New Pump/Awesome Dinner

It was still very chilly this morning.  Jim was making a grocery run, he went to get Rod around 9 this morning and together they gathered everyone’s grocery lists and headed off to Parker.  I have to admire them – this is the weekend of the big “Parker 425” off-road races and the place is mobbed.

While they were gone, I practiced some line dancing inside until it warmed up to a little over 30 degrees and then took the dogs for a walk.  I met Gina & Rollie out for their walk and also saw Frank, one of the other campers in the area.  I came back home thinking I would take my shower, but there was no water!  I thought maybe things were frozen up, so I opened the outside water compartment, thinking maybe that would help thaw everything out.

When Jim got home, he asked about the compartment door being open, well to make a long story short, our water pump died!  He went back to Parker to buy a new one because he didn’t want to disassemble our water adding “extra” pump.  Once the new pump was installed, all was well again. I got my shower just in time to sit outside and enjoy the warm sunshine for a few minutes before going across the way to Gina & Rollie’s for an awesome happy hour and dinner.

From left to right – Janna, Mike, Deb, me and Rod, great conversation!

Rod and Gina listened intently:

Rollie had something important to say (like, “Dinner’s Ready”):

Rollie is trying to clean out his freezer.  Tonight he made a  big pot of jambalaya and grilled pork steaks.  Along with that, Jim made a big pot of “Clayton’s beans” in his Dutch oven, Deb made the most delicious Caesar Salad, and Gina fixed some fresh picked frozen corn.  Oh my, and if that wasn’t enough, Janna made an apple-something in her cast-iron skillet that was to die for, served with ice cream.  By dessert time, the sun had dropped behind the hill, which meant enjoying our goodies inside Gina and Rollie’s beautiful 5th wheel.  We visited and played with the dogs for awhile before coming home to settle in for the evening.

I gave our solar panels a workout today while Jim was out – I had the TV on most of the day.  I also ran the hair dryer and the coffee grinder while the sun was high this afternoon.  I hope we can get through the night without our furnace running as much as it has the past few nights!  One of our biggest draws on both electric and propane systems is that darn furnace.  It really eats power and gas, but that's what keeps the “basement” heated, so it’s kind of a necessity.  We keep the thermostat set at around 58 or 59, but when it’s below 20 outside, it runs a lot more than it does when it’s in the high 30’s or low 40’s at night.

Thankfully, the weather forecasts are calling for warmer temperatures at night as well as during the day for the next several days, so we should be able to conserve some energy.

Here we sit, our beautiful spot in the desert:

What a great day it’s been!