…maybe the last sweet corn of the summer…we have enjoyed excellent sweet corn since late June. With one exception, it has lived up to its name and been sweet, tender-crunchy and something we’ve indulged in frequently. Corn, blueberries and asparagus - this summer they have been plentiful and wonderful!

As Montana does, one day summer, the next fall - it has been cool, sometimes overcast with a bit of rain, but often in the afternoon, the fall light that I love - from the lower, southern sky - casts a warm, glowing light in the sunroom.

This weekend we have actually been “laboring” - final touches on a few projects…

the ground rod for the electric… 5 of its 6 feet were in the ground and we couldn’t budge it any further so Bill cut it off

a tree that never straightened up after the June snow…Bill put it out of its misery and my line of sight!

the hose and sprinkler “system” dismantled and stored for winter

yard mowed - hopefully for the last time!

some maintenance on the truck and bus as Bill prepares to head for Florida - the 8th or 9th - depending on hurricanes, other weather (winter weather advisory at elevation today…) and the receipt and installation of a few interior parts for the bus

One of the benefits of self employment (me) and retirement (Bill) is choosing to work on this type of holiday and take our time off when everyone else isn’t.

So, this Labor Day…

is for laboring.

Bill and the bus rolled into the drive shortly before 1 p.m. …meaning they were done at the dealer by 11 a.m. which was not too shabby!

Between our little trips and the service trips, Bill has had the beast in and out of the driveway enough times…plus cut down enough trees that he’s not hitting anything going in and out! AND, the turn around and back in goes like clockwork now. The Winnebago is sort of t-boned so that it can be plugged in as I keep a bit of A/C on and the frig going even when parked here - various opinions on that, but that’s what I do. Back to topic, though - everything got positioned in short order.

But!!!!! - NO satellite signal! We moved the bus every which way, then out into the drive to “test” the satellite. Nothing. Bill drove out to a place near Bigfork where we knew there was signal to see if something had happened - as in jiggled loose - on the drive home. He got signal… we tried again here - nothing. Finally, one last move to put it in a convenient spot and as Bill would write: “Wa La!!” (he has creative spelling…). But…there were a few pixels that were not playing so he tried a bit forward and back - NO SIGNAL!! We quickly determined that there was a VERY small “sweet spot”.

We were both in the bus and it wasn’t leveled and the slides were not out and we looked at each other wondering what might happen when we did that…but it had to be done. Well, it is not what we’d hoped…the signal goes in and out a bit. All the pixels have settled in but it just seems to lose signal for a bit on occasion. It is not windy and there are no branches in the line of sight - we just don’t know. It is what it is - everything is parked in what we think is the best spot.

Ironically, everything is mostly out of sight of the front porch:

It is 86 this afternoon…both the bus (3 A/C units) and the Winnebago (2 compressors for A/C) are cool… So, good news is the power situation is great! “Bad” news - Bill needed A/C in the bus at 86 degrees and 15% humidity… His home in Florida is currently 94 with 42% humidity - according to his friend who is caretaking, it is “dog days” and just plain “hot and muggy”. Bill looked at the Southern and midwest weather and decided he might stay closer to 4 weeks plus than 2 weeks…

Oh…for any of our RV friends “watching”… Yes, Bill caught the rear lights that were “out” - I didn’t even notice, but when he looked at the blog post this morning he thought “WTF!!???” and checked…all better now!

The bus satellite - fixed - arrived in Missoula Friday….Bill and the bus headed for Missoula yesterday afternoon for a hopefully first thing this morning appointment for the installation.

I spoke to Bill yesterday evening - he arrived and secured a freebie spot at the rv dealer and was plugged in despite a glitch with the generator (whole ‘nother story…). Shortly after he got settled, people were arriving hoping to get a spot in the “free” lot so his timing was good! We have fingers and toes crossed for a smooth install tomorrow and a trouble-free trip back AND hopefully satellite tv when he gets here!

It is a bit bittersweet - Bill and the bus will head back to Florida in 2-4 weeks … depending on various things, including weather - it’s darn hot and humid in FL at the moment. We made this plan some time ago but have concentrated on enjoying the summer together. This departure - even for the day -a reminder that the other is coming.

I am a northerner, lover of snow, cold and winter - Bill is a southerner with no desire for dealing with winter. We have 2 houses - they each need attention. That is where we are.

Today, the satellite gets installed and Bill returns. We will enjoy the remainder of this gorgeous summer together - hopefully with satellite tv in the bus!

