NICE CELEBRATIONS!

 We started the New Year off with rain so hopefully it will continue throughout the year so our drought is diminished.

I had MOHS surgery on my nose on Jan 4 and that night we celebrated Dawn’s birthday by going to Texas Roadhouse.  I baked a Lemon Cheesecake especially for Dawn (Keto) and since Vince doesn’t like lemon, she basically had the whole cake.

With the rain we had a problem with the electricity going out on the east side of the pad.  Larry put it in five years ago and when he checked several of the “waterproof” boxes he found water in them!   (We had a lot of rain.)  He ended up digging up the buried wire and found the short so replaced the wire and the boxes so we are good to go again.

The cover Larry put over one of the boxes

            The junction box that had water in it   

               The break that caused the outage

                     The new junction box in the ground

Since it was cold and rainy much of the month, Larry found a project inside to keep him busy.  He took the two doors over my washer/dryer and made them bi-fold doors.  Now I can see the light when the cycle is finished since there is no buzzer to tell me the cycle is done.

          Showing the bi-fold door

  All the way open so I can see the washer

Door closed over the washer/dryer

I had a semi- surprise birthday party at Texas Roadhouse with family and friends I hadn’t seen in several years.  We then went to Dawn and Vince’s for cake and ice cream.  It was a great time!

           

2023 Welcome!

 Larry was able to sell the 600 lb torque wrench and breaker bar that he used on the MH many of the years we were traveling.  Because it weighed nearly 80 lbs he built a wooden box to ship it to CO where a fellow Monacoer bought it.  The FED-EX fellow was impressed with Larry's work and said if everybody shipped heavy items in boxes like that, they would never have a problem!

  The wooden box Larry built for the torque wrench

   Box closed up and ready to ship

Larry continues to rearrange the Man Cave so he can get better use out of it now we are not traveling. 

Shelves with bins for the many different parts, nails, screws etc

My garden continues to produce however a bit slower due to the cooler weather.  There are many green tomatoes on my one plant so hopefully we will have tomatoes in the near future.

        The latest yellow squash from the garden

  

The tomato plant in my garden

 

We have a wonderful Christmas celebration and spent nine hours together with family, laughing, playing a funny game and talking over the past as well as having delicious food.

      Milli trying on her new bathrobe

The fruit cake that 'mouse Larry' nibbled on!

We started the new year with a wonderful church service and then had a Chinese lunch amid a big downpour of rain!  We are not going to let that dampen our spirits for a good 2023.  Happy New Year 2023! 

CLOSING OUT the YEAR

Larry took the car to Discount Tire and found we had a nail that was causing a slow leak.

Larry's latest project is converting the car trailer into a more useable work shop.  He took out all the sections on the floor and made shelves on each side so he could get to all his tools and parts more easily.           

                    

                          

                          Taking out the old riser             

                                    New look

           

                                   Now with shelves

We had a nice Thanksgiving at Dawn & Vince's house.  There were 11 of us as Anna was not feeling well.  It was a lovely day and we are enjoying the cooler weather.

                     

     Vince cutting the turkey

        LaTia preparing the green bean casserole

         

       Everyone at the table except LaTia who took the pic                         She is visible in the mirror

                  Ending with another great AZ sunset!

Walking Weather again!

 Oct 3 we had a wind storm like I've never seen before!  The top speed we recorded was 53 mph and Larry was so grateful he had put guy wires on the RV cover.  I felt like it was a 'desert hurricane' but we really didn't receive any damage thankfully.  Afterwards Larry decided to increase the size of the guy wire on the front of the RV cover to add more support for any future winds.

          

Larry fixing the guy wire on the front of the RV Cover     

  Larry "pinching" the end on the guy wire

We also had several days of rain including the 15th when we had three different storms of 1/2 hour of rain each and the high that day was 63º.

Since the weather has turned so nice, I've been able to walk many days and it really feels good to get out and about.

Todd came for a visit on the 20th and we had a really nice visit.  As he was coming in, Dawn was going out to a doctor's appt. so they were able to have a brief 'visit' as she hadn't returned before he left four hours later.  

