Not too much right now going on but here's some stuff.
We had a small leak at a connection point in the grey line in the service bay itself. Put it off on fixing but we finally took the time Sunday the 17th to fix it. Thought we had all the parts together but for some reason the 90 degree was missing/missplaced. Well Thom took apart the whole thing and we took it to the hardware store just to be sure we got the right piece. Good thing we did do that cause there are lots of different sizes on the pipes. Also got a "real" hacksaw not the little mobile one.
Got the rest of the stuff we needed and went home.
Then we started to do what we had to fix and put it all back together. Thom then changed out the other light to an LED one. We had picked up several little circular marine LED's to change out that one and the ones for the steps, so while it was open in the bay Thom did it. We still have one light there to change out but the ones we got will not work there so we need a different one, oh well. Well, as Thom went to put all the covers back on and that one that we have not changed yet seems to have a short somewhere cause it caused the 20 amp fuse to blow. Well we ended up needing to change out 2 20 amp fuses and as long as we don't do anything to that cover and light they don't blow. Thom will try to figure out why but it was getting on past dark and getting close to bed time so for now it's just closed up. That fuse only impacts a couple of lights inside according to the schematics that we have. We've had that fuse blow before but we thought we had fixed the problem but I guess not. Well it will get fixed soon now that we know it's a little bigger. And even thou we picked up a whole house water filter system the other night we decided to not add that just yet cause of it getting so dark.
We are thinking about giving the cat - Gascap - away. Thom is quite allergic to cats and we should not have gotten one but we've had one before Gascap and Thom was able to work around the allergies but with us now in an RV and with Thom getting a little older and allergies do get worse as you get older .... Whomever does get to take Gascap will have to be a place that does not have young kids or other animals. Gascap is a love but he is very skittish and sometimes younger kids and other animals jump all over which would not be good for him. We've had him for about 3 years and have traveled all over with him. Travel in a car is not something he likes but the RV he enjoy's. He see's us put things away and stuff he gets in his spot which is on the dash. He really enjoy's watching out the window as we go down the road. We are not just going to take him to a shelter thou. So if anyone is thinking about a cat let me know and you can come visit him to see if he's a fit for you. We are near Santa Clarita, CA right now.
Thom and Andy are getting the band back together and will be playing at Grinfest in August. Things go well who knows what might happen, well we will see.
We are on our 4th set of managers over here at the RV park in 6 months. Frank was here for about 3 yrs and then moved on. The next set was a couple and they lasted about 3 wks and had 24 hrs to leave the park. The 3rd set was another couple and after about 2 1/2 mths he got a better job and they left. We now have just a guy with Chelsea back in the office. Honestly the owner should just let Chelsea do the job, she's been here for almost 4 yrs and knows the system inside and out. But she has 2 things going against her - 1 she is female and 2 she just turned 21. The owner will not give it to a female 21 yr old but he relies on her to fix the mistakes of everyone else ..... The same groups and families keep coming back yr after yr and they don't want to deal with anyone else but Chelsea and her mother. They take care of just about everything. Anyway enough of my ranting.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Friday, February 1, 2013
Feb 1, 2013
I know I could try to come up with names or titles for each page but it's just easier for me to just use the date, this way I am not trying to come up with things and use more time on just the title.
Some have asked where we got our new inv/char. Well we got it off of Ebay as a package deal. That is the inv/char, new control panal and new wiring to go from the control panal to the inv/char. It cost us around $1200 if I remember right.
We have also been asked about where we stay for the price we get. We pay $520 a month for FHU and wi-fi, that is electric, water, sewer and wi-fi. You can find places that do not charge for the amount of electric, you just have to call around. If you know you are going to be in an area for 6 months or more you could call up some MH parks to see if they will allow an RV to set up for a short time. Some are doing that now. One good thing with a MH park is you should have access to cable connections for TV and/or internet. You will have to pay for it of course but it might be an option. Just remember with an RV if you don't like your neighbors you can pack up fast and move to the next spot. Check out any place first before settling on one long term.
Here's a story about Lisa, our granddaughter. Josh and Erin had a parent/teacher conference yesterday. Appearently all the parents had a meeting setup for yesterday to go over how the kids were doing in their first year in school so far.
Kids start off kindergarten at lvl 1 for reading and should be at lvl 4 by the end of the year, Lisa is already at lvl 8. Because of the what Joshua has her reading it seems she has picked up on the fact that for talking you use quotation marks to tell what the person said. She has no clue why just that cause she sees it all the time she knows thats what you do. It seems that now until 2nd grade the kids can get away with writing phonetically and not correctly but Lisa is writing all words correctly. (ie sign We as adults understand there is a silent g but they don't bother to correct kids until 2nd grade.) Anyway the upstart to the whole thing is they are recommending her for an advanced class now so that she does not get bored with school.
