A work week.

This was more of a work week. 

I need to step up the pace as I have things to do on and in the RV before we go to Pismo Beach next weekend followed by our trip to Florida the 1^st week in October, (non RV trip). When we return from that trip, I only have 3 days to finish everything before the start of the desert trip.

This week I ordered 4 new shocks from Amazon for the RV as the last time they were replaced was 2010. I had pulled one and there really wasn't much “shock” left. They had been checked last year when all of the under carriage was replaced and I was told at the time that they still had some “life left in them”. Of course, the mechanic didn't know at the time that we were planning to drive to the East coast of Florida.

Replacing the shocks is not a hard job if you don't mind laying on your back with a wrench in your hand for an hour. Job done!

The next thing was to replace the bathroom ceiling fan with a Fantastic fan that my friend Budd gave me. Originally, I started to replace the fan blade last summer on our trip to Lynden, WA but every blade I bought blew air in not out. I now have 3 or 4 fan blades, all wrong, and one new fan motor because I thought I could run the motor in reverse to use the fan blades I had already bought. WRONG!!! The motor ran for 10 minutes then quit.

I was about to order a Fantastic fan from Amazon but during a conversation with Budd he reminded me that he had one which was removed from the bedroom of his RV when an AC unit was installed in the opening. Perfect!

So today I removed the old fan and vent and replaced it with the Fantastic fan. It really went in fairly quickly after about 10 trips up and down the ladder to check the fit. Even the old screw holes lined up ok. I still need to put in the ceiling trim piece inside but I need to remove some of the edge on one side as the roof of the RV slopes in that area.

I used a butyl rubber strip under the fan flange on the roof to make sure I have a good seal to keep out water and then I used Dicor Self Leveling caulk over all the screws and around the flange. I will recheck the caulk tomorrow to make sure I have no problem areas.

Some before and after from today's project.

 

Fantastic fan and trim piece.

 Old vent cover. Really dirty because the Max Air cover made it hard to clean.

 

 Old vent and all caulk removed.

 New fan with self leveling caulk applied.

Thanks Budd for the fan.

Back home from Wisconsin trip.

Another trip to Wisconsin done. This one was only 5 days to attend an All School reunion for Dorchester High School. About 200+ people came to the afternoon social time with a very nice sit-down meal at 4 PM.

Saw lots of people I know. Talked to some I hadn't seen in years. Had a really good time.

Also met some of my cousins from the Goessl side of the family on Friday after a mass for their mother at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Medford. Was really nice to visit with Joyce, Betty, Margaret, and Norb for a few hours. It isn't something we get to do very often.

Also visited my aunt Beatrice who is one of only two remaining sisters of my mother. I try to visit her whenever I am in Wisconsin.

I have a “thing” for cemeteries. To me they are pure history. I walked 2 this trip looking for particular people. I was successful on all counts. I love walking the rows, reading names, and remembering something about the people, friends, neighbors, relatives. I take photos of the headstones and eventually these photos will be added to my genealogy files along with photos of the people represented.

On Sunday my sister Judy, husband Art and I were treated to a tour of the Dorchester Historical Center by Jim Jantsch who is the force behind the center. It contains all things Dorchester. All of it donated. I suspect Jim started the center as a place to store all of the things his mother collected. Jim has also written a book called “Dorchester.” It is a complete history of Dorchester and it's people.

Two of the people on the tour were our next door farm neighbors Sharon and Arlene and two neighbors across the highway, Jeanette and Greta. I once worked for Jeanette and Greta's family during the summer and lived in their house. It was good to see them again after all these years.

I drove to Milwaukee on Monday (Labor Day) and had lots of traffic between Wisconsin Dells and Madison. My rental car this time was the same as last month, a Chevy Spark. Blue this time, not yellow. It got 41.5 MPG. Not bad.

New orchid trellis.

I have been working on one of my many “Summer” projects. This one was to replace the shade trellis over Clyda's orchids. The old one was built with lumber I had on-hand and of course the termites loved it.

The new one is made with all pressure treated lumber which should last longer than I will.

