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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Almost There

Riverton, Utah High 61 Low 37

A little cooler today than yesterday. Tomorrow I  go to get the truck inspected and emissions test for the license. Hopefully the State DMV will then give me our renewal stickers for the truck and trailer. We still might wait till Friday to leave for Alaska and Canada, but we shall see. I think we are both ready to leave.




Our granddaughter, Teesa, helped Cindy with quilts and cookies yesterday. We finally took her home at about 3:00. Cindy wanted to see her mom before we left for Alaska, and we had a good visit. We left Orem at about 4:30, so we could beat the traffic on I15. The highway was still quite busy, but not as bad as if we had waited a while longer.







Today we went to Jo-Ann's to get Cindy some thread. Afterward we went to Thimbles and Threads, a Fabric shop in Draper. We were supposed to just be looking, but Cindy managed to buy a quilt pattern. They had an embroidered quilt hanging up that was quite striking. Cindy did get some pictures of it.






The inside of Thimbles and Threads.































I had forgotten to put a picture of Devon's pine wood derby car on the last post, so here it is. He did a good job painting it, and putting on what few decals  he had. He says he just wants to have fun racing it next month, but I hope he wins something.




We are still playing the waiting game, with only 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 days till we leave. Thanks for visiting.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Just Waiting

Riverton, Utah High 75 Low 48

Still waiting to get the truck and trailer licensed. Wednesday will be sooner than I realize. I think we are about ready. My youngest daughter was here from California with her husband. they had to fly out at 3:30 and it's always good to see them. She was only here for 2 nights, so it was a short visit. We went to Texas Road House for lunch with them and my oldest daughter.

We have had our granddaughter staying with us for a couple of days and Cindy spent a good part of the day getting her to help her quilt. If only her mother knew how addictive quilting is, she probably wouldn't let her stay. LOL I don't know if she did any of the sewing, but she was marking off and pinning for half square triangles.

Devon and I got the wheels put on his pinewood derby car, and he put some stickers on it. I weighed it for him and it weighed 4 1/2 ounces. It is supposed to come in under 5 ounces, so we probably will let it go for now. The scoutmaster told us that if the car is under or over at the time of the race, they either drill the cars out or add weight to get them as near 5 ounces as possible. He has had fun making the car, but part of it might be working on it with grampa. I guess he misses not having a full time dad in his life.

Well, that's about it for today. About 3 1/2 or 4 1/2 days till we leave. Thanks for visiting.

Friday, April 26, 2013

One Step Nearer

Riverton, Utah High 70 Low 46

I spent yesterday and part of today putting in an air conditioner and taking off a swamp cooler for my brother. We put in a sky light using the old duct work. This solves two problems. First, I don't have to have the roof patched, and second, it gives quite a bit of natural light into what would normally be a dark hallway. My brother is about a year and a half younger than I. He was going to retire about the same time I did, but on the way back from Los Alamos, New Mexico, where he has lived for the last 10 years, he was stopped at a rest stop with his motor home, and had a stroke. They had to get one of their sons to drive the motor home to Salt Lake to their home here. He ended up in the hospital for about three weeks, and is now paralyzed on his left side. By now you are probably wondering why I'm telling you about this. Cindy was very reluctant to retire, but after my brothers stroke, I told her you never know what the future holds or how much time you have left. So she finally agreed to retire at the end of the year. I know I have enjoyed not working at my job every day, and I think she is enjoying retirement, at least I hope so.

Now about the title. Yesterday I went to the insurance company and asked them to renew our insurance. It doesn't renew until May 24, but I had to wait until 30 days before renewal date before they could do anything. I talked about this in an earlier post. Anyway, they were happy to take my money and renew now. The only problem: they wanted to renew for 6 months and we are not going to be home until after renewal date which would be November 24. So I asked him how much and could they renew for a year instead of 6 months. He checked and yes they could go to a year policy. The added benefit of a yearly policy is we went from $500 deductible to $100 and saved $500 in the process. Happiness! They also gave me a booklet for Canada that shows we will have coverage while in Canada. We had read that one of the requirements to enter Canada is to have proof of Canadian insurance. One more to-do finished. I still have to wait until next Wednesday to license the truck and trailer. 6 or 7 days till we leave.

Sorry no pictures. Thanks for visiting.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Lunch/Dinner with Friends

Riverton, Utah High 59 Low 39

It's finally warming up some. At least there was no wind today. We didn't get much done toward going to Alaska, other than I cut the material for another quilt Cindy wants to take with us.

