Yard Work (Ugh…)

Saturday - This is the slope between the road and our house. Over the years, a lot of trees and brush have grown. After arguing with the 30-year-old two-cycle chainsaw this morning, I was prompted to get a new battery-operated model. I picked up a Ryobi with a 4AH, 40V battery, and a 14” bar. I have no plans to tackle trees so this was a suitable size chainsaw for me. I got about half done and will tackle the rest later. 

I’ve never needed to clear trees and brush while in the RV. Nor mow the lawn or use the string trimmer and brush cutter. All were activities of the day between the two ham radio test sessions. 

Sunday - More playing with the chainsaw clearing trees off of the hill. Today, I tackled some of the larger trees at the other end. Getting them to fall where I wanted them to was the challenge. Less so today as there was no wind. None hit the house so I'll call that a win. I put them in a couple of piles. I'm thinking of renting a chipper so I can just shred them. But that's for another time. I still need to cut the stumps down closer to the ground.

Routine

Tuesday - I’ve been back home for almost three weeks and fell right back into the routine. Coffee on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I guess the ham radio tests are a change. Those are up to six days per week and could be twice per day. It's still a nice diversion. The two riders on BMWs are headed for a ride somewhere around the state. No firm plans or schedules, just follow nice weather.

Cooking outside has become common partly because it’s not in the house. Maybe some people really enjoy "homeownership" or having a “home base” but I don’t think I’m one of them. Sure, it’s nice to visit old friends and acquaintances and, I’ll admit, that it’s been wonderful to ride the Ural again. 

Wednesday - We went to the Farmer's Market and picked up lunch at our favorite Chinese food stall. The menu hasn't changed from when they had a storefront near the university. The prices have gone up dramatically over the years. They closed off a significant portion of the parking lot to allow more room for the vendors so the parking lot was kind of crowded but not the Farmer's Market itself. 

Tonight is a motorcycle ride leaving from the Harley shop. I may go down there to at least see where they plan on going. In the past, it was a challenge to keep up with the group as most were on large dual-sport machines.

Tow Equipment and Solstice

Saturday - I just ordered the tow bar and baseplate for our tow vehicle. For the tow bar, I had seen several installations of the Ready Brute Elite II which has a mechanical surge brake integrated into the tow bar. There is a cable connected to the brake pedal of the towed vehicle which runs to the front bumper. A cable is clipped from there to a lever on the tow bar. When the towed vehicle pushes on the tow bar, the lever pulls the cable which applies the brakes on the towed vehicle. I like the simplicity. For emergency breakaway, you connect a separate cable from the pedal to the front bumper, and a separate cable is clipped from there to some point on the frame of the motorhome. If there is a failure of any part of the hitch setup, the brakes on the towed vehicle will apply and will stop. An emergency breakaway is required in most states.

This is the baseplate for the tow vehicle. the arms are removable and are completely hidden from the casual viewer. If you know what you are looking for, it's still easy to spot. The claimed installation time is only a couple of hours but projects like this seem to take longer than expected. Additional tasks are integrating the lights so the towed vehicle lights always match the RV lights. The normal way to do this is to install diodes. But I think a better way is to install relays in the tail light housings to switch the bulbs between the RV and the built-in wiring. More on this when it's time to install. There is a 0.6VDC drop when using the diodes. Not an issue if the lights are LED but could affect the brightness with incandescent.

Sunday - No chores were done. Nothing to report...

Monday - Well, it’s the beginning of the end. We are starting to lose daylight as of today. At first only a minute or so per day though soon, it’ll be seven minutes per day. Winter is coming… 

This morning, I have been receiving alerts on my phone from the thermostat in the RV. If it is over 85°F, I'll receive alerts for when we leave the animals inside the RV while we are galavanting around out and about. I changed the notification to 95°F to minimize the alerts. It's a nice feature as I could, potentially, start the generator and the A/C remotely though I don't have the generator start function wired up to the thermostat.

A Week or So in Fbks

The task of the day (Wednesday) was a physical. In December, the doc asked when my last physical was. I had no idea and if they didn’t have a record of it so it was before the invention of paper. So, I guess I'm overdue. 

I  filled up the Ural based on the trip odometer and it only took 3.8 gallons. I guess it’s been a while and maybe I don’t remember what the range actually is these days. Based on my Fuelly log, the gas mileage has been in the low 30s during the summers. 

Last Friday, the Ural was used for a quick shopping run to Costco and a stop at the university. My free university parking pass had expired and I needed to fill out a physical paper form to get it renewed. The local copy place, Dateline, wanted $5 to print out the one page I needed to sign so I went to my office and printed it out there. Dateline has closed their self-serve copiers and printers due to Covid so $5 is their minimum charge for counter service. They did suggest the UPS store for self-serve printing. Anyway, now I can park "legally" even though the parking pass can't be displayed on the dashboard.

On Sunday, we had found a Jeep at the BMW dealer in Anchorage. I called them just before closing so I called this morning. The Jeep had been sold yesterday afternoon. I did get a follow-up call from Dave Smith in Idaho and we talked about what we were looking for. He suggested a couple of 2020 models (still new unsold inventory) which were priced attractively but the wrong color (all black w/black interiors) and all automatic transmissions hardtops. It turns out that we may just order a new vehicle and get it set up the way we want it. Lightweight with few luxury options. 

On Thursday, I was the lead VE (volunteer examiner) for one of the amateur radio test. This was the first time I tried it since we have good, stable, fast Internet. I think it went well and the applicant passed. He was prepared.

This morning, there were quite a few errands to run around town. When I left, it was pouring rain but the Roadcrafter Light kept me completely dry. I had forgotten how convenient it was to get in/out of it. One of the errands was to print out one sheet of paper, sign it, scan and email it back to a Jeep dealer in Idaho. Now we just wait.