Some Motorhome Maintenance on our Winnebago View

Steve is happiest when he has something to putter around with.

Motorhome maintenance is always at the top of his list. He has done all of our maintenance on any of our rvs, vehicles, lawn equipment etc and rarely does he ever rely on a repair shop.

For those of you who don't know him, Steve's career before retirement was handling all of the maintenance on the large equipment used for groundskeeping at the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay. He took part in their interior construction and repair projects as well. He also went to school to be an electrician. From there, for his last 5 years with the state of Wisconsin he handled all of the maintenance of the equipment and grounds and services at High Cliff State Park.

Now that he's retired, he is able to put more time and attention on his OWN things he says!

One of the first projects he wanted to get done on the new-to-us Winnebago View was to lube all of the slides and then condition all of the rubber seals. Even though it was slightly drizzly yesterday, he was looking for something to do. 

It's very important to only use products that are intended to maintain the slides and the rubber seals. Using the wrong product can cause gunking up of slide motor gears or deterioration of the rubber seals. 

He said the best way is to spray it first onto a rag and then wipe it on, rather than just spraying willy-nilly all over the place and making a mess. Both of our slides are in perfect adjustment, so there are no repairs needed. There's one small piece of rubber missing on one corner of one of the seals. We may find a way to patch it, or he may just order a whole new seal and replace that section. But for now, he is watching it for any signs of leakage during the rain. So far so good.

While he was outside doing that, that's when I was inside stowing away some more items and photographing my storage solutions I mentioned in yesterday's blog. 

I had kicked on the heat to warm it up, and tried out the electric heat strips up in the air conditioning system. They worked great. But then Steve wanted me to also kick on the propane furnace which blows through the bottom vents near the floor. He could hear something in there buzzing around making a funny noise in one of the vents. Sure enough, there's a big chunk of styrofoam! 

So here he was on the floor, unscrewing the vent grid with his Leatherman tool that he always carries in his pocket, and removed the hunk of styrofoam. Just think, that stupid piece must have been in there ever since the rig was built in 2016. Now it's in the trash.

Although this isn't technically maintenance, it's a project that we're going to do. Previously, we had wired in a 50 amp outlet on the side of our garage to plug in our last motorhome. Now, this motorhome is only 30 amp. In the meantime Steve used the portable surge protector and a dog bone adapter to change from 50 amp down to 30. He said he will pick up the materials to swap a new box over to 30 amp so we can hook it up directly. Maybe we can sell the 50 amp box on marketplace. 

Another electrical project is on the horizon, this time inside of the rig. We really don't have any USB ports within the rig other than one adapter in a cigarette lighter up on the front dash. We like to camp a lot just using 12 volt DC and not be plugged in at a park to shore power. We need to have some other ways to charge our phones rather than with 120 volt AC wall outlets. We had added three extra 12 volt DC cigarette type outlets to our last motorhome. Then we still have to pop in the little adapters to plug in the cords for charging.

This time Steve decided to buy the surface mount USB charging units, rather than cutting big holes into the cabinetry to recess the 12 volt outlets like last time. This will work well with our Samsung phones because they have the fast charging option. Also with the "C" type connections. They only need a very small hole through the woodwork or the wall to run the two wires. The rest is all surface mounted. That way, if technology changes in the future, or types of charging needed, we can easily change out to a new wall mount unit rather than having big holes from recessed ones. 

We ordered up two of these from Amazon 

and they will be here next week:

The link is:  https://a.co/d/28KGsUP

The next upcoming project on our list: we want to have Borg solid stems attached to our tires rather than the flexible braided kind. We want to add our Tire Minder TPMS, (tire pressure monitoring system). 

The Borg stems are said to be the best alternative to the braided ones. The braided ones can be sheared off or leak. The solid stems seem to be much more reliable. We had them on our last two motorhomes. The inner dually wheels need to have a valve stem that extends out in this manner shown below from someone else's picture. 

So once we order the Borg stems we need to find a tire place that's willing to put them on. It seems that they need to be bent in a certain manner from the inner dually wheel to be able to come out the middle of the access opening on the outer dually wheel. Some tire shops will do it, others won't. I guess at the Borg company there is a person named Kelli who will supply the exact information for the tire installer to follow regarding the bending as well as the right torque for installing them to the rim.

