We made it! We’re back at the “dirt farm” in Casa Grande, AZ where we’ll stay parked until we get back from our trip to Germany on the 11th of January.
We made the circa. 290 mile trip from our overnight boondocking spot at the Red Earth Casino located next to the Salton Sea without incident. We arrived at my brother Steven & Cheryl’s ~5 acre “dirt farm” in Casa Grande, AZ before dusk. I wrote about why they call it the “dirt farm” in previous posts HERE and HERE.
Driving across the border into Yuma, AZ.
Stilla even took over driving duties for the last 100 miles or so 🙂
The long and straight Highway 8 (east bound).
Here’s the Urban Escape Vehicle in front of Mom’s house.
A few pictures around the “dirt farm”:
Opposite side of Mom’s house, looking at one of the chicken coops and the casita.My brother Steven & Cheryl’s house on the “dirt farm”.Steven & Chery’ls (new to them) Class-C RV parked by their house.View of the “back 40″… the horse corrals and sheds behind Steven & Cheryl’s house.
We’re expecting to have a bunch of relatives and friends here for Thanksgiving, so we’ll enjoy that while we get prepared to leave for Germany on the 3rd of December.
I was able to find a couple round-trip tickets for just under $1,200 so we’re all set to spend the Christmas and New Year holiday(s) with Stilla’s family. And, more importantly her father’s 85th birthday on the 8th of December.
I’ll post again in a couple/few days… there’s lots to do before we leave: I’d like to get the oil changed in the Coach, plus we still need to top off the fuel tank and dump our tanks… Check back soon 🙂
It’s been a while since my last post. We haven’t been up to a whole lot, so I’ve been taking a bit of a break from the blog. We’ve been hanging out at the “Dirt Farm” in Casa Grande since around the 2nd of April enjoying some family time with my Mom, Stepdad, brother Steve and his girlfriend Cheryl.
We’ve been parked in front of Mom’s house moochingdocking off their recently installed 50 Amp power. Steve and Cheryl’s house is situated a little ways behind this house on the same ~4 acre lot that they have affectionately nicknamed the “dirt farm”, complete with chickens and ponies.
Here’s stepdad Jimmy working on a little dirt and rock garden in our front yard – oops.. I mean their, front yard 🙂 Jimmy is always busy doing something. Sometimes retirement isn’t easy.
Stilla and my Mom have been pretty good about going on morning walks. They’ve been going distances of at least two, and sometimes three or more miles. I even went with them once 🙂
Here’s stepdad Jimmy and brother Steve working on yet another project. I’ve been helping out as needed to “earn our keep”.
There’s a seemingly endless number of projects to get done here on the “dirt farm”. Here (below) Jimmy is putting in some pavers. I kept telling him they’re crooked but that’s how mom wants it 🙂
Here’s Jimmy at the checkout counter on one of our many trips to Home Depot or Lowe’s. I provided moral support and light lifting as needed.
Mom and Jimmy getting a section of dirt ready for some grass seed.
This is going to be a green lawn some day, I’m told 🙂
The back yard is slowly coming together. The fence keeps Mom’s cats from escaping when they use the “doggie-door”. I call this the “maximum security” area. The “minimum security” area is defined by the fence around Mom’s house where we’re parked, and it separates the two houses on the farm. The “general population” area is around my brother’s house where the ponies and chickens are kept.
Another backyard “maximum security” area view with some recently laid sod.
It hasn’t been all work around here though… we took some time to get in a little ATV’ing one day.
My cousin Dale and his wife Lisa from Denver came by to visit during the Easter holiday. It was great seeing them again.
Cousin Dale hasn’t been on an ATV in years… since the days they still made 3-wheelers! And it was Lisa’s first time. We took turns riding each of the three ATV’s so they could get the full experience. Steven’s quad (below) found some tumbleweeds… I wonder who that was?
Relaxing after a hard days ride 🙂
Lisa and Dale. Stilla and little Coach in the background.
