Flaming Gorge 2017 Samon Run Start w Kathy

Flaming Gorge 2017 Samon Run Start with Kathy looking on.  It started early this year and we caught it right as it started.  In the stream photo you can see the red fish spawning.

 Look and you can see some of the now red fish below.

Secondary AC

Last Christmas Kathy's Moms house was in the 90's.  We can not run our generator in her driveway in town to run our main rooftop AC.  Also we can only hook up 15 amp to the house 110 sockets.  So this year in February's visit I am taking a small window AC we have.  If it is in the 80's or 90's this year while we are there I will set up this secondary unit.  It took me 10 minutes to figure out how and to do it.  Here it is.

Here you see our 5000 btu unit set up and plugged in.  I decided to plug in directly to the wall outlet to help overloading the RV fuse, it worked fine.

 I have it set up to go in and come out quickly so when driving it sits under the dinette or in a basement compartment.

 Below id another view.  It does not put out what our roof unit does but it is the only one we have that will run off house 15 amp power.

Walter filter priming

Priming our berkey's glad we did it at home to gain some experience with the manual system.  Here you see the manual filter (you need to assemble) for the big berkey filters.  The instructions worked for me and I recommend everyone do it at least once before you need it for the experience.  I bought the berkey go for those RV parks that do not have good tasting water (to our taste).  Also in a pinch if no clean water is around we can purify our own in small batches.

It takes a few minutes to get the water coming through the filter, once it starts keep pumping for a minute or two then your filter is primed.

Below the black filter is primed and ready to be inserted in to the berkey go container to start purifying water.

Here we have our berkey go, berkey sport, a zero water pitcher to keep full with our berkey go and a plain plastic pitcher to fill the two berkeys.  I do not need to use the zero but we have it so why not use it as well for its capacity, fits well in the frig.   Please note, I use the 18oz camp cup to fill the berkey go and if I leave the filter in when not in use it protects the plastic filter tip from breaking.

Here I am priming the berkey sport by squeezing a few bottles of water through to prime it for use.  I will take this with me while I am teaching today to see how it goes.

With this years summer hurricane's so many people had no drinking water my interest peaked. So I bought some Sawyer Mini Filters and as you can see along with some small Berkey purifiers.  Will leave at least one in our tow vehicle and one in our go bag. 

My New Solar Cooker Bag Mini

I got a solar Cooker Bag Mini for my 62 birthday and have been playing with it ever since.  Here was my first use.  It was 94 degrees and partly cloudy I put on a pot of red beans and rice at noon and pulled them at 4pm.  Temp hung around 175 with me moving the cooker about every 45 to 60 minutes.

At 4pm it is 100 degrees and dry here is our finished product for your viewing and pleasure.

Took some getting use to carrying this baking dish to and from but I did it with only a few drops spilled till I got to the tray.  To be true it dripped on the way in not the way out when it was less flimsy.

The oven worked great!  As long as we remember it is a slow cooker we will all be fine:)

Below I cooked a 4 pound Pork Loin in a baking bag and it was great and very moist.

Some Summer Shots

Pinedale, Wyoming dinner by the lake!  Kathy and I having a great dinner and a great view.

Grand Junction, Colorado!

Me at Flaming Gorge, UT:)

Kathy watching the salmon run.

 Kathy in the vineyard.

Salt Lake, Utah

Saving on Coffee and Tea by going back to the basics!

Saving on Coffee and Tea by going back to the basics!

Today Kathy and I use 2 K cup makers one for coffee and one for her tea.  When we first got married in the 80's she often used tea bags or loose tea and I had just switch from a stove top percolator to a drip coffee maker.  Over the decades we switched to K-Cups.  Since coffee oil remains after a K-Cup is made it goes into the next cup "often" tea (I am often up first) which hurts the tea flavor, so we ended up buying two makers.  Now that we are down sizing to go full time RVing in another year I am coming back full circle (Kathy is considering it:)).

I would like to return to the basics, one stove top tea pot, tea bags and a simple coffee brewer like the one I an showing here. Got it and a pack of filters for it for under $5.00.  Of course you can use paper towels as filters in a pinch as well:) .  Plus a can of coffee which I can by for under $5.00.

Using this set up with a tea pot reduces the storage space we now use (2 K Cup units) by 75%, in an RV every bit helps.

Working on a Distiller for sea water

Working on a Sea Water a Distiller

 Cost three bucks at the Dollar store for the three bowls the red one is just over 11 inches.  Dirty water set in the bottom of the red bowl then the clear dome on top.

 After a few hours in the sun it is starting to distilling.

After four hours I got a quarter cup of clean distilled water.  I think I lost a maybe a quarter cup of the water back in the dirty water basin because of the flat top.

Here I stacked the three in each other for storage.  I figure the best results from this would be about a cup a day.   So back to the drawing board:)

I do know I can dig a hole on the beach.  Put a cup in the center and place a plastic clear sheet over the hole. Add a small weight in the middle over the cup or container and get freshwater this way as well.  I just want to try other ways:)