March 24 to 30, 2013

Sunday ; Sunny and very warm today.

This morning we went shopping to Yuma Park N Swap a.k.a. Swap Meet Los Perros a.k.a. Dog Track Flea Market. I needed some Guasave accident roof repair hardware. Then it was over to Lowe's. More Guasave accident roof repair materials. Finally ... across town to The Foothills to Al's RV Service & Supplies. More accident roof repair materials ! We crossed the street over to Fry's where we had lunch in their "meals to go" section and then shopped for groceries.

This afternoon as part of the repair / replacement of the broken skylight on the roof I had to remove the inside portion of the skylight, on the ceiling of the shower stall. < sigh > I discovered a lot of dry rot damage in the shower ceiling wood. I cleaned out much of the rotten wood and ... < sigh > !
I'm not even sure how to repair this kind of problem ! And I feel ... again ... like I'm taking two steps backwards for each step that I take forward.

I went up on the roof and used fiberglass jelly epoxy to do some repair to the damaged wood around one of the waste tank vent pipes. I'll assess tomorrow how successful that was. If it was successful, maybe that's a viable approach to repairing the shower ceiling dry rot wood damage ? We went to the Sunday evening ice cream social. We watched Amazing Race and Celebrity Apprentice.

Monday ; Sunny and hot. Joanne went out to run errands for most of the day. I did maintenance and repairs. Story of my life !

I removed the old and installed new sink strainers. The old ones were leaking. I assembled and installed a new shelving unit inside the trailer's entry door to replace the shoe / boot tray unit that broke during Mexico travels. And ... I spent most of the day up on the roof working on Guasave accident repairs. WHEW ... it's very hot on the trailer roof. I made good progress on repairs five, six, and seven of eight. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Late in the afternoon after I finished working on the roof I went to the newly refurbished and just re-opened swimming pool. As did everybody else in the park !

Tuesday ; Sunny and hot. This morning I did some Guasave accident repairs on the roof then went to Lowe's to buy some repair supplies. After lunch I continued working on the roof repairs. Around
4 PM I took a break, we went for a walk around the dog park with Bo, then went to the swimming pool to cool off. I continued working on the roof, a much more pleasant task after the heat of the day had passed, after 5:30 PM. By the time I stopped working, around 7 PM, I had finished repairs five and six of eight, and seven of eight was half done. The final repair won't be done until sometime during the summer, back home in BC, so ... not too much more to be done down here.

Wednesday ; Sunny and hot. This morning I worked on the roof. So what else is new ? ! ? I made significant progress on the seventh of eight necessary repairs, and the last one I will be doing here in Yuma. If all goes well, I should be finished that repair tomorrow.

We drove out to The Foothills to have lunch with our friends Lynn and Micha. First we stopped at Al's RV Service & Supplies to return a repair item that I bought but did not need after all. We drove to Lynn and Micha's to have lunch and see their new fifth wheel trailer. Bo enjoyed visiting with his old friend Gypsy. He took a bone of hers right out of her mouth ! ! ! I was stunned ! What a bad dog ! How lucky he is that Gypsy is friendly ! We spent the entire afternoon chatting with Lynn and Micha. They will be travelling across Canada this summer and we are eager to have them visit us.

When we got home I did a bit more work on the roof in the cool of late afternoon / early evening. We had a wonderful supper and watched Survivor. Joanne tried a new recipe that worked out very well ! This morning she put a "dry rub" seasoned beef roast into the Sun Oven to slow bake into a "barbecued beef brisket". When we returned home ... it was done ! And it was good !

Thursday ; Sunny and hot.

Good news ; This morning I completed Guasave accident repair seven of eight, the last one I will be doing here in Yuma. WOO-HOO !

Bad news ; This afternoon I discovered that the trailer's rubber roof is cracked in many places along the very edge where it wraps over the side, on the driver's / street side, the side that faces south both on our lot here and on our lot in BC. The rubber roof is baked by the intense sunlight, here in the winter and back home in BC all summer. < sigh > I'll have to repair all those open cracks before we leave here in a week and a half. I guess fifteen years is the life of an RV rubber roof. Must be why they're guaranteed for twelve years !

This afternoon we went to Country Roads RV Park to visit with our friends from back home at Riverside RV Park Resort, Paul and Kolly. Other neighbours from back home, Dave and Joy, were also there. We had a very pleasant afternoon and evening of chatting and munching on appetizers.

Good Friday ; Still sunny and hot !

