Category Archives: what the hell are we thinking?

Our Saturday hike…

Posted on Monday April 14th, 2014 by | 1 comment

Pauline and I pretty much hiked the entire park on Saturday. Of course the GPS went from full to dead 2.24 miles into it, but I think we did just over 6 miles total. We was both feeling it later that night.

We saw a garter snake on the trail, I also had it focused in when he bolted into the bush, I found it again and once again almost got a good shot when he bolted completely.

*sigh

Sunday we took both cats outside. We now have new cat harness’s for both, and I feel much more comfortable using these over the old “strap” ones.

Drew is really starting to enjoy being outside. He is still cautious, he makes sure I am still near him after every few steps, but he walks with his tail up and purrs like mad at times. He will come to Pauline or me and put his front paws on our knees with the look of “I’m going to jump up any second, be ready” and will usually walk around us a few times. When I walk with him, he goes a pretty good pace, and he walks with confidence, and he always walks towards the RV…

He has no idea what to do when he gets to the RV, he just knows that this is his box and he should be in it. He doesn’t seem to want to use the metal stairs, last time he jumped over them both, yesterday I picked him up and put him on them and he wasn’t too cool with that, so I find that interesting.

Sakura still hates the big wide world. She lays as low as she can get, and if she is being held, she will dig in with her claws to make sure she is still being held. But she is getting better. She tucks her tail for the most part, but if we sit or lay down on the grass, she uses us as a cover, and will eat the grass some, and at times, her tail will come out. She enjoys the sun and grass and flowers, she just would rather not go outside to have them.

We will continue taking them out when the weather cooperates and when there isn’t much park activity, no need to give them too much over load of humans.

I used my iPhone on these pics, and honestly, I am so not impressed. I think we will start using our Pentax’s again, I have been too disappointed with pics off the iPhone lately. Tired of the front camera being such a low quality, and even in perfect lighting, they look bad.

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Last Monday Today!

Posted on Thursday March 27th, 2014 by | 1 comment

Pauline and I went birding Monday, while the weather was still amazing when we saw the forecast was calling for a week plus of rain and wind, we knew we had to get outside while we still could.

It was sunny with a slight wind and low 50’s so we grabbed the camera and binoculars and ended up doing 4 miles in about 3.5 hours. It’s amazing how far you will not go when you stop and stare at birds.

We walked mostly in the forested trails where it was peaceful, but not too birding friendly. The few birds we see move too fast to get a decent look at.

However we did get some good pics of a Bald Eagle as well as 2 new birds for our list, the Red-breasted Merganser and the Ruby-crowned Kinglet. The Kinglet was a bear to get a decent shot of, and the only reason I got these two pics was due to taking about 50 pics of blurred tree’s as it jumped from one spot to another and then another…

We have walked a lot of beach trails since we been here, that it has been a few months since we walked in the woods. Again, so peaceful. Could use more birds. Saw a few deer. A salamander. Heard some tree frogs and a few birds we never saw, even when it sounded like they was 10′ from us.

This week was suppose to be a nasty mess, but so far, we’ve had little rain, some winds, but much more sun then we expected. It still says this week is going to be a bad one weather wise, but at least we got this good weather.

We was going to go to Whidbey Island to meet some people we are going to work with this Summer, I just forgot to set it up, and when I thought about setting something up, I was never near my Mac to send a email, so that will need to be doe next week.

We are expecting neighbors this weekend. We finally was forced to give up our perfect water view and park like everyone else, in your own limited parking pad. We moved Ackbar yesterday and spread about 10 bucket loads of new gravel on both of these pads since they had some major low points with too many ponds. It took us about 3 hours to get it, but even I am impressed how well it turned out. Much better then expected.

Got our new MiFi today. Still having issues. Need to park facing East and not West. Miss facing South. Need another 10′ worth of sewer hose to be able to park with the hose going under the RV to the other side. Not happy about that. But we gotta do what we gotta do.

Feeling lucky to have had such a great view and appreciating it much more now that I no longer have it… Until next Fall.

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MiFi and Admiral Ackbar…

Posted on Wednesday March 26th, 2014 by | Comments Off on MiFi and Admiral Ackbar…

When we started this adventure, we had 2 MiFi hotspots, a Verizon (20gbs) and a AT&T (10gbs) and via a friend, we found another Verizon based one that was unlimited 3G. We also learned how to force both 4g MiFi’s to use only 3g which prevents some of the needless advertisement/bandwidth burning crap for loading, as well as we are learning to surf with our iPads or iPhones more.

