So it started today, the first ten units to be prepared for the winter season. We have our little trailer with the antifreeze and a pump to push the antifreeze thru the trailers water system, we have an air compressor to blow the out the water out of the water lines before charging them with antifreeze. We have to drain the hot water heaters, ice makers, any thing that has water can and will freeze, and when water freezes it expands and whatever has water in it will crack or break…that’s just the facts of physics.

With a skid of antifreeze, there must be quite a few on our list, I think Richard said sixty to seventy, the number doesn’t really matter its just a task that we need to complete. Richard has been doing this for a lot of years and remembers a lot of the trailers, so we can make sure we don’t miss any items like an outside sink Richard spotted on a new to the park trailer in the first group of ten, it was located in a small compartment only about eight inches high, one I would never have expected it and it was obvious enough the trailer owners had never used as it still had antifreeze in it from the previous year. But missing something like that would certainly ruin an exciting opening weekend in May!

We have booster cables to operate slides as necessary to get to things tucked behind the slides. As we recommend that the owner disconnect the batteries over the winter months and in a perfect world they would take them to recharge them over the winter as lead acid batteries loose about 8% of their charge each month especially in the cold. Almost every hot water heater has a by-pass and the by-pass allows us to charge the rest of the water lines with the antifreeze without filling the hot water tank, as it is just left with the drain plug removed until spring. We always have to be on the look out for outdoor showers, outdoor kitchens, plumbing for washing machines, ice makers, and of course water filters.

The process is not difficult, but is time consuming, as without two people working at it, there would be a lot of steps in your day. So one does all the inside work while the other does all the outside work, and for right now me doing the inside seem to be the quickest. Oh boy only another sixty to go…..

Well it is Saturday night and I was sitting in the recliner watching Global news as they are reporting on the latest political lies (after all we are only two weeks from our federal election and the news has to report each new lie every day) and as I glance out the side window, I said to Miss Laurie, Susan and Robert just pulled in and they are backing into their regular site across the road from us…and Miss Laurie’s response was precious “seriously” to which I responded yes I’m pretty sure it’s Susan and Robert.

Now the Pikes are becoming a regular topic of our blog, as it was just a few weeks ago that they surprised us on my birthday, they have been touring around Ontario seeing the sites and enjoying the warm weather. Now you may remember when they left us before they were heading to Windsor so Robert could take in a couple of the Detroit Red Wings pre-season games while waiting for some repairs on their rig. Well in typical RV fashion they are still waiting but they are getting real close, in fact one of the items is landing on this coming Tuesday and hopefully the rest are close behind.

So they were exploring up in the Parry Sound area, checking out the fall colours when Robert got the opportunity to take in the Detroit Red Wings home opener, so the are heading back to Windsor for a game Sunday evening and needed a place to park for the night, and we were that spot. It’s always great to have visitors and of course it just adds when they are unexpected.

Yesterday started out as a frosty morning, but warmed up as the day went on, Richard and I started winterizing the first group of trailers, as funny as this may seem I have not winterized a unit in about forty years, as our idea of winterizing Thunder is to aim south and drive till it feels warm! We have stayed in freezing temperatures now and then but just right around the freezing mark. In fact on Saturday morning when we had the heavy frost the thermostat in the wet bay turned on the furnace, yes Thunder has a diesel oil fired furnace and it has a pre-set thermostat in our wet bay where most of the water lines are, as well as a hot water radiator that comes to life to protect our systems.

This style of heating system is call hydronic heating and there are a number of brand names on the market, ours is branded Hurricane, these systems were developed for the boating world where no one uses propane, diesel which is used for the boat motors was the fuel of choices, and it works similar to the boilers in the big old houses that are the source of heat by heating hot water to be pumped to radiators. Thunder has five such radiators, one in the bed room, one in the bathroom, one in the kitchen area, one in the living area and of course one in the wet bay in the basement. So when it fires up it takes a while to warm all the fluid in the system (it is filled with an antifreeze similar to your car) but it is a nice gentle heat when we use it. But most of the time if we are plugged into shore power we heat with a little portable space heater.

Well it’s about eight o’clock on Sunday morning and Miss Laurie and Susan have headed to the beach in the search of some of the coveted beach glass, or the perfect shaped stone for painting. Susan and Robert will be leaving us by 11:00 this morning as they venture off to the Windsor area, but it is always great to see them even if it is just overnight.