Drip Drip

Thursday was the final day to load up all the Christmas trees for recycling.  I spent another five hours dragging trees to the trucks to be loaded in and hauled away.  I was glad the younger park rangers were there to do the heavy lifting because I have to be very careful of my back and shoulder.  It was great to see that last load pull out of the school yard where the trees were collected.

After all the remaining loose branches and discarded bulbs and lights were raked up (yes, some trees were dumped with decorations still on them) and bagged up in trash bags, the task was done, leaving the school grounds looking clean and neat. 

Today (Sunday) Marti and I drove past the school and there were dumped at least another dozen or so trees on the ground.  I can’t believe that people would do that after the advertising of the program in the newspapers and on the local TV stations specifically gave the dates and the drop off date ended on 7 January!  Now the rangers will have to go back and pick up these trees. 

Unbelievable, but then I shouldn’t be surprised after all the trash we see left around the campgrounds and boat ramps. Last week when Marti and I went around to the ramps to remove the tape that closed off the flooded areas, we filled another trash bag with bottles, cans and garbage left there by the thoughtless few that have no respect for our beautiful countryside.

 

Saturday brought some really heavy rains and high winds.  After our busy week, we enjoyed hunkering down and relaxing inside the Journey.

Glad we were home with all the rain because that pesky leak in my passenger side slide returned.  We’ve fought with this leak for quite a while and it snuck back, but in a slightly different spot and was dripping down on the couch.  Had we not been home, the couch would have gotten soaked.  I was able to stuff paper towels along the inside edge of the slide to absorb some of the water, having to change them out every 15-20 minutes.

To make sure the couch stayed dry (just in case) we put down some blankets and my raincoat to catch any errant drops.

Once some nicer, warmer weather hits, I’ll have to go up on the roof and see if I can find the leak source.  We’re planning on going to the Winnebago Factory in Forest City, Iowa in early April to have our inverter problem worked on, I think I’ll add this leak to the list.  Water intrusion can really cause severe damage to an RV and I don’t want that to happen. 

According to the weather reports, we have another cold front heading our way.  It isn’t supposed to be quite as cold as last week’s blast, but we will be ready for it.  I have to see if I can find higher wattage light bulbs for my drop lights that I have set up in my wet bays. 

 

I have 60 watt bulbs in them and 75 watt bulbs would be better.  Since that size bulb is no longer manufactured, being replaced by the energy saving florescent bulbs that give off no heat, I may have quite a time finding them.

I’m sure when I do find them, they’ll cost an arm and maybe two legs.  I foresee a black market in smuggled light bulbs.  ;c)

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Recycling Christmas Trees

To start the day off, I did everything right.  Knowing we were in for some extremely low night temperatures,  along with running the propane furnace, I went and put two droplights in my two wet bays to protect the water system.

I disconnected the outside water hose after topping off the onboard water tank.

  I did everything right, but it turned out wrong.  The Journey’s water system still froze up. 

We awoke to the lowest temperature we’ve ever seen in the Journey.  This was at 8am, overnight it was in the single digits.  (Just ignore the time number on the bottom, never can keep that time set right.  The outside number is in the middle.)

I decided to see if the water system would thaw itself out as the day “warmed” up.  Fortunately it did with no damage. 

Of course, on the coldest day of the year (so far) we headed out to help in the COE annual project to recycle discarded Christmas trees.

One of the nearby schools is the drop off point for trees.  The trees are loaded onto trucks and then dumped off at all the boat ramps around Thurston Lake.  Fishermen happily take the trees, weight them down and them dump them at various points around the lake.  These trees provide cover for fish and increase the populations immensely.  It’s a hugely popular program for fishing recreation and the trees naturally degrade over the year. 

But first the trees have to be loaded on to trucks to be transported.  That’s where we, and most all the volunteers came in.  Of course, we all bundled up to ward off the cold.  Marti was wrapped in a whole bunch of layers.  If she ever fell down, she’d never be able to get herself up without help!  :c)

There were well over a thousand trees dropped off.  

Every size and shape as well as color were in the huge pile.  Some even had that fancy simulated snow sprayed on them.  Don’t worry, it is harmless and biodegradable.

We loaded truck after truck with trees.

We even had a huge tractor trailer truck come.  In no time we filled it up with a bunch of trees.

While we waited for more trucks to fill, we dragged and stacked trees close to the curb to readily fill the next available truck.

Mike actually looked like he was having fun!  Maybe he missed his calling as a lumber jack?

We worked for over six hours dragging, loading and stacking trees on trucks. 

At the end of the day, it looked like we had moved a little over half of the trees.  We’ll be back on Thursday to finish the job.

We slept good last night.  The 800mgs of Motrin I took sure helped the aches and pains despite being very careful of my back and shoulder.  I sure can’t do what I used to, it was nice to have many younger park rangers to do most of the heavy lifting.

Thankfully, we didn’t have the water system freeze on us.  The past two nights, we’ve used over half of our full onboard tank of propane.

Below forty degrees, the Journey’s electric heat pump automatically shifts over to the propane furnace.  Hopefully, the days and nights will warm up more so I can use the little portable propane tank that I have hooked into the Journey that I can easily refill instead of having to drive the Journey into Augusta, GA to get the tank filled.  About a 36 mile round trip.

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Where’s Noah When You Need Him?

We’ve had an unusual amount of rain here at Thurmond Lake.  Water levels have been approaching historic highs and the Savannah River is much higher than it normally is this time of year.

As a result, Marti and I where sent out to look over all the campgrounds and boat ramps on the South Carolina side of Thurmond Lake while Jim, another volunteer, checked the Georgia side of the lake.

The fear was with the water levels so high, the concrete lanes of the boat ramps would be so submerged that it would make launching and recovering boats too dangerous, the boaters might drive off the ramps and get in serious trouble.

Also, some of the COE docks were submerged.  All these sites needed to be inspected for damage and closed off until the water level subsides.

We drove into all the campgrounds, flooding even back from the lake occurred.

We taped off many of the ramps, the water level was so high, the concrete lanes were way under and invisible.

We checked a few boat ramps that had been closed off the day before.  Some boaters just tore down the tape and used the closed ramps anyway, so we had to re-tape the ramps.

At the Thurmond Dam, the COE was letting out large amounts of water to help lower the lake levels.  It caused large, turbulent waves and eddies below the dam.

 

A couple of the boat ramps were okay, so we left them open as they could be safely used.

At one ramp we encountered some duck hunters who had given up for the day and pulled their boat out of the water.  I talked with them and they disgustedly said they had been out since early morning and hadn’t seen a single duck.

 

Guess what came waddling up the boat ramp right behind them.

Hunters: 0  Ducks: 1  :c)

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