In the past two years we learned a lot about buying a used accessible RV, Barb spent way too much time in the hospital, and the '61 Chev Apache lost a ton of rust!
The 40' Journey was beautiful and luxurious but it was modified for the original owner and not Barb. We didn't use it much and I traded it early this year for a new Winnebago Vista 27'. I pick it up Monday and it is modified for Barb.
I'll get back to posting as we get back to traveling.
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Good Lord! It's Been A Year!
We haven't been traveling much; been busy getting Barb to physical therapy a lot. In the past year she's had PT for back pain, a partially torn rotator cuff, and for walking after having Botox shots in her left calf and a new brace. We'll be up on the South shore of Superior for a couple of days soon and I'll post about that.
Found this neat web site that creates maps of where you've been at http://douweosinga.com/projects/visited?
visited 37 states (74%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or website vertaling duits?
visited 12 states (5.33%)
Create your own visited map of The World or Like this? try: Visual Poetry
visited 7 states (53.8%)
Create your own visited map of Canada or another interesting project
Found this neat web site that creates maps of where you've been at http://douweosinga.com/projects/visited?
visited 37 states (74%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or website vertaling duits?
visited 12 states (5.33%)
Create your own visited map of The World or Like this? try: Visual Poetry
visited 7 states (53.8%)
Create your own visited map of Canada or another interesting project
Friday, August 26, 2011
Killing Kate, On the Road Again & Misc...
Some might remember that last Christmas I gave Barb the present of her appearing in a mystery novel as a character. Julie Kramer is a White Bear Lake author and her fourth book was being written last November. She has a relationship to MinnPost, the news blog. So, for a donation larger than the others (an auction) I got to name Barb as a character. The book, Killing Kate, came out in July. As in her first three, the heroine is a reporter at a Twin Cities TV network affiliate.
Barb started it and found me in it first. In the book I left my pickup with my dog in it and went in to a business. Hot. Dog died! Then Barb showed up offering to deal all the dirt on her ex-husband - me! By the end of the book I feel like I've been hounded by the reporter and the station, enter the studio with a gun and do the worst. Well that wasn't exactly what we expected! Kind of fun, but not much of a present for Barb!
We missed going to Michigan to visit the Gabrielse' the week of July 4 because of Barb's back. We've been doing a series of Physical Therapy visits and will be headed to MI for a fall visit.
Barb's back is much better and we've changed some of our transfer processes to lessen twisting.
Barb started it and found me in it first. In the book I left my pickup with my dog in it and went in to a business. Hot. Dog died! Then Barb showed up offering to deal all the dirt on her ex-husband - me! By the end of the book I feel like I've been hounded by the reporter and the station, enter the studio with a gun and do the worst. Well that wasn't exactly what we expected! Kind of fun, but not much of a present for Barb!
We missed going to Michigan to visit the Gabrielse' the week of July 4 because of Barb's back. We've been doing a series of Physical Therapy visits and will be headed to MI for a fall visit.
Barb's back is much better and we've changed some of our transfer processes to lessen twisting.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Solar On Line!
It's up and generating! The Xcel engineer came out today and witnessed a test of the inverter shutting off if Xcel power goes off, I signed a connection agreement and they turned it back on. It's cloudy now and we're generating 1700-1900 watts; earlier the sun was out and we were making 3400-3700 watts. Supposed to be sunny again this afternoon - Yahoo!
This is the array tilted to the East.
This is the inverter panel showing what it's currently generating and the total of 10.2 kilowatt hours generated so far.
Showing the sub-panel added and the inverter to the right of it.
Info label added to the main breaker panel.
Warning labels on the inverter.
This is the array tilted to the East.
This is the inverter panel showing what it's currently generating and the total of 10.2 kilowatt hours generated so far.
Showing the sub-panel added and the inverter to the right of it.
Info label added to the main breaker panel.
Warning labels on the inverter.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Solar Going Up!
This is exciting! The footings for the tracker went in yesterday:
And the posts went up and they got the first crossbar up today:
The crossbars are the axis that the panels will rotate on. The truck says "Able Energy" and
"weknowsolar.com". Most of the wiring is done and the panels come in Monday.
And the posts went up and they got the first crossbar up today:
The crossbars are the axis that the panels will rotate on. The truck says "Able Energy" and
"weknowsolar.com". Most of the wiring is done and the panels come in Monday.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Trailer Trash Art Deco
I have to include a picture of our newest art piece. We found this at a trendy little gallery just outside of Fredericksburg, TX. The gallery consisted of two or three travel trailers (it was hard to tell), a couple of pickups, and a large tarp strung stylishly between them. They had picked a spot at the side of the highway that was easy to see in time to stop and had good parking and visibility to get you back on the road.
As I said in an earlier post, Barb is still not sure about this, but she let me invest in it. I love it! It's mounted in our living room on it's sturdy Chinese plastic base and, as you can see, makes a beautiful reflection at night in the window behind it. It was hard to choose but this one called out to me with a mix of mystery, insouciance and boldness. Art does stretch our minds...
As I said in an earlier post, Barb is still not sure about this, but she let me invest in it. I love it! It's mounted in our living room on it's sturdy Chinese plastic base and, as you can see, makes a beautiful reflection at night in the window behind it. It was hard to choose but this one called out to me with a mix of mystery, insouciance and boldness. Art does stretch our minds...
