Tanks, Tanks and More Tanks!

Well...it is a new day. We still have not heard from our contractor. He is sometimes difficult to get ahold of, so Dave left messages at all three numbers for him today. He might even be gone for the weekend.

Dave had to work today, but he got the water tanks refilled before he left. I will still need to dump the black water later. I am hoping to wait until he gets home so that we can flush the tank at the same time. When he turns the water on later, we will all need to take showers, too. Somehow, this weekend I need to get his work shirts washed. I hate leaving the water on for the washing machine. It is leaking too much for that.

We ran out of propane this morning in the small external tank. The other small tank is not filled, yet. We have two. Usually we keep the second one filled, too, as a back up; but we had decided to use up the propane in the rig tank. After work, Dave will switch us over to that much bigger tank. He thinks that will probably last us through most of the summer. At some point, we do plan on refilling at least one, if not both, of the small external tanks, too. It is always good to have a backup. You just never know when something might happen.

It was while I was bringing the water for our hot cereal up to a boil this morning that the propane ran out. We figured it would happen soon. Thankfully, I also have an electric hot plate. So, I used that to make our chocolate Malt-o-Meal! We also have an electric roaster that we were blessed with by another family, plus our microwave/convection oven. So, we are not without cooking resources.

Thankfully, we had to replace our water heater while we were staying at the RV park before we moved onto our land. We now have one that is dual. It runs on both electricity and propane. The electric keeps it hot. If we use it to the degree that the electric cannot keep up...the propane kicks in, too. This REALLY helps a lot to make our showers last a wee bit longer. It helps a lot in this situation, too. When we are out of propane, the electric still heats. And if we lose power, the propane still heats. Either way, we have hot water! Yay!

So, today we still have a water leak and are using our water storage tanks. We have no propane, either, but that is temporary until Dave gets home tonight and switches over. It is cold outside, but warm inside. Our son is still sick...but feeling much better overall. Life goes on...and we will fall into its rhythm. Hopefully, the spring and summer will bring enough dry weather on the right days for us to get some things done.

From our Little RV on the Hillside to wherever you live, we wish you blessings and Yahweh's Shalom.

A Water Leak, Leaky Spirits & Community!

Well...you are probably wondering what on earth this woman is talking about now!

It turns out that we have a huge water leak on our property and no clue as to where in over 400' of line it might be. Our resources are pretty slim at this point, but we are very grateful to those in the home schooling community who have offered prayers and encouragement.

We called the contractor who put in the lines about a year and a half ago. We were hoping that he can remember where the connections might be since it makes sense that the leak is probably at one of those. He is going out of town today, but will be back after the weekend. He will be over Monday or Tuesday to see if he can help locate the leak. He does remember where some connections are. It is a relief that he is coming.

In the meantime, we are filling bottles with water and turning off the water at the meter as much as we can get by with. Hmmm...gosh, I guess that means that I cannot do the rest of my laundry today. Bummer! *wink*

So, that covers the water leak, but what on earth are leaky spirits? Well, as I was thinking about this water leak, I realized that there are some leaks that SHOULD happen! Obviously, we don't want this precious water leaking out and just going into the ground. We want to preserve it, conserve it, and use it wisely.

But what about the "water" that is supposed to bubble up inside of us...the water of the Spirit of Yahweh/God? We are called to be so full of the water of His Ruach/Spirit that it DOES leak...all over other people! We are to be so filled with His love that it flows out all over the place. People are to see His love and His Ruach flowing through us. But, do they?

I have to ask myself that question...more often than I would like to admit. :( I can be a very selfish person. Oh, others may not see that selfishness very much, but what about my family? They are closest to me. Do they see that love flowing out? Or do they see selfishness as I hold His love and His Ruach/Spirit tightly inside of me? Of course, the thing is...Yahweh's love and Ruach were never meant to be held tightly inside. When I try to hold onto to it tightly I am no longer being a blessing to others.

Isn't that what God calls us to be...a blessing to others? Are we not called to show His love and Spirit to others and thereby, to make a difference in the world and community around us? Ah yes...community!

