Brrrrr, handwoven towels, and Motorhome Modification Post - AWNING LOCK

Brrrrr  we woke up to a bitter 3 degrees this morning, and wind chills of 11 below.  I am not sure I am ready for this, after such a mild November and December.  It's been unseasonably warm here in Wisconsin until now.....  and our snow covering is only a scant dusting.  Normally we have a foot or more of snow on the ground by now.  The problem with lack of snow cover means the frost is driven even deeper into the ground, without the insulating layer of snow to protect it.  This means frozen water pipes and troubles with septic systems... not to mention lack of moisture from melting snows for springtime.  Later we could see drought conditions in Wisconsin if we don't get enough snow during the winter months.  So I guess I won't complain if we get buried in snow, huh?

Our river is finally freezing over, and soon it will become a racecourse for the snowmobiles running up and down it if we do we get the snow.  It's a wide enough river to become a winter "road" for the snowmobiles and it's always startling to see the first few machines of the season come roaring up at night with headlights bouncing and engines revving --- when previously it's been quiet and peaceful along the river.  But this too shall pass when the spring temps melt the ice and snow, and our river is a quiet border to the south of our property again.  Then we only see a silent canoe or kayak slip on past, or a fisherman in waders flyfishing the shady spots along the banks.

So now the sun is coming up as I write this, glinting gold between the frosty frozen dark trunks of the trees, but the sky is blue and it's going to be a nice (but cold) day here in Wisconsin.

Let's see... on to a Motorhome Modification.   I am going to post one per blog entry to get me through the winter and try to make this blog interesting to my readers, many of whom are RVers.  

Since I started allowing the 3 Adsense ads by Google that appear on my blog, I can see how many people click on them that are of RVing interest, and I can earn a bit of income when the ads are clicked about various items.  I guess that Google tries to match the ads to the content of my posts.  I don't see the ads myself, so I don't know what is posted.  If any are of "questionable" content, please advise me and I can request that certain ads are blocked from my blog.


Here is my Motorhome Modification for today:

A lot of RV folks have had their awnings unfurl when driving in windy conditions.  The arms may stay locked and upright, but the awning could release and unroll right at the top of the roofline!   It will billow out off the side of the rig and flapping and tearing in the wind and can cause an awful accident!  

(this happened to my folks on the interstate one rainy stormy night on their motorhome.. what a SCARE!)

Although our awning has a nice aluminum cover for the first foot or so, called an awning wrap, so I think that may protect the awning moreso than the type where the awning fabric runs right up to the roofline. But a bit of insurance is well worth the risk of having it unfurl accidently.

We have seen various awning locks on the market, some are straps that you drill into the roof and wrap around the center of the awning roller, some are little snap locks that stick up and into the roller once you are lined up correctly.   But Steve saw this idea and made our own.    The front end of our roller has a lever type lock, (which are known to sometimes release and fail)  so he added this bar device to the rear end of our roller for extra measure.  It prevents the roller from unfurling outwards with a strong steel rod that goes about 8 inches into the roller end cap.  And it can be reached from the ground to insert or remove it.

 And there you have it.


Time to finish my second cup of coffee here, and get my butt back to work.  Now that the post office is open today, I have shipments to get out and more towels to weave.  

I join a weaving exchange group each year where we send in either 6 or 12 handwoven towels and in return we get other towels back woven from people all around the country and some from other countries too!   I have 2 done and 4 more to go for that project and would like to get them finished up soon and out in the mail.

I like making each one different, because they are all going to different people anyhow.

The variegated colored yarn is from my weaving friend Rosie in Missouri.  The colors are kinda Southwestern, of a terra cotta, teal, rust and rose.   The cream sections is  rough bumpy cotton boucle yarn that is a favorite of my weaving friend Linda in Tennessee.  We used to get that at R&M yarns in Tennessee, but they are out of it now and may not be able to ever get it again.  So these are my last cones of this lovely product.  Sigh.