This morning I reinstalled the kitchen Fantastic Fan's MaxxAir cover which I had removed yesterday. I had to do some resealing of the rubber roof around the kitchen Fantastic Fan. I finished lubricating the slides, which I had started yesterday as well. Joanne came up on the roof and helped me re-measure the clearance height of the trailer now that I have replaced the ( seven of eight ) damaged components. It's actually an inch lower than it used to be. I guess the MaxxAir cover clones that I used are an inch less tall then the brand name MaxxAir covers. I will leave the clearance height markings posted on the dash of the truck alone, allowing an extra inch of leeway. Getting Joanne up onto the roof of the trailer was very difficult. She's very uncomfortable climbing up there.

Joanne defrosted the fridge. I drained and flushed the water heater. What a lot of scale came out ! Yuma's water is so full of minerals. Mexico's is as well, I think. Everybody spent the hottest part of the afternoon in the Arizona room with the swamp cooler running. It's much cooler in the Arizona room than outside. We continue to be surprised that a swamp cooler is so effective at "air conditioning" a screen room.

Late this afternoon I spray painted a white stripe on the trailer's top entry step at Joanne's request. We did some difficult spring cleaning inside the trailer. We went to the swimming pool to cool off.
I tried to flick a drowning wasp out of the pool and ... I got stung for my efforts ! That's the last time ! From now on I'll just float by and watch them drown ! We went to Famous Dave's Bar-B-Que for dinner to celebrate the completion of ( seven of eight of ) the Guasave accident roof repairs. We were both feeling a bit silly on the drive home, and Joanne wanted to go cruisin', so ... I took us for a high speed, off road , 4 wheelin' romp across the desert in the dark. HA HA HA ... what a lot of fun !

Saturday ; Whew ! Blistering hot desert sun ! Unable to work on trailer roof between 11 AM and 5 PM !

Early this morning ... long before we got up ... some park residents discovered a litter of six puppies dumped on the road outside the park. The puppies would not allow themselves to be caught, but with food they were lured inside the fenced maintenance yard. I was just stepping out of the shower a few hours later when Carol Mae showed up to recruit me to assist in their capture and transport to the Humane Society. I lent her my truck so that she could go to the Humane Society to get a large pet carrier to transport the puppies. When she returned we headed to the maintenance yard to capture the six puppies.

Five of the six puppies were black, short haired, and looked like cross bred Shar-Peis. One was brown, long haired, and looked like a cross bred Shepherd. The five black Shar-Peis all had visible mange. They stuck together like a pack and did not want to be captured. While Carol Mae herded them into a corner of the maintenance yard using a rake, I caught them one by one and handed them over the fence to Joanne who put them into the large pet carrier in the bed of our truck. The first one I caught was the brown Shepherd. The second one captured went okay. The third one was screaming like a stuck pig when I caught it, and as I carried it screaming toward Joanne it released its bowels, spewed diarrhoea all over me, and bit me ... twice ! The first bite was to my fingertip, with a sharp little puppy tooth sliding in underneath one of my fingernails. OW OW OW OW OW ! That one really hurt ... and still does many hours later, especially as I'm typing this. As I yanked my hand away, it squirmed around and bit me again ... in my abdomen. I have two puncture wounds on my stomach. I did not pass that one to Joanne, putting it into the carrier myself. Adhering to the concept of shutting the barn door after the horse is gone ... I donned long welding gloves. The next pup also bit me. But ... wearing long welding gloves, it didn't matter. All the puppy got was a mouthful of leather. By the time all six were caught Joanne and I both had diarrhoea and urine all over us. I changed clothes and cleaned myself quickly, did first aid on my bite wounds, then Carol Mae and I drove the six puppies to the Humane Society. Good luck, little fellows !

Shortly after returning from the Humane Society it was time to head to the clubhouse for the swimming pool grand re-opening party and hot dog barbecue and potluck luncheon. We had a great hot dog and potluck lunch, chatted with friends and neighbours ... said lots of goodbyes as everyone is leaving soon ... then joined the crowd in the swimming pool. I returned home before Joanne to get some work done, but it was too hot to work on the trailer roof so I puttered around with other chores. And ... spent some time resting in the swamp cooler cooled Arizona room with Sully and Bo. Sully loooooves the Arizona room on hot days when the swamp cooler is running.

Around 5 PM I got up on the trailer roof and spent two hours working on patching cracks along the edge of the rubber roof on the south side. I suppose I had better inspect the north side tomorrow. We weren't hungry yet so we drove to Lowe's to do some hardware shopping then crossed the street to Albertson's to do some grocery shopping. We returned home and had a late pizza supper.

DSK