Several friends have asked how Bill is doing with limited tv…the bus satellite stopped working en route, it was removed and shipped to Connecticut for repair-it is just tomorrow supposed to arrive back in Missoula and be reinstalled this week. I don’t have anything but “antenna” tv at the house. Bottom line is that he has had to subsist on the 300 or so DVD’s he has along and Netflix.

This is my blog and so it is “all about me”! - and I maintain the question is NOT “how is Bill doing with limited tv?”, but “How is Ann doing since Bill has limited tv?”…. the answer is he is still here and he is alive but some days it is a near thing. A few small projects have helped ease the situation…

One of the ramifications of the electrical install and 30 amp receptacle problems were that we fried the Winnebago converter and at the time we weren’t sure what else. A local shop replaced the converter and checked out everything else - they reported that the 3 GFCI outlets and both TVs were goners but all else had been protected by fuses and circuit breakers all operating as intended. Ultimately it was far better than what we expected. …and Bill said we would handle the TVs as they have internal fuses and possibly/hopefully, it was just those fuses. Additionally, “we” - had removed the front tv in the bus and installed a new surround sound thing and reinstalled all… the theory being we are now an experienced team at the whole RV TV removal/reinstall process… (my part was limited to unplugging and plugging things in the back of the tv as it was removed/reinstalled).

The remainder of this post is part of my RV maintenance and operation log…probably not all that fascinating if you are not an RVr and probably of no help if you don’t have a Winnebago Adventurer so no hard feelings if you decide not to read further…

We retrieved the Winnebago from the shop on Friday and putting it in a spot convenient to work on makes it look like the homestead is now also an rv park…

In addition to a new converter and GFCI’s, I had them replace the slide topper fabric as the old had been beat to death in wind over the past 2 years…Wyoming, Colorado, Ohio and South Dakota.

So, here we go - RV TV!

The small bedroom tv was not too bad to remove and we started there.

Out and apart and a temporary “test” with foil around the burnt fuse (Bill’s trick) and it worked!

The front tv presented a few challenges in the way of nuts and bolts in exceptionally tight places, a heavy and awkwardly shaped thing to remove from up high, cables to unhook while balancing a heavy and awkwardly shaped thing up high, room for 2 skinny people to balance the thing and unhook cables and we are not 2 skinny people… We are however, 2 stubborn, determined people who once we start something push on and we did and got the darn thing out and opened up and it also worked with the jury-rigged fuse and foil.

Next challenge was trying to read the specs of the fuse…then finding a fuse locally. A number of phone calls, trip to a place that said they had it, another trip and we had them…

The rear tv was put back together and reinstalled.

The front tv was as challenging to put back as it was to take out - AND we moved the DVD player into the inverter/switch cubby where it should have been.

A few notes relevant to the 2003 Winnebago Adventurer 33V inverter and tv setup: The inverter up front is hard wired to the bedroom tv. The front tv and the dvd player are plugged into receptacles on the rear of the inverter. The 300 watt inverter runs both tvs and now the front dvd player (the rear tv has a built in dvd player) off the house batteries. This allows the tvs and dvds to be used with no shore power. Hardly mission critical but there have been times during bad thunderstorms when I have unhooked from shore power to decrease lighting strike potential…nice to be able to run the tv for news or a movie.

Original equipment when I purchased the motorhome was a VCP plugged into the inverter along with the front tv - I removed the VCP some time ago, the shop had installed the DVD player in the opposite cubby. This project made it easy to move the DVD player where the original VCP was and plug it into the inverter as it should be plus all of the “entertainment” components are now together in one cubby.

RV TV - The End!

Next RV project is washing the beasts…Bill ordered and we have received, the “Mr. Clean” RV Wash package…

Edited: 3 p.m. - we used the Mr. Clean system on the front and rear of the Winnebago and the front on the bus…deciding to wait on most of bus until after the Missoula trip for the satellite this week. I didn’t want to use all of the stuff on the Winnebago as it worked very well. The soap solution loosened the dirt and the no-spot rinse, rinsed clean with no spots or streaking. We will buy it again. We did wash the entire Winnebago - sides with a regular RV wash and wax solution. It is fine, just not as nice as the Mr. Clean. And I’m pretty happy we decided to wait on the bus as the Winne and front of the bus were enough workout for this girl! - naptime, now.

The phone call situation was not as horrible as it seemed that it might be. Agreement was reached on how to fix the bus satellite receiver and dish and the “old” stuff is on its way back to the manufacturer for fix or replacement. The 30 amp electric problem has been resolved and so the garage electric service project is complete. Plan B remains open until the satellite equipment has been returned and installed but at the moment, we’ve progressed as far as possible with Plan B.