A HOUSE FOR SALE ON ONE ACRE HAD US EXCITED TODAY, BUT………

A GREAT BLUE HERON LIFTS OFF FROM THE GOOSE POND THIS AFTERNOON

We spent more time buzzing about like a couple little bees in the Winnie Wagon this morning.  Slide out, dining room table up, a few more things moved in, overhead cab bed re-configured, hooks installed to hang things on, & a re-shuffling of bin articles…..again.  And by golly I even washed Winnie’s wheels & cab.  Not usually something I expend a lot of energy on anymore but when the spirit moves me to do something like that I had better go with it while that wily spirit is in the process of moving me.  Had to slip up to Goderich this afternoon for a few things & be darned if I didn’t even head over to the car wash & do the Jeep too.  Heavens to Murgatroyds!! 

THAT BUNK LADDER TAKES A LITTLE GETTING USED TO

 

THAT’S OUR LITTLE EASY TO ASSEMBLE DINING ROOM TABLE

Its turning out to be quite a challenge re-thinking our packing habits with the Winnebago. Coming from a Class A with a full basement holding about 10 spacious bins down to a Class C with about a quarter the storage space is proving to be quite a feat. We always did travel with too much stuff of course but I think that's the way it is with most RV folks. If one has lots of space one has a tendency to fill it. And then there is the smaller interior with fewer cabinets, drawers, & closets. We are having to do a lot of creative re-thinking. But how nice to have a mind occupying challenge going on again.

 

PHEEBS REMINDED ME TONIGHT THAT I HAD FORGOT TO PUT HER PICTURE IN THURSDAY NIGHT’S POST

HOOKED UP IN FRONT OF OUR HOUSE THURSDAY

Kelly spotted a house on an acre of property while browsing a local real estate site this morning.  Wasn’t far from us, price seemed reasonable for the location, & the few photos looked nice.  Hopped in the Jeep & off we went to a little place about 20 minutes away called Ben Miller.  Really nice scenic area near the banks of the Maitland River.  Great piece of property with house & barn & we got ourselves a little excited about it after walking around looking at everything.  House was vacant so could only peer through the windows.  With a few outside landscape renovations (mainly some fencing) we could easily see ourselves living there.  Back home we went & Kelly phoned the Realtor with some additional questions.  Oooooooops, a misprint in the on-line price had listed it a full $100,0000 less than it’s asking price.  A typing error had priced it at $129,000 when in fact it should have read $229,000.  Awwwww nuts!!!!  That sure took care of all the excitement we had built up right quick.  The fella told Kelly, “no wonder we were getting so many calls about that house & property today”.  Positive side to today’s real estate mis-print was the simple fact we were both invigorated & energized by simply getting out again & looking at a house & property for sale.  I like when that happens……………………..:))  

WOULD HAVE BEEN OUR KINDA PLACE ALRIGHT

 

WE COULD SEE THROUGH THE WINDOWS A NICE RENOVATION JOB ON THE INTERIOR HAD BEEN DONE & THAT SECOND STORY IS A COMPLETE GRANNY FLAT

 

INTERIOR OF THE BARN HAD BEEN RENOVATED NICELY TOO

YEP, THIS HOUSE & OLD BARN SITTING ON AN ACRE OF PROPERTY IN BEN MILLER SURE HAD US EXCITED FOR ABOUT AN HOUR TODAY

Last week I mentioned we were thinking about doing some renovations with our 2 bedrooms here at home.  After mulling that around for awhile we have decided to put those renovations on hold.  Maybe next Spring after we return from the South-West.  There was a positive outcome to our renovation thinking though.  We did go ahead & get rid of some junk & came up with some new ideas on how to deal with some other stuff.  My digitalizing of slides project grew out of those renovation thoughts.   

GROANER’S CORNER:((  Philosophy of a Shopaholic………..

I shop therefore I am.

I buy therefore I am happy.

I pay therefore I am in debt.

-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

TRIAL RUN FOR WINNIE & THE JEEPSTER TODAY

 

TODAY’S BUTTERFLY

Took us awhile to remember something the fella at FORREST CITY MOTORHOMES had told us about our Winnebago. Try as we might this morning we could not figure out why we had no power to our rig's power outlets even though we had the generator running. It was Kelly who remembered the shoreline plug in the outside electrical bin that had to be plugged into a power box also located in the electrical bin. Don't know why Winnebago does it that way but they do. Soon as we plugged the shoreline cord into the onboard power outlet we were fine. Yep, we have started loading the Winnie Wagon for our first shake down cruise week after next.

Made me feel good to see Kelly bringing some things out to the rig. That always kind of puts an ‘official stamp of approval’ on our travel plans for sure. Figured this morning would be as good a time as any to hook the Jeep up for the first time & make sure everything was compatible between Winnie & the Jeepster. First hook-up of the season can sometimes be a little bit of a head scratcher for me as I try to remember the procedures.  Clamps, safety lines, electrical, pins, bolts, etc. And to get the Jeep’s 4 wheel drive crankcase correctly configured for towing. Luckily I have a check list to follow. No problem remembering all this stuff when we are on the road using the equipment but after sitting dormant for months at a time the old RV memory stick in the brain gets a little rusty.  Make that ‘a lot rusty’.  Checked & rechecked the hook up a couple times & off the little Bumble Buns & I went for a trial run with the Jeep on back. Everything checked out A-OK & 20 minutes later we were back home.

