Tire Minder TPMS - Early Birthday Present For Me

We got a few things in the mail on Saturday. 

A special package came early in the mail for my birthday! Steve and I have decided to start buying our presents for our special holidays to gear them along the line of things we really NEED rather than trying to surprise each other. 

For years, we had a really nice Hopkins brand from N-vision tire pressure monitoring system, known as TPMS for our motorhome and toad. Although it worked really well, the sensors only had built-in batteries that could not be changed. Every year or so we were buying a few new sensors at about $50 a piece! They would only last 2 or 3 years. It was getting kind of crazy. 

We did some research on the brands of monitoring systems that had replaceable batteries.  We decided on the Tire Minder system which had good reviews and priced in a range we were willing to pay. So we got rid of that old Hopkins system this spring and kept our eye out for the Tire Minder to go on sale. 

We mostly liked the idea of replaceable batteries. Just the easy cheap lithium 1632 disc batteries is all that is needed to put in the sensors. We had kept an eye on one model for a while, waiting for it to go on sale. Finally it went to just about 20% off on Amazon. So we got a complete setup for 10 Tires for only $379.00. Normally it is $469.00 for this model.

Amazon link:

TireMinder Smart TPMS with 10 Transmitters

Everything included in the kit including a signal booster to wire in near the rear of the motorhome to help amplify the signal from the rear tires as well as from the tires on the Saturn being towed behind. It includes a charger cord, an extra set of batteries, extra set of o-rings, and of course the main bluetooth unit itself and 10 sensors and even a handy dandy carrying case. Oooh and a Tire Minder Sticker!  wheeeee

Here are one of the sensors in my hand. They have the replaceable 1632 batteries inside and they can be locked onto your valve stems so nobody can come by and take them off again.

The programming is really easy with the app loaded onto our phones. The system is a lot handier to use than our old system. Plus you can disconnect either the motorhome or the Saturn from the screen if you are using only one vehicle or the other and not both together. 

Steve and I set it up yesterday in just a few minutes. Either or both of our phones will be able to monitor the tires as we drive, as well as putting the app on a tablet if we want it stand alone on the dash. So there are a lot of options to the system and we are quite relieved that we finally have a tire pressure monitoring system back on the rig. We just put brand new tires this spring, we have been running most of the summer without a tire pressure monitoring system and it has made me very nervous. 

A tire pressure monitoring system is very important especially when towing a vehicle behind, the driver cannot feel or see if suddenly having a tire problem. Our old tire pressure monitoring system has saved our butt TWICE. One time we had a tire low on the Tracker towing it behind and it gave us the warning before it totally lost all of the air, due to a puncture. Another time, the tire pressure monitoring system gave us a warning on an inner dually wheel on the motorhome that we would have never known was low, due to a bad leaking valve core in the stem. 

If you've ever been through a horrible blowout on a motorhome driving 60 miles an hour on an interstate (like we were in our old Coachman), we realize that we really do need a tire pressure monitoring system to be safe!

So when we were debating about what we should get for my birthday, the first thought in my head was to get the Tire Minder!  Happy Birthday To Me!  (not till the end of the month) 

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Yesterday, I was walking past the flowerbed between the She Shed and the garage. I happened to notice this crazy clematis plant is now blooming! This is after two heavy frosts in the middle of October, believe it or not. I planted this tiny clematis wayyyy back in the spring and it never grew much more than about 12 inches out of the ground. I wound the tendrils up this lattice and they just never went anywhere. I kind of forgot it even existed because I stopped watering all of my plants as of mid September. There was no need to water things that were going to be dying off anyhow as soon as we had frost. So I kind of ignored it. Suddenly I looked at it, and it has grown way up over 5 ft tall and I have all these beautiful purple blossoms!!!  I hope it comes back and does even better next year. 

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This morning was kind of icky damp and rainy, but not quite snowing. The temperatures are in the mid-30s and it's quite cold. I decided to work a little bit more on my quilt and do a couple more swaths back and forth.

I just love the way it's turning out and these

 Hooks and Swirls

 really dress it up.

The machine is running smoothly and everything is going along just fine (knock on wood). I don't want to tempt fate by saying that. But I do see that I'm getting rather low on the variegated thread. I probably have enough on here to do a couple more swaths back and forth ---  each swath across is about 7 to 8 inches deep by the full width of the quilt.

ACK!!!!   HALT to my quilting! 

Got to go get more of this particular variegated thread

after the Packer Game today. 

