RV maintenance list

I'm making my RV check list on things that need to be done maintenance wise. 

As you know, owning an RV also means maintaining it. If you don't, you can shorten it's life & the life of equipment as well. 

Plus I want everything in good working order! 

I'll admit to watching a lot of YouTube RV videos. But they are quite handy in learning how to maintain, repair or fix things. They are also fun on my down time to watch for camping & such. 

So on my check list so far that I've put in notes on my phone are:

* Check water heater anode & clean out out that space with water. 

* Check the water level in my coach battery - might as well check the engine battery too. I get too lax about not checking those. 

* Check my outdoor fridge compartment to be sure it's nice & clean. Also when doing this, always look for yellow stuff. Which I hope I'd not have since my fridge is only about 2 years old!!

* Clean the exterior heater compartment. Although I really don't use my RV's heating system, it's still a good idea to check & clean it once a year. Mud daubers are my worst enemy! They will get in everywhere. I even found a good sized nest when I changed out a front turning signal light! And they eat through my plastic strips that are around my exterior compartments & entry door . At first, I thought someone had poked a finger through, then realized it was mud daubers when I saw them at work! 

* Install my GenTuri, which I've not really messed around with yet. Would be a good idea to install it, test it & run my genny for awhile anyhow. It's time to run my monthly generator exercise.

* Reseal my roof again with Dicor. I do that yearly & have not done it yet this season. It's not dire that I do this right now, but will want to before it gets too deadly hot outside. Working on the roof in the Texas heat isn't very desirable. 

* Eternabond the section of the overhead rebuild on the roofline. Although they caulked it & all, I'd still feel better with that extra bit of protection. 

* Fix some of my outdoor bay doors. Some of the latches have fallen apart, so need to do that before any big trips as well.

* Buy another spare tire cover. The weather ate my last one, it just crumbled in pieces - I use the vinyl covers, so they don't last all that long with the weather elements. I think I get about 2 years out of them, but looking at an ugly spare tire isn't desirable to me. 

* Lubricate my TV antenna - this helps in rolling it up & down effectively. 

* Wash & wax the exterior. Even if this means one section at a time, which is how I'll do it when I'm able to do this again. 

* Pull out & clean the awning fabric. 

Any suggestions on what ya'll would check on? 

What does everyone do to their RV's to keep them in shape? 

I'd love feedback! Plus it might help if I've over looked something.

Checking the tires & such, I do that before I pull out of the driveway any time Ellie gets to leave the driveway. So that step I'll skip. IF I were to sit a few months without moving, then yes, I'd check the psi. 
And to note, I LOVE my extensions!! They make it possible for me to check my air pressure & keep up with it! 

 Thanks for stopping by!! 

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~ 

Random Cell Phone Pix

Cheese, mushroom, onion, bell pepper omelet with turkey bacon. 

Yum

Little steaks with veggies. Plate is a little small huh?

Bar stools.

Temporary ladies room. Sam Houston University.

Ummm...yea.

Proud yearling peacock.

Old Imperial Sugar building. Sugarland, Texas

Local color

Spider

PINK  greyhound

Dollys Bed

Sara's Bed...note her carrot tail.

I fit, I really do fit. I don't have a bigger fluffy dog to lay on.

Scare-Luki

Scare-Luki 2

Dolly Face

Sara Face

My face

Over due thank you & new welcome

 Thank you!

First of all, I'm a bit over due on a big Thank You to Randy & Pam Warner! 

They sent me a cool little tripod for my little camera. Making videos with this camera will be easier now -- so thanks! I did a video the day after I got it, but the video didn't turn out very well. No fault of the tripod, more operator error.


Welcome! 

Welcome to Nan & John! I'm pretty sure ya'll have a blog, right? It's not showing up otherwise. 



Life:
  I've kind of disappeared for awhile here. 

I've fallen behind on my blog reading & such. 

Sometimes, life just gets in the way. 

Nothing new on my end. My surgery was approved, but um, no one told us, so now an extension has to be filed. Go figure! 

Portable Air Conditioning:




I've set up my portable a/c. There's pros & cons about it. 

