October 1-31, 2016 On the road again.

In our usual way of doing things we decided to hit the road for a couple of weeks only to have it turn out to be four weeks instead of two.

We had plans to meet a daughter and her family in central Nevada.  Of course I needed to do some modifications to the van before we left and while I was doing that I noticed that we needed rear brakes.  The wheel cylinder on the driver's side was leaking.  So, we made a fast trip (100 mile round trip) to Columbia Falls to get brake parts.

The first side went well but when I took the other side off there was a broken spring ... so ... Another trip to Columbia Falls to get a spring kit.  Once that was on we hit the road ... only three days behind schedule.  Sigh!

On the fourth we were loaded up and ready to hit the road.  The van, two bikes, two ATV's and one automatic washer that was going to New Mexico with our daughter, son-in-law and their family.

We had cloudy skies until we hit Nevada.  Then it began clearing up for us.

Scott was clowning around in the outhouse at a rest area.

Our first stop and the appointed rendezvous point at the Kirch WMA campground.  The weather was a bit cold though so we contacted our daughter and they decided to wait another week and just meet us at Lake Mead instead.

The reason we stopped there was to do some four-wheeling and to play in the hot spring there.  The water was a little bit cool but the wind was sharp and biting. As long as you stayed in the water you were fine.

From there we went through Alamo then on to Overton.  We spent a few days at the WMA camp ground there as we usually do.  It gives us some time to get things straightened out in the camper after it's been in storage.  Someone left some old pallets there so we used them for camp fires in the evenings.

The firs problem we had was a flat tire on the right, inside dual on the motor home.  I drove it in to Overton and had it repaired there.  It was $35.00 which was fine with me.  The washers sealing the valve stem were leaking air and had to be replaced.   

We didn't have a swimming pool for Scott there but we did have a rubber raft.  We figured if it would keep water out it would also keep water in.  So it became his swimming pool.

From there we moved out to Stewarts Point.  This was at Roger's Spring.  One of our favorite places to go.

This was one of those rare days when it was absolutely calm on the lake.  It was like one giant mirror.

We parked the trailer, van and motor home to block the wind and provide some privacy for our "compound."

The first visitors were two kit foxes.  They hung around all the time we were there.  Here one of them is licking grease off the side of the milk jug which was in the fire pit awaiting cremation.

Our daughter and her family arrived within a day or two.  We purchased an ice cream ball in Ely, NV.  You put ice and salt in one compartment and the ice cream mix in the other then just roll it around for 20 minutes or so.  The grand kids liked rolling the ball!

I took the batteries out of the battery compartment to service them and modify the compartment.  They tested in the green but on the weak side.  They'll probably get replaced next year.  There was a 12 volt battery in another compartment that tested bad so we are down one battery now.

We bought a new generator for this season. It should last many years because we don't use it very often.

We just put new roof vents on a couple of years ago but the tinted ones are broken.  It looks like the sunlight just thinned them out until they got brittle and cracked.

We replaced three of them with new white ones.

It's an easy job to just put a new cover on.

I bought this guy's old ATV and he bought this new one.  The first thing we did was to try out the winch after he high-centered it on a big rock.

We use our RAV 15 solar panels to keep phones and tablets charged up.

Scott enjoying the last drop of breakfast (cereal ... chocolate of course!).

As long as the wind wasn't bowing too hard we had a camp fire going.  Sometimes we roasted hot dogs.

And sometimes it was Scott's favorite ... marshmallows!

This is what happens when the wind comes up after you have the fire going good.

This is what happens next (me dumping water on the fire).

We had a couple of rain showers move through along with some pretty spectacular rainbows.

This is on a trail outside of Overton (in the distance by the trees).

Here we are on a trail with the grand kids.

I had just got the van a little stuck in the loose sand and gravel.  I stopped before it was completely buried and our friend pulled me up on solid ground with his RZR.

We saw two pairs of wild horses on our ride.  This is the first pair.

Then we went up and out of the canyon to see ...

The second pair of horses.

It was a lot of fun and we saw some new country.

Scott got bored at one stop and decided to watch one of his movies while sitting in the shade of Susan's ATV.

This is kind of an interesting rock formation.

Lip licking anticipation!

An old hillside dug-out.

More desert. This is new country to us.  We'd taken the car out to the mines before but we went a little farther this time with the four-wheelers.

Now we're on the way back to the van.

It's on good solid ground now!

Loading up!  I dropped my camera while loading ATV's but didn't realize it until a couple of hours later.  We came back out here and searched with flashlights until we found it.

Sunset at the Overton WMA.

Sunset at Lake Mead

Moon rise at Lake Mead.

Sunrise

Taken 24 hours and thirteen minutes later than the previous photo.

We had some cloud cover that morning!

Almost time to go home.  Here I'm trying to help our neighbor with his generator.  Turned out it had bad gas and a weak fuel pump.

We were on the way back home for the election within a couple of days of this. There were some ballot initiatives in Montana we wanted to vote on.  Mainly an anti-trapping initiative (that went down in flames with 75% against it!).  At this writing we are still home.  

