Finishing up visit with Jim and Dee - Allegra comes for a Bay-Kay-Shun!

Ohhh I am behind on posting again.  Sorry!  

We have been quite busy around here. Our visiting RV friends Jim and Dee got in a trip to Green Bay on Wednesday to do some touring, while I stayed home (a bit under the weather)   They managed to tour the Packer Stadium, do some shopping and picked up parts for the RV toilet in their rig which was leaking.

The weather has been atrocious and the heat and humidity just won't quit!   Steve got home from work on Wednesday and was able to help to remove their toilet and find out what parts needed replacement.  It was easier to work on the whole toilet outside, but the heat was awful.  It was not too hard of a fix, and they had it back in, toot sweet and working again.  Wheeeeeee

It was so horribly hot that I decided I could cook pizza in the oven in the house...  it didn't matter!  Then we took the pizza out to the waiting Walter's RV as a delivery!  We sat in the cool interior of their rig to eat supper and enjoy the evening with them.

On Thursday, those two busy beavers were back at the maintenance on their rig.  Besides washing all the windows, they also lubed their slides and seal, and did some rubbing compound on some scratches from the tree when they were backing into our yard.. ouch!~  But the scratches came out and now the rig looks sparkling spanking new!   

Thursday was an extra special busy day for us too, because our granddaughter, little Allegra came for a five day "bay-kay-shun" with us!  Her mommy and daddy go for an all adult camping weekend each year, and we are the lucky ones to get to keep her for all five days! 

She kept us entertained with her antics....  

We took a walk down by the river, and I think is a wonderful shot of Dee....

Thursday night was also a big night for Steveio... some of you RVers might remember a while back that Steveio bought a marine grade Jabsco mascerator for the motorhome. 

 (A mascerator is a machine that grinds up your poopy water from the black holding tank and pumps it out in a long skinny hose, even uphill, to dump at far away locations like our septic tank, and then you can follow up with the grey water from the sinks and shower to rinse out the hose somewhat) 

Soooo we have not used it yet.  But since Dee and Jim were leaving in the morning, it was a perfect time to dump out their tanks and put our mascerator to use!   Our septic opening is about 100 feet away from the RV's parked in the driveway.  They got it all hooked up, and were three feet short of hose!  But Jim to the rescue had an extra section to add to the group.  Of course, once this hose is used for mascerating, you never ever use it again for lawns or filling fresh water tank.  

Maiden run on the machine, hoses and hookups...... 

Flip the switch, pull the lever, and voila... it worked! 

 (ignore the green hose in the photo.. that was just lying there...)

The "stuff" from the tank comes down the big tube near the top of the photo, then through the machine, and then out the side on the right through the thinner black hose and down across the yard to the septic tank opening.   There.. done!

A mascerator is great for many situations, besides saving on dump station fees:
Like sitting in someone's driveway it can dump your tanks into a septic or even a toilet. (seen that)
Or if you are at a dumb designed dump station that is too slanted to dump properly by gravity. (seen that)
Or if you are at a campsite with sewer available but the dumb pipe is a foot off the ground (seen that)
Or if you are at a curved road dump station and no way to line up 40 foot rig at their hole (seen that)

I am glad that Steveio's new toy works well for him, and he and Jim both seemed pleased to have clean tanks!

Thursday night was our last night together with a meal out on the grills... they had done a run with Steve ot the little meat market down the road and stocked up on good home grown Wisconsin beef.  We spent the time relaxing with Jim and Dee for the evening.  Steve will be gone to work in the morning when they head out... so they said their good-byes on Thursday night.   He threatened to beep goodbye with the horn on the car as he leaves at 5:15 am while parked right in front of their bedroom, but he didn't.  LOL

On Friday morning, such veteran RVers like Jim and Dee had their rig ready to roll in just 15 minutes from start to finish.  Dee backs up the truck while Jim checks the hitch and raises the levelers.  All gear is stowed and compartments locked up.  They fired up the GPS and gave hugs all around .. through tears, little Allegra and I waved bye bye.   They are heading out to the Wisconsin Dells!

And therrrrrre they goooooooo!

COME BACK SOON! 

Later on Friday afternoon, Erin came over with our other granddaughter, Chelsea.  The girls had a play day together and sure had fun.  LOVE their little piggy tails. awwwwwwww  

We have suffered here with the formidable temps and humidity as is the rest of the country.  It is sooo unusual for us to have such a long stretch of horrid temps.  Finally tonight, Saturday, it has cooled down enough to have all the windows open, and sleep up in our loft bed again.   No complaints here!

Good night!


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Double Diva Duty Day! (gushy grandparent post)

Oh boy oh boy what fun!   We have little Allegra (7 months old) for five days while her mommy and daddy go on an adult camping trip.   Sooooo  she gets to come and stay with us!   Her silly mom hauled in three totes of clothes, bottles, toys and stuff.. and a whole case of diapers!   Wonder how long she plans to leave her here with us?  LOL

Then we also had Chelsea today too....(6 months old)  

Now the wee girls could bond, giggle and be bestest buddies.

