Got Some New Toys - Video Tape Transferring and Digital Camera

Since we're not camping this month, we've been kind of doing a fun project that we have been meaning to get to for a long long time... 

Transferring over old VHS analog tapes into digital format to save on hard drives and flash drives!!! 

We purchased a device from Amazon: 

Video to Digital Converter 3.0, VHS to Digital Converter

It is made to hook up to any video source such as VCR, DVD, camcorders, gaming systems etc. It will take the images (video and audio) and convert them into a digital format that can be saved. I can save it to USB flash drives, SD cards, or USB storage hard drives. It can be transferred into the computer or up into the cloud from there. I am making multiple copies each time I run through a tape so I don't lose anything.

We are uploading onto large multi-terabyte drives for each of our kids... and smaller flash drives to give to all the nephews' families and my siblings to enjoy. 

We did have a bit of struggle to locate a working VHS player to play our 100+ VHS tapes. Yes you've got that right, 100+ tapes of precious family memories!!! From 1984 up to about 2004. Then I had switched to digital cameras with later years already digitalized.

I thought I had had a spare VCR packed away somewhere, but we could not locate it. So we finally found a good working one at a pawn shop in a neighboring town for $29.

Afterwards, we found the working VCR player that I had packed away underneath the layers of VHS tapes in one of these totes! LOL LOL LOL

While we are dubbing over the videos from analog to digital, we are able to also run an HDMI cable to our TV. So we could either watch it on the little screen of the transfer device, or watch it on the TV as we edit through and delete or keep various sections of tape. 

Amidst the tears, the laughter, the exclamations of delight, and the fond memories vaguely coming back into view....  This has been quite a journey! 

While the scenes are playing across our TV, I snapped a few with my phone of our TV screen. The actual video images are much sharper that are saved to the hard drives.

I won't bore you with many, but here's a few shots from our video of our wedding that we never really got still photos of. Now we can! 

OUR VOWS
WITH OUR CHILDREN AS BEST MEN AND HONORLY MAIDENS

MR AND MRS PFUNDTNER

FAMILY TOSSING BIRDSEED AT CHURCH

CUTTING OUR CAKE AT THE RECEPTION

Incidentally, for those who don't know, Steve and I got married at a state park! Yes we did. It was actually Heritage Hill State Park in Green Bay where we rented the Moravian church and hired a carriage with horses to carry us away for our reception and honeymoon! 

Our honeymoon entailed hopping into our travel trailer and looping around Lake Superior for 2 weeks for a private getaway. 

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Family photos have always been very important to us. As well as family videos. I have been taking a lot of photos over the years and started my photography journey way back with a Polaroid One Step Land Cameras in the 1970s with the ejected photo that changed before your eyes! 

From there it was little 126 or 110 instamatic drop in cartridge cameras. Point and shoot. Then mail the cartridge off to Rex Photo Service in an orange envelope and wait two weeks for your prints to come back.

(You never knew if they turned out or not, but you had to pay for them in advance anyhow!)

Then in the 1980s I graduated to a Pentax k1000 SLR camera! I learned all about f-stops and apertures, using the match needle in the screen and adjusting everything on my own. Photo developing was still pretty expensive with 35 mm rolls. I learned how to develop my own films and even buy film in bulk and load my own cartridges! I then got some used blackroom equipment and did my own developing too.

About 1984, a good friend of mine, Gary, had a huge JVC video camera with a two-deck recording unit that you had to haul one portion along on a strap over your shoulder plus operate the big wieldy camera on the other shoulder. It was like a news crew camera. He started filming our first child at only 1-year-old. So we have precious video from that time forward. He was there the day we took our second child home from the hospital. 

We would borrow his video camera on and off for the first year or two. After that my good friend Connie bought one of the big RCA VHS cameras that sits up on your shoulder. We would borrow that every now and then to record precious family events over the next few years. 