Easter morning started out with my Mom finding some baby “Easter Bunnies” in the horse manure pile she was spreading out for her fruit tree orchard.
Awww… aren’t they cute?
Even our Easter guests weren’t safe from projects while they were visiting. Here we all are, picking up a pool for the ponies that brother Steve and Cheryl bought.
Somehow we managed to fit the round object into the somewhat square hole on the trailer and safely made it back to the farm.
Brother Steve and Aunt Kathy. Steve is describing how the “pony pool” will be positioned in the ground with “ramps” for the ponies to get in and out.
And here we are; out for another meal… something we did often during our time at the “dirt farm”.
We kept busy evenings playing games around Steven and Cheryl’s nice dining (aka game) table.
And sometimes we had “movie night”.
Cheryl, Mom, and Jimmy. “Movie Night”
But alas… all good times have to come to an end 🙁 It’s about time to start heading back towards Colorado (weather permitting). The house still hasn’t sold, so we are going to go back to see what we can do. Besides, Stilla wants to check on the daughter(s) and grandson.
But first, we still want to check out some things in the Tucson area that we haven’t seen yet, so we’ll head down to the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base FamCamp. We’ve heard it’s pretty nice.
Goodbye “dirt farm”! And goodbye, Mom, Jimmy, Steve & Cheryl… thanks for putting up with us for a while! It’s getting too hot here anyway 🙂 Hopefully, we’ll be back before the snow hits up north again (wherever we are).
We’ve been hanging out at the “dirt farm” in Casa Grande for a couple weeks now. The name “dirt farm” is not meant to be derogatory. It’s the name my brother and his significant other, Cheryl, have given to their 5-acre homesite complete with horses and chickens. It’s actually quite green for the moment with the recent rains and somewhat cooler weather.
This is also where my mom and stepdad live in their separate, but smaller pre-fabricated house. Brother Steven and Cheryl have the “big house” – a super-sized triple wide home.
We’ve been parked in front of Mom’s house, where stepdad Jim just finished hooking up a 50-Amp receptacle in the garage. Now we, or anyone else for that matter, can mooch power from either house… just depends on who you want to visit. 🙂 Although, the houses are only a couple hundred feet apart, we opted to park at Mom’s because it’s fenced in. This is great for little dog, Coach. We don’t have to put him on a leash… just let him out the door in the morning to do his business. Besides, as I reported earlier, the ground at Steven & Cheryl’s 50-Amp pedestal was still soggy from recent rain when we first arrived here.
When we weren’t working on the “dirt farm”, we went out to eat a few times… but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been eating well at the farm too! We’re going to have to get away from here so we can go on a diet! Just kidding Mom 🙂
While enjoying all the good meals and the company of family, we’ve been helping out a little with all the on-going projects around here. Some of these projects include, but are not limited to: running electrical power and burying cable for outlying sheds and a casita; putting up or moving fencing; spreading gravel and leveling with the bobcat; etc., etc.,
Brother Steve and Stepdad Jimmy spreading gravel.Mom’s future orchard… all leveled and ready for planting… almost…Mom working on the future fruit tree orchard.
And the first fruit tree goes in…
Mom’s first fruit tree in the new “orchard”.Earlier picture of Mom’s vegetable garden. There are now two rows of corn and one row of onions… more rows to follow…
I also used the time here to reorganize the contents of my cargo trailer and made room in my “Conex” storage container for more items. Now I can park either the ATV or the Harley inside the trailer, depending on which one we decide to haul around in the pickup with us.
Trailer contents before reorganizing.
The new Xantrex inverter/charger that I wrote about in my last post has been working as advertised. Although, when I did some checking, I found out that the technician forgot to tighten down the nuts that hold it to the basement wall. I guess he got distracted after finger-tightening the nuts… must have been tired from lifting the 75 pound unit into place.
Also, I think I need to come up with a junction box of some sort for the wire connections he spliced. I wish he would have taken the time to run new wires, the old ones (orange) were just a couple inches too short.
