Wordless Wednesday - Giraffe Manor

Giraffe Manor, Nairobi, Kenya  
| The only hotel in the world where you can eat breakfast with giraffe.| 

From me and Katie, have a great Wednesday, everyone!  :)

New solar engine lights

Denise was nice enough to let me know she was ordering some new solar lights on Amazon.com.  Her plan was to put them on the ground under her engine area to keep away critters.  She asked if I wanted to get some, too, and she'd add them to her order.

After the RAT chewed through my very cool set-up, I decided to go with the solar approach.

The lights arrived the other day and after getting them all power up in the sun, I've set them up around the top of my engine and they've been there for two nights.  And they are working very well!

The lights look kind of messy, I could arrange them better, but they are working and I'm not tying them down, so I'll just remove them when I drive and plop them down again on top when I'm stationary.  Excuse my dust - I like a dusty engine.  Then I can see footprints and take more action. :( 

These lights have two options:  steady or blinking.  I have mine set to blinking; I figure that might confuse critters and scare them away.

I put a medium sized rock right near the hooking mechanism for the hood, so it won't close and latch.  I have the solar panel parts of the lights coming out to get the full sunlight every day to keep them powered up.  

I still have the 2 foot section of the old lights in the engine on the right side (click here for that mod), and that's a really powerful, very bright section of lights, so I don't have any of the new lights in that area.  The new ones aren't nearly as bright, but I think they will be fine.

If you are interested in ordering, here is what they look like when you get them.  Click here for the Amazon.com website.   I'm putting the link on the right sidebar, too, in case you want to see them in the future.

I didn't use the stake that comes with the lights, I'm just hanging the panel out of the engine, but you can stake the panel into the ground.  That's what Denise is doing.

I'm not sure mine are this bright, but they are bright enough for what I need. Denise, thanks for the great idea and including my lights in your order!

Katie waking up yesterday morning - I love her first "face" when she wakes up.  :)

And here's Katie looking outside.  I wonder what she's looking at.

Oh, yeah, I should have known.  Here's that lizard again with the turquoise coloring.  Hazel did some research trying to find out what kind of lizard he is, but no luck so far.  Hazel, here's another clear photo of him.  Click on the picture and then click again for a good really close shot.  Let me know if you find out what he is and I'll include it here. :)

Here's our beautiful full moon on Saturday night:

 

This is the best moon shot I've gotten with this new Canon PowerShot SX500 IS.  It looks like we can even see some sunspots in this photo.  It was a beautiful evening.

We've been having the most beautiful weather.  A few days have been cool, overcast or windy, but still, a little variety is definitely my idea of perfect weather.  The rest have been calm, warm, gorgeous.  Hopefully it will continue.

From me and Katie, have a great Sunday, everyone!  :)

Wordless Wednesday - Contagious

Let this play twice and it will go faster.

From me and Katie, have a great Wednesday, everyone!  :)

Attaching the Sirius antenna

I recently got a new Sirius radio with an audio kit. It comes with an outdoor antenna that is supposed to be put in the middle of the car/truck roof, over where the radio would be installed in the dash.  I'm using mine as a portable radio - in the dinette using my Bose radio as it's speakers, and in the sleeping loft with a portable speaker at night.

I guess this is the entertainment corner:

I'll be moving it around, and will also have it up front with me when I'm driving.  I tried the antenna inside the dinette area, but having the antenna outside appears to get the maximum signal, so I had to do that.  Unfortunately, my sleeping loft is over the truck cab, so I had to put the antenna on top of The Palms on the roof.  The antenna is a strong magnet, so that it would stick on the car/truck roof, but it won't stick to fiberglass so I had to attach it another way.

I cleaned the areas well, then put 3M SureLock on the plastic going across the roof and on the bottom of the antenna. 

This SureLock is a heavy duty, indoor/outdoor Velcro type product and it looks like it is sticking well, so far.  I'll keep an eye on it.

I used a couple of pieces of duct tape to anchor the "tail" of the antenna and the wire up to the plastic strip.

I should have used EternaBond Tape for the wire going into the sleeping loft window, but I didn't have enough, so I'm trying white duct tape.  First I cut small pieces and placed them along the plastic piece going over the roof, then I pulled out a long piece to cover it all up, so it's double stuck.  

Then I fed the wire across the top of the water drainage strip, and down into the loft window.  I stuck it down with the duct tape and shut the window. 

It's nice having 3 bars on the radio, I listen to it a lot and good reception will give me a much more enjoyable listening experience. 

This has been a productive day for me.  After getting the antenna on the roof, I came inside and had lunch then grilled up some chicken breasts and a fish fillet for future meals.  Then I made a bowl of potato salad for future meals, got the dishes done, cleaned up the kitchen and I'm done.

I've been re-arranging some of the things in The Palms the last few days.  Little by little things come out and when they aren't used in a while, I find a new place to tuck them away.  The old rolling home is looking pretty nice, if I do say so myself.  :)

As I was finishing this up, I looked out the front window and guess what I saw walking right in front of The Palms?

I saw something white near the rear of Denise's rig and was worried it was Benny, and the coyote was heading that way.  I opened my window and yelled, "Coyote!" twice.  Just in case.  And also for other campers in our area.  It wasn't even 4:00 pm yet.  Pretty early.

I've seen more coyotes so far this year than the other two years combined down here.  There must be a lot of them, or else they are hungrier than other years.  I have to admit, he is a beautiful animal.

WELCOME to our newest Follower, jhm522000.  She doesn't show any information at all, so I can't point you to a blog, but we are very happy to have you along with us on our RVing adventures, jhm522000!

