Season Shake-down

The first trip of the season is under our belts!   Waddles and I went to La Grande Oregon for the Ladd Marsh Bird Festival.   This is an annual event that I try to get to most years.

Ladd Marsh is a very special place, and this year it was very very wet; so wet that the water was running over the road in a number of places, and some of the standard staffed stations were under water.   AND that didn't stop the fun.

Waddles and I left home on Friday and drove the 200 miles to La Grande in cool, but ok weather.  We arrived in the early afternoon and got set up at the Grande Hot Springs RV Resort.    I tend to not like RV parks, but this one is very close to Ladd Marsh, and I had some early mornings planned, so this seemed like the best place to stay.   The weekend was predicted to be quite rainy so I was prepared for the worst.

Friday night the Festival kicks off with a speaker.  This year it was Dr. Rob Taylor  who talked about his time on Midway Island helping with a project transforming the military base into a refuge for birds and other wildlife.   It was VERY interesting and I learned a lot.   Did you know that mice will eat away at live birds?  I didn't.

At the RV Park the first night we didn't have any close neighbors and I got to listen to the Sandhill Cranes all night long, which was delightful.

Waddles with some space around her

On Saturday morning I was up early to get onto the marsh by 6am.   I took a long walk  into the marsh  on a road which is closed to the public except during the festival.   There is water on both sides of the road, with lots of reeds for birds to hide in, and many open water areas as well. Click on the photos to embiggen them.

Sunrise over the Marsh

White Pelican on the fishing pond

White Pelicans at Dawn

I heard lots and lots of Bittern, Sora and Virginia Rails, but didn't see any.   I did see Marsh Wrens, Common Yellow-Throat Warblers, many different kinds of ducks, Sandhill Cranes, White Pelicans, Wilson's Phalaropes, Cliff, Barn and Tree Swallows, and lots more.    During the Festival there are staffed stations, where spotting scopes are set up and bird experts are available to assist in spotting and identifying birds.    My first walk, described above, went to station 4.  I then went to station 3 and saw a Sora. This is a very shy wading bird that can be heard all the time, but they rarely show themselves; they hide in dense reeds.  This one came boldly out in to view and walked along the edge of the reeds for quite a while, so I got a good look.   I did not, unfortunately, get a picture of it.  This is only the second time in my life I've seen one.

Then I went to station 5, which was staffed by friends.   As the day turned out to be LOVELY, I decided to just hang out with them for most of the morning.   The water was so high that this station was moved from its normal location so we had a different perspective.    We were treated to Ruddy Ducks, White Ibis, Northern Harriers, Coots, Yellow-Headed Black Birds and more.   We also got to see, up close and personal, a Great-Tailed Grackle, which is not a common bird in Oregon.  I also didn't get a picture of this one. Darn.

Reflections at Station 5

After lunch there was a speaker from the Blue Mountain Wildlife Rehab Center with raptors that had been injured and are not able to be released into the wild.  They have become ambassadors.

Raptor Talk

Barn Owl

Red-Tailed Hawk

After the festival activities a friend and I drove around the valley to find more birds and had a lovely afternoon.  When I got back to the RV Park I had two new LARGE neighbors.  Waddles is still by far the cutest.

Feeling a bit small...

Sunday morning I was signed up for a field trip called 'Dawn Chorus'.  This trip started at 4:30 a.m. and was a walk through the marsh as the sun was coming up.   The rain held off and the morning was spectacular.    It was a great exercise in identifying birds by ear, as many were hidden in the reeds, and we didn't have a lot of light at first.   We saw yet another Sora, and a Virginia Rail; another shy bird that hides in the reeds.   We heard many Bittern, but I didn't see one until I was back in my car and one flew across the road in front of me.

Dawn over Ladd Marsh

Great color and reflections at dawn

More lovely reflections

Not a great picture, but this is a Virginia Rail

Then I went, with 3 friends, on a second trip to a place called Growiser, on a shield volcano at the north end of the Grande Ronde Valley.   You can read about it on the linked web page, but I will tell you it's a pretty special place.  The north side of the area has heavy soils, dropped as Mount Mazama Ash, and is covered with dense forest.  The Southern side has thin soils, and is open meadows.    The whole area is being restored to native habitat and we walked all over the area looking at plants and birds.    If you ever get a chance to go there, do.   The web page tells you how to arrange a visit.

Field Trip across Growiser meadow, looking south over the Grande Ronde Valley.  It was spectacular.

