Bit of Football, RV Winterization, Baking and Baby Boy

Wow, this week went fast---- and I am wayyy behind in posting a blog!  I am so sorry!!

Monday was our Packer Night with a game against the Vikings.  I had decided during the day that our motorhome has such NICE recliner chairs, which would be perfect to sit in and watch the game.  We just got the chairs a few weeks ago, and haven't used them much.  

So in the mid-afternoon, I fired up the heater and brought our snacks out to the rig in the driveway.   Steveio came home from work and was smiling at me like I was some lunatic when I said I wanted to watch the game from out in the driveway.  But, being the wonderful enabling husband that he is, we spent the evening in the rig.  Of  course the doggers had to go along with us too.  A whole 20 steps from the house!  LOL

Because we were so cozy and warm in there, we also turned on the electric mattress pad heater and crawled into bed during the last quarter.  The Packers won (45-7) and we spent the whole night in the driveway!   It's been around or below freezing as of the last few weeks, so there isn't any water in the rig.  I had planned ahead and even brought out enough water to fill the dogs dish and perk some coffee in the morning before Steve had to leave for work.

Speaking of water, as of today, we have the rig all winterized for the season.  For the non-RVers reading this blog, that means we have to blow out all the water from the lines with the air compressor, which we did a few weeks ago due to the freezing temps.   We had hoped to get in a few more camping weekends so we didn't fill with the antifreeze yet.  Until today.  I think after looking at our weather forecast, this is the end of camping for the year. The deep freeze is coming.

Today we filled the lines up with pink safe anti-freeze made for this purpose (not to be confused with car anti-freeze!)  

Here is the little part Steveio made up to attach his air line of the compressor to the water inlet line on our motorhome.  He also has another plug part that fits on the water heater fitting to blow that out too.

Some people just blow out the lines with air and leave it at that.  That may work okay in some of the more southern climates, but here in the frigid north, those bits of water left behind in lines, especially in drooping lines in the walls you can not see, can still freeze.  Of course, freezing water expands and can split the lines.  Having split lines hidden in walls is NOT a nice thing to discover come springtime.  Also, traces of water in faucet valves, or in those faucet cartridges or ball devices like our Moen faucets can be very expensive to replace if they crack.   We make sure we fill the sprayer hose in the kitchen too.   It is not nice to have them ruined.  So we err on the side of caution and add the pink.   It also seems every spring either one or the other of the sink drains or the faucet hose connections are loose... the plastic fittings get backed up by expanding moisture in the threads.   A good thing to check each spring is each one of the fittings to be sure nothing has had expansion and contraction going on inside of it. 

We bypass the water heater and drain that too, and also the ice cube maker unit which is a separate unit from our refrigerator.   Then we loosen the hoses on the washing machine and pour antifreeze in the end of the hoses with a funnel to get it down in the machine innard, and run the machine a bit to suck it down into the washing machine pump and drainage lines inside.   The previous owner didn't do that, so when we got the unit, we had to deal with replacing a cracked washing machine pump!  Soon all the lines were filled with pink antifreeze, and a good dollop dumped down each drain to fill the P-traps in the pipes.  We pour about a half gallon in the grey and black tanks to be sure it gets way down by the dumping valves, so any trapped water down in that area is at least diluted by the pink antifreeze.

In the spring --- or IF we take off in mid-winter to go south for a vacation-- we reverse the process by rehooking things up, and filling with fresh water a few times to rinse out the pink stuff.  Then we are good to go!

It's such a sad task to do, because it means the end of camping season....  or nearly.  We have been known to use the rig after the lines are winterized, and just take along jugs of drinking water, a teakettle to heat up washing water on the stove, and a gallon of pink antifreeze to use for flushing the toilet.

Incidentally, I had hoped to go camping one more time this weekend, but the weather forecast is calling for ***S*N*O*W***  and we don't care to get the rig undercarriage all covered with the layers of road salt that Wisconsin is so famous for.   Plus, we had hoped to camp with our friends Sharon and Fred one last time.  They are the ones with the new Tiffen on my last blog--- they already headed south on Thursday to beat the weather.    So we are home.  sigh

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Wednesday I decided to swipe a little girl from the daycare at 3 pm.  She had been asking over and over to make pies... she keeps talking about "make apples go round and round" !  She remembers making the pies with me last time and she has it in her little mind to do them again.   We use a Norpro Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer device.

Once the apple pies were in the oven, then we decided to try a pumpkin pie.  She has also been asking about pumpkin pies, and it was time to teach her how to crack her first egg!  

 (she did good, but thought the orange circle was a mandarin orange 

and she tried to scoop it out to eat it) 

She mixed up the pie filling and we poured it in the waiting crust.  While that was baking, we also did up 2 dozen pre-made sugar cookies and I let her put on some little brown and orange sprinkles for a festive fall treat.  

And here is the little Baker Girl with an array of culinary delights!

Wednesday was also a special day for us... after our baking was done, our son Dan called us after their doctor appointment... it turns out that our daughterinlaw Heather is going to have a baby BOY!!!!   The Pfundtner Name will be carried on now with a boy.

(Kinda looks like Dan by the profile, huh?) 

That makes one of each for them, our sweet Allegra will have a little brother.  

For us, that will make it two boys and two girls in the count of grandkids, and we have to add in the final baby of Erin and Mark's coming a week after Heather's.  She won't know the gender yet till Dec 1, so that will be the tie-breaker!    That is .. IF .. they want to know.  They are not sure yet if they want to know or not, so will see after the appointment on Dec 1st.   I never knew with our kids, I wanted to be surprised!

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I went out to the rig and hauled in the last few things that might freeze up, like shampoo, cold medicine, my clothes iron which has some water in the steam compartment, and hauled in my spinnning wheel from the closet.  Haven't had much time to spin lately, it's usually a thing I do to relax and enjoy the production of turning wool into yarn.   I have been extremely busy this week working on sock orders, with over 50 pairs in my Estores and shipped out 20+ pairs to special order customers this week alone.   Here are some of the most recent creations!

 For my new readers---- here is my 1925 Gearhart Sock Knitting Machine that I use to create my socks:

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I am thinking that is about enough for today's blog... 

and it's dreary and dark and sleeting outside.  

I am thinking it's about time for a NAP! 

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