The Great New Hampshire Wind Storm of 2010 struck Thursday night, February 25th-26th. Friday morning, there were around 400,000 power company customers without electricity! We were among them. The power lines that run from the transformer on the telephone pole to our house were ripped loose by a falling tree. We were fortunate to have a generator to power our furnace, water pump, and refrigerator. As a matter of fact, I started writing this post under gennie power. Our power restoration was low on the list, but that ’s ok…lots of folks suffered MUCH bigger problems than we did. We finally got our power back Wednesday night, March 4th. One of the nicest things was not to have to listen to the roar of the generator any more. Another was having HOT WATER!
 Now, about Wild Thing. I took Friday off to get the generator hooked up, rewire my water pump to connect to the generator, and clean the pine branches out of the driveway. While I was out playing “pick-up-sticks,” I looked down only to see a big bird approaching my feet. I don’t know a lot about birds, but I knew she wasn’t a pheasant. A grouse of some kind? Well, between a bit of Google research and a couple of friends, it seems that Wild Thing is most likely a Bobwhite. If any of you know differently, please let us know.
As I finish this post, I can say that Wild Thing has been hanging around for over a week now. Sometimes she gets right in front of our vehicles as we’re pulling out of the driveway to go to work. It’s as though she doesn’t want us to go. It’s gotten so that she’ll come right up to me, only inches away, and if I scooch down and talk to her, she coos gently to me. She’s not all gentle, though. Oh no! She flew up onto the porch railing  and, as I was taking some pictures, she flew up onto my shoulder. Whoa, I was more than just a bit surprised! I thought “Wow! This is neat!” Then she pecked me on the head a couple of times…and I don’t have a lot of hair up there to provide a cushion…so it stung a bit and I jumped and Wild Thing flew back to ground level.
Deb and I are amazed at the behavior of this wild creature. It’s as though she knows we won’t do anything to hurt her and, for some reason, has decided she likes our company. I don’t know whether something happened to her during the wind storm that has caused her to be disoriented, or disrupted her normal routine. She doesn’t appear to be injured in any way. I imagine that, sooner or later, she’ll move on. Meanwhile, we’re enjoying an unusual connection with one of God’s wild things.
If any of you can explain this seemingly strange wild bird behavior, we’d really be interested in hearing about it. Please leave a comment.
 We’ve been to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania a couple of times. Most of you know that Gettysburg is the site of one of the most decisive battles of the Civil War, and certainly one of the bloodiest! General Robert E. Lee played a huge role at Gettysburg, along with his key subordinates General James Longstreet and General George Pickett of “Pickett’s Charge” fame. On the Union side, General George Meade was in command and played a key role.
It’s probably impossible, for most of us, to have any true understanding of what soldiers on either side went through during those horrific battles. Imagine, to march in ranks two, three, or more deep, across open meadows, into devastating fire from opposing cannon and rifles. You watch your fellows cut down and blown to bits on either side of you and yet you somehow find the courage to march forward. The movie Gettysburg, starring Martin Sheen, Jeff Daniels, Tom Berenger, and others, probably comes as close as anything to portraying the horror the men on both sides faced on the Civil War battlefields at Gettysburg, Antietam (Sharpsburg), Manassas (Bull Run), and other places.
 Enough of that. Let’s get to our stay at Artillery Ridge Campground while we visited Gettysburg. It’s been more than two years, now, but I imagine the place hasn’t changed much since then. Since Deb really enjoys horses and riding, one of the key attractions of Artillary Ridge is their riding stable offering horseback tours of the Gettysburg battlefields. We took one of the two hour tours that includes “historic narration.” Well, the historic narration comes in the form of a CD that is played by one  of the wranglers leading the tour group, and to which you listen by means of a wireless headset. For “cowboys” like me whose greatest challenge was to convince my big, four-footed ride that I was the boss (yeah, right!), paying attention to the CD didn’t work so well. Nevertheless, we really did have a good time on the horseback tour. It gives you a totally different perspective of the battlefield areas than the more traditional auto tour. About the good time? Well, after two hours in the saddle, my butt didn’t fully agree! Even so, when we revisited Gettysburg last year, although we stayed at a different campground, we still visited Artillery Ridge to take another horseback tour.