Now I am about to go into infomercial mode here, so you can stop reading now if you don't want to read this part:
Some have asked where we got our new inv/char. Well we got it off of Ebay as a package deal. That is the inv/char, new control panal and new wiring to go from the control panal to the inv/char. It cost us around $1200 if I remember right.
We have also been asked about where we stay for the price we get. We pay $520 a month for FHU and wi-fi, that is electric, water, sewer and wi-fi. You can find places that do not charge for the amount of electric, you just have to call around. If you know you are going to be in an area for 6 months or more you could call up some MH parks to see if they will allow an RV to set up for a short time. Some are doing that now. One good thing with a MH park is you should have access to cable connections for TV and/or internet. You will have to pay for it of course but it might be an option. Just remember with an RV if you don't like your neighbors you can pack up fast and move to the next spot. Check out any place first before settling on one long term.
Here's a story about Lisa, our granddaughter. Josh and Erin had a parent/teacher conference yesterday. Appearently all the parents had a meeting setup for yesterday to go over how the kids were doing in their first year in school so far.
Kids start off kindergarten at lvl 1 for reading and should be at lvl 4 by the end of the year, Lisa is already at lvl 8. Because of the what Joshua has her reading it seems she has picked up on the fact that for talking you use quotation marks to tell what the person said. She has no clue why just that cause she sees it all the time she knows thats what you do. It seems that now until 2nd grade the kids can get away with writing phonetically and not correctly but Lisa is writing all words correctly. (ie sign We as adults understand there is a silent g but they don't bother to correct kids until 2nd grade.) Anyway the upstart to the whole thing is they are recommending her for an advanced class now so that she does not get bored with school.
Now I am about to go into infomercial mode here, so you can stop reading now if you don't want to read this part:
Well I broke down and bought the Neat Receipts. I have now scanned all the receipts from last year and so far for this year. It takes most of the info straight from them and puts into a format that you can then run different reports. You can fix the numbers if it doesn't bring them over correctly. Sometimes a 0 or 8 gets mixed up. You can even designate which ones are for tax purposes and which Schedule it should go on so that at the end of the year it goes right into tax software or whatever. It seems that the IRS also accepts the digital copies from Neat so that I wont have to keep all of them in case of an audit.
I am actually impressed with what it can do. If something does not scan right I can fix it right away. Like all the bussiness cards with all the graphics it sometimes does not see things right or if it is real shiny. It scans fine but can't seem to read it very well. I can input the info and the card is still there to see anyway.
I know I sound like an infomercial but I thought it might be something for us or others to keep track of stuff and for household things so that on taxes you can separate the house and stuff into house and work areas and keep track of spending for things for taxes.
As you can tell I am really liking this so far. I have done all of the receipts now and I found that I can "split" something like a Rite Aid receipt into several pieces so that I can classify parts of it into like Medical, Grocery or whatever and then add what part of taxes to classify the Medical for like Medicine and Drugs for the Sch A.
Or say I stop off at Flying J and get fuel and food, I can split it into fuel and food so that in the budget or what ever I can keep track or say we travel for work then for tax purposes I can keep track of what is reimbursed and what I can use for taxes.
I am now about to go thru and scan all the documents into it so that I can get rid of the suitcase of paperwork.
Why did I get the Neat Receipts instead of Neat Desk? Well the desk is bigger and twice as much. It's basically the same software in it so why not go for the one that is under $200 and takes less space?
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Jan 17th
Let's see. What's been happening?
First thing, let me tell you about what happened to Thom Jan 16th in the morning.
Thom rides his motorcycle most of the time into work, saves on gas a lot besides he likes the ride. Well, he stopped off at the gas station to get gas, then went to use the card for something else right away. A notice passed across the screen to contact the issuer of the card ASAP and then the card got locked. He called his bank. It seems that someone else used the card number for $95 of gas at that station and then also 2x's for $1 each at the station across the street. Thom had them make sure to verify and to keep it locked till he could get into a bank in person to fix what might be the problem. Found out that probably happened is someone used a faceplate over the gas pump face plate that read the number and all codes that go with it. So he got VERY lucky that they only got under $100 before it got locked. Now he has a new card coming and has to remember everything that he has attached to the card to change that when it comes in.
So now both of us have had our numbers stolen. Mine was about 15 yrs ago in FL and let me tell you that it is a lot more involved in fixing with everyone. People forget how much is connected to the cards until it's stolen.
