The month from – Well…

June 2015

Randy’s out of the hospital but needs to take a couple weeks off work. He’s not in great shape at this point but is able to do some things in the yard and shop. He’s been puttering on the camper.

Dar’s surgery is coming up on the 15th and we are hoping that Randy is out of the woods by then.

June 16th – Dar’s surgery is a success!  And she was able to walk a couple of steps already.  Now comes the therapy in the hospital and hopefully will be released to come home since our home is handicap accessible.

 

June 19th – Dar moved from the hospital to Sunset Nursing Home in Kenyon right by our house. She will be there for about a week while she gets intensive physical therapy. She’s quickly making friends of the staff and other inmate  errr…  residents! 

June 24th – Dar’s released on her own recognizance (with the promise she’ll be good and do her therapy exercises).

Randy’s still having troubles and while we can’t get into the specifics here, they are pretty serious.  He is under the care of multiple doctors.  He (we) are determined to beat whatever this is!   

After spending many days thinking about the camper – we have committed to turning it around.            It WILL be the camper we know it can be.

This camper will be our Fortress of solitude. We will get away from the daily rat-race and take it on adventures to far away places..

Sound a bit Fairy Tale-ish? 

Stay tuned to this blog…

Happy Campers? Not yet….

May 2015

We’ve spent the last couple of weeks going over the camper with a fine toothed comb and we’re finding a lot of things we wish we didn’t.

The list so far is as follows -

• The Landing Gear (big jacks in the front that lift the trailer up off the truck) have a problem and the gears stripped.
• The camper has been home for a number of mouse families. A few recent “guests” were found after they dined on the DeCon we left for them.
• The mattress in the Living Room hide-a-bed is not something you would let a friend sleep on. Well, not a friend that can smell..
• The Tires are timed out (too old to be trusted and starting to weather crack) – but hey, there’s only SIX of them!
• The suspension is loose as the shackles are all worn and the bushings are shot too.
• There are a lot of cracks in the caulk and putty in the roof vents
• The last guy that sealed the roof used something like Latex Paint – Bad move – it will need to come off…
• We’re seeing rust oozing out of a number of screws and bolts
• The ceiling in the Living room and bedroom slides have been soaked with water and are sagging
• The window moldings are all – well – MOLDING! yeech!
• Awning is gone (but we knew that) – but we just found out that a replacement is $800! Of course that wasn’t bad enough – it’s 20’ long and has to ship here from Florida! 

Good news is that the following was found to be in pretty good condition:

• Generator (oil is filthy, but runs fine and puts out good voltage)
• Furnace works but smells **really** bad..  Suspect we know where some mice have been hiding.
• Air Conditioning seems to work well – although it was only 70 degrees the day we tested it out.
• Refrigerator / Freezer ((YAY! – those puppies are EXPENSIVE))
• Microwave oven
• Stove (have not tested the oven)
• All three TVs (Bedroom, Living Room and Garage) .. Yes Garage – this is a Toy Hauler remember? Although – one remote looks like it was a Doberman’s chew toy…

Dar’s on a count-down for her double-knee replacement surgery next month and busy getting her manager ready to handle the place without her as she will be retiring from the Public School System after 18 years of service.

Left landing gear leg and broken gear below. There’s also a gear reduction transmission that has a broken housing that will need to be rebuilt. Good news is that parts are available. Bad news is that jacking up a trailer like this without the landing gear is not easy.

 

 

All work is stopped --- Randy’s health is getting worse and was hospitalized on May 30th.

It’s SPRING! (well almost…)…

March / April – 2015

Trying hard to forget that many believe March to be our snowiest month - we all hold great promise for March as the coming of spring-time in Minnesota.

Darlene’s knees are bothering her terribly bad and keeping her from many of her normal activities, work and even sleeping.  We’ve been to the doctor and tried the Rooster Comb injections, but they hurt even more now. We’ve gotten a referral to an Orthopedic Surgeon in the cities that we went to see.  Dar’s now scheduled for surgery to get both knees replaced in June. The fickle weather certainly does not help her level of pain since the barometric pressure systems swing wildly at this time of year.

Not to bore you with stories of sickness – but we both seem to have caught colds as well.  Yuck!

