Sunshine Saturday

[Colliemom]

Morning all. Back home Monday from 3 and a half weeks in the U.P. Wishing I were still there. Hoping to go back in couple weeks. Season is winding down so want to get in all I can, especially with the perfect camping weather still hanging on. 70 degree days are giving way slowly to low 70’s, upper 60’s.

Been busy since I got home playing catch up around here and getting a lot of things done this week. Laundry, banking/bookwork, mail, most of which went tbrough the shredder, grass mowing and a bit of trimming. Had a nice surprise in that my neighbor mowed my front yard for me just before I came home. She thought I would like to come home to nice cut yard. I did Pulled up the 290 feet of split rail fence in my yard, filled in post holes, did bit of tree trimming, visited with a friend about 30 miles away one day and then the window installers came and installed my new bedroom and living room windows. Plus the blacktop Driveway sealers were in the neighborhood late yesterday, so got my drive sealed. Am heading to Farmers Market this morning.

Mickie, I found the best way to get used to bifocals is forget they are there. A lot depends on how good the fitting measurements are done too and the type of frames you have. I’ve Never had any problems adjusting. Beth, sorry it’s so slow at the store. Guess everybody came to MI this year. It’s been crazy busy up here and parts of the U.P. All summer. Even now, my favorite state park campsites are still being reserved through September. Will you be going back next summer? Tina, congrats to Josef on the impressive wins and Lyn, glad you are feeling better.

Need to get moving here so I can get to market. You all have a nice day out there.

[PeggyinCT]

Good morning Sue and all who follow. Sue, you are amazing. How can you pull up 290 feet of split rail fencing??? Did you hook the posts onto a tractor and pull them out or just grabbed them with your hands??? Enjoy today. Peggy

[JudyJB]

I figured you had to be in the UP since we have not heard from you lately, Sue. Is this your last trip of the season? My tentative plans for next summer is to spend part of May, all of June, and part of July in Ohio and Michigan, and then head west through the UP and the upper tier of states to Banff and Lake Louise. Having a terrible time getting a reservation in one place I want to stay in Florida this coming February. Going to try one more time early tomorrow morning and then settle for my second choice. It is much harder this year than two years ago, I assume due to more people traveling and camping.

Yesterday, I vacuumed my upper bunk area, including my fuzzy ceiling, to get it ready for my friend from New York who is coming to stay with me in Napa. I also got some fresh touch-up paint for the outside of my rig and after two years of putting around, finally touched up the area on the left rear corner where i caught a post trying to get out of a parking lot. It was a newly constructed lot and had tall curbs on both sides of the exit. The rear of my rig swung around and hit a pole trying to navigate through the narrow exit without rubbing my tires against the curbs and damaging them. Someone needs to do a better job of designing parking lots for bigger vehicles.

Today's project is to start on touching up the worn spots on some drawers and cabinets. I am going to go slow on these and work on the ones that don't show as much to make sure I don't mess them up. I also got some wax I will try another day o n an area that I messed up last year!!

[Cudedog]

Good morning Sue and all who follow. Sue, you are amazing. How can you pull up 290 feet of split rail fencing??? Did you hook the posts onto a tractor and pull them out or just grabbed them with your hands??? Enjoy today. Peggy

I can totally picture it. I'll bet good money Sue just grabbed them and pulled them out with her hands. Any takers on this bet?

Anne

[Cudedog]

I also got some fresh touch-up paint for the outside of my rig and after two years of putting around, finally touched up the area on the left rear corner where i caught a post trying to get out of a parking lot. It was a newly constructed lot and had tall curbs on both sides of the exit. The rear of my rig swung around and hit a pole trying to navigate through the narrow exit without rubbing my tires against the curbs and damaging them. Someone needs to do a better job of designing parking lots for bigger vehicles.