On a better note Thom and I stayed on the Queen Mary ( http://www.queenmary.com/ ) the night of Jan 12th. They had a Steampunk Symposium ( http://www.hrmsteam.com/ ) over that weekend. We used to do lots of medieval, renaissance and pirate festivals so we had the basic costume pieces already. We did some shopping and aquired a few other pieces to fit in better. Good thing with costumes like this is they are never complete you can always change or add more. We saw several people that we have not seen in about 8 yrs or more and they are all from the FL. Funny really how small the world can be!
First thing, let me tell you about what happened to Thom Jan 16th in the morning.
Thom rides his motorcycle most of the time into work, saves on gas a lot besides he likes the ride. Well, he stopped off at the gas station to get gas, then went to use the card for something else right away. A notice passed across the screen to contact the issuer of the card ASAP and then the card got locked. He called his bank. It seems that someone else used the card number for $95 of gas at that station and then also 2x's for $1 each at the station across the street. Thom had them make sure to verify and to keep it locked till he could get into a bank in person to fix what might be the problem. Found out that probably happened is someone used a faceplate over the gas pump face plate that read the number and all codes that go with it. So he got VERY lucky that they only got under $100 before it got locked. Now he has a new card coming and has to remember everything that he has attached to the card to change that when it comes in.
So now both of us have had our numbers stolen. Mine was about 15 yrs ago in FL and let me tell you that it is a lot more involved in fixing with everyone. People forget how much is connected to the cards until it's stolen.
On a better note Thom and I stayed on the Queen Mary ( http://www.queenmary.com/ ) the night of Jan 12th. They had a Steampunk Symposium ( http://www.hrmsteam.com/ ) over that weekend. We used to do lots of medieval, renaissance and pirate festivals so we had the basic costume pieces already. We did some shopping and aquired a few other pieces to fit in better. Good thing with costumes like this is they are never complete you can always change or add more. We saw several people that we have not seen in about 8 yrs or more and they are all from the FL. Funny really how small the world can be!
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
After the holidays
Well it's been an amusing few weeks of holidays and birthdays.
We got and mailed our granddaughter's Christmas and bday gifts, her bday is the 27th. According to UPS they were supposed to be there Christmas Eve. They did not show up then. We checked the tracking number and all of a sudden they were now supposed to show up on the 29th. We paid alot extra to have them there BEFORE Christmas so that she would not be opening all her gifts the same day. My bday is close to Christmas and I know how annoying it can get to just have people give you all of them at once. Well we finally got ahold of UPS in the morning after Christmas and it seems that the package was "left" at a UPS location. They made the effort then to deliver it that day and refunded part of the delivery price back to us. She got them and opened her Christmas gifts that night with us watching on video Skype chat. Then since her "Mom's" bday is New Years Eve they had a party together a few days later and she got to open those ones then.
Ok the reason I put "mom" in quotes is she has a step mom but she has decided that her bio mom is "Mommy" and her step mom is "Mom". That is how a now 6 yr old keeps them separated in her mind. That is just like Thom is not Grandpa, she is allowed to call him "Mudd" since she has something like 4 or 6 sets of grandparents now. She came up with this idea of different versions and if it makes it easier for her (and us) to figure out who she is talking about then we will go with it.
Joshua (her dad, our oldest son) came up with a way to get her to read alot more. It has to do with the old text based commputer games. He starts the game and she reads all the text that the characters say and she decides the questions answers while Joshua does the keyboard stuff. This has upped her reading time and ability ALOT. She loves games and why not help her get her schooling stuff up at the same time?
When we used to hang out a game shop in FL and parents would come in and be not so sure about the whole DnD tabletop gaming (ya know that devil worshiping thing) I would explain to them away from the kids that in order for the kids to play that they would have to read the books, learn more math and be able to interact with all kinds of situations which would end up helping them in the real world later. After they actually looked at what was involved with "playing" what they thought was a waste of time they ended up getting behind the kids playing. Now thou it's hard to find the mom and pop gaming stores and it's hard to find those tabletop gaming groups.
For New Years eve we were asked if Thom would run karaoke up at the lodge here at the park for whomever showed up. We got up there and the heat did not work. Not many were showing since really most in the park are in the older group and most end up going to bed at their normal time. So with the cold and everything we were packed up and back home by 9:30pm. We did stay up long enough to watch the ball drop but by 12:15 am we were in bed and going to sleep.