We are created by Yahweh to be social creatures. We are not created to live in isolation. We need to reach out to one another...to be there for one another...and even more so in the body of Yeshua/Jesus. It says that they will know we are HIS followers/Christians by our love for one another. So, we are to leak His love out on the community within the body of believers AND to the world around us. Two levels of community...those within the "body" and those without.

So, I have to ask myself...do I have a leaky spirit? Am I leaking it out where it should be...to my family and those closest to me? To my community within the body of Yeshua/the believers? To my community in the world at large around me? It can be so easy to be tied down by the struggles of this life that we forget those around us. I pray that I may not be like that! I want to have a leaky spirit!

So, there you have it. A water leak, leaky spirits and community! Make sense? I sure hope so! *laughing*

I just got done playing chess with my son. Boy does he make me WORK at beating him! Dave has been teaching him and he is coming along VERY well! He is now working on his copywork and cursive handwriting. We have stuff spread out all over our tiny RV...but then what else is new?

Hmmm...I think maybe I will go make chocolate chip pancakes. Err...maybe not. The clean up would be kind of awkward with no running water. Then again...you only live once in this life, right? I guess I could use the exercise and walk down to the creek to rinse off the dishes and then wash them up here in the RV! OR...I could just skip the pancake part and go straight for the chocolate chips! Those who know me well know that there is nothing more "healthy" than some dark chocolate! *laughing*

Well, I had better go. I really need to go spend some time in that love letter written to us that my friend and brother Pat calls our Instruction Manual. Who knows? Maybe, if I spend more time in that book and with the Author, I will be able to leak a whole lot better from my spirit!

Signing off for now from our little RV on the hillside!

Melting Snow!

Well...the snow is slowly melting! It started melting pretty quickly the day after it stopped snowing. The weather is warming up. Yesterday was cool, but nice. Today it is supposed to get all the way up into the lower 60's. Woohoo!

We are so grateful that it is not raining. The melting snow feeds the creek, but we can still drive and walk across it. If it were raining, too, it would cause the creek to get too high to cross.

Today we get the laundry room hooked back up. Our son can do that. How nice to not have to do laundry in the bathtub! **laughing**

We also "get" to dump the black water tank again. We did it right at the beginning of the major snow fall and have managed to make it to now. But it is full and needs to be drained and flushed today.

We have new neighbors moving in. They have a couple of boys close to our son's age. They typically live with their father who is just around the corner and up a ways (rural "corner"). I do not know how much time they will spend at their mom's, but it is possible that our son will have some playmates.

Well, it is very early here and I am going to sign off for now from our little RV on the hillside! I hope everyone is healthy and having a good day.

Abba, please touch each and every one who reads here. Bless them and touch them in every way that they need to be touched. Bring Your Shalom to them. Amen and amen!

A Spider, Snow & Black Water!

Oh, what a beautiful sight it is! Starting early this morning the snow began coming down. Our son is ecstatic. We have not had a decent snowfall all winter. He will finally be able to use his toboggan! In fact, he is bringing his toboggan down right now to Dave.

Dave was out getting a new tire put on at Walmart on his way in to work. His boss saw the snowfall and with the coming storm, decided Dave should go back home. In all likelihood, if Dave had gone into work, he might not have been able to come home by the time he got off. We are very grateful for that!!

So now Dave is parked across the creek and has some groceries to bring up.

+++

Well...this is live action, folks! I just got interrupted to help carry in the first batch that came up on the toboggan! **smile**

Poor Dave, what he does not know is that he has to dump the black water tank after he comes in and warms up. We especially want to dump it before we get even more snow. I cannot dump it without getting my feet wet. No, it is not from the black water. It is from the snow. I got a spider bite on one foot and cannot wear anything but an open back clog type shoe on that foot.

Speaking of spiders, I don't know what kind it is, but there is a spider here to which I am apparently more allergic than others. I get this hard bump that turns into a blister that I end up lancing. This is the first one of the year. I think it was in my mudder. I did shake them out and bang them...but I suspect that one was left in there.

So, there you have it. A spider, snow and black water!

Assorted Thoughts for the Day

It has been a long time since I have been this sick. I am still dragging after overdoing it on Wednesday. Poor Dave had to dump the black water tank after he got home from work because I was just too weak to go outside and do it. Because the water hose to flush it was frozen, we had to dump dishpans of water into the toilet to help it "flush" out the tank. Not ideal...but it works. It got us through the last two winters. :)

Yesterday was a special anniversary for my Honey and me, which I started to write about. But I got too foggy to continue, so I saved it in a document to post later. Hopefully, I will get to it soon. Right now, I am still pretty weak and will be laying down again soon.

