MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS *A* and New Bookcase

Well, I am thinking that I need to get more motorhome stuff and RVing stuff in my blog.  Since we do not plan to go anywhere yet this winter (I think) I am pretty sure things will get boring for my blog readers.  Since so many folks are visiting my blog posts (past and present posts) I thought I would change things up around here. I get a lot of requests for modification and repair blog topics.

I am going to start off the new year with posting three of our motorhome modifications 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:

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER A 

Adapting the Air Conditioner Air Flow- 

One hot summer day, while minding my own business, and sitting in the totally hot motorhome in the basking sunshine....  The air conditioning was helping some, but the air conditioners blow out straight to the front and rear along the ceiling of the coach. We noticed that on such humid hot days, we were not feeling much comforting cool air sitting down below it. 

My darling husband stood up and went outside to his handy dandy tool compartment.  He walks back in with a drill and a big hole saw bit.  He reached inside the little fin openings of our roof air conditioner and wiggled his fingers around a bit. He grinned.  He turned off the air conditioner.  Then he stuck that hole saw up against the outside housing and started to DRILL A FREAKING HOLE in our air conditioner surround!   

Yup.. he sure did!  I grabbed the camera to document his temporary insanity!  

Look at that!  A big huge gaping hole in our air conditioner surround!  He smiled and turned the air back on and voila.... a big blast of cool air came down into the motorhome's livingroom! It was instantly cooler feeling on us to have the air blowing down.

Next, stealing the idea from our Safari-owning friend Mel, Steve took the inside housing off and rivited on a slider vent grid. Mel gave him that too. Now he can control the flow of air if we do not want it blowing full blast, or partial flow, or shut it off. Of course it still has the original side grid openings to use as intended.

Screwing it back on, and feeling pretty proud of himself, I should think. 

 Hahhahaaaa

What a great improvement!  I think Steve should be a consultant to the Duo Therm company on how to improve the air flow with their rooftop air conditioners!

We did notice (in the past before we did this improvement) that if we closed off one end of the air conditioner vents and try to blast it all out the other side, then a condensation effect on the inside metal housing shoots darkened particles across the ceiling carpeting, causing greyish streaks on the carpeted ceiling.  The only thing that cleaned them off was Fantastic Oxy Power cleaner. Since doing this alteration we do not get that grey streak build up anymore. P.S. Whomever thought creamy white carpeted ceilings in a motorhome was a good idea should be shot! 

Twist Lock Adaptor from 50 amp plug to a 15 amp service- 

We bought this device from an RV camping store not long after we first bought the diesel pusher with those big huge 50 amp twist lock power cords.  It runs around $40.00 or so. Many times we want to just plug in our rig in our yard before leaving to run the fridge, load up, or vacuum after a trip.  Hauling out that huge 50 amp service cord 25 foot long, it is a huge heavy SNAKE!  Weighs about 20 pounds and is pretty unwieldy and stiff. Since the garage only has 15 amp service, we had to use a small adapter at the receptacle end anyhow.  Why not use this instead with a good heavy 12 gauge cord? Also, our big thick 50 amp cord is not laying out enticing copper thieves... They are quite pricey to replace... in the $150-175 range. Yes, that year we bought this, some thieves at a nearby RV dealer uncoiled all of the cords on travel trailers and some motorhomes and cut them off to sell for the copper!  ACK!  

We are not sure how many thieves this deterred, but it makes life easier when just needing to plug into regular household 15 amp service. 

Air Filter for a 3126 Cat diesel engine- 

This isn't really a modification so to speak.  But I thought I would post what an air filter looks like for a big ole diesel engine!  How many folks realize that our big old motorhomes need such huge air filters?  They run in the $125 range.   We used to change them fairly often, about every 10,000 miles.

There is a handy dandy little air filter minder gauge that tells you how dusty your filter is and how low the air flow is getting, indicating that it needs to be changed with a new one. We do drive on some gravel roads that kick up dust, and since the air intake is at the back of a diesel motorhome, it can mean changing air filters even more often. 

