers got caught in the joint and I could hear the bones breaking. I leaned into the door to stop it decent and with the other hand managed to raise the door enough to extract my fingers.  Now this was a real, honest to good ouchy.  Even though I had on a heavy leather gloves the damage was done.  No blood but certainly broken bones.  I went inside and got Sharon up and we decided to head off to our doctors only to discover his office was closed due to the power outage.  So off to the hospital we went and after a short three hour stay got doctored up, xrayed, given some really soothing pain meds and a future appointment to see a hand surgeon.

On the way home I decided to stop at the local lawn equipment dealer to see about a new generator.  He said he was all out but maybe next Friday. Great! It's now beginning to look like Motel 6 here we come when just then a trailer pulled up with eight new Honda generators aboard. I said to the clerk this is looks like my day then he informed me that all of those were already sold.  But he then said wait ... maybe I one 4k watt one left that I could get for $2400.  Are you kidding me? $2400 dollars.

I said I think about it and headed home.  I returned to my shed to work on the old generator again when I saw a trailer pulling into the driveway ... not my driveway but my neighbors!  He bought that remaining generator. The only one within a 50 mile radius. I was pretty bummed as went inside to prepare for a birthday party over at my daughters house.  Another cold evening with the temperatures hovering around 8 degrees was in store and I really wasn't sure we could make it another night in the house.  After the party Sharon and I were discussing our options when we pulled into our subdivision and noticed Christmas lights burning.  A sure sign (I hope) that power has been restored.  Eureka! Our house was to be warm again.  My fingers are still aching but at least they are warm.

So as I gingerly type these words, I'm looking out the window for Santa, Rudolf and their friends to cruise through the neighborhood dropping off goodies to one and all.  He needn't stop here as I've already took care of his cookies and milk and besides ... what more could we wish for.  A loving family, good health (except for the fingers), and a warm house.

Still livin' the dream ... though a cold one.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to one and all.  And to all you 'snowbirds' frolicking in the warm sands of Florida or the warm winds of Texas take note of this story.  Don't let let anyone talk you into staying north for the winter.

Phil

Settling in

This is not fun.

I'm reading an email from our friends Bill and June and they're already on the road to Texas and the weatherman on the TV is warning of tornadoes followed by a major temperature drop ... Our coach will apparently be in the shop for many weeks for remodeling, it looks like we need a new furnace at the house ... My lawn tractor gave up on me even though I still have 3,769,657 more leaves to mulch and the headlights on our car keep burning out.  Is this what they call "The Michigan Payback"?  So who do I go see about apologizing for not staying here for the past six winters?

Burning Bush

But alas!  Maybe there are a few silver linings out there!  Just to name a few ... Our beautiful little Grand Daughter Lola turned three and the party was super, as is she.  Our daughter Leigh got her first whitetail deer on opening day ... I'm real proud ... She got it with her a Dodge Journey at 75 mph.  She's fine ... deer is definitely dead. Our other beautiful Grand Daughter Allison just turned nineteen and has discovered college life is pretty sweet ... Our Grandson Austin at fourteen, is now as tall as I am and GI Joe doesn't much interest him as much as the ladies do ... My sister Judy thankfully has survive a nasty fall while moving into new home in North Carolina ... Her elbow is pretty banged up but spirits are high ... We gather with bunch of our Cousin's RV friends in Battle a Creek for lunch and gambling at the nearby casino ... Seeing our friends was a whole lot better than the gambling however ... And our long weekend trip to Iowa to see our friends Jim and Carol was a blast ... I learned that bib overalls are not considered 'business casual' ...Cedar Rapids is a pretty cool city ... And we're very fortunate to have such good people as good friends ... And speaking of good friends ... We've had almost a lifetime of good times with our friends George and Paula ... We've already got together several times with them and we're looking forward to a winters worth of visits.

Barberry

Very dead Hostas

Now about those 3,769,657 leaves ... The weatherman said the winds would soon be picking up and my neighbors would probably get most of them so I went looking for a rake.  Our backs were already screaming at us and we're hoping the ibuprophen is still in the medicine cabinet when I looked around and found my neighbors pitching in and helping us clean them all up.  So very thoughtful.

So there you have it ... goofy pictures and all.

Still livin' the dream but kinda' wish we were with Bill and June ... heading South.

Phil

Home again

Per our original plans we should have been enjoying the warm weather in Gulf Shores Alabama today but reality has set in and here we are ... in cold, blustery Michigan.  The coach is in the shop for a variety of ailments so for the first time in about six years we're going to tough it out in the north country.

