Final Preps

Monday

Cold but sunny this morning.  I waited until about 10 and the temperature was up to 38 to go out and clean the gutters.  I started on the front of the garage, it was not bad.  Then around to the back.  Full of frozen leaves and ice.  I tried scraping it but its really frozen.  So I moved to the front of the house where the sun is shining.  The gutter was pretty full but was thawed out.

Lots of wet leaves

 While the leaves were wet it is not too bad of a job, just up and down the ladder and every year the ladder seems to get a little heavier.  The yard slopes away and I have to extend the ladder as I move along.

This is the high end of the gutter

I finished the front and moved around back, I was able to do about 10 feet of gutter that was kind of in the sun but then got to the frozen stuff again.  So I came in the house to wait an hour and hopefully the noon sun will melt the ice.  About that time the propane truck backed in and so we will have a full tank before we leave.

Back outside just after noon to try to get the back gutters cleaned out.  It was about 39 out and the wind had picked up to it felt even colder.  The sun had loosened up the ice in the gutters and I was able to finally get them cleaned out.

Still lots of ice

Finally all cleaned out

With the gutters clean I put the ladder away and headed in for lunch.  Bonnie made a sandwiches.  We had a few minutes to rest and then got a quick shower.  We were headed to Arcade for visitation at the funeral home.  After that we went to supper with the family and then we headed home.

Going to take it easy tonight and relax, I will sleep good tonight.

Tuesday

Sunny again this morning thats nice and its warming up some.  We are preparing to our trip this morning and getting ready to go to the funeral.  The funeral for Norma Freyburger was well attended and it was a meaningful service.  She was buried right behind the church in the Java Village Cemetery.

Nice peaceful resting place

The church had a nice meal after the services and we visited there for a while.  Then we headed to see Bonnie's sister she was to be home from the hospital.  We got there to drop off some things we had for her but she was not there.  We found out later that she was a bit delayed.  Bonnie also dropped off some potato soup for her and her parents.  Then we headed to the bank to pick up our allowance.

Today is election day and so we stopped by the Town Building to vote on the way home.

Hope You Did Too

A bit confusing since all three precincts now vote there.  While we were there I cleaned up the little bit of paperwork that was at court for me.  Then finally headed home.

We collected the trash and then Bonnie had to head to Warsaw to pick up medicine and get an X-ray at the hospital.  I ran the trash out to the street.  But first I swept the leaves that tend to gather in the corner of the deck.

Leaves like to gather here

The past couple of nights Bonnie and I have noticed a red light when we drove in the driveway.  We usually see a green light on the generator, meaning all is well.  I did not think the red was coming from the Generator but stopped while taking out the trash to check.  Sure enough there was a red light on.  I opened the lid and the display showed an "Over-crank" alarm.  Which means it failed to start.  There were a lot of the orange bugs that look like ladybugs inside the cabinet.  We never had that before.  I started to check out what could be wrong and I found a bunch of the bugs under the cover by the choke actuator.  Sure enough the coke was stuck in the on position.  I cleaned out the bugs and started the generator a couple times and it seems to be working properly again.  I will have to keep an eye on it.

The cover in the upper center by the yellow plug was full of bugs

All normal again

So it turned into a pretty busy day.  Tomorrow we pack and take care of last minute items.

Wednesday

Final day of prep for the trip.  Bonnie is working on the laundry getting it all done.  I caught up on the email and blogs and then headed outside.  I grabbed the new GPS to program in some addresses.  I noticed the wind had uncovered the wood so I went down and covered it to keep it dry.  While I was down there I cleaned the leaves off the utility trailer so the wood deck can dry out and not rot.  Then I headed up to the garage.  I put the seats down in the Odyssey for the trip, yep this is a car trip since we have 2 weeks of timeshares to use.  Then I loaded some water bottles into the cooler.  Next was to adjust the air in the tires on both cars.  Every year when it cools down the tires meet a few pounds of air.  I rode out to check for the mail but it has not come, but the trash man had.  So I brought in the trash can and the recycle bin.  Then back into the house and I loaded the GPS with some addresses.  The sheets were dry so we made the bed.  Then I unplugged the water treatment system so it will not cycle while we are gone.

Well the house is clean, the wash is done and I am almost packed.  We took stuff from the refrigerator  to Elizabeth and Alexus and now I think we are ready to head South in the morning.  Stay tuned to the blog for updates and lots of pictures I hope.

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"If Your Dreams Don't Scare You, They Are Not Big Enough"