Also... I have some blog housekeeping duties. I've done some digging into my recent new followers - the number keeps growing but I'm not seeing any new faces in my "members" gadget except for jhm522000. So I went back into the new followers that don't have photos and I've found some new names.   Many don't have blogs shown or any other information, but for those that do, I've listed it. I hope I haven't missed anyone.

So.... a BIG (and for some, belated) Welcome to:

Jean and Skip - they do have a blog, and I've actually just met these RVers.  They are friends of Denise and Benny and visited me the other day.  It was great visiting with you guys!  Jean and Skip live in Nanoose Bay on beautiful Vancouver Island, with their three dogs and are snowbirding here in Quartzsite.  Check out their blog here.

snowbirdy has a blog called Solo snowbirds.  As you can tell from the name, snowbirdy is a solo snowbird.  Check out her blog, too.

Glenda Laine also has a blog, Casita Escapes.  She and her partner, Jeff, have been traveling in their Casita with their dog and two cats since 2008 and have traveled to most of the states.  I met Glenda and Jeff at City of Rocks when we were camping there in March of this year. (Remember the great Raven photos in the rocks in our campsite? That was a really fun place to be.)

Carla Hall - Carla doesn't show also has a blog, thank you for letting me know, Carla - and it can be found here.  This is what she has written in her Profile:  "Author of "Obliterated-Would You Know How to Survive?" ebook (a science fiction thriller). Planning my escape to full-time vandwelling within the year."  I checked on Amazon.com for her book, and it looks really interesting.  Carla, have you started full-timing yet?

Diana  has no blog yet, but this is what her profile says, "Planning on full timing within the next year. I have no blog yet."  Good luck with your plans, Diana - when you start blogging, let me know.

Welcome to you all, Katie and I appreciate you following our blog!

And now, I'm eating some cubed watermelon and watching Dr. Phil.  As I said above - I'm done for the day.

From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday, everyone! :)

Today's news from Quartzsite

Not a lot going on - I snapped some photos of Denise driving past us on her motorcycle a few days ago.  She was on her way to Parker.  Notice the little box on the back fender?  That's Benny in his carrier.  How cute is that?

Denise and I were talking yesterday about moving our campsites to a new area.  We have a new neighbor who has one of those industrial strength generators and runs it all evening.  What we can't figure out is that they have three solar panels - I wonder why they need to run their generator so much...  Anyway, I finally decided I'm staying.  I always have something on - an audio tape, playing a computer game that makes a lot of noise, my Sirius radio, the TV - something.  Even when I walk with Katie I have my MP3 player on with another audio book playing in my ears.  So other people's noise doesn't usually bother me.  Denise likes to enjoy the quiet of the desert, so it bothers her more.

Plus, when he's running his LOUD generator, no one will notice that I'm running mine to top off my batteries. I always worry that I'm disturbing my neighbors' peace and quiet when I run my generator, but this new neighbor is definitely covering my noise.  And he's a little ways away, so it's not like he's right next door.  Oh, the tough life I have...  the things I have to worry about.  (Snicker, snicker)   :)

We've been discussing my solar/battery/generator set-up a lot.  I have two 135 solar panels and two 6V golf cart batteries, wired in series.  In most places I'm good with that, but when I come to Arizona, the sun doesn't go overhead - it rises, goes across the side of the sky and sets.  I don't get direct overhead sun on my panels, and my panels don't tilt.  Both Denise and Andy think I need more battery power, or maybe I need to replace my batteries.  They are only about two years old, though, and should be fine, so I might be needing to add two more.

I'm going to check with Discount Solar in town to see what they say, and what it would cost me to add two more batteries.  They would need to be on the driver's side of The Palms, weight-wise (I'm underweight for the rating on this motor home, so I don't have to worry about the extra battery weight), and I'd need to have a box built for them that would go in the bottom of my clothes closet and have them vented to the outside.  I have no idea what that would cost.  Sure would be nice to get through the whole day without having to run the generator to top off my batteries.  At least I want to find out what's going on and what it would cost me.  Then it would probably be something I'd do next year when I get to Quartzsite again.

Katie and I visited Denise and Benny and while we were outside sitting in the shade, Katie went into Denise's motor home and sat there in the doorway. We couldn't figure out why she just sat there looking out instead of joining us.  When I went to get her, she was sitting next to one of Benny's chew toys - that's why she was there.  Hoping?  Waiting for permission to chew it up?  I love this photo of her:

Later Denise gave Katie a new chew toy, and Katie walked back to our campsite with it in her mouth.  As soon as we got home, Katie started in on it.

She chewed on it until it was gone.  Thanks Denise and Benny, Katie loved her chew toy!

This is the coyote we saw last night at sunset as he was running along the next wash.  He then turned and scooted away from us into the trees and bushes. 

This evening we all took a walk to the dumpsters and on the way back Katie started barking furiously - her LOUD bark.  Then I heard a woman yelling.  Of course - it was a coyote nearby.  When we spotted him, the coyote ran across the desert to the next wash.  He seemed afraid of us and Katie's barking and ran away from us.  Katie was hard to quiet down, that coyote really got her going.  I don't know whether Katie saw it or smelled it, but she knew it was there before we were able to spot it.  Especially in the darkening evening.   I'll tell you, you've got to keep your eyes open, but so far they seem to want to be far from humans and their dogs.  I hope it stays that way.

This is the best photo I could get - it was getting dark and he was running!  Never a dull moment here at Quartzsite, even when nothing is going on.  :)

I hooked up my Wii and WiiFit yesterday morning.  I've been wanting to have it set up for a while, and finally did it.  Now I can get some exercise inside The Palms as well as walking out in the desert.  Katie and I have been walking a lot, but sometimes she isn't as willing to keep going and I want to supplement our walks with some inside exercise.  

From me and Katie, loving our life here at Quartzsite, have a great Monday night, everyone! :)