Camas

Looking South

Lupin, not quite blooming yet

Calypso bulbosa Fairyslipper

Peach colored Paint Brush

Sierra Pea

Don't know what this is called

Mountain Goldenbanner

Ponderosa Pine Male Cones

After that field trip I spent the afternoon going to some of the stations I missed on Saturday and found  Bullock's Orioles, House Wrens, a Flycatcher I couldn't identify, and a Downy Woodpecker.    And then it started to rain.    I found evidence of a hawk that had been killed by something.  It had LOVELY feathers.

Red-Tailed Hawk Feather

Tree Swallow

Wild Iris

Red-Tailed Hawk and Stormy skys

And then it started to thunder and lightening, and then it rained some more!   So I retreated to Waddles after having dinner with friends.

And now it is Pouring Rain

I spent one last cozy night in Waddles, dry and warm.    Monday morning I got up to the promise of some sunshine.    I packed up and pulled out by 7am.   I made a short stop in Pendleton to visit friends, and then home.  

It was a fun and successful trip.   I didn't really get to test the new batteries, since I had shore power at the RV park, but everything seems to be working just fine.

In less than 4 weeks I will be heading north to Prince George British Columbia to attend the Association of Northwest Weaving Guilds (ANWG) Conference.   Waddles and I will be joined by friends who also have a little homemade Teardrop Trailer.   This trip will be a couple weeks!   I am so looking forward to it.

Wandering Season Begins!

Well, I think it is high time to kick off the summer Wandering Season!   Yesterday Waddles came out of the garage and had a very thorough spring cleaning.  She now has all clean linens, all the cupboards have been vacuumed and scrubbed.  Everything was taken out, gone through and re-stored.   Tire pressure checked, bearing grease checked.

So today we went for a short drive around the area, just to shake out anything that might have gone awry over the winter.    All seems to be in good order.

I love this view in my rear view mirror..  Waddles AND 'The Mountain'

Next week will be our first official outing.   We are heading to Eastern Oregon to the Annual Ladd Marsh Bird Festival.     We have reservations at an RV park near the Marsh, which will make it easy to get up VERY VERY early for the 'Dawn Patrol' field trip on Sunday (4am-ish).     I love this festival and it also is giving me a chance to visit with friends in the area that I don't always get to see.

RV parks are not normally my first choice, but it will make this trip easier, since I won't have a lot of time in the mornings or evenings.

This will also be the first trip since installing the new batteries, and although I'll have shore power at the RV park, I plan to try just using the batteries for at least part of the time to see how they work.   It is also the first time using the smaller propane tank, and I WILL be using that for cooking.   I'm still struggling with the Norcold cooler.  That is the next thing on the list to get the kinks out of.

So, between now and the end of next week, I'll be packing up food and clothing for the trip.   I can hardly wait!

Last time I posted I was unable to reply to the comments left on the post, and I'm not sure why that happened, but I'll also see if I can figure that out!  It's always something!

Happy Happy Spring!  I love this time of year.

Looooong Overdue!

Well, I'm sitting here watching the snow fall, adding to the already accumulated 24", and dreaming about summertime travels.    It occurs to me that I never finished posting information about the battery upgrade I did last fall, so what better time then while I'm housebound in February??

If you recall, I replaced the one 12-volt battery with 2 6-volt deep cycle batteries.  In order to do this we had to rearrange the entire contents of the tongue bin.    The new batteries are not only bigger, but heavier than the 12-volt battery.  My handy-dandy helper has some rockin' welding skills, so he took apart the existing structure of the bin, and reworked it to hold the two batteries and a new, smaller, propane tank.

Waddles stripped naked!

Reworked internal structure.

One of the two new batteries

The new 10-lb Propane tank

What the internal configuration looks like now before it's all secured down

Both new battery boxes are securely bolted down.

The propane tank fits perfectly

I haven't yet taken Waddles out for a test run with this new set up, but I love it.   Along the way we kept a close watch on the tongue weight and we came in under the max my Subaru Outback can handle.

I hope to take a couple short runs with Waddles when this snow finally goes away, and then there is a big trip planned for June up into British Columbia for a couple weeks.   I miss hanging out in Waddles, and she is safe and secure in my garage next to the car (and the snow blower!).

Stay tunes for more adventures.

Adding Power

Well, Waddles and I have been pretty house-bound, looking after a now, hopefully, recovering kitty, so we have been working on upgrades.