The units are basically two 4x8 frames covered with nursery cloth and that is covered with 4x8 sheets of white plastic trellis. The trellis is needed as the racoons walk on top of the unit and fall through the nursery cloth if there is no support provided. The cloth is 6 feet wide so 2 feet of it hang down on the front to provide more shade.

Her are some photos.

 Posts set.

 Frames complete.

 Some termite damage!

 Completed project.

A short blog.

A short blog this morning.

A thunderstorm moved through about 6 AM and it has continued to rain this morning. The rain is really needed as the crops were suffering with the lack of.

My time here is winding down and it has been a busy one. I have met with most of the people on my list. Lunch today with a relative and then a visit to the Dorchester library.

Tomorrow morning I will check out and drive to my sisters for the last two days. Tomorrow is the surprise 25^th wedding anniversary for my nephew Chris and his wife Ann. Sunday all of my sister's kids will be at her house for the day.

Monday morning I will drive to West Bend and briefly visit a cousin and drop off a family history pack to her. Then it is on to the Milwaukee airport and home.

It has been a busy but good trip.

Oh, here is a photo of my rental car, a Chevy Spark. Not much luggage space but adequate for my needs.

I must be lazy.

I guess I must be lazy as I can't quite get up the energy to write a blog more often.

Although I have been busy with household stuff like cooking, watering the yard pulling weed, etc, and, oh yes, spending way too much time on the computer. That doesn't count does it?

I have been working on family history stuff in preparation for my upcoming trip to Wisconsin. It is like a disease, once you start with a known fact and dig up more information about a person, the more you want to know.

At one time I had so many papers scattered around it looked like a whirl wind had gone through the room. Now I have copied, corralled, and filed most of what I want to take with me.

It all has to fit in a small nylon briefcase along with my laptop, kindle, and shaving kit for the trip. It will be heavy but I don't feel comfortable putting it in my carry on bag but would rather have it right with me under my seat as it were.

I have been making appointments with friends and family members while I am in Wisconsin to maximize my time there. My list is rather long of those folks I want to see.

I have little else to contribute tonight so will close with some flower photos I took in our yard.

 Bougainvillea out the back patio.

 Agapanthus also out the back patio.

 Trumpet vine off the side pario.

Progress!

Yes, progress is being made.

Clyda no longer uses the walker and all the equipment borrowed from the Visiting Nurses Closet has been returned.

She has also stopped wearing the heavy nylon brace and is reduced to using a cane when she leaves the house. BIG progress. It has been 6 weeks tomorrow since the surgery and if it had not been for the ligament repair I am sure her recovery would have gone smoother.

Clyda has physical therapy 3 times a week which requires trips to the clinic for that.

Yesterday was the funeral for a neighbor from our cul de sac. She passed away during the night a few weeks ago from an aneurysm. It was a real shock as she was only 53. It is still hard to believe she is gone.

On Thursday we have another funeral to attend of an ex neighbor also. In fact he sold the house to the neighbor who just passed away.

On another subject: I have been working more family history and the more I do or I should say the more facts I collect the more confusing it becomes. For one family member I have so many different birth and death dates that I am not sure which is correct. I need a birth certificate and death certificate to prove what is correct. Still working on that.

We had a brief spattering of rain yesterday afternoon from some tropical disturbance south of us. I barely managed to wet the patio bricks.

In the mean time the drought goes on.

Clyda updare.

Clyda is progressing in her healing. She now only uses a cane when outside the house for her walks. She still has the knee brace and that may be for some time yet.

She has physical therapy 3 days a week at the clinic. So we are running back and forth to that.

I have done some backyard weeding after our recent rain last week. We only got about 7 tenths of an inch so it didn't soak in very much. It did help the lawn but not much else.

I have been looking at some of the genealogy data I have accumulated. I need to sit down and try to make some sense of it all. Looking at one small piece of information leads to another and another, until I get thoroughly lost. It is so much fun however.

I need to wash and wax the RV soon before all the old wax peels off. Maybe yet this week.