Maybe not fair to compare the 26’ 10 cylinder Ford Winnie with the 8 cylinder 23’ Chevy Sunseeker we had but the difference in handling & power sure are noticeable. That little ‘Jackrabbit’ of a Sunseeker sure spoiled me. The Chevy 8 cylinder just seemed so much more powerful than this Ford 10 cylinder engine. The Chevy handled like a sports car while the Ford handles more characteristically like a bigger RV. I think a fair example would be the storybook classic, ‘The Tortoise & The Hare’. I think once I get a bunch of good old road miles under my belt with the Ford the comparisons will fade & I will be just fine with driving a heavier & longer Class C again. Besides, there’s a lot of nice things to like about Winnie the Bago.  Did a few measurements today too.  From Winnie’s front bumper to the rear of the Jeep we are 46’5” long.  Our clearance height from the road to the top of the A/C unit is 11’3”. 

 
 

For the past 6 years we have traveled with an onboard solar system & that has enabled us to travel freely & stop whenever & wherever we wanted.  We could seek out quiet boondocking spots along our travel routes.  Of course that's the fly in the ointment for us at the moment & it's not likely we can get ourselves self sufficient again until we eventually have a solar system installed on the Winnie Wagon. That is not likely to happen until we reach Solar Mikes in California's Slab City sometime in maybe November. In the meantime we'll have to work things out using our generator etc. I’m not a big noisy generator fan & we having been totally spoiled these past 6 years by the Damon’s silent & efficient solar system.  We will find our upcoming journey to the South West not quite as comfortable as we have been accustomed to. We'll see how we make out on our short trip up around Ontario's Bruce Peninsula shortly.

 

SPOTTED THIS TUNDRA SWAN WITH A DOZEN CANADA GEESE FOLLOWERS

Further travel talks are leaning both of us more & more towards the Colorado route about mid September.  The Canada west/ U.S. coast route is longer & would be lengthier in time so it makes more plum good sense for us to do that route once we have our solar system installed now that we think of it.  Thanks to the folks along that Canada/Oregon route for the invites to stop by:))  Also talked today about maybe not doing the Spencerport trip with the rig.  Kelly continues to feel better & said she just might slip down to Spencerport with her car sometime next month.  We’ll wait & see how that shakes out……………...

GROANER'S CORNER:((

-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

‘TRAVEL TALKS’

SURPRISED THIS WHITETAIL DEER IN THE HULLET MARSH THIS MORNING

It was ‘travel talk’ that pulled me up by the boot straps this morning.   More about that later………………..

Kelly had to fill in for a few hours at Deer Park Lodge today so headed out the door around 9:30 this morning.  Rascal Buns & I were feeling the need for speed (if you can call 20mph speed) so it was into the Jeep with us & off we went on another of our relaxing gravel runs.  We only have 3 directions to chose from once we leave Bayfield.  North, South, & East.  If we want to head west we can only go a mile & then we need a boat.  Brekky to go at Clinton’s Tim Horton’s & it was off to the HULLETT MARSH we headed.  Our mornings are delightfully cooler now & at 62F & I knew there would be no bugs in the air.  It was a picture perfect morning with big fluffy white clouds in the sky.  So happy to be rid of the heat & humidity.

 

THIS IS WHERE PHEEBS GOT INTO THE MUCK & I GOT A SOAKER

Parked our Jeep near a large pond & off we went.  How nice within minutes to come across a grazing white tailed Deer.  Watched her grazing for about 5 minutes before she caught wind of us & dashed off into the underbrush.  After being frumped out in my recliner for days how great it was to be out in nature again enjoying sunshine, summer breezes, & the many bird songs one can only hear in a marshy area.  Pheebs got herself into some swampy muck & I got a soaker.  In other words, we had ourselves a most enjoyable time:))

 

By the time we walked back to the Jeep Pheebs paws had been brushed clean by the long grass spent we had to trudge through.   Spent our next couple hours wandering along the country roads stopping here, snapping a few photos there, & grabbing a stretch or two whenever we needed one.  Don’t think we got over 65F today & I did have a flannel long sleeve shirt on.  But it wasn’t cold.  It was just totally perfect for being outside doing things.  Sun was warm, air was cool, & again it reminded me of a typical winter’s day in Arizona.  No bugs:))

Started my slide copying project Monday night. So far so good....sort of. First carousel I started working on were slides of myself from when I was a child. I had copied some old black & white prints to slides years ago.  Was copying my 19th slide when I realized I had just done the first 18 wrong. Slide 19 was a photo of me in Miami Beach back in 1966. I had on a white T-shirt with the word 'Navy' written across the front. (I was in the Canadian Navy at the time) Noticed right away there was a problem with the photo. The word 'Navy' was backwards. That told me right off that I had copied the first 18 slides backwards. Luckily, this copier is very easy to use & no problem to re-do the slides.

