Getting Ready For A Long Winter?

Ugh.... 

Dreary damp rainy drizzly day!

But it's still warm out. It's not cold enough yet to kick in the furnace. Everything felt damp this morning. Although I woke up early, I stayed in bed in my jammies for quite a while with the electric mattress pad heater.  Finally Steve got up to make coffee. I talked him into lighting the gas fireplace in the living room for a little while. Just to take the chill out. 

He set the flames really really low, you almost can't see them in this picture. But Binney and I curled up on the couch for a while just to watch it and absorb the heat. 

I took care of some paperwork this morning while Steve started a few outside projects. I didn't have time to get too involved in anything big, because I had to leave by 11 a.m. to go to the dentist. It was just a cleaning, no cavities! 

We have a nice little hometown dentist who gives you a discount for paying in cash. It's always so welcoming and comfortable to go there. 

Doc Karbans website

He has a really neat office full of wonderful antiques. They actually use a big silver antique cash register when you pay in cash. What a hoot! Wish I had taken a pic of it.  

Here are some other pics of the office interior from their website:

When I got home from the dentist, we whipped up a little lunch. Then Steve carried out the external propane burner unit and a tank of propane for me. He set it up in the side yard near the water faucet. I was able to fill up a pot that I use only for dying wool, yarn or fabrics, never for food.

The beautiful Heritage Lace curtains I bought last week at the thrift store were a little more yellow than the rest of my other pieces. So I bought a couple boxes of this RIT Color Remover. It needs to be slowly simmered for 20 minutes to brighten up the lace. I used 2 boxes for 8 pieces of curtains.

While monitoring my dye pot, Steve helped me out by moving two big clumps of hydrangea over to a section underneath our new bedroom window. One clump came last spring from Aldi's grocery store, and the other clump came from my brother Butch's front yard!  

We've had them growing in another part of the yard until we were done with this window and siding on this part of the house. So now they've been transplanted and hopefully they will get a good start before winter sets in. Steve was sure to dig up a huge clump of dirt and didn't disturb the root ball very much on either plant. I love hydrangea!

We still have to get up the shutters that I have painted already for the bedroom window. I am still looking for another set long enough for the bathroom window to the right... we might stop at the ReStore tomorrow to see if they have any, along with some gutter down spouts to put in place of the rain chain and water barrel for the winter.  If we can't find them there, I might bite the bullet and buy NEW ones!   OH MY! 

We cleaned up a few more of the flower beds and I took down some of the dead plants that bloomed all summer long. Steve took care of weed whacking down a bunch of the spent hostas that were just drooping and laying on the ground anyhow.  He moved over the other boxwood bush and got that into place up in the front yard.

The dyepot was finally done and I draped the curtains over the fence in the backyard. It really helped to lighten them up.

One more project he wanted to take care of before the cold weather sets in was to add an extra electrical outlet to one end of our front porch. This is so we can easily decorate for Christmas or Halloween without having to run a cord way up by the door near the doorbell which is the only external outlet on that side of the house. 

This one he put down on the edge of the porch on one end and used a special outdoor outlet housing and cover to protect it from the elements.  You can see it on the right hand side of this photo below.

We had planted hollyhocks this year, but they were a little late to get in the ground. So they are also late to be blooming. I will pop off the dried up clumps of seed pods after the blossoms are done and bury them down in the ground. Hopefully it will help replenish them for next year and we will get more on each end of the porch.

They are such pretty old fashioned farmhouse-y type plants. I had to stake up these up this year with green posts. Hopefully next year there will be enough growing next to each other to help support each other as they grow. I can also run a couple little strings around from the front porch railing to help hold them up next year if I need to. 

Soon these blooms will be spent, and Fall will turn to Winter. It kind of seems sad, but I do love the change of seasons.

We did a few more odds and ends around the house and then I whipped up a favorite dish for supper. Favorite for me, Steve not so much. I made shrimp alfredo with linguine noodles and broccoli, cauliflower, and asparagus.

It's a good comfort food for a cold damp and drizzly day. I think this evening I will do a little bit of quilting, a little bit weaving, and Steve will do a little bit perusing of his Facebook Marketplace. You never know what he can find. Maybe there will be a good movie on later? 

We are definitely feeling like we are getting into hibernation mode and slowing down to rest up for a Long Winter. Who knows? Maybe we will take off and go to the desert this winter?

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS - *I* Isolator and Lace

I am going to start off the new year with posting some of our motorhome modifications, a few at a time. I will post repairs, modifications, or neato things we have found for RVing.  I have lots of pics in my files so I will do them in alphabetical order.

Underneath that stuff, I will post my regular daily stuff..... kinda sorta fun, eh?

So here it goes, we are up to the letter I now!

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER I

Isolator:

When we were having alternator troubles, along with our inverter fluctuating up and down, it was not good.  We were told by the alternator rebuilder guy to check our isolator... because *something* was backfeeding into our electrical system and burning out the alternators....

That had me really worried, because it was harming our inverter (a device that changes 12v DC power to 110V AC power) we use it to run things like our tv's, some of the lights, our coffee maker and grinder, curling iron etc.  We can do without them, but it makes it much more comfortable to have them on board. Replacing the 2000 watt inverter would cost more than all three other repairs we had done combined! The water pump, the alternator and the isolator are small potatoes compared to a 2000 watt inverter! About $1,800-2,000 to replace. ACK!