Jan. 3 rd was my bday and even thou Thom kept asking what I wanted to do and that it was my day and we would do everything and go anywhere I wanted to, I just wanted to veg in jammies and we played Guild Wars 2 all day and almost all night. We did stop long enough to video call on Skype with Lisa and she read some books to us. I got to play with Joshua, Justin and Thom on the game. We chatted on Teamspeak while playing and just enjoyed the time. Then on the 4 th we called Justin cause then it was his bday. Like I said lots of holiday and bday stuff in the last few weeks.
Sunday night Thom was sitting in the living room and I was putting away some pots and pans and all of a sudden we lost power to the front half of the coach. After making sure nothing got tripped or was wrong Thom figured out that the GFI in the kitchen got tripped and made everything go down. He clicked the reset on it and bam everything came back on ...... hmmm not sure why it went off but we may replace that GFI plug.
We got and mailed our granddaughter's Christmas and bday gifts, her bday is the 27th. According to UPS they were supposed to be there Christmas Eve. They did not show up then. We checked the tracking number and all of a sudden they were now supposed to show up on the 29th. We paid alot extra to have them there BEFORE Christmas so that she would not be opening all her gifts the same day. My bday is close to Christmas and I know how annoying it can get to just have people give you all of them at once. Well we finally got ahold of UPS in the morning after Christmas and it seems that the package was "left" at a UPS location. They made the effort then to deliver it that day and refunded part of the delivery price back to us. She got them and opened her Christmas gifts that night with us watching on video Skype chat. Then since her "Mom's" bday is New Years Eve they had a party together a few days later and she got to open those ones then.
Ok the reason I put "mom" in quotes is she has a step mom but she has decided that her bio mom is "Mommy" and her step mom is "Mom". That is how a now 6 yr old keeps them separated in her mind. That is just like Thom is not Grandpa, she is allowed to call him "Mudd" since she has something like 4 or 6 sets of grandparents now. She came up with this idea of different versions and if it makes it easier for her (and us) to figure out who she is talking about then we will go with it.
Joshua (her dad, our oldest son) came up with a way to get her to read alot more. It has to do with the old text based commputer games. He starts the game and she reads all the text that the characters say and she decides the questions answers while Joshua does the keyboard stuff. This has upped her reading time and ability ALOT. She loves games and why not help her get her schooling stuff up at the same time?
When we used to hang out a game shop in FL and parents would come in and be not so sure about the whole DnD tabletop gaming (ya know that devil worshiping thing) I would explain to them away from the kids that in order for the kids to play that they would have to read the books, learn more math and be able to interact with all kinds of situations which would end up helping them in the real world later. After they actually looked at what was involved with "playing" what they thought was a waste of time they ended up getting behind the kids playing. Now thou it's hard to find the mom and pop gaming stores and it's hard to find those tabletop gaming groups.
For New Years eve we were asked if Thom would run karaoke up at the lodge here at the park for whomever showed up. We got up there and the heat did not work. Not many were showing since really most in the park are in the older group and most end up going to bed at their normal time. So with the cold and everything we were packed up and back home by 9:30pm. We did stay up long enough to watch the ball drop but by 12:15 am we were in bed and going to sleep.
Jan. 3 rd was my bday and even thou Thom kept asking what I wanted to do and that it was my day and we would do everything and go anywhere I wanted to, I just wanted to veg in jammies and we played Guild Wars 2 all day and almost all night. We did stop long enough to video call on Skype with Lisa and she read some books to us. I got to play with Joshua, Justin and Thom on the game. We chatted on Teamspeak while playing and just enjoyed the time. Then on the 4 th we called Justin cause then it was his bday. Like I said lots of holiday and bday stuff in the last few weeks.
Sunday night Thom was sitting in the living room and I was putting away some pots and pans and all of a sudden we lost power to the front half of the coach. After making sure nothing got tripped or was wrong Thom figured out that the GFI in the kitchen got tripped and made everything go down. He clicked the reset on it and bam everything came back on ...... hmmm not sure why it went off but we may replace that GFI plug.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Dec 10, 2012
Wow been so busy in the last week.
First off both Thom and I were in "A Christmas Carol" so we had rehersals and performances to do ... did them all well and finally we are done with this show!! We had are cast party last night and watched a taping of the show. Great job to those that were in the show and all the ones behind the scenes.
We started Saturday off going to install the new Xanbus System Control Panel were the old one was but realized that the new one is about 1/4 inch longer. Would not matter much but the space the old one was in was tight to start with so out comes the dremel to cut the whole panel to separate it slightly in order to fit the new control panel in. We did make sure where we cut that it would not be cutting anything but the panel holding all the buttons and stuff. The whole thing took us about 5 hrs to finagle and figure it out and to do just that part.