The sites themselves were generally nice. Ours was a pull-through site with a crushed rock base for the rig, although it wasn’t particularly level and required the use of some stacked Linx Levelers under the curbside wheels. It had a grassy area with a picnic table and a fire pit that Deb remembers as not being in great shape, but we had fires in it with no problems. At the time, there was free wi-fi, but no cable TV available. All the usual amenities were available: a pool, a no-license fishing pond, playground and horseshoe pits. The bathrooms were okay, but we used the facilities in our rig. They have a small laundry room, which we did use! There’s a pretty well equipped camp store with most of the things you need.
It’s what’s in back  of the camp store/office that’s really neat to visit. Artillery Ridge’s Gettysburg Battlefield Diorama is an incredibly detailed scale model that depicts the then village of Gettysburg, the immediate surrounding area, and the battles that took place in Gettysburg over those horrible three days in 1863. The diorama is free to campground guests and to non-guests who purchase horseback tours. You enter the diorama from within the campground office and store. After you take your seats around the diorama, room lights dim and the narration begins. As you are taken by the narrator through the events, the jockying for position by the Union and the Confederate troops,and the several battles, the appropriate areas of the diorama are illuminated by lights built into the display. Altogether, it’s well done and well worth the time if you want to gain an overall impression of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Funny story—Artillery Ridge is not too far outside of the town of Gettysburg, close to the Visitors Center and the battlefield. One evening, after dining at the historic Farnsworth House, we were heading back to the campground along Taneytown Road. It was after dark and we were chatting as we drove, talking about what we’d seen and done so far. We crested a hill and started down the other side when Deb, nearly speechless, grabbed the dashboard yelling “HORSE, HORSE!” Sure enough, there, right in front of our truck, was a horse just ambling along in the middle of our lane like he was out for a leasurly stroll! Well, I guess he was. I wonder if he appreciated the quality of the brakes on that truck, or how quickly my foot tromped on the brake pedal? Thankfully, we stopped just short of his hind quarters! After we managed to swallow our hearts again, we turned on the flashers and followed ol’ dobbin until, with a backwards look at us and a nod as if saying goodnight, he strolled off the road and into a farmyard. We didn’t get a photo, but I don’t think the mental picture of that suddenly-appearing horse’s rear-end
will leave us for a while!
Overall, we enjoyed our week-long stay at Artillery Ridge. The staff members were helpful and friendly and made us feel at home right from the start. Navigating through the campground, even towing our rig, was pretty easy the way things are laid out. It is close to town and to many of the battlefield attractions. I’d give Artillery Ridge Campground an 8 out of 10 rating and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.
 We made our second trip to Gettysburg, PA in September. Last time we were there, we parked our rig at the Artilary Ridge Campground, out on Taneytown Road to the south of town, and enjoyed our stay there. This time we stayed at Gettysburg Campground on Fairfield Road to the west of town. This was a great place to stay, too. It was after Labor Day, so during the week, the campground was definately not crowded. On the weekends, though, it filled up.
We found the owners and others of the staff to be very friendly and helpful. We wanted to take a day-trip down to the Antietam battlefield in Sharpsburg, MD. Antietam was the site of “the bloodiest one-day battle in American history,” according to historians. Approximately 23,000 Confederate and Union soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing after the 12 hour battle in September of 1862. Anyway, we looked at a road map and decided on a route. Then we talked with one of the ladies in the campground office. She told us another route would be much better…and she was right!
The sites were mostly crushed stone. Some were grassier than others. Ours was quite level and partly shaded by some black walnut and hickory trees. More about that later! They offer a variety of sites, from  simple tent sites to 50 amp, full hook-up sites for big rigs. Most of their sites appeared level and spacious as well.
They have a camp store with a pretty good selection of necessities in both the food and the camping and RV needs categories. They also offer a selection of clothing, as well as gift-type items and a snack bar. They have cable TV and free Wi-Fi, a pool, mini-golf, restrooms that, while we used our own bathroom, appeared to be clean, a small laundry facility, and other amenities. Gettysburg Campground is only a short ride from the center of town, the National Military Park’s Visitor Center, the battlefield, and many of Gettusburg’s Civil War historic sites.
Now back to the trees. One of the first nights we were there, Deb and I had just gone to bed and were
laying there unwinding – like you do when you finally realize you’re on vacation – when we both jumped at this major THONK on the roof! I  had visions of a tree branch poking a hole and a serious repair job. I got up and took a look outside and saw nothing unusual. I even climbed the ladder at the rear of our travel trailer and checked out the roof. Nothing. The next morning it became clear what was up…or rather, what had come down! There were these big, green things here and there on the ground. I looked up and, sure enough, there were even more of them in the trees towering over the trailer. There were also other, smaller nuts laying around. Our friends in the campground office quickly identified these goodies as black walnuts (the big ones) and hickory nuts. The photo to the left shows the things compared to a quarter. They didn’t seem to do any damage when a few of them fell on the trailer over the week and a half we were there, but they sure are a wake-up call!
