The Road to Hell!

Location, At Home, CA

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”  My intention is to update this blog more often but it just doesn’t happen. So… I guess I am on the “Road to Hell.”

I have completed a few of my “to-do” items this week with only the major job of washing and waxing the RV left to do.

Yesterday we went down to Newberry Park to play with the babies for the day. What fun!!! They are so cute. They will be crawling soon.

Both vehicles have been in the shop this week. The car had a loose caliper on one wheel and the brake pads weren’t seated properly. I made a racket when you hit a bump. The brakes still worked but I don’t know why.

The truck had normal maintenance items to be done. It should be ready to roll in two weeks.

Speaking of rolling, I have been watching the temperatures in Las Vegas and have decided to bypass “sin city” for this trip. Just too hot!

Instead, we will take a back road through Tehachapi and then up Hwy 395 to Carson City, NV before heading east on I-80 to Wells, NV. That stretch will be hot also but there is no way to avoid it. From Wells we will head North to Twin Falls, ID, Salmon, ID, Missoula, MT and then to Glacier Nation Park. This will all be new country for us from Twin Falls on.

We are off to Walnut Creek on Sunday to lie in Cindy and Gary’s pool for a few days. Looking forward to that. The following weekend friends will stay with us while attending a wedding and at the same time Clyda has her 50^th class reunion.

Fifty years! WOW. Fifty years ago Clyda and I had just met prior to her graduation. Doesn’t seem that long ago.

Here are a few flowers blooming in our backyard right now.

Berry season report.

Location, At Home, CA

First, some unfinished business.
 
Berry picking season ended a few weeks ago. The last berries had a mushiness around the stem which effectively ended the picking. I did manage to pick 92 baskets this year. The baskets I use are the small strawberry baskets you get at the market or from fruit stands.

Most of the berries were juiced down immediately as we had little room in the freezer. Clyda then made both jelly and syrup which is really good on pancakes.

Today I cut off all the old canes which had fruit on them this year and put up the new canes which will bear fruit next year. Tomorrow I will water them good and that will be that until fall when they get fertilized with steer manure. Berries should not be over fertilized so no commercial fertilizer is used. I have been doing it this way for 40 plus years.
 
The learning of the new computer with Windows 7 continues. I now have the iTunes library moved over. I haven’t synced my iPod yet but have now reason to believe it won’t work.

There are starter versions of Word and Excel on my system and both seem to accept my old documents so that is a relief. I do need to install my copy of Family Tree Maker to keep up on family history and I need to get all my addresses moved over. I hope there is an easy way to do that.

We are being overrun with little bitty ants. They are everywhere. I sprayed around the house outside yesterday and today put out some bait in liquid form which they take back to the nest. In a few places the ants have found the bait and just covered the small pieces of cardboard I have the bait on. The remainder have nothing near them. It should take a few weeks for all the ants to disappear according to the instructions.

A short note.

Location, At Home, CA

A short note tonight. Our company left after visiting for two weeks. I hope they had a good time. The two weeks really did fly by.

I did receive my new Dell computer and it has been a real learning experience for me. I managed to move my old data using the Windows Transfer Program that came with the new computer. There are still things I need to move like my iTunes library. The one thing that didn’t work was my Canon Scanner software. It wouldn’t even load in Windows 7. I have a second Canon Scanner and will try loading that later.

Today I installed Picasa to manage my photos. To help with the learning curve, I purchased an eBook from “Geeks on tour” which has embedded videos to walk you through the steps. So far, so good.

I have many things on my list that need to be done in the next few weeks before we leave for Montana.

Location, At Home, CA

It seems like I can only manage to update this blog about once a week lately.

I did take all the scrap metal I had collected to the scrap yard last week and got $52 for the small amount I had. No wonder there are so many thefts of copper and such detailed in the newspaper everyday. One good thing if you can call it that, which has come from this is all the old cars, etc, have been cleaned up in the desert. There is not a scarp of metal to be found in the southwest deserts.

I got Clyda’s weathervane and lightning rod mounted on their poles and attached to the patio fence. They look very nice.

Today Tim and his family come for two weeks. We will drive to Los Angeles and pick them up later today after stopping at Chelsea’s for some baby time on the way. Candi, Clyda’s sister came yesterday afternoon. We will have a house full this next week. Saturday is the service to bury Roger’s ashes. It is a private affair with only the family and a few friends attending.