HINT---- DO NOT BANG YOUR AIR FILTER ON THE GROUND THINKING YOU CAN KNOCK OUT THE DUST AND USE IT AGAIN.... OR BANG A NEW ONE BEFORE INSTALLING.  Doing so can knock loose the paper folded inside fins and allow dirt INTO your delicate engine, and ruin it. 

 (that is called a ''dusted'' engine, thus needing to be rebuilt!) 

In my next blog, I will post about a modification that Steve (and Mel) did 

to our Safari Motorhomes to help the prevent the amount of dirt coming into air intake

 and how to change the air filter less often! 

That is my cliffhanger to my modification posts.....

~~~~~~~~

Now on to my normal blog yammering.  I know you are probably sick and tired of hearing about Steve's retirement. But.... actually today is very first OFFICIAL day of being retired. His last scheduled day to be a State of Wisconsin employee was Dec. 30. He was just burning up unused vacation days from the 22nd until now. He could have taken them as cash payout, but that is subject to taxes. Might as well burn them up in time off, right?  

This is how he is experiencing his first day of retirement:

-Sleeping in till 7:45 a.m. when he is usually at work by that time.

-Yacking with my brother on Facebook Video Chat (a first time for both of them!)  

-Then I made him breakfast and served him on his ''throne''... hahahaha

-Moccasin slippers on his feet

-Internet on his laptop to search for bargains on Craigslist and Facebook

He spent the day doing computer stuff, house hold stuff, and suffering yet from a cold.

 He is now watching PBS This Old House while I am typing this.

On my end, I am happily sorting out and stacking some of my current quilting projects on a new shelf that he found for me on the local Buy Sell Trade Facebook pages. Always looking for a good deal, he found me this set of shelves that fit perfectly on the narrow wall in my sewing room. 

I finished the free motion quilting stitching on my newest motorhome quilt. I will post pics of that huge one when I get the binding done in the next few days.

I also sewed up 4 or 5 more blocks for my newest quilt in progress, a log cabin quilt in all of my favorite colors! Peaceful afternoons are spent in my sewing room on my treadle sewing machine, making up fun creations.

Well, supper is done, (lasagna!)

Gotta go! 

The Rest of Christmas and a Family Treasure

I pooped out the other night while writing my blog. I only got up to writing about Friday and Saturday of our Christmas celebrations.  I was too tired to finish... so now I will try to catch up.

Sometimes I feel this blog is kinda like a diary of my own thoughts and family happenings, but other times it amazes me on how many people read my blog.  Did you know already today I have over 3,000 people looking at my blog?  And yesterday it was almost up to 3,000? It just totally boggles my mind for sure!

I wholeheartedly thank each and every one of you for coming here to see what I have to say, enjoy my photos, and leave comments about what I write.  I try to add a lot of motorhome renovations and projects around the house, and not gum it up too much with baby pics and doggie stuff!

~~~~~~~~~

OH well, on to Christmas!  For Christmas Eve, Steve and I planned a quiet evening at home. On our way back from Oconto, we popped into Festival Foods to get some of their fresh snow crab legs for our evening feast.  Yummmmm  Steveio steamed them up in our propane burner unit outside with the big steaming kettle. That keeps the smells and the excess moisture out of the house.

With soft Christmas Carols playing in the background, we sat down to a great meal with glasses of wine, good food, and wishes and plans for the upcoming year. Our conversation wandered from projects to do, places to see, working out the retirement budget, and of course how great our meal was together. It was great to sit back and unwind a bit after two days with our silly kids and energetic grandkids.  We did some pretty good damage to 3.5 pounds of crab legs for sure!

