12 February, 2011 Overton, Nevada

We pulled into Overton (our destination) this morning around 9:00 am.  We left Kalispell the morning of the 10th (a day later than planned).  The temperature was about 15 above zero with light winds out of the north.  We took Hwy. 93 south to Missoula then I-90 east almost to Butte then I-15 south the rest of the way.  Not much to tell about.  The trip was uneventful (which is usually good) for the most part.  We spent the first night south of Idaho Falls in a rest area.  The night time low was 8 degrees F and it was 24 degrees in the U-Haul.  We bundled up tightly in our winter sleeping bags along with a thick oversize sleeping bag on top of both of us.  The heater in the cab was disappointing to say the least so we were both cold going to bed.  In my case my feet felt nearly frostbitten but we warmed up quickly in the sleeping bags.  The temperatures stayed low until we were near the southern end of Utah.

Mechanical problems have been few.  We were a bit bothered when I had to put a quart of oil in after the first hundred miles but it hasn't used a drop since then.  Fuel mileage averaged about 6 mpg the first hundred miles also but is now almost 10 mpg.  Tha't's still nothing to brag about but it's a lot better than 6!  As we got near Utah's southern border the temperature gauge began rising on the truck so we kept a close watch on it.  We kept going until we hit Mesquite, Nevada.  We had planned to spend the night there anyway but just before we hit out exit the Highway Patrol had traffic stopped for an accident and was routing everyone off at our exit so we spent the next twenty minutes there.  As soon as we slowed down the temperature guage rose above the run zone so we pulled off on the shoulder of the off-ramp and let the truck cool down.  I have a pressure relief valve on the radiator cap so I let the pressure off and checked the water level.  It was okay and didn't seem to be hot so I'm wondering if the temperature sensor is going bad.  Anyway, when traffic got moving again we turned left to find the visitor center where we planned on spending the night.  It was closed but they didn't say you couldn't park there for the night so we did.  It was nice to be in short-sleeve weather again (finally!). 

We had eaten earlier so we had a snack Susan had made and went to bed. 

The next morning (today) we headed on in to Overton.  Once in Overton we stopped to spend some time at the library where we have internet access and can get caught up on our blogs and email.  After awhile we'll go on out to the lake and find a camping spot.

The finished bathroom wall.  Susan put a curtain across right after the picture was taken.

I'm strapping down the kayaks on the trailer.  We put some padding on the side rails to protect the kayaks.  the green thing on the back is a folding picnic table. 

Tristan is getting ready to take one of the solar panels down.

Everything is loaded up and once we get the trailer hooked up we're on our way.

Tristan is up ahead in his pickup.  He had a radio with him to warn us of incoming traffic.  He's about half way up the first hill.  We are have just pulled out of the driveway.  Our property goes to the top of the hill in the foreground.

Our first morning out from Kalispell.  We're finally on the way south.

The dog decided another pair of eyes on the road would be helpful.

Our first home-cooked??? meal on the road.  It's about 25 degrees inside the camper while this was being cooked.  The stew is some that was given to us years ago.  We got it from someone who inherited it after a relative died.  The original person stored it for Y2K so it's at least 12 years old.  The people who inherited it are vegetarians so they gave us all the cans that had meat in them.  I'd give the stew a "C" but the sausage and chili we've had from the same company was very good.  We use it for back packing food sometimes.  Once you open the can though you have to get it used up.

Ham and cheese sandwich with hot cocoa at one of our rest stops.

Entering Utah

We stopped here for gasoline and then pulled off along the road to have lunch.

Crossing the Arizona state line (I think!).  Night time with a slow shutter speed in a moving vehicle doesn't give too good a picture quality!  We only had about 30 miles in AZ.

Susan finally got to hug a Palm tree when we stopped for the night in Mesquite, Nevada.

Our home for the night.

Wishful thinking! We'll have the motorcycle unloaded by evening though.

No coats and no snow!  Finally!!!!

Susan has a trip blog at http://gypsysuebugginout.blogspot.com/ if you want more details.

