Bad news: it got down to 9 degrees F. last night
Good news: hmmm...let me think a minute. Oh yeah. We woke up this morning.
Bad news: no water again, went to our daughter's house to shower
Good news: we went to McDonald's for muffins and coffee for breakfast
Bad news: it's going to be sub-freezing all day
Good news: we're alive and doing FINE!
Bad news: no more bad news, so I guess it's all good news now
If I've learned only one thing in my life, it is that things could always be worse and there are always people suffering something a lot worse than I could imagine. So, you just have to keep on with it.
Currently here in Tumwater at this posting, it is 23 degrees F. We are supposed to have a low tonight of 14 degrees F. So, we aren't out of the woods yet as far as the sub-freezing temperatures go. At least we are warm inside the motorhome.
Bruce took some small towels and placed them in and around the holes in the compartment with the utility connections to try to stop the cold air from coming up in there so much. That wasn't very effective, but it did plug those openings. In fact they froze into place. He pulled one out this morning and the towel was frozen.
With our particular set-up on this MH, our water pump is inside the compartment with the fresh water connection and the sewer hose and tank drains. There is no electric receptacle inside that compartment because they probably don't want you to be messing around with electric stuff inside a compartment that deals with water. I'm no Einstein, but I do know that water and electricity are not a good mix. A man parked a few spaces down from us keeps a very small heater inside the compartment with his water pump. Good idea since his pump is far away from his water sources.
Bruce just got back from Home Depot and he purchased a small roll of fiberglass insulation. Later today when it warms up to around 30 degrees, he is going to go out and cut some of it into squares to line the water compartment and pack the pump. We'll see if that helps. In the meantime, we are keeping jugs of fresh water filled and can use those.
Here is the Extend-a-Stay system Bruce connected yesterday. He had to crawl underneath the slide out, and even further, to access the RV propane tank. Then we have the hose coming out to the small 5 gal. grill tank, which we can drive over to refill when needed. We had this system going with 2 of the 5 gal. tanks all last winter.
More bad news: our day/night shade in the dining room finally decided to break yesterday. We've been hoping it would last longer but the cording frayed and broke. There are 2 windows beside our dining table and the right side shade will not go up anymore. It really doesn't pay to get them restrung (if you can even find someone to do the job) so we will replace it. What we've decided to do is to replace both of the existing shades (29" x 60") with the new MCD American Duo day/night shades. We can only afford to replace those 2 windows at this time ($500.00) but that's the way it goes. We've sent for fabric swatches to be mailed to us ASAP, and we're hoping to get them ordered and then installed in early January when we are down in Yuma. Eventually, we plan to replace all of the existing day/night shades in the RV with these new ones.
It's always something, but until next time....so long for now!
6 comments:
I can't believe $500 for two shades?
I feel really sorry for Bruce having to crawl under the RV to hook anything up. With this cold weather, being on the ground would really be uncomfortable. !
Oh baby it's cold outside!!! You guys try to stay warm. What a great attitude and you are so right....things could always be worse.
Don't know if you read on our blog or not (couldn't remember) but our dinette day/night shade broke on our maiden voyage. We decided to replace all windows with the MCDs while in Texas. We LOVE them. You will not be sorry. So much easier and they block out some of the cold drafts at the windows. We didn't get the big windshield done at this time but I bet it would really help with the cold. Need more money for that, LOL.
You all take care.
Hugs,
Gerri
Good luck with the winter weather. It has to end soon.
Our Montana Fiver has what they call an "Arctic Package". That means the basement is heated. Would it really protect from freezing in the conditions you are facing? I don't want to test it. As someone once said, the Arctic Package is good while in Arctic, Alabama!
Just a few more weeks to put up with this freezing and then it will be time to head for the sun!
We are not fans of the Winnie day/night shades, but have learned to string them ourselves. It is really quite simple. Takes about two hours per shade. We have had to due three shades in three years of full timing.
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