Christmas morning was exciting for the dogs, so things were not too quiet.  They unwrapped their own presents and little Binney had to tell us ALL about what Santa brought her.  Toys and doggie treats is all they wished for.  And they got it.  LOL

About 11 a.m. the patriarch of the Pfundtner Clan came over. Steve's dad drove over from Waupaca to spend some time with us and exchange presents.  It was so pleasant spending the morning with him and his companion, Millie, the springer spaniel he has trained for therapy dog visits to nursing homes.  We then hopped into his truck and drove on down to Belgium to take part in the Pfundtner Family Gathering at Steve's sister's house.

Wonderful food, family laughter, presents and fun stories...  it was a great way to finish off the Christmas holiday.  Dangnabbit I set down my phone when we came in and never took a single pic! We drove on back home as the weather was changing from rain to sleet!  Nervous about sending Steve's dad on home that last 45 miles or so to Waupaca... but he said he would be fine and call us when he arrived home safe and sound. He did and we slept peacefully that night.


I wanted to mention a Pfundtner Family Treasure that was recently bestowed on Steve.  If you remember, I was bestowed a special family heirloom a while back by Steve's dad:

http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2016/11/family-treasures.html

Now it was Steve's turn!

When he was a child, his parents had this little cast iron match holder device hanging by their fireplace in a couple of their homes, over the years. It moved from house to house with them. Steve always liked it. Recently, Steve noticed it laying out on the bench in the garage at this current home his dad has. It hadn't been mounted because they didn't have a fireplace.  It was just laying out on the bench in the garage.

His dad mentioned about having some guys come to work on his garage and do some tool organizing and storage solutions. Steve asked his father if he was ever going to need this little match holder, or plan to use it, or was it going to be tossed?  His dad gladly gave it to Steve!   

It was in need of a bit of rusty surface cleaning and a new coat of paint..... 

It is called a ''Venus and Cupid Match holder''

The new wooden matches go in the bottom compartment

and the spent used ones go in the top trough. 

Steve got to work on it yesterday.  He ground off the rust gently with a steel brush on his drill.... and he also took care of some of the rust on a rotating disk for my old Sunbeam stand mixer. Since he was going to be painting, I asked him to add a coat of paint to that, too.

We didn't want to drill holes into the lovely tiles around our fireplace. So we bought a roll of black super heavy duty exterior 3M double stick tape. It is made to adhere mail boxes to brick, so I think it will work for this.  It is rated to hold 25 pounds!  At $7.39 a roll, it better!

He measured carefully and used a level to get it just right..... 

ahhhhhhh looks great! 

We put wooden safety matches in it, just for looks. We really do not need the matches in it except maybe to light candles on the mantle. Our fireplace is gas log with electric igniter. I even burned some of the matches to put in the top trough to be even more realistic! 

Ahhhhh another Pfundtner Family Treasure 

to adorn ''Our Old House'' 

Tomorrow, technically, is Steve's last day of work!  He has been burning up vacation days since the 22nd until now. He said he is not retired yet, just on vacation!  hahahahhaaaaaaa

We will see what he calls himself after 4 p.m. tomorrow?

REDUX - Four Year Anniversary of Moving to Our Old House

Wow... today marks the fourth anniversary of our closing date buying ''Our Old House''....  Dec 28, 2012.  It was a horrible stormy blizzardish day and our bank had screwed up enough on the loan processing as it was. There was NO way we were going to postpone the closing.... so we slogged on through the storm TWICE to get it done.

Thank you to Laura Baldock, Debbi Riley and Paula Freund for being patient with our stupid Mortgage Specialist and finally selling us your parent's home!!!!

It was a very good decision to sell our big log home up in Oconto when we did. It sold in June 2012 for almost full price. We lived in the motorhome for the next seven months and we were going to retire and travel around the country for a number of years.

But back then, instead of retiring, Steve had accepted his job transfer to High Cliff State Park and we needed a home that was close to the park.  We drove around touring the various little towns near the park and chose Chilton.  He put in four more years of working and now has retired. We will still keep ''Our Old House'' as we fondly refer to it.  It is more affordable than our other house was, and we now  have it all fixed up the way we want it to be.

