Sunday, April 21, 2013

Raisin' the Roof

Well, I started the RV shed extension a few weeks ago, but had to put it on hold a couple of weeks to get Patsi into the human body shop for an overhaul. Translated this means that she went into the hospital in Lubbock for a hysterectomy. All this was done at Women & Children's Hospital by Dr. Phillips. Dr. Phillips was/is great and the staff at the hospital was really fantastic. They took really good care of her while she was in the hospital. They have even called her here at home a week later checking on her, to see if she is still doing okay.

Ok, we're back at home now and I have started back on my project. Prior to leaving for the hospital a young man stopped by one afternoon looking for work. I didn't have anything at the time but told him I could sure use some help when I got back from Lubbock. I got in touch with him and he has been a great help. We don't have the tin on the roof or sides yet but here are a few shots of what we have done the past few days.



















We did all this over the weekend. I rented a forklift so I wanted to try and get all the framework up while I had the fork lift. 

I take Patsi to the doc in Hobbs tomorrow to get the stitches out. I'll pick up the trailer to return the forklift and return it in the morning after we see the doc. Still lots of work to do but the hard part is done....I think!!

Until next time......
Overthehump

Friday, April 5, 2013

Bluebird Short Trip

We recently purchased our 1st motorhome, a 1994

  • B luebird
  • M otor
  • C oach

I played with it thru February and March changing all the fluids, belts and various little things that needed attention, getting it ready for our first outing.

The first little trip we made was to take my mom to Comanche, Tx, her former home, for her sister Dean's 80th birthday party. We left on Friday, March 29, went through Lubbock to pick up my sister and then on to Comanche. We parked in front of mom's house which is up for sale. Luckily I had filled the fresh water tank because when we arrived and checked out the house we discovered that the water had been turned off! So, we certainly couldn't hook up to water. Seems that the USPO didn't quite get the forwarding address stuff done like they were supposed to. That's after I submitted it twice. First time nothing got forwarded. Go figure.

Anyway, we spent the night in front of mom's house. The next day we got up, had breakfast, relaxed for a while before getting ready for the big party. We had driven by the community center the day before to make sure we could park the motorhome. I certainly didn't want to get down one of Comanche's narrow streets and find out that we'd have to back out because there wasn't a place to turn around and park. We were in luck because the cemetery was right across the street and there was a nice wide and flat area between the road and cemetery for us to park.

Dean, mom's sister was really surprised when Tina & Rod, her daughter and son-in-law brought her in. It was a very nice party and mom had a great time. It was great to visit with all the relatives that were there.

Bill Byrum, mom & Dean's cousin was there with his wife Dora. They live outside of Gustine which is a little town south of Comanche. We drove the BMC out to their house for the night. Got to have a great visit with them.

We drove home Sunday. I'm ready for the next trip now!

Let me back up a year or so here. Before I retired I was having trouble with what I thought was my sinuses. I was always plugged up, sometimes having trouble breathing, having a lot of headaches. I tried all of the over the counter meds. Nothing seemed to help. We heard about a natural doc in Payson, Az. We went to see him and he helped quite a bit. We made several trips to Payson. I've tried the chiropractors, acupuncture and they all helped to a degree, but I would still get terrible headaches in my forehead right above my eyes.

We've recently been reading a lot about nutrition. I happened to read an article about Dr. Joel Furhman in the docs office when we took mom to Lubbock in January. I bought his book 'Eat to Live' and read it. He claims you can lose weight, get healthier, and eat as much as you want. The catch is that you eat at least 1 pound of raw veggies and fruits, and 1 pound of cooked vegetables a day. That's 2 pounds of food per day. At first I thought it would be a boring diet but it has turned out to be anything but boring. We've figured out how to make some killer salads, roasted cauliflower, fantastic soups, beans and portabella mushrooms. And speaking of portabella mushrooms.....we had them tonight. It was a good as any steak that I've ever had.

We removed the stem and gills (yep mushrooms have gills - you know the little fin like part underneath the umbrella), added spinach leaves, cheese on top of that (but we used some vegetarian cheese), then a roasted green chile with another layer of cheese on top. We sliced up a sweet potato, coated the slices with olive oil, then spiced them up with Julio's seasoning, garlic, salt and pepper. We threw all this in the oven and baked for about 25 minutes @ 350. Was it ever GOOD!

In addition to things tasting really good, I've lost about 10+ pounds. 200+ down to 190. The first part of this week, we ran off into the ditch and ate meat for 3 or 4 meals in a row. Wednesday I woke up and had one of those headaches. I guess I'm a slow learner but I finally figured out that meat and cheese does a number on my system. I used to love beer but can barely drink one now as it stops up my sinuses and gives me a headache. So, I'm resigned to watching what I eat and drink. I remember when I was younger I would eat and drink anything and as much as I wanted (sometimes too much drink) but would feel horrible the day after....at least after the drinking part. Stupid me!! Now I'm a little smarter, not much, but a little. At least now I'll try to do what will make me feel better....not worse.

Ok, enough of stuff about me. This week I started the addition for my RV shed. I've had it planned for a couple of years but just now getting around to it. I cut the concrete so I could add a couple of poles for the corner of the shed. I bought all the metal a couple of years ago because the price of steel kept going up and up. But in order to start my project I had to move all the 20' sheets of R-panel so I could position my scaffolding close enough to begin putting up the roof structure.


Each day that I work on it I move the BMC out of the shed so it will be out of the way, then move it back in the evening. Gonna be a chore getting those 8" C-purlins up to the top of the poles and welded in place.
I love challenges!
Then get those 20' sheets of tin to the top for the roof.
Come on by anytime, I can use the help.

Until next time.....

Overthehump