Todd and Larry in deep conversation

We discovered our house batteries were 'toast' (no surprise after 10 + years!) so after much research Larry ordered lithium batteries and a new solar charger that charges both AGM and lithium batteries.  He had to lay on his back in the big bay to take out the old charger and put in the new charger.  He also found that in 2017 when we upgraded to the SilverLeaf monitoring system, they left all the old Aladin wiring in place so he was able to remove much of that for a lot more room.  The 29th we spent the day taking out the old AGM batteries and putting in the new lithium batteries.  That was a chore and a half as the old batteries weigh 125 lbs each (the new batteries are 55 lb each).  We used the Port-a-crane for both chores but the batteries in the back of the tray were really bears to get out.

     

 Hooking up the new lithium batteries

 New lithium batteries going in

The old AGM batteries that came out

  Larry working on the solar charger

Our toilet seat hinge broke after 19 1/2 years so we went to Lowe's for a new one.  Only problem is we have an RV toilet and the seat is for residential which means the bolt holes are in different places.  A new RV  toilet seat costs $129 and the one from Lowe's was $43 so Larry made a bracket from aluminum to make it fit.  I'm so grateful he has the smarts and tools to do that sort of thing saving us money!  It also is one of the new seats that 'close slowly'.

              

                         Larry working on the toilet seat

                

  The bracket Larry made installed on the toilet

We ended the month with a really nice Potluck at church and met a fellow from Switzerland who was a pastry chef before he retired.  He had some interesting stories to tell.

Starting the best part of living in AZ

 Sept wasn't as bad as usual.  Actually we had some pretty nice weather.  It rained several days in a row and the night time temps were in the 70's.

Larry finished the solar panel project and since he had three surgeries scheduled for the month, he slowed way down.  He did move the solar lights and replaced the batteries so they are working much better now. 

Moving the solar lights with a really neat cloud in the background

 Finishing up hooking the solar panels to the MH

All three surgeries went well and we both are glad they are behind us.  It was really hard because we had to get up early for the surgeries and we are usually late sleepers.

I think the 100º days are behind us now and the weather will just keep getting better.  On to the great AZ fall and winter months!

Now for the worse month of the year!

 Now that the shade project is finished I helped Larry remove the four solar panels from the roof of the MH. Since we are under the RV cover now they are not getting any sun and he wants to put them where they will do some good. He built a frame to put them in and then we talked about where to put them since we have a limited back yard. He came up with the idea of putting the frame on the back door of his Man Cave and then they would shade the back of the trailer. A bit later he decided he could take the automatic tongue jack off the Man Cave trailer (since it doesn’t move any more) and use it to adjust the solar panel frame for the best positions for summer and winter so that’s what he has been working on much of the month. The weather has been cooler and we had a week of monsoon rain with twice getting heavy rain and lots of wind. The rain was most welcomed although all at once wasn’t so great.

Solar panels off the MH

Larry making the ram to lift the solar panel frame

Larry welding on the ram

Frame for the solar panels

Ram for the solar panels finished except for the power

Aug 20 we went to Tempe to celebrate our first great granddaughter’s 9th birthday. It was held at the community pool which has inside air conditioned meeting rooms for the party and a really nice swimming pool so the kids had

a great time. It was fun seeing everyone again.

              Milli opening her presents

Larry framed and poured concrete for the inside entrance of the walk gate

(we had to remove the nice brick walkway when the RV cover was put in)

and he did a nice job. I helped him and we both suffered many bug bites

from what we can figure out are ‘Buffalo bugs’. I was wearing a muscle shirt

so I had more bites on my arms and back than Larry did and am just now

getting over the itching. The weather held and we had no rain. The bad thing

is the temperature has gone back up to 109º!

     Larry pouring the concrete

 Freshly poured concrete

Finished product all cured and ready to walk on!

For our anniversary we went to Olive Garden for supper and then to the movies and saw “Top Gun Maverick”. I’m not a movie fan but I did enjoy

the movie. Since Larry was in the Navy and on an air craft carrier and we lived in San Diego, I figured he would enjoy it and it would take him back to yesteryear.

For Larry’s birthday Vince and Dawn treated us to Carlos O’Brian Mexican Food and then we had cake upon returning to their house. Larry took the day off from working as it was again really hot

(108º).   We ended the month on a good note.

           At Carlos O'Brians

Dawn and Vincent unaware of me taking their pics!

    

            Us at Carlos O'Brians

  Larry's cake and present at Dawn and Vince's