Early Spring, New RV Door Window and German Cooking

Would it be possible that the nesting period here in southern Ontario has already begun? There is a lot of activity going on in all of our nesting boxes and since last week I spotted a redwing back bird coming to feed at the bird-feeder on our deck in the mornings and late afternoons, so perhaps the birds know spring is just around the corner and a few migrating birds have already arrived. Thankfully, except for a few little heaps, all the snow has disappeared here in our area.

Having our travel trailer parked next to the house is rather convenient. We have it electrically heated inside to hold the temperature above the frost temps and sometimes my hubby disappears inside for a while and I then can hear the furnace running in the RV. I guess he thinks of future travel and maybe what else he wants to improve. We discovered that if we want to watch TV in the camper during the day, the light coming through the door window is too bright to see the colors of the TV screen properly. Rather than just installing shades over the window that has been bothersome, we ordered a new window.  

 

The door window that came with the RV is the standard frosted glass that Benno calls “Toilet Window Glass” and you cannot see out through it nor see who is standing in front at the door. All the other windows at the RV are the tinted glass windows that filter out the hot sun and make it difficult from the outside to see inside meanwhile giving a clear view of the scene outside. The new door window we ordered is also of the tinted glass type and comes with a black horizontal blind, which you can open or close and is embedded inside the frame, so it is flush with the door. We purchased through Amazon Canada and here is the link: RV Replacement Door Window

 

The whole installation, including removing of the old window, went under one hour I think and was pretty easy to do as to Benno’s judgment. I assisted by holding the frame in place from the outside while Benno popped the glass in from the inside.

I am happy with the improvement and wonder why the manufacturer doesn’t ship the RVs right from the start with those windows or offer them as an option. Here are two YouTube links for the installation in case you are interested. Window Installation and How the installation really went

 

It has been a week of German food, or comfort food that I prepared in my kitchen and I was wondering if our Canadian/US friends are familiar with those dishes and if not, are interested in trying them. They are not difficult to cook and don’t take long to prepare either.

 

Here are three typical European dishes and as to personal preference some ingredients can be substituted or omitted. Most times I like to cook for more than two portions and freeze the rest for a lazy day of microwaving or reheating the meal. Therefore it is also more cost-effective. 

 

Rouladen: Made from thin outside round beef slices and filled with bacon, onion and pickle and simmered together with fresh mushrooms. This recipe is suitable for Instant Pot, Pressure Pot, or Slow Cooker users.

 

Schnitzel: Cut and butterflied slices of pork loin, breaded in a wash of flour, egg and Italian breadcrumbs, and then panfried.

 

Spaetzle: Cooked German Egg noodles with fried onions and bacon, topped and baked with Swiss and Parmesan cheese. Of course you can make your own noodles, but I shortcut and purchase them at Walmart.

 

Hoping to have inspired you to do some creative cooking and I’m willing to share my recipes if you want.

 

Panic in the morning

We were just about to be finished with breakfast yesterday morning when I noticed that it felt a bit chilly in the room although Benno had cranked up the heat before sitting down. I thought it strange because the thermostat showed we were in heating mode. After placing my hand over one of the outlets on the floor I announced, “There is no air coming out of the duct!” Benno almost spilled his coffee and choked on his last piece of bread at this news. I hate to be ‘Mrs. Bad News’, especially so early in the morning, but this discovery warranted urgent action.

After closer inspection of the furnace, while still clad in his pajamas, Benno thought it wise to give our local Heating and Air Mechanic, who also installed our unit, a call. Of course we were not the only ones begging to immediately send a technician to fix a not working furnace, while the outside temps were still well below the freezing mark.  We were promised someone would show up after 1 p.m.

 

That little black round thing above the motor was the culprit

Lutch, the man, he knows everything about furnaces

Almost on the dot the owner, Luciano (Lutch) Pannunzio, came to the rescue. He tested and searched for the defect and then discovered that the pressure switch for the exhaust air of our gas furnace was defect. He managed to temporary by pass it so that the furnace could work for the time being, but he needed to drive all the way to Windsor to get us a new switch and promised he would be back late afternoon and to fix it properly so we wouldn’t be without heat for the night or the coming weekend.  

 

True to his word, he showed up later on and replaced the defective unit with the new pressure switch. In the meantime Benno had turned on the furnace and an electric heater to “Toasty Warm” in our travel trailer as a stand-by in case we would be out of luck with our home furnace.  It helped that we had a wonderful sunny day and the warm rays shining through our windows warmed the house and kept us cozy.

 

Our neighbours tree as it stood until today

Today we are spectators behind our front windows. Our neighbors across the street hired a professional crew to cut down a large Cottonwood tree behind their house, which had been a nuisance for them for a long while.

Here are some facts. Cottonwood trees are native to North America, are fast growing, and adding about 3 feet every year. Most Cottonwoods grow to about 65 feet tall. This one is 120 feet tall as per the information from the guys cutting it.

The branches tend to be weak, so lots of falling branches on windy days.

They also have aggressively, shallow growing roots that can cause problems to sewer systems, building foundations or paved areas.

Cottonwood trees can be either male or female. This one is a female tree and produces pollen in the springtime and in the summer produces seeds with cottony tufts that shed all over the place making it look like it has snowed but its a sticky mess that can drift around in the neighborhood. 

 

 

The tree cutters arrived with a boom track that turned out not to be tall enough to reach the top branches. A while later more equipment showed up. The Genie S-85 XC telescopic boom lift had a working height of 91 feet (I looked that up) and with that boom they managed to cap all the branches and the treetop. 

 

You don't want this tree hitting your house, right?

