Well, we waited as long as we could. We were hoping against hope that the house would sell before the end of October and we could escape to Ft. Myers for the winter. Didn’t happen. So we are going to let the listing expire, enjoy(?) our (hopefully) last New England winter and re-list in the spring.

So with all hope of a warm winter dashed, we had to winterize the RV. That meant (1) putting anti-freeze in the water lines and (2) covering the entire RV to protect against the elements.

So I bought an RV cover ($425 on sale) and 3 gallons of RV anti-freeze ($17) and headed out yesterday (11/9) to perform the sad chores. I was a bit fearful that we had waited just a day too long as the temperatures dropped below freezing on Saturday morning. But I had done my best at blowing out the lines before putting Patience into storage and 29 doesn’t really qualify as a “hard” freeze, so I didn’t think there would be any freeze damage. I was actually more worried about vandalism. The RV is stored in a pretty remote spot and might be a tempting target for burglars or squatters.

But it looked fine when I arrived. Whew! Later I discovered some evidence of some animal (field mouse?) being inside, but we can deal with that.

First I hitched up and pulled the RV forward about 3 feet, leveling it in the process. Then I started work on the anti-freeze. I was doing a bit of guessing here as I had only watched one video on how to do it and the valve configuration wasn’t quite the same. Still, once I got the pump activated and the first gallon set up, the anti-freeze was sucked out of the jug very rapidly. Then I remembered that I had left the faucets open inside (to relieve any pressure generated by a freeze, so the antifreeze had worked its way through the lines and had been spitting out the faucets. The shower had a lot of pink on the walls and floor. Which proved, I guess, that I was doing it mostly correctly. But I ran into trouble trying to get the hot water lines filled. I had to fiddle with the valves and eventually found a combo that worked. I used every ounce of the 3 gallons I had, but I think I got all the lines filled.

Then I drained the hot water tank one last time and moved on to the cover.

The trick with the cover was getting it onto the roof. It was too heavy to carry with me as I climbed the ladder, so after a moment of cursing myself for not bringing some rope, I scrounged for a solution. I decided that two bungees, hooked together, would work. And I was right: I took the end of the bungee with me up the ladder, then hauled up the cover.

Getting it unfolded and properly positioned was a heavy chore. In spite of the 50-degree temp, I was sweating profusely. But after a lot of tugging and crawling around the roof, I got it correctly (more or less) positioned and dropped the fabric over the front, the sides and, finally, the back as I headed down the ladder. Then it was just a matter of figuring out the straps. But I got it all done. The result was not perfect – there was more fabric on the north side than the south – but everything was covered and secure. I will try to return in a month or so and see how the straps are holding up.

Leaving Patience there felt a bit like leaving my child on the steps of the church, but we will use it again next year. So don’t despair, Patience – we will be back.

Patience in storage

Sad, but true – we are out of the RV and back in our house in Medford, MA. We put the house up for sale in early September and agreed that if it didn’t sell by the end of October we would reside there over the winter (ugh!), fix the place up a bit and get it back on the market in the spring. Well, we didn’t get any serious offers so we made the move and put the RV in storage. The photo on the right is Patience, looking sad and forlorn next to a rusted-out Bounder. We will get an RV cover for it before the end of November.

So this was the first time that I had to “winterize” the RV, which really meant getting the water out of the lines. I chose the “blow air” through the lines method rather than the “fill the lines with antifreeze” method, but relied on my strong lungs to empty the lines. That has worked in the past with the lawn sprinklers at the house, but I don’t have a lot of confidence that I did it well enough. I will try again when we put the cover on it.

Being back in the house is weird. We are now used to living in 400 sq ft, so suddenly having 2200 sq ft available seems excessive. I love having the yard – no more early morning dog walks – but dread getting the heating bills. And since we don’t have much furniture, the place looks empty. We are resisting doing anything that has a permanent feel to it – like getting cable TV or a sofa – and are trying very hard to not acquire anything that won’t fit in the RV. We had to cancel our FL campground reservations, but left the deposit with them. We still have a faint hope that the house will sell before spring and we will be able to dig Patience out of the snow and escape. It it unlikely, but we can dream.

The other thing I am enjoying about the house is the commute. I can now get to work in under 45 minutes – half the time it took to get there from Littleton. That is an extra 90 minutes each day that I can use for things like… blogging.

If you know of anyone who would like a nice 4-bedroom 1.5-bath house in Medford, MA, please send them our way.

House for sale

Water stain on bunkhouse carpet

First, one of the bunkhouse slides sprung a leak. Beginning with a heavy rain in May, we found a large, very wet spot in the bunkhouse due to water seeping in – somehow – through the slide seals. We have experimented with putting duct tape over seams and seals on the slide, without success. There is no water on the ceiling or the walls – it seems to be entering from UNDER the slide. We have discovered that bringing the slide in about 8″ during a heavy rain stops the leak, which gives us a way to deal with it, but I still have no clue as to what is leaking. Very puzzling. And damaging – it has left a nasty stain on the bunkhouse carpet.

Then we found that the other bunkhouse slide was also leaking, albeit in a different way. This leak presents as a wet spot in the corner behind the bunk. It is not nearly as severe as the other leak and it different as it appears above the bunk floor rather than below. But it is still very annoying.

The third leak was discovered in the bedroom closet. At least this one was easy to diagnose – an inspection of the roof revealed an open seam above the closet area. I patched it with roof cement and that one seems to be fixed.

Just so it wouldn’t be left behind, the sink also sprung a leak. Looks like the seal around the drain has opened a bit, which causes water to drip under the sink if we fill it with water. I think I can fix this by applying a clear waterproof sealant around the seam. But I haven’t done it yet.

Owning an RV seems a lot like owning a house.

Our screen “house”

It may just be that we have a screen house this summer, but I have been noticing how many RVers have them. I suppose in places with few insects (yes, there are some – the desert, for example) they really aren’t needed. But we are in New England where there are, after a good, soaking rain, enough mosquitoes to carry you away. Avoiding the annoyance buzzing bugs alone justifies the cost. But when someone is allergic (yes, that would be Jett), the cost should be deductible as a medical necessity.

Ours is, technically speaking, not so much a screen house as a screen umbrella. It is a net that drapes over a large patio umbrella. Lacking stakes – or any support other than the center pole – I was concerned that the whole thing would blow away in the first stiff breeze. That concern, coupled with the realization that the net didn’t quite reach the ground, led to a solution: bury the base about 4″ in the soil. That gave the whole shebang additional stability and closed those annoying gaps around the base. No breeze has, to date, blown it away.

Rusty enjoying his net cage

One of Steve and Elaine’s screen houses

Steve and Elaine, our friendly neighbors, liked their screen house so much last summer that this year they have two.  They seem to use one for socializing and one for playing cards.  But it Jett and I had two they would probably become his-and-her spaces.  I need a man-cave.

A walk around the park revealed a wide variety of screen houses. Here is one of the more interesting ones – a tent-style one that is actually larger than the tent in which the occupants sleep.

Tent-style screen house