Camping near the Very Large Array (New Mexico)

Judie sent me this video, and it's so inspiring I stole a lot of it. Inspiration ➤ theft; it is always so.

When it reopens, you'll want to camp at the very nice Datil Wells BLM campground, which has so many more amenities than my new home base. After you get your fill of the good water and free wifi (please take me with you), meet me at the Very Large Array. Here are some pictures I "took" of the antennae:

Some legitimate shots:

Access is not particularly restricted - it's not a military base - so I don't know why I feel so gleeful when I find a gate unlocked.
To see shots of me, the cabin, me in the cabin, me, my friend Morty, my friend Maggie with Morty, Maggie still continent after meeting Morty, and more, come over to my Facebook page. You can see my page without having a Facebook account, right? Let me know.
I won't be wintering at the cabin this year, since I don't have a heat source yet and I don't know how much snow to expect. The road up the mountain will be nicer without snow. There's a lot I don't know, and I'm a little nervous. A little excited. Excitous. 
I also don't know where I'm wintering. Exciting! I will probably scoot out of New Mexico like people without robust heat sources do. Where are you wintering?

Catalina State Park, Oro Valley, Arizona. How the other half lives.

I'm irritated. It's cold, and how much souther can we go without special insurance?

Where we are tonight:

Where we were two years ago tonight:

Where no one should be tonight:

We've been comfortable with 30° nights, but that's our limit.

Can you do 29°?
Well, yes.
How about 28°?
Okay, maybe.
What about...
NO.

So, we booked a few nights in the Catalina State Park, where electricity flows like water, and water flows like that, too. With electric heaters at our disposal, we can keep inside temps reasonable overnight.

We uncovered the surge protector and the lock. The next ten minutes was a vocational aptitude test that indicated none. Annie walked away and remembered how we did it a year ago, last time we sucked power from an outlet.

With hot showers for the taking and cheesy romance novels in the book swap, forward our mail to Easy Street, The Park, Arizona.

Update-iness

It's been a week since Annie quit working, so no more coddling. From now on, she has to get something done.  Ahahahahahaha!   Right now she's heating up my coffee: satisfactory.

Happy Spring!  Last night we got One Billion inches of snow and the world stopped.  March can kiss my saggy behind.

Annie is researching tires for the Duck.  I think she has come to a decision, or at least the decision is in semi-finals.  I hope she'll write about it, because if she leaves it to me things could get ugly.  For example:

Tires, by Roxanne ("Le Canard") 

Tires are important!  Invented sometime after the wheel, tires are more than just elegant lawn accessories.  Tires hold air and are way better than driving without themselves.  If your tire goes flat, you will notice that things feel funny.  If it goes flat FAST, you will notice a reduction of driving control all of a sudden and people will honk at you. 

I have been using tires for a long time now.  I have not changed a tire, but I have hired AAA to change a tire in my presence.  My mother always said, "It's better to have enough money to pay someone else than to learn to do it yourself."   

Tires are usually black, but I don't know why.  It is the 21st century, and I don't know why we can have iShuffles in 14 colors but only black tires.  Oh, and tires are rubber.  That's why I know they're safe.

If you don't want to see this sort of thing, tell Annie to write about it.


Grant from Get Prepared Stuff wrote to me again.  The dream lives!  I have asked him to send me the discounted wringer, so Get Prepared for a whole LOTTA laundry blogging.  [Get your cursor AWAY from the "unfollow" button.]

Annie packs heat.

Annie takes no guff. She takes no prisoners. She asks questions first, then shoots.

We are so upscale [how upscale are you?] that we have two furnaces: a 35000 BTU monster that heats the coach, and a tiny 7* BTU furnace that heats the bedroom. One dark and stormy night last week, the big furnace lost consciousness and went into a coma.**

*this is a lie

**when a grammarian loses consciousness, does she slip into a comma?

How big is YOUR orifice?