Thanks for posting this, Judy. It makes me feel a lot better. A couple of years ago I was pulling my van into the parking lot of a Taco Bell that was kind of on a bit of a hill up from the road. They had these concrete-type posts on the passenger side of the driveway into the parking lot, painted yellow, on the side of the curved driveway. I, also, was trying not to scrape my tires.

What I couldn't see - my van is a bit higher up off the ground than is a passenger car - is that someone had apparently hit one of these posts already, because it wasn't straight, and leaned into the driveway just a bit.

Of course I couldn't see it, it was too low to the ground - not out my windshield, nor in my side mirrors, so it scraped a deep furrow into the side of my van as I went by it. Took thousands to have it repaired, luckily insurance covered it.

I have always felt a bit of a fool that this happened - but reading your story, I realize "these things happen" and it really wasn't my fault at all.

Thanks!

Anne

[BarbaraRose]

Wow Sue! I wish I had just a fraction of your energy and motivation! Glad you had a great trip. Hope you can fit in another one or two yet before the season ends. Seems like you were just getting your trailer de-winterized and now the season is almost over! Hard to believe August is almost over!

I am looking forward to the cooler temps so I can get my trailer out and about. Once it is ready to go (sway hitch, tires, etc), I want to just take it out for a couple days close by here to check everything out, see what I still need for it, and make it feel homey.

Didn't get a lot accomplished yesterday after my nap. I have a lot more laundry than I thought I had. My washer and dryer are very small and the dryer takes quite awhile to dry (probably because I put too much in there at a time), so I think tomorrow, I will just bring the rest of my laundry over to the clubhouse and use the larger washers and dryers there and get it all done at once. It is only $1.25 per load for both washer and dryer there.

Off to work here shortly.

[Irmi]

Good morning everyone!

Sue, so glad to hear that you were able to get away. I, too, am curious to hear how you got the split rail fencing out! Peggy, it's good to see you posting again! Judy & Ann, sorry about the boo-boos on your coaches. We had the same thing happen in a casino campground trying to get our 40 foot RV in a very tight spot. So annoying. Barbie, it's always interesting hearing about the things you are doing in your new home and meeting neighbors. Tina, congrats on the wins! Lyn, glad to hear you're starting feel better.

We arrived in the southern rim of the Grand Canyon for a week. We've been having an issue with our RV where the Check Engine light would come on. We called our ERS and they sent a mechanic out who misdiagnosed the problem, so we contacted another diesel mechanic when we got to Kanab Utah who said that because we had climbed so many large mountains for weeks at a time, the coil that controls the temperature of our DEF had gone up and needed to be replaced. While the RV was in shop, we also had an oil change, so hopefully we'll be good to go for awhile. The views coming into the park yesterday were pretty so we're going to go out by car today to see things up close and personal.

[havingfunnow]

Do you know, when Cherokee Purple tomatoes are in season, it is not only possible but also very enjoyable to eat pasta salad three times a day! This week at the farmer's market, I found a vendor who actually keeps them on the vine until fully ripe! I have eaten really well! I'm enjoying the last one now, and then I'll have to be patient for a bit. (I'm not patient at all.) Have to gorge on these while they're available, after all.

[BarbaraRose]

Ugh!!! When I stepped outside to go to work my glasses immediately fogged up! I could hardly breathe from the humidity! I checked the dew point and it is 69 which is tropical! Whew! I am even sweating here at work. I hope that doesn't last long!

[JudyJB]

Anne, it was a curved exit to boot! It was at a brand-new Walmart with new pavement and very steep and sharp curbs, so no driving over them. Visualize driving to the exit parallel to the main highway. When you get to the end, there is only one lane, and it narrows and makes a right turn to get to the main highway. But the high curbs and narrow lane combined with the sharp curve someone decided was appropriate for cars meant that my vehicle had trouble making the turn without my tires rubbing. When I negotiated the turn very, very slowly, my rig's rear end swung slightly to the left, as it does because of "tail swing" and the very back corner hit one of those metal posts filled with cement. I have never been in a Walmart with that kind of an exit.

