February 7, 2022
CCL writes:
I was supposed to leave today, but a couple of issues cropped up and my stay here has been extended.
And a lot has been happening here. I did a lot of leatherworking the first three weeks or so, and made Marjorie a belt, Bernie a rifle scabbard and repaired a couple of belts as well. The scabbard was the big project as I’ve never done anything like that before. I have ideas to make the next one much better.
The puppies are now 4.5 weeks old. They’re adorable. But we lost Cinnamon at 3 weeks. She was the only chocolate and the runt. She had aspiration pneumonia, probably from us feeding her. Marjie and I took her to the vet, but I guess we were too late. She passed in my arms as we were headed home. Needless to say, we were all heartbroken over it. In some ways we still are.
But the remaining SIX are growing like weeds, weighing in at 7 and 8 pounds, each. They are eating and drinking (water) 3 times a day and still occasionally nursing on Indy – when she lets them.
Our lives revolve around feeding them, cleaning up after them and cuddling them.
The issues that cropped up are as follows:
No heat in the coach. And it’s been cold out. I woke up Saturday morning with the temperature a bracing 47 degrees farenheight. I assumed that my little electric ceramic space heater would suffice, but it no longer works. OMG.
Texas has had a cold snap and it’s been down to the teens at night so having heat is a necessity. I only have a 12-volt power supply for my CPAP so I really wanted to continue to sleep in the coach. In order to do so, I decided to run the truck and aim the heat vents to the coach. It worked, sort of… Saturday night I ran it for a couple of hours and turned it off. It was in the 70’s when I went to sleep. I awakened at 4:30 with the temp in the upper 40’s, so I turned the truck back on.
I awakened again at 9 am, hot and sweaty and the temperature in the coach was 91 degrees farenheight.
Last night I ran it up to the mid 70’s on a lower setting and went to sleep sometime after midnight. It was better this morning, with the temps again in the 70’s.
I was concerned that there might be a leak in the propane system but I figured out that the thermostat is malfunctioning. It is not running off of electricity even though I selected that, it’s only running off of propane and after a month of maintaining 63 degrees, (and using Rigbee at the Thanksgiving cluster) we finally ran out of propane.
Today, Bernie and I took Rigbee to Killeen welding supply and got the propane tank refilled. One problem is solved!!!
The other issue is with the little utility trailer. I forgot (and so did Raelene!) that it needed new tires. Halfway here I remembered and kept a close eye on it the rest of the way down. Since there is a spare, we just thought I needed another tire to go on one of the rims and the other wheel would be the spare.
Well, the old rims are in bad shape. So Marjorie and I spent ALL day Saturday trying to find another wheel. Or Rim. All over greater Killeen. No one had one, and it’s a pretty standard one for little utility trailers… 4-80 12 with a 5 lug pattern. OMG, it’s been awful. We were also looking for a small electric ceramic heater. None to be found, anywhere.
AMAZON, a small ceramic heater will arrive tomorrow, not that I need it now.
I can’t leave. The trailer is in no condition to roll… no wheels. I had to order two on line and they won’t get here until Thursday. We’re planning to leave for home on Friday morning. We should get home then on Monday, taking four days instead of three as I am too worn out doing it in three days. We’ll see.
And no, I’m not bringing a puppy home. These pups are going to be at least 75 pound adult dogs.
Pictures to come!
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