I've heard that using 2 6-volt batteries will hold a charge longer than the 1 12-volt battery that comes with the trailer.   So, my resident mechanic and I did a lot of research and measuring, and bought 2 deep-cycle 6-volt batteries.    In order for them to fit into the tongue bin, I needed to downsize the 20-lb propane tank to an 11-lb tank.   More research, more measuring, and I ordered the new tank.

The 20-lb propane tank is out, but this is what the bin looks like before the modifications.

One big consideration in doing all this is the tongue weight.  I pull Waddles with a Subaru Outback, which has a tongue weight limit of 200lbs.   The old 12-volt battery weighs 43.2 lbs.   The deep cycle 6-volt batteries weigh 63.4lbs each.   The 20lb propane tank weighs 35 lbs (and it was not full). The 11-lb propane tank weighs 26.5lbs full.

We pulled everything out of the front bin. including the metal framework inside the plastic bin.   We fit the boxes for the 2 new batteries in and loosely secured them to the steel framing on the tongue of the trailer (to test things out).   The new propane bottle fits PERFECTLY in the leftover space.     It will take some reconfiguring of the metal framework inside the bin to fit the batteries and smaller tank, and fortunately for me, my resident mechanic is also a pretty handy welder (he's working on it as we speak).

So, back to the issue of tongue weight.    We put both batteries in their boxes, added the smaller propane tank and weighed the tongue.   We had taken the spare tire out from under the tongue to be able to maneuver under there, and because it adds more weight.    Without the tire we came in at just over 160lbs tongue weight.   With the tire, 186 lbs!!!   I'm very happy about this.    The batteries are set as far back as they can go on the tongue, which helps distribute the weight off the tongue.

So now we have to secure everything, and we will be ready to roll.    I may not take another trip with Waddles this summer (but I might).    I'm looking forward to trying out this new set up.

Priorities

Sometimes the best laid plans go awry.     I have been planning to take a Waddles trip to Red Lodge Montana this month with a couple things in mind.  One, to drive the Beartooth Highway, which looks amazing.  The other is to deliver some historic photos and documents to the Historical Society in Red Lodge.    I was hoping to leave on this trip next week, but....

I have two cats which are the reason I don't travel in the winter time.   In the summer another person lives here and can care for the kitties if I'm gone.    Well, for the second time in her life, one of my cats is crashing.   She is a small cat, now about 10 years old.  When I got her at the shelter, at the age of about 2, she weighed 8 lbs.  5 years ago she got really sick and lost a lot of weight.  At that time she was tentatively diagnosed with a nasty, fatal disease and was not expected to live long.   Well, she recovered and has been well since then, though she never got her weight back up over 7 lbs.

Recently I noticed that she seemed really thin, weighed her, and she was down to 5.2 lbs.   I took her to the vet who ordered blood work.    Nothing abnormal, so they took X-rays (thinking there may be a mass in her stomach or something like that, she has a history of digestive issues).   This showed that, although she's eating, her stomach, intestines and bowel were completely empty and she was dehydrated.    The options they offered me were more tests, lots of money and lots of trauma for my poor kitty.   They really had no clue what was wrong.

Yesterday I took her in for a urine sample (she weighted in at 4.8lbs!). They suspected a Urinary Tract Infection yesterday and sent me home with antibiotics and probiotics which I started giving her immediately.    Yesterday she didn't eat much, last night she spent the night sitting in the darkest tightest corner she could find in the house, and I was pretty sure I was going to have to put her down today or tomorrow.     This morning, after 3 doses of meds, she was eating and seemed almost perky.     The Vet called with the test results and confirmed she has a UTI, which could be affecting her kidneys, which possibly could cause the weight loss.   He said that I should see a marked improvement in her behavior over the next 24-48 hours.  She will get tested again after 14 days to see if the infection is completely gone, and to see what her weight and well being are.

So, I'm tied to home, giving her lots of food, and meds for the next 14 days to see if she can overcome this setback.    I love this little kitty, so am happy to make her my priority.    Red Lodge can wait.

In the mean time I've been doing some work on fixing the Waddles issues I mentioned in the previous post.

Door Locks:
I think this one is operator error.   It seems that one of the locks throws the dead bolt, the other keeps the outside latch from being opened.  So evidently they work fine, and I was just clueless.

Front bin bolts:
I called the NuCamp Warranty number and they are sending me the missing bolts for the bin on the tongue which holds the propane and the battery.    Interestingly they said when they ship the trailers to the dealer, the bin is stored inside the cabin, and the dealer attaches it to the tongue, so it possibly was never attached correctly.

