Settling In and Adjusting

Since we only moved into the Mobile Suites a bit over a month ago (May 15, 2011), we are going through a period of adjustments as well as getting settled in and being prepared for the static full-time RV living. When we hooked up, it was a matter of hooking up electric, water, and sewer, and that is about all we’ve done with that part.

If you’ve been following for very long, you’ll know that we enclosed the coach with a fence so that TJ and Lady can be free to run around outside without having to have leashes and harnesses on. At least they seem to be adjusting, even though they no longer have a pet door that they can freely use to go outside whenever they want.

In addition to the fence, we’ve spread granules for insects and cleaned out sticks and old leaves in most of the yard and erected an 8’ x 6’ storage shed. While it isn’t very big, it is large enough for our two bicycles, the generator, lawn mower, two wheeled dolly and a few other items.  You can see the shed at the rear of the coach on the concrete pad.

There is still some work to be done in getting the last of the leaves out of the yard and then I plan on spreading granules again for the insects. Those little irritants are what have bothered us the most. We have just enough trees around to have ticks, and I suspect we have fleas as well. From what I understand now of chiggers, those usually search out the waistband and groin areas, and that isn’t where our problems lie.

Once the rest of the yard cleaning is done (probably tomorrow), then I’ll have to give some thought to winterizing the water supply hose and route it in such a way as to be more shaded and easier to mow around. One of our neighbors suggested something that he got (I think at Sam’s Wholesale Club) that is a foam type substance that has already been slit for inserting the hose. Otherwise, I may have to get the “pool tubes” from WalMart to put around them.

There is an electrical outlet in the water inlet/dump valve handles/external shower compartment, so I think I’ll also add some electrical heat tape and then put it all through some PVC pipe to give it extra insulation and sturdiness.

For the sewer, I’m seriously looking at the Eze-Kleen expanding sewer system. It is made of PVC so it won’t have the “valleys” that are in the expandable slinky sewer hose. I’ve put in some more questions to an RV Dreams forum participant that owns the system as to what accessories or extra extensions he may have.

http://www.ezekleensystem.com/

The Eze Kleen system has two styles, one with 2 elbows for motorhomes and one with 3 elbows for fifth wheels and travel trailers.  They also come with either two 42” extensions or three 24” extensions.  I’m considering getting one extra extension, just in case.

Two elbow system for motorhomes:

Three elbow system for pull-type RV’s:

We came home today to find the coach a bit warm. The CD player in my “home” stereo system for some reason will come on and start playing if the electricity goes off and comes back on. When we returned after getting groceries, it was running. However, the bedroom air conditioner wasn’t working. I got down on my knees and pulled the covers off the fuse/breaker panels and sure enough, the breaker had tripped. I reset it and it is going well now.

After that experience we began to rethink the way we leave the dogs at home. What we’ve been doing is to put up a gate to keep them out of the living room and close the pocket door to the bedroom. Now, we think we need to get another gate so we can leave the pocket door open and let both air conditioners work on cooling the coach. I guess we just have to live and learn with some things.

I also need to get a ladder of some kind, hopefully one that is about 17’ long so I can easily get on top of the coach and have something to hold onto when I get to the top. With the real ladder and the roof rack, it is only a few inches above the surface of the room, so I have to be very careful when getting on the roof so as to not fall. The extra length on a ladder would be helpful. I also need the ladder to get up into a tree or two and trim out some dead limbs and to cut back some limbs that hang out over the coach.

Some friends of ours (Connie and Tracy) had the misfortune in Oregon to have a limb break off of a tree during a windstorm and it poked a big hole in the top of one of their slides. I sure don’t want that to happen to us, so some limbs have to come down. The Oak trees we have here are that variety that tends to shed some pretty good sized limbs at times.

In addition to all the above, I also need to anchor down the storage shed. While we bought the shed at Home Depot, they didn’t have any kind of anchor system for holding them down. Lowes does have an anchor kit that is made up of 4 auger anchors and about 60’ of cable (with clamps) to run up over the room to hold things down.

I also bought some turnbuckles with which to tighten the cables. It is amazing that an anchor kit involving cables didn’t have turnbuckles.

So, while we have a bit of adjusting and settling in still to do, the dogs seem to be doing just fine. If Jo is sitting in the Euro chair and I am on the computer at the desk, they take over the La-Z-Boy love seat.