Consulting with Bill Fletcher, of Fletcher Trailer Sales (we love this guy), Annie got a handle on what might be wrong, got the part and fixed it. Almost. The space was too tight to get the old control board out and replace it, which wasn't the problem after all, and this sentence is a misdirection because the problem might have been a stripped wire, or might have been the ice maker line dripping onto the furnace, or might have been a bad connection somewhere else, but NONE OF THAT IS IMPORTANT STOP DISTRACTING ME. The point here is that Annie removed the furnace, took it to Bill, watched while he examined it, understood the problem, and brought it home and installed it.





That involves seating it correctly in this hole:

rewiring it, reattaching the gas line, and aligning the exhaust with the exhaust hole on the door:




••NOT SHOWN - I GOT COLD••

We can't blame 9.  He was just a child then.

and then it was warm inside. Magic!


















What Else?


The same weekend she did this:





and removed this:














So what if it was -8°F. just after sunrise this morning?  What could go wrong?†






† irony

Turns out, water freezes

Who knew? Despite our best efforts at insulating wet bays, skirting the Duck, hanging trouble lights and wrapping pipes with heat tape and foam noodles, yesterday morning we woke up to no water. All of our preparations were no match for the -10F temps. Well played, temps, well played.

Luckily, after cranking the back furnace up so that it ran for something like 2 hours straight, we had water again, and it seems that there was no damage done. Whew!

Solar power the low-tech way.

Sunshine in the Northeast ... everyone look ... NOW.  Oh sorry - too slow.  Sunshine = FREE HEAT DAY!  It's a little technical:

1)  open the curtains
2)  have free heat

Through no planning of our own, our windshield points easty and our big windows point southish, and in that way we accidentally installed passive solar.

Lately (since Monday) we've been tempted by this (it will click through to AM Solar in Oregon, who sells them):





but the 120 W model.  I haven't really thought it through.  Would we use this to charge the big battery bank, or the small house battery up front?  Hold up ... Okay, I just discussed it with Pants, who reasons that we would use it to charge the big bank, which supplies the small house battery, which supplies the small house.

We have a friendly disagreement about the application of solar technology.  One of us would like to install a system right now.  One of us wants to wait until we're somewhere where people install solar systems on RVs instead of  where they say Boy, seems like you could do that somehow.  This intermediate solution might make both of us grin.

If you know anything about this company or this product, we'd like to know what you know.

Pants is home early today with something contagious.  Send tom yum soup wishes.

As Heard In Our House™

[At the end of a fruit salad]  "Haha!  You just drank fruit water!"


"My people call it "juice.""




Annie has noticed that people's reactions to our living in the RV - especially this winter - are strongly gender-divided.  Women say "Are you warm enough?  Do you have enough insulation?  Do you need to borrow a space heater?"  Non-RV men roll their eyes so far back that their brains feel violated and slap them back up front.  She asked one such man to explain why.

I think with guys, we strive for more, bigger and better, and in this we are encouraged, not just by the corporate overworld, but by our fellow disciples. I equate comfort with space for my STUFF. I equate wealth with comfort and the presence of STUFF. Every now and then I get sick of all that and I go on a rampage getting rid of STUFF. Then I come to my senses and go on about the business of getting more STUFF. A motorhome is just more STUFF. One does not live in his STUFF, you can live for it, just not in it. 

 I asked if I could quote him here;  he said he was just channeling George Carlin anyway.

Have you experienced this?   What about you men?  How have your friends responded to this crazy RV situation?  What's your take?

Foreshadowing.

You know it when you read it.  An involuntary shudder travels up your spine;  you have knowledge that the character should have, but doesn't.

BREAKING unresolved news: the power just went out in the Duck, but not in the house. Inverter won't come on. GFCI keeps tripping, and I can't find the fault. I just know it's not mine.

*If you care what, but not why, resume reading at the next asterisk.  You'll get no judgement from me.

WHAT WE KNEW: The fault was the two inches of water standing in the converter bay.  The converter scratched out its message to the world and converted its last current. No problem! we thought with delicious literary irony. We have battery back-up and a decent inverter in a separate system.  Plus, we have a brand-new converter hooked up - bring it on.  By morning we had no DC action. No lights, no furnace fan, and once we were down, the LP detector kicked us by shutting off all gas for cooking and hot water (because of the low battery action).

