A Very Cold Tow!

Today started out pretty good. Was a little tired. With my hunny working out of state it makes it hard to sleep for me, so mornings are a little tough to get up and moving. But me and baby girl did finally get ready to go run some errands and get ready for the cold front that is coming at us. So we bundled up and headed out. Made our way to the gym first, then over to our mechanics to check on getting a new water reservoir for our truck. It had sprung a leak last year coming over one of the 10,000+ high mountains when we were leaving Oregon last year. We had been patching it, but the patches we not sticking anymore and figured it was time to hunt down a new one.

After we left our mechanics shop we headed over to Tyler to visit our Chiropractor and do a little shopping before heading home to settle in. We got about half-way when I noticed my truck was starting to sputter and felt like I was losing power. I was pushing on the gas, but all I was getting was sputtering and slowing down. I had no warning lights, nothing to indicate something was going wrong. I made my way over to the shoulder thinking I’d let the people behind me pass, then I could turn around and head back. Didn’t happen that way! No sooner than I got pulled over my truck died! And would not restart. So I called my mechanic to let him know we would be headed back to his shop as soon as I could get a tow.

Stormy didn’t like the waiting at all. She was very restless, and hungry! As it was lunch time and we had planned on getting something from the health food store next to our chiropractor. Thankfully we had some freeze-dried snacks in the truck and water bottles, so hunger emergency avoided! lol Then it started to snow! Oh Boy! We do not get much snow here in East Texas so when it does happen its a BIG Event! (I heard some news stations were doing “Breaking News” segments to report that it was snowing, 🙂 I am thankful we had put on our heavy coats before leaving the house though, otherwise that hour long wait with it sleeting and snowing outside would have been very cold! I did go over in my head to remind myself that I need to make sure to repack my Vehicle Emergency Kit and make sure I have cold weather supplies stocked up on when I get my truck back. You don’t really think about those things until you may need them, and then you can be in a lot of trouble if you are not prepared!

We ended up waiting over an hour for a truck, they were all at other accidents when I called, then had to wait for someone to drive the 20 minutes from town to come and get me from the side of the road. But Stormy thought it was fun to get to ride up in the front of a big tow truck! She jabbered the ear off the poor tow truck driver 🙂 By the time we got back to our mechanics shop in Kilgore there were some really BIG snowflakes falling, and it was getting very cold! I tried to focus on staying warm, rather than the $200 tow bill I had to pay, ugh! But we got our truck safely unloaded and right after the tow truck driver left I went to lock the truck up and there was no key! Uh-oh! I keep a copy of my truck key on my wallet in case I lock my keys inside I usually have my purse with me, or in cases like this when I need to leave my truck with the mechanic and I just want them to have only the truck key. So I had to call the towing company back and get in touch with the driver to bring the key back. He was so apologetic. It was no biggie! 🙂 I got to see some really nice snowflakes while waiting! Once we got the truck squared away with the mechanic and locked up, he drove my daughter and I home since we didn’t have a ride.

Once home, we got something to eat and Stormy was able to finally sit down and do her schoolwork for the day. But she was so worn out from our exciting adventure by 7:30 she was begging to go to bed! Oh my! My night owl was done for the day. So here I sit, wrapping a few things up and hoping that it won’t be anything major for our truck. Seems like a good night to head off a little early! Night all!

Till next time!

Rachele

September 3, 2013September 3, 2013

Taken care of the “Doo-dee”

As a Full-Time RVer there are just some things that have to be taken care of on a regular basis that most people don’t really give a second thought too. One of those things is taking care of human waste. Yes, there’s more to it than go and flush when you live in an RV. Even when you have a full-hook up there are still extra steps to be taken to ensure things are hygienic and properly done.

Since being in our RV this has become a weekly “doo-dee” (LOL, pardon the pun) for me mostly, to make sure that the tank is properly cleaned & flushed and ready for another week. Unfortunately, it’s not something that can just be left open and drain on its own for several reasons that I won’t go into details on, yuck!

I do have to find some humor with it though and each week I get a picture in my head of Cousin Eddie from the movie Christmas Vacation standing out on the curb in his bathrobe exclaiming “Shitter was full!” And I have to chuckle to myself as I get through with this most unpleasant, but necessary task.

Along with emptying the tank there is also maintenance that has to be done to it after each cleaning to ensure that any “unpleasant” smells will not waft into our small and enclosed home. First there is the “special” very expensive paper that has to be used, then there is the many different commercial treatments, powders, drop-ins, colored chemicals, and funky thick liquids to add that are supposed to make sure things are “pleasant” and will help things to flush out properly without getting clogged.

The reason for my post today is not to gross you out, maybe get a chuckle on my behalf and be thankful you don’t have my weekly “job”. But I wanted to share a few things I have learned that have helped in this area without the use of expensive, toxic chemicals. Maybe you have a weekend trailer or live full-time in your RV also. I discovered this all-natural method that works better than the chemicals when I ran out of our normal treatment and didn’t have the money to go buy any more of these costly add ins. So I used what I had in my cupboard. I have perfected my recipe over the last few months and even in our Texas 100+ degree heat I have found this to work far better than anything I have bought yet. It has worked better than the commercial treatments to eliminate the odors, and I have had no problems with clogs or undissolved paper stopping up the exits. Unfortunately, we still have to buy the expensive paper, but I found the Scott Rapid Dissolve Bath Tissue has the best value for the money and works very well with this recipe.