This afternoon we went to lunch with friends at a place called Pizza Pie Cafe in Alpine. They had many types of pizza, and several different types of pasta. It was a buffet, so we ate enough that we didn't have to eat dinner. I think we all were stuffed. They have a daily special for $6.00 per person from 2 till 4. It was very good. I had angel hair spaghetti with a meat sauce. I also had what they called hillbilly Pizza. Then there were the dessert pizzas. How about raspberry cobbler pizza. Or peach cobbler pizza. there was also Oreo crumb pizza. Or maybe the Chocolate chip pizza. We were told that if they didn't have quite the pizza you wanted, ask and they would make it for you.

After we all finished eating, we stayed and talked for about an hour and 1/2. We then went over to our friends home and looked at some of his woodworking. We also stayed there for about 2 hours. They are going to Alaska a little after us, but are going through Seattle and British Columbia, and returning through Alberta. We are hoping our paths cross while in Alaska.

 That's about it for the day. 8 or 9 days till we leave. Thanks for visiting.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Yard Work

Riverton, Utah High 52 Low 37

This morning Cindy and I went to Alice and Jerrol's to look at some of the quilts Alice has finished. She had a 3-D block of the Month quilt she had finished and quilted on her small hand machine. She is pretty good. She also has a Christmas quilt with embroidered santas her sister gave her. The embroidery Patterns were some we hadn't seen before. She also had a batik quilt block of the month quilt she had finished. Cindy and I also took the two block of the month classes, but we are slackers. We haven't finished either quilt. They all were quite nice. Jerrol also showed me his new garage that he had finished since we had been to their home. He is also in the process of building Alice a quilting/sewing room.








This batik with the blue center and applique turned out quite striking.












 
This is the 3-d quilt. It looks a lot better in person, than this picture shows.











After that we came home and worked on the yard. Cindy wanted to put mulch in the flower beds, and I worked on the sprinkling system. The new valve I bought yesterday fit and worked fine. I also had some sprinkler heads I had to raise up, and spent several hours working on them.

I had purchased a new motion sensor light for our 5er a while back, and finally got it installed. Overall a pretty productive day.

We have almost decided to try to leave for Alaska and Canada on the 2nd of May if we can get everything ready. So 9 or 10 days to go. Thanks for visiting.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Quilts and Other Chores

Riverton, Utah High 57 Low 32

Riverton City finally turned on the secondary water. This morning I turned on the sprinkler system. Everything came on except for one system. I checked it out by turning it on manually and found that one valve was only opening up a little, and would have to have a new valve. I was able to get what looks like the same valve at Sprinkler World, and it shouldn't be too bad to replace . I only have to put the top portion on, and not the whole thing.














I spent the rest of the morning finishing Cindy's lap quilt. It is from a kit we bought in Yuma. She added two borders to make it a little larger than the original kit. We decided on a flannel back to make it a bit warmer for Alaska. I think it turned out quite nice.






We then went to the Gammel store to look at a Phaff program that can make quilt patterns from pictures or freehand if you want. Cindy is a lot better at the computer than I am, and she was impressed enough that I expect her to get the software. She wants to play with it on our trip. They also have a couple of up-grades for my quilting program, so we have to go back to the store with a flash-drive to get the upgrades. We probably will buy the Phaff program, or I expect we will, but we still need to talk about it some more.

Sorry this post is so short, but not much else going on. We are in a waiting mode, looking forward to the 3rd of May, 11 days to go. Thanks for visiting.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

No Show and Tell

Riverton, Utah High 55 Low 39

Today was pretty much wet and cold all day. It rained all night and a lot this morning. It finally quit raining and now the sun is shining. It even warmed up some from this morning.





 This is what the day looked like until this evening.

 Now the reason for the title. The back door of our fifth wheel opens straight into our bath room. The old window was opaque, and could not be seen into hardly at all. The new stained glass window has clear glass in the center, and Cindy has been worried about being able to be seen through it into the bathroom. She wanted to make a curtain for the window, and we finally got it done. With the white curtain behind the window, we also got an added unexpected benefit. It made the colors of the window show up much more brilliantly. So we are both happy with the result. We talked about doing the same thing for the front door, but decided we could see the window better from the inside with nothing to obstruct the view, so it will remain as is. Anyway, another of our to-do's finished.


This afternoon we went to Orem to our grandsons birthday party. He turned thirteen 2 days ago and his dad put on the party today. His dad's birthday is tomorrow, so we had a two for one. I gave him a bad time about becoming officially a teenager. He had a lot of his school friends there as well as different cousins, so the house was a little full. There was plenty of food for everyone however.