Converter:
They said someone would have to test the converter and the Refrigerator to determine what is going on with them.    I could not get an appt at the dealer in Portland until the end of October, so my resident mechanic is helping me to trouble shoot some things to see if we can figure out what is going on.   We have tested the converter by running big things (fridge and fan and AC) and running just small things (like the LED lights and the phone charger).    My mechanic thinks the noise it makes may happen when there is only a very small draw on the converter.   We will keep testing this.

Refrigerator:
The NuCamp person told me the Fridge temperature fluctuations could be caused by having the hatch on the back of the trailer closed so there is not enough air circulation.    Reading the Fridge manual, it sounds like this is a very real possibility and the space the Fridge is in clearly does not allow for the proper air circulation no matter what.  

I'm also looking at replacing the 20 gallon propane tank with a narrower 10 gallon tank (it is only used for the stove burners, which I don't use that much), to make room for 2 golf cart batteries to replace the bigger RV/Marine battery that is there.   My understanding is that the 2 will hold a charge longer than the 1.


Stay tuned!

Camping and Learning

Just got back from another little adventure.    Each year a group of former co-workers (now mostly retired) get together for a camp trip.  Last year we were at Tahklakh Lake, this year we met at Little Lava Lake, southwest of Bend Oregon.

I drove over Mt Hood, and down Hwy 26 through Warm Springs and Madras.  It was a very hot day!

It was HOT in Madras

It was threatening thunderstorms, but they missed us.

It is a beautiful area and I've never driven in from the north on the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway.   It is lovely, and takes you around the north and west sides of Bachelor Butte.    It is appropriately named, as there are many many lakes, large and small, along the drive.

Little Lava Lake is actually quite large, but Lava Lake, just to the north, is larger with a much larger campground and a little store (walking distance from Little Lava for those important ice-cream runs).

It was a small group this year, and unfortunately one member crashed on his mountain bike just before I got there, and wrecked his knee, so wisely left the next morning to take care of himself.

We had kayaks, so were able to make a couple treks out onto the lake, which was lovely and cool, with a good breeze blowing.

South Sister from Little Lava Lake

Sunrise

Theresa's new boat (she built it!)

Scott and Theresa's matching boats.

We also did a hike up to Lucky Lake, a round trip of about 7 miles.

Lucky Lake

Afternoon kayak on Little Lava Lake

Waddles was outfitted with her side tent, which provided respite from the bugs that came out at sunset.

The campground is not too big, has running water and pit toilets.  As with most Forest Service campgrounds it has no power, which was fine.   The sun was shining and my solar panel worked great.

Three nights there and I was dusty and happy, but had to come home.

One of my neighbors

Interesting hydrology!

Lots of ducks with big babies on the lake.

So after this many outings with Waddles I'm noticing a few things are not working the way I'd like them to.

Door Locks:
Before the trip I'd been having an issue with the side door locks.  There are two locks on each door (not sure why), but it seems that on each door, one of the locks no longer locks the door.   On the T@g forum I follow, I've heard of others with this same issue.

Yellow bin on the tongue:
After my last trip I noticed that the yellow bin on the tongue, which houses the battery and the propane tank, moved around.   On closer inspection it is not attached, and is only being held there by the weight of those 2 items.  I checked in with the T@g forum and learned it should be held in place by a couple of rivets which clearly I've lost.

Power Converter:
On the previous trip, where I had shore power, the converter (which converts shore power to 12-volt) was making noises like it was not happy.   Winding up and down.   When I plugged my phone in to charge it, the phone indicated it was charging, then not charging, then charging, then not charging in rapid order.   So I unplugged the phone from the trailer.

Power:
On this trip I was just running off the battery and the phone charged just fine.

Refrigerator:
I've always been a bit skeptical about the refrigerator which is electric and runs off the battery.   I decided to test it this trip.    I have a battery charge meter plugged in where I can see it at all times, and with the solar panel going the battery was plenty charged yet the fridge fluctuated between 38 degrees and 58 degrees.  This is obviously NOT a good thing.    It is beyond me why they don't put propane fridges in these trailers.  It would make so much more sense.   The fridge does work fine when plugged in to shore power.

Don't get me wrong, I am still completely smitten with Waddles, and none of these things are fatal, although the tongue bin could be a serious safety issue if I ever rolled the trailer.    I do plan to give the company a call and see what my options are for fixing them.

The dust has been cleaned out of both the car and the trailer, dishes and linens have been washed and after some fixes, I'm ready for the next trip, which hopefully will be to Red Lodge Montana over the Beartooth Highway.

What have you been up to?