Last week I ordered a new desktop computer from Dell. They had a “12 days of summer” sale and I scored an XPS 8300 for a good price. I added more ram but didn’t order a display as I have a good flat screen already. This thing aught to be a “smoking machine” if I don’t load it up with extra software. I intend to keep it lean and mean. It should arrive tomorrow. Not that I will have time to play with it this week as all the days are filled.

I even got the car washed yesterday. I can’t remember the last time I did that.

Some bad news on the internet last night. A couple that I follow via the Hitch-Itch website lost their fifth wheel trailer to a fire caused by a locked up wheel bearing. They are full timers and managed only to save a few things. They did get the truck unhooked which saved it. Unfortunately, they only had one small fire extinguisher to fight the fire with and it wasn’t enough. I carry three extinguishers in the trailer and one in the truck. I hope I never need them.

Behind the Eight Ball.

Location, At Home, CA

Behind the Eight Ball again I see with this blog. Time just fly’s by. We are putting all our efforts into getting things spruced up for the grandkids to come next week.

Clyda wanted her weather vane and lightning rod reinstalled somewhere in the yard. I took them down when I put up the new fence…Ahem… a few years ago. So I am getting two 4x4 posts cut to length and mounted to the fence to attach the rod and weather vane to. Craig will need to repair the weather vane before we can remount it. The copper on the shaft is so thin that it broke. Craig says he can fix it.

I poured a small amount of cement today as a base for a new post in our backyard arbor where the cymbidiums are located. Craig made a u-channel out of steel so I can bolt the post to it. It is embedded in the cement with an anchor.

I have been collecting old aluminum and steel which I need to take to the recycle center this week yet. I keep finding more scrap to add to the pile.

Clyda had a turkey in the freezer for some time and we considered cooking it many times but kept putting it off. Yesterday I cooked it or rather b-b-qued it. I use an old Weber kettle that I keep around just for turkeys. With indirect heat from charcoal and a pan under the turkey to catch the drippings for gravy, I can cook a turkey in 2-3 hours depending on weight. I add rosemary sprigs inside the carcass and also on the grill as well as basting the turkey before I start with a mixture of rosemary, olive oil, and pepper. It makes awesome gravy. The turkey comes out a nice bronze-brown color.

Rain, Rain, Rain!

Location, At Home, CA

Last week we had wind and this week we had rain. Who ever heard of rain in June in California? We actually had 1.65 inches at our house most of which fell on Sunday. So much for a 30% chance of showers as predicted by the Weather Channel.

Clyda was upset by the rain as she had just finished getting all the weeds out of the patio bricks. This rain is sure to make them grow again.

I picked boysenberries again today. They should have been picked two days ago but the rain delayed that. They were not as badly damaged as I would have thought. I got 10 baskets today. Clyda boiled them down for juice which is much easier to store in the freezer than whole berries.

We have been cleaning out closets and other places to cut down on things we no longer need. The pile is getting bigger!

We are off to visit our niece and her two babies tomorrow. Clyda has been trying to help out once a week so Chelsea can have a little time to do other things without worrying about the babies. Clyda made a roast today and we will take part of that as well as mashed potatoes and fruit for their dinner tomorrow night.

Wind, Wind, Wind!

Location, At Home, CA

Wind, wind, wind!

After two nice days with out wind I thought we finally might be into summer. Guess not as it started blowing again this afternoon.

I replaced the water pump in the RV this morning. It isn’t a big job but becomes more complicated because of the location under the kitchen sink. One arm at a time is the rule here. Two if you can make yourself real skinny which I am not.

I did manage to get it in and when I turned to water back on there was a tiny leak around a pipe fitting that I had nothing to do with. Figures!

Messing with it for a while did not stop the drip so Craig suggested that I heat the hose at the fitting with a heat gun so it becomes more malleable and then tighten the clamp. It worked!

I next tackled the TV antenna on the RV roof. It seems like I, ahem,, forgot to lower it when we left the campground at Lake Cachuma a few weeks ago and a large tree limb made short work of it. A passing motorist pointed it out to me. I ordered a new antenna when I ordered the water pump.

I removed the inside crank and the caulk from around the screws topside so they could be removed. A few minutes work and the entire assembly was ready for removal after I had disconnected the antenna cable at the roof.

I disassembled the old antenna with the aluminum going in the recycle pile and the plastic in the trash.

Tomorrow I will cut off the shaft to the proper length (based on the old shaft length), add some rubber standoffs so the antenna doesn’t bang on the roof as we travel, and install the antenna. It’s not like I haven’t done this before you see. I have experience.