I guess they need to be bent like the one on the left, not the one on the right. 

So that will be one of our upcoming projects.

Also the simulators, or commonly known as hubcaps, can actually pivot or spin on the rim and shear off those braided stems, especially on the rear wheels. So we removed the simulator caps for now. 

We have joined the online groups for View/Navion owners of these particular years. It seems to be a problem that the simulator caps go flying off. Some have even resorted to buying thin metal wire ties and attaching them to the rims so they don't pivot. Our previous owner actually attached metal tabs right to the hub bolts to try to prevent it from spinning. But then it makes it harder to remove the simulators in case of a tire change. 

So we think we might go without them for a while. The rims are pretty good looking just as silver painted rims. We will see.

The very last item on his agenda is to do an oil change and replace the cab filter. He was careful to get the proper ESP oil rated specifically for the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter engine and the proper Mann filter. 

If the weather gets a little nicer from this wet cold sleety icy snowy icky stuff, he will get that done possibly by the weekend. I hope he can do it on Saturday. 

It is his birthday on Saturday, and he turns 65! He is going to totally enjoy being able to spend the day working on his new birthday present toy --- the Winnebago View!!! 

Beantown and Pot(s)

Yesterday we made a trip to Beantown. Yes, Beantown. It's actually the name of a really nice Campground up in the Door County Peninsula of Wisconsin. You know that skinny finger that sticks way up into Lake Michigan?

We went up to help Pops, Steve's dad, to move his motorhome out of storage and get it settled in on to a seasonal site for the summer at Beantown.  http://www.beantowncampground.com/

Steve and Tom, the owner of Beantown,  had gone to high school together up in Door County. They were a year or two apart but still knew each other because it was such a small town.

It didn't take long to get Pop's big motorhome all settled into his great site, get it leveled off, and the slides opened up. We dewinterized the water system and helped him set up his sewer hose and got his electrical going. Now he's all set for a summer of camping. We are going to go back up in a few weeks and help him build a nice little deck area on his campsite. It will be easier for placing patio furniture and a round table compared to the picnic table that is already there. We will bring our motorhome up at the same time to park nearby and help build the deck. Then he can be settled in to entertain with the folks in the campground.

We took our dogs along with us because it was going to be a long day. About 2 hours up and 2 hours back.  So all three dogs, Finney, Binney and Pop's dog Millie commandeered the back seat of the truck, leaving look very little room for me! At one point I looked over and Millie was draped across both Shelties like they were her personal Doggie Mattress. "Might as well put these fluff balls to good use" she thought, "they make comfy padding".

So that was it for Beantown.

Now about the pot(s)

I have been searching lately for a couple of big cement type urn pots to put on our front porch. I had two smaller plaster ones the first summer we were here but one cracked and that those were not exactly what I wanted. I wanted more of the big cement pedestal type urns that would go with the style of our home.

We looked all around and checked quite a few stores and did not find any for sale. I did find a place online where I could order them for $200 and have them shipped but that's quite a bit out of my price range. Ouch!

I even posted a "wanted to buy" ad on all of the local buy sell trade Facebook pages and Craigslist. No bites, not even a nibble.

On Monday I had given up finding any of the pots I wanted.....  and I planted a bunch of geraniums into some cheap plastic pots that I had painted white. They were okay. But it's not what I wanted. Last year I used them and they blew over in some of the thunderstorms and just look cheap.

Well well well well ---- as we were driving up to Door County, I was sitting in the back seat of the truck, on my phone, perusing Craigslist. Guess what I found! Somebody in Oshkosh, the opposite direction from where we were going, posted a pair of cement urns exactly what I wanted --- and at a great price too.

I texted her and she said yes they were still available, but she would not be home until 4:30. That was just perfect for us to arrive after coming back from Door County. After we said goodbye to Pop's in Appleton we headed down to Oshkosh to check out the urns. They were exactly what I wanted and Steve hoisted them up into the trunk of our car to haul them home.

Even though it was late evening and darkness was coming on we decided to haul them up to the front of the house after I hosed them off.