Using our WiFi Ranger, we was lucky enough to have a good connection while at TNC Patagonia for 6 months whch you just never realize how good it was until you no longer have access to it. While we was on the road, we only had a few days/stops where we had issues with getting online, but over all we figured it out and life went on.

While staying here at Fort Falgler, we discovered that it also matters how you park, we had issues getting connected while parking East/West and really good connection parking North/South. This is the sort of things you must think about when you live in a box.

Of course, the majority of of our surfing was done using the unlimited MiFi which worked out great until late January when all the sudden, we was not getting any connection at all, which forced us to call the service provider only to be informed that they discontinued the unlimited MiFi as well as their MiFi service, so thanks for the memories and thanks for letting us know in advance.

I love great customer service like that…

So now for the first time in a year plus of living in a box, we are limited on bandwidth and quite honestly, it sucks huge snot balls. (I can keep it clean, or not be gross, I can not do both.)

When you work online, you must be online. But even when you are not working, you want to blog, or read other blogs, or catch the sports scores, or read your favorite news site, watch tutorial videos and whatever else. You find out fast that you burn up a ton of bandwidth on stupid crap like auto play videos and flash and banners of some stupid advertisement or whatever else there is to burn your bandwidth. Not to mention when you are missing episode 2 of “True Detective” on your DVR and do not want to start watching the series until you know you have the bandwidth to finish it via HBOGO.

We had our Verizon shut off 2 days ago for burning 29+gbs. How we got 9+ gbs of over usage before they shut it off, I have no idea, I think it’s insane I can’t see how much I use of it just by looking at it, but I’m starting another rant… And of course the AT&T was also .33 from maxing out, but lucky for us, that was set to reset for the month that night.

It is just too stressful to worry about something stupid like bandwidth, so a few days ago Pauline ordered a new MiFi hotspot and it should arrive tomorrow. It is also a Verizon, this is a newer model that we can not force to stay in 3G, but we have read other blogs who give it positive reviews, so we will now have 50gbs worth of bandwidth.

The plan is to make this new one iPad/iPhone only until we can figure out what the best system is and change as needed.

We decided to start making plans this Spring/Summer for redoing the interior of Ackbar.

We have needed a new overhead cabinet in the driving area since we got Ackbar. The overhead entertainment center was built in 2002 when the TV’s were still square, so we had them take the TV out and I cut the bottom half of the TV area off since it was blocking WAY too much windscreen. Not that we had any use for the entertainment center anyway since we do not even face that direction when we are home having gutted the sofa and table out for our desk.

We think we want to do it ourselves. We tried to hire a friend of a friend, but he declined, and we did find a guy who offered to do it for $350 which we almost (and still might) jump on, he told me it was pretty much to cover the cost of the materials, he just loved wood working.

Pauline and I also love to do woodworking. We just suck at it. And have no real clue. And did not have the space or most of the tools needed. But we do have hard heads and strong wills.

We now have access to a VERY nice wood shop. And if we plan it out right and take our time and do small areas over trying to do it all at once, we can do this on our own.

We think…

Maybe…

For the overhead driving area, we want a nice, but simple cabinet. We need to figure out what we really want to use the space for, to store _____ and build to that end. I have been looking online of “how” and I think I have an idea, but of course the only REAL way of knowing how to do this is tearing out the current particle “wood” cabinets and look at what is holding it up. Not a big deal, its not exactly pleasant to look at now, but I hate the idea of starting something and not being able to finish it.

For the slide out, we want to rip it all out. Everything. The desk, the overhead cabinet. The interior walls. An almost complete gut job, just so we know what is there and that it is done exactly how we want it done. Which means more power outlets desk top high and not on the floor (Need a electrician to do this.)

Remove the over head cabinet that blocks the upper 1/4th of our windows, and putting a cabinet in the center floor area with 4 large sliding baskets, that will take everything food wise we keep in the overhead now. The office related crap in the overhead can go over the drivers. (Which we hardly use at all currently.)

And of course, insulate the entire slide out properly, with the best insulation we can find and as much of it as we can stuff in there. And remove the tile floor with insulated thick carpet.