The culprit.  Notice droplets;  do not question why the converter would be in a wet bay.

Tight conditions.  Longshoremen blushed while Annie made these repairs.

After Annie Pex'd it up

WHAT WE DIDN'T KNOW:  The dead converter was converting AC to DC power stored in the chassis battery.  Once our house AC was separated from this system, we were living la vida dulce all night on our starting battery.  [Very, very dead.  Permanently dead.]  The fancy battery bank was useless because the (dead) converter converted AC power from the inverter that had already been converted from DC power in the batteries that had been converted from AC power from the house. 


We spent several cold days and nights not actually considering moving back into the house.   We did dishes in the house and showered in the house, and I can't fully explain why we didn't just put ourselves there for a few days.  I can't.  I don't know.  A need to test our mettle?  I DON'T KNOW.  


Annie found two Optima AGM batteries after talking to our electrician.  One is a new starting battery (R.I.P., Diehard) and the other a new coach battery.  We picked up a battery charger (standby converter) and it is hooked up to the coach battery and the stick house AC.  

Starting (chassis) battery

Marine (hybrid) battery

This isn't the endless loop we experienced earlier, when the house AC powered the batteries which powered the inverter which powered the converter which powered the batteries which powered the inverter which powered the converter.  None of that would be a problem without that pesky Newton and his Suggestions of Thermodynamics.  But, it is a double loop.  


* The second converter is fried and it is an essential component in our system as it is configured.  Annie found an Intelli-Power 9200 at Streetside Auto (the best price, plus free shipping) and may or may not install it today.  If she chooses Option A, she will probably install it upside down on the bay ceiling.  


Sometime this week we got full functionality back, after the new batteries were installed and continuously-charged.  Neither of us can remember when, only that it happened and it was wonderful.

I hollered over at Jeana

I said "DON'T LOOK, JEANA!" but it was too late ...



We're ready for it!



I told you the problem with our thermostats, the problem where they don't work. The furnace runs like a well-oiled heating machine, but too often, too long, and too hot. Carolyn suggested pointing a vent at the thermostat, which isn't possible but put us on the right track. If we could localize the heat just around the sensor we could OVERPOWER IT WITH OUR SUPERIOR INTELLECT and cunning mastery of caps lock. Plus, festive, am I right? Maria and MaryGail were impressed with our minimalist decorating.

Still, Annie felt there must be a solution, a real fix, so she kept researching until she found another Bounder owner who resets his thermostats by removing, then replacing, the fuses labeled "ECC" (electronic climate control). She did that last night, and my job today (my only job) was to test it. With the bulbs unplugged, the furnace came on at 61° F (~18° C) and brought a bag lunch. I plugged them back in and they're working again to suppress the sensor. It's so cold in here I can't feel my nose. Success! So sleepy. I'll nap in this snow drift ...

In happier days, we put on this window stuff:




This was the next happy day:



Speaking of happy days, Ralph, I've been taking extra vitamin D for the past two winters to help my mood.



After and before photo

Lily wanted to go out seconds before she wanted to come in:




BREAKING unresolved news: the power just went out in the Duck, but not in the house. Inverter won't come on. GFCI keeps tripping, and I can't find the fault. I just know it's not mine.

A story with pictures (Annie)

So, as you know, we've been working on and in the Duck to get her ready for winter habitation.  Pipes and hoses are insulated, trouble lights are hanging in wet bays, Carrot is growing her winter fur, it's all good.  Next step, put some skirting around the Duck to help keep our bottom warm.  Our floors, too.

After a trip to Lowe's for some foam board insulation, I started measuring, cutting and fitting while Roxi did this...

No glove,  no love

Working with the foam board was pretty darned easy, and it's pliable enough that I could shove and bow it into place, then tape with aluminum tape.

Not bad, eh?

After that was done, Roxi looked at it and said, "Yeesh!  Yuck!  Ugly!  Hate!"  Or words to that effect.  So we started talking about things to put over the blue.  Opaque plastic?  Black plastic?  Hey, how about brown tarp!