Here is a little video clip on Youtube of how our house looked when we did our walk-through:

====Redux====  

I copied the blog post from that day here: 

WE MOVED!!!!

I know it's been two weeks since I last posted.  But things here have been in such a whirlwind that I have not had time to post, nor to read any other blogs.  I will catch up, I promise, during the deep dark dregs of winter.....

But for now, here is the latest.   As you know, we put an offer in on a house in Chilton, WI.   Here is the blog post about the house in case you missed it:

http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-few-more-pics-and-plans.html

We closed on the deal on Friday, Dec 28, after a lot of mishaps and mistakes by our un-named (for now)  Mortgage Specialist.  Arggghhhh   I sold real estate for nine years and never had this many mistakes in any of my client's mortgages.  Also, between Steve and I, we have had 8 mortgages, 5 or 6 refinances, a few equity loans, all through the same bank.  NEVER a problem, NEVER a glitch.  Till now.  Seems in their infinite wisdom after the mortgage crisis, the bank no longer has "loan officers" at each branch like they used to.   We used to know our loan people by first names, and dealt right with the head of the bank over the years.  Nope, now you get assigned to a "Mortgage Specialist" .... who travels from bank to bank and doesn't seem to know what the heck is going on.  The one we ended up with was a hum-dinger!   After EIGHT major screwups, we finally got to close the deal.  After she left the room, even the other professionals in the room were amazed at her ineptness.  One remarked:  "She sure is a Special Kind of Disaster, isn't she?"

But all in all, we got the deal done, finally, after having to drive an extra 80 miles round trip in a blinding snowstorm to go back in the afternoon to sign the corrected documents she was finally able to produce.  In the meantime, the lovely understanding sellers gave us the keys and garage door openers, and let us meet with the carpet cleaners at 11 am as planned at the house, even though we wouldn't technically own it till 4:30.  What a nice seller!

We drove up to see this wonderful sign with the SOLD tag hanging underneath it.... awwwww

We got in, got the carpets spruced up and moved in paint, ladders, tools and an air mattress.  You betcha we were gonna sleep here!   Besides, it was a very messy snowstorm going on outside, so the last thing we wanted to do was travel back and forth to Appleton.  Loaded in jammies, food and painting clothes... and of course the dogs!  We hauled along a trailer with a snowblower from my dad. We drove through windy blinding snow, eager to begin our lives in our new home.

Steve got the snowblower going and opened the drifts back up a few times during the day and evening.  Oh, and our wonderful neighbor's daughter was over shoveling out our doorways and garage when we got here!  What a nice welcome!

Our first night was exhausting, emotionally and physically I am sure.  We slept good!

Early the next morning, Steve blew snow again so he could get out of the driveway, as another 8 or 9 inches piled up overnight. Then he had to go into work to help with the snowplowing, so I was left alone to unpack and start some painting and tarping off areas. We removed light fixtures and prepped and I started the painting.  Just about the same colors as before, just freshening the walls up.

We brought along our chaise lounge chairs to sit in, because all of our new furniture won't be delivered till Wednesday, Jan 2.

We even put up our tiny Christmas Tree!  

 There are wonderful multi-paneled pocket doors that slide into 

each side of this doorway to the livingroom from the foyer. 

Today's project (besides more painting) was to move this built-in hutch from the diningroom over one room to the south to my studio room (from here on known as My Loom Room)   Steve used a sawzall reciprocating saw to cut through the nails holding the cabinet to the wall. It's been there since the house was built in 1913, finished in 1914 and was not going to come out without a fight!  I swear he had to cut through 200 nails holding it to the wall!

Whew!  What a job!  But we got it loose without damaging the wall or the floor underneath it.  We did have to remove the bottom base molding, which we can put back on as soon as we move it to it's new place in the other room.