Finally in 1990 I got my own big RCA VHS camera that sat on my shoulder! I was the "mom with the camera" and I filmed everything for our kids. Every school play, every sporting event, and all of our camping and holidays. I would make copies for all the other members of the family to play in their VHS players. That's why I have so many tapes!!

After I met Steve, the big VHS camera was not working as well anymore. He surprised me at Christmas with the smaller handheld video camera with the little C cartridge tapes. Oh my, that was so easy to take around and film things. But I still had to go home and dub them from the little C cartridges up to the big VHS tapes. 

About the same time, the real estate company that I worked with wanted to invest in a digital camera. These were huge devices about the size of binoculars that would save two or three photos to a 3.5 floppy disk. I kid you not. The little floppy disk inserted into the camera and you could click click click and take a couple photos. Then you had to switch discs. 

Our company was the first to own a digital camera that they ordered through the fancy camera store in Green Bay. Even the camera store guys had never seen one, much less used one. It was cutting edge technology for them. They sent me off to Photoshop School for 2 weeks to learn how to use it and how to adapt and manipulate the images once they were on our computer screens. These were the days before the internet even, so we had to courier the discs over to the newspaper to be printed in the ads for the open houses on the weekends. It was quite an involved process. But I was glad to be in on the ground floor of learning about digital photography. 

From there it was an easy step to a smaller Nikon digital camera. Even though they were very expensive back in the mid '90s, it was so nice to be able to come home and just pop a little SD card out of the camera and into the computer. Or plug it in directly with a cord! No more dubbing to VHS tapes. Now I started saving all of our video onto the laptop and various hard drives as backups.

Gone are my days of the film camera. But I really did miss a good quality camera like my old Pentax SLR. 

So for my birthday this year, Steve surprised me with a Panasonic Lumix FZ80 digital camera. The zoom on this thing is amazing at 1200 mm. It will also record video as well as capturing digital images. It's what's called a "bridge camera" where it's not quite an SLR with interchangeable lenses. But it's very handy to have it all in one and take some quality photos again. Just in time for going to Alaska this summer!

As soon as I got it, I knew I wanted to protect it with a really nice leather cover. Rather than just tossing it on the dash in a vehicle in between shots, this camera will be protected. I can take it on hikes or e-bike rides and it will be protected hanging around my neck with this beautiful leather case on it. I like it cuz it's kind of funky and old fashioned looking. Real "photography-ish".

For Christmas, I got this really nice camera bag for all the additional gear. It can also carry both of my GoPro cameras and some small handheld tripods and selfie stick. It's a place to carry along the extra batteries and chargers and cords. The back half of it also can carry my laptop for digital editing. The case comes apart into three pieces or zips all together into one. There are straps on the bottom to carry a tripod.

Now I can keep everything neat and organized and in one place. Especially during our travels, I don't want things rattling around loose in the motorhome. It has straps to carry it as a backpack, or I can strap it right to the back of the e-bike.

I found a really nice tripod, which is very necessary for good shots. One leg unscrews to become a monopod to carry along on hikes.

I am just totally tickled with this camera. I am learning bit by bit and watching some YouTubes by Graham Houghton who seems to be an expert on this particular model. I also ordered his book that I will have to study. Imagine that, with all my experience of photography, I need to study and do homework?

Here's one of my first shots of the Moon the other night.

I am flabbergasted at how this cute little digital camera can take such good photos! 

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Now on to something else. Nicholas was really excited to have a friend come over this week. Steve's brother Pete has a very well behaved dog named Finn. He came over to hang out with Nicholas while the guys were busy playing cards together for the afternoon. 

Nicholas shared all of his toys, and we took out a few of the Himalayan yak cheese dog chews so each dog could have their own. 

Every now and then Nicholas would collect all the dogs chews and bring them down to the she-shed where I was sewing. Then Finn would have to come back down and collect his and bring it back up to where the guys were playing cards in the dining room.

Both dogs were very well behaved together. Nick was hoping that Finn would chase the ball and run around the yard with him. Finn was more interested in sniffing and chewing on the Himalayan stick. 