CoCoa finds a patch of warm concrete in mid-March.

March 23rd Snowstorm from the Veranda

BIG NEWS! The Camper is home…  Yes, on the 26th of April, we got it hooked up to Big-Foot Truck and pulled him home.  Now to get to our list of things to check, fix, change and update!

A new year – A new beginning?

January / February 2015

As we are still in catch-up mode on this Blog, we have a bit of insight that we’re not sharing here just yet. Currently it is October 2015 – but we’re doing our best to keep things in typical BLOGGER Chronological order so as to “not disturb the Force” or “put a ripple in the Matrix” – season to your particular tastes with an appropriate anecdotal saying..

One thing about winter that we really have a hard time with is taking our after dinner walks about town. It’s not that we can’t due to the depth of the snow – but typically it’s just cold enough to really sap what’s left of our waning energy at the end of a long day. Plus – it’s dark after 5 PM!

Since she works for the Public Schools – Dar’s had some time off for Christmas break.. The break is just long enough to get a little caught up on some of her things around the house.. It’s also long enough for her to really start missing the daily interaction with “her kids” that she sort-of adopts.. During the break and her spare time - Dar’s busy with all her Knitting, Crocheting and Quilting – and when not doing one of those three – she can be frequently found with her mind buried deeply in a Kindle book.. Dar’s knees are really bothering her a lot.  She has arthritis in both since they were injured way back in September of 1976.  The elevator went out at the school for a couple of days and she was forced to climb the stairs to and from the 3rd floor while carrying armloads or boxes full of books. While the exercise is good, the toll it’s taking on her knees is great and she’s had a couple of days where she could barely get out of bed.

CoCoa examining a few spools of yarn..

Randy loves his job and the people he works with. He’s at it constantly. Work for Randy is as busy as ever and then some. He’s managing a team of Support Analysts and oversees a number of other areas.  During the Christmas Break Randy took some much needed time-off and spent some really good time working out in his shop in the backyard. He’s been working on “moving into” the shop by installing cabinets and getting his tools and supplies out of the boxes which remain from our move here in 2011-12. He’s also working on his car project – which he’s neglected for over 2 years.. Randy’s health is starting to slip a bit as he’s started getting migraine headaches with increasing frequency and durations of up to 12 hours. He’s not sleeping for more than 5 hours a day and usually less.

 

 A typically cool January day.

 

The pictures above are of our 1965 Ford GT40 MK1 replica that Randy is building. He’s finally getting started on the bodywork that really needs to be done to get a good fit and finish on the project. When he comes in the house after a sanding session, he jumps into the shower to take care of some of the dust he’s carried in with him.

Randy’s 10th Anniversary cake at work! They had a gathering for him at the office to celebrate.  He was deeply touched by the turn-out of his many friends there.  February this year is like February in Minnesota most years – while being the shortest in the number of days – it seemingly drags on forever..  The promise of March and melting snow keeps us going.

Holidays in Kenyon, MN

November / December 2014

So far this has been a relatively mild fall and somewhat late arrival of winter when compared to recent winters. While sad that the leaves are all gone and the lawn has stopped growing – we find it pleasantly odd that during mid December the grass still shows as green through the thin snow.  The sunsets over the woods behind us are spectacular..  The picture below was taken over those woods last year.

We love lights…  When we built the Veranda on the front of the house, we decided to install lighted balusters along with the Green Laser lights that put up a beautiful starfield across the lawn. Also visible are 3 of our solar power lamp posts.  This picture was taken 11-11-2014

 

Thanksgiving in Kenyon – Unfortunately our son Jake could not make the Thanksgiving dinner this year. Left to Right – Brother in Law, Sister, Mom (aka Mudder), Sister and Dar.  Randy was behind the camera as he has not yet figured out how to set the timer. 

December started out a little rough. Randy’s Mom had a couple of small strokes which landed her in the hospital in Faribault on 12/4. We are so blessed that she made good enough progress over the next few days to be released to go home.  Some of you may know that Mom lives in the Assisted Living apartments directly across the street from us in Kenyon. 

Time to get decorated for Christmas!  We put up decorations inside and out. Outside are various LED meteor lights (look like falling stars) along with our red LED tree on the Veranda and a Blue LED spiral Christmas tree. Yes – our place does look just a little bit like Las Vegas, but we like it that way and so do our friends..

