MERRY CHRISTMAS!

It's Christmas Eve! The very evening when Europeans are having their most important celebration of the year. It's the time when children are so happy. For days they have been speculating about what Santa would put under the Christmas Tree. Well, you understand that I am speaking of my looong-gone experience as a child. Are children still that eager to get to the tree?

I have my doubts, but I hope they are.

In the english speaking part of the world Christmas first starts on Dec. 25. And, sadly, here in North America, commerce has reduced it to a single day. Europeans are still celebrating the Christian feast during Dec. 26. The day is used for visiting family, parents get to see their grown-up children's family and grandparents are seeing grand children. Such was the tradition.

Now most sovereign nations have developed their own unique Christmas Tradition. I know such from Scandinavia where I spent 25 years. 

In Norway they usually have a white Christmas and the families are feasting on very traditional dishes, f.ex. there is "Svineribbe" (roasted pork ribs), there is "Pinnekjøtt" (a lengthy process of first cooking then roasting lamb ribs) or up in the north along the stormy northern atlantic coast they will eat cod, or alternatively also "Lutefisk" which I believe is largely known in Norse-heritage communities also in North America.

Most romantic, of course is a Christmas celebrated "på hytta" (in the cabin) On the 25th they would do an outing on ski, wandering through the magic white wonderland.

While many customs are the same in Sweden, some things are different. On Christmas Eve the family would gather in front of the TV and watch a traditional program from SVT1, the public Swedish State TV channel. There the nation is watching "Kalle Anka och hans vänner önsker God Jul" which translate to "Donald Duck and friends are wishing a Merry Christmas".  The phenomenon has a tradition starting in the late fifties with Donald Duck Movies being shown on SVT1. Ever since it's not gonna be Christmas in Sweden without this entertainment.

Sweden generally also is enjoying a white Christmas and the swedish landscape transforms into a magic adventure.

So time to look back at where we are. It's not gonna snow here. Last I checked the weather forecast, we are gonna enjoy 23C on Christmas Day. So we are gathering with our camper neighbours for a nice Christmas dinner outside. 

And today, on Christmas Eve, I made a dish I grew up with in Northern Germany. It's simply called "Grünkohl" (Kale)

So kale (must be frozen first) is cut and cooked together with smoked meat, f.ex. sausage or smoked pork chops. Baby potatoes are cooked then peeled after cooling, later they are rolled in melted sugar in an iron skillet until they are caramelized.

This wonderful dish is enjoyed with a "Schnaps" and a nice beer. My youth and young adulthood is full of this dish and I never had a Christmas without it.

Have a Merry Christmas and I include my wish for peace on earth and that dictators and cruel rulers may be defeated in 2025.

Got Back To Work

You might have heard this before. RVers are telling the story of owning an RV. And often, from the new RVs, we are hearing the most grotesque stories. "Grotesque", mainly because you won't expect a whole lot of repairs on something you have spent a fortune for. But whether "new or old, you can be sure of once you own an RV, you will have to deal with pressing repairs.

Someone else having a good time in the south

Our motorhome is 20yrs. old. So while essential functions seem to be in good order, there is a 20yr. old "wear and tear" in wait to be dealt with. And if previous owners haven't maintained the rig then, yes, you got to deal with it.

And such is the case with our rig.

Last week we noticed that one of the two furnaces wasn't kicking in when ordered to. So I had tried to tap on the thing with a big screw driver, but the service was intermittent - until recently it stoppped entirely.

So YouTube videos had to be consulted, and I learned that the electrode, also called "igniter" would be at fault. So I ordered the part, which came quickly yesterday. Today, I started to take that furnace apart. Following the YouTube advice, I quickly got the screws out of the way, removed the exhaust, then the entire gas valve, (yes, I shut off the gas supply) and the state of that assembly left me speechless. The RV burner Head had pretty much disintegrated. Of course, I hadn't ordered THAT part, but then I was able to locate the thing on AMAZON. 

But hey, now I had an open gasline, which would prevent us from using any propane. Not good!

I needed a plug for the open gas line. But aren't we lucky? only 8 miles from here we have a well-eqipped ACE Hardware Store. And there I also met extremely competent staff, who immediately knew in which aisle and in which drawer the plug would be. I also got some gas-tape (for the threads) and was back in camp in no time.

The gas line got plugged and we were back in business again. Just have to wait a few days for the new part to get here.

Of course, as an RV-owner you can't (or shouldn't) be afraid to take on problems on your own. I just imagine that we would have been without the 2. furnace for 3-4 months, had I contacted an RV-dealership in Yuma. And $250/hr. plus double price for all parts would have to be expected.

