New Fridge is In

Riverton, Utah             High 79 Low 50

The weather is getting warmer. Last night was almost too warm to sleep. I’m probably going to turn on the AC tonight.

Monday I took the truck in for a leaking rear caliper. While they had it, they change both sides and put in a new fuel filter. The mechanic said it looked to him like I might have got the brakes a little hot. I’m going to have to give a lot more consideration to putting disc brakes on the trailer.

Yesterday Penny got her micro-chip. For the size of the needle, she was really pretty good. When we got to the vets, she acted like she could remember last week with all the shots and didn't want to go in. But I am a lot bigger than her, so I prevailed.

Lowe's delivered the new fridge yesterday afternoon. Everything fit as expected, but…….I had not given enough thought to where I put my lower anchor straps and had to move one of them over so the wheel could sit on it. It took me quite a while with the fridge in the way, but I finally got it done. This morning I had to get some bolts to replace the leveling feet to anchor it down on the bottom. I had bent up a bracket out of 16 gauge metal to anchor the back, and it worked like a charm. I put on some top straps to help stabilize the top, but I don’t know if they were really necessary. We made up some Velcro straps to hold the doors shut while we are traveling and they seem to do a good job.

You can see the top strap. I cut and drilled it to fit.

I had to move this strap about an inch to the right.

These straps hold the door securely.

Part of the choice for Frigidaire was that it fit through the door with the fridge doors off. 

Where the vent was on the back of the fridge is, I cut a piece of quarter inch plywood which covered the hole that I could screw in place from the outside. Then I put a piece of fiberglass insulation over that and put the vent back on. If we ever need to get at the back of the fridge, just take the cover off, remove the insulation and two screws and there is the back of the fridge.

I also moved the fridge electrical from the main panel to the inverter panel. When I turned the inverter on with the fridge on, the meter jumped to 132 amps for less than a second, and then dropped down to 7 amps. I think we will be fine boon-docking.

I only have two more to-dos before we can leave, get the tax sheet typed and to the accountant, and I still have to get new tires on the truck. I’m still not sure which tires to get. Anybody have any suggestions as to what brand? Michelin seems to have the best guarantee, and I have read of problems with Good Year.

We are staying until the Salt Lake Quilt Show and Mother’s Day. Also Penny has some booster shots on May 12^th and then we think we will be off. 

Thanks for visiting.  

Getting Ready For The New Fridge

Riverton, Utah       High 54 Low 37

The last few days have been on the cool side. Yesterday it rained most of the day and today started out with a light rain, but it now has quit. The weather guessers say we have warmer weather coming up.

Yesterday we went to two yard sales and again, did OK.

The first was to the same lady selling fabric. Cindy wanted to see if she had put out some other colors that she needed, but wasn't able to find any. She did get two more colors for her Santa Pause quilt. So it was still good that we went back.

The second one was the best one. An elderly lady was selling her house and had her whole basement filled with boxes of stuff. Her son was pricing what you wanted, or telling people what was not for sale. We picked out several DVDs, a little bit of fabric (of which there was lots, but most was not very good for quilting), and Cindy found an Iris Depression glass plate and 4 goblets, which we collect. The man pulled some of the DVDs and a Tupperware pitcher that we had picked up. We kept the fabric one DVD and the 5 Iris pieces, and charged us $5.00. When we got home we looked up the book price on the Iris and it showed $140.00, not that we would sell it anyway. We were happy with our purchases.

Chris and one of his friends came over in the afternoon and helped me get the Norcold fridge out of the fiver. Then I went to work enlarging the opening for the new Frigidaire 18 Cubic foot refrigerator we had decided on. The new one is about 2 inches taller and 2 inches narrower than the old one. I have had it ready since Wednesday, but they weren't able to help until yesterday.

The storage above the opening had to be shortened 2 inches.

In our trailer the fridge is 20 inches off the floor. It sits over the water heater and furnace. We have a cabinet over it, and I had to raise the bottom of the cabinet up 2 inches. It turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. By last night I had all the cabinet work finished except for a little varnish.

We then went back to Lowes to get measurements of the bottom of the fridge so I can put in straps to hold the new fridge in place. We also changed our delivery date from Wednesday to Tuesday for delivery of the new one. I still have to change the electrical from RV type outlet to residential, which I think is much safer. Also I need to get the straps mounted to secure the fridge. None of that will take very long, so I know I can be ready for Tuesday’s delivery.