Overall, we enjoyed our stay at Gettysburg Campground and will very likely stay there next time we find ourselves visiting Gettysburg. If any of you have stayed at this campground, we’d be happy to hear your opinion and experiences.
Continuing from yesterday’s post, we’ll finish installing a new pleated shade on one of our travel trailer windows.
Measure 2½ inches in from each shade-end mark and put light marks on the wall where the centers of the mounting brackets will go [Figure 6]. Now that you’ve got everything marked out, it’s time to actually mount your new shade.
The shades are mounted to the wall using brackets that come with them. Narrower shades take only two brackets, while wider shades may take three or even four. The frames of  the RV windows that we’ve worked with stick out about an eighth of an inch from the wall. In order for the shades to properly clear the window frame, you need to use a shim—yup, about an eighth of an inch thick—behind the brackets. I actually think I could have gotten some of these shims from Blinds.com, but with a table saw, a drill, and some sandpaper I made some out of a scrap piece of eighth inch luan plywood I had handy. [Figure 7]
 Line the center of the shim up with the locating mark on the wall made as shown in Figure 6, and start the two screws that will hold each bracket. [Figure 8] To make it easier on me and the wall, I marked the two holes with a pencil and drilled 1/16 inch pilot holes for the screws, but you can probably start the screws without the pilot holes. If you do drill pilot holes, limit your drill depth to no more than 3/4 of an inch to one inch. The walls on your RV are likely not as thick as those on your house and you sure don’t want to drill through the outer shell.
As you can see in Figure 7, the mounting holes in the brackets are open on the bottom so you can slide them behind the heads of the screws you started through the shims and simply tighten them down. After you’ve mounted the brackets, you’re ready to mount the shade header on the brackets. [Figure 9]
 The front edge of the top of the bracket tapers down to fit into a groove on the top of the shade header. The little locking tab on the adjustment screw at the bottom of the bracket tightens up on the underside of the shade header to hold it in place. [Figure 10] Getting the top frame of the shade properly mated up with three, or even four brackets can be a bit awkward, so it can help to have someone hold one end in place while you get the rest in position. Snug up the locking tabs to the underside of the header, but leave them loose enough so you can mover the shade back and forth. Line the shade up with the end marks you made earlier to center it on the window and tighten the locking tabs snugly. Here’s a before and an after photo. We’re quite happy with the results.
 
One window done! Actually, by the time I posted this, we had one window to go. We left the huge living room window that takes up much of the back-end of the travel trailer for last. It’s wide and it’s tall and I’m sure Blinds.com will do as good a job on this one as they have on the others. Anyway, it really does take much longer to write about installing one of these pleated shades than it takes to actually do it. The second one will be easier and, by the time you get to the third window, you’ll be an expert.
Over a year ago, we replaced the mini-blinds in our travel trailer with pleated shades and wrote a blog post about the project. Well, we recently bought another travel trailer and replaced its mini-blinds with the same type of pleated shades. Why another post on the same topic? This time we took a few pictures showing some of the installation steps and thought they made it worth another post.
I guess there are many possibilities when it comes to window treatments for RVs. Pleated shades are just one of these. Many RVs, whether motor homes, 5th wheels, or travel trailers, come equipped with mini-blinds. There is nothing at all wrong with mini-blinds. Deb simply wanted something different, that is quieter—the aluminum-slat minis can rattle a bit—and “softer” looking. We opted for pleated shades because they were reasonably priced, reasonably easy to install, have a wide color assortment, and look nice. For the bedroom, we chose the room-darkening variety, and the standard material for other windows.
The photo to the right shows the windows in our  bedroom slide with the original mini-blinds. Not bad at all, just not what we wanted. When preparing to order the pleated shades, we measured the width and height of each window. We added an inch to the width and a couple of inches to the height of each one. We ordered our shades from www.blinds.com . And, yes, we were happy with their products and service so we joined their affiliate program. So, if you decide to order your shades, blinds, or other window treatments from them and you click on this link, or the one in the sidebar, to get there and order from them, we’ll make a few bucks. Just so you’ll know.