In other RV maintenance related news; I finally took the time to do something about the sagging insulation in the engine compartment. My stepdad had some super-sized washers that I was able to use after drilling holes through the closet floor (under the drawers). Don’t look too bad, eh?
I also fixed a support bracket for the charge-air cooler tube that had broken again. This bracket had been fixed once already by my old high school buddy and good friend, Mike Harris. My buddy Mike welded the bracket, but I think the extra weight of the sagging insulation that was laying on top of the tube was just too much for it. Thanks anyway Mike! 🙂
Oh, and by the way – the technicians at Speedco lied! They didn’t lube the u-joints on the Coach after changing the oil and replacing the fuel filter like they said they did. There was absolutely no evidence the dirt-encrusted grease fittings had been touched with a grease gun since last year. So I cleaned the fittings and lubed them myself while I was under there.
It’s been great spending time here at the “dirt farm’ with family. Thanks Ma, Jimmy, Steve & Cheryl! See you again soon… hopefully we’ll be back in time for some Easter fun at the farm 🙂
And now it’s time to move on… we’re signed up for an Alpine Coach Pre-Rally in Valencia CA that starts the 19th. After that, we’ll convoy to the FMCA Rally in Pomona. We’re looking forward to both rallies, there’s going to be lots of activities and new things to do and see.
Here we are at a rest stop by the Imperial Sand Dunes along I-8 yesterday (Wednesday) after we said our farewells and hit the road.
I decided to load the Harley and the bicycles for our next adventure in California. I parked the ATV safely away in the cargo trailer back at the “dirt farm”.
All loaded up for the rallies in California.
We found an overnight spot at the Red Earth Casino along highway 86 next to the Salton Sea. And the price was right, Free! We just had to stay at our $20 limit inside the casino…
Little Coach enjoying some California dirt.
We should make it to Valencia in a few hours after I post this. Check back in later to see what we’re up to. 🙂
We’ve enjoyed our time here in Prescott Valley at Scott and Julie’s house. But, with more rain and possible snow expected on Tuesday afternoon, we decided it was time to head south for warmer weather while we had the chance. So, we said our sad goodbyes in the morning between rainstorms and moved on. Plus, we didn’t want to wear out our welcome at the Richardson Ranch 🙂
View out Scott and Julie’s backyard.
The evening before we left, Julie made us an awesome spaghetti dinner… thanks Julie!
Here’s our moochdocking spot, looking east. The streets were finally drying somewhat after the last couple days of rain. Sure Julie… we believe you… it’s really nice weather here most of the time… suuuure…. 🙂
And here’s looking west.
Our hosts saw us on our way. Bye Scott & Julie… see you again soon! Thanks again! We’ll definitely be back to see some of the local attractions with you when the weather’s better.
A sign over I-17 just north of Phoenix told us to drive with care due to winter weather conditions. Luckily, we were able to stay dry and the Urban Escape Vehicle stayed clean except for a very brief rain shower near the middle of Phoenix.
By the way – we had decided to go down to the “dirt farm” in Casa Grande to stay a while with my Mom, Stepdad, brother Steve, and his girlfriend Cheryl. They reported good weather there, plus we can save a little money on diesel and campgrounds until it’s time to go to California for a couple Rallies in mid-March that we already signed up for.
We got to the “dirt farm” without incident after fueling up and dumping tanks at a Pilot/Flying J nearby.
Brother Steve and Stepdad Jimmy showed us the 50-Amp pedestal they finally got installed 🙂 However, the ground was still pretty soggy from recent rain at the designated spot, so we opted to park in front of Mom’s house until it gets a little drier here.
Our own 50 amp pedestal at the “dirt farm”. Pedestal is to the right, next to the house.Pedestal with 30 and 50 amp service!Brother Steven and Cheryl’s house, aka “the dirt farm”. Their name for it – not mine 🙂
Here’s where we’re parked in front of Mom and Jimmy’s house on the “dirt farm” until the 50-amp site on the side of Steven and Cheryl’s dries out.