The trouble with these outlets is that the wires just push into groves with very little contact on the wires. Mac the Fire Guy showed us some that had got so hot, that they were burned and black.

Thanks for visiting.

Getting Some Honey-does Done

Riverton, Utah                   High 75 Low 48

I've been busy since I got home and can hardly wait to get underway again. Monday I went to Home Depot and got some paint and masking tape so I could paint the outside door jambs on our home. Fourteen years seem to have taken their toll on the paint, especially the ones facing west. Some of them were a little more protected than others and weren't so bad, but they all needed a paint job.

Yesterday I took Penny to the Veterinarian to have her checked out and to get whatever shots she needed. She has gained a little weight since we had her weighed last. The last time she weighed 3.6 pounds. Yesterday she was up to 4.4 pounds. We wanted to get a chip put in her, but they were out and had to order one for us, which should be in Friday. She has been coming into heat for the last week and I wanted to ask the Vet about his advice on breeding. He told me he would wait until she is 2 years old if then. He did say that small dogs are more prone to problems having pups, so we will have to decide when or if we get her bred.

Here's Penny in what seems to be her favorite spot.

I got a start on the painting yesterday afternoon. I really got most of it done today since Devon was home and he wanted to help. He did help a lot. We got all the door frames painted and they do look better. Hopefully they last as long this time as they did the first time.

I have been looking into replacing our fridge in the fifth wheel for a residential fridge. So far, from the measurements, we are leaning toward an 18 cubic foot Frigidaire, but I’m going to wait until I get the old one out to make a final decision. I’m half-way afraid of the Norcold we have, after seeing all the pictures of burned up trailers and motor-homes. From the measurement of the Frigidaire, it will fit through the door without any problems. It is taller than the Norcold and some cabinet modification will be necessary.

We still haven’t worked on our taxes, but we have till September to get them in. Really we want to do it as soon as possible and that will be one of our first to-dos.

Cindy finished the quilt top that we started in Surprise. It joined the pile of tops that I still have to quilt.

She made it king size. It is all batiks.

Quite a stack of tops.

Tomorrow I will probably start taking the fridge out.

Thanks for visiting.

Today We Scored!

Riverton, Utah                 High 64 Low 54

Today was a nice sunny day with no wind. It was a perfect day to go to yard sales.

The first one we went to was a quilter that was selling part of her stash. Cindy was looking through the different materials and got all excited. She has a pattern for a Santa quilt that she has been looking for the necessary fabrics for quite a while. In the material the lady was selling was most of the material for the quilt. She bought what she could remember that she needed, and when we got home she got out the pattern. What she had bought was exactly the right material, but she remembered seeing some of the colors she hadn't bought. So back we went, this time with the colored pattern and got a few more pieces of material. She says she now has enough to finish the quilt. She told me she has been looking for those fabrics for several years.

At another yard sale, Cindy was looking at a Coldwater Creek jacket that she liked (she has one like it, but it is a little small). When she asked the lady how much, the lady replied “I’m trying to get rid of stuff, so find as many things as you can find that fit, and I will charge you one dollar.” With that she loaded up my arms until I couldn't easily carry any more. A lot of the clothes are name brand. We figure we paid about a nickel per item. Some of the things still had price tags on them.

When we got home Cindy tried most of the clothes on and they fit OK. Needless to say, she was very happy with today’s Yard sales.

I also got one of my to-does finished. Our dryer in our home had quit working while we were gone, and I checked it out and found the part that was bad and got it repaired. Cindy has been overdoing on the yard work, but got quite a lot of it done. The problem is she is now hurting.

Thanks for visiting.

Made it Home

Riverton, Utah             High 59 Low 39

Yesterday we drove around a little and look at the lake by the RV Park. On yesterday’s post I called the place Sand Creek. It is actually Sand Hollow. The place is surrounded by really fine red sand. On one side of the lake there are sand dunes that according to the signs, can drift across the road.

This was in the RV Park. You can see the reddish sand.

We drove into the town of Hurricane and went to the only quilt store in the town. Cindy almost bought some material, but decided she didn't really need it.

The rest of the day we watched the wind blow. It was cold all day also. The wind finally quit about midnight.

We left for home at about 10:00 and got home a little after 4:00. We stopped in Santaquin to leave Teesa the beads that we bought for her in Quartzsite.

Some of the sides of the highway were wet. We had a nice drive with no wind. I was sure glad I wasn't driving yesterday. It was partly cloudy all the way.

