I wish it would not be raining so much

After some very nice warm and sunny days at the beginning of April I was hopeful to get lots accomplished on our property. Well, some got done, but then we slid into wintery temps again and so much rainfall that put a stop to my outdoor activities. The grass grew nevertheless and I took the weed trimmer out to pre cut some of the grass as it was already so high and too wet for the mowers. Then when we had a few days of dry and sunny conditions I cut it all down with the John Deere tractor and the Husqvarna push-mower. However, in a matter of a few days it’s regrown already! Oh, the fun of garden maintenance.

Yes, the cats have been in it again ;-(

So enough lamenting about the wet conditions. I’m happy that the spring flowers are all in full bloom and seem to survive despite the neighbour cats using my flowerbeds as their preferred litter boxes. And finally, the Orioles have arrived! Now I’m waiting for the Hummingbirds as they should also be on their way. Benno and I love to watch the birds on our feeders while we are sitting at the table eating our meals. As I grew up, I had no patience for birds, but my grandmother used to sit by the window for hours with binoculars watching the birds in her garden. Funny how our interests change as we grow wiser and older.

Took the photo through the rainy window

This Northern Flicker kept pecking at our lawn. Had to use my tele through the window.

Benno is also waiting for the weather to improve. He spent some time to adhere labels to most of the electrical wires in the boat so it will be easy to identify where they are connected to. We have three different kinds of label makers in our household to do jobs incl. a wire label printer and it had been a bit tedious to do but so worth it in the long run when you have a electrical problem you will be able to identify the right wire. 

A closeup of the lettering on the electrical wires

More labeling inside the electrical panel

This label maker is for the wire lettering

The new sink and faucet had arrived and installing it was no easy task as they sit above the holding tank for the toilet and there is not much room to work with. That is done now and a mirror cabinet got installed above. The cupboard type cabinet in the odd shaped crevice adjacent to the counter is next to get finished. 

The sink and faucet installed

The mirror cabinet installed above

The plumbing for underneath, notice the two round inspection holes in back

That is how the drain of the sink and hot and cold water for the faucet are installed underneath
as seen through the round inspection port

That is how Benno had to work through the inspection ports to hook up the plumbing

After rethinking the navigation arrangement in this boat and all the rewiring Benno is doing, he decided to depart with the Raymarine Radar with Navionics Charts, Plotter and GPS units that are probably now 15+ years old. We sold them quickly on Marketplace and ordered new equipment. 

A photo of our ad for the old equipment

The new Furuno GPS Chart  Plotter- Fishfinder Combo on the dashboard will be coupled to a new Furuno Radar DRS4W that is wireless except for the actual power cable. The Radar display can be called up on the Plotter, iPhone or iPad. How convenient! So no new extra holes have to be drilled into the cabin roof. Bonus! 

The new Furuno GPS-Chart-Plotter-Radar-Fishfinder Combo

All hooked up and ready to display

For all the woodwork jobs requiring the saws etc. Benno wants to do them outside to avoid all that dust inside the garage, so weather depending. In the meantime he also is problem solving of how to modify the existing steering for a future autopilot. The boat came with a hydraulic wheel steering system made in Australia to which we cannot get easily parts locally. Yes, building or rebuilding a boat involves a lot of problem solving, but my hubby is pretty good at that. So I’m hopeful at the outcome.

The hydraulic steering pump apart in Benno's shop

That’s all for my little update for now so you don’t think I have abandoned my blog. See you hopefully soon again with more details.

Thanks for dropping in.

It’s so nice to be back home

We made it back home on Wednesday afternoon. Our return trip included a bit of a detour to the Grand Design RV Headquarters in Middleburry, Indiana, and their Service Center in Elkhart, Indiana. 

Wherever you look in that region you see fields of RVs of any kind and size parked waiting to be transferred to the dealerships. I have to say that their customer service is really excellent and we had the impression that they try to accommodate and address every client’s issue to their satisfaction.

We arrived in the afternoon at their headquarters to see what they would suggest to repair or if they had the parts we needed to fix the damage our exploded tire had caused. However, it is an Amish area and most of their staff had already left for home as they start their work days at 6:00 a.m. But, they found a technician and we were in good hands. 

The pin is at the RV Park for the Grand Design customers

The Service Center for RV parts

The Grand Design Headquarters has a small complimentary RV Park for clients just like us who come to have repairs done on their units. Since it was too late in the day to get the parts from their Service Center, we spent the night plugged in at their RV Park and next morning went to pick up the items, including a new tire of the same manufacture as the other tires on our travel trailer. 

Back home the sun was out when we arrived. Benno and I hit the ground running and we wasted no time to get settled. Benno unlocked quickly our garage to get the large water valve tool to turn the water valve near the road on to get the water supply going to our house. We always shut the water off before we leave south for the winter break. The heat in the house from the furnace can be activated or raised via internet, which we did while driving using our iPhone a few hours earlier still in Indiana. We’ll be busy for a while until we have time to sit down to relax. 

Benno is holding the water valve tool

Thanks everyone for following along. I’ll be posting of all the things that go on around here soon.