But now the next task was... how do we MOVE it?  It was wayyyy too heavy to be carried and it was built on site as all in one piece!

Oh, while moving it, underneath in the back some tiny items fell out that must have been pushed back beyond the drawers over the years.  I saved them all in a zip lock to return to the family.  There are old payroll stubs of their father's, some kids cards and game pieces, old colorforms and assorted odds and ends.  One wheat penny and one quarter from 1937.

Back to our problem of moving the unit about 25 feet.  Hmmmm ever heard of "sliders"?  Sometimes called "Moving Men"?  Those things are GREAT!   They are little flat disks that allow heavy items to slide across the carpeting.  Slick!

And here it is, in it's new location with it's base molding back on.

(I had to get the wall painted quickly behind it before sliding it into place)

And here is where it came from....

The marks on the wall will get skim coated with some plaster before we paint over it.  Oh, this notation was left on the wall by some worker 98 years ago.  Wonder what it meant?

(edit:  from my friend Chili Bob:  "Karen that writing on your wall is a date.

Possibly in 1914 they used a emigrant from the old country to help build the house.

That is the way they wrote dates a hundred years ago in Europe.

14/2/6 is Feb 6 1914. I see it all the time in old documents when I do genealogy.

Chili)

You may wonder why we moved the built-in hutch?  Well, our formal dining room set has both a large long matching buffet AND a tall hutch, besides the big table and 8 chairs.  To get all of the pieces in the diningroom area, we decided to move the original hutch into my Loom Room for my supplies and books and tools.  It will be a lovely way to keep it in the house.  If we ever wanted to restore it back to the same position, we could.

We will either recreate more of the "plate rail" to fill in the gap left from removing the hutch, or else figure out some artwork or a mirror to be hung there.  Will see. 

We hired some plasterers to come and "skip trowel" some of the ceilings in the house, and they will be here this evening (after the Packer Game is over)  as a cash job weekend thing.   The ceilings are all intact old plaster and lathe construction.  No cracks or bad spots.  But Steve was looking at the rippled appearance of the aged plaster and thought some "skip trowel" texture would hide the long rows of lathes and and add an "old world" flair to the ceilings.  The house where we bought our dining set from had it done to their ceilings and they looked quite nice.  So if we are going to do this, we might as well get it done BEFORE we move in the furniture.  We are only doing the livingroom, dining room, loom room and master bedroom.

Sooooo we are watching the Packer Game now, they are losing...ack!

And my floors are all covered up waiting for the plaster guys to get here.  It's gonna be a busy next few days.

• Monday- we are renting a Uhaul moving truck to haul the rest of the things from our rented storage space.
• Tuesday- painting some more and putting things away 
• Wednesday- the furniture store is delivering our new furniture items they have been holding in a warehouse for us.  Heh heh let them carry up both king and queen sized mattresses and box springs and frames up those foyer stairs with three turns in them.  Plus our couch and mission recliner will be coming too. 
• Thursday- COLLAPSE! 

Settling Into Retirement for Steve and Happy Family Holidays

The newly retired man is settling into his role... I think.

I hope.

I have kicked him out of the kitchen twice now.

Once, because he decided he needed to sort out and clean the fridge of all stinky old food containers.  The only problem is that he decided that it needed to be done WHILE I was busy baking up 12 dozen sugar cut-out cookies. Imagine this: He is walking past me back and forth with stinky containers. He is flinging germs as he shakes out stinky rotting food into the garbage next to me and rinsing in the sink and stacking in the dishwasher.  That dishwasher is right in the island that I am rolling out dough on, and have racks of cooling cookies!  He is bumping into me, getting in my way, and messing up my baking time frame.  One tray of burned cookies was the result.  I kicked him out. Enough!   Nobody said the fridge needed to be cleaned out at exactly 1:23 p.m. on that day. arggghhhhh

The second time is when he rearranged all the cabinets and fridge. Yes, he has OCD.  I love that he helps and cleans. But----- he puts things which I use the most wayyyy up on the top shelves where I can not reach them. Or he puts stuff wayyyy in the back that I use most often and I have to move five other things to get to them.  We need to do it together as a joint effort. So I kicked him out again.