Luckily, it only knocked off my rear side running light and scraped on the trim on the last foot of my motorhome. The actual body of the motorhome was fine, and replacing the running light was easy It did pull about 6" of the metal corner trim loose, but a dealer later stuck it back on, and when I got to Ohio, my son ground the metal fairly smooth. It is aluminum, so not rust in the last two years it has taken me to fix it. First bottle of touch-up paint was too thick and went on in globs so I removed it. This paint was very thin, so worked out well. Not perfect, but since it is only trim and not the body, it does not look too bad.

Read that Sparkle story and loved it! Can someone post some more?

[Acadianmom]

We were under a flood watch last night but glad they missed it so far. We were suppose to get 4 inches of rain starting at 2:00 am. This morning it looked like most of the rain was to the East so decided to try to make it to Walmart. Got in and out before the rain started. It's not raining right now but there are showers all around.

Wish I had Sue's ambition to get things done. I'm trying to pick up things in the bedroom and everything the cats sleep on needs to be washed. I could send the lady Tina knows cat hair to make yarn with. Every time I run the Roomba I feel like I could build a cat.

I hate the driveways with the cement island in the middle. The Dollar Store near me did that. If you want to exit, the driveway sends you to the right and you have to make a wide swing to go left. They are close to the state park and would probably get more business if campers could get in there. The new Kentucky Fried Chicken place in Abbeville fixed the entrance where trucks have a hard time making the turn. The only time I went the truck in front of me had to stop and back up and I was still half way in the road. I was afraid I was going to get rear ended before he got out of the way.

I had a couple of fleas get on me in the old house yesterday so I'm trying to put flea drops on the cats. As soon as they smell the stuff they take off.

I have cooked hamburger patties in the Air Fryer a couple of times and not a fan of the Air Fryer. Mine cooks but doesn't brown. I went and got my electric grill out of the camper and like that a lot better. It's suppose to be dishwasher safe so I'm going to try putting it in the dishwasher. The grill is hard to clean in the sink.

Martha

[Shirlv]

Hello All, I have been fooling for 20 minutes trying to post a picture without success. Will have to get family help. I made a statement wall in the apartment. It is now officially “Shirl’s Place”. I wanted to share a picture because of the wall decal which I thought some would appreciate. Do not ever buy a wall decal with feathers. I’m hoping my neighbors do not get a petition to have me evicted because of numerous smoke detector alarms and cussing as I do projects. Martha, I just fixed my second meal using the air fryer. Fish tacos last week and tonight chicken tenders. Both were very good. I think like you, I would prefer the hamburger be grilled. Safe travels

[Colliemom]

Anne, if you had any takers on your bet as to how I got the fence out, you Win! That’s exactly what I did, just pulled the posts out by hand. Some required a little digging around the outside of the post on one or two sides, to make some “wiggle” room, then I just wiggled them back and forth and pulled them up. Some came right straight out with no problem. The soil here is very sandy down under and with no rain to speak other than maybe a day here or there, these past couple months, the ground is very dry.

[snowball]

I did so little today that it required a nap... no ambition what so ever... I had finished a book last night knowing it was a series so looked up on google what the next is and found out that it should be out as of Feb. so looked on my list of Feb books and nope I didn't get it... probably wasn't on the shelve and so it didn't get bought... so remembered seeing a used book store in Ut called and they have it so called my Ogden daughter and she will pick it up so decided to rearrange my books trying to find the ones that I knew I hadn't finished the series found one so called and they had one of them and put my name on a list for the other if it comes in... so hopefully dd will remember to pick them up... I need to write the names of books or authors that I want more of so I can find something easier. It's just after 10 and shadow is wanting out... he was out not that long ago I don't know what it is about 10 but.... he seems to know when it is... and lets me know
watching a hallmark movie right now I don't want to go outside... and am on the computer just not the right timing
sheila