We tested our isolator with a voltage meter and detected some inconsistencies between the posts. It was not isolating the charges correctely and seemed to be bleeding between posts inside somewhere and not working right.

Sooooooooo  We ordered a new one! 

The mail-lady brought Steveio his nice big box with his isolator!   

This is a Happy Man! 

The isolator has to be larger than the alternator's amp output.

So even if the old isolator had been good, we would have had to change it anyhow

to meet the higher output from the new alternator we had just installed.

Here is the old isolator... it is mounted on the wall in the engine compartment which is open to the dusty road and dirty diesel engine.  That is probably 20 years of accumulated dirt on it. LOL... If there was a better spot to relocate it to, Steve will think about it.  For now, he would just mount it where the old one is and use the same cables and wires.

 He held the new one over the area where it would go...

 just so I could take a pic! 

Imagine that.. a man reading INSTRUCTIONS! 

He doesn't do that too often.  

But he had to be sure or else ruin both the isolator and alternator,

and probably our inverter too? 

 He hooked up the wires and double checked and triple checked each one....

•  2 wires on the left are to the chassis batteries and solenoid boost switch on the dash...
•  (next post is skipped)
•  the center post is the alternator and the engine clock. 
• The far right post is for the chassis (house) batteries.

Steve then took out his voltage meter and tested while I fired up the engine. 

I was ready to turn it off if anything was wrong or arcing or heating up. 

Soooo we fired it up

and all systems are GO! 

What a beautiful sight on our Silverleaf readout display.!!!

Everything is working properly... even the inverter!  

Whatever was back-feeding with the old isolator is now corrected.
Whew.... we don't have to replace the inverter now.

~~~~~~~~

Today we ran out for a morning breakfast together. Since Steve started driving for the county in the Old Fart Party Bus, we have not has as many mornings to sit around and enjoy ourselves.  We hit up the Piggly Wiggly grocery store for the sales, and then two thrift shops for a few bargains.

He took off to work about 1 and I ambled up to my sewing machine. A while back I had bought some of this great lace fabric with sewing/spinning/log cabin motifs.  I used up some of them to make these great panels stuck to the french door panes with a cornstarch and water mix recipe.   Here is the blog post I did about making them:

Adding Lace Applique to French Doors

I decided to take the time to measure up  the windows in my loom room and make curtains from the rest of the lace.  The window in that room needed some miniblinds too. We bought some last week and Steve had already installed them over the weekend. Two smaller 40 inch ones were not only cheaper than a big 80 inch one, but also it's lighter to lower and raise each half instead of a long one.

New miniblinds are cordless now, who knew?  You pull them down, and then when you want them up you just push up and they easily retract. neato!  No cords to dangle and tangle! 

I was busy up in my sewing room with my fancy lace.  I cut the lace panels just so. thus making complete squares of motif blocks to start at the top after making the casing, and also end at the bottom of a panel with a thin hem. I also made a couple center valance panels too. 

When I went down to hang them up in the Loom Room, I saw the rod was three inches too low (or I had made the curtains three inches too long??? Naw.....)   

So when Steve got home, I set him to work raising the rod brackets up three inches!   I could have done it myself, but he was there and underfoot, so I put him to work with the HoneyDo Project.  hahahahaha

He was busy up on the ladder while I ironed the final panels to hang them up wrinkle free....  Then I brought them down and he helped slide them onto the rod.  Then he realized he had to lower the center support bracket to make it level.

AHHHHH I really liked how they came out! 

You don't see the design of each separate motif as much,

but they do match the panels on the french doors on the opposite wall.

With the min blinds in place, now I can turn them down a bit on really sunny days when I am in there weaving. This window faces south and this room heats up fast. In the winter it is great, but in the summer months it almost gets unbearable, even with the central air on. This will make a great improvement!

Now.. for the extra lace.  I have looked all over the internet to see who sells lace like this. I can not find it anywhere, so it might be a *one of a kind* thing.  

And last of all, I would like to end up this blog saying Happy Birthday to our son, Mike, in Heaven.

He would be 33 today and we miss him. Each family gathering and holiday, I feel the loss of one more adult child with a spouse and maybe more grandchildren to love.

• I think of his smile and his silly cowboy boots and his willingness to help Steve with whatever he wanted to work on. 
• I think of the sports games he and his brother Dan would play in, while we all sat in the stands to cheer them on. 
• I smile and think of taking him shopping for his first aftershave, or sewing up the rips in his corduroy pants. For the longest time he hated wearing blue jeans.  
• I think of the special bond he had with our youngest daughter Heather and how she proudly drove his old beater car around for a whole year after he passed away.   
• I think of how all four teens would argue and pester each other, but Mike loved it when Erin would bring along friends of hers camping so he could hang out with some really cool chicks from the Big City of Green Bay!
• I think of the time he bought me a Kit Kat from the gas station on his way home for an Xmas present, not having a lot of cash, but knowing it was my favorite. 

We miss you Mike. 

Yes, we do.