And pretty much do the same thing with the kitchen are and bathroom. Just not all at once. We are thinking this can be done over the next 1-3 years. It all depends on time, money, knowledge, stress levels etc. But once we start to work on a section, it will need to be done ASAP. So this will take careful, well thought out, advanced planning.

 

 

 

 

 

We are so screwed…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in State Parks, what hell kind of changes are we making now?, what the hell are we thinking?, what the hell needs to be fixed now?, Who the hell is Admiral Ackbar?

If you ever wanted to walk to Asgard, I know the way…

Posted on Tuesday February 18th, 2014 by | 1 comment

Let’s see how many of you get that.

Today was a wild one. It started off very windy and rainy, then it got very, very windy and rainy and then it just turned epic in a blink of the eye.

We was picking up branches around 11am while there was a strong gale force wind hitting from the South, it was the strongest winds we have felt from the South, and we was only about 50 yards from the Southern cliffs so we had very few tree’s between us and the sheer force of the wind.

We had a 1 ton flatbed truck full of yard debris such as tree branches, vines, brush etc. We we filled the truck bed. (Which is measured by how high Pauline has to jump to get more debris into the truck.)  And while on the way to the dumping area, we decided to drive down to the boat launch area to turn around and to see the water.

That turned out not to be such a good idea, as in the wide open the wind was hammering the truck and blowing some branches off.  The winds had to be 50+ mph. We had to return after we dumped the load to pick up what we had lost site seeing. I love picking up the same branches twice.

When we returned about 20 minutes later the winds had dropped to about 25mph. While it was still windy, it was not as windy. That is a win!

We came back home and ate lunch around noon and worked to about 2:30 while it rained, and rained more, oh it rained so much more, we could not see Whidbey Island. It was just nasty out. But also incredibly beautiful. I love being here in the Northwest! I am not sure I will leave anytime soon, but back on what I was saying…

Suddenly, it just stopped raining and boom. Bright Sun! That is when we noticed one of the must vibrant rainbows we have ever seen. It looked like it was in 3D. I took some pictures of it, but honestly, without seeing it for yourself, nothing could do it justice.

Still, the pics are pretty cool! I so love being in the Northwest!

Yesterday I got on a tractor to move some timber that was blocking a boat ramp. I was planning to wrap a chain around it and drag it out of the way, like I have in the past, and ever grabbed some chains to do this. When I got to the boat ramp I reassessed the situation and thought maybe if the gravel beach was solid, I could just push the timber out of the way and be done faster and maybe in a more time saving way?

So I walked on the gravel, jumped up and down, kicked it around some and was convinced it would hold the tractor and then I started to push the timber off the ramp and onto the rocks on the side of the ramp. I had it almost completely off the ramp when the left front tire sunk, which caused the left rear tire to sink, which brought the right rear tire in the air…

*sigh…

Once again I over thought what I was going to do. I played around trying to get myself out of the gravel, both using the bucket as a push off and turning the tractor in different directions, using larger rocks to put under the wheels and anything I could think of…

Nope. I can’t fix this on my own. I had to get help. I had to have a Ranger come pull me out.

If I did what I planned to do originally, I would have been done in 10 minutes tops. This took 45 minutes. Fun.

I have been running once more. For the most part it has been November 2012 when we stopped going to the gym Monday to Friday of running at least 3 miles a day.

Last Monday was just my second run while here, I had run around the roads of the parade ground on Super Bowl Sunday, but I really struggled on the long incline and about died just trying to get a 1.5 mile before the game.

So on last Monday I ran on some trails taking my chances on those hills and got just under 2 miles only walking for 300 yards or so. It was a struggle, but not as harsh of a one.

I took my GPS so I could get the distance and figure what I am trying to do route wise and effort wise. The next day I adjusted to a different route on another trial and walked about 50 yards and ran 1.82 miles.

The next day I hit gold! I once again changed my route and find a route exactly 2 miles and ran that 2 days in a row and both were non stop and I finished only my second 5 day running week in the last 14 months.

I have been breathing really well and I’ve learned how to control my own pace which is not easy to do when you are use to a tread mill setting the pace. A tread mill that has no hills. I have been paying more attention to my running style and realized I was blowing myself up running up hills since I changed my stride into a faster pace.