And yes, he does arrange our canned goods by vegetable, soup, and sauce.... not quite alphabetical order but he does line them up in rows. HAHAHHAHA

He is also sneakily swapping out light bulbs from our old incandescent type (which I love) over to LED and CFL ones. I hate them... and I hate the light from them. I appreciate a warm golden glow, not a whitish green glare. They light up dimly and slowly get brighter after a few minutes. Irritating because he is putting them in places that I want instant light and not waiting for them to *warm up* and get brighter. So I keep swapping them back to incandescent.  Sigh.

He has a lot of other things he can do. We can get though this time of adjustment. Most couples do. Just stay outta my stuff!

~~~~~~~~

He bought a few more power tools for his workshop.  Pretty happy guy assembling them.  But in the house? In the middle of the livingroom?

Ahem.. he does have a nice propane heater to hook up in the garage for his workshop.  If he installed that heater first, he could warm it up and assemble stuff out in his shop. Gotta prioritize there, Steveio!

So far, only ONE phone call from his old work place asking a question about something from last week. That is good and not stressing him. He keeps saying he is ''on vacation'' yet because his official retirement day is on Dec 30.  For now he is burning up unused vacation days until then.

We have been trying to take a walk every day with the dogs, although today was below freezing temps and wind chills were about 4 or 5.  It was a chilly quick walk around the block and back home.

~~~~~~~~~~~

We had a GREAT family Christmas this year! 

We packed up the dogs and drove up to Green Bay on Friday morning and nabbed little Allegra and Mason on the way through. Their parents had to work late, so we grabbed them up early from the sitter for some family fun at our oldest daughter's house with the other little grandchildren.  

It was starting to snow and would be snowing all afternoon and evening.  We got up to Oconto in time before the roads got too bad. Unloading the car of kids, dogs, presents, and food... whew!  Good thing our daughter and soninlaw have a big house for family celebrations. 

I had those 12 dozen baked sugar cutout cookies (minus one dozen of burnt ones--- ahem!) and the five oldest grandkids sat down to decorate the cookies. It was such fun!  

We did this cookie decorating last year and they did good without making too much of a mess.  The dogs underfoot took care of any sprinkle spills. LOL .....

After that, we brought them over to McDonalds for a quick lunch and got them out of the parents' hair while they cooked the big meal for the evening.  We had booked a room at the local hotel, and Steve got us checked in while the kids were eating their McNugget treat. They do not get that very often, so it was a hit.  Once Steve got our hotel key, we were then herding five of the oldest grandtots into our room to dress for SWIMMING!  Yes .... we had arranged with the front desk to let us have our five grandkids come and use the pool. It was really a big deal to the kids.... and did not matter much to the staff because we had the whole hotel to ourselves!  We were the only ones there!!!  The kids could make as much noise in the pool area without bothering anyone else.  Even the desk gal came in and chatted with all of the kids for a while.  It was so pleasant.  We kept them swimming and splashing and in and out of the hottub for three hours.  

Soon we were trying to finagle five little wet haired kids back into their street clothes. One mishap: there was a mixup of three little boys underwear.... we said just put on ANY pair then! LOL.  Our younger daughter Heather had come to help and we brought them all back to the house just in time for the big meal. 

Ooooh our kids outdid themselves with cooking up a storm!  Our soninlaw Waylen had his parents visiting from Oklahoma for the holidays, so it was even more fun to have someone new to share the holiday (and share the grandkids with!) 

After the meal, while the kids were patiently, well, somewhat impatiently, waiting to open presents... I got them to gather up for a much desired pic of ALL SEVEN grandkids and ME!  Yes... this is ME in my element.  Striving to be like our Grandma Kafehl was to us kids growing up. 

