EEK EEK a Motorhome LEAK!!!!

Oh my, that bane of RV existence, a LEAK!

A couple weeks ago we saw some water in our basement compartment under the kitchen sink.  OH MY!   Steveio deduced  that it was coming from the black plastic drain pipe joints.  So he disassembled them, and sealed all the seams with TFE paste and thought he took care of it.  He put our small cube electric heater in there to dry up the carpeting.

Fixed?   We thought so....

Last week, more water again!   If you are an RV owner, you KNOW that water in any compartment or cabinet or wall or anywhere is damaging and can lead to long term rot.   Hopefully we don't have much damage, as underneath this blue carpeting is a layer of treated plywood, not pressed wood or buffalo board.

So we dried it up again with the heater and Steve checked and tightened ALL the lines and joints.   Now, in case you think this is a "minor job" ...take a look at the piping behind our water manifold:

This manifold is like a "control panel" for all the devices in the motorhome that function from both hot and cold water feeds.   On the outside, there are a series of ON and OFF levers to control the flow to each appliance or item inside.  We have 2 sinks, shower/tub, toilet, outside shower, washer/dryer, and a separate Uline icemaker appliance.     Steve contorted his lanky long frame down into this compartment and twist around behind the manifold to tighten up each and every joint and fitting.

Fixed?  We thought so.....


I have been under the weather the last few days, I think a flu bug snuck up on me.   Both dogs seemed to be sick too!  They were listless and stinky and blah... so they needed to be perked up with a good bath.  Today I had the water running for a long time, as I washed both dogs in the bathtub inside the rig.  When Steveio checked the basement compartment, sure enough, that same spot in the carpeting was wet again!  So THIS time I said let me run the water inside while he watches underneath in that compartment with a flashlight.  AHHHHHHH he found it!

It was leaking from the pressure switch on our water pump!  No wonder he could not see any leaks from any lines or joints.

Now he needed to release all the water pressure, and then remove that pressure switch.  I had to come out and play "Little Girl with her Finger in the Dike"   while he removed the switch and sealed up and tightened the screws where it was leaking.  It seemed to take ffooorrreeevvveeerrrrrr while I laid in that compartment with my finger stuck in that hole.  Finally he was done and able to slide my finger off, while he popped the pressure switch back into place.  Reconnected the wires and we did a test run.

Wheeeeee it was all done, and didn't seem to leak when we test ran the water again under pressure.  We put the heater back underneath again to dry out the carpeting for the third time.  Three time's the charm, right?


Our campsite number 100 is lovely this week at High Cliff State Park.  Everything around us is golden and yellow and orange and beautiful.

We have been blessed with warm days in the 70's and evenings in the 50's.  But that is soon to change. By the weekend we are going to drop down with overnight lows in the 20's and high winds and it will be blasting the leaves off all of the trees.  The winds are already kicking up tonight and we keep hearing acorns bouncing off the roof as they are worked loose from the trees.  So it will look quite different by tomorrow morning, I think.   For now, I will capture it on digital medium so I can remember the sunshine on my face as I sat here knitting socks outside of the motorhome.  What joy!

Oh, I wanted to write  about a few little baking and cooking things we did this week....

I used to buy these wonderful bottles of dried vegetables at the Piggly Wiggly in Oconto Falls, in their spice department.  I checked two Larry's Piggly Wiggly stores in this area and they don't have them. They are only specific to the Witt's Piggly Wiggly chain in NE Wisconsin. So I begged daughter Erin to pick me up three bottles for me last time she was in Oconto Falls.

They are dried carrots, spinach, onions, celery, bell pepper, and tomatoes.     The bottle is large, about the size of a parmesan cheese shaker bottle.  I love to put them in with rice, pasta, or in cream of potato soup.  Yummmmm

Something else we did last night was to make up some neat little snack cakes from a special blend of  boxed cake mixes.  I wrote about them in another blog in the past. after reading about the recipe on facebook...

Using a new recipe where two boxes of cake mix are blended into a zip lock bag.  One box HAS to be angelfood, (for the included powdered egg whites and rising properties) and the other box can be any flavor. This mixed up bag of powder can be kept in the cupboard indefinitely and scooped from any time you want a quick snack cake! 

Dump 1/2 cup of the blended powder into a coffee cup, add 3TBsp water and blend.  Microwave for 1 minute (10 extra seconds in my smaller microwave) and voila!  You have a snack cake!   

Last night, instead of using coffee cups, I have this cute microwave plastic tray with four hearts.  I mixed up a double batch of the recipe and it's enough for four hearts.  Yummmmmm 

Oooh we each ate two... 

we deserved it after being such good RV plumbers today!