Category Archives: RV Life

Family and Friends, Pictures of the Adventure, RV Life

Family Fun

May 27, 2013 steph Leave a comment

What a lovely weekend! Like most of the east coast it was cool (OK, it was cold), but that didn’t seem to bother us at all! Weather aside, we had a lot of things working in our favor this weekend! Josiah and Abigail were able to stay in a motel room at the Conference Center, so we didn’t have to all squish into our little house. (And everyone could get their Sunday afternoon nap without any trouble!) As an added bonus, since there were guests at the Conference Center, the kitchen was cooking – and that meant I didn’t have to! 🙂 The weather improved as the weekend progressed, and we were able to fill the weekend with a couple of “firsts” for little Weston.
The First Hike.
This little guy did GREAT!

We explored Salt Spring State Park and ended up on a trail that combined some pretty steep climbs

with some au natural terraine

and finally some nice boardwalk stretches

and some great views of the forest too!

Weston helped us stay on track

and never was afraid to lead the way!
Such a fun time!

(And there are a couple more hike/Weston pictures HERE. Just sayin!)
Memorial Day dawned bright and sunny and we got to introduce Weston to his FIRST Parade! And it was just “Weston Size”. Lots of fire trucks,

lots of flags,

some “marching” dogs,

and some great motorcycles.

It lasted about 20 minutes (just right for a 22 month old), and Weston loved every minute of it!

Didn’t you, Weston! 🙂

So it was a great weekend! Great accommodations and food (thank-you Montrose!), fun activities and most importantly –
great kids!

I have to tell you, a good time was had by ALL!

RV Life, SOWER Projects, SOWER Projects 2013, The Adventure

Coming right along

May 5, 2013 steph Leave a comment

Installing the air conditioning into the first floor is coming right along.
The unit is in place, and the ductwork is just about done.

But don’t think it was without a couple of challenges.

Trust me, that’s a real head knocker he’s ducking under there….

And talk about working around the existing conditions…

In the ductwork department there is still a bit of insulation to do and some additional taping – that will largely be my job to “wrap-up”. But Gary has moved on to the wiring. Remember last summer when we were running wire from the first floor control board up to the attic where the 5 units were?

There was a lot of wire happening last summer.
This summer, with only one unit (6 rooms) to wire up, it was a much less intimidating task. And we even managed to do part of it outside!
Once Gary figured out the length he would need (from the unit to the pipe that ran to the first floor and then to the control board – almost 50 ft.) and the number of lengths he would need (15), we moved to the driveway, and started measuring them out.

After we had the 15, we marked each end with tape so he would know which one he was working on.

Then we stretched them out again

and Gary taped the end together and we headed to the crawlspace.

Gary taped that end to the rope that had been previously snaked through the pipe and we were good to go!

And up in the control room –

(It kinda looks like the baby brother of the big wad that came from the attic, doesn’t it? 🙂 )
Final destination on this end –

That last panel on the left. It needs to look like it’s closest neighbor.
And down in the crawlspace – well, see that white board in the picture of the wire going into the tube?
Well, he spent Saturday working on that end of things!

A lot was accomplished this week (even though we did have to make a couple too many supply runs (but they usually involved a Dunkin Donuts coffee stop, so even that wasn’t all bad!)) but there is still plenty of job ahead. Â Finishing up the wiring, doing all the piping, running the electric…yeah, we’ll be busy for a while yet. Â Well, perhaps I should say that Gary will be busy for a while. Â I’m not all that useful in the wiring/piping/electric department. Â (And yet, he keeps me around!)

And I’m happy to report that it appears that Spring has finally arrived here in Montrose! Â The trees are beginning to leaf out, the daffodils and forsythia are sharing their yellow cheer, and it was warm enough this morning to walk to church.

Hope that spring is happening in your world too!

Pictures of the Adventure, RV Life, The Adventure, The Cabin

The Birthday Weekend – Part One

April 29, 2013 steph Leave a comment

This past weekend was Gary’s Birthday. (Happy Birthday, honey!) And he celebrated it just the way he wanted to!

OK, so maybe crawling underneath the cabin wasn’t the highest thing on his list, but being AT the cabin for his birthday weekend was just where he wanted to be. 🙂
Weather-wise, it’s always a little risky going to our Vermont cabin this early in the spring. As we crossed Vermont we could see the snow still on the ski runs and even though the sun was shining,

we weren’t all that confident that the weather was going to cooperate over the weekend. We were to be the first ones up this year and to make the weekend more adventurous, we knew that due to some recent storm damage there was no electricity. But with a borrowed generator in the back of the truck and a promise from the electric company that if we got it wired to the “masthead”, they would come out to run the wire back to the cabin and TURN US ON, we felt we were ready for whatever the weekend might bring!
This is how the electric service into The Cabin used to look –

This is how it looked after one of the pine trees next to the cabin sheared off in the wind and fell across the wire coming in from the pole.