Sunday, April 3, 2011
The Greening of the Avise Home
We installed a Geo Thermal system one year ago and are about to install solar so I decided to write some about that journey. Re: the Geo Thermal, we are on a shelf of dense rock that's about 9 feet down in most places. After doing some test drills to confirm this they decided they would have to do vertical bores: two or three well-like bores into which loops of pipe could be lowered to circulate and cool fluid. When they came out to start that process they brought the horizontal bore machine first to run a bore from the "well" sites to under the basement of the house. Coming up the drive they saw a clearing next to the pole barn and, across the drive, a hill. They did a test bore at a slant down from the clearing 9 feet, hit the rock shelf, and leveled off just above it and went under the hill. That worked so well that they fanned out five horizontal bores, pulling the bit back with a loop of flexible pipe each time.
With a year's experience, we unequivocally love it. It's gentle, without the on and off of the furnace and without ~ $2700 annual of propane. It uses a little more electricity in the winter but much less in the summer.
This winter, before we went South in March, I replaced all of the regular light bulbs in the track lighting on the main living level with LED bulbs. It took some looking but I found the light that I liked best and that looked the best on the art was the 8 watt (equivalent to a 55 watt bulb) Ecosmart LED from Home Depot. They dim and fit in the track "pots" and are the cheapest I found. They use between 15 and 20% of the energy of the bulbs they replace and last (hopefully) longer than I will.
This month we will put ~7000 kilowatts of solar on the hill next to the house. The initial estimate for a 10' by 30' single axis tracking array was 5000 kilowatts but a reassessment of the orientation put the estimated production at 7000 kw. The array will track from east to west and will contain 20 solar panels. This is a stock picture of the type of array which will be installed:
And, if I drive 55-60 mph, the RV gets 16-17 mpg. The mini-van gets 17.9 (multi-year average); and the little '93 Honda Si gets 40! I get about two weeks to 1.5 liters of Korbel!
With a year's experience, we unequivocally love it. It's gentle, without the on and off of the furnace and without ~ $2700 annual of propane. It uses a little more electricity in the winter but much less in the summer.
This winter, before we went South in March, I replaced all of the regular light bulbs in the track lighting on the main living level with LED bulbs. It took some looking but I found the light that I liked best and that looked the best on the art was the 8 watt (equivalent to a 55 watt bulb) Ecosmart LED from Home Depot. They dim and fit in the track "pots" and are the cheapest I found. They use between 15 and 20% of the energy of the bulbs they replace and last (hopefully) longer than I will.
This month we will put ~7000 kilowatts of solar on the hill next to the house. The initial estimate for a 10' by 30' single axis tracking array was 5000 kilowatts but a reassessment of the orientation put the estimated production at 7000 kw. The array will track from east to west and will contain 20 solar panels. This is a stock picture of the type of array which will be installed:
And, if I drive 55-60 mph, the RV gets 16-17 mpg. The mini-van gets 17.9 (multi-year average); and the little '93 Honda Si gets 40! I get about two weeks to 1.5 liters of Korbel!
It's Not All About Traveling
Home again! 4,080 miles and all in all it was a good trip. Now we're home and the NuStep has been delivered and it's time to do taxes (credit for last year's geo-thermal!). And it's time to re-position this blog.
This started as a travel blog but it seems there is more to life than heading out on the road. I didn't want it to be a "Listen To ME Because I Have Something Important To Say" blog; so I tried to limit it, but there are some other aspects of our lives that might be of interest. Or not.
Anyway, it's now a generic Barb and Keith Avise blog. Blah, blah, blah...
This started as a travel blog but it seems there is more to life than heading out on the road. I didn't want it to be a "Listen To ME Because I Have Something Important To Say" blog; so I tried to limit it, but there are some other aspects of our lives that might be of interest. Or not.
Anyway, it's now a generic Barb and Keith Avise blog. Blah, blah, blah...
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Deming and the Turquise Trail
We made the long drive across West Texas through El Paso and up to Deming, New Mexico. The only reason I wanted to get to Deming was to have SteerSafe installed on the RV at the factory. SteerSafe is attached to the steering mechanism and prevents the wheels from being turned by wind gusts, road hazards, blow-outs, etc. We had been to Deming before and there's not much there; we have seen the City of Rocks before and everything else revolves around rock hunting, climbing or off-roading. SteerSafe proved itself the next day driving north to Albuquerque. The wind still moves the coach but not the steering wheel so much. The springs do make a "sproingy" sound when you turn the wheel at very low speed. (That's the technical term for the sound.)
Just outside of Albuquerque there is a National Scenic Byway called the Turquoise Trail. It runs almost to Santa Fe and encompasses old mining towns which are now home to art galleries, inns, etc. We're at the southern end of the trail at 7000 feet and it's back to long pants and jackets! Clear skies and lots of sun though.
We found a nice little restaurant in Cedar Crest - GreenSide. Nice menu and wine list with items marked as Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten Free and Meat Freak! Unfortunately most of the shops and galleries on the Trail are apparently on the National Historic Register because none of them are accessible.
On to Lamy, just outside of Santa Fe to visit Al Webster and Roberta Armstrong and then we'll start home.
Just outside of Albuquerque there is a National Scenic Byway called the Turquoise Trail. It runs almost to Santa Fe and encompasses old mining towns which are now home to art galleries, inns, etc. We're at the southern end of the trail at 7000 feet and it's back to long pants and jackets! Clear skies and lots of sun though.
We found a nice little restaurant in Cedar Crest - GreenSide. Nice menu and wine list with items marked as Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten Free and Meat Freak! Unfortunately most of the shops and galleries on the Trail are apparently on the National Historic Register because none of them are accessible.
On to Lamy, just outside of Santa Fe to visit Al Webster and Roberta Armstrong and then we'll start home.
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