View up the drive. The Coach is parked in front of Mom’s house on the right.
On Wednesday, we downloaded the ATV from the pickup and puttered around. Here’s Mom (below) starting her garden. She’s planting some corn and onions. The “dirt farm” has gotten quite “green” since we were last here in mid-January.
We went into town for lunch at a place we call the “Cactus Garden Restaurant”. It’s official name is BeDillon’s. Nice place, good food with cool ambience, this was the second time we’ve been here. They even have a little museum on site.
After lunch, Mom had us all working hard in the garden. We even managed to keep the rows straight and even, with a little help from tent stakes and string. Then we enjoyed another family meal and an evening of movies.
On Thursday, I helped stepdad Jimmy pick up supplies at Lowe’s so he could finish up some more electrical runs and breaker boxes to supply power for outlying sheds and the garage. There’s always something to do here at the farm.
When I returned and stepped into the Urban Escape Vehicle, I heard the Inverter/Charger (Xantrex) alarm going off. The display panel indicated an Inverter/Charger internal fault and there was no power except for 12 volt. This is especially bad for us because we have a residential refrigerator. We must always leave our Inverter/Charger running with the Inverter “enabled” in order to power the fridge at all times.
I checked everything I could think of, but we have no 110-120 volt power to anything, no matter what I do. Every time I reset (either from the display panel or on the actual Inverter/Charger) it goes directly to “fault-mode” and the alarm sounds.
Our surge-guard appears to be working fine and “clicks” when I plug in to shore power. The generator appears to be supplying voltage when I turn it on, but again, the Inverter/Charger keeps going to “fault-mode” whenever I “enable” the Inverter portion of the Inverter/Charger.
Now, I thought that when hooked to shore power or with the generator running, I could still power all my appliances (Fridge, Microwave, TV, etc.,) without the Inverter being “enabled”. But, since I ALWAYS leave my Inverter “enabled” for the times when we disconnect from shore power or turn the generator off… so that the batteries will continue to provide seamless power – I’m not sure. I certainly can’t get any appliances to work now, no matter what I do with the Inverter/Charger.
Here’s a picture I took of the Inverter/Charger which is mounted sideways on the back wall of the basement. It’s the RS2000 model from Xantrex, and I’m relatively sure it’s original equipment from 2005. As you can see from the lights; the “Network” light is on and the “Charger Enable” light is on. In this current state, it does not alarm, but there is also no power to any appliances. Now, if I press the “Inverter Enable” button, the “Fault” light comes on and the alarm sounds at the display panel at the front of the Coach in the upper cabinet. The display shows “Fault F026 – Inverter/Charger Internal Failure”.
I then have to hit the “Reset” to stop the alarm.
I checked the network wires and connections.
I pulled off the front panel to see if there was anything obviously loose or wrong.
All the connections are tight and clean.
Then I pulled off the top cover. Note: All necessary safety precautions were taken – no one was hurt in the making of this blog post.
Again, nothing obviously wrong. I guess it’s time to call my extended warranty service and see what run-around I’ll get from them (based on my past experience with the refrigerator compressor) and see where they will allow me to take this problem to get fixed. Oh well, always a new adventure… it’s a good thing we’re parked where we are and not in the boonies somewhere, eh?
We emptied the refrigerator and freezer and moved everything into the house… thanks Mom and Cheryl!
Hopefully, we can get this resolved without a lot of money or drama. Honestly, I should have seen this coming, because I HAD noticed recently that the Inverter/Charger was louder than usual. It always “hummed”, but lately it’s been louder than I remember. I chalked it up to the lower voltage service we’ve subjected the Coach to in recent weeks; 30-Amp at Alamo Lake State Park, garage power (probably 20-Amp) at Scott & Julie’s, and now 20-Amp in front of my Mom’s house…
I called our extended warranty service, EasyCare. They tell me that there are only two “authorized” Xantrex service centers in Arizona. One is in Tucson, the other in Gilbert. I’ll be making some calls in the morning. Stay tuned…
