Friday, November 1, 2019

We Survived the October Freeze!

With the weather we have had this past week it has been really hard not to put the camper on the truck and start driving south. We have talked about it a couple times and it is really tempting. The fact that we are seeing pictures of our friends in warm weather locations is not helping. That, plus Red and Pam keep sending me pictures of big bucks down in Texas. I was ready to drive down there even without the camper!

We got as low as -2F one night and the highs were in the teens a couple days.  In the past we have froze up in when the temps hit the teens. But now since we were in the garage I did not know how that would change things. I did not want to take a chance so we winterized the rig last Sunday. Then just to see how we would have faired I did a little experiment. I put a glass of water inside the belly where the "winterize" valve comes through the plastic housing. This is the point where we have froze up first in the past. I also put a glass of water outside the rig. Even though we have a heated belly this particular area is sectioned off from the main belly.
This is the area we have froze up in the past
Each morning I would check both glasses. The water outside the rig froze up the first night and stayed that way all week. The water glass inside the belly never froze even when the temps hit their lowest. Better safe than sorry! We were able to de-winterize on Thursday but it was a long 4 days! Now we know that next time the temps get that low we don't need to winterize.

Like I said, we talked about heading south but a couple things are holding us here. First, there is still so much we want to do before closing up the house for the winter. Mainly closing up the house. Which means getting the soffit and fascia on. With the cold weather and the fact that the skidsteer is/was on the fritz stopped us dead in our tracks. We also want to finish the insulation, get the heat in and Kevin and Cheryl are coming out for Thanksgiving. Our original plan was to stay here until after Christmas but we seriously doubt we will make that. If we get everything done, we will more than likely leave sometime in early December.

What was wrong with the skidsteer? Good question. I spent several hours attempting to fix it myself (with the help of Dave when he and Leslie were here). I finally took it into the shop. Ends up some mice had made a mess of the wiring but some $1,400 later it was back up and running.

Since it was too cold to work outside so I opted to help my neighbor out by chinking the walls of a house he is building. Since he is a licensed plumber we are trading some labor and he is going to help me out when we start plumbing our bathrooms and kitchen.
The entire house he is doing needs to be chinked. In the old days they used to use mud and horse hair. These days they have "Chink caulk" but it is still VERY time consuming. It is good to learn how to do this as we may have an accent wall in our house with something like this.

Barb in the meantime has been very busy insulating! She has all the lower stuff insulated and is now working off the scaffolding on the higher stuff.
Barb working off the scaffolding
Nothing like working on a 1" pipe 16' in the air!

Panoramic from the loft
We also got the truss vents in!
We were supposed to have had our boiler heat system installed this week but with the colder weather the installer had a lot of emergency calls and was not able to get out. Hopefully next week.

I did get out deer hunting a couple of afternoons. A couple of bigger bucks are showing up on a camera I have on some nearby public land but so far they have proved to be elusive.
Nice 8pt
Even nicer 10pt
This one we should make into our Christmas card!
View from my deer blind
We also found out that our granddaughter Lily’s soccer team went undefeated for the season! Must have been the excellent coaching by our daughter-in-law Somer.
Lily is just to the left of Somer
We continue to live without TV since July now. I have survived but do miss my football. We still have some recorded shows on our DVR that we recorded earlier this year. We are down to (18) Dr. Pol's (7) Dr. Jeff's and (48) House Hunters. We started with something like 129 House Hunters. When we sit down to dinner Barb will say "What are we going to watch tonight?". I will respond, "How about House Hunters?" "Oh, Okay" she says....day after day after day...… When we get done with these I am not sure either of us will ever watch House Hunters again!

We also had the realization that we have officially progressed to "Old Couple" status. When we went to the doctor on Friday Barb got an appointment at 1:00 and mine was at 1:20. When the nurse came to get Barb at 1:00 she said "Why don't you both come". So there we sat in the exam room together like an old married couple. Well wait.... first they had to weigh us and Barb never, I mean never in 32 years has let me know how much she weighs. So out of courtesy I stepped away when the nurse weighed her which I know she appreciated. But later when the doctor was doing her exam he says "I see you lost 17 lbs and are now at xxx. She looked at me mortified! I chuckled to myself, the doctor had no idea what he just did. We are both healthy and ready for another year of travel!

Our exciting news for the week? Well, it is something we have been working on for over a month and finally got worked out to the point where I think we can talk about it. Our neighbor to the west (the Jordan’s are to the east) are selling 30 acres adjacent to our property. We were interested in it but not the full 30 acres so we made them an offer on 18 acres. They agreed to split the 30 acres and sell us the 18! We have the paperwork all filled out, made a down payment and are just waiting for the next county planning meeting for the approval of the split.  This will more than double the amount of forested area we have. The 18 acres is outlined in red below and our house location is the red circle.
With the weather warming up this next week (upper 40's) we hope to finish the insulation, soffits and fascia. With luck our heat will be installed and this time next week we could be fully insulated and heated!

37 comments:

  1. Good to hear the water inside didn't freeze. Isn't it interesting how just getting out of the wind and inside even without insulation/heat makes the freeze so much better. Sure hope you get heat next week!! Congrats on the new land addition.