After we got home I helped my grandson work on his pinewood derby car. We polished the wheels and axles. He painted it, (with a little help from me). It's starting to look pretty good. I will put a picture of it on the post at a later date, when it is finished.

It is supposed to warm up after tonight. 13 days till we leave. Thanks for visiting.


Friday, April 19, 2013

Meals with Friends

Riverton, Utah High 55 Low 43

The day today was quite a bit warmer. Yesterday Cindy and I went to a pizza buffet we like really well. While we were there I ran into an old friend I hadn't seen for quite a while. He and his wife had retired from the State of Utah. We probably talked for about an hour. He told me he had been to Algodones, probably about the same time we had been there. I was sorry I hadn't met him there, but might meet up with him in Yuma next year. We told him about our plans to go to Alaska this summer, and he told me one of our old friends was also going this year, and suggested I call him. We also made plans to try out a different buffet that he knows about with pizza and pasta next week. He gave me our other friends phone number, and said I should call him. I waited until today, but more about that later.


I spent the rest of the evening finishing up the quilt I have been working on. It took me until too late to post last night. Here are a couple of pictures of it. Cindy wants to give it as a gift this Christmas. It is  King size quilt.

















This is another Quilt Cindy was trying to finish to take with us. The second picture is the finished quilt, ready for applique.





















Today we went to an estate sale put on by the people we go to quite often. We bought some household supplies and spices for a good price.

This afternoon I took the old pick-up and bought some mulch that Cindy wanted to spread on her flower gardens. We then went to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner with some friends. Alice used to work at the same office as Cindy before she retired a couple of years ago, and is the person who got Cindy started Quilting. I had coconut shrimp, and they were very good. Clock wise from the left, Ray, Cindy, Alice, Jerrol.




I called Eddie ( my other friend) and he is going to Alaska, but is not leaving until May 15th. He said he is going through Seattle and British Columbia, and wants to be back to Calgary by July 15th. We talked for a little while and I told him maybe we could meet up in Alaska when he is there.

It's supposed to get a little wet tomorrow and then warm up next week. I certainly hope so, we have a lot of yard work to do. Only 14 Days till we leave for Alaska.






Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Cindy Scores

Riverton, Utah High 43 Low 27

Still cold and wintery here. No snow and sunshine , but a cold wind all day. Cindy stayed busy all day quilting, and I went to some used tire dealers to try to sell the old tires off my truck and trailer. I got them all sold except they wouldn't give me what I wanted for what was the spare on the dually. It has never been on the ground, and looks like new, so I kept it.

Yesterday I needed some kind of strapping for a bag I wanted to make. We tried a couple of stores, and Cindy said why not try the second hand store we were by. We found what looks like a karate belt. It worked perfectly and was just the right length. She looked at the jewelry case, and has been wanting a squash block necklace for quite a while. They had one for the price she was willing to pay, $25.00, and even gave us a $5.00 senior discount. She looked on line and found one that is almost the same that was made in 1970 by the Navajo's or Zuni's. It has the exact chain and trimming. The shape of the turquoise  stones is the only difference. The place that had it on line only wanted $2000.00. She was pretty excited, as you might imagine. She tried a match on the stones before she bought it, and it passed the test.

That's it for today, Thanks for visiting.  16 days till we leave.


Tuesday, April 16, 2013

One Step Closer

Riverton, Utah High 43 Low 27

Sorry, no pictures today. As you can see from the temperatures, winter still is here. It snowed some today and was cold all day. We managed to get one more of our to-do's finished. I needed to go to Cabela's to get new line for our fishing reels. When I bought Cindy's reel, they told me to bring it in when we were ready for line and they would put the line on with their machine. I also had them replace the line on my reel, because it was several years old and came off the reel in spirals.

Cindy spent the afternoon cooking and getting food to put in the freezer. She has been awfully busy trying to get her list finished. We are almost ready.

 I can't get a new insurance card until after the 24th. Canada says they need a current certificate of insurance, and our insurance renews on May 24th and our company told us we couldn't do anything until 30 days before renewal. Something about it being computer generated, and can do nothing till then. All this is a little frustrating. Aren't computers wonderful.

The only other thing I have to do is get an inspection and emission test done on the truck, but again this has to wait until 60 days before it is due, So will have to wait until May 1. The licenses on the truck and trailer are due July 1, but the DMV told me I could license them after May 1, so I guess we are in a waiting mode.

I did get some more done on the quilt I'm working on and went and bought some thread I was low on. We also bought some variegated thread for Cindy's lap quilt, which I have to quilt next, but it's small and shouldn't take too long to finish once I get started.

This evening I help my grandson work on his pinewood derby car. We got the basic shape and I gave him the sanding block to polish the wood so he, hopefully, can paint it tomorrow.

