More Mechanical Work and Taking The Tree For A Ride

Happy Birthday to my dear Mom—the best of Mom’s!!

After our walk this morning Emmi and I were playing basketball when I noticed two small spots of what looked to be fresh oil right where the rear of the motorhome sits when parked out behind the house.  I retrieved Michael and he said what I was thinking—uh, oh.  (Well, not in so many words! )

So, Michael moved the motorhome to in front of the shop, elevating the rear on blocks.  The heater booster pump which he replaced last fall was now leaking again.  A couple hours later and we have a new pump and are good to go.  Yep, my handy/dandy husband just happened to have a spare pump sitting around!  When the first pump died on us Michael found several for sale on eBay—the seller was willing to make him a deal on four pumps—that’s how we came to have a spare.  And we travel with a spare, too!

In April, 1999 my friend Kathy and I opened Cinnabar Creek in Big Timber—a sweet little boutique with a coffee bar.  We sold clothing, jewelry, books, accessories, housewares—lots of cool stuff.  On our opening day my Mom and Dad along with my sister Ann and her husband sent us a “congratulations” potted Norfolk pine.  In the past I’ve had great difficulty keeping one of those alive.  This one survived in spite of me—it is now 6 1/2 feet tall!!!  It takes up a tremendous space.  In the past when we’ve been gone for a few months each winter, Lonn would come in the house occasionally and dump some water in the planter—it is really cool—not freezing in our house while we are gone so the plant did OK.  It would have a couple dead limbs when we would come home—we pruned it and each summer it would put out a new top and branches. 

OK—we are going to be gone longer than 2-3 months this year.  LoraLee volunteered to take the tree but when we tried to put it inside a vehicle today—nope, not going to work.  So, I called my friend Nancy who lives only a mile up the road from us and said, “how would you like to have a 6 1/2 foot tree??”  Nancy being the plant lover she is only hesitated a second before saying, “sure, bring it on up.”  So, we loaded it on the back of the Kawasaki mule (it was 50 degrees) and off we went.  Should have taken a photo—we looked quite comical!  

I spent the day baking cookies (six dozen) and finding stuff which needed to go in the motorhome.  It is amazing—you think everything is packed—you open a cabinet and find things that should really go with you.  Maybe we will get it all done!

Oh, and I did spend some time with Tracfone—such a wonderful company and I say that tongue in cheek.  Michael hates phones and refuses to carry a cellphone.  Last fall he gave in and purchased a Tracfone but we let the minutes run out when we came home in March.  Today I tried to reactivate the phone following the instructions on www.tracfone.com.  Not happening—seems I can’t reactivate the phone unless I have a purchased airtime card.  And I can’t purchase an airtime card with a credit card online—I have to go to a retailer such as Wal Mart.   All this because the phone wasn’t active.  I asked the guy (who spoke very poor English), “but I can go into Wal Mart and purchase an airtime card and not even OWN a phone, correct???”  Yep, you can do that but you sure can’t purchase an airtime card online with a credit card and then reactivate the phone.  GEEZ!! 

This guy and his friend greeted me this morning when I opened the back door to let Emmi out:

We are trying to get all our equipment into various buildings for the winter—the John Deere mini-excavator has a canopy which was too tall to go in the garage—Michael solved that problem--

Another busy day before departure!