We're supposed to be here at Gulf Shores State Park ... But Not!

However just before leaving the South Haven area I must pass along a little lesson that our friends Jerry and Bonna taught us just before camp closing.  Well they really didn't plan on teaching us anything but their misfortune is something all RV'ers can learn from.  Jerry hadn't gotten two miles down the road and his diesel overheated and his journey home halted.  As it turned out his engines serpentine belt gave way and without it he was soon parked roadside.  Finding an engine belt for your particular RV engine nearby turned out to be impossible, as I would suspect most would be, so just to be on the safe side, folks need to buy a set of spare belts (you may have more than one size) and store them away for that day you might really need one.  There's is no guarantee that you'll get back on the road soon as you might not find anyone to install it (if you can't) but at least you have one part of the problem solved.  Also ... if something else caused the belt to break in the first place (bad pulley for instance) you're still hosed but having a replacement belt on hand can't hurt. Now everybody give Jerry a round of applause!

We're having our coach's floor replaced due to the water damage we incurred last July.  Believe it or not it is still wet under the ceramic flooring so I suspect we will have to have the underlayment repaired as well.  In order to accomplish all this we decided to remove everything in the coach so the workers would have less items of ours to work around.  So when we got the coach home we began to empty it.  Six years on the road defied one of the great truths of the world.  Yes you can store 5lbs of stuff in to a 3lb bag. Maybe 6 pounds of stuff!  I had no idea we had accumulated so many 'treasures' and had managed to stuff them into every nook and cranny of the coach.  As bag after bag, box after box and hanger after hanger exited the coach, we quickly noticed how much more room we had in the coach.  Eureka!  Who needs slides now, I'm thinking!

But ... our once neat house now looks as if a bomb had gone off inside.  With all that 'stuff' inside our house now we haven't a clue where we're going to put it all.  We'll get the coach back in April so we've got a whole lot of excuses to dream up for the folks who decide to pay us a visit this winter.

So besides replacing the flooring, we're going to have the couch re-covered, a new refrigerator, new front drapes, new shades for the side windows and refinish the window valances.  Please use my PayPal account to forward any donations.

We're certainly not going to hibernate this winter but may still do a little traveling; this time via my trusty old Trail Blazer.  For instance in a few weeks we'll be visiting our friends Jim and Carol in Iowa and who knows ... maybe even a trip to Carolina's to visits family and friends.  Sharon will certainly steer me into a casino or two and a trip or two back to visit friends and family on the west side of the state will be in order as well.

Home again but still livin' the dream.

Phil

Wrapping up Summer

Just a quick note on this evenings activities.
Not that this, or most RV communities need an excuse to throw a party but this evening was just a little unusual.  Bonna and Jerry thought it would be great to have an early Thanksgiving dinner before too many more people had departed for parts unknown. Turkey, ham, yams, mashed potatoes, gravy and all the other fixins' one could ever want. Wow! And a separate dessert table with enough goodness (and calories) to put Paula Deen on notice.  Lots of effort from all the ladies here.  We're fortunate to have so many good cooks.

I told you this was quite a feed

John and Kathy were ready 

Jerry was late for dinner so .... not much left.

You can gain weight just looking at all these beauties

The smell of suntan lotion drifting through the air has been replaced by the aroma of burning leaves and fresh, ripe apples nearby.  The sunny days are still here but you'd better have a jacket handy when the sun begins to set.  Our summer is almost over and the threats of a brutal winter await us. We're going to spend our first winter home in six years.  Why you wonder?  Well it's time to get some major remodeling work done on the coach and we want to get at it.  New flooring, drapes, and a new refrigerator are planned but if the work gets done early, who knows ... maybe we'll hit the road anyway.