Luckily I saved the label

 so I can get the exact same color

 when I go back to the fabric store.

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While I was working on the quilting today, Steveio went back out into the garage to work on his "A-Door-ble" door. He has one side in pretty good shape already. The heat gun is working well to remove the old layers of paint and varnish. 

And now he started the other side.

 Keeps him busy and out of trouble.

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Got something else in the mail that was kind of funny. I got my acceptance of Social Security and on the exact same day I also got an application to join AARP! Boy oh boy do they ever have that planned?

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And the last special thing we got in the mail were our new eyeglasses. Yep, we're getting old and our eyes seem to change more often. Just about every year now we go back and get our eyes tested locally. They don't change much, just a little bit. We get our prescription and pupil distance measurements and then head over to the internet. 

We go through Zenni Optical online and upload our prescriptions. We have both been wearing the same exact pair of glasses frames every year for the past 4 or 5 years. The frames are $6.95 and the no line bifocal progressive lenses are $27.95.  At only $34.95 a pair complete, it's a good deal. Plus this time we opted to order prescription sunglasses at the same price, instead of using the clip on sunglasses. 

They came in the mail and they fit perfectly and they are exactly what we needed. Mine didn't change much but things are just a little crisper and clearer on the bifocals than they were before. Steve's are a huge difference because his old glasses get pretty pitted up and marked up with the things he does. But for only $35 a pair, it's not too bad to replace them every year for a fresh pair.

Link to Zenni Optical

https://www.zennioptical.com/

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Saturday just kept getting better and better!!! My older brother was on his way back from all of his medical tests in Green Bay... he is cancer free again!!!! Only one more year of tests and he should be considered completely in the clear from prostate and bladder cancer.  Whew!!! He stopped by just in time for dinner.  We had such a nice visit.  

Time to get this checked over for errors and then post it. The Packer Game will be on in 15 minutes. Let's hope they do better than last week!!!

National Folk Farmhouse - Rainbarrel - Hose Rack and Faucets

The weather was pretty hot and miserable and steamy yesterday so we didn't get a lot done on the outside wall of the She Shed.

We did do some measuring and figuring, and started to lay out the exterior siding plans. I'm going to give each piece of siding double coats of paint before they are put up. I'm waiting for a less humid day to do that.

It's very peaceful to stand out in the yard, listening to the birds and feel the wind and enjoy the sunshine while I paint on my saw horses in the yard. With this hot humid weather it just was not comfortable at all to say the least.

Once I get all of the siding painted, then Steve will be able to start putting it up. We will try to match up the lines as well as we can to the existing siding on the north side of the house. That way it will make a smooth transition around the corner to the west wall.

We did stop at a little local nursery to check out some of their shrubs and trees. I would like to get a clump or two of white birch for the front yard. Also I'm thinking a couple nice globe arborvitaes and maybe a tall spire arborvitae around the window area of the She Shed. That way it will make that section look more like a part of a house, rather than just a converted garage.

While we were at the nursery, I found 2 clematis plants that seemed to be pretty healthy, even though it's the end of the season for planting. They were an additional 30% off which was very pleasing to me when we reached the checkout. One has the most beautiful red blooms, and the other one has the deep rich purple that we used to have at our last home in Chilton.

I planted the red one down at the South end of the porch with a cute little white trellis that had been left behind by the previous owners. Steve found the trellis in a package, brand new, in the garage.

We mounted it to the edge of the porch and hopefully we can get the clematis to climb up the trellis. Then maybe it will soon get up onto the porch railings.

I decided to put the purple one on the north wall of the She Shed. It needs a trellis that we will pick one up today or Steve will build one.

This north wall still gets sunshine in the afternoon and some bright light in the morning as well. I hope it will take off there. It looks pretty healthy.

Maybe somewhere down the line we will build an arbor across between the She Shed and the big garage. Maybe I can get the clematis trained to grow up and over the arbor. Or maybe some nice ivy. Or maybe a bit of both?

I looked up arbors and found one that I thought was really pretty. Of course this one is in plastic PVC vinyl. I think we will build our own out of wood and make it the way we want.

But before we tackle anything like that, we want to get the She Shed done. I miss weaving on my looms and sewing on my quilts, as well as spinning yarn on my spinning wheel or knitting socks on my antique circular sock knitting machine.