 When you get ready to install your new pleated shades, the first thing is to remove the mini-blinds from their brackets, then unscrew the brackets from the wall. You may also need to remove the little hold-down (travel) brackets at the bottom of the windows. You’ll end up installing new ones for the pleated shades but, chances are, they will be somewhat different and mounted in slightly different locations.
After you’ve removed the mini-blinds and their mounting brackets, the next step is to select a window to start installing the new pleated shades. Each of the shades should be sized correctly for a specific window. I started by measuring the shade to be installed [Figure 3]. Blinds.com includes pretty good instructions with their shades, and they tell you how to position the mounting brackets. Ke ep in mind that your shades will be “outside mounted.”
Most of the shades we’ve installed have taken either two or three brackets, depending on the width of the shade. The two outside brackets should be mounted about 2½ inches in from the ends of the shade. If the shade requires a third  bracket, then obviously it is mounted in the center of the window. In fact, I start by marking the center of the window with a light pencil mark on the frame [Figure 4].
 Next, mark the center of the shade itself, then line up the center-mark on the shade with that on the window frame. Put light pencil marks on the wall at both ends of the shade. [Figure 5]
Ok, it’s about 11:30 PM and I’m going to get a bit of shut-eye. I’ll post the rest of this project tomorrow.
While you can do this yourself so long as you’re NOT using a manual pump from outside the rig, take my advice and recruit a helper. My wife and I usually tackle the winterization process together and it goes very smoothly.
- Disconnect from any fresh water supply, if applicable.
- Be sure all tanks are drained, including the fresh-water, gray-water, and black-water (body waste) tanks.
- The water heater:
— Most RV water heaters now come installed with a bypass valve or valves on the water lines that attach to the heater. This allows the water lines to be filled with RV antifreeze without having to fill the water heater as well, saving at least several gallons of antifreeze.
— Turn the valve or valves into the bypass position.
— Open the outside cover on the water heater compartment.
— Remove the drain plug and open the temperature/pressure relief valve lever and let the water heater tank drain completely. A small amount of water will probably remain in the bottom of the tank, but it will have plenty of room to expand if it freezes and won’t hurt a thing.
— Replace the drain plug.
- Open all faucets in the rig.
- Open the low-point drains. This will allow all the water to drain, even from the lowest points in the water piping within the RV.
- Optional: Use air, if a compressor or an air tank is available, to thoroughly remove all water from the RV water lines. Most RV supply stores (such as Camping World) carry an adapter that screws into the fresh water supply fitting and that will accept an air nozzle (air chuck) like those used to inflate tires.
Note: I have never blown my lines out with air, relying totally on thorough draining and carefully pumping antifreeze into the system. I’ve never had a problem (fingers crossed) and our New Hampshire winters can get pretty cold! However, many veteran RVers highly recommend blowing the lines out with compressed air and I respect their opinions and methods. It sure can’t hurt!
- When the system is drained, close off the low point drains and all the faucets.
- Now you’re ready to pump RV antifreeze into the water system. I’ve done this a couple of ways, and I started to do it a third way, but didn’t complete the process.
— A fellow told me he’d had good luck pouring antifreeze into his fresh water tank and then simply using the 12 volt pump to fill the piping system. I decided to try it. It might have worked fine for him, but I discovered I’d have to use a lot more antifreeze than I thought, just to get enough in the tank so the pump would work. Maybe my tank was configured differently than his. At nearly $4:00 a gallon, I decided on a different method.
— With another rig, I was able to easily attach a fitting with a plastic tube to the intake side of the 12 volt water pump. The tubing went into a full container of antifreeze and the pump was switched on. I was then able to use the pump to fill the water system with RV antifreeze. Starting with the low-point drain fittings under the RV, and then moving to the faucets farthest away from the pump, I opened them, one at a time, causing the pump to run and fill the line with antifreeze. When, at any given faucet, all the air is expelled and you get a steady stream of the pink antifreeze, shut the faucet off. The pump should stop running soon after you close the faucet.
Note: The low-point drains usually terminate in a fitting that must be unscrewed with a wrench and are typically found under the RV. Their location varies from one rig to the next, but will normally be below part of the water system – under the bathroom, under the kitchen sink, etc.
— Since I could easily unscrew the flexible shower hose from the tub faucet, I did that, drained it and left it hanging in the shower area. If your shower isn’t so easy to disconnect, you can obviously pump it full of antifreeze instead, or just drain the hose and shower head.
