RIP

Buddy went out about 9 PM the other night to throw more napalm (gasoline) in the pit. He wore a head lamp with a red light (thanks, Alshouse) hoping the bees would not be attracted to the red glow. It worked; however, he did spot a coon at the pit. The coon was in the process of raiding the nest of honey or larva. Bud tossed the gas and touched it off with a match. According to Bud, he damn near set the woods on fire. The fire ball was about 15 feet across (the coon was safe in the top of a hickory tree).

The following morning Buddy and I threw a big piece of lighter wood in the center of the nest area (The pit was about three feet across). Then he doused the S-O-Bees one more time with gasoline. I know we are up to five gallons now. Poof! It burnt several hours that day.

Buddy went down this morning armed with his trusty b-b-gun and shot a few survivors! Those little devils just don’t want to give up. He decided the best way to finish them off was to fill the bucket on the John Deere with dirt and bury the rest. That allowed us to finish work on the fence. I was armed with my hoe and machete and Buddy with the old JD. I wacked and he pushed! After about four hours of sweat we finished that section.
The battle is over, the war has been won! Whoo Hoo!

Next week, Buddy will be working for SWFWMD in Green Swamp – we will let you know if anything exciting happens. And we will keep you updated on the RV crisis.

On Board

Ok, I am now a contributor to your blog....looks like you guys are ready to go. We arrived in Kanab, UT today after a rather harrowing ride thru Zion Natn'l Park. I did not know I had to go thru a 1 mile tunnel that was one way on a two way road. Pam was very nervous. We missed the sign that said to go around if you were our size, once we got there you could not turn around. Another adventure!!!!

Good luck to you guys, hope you get on the road soon.

Good News and Good News

The gray water tank is ordered and on its way! We sat down this morning and tried to come up with a new schedule. We sure could use a crystal ball. Our tentative date to leave is June 4th – We will juggle the schedule if needed. We are going to skip the first stop we had originally planned and head for Fort McAllister. That’s in Richmond Hill, GA. It is a little south of Savannah. We will post on the calendar when we get a better date from Lazy Days.

In the meantime, we have been very busy working on the fence lines. Buddy has poured about five gallons of gas on the yellow jackets’ nest. And of course, that was an exciting experience. I think he finally has them under control. ***** Bud’s entry: I don’t think I’ve put five gallons of gas on the nest – possibly three! I threw about a gallon (in a milk jug) into the pit this morning and set it on fire!! The pit caved-in after several bombardments of gas the last couple of days. There are still several yellow jackets going in and out of several holes in the pit and at least one other hole a couple of feet away from the pit. I plan to win the war through attrition! I’m going to give them another hot drink tonight! In fact, it’s quarter till nine now and looks dark enough for a sneak attack! Gotta Go!

The Latest Buzzzzzzzzz

We drove down to check on the RV and retrieve a few items yesterday morning. The receptionist left a message with our service rep and told us we could drive back to where the RV was located to pick up our stuff and talk to the mechanic. I was relieved when we opened the RV to find that they had put paper on the floors to protect them. I gathered the items we could not live without; Buddy’s knife that John gave him, the hair clippers, another paperback book, the check book and my MP3 player. Buddy checked out the locker area and retrieved his cordless drill -- he has an electrical job he wants to tackle at home. Shortly after that the mechanic and Buddy came inside. Dan, the mechanic, drew us a picture to help explain his theory. The gray water tank that has a crack sits right above the axle. He said it was probably full and we could have hit a bump or maybe even some debris and the tank was damaged. The tanks have thin walls and should be emptied before traveling. Then he showed us where the trip valve was located. Sure enough, it is located in a different spot from the other two valves. We have never emptied that tank. Dan was a great guy and shared some good information with us.

We went back to the front office and spoke with Mark, the service rep. He said he would order the tank and let us know when it would be delivered. Buddy wanted to pick up a book he saw on our last visit “Trailer Life’s RV Maintenance and Repair Manual” .We ate lunch at Lazydays and headed home.

After arriving home I’m ready to do something physical and Buddy wants to nap. When I say I want to do something physical that usually means I want Buddy to do some work. After Buddy gets his short nap we went outside to continue OUR fence maintenance job. It’s important (although we are very neglect) to keep the fence lines clear of trees, bushes and vines. My job is to watch Buddy as he and the John Deere clear out the rubble. Everything is going fine then I hear the engine cut off and Buddy quickly leap from the tractor. That could only mean one thing –WASP! I ducked, turned and ran the opposite direction. He asked me if we had some wasp spray, and if so, get some from the house. He still needed to turn the key on the tractor off! While I was getting the spray, Buddy slipped up to the tractor and turned off the key. We crept a little closer so we could see where the wasp were. There were hundreds of them just swarming around the front of the tractor. Buddy told me later they were yellow jackets and they had a nest under the ground. He said he would have to come back after dark and get the tractor. I asked him how many times he was stung – his reply was four. We went back to the house to take care of the stings. First thing he needed was a nice cold Miller Gold that makes any situation better! Then I went to get one of those insect bite vials that you crush and swab on the bite. You know how you always have one in the kit and nobody ever gets to use it. After a few minutes I asked if it was feeling better, he said not really. He happened to glance at the crushed vial – he said did you know this expired in May of 1997? Well that answered his lack of pain relief. I gave him some mega ibuprofen and ice. ****** This is Bud talking or writing, it was some time after 1 AM before I was able to go to sleep! Those yellow jackets mean business!! I’m fortunate I saw the swarm early enough to avoid more stings. There are enough of those little s-o-bees to kill a person. I plan to try eradicating them, if I can get close enough to find the hole in the ground they use for their doorway.

Today he may tackle the electrical job. Zap, crackle, pop - I will keep you posted!