Steve and I took today off from building things... instead we are visiting Steve's Dad up in Door County.  It's a beautiful day for a ride. The sky is blue with puffy white clouds. Sometimes we have to relax and take a break and enjoy our summer, before things get hot and humid again.


Catching up on a few of our past projects that we have done during my blogging hiatus, here is one that I thought was kinda sweet.

At our last home in Chilton, I had ordered a beautiful metal hose rack. Since it was bolted to the house, it needed to be left behind as a "fixture" when we sold the house.

I decided I liked it so much, because it was a classy wrought iron metal design instead of a cheap plastic bracket or a chunky vinyl crank device. I ordered a new one for our new home.

Steve mounted it tight to the side of the house and I brushed over the black with a layer of red paint on the outside surface. Now it's highlighted and matches nicely to the rest of the house. It's those little things that make you smile you know?

Speaking of outside faucets, Steve was replacing the cold faucet to the exterior and at the same time he ran a hot faucet as well. These are just bolted temporarily into place until that piece of siding is replaced.

We have always liked having access to both hot and cold water on the outside of the home. It's good for washing vehicles, the motorhome,  washing dogs or filling things up like grandkids swimming pools. We bought a little Y shaped adapter that allows us to blend the hot or the cold to just the right temperature as desired.

Of course, in the winter, these hoses and the Y adapter are all removed. But the faucets themselves are frost-free and the valve is set way deep inside into the basement so we can still use water if we need to in the winter.

Another project along the north side of the house was to put one of my rain barrels there for watering my flowers.  Steve first replaced all of the cracked and missing pieces of plastic rain gutter with nice new steel rain gutters and downspouts.

I had repainted the rain barrel from its original blue and white pattern from our last home, to red and white for this home. Once he was done with the downspout and gutter I was able to set my rain barrel into place. He leveled it off to get it correctly balanced so it can fill up now during the next rainfall.  I painted my little metal watering cans as well. That's another thing that makes me smile....

Our car ride is done here, so I think it's time to post this blog.

Stay tuned for more progress tomorrow on my She Shed at our National Folk Farmhouse!

Everything Is Coming Up

I started thinking about my blog post today, while sitting in this spot this morning. I was out on the front porch in the sunshine, sipping my coffee. Steve had just left to go drive the Old Fart Party Bus for a while, and the dogs were keeping me company. I looked around the front porch and decided to take a few pictures.  Thing are GROWING!

Here it is from the other end, 

and you can see my pretty flowers from Steve

 last week are still going strong.

I received a little pot of ivy a couple years ago, and kept transferring it into bigger and bigger pots. I started winding it around and around circular fashion on a trellis. I think it's going on it's third year. During the winter I keep it up in a bathroom window facing south. In the summer I bring it down to the front porch. This little white table is for the grandkids to sit and eat at, and the ivy kind of gets in the way of their plates. I really don't have any other place to put it where I can get such beautiful sunshine.

This interesting little planter is full of something you wouldn't expect here in Wisconsin. These are orange trees! Yes real orange trees!!!  My mom's new husband grows oranges in their yard in Florida. He sent us a box full of them at Christmas. Amazingly sweet and wonderful, better than anything you could ever find in the store. Lyle said if you save the seeds, and stick them in dirt, they will sprout because they are not some crazy hybrid like store bought oranges. These are the real thing.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with them as they get larger. Maybe I can donate them to the school or something for a Horticulture class? It would be interesting to see them raised into full grown trees and bear fruit. I don't know anything about raising oranges, but I bet the students would like to learn?

After my coffee, I wandered out the back door and down the steps. My goofy little teacup planter is doing well with my jade plant in it. It really sets off the bright red patio table, and I think it's kind of funky. The overhang of the upstairs porch protects it from heavy rain, but I do have to remember to water it.

Speaking of watering, I like to water all of my plants with rainwater, rather than the city water full of chemicals. I have two rain barrels, one by the back door and one off the back of the garage.

This year I am trying something new with the rain barrel by the garage. I added a long length of foam soaker hose to the barrel spigot. I ran the soaker hose down the length of my tomato cages, looped around three of Steve's raspberry plants, and back up the backside of the tomato cages. By opening the spigot just a tiny bit, the water slowly drains out through the hose and soaks into the ground, underneath the grass clipping mulch. We will see if it helps keep the plants moist or if I do need to continue caring for them with a watering can every other day.

Here's my pretty row of 13 tomato plants, I have 4 Early Girl, 4 Champion, and 4 Better Boy. The last one is a grape tomato bush. I keep the cages firmly attached to the side of the garage so the weight of the tomatoes does not tip the cages over later on in the season.