— Another method is to use a hand pump. These are available from most RV supply outlets. They have an output hose that attaches easily to the outside fresh water connection where you normally hook into a campground water source. Then there’s an input hose that goes into a container of RV antifreeze. The only difference between this method and using the rig’s water pump is that you manually pump antifreeze into the RV water system. Your helper still opens one faucet at a time and tells you when to stop pumping.
— Don’t forget the toilet! Press the flush lever or peddle until antifreeze flushes from the rim of the toilet. It won’t hurt to let a few cups of antifreeze run into the black-water tank.
- The last step is to pour a cup or two of antifreeze into each of the sink drains and the bathtub drain to be sure there’s no water in the traps to freeze.
And that’s about it for winterizing the water system. You’ve drained and bypassed the water heater. You’ve thoroughly drained the water lines and filled them with antifreeze. You’ve filled the sink and tub or shower drain traps with antifreeze. You’re good! Nothing left to freeze.
In the spring, simply hook up to fresh water and flush out the lines by running water through all the faucets and the toilet until everything runs clear. Don’t forget the low-point drains. Then un-bypass the water heater and let it fill. I usually open the water heater drain and let it flush out a bit before buttoning it up and turning it on.
It’s a lot worse to write out the steps, or read them, than it is to do the job. It’s really a relatively simple process and goes quickly after you’ve done it once or twice.
You know, I’ve not been a very faithful blogger to date. The day job and all the other “stuff” going on seem to get in the way of regular posts. However, something bad happened in Washington state today that just makes my blood boil!
Four police officers were sitting in a coffee shop outside of Tacoma, WA prior to starting their work shift. Someone walked into the coffee shop and shot and killed all four officers.
I said to my wife, “Deb, that’s an attack against you and me and all other citizens who pay their taxes and hope and pray that their lives are quiet and productive.” Hell, I know that cops aren’t perfect. There are bad cops just like there are bad doctors, lawyers, and bricklayers. But, like most other professions, bad cops are a tiny minority. And the big thing is, cops are the ones who stand between us and the bad guys!
When I was a high school kid, I used to lift weights at the home of this older guy, Brad, an ex-Marine, who later became a cop in the small city where I went to high school. He was married and had a lovely wife and a small son. He was a GOOD guy! He’s the kind of guy you really want standing between you and your wife and your kids and the really BAD guys.
So…here’s my rant: find those cop-killers, hook ‘em to the back of my travel trailer and let me drag ‘em to the court house!
For the last few years, we’ve really enjoyed our 27 ft. Citation travel trailer. We spent quite a few years as tent campers, then bought a pop-up camper when we got older and our bones got tired of sleeping on the ground – even with ground pads or air mattresses. Finally, we sold the pop-up and bought the Citation. It wasn’t new, and it wasn’t huge, but it was nicely appointed with a lot of real wood in the cabinetry and it was really comfortable. For an older rig, it was (still is) really nice and both of us grew quite attached to it. Deb says “She’s a teenager, but a really GOOD teenager!”
On the other hand, though, after we’ve been out for a week or so, a bit more room would be really nice! Sooo, we started looking for another rig. Deb really had her heart set on an RV with two slides, one of them being a bedroom slide. You know, with the bed oriented with the headboard in the slideout instead of “fore and aft.” That orientation tends to yield a lot more room in the bedroom to move around and for closet and storage space. Frankly, I was skeptical about finding something that fit our budget AND Deb’s wish list. Nevertheless, we looked, and looked, and looked…..
Finally, some friends with whom we used to go camping recommended that we check out a tiny used RV dealership owned by a longtime friend of theirs. We did and found a much newer rig that, to our surprise, both fit our budget AND had the floor plan we were looking for.  It has a dinette slide and a bedroom slide, just like Deb has been wanting. It’s a 30 foot R-Vision and somewhat heavier than our Citation, but we figured our trusty Dodge 2500 would pull it.
And it does! Yep, we bought it and soon hauled it up to Harbor Hill Camping Area in Meredith, NH where we spent a long weekend. The ol’ Dodge knows the new rig is heavier than the Citation, and resents the extra work a bit, but it does the job. So, we’ll hate to see the old girl go – she’s out next to the road with a for sale sign on her – but we’re looking forward to traveling with the newer, bigger, roomier rig.
Chuck Woodbury, editor of the RV Travel Newsletter (great newsletter – great web site – http://www.rvtravel.com/rvnewsletter.shtml) wrote in the latest issue, “As you all know, the RV industry has been hit especially hard by the recession. Many RV makers and dealers have closed up shop.”
