SCREEN

That clever little rascal Poco, our three year old rat terrier, figured out that he could easily defeat the screen door by pushing the screen out.

Here is Betty’s solution:

 

While I was at Lakeside Metal fabrication, located at 2610 Hwy 88 E. Mena, Ar , getting our friend Johnny Herring to install a receiver hitch on the back of our Coleman 5er, she talked to fabrication technician Matt. Here is Matt’s fix for the screen pushing pooch situation:

Matt noted that there was a small channel that the expanded aluminum could be placed into if it was measured and cut carefully. Here is a close up of Matt’s careful fitting.

The best part is that it requires no screws to hold it in place or to remove to clean, yet the air can flow freely through.

Clever, imaginative craftsmen, that’s why we keep coming back here to get our stuff done right. As some might remember, Johnny is the fabricator that made the cool generator box for the front of our Oliver.

Though we no longer have the Oliver, we still have the generator box if you know some one that might need one.

BATTERY’S

After coming from a very efficient Oliver into a much larger fifth wheel trailer, our energy needs are quite modest. Because of that, we opted to use less expensive and more readily available, off of the shelf battery’s.

This morning I went back through the newly installed solar system and soldered the crimp type connectors while the terminals and copper wire ends are fresh. Past experience has it that unless they are soldered, sooner or later the connection will become a high resistance connection that will reduce the efficiency of the solar charging system.

Here is a look.

The battery cables are #6 AWG size, so my hand held soldering gun wouldn’t even come close to applying enough heat to get the job done.

I used a propane torch for the heat source, being careful to keep the flame away from the actual solder joint, heating the connection by conduction. Propane will cause poor connections sometimes if applied directly. Those very old pliers were used to steady and hold the hot part . ( Betty’s Stepdad’s pliers, They are kind of a cool keepsake that we choose to keep using around the house. We imagine that somehow he would like that. )

We are parked under the large oaks and the charge controller is only reading the voltage of the battery bank. All the time I was working in the battery compartment the display was flip flopping between 13.3 and 13.4 volts DC. It made me wonder just what the periodic load may have been.

As time is short before we depart for our workamper  job in Colorado, i’ll just think on that one for awhile and see if I can resolve it later on down the road.

Battery box covers in place, vent system back on, ready to close the battery compartment lid.

DEPARTING

As we departed from our campsite at JugFest2010, amidst all of the waving and good by’s, Pete had the presence of forethought to snap this photo of  Betty and I waving good by to our dear friends.

 

The last week of JugFest2010 we got the call that our new fifth wheel was ready for pick up at Camping World in Katy Texas. Located on I-10 just west of Houston, we had about 950 miles of round trip driving to do. We would have to leave our friends at the lake for a few days to get it done.

It took several days to round trip it and to take care of last minute details, but soon we were back at the lake.

The new trailer is a 2010 Coleman fifth wheel that is 36 feet long ! Holey schizzle ! Now that’s a radical departure from our normal way of traveling ! We are towing it with a Ford F350 ( one ton dually ), that has a twin turbo 6.4 liter diesel engine.

The strange stuff up on the roof is a Winegard road trip satellite dome and five hundred watts of solar panels that feed a bank of batterys.

It is such a large sun blocker that we think we will call it SPF-60, because it can just nearly totally  block out the sun !

He, he, Pete must have just changed the battery’s in his camera, note the photo’s date !

BAG

JUGFEST2010 is in the bag ! It’s over with. Done. Kaput. Finished.

Our Annual Oliver community is starting to disband until next year.

We caught some really good fish and plenty of them too. Had some great times on the Lake and enjoyed great times with good friends.

Tom & Karen left out ahead of the storms that would have blocked their way, getting home in fine form.

Steve and Tali are back on the job in the work a day world.

Chuck & Geri are still parked at Greeson, but she’s recovering in the hospital. Now that’s some serious partying down, when you have to go to the hospital to get over it ! Woo Hoo ! Rock on Geri !

Aubry & the boys are still at Greeson, but will leave for South Carolina today sometime.

Pete & Oscar will be staying at the Lake for a few more days before heading out to meet up with Lane for the ROUTE 66 Little plastic trailers rally.

Now that’s going to be very cool, hope Oscar keeps his camera busy for all of us !

 

Glenda and Jeff made it back to their home 20 in good form. Glenda started a project of photographing everyone’s trailer maybe she will post some of those pix on the Oliver Forums.

Keith and Sue may still be on the road on their way back home. They had other stops to explore.

Everybody got to catch large catfish and proudly display their fish.

Those that had room were able to take home some delicious fillets for scrumptious meals later.

There were so very many hilarious moments and swell times around the campfire. We will be telling and re telling the tales for years to come.

More later, with photos, of course !

STORMS

As one of those classic Springtime thunder boomers passed through last night, everybody denned up in their little plastic trailers.

We kept in touch with each other by the FRS radios. Most of us keep up with the weather by using a cell phone program of some kind, so we all chose a different one to monitor.  Different ones have longer or shorter time lags built into them. Some were using TV to watch the weather channel.

The weather event turned into quite a social event.

Our 3g device ( air card ) had very good, un wavering signal and I monitored Intellicast on the internet.

Though there were Tornado’s in Arkansas, none were near us. We felt that if a tornado was spotted we could go to the concrete shower house for shelter, before the Corps of Engineers Ranger could make the round of notifications.

There are hundreds of campers here and it takes the Ranger awhile to notify. So, in keeping with our philosophy that we are ultimately each responsible for our own safety, instead of someone else, we chose to be proactive and monitor weather and make informed decisions based on that information.

The air is washed clean and is ever so fresh this morning ! It’s gona’ be another great day at the Lake !

OUTLAW

Breakfast at the Outlaw Oliver campsite with Steve and Tali.

 

Followed by dominoes !

CATS

Betty and I show two from this mornings catch.

We have decided to not cast the jugs tonight ! We have had good luck and have enough fish on hand that everyone that wants to, can take some home with them.