And while fixing the furnace, the next issue is already waiting. The other day we found out that we have 3 receptacles, all in the bedroom and all without AC-power.

We already checked GFCI-breakers and every possible avenue - so far without success. So this will be on my mind the next coming weeks. Naturally, one must assume that the previous owner knew about some of these issues and would have informed the selling dealership, but sadly, that was not the case.

Having said this, I realized I am far from being the only Class-A owner with similar issues. A camp neighbour with a Winnebago is telling similar stories, and listening to him, I realize we can still consider us lucky.

WOW!

What else is going on?

While I have been getting my hands dirty, Bea has taken to a much more pleasant occupation as she has restarted her artistry again. A good friend had gifted her a huge amount of acrylic paint and she has been producing the most lovely paintings. Some of them turned into Christmas cards. Are you still pursue this old-fashioned custom? Sending Cristmas Cards can still be very rewarding, especially if those cards are hand-made paintings from the sender to dear friends.

One morning we were sitting around when a BLM-truck with 3 men showed up. They began to redo the BLM NO-Camping signs which mark the border for the Long-Term-Visitor Area (LTVA) One guy began unscrewing the metal sign plates, another one cleaned them and the third guy glued new printed vinyls onto the plates, then the first guy proceeded to remount the plates to the poles. If that isn't a good example of government planning...I don't know what would be.

Then today another BLM truck showed up, driving from one camper to the next. His mission was checking on whether everybody had a permit for the LTVA. And from what I heard later, a few campers without permit got chucked out. He also controlled some rigs whether they were "selv-contained", as required in the rules. We think this was very much needed and we hope they will continue to do this.

So life goes on in camp. And next week we are gonna have a Christmas Dinner with our neighbours OUTSIDE!

This is something we have done several times in past years.

The Job Is Done!

Weeks have passed by and you must have been wondering whether we have fallen off the face of the earth.

But nope, we are still here, just having been busy with ongoing improvements of our motorhome. And of course, the big project we started weeks ago is now finished.

Let me recap what we did:

12 100W solar panels were to be mounted on our roof. That would make 4 groups of 3panels.

The mounting materials consisted of 2 rolls of Eternabond tape, used to fasten 8 10ft long strut channels to the metal roof.  48 strut nuts and ditto 1/4" bolts are holding the 48 slotted crossbars, each 2ft. long, to the strut channels. Further it took 250ft of solar wiring, 72 quarter inch bolts with stop nuts and 2 washers each. The last hardware I needed were 12 flat alluminum supports for tilting up the panels, each had to be drilled 1/4" holes at the end for the 24 1/4" bolts, which were secured by 24 wing nuts. (for easy and quick removal.

For connecting the panels with eachother I had 20 branch connectors, and a bunch of single connectors.

But before being finished, I also had to secure the open wiring to the roof. For that I used small pieces of Eternabond. I also used SIKAFLEX 252 along the edges of the strut channel and in between.

I have only drilled 2 holes through the roof to feed the wires down into a rear hollow, where our washer/dryer is located. From there another hole gets the wires below the floor into a compartment next to the battery compartment. They then run through another drilled hole over to the battery compartment where they are connected to our 100amp charge controller.

If this confused you, I wouldn't be surprised. It's just a lot of stuff and procedure, and if I had known all this, I might have reduced the size of the project, BUT........

BUT, we are harvesting power. And we get a lot of charge into our 4  225amp/h Trojan batteries. This morning around 11am the controller showed 60amps. A little later our battery voltage topped out at 14.5V, which is the point when the controller does its job and reduces the charge amount. If it wouldn't do it, the batteries would be "cooked"

Our 2000W gas-driven generator has been retired for the rest of the season.

And today we took the whole show on the road. The reason for that was that after 17 days we needed to get to the dump station. Our waste water holding tanks were getting to their max capacity.

Dixie and Bea went along for the ride of the 8 miles to town. Dixie has gotten a lot more relaxed when I drive the bus down the road. It looks like these short trips are good training for her.

It has also gotten a bit "Christmasy" here. Two cardboard Christmas trees, one outside, one inside, have been illuminated with solar lights. I cut these tree shapes out of the cardboard boxes the solar panels came in.

Another lightchain runs on the dash along the big windshield. 

Meanwhile, we have also gotten to know our neighbours. Here we found a couple from Washington State and the other one from Montana. Another single guy came yesterday from Maryland. Tonight we have all been sitting at the camp fire and chatting across the board.

Life can hardly get any better!