We then had the last performance to do for the show Saturday night.
Then on Sunday we got up had 1/2 cup of coffee and started in with putting together the smoker so that we could smoke the ham to take to the cast party at 5pm. After that we started right in on shutting down all electric in the RV so that we could take out the old 1500 watt inv/char and put the new 3000 watt inv/char in. Running the line for the battery temp sensor took a little longer than what we first thought it would take. I think it was at least 6 or 7 hrs to do the switch over. We got it done enough so that we could hook back into and use the heater and what not for the night. We still have to reattach the starter battery to the inv/char and bolt the inv/char down but since we are not driving anywhere for the next few days it will be fine for a few days. If the pass thrus for the new wires were not so tight it would not have taken us so long to do the switch over :)
I will add - If you are not electricaly and mechanicaly inclined then have a professional do the installs!!!! I can not stress enough that this is very involved and even thou we did shut all the electric down and unplug from the shore pedistal that there is still voltage running around in the wires and you could still hit some so be sure you know what you are doing or spend the money and have a professional that you trust do it for you!!
Then just a quick wash and off to the party which we got there about 5:30 pm or so. The ham did not last everyone LOVED it. It's so simple to smoke it the way we do. You put 1/2 spiced rum and 1/2 water in the drip pan then add cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon sticks (break them into a couple of pieces) into the water. Score (lightly cut) the ham and put some cloves and brown sugar. Then just put it in the smoker and keep it at about 250 degrees or so for at least 4 hrs, we did it at 6 hrs thou. Keep an eye on the drip pan and refill with the half rum and half water mixture if it goes empty. We usually use Oak and Apple wood to smoke with but CA has a ban on using Oak so we just used charcoal and Apple wood chips, we added the wood several times while it was smoking.
Last note for today
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSHUA!!
Our oldest son turned 28 yrs old today. He took the day off of work and is spending it playing games and some of the day with his wife and when Lisa gets out of school with her too. Games, movies, resturants and family - what more could you ask for for a great birthday?
First off both Thom and I were in "A Christmas Carol" so we had rehersals and performances to do ... did them all well and finally we are done with this show!! We had are cast party last night and watched a taping of the show. Great job to those that were in the show and all the ones behind the scenes.
We started Saturday off going to install the new Xanbus System Control Panel were the old one was but realized that the new one is about 1/4 inch longer. Would not matter much but the space the old one was in was tight to start with so out comes the dremel to cut the whole panel to separate it slightly in order to fit the new control panel in. We did make sure where we cut that it would not be cutting anything but the panel holding all the buttons and stuff. The whole thing took us about 5 hrs to finagle and figure it out and to do just that part.
We then had the last performance to do for the show Saturday night.
Then on Sunday we got up had 1/2 cup of coffee and started in with putting together the smoker so that we could smoke the ham to take to the cast party at 5pm. After that we started right in on shutting down all electric in the RV so that we could take out the old 1500 watt inv/char and put the new 3000 watt inv/char in. Running the line for the battery temp sensor took a little longer than what we first thought it would take. I think it was at least 6 or 7 hrs to do the switch over. We got it done enough so that we could hook back into and use the heater and what not for the night. We still have to reattach the starter battery to the inv/char and bolt the inv/char down but since we are not driving anywhere for the next few days it will be fine for a few days. If the pass thrus for the new wires were not so tight it would not have taken us so long to do the switch over :)
I will add - If you are not electricaly and mechanicaly inclined then have a professional do the installs!!!! I can not stress enough that this is very involved and even thou we did shut all the electric down and unplug from the shore pedistal that there is still voltage running around in the wires and you could still hit some so be sure you know what you are doing or spend the money and have a professional that you trust do it for you!!
Then just a quick wash and off to the party which we got there about 5:30 pm or so. The ham did not last everyone LOVED it. It's so simple to smoke it the way we do. You put 1/2 spiced rum and 1/2 water in the drip pan then add cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon sticks (break them into a couple of pieces) into the water. Score (lightly cut) the ham and put some cloves and brown sugar. Then just put it in the smoker and keep it at about 250 degrees or so for at least 4 hrs, we did it at 6 hrs thou. Keep an eye on the drip pan and refill with the half rum and half water mixture if it goes empty. We usually use Oak and Apple wood to smoke with but CA has a ban on using Oak so we just used charcoal and Apple wood chips, we added the wood several times while it was smoking.
Last note for today
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSHUA!!
Our oldest son turned 28 yrs old today. He took the day off of work and is spending it playing games and some of the day with his wife and when Lisa gets out of school with her too. Games, movies, resturants and family - what more could you ask for for a great birthday?