I learned from my good friend Juanita, who has a amazing Green Thumb, to use grass clippings from the lawnmower as mulch around my tomato plants. The grass clippings are full of nitrogen, and as long as there are no chemicals on the grass, it makes a very good mulch to help hold in the moisture, and control weed growth.

Here are Steve's three new raspberry bushes. I don't know if the mulch works for them the same way it works for tomatoes, but we will see. We are protecting them with tomato cages for now, to keep errant balls being chased by doggies from snapping them off at the stems. In a few years I am sure they will be rigid wood stalks and we won't need to baby them so much.

This next thing drives me 

ABSOLUTELY NUTS!!!

The big tree in our backyard (as well as all of the neighbors trees around us) are Soft Maples. All in all, they are beautiful trees that give us plenty of shade and we like that.....    What we don't like are these crazy helicopter seed pods that come twirling down every Spring, and last about two weeks. When the breeze blows it's like a rainstorm of little helicopters!!!!  

And did I say, they make a MESS???

They stick up all over the lawn like little dead butterflies with their wings in the air. The green seed pods turn brown and then they look very messy and dirty. Some do manage to sprout and we spend time going around plucking little maple trees out of the middle of our lawn and our flower beds.

That doesn't seem so bad, does it? Well it really irritates me in the flower beds because I like setting off my rich deep burgundy, fuchsia, green coleus plants by spreading black mulch around them. All these crazy helicopter pods look like dirty brown crunched up leaves that never got cleaned up from the year before. See what I mean?

PS, note that I added a green soaker hose along the inside edge of the cement scalloped edging. I'm going to try using a timer on the hose to water these plants when we are gone for more than a few days at a time. It seems like a good solution to keep the plants watered alongside the house. This side faces South and the good dirt dries out really fast and is not very deep before there is solid clay. So the good soil needs to be watered sometimes every day during hot weather. I think I will set the little timer to water early in the morning and later in the evening to keep them alive. Otherwise when we are home, I water them with a watering can with the rain water from the barrel.

This lovely old gnarly lilac is at the end of its blossoming season. I don't know how old it is, but boy oh boy it sure is a lovely bush planted by someone long ago. There are some new sprouts growing up around the bottom, so I think if the top keeps dying off, I will let the young sprouts grow up and try to replace it in the coming years. We did that with the lilac on the other side of the house and it sure shaped up nicely now.

Let's walk up around the front of the house. I took a picture this morning of the front but it was blurry so I came back around this evening and took one as the sun was setting. I love the angle of the golden sun in the springtime as it sets. Everything is so fresh and green, and not faded out after a long hot summer.

The birdbath is up in the front flower bed this year, and I have hostas growing in a row behind it. The center one was also a gift from my green thumb friend Juanita. I call it the Hofstrom Hosta. Soon the little rows of white and red impatiens will grow up into a lovely border along the scalloped edging. We have already seen birds using the bird bath and I've scooped feathers out a few times so I know it's being used. Again, I try to only fill this with water from the rain barrel and not the city water faucet. I want to spread some black mulch here too, but not until the helicopters are done. I have ten big bags waiting on a trailer in the garage.

Last year I strung some white cotton rug warp string in a zigzag fashion on little tiny white nails, I put all along the edges of this window on the south side of the front porch. My beautiful clematis blooms adorn this whole side of the porch. It makes a wonderful backdrop seen from the inside and screens off some of the bright bold sunshine coming in from the south. This year the clematis is growing like crazy and has already gone higher than last year. Soon it will fill in with full thick leaves and big purple velvety blossoms.

Underneath the clematis, all around its base, are delicate little Lily of the Valleys. I think of my Grandma Kafehl's house whenever I see them. She had two full beds of them along with her daylilies in the front of her home around the big trees. They grow so well in the shade. I wish they would last all summer, but they seem to die off and just leave the green foliage behind.

When I was a child, growing up in Cedarburg, we had a whole row of these bushes along the side of our backyard facing Country Aire Drive. They were called Bridals Wreath. I remember grabbing the ends of the branches and shaking vigorously, making a rainfall of little tiny white blossoms all over the place. How frustrating that must have been for my mother to look out and see all of her blossoms gone from her bushes!