There is still a little bit of snow on the ground. It is in the mid 30's, which is about as warm as it is supposed to get today. I am praying that we will be able to do laundry here this weekend. We have the water hose running down the hillside to drain, so it should be open to use.

As I lay in bed I get all sorts of things going through my mind to share about our lifestyle out here. It is hard to have all these thoughts in my head and be unable to sit here and write them out.

As I sit here, my son is watching educational TV. It is amazing the things we can learn from some of these programs. He is laying up in his sleep area while I am below here at my pc. The bed is still a bed. I don't know if it will make it into a couch today. Yesterday it did not. I really don't think I want to spend the energy to convert it both ways today. I need to reserve my strength.

Well, this is about as far as my foggy brain will take me today. I need to go lay back down and get better. It is nice and warm in our cozy RV. :) I hope that all of our friends and family are staying healthy!

Back to Work, Trenching & Life

Well...Dave dragged himself into work today. Our son and I are still dragging a bit, too...but definitely on the upswing! Yay!!!!

I am listening to PBN and writing here in my blog, then I will be off to lay down again.

We still have some bits of snow covering the landscape and patches of ice going down our gravel driveway. One thing we really need to do is to find a way of getting all the water trenched away from the driveway so it won't run down it and freeze.

Ah, trenching! Such fun! NOT! It is always a challenge to try and figure out how to reroute the water. I have spent some hours on rainy days out there in my red mudders, jeans tucked inside, digging trenches. When it rains we have a mini-creek running through our meadow...something we definitely need to reroute as it sits on our septic leach area!

The last heavy rain, I managed to clear the growth out of the trench running alongside the lower part of the driveway. I also dug little mini channels to keep water off the upper driveway. It always feels good to get something accomplished!

My brain is still a bit foggy from being sick, so hopefully these ramblings actually make sense!

Today I need to dump our black water tank again. It is supposed to get up into the 40's, so hopefully, the water hose for flushing the tank will thaw out. Otherwise, I will have to dump dishpans of water into the toilet to sort of flush it out.

Frozen Plumbing and Draining Black Water Tanks!

Here on our land we have septic, power and "city" water. Even though we have septic, we are living in an RV, which means that our waste water still runs through two tanks. The one the toilet is connected to is called the "black" water tank. All the rest of the water goes into the "gray" water tank.

The gray water tank drain valve we leave open. So, when we shower or wash dishes, it just runs right into the septic. The black water tank, however, is a tank of a different color. ;)

The first time we went to an RV park that had sewer hookups we learned a VERY valuable lesson. Being the beginners that we were, we thought we could leave the black water tank ,valve open. Boy did we find out THAT was a mistake. We can laugh about it now...but it was NOT funny then. We thought we had a plug keeping things from draining. What we really had was a pile of you know what right under the toilet in the middle of the tank, making it look full. I won't describe all we went through trying to figure out how to "unplug"it before we got it figured out. Yikes!

So, now we keep the blank tank valve closed! This morning was pull the valve time. Our RV has a special hose port in the side so that we can flush out the tank with the hose while it is draining. This is something we need to do about every three to four days, depending on how much of that time we have all three of us here. When the hose to flush it is frozen, I have to keep filling dishpans and dumping them down inside the toilet to encourage some kind of nominal "flushing" action.

Dave has the drain valve area surrounded by straw bales, styrofoam, foam insulation and plastic. It is almost like a bale lean-to covered with sheets cut from a roll of insulation. Inside, he has lights we keep on to generate just enough heat to keep the valve and the pipe between it and the tank from freezing. We really do NOT relish the idea of having to put a heater out there again in order to unfreeze it!

We also have a bale "lean to" that protects the water hookup and the water hose going into the RV. We have had to unfreeze that hose a few times, too. Now, with all the stuff protecting it, we just leave the water dripping on the times when it gets cold enough to penetrate our covering.

Was that more than anyone wanted to know about RV plumbing? hehehe