It was so much fun playing with them all day.  Didn't get anything else done, but didn't plan on it either. 

CHELSEA                                                   ALLEGRA

They had toys scattered all over the livingroom.  Chelsea is just learning to sit up and sometimes topples over.  It was cute to observe them, each one played with the newest toys brought by the other one. 

 And then later each one wanted the exact toy that the other one was holding.  Once they all examined all the toys, then they started to really play together in the sunshine on the floor.

They would laugh, coo and squeal at each other... batting their hands and waving their arms.

They both decided the container of wet wipes was the BEST toy to play with... and it became a drum of sorts... as they took turns hitting it with their hands and listening to the sounds they made. 

Who needs expensive toys???

And wonder of wonders, I got them BOTH to nap at the SAME TIME!!!

When Granfaddah came home, he took a turn playing with the ladies so I could get some supper ready.

(just look at that watchful hand behind Chelsea in case she flops over)

After Chelsea went home, we took Allegra for a nice walk in the stroller down the road.  Went to the neighbor's farm to wrangle her chickens up and lock them in the coop.  They had left for a music festival overnight and forgot to put the chickens away before they left town.  She gave me a phone call from on the road and asked me to go take care of them.  We have an increasing coyote population around here, not to mention a certain neighbor's free-roaming husky dog .. known to kill deer and drag em home.  So the poor free range chickens have to get penned up each night. 

Allegra had enjoyed the walk down and back, about a mile each way.  Once we got home, it was into the jammies and snuggle before beddy bye time. She fell asleep in my arms and Granfaddah lowered her carefully into the crib.  Another day of grandparenting is done. 

Not sure if we are going camping this weekend with Allegra... We are waiting to see if Steve's mom is up for a visit.  She is battling cancer right now.  She keeps her spirits up and is doing quite well.  We hope to stop in with little Allegra for a quick visit, she will let us know via phone if she is up to it.  They live 110 miles away, so we are waiting to take off if she says YES, but otherwise we can pop in the motorhome and head north to go camping too if she says NO.  

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Tire Pressure Monitors, Catching up Tuesday and Shameless Granmuddah Post

Oh boy... four days camping (well, if you count Thursday night it was five days)  and now we are home and back into the routine.  Sigh.

The rig is back in the driveway, the fridge unloaded, the bedding and dirty clothes are taken out and the dogs pouted all the while we were unloading.  They hate to come home.

Then, using up some of the water in the motorhome freshwater holding tank, I start up the outside shower faucet and gave each dog a good sudsy bath right on the lawn next to the motorhome.  It's so easy to spray them off right there instead of struggling with a bathtub.  Each had so much tick spray on their fur from the weekend, they needed a bath to remove it all.  It was almost like hair spray!   Popped them up on the deck to dry in the sunshine while we did a few more tasks around the house.

We have a Hopkins Tire Pressure Monitoring system on our rig.  We noticed on our way up to the campground, we kept getting one sensor that would lose connection, and finally it would not work at all.  Steve checked the tire pressure and it was fine, just the sensor was going whonky.  Steve removed it and it had a bulge on one side of it.  He just put on a regular valve cap on the stem and we continuted on our way.

In checking all of them we noticed that on of our other sensors on the same side also had a bulge on it, but it was still sending a signal.   This morning I called the company, and a young man cheerfully took my information, and is sending me out two new sensors, free of charge.  He said some of the older sensors have the bulging battery problem and they might be two from the first batch that went out.   So they will send two more, even though I am 4 months out of warranty.  How nice is that?

This happened once before just a few months after we first got the system, so I know the new sensors will come by UPS in a day or two and all will be fine before we go again.  The peace of mind having a tire pressure monitoring system is nice, but Steve checks all the tires regularly too.  

This evening, I was thinking of getting the power washer out (set on gentle to use the soap feature)  and do our awnings on the rig.  I wanted Stevieo to help, but Steveio decided he wanted to work on our riding lawn mower, and he said we can wash them another day.  They have not been done yet this spring and could use a good washing, as well as the rig.  The weatherman said it's not too promising the rest of the week.  If I am gonna get all wet, I want it on a warm day where it's kinda fun to do it!


As for catching up part in my title, today I finished up six pairs of socks by closing the toes up and steaming them into shape ... it helps the yarn to *bloom* into a set shape and makes em softer and fuzzier.  I had knit up these 6 pairs on the weekend (actually I knit 8 pairs but left two in the camper)   Here they are, 4 pairs for one customer, 2 pairs for another customer and the rug in the background is for a third customer who bought it from my Etsy store.  All will get packed up and shipped out in the morning.

Now for the shameless granmuddah photos.. haha   

I take SO many pics and I just HAVE to share them!

Here is Jameson-----  22 months old

Next comes Allegra --- she is 6 months old tomorrow

And last, (but not least) is little Chelsea, who is almost 5 months old

Oh , I can hear the Steveio got the lawnmower going...  so I guess washing the awnings are up to me now.  

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