Boy oh boy were these suckers heavy. Steve put them in our little red wagon both at the same time and I really could barely move them as you can tell.

Even he took a break after hauling them up to the front of the house. It was still hot humid and very sticky out. I think it hit 83 degrees here.

Then Steve hoisted them up into place. I carefully transplanted the new flowers from the plastic pots into the cement ones. We were losing daylight but I wanted to get these done before heading to bed.  Today I will touch up the exterior with some paint to make them look cleaner and more matching of the stoop and trim on the house.

TA DAHHHH! 

Now this is what I had been hoping for: 

While shopping, Steve also picked up two other interesting shrubs this week and we need to get them planted as well.  They are not going IN the fenced in yard, but around it on the outside. One is called a Sem Ash Leaf False Spirea. It looks like little ferns or feathers and will bloom with white puffs of fluff. It will get about 5 feet tall and about 10 feet wide.  The other one is a tall skinny cedar to grow in a spot where we pulled out some arborvitae and want something to offset the horizontal lines of the other bushes next to it. We had two at our house in Oconto and I really liked them.

We did manage to get my white lilac planted and made a nice flower bed in the corner of the fenced-in yard. Steve helped me transplant some hostas that needed splitting up, and then we moved one of the cactus gardens on the birdbath stands that I wrote about in my last blog.

We surrounded it with some old bricks 

we found inside the garage and 

some other bricks that were leftover 

from removing the top of the chimney last year. 

Recycling! 

Now I think our backyard is more balanced and even with the fence and two flower beds, one in each corner.  It is also easier with the riding lawnmower to arc along the beds to cut the lawn instead of going into the corner of the fence. 

The big job is going to be operating the weedeater along all 258 feet of fence to carefully cut back the grass and not whip the heck out of the wood (like Steve is prone to do) I think we will need to get another battery for the weedeater so I can do it in shifts and not have to wait for a recharge.

Up in the front yard, I did get a row of little red and white impatiens done in front of the house, and I still have some left to plant under the cherry tree.  I will mulch after the helicopter seeds are done falling from the soft maple trees around. Otherwise they are a big mess on top of the pretty black mulch that I like to use.  Steve put the birdbath up front for me on a cement pedestal base to keep it level.  Come on birdies!

One of the things in our backyard I do NOT like is the huge ugly telephone pole. I decided to plant some vines of clematis at the bottom and tie around the pole a couple times with string to get it started. I already have a few blooms on it so I think it's taking off.

I would rather look at a column of beautiful flowers than that ugly pole. Not only is it old and full of holes, it's crooked!  It's a shame it has to be in our yard because it's not really being used by us.  They came through 2 years ago and replaced all the poles up the center of the block, but skipped this one at the end of the line.  Our power to our house is buried underground, but the lines on this pole lead up overhead to the neighbor at the end of the line. The telephone and cable wires on there also are not used by us as the phone lines are buried underground and we do not have cable.

Grow, Clematis, Grow

and cover up that ugly pole!

Today is going to be hot and humid again like yesterday. We did not start the air-conditioning yet, but we do have all of the windows open to let fresh air into the house this morning.

Setting out on the front porch as I write this blog 

enjoying a cup of coffee

On edit... I set down the coffee, 

grabbed my paint and brush

and gave the urns a fresh coat of paint! 

AHHHHHHH

Sheltie Seizure Scare

Our old man dog Duke (a.k.a. Dookie Palooki) gave us a scare yesterday.

Seems he had a seizure or a stroke.... he was all stiff.  I have had this happen with two other shelties in the past, so I knew what was happening.  I held him and soothed him, as he was scared and kinda frantic. Later he has a crooked looking face, with one eye closed more and one side of mouth puckered up and limping moreso on one side.   He was pretty exhausted and laid down on his side, breathing heavily.

Duke is 10 years old, and has a huge tumor on his chest that has grown firm and spread under his armpit.  Had him at the vet 2 weeks ago, and we decided things have spread into his ribcage and probably his heart.  He probably has other tumors now, pressing in the brain or on the heart. We will keep him comfortable, and when the time comes, we will let him go with grace and love.  There isn't much we can do even with a surgery. Shetland sheepdogs life expectancy is only about 12-13 years old.  Seizures are very common in elderly shelties.

