Awesome Family Time

I have been spending some quality time with my son's family in the bay area. He has two daughters, my special grandaughters Emma and Rachel. And yes mine are definitely cuter than yours.

This is Emma and my third puzzle of the morning. It was also the hardest, 100 pieces. Emma has a great eye for finding matching pieces.

While the girls are in school I pulled the and cleaned the house batteries. 

I made all the connectors shinny and bright. The electrons

really appreciate this.

Helping Rachel with her homework. 

Need I say, she is very bright.

Playing Pie in your face with Rachel. You use the spinner to tell you how many times you have to turn the handles. The number of turns it takes to release the hand varies. Quite often you get a wet sponge in the face. For more messy fun you can use whip cream.

Crotched Mountain

Tired of shoveling snow, I decided to turn lemons into lemonade. The local ski hill is just 15 minutes from the house. Very few skiers, make your run and get right back on the lift. Got to love mid-week skiing.

Beautiful view NH country side

Crotched mountain has a 1000 foot drop, not much by western standards. But a good challenge for an old foggie who hasn't skied in 7 years. Two hours in my legs started feeling like wet noodles. All and all, a very nice day.

Good Food, Good Company

We enjoyed one of Linda's wonderful dinners while solving local and world problems. Bob and Leandra are local and old friends of Linda. Carol is Bob's sister visiting from Main.

Bob, Leandra, Linda, me, Carol

The high today was 19 degrees. It will stand as the record high until the 4th. Wed's high is predicted to be 5 degrees.

More Snow

We are still combating winter blues with warm fires and good movies. Thankfully we have passed the winter solstice.
I plowed the drive for the first time today. I think I did OK, but spring will tell when we find out how many plants I plowed up.

Snow Let It Snow

First storm of the season.

A roaring fire and good movie help brighten the short gloomy days and long long nights.

Thanksgiving Dinner's Arrival

Post Thanksgiving report:
Not worth it.

Turkey good - cooked by Butter Ball
Apple and Pumpkin pies tolerable
Linda doctored the cranberry sauce transforming it to an edible state
Linda also made some delicious stuffing from scratch because:
Stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, spinach dip were terrible and went into the garbage


UPS dropped off our Boston Market dinner in a box. Linda's broken foot prevents her from cooking and the thought of me cooking....... :-(

Heat and serve

Crackers and spinach dip, dinner rolls, turkey, dressing, gravy,  mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, apple and pumpkin pie. Every thing except the whip cream  

The Cruise The Cruise

Our romantic cruise through Europe.

NOT

Linda broke her foot a week before we were scheduled to depart on our cruise.

Dr. Zickle points out Linda's heal bone fracture, the dark area below her finger.

Immobilizing  the ankle with a splint.

We are spending the winter in Hancock, NH. 

First snow, didn't stick.

Family Time

Spoiler Alert - My cute adorable granddaughters. Yes, they are cuter than yours.

Go Emma

Way to go girl

Rachel and Emma helping spread mulch at the school garden.

Rachel looking for that perfect pumpkin. I had already seen a dozen a half hour ago.

Emma the decision maker; that one dad

Guess who does the heavy lifting?

Rachel finally found that perfect one.

Emma is ready to go.

Lodgepole Campground

I am spending a few frustrating days trout fishing at Lake Valley Reservoir. Not even a bite!
I got a nice secluded spot, #3, at PG and E's Lodgepole campground. $25 per night. Very quiet, only a few people here. The campground closes on the 15th at 11am. Be gone or be locked in for the winter.

39.297328   -120.59830

Helping Out

Visiting with my old friend Cliff. We have known each other since high school. Cliff usually  has a project that I can help him with. This visit it is a new dish washer.

Yesterday 

We removed Cliff's old dish washer, measured the opening and head to Home Depot.

Out with the old

The old unit had a small leak that caused part of the flooring to come up. We dried it out and glued the piece back in place.

New unit out of the box

Back to Home Depot for an adapter to hooking up the water line. I usually figure any project requires 3-5 trips back to the store.

Today

The replaced flooring set up over night and we begin installation. 

Wiring in the power cord

Cliff hooking up the drain

Paper towel on the floor checking for leaks.

No leaks in the water supply line. No leaks with the test wash. Cliff is good to go. Amazingly, this project took only ONE trip back to the store for one fitting.

Trona Pinnacles

The garage sale is over, Thank God. Sold some things and gave more away. It is a relief to have 50 years of stuff gone and my sister and I can move on.

Now free to scratch my hitch itch, I am heading north on 395. I have wanted to visit Trona Pinnacles for a while now and this is the trip to do it.

Nice quite spot with a nice view of the Tufa Spires

25,000 to 10,000 years ago this area was a large lake where the Tufa Spires were formed on the lake bottom by thermal vents.

This alien landscape has been the location for many movies. Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek V, and Planet of the Apes to name a few. 

As RVer's like to say, the road is an adventure, and I had yet another one. When I went to start Serenity nothing happened. The starter did not even click. I called my road side service expecting them to tell me they would not cover a tow from my remote location, but thankfully Coach Net came through. 

Pro Tow out of Ridgecrest accomplished  a difficult extraction over rough terrain without one ding to Serenity. 

Warren's Automotive has a good yelp rating, so I had them drop me there. The next morning, Thursday, Tina said they could not get to me until Monday. She then said they would take a quick look to see if they need to order any parts. Two hours later they found the relay for the starting motor was missing.

Further investigation revealed that the clip on the right side of the fuse block was detached. 

I believe this allowed the fuse panel to vibrate while traveling over the washboard road out to Trona Pinnacles. The vibrations ejected the relay. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

The relay was available locally, I mounted the fuse panel correctly and was back on the road by noon. Warren's Automotive did a great job with a quick turn around. Greatly appreciated.

Family Time

I am up in wine country visiting my brother. The best camping spot in California. Perched on a hill with a fantastic view of the vineyards.

Hors d'oeuvres on the veranda.

Oh that yard sale : We hired a professional estate sale person to set up and execute the event. She is doing all the work, so I headed north. Great call.

Everything Goes

Our parents bought our home in 1962. I was in high school and shortly moved on to college. My younger sister continued living here until her retirement this year.  If you weren't counting, thats' 53 years of stuff. Her retirement plan is to relax on the playas of Puerto Vallarta, MX. It does not include shipping the household goods to MX.  I have been helping get things ready for our mega garage sale.  All  this in LA's triple digit heat wave.

Dish Aiming

I use a portable tripod for my Directv dish. I like the tripod because sometimes the signal is blocked at the rig by trees and I can move the dish to a clear spot. I move every few days and need an expedient way to aim the dish.

First I use the app Dish Align to find the general direction I need to point the dish.

Preferred  set up option - set up the dish next to the rig where I can see the TV screen through an open window. Quick and easy

For those times when I have to set up away from the rig, I use FaceTime. I connect my computer to the net using my phones hot spot. I set up the computer where it can see the TV screen.

I then set up a Face Time connection between my computer and phone.

I can now see the signal strength bars and adjust the dish for maximum signal strength.

Success