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Things for today
So some cool and not so cool things have happened so far this week.
So we are performing in a play here in Acton, CA, "A Christmas Carol", we had 3 paid performances Fri, Sat and a mantinee on Sunday. At least a 1/3 of the people in the show have never been on stage so there have been lots of nerves but now with some under their belt they are doing ok now when going out on stage. Both Fri and Sat thier only about 75 or so people there but on Sunday there was almost a full house of maybe 150 or so!! For a town as little Acton is that is a great turnout. We have 2 more shows coming up Dec 7th and 8th and those will be last until the next show. Thom plays 3 parts and I play 2 for it.
While getting ready to go to the theater for a show thou this past week our neighbor Neil came over and asked if we were having a problem with our electric ..... long story short his cord attaching to the pedistal starting smoking and sparking. We unplugged as fast as possible and the next day the park fixed the plug on their end and Neil stopped to get a new cord for his end. It seems that something like a spider/bug had gotten right in the wrong spot inbetween the plugs that caused the short and almost fire. Things are back to working for him and nothing else got damaged!!
We are getting a new inverter/charger for the MH/RV this week. It seems that the old 1500 watt inv/char does not have enough "juice" to run the microwave/convection oven at 1.62khw (which is 1600 watts). The new one will be 3000 watts and pure sine so that should be able to run and keep things going much better.
My advice to those looking at a new or used MH/RV/TT/5th wheel is to make sure the inv/char (if it has one) actually is able to handle all the electronics that are in it!! The one we are getting will allow us to add solar and be able to handle the electric stuff coming and going out. The one we are getting the normal price for everything for it would normally be at least $2k to $2.5k but once it's gotten its got and we won't have to worry anymore about for at least a few years. I say all the parts cause you also need a system control panel that goes with it and that can run you $200 to $300 depending on where you get it. You also may need a new cable to hook it up to the batteries, also a temp sensor for the batteries, they need more or less to charge them depending on the temp outside. As you can see there are lots to learn and research with these things.
About a month ago looking at the cold weather coming we started thinking about heating for us. We ended up getting an electric fireplace - http://www.lowes.com/pd_348139-47166-73092_4294765308_4294937087_?productId=3455832&Ns=p_product_avg_rating|1&pl=1¤tURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_avg_rating%7C1&facetInfo= - it actually has been working fairly well in here keeping it warm. We don't even put on the electric heating pad most nights it seems to work that well. The cat even will lay in front of it like a dog would, lol. We did make sure that which ever heating we got that the current inv/char would be able to run it effciently. This one is only 1350 watts. I do turn it off if I want to put the microwave on. As it is I don't run the micro as much I would like until we get the new inv/char. I like to bake so until that happens I can't :( .
As for the new LED lights we still have some to do and Thom will be starting again from scratch and we will tape them to put here and on youtube if anyone would like to do what we have done. But those will be probably after the new year.
We may be going to Vegas again for New Years eve but we will not know until it happens as alot of times we make a spur of the moment decision on things like that, lol.
So we are performing in a play here in Acton, CA, "A Christmas Carol", we had 3 paid performances Fri, Sat and a mantinee on Sunday. At least a 1/3 of the people in the show have never been on stage so there have been lots of nerves but now with some under their belt they are doing ok now when going out on stage. Both Fri and Sat thier only about 75 or so people there but on Sunday there was almost a full house of maybe 150 or so!! For a town as little Acton is that is a great turnout. We have 2 more shows coming up Dec 7th and 8th and those will be last until the next show. Thom plays 3 parts and I play 2 for it.
While getting ready to go to the theater for a show thou this past week our neighbor Neil came over and asked if we were having a problem with our electric ..... long story short his cord attaching to the pedistal starting smoking and sparking. We unplugged as fast as possible and the next day the park fixed the plug on their end and Neil stopped to get a new cord for his end. It seems that something like a spider/bug had gotten right in the wrong spot inbetween the plugs that caused the short and almost fire. Things are back to working for him and nothing else got damaged!!
We are getting a new inverter/charger for the MH/RV this week. It seems that the old 1500 watt inv/char does not have enough "juice" to run the microwave/convection oven at 1.62khw (which is 1600 watts). The new one will be 3000 watts and pure sine so that should be able to run and keep things going much better.