Well, I’m sure he’s right. The company I work for has been hit hard, too. I’ve read many articles about the “great RV deals” to be found as a result of economic conditions. The problem is, I haven’t found any of them! My wife and I have been shopping around to replace our 1994 Citation travel trailer with a younger home-on-wheels. Our Citation is a nice rig. We’ve had it for a few years now. It was and is a nice step up from the pop-up we had, which was a necessary step up – off the ground – oh my back! – from our tent camping days.
But, where are the great deals? Where are the sales people who want to build a relationship that lasts? In the last few weeks we’ve met some really nice RV sales people, and some really arrogant RV sales people. A couple of weeks ago, we found a trailer we liked at the area location of a national dealer. Deb said, “I don’t want to do business with that guy!” A week later, we found another RV we liked, but I couldn’t stand the sales person. Neither deal was great, but we might have worked something out if the people had cared to treat us well.
Well, people aside, we haven’t seen what we’d call “good deals” at any of the RV dealers we’ve visited. Maybe it’s just my New England Yankee attitude. Maybe I’m looking for some willingness on the part of RV dealers to make real deals in a down economy. Maybe I’m just dreaming!
Any comments? What’s been your experience?
This blog is supposed to be about camping, right? Or RVing? After all, its name is For-Camping.com. Its tag line is “Info. and Opinion for and by Campers and RVers.” So what’s this about making money online?
Well, I guess it’s about being honest with myself. Deb and I really enjoy camping! We so look forward to hooking up the travel trailer and heading out for an adventure. Yep, an adventure, whether our destination is close to home, or halfway across the country. And that’s what I wanted to write about in this blog. The things we run into on the road, the products we try and like…or don’t. The great people we meet. The fine, and not so fine campgrounds we visit. At least some of the things we learn along the way.
But…the freedom to do that doesn’t come cheap, as they say. Right now, we’re both still working. (I find myself putting in a lot of ten or more hour days, which make finding blogging time a bit tough!) We are, however, not too far from that ol’ retirement age and wanting more and more to be able to enjoy the open road while we’re both still healthy and spry enough to really enjoy it. Any of you who have hauled a trailer or driven a motor home know about the costs involved. Some of us have ample pensions, or have otherwise been in a position to build up a sufficient retirement income. Deb and I? Not so much. So, yes, developing an ongoing income stream is important to us.
Why look to online business as an income source? One obvious answer is because there’s a huge market potential online. There need not necessarily be a huge investment in a “bricks-and-mortar” business site. Most important for would-be road warriors like us is the ability to operate an online business from anywhere we have an Internet connection. I have such admiration for Chuck Woodbury, publisher of RVTravel.com. What a great web site! Lot’s of really helpful and interesting information for the RVing crowd. A camping and RVing bookstore, a popular forum, a blog, and lots of links to other great resources. I have no idea what Mr. Woodbury earns from his online business, but I’d guess it would support our travelin’ dreams nicely.
So, yes, I want to devise a way, or ways, to make money online. Maybe this blog will be a start. Deb wants to take pictures at every campground and RV park we visit and post some of them, along with our take on the place. Maybe other campers and RVers will be interested in those posts. We’ll probably post our experiences with various products related to camping/RVing and maybe see if the best of them have affiliate programs we can join. As far as blogging itself goes, I’ve become quite interested in Yaro Starak’s blog at Entrepreneurs-Journey.com. Yes, he’s trying to sell courses and consulting, but also has a ton of great information available at no cost.
Well, enough for now. Time to get to bed so I can be nice and fresh for tomorrow’s ten hour day. Wait…our trailer is calling to me. I can hear it. Honest!
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Now, about Wild Thing. I took Friday off to get the generator hooked up, rewire my water pump to connect to the generator, and clean the pine branches out of the driveway. While I was out playing “pick-up-sticks,” I looked down only to see a big bird approaching my feet. I don’t know a lot about birds, but I knew she wasn’t a pheasant. A grouse of some kind? Well, between a bit of Google research and a couple of friends, it seems that Wild Thing is most likely a Bobwhite. If any of you know differently, please let us know.
and, as I was taking some pictures, she flew up onto my shoulder. Whoa, I was more than just a bit surprised! I thought “Wow! This is neat!” Then she pecked me on the head a couple of times…and I don’t have a lot of hair up there to provide a cushion…so it stung a bit and I jumped and Wild Thing flew back to ground level.