Motorhome Got A Bath and Other Stuff

The weather has finally turned nice. We've lost all of our high heat and humidity. We are back to normal summer weather. Sunshiny days in the 70s. How nice is that?

Steve decided it was time to give his baby a bath. He got up on the roof and scrubbed and scrubbed. It's been a while since the roof was done. I didn't even know he was up there, or I would have been nearby in case he slipped or something.  Stubborn man. He didn't tell me until he was done. I didn't get any pictures of him up there, because I was busy doing some weaving in the she shed. 

When I came out to see what he was up to, he said he was done already and it was time to scrub down the sides.  Because all the dirt from the roof runs down the sides. It really did need a bath now. 

This era of Safari motorhomes have some kind of special paint from the Mercedes company.  Never use any type wax or polish on the finish. Just plain car wash soap. Never any Dawn or any other type of harsh detergent. Just car wash. We wet it down, scrub it with a very soft brush, and then spray it off. 

The same goes for the stainless steel lower compartment doors. They have a special sealer or coating on it. You never use any type of chrome cleaner or stainless steel cleaner or aluminum tire rim cleaner. Nothing.  Other folks with our brand of Safari motorhome had used stuff and always regretted it afterwards as it never looked the same.  They always have to clean it now that the coating is gone. Ours looks just as good as the day they went on, almost 26 years ago!!

 Steve did the scrubbing part

 I got to do the spraying off part

 Beautiful and shiny again,

 just look at that.

On a 25 year old rig, there is always maintenance...

We have these plastic covers that go over the roof vents. They are called MaxxAir. I painted them a number of years ago but that paint has flaked off. That's because I didn't use the proper primer for plastic. 

Now I have the right stuff. Steve took them off and we scraped off any of the paint that was flaking loose. Then I gave them a coat of this really good primer.  I used it last year on a vinyl fence and it works great.  It's stinky but it's a good way to bond paints made for plastic on to a plastic surface.

Once they are dry, I will give it a coat with this blue metal flake paint from rustoleum. It's not an exact match to the motor home but it's close enough.  Who is gonna look close when they are up high on the roof?  LOL

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It was finally nice enough to get some decent yard work done. As you may know, last Winter we lost our darling little sheltie Finnegan. He was our heart dog, and so important to us. Cancer took him away at only 7 years old. He rallied hard and tried to hang around as long as he could. He is buried in our back yard.

The Mt. Leibe German Shepherd Rescue Club, in Sobieski, makes these beautiful paw print memorial stones. They do it as a fundraiser for their club, and over the years they have come to our Wisconsin Sheltie Rescue Reunion parties to sell the personalized paw stones.

We already had two stones that said Duke and Ducky from our previous collie and sheltie. Even though they are buried in Chilton, we took the stones with us when we moved up to Oconto. Now that it was summertime, the Mt. Liebe Rescue people were able to make new stones for orders that came in over the winter. 

Not only did we order up one for Finnegan, I also ordered one for my first sheltie Akasha. Her cremated ashes were buried along with Finnegan this winter. She deserved a stone too.

We set them out with some planters around Finnegan's grave site.

We've had this little sheltie garden statue for many years. Heather named this little garden statue "Ducky". We first used it as a doorstop in our camping trailer. That was long before we even had a dog named Duchess, AKA Ducky. 

Right now all 4 collars from each of the past 4 dogs are wrapped around it's little neck with their tags dangling down. Now it is the proud guardian over the graves, holding collars in honor of these beautiful dogs that we have shared our lives with.

We can look out the windows

 at the resting space 

of these faithful companions.

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Speaking of dogs, Little Miss Priss Binney got a complete brushing and pedicure yesterday. 

My oh my, doesn't she look pretty?

She is a Total Diva... stretched out on the chaise lounge. She demands "More Belly! More Belly!"    If you stop brushing, she reaches down with her paw and nudges your hand or the brush to keep on going.  It could go on for hours as far as she is concerned.

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On the loom front, I did more weaving on the big Kangas Loom yesterday. I finished up a Finlander Farmhouse Rug. It came out to about 50" long by 33" wide.   After I get it off and hem it up, I will put it for sale in my Etsy store.

The next rug I started is from some beautiful woolen suitweight fabric in in rich darker colors.  

It is coming out nicely

 as it undulates from one color to the next.

I think this will make a good long-lasting rug dark enough that it won't show the dirt. I don't know the length until I'm done weaving it. I guess as long as it will go until the fabric runs out! LOL.... But I do have a tape measure pinned to the beginning so I have a pretty good idea of how long it is while I am in the process of weaving.

I try to weave one rug after another if there is room on the bottom take-up beam.  Less loom waste of the warp string by keeping them joined one after the other, rather than cutting off one at a time and retying them.  So unless it's an order for someone right away, I can keep rolling up one after another as I create. 

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Like I said, it's been summery nice weather and today is just as wonderful.  As I type this, I look out and the backyard looks beautiful.  Steve got out the lawn mower and took care of a good grass cutting. With all the rain and humidity that we've had, it sure is growing fast! 

We are still working on the back of the house on the East Side.  Previous blog posts got us up to the corner. Now we are around the corner and working our way across the back side of the house.  Replacing siding, some of the soffit and fascia, rain gutter and trim.  The next step will be to install the large window in the master bedroom. That's where this blank part of the wall is, with the house wrap in place.  We have the header ready, and will start breaking through the wall soon to put in the window. 

My tomato plants are doing well and I have green tomatoes on almost all of the plants. Just waiting for them to grow and ripen. Yummmm I can almost taste them.  

The other night the dog was all excited to see someone at the bird feeders. We looked out and saw this amazing 10 point buck standing there! The picture is a bit blurry because I didn't want to go out the door to snap it. So this is just through the window. He sure is beautiful, regal and majestic.

On edit: I forgot to say that while the deer was here in the yard nibbling under our bird feeders, the fireworks were going off at the city festival a mere half mile away!  He knew where to stay safe!

We didn't go camping this week, so it's pretty nice when nature comes to us right in our own backyard. 

I think my next couple blog posts will be with some campground reviews. We've actually been to 4 campgrounds already this year.  I just never got around to writing about them. So stay tuned, I promise we will have some more camping posts instead of just weaving weaving weaving.