It's so nice, let's see it twice

So off we went to Tractor Supply to buy the same color tarp.  We bought enough to go all the way 'round the Duck, though we haven't actually gone all the way 'round the Duck (IF you know what I'm sayin').

We didn't cover the exhaust because we want to exercise the engine, same with the generator (absent on picture day).

Covering the ugly

This is a cat

Once the tarp was covering all of the blue, we weighted it down with rocks, bricks and wood.

Roxi, sportin' wood

Then we called it a day, pleased with ourselves and hoping for some good wind breakage.

Three days later, we had wind.  Boy did we have wind!  Constant 30mph winds with 50+mph gusts.  

What the!

Sonofa...  (it even blew our license plate swirly!)

It's kind of back together now.

On the 15th, our local propane and propane accessories company came out to deliver this.  

Screw it, I'm turning up the furnace!

172 fifths of Everclear.

190 proof not sold in NYS.  Why stay?

That's what it would take to mend this broken heart.  And, to lower the freezing point of our fresh water tank 18°F.  I challenge you to prove me wrong.  I have thrown down the mitten.

Thanks, Carolyn.  Why mess around with 100 proof?  Everclear isn't 100% ethanol, of course, but Magical Math takes care of that.  If we were to do something so ridiculous and so right,  our water would be approximately 65 proof.

So, we put incandescent lightbulbs in the bays instead.  When it gets really cold, we'll screw them into something.

Q:  How many fulltime RVers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A:  One.


We discovered that our overachieving furnace is burning through about 3 gallons of propane a day trying to keep the Duck at 65°.  Not necessary, Overachieving Furnace!  Live a little and set your standards lower.  This set off a ripple of panic in our household, since we're not set for another delivery for a week, and the people who sell propane and propane accessories were a little snippy about frequent deliveries.  One of us decided to turn off the furnace entirely last night, and the other slept very well and warmly.  It is to no one's advantage to discuss this further, especially not mine.


One of my oldest living friends emailed me last night to tell me to obscure our license plate in the blog.  I'm pretty indifferent myself, but he guaranteed that making our license plate swirly would behoove me, so how could I refuse?  This morning I'm stuck with the same old feet.   I'm teasing you, dude, but I do appreciate the concern.  I'm the living proof that you really can be too careful.

A Day Without Reflectix®

is a day without retinal burns.   Do not look directly into these pictures.



This is technically a heated bay, so it stays about 4°F. warmer than the outside.  At 45° this is excellent, but at 15° ... well, the math is foggy but you get the idea.  How much 100 proof vodka would it take to keep 100 gallons of water from freezing at 15°F?  [This is not rhetorical.  Please submit your answers below in Celsius and metric.  Show your work.]  We hope the Reflectix will nudge the equation in our favor.





We did the door earlier in the season.  Here's my contribution:

Pardon my slinky.  This one is not stinky, on account of not having a blackwater tank.   Stop me if you've heard this one ...  we installed another valve that allows gray water to flow into the (already emptied and cleaned) black tank for extra storage.

As for the insulated bay floor, I'm skeptical.  It's better than nothing.  There are lots of things it's better than, but it's still inadequate.  This bay is also heated, though, so we'll get some help there - thanks, fossil fuel!  I'm glad you're a renewable resource.

This one is for Annie's little cold head.  There ya go, Little Head!

What else?  [looks around]


This is the basement window of a "house" (an immobile structure that some people take shelter in when their RV is broken).  The window covering shattered completely this summer, and apparently no longer exists outside my memory.  Any ideas for replacements?

I made this picture small because it doesn't deserve to be bigger.  Our furnace's lowest setting is too hot, and I put this on the thermostat to fix that.  It won't;  please submit your thermodynamically-sound reason below, using Newton's own words.

I still have a little left ...



... aaand, it's gone.



While the sun shone, I hit the tow dolly with a few shots of Rust-oleum® which I like to pronounce like Maus-oleum®.


If you live somewhere like New Mexico or heaven, you might wonder, without real curiosity, what is the blue stuff I keep seeing reflected in the photos?  I wondered for a long time, too, until I realized.  It was the sky. Please help me.