My advice to those looking at a new or used MH/RV/TT/5th wheel is to make sure the inv/char (if it has one) actually is able to handle all the electronics that are in it!! The one we are getting will allow us to add solar and be able to handle the electric stuff coming and going out. The one we are getting the normal price for everything for it would normally be at least $2k to $2.5k but once it's gotten its got and we won't have to worry anymore about for at least a few years. I say all the parts cause you also need a system control panel that goes with it and that can run you $200 to $300 depending on where you get it. You also may need a new cable to hook it up to the batteries, also a temp sensor for the batteries, they need more or less to charge them depending on the temp outside. As you can see there are lots to learn and research with these things.
About a month ago looking at the cold weather coming we started thinking about heating for us. We ended up getting an electric fireplace - http://www.lowes.com/pd_348139-47166-73092_4294765308_4294937087_?productId=3455832&Ns=p_product_avg_rating|1&pl=1¤tURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_avg_rating%7C1&facetInfo= - it actually has been working fairly well in here keeping it warm. We don't even put on the electric heating pad most nights it seems to work that well. The cat even will lay in front of it like a dog would, lol. We did make sure that which ever heating we got that the current inv/char would be able to run it effciently. This one is only 1350 watts. I do turn it off if I want to put the microwave on. As it is I don't run the micro as much I would like until we get the new inv/char. I like to bake so until that happens I can't :( .
As for the new LED lights we still have some to do and Thom will be starting again from scratch and we will tape them to put here and on youtube if anyone would like to do what we have done. But those will be probably after the new year.
We may be going to Vegas again for New Years eve but we will not know until it happens as alot of times we make a spur of the moment decision on things like that, lol.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Long time no posting
Sorry about the long time in between posts but alot has been going on.
First is the job situation for Thom. He had to choose between 2 - one was a yr long contract and the other to stay at his current job. He ended up taking the yr contract as that would have us sorta in one spot for a yr. His other job had him traveling all the time for the last 7 yrs and I was not able to go with and we did not have the RV at the time so being together was the deciding factor for us for this one.
We had an eventful 5 weeks of traveling around the US. Some of which is posted here. The rest is getting to the DC area and staying for a few days to not only get to see our adorable granddaughter but also the oldest son (her dad) and his wife. Then we also got to see the youngest son whom we had not seen in about 6 yrs. Yes military. He was able to finally able to meet his niece, she is 5 yrs old now.
After we left there we went to Michigan to finish up the house and give it back to the bank - very long story that is pretty much done - and Thoms last week at his now old job. We got back to MI and went to finish cleaning out the house and barns and found that someone had decided to do it for us. Cops and insurance company called and forms filled out. About $40k to $50 worth of tools and stuff gone. We did have alot in storage already so not as bad as it could have been but still bad. Because we only had a week here and we had now all this to deal with we could not go thru the storage and get the things out that we wanted to put into the RV so we are dealing with it and just waiting till we can get back to finish getting it the way we want and to sell everything else. There was just not enough time to do it then with the time crunch.
We then left MI and went on our way back to CA. Had a week to get there and almost did not get there, a problem with volts and electricity to run the coach while going thru the top of TX. We ended up needing to run the generator while going down the road to keep the volts up enough to get back. Our MPG went down half while needing to run that. It's just the way the rig is wired. Luckily we only had to do that for about 1 1/2 days. We did make it back to Lancaster, CA and stayed at the AV Fair Grounds for a little while waiting on a monthly spot to open up at a decent campground. That was $35 a day, no deals for a week stay or going monthly. It is just a parking lot basically with FHU so it works in a pinch. Remember that when traveling, most fairgrounds has an RV park that usually is not filled and also usually has nothing but FHU.
We ended up going to the Acton KOA and staying here as monthlies. The price (for 2012) is $520 FHU and wi-fi included in that too.
Problems found:
We did find that the solar panal was old enough that it did not have a "shut off" thing to stop it from charging the battery. So the batteries ended up needing to be replaced as soon as we stopped, we kept adding water to keep them going till we stopped. That was about $200 each and we have 3.
We also had an intermittent problem with electric that was mistifying. We added a Surge Guard inbetween the inv/char and the electric coming into the coach. Then Thom opened up the inv/char since it seemed while he was in there that it was working on and off. Turns out that some of the wires were barely touching. I would NOT reccomend anyone doing anything to those things unless you have some experience in wiring and electricity which Thom has. We are looking at replacing it with a larger one now. Reason below.