Once I realized that, I started running up hills in what I consider “stutter stepping” and I am no where near as winded as I had been. Once I figured out the ups and downs of the hills I also learned where I could “rest” and where I had to really work it.

Yesterday, I got to the second left where I had been turning and realized I was feeling really good, so I ran to the third left which got me exactly 2.5 miles.

Today, I once again changed my route and I got exactly 3 miles and had a controlled breathing rate and recovered as fast as I use to recover on my cool down walk on the treadmill. It felt good.

Of course right now I have sore feet, sore ankles and and a sore lower back and for some odd reason, I also have sore neck and shoulders. Maybe Im holding my arms too tense as I run? I’ll figure this out over the next few runs.

It was so nice during my run, I had so much Sun on me, I almost had to take off my hoodie. It was still sprinkling, I saw another rainbow, and I heard tree frogs croaking behind me and I heard another tree frog respond in front of me.

Tree frogs. Once they start talking, there is no shutting them up.

Here is another iPhone photo dump. I still can not seem to remember I take pictures with this thing.

Night.

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Better days? What better days???

Posted on Sunday February 16th, 2014 by | 2 comments

I think I spoke way too soon. This is February in the Pacific Northwest. There might be a better day or two, but this is still February in the Pacific Northwest which mean high winds and rain. We have had gust up to 46 mph with sustained wind of 30 mph. It is suppose to calm down in the next few hours to the typical 10-15 mph but until then….

UGH!

Since we are the only RV in the retreat center camp host spot, which has 2 full hook up sites, we did not want to park the typical East/West direction with a view of a building but facing North/South so we could have a perfect view of the water and Whidbey Island and the Cascade Mountains, Mt Baker and at times Mt Rainier.

Worth it!

 

The only issue we have had with this setup, is when the wind comes from the Southeast, it hits our main slide out and shakes the whole rig and when the wind is over 35 mph + the canvas cover over the main slide out flaps in the wind since it is getting hit on the edge so the wind is traveling between the canvas and the top of the slide out like a sail.

There is really nothing we can do to stop this short of pulling the slide out in and living in a even more confined space, and from experience that is just plain miserable to live in.

Now, I kind of wish we pulled in the slide out when the winds are over 35 mph. But reality is, it just isn’t practical.

I went out today to take a better look at the canvas cover and it’s destroyed. There is a 14″+ rip where the canvas meets the RV  on the left side and one of the three straps was so chewed from flapping against the edge of the slide out, I just pulled it off to save time from having to do it later.

We think anything over 50 mph we will bring in our slide out. But until then, we will weather the storm.

I tried to figure out what the best thing to do is, and at this time, I can’t think of anything.  The damage has been done to the existing cover. It will need to be replaced. I don’t want to start putting straps on or weight or whatever on top, since I don’t want the extra weight on the slide out roof, and if the winds did get over 50 mph, I would rather be able to pull it in without having to get a ladder to “free it”.

We estimate this will cost $350-$400 to replace. I have been thinking on this all day and short of pulling the slide out in every time, I can think of no other option we had. The canvas is 12 years old and weak. The wind is strong and constant with the wind coming from the Southeast the angle it’s hitting it is “the perfect storm”.

Since we have been here the wind has hit us from every direction, so short of pulling the slide out in every time or parking in different directions every time the wind shifts, I have not yet figured out what we could have done to prevent this.

We had the canvas replaced with a “vinyl” cover over the bedroom a few months ago due to the same reason, the canvas just gave away. That cost $175. And so far it appears to be holding up, but we have a pretty good wind break protecting us from the West winds. We have been hit by winds from the West, and they rock the RV more then the winds from the East, but they don’t hit the cover on the edge like is happening with the main slide out.

Ok, enough about this subject.

We also have been dealing with internet issues. We had 3 MiFi hotspot’s. 2 used the Verizon network, and the 3rd on the AT&T network. Recently our unlimited MiFi has been cut off with zero chance of coming back so we are now down to 2 and both of those are iffy in the best of times. We do plan to get a 3rd one again, also on the Verizon network, but until then, we have been fighting to get and stay online enough to get our work done.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the last few weeks. It is not all “doom and gloom” here, I just can not think of too many happy thoughts at the moment due to the constant winds getting on my nerves and the internet of tubes is too unreliable so I want to get this posted before the tube burst.

Enjoy the night.

 

 

 

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