Tuesday October 6th 2020

So this last weekend marked our third anniversary of fulltiming!

Yes three years ago we were tucked in beside the chicken coops at Al and Sue Beamers, just trying to figure out what our lives were going to look like, WOW, has the world ever changed, since then …

It’s about five o’clock in the morning, and as usual this old body had me up early again, just a couple of months ago I would have been greeted by a sunrise, but as we are into the fall months our days are quickly becoming much shorter. We have just got through a week of rain so the milder temperatures yesterday were a welcome relief, a great day to be outside in the sunshine, oh it was still jeans and sweatshirt weather, but much warmer than last week as we struggled to get to double digits on the thermometer hovering around 9ºC (49ºF).

Monday and Tuesday are our days off, but we have been chasing an elusive water leak at the park for a number of months. The park water consumption has been increasing instead of decreasing as the season comes to an end, so it was an all out effort to find and repair said leak before it became an even larger issue. But water leaks take time, and as stupid as it may sound they may need to be forced to show themselves, so this was the approach that we took, but all these things do take time.

So to help fill in some of the time Richard and I started winterizing some of the units which were ready to be closed for the season. We seem to have a lot more on the list this year than last, and with a sunny day it was a good day to get started, just to ease the load later. I suspect lots of people will be done after this coming weekend. This is our Thanksgiving weekend which is normally the last weekend for the park, this year we are stretched out longer and are still three week till the park closing.

Found it! Yes the leak has been located, and it’s a biggey, a main water line an inch and a half line on the south side of the park. Of course it’s not going to be an easy repair, they never are, in between trailers, working around stacks of fire wood, decks, patios and the like. This one will be very challenging as the lines are close to 4’ (1.2 meters) deep and will require multiple items moved. But we managed to get things moved, the water all pumped out, and the line has now been repaired and the water turned back on to the south side of the park – so this week will be a try to put everything back together day as we re-bury the line and repair the area … fun wow!

Ontario is well into the the second wave of the Covid pandemic, the reason is very simple, everyone started to let their guard down, it’s that simple, people not wearing their masks, too large of gathering, social bubbles that were not within guidelines, multiple bubbles to fit their needs, and the list goes on so here we are now being told to avoid large family gathering for Thanksgiving celebrations. And if we don’t get our stupidity under control there will be no or little chance of Christmas celebrations either, I don’t understand why it has been so difficult for so many. And now we have the president of the United States with Covid along with a couple of dozen of his immediate staff members. Again no mask, no social distancing, pretty much everything done wrong that was possible, hell he even went to a fund raiser after knowing he had been in contact with people that had tested positive, making him pretty much the poster boy of what not to do.

But even with all the pandemic crap going on, we are still looking forward to this years travels, the exact appearance of which is still up for discussion, but I’m pretty sure it will not include a Canadian winter. I know many British Columbia campgrounds are already full for the winter and getting there has many restrictions through the mountains. So it will be a trek south, either with the coach or by airplane, both will have some issues. But that’s about a month away and no one knows what will happen in the next month.

I know this blog has bounced around but with so many unknowns coming our way in the next month, there isn’t a lot of firm details to pass along … but the next 30 days will be interesting from many sides, not the least of which will be the American election … just saying.

Remember to be safe, stay strong and be well!

Tuesday September 22nd 2020

In just a couple of hours we will officially be into the fall season, we have already had some cold overnights, not freeze your water hose kind of cold but serious frost on the roof kind of weather. Not unusual weather for fall in Ontario, with warm days and chilly nights, we are yet to have that killer ground frost that kills all the plant life, no at this point the gardens all still looking good, and we are in for a sunny warm week, with temperatures around 20ºC (69ºF) through the weekend before the cooler rainy days that are forecast for next week.

We have been through a couple of crazy weeks, between birthdays, contracts, and the like, Laurie and I were excited to have a visitor on Saturday. My son Matt stopped by for a visit, which was a great surprise he also brought some craft beer from a brewery in Stratford, I have only supported local breweries this year and would have to give “Black Swan” two thumbs up. 2020 has been a year that we will all remember for ever, I still have not seen family since last fall, not having the ability to visit with family and friends, has made this a very long and lonely summer, with Matt being only our third visitor of the year, as we are trying to adhere to prescribed guidelines.

The park is much quieter now, with the restart of the schools here in Ontario, the play ground is empty and the pool which is still open, doesn’t see any action most days. The fall projects are under way, with lots of improvements scheduled in our extended season.

Ontario is seeing a huge increase of Covid-19 cases with the number of cases up around near 500 per day, not surprising with the actions of some, as premier Doug Ford said so eloquently, “these people are a few fries short of a happy meal” with private gatherings exceeding the limits and of course no social distancing as has been emphasized since March. Looks like the second wave is well upon us, as restrictions start being rolled back again to try to protect us from ourselves, I’m sure there will be lots of covidiots complaining.

I ventured into Goderich last week for some supplies, and young fellow at the vegetable market tried to explain to me that this whole Covid thing, it was all just a hoax, I and everyone else was being forced by the government into all these unnecessary actions. So I thanked him for his insight and told him that he was obviously not making the best use of this valuable information just selling produce at a roadside vegetable stand … I asked his name and was surprised when it wasn’t Darwin.

I spend yesterday installing the new breaker box in the basement, to allow the removal of the Hart 2000 watt inverter, which was replaced by the Victron 3000 watt pure sine wave inverter. You see the old inverter only powered up two circuits in the coach so the power supply came from the main breaker panel to the inverter then split to feed power to the two circuits with overload breakers located on the inverter, so now the power supply will go to the breaker box, then out to the circuits. Allowing the removal of the old inverter, reducing weight by about 20 Kg (44 Ibs), and allowing me to install a couple of new circuits, one for the basement fridge and also a waterproof exterior plug to save the cables from running out under the basement doors, which damages the cords while allowing a rodent access point … and it is the time of year that our little furry friends are going to be looking for a warm winter home.

I also have fired the boiler so that we are prepared for the cold nights, not only for our warmth but also for the heater in the wet bay that automatically turns on when the temperatures get close to freezing our water lines. As we have another six weeks I’m sure we will see some sub freezing temperatures and some snow before we hit the road.

Monday in the afternoon we spent some time on the beach, enjoying the warm sunny afternoon, the lake water is still quite warm, and Miss Laurie scored big with a handful of beach glass, followed by a couple of burgers and a quiet evening watching some television.