I like to bake and we have a rather large microwave/convection oven so I can do lots. Well as I was doing a batch of oatmeal cookies (I will post my receipe, lol) when I heard a pop and it stopped heating. I stopped it as soon as I heard the pop so not too much harm done. Thom did open it up and fix that. BUT we realized at that point that when the previous owners replaced the microwave/convection oven and the inv/char while they owned it that they (or anyone else) did NOT match up the elect use and elect output ability. The m/c oven uses/needs 1.62 Kwz and the inv/char is only 1500 watts (or 1.5 Kwz) so as you can see someone did not do their homework. We are saving money up to get one that is at least 3000 watts or 3 Kwz and pure sine wave instead of modified wave. They are not cheap but that means the newer things like an LED TV will work more efficiently and it will be able to handle the m/c oven and I can get back to cooking and baking more :)
We are also performing in a play right now too, A Christmas Carol. Thom is doing 3 roles and I am doing 2. There are lots of roles in the play and everyone is doing more than one except for the one playing Scrooge. We have our first performace tonight in front of an audience.
I will be keeping up with the blog more often.
First is the job situation for Thom. He had to choose between 2 - one was a yr long contract and the other to stay at his current job. He ended up taking the yr contract as that would have us sorta in one spot for a yr. His other job had him traveling all the time for the last 7 yrs and I was not able to go with and we did not have the RV at the time so being together was the deciding factor for us for this one.
We had an eventful 5 weeks of traveling around the US. Some of which is posted here. The rest is getting to the DC area and staying for a few days to not only get to see our adorable granddaughter but also the oldest son (her dad) and his wife. Then we also got to see the youngest son whom we had not seen in about 6 yrs. Yes military. He was able to finally able to meet his niece, she is 5 yrs old now.
After we left there we went to Michigan to finish up the house and give it back to the bank - very long story that is pretty much done - and Thoms last week at his now old job. We got back to MI and went to finish cleaning out the house and barns and found that someone had decided to do it for us. Cops and insurance company called and forms filled out. About $40k to $50 worth of tools and stuff gone. We did have alot in storage already so not as bad as it could have been but still bad. Because we only had a week here and we had now all this to deal with we could not go thru the storage and get the things out that we wanted to put into the RV so we are dealing with it and just waiting till we can get back to finish getting it the way we want and to sell everything else. There was just not enough time to do it then with the time crunch.
We then left MI and went on our way back to CA. Had a week to get there and almost did not get there, a problem with volts and electricity to run the coach while going thru the top of TX. We ended up needing to run the generator while going down the road to keep the volts up enough to get back. Our MPG went down half while needing to run that. It's just the way the rig is wired. Luckily we only had to do that for about 1 1/2 days. We did make it back to Lancaster, CA and stayed at the AV Fair Grounds for a little while waiting on a monthly spot to open up at a decent campground. That was $35 a day, no deals for a week stay or going monthly. It is just a parking lot basically with FHU so it works in a pinch. Remember that when traveling, most fairgrounds has an RV park that usually is not filled and also usually has nothing but FHU.
We ended up going to the Acton KOA and staying here as monthlies. The price (for 2012) is $520 FHU and wi-fi included in that too.
Problems found:
We did find that the solar panal was old enough that it did not have a "shut off" thing to stop it from charging the battery. So the batteries ended up needing to be replaced as soon as we stopped, we kept adding water to keep them going till we stopped. That was about $200 each and we have 3.
We also had an intermittent problem with electric that was mistifying. We added a Surge Guard inbetween the inv/char and the electric coming into the coach. Then Thom opened up the inv/char since it seemed while he was in there that it was working on and off. Turns out that some of the wires were barely touching. I would NOT reccomend anyone doing anything to those things unless you have some experience in wiring and electricity which Thom has. We are looking at replacing it with a larger one now. Reason below.
I like to bake and we have a rather large microwave/convection oven so I can do lots. Well as I was doing a batch of oatmeal cookies (I will post my receipe, lol) when I heard a pop and it stopped heating. I stopped it as soon as I heard the pop so not too much harm done. Thom did open it up and fix that. BUT we realized at that point that when the previous owners replaced the microwave/convection oven and the inv/char while they owned it that they (or anyone else) did NOT match up the elect use and elect output ability. The m/c oven uses/needs 1.62 Kwz and the inv/char is only 1500 watts (or 1.5 Kwz) so as you can see someone did not do their homework. We are saving money up to get one that is at least 3000 watts or 3 Kwz and pure sine wave instead of modified wave. They are not cheap but that means the newer things like an LED TV will work more efficiently and it will be able to handle the m/c oven and I can get back to cooking and baking more :)
We are also performing in a play right now too, A Christmas Carol. Thom is doing 3 roles and I am doing 2. There are lots of roles in the play and everyone is doing more than one except for the one playing Scrooge. We have our first performace tonight in front of an audience.
I will be keeping up with the blog more often.
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