DUMPING…PLAN B

Monday, September 5 – When we purchased our used motor home two years ago, there was a macerator pump in one of the storage bays. Paul has never had a situation where he needed to use it. After driveway camping in Marsha's brothers driveway for about ten days, he decided to hook it up and try dumping the holding tanks in Rick's sewer clean out in the nearby garage floor.

The macerator pump hooks to the motor home sewer outlet just like a normal dump hose. Instead of using a gravity flow to empty the holding tanks, the macerator works like a garbage disposal grinding the sewage and pumping it through a 3/4 inch garden hose to a sewer inlet, usually found where the house sewer system joins the county/city sewer system.

Paul hooked up the pump to the 12 volt electrical plug located in the wet bay in order to test it prior to attempting to dump the sewage. Not surprisingly it didn't work. So Paul tore it apart to see if he could locate a problem. It had some rust abound the motor windings that Paul cleaned up and then oiled everything. Still no luck. After examining the wiring, Paul thought it was wired up incorrectly. So he re-wired it and then plugged it back in the 12 volt outlet. IT WORKS!

Marsha's dad, Fred, helped Paul hook up the pump and then manned the end where the hose entered the house sewer system.

Paul turned on the pump and slowly opened the black tank valve. He half expected the thing to blow up and cover him with sewage. But amazingly it worked like a charm. Paul dumped both the black and then the gray tank, no problems and no mess!

This was wonderful. We now do not have to pullout and find a dump station to dispose of our sewage.

We finally got time to visit our old neighbors the Darrah's. We were close friends when we lived in our stick and brick house. They lived just across the street. Marsha "adopted" Anna as her granddaughter. That was when Anna was just a wee baby. Now she is in 4th grade, 10 years old, and just about as tall as Marsha. What a cutie! (That was our barn in the background.)

Anna has a brother, Anthony. He is now 5 and what a handful. He is walking on his own and says about 20 words. He could say Paul but had a bit of a problem with Marsha.

We had a wonderful visit. Thanks Ron, Janet, Anna and Anthony for a fun afternoon.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

OUT WITH THE OLD…IN WITH THE NEW

Thursday, September 1 – We gave our Jeep Liberty a good bath yesterday, inside and out. While working, we discussed the idea of weather or not we should consider replacing the Jeep.

THE OLD

It has about 100,000 miles on the odometer, has a few mysterious shake, rattles, and rolls, and gets pretty bad miles per gallon. So we decided to shop around a bit and see what's out there. We narrowed our search down to a Honda CRV and a Chevrolet Equinox – both towable four-wheels down. After reading reviews on line, examining them extensively, driving both several times, and negotiating with sales persons, we decided on purchasing the Honda CRV.

Dealership

The presentation of the keys.

THE NEW

Now we need to move our Air Force One braking system to the new car, get the Blue OX base plates installed and move our bike carrier to the back of the Honda. A little unexpected upgrade but one we'll probably be glad we accomplished in the future. If any one out there tows a CRV, we would enjoy hearing from you. We have all the steps in towing the vehicle, but if anyone has any insights they would like to share…PLEASE do!

Marsha also found out today that the surgery to correct her eyelid droop won't be taking place until December 16! She was told that both eyelids will need to be done, and our insurance carrier is so slow that it will take over six weeks for approval. We aren't going to wait around until that date, so everything gets shoved around. Now tell me about Canadian Heath Insurance and how people are forced to wait for medical care. This is the second time, in less than a year, that our insurance company has delayed medical care.....CRAZY! It won't do any good to change insurance companies. We are retired school teachers from Ohio, now making our residence in Texas, and until we qualify for Medicare we're stuck. Looks like Marsha will have to fly back to Ohio to have surgery unless she wants to jump through all these hoops again with another doctor in a different location.

One quick note:  THANK YOU to all those who leave us comments. We appreciate them so much, but sometimes we have a reader leave a comment anonymously. That is just fine, but we do like to reply to all of the comments. So if you don't get a direct reply, it's because we can't find your email address. We thank everyone for all the wonderful comments. Please keep them coming.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

DRIVEWAY BOONDOCKING

Tuesday, August 30 – We have moved to Marsha's brother, Rick's, driveway. We stayed here last year for a month. We had one problem. Last year we experienced "brown outs'' or low electrical voltage problems. So this year we plugged into a different 120 volt outlet and are now experiencing high voltage spikes. Luckily, we have a Electrical Management System that knocks us off line to prevent any lasting problems. Paul's a little concerned about this electrical issue for Rick and his family. Hope it doesn't lead to future homeowner problems. Since we are only staying a week we can work around this electrical anomaly. After all, the price is VERY REASONABLE….$0.00.

 

We really enjoy staying with Rick and Chris.  We have the best visits with lots of food, drink and laughs. We will be celebrating Labor Day here with the entire family.

Marsha is going to have eye surgery. This was not expected! Her left eyelid has been drooping for the past two years and is now affecting her sight. She will see the surgeon on Thursday to set the surgery date. It looks like we may be here for longer than planned.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!