Friday May 8 2009 by Leland.

As you know from previous posts, I had an electrical problem with the garage power.  Problem solved.  With the help of the folks who make Advil, I drug my trench, buried new cable and got power back to the garage.  This day I got the trench buried and the yard back to the shape it was before.  One more thing!

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Thursday May 7 2009 by Leland.

Well, after much stop and go and three trips to town, I got the propane problems solved.

The problem with a motor home (or at least one of the problems) is that the propane tanks are built in versus a trailer or fifth wheel which have portable tanks that you can simply remove.  The issue of course it that when you run out of propane in a motor home you drive the whole thing to the propane dealer.   A trailer, you undo the wing nut and a hose fitting, throw the tank in the car and go fill it.

I decided to do what lots of others have done, make me a method of using a portable tank while stopped for lengthy stays.  I looked at the kits of hoses, fittings and tanks that were available in stores and on the internet and it would have cost around $250.  YIKES.  I decided to do it different.

I bought a small tank for $35.  I bought a regulator for $27.  I had a hose made for $18.  Done. 

Cool trick.  Of course it wasn’t that easy but that was the result.  I won’t bore you with the detail of buying the wrong hose, wrong adapters, wrong hose made, trips to return things etc.   Ok, now it works.

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Wednesday May 6 2009 by Leland.

Today I chased my tail all over town.   I went to get an auxillary propane tank hooked up to the rig.  I had priced the custom made aux tank deal.  They have a brass T, some caps, some hose and they cost $185.  and that’s not the tank which the same place wants $65 for.

I figured it out and could do it, tank and all for less than a hundred.  So off I went.  I neede a hose, a regulator and a tank.  No big deal right?  Well I went to the first place and got a regulator with proper connectors.  One down.  I also bought a hose and adapters there.  Now we were only one adapter short of having the whole thing.  Nuts.  Well I figured since we couldn’t find the adapter anywhere what we needed to do was just have a hose made and forget the adapters.  So I went to the propane place and showed him the old hose which was fine except it’s only 14 inches long.  I need 5 feet.  He says no problem and heads into a back room and comes out with a hose.  Says he didn’t have the right connector so he put adapters on it.  Crap.  If I had wanted adapters I didn’t need him.  I took it anyway thinking maybe it would work.  It didn’t.  I got a leak and cross threaded one adapter.  I went to take it back but got there at 2 minutes after 5.  They were locked up and gone. 

Tomorrow I take it back and get my money back.  Either that or I call the credit card company and refuse payment.  There is another propane place in town and I’ll try there after I get the first money back.  As it is, we are without propane tonight.  No problem as it’s not supposed to get that cold.  Ok who’s betting on the weather now?

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Monday May 4 2009 by Leland.

Or, If it ain’t one thing, It’s two others.  As you saw from the post the other day we had an electric cable burn in half and after I dug it out, I had to dig the trench down to codel depth which the old cable sure wasn’t.  I spent all day Saturday digging the 40′ X 20″ trench. By the time I got over to the garage, I had nothing left.  But the edge of the concrete was not the end of the road, er trench.  I had to dig under three feet wide concrete sidewalk.  I dug and dug and dug and ran out of gas about 6 inches short.  I gave up and went out and put in a few posts for electric fence to limit the horses to the grass I wanted them to eat.  Bill came over and finished the under the concrete stretch for me and we got the cable up through the conduit and called it a night.

Today I wired both ends of the new cable in and buried the cable across the yard.  I didn’t bury the hole at the sidewalk.  I wanted to take a photo first.  Ok.  Then I got out the riding mower and started to mow.  Yep the stupid grass has grown up and needed mowing again.  I got a good running start but when I stopped to move one of the fences, the mower wouldn’t start again.  Sounds like gears are stripped in the starter.  See what I mean.  If it ain’t one thing it’s two others. 

I am starting to remember home ownership and wondering what the point of going full time RVing was if I still gotta do homeowner chores….. 

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Saturday May 2 2009 by Leland.

Today was a completely screwed up day all day.  We woke up 15 minutes before needing to leave for the doctor’s appointment but decided to take our time.  No problem.  The problem was that I was fasting for the test.  No breakfast, no coffee… YIKES.  Then jug of glucose, the 5 blood draws over 3 hours for blood tests and by the time I got that done, the rest of anything like a normal day was gone.  Right after the testing I went down to Perkins and had an omelet and 2 pancakes with about a pint of syrup.  Live it up while you still can.  Sure enough the call this afternoon confirmed the Type II stuff is upon me.  It’s been coming on for years but now is official.  Ok, now what?  We’ll see. 

Yesterday I had a dermatologist take off a “wart like thingy” from my arm.  This will no doubt be a start of the paybacks for a lifetime of sun and fun - mostly sun.  Yep, I might be getting older.  NOT OLD mind you, just older.

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