She also told me a story of where I came into the house one day with my little sand pail, full of little green marbles. Here they were all the round heads off all of her peonies bushes! I had plucked them all off and brought them into the house!!  I'm sure she was so dismayed to not have blossoms that year, after waiting all winter for the peonies plants to grow tall and begin to sprout the round marbles.  I sure must have been a little stinker??  Sorry, Mom!

Round the corner of the front porch I have my littlest flower bed patch that faces the north side. I started some little ferns here two years ago. They struggled last year and really didn't do too well. This year they are just amazingly full and lush!

I think I have a winner with the location that I put them in now. Also on this side of the house I have some extra hosta plants that like the shade.

On this side I also put a very delicate clematis, that has white blooms with thin strands of burgundy. It is also growing up quite well this year and I had zigzagged some string on this window frame too. Hopefully we will have blooming clematis on both sides of the front porch creating lovely screens of green and blooms to look at when we sit inside. I can't wait to see the first blooms opening up on the delicate vines.

The two cement planters I bought a couple weeks ago are doing quite well with some geraniums, spikes, and vinca vines. I love the red, white and blue theme in the front with all of the flowers and the flag overhead.

In one of my other blogs I talked about the ugly telephone pole in the backyard. The clematis I added here is with white blossoms and is starting to take off and creep up the pole. It's a couple feet tall now and I hope it just keeps on going and soon covers the complete wooden texture of the pole. I have a few strings tied around to help but the little twisty grabbers on the clematis are starting to attach themselves into the wood. Grow little flowers, grow and cover up that ugly pole.

The flower bed in the back corner has taken off. All of the transplanted hostas are doing well and growing along the edge. The Korean lilac is in full bloom and the little cactus garden in the corner is doing well in the bright sunshine.  I want to spread some black mulch back here too, but not until the helicopters are done falling. 

My tiny new white lilac bush that I got for Mother's Day is actually blooming! Can you imagine that? It has two blooms on it even though the stalks are only about 1 foot high. I hope that shows that it's a good fighter and will grow and prosper and become a good bush in that corner.

All along the back fence, the flower garden is filling up with perennials that I have planted over the last four years. We always thought the full flower garden was within our property line, but after we had the survey done we realize the property line now goes right through the middle of that flower bed. With the gate that we put in on the back corner, we can easily get around to this side of the fence and pull weeds and trim back and enjoy the flowers too. We have wonderful neighbors and it's not an issue to actually have the entire length of half of our flower bed into their yard. Lol!

I have a great big bush of bleeding heart blossoming. I wish these lasted all summer long. I love their delicate rows of little hearts. I remember my mom having a beautiful bleeding heart bush by our house in Cedarburg near the back door. Every year it would grow larger and larger with lots of rows of these beautiful little pink hearts.

I stopped at a rummage sale last year and bought a couple bunches of these bearded iris plants. I planted them last year and they took off quite well. This year they're even more prolific and this is the first bloom of the season. How beautiful in the evening sunlight.

This goofy plant was in with the irises when I bought them. I don't know what it's called but the leaves are totally different and it is growing up some kind of spikey blossom. Does anyone know what it is called?

This is where we put the last bush that we bought on the back side of the fence so it will grow up 5ft tall and be a backdrop on the corner by the flag. It looks like it is growing well with new growth and all of the rain we've been having lately it's gotten plenty of water. It is called a Sem Ash Leaf False Spirea. It looks like little ferns or feathers and will bloom with white puffs of fluff.

I planted some more of my coleus this morning into some pots to put around in various places in the yard. I carefully nurse these coleus plants over the winter have kept the same strain going since the late 1980s. They were given to me by my friend Connie, and I keep breaking them off and rooting new plants and starting over with as many pots as I can manage to coax through the dreary winter.

And in the last little corner of our yard, we added one tall skinny Cedar arborvitae. I have always liked these trees and they attract a lot of bugs, which in turn attract a lot of birds. I had a whole row of cedars in my backyard of my house on Maple Street in Green Bay. I would get beautiful little yellow finches flitting in and out of the dark green branches. I hang thistle seed feeders out and that helps attract them to the cedar trees. We have a lot of nesting birds in the other arborvitae hedges around the dining room bay window. It adds a lot of visual interest when we sit at the table to eat in the evening. I hope the new bush will attract them as well. 

So that was a little walk around my yard today, to see what's growing, see what we planted, and see how it's all coming together. Although it was fun to go away camping for 5 days, I am really glad that we are back home. I wanted to see how things were taking off in my yard and it looks like Everything Is Coming Up!!!