…and here is our Christmas Picture for the annual Holiday Letter we send out. The Christmas Eve gathering at our house – yes – those are presents!!!

Harvest Time–Getting ready for winter–and other assorted stuff…

October / November 2014

Dar taking the Doglettes for a walk around Kenyon before supper.

We’re Dog-Sitting for Randy’s sister as she is off on a mission trip.  Her dogs are “Ebony” (black Scottie on the left) and “Mr. Honey” (white Westie) on the right. “CoCoa” is our white Maltese in the middle.  CoCoa is one of three remaining mythical “Purse Dogs” – Note that PURSE is really another way of saying PERSonal bodyguard..  They are like little Ninjas.  If you’ve ever owned a small dog, you know where I’m coming from.  Small dog – BIG attitude..  CoCoa is 6 years old as I write this.  A better picture of her is below – sitting on our veranda – on the watch for bad guys…  She is our constant companion.

 

 

Okay – Time to get the camper out to our friend’s farm so it will have a place to winter peacefully rather than being in our driveway and potentially being damaged by the passing blade of our Jeep’s plow blade.

We purchased a large --- no make that LARGE cover to go over the camper to protect it.  Since Randy has had a phobia involving ladders and roofs ever since falling off the roof of his house when he was 11 – Dar springs into action and handles the work top-side to distribute the cover where Randy worked from a ladder and on the ground to help get it all tucked in nicely. Knowing that this is a farm and we are right next to a silo and a field – we were aware of the potential MICE that may want a cozy home for the winter.  Not wanting our guests to go hungry, we made sure that we were well stocked with Decon (poisoned mouse food) and Bounce Dryer sheets (mice supposedly hate the smell of the stuff). We bought tire covers to try and protect them, even though we are pretty certain they will be replaced. We also bought more 3/4” treated plywood for the six tires to sit on.

So here below, you see our Rage’n Stryker camper all trussed up and tucked in for a long winter nap.  The GrassHoppah SxS is inside the camper’s garage as well.

So now we have a growing list of things we will need to address on our camper and will spend the winter planning.  Randy – not wanting to leave anything alone – decides that he also wants to make some changes to GrassHoppah so we will be ready for any sort of trails that we decide to ride.

Something’s not exactly right here…

September / October 2014 ---

After a few days rest and we start digging into our new (to us) camper purchase.

To start with, when we unloaded the GrassHoppah SxS, there seemed to be a spot on the ramp door that didn't have the same solid feel as the rest of the door.  After doing a little poking and prodding - we realized that we had some dry-rotted wood underneath the rubber mat that was glued to the door.   This was to be a preview into many months of rehabilitation and updating.. 

Peeling it back - YUCK!  Mold and rot... Randy's allergies immediately went off like a bottle-rocket on the 4th of July.  

Trying to peel back the rubber with the intent on trying to save it turned out to be futile.  Whatever glue they used was actually stronger than the rubber.

This is just a close-up and was our first indication that this camper was not in as good of shape as we had been told and thought.

 

An hour or so later and most of the wet moldy insulation GUCK is removed.

 

With all the wet insulation and mold removed that we could dig out without destroying the outside of the ramp door - we start the decontamination. We used a 50/50 Bleach-Water solution and soaked the remaining wood that you see to the left here.  Warm (actually HOT) weather during this time is welcome as we don't have to use a heater to evaporate the moisture.

This is 3/4" thick Chip-Board which is not water resistant.  We'll fix it better than new.

We've dried, primed and sealed the somewhat damaged Luan plywood with multiple coats of oil based machinery paint that will protect it going forward. Then we cut fresh treated 2x4's to be joiners under the original door wood and then up at the edge of the ramp door for additional support. These are drilled and tapped to fit perfectly.

We decided to insulate the cavity of the ramp door with closed Cell foam. It actually expanded to just a bit higher than the wood joiners and the steel ribs - so it was cut down flush after this pic.

Below: We used treated 3/4” Plywood and 1/8” Diamond Plate Aluminum to finish the rebuilding of the ramp door.  It’s starting to cool down now as autumn is here, so we need to start looking into winterizing so we can store the camper.