January 9, 2016 Montana to Nevada

We're back ... or are we gone again?  We made the trip south and are once again camped at Lake Mead in the Nevada desert.  It's been cold lately with lows in the 30's and highs in the 50's.  We've also had lots of rain (for a desert environment anyway!).  Unfortunately we also found that we have multiple leaks in the roof of our motor home.  That has been an adventure by itself!  We've put two gallons of roof sealer ($60.00) along the seams on the top and around every mount for the solar panels.  We felt sure we had all the bases covered then it rained again.  We still have a leak over the sink!!!!  So we go to plan "B"  (as soon as we figure out what that is!).

Anyway, we camped for a few days at the Overton Wildlife Management Area to take care of a few things but now we're back out to Lake Mead where we'll be awhile.  We have the wind tower put up now and have settled in for the long haul.

One of the reasons I like being out and away from "civilization" are the things that sometimes happen.  We'd been in our current camping spot for a day when we heard Odie barking outside.  I opened the door and stepped out just in time to see a cottontail rabbit running by our motor home with a coyote (literally!) right on his tail!  Odie was still barking and trying to make up her mind whether to chase the rabbit or the coyote when they raced by.  I yelled at Odie to stay.  The rabbit spotted Odie and slowed momentarily which almost made it the main course for breakfast for the coyote. The coyote nipped at it and missed by inches. The rabbit turned on the afterburners and gained a couple of feet and they both disappeared in the desert.  I don't think the coyote ever paid any attention to any of us.  He was totally committed to catching breakfast.  Afterwards Susan and I were debating which we should have cheered for ... the rabbit or the coyote! The coyote looked pretty well fed which probably bodes ill for the rabbit.

So, speaking of feed ...

One of the great things about being home are the meals.  Here we're having bacon, egg and cheese omelettes with toast and milk for breakfast.  That was back in Montana where we spent most of our time being snowed in.  Well, we weren't really snowed in but we had about two feet of the stuff on the ground around our cabin and it was cold enough that staying home was our best option most of the time.  That wood fire is hard to get too far away from when the highs never got above 20 degrees for the last two weeks we were there.

Chicken and dumplings for supper!

Susan made enchiladas one day.  She rolled out her own tortillas ...

Then cooked them in the skillet.

Cookie time again.  This is from dough leftover from making Christmas cookies.  She put it in a Ziploc bag and left it out on the front porch.  It was frozen solid within an hour and stayed that way until she used it a week or so later.  We unplug the refrigerator in the winter.  It's cold enough that we can leave stuff we want frozen in a cooler on the porch.  Things we just want chilled we leave in a cooler in an unheated room.  We just set it next to the outside door and throw a blanket over it to insulate it from the heat in the room.  Sometimes the milk will still freeze in the cooler so we take it into the kitchen to thaw it out.

And stir fry.  One of our favorites.  This was taken in our motor home in Nevada.

Again in Nevada, We love lemonade made from fresh lemons.  The lemons here are large and cheap compared to those we get in Montana.

This is in the cabin in Montana.  We keep a kettle of water on the stove all of the time.  That keeps some humidity in the air and we have hot water for washing dishes or baths.  Under the upside down steel bowl she is letting dinner rolls raise while the soup is cooking in the pot on the right.  Behind the stove my coveralls are drying out.  The pant legs always get wet from working outside (cutting and splitting firewood). 

Looking west from the upstairs bedroom.

Looking south over the garden.

One of the great things about winter is the snow.  We've been skiing and sledding and I did a little snow shoeing as well.  The temperature when this was taken was a balmy 10 degrees.  The snow was perfect and fast.

Susan and Scott walking back up the hill.  When we are not sledding this is the road to our cabin. 

The snowman managed to stay frozen for several weeks.  The snow kept piling up higher and higher on it until he looks more like a Russian Cossack than a Montana snow man.  This was taken on our way out of the driveway the morning we headed back to Nevada.

Ah, palm trees and ... rain?  This is supposed to be the Mojave Desert!  It's also been one of the wettest Januaries on record.  We got into Overton about 4:00 AM and slept in the car at the Wildlife Management Area until it got light outside.  Our first stop was breakfast at McDonalds.  Scott loves their pancakes.

After breakfast we went to get our motor home out of storage.  Unfortunately, the soil is mostly clay and sand and I didn't make it far until I was stuck in the mud.  (The desert doesn't handle rain well!)

The tow truck driver was on his way to Las Vegas when we called.  He'd just had a call to get a car unlocked for a woman and once it was unlocked she still couldn't find her keys so he transported her and her car to Vegas.  When he got back to Overton later in the morning he ran about 120 feet of cable out and winched us to the pavement.

Scott was confined to the car but obviously thought it was great fun to watch the motor home being winched out.

Dry ground at last and we were on our way to the wildlife area.