Again that's it for the night, except Cindy say's I should start counting down till we leave. OK, here goes, we have 17 days till lift-off. Thanks for visiting.


Monday, April 15, 2013

Winter's Back

Riverton, Utah High 48 Low 36

When we woke up this morning we had snow all over everything. It looked like winter came back. All the flowers were covered with white stuff. The apricots had bloomed last week, and had already frozen. Looks like the cherry blossoms are not far behind.






These Daffodils look mighty cold.


















This is spring in the Rocky's.














I took the truck to the repair shop to get it serviced and ready for our trip to Alaska.
 While they were working on the truck, I worked on the rollers for the slide, so the freezer won't break the floor when the slide is in. They seemed to support the floor OK, and the slide went in and out alright. The first picture is with the slide half way in (or half way out, depending upon your point of view).








These are the rollers  when not in use. They are mostly aluminum, so they are not too heavy.







Cindy worked on cooking  chicken soup to freeze so we can take it with us on our trip. She also worked on a quilt she is putting together. I also started to quilt the one I was supposed to have done by now. I got a fairly good start.

The only thing keeping us here at this time is that I can't license the truck and trailer until the first of May. We might be leaving a little early, but we both can hardly wait. I think we have everything else under control.

Sorry this post is so short, but not much else going on. Thanks for stopping by.




Saturday, April 13, 2013

Yard Sales, Birthday Party, and Gripe

Riverton, Utah High 57 Low 32

The day started out quite nice. It was fairly warm, and later turned to rain. The forecast calls for a nice day tomorrow, with snow Monday and Tuesday. Hey, it's spring time in Utah!





We went to some yard sales today and found a folding fireplace that we are going to take to Alaska with us. we already had a nicer fireplace, but it so big and bulky, that we thought this one would better fit our needs.












We also found a yard sale with fishing stuff for sale. We needed a pole for Cindy, and I don't have many spinners. The pole and spinners cost us $20. I looked on line and the pole alone was $40 dollars, so I think we did OK. The spinners cost me $1 each.














Now for the gripe. I worked on the 5er to add an outlet for the freezer, and had to take the fireplace out. It is held in by a screw at each corner. The top screws were put in at an angle, and had only nicked the corner of the trim piece that they were supposed to go into. The bottom screws had split the trim and were too short to do any good. In other words the fireplace was held in by good luck! I had to add another piece of wood behind the outside trim piece for the top screws, and had to use longer screws for the bottom. I did get the outlet added, but also found another piece of trim that was coming off. Again, a good thing for super glue. All this makes me wonder, what ever happened to craftsmanship?


After all that, it was time  to go to our great granddaughter's 2nd birthday party. She is such a tiny thing, that I'm not sure she knows what was going on. We had hot dogs and picnic stuff,  then cake and ice cream. I'm feeling really stuffed now. It was kind of fun visiting with everyone, although it's only been two weeks.












Thanks for visiting.






Friday, April 12, 2013

Freezers In

Riverton, Utah High 59 Low 45

Today was a nice weather day. It was warm all day. Cindy had to get up early and fill the garbage can because today is garbage day. She can't stand to put out a partially filled can, when she says there is so much to clean up in the yard. I trimmed the grapes and we had the can filled in about 45 minutes.

 Then we went off to do important things. One of the Estate sales company's we go to all the time, had an estate sale this morning. We got there early and really cleaned up on household supplies. The owner of the sales company sees us so often, that he treats us very special. We had a whole box full of cleaning products, a new roll of weed barrier, and two bags of water softener salt. He only charged us 8 dollars. The only problem was Cindy saw 3 sets of china she would like to have, but they wanted too much today. On the last day of the sale, every thing is half price, and we will have to go back and see if they still have one of the sets. LOL

On our way home, we stopped at the nursery to get some lawn fertilizer, and I spread it on the grass. Cindy, meanwhile put a roast in her crock pot. We had some of it for dinner tonight. It was very good. We put the rest in freezer bags, and will take it with us to Alaska.

I then went to our accountant, and got the bad news as far as taxes go. I took several deep breaths and wrote the checks. At least it's done for another year.

After writing the checks, I wanted to finish putting the freezer in the 5er. I had to drill holes in the floor, for the added rollers I wanted to put on the outside of the slide. I had to have Cindy help me move the slide in or out to be able to get the screws in the rollers. I glued dowels in the holes, so there are not holes through the floor. I went to the carpet store to get a new piece of carpet to go under the freezer. I used to have them install all the carpet in the new homes I built. They couldn't match the carpet in the 5er, but had some they took out of a house, that I could have if it would work. The color was close enough, and worked OK, and free is always good. The piece they gave me was almost new, and is a lot better carpet than is in the rest of the 5er.