We think he had a seizure recently prior to this one. Steve noticed on Wednesday while I was gone to my quilting class, that the sound of Duke's bark changed.   We had noticed the same change in bark when Duchess was nearing the end last summer too.

Little Finnegan was all worried about his big buddy Duke. He laid close and kept sniffing his face and licking the corner of his mouth, just like a pup does to a mommy dog.

I watched him closely and he was resting for a few hours.  Soon he was up and drinking water and walking around.  A few bites of food, and a gobble of a hot dog slice had him back to his pretty normal self!   He even tried to fetch a ball one or two times, and then went and laid back down.  

He slept well, and didn't rustle around too much.  This morning he went out and did his business as usual!  Looking pretty chipper and happy, and the face seems to have relaxed back to his normal shape.  We are so relieved, but know to watch for more in the future. 

When my old sheltie Max had seizures, he only lasted a month.  He was a confused little boy who was sooo lost, and seemed to forget who we were, where his things were, where to find his bowl, which door to go out etc.   It was like the seizures erased all his memories.   

When our old sheltie Bani Bon Bon had them, she made it a year.  Once in a while after one, she would wander off and get confused, but she usually bounced back.  Till the end when one left her paralzyed.  Then we had to do what all good owners do when the quality of life is over.  Sigh. 

But for now this old guy is rallying around and having his good time with us.... and we love him.  So glad Duke has been here to show new Finnegan "the ropes" and how to love us and live with us and enjoy the lives we offer to our pets.

Hopefully he will be fine to go travelling in HIS motorhome in a few weeks!   After all, the motorhome belongs to the dogs.  We humans are only here to drive them to new places to sniff!

We have started training little Finnegan to go out in other parts of the yard on a leash to do his business.  He has only been in his little penned in yard area for doing that stuff, and now he has to learn to do it other places when we go on our upcoming vacation.  

I remember the first time we took Duke out west, he didn't like peeing on anything other than grass.  It got kinda hard for him to not go pee, he was holding it all the time until we found grass!   The further west we got, the less grass.  Soon he had to learn to go on bare desert gravel, but he didn't like it!

White Sand Dunes National Monument was very very confusing to Duke on that vacation. He wouldn't pee on the white sand, and thought it was SNOW!!! He tried to eat it!  Goofy Mutt!

Once we hit GRASS again on our way home from a desert vacation  --- Duke rejoiced when we found him some grass in Oklahoma!  Getting back home to grass was HEAVEN to him again....  But he hates going home and getting out of the motorhome.  He holds a little temper tantrum each time we get home, because he wants to keep on going going going!

Let's hope we have another fun trip with him, our Little Motorhome Doggie Duke....

For now, he is resting well and comfortable.  He is relaxing in the colored rainbows from our windows, looking at me and wondering why I am crying when I am typing this.  Dang.

Dog Gone Motorhome and Grandtot Birthday

Yes.... it has finally warmed up enough to go out and check on the motorhome without freezing our fingers to the metal! Just like the movie of sticking your tongue to a flagpole??  Haha.

Steve noticed our battery bank was down to the 50% range, so he was able to get up on a ladder today and clear off the solar panels of ice and snow.  He also exercised the generator a bit to charge them up at the same time too.  Running the generator once a month under a load is good to do.  We hadn't done that often enough in the past, and ended up having our rotor go out and needed to have it rebuilt.  NOT fun!   Because the entire generator needs to be removed out the bottom of the rig on a downhill slope to get to the part off to be shipped out to get rebuilt.

Now we make sure once a month we run the generator and either turn on some electric heaters, run the furnace, or let the batteries charge up if they are down.

Sooo now our batteries are up to snuff, and we may think about escaping sometime soon to parts unknown.. preferably WARM! We will see what happens.  Hmmmmm?


We also took the time to explore the motorhome with the new puppy!   We have to introduce him to the rig so he knows what is what.  Duke of course dashed right in, but little Finnegan was a bit hesitant.  Duke told him this Big Blue Box takes doggers to interesting places to sniff!