9 Febraury, 2011 On the Road Again???

We are currently in Kalispell and will be leaving soon. I don't have access to the camera so this will be text only. We finally got the insurance lined out and paid for so we finished up what we had planned for the U-Haul and hit the road. There'll be more details later. We left home Monday afternoon about dark. One of the first things we found out was the heater motor had developed some defects and squalled terribly when turned on so we drove to Kalispell without a heater or defroster. To say we were a bit chilled getting to Kalispell would be an understatement. I kept the wing vent cracked open which did a fair job of keeping the windshield defogged as long as we were going 25 mph or faster. We spent the night at my son's house then the next morning I drilled a small hole in the end of the blower motor above the rear bushing and put a few drops of oil in the hole. That fixed the squalling ... for now anyway. My son-in-law and I put a rebuilt axle shaft in his Subaru Tuesday also. Incidentally, the high was about 25 degrees yesterday which is why I didn't replace the blower motor. I think my "rigging" will last until we get to our destination where there are palm trees. My fingers just seem to work better when the temperature is warmer. I don't think they're difficult to install but once I begin I'll be committed to finish the job. I'd rather do it where it's warm!
I’m always being given a hard time because I tend to “over” build, or, in this case, over strap down. When I tethered the motorcycle to the trailer I used the straps on the front and the back then did an extra tie down with ropes on the front. Tuesday morning in Kalispell I checked the trailer and my front straps had broken so I was glad I’d overdone things a bit. The ropes on front were holding fine and the rear straps were also tight I repaired the broken straps and re-anchored the front of the bike. We spent the rest of the day visiting kids/grandkids.
We spent last night at the same son's house. It was 5 above this morning. He'd broken several 1/2 to 3/8 drive adapters trying to get the rear tires off a car he repaired the transmission on (to sell). They had aftermarket rims and you had to use a thin wall socket and he didn't have any 1/2 drive sockets that would fit. I had some with me so we used them. They were so tight he had to use a cheater bar to get them loose. At one point he lifted the back wheel off the ground before the lug nut broke loose. Anyway, we got the tires changed over. By then it was up to 10 above. We are now at our youngest's house and will head south from there later today. Hopefully we will have no further vehicle problems.
The weather forecast shows more cold weather but no snow. It doesn’t get appreciably warmer until we hit southern Utah.

5 February, 2011 Another day closer to a snow free zone.

The last couple of days have been ... interesting.  We've been going at it with our insurance company about insuring the Uhaul.  We finally found someone who will insure it at an affordable rate.  Our own company will do it for about half that rate after we finish it so we insured it for the time we'll be on the road to, in, and back from Nevada.  So we're back to taking the Uhaul. 

A friend on another preparedness board bought some seeds that were packed for long term storage since around 1977 (he was told by the seller).  He asked if we'd be interested in seeing how well they held up so we jumped on that opportunity.  We'll do a germination test by sprouting a selectd number of seeds to see the germination rate then we have some avid gardeners selected from different parts of the US to plant some of the seeds to see how they do in different gardening zones.  We'll compare notes during the season to see how productive they were.  Opportunities to test seed this old don't come often and it will be the first time we've been able to evaluate seed packed for survival reasons.

The unvailing...

I've never heard of the company.  The label is not impressive but then we didn't plan on planting the label.

Looking at the amounts of each type of seed it would have been interesting to see what they advertised these as accomplishing. Were they suppposed to be suitable for a family of two?  Four? or???

We shall see if they are correct!

More work on the Uhaul.

More measuring and fitting...

Almost finished with the left-rear corner.  I still need to finish the right rear corner but it will be quick job.  We are going to put a wood-burning stove in that corner so all I need to do now is slap some paneling on to keep the insulation in place for the next couple of months.  I have some other material to use in that corner for permanent installation when I run the stove pipe through the wall, etc.

I had to replace some of the marker lights.  Fortunately, the wiring to them was in good shape.  I was dreading the though of running new wire to each one.  Now every light on it is in place and functioning.

I wired in a four-wire trailer connector and took the 2 inch ball off and put a 1 7/8 in. ball on the hitch.  Of course I had to take the 1 7/8 in. ball off of my S-10 first.

I had to build a platform out about 16 inches from the front overhang to have room for a double mattress.  The area underneath is for storage (obviously).  This is about two month's worth of food in addition to some other items in the buckets.

Finished with this part anyway.

What it looks like with the mattress on, the bed made and the curtain over the storage area.  I still need to put a board across the front of the mattress and across the floor to keep the buckets from sliding back.

Susan tested the bed before she loaded it down with stuff.  She said it was nice and com ... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Susan had to hand sew the fleece sleeping bag liner she made.  She said it really makes you appreciate whoever invented the sewing machine.

Repacking ... Susan took the dired food out of the jars and put it in plastic bags.  She was able to eliminate a couple of buckets afterward because the plastic bags packed in tighter and she eliminated some weight also.