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    1. I thought that there was no way the water would not have froze when it was that cold. But you are right, I think it was more the wind that was killing us outside and not the temps. Although it is cold in the garage at least we are safe from the wind!

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  2. Getting down to 0F is certainly testing the limits of an RV without skirting. I think we were getting close to the limit this week in Albuquerque. I have a thermometer in the utility bay (where you put a glass of water) and it read -2C (28F) one morning.
    The insulation is sure going to make the place feel more like a home. Not so many echoes and even without vapor barrier it will feel warm.
    Congrats on the expanded property! (More room for that campground???? LOL!)

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    1. We have noticed a difference with the sound in the house already although I am sure the echo's will return once we get wood and sheetrock on the walls.

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  3. Great job Lily and Somer!

    Sorry about the poolside photo. Look on the bright side and think how much you are saving on sunscreen!

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    1. But my face is all red from the wind burn from working outside. I look like I have rosy cheeks whenever I come in!

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  4. We continued to be awed by your skills...this is better than "house hunters", we get to watch our friends in "house builders"...GREAT job, and congrats on that land purchase!!!

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    1. Thanks. Had we been thinking we should have contacted one of those shows and had them film our build. Not!

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  5. Expanding Land Barons. lol Good for you. More forested area... more animals. I am sure you will be very happy that you stayed and finished the insulation and drying in the house. You have spent so much time in the "cold" when you finally make is down south you will probably melt. lol Glad your "belly" did not freeze, amazing when you get out of the wind outside.

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    1. We never realized the impact of the wind on freezing things up, it just pushes that cold everywhere!

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  6. Congratulations on the land purchase, that's awesome! Barb is one tough woman, you two make a great team! That's funny about the dr appt. Ken and I always go in together, that started at the suggestion of the assistant also, I used to hate for him to hear my weight, I usually don't weigh at all at home. Poor Barb, I know how she feels. The house is looking awesome!

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    1. I am amazed at what she can do. She will disappear for a while watching YouTube videos and then come back out and tackle whatever she is working on!

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  7. Like the panoramic photo...it’s going to look great! Those are some beauty bucks...hopefully you can fill a tag and bring some samples to Q. 😉 Had to laugh about your doctor appointment...they bring us in together too. You guys are really turning into land barons. Stay warm!

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    1. Saw one nice buck tonight, just not nice enough. Hopefully one will come by so we can have some steaks down in Arizona!

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  8. The addition of those 18 acres will be really nice. Fingers crossed it all goes thru just fine. Stay warm! Oh, and all your RVing friends agree … you need to install a full hookup site(s) on that 18 acres 😆😁😆

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    1. We were thinking more like it would make a great boondocking area for those who don't need full hookups!

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  9. Sue and I take our hats off to you guys in getting this far in building your house !! Fantastic job well done. Team work all the way !!

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  10. I've been catching up with your posts and I'm so impressed with the progress you've made on the barndo! You both have put in a lot of hard work and it's looking great!

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    1. We are having fun but not quite the adventure you guys have been having!

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  11. That picture of the deer really would make a great Christmas card! Congratulations on the land purchase and the house looks like it is coming along. That panoramic view really shows all the hard work Barb has put in with the insulation :-)

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    1. She is almost done with all the walls, one more day and we are onto the ceilings!

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  12. Run Bambi, Run!! Just kidding. Kindof...

    You guys are making incredible progress, but yeah, y'all need to head south asap! That is way too cold!!

    Congrats on the land purchase!

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    1. Ha! There are lots of deer, saw 14 yesterday, 10 today just waiting for the right one.

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  13. Congratulations on your new land. You have been really roughing it. Hang in there just another month and a bit and you will be back in the heat. We are still cold here in Vegas.

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    1. We could use a little warm weather right now. It got up to 37 today and we were commenting on how nice it was!

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  14. Wow -2 degrees. It was 89 degrees here in Florida the other day. I am not sure which is worse. We are sure ready some cooler days.

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    1. How about if we meet somewhere in the middle, I would take 50's right about now!

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  15. Just an FYI. We may be in need of a house builder and we are impressed by the way Barb works. However we will not tolerate mistakes like putting your house wrap upside down. Let us know if you are interested.

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  16. Smart experiment with the glasses of water science guy! You guys have done lots in the last little while even with the cold and snow, good work. Insulating is a nasty job but makes a huge difference. Congrats on the extra land purchase. It's a great addition to your awesome place.

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    1. That is one thing I have never been accused of being! Got up into the upper 30's and even 40's the last few days, it is actually perfect working weather!

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  17. Congrats on surviving the freeze, nice to see being enclosed affected the RV so much. A steel building is a thought for one day, one big enough for a 5th wheel or MH. Great panoramic of the place.

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    1. We have room for you should you ever make it up this way!

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  18. WE continue to be impressed! Neither rain, heat or snow can stop you, and now you added more property, Congratulations!
    Not only are you house builder, a hunter, a fisherman an RVr , you are also a mad scientist, but glad the experiment worked and proven your theory.
    That photo should be your Christmas card, its well captured.

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    1. Thanks! The only time we get overly stressed is when we run into something that we don't know how to do or when waiting for other contractors to get out here and do their thing. So many of them are horrible at communication!

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  19. Brrrrrr.......and congrats on the land!!

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