Cons: It's not nearly as cool (COLD) as my roof air is. My roof air runs so cold that you find yourself running outside in 100 degree heat to warm back up! The portable is keeping it around the low 80's during the hottest point of the day, so I also have been using fans. 
I've discovered heat escaping into the rig from it though, so I have to do some more modifying to the vent hose on it. And it drains like mad. In fact, I'd better go check it right now. Dang, it did overflow. I keep the overflow container at the step in area on the passenger side, but I sometimes forget to check it, so it'll run over. Nothing can really get ruined there, but I still don't want it to overflow. 

I duct taped reflectix over the exhaust hose, grrrr, the tape has let go, so the reflectix is falling off. Last year, I tied yarn around the reflectix, so I guess I'll do that again. 

It takes up space. I have to place it on a step stool between my front seats.

It's really not pretty, especially looking at a big fat hose & a modified mount placed on the drivers side window. 

I have to turn my RV into a dark cave, which I don't like. Heat comes in through the door, so I have a curtain over it. All roof vents are covered with reflectix. I keep reflectix on my over head bed windows too, but I haven't made any curtains for that area yet. And I have to remember to close the curtains on the overhead bed area or that becomes a hot spot that heats up the RV. 


Pros: It allows me to at least stay in the RV at a tolerable temperature. 

It takes less power to use.

It's a temporary fix to a badly needed solution. 

*****

I hope all is well with everyone. I'm planning on trying to catch up on my blog reading. 

After I fix the exhaust hose again. 

This is going to be one long hot summer as I'll have several weeks of therapy & such after my surgery. 


Ugh. But life could be way worse! I hear cardboard boxes aren't really the ideal home. ;-)

You don't belong in here! Sssssscram!

Um, this does NOT belong in the house, let alone the kitchen! 

Yikes! I was in the house, and walked RIGHT PAST THIS CRITTER!!

As he silently twisted his body in 1 million different directions. 

It was when I closed the half door that I saw him. I only closed the half door to keep the dogs out of the room as I had mopped it & wanted the floor to dry first. 

Then I saw him. Um, you aren't supposed to be in here! 

So what did I do?

Ran out to the RV, grabbed my cell phone, grabbed my camera, then went to stalk him. I really wanted to get pics to identify him. I knew it wasn't a rattler, but wanted to know if it was a sssssafe sssssssnake or not. 

He ssssslithered under the freezzzzzzzzzer. 

I came out to the RV & returned. 

He was ssssssssssslithering up the wine rack. 

Sssssso, I caught a couple of picssss.

Camera didn't want to focussss though. 

Sssssso, I got the besssst I could get.     

It's a Texas Rat Snake, but really, I'd be happier with it OUTSIDE!!!

It's nonvenomous, but ssssstill....

I'm not that scared of snakes, but sssssstill....

So I'm ssssstaying put in my RV  :-p

College Graduation And Mothers Day

  






Happy Mothers Day to all you Mom's out there! Even if you're a mom to pets like I am! I used Betty Boop because my Mom's name is Betty & she likes Betty Boop stuff. Happy Mothers Day Mom! 
{{Wish I were with you today - Love you!}}

*****************

No, not me. I'm not graduating from college. ;-)

I went to a graduation yesterday for a daughter of friends. 

Sam Houston University in Huntsville, TX. 

It was a gorgeous day, nice, sunny & bright. And cool temps, so that was nice. 

Of course, the commencement was held indoors at an arena. 

Seating got a little crazy. As you can imagine, some of us saved seats for incoming family. Some folks didn't like the seat saving thing, but we were there over an hour early as family members & friends arrived. We didn't have any issues, but when it came close to time, they announced that if folks that were saving seats for others, it was no longer possible to do so. Fortunately, all our friends & family showed up. But there were some hot heads in some areas for a little while over this. Before it all got started, the kids that worked the stands got it all under control & all settled back in.

I found this small camera in this huge boom a bit fascinating.....it doesn't take much to fascinate me I guess...

This part was cool. Some of the kids decorated their hats. I wish I could have gotten a closer shot, but from where I was sitting, this was the best I could get:

 Congratulations to my friends daughter for her big graduation event! And I wish her a great future with her college degree. Her major was agriculture. I think she can have a very rewarding future. 