We got a small start unloading but we were both tired and didn't feel like doing too much.

Thanks for visiting.

Tax Day?

Hurricane, Utah               High 57 Low 39

We asked our accountant to file an extension on taxes because we knew we wouldn't be home in time to get them done. He told me we now have until September, so we are not in a big hurry to get home.

Today we drove from Henderson, Nevada to Hurricane, Utah. It was a good drive although we had some wind and I’m guessing my mileage is bad. I put one picture of a quilt Cindy took a picture of yesterday at the quilt store.

I had a reader; Betty Graffis ask if we got the huge sand storm they had in in Las Vegas. We were staying in Henderson which had winds a lot worse than Las Vegas. The sand was blowing so much that the TV news said some places the visibility was less than a mile. That was probably where we were. The wind last night moderated some and had pretty much quit by the time we left this morning, but I did see one of the highway signs saying high winds on I15. This gave me a little concern, but the wind wasn't too bad.

We got to the Sand Creek State RV Park where we plan on being for 2 nights. The site we have is a pull through with asphalt to park on. All the sites are surrounded by red sand and there are some nice views of the area around the Park. Where we are parked we can see the dam but not the lake. There are about 50 sites where we are with full hook-ups. The other sites are far enough away that there aren't any close neighbors.

I talked to Tammy this afternoon and she told me it has snowing pretty hard in Salt Lake. When we got the TV going they reported that this storm had the most snow of any storm this past winter in the Salt Lake City area with more to come.

Right now our plan is to drive home Friday, but if they still have bad roads that could be changed. 

We have Devon with us because he doesn't have to be back to school until the 25th of this month.

Thanks for visiting.

Way Too Hot

Way Too Hot

Las Vegas, Nevada               84 Low 54

Yesterday we drove from Surprise to Las Vegas. I had called the Duck Creek RV Park earlier and was told they didn't have any spaces, but I decided to call again when we got close to see if they had any spaces available and was told they did, so that’s where we landed.

We were planning on only staying here one night, but high winds were predicted for all day today and part of tomorrow, so we will stay here until Thursday morning before continuing toward Salt Lake.

When we got here it was in the nineties, way hotter than we like, but better than the snow that is supposed to come down tonight and tomorrow through Utah. We had to have one of the AC’s on all night. It turned off part of the night and then came back on. Tonight it has cooled off nicely.

Last night we met Tammy and Stephanie and their kids at the Bellagio Hotel to look at the Chihuly glass and their gardens. The lobby is very well decorated. The indoor garden and lobby have lots of flower blossom arraignments. Someone told us that all the glass cost the Hotel millions of dollars.

Giant Chihuly chandelier.

There are over 2000 of these hand blown "pedals".

We then went outside and watched the light and water show in the large pool in front of the Hotel. We stayed for 3 shows and they were all different.

The Eiffel Tower across the road from the Bellagio. 

Tammy and two of the grand kids.

Stephanie, Teesa, Taidan, Ray.

Today we went to one quilt store and looked at all the quilts hanging on the walls. I talked to the owner for a little while and he told me there are only two quilt stores left in all of Las Vegas and the surrounding area. Cindy says it is because it is so warm here than no one needs quilts on their beds.

I’m not sure what we will do tomorrow, other than watch the wind blow.

Thanks for visiting.

Busy Weekend

 

Surprise, Arizona            High 84 Low 59

Saturday morning I walked to the office. In the pond the turtles were sunning themselves. There also was a mother duck with 9 babies. I thought they were cute. When they saw me they swam to the middle of the pond to get as far from me as possible.

Last night we went to Cindy’s oldest son Scot’s wedding. He and Dan have been together for 10 years. Arizona law changed and they finally could get married. Most of Cindy’s family was there. During The ceremony, they both had tears of joy in their eyes. They were both happy to be able to make it legal.

Scot on the left and Dan.

Cindy's Mom in the middle.

Scot in the middle of his two sisters, Tammy and Stephanie, and Dan.

The ceremony.

Afterward they had a catered meal for all the guests.

Cindy’s mother and sister drove their motor home down from Utah.

Tomorrow we start home. We plan on stopping in Las Vegas tomorrow night and part way home somewhere in Utah the next day. We plan on getting back to Riverton sometime Wednesday, unless the predicted snow for Salt Lake is bad enough that we might take another day. Our accountant had filled a tax extension, so we really aren't in a big hurry to get back.

Thanks for visiting.