The other day I finally learned out how cow pies were made.  Oh sure... everyone knows that answer. But let me tell you how I found out. Our friends Jerry and Bonna invited Sharon,  Miki, along with Bill and June, out to their southern Michigan farm.  A beautiful stone farm house greeted us as we pulled into the drive.  Surrounded by rolling hills and big red barns this place is what being 'down on the farm' is all about.  Unfortunately it's so far from civilization that I was sure they'd yet to have electricity or indoor plumbing (but they did). Greeted at the door by the family dog, who apparently either has lost his sense of smell or our earlier showers actually worked, allowed us to pass. Bonna provided some cold drinks to everyone and while the girls were gabbing, Jerry wanted to show us guys what 'real' farmers do.
Jerry motioned for us to get into his big farm truck.  Big tires, big rumbling diesel, and a big step up to get into the monster.  So off we go towards the pasture.  Bill jumps out to open the gate and off we go ... bouncing along directly towards a herd of comfortably resting black Angus cattle. Their ears perked up as we approached, probably thinking we were out there to feed them but soon they were struggling to their feet as Jerry began to slowly drive right through the middle of the herd.  If cows could talk I bet they would had a few things to moo at Jerry about.  A few moments ago they were relaxing in the cool mud (?) ... now they're struggling to get out of way. Now to the part about cow pies.
It seems these cattle have some sort of an attitude ... and show it in an unpleasant way.  Disturbed by the monster truck in their midst, the first thing they do when standing up is make a pie and release enough nitrogen gas to fill the Hindenburg. It's not a pretty sight/smell and I quickly rolled up the window to keep any of it out of the truck (but wasn't fast enough).  I look over at Jerry and the smile on his face tells me 'these city boys now know what farmin' is all about'.  Anyway there we were parked ... in the middle of piles of steaming cow crap.  Hoping that that the four-wheel drive works, as getting stuck in this steaming sea doesn't seem too fun, we do manage to move on and leave the herd to settle down.  So there you have it.  My conclusions are: being a cow does not get you many perks and they have developed ways to show their distaste.  Here are some of wonderful critters.  And I didn't know they wore earrings either.

I bet Jerry knows all their names too!

With the college football season in full swing the competitive juices must be flowing here at Cousins. Since this park has a reputation for great cooks residing here, one of our more well known purveyors of fine food (June) challenged one of our least known cooks (Charlie) to a lasagna face-off.  No prize nor voting but what turned out was a great evening of pasta for all to enjoy.  Charlie apparently has been a closet cook known only in family circles so this was his coming out party.  Now June knows her way around the kitchen to so Charlie had his work cut out for him.  As it turned out both were winners.  Subtle differences in recipes were noted but both were worthy entries.  I'd snuggle up to a plate of either one of them.

Here are the two lasagna combatants and their creations.

Chef Charles and Chef June

Okay I admit ... I screwed up!
We recently had the annual Cousins Chili Cook-Off and we had a record turn-out with eleven entrants.  With secrecy paramount, only a precious few knew whose chili was in which warming bowl. After a round of sampling the votes were taken and the winner was Jeff C. with Carol B. in second and Eric L. third. Now here's where I messed up.  Usually I take a photo or two of the winning group but as luck would have it I had an equipment malfunction and got nothing. However I can assure you that few will forget how good this year's offerings were.  So hat's off to first time winner Jeff.  Great stuff!

Chili Sampling Specialist

Half asleep on the patio I was nudged into consciousness by a strange humming noise.  As my eyes fought to open I immediately saw this large bug flying around near me. Great! A praying Mantis was flitting around looking for a place to land and with a little luck I could watch him for a while.  He settled down right near my foot and landed on the wheel of my Weber grill.  He slowly navigated completely around the wheel before settling on one of the pseudo spokes on the wheel.  I watched for several minutes and the damnedest thing started to happen.  Instead of this guy lunching on a passing bug or perhaps chew on my leg She started making a ootheca. 'Betcha don't know what that is and I had to look it up ... it's an egg case.  An intricate pouch-like repository for her 200 or so offspring to spend the winter in until hatching sometime in late Spring or early Summer.  She was probably thinking, as long as Sharon and I usually go south for the winter, she might as well send the kids along in the basement of our coach where I stow the Weber while traveling. But she'll be really surprised when the kids are back in South Haven next year. Actually she's most likely already dead as they usually die shortly after laying their eggs ... so I guess I'll have to raise the little critters all by myself.  I wonder if the IRS will flinch when they see the 200 dependents on my 2014 return?  Anyway it was an interesting couple of hours.

Egg laying Mantis on the old Weber

So there you have it folks.  A little catch up on what's been going on with us.  As the parks residents continue to leave for part west and south, it's a sad reminder that the summer is over and another summer season has come to an end. Though we shall miss being on the road this winter, when we return, the coach will be looking a little better and we can start this all over again.

We have until mid-October to vacate the park so time is running out.  With a little luck this year maybe I'll get a chance to photograph one of the Lake Michigan water spouts again.  A rare treat.

Still livin' the dream but dreading the upcoming winter weather.

Phil

ps.  Here's an unabashed plug for my grand daughter Allison's Monday afternoon internet radio show.   Check out www.whaleradio.org in the 2pm to 4pm time slot. Allison and Jeff will provide an off-the-cuff unscripted review of current activities in their world.  They take on-air phone calls too. If you log in or call in tell them you heard about them from Livin' the Dream blog.