*************

On Friday, I went shopping for a purple top to wear. They were having a memorial get together for my friend Val that passed away on Saturday. She lived in New Mexico, so of course, some of us could not make it to that event. In honor of Val & in honor of her favorite color purple, those of us that could not make it wore purple. And bought purple candles to burn for her. I hope she's in a better place now, with her son that they lost when he was a little boy to leukemia. Life can sure offer it's amount of sadness, but all in all, it also offers up beauty & happiness. One just has to look around & appreciate what life & nature has to offer us. 

RVSue took this photo a few days ago. I asked her if I could add it to Val's facebook page & she gave me permission to do so. She was perplexed over the purple mountain behind the awesome zig-zag mountain that she was able to capture. I told her it was my friend Val smiling down, so I'm going to post it here as well. 
What a great photo & what great meaning it held for us that are missing Val at this time. Thank you so very much Sue! I will only use your photo twice, once on Val's facebook page & once here so everyone can see it's beauty. 

 How appropriate, a purple mountain at The Valley of The Gods! Simply splendid! Val will always live in our hearts...

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Farewell my dear friend

It is with a heavy heart that I wanted to dedicate a page to my friend Val Kaeppler. 

Val's favorite color was purple. I love that she had on a purple coat in this photo.

Val was a friend through my world of dogs, Salukis in fact. 

Val & her husband, Steven created beautiful dogs out of the kennel name of  Laa Yudaani Salukis.

They weren't as interested in showing dogs as they were in Open Field Coursing - which is where you set the dogs free to test their hunting skills. 

More than that though, Val was an amazing person of amazing strength & preseverence. 

She fought cancer for many years, now the fight is over. 

I truly took it for granted that she'd live forever...

Val, I love you & will miss you dearly. Your soul lives on in my & the hearts of others. 

Val used to work at a nursery, her passion were cactus blooms. She lived in New Mexico with her husband, Steven. I was hoping to take a trip to NM sometime this year to visit. I'm sad that this won't come to be now. 

Below are photos of her & Steven's dogs, along with some cactus blooms that she has taken photos of. All photo credit of the dogs & flowers go to Val. I borrowed them from her facebook page. I hope Steven doesn't mind. I just wanted to take a little time to share Val, to treasure her, to remember her by...

 I especially like this photo.

The Scissortail Flycatcher showed back up yesterday. He brought his mate. I think they are nesting somewhere within feet of my RV! I'd like to think that Val sent them. At any rate, I will think of her each time I see them as I know she'd adore their beauty. 

In Texas, I found out they are called The Bird of Paradise - quite appropriate! Such beautiful little birds.
And they got close enough for me to get decent shots of! 
I did a little more research on them to see how you could tell the difference between the male & female. 
The female's tail is 2'' shorter than the males is. They have REALLY LONG tails!  

 Female Scissortail Flycatcher

Male Scissortail Flycatcher -- note the difference in their tail lengths.

I will think of Val each time I see these beauties. I hope to see little paradise babies someday soon! 

I'm going to go clean out the old bird feeder to fill it. 

But they are known to be invaluable for bug catchers! They'll get plenty of that here.

~As always be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

****
Anonymous comments for this page have been disabled. If anyone wishes to comment further, please contact me (salukiz(at)hotmail.com) & I will be very happy to add your comment. Sorry, I had to reset to rid of the anon tab due to way too many spams. :-/ 
This page will stay up forever! 

It's a dogs world

Do you ever wish life could be just this simple?

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Bird Stalking

Shhhhhh, I'm stalking birdies today. 


I had to slowly creep up on this bird today, slowly, one step at a time. Taking shots along the way with my zoom range as I knew it would eventually fly off before I could really get close enough to get really good shots of it! 

Darn. 

I would have loved to have gotten closer shots of it. Then my friend starts walking behind me, loudly talking, have you gotten it yet!? I have to shhhhhh her as I'm still stalking. 

Got so close, then off it went! Waaaahhhh, my pretty birdie flew away! 

Oh wait, it landed on the ground....more stalking. 

I wonder if I've impressed the cat? 

Maybe he thinks I've taken note of how to stalk?

Would he have been proud of me?