Just Hanging Around - Latest Update

While waiting to hear from Lazydays Buddy and I mended a couple of fences. We found a new calf down in the woods. I wanted to take a picture but mama cows don't take to showing off their new babies right away. So here is a picture of some of the others born this year. I think we have seven new calves.

Ok, we heard from Lazydays - we evidently have two gray water tanks - one for the bathroom sink and shower and one for the galley. The galley tank has a leak. They will know more tomorrow. It sounds like it will need to be replaced. If it is in stock at the manufactures it will be ready for the road in about 10 days. They will call us again tomorrow when they have more details. We will keep you posted!

In the meantime, we need food and clothes! Almost everything is packed!

RV Update & The Rest of the Story

We headed for Tampa about 9:00AM. When we arrived at Lazydays we checked in with the service department and gave them the low down on the leak. We disconnected from the trailer and waited. Camping World is right there on the grounds so we headed that direction and browsed through the store. Then we ate lunch at Lazydays "free" cafeteria. We checked back in at the service station and they were still waiting for an available work bay. We decided to check out some of the RV's on-site. There are a lot of really nice units there - No, we didn't buy a new one. Long story short - at 4:00 they were still waiting for an available bay, so we headed home. They will call us tomorrow with an update.

Well I know you are all as disappointed as we are! A few people have asked us how/why Buddy was under the trailer looking for leaks .....well.......Here is the rest of the story!

Sunday night I was in the bedroom reading my new romance novel and Buddy was in the living room trying to figure out why there was a red light blinking on the AC unit. As he was reading the manual he thought he saw movement from the corner of his eye. So he put down the book and waited. Sure enough, a mouse ran out from under the sofa. He said the mouse came out and sat up on his hind legs and waved "hello" to him then jumped right up the stairs and ran into the bedroom. Well anyone who knows me knows I have a deadly fear of mice! Buddy came in and told me he THOUGHT he saw a critter. Of course, I thought he was just kidding with me until he started throwing pillows and clothes all over. Well let me tell you, I made it from the bed to the other room in record time.
I'm sitting on a chair with my feet all curled up. Fortunately, we had two sticky traps and a spring trap in the locker area. Buddy put them out and we waited. In a few minutes the little (I will keep this clean) country mouse (I guessing he came from home) came running out to the living room by-passing the traps and found safety under the sofa. Buddy moved the sofa around and chased him under the chair. Of course, I changed my position from the chair to the sofa. Well we fooled around with him for about a hour and a half. Finally he ran back to the bedroom. Buddy had enough and went to bed and I moved to the chair and waited. About 20 minutes later he,the country mouse, came back to the living room. I very calmly called Buddy - then we heard the snap of the trap! We got him! Buddy through him out the front door and finally about 1:30 AM we went to bed. The next day Buddy, being the nice guy he is, looked under the trailer to see if he could find where the mouse came into the trailer. That is when he discovered water dripping under the trailer. So now you know the rest of the story!

I have a picture of the country mouse if anyone wants to see it let us know!

A Little Glich

Houston, we have a problem! Yesterday Buddy discovered we had a leak under the trailer. He thinks the water is coming from the gray water tank (that is the water that drains from the sinks and shower). The underbelly of the trailer has a plastic lining and it was bulging with water. Buddy put a couple of splits in it with his pocket knife and the water came pouring out. It could be anything from a leaking pipe to a crack in the gray tank. We don't know but it will be a major job to find out. So we are headed back home. We have an appointment at Lazy Days to have them check it out. Buddy may check it out when we get home where he as access to his tools. Wish us luck...we hope this is only a snag in the trip. We will keep you posted.

Leaving B'ville Heading to GA

We departed at 9:16 AM. The first leg of the trip went smoothly. We had some strong winds just as we hit the GA state line. The wind continued to blow until evening. We watched fuel prices (diesel) on the way up. Fuel was as high as $4.55 per gallon. Fortunately we found a Walmart in St Mary and only paid $4.11 per gallon. We are camped at King George Resort in Woodbine, GA - population 1,218. We didn't really pass thru the town. We drove to the town of St. Mary's for dinner. It is a quaint historic district about 10 miles from the campground. It has a charming small town flavor situated in the southeast corner of GA. Population 13,761. We ate at Pauly Cafe. We both ate almond crusted grouper, it was really good. After dinner we walked down to a public pavilion on the water. We didn't stay long due to the high winds. On our way home we stopped at the Walmart and picked up a couple items. We arrived back just in time to beat the rain! It was sure nice to hear the raindrops on the roof. We will check out St Mary some more tomorrow if the weather permits but for now we will say goodnight.

Packing It Up

Buddy and I spent the weekend washing and waxing the RV. It feels so good. I hope the love-bugs will just slid right off! (no such luck, huh) While Buddy is at work this week I have been loading up clothes, supplies and some food items. Since this is our first "big" trip I am trying to decide where to put canned goods vs dry goods, appliances, things we will use daily vs have it just in case items, bathroom stuff and important papers. In other words, as Sue would say, I'm playing house!

We are still hoping for rain. Here is a picture of our rose bushes. Aren't the blooms just beautiful! I bet we have cut at least 4 dozen roses from the bushes in the last few weeks.

Blackberries in Season

As you can see we have attached our calendar to the blog. Just for reference...it was too wide when we first attached it. We were able to change the width in the HTML from 800 to 640. Thanks John for the info!

We spent some time today cleaning the RV. We took a break late this afternoon and went over on the rock mine property to pick blackberries. Yummy - I'm going to make blackberry cobbler tomorrow. The berries and vines are starting to dry up. We are hoping to get some rain tomorrow. The grass is starting to go "crunch" when we walk across the yard.