Putting in the screws.

Trying to look under the shelf.
I'm really not laying down on the job. The new carpet is to hide the wires.

This shows the new roller on the outside. It also shows the holes  I had to drill.


Freezer in, but no power yet.
I got the freezer in the slide, and all I have left is to wire an electrical outlet where we can use it for the freezer.

Other than paying taxes, It was a good day. Thanks for visiting.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Amazon Won

Riverton, Utah High 57 Low39

We got all these books for Alaska, and have been planning our trip.
Today started out kind of cold. When we woke up there was a skiff of snow in our yard. Cindy started looking at our Alaska books in earnest this morning. Our tour saver book came in the mail, and she was busy planning what tours we want to go on. We have looked at the new milepost, and sort of planned our route to Alaska. We will probably go to Lake Louise, although I read that it is frozen until about the middle of June. Then North to Jasper and over what looks like a very pretty secondary  highway. From the looks of it on Google Earth, It will be much more scenic than the freeway from Calgary to Edmonton.


Here I am hooking up the inside end of the cable.
I spent some time cutting material for one of Cindy's quilt projects. I never did get to the quilt I need to do. About 10:30 we got a knock on the door, and it was my delivery's from Amazon. The cable kits, and the crimper both got here.  Since I hadn't heard from the repair shop about the kits he ordered, I decided that Amazon had won, and I would do the repairs myself. The repairman told me it would take about 3 hours, but I had it done in two. The slide seemed to work great, and I saved some money. If he calls to tell me he finally got the cable kits in, I will buy the kits from him. He has had them on order since the 1st and I ordered them from Amazon on the 7th, so Amazon was much faster.




Up to my elbows hooking up the cable.













It's kind of a tight place to work.










This afternoon was much warmer. the sun came out and it warmed up to above 50 degrees. I also ordered new gaskets for the Pressure Pro sensors. I decided for the whopping price of 50 cents each, plus 3 dollars freight it was probably a good idea.


Part of the sofa I had to take out for the freezer.
We bought a chest freezer to put in our 5er, and have been sort of wishy-washy about whether we would put it in. It is going in the slide that broke the cable. I bought some extra rollers some time back  to help support the floor when it is out. I also bought a roller set to go under the floor when it is in. I finally made my mind up, and took out one section of couch, and am going to install the freezer. I hope with the extra rollers on the outside and the set of rollers when the slide comes in are enough to support everything.









This is where the freezer will go.







That's been my day. Kind of busy, but I got another of the to-do's finished, even though I started another. Thanks for visiting.






Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Tires, Truck Cover, Quilt

Riverton, Utah High 52 Low 41

Today started out clear and sunny. It was quite a bit warmer than yesterday. Late this afternoon it got cloudy again, and cooled off a bit. It brings to mind a saying, "If you don't like the weather this time of year, wait a few minutes". I did get the tire leak taken care of, sort of. It was one of my Pressure Pro senders leaking. I had it on tight, but the o-ring was not seating properly. After I got through, one of the other tires was down a little. I really tightened them, but will likely have to get new gaskets, if they sell them.

Working on the rails for the topper.
I then worked on the bed topper, and got it finished. It looks pretty nice, if I do say so myself. I did have to drill a hole in the bottom for the gas cap. After making some adjustments, it all works and locks as it should. I'm a lot happier with it than the old canvas one held down by Velcro.









Here you can see the hole I had to drill for the fuel cap. I now have one more of my to-dos finished.










I really like the looks of this cover.










I also worked on some loose moldings in side
the 5er, which had come loose on the ceiling. Hopefully what I did will hold better than the job they did from the factory. Good thing for Super Glue.


This quilt is just right for a lap quilt. I think Cindy does nice work.


A few posts ago, I said I would take some pictures of the quilt I was quilting. Cindy made it for a lap quilt on our trip to Alaska, and I got the quilting done a few days ago. I hope the pictures show the quilting enough.





Hopefully, you can see the quilting.
















Tomorrow I'm working on a big king size quilt that will probably take 3 or 4 days to finish. It's for a Christmas present, and Cindy would like to have it finished before we leave for Alaska.

Still no word from the RV place on the cable for the slide. I found the parts on Amazon, and they dropped the price on the cable kits and the crimper,  so I ordered them. We shall see who gets the parts first, him or me. If I get everything first, I will still probably fix it myself, and just buy the extra kits from the repair shop.

That's it for today. Thanks for dropping by.