I don't know....maybe not, I didn't really catch it & eat it like he would have. 

Yuck. 

So, here is what I caught today...shot today....via camera that is! 

Of course, I had to google as soon as I uploaded the photos. 

It's a Scissortailed Flycatcher. Oklahoma state bird. Well welcome pretty bird! 

When it flies, it spreds his tail feathers apart. That's what originally caught my attention a few days ago when I saw them driving down the road. He finally came to visit here! Yay! 

Pretty bird! 

I wish I could have gotten closer for a better image though, but on the other hand, I'm glad I was able to get anything at all! 

Here is a google image borrowed from google images of one in flight:

Here are more of my images:

OK, onto the next bird...

I was mowing the acreage the other day. 

Riding mower of course.

And this guy came along. He was a little annoyed that I had this machine out, but he wasn't scared of us. 

Actually, he had less fear of the lawn mower than he did of me on foot today. 

He's a Cattle Egret. Right now, he has tan coloring on his feathering as it's mating season. 

(I looked that up too)

He was stalking the peacocks. Actually, they seemed curious over each other. He was outside their pen, looking in at them, they were looking out at him. Then he left because he didn't want any more pics taken. 

So then I shot the peacocks. 

There are two peacocks here. My friends thought they had a female, so they got another peacock to keep it company. They brought home a male. Welllll....as it turned out, the other was a male too! So no babies to be had here in the future! But they do keep each other company. They are about a year old, so they don't have all the beautiful colorful plumage yet. It'll come. 

They do like to flag their tail feathers up though & prance about! 

One of them is a bit braver than the other one is. They don't come up to us, but one will come close to eat. The other runs scared because he thinks he's poultry I guess. Oh well, it makes it easier to tell them apart that way! 

A little finch got in the house yesterday too. Last year, a Purple Martin got in. My friend was desperately trying to get it out of the house & not hurt it. She was trying to take the screen out of the kitchen window, which isn't easy as it's a difficult reach on that window. I showed her how to capture them with a towel to take them outside for releasing. So she did that yesterday & it worked. 

So ok, now my little bird brain is properly pecked. 

Later, have a great day everyone! 

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~ 

Well Brrr Mr Winter, but Sara is cute

Well brrrrr.


Did I really sit in the RV yesterday, windows open, fans going, in a t'shirt & capris? There was a breeze coming in the windows. But the inside temp reached 91!

I could not wait for the evening hours so it would start to cool off.

I have my portable a/c sitting in my van, but am waiting for the "go ahead" command before I can set it up & use it. They are trying to conserve energy here right now, but soon, we'll have all the a/c's going again. Unless it just plain stays cold!

I actually prefer weather in the 70's. That's comfortable for me & no need for a/c in that kind of weather.

But the 50's?? In May? Is it still May? My computer says so. My phone says so. My atomic clock says so, but maybe they are all out of synch like me?

However, I noticed something really cute in my friends pile of dog stuff today. I asked her where it came from & she didn't know.

So earlier this evening, I thought I'd put it on Sara to see how it would look.

OH, she looks really cute!! And she strutted everywhere in it!

Then I had to take a pic of Dolly in her little cover up too. Her pic didn't turn out as well though, but she was not to be left out!

Now for a video of them. Shhh, don't tell my guys. I don't want them to get jealous.

Ever try doing a blog between your cell phone & computer? I just did. Again. Pics & vids were in cell phone, so I had to keep opening the page to edit going back & forth from phone to computer. Why? Because I was too lazy to upload the pics & vids to my computer. I have to tether because my computer doesn't have bluetooth, so call me lazy, but it works. And the video was loaded directly to blogger from the phone, so it's possible to do that without having to upload to youtube or another source for those of you that didn't know that. But generally, it takes longer. I had 4G service, so it wasn't too bad.

It's really, really windy right now! I had small tree branches scratching on the side of my RV the past few weeks, so today, I cut them. So for now, we're safe from scratching tree branches! I hope I won't have to roll the antenna down. So far, it's not being effected. Hate to have to roll it down because then I lose TV channels like mad. 

Have a wonderful evening & if you are in the cold, keep warm! 

I must go feed the dogs now, they are commanding my attention! 

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~