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Late April - Odds and Ends

4/30/2022

Cleaning out the cupboards

For a number of reasons, our time in Jacksonville has been extended later than normal. However, we try to make good use of the extended stay. We helped out as we could and did some cleaning house to lighten the load in the RV.

Sign after its annual cleanup

RV Stuff
Before it got too hot, it was time for the RV’s annual wash and wax. We usually put this off as long as we can, or (better yet) entice someone else to do it. (Droz?) Oh well. After some scrubbing, some “wax on” and “wax off”, it looks much better. Cathy also took advantage of some inside workspace to freshen up our name sign with a few coats of Polyurethane.

We also did some long-delayed house cleaning, pulling stuff out of the RV that we aren’t using. We did some digital house-cleaning as well. When Cathy went to upgrade her computer to Windows 11, she discovered that she lacked the disk space to do it. So, this motivated us to finally finish configuring our NAS (Network-attached Storage) backup that we bought last October. Once Dave discovered that it had a handy report that would show duplicate files, we spent several days recovering lots of storage space occupied by the duplicate files, created over decades of use. That gave Cathy the room to install the upgrade, which is actually working well.

Church Stuff

Fermin’s picture of new charger
Although we had no big projects the past 2 weeks, we made ourselves useful in lots of small things. The yellow golf cart we call “Lazarus” for obvious reasons was no longer charging. The problem was initially traced to a blown fuse in the charger, or so we thought. With a new fuse in place and several days to recharge, the batteries still held no power. More diagnostics showed the problem to be the charger itself had failed. We ordered a replacement that hopefully will do the trick.

This guy has found the sewer covers are a good resting spot

Several years ago, we deployed a number of yellow #10 cans painted bright yellow throughout the campground to protect the sewer connections from mowers and weedeaters. However, several cans have rusted away over the years, so Cathy collected some new cans and painted them as replacements. Every time she thought she was done, she found one more needing replacement. But maybe she’s done for this year.

And then there is the well that supplies water to the Burmese Garden. Dave was feeling good that he had made enough adjustments to the run times for the well pump to ensure the water tanks were refilled as they were drained by usage. However, he wasn’t prepared for the fact that water didn’t flow at all. The new set-up was based on the natural flow of the Artesian well which had been running at 27gpm. With no rain for several weeks, and plenty of usage, the Artesian well stopped flowing. To solve the problem while we wait for rain, Dave switched to the submersible pump to draw water into the tanks.

Parting Shots

We joined Evalyn, her daughter and son-in-law and Barry for an evening at her house. After supper we took a walk in her neighborhood on a pleasant spring evening. The Canadian geese decided to take their family on a stroll as well.

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Early April - It's Electric

4/17/2022

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Checking out an access point after the lightning strike

When the flash/boom shook us early one morning, we knew the lightning strike was close, but didn’t realize it would order our days for the next 2+ weeks. Good thing we had some breaks to get some visits and time away from the technology

Installing new switches across the campus

Lightning Strike . . .
The church’s internet devices took a hit from a lightning strike one morning, but the extent of the damage only became clear over several days. What we eventually learned was that the surge traveled through the ethernet lines, taking out almost 20 devices, including the church’s printer/copier. Spending the first day mostly on the phone with Comcast and Netgear, we began the process of getting service restored.
When Comcast’s promised (though hysterically unlikely) arrival between 1 and 3am came and went, the apologetic customer service agent arranged for a call 8am Saturday morning, which did happen. With service restored to the campus, Dave realized that the initial damage assessment was too limited. Devices that had worked just after the strike were failing. So, we went methodically to every node on the network and found 3 routers and 14 switches that needed to be replaced. Even the office printer, which had worked on Thursday to print the bulletin, by Saturday was no longer on the network.

Using the devices that did work, Dave connected the network so it would work across campus, despite the missing components, and then we began making warranty claims and ordering replacements. Over the course of the next 2 weeks, as replacements arrived, they were installed, restoring the network to even better than its original state.

