Off Grid, Self-Sufficient, Montana Homestead Life: January 31, 2015 Playgrounds, Leaking windows, and Camp Fires

My computer put my photos in the wrong order and wanted to argue when I tried to set it straight. I fought it to a draw and got those that go together, together, but the rest? ... Well, they're in there too.

When we go to Overton Scott likes to spend some time playing at the playground. Whenever possible he cons grandma or grandpa into playing too. Here it's grandma's turn!

Grandpa catching up on his business journal and mileage log. Scott has his own project going beside grandpa.

I bought a new ladder for some work on the motor home. It also makes a great child's toy for Scott.

We often have a campfire on the nights the wind isn't howling. Tonight the menu includes hot dogs and potatoes (in the foil packets).

Yep, that's what it is!

And it meets Scott's approval.

Now add some more wood to the fire.

Don't you just love it when things break when you need them most! We'd had a couple of days of cloudy weather with no wind so our batteries were getting low. It was also warm so the fridge was working a little harder. We got back from town late to hear the inverter squealing that the batteries were low. It was dark but the wind was supposed to pick up about four hours later. We didn't want the refrigerator to get too warm so we decided to run the generator a couple of hours to give the batteries a bit of a boost in case the wind didn't blow on time or hard enough. I gave a good pull on the starter rope and it broke. I said some things I hope Scott doesn't repeat. We are not impressed with this generator. It doesn't have 25 hours on it yet and the starter rope broke? It also has some other issues I don't care for. But reminiscing won't get it started so I went to work.

This is the short end. Fortunately there's enough left that I can just put the handle on the long end and still get it to work well enough to start the generator.

There's a metal piece in the handle that the cord is tied to. I popped it out.

I removed the starter cover from the generator. The frayed end of the rope is sticking up around the edge of the reel.

The reels have notches cut in them for pulling the rope through so you can wind some spring tension back on the reel. I gave it a few turns so that it would pull the rope back in after I pulled it out to start the motor. I then put the end of the rope through the hole in the case then through the pull handle and metal bracket. I tied it off with the frayed part sticking beyond the bracket.

I cut the end off above the knot and melted it with a lighter to keep it from fraying and to make the knot more secure. I put the cover back on the motor and fired up the generator. We had electricity again. I kept the short end to take to the hardware store to get a new rope the same size. You can buy rope kits but they cost about five times as much as just buying the rope and doing it yourself.

Laundry day. We liked the laundry we used to use but it was about an extra 25 miles of driving. We found this one in Henderson and began using it. It is clean and the machines all work so it's our new stop when the clothes pile up more than we want to deal with for hand washing.

Scott was taking pictures and shot this one of Odie. I swear that dog has the longest tongue of any dog I've ever seen.

This is Scott's eye as he looks through a ...

... paper towel tube. He wanted grandma to take this photo so he could see what his eye looked like.

Scott dumped the pop the kids left after their visit and used the boxes as "guns and rocket launchers" on his arms like the Transformers have.

give a four-year-old a choice on what's for dinner and he'll request a ketchup sandwich.

Grandpa's turn to wash the dishes.

Scott riding around the campfire on his off-road machine.

Hmmm ... What happened to the tire chains I had on earlier!

Window sealing. This round sealed up all the leaks except one. We'll get it next!

Scott checking his "uniform" out in the mirror.

And now he's watching a cartoon from his crate. He'd pop up every couple of minutes to take a bite out of his grilled cheese sandwich on the couch then snuggle back under his blankets.