Here is a link to the ones that we order. They are so much better for the dogs than rawhides (which are dangerous and don't digest) And these slowly wear down from chewing. They are made from dried yak cheese.

EcoKind Premium Gold Yak Cheese Himalayan Dog Chews

Once the bone gets a little too small, it can be tossed in the microwave to puff up and get soft. It can be cut into little tiny pieces then and used as treats.

As Finn left, poor Nick stood at the door watching him go. Awwwww

We will have to arrange another play date soon....

The bitter cold has arrived in Wisconsin, just like many other parts of the country. We will only have the next two days of warmer weather. But then we plunge back down into the depths of bitter cold and below zero temps by the weekend. 

It will be a good time to sit inside, and dub over more of these videos.

Down With Decorations - Dog Park - Making Plans

 It's that time... Sadly the Christmas decorations need to get stowed away for next year.

We started with the tree. Bit by bit, each ornament was carefully packed away. Fond memories of each one. Who gave it, what were the circumstances, and especially the homemade ones by the grandchildren. Wrapped in tissue paper, put in little boxes and organized for next year. On one side there was a box of oddball things that needed to just go to Goodwill.

Chelsea was our decorator with arranging the lights on the tree. She did such a good job nesting the lights in deeply and tucking them around branches. It took quite a process to get them off again! She did a great job.

The tree is artificial but looks very real. It comes apart in 5 pieces and stows into two big huge boxes that we have left over from when we purchased our e-bikes. A lot easier to store it in boxes than stuffing it into those tree storage bags.

Bit by bit, all of the little knickknacks around the house were gathered up and stowed away in the Christmas totes. A couple of years ago I bought all of these green totes with red lids. No missing the fact that they are Christmas decorations! Steve started carrying them out while I had one last mug of Tom and Jerry eggnog drink. It's the end of the bucket. The local stores don't carry it after the holidays. I rationed it out to stretch it for the whole season.

Here is most everything stacked up and ready to go out into the garage. I feel a little sad, but I'm glad everything is organized and ready for next year.

We waited until it warmed up to 30° today about noon. We put on our jackets and boots and headed on out with snips and pliers to remove all the staples and wire ties on the front porch decorations. Brrrrrr!

Are we the only ones who store our Christmas decorations in toilet boxes?

Steve used the needle-nose pliers to pull out the staples in the columns. I carefully rolled up each red velvet ribbon so I know which ones I need for next year. Since they are all the same length and they make the right amount of wraps on the columns. 

I think they look like peppermint sticks. 

We gathered up the garlands and the lights to stow away in the boxes as well as the big snowflakes made from plastic dollar store hangers. We have little tiny white rubber coated screw in hooks inserted all along the porch ceiling that we can hang the lights from. We leave those up year round. Makes it a lot easier to put up the garland every year along the underneath edge of the roof line.

Last but not least is our little pergola between the She Shed and the garage. I ran a little short on ribbon last year so I have to cut a new piece this year of the length of the one on the right so they are both symmetrical for next year!!

OCD much? 

Stowed away safe and sound in the garage until next year.

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Earlier this week, even though it was cold out, we had a chance to stop at the dog park in Oconto Falls.

Nick has only been here once before. We were glad there weren't any other dogs around so he could run and play with the ball that we brought along. We got him some good exercise cuz it's been so cold we haven't really been taking as many walks as we should. With him being nearly two years old, he has a LOT of energy to burn off every day.

I just love this sign that they put up there on the fence. It is located next to a receptacle that dispenses doggy bags and a little trash container too. No excuse for not cleaning up after your dog.

Nick had a blast playing with his red ball. Back and forth and back and forth he went between Steve and I. We also worked on some training with him on recalls. You know "COME" and "SIT" and "STAY". Basic obedience stuff.  Being in the fenced in and secured area, we can do some practice off-leash. Hopefully if he ever accidentally happened to be off-leash, he would listen to our training and decide to come back to us. Sometimes, he gets so focused on other things that I don't think he would even hear us, much less pay attention to any commands. Good reason to keep him on leash every single time he is out the door. 