Dave cuts the Eternabond tape for the trailer roof repair

. . . And Other Stuff

A roof repair on one of the church’s trailers had failed over time, and needed to be addressed. We applied some Eternabond tape to the affected area and since then the trailer has remained dry. Hopefully it will last longer than the last repair. And in between this and our internet problems, Dave purchased and configured a new office computer.

Shane from 1Sec Mobile RV Repair pulls the furnace to replace the sail switch

RV Stuff

We have more time to spend on some RV maintenance, so we tackled a number of items that needed some attention.

It was a cold morning in February and the propane heat would have felt really good. But although the fan would turn on, the heat never kicked in. After several attempts, we were pretty sure we knew what the problem was. The sail switch. It is a known problem with our model of Dometic furnace, but not on a recall. While some RV’s have easy access from the outside of the RV to the furnace to replace this $35 part, our 2020 Cougar was not one of them.

The furnace was still under warranty, but we weren’t enthusiastic about hauling it to a service center twice – once to get it diagnosed and once to get it repaired. Working with a local mobile repairman, we made the connection to have him certified to repair it under warranty and then, since his suppliers were having trouble getting the part, we ordered it for him. Although the warranty wouldn’t cover the mobile service fee, it was worth it to be able to not have to move the 5th wheel.

When Shane from 1Sec Mobile Repair arrived, he was confident the sail switch replacement would solve the problem. An experienced repairman, he carefully removed the furnace and replaced the sail switch. Once installed the heat has turned on every time we needed it since.

Vent gasket glued back into place

There were 2 small items that we asked Shane to address while he was here.

Cathy had discovered a bucket under the kitchen sink with an inch of water in it a coulple of month earlier. After clearing out the under-sink cabinet, she isolated the problem to the hot water supply line, which had a loose fitting. Since this was a PEX fitting, we didn’t have the tool to fix it. Shane, of course, did have the tool and made short work of tightening both the cold and hot water supply lines. And it has remained dry since.

The last item had been present since we bought the RV, although we hadn’t noticed it until we got home from the dealer. A gasket on the vent above the galley sink was loose and not providing the seal that it should. Shane glued it back in place, and we had a good seal again.

The used anode had only a little useful life left

Then we had some DIY maintenance. Our hot water heater has a sacrificial anode inside that needed to be replaced. It makes sense to drain, sanitize and flush the hot water heater at the same time. With a specific 1 1/16" socket, the anode rod removed easily, and it was apparent that it was doing its job well.

Our RV has valve settings that isolate the hot water heater from the rest of the water system, so we could flush out the sediment from the tank and sanitize it without having to turn off the water to the RV. Using a special hose attachment, we rinsed the tank and collected a LOT of sediment in buckets that flushed out of the tank.

The next step was to fill the tank with vinegar and let it sit to loosen any mineral deposits. Using a tip from Youtube, we fashioned a PVC pipe to allow an easy fill, and it allowed the vinegar to drain without splashing onto the RV. This is a maintenance task that is easy to forget, but we are going to try to make sure it stays on our radar going forward.

The deadbolt on our front door had been behaving oddly for much of the past year. However, it started getting worse in the last month. Reading more about horror stories from other RVer’s of getting locked out of their RV, we decided to replace it before that happened to us. The irony was that once we took it off to put the new one on, we discovered that our lock just needed to be lubricated and the screws tightened to work properly. Guess we have a spare lock now.

Spending time with Karen and Morris in Daytona

Reconnecting

We made a trip down to Daytona to visit with Morris and Karen, our friends that we had met volunteering at Faith in years past. They hosted us for a delicious dinner one Friday, and we enjoyed catching up with them. The next week, we visited with Marcia who was secretary at Faith when we first arrived here. We helped install some replacement outdoor lights and spent time with her over lunch.

And, having received a 2nd Covid booster, we’ve been joining the church for Wednesday dinners again after several years of keeping our distance.

Buc-ee's Daytona Beach

Parting Shots
While visiting Daytona, we couldn’t resist stopping into Buc-ee’s, which has recently arrived there. This huge travel plaza had amazing fuel prices (80 cents less than Jacksonville) and equally amazing chopped brisket.

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