Three weeks of goings-on

Last Friday our Dachshund puppies turned three weeks old and I realized that it is time for an update from our home base happenings.  

They are now able to see and hear. Also their baby teeth are coming in.

I am clipping the sharp tips of their nails so they don't hurt mommy when feeding.

Since my return from Germany I learned that the transition to settle into a senior citizen home is not an easy one for our mom and my sister Christina (who flew again to Germany last Saturday) and I are a little stressed over the things we have to deal with long distance. I have tried to find relaxation by working outside in the garden whenever time or a break in our rained out spring weather would allow me to do.  For the longest time I have wanted to create a little berm, i.e. flower bed at the end of our property line and never got around to making one. 

It seemed like most days it rained and rained...

Not even the dogs were interested in going out into the rain, 

but chewing a bone helped the boredom.

Its a soggy mess this property

Some days the water was even higher than this

Finally, a week ago I donned my big rubber boots, got a shovel and wheelbarrow out of my shed and waded over to our new property. The grounds are lower there than the one our house is on. With all that rain we have had and the high Lake Erie water level, cutting the grass over there is impossible for the moment. Last year we had ripped large tarps up that were buried in the ground and by doing so several mounts of topsoil mixed with debris where scattered over the property. After pulling newly grown tall weeds from those dirt piles I managed to fill several wheelbarrows full of good earth for this new berm. To top it up, so to speak, we purchased an interesting looking large boulder to set on top. We picked that up at a local Nursery with our utility trailer. Benno backed that up right to the berm so he and me, after pumping some blood into our muscles, could slide this close to 400-pound rock bugger onto the top after lowering the ramp into position. Around it I planted some perennials.  Next to the berm Benno helped me to dig three holes into which I planted evergreens to tie the empty space from the wooden fence with the berm.

The border stones will settle some more over time

Wooden fences in this hight are not permitted to go all the way to the property end

While the dogs kept me busy in the house, Benno had projects of his own to occupy his time. A while ago George from"Our Awesome Travels" posted pictures of new bedside lamps he had purchased and installed. That made us think about the factory supplied overhead lamps in our travel trailer’s bedroom, which shine in our eyes like high beam car lights. They are LEDs, but mounted in a ridiculous position in our Jayco White Hawk 24RKS. So after a Google search Benno located a neat set of new bedside lamps, LED as well. They light up in white, or blue and it didn’t take him very long to mount those. 

The blue light is really not that bright as the picture shows

In addition, Benno had not been very happy with the factory supplied folding entrance stairs that showed some rust already, which may had been caused by the late December or early January trip departures, hitting salted roads while driving to the sunny south. He replaced them with a new set of aluminum folding entrance stairs that we like a lot better. These we picked up at a Camping World store close to Detroit in Michigan a couple of weeks ago.

There is another issue we have and hope maybe some reader will have a suggestion or answer to this:

During the winter, while hooked up to the RV Park's pressure water system, the trailer’s water tank filled up also, which it should not. One day, to our surprise, we noticed a puddle of water under our trailer, which we traced down to the water tank overflow hose vent. Benno shut the park’s water off and activated the 12 Volt trailer pump for a few minutes. The water tank gauge showed a full tank, which should have been empty, according to Benno. He had drained the tank after arrival in the RV Park. He then drained the tank again.  Here at home we hooked the trailer up to the shore water supply as we were awaiting my sister and husband to use the trailer overnight and noticed there was water running again out of the tank overflow hose vent. The tank was full again. Benno thinks the trailer’s Shureflo water pressure pump’s build-in check valve is the culprit. He removed the pump and opened it up. In his opinion the check valve’s stainless steel spring is tired. By stretching the spring a little, it may have solved the problem. Time will tell. An additional installed check valve will not work with the Shurflo pump as we discovered. The pump will constantly jerk. Its internal bypass valve will prevent the pressure switch shut-off. Benno tried this out. Any tip from our readers is welcome.

The old shed last year

And while Benno was taking our truck to the Chrysler dealership a week ago for a couple of factory recalls, I got the opportunity to watch a little fire at our neighbor’s property while I was outside in the garden plugging weed and dandelions. There was an old shed sitting at the neighbor’s property close to our property line that had seen better days. Our neighbors are in the process of cleaning up the land and in the process, this little shed caught on fire. The decision was made to let it burn down although the fire department was contacted while it burned.  Actually, at one time I got a little concerned as the fire became quite big and the smoke and airborne burned fragments were blown over our travel trailer.

From the fire’s start to finish it took an hour and a half.  The ashes and remnants, however, are a big mess created by the most helpful crew (I think those were trainees) of the fire department who sprayed tons of water and scattered the charred remnants all over the place.

It looks like this year’s wet weather down here in our area will delay our plans we have with the adjacent property upgrades as well as a gravel pad extension for our travel trailer. We’ll see what we can do. 

I’ll be posting more pictures soon of our little puppies as they are developing very rapidly. Stay tuned.