Duke gave Finnegan the "grand tour" of the motorhome.  He showed him the front area with the livingroom and driving area.  Then the middle kitchen space, then through the door to the bathroom and finally took him to each side of the big king bed in the rear bedroom.  

As the sniffing went on, I am sure he could smell the scent of our old Duchess from last summer yet, and was wondering where that other doggie could be?  I know Duke misses her too, and smells her from time to time, getting a far-away look in his eyes. 

Duke showed Finnegan where the water and food bowls go in the bathroom, and also the drawer where the doggie treats are kept.  Dang.... they are both empty!  (mouse prevention- no food left in the rig) 

After they explored to their heart's content, Duke decided it was time to rest and show Finney the best seat in the house.  So I lifted Duke up and soon little Finney decided he needed to be up there too~!   Here we have TWO Kings Of The Road:

"Ahem.... we may have licenses,

but we don't know how to drive. 

Can you please get in here and take us to some places to sniff??

All in all, I think he will make a good traveling buddy for Duke, and we will teach him to be a good Campground Doggie.  It's important to us that he learns to behave and not make a nuisance of himself.  Nothing can be worse than being camped next to someone with an irritating barking noisy dog.  Arggghhh!


Friday night, Wisconsin was going to be covered in a sheet of icy sleet snowy mess and we didn't go anywhere other than to the Red Box to rent a movie before it got too bad.   We were cozy and snug at home with our doggers and didn't venture out except to bring them out to the back yard for potty breaks.

Saturday was a fun day for us--- the snow and ice were melting and the temps raised enough to get the salt brine working on the road surfaces.  So what was ice covered and dangerously treacherous the night before, was now just wet pavement.  

We had a GRANDTOT BIRTHDAY PARTY to go to!  Chelsea, the middle grandtot, turned 4 on Friday and was having a party at her home up in Oconto on Saturday at noon. It's 70 miles one way, through all the construction around Green Bay, so we had to leave an hour and a half early.

We decided to leave Duke home, to rest, and because he gets so excited and his heart pounds so fast if he is in the middle of the people and wants to get them all to play etc. He thinks everyone should play tug and fetch and frisbee.  For 4 or 5 hours he would be in a tizzy of wanting to play.  Duke's heart is showing signs of congestive heart failure and some murmer, so we don't want to over-excite him any more.  But we did take the pup along because 6-7 hours away might be too long to leave him at home.  Plus, he hadn't met most of the grandtots yet either.

The Birthday Girl, Chelsea got to hold him first while playing in her toy room... Oh my it was Puppy Love at first sight...  The pup was cuddled and gently played with.  He was such a good pup and behaved himself.

The grandtots took turns playing with him, 

and this was quite a feat to get ALL FIVE to sit still in a row~! 

Our daughter Erin and son-in-law Mark have a nice big house in Oconto, perfect for big family parties.  Little Chelsea decided her party should be Sponge Bob Square Pants themed, and everything was decorated for the event.   Mark built these little child size picnic tables, one for the toy room and one for outdoors in the summer time.  How perfect for a bunch of little tots!

This room was soon filled with aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and also some of the children that go to Chelsea and Clayton's daycare.  One of the little boys is name "Finnegan" and we told him how much we liked HIS name that we named our puppy after him!   LOL

Games were played... 

like pin the jelly fish on the Sponge Bob poster.... 

Presents were opened with paper flying all over,

plus gift bags for each child full of party goodies.

Even a Sponge Bob Pinata was packed full of treats! 

Instead of hitting with a stick, 

this kind had various ribbons hanging off the bottom,  

Each child could take a turn pulling a ribbon, 

and ONE ribbon would let the whole bounty of treats fall out! 

Of course, then it was time for Birthday Cake!~ 

(actually a cluster of Sponge Bob birthday cupcakes)

1,  2,   3,   BLOWWWWWWWW

The only time we had quiet was when they were all eating!  

I think there were 11 or 12 kids total?

A very happy little girl is now 4 years old, just like her cousin Allegra.  Soon both boys, Mason and Clayton will be having their 2nd birthdays, the end of March and beginning of April.  So if we do go for a vacation jaunt to the south, we HAVE to back in time for those special days too!

p.s. the puppy slept all the way home.... 

I think he was worn out!