We got set up complete with our "lawn" and lawn chairs and we were ready to spend a few days there before heading out to the lake.  The wildlife area has hunting on even days of the calendar during the waterfowl season so every other morning we woke up to the sound of shotguns and goose calls.

One of the reasons we stop here every year is because we usually have some things to do on the motor home before heading out.  The wildlife area is only a mile outside of Overton so it's easier to get what we need in town.  Here I'm scraping out the old sealer on the roof and putting on the new stuff. 

We just bought a half-cord of firewood last fall when we were here so we had wood for the wood stove in the motor home.  I made a wood stove out of an old 30 pound propane cylinder last year (?) so we have wood heat in the camper.  It's a lot better than trying to warm the monstrosity with propane.  We like to boon-dock camp meaning we camp where it's free and we have no hook-ups for electricity.  Our solar panels don't leave us enough power to run the furnace blower in the camper.  Especially when the temperatures are down around freezing every night.

Susan and Scott were playing with the play dough.  He loves rockets, trains, and robots.

This was taken at the wildlife area.  After our time in Montana we were content to just look at the snow on the distant (about 15 miles) mountains.

January 15, 2015 - Company, Inverters, Coyotes, and Taxes (yuch!)

Welcome to the new year!  As usual I'm at the computer working on tax records.  I did much better on my record keeping this year which should make the process quicker than last year.  It's hard to imagine a more tortuous way for a government to extort money from it's citizens than this.

My preference would be for an amendment in which the government could only collect a sales tax to fund their activities.  It could be made friendly to the "poor" (or frugal!) by exempting necessities like food, fuel/energy (of all kinds), and medical expenses.  Large ticket items like vehicles, homes, etc. could be prorated with no tax on the first $$$$.  If a low income person bought a cheap car or house they would pay no taxes yet those wanting the expensive items would pay more.

Sales taxes are ridiculously easy to figure plus they are a consumption tax meaning they do not negatively impact the producers (penalizing them for their productivity) of the nation.  They'll impact those receiving government aid (they'll be paying taxes too) any time they purchase non-essentials.  In fact the card for food stamp and other government aid devices could be set so that it was impossible to use them for non-essentials.  (Of course someone will figure out how to get around this but no system is perfect and this would be better than what we currently have.)

The bad side (from the government angle) is that they are extremely apparent every time someone spends money so any tax increases are immediately obvious and hopefully the sticker shock of how much the government extracts would lead to a long deserved tax rebellion. It would also put a lot of IRS employees out of a job.  They might not appreciate that either.

Anyway, that's not likely to happen.  So I'll continue to lose more hair trying to comply with the massive bureaucracy of the IRS.

Taxes ... yuch!

Scott decided he wanted some snowshoes.  (He's been saying he wants to go home and play in the snow.)  Obviously snow shoes are in short supply in southern Nevada so he improvised.

Okay, they're a little awkward on sand and hard clay.

But, hey, what can you  expect from using shock cord for tying on a plastic coat hanger and a do-hickey for throwing balls!  You have to admire his creativity!

Firewood cutting with the bow saw.  Sometimes I don't feel like firing up the chain saw so I use the bow saw to cut a couple of days worth of firewood.

One of Scott's favorite activities is swinging from the rail around the upper bunk (over the driver's section).  I think he's watched too many Curious George movies.

Time for a little excavating.

And playing with stickers.

And "reading" a book while snuggled into a down sleeping bag on a cold day.

We've had times when the wind was blowing that we've had to run every light in the motor home to burn off some of the excess electricity being produced.  We finally got the idea to buy a larger inverter so that we can at least run one of the electric heaters on low.  It seems a much better use than just turning on more lights.

This is our new 3,000 watt inverter.  It has two 15 amp outlets.  You can also wire it directly into the breaker box with the center connection.  That way you can take advantage of the full output of the inverter for things like AC and electric heaters.

As usual the air force is out on the lake "playing."  Scott hasn't got them to stop and give him a ride yet even though he waves vigorously every time they fly by.

Odie took off growling/barking one morning at this guy.  He was about 50 feet from the motor home when she took off after him.  I called her back and by the time I got the camera out and snapped this photo the coyote was probably 200 yards away.  He looked pretty healthy with a good size and nice, fluffy fur.  We've also had burros within a fifty feet of the MH.

Our wood stove works well for cooking.  We've saved a bunch of propane by cooking on it instead of the gas range.

Scott's mom and dad with their new baby, Benjamin, (2 months old).

Scott wearing his Batman cape getting ready to pounce on the unsuspecting victims on the swing.

Ah, Vegas!  Of course we took the kids to Vegas for one night.  They'd never been there before and like most tourists were pretty amazed with all the lights, casinos, hotels, etc.  We spent the night in a motel room at Circus Circus before putting them on a plane the next day.

Can you imagine washing the windows on this!  It's probably an acre or more of glass and they're tied to the top of the dome.

Vegas is a nice place to visit but we're back home now and enjoying the peace and quiet.