Of course, I had to make a little video of Nicholas having such a fun time: 

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Speaking of pets, our granddaughter Chelsea got a new pet for her birthday. I guess this makes it our "Grandsnake"? His name is Skittles and he is a het bald pied python. 

Chelsea loves animals. She also has a hedgehog named Kiwi. Plus two family dogs and two family cats. 

I don't think we have to babysit... But I did have a pet garter snake when I was a kid, so I'm not too squeamish about them. His name was "Snakely Whiplash".  

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Now that it's been so cold out, I had a little bit of time to work on my current quilt. Vermont Maple Leaves. I mentioned it before that I was inspired by a quilt we saw at a Vermont Visitor Center the previous fall.  I am up to about 30 blocks. I think I will need closer to 80.

While I am sewing, Steve and Nick hang out in my She Shed with me. It is such a cozy place to be together even if he's watching football and Nick is chewing on his toys. 

I am tucked away at my sewing desk in the corner working on my quilts.  

I really enjoy sewing on this cute little antique Singer Featherweight sewing machine. I do have other fancier bigger and newer machines, but this one is just so adorable. I love creatively putting together these leaves and little patterns of contrasting and coordinating prints and fabrics.

Oh, I forgot to mention one more thing that Nicholas got for Christmas. It is a "goat ball" seriously. It is made for goats to play with. It is a little smaller than a yoga ball. It has a polyester fabric cover that helps prevent punctures. 

It's exactly what Nick needed to keep him from biting the ball.

We ordered them from Amazon. We got a set of two. We can take the other one in it's deflated form with us in the motorhome. That way if we ever camp someplace with a fenced in dog area, he can play with a ball. 

The deflated ball is folded up small and tucked inside of the polyester fabric cover. There's a small opening with a zipper. Once the ball is inside, the attached inflation tool can pump it up to full size. They can be ordered in 18-in or 22 in size. Then they are plugged and the zipper is drawn over the opening. 

Here Steve has it almost totally inflated on Christmas morning. What is nice, is they can be deflated for storage or for traveling. Perfect!

Here is the second one still in the box, that we will take with us in the motorhome during future travels. 

He really seems to enjoy the ball. He can bite the cover occasionally with his teeth and drag it around if he wants to. Mostly he drives it around like a soccer ball, and pretends it's a great big sheep that he is herding. He makes it go exactly where he wants it to go and brings it right back around to us so we can kick it up in the air again. 

Here is a link to the balls: 

VercanMonth 4 Pcs 2 Set Goat Ball

That's about it for today. It's time to sit back and relax a little bit by the fireplace, and enjoy my last Tom and Jerry.  Starting to make traveling plans for the upcoming year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Installing Bilstein B6 Camper Advanced Struts on 2016 Winnebago View

Okay, this post is moving on to the next part of upgrading our suspension. These are the front struts. We also know that they are in need of replacement.

So since we are not traveling right now, it's good to make a couple posts of the things that we've done to the motorhome, to make our traveling better!

Keep in mind, these pictures and information were from our maintenance done during Labor Day weekend at home. We were in between our trip to US 2 West, and then we took off again and went on US 2 East. 

It was going to be a very hot muggy day, but Steve wanted to get these struts replaced. We parked the front of the motorhome in the shade as best possible and decided the quicker we did this job, the better before the sun advanced too far into our work area.

Yes, I did make a video of the entire process. If you would like to watch that, here's the link to my YouTube channel with the complete video from start to finish.

He ordered up the struts for our 2016 Winnebago View on a 3500 Sprinter chassis from Shock Warehouse. They were $199 each plus free shipping. Here is the link

https://www.shockwarehouse.com

Here is the complete list with part numbers and where we ordered each part from for what we needed to do this job.

Everything arrived quickly and we were able to start the removal and replacement right in our own driveway.

Steve has all the gear ready, as well as secure blocking and jacking for the front of the motorhome.  I help as much as I can, and I'm the go-fer to get the parts and things that he maybe forgot. But usually, he has everything assembled and ready to go. 