On the way home I began getting occasional whiffs of anti-freeze beginning at St. George, Utah.  Next I noticed little puddles of anti-freeze when we stopped.  The water pump had begun to leak but it stayed a small leak until we got home.  I added about a gallon of anti-freeze from St. George to Fortine (a little over 800 miles), so we made it okay.  Changing the water pump will be one of my chores while we are home.

September 16-30 More Life on the Funny Farm

The days keep rolling on and so do we.  Here's a sample of our life in the last half of September.

Can you say, "barbecue?"  We cook our kabobs by separating the different ingredients because I haven't mastered how to get them cooked at the same rate.  They still taste pretty good.

Been having problems with my 4 wheeler having a dead battery.  I finally traced it down to a wire that had burned through against the exhaust pipe so it wasn't charging the battery and had a draw on it at all times.  I spliced in some new wire and re-routed the harness.  Works good now.

I was getting low on ammo for my .338 Win. Mag. so I reloaded about 150 rounds.   That should last me about 20 years or so.

We've been doing a lot of things to the van lately.  I replaced the flexible lines for both front brakes.  One had been twisted badly by some moron when he replaced the front brake pads.

They were reasonably priced and fit perfectly.

We've had problems with the rear sagging on the van.  There's a lot of weight back there so I ordered a set of air bag overloads for it.

The kit is pretty simple and the directions said it took about 2 1/2 hours to install them.

They went on pretty easily.  Then I had to fix some leaks and now they seem to be doing great.  The lift capacity on them is incredible and now the van rides level (or higher if I want) no matter how much weight is on it.

Susan bought a new clothes washer.  It's small but simple.  You wash the clothes on the left side and rinse them on the right side.  It takes longer than an automatic but it's great for life in the mountains.

She sets it up wherever she wants.  On this beautiful fall day she washed clothes out by the rainwater collection tank. It is small enough to run on our inverter so we don't need the generator to use it.

The Aspens are turning their golden yellow and look fantastic.  This is the road we live on.

We've been doing some improvements on our ATV's. They are both now street legal.  That involved putting a lighted license plate bracket on them, two mirrors, and a horn.   We stopped to take a ride awhile back and explored some old logging roads in our neighborhood.  Scott loves his "throne."  We put some handles on the back to give him something to hold onto when riding.

Scott playing with the heavy bag before his Karate class.  The assistant instructor stands nearby.

Lots of fun to beat up a big bag!

He was given his first "promotion" a couple of days ago.

Helping our SIL and daughter put a new front door in their rental unit.  They had to custom order the door and the fit was nearly perfect. The old door had been ruined by some previous tenants.  This one is a solid wood, pre-hung door.

I've been wanting to get this cut up for firewood since it fell last spring and finally got the chance.

I went out with three saws but could only keep one running.  Turned out that the fuel was bad.  I dumped the old stuff out and put in new gas and they work great now.

I winched it out of the draw with the electric winch on the truck.  It's a 12,000 pound winch and it worked pretty hard to drag it up.  Once I got it near the road I pulled it the rest of the way with the truck.

It was about 60 feet long and will make for some nice, warm winter days.

This is the butt end of it.

I also took some small stuff down near my generator/work shed.  The yellow jackets were thick and whenever you walked under it they would drop down on your head.  It didn't take much of that to decide that the trees had to go.  They were also getting tall enough to interfere with the solar power.

My ATV and trailer out in the woods on our place.  I had 4 smallish trees to cut for firewood.

Scott on top of the pickup supervising his dad and I while we put the boat in the water.

Scott playing with one of the fish I caught.  He was laughing hard one time and said, "Papa look, it's ticklish."  When he rubbed under it's chin it would wiggle it's tail. 

Okay, back to fishing again.

This is a mess of perch from one of our recent trips to the lake about a mile from our cabin.  Scott caught the biggest one and I caught the second largest. 

Scott's dad with a pike he caught.

This is a Triangulate Cobweb spider.

I found it in my bed. It's about 1/4 inch wide.  It's now sealed in scotch tape.

It bit me around 5:30 am. one morning. According to Wikipedia I'm the only person in the world ever bitten by one.  Even though I doubt that claim, getting bitten by one and actually receiving the venom is extremely rare.  It felt like a bee sting. The swelling and rash lasted about 18 hours.

Got some new tires for the van so we sent the old ones we took off of the van by UPS to a daughter who needed them for their truck.  They were still pretty decent tires but the side walls are not stiff enough for our van. It had a tendency to wander on the highway.

I ordered some Yokohamas for the van.  They are real truck tires and can take the weight with ease.  They vastly improved the handling of the van on the highway.

The van with the new tires on it.

Ah!  A trip to the dentist.  Scott was good but the real test is coming when we get the cavities fixed.

I was fooling around with my phone at the park.  This is a small (about 1/4 inch) rock on a picnic table.  Not a bad close-up for a cell phone!