The kids even serenaded us with a song! 

click on this video: 

Soon the present opening started.. 

here is a small bit of hubbub that ensued. 

 It was totally delightful! 

click on this video:

Afterwards, those singing grandtots serenaded us again! 

click on this video: 

Wheeeeee it was a wonderful evening. We had ten adults, 7 grandkids, six dogs and a lot of fun! Soon those worn out suger-high, pool-soaked, super-excited kiddos all zonked out in front of the tv watching, what else, the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, cartoon version.  That is becoming a tradition too. 

The grownups then gather around the dining table. Ahhhhh My old table from when the kids were growing up. We played cards, drank our preferred beverages and laughed the night away.  

a few rounds of cribbage...

a few rounds of beers...

a few rounds of rumchata pudding shots....

a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity

(won by Jesse!)

By midnight, Steveio and I were fading fast and we headed out the door to the hotel.  We left our Finney and Binney there in their crate at the house to sleep for the night. No dogs allowed at the hotel. These pics happened after we went to bed.  Yes, our son and son-in-law appear to have a bromance going on when they win at cards! HAHAHA  They even have matching Team Looker shirts! The girls are thanking me for the matching Packer Hats. 

I set the alarm for 7 am to get up and head back to the house to help with breakfast.  We checked out of the hotel, and received such nice compliments on the grandkids behavior the day before from the front desk clerk. That did our hearts good.  We drove the few blocks back to the kids house to let out our dogs and get started on making breakfast for everyone.  Of course all of the kids were up and at em! 

This is becoming a breakfast tradition too... last year the oldest grandson Jameson helped me to make it.  This year we let each child of the oldest five grandkids assist.  Each one took a turn..... 

First was Biscuit Cutting Chelsea- using a big shears, she cut up three rolls of jumbo flakey biscuits into quarters and put into three glass pans with cooking spray on them. 8 rolls per pan.

Next was Egghead Cracking Jameson- missed taking a pic, but he shows up at the end with another pic..... He cracked up three dozen eggs, one dozen per pan, beaten lightly, and we poured them over the biscuits.

Third was Bacon Mason- he sprinkled real bacon bits over each tray of breakfast making sure it covered all areas. He snuck a few in his mouth too. You can use bits of ham for this part if you wish.

Fourth on deck was Cheezy Clayton- it was his job  to sprinkle shredded colby jack cheese all over the pans. And a little in his mouth too.  LOL

Fifth was the Spice Girl Allegra- it was her job to sprinkle dried onion bits and dried parsley flakes over each pan... and then some salt and pepper too.

The last step was for Jameson to come back in and supervise that it all was done correctly. Afterall, he has the recipe committed to memory now.  He helped cover each pan up with tin foil and we placed them all in the oven at one time on about 375 for 45 minutes.

We uncover them the last 10 minutes to brown up a bit. Cut apart in big squares and serve up on plates. Its eggs, meat and toasted bread all in one. Easy way to feed 16 people at one time.

While it was baking, the two littlest grandkids were in on the action. Whitney played with ''Grandma's Watch'', a pleasant past-time of all my grandkids over the years.  And we snuggled up baby Claire in the morning sunshine with our coffee.

Breakfast was wolfed down by the kids, and a bit more gingerly eaten by the hungover crowd ... heh heh.  Soon soninlaw Waylen and his dad got bundled up for heading down to Green Bay.  You see, our soninlaw bought his father surprise Packer Tickets for the game! What a treat to a visitor to the Frozen Tundra of La La La Lammmbeauuuuuu   (gotta be a Packer Fan to understand that one)

We helped clean up a bit and then packed the car up and headed on home.  I will write more about Christmas in our next blog.  This one is too long, and I am too tired to continue.  Yawnnnn 

Good Night and Sweet Dreams. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 AND 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!