The arrows below are showing how far the sun is moving forward on the motorhome. It's the sun comes up from the east on the far side of the garage and pokes its head over the roof, with the receding shadow moving towards the front of the rig. This is why we want to get it done before we are out in the blistering hot sun. For some reason the temperatures were really high and things were extremely muggy.

His first step was to remove the entire wheel and make sure everything is blocked up securely.

On the inside he needs to loosen this nut at the top of the strut post. It is located underneath the carpet under the front dash area inside the cockpit of the motorhome. Pretty convenient that it's not all grubby and rusty and full of gunk up in the engine compartment.

He easily got the old struts off because they were very worn out. He compressed them down and popped them out with no problem at all. Luckily, the nuts and bolts were not rusted so they removed easily.

The old one is the black one on the right,  and the new one is the yellow one on the left.

Once he had them off he did a little demonstration on the video linked above. I took some still shots of his demonstration. It shows how easily he can compress the old shock. Very little effort needed. Yes, they were in need of replacement.

The new shocks are specifically designed for the Winnebago View on the Sprinter chassis 3500. They are made for the additional weight of the camper portion which is added to the Sprinter frame. That was something lacking in the original design. That is why Bilstein calls these their "Camper Advanced B6 struts". 

It definitely took more effort to compress the new one enough to get it lifted up and put into place.

There's a tiny little wire with a clip on it that you need to be really careful to not dislodge it or bend it or rip it apart. This is part of the ABS brake sensor wiring. It's all computerized. Don't break that wire, it's really costly to replace! 

So he had carefully balanced the entire hub on some extra jacks and blocking to make sure this wire did not get pulled or yanked in any awkward direction.

Once the strut was into place he was able to slide in the bolts. One to hold the strut, the other to adjust the camber (alignment).

We had ordered a new camber bolt for each strut, as well as a boot and a mounting plate and strut stop. But since the originals were still in good condition, we didn't use any of the other parts. 

(We later found out during the alignment, that the Mercedes dealership would prefer the original camber bolts and not the new ones we had bought. Good thing we had taken both types with us to the dealership!)

He torqued up the lower mounting bolt to 129 ft lbs., per the specs from Bilstein. The upper camber bolt was just put into place in a pretty good position until the alignment that would be done the next morning at the dealership. 

Steve put the wheel back on, torqued everything up, and now we are able to remove the jacks and safely put the rig back on the ground.

Now he just needs to tighten up the top nut on the inside of the strut, under the dash in the cockpit of the motorhome. A little allen wrench is inserted in the top to keep it from pivoting while he tightens up the bottom nut.

By this time, the temperature had increased and it was extremely hot and humid. We both needed a well-deserved break before we put away all of our tools. This humid weather just is not comfortable for us in our old age!

After a quick breather, we got up and put things away. It's always good to get it all stowed away where it belongs each time after we're done. That way we aren't losing things or misplacing them or having things walk off mysteriously. 

Now we fired up the rig and took off for a test drive! 

As we headed out of town, the first real test are the very, very bumpy railroad tracks within a half mile of our house.  

WOWSERS!!!! What a difference! With these new struts, in addition to the new shocks a few days before. We noticed in incredible change in the handling of our rig. 

Incidentally, a Hellwig sway bar had also been added by the previous owner. In case any of you were wondering.

We got home and parked the motorhome in it's spot. It's ready now for our next adventure. 

(After the alignment at Mercedes in Appleton the next morning)

These new improvements will greatly assist with the rough roads up to Alaska for the summer of 2025.

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And here's my darling Mr Steveio, looking somewhat pleased with himself. It's because of his skill and knowledge and willingness to tackle these jobs that makes it more budget friendly for our travels. 

I know sometimes I sound like I'm bragging about him. But really, I am so proud of him being able to do this stuff. I know that it's something that I can't do by myself. And paying somebody else to do it really is tough on the budget. 

Thank you, Steve!