Susan has lettuce peeking through.  It will be a challenge to keep the plants warm as we drive down to Nevada.  We're supposed to get hit with another cold snap with lows around zero forecast by Tuesday/Wednesday until the end of the week.  But by then we should be in a warmer place!  We aren't going to rush on the trip there or back.  With the Uhaul we can stop at rest areas and get a good night's sleep and we plan on doing it!

I made popcorn Wednesday.  The way we do it is to put enough oil in to just cover the bottom of the skillet then add just enough popcorn to cover the bottom of the skillet then cover it and pop it on high heat.  Add salt, butter or whatever as needed.  You may have to experiment some as results will vary according to how good your popcorn is, skillet size, lid size, etc.  Experiment with different oils to get a variety of tastes.

This was the last batch so I didn't put as much corn in the skillet.

Now it's movie time.  We rented the movies Salt and Red this week.  Both were excellent!

We had several cloudy days when the solar panels just didn't generate much electricity.  Our battereis are stored outside so we don't like running them too low in sub-zero temperatures so I got out a kerosene lantern for early morning use when writing.  I wasn't on the internet and the netbook computer is running on the battery so there was no draw from the batteries.  Once it got light I blew out the lamp then when the sun came out later it charged the battery bank back up.  Note the shade on top of the lamp's chimney.  We cut a hole in a disposable aluminum pie plate and slipped it over the chimney to direct the light down instead of up into your eyes.  There are ways to increase the light output about 40 percent but I've got a query out to do an article on it so I can't post it here yet.  Susan took the picture with the camera on a tripod, the flash turned off and the ASA set at 100.

2 February, 2011 Cold weather and snow....

We got dumped on Saturday night.  The forecast was for light snow.  We got about eight inches and some very cold weather. 

The motorcycle was supposed to go in with us Sunday.  We were going to store it and the trailer at our son's house and pick it up on the way out of town but we decided to wait until we got rid of some snow.

One of our neighbor's went through with his redneck snowplow.  It works pretty good until the snow gets deep (about three feet or so).  We were going out as he was plowing.  The road was so slick I didn't think we'd be able to back up on the slopes.  He had the same problem and couldn't stop on the slopes nor could he back up.  So I walked ahead and flagged Susan forward on each downhill stretch.  When I saw him coming up the road I flagged Susan to pull over so she backed up into another neighbor's driveway to let him pass.   

This is a much better way to shovel snow!

We've tried several types of ice cleats over the years.  The two shown have proven the best for comfort, safety and longevity.  Those on the right are our favorites on hard ice but aren't as comfortable as those on the left.  Those on the left work best on packed snow.

The buffalo get fed every day, rain, shine, snowy, icy or whatever.  That's about a third of a bale of hay (about 25 pounds) I'm throwing over the fence.  I throw it into three piles so they'll share.  Otherwise the big boy gets first chance, then the cow, then the other two.

This has been the low for about three days now.  (Actually it gets about five degrees colder just as the sun rises.)  It was supposed to get up to 30 degrees today but I doubt if it will hit 10 above.

Susan got out her dry suit for swimming in Lake Mead.  In February it will be about the same temperature as our lakes are in late July.  By the time we leave the water will be toasty warm (by Montana standards).

She's taking some plants along with us on this trip.  Kind of an experimental container garden.  She planted cantaloupe in the back left pot, Romaine lettuce in the frint left pot and pea seeds in the dirt in the pot on the right.  (She punched the seeds in after taking the picture.)

We use the solar patio lights to charge AA (rechargeable) batteries and also for reading lights in the evenings.  The little pieces of foil make the lights brighter.  They come with rechargeable batteries but we often put in alkaline batteries because they last longer.  We've had the alkaline batteries last a month without recharging when using them as night lights for the kids.  The nice thing was we didn't have to worry about fire as we did with the kerosene lights.

We addded another name to the clan.  Another daughter had her second child over the weekend.  The girl (Hanna) in the photo above is her first child.  The one below is her second (Logan).

Mom and her new son.

Grandma and her new grandson.

Our second youngest grandson and grandma.

Susan packing stuff up for out trip.  She just keeps adding buckets!!!  We're trying to take everything we need except gasoline.  We'll see how well we did.

The work on the Uhaul is stopped while we wait for warmer weather.  It'd be nice if the temperature was at least up to 20 degrees.