Friday, April 28, 2006

This is a test . . . .

Our first grandchild Noah Edward

This is a test of the posting from camera phone function. Sooooo, when Noah's picture came up first I decided to send him to you.

He was born March 31, 2006, if anyone is intersted I'll post more about him.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

so what are the differences - 2

- length – overall, living, and combination, continued

To make it even more difficult there is the combination length of the tow vehicle and trailer or the MH and the dinghy (toad is another term).

Well it really isn't more difficult, but it is longer. If you have one of the larger rigs it can become a problem in some states, or if you leave the interstate.

If you are going to try to use national, state, local, or older RV parks you will want a rig between 29' and 33'. The state park we use the most has an official “limit” of 31'. We have used our somewhat longer Dodge and TT for more than 2 years. The TT is 36½' the rangers have told us if we can fit it in the alloted space it is fine with them.

WARNING: BUT, NOT ALL PARKS OR RANGERS FEEL THE SAME WAY.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

so what are the differences

- length; overall, living, and combination

The 2 common references to RV length are “living” and overall. When we shop for RVs the number we see in a model designation is the approximate living length. For example, an Arctic Fox 29-5E has an exterior length (Aprox. w/Hitch) of 31'. [northwoodmfg.com] Arctic Fox is one of the most realistic manufacturers when it comes to actual versus designated lengths, there are some that have a difference of more than 3 feet between the model designation and the actual lengths.

Motor homes like travel trailers (TT) have a larger discrepancy. For a TT the difference is between the box and that part of the frame, the A frame, that hooks it to the tow vehicle. Typically it is about 2½ feet.

With a MH it is the cockpit space that “can” be used as living space, but not well. And don't forget space between the front seats and the bumper. And, if it is a gas MH, then there is that pesky “dog house”, it is the bump up in the floor that covers the engine.

To make it even more difficult there is the combination length of the tow vehicle and trailer or the MH and the dinghy (toad is another term).

to be continued


for me it all began (2) . . .

I lived in 7 homes and 6 cities before I left for the Army. Then in the first 3 years of the Army, there were 5 postings, after we married, 4 more postings and 7 homes in next 7 years. After leaving the Army we lived in 6 homes in 4 towns in the past 27 years. Our roots are shallow, but they are wide.

Saturday, April 08, 2006

strawberries

We live in one of the largest strawberry producing regions, there is a huge strawberry festival each year in Oxnard. Thousands from the greater LA area come.

And, my wife LOVES STRAWBERRIES! This is her time of year, strawberry season. It has always worked for me, in the past her love of strawberries kept the family well fed with those juicy tidbits. Now it is my turn to fix them, two or three times a week.

I was preparing strawberries for her lunch, it's a job I really dislike. (The cleaning of the strawberries, not fixing my wife lunch.) Wash them off, take out the core, trim any bad spots, and slice, and slice, and slice, take another strawberry . . . . you know the drill.

About 2/3rds of the way through the first basket I remembered hearing about using an hard boiled egg slicer for mushrooms or strawberries. Rummaging through the utensil drawer I found it, umm, the wires look OK, Oh Oh, one of the hinges is broken. What the heck, here goes, hey it's working, ha ha it's working. I've found the holy grail of strawberry slicing. All is right with the world, well lunch anyway.

Seriously, it works very well, I had the rest of the three baskets done about the same time as the first 2/3rds took. I also noticed that the process could be streamlined by cutting off the top of the strawberries that wasn't good. Up until then I cored them, then cut the part off the top that wasn't good. By cutting first, most of the time there wasn't enough core left to bother with removing it.

Well this is my strawberry hint, I hope it will make your life a little easier.