It not only pulled out the connection to the cabin, but apparently took out most of Wrights Mountain too! The electric company came in and got everyone else running, but left us shut down until we could get the outside wire re-done.
It was decided to move the meter to the other corner of the cabin

(which of course required painting all that nice gray conduit. Sometimes Gary’s wife can be quite fussy!)
and then we (he) had to get the wire back to the inside electric panel over on the original side of the cabin.

Hence the belly-crawl under the cabin!
The electric company arrived the next day,

and after just a bit of ladder work

and some fancy drilling to get the lightening rod through the rocks (or at least finding the magic spot between the rocks),

a little bit of conference talk…..

and a REALLY LONG POLE to turn on the switch –

and we were back in business!

There’s still a bit of finish work to do, but all in all, I think it turned out quite nicely!

The Birthday Weekend – Part Two coming soon!
🙂
Promise!

Family and Friends, RV Life, Sewing/Quilting Projects, SOWER Projects, SOWER Projects 2013

Whatever your hands find to do

April 17, 2013 steph 1 Comment

One of the benefits of being a Sower On Assignment (a long-term SOWER assignment that generally involves a specific task or job – as in, we’re here to do the A/C installation), is that we have a fair bit of flexibility. This is especially true right now as we are just ramping-up the project again, and we’re waiting for some key elements before we can really begin in earnest. So Gary can start his day as early as he chooses and he can work until he’s at a good stopping point. It also means that since we are a team, on the days that he doesn’t need my extra set of hands (and my excellent fetching skills) I get to enjoy a couple of “light-duty” days. This week he’s been getting started with the returns and supplies. I won’t go into all the fun we had deciding on the location of the holes (picture Gary in the rooms with the drill and me in crawlspace with the cobwebs…… 🙁 ), but since most of his work this week has been in closets

he hasn’t needed me quite so much. I mean really, where would he even put me? I was called on today to do a bit of clean-up, since he does make a bit of a mess-

But with a little sweeping, a bit of vacuuming and a good damp cloth,

it wasn’t a very hard job to get things back to normal!
So what have I been doing during my ‘light-duty’ days? Well, in-between times that Gary does need me, I’ve been playing catch-up – with housework, work-work, and laundry. And when I felt like things were at least moderately under control, I pulled out the sewing machine!!! Yippee!
Have you ever visited the Craftsy webpage? It offers video classes on all types of crafts – quilting, knitting, spinning, weaving…whatever! I love that once you’ve purchased a class you get to take it at your own pace and it’s available (in its entirety) forever. I started a Block of the Month class back in January 2012 (which was free – and still available. Just sayin’) and I was anxious to get back to it. I have the blocks made, and I’m machine quilting them using a quilt-as-you-go technique (another Craftsy class, geared to the BOM quilt) and as of today, I have six of the twenty done!

Except for the border fabric, I’ve only used fabric from my ‘stash’, so that’s why it has a somewhat eclectic feel!
I’ll keep plugging away at it –

and see how far I get before my ‘light-duty’ days are gone!
I also might get a bit distracted because I have another quilt I need to get working on. And that would be a baby quilt! Â I’m excited to share the wonderful news that Toby and Tammy are expecting a baby in September! Â This little one will join 4 very excited siblings who can’t wait to meet their little brother/sister (we can’t either!).
That house is getting pretty full – it’s a good thing we usually bring our own bedroom! 🙂

Better get some good rest tonight – I think Gary said something about “back in the crawlspace” for tomorrow. Gulp. Guess the quilting will have to wait!

Family and Friends, RV Life, The Adventure

Digital Girls

April 8, 2013 steph 2 Comments

OK – one last post about our time in Ohio……
I’ve discovered that one way to totally engage your young (but not too young)granddaughters is to give them permission to use your digital camera. And your phone camera.

(The little cutie in this picture is their cousin Harper, who Tammy cares for during the week! 🙂 )
Oh my! What fun they had snapping away – especially with the Photofunia program on my phone!

Ellie as street art.

Hayley as an illustration in the book

Maddie on a billboard

And the dangerous robber, Noah.
Oh – and don’t forget Mom on TV –

When they were using the Big Camera, the only rule was that they kept the strap around their neck. I think they did pretty good!

They even got one of me

and Gary

Hard working, getting over the flu, just let me close my eyes for a couple of minutes, Gary. Bless his heart!

So. Even though there were lots and lots of other giggles and fun times I think it must be time to move on to more real time posts. However, if you’d like to see some additional pictures of our time with the kids and grands, I’ve tried to do a little organizing –

The Basement Reno

Easter Fun

The Zoo Day!

The Ohio Bird Sanctuary

General pictures of the kids at play
And if you want to see the whole kit and caboodle (well, about 85 of the 400+ pictures that were taken over the course of the week anyway!), you can see them HERE!

But lest you think that this is the end of Grandbaby pictures in general – let me just say we’re headed for a visit with our Lancaster kids and grandson this weekend.
Just sayin’…….

RV There Yet?

Category Archives: RV Life

Family Fun

Coming right along

The Birthday Weekend – Part One

Whatever your hands find to do

Digital Girls

Seeing the country……Serving our Lord!

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Seeing the country……Serving our Lord!