Before starting the project I had to do a little housecleaning in my Windows 7 'Picture' program. Tied up a bunch of loose ends, created some new folders & re-organized a bunch of miscellaneous photos readying things for my slide update photos.

The slide copier handles 4 slides at a time & once one gets on to the procedure things go pretty quickly. I pull 4 slides out of the carousel tray & place them in the slide carrier which I insert in the copier. Takes me about 4 seconds to copy each slide. The copiers software can rotate the photo, mirror image it, plus it has a bunch of editing tools like exposure control, color shifts, etc. I bypass these because I will do all that later when I edit each photo in my familiar Picasa 3.9 photo editing program.

Each old photo I bring up on the screen has a host of memories attached to it.  For me, each photo tells a story.  Even after 30 years, 4 photos right away brought tears to my eyes.  They are of me & my dog Biff year’s ago.  I will include one those photos here as a tribute to my old faithful & long lost Pal.  If there is such a place as heaven I will be looking for Biff if & when I get there.

BIFF & I OUT ON A LITTLE PHOTO SHOOT IN AUGUST OF 1983

I think it was a combination of our hot & sticky weather, being housebound for a bunch of days, & just those old familiar mid summer blues that combined to slide me into the doldrums these past bunch of days.  Happens to me periodically when I get a little too hard on myself & end up slumped in my recliner.  I enjoy writing this post every day but the last few days it was difficult to get myself interested in anything & that included the blog.  So what lifted my Spirits this morning?  Travel talk, that’s what:))  We had talked a bit about it on & off the last few weeks but this morning I felt there was finally some seriousness in our discussion.  I’m the kind of person who likes to get a ‘definite departure date’ nailed down each Fall.  Gives me a goal to work towards, a challenge, something to look forward to, & a purpose.  If I don’t have those 4 things in front of me at all times I can easily backslide into the doldrums………..  

 

SOMETIMES DOGGY GETS A LITTLE BORED WHILE I’M TAKING A FEW PHOTOS

It seems our ‘travel talk’ was all I needed to begin re-charging my depleted mental & physical batteries.  For me, travel plans always spark my enthusiasm instantly & especially when they regard heading south.  Didn’t take me long to get myself outside, open up some of the rig’s bin doors & start thinking about what will go where, when, & how because we could be going sooner than we think.  We are considering 2, maybe 3 Winnie Wagon trips.  Up to Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula in a couple weeks for a 3 or 4 day shake down cruise.  That’s why I loaded a few things this morning.  Then over to Rochester NY in early September for maybe 3 days to visit Kelly’s Mother & maybe back home again.  Where we go from Spencerport NY will depend on which of 2 routes we decide to take.  Been some talk about heading across Canada to B.C. & then down the coast through Washington & Oregon.  If we chose that route then we would come back to Bayfield from Spencerport before heading out for the west about mid September.  Second route on the table is the Colorado route I’ve been wanting to take the past few years.  If we chose that route we would just leave Spencerport & head west to Colorado from there.  I would say odds right now are in favor of the Colorado route.  Of course this all depends on some health issues at the moment but we are remaining optimistic.  With this summer’s health issues fresh in both our minds we both agreed it is better to pull out all the stops NOW & get as many enjoyable travel miles & adventures under our belts as we can…….while we can!!

 

I THINK OUR LOWER NIGHT TIME TEMPS HAVE FOOLED A FEW TREES INTO THINKING IT’S AUTUMN

GROANER’S CORNER:(( All depends on how you look at it………………………. Two shoe salespeople were sent to Africa to open up new markets. Three days after arriving, one salesperson called the office and said, 'I'm returning on the next flight. Can't sell shoes here. Everybody goes barefoot.'
At the same time the other salesperson sent an email to the factory, telling 'The prospects are unlimited. Nobody wears shoes here!'

-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

AN IMMIGRANT BILL COULD ALLOW CANADIANS LONGER STAYS IN ARIZONA

One of the nicest things with our cooler weather is the fact we can once again open wide our windows & doors. Love nature’s fresh air blowing freely through our house & I especially enjoy sitting quietly in my recliner listening to the happy twittering's of waking birds at dawn.

MUSKRAT ON THE GOOSE POND

Always seems to be a confusing issue for Canadians when it comes to lengths of time we are allowed stay in the United States. It is not only our own Provinces that control that time period but it is our friends to the south as well. Reader Bob sent in an article entitled, IMMIGRANT BILL COULD ALLOW CANADIANS LONGER STAYS, BOOST ARIZONA ECONOMY. Some interesting thoughts & statistics here & some good common sense too. I’m always on the side of good common sense.

JUST A RURAL HIGHWAY RUNNING THROUGH FARM LANDS IN SOUTHWESTERN ONTARIO

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A teacher was having trouble teaching arithmetic to one little boy. So she said, 'if you reached in your right pocket and found a nickel, and you reached in your left pocket and found another one, what would you have?' …………..“Somebody else's pants.”

-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.