Friday, December 21, 2012

Cold

Winter comes to Texas when a cold front comes through I found out.  Yesterday and today being good examples.  The high today was to be 57 which is not bad, but tonight it will get down to 21 degrees.  The good news is that Sunday it will be a high of 72 and low of 48 so winter won't last long.

When the lows get in the 20's I need to take some precautions with my water system in my RV.  I make sure my fresh water tank is full and disconnect the hose and put it away.  The inline filter needs to come inside since it cannot handle freezing.  If I have a full hookup site as I do now, I connect up the sewer hose and open the grey water valve so nothing will be sitting in the pipes to freeze.  The black water tank pipe is a larger pipe and I usually do not worry about that if the cold spell is a short one. I can't leave the black water valve open and still use the bathroom so only in extreme situations will I leave it open.  It is usually fine if the temps get well above freezing during the day.  On the inside, if I open a few cabinet doors, all my plumbing will be kept warm.

Between my small electric heater and the propane furnace, I can keep nice and warm.  I usually wear extra clothes so I don't need to use much electricity or propane.

I am currently near San Antonio now so this is as far south as I will be going. I hope it doesn't get too cold and stay that way for long.  No extra protection has been done on any of the water pipes here so either that is a good sign or they will have a lot of frozen pipes before winter is over.

There is a herd of deer that seems to live in this park.  They are rather small, fortunately, and just wander around the place.  They are not afraid and I can walk right past them and they just stand there.  Here are some pictures of them in and around my campsite.




This is across the road from my site. I think someone spread something for them to eat at that site because they spent a lot of time nosing around in the gravel.



Here is a doe wandering through my site.  I am standing at my RV taking this picture.



This is about as big as they get.










I took a walk today on one of the trails in the park. It was well marked and there were no other trails connecting with it so it was real easy to follow.  Here is a picture of the trail.



There are taller trees here than at the last place I was at and it is not so rocky. It was totally quiet on the trail, no highway sounds or campground sounds and I felt like I was far removed from civilization.






I just arrived at this park yesterday so I have some more exploring to do.  It is on Lake Medina but the lake seems to have disappeared. There is a small stream running through where the lake was but that is all.  I will hike around that area and take some pictures on another day.



Saturday, December 8, 2012

Quiet times

Things have been very quiet around here.  A few people coming and going now and then.  Getting lots of knitting done as well as some reading.  They have a good book exchange here so I have lots of free books to read.  Free is good.  I haven't been doing much driving to keep expenses down.  If I go out I end up at a mall or book store or something and spend too much money.  I will take a trip to town next week to pick up my mail and maybe some groceries.  There are interesting trails to walk right here so I have no reason to go anywhere.

Life is good.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Air Chair

I spent some time today taking pictures of my air chair that I have set up to hang from my RV.  I love this chair!  It is like having a comfortable swivel rocker outside.  I bought the air chair many years ago when I still had a house.  I bought my chair from Hammocks.com.  Here is the link:  Air Chair

I had the chair hanging on my back porch and when I sold the house I kept the chair hoping I could find a way to use it with my RV.  This spring before I hit the road again I checked on Hammocks.com to see if there was a stand for the chair that would be reasonable for traveling and I found one that will slide into a hitch receiver.  I tried to find it on Hammocks.com just now but could not find it.  They have this one now that might work.  I did a Google search on "tailgate chair stand" and found several places that have it.  Here is one.  Two arms come with this stand but I left one in my storage place since I only have one chair.

 Here the chair is hanging from the hitch on my car.  This worked fine but I needed to remove it every time I wanted to drive the car.  Also it was often hanging in the sun.  My brother came up with the idea of installing a hitch receiver on the RV under the awning so it would be in the shade.  When I set up at a site I am staying at for a while, I put the metal piece up and I can leave it there until I break camp.

My brother's son-in-law has a welding business and he checked to see if it was possible.  It was!
He fabricated the receiver and bolted it to the frame.  There was nothing to bolt or weld the hitch to at the edge so it bowed a bit.  We decided it would be best to put a brace there.  I found that a step stabilizer from Camping World works great.  It can be adjusted for the difference in height if the ground is uneven or if the wheels are blocked up.



So here is what the whole thing looks like with me in it doing some knitting.  I have the yarn in the plastic bag hanging from the bar so it travels with me as I swivel around to keep track of everything going on around me.







Here it is set up under the awning.

The chair S hook can be hung on the opening on the stand but I found I had to adjust the ropes based on the distance to the ground if the ground slopes down or up from where the RV is.  I purchased a short piece of chain and an S hook to hang from the stand.  Now I just hook the chair S hook in whichever link in the chain I need to get it at the correct level so I can touch the ground while sitting in the chair.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Christmas already?

Temp up to 80 today and I was invited to help decorate the family center for Christmas.  Having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit.

Washed the back of the motor home today which didn't take too long so I went into town for groceries and did some knitting when I returned.