It was an all day event and by late afternoon the tree trunk came down. As it hit the ground our house shook.  I had a quick look at the felled tree and while the stump was being cut to ground level. What a massive tree.

I presume it will take a few more days to cut and transport the stem as well as all the cleanup. But that is all I'm going to document.

Hoping everyone will have a great weekend and thanks for dropping by again.

 

And I thought it only snows elsewhere

In past years, while we were away with our travel trailer at this time of year, there was little if any significant amount of snowfall here in our area.  Well, of course now that we are spending the winter at home, we truly got dumped on.  

 

I know that for some of our readers this past snowfall is nothing unusual as it snows up north a lot more frequently with more volume than it does down here close to Point Pelee, Ontario or so called Canada’s most Southern Point. I guess we are a bit spoiled here and had it coming to experience a little taste of winter. It was time for Benno to dust off and fire up the snow blower, as the snow shovels looked to be a little under qualified to do the job. Actually, first I had fun to dig a trail through more than a foot of snow from the sliding doors at the back deck to around the house to clear the front door so we could open it. Since this is kind of a novelty for us, I liked doing it.

This morning we woke up to -20C/-4F and the trees in our neighborhood had hoarfrost on its branches, which looked so pretty. Later on in the afternoon we warmed up to +3.5C/37F for a short while in the bright sunshine. 

 

 

So I guess this short episode of moving the white stuff around might be it for us this winter. We might get a few more centimetres (not inches) in the coming days, they promising us a big snow storm tomorrow, but next week we are warming up again to above the freezing mark and things will get messy on the roads as the as of now still pristine piles start to melt.

 

Otherwise, things are quiet in our household. On the travel trailer news, Benno replaced the propane tank cover for a taller type one incl. a longer tank tie down threaded rod. We can now carry either two 20 pounder or two 30 pounder propane tanks under it if we wish. The travel trailer came with the shorter, black cover, but we decided to go with a white one this time, as the bottles might not heat up as much under a white cover in hot sunshine. However, it might need cleaning more often.

 

Lets hope the groundhog was right and spring will just be around the corner.

Thanks for dropping by again.

 

Sticking out Covit-19 Restrictions

Time stood still this morning. Literally, until I realized that the battery in my wristwatch had stopped and I better got some lunch ready or it would become our afternoon teatime snack. Not that it mattered very much when we eat in these winter days where the days run into each other with not much going on. I don’t have to be told to stay home because of Covid-19, as I do not like to be out in the cold weather anyway. Lately it has not been very nice outside with high winds, blowing snow and deep frost even during daylight hours. I went out once, however, to a local walk-in clinic last week. I discovered a bump on my left elbow that is as big and looks like a golf ball. For the life of me I cannot recall bumping into anything and it doesn’t really hurt either. At the clinic every safety precautions were taken and the visit with the doctor was “virtual” on a big screen TV with camera in the examining room with the assistance of a doctor/nurse, I presume. That was a very interesting experience for me. It turns out there is nothing that is being done to my elbow for the time being and the bump should go away on its own in time. We’ll see.

 

Afternoon snack of baked pears with ice-cream

While I am on the subject of big screen TVs I wanted to tell you that we switched out the TV that came with our new travel trailer. The size of the TV that fits the area is pretty much dictated by the dimension of the cutout of the compartment, so the new TV is also a 32” the same size as its predecessor. However, this is a QLED TV. You might be wondering why we made this switch, as there was nothing wrong with the previous TV that now resides in Benno’s workshop.

 

For a long time, I think 2016 we have been Amazon Prime members to save on Amazon shipping charges. The membership is $9.03 a month for this and over a year period we do save money because by getting the goods conveniently delivered to our door step and not having to spend gasoline money to drive all over the land to get them. Last year, while talking to our son Dominik, he mentioned that on his big screen TV they are watching now tons of movies from Prime Video for free and not anymore Netflix because “Prime Video” is free when you have signed up with Amazon Prime shipping. Wow! In our house we use a wall mounted OLED TV which is a so called smart TV, that we could switch from regular HD TV signal received by the way of the roof mounted antenna to streaming using the wifi signal of our in the attic mounted router to get Prime Video of Amazon. We did this and opened up a whole new avenue of watching TV and hundreds of free movies while waiting out Covid-19.

Unfortunately our RV’s little 32” TV was not a smart TV and a new 32” smart TV is not available as OLED with their brilliant pictures, so we had to settle for a QLED TV. Of course like any smart TV it gives you options to other sources too like Netflix etc. but I won’t go into that. As to the Amazon Prime membership it allows you to have three TVs hooked up to Prime Video per membership. So we thought why not use that option on the TV in the camper and being pampered by tons of free movies? I was told that it will work also while traveling to the USA and all that is required is your Internet access to stream the movies etc. 

 

If you are happy with the picture quality of your present TV and don’t want to upgrade, there is another possibility to stream the Amazon Prime Video movies by just purchasing an Amazon Fire Stick. They cost just under Cdn. $60.00 and this one time expense will do the same.

 

Last week's weather

Today's view of Lake Erie

Last week

Today's view

Last week

Today's view

High winds and blowing snow last week

The sun makes it much better but it's very cold outside

In other news, our longtime cruising friends Linda and Ed have just joined Blogger. Look them up and say hello at "We Two Travellers Living the Life" or on my side menu. Their previous website you find on our side menu at the bottom under “Adventures of Ed & Linda formerly on Dreamtime, now on Rocky" 

And if you didn’t know already, it is only 5 more weeks until the first day of spring. Lets hope it warms up soon. Should you be watching the Super Bowl tonight, have fun! 

 

Last night's sundown