My All-Natural RV tank treatment.
Add this to your tank after each cleaning along with enough water to just cover the bottom of your tank, maybe 2 quarts or so. These measurements are approximate as I’m more of just dump it in and eyeball it. 🙂

1/2 -1 cup Baking Soda
1/2 cup Epsom Salt
1 cup BORAX
1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1 Cap-full of essential Oil (I like to use Pine Needle Essential Oil)
1 cup White Distilled Vinegar

I pour each of the dry ingredients into the bowl first. Then I add the essential oil to the powder ingredients. I use the cheaper brand oils for household tasks like this, but I use my Young Living Essential Oils for medicinal, aromatherapy, and/or topical uses. Then I add the white vinegar and add water into the bowl and using the bowl scrubber I stir it around to dissolve the powder ingredients. Once its all dissolved I flush the bowl, then refill it will water again to rinse the scrubber brush, then flush again. I then clean the seat, lid & bowl with my Thieves Essential Oil Household Cleaner. (Please contact me if you would like some more information about it.)

To freshen things up during the week, I keep a spray bottle under the bathroom sink with a 4:1 ratio of white vinegar to water, 1/2 cup baking soda, and a cap full of the Pine Needle Essential Oil. I use this mixture to clean the bowl with during the week. You just want to avoid any bleach products or any other commercial product with bleach. **WARNING*** Bleach mixing with the ammonia in urine can cause very toxic and deadly fumes. So NEVER mix bleach with ammonia products!

I hope that this recipe will be of help to others, and if you have found a method or all natural remedy you use to keep your RV tank clean, fresh, and flowing good, share with us in the comments below. I would love to hear what others have been successful using so that we all may benefit by helping to share our knowledge and personal experiences with each other.

Till next time,

Rachele T.

September 3, 2013September 3, 2013

How to Make Your Own All Natural No Poo Shampoo Alternative

Have you considered switching from the chemical laden commercial shampoos but also don’t want to spend four times as much to buy those “alternative” and supposed “all-natural” hair products you find on the store shelves? I have. I’ve tried switching to some of the “no-poo” methods of just baking soda and apple cider vinegar, but wasn’t very pleased with how dry my hair was after a short time. I came across this great article today on Sara’s blog, with some great recipes for some more alternatives to making your own healthier all-natural no-poo shampoo alternatives. There are several recipes for adding the moisture back into your hair and some better ways to transition your hair into your new hair regime.

Visit Sara’s Blog Here to learn how to make your own Homemade All Natural No Poo Shampoo Alternatives for healthier Hair!

June 21, 2013January 27, 2017

Heading Thru New Mexico

Friday we headed thru North Texas and into New Mexico. We stopped for lunch at a real nice rest-stop in north Texas. It was neat to see the big windmills and the desert.

The views were beautiful in New Mexico. Just as we crossed into New Mexico on I-40 we stopped at one of the first truck stops. It had an antique car museum that was so cool. If you get a chance to pass this way its definitely worth the stop and its free.

We enjoyed the drive through Albuquerque. We had planned on stopping for the night just past Albuquerque, but just a word of warning…. There are NO hotels for almost an hour and a half past Albuquerque.

It was late when we finally stopped in Grants, New Mexico for gas and hotel, but when we went to pay our cards wouldn’t work. It was late and we were not sure what was going on, but thankfully we had enough cash to pay for everything. We had put all our accounts on alert that we were on vacation so this wouldn’t happen. I was so extremely upset because I really didn’t know if we were going to be able to get ahold of anyone in the morning.

Sugar enjoying the leg stretching

These windmills were huge up close!

Stormy & sugar having fun in the back seat

Stormy & her Sugar Pillow

Out again!

Yea this was Amarillo!

New Mexico

Till Next Time,

Rachele T.

June 20, 2013January 27, 2017

A Bittersweet Adventure

We had planned our next vacation for later this summer in August to go up to Oregon and visit with Harold’s family after we had gotten some other obligations taken care of. But we received word that Harold’s dad wasn’t doing to well after being diagnosed with an aggressive stomach cancer. So we decided we needed to make a trip to Oregon as soon as possible.

We decided the best thing to do was to take our own truck and head out as soon as possible. so we took our truck in to the shop and get the new water pump installed, then Thursday morning we finished getting the oil changed and everything checked and loaded up. After running a few last minute errands we finally got headed out about 6pm.

We got as far as Wichita Falls, TX Thursday evening before shutting down for the night.

Till Next Time,

Rachele T.

June 3, 2013

Words of Wisdom from a 9 year old

Stormy wanted to have her own video blog. I started a 90 day challenge myself to blog and do at least 1 video everyday for the next 90 days. So Stormy wanted to do one of her own. So here is her first video blog.

Here is the video I made that Stormy refers to in hers. Please don’t laugh, lol. Yea, it’s not perfect.

Till next time,

Enjoy your journey,

Rachele T.

http://r-n-h-enterprises.com/empower

March 26, 2013June 2, 2013

What a day!

Oh boy! What a day so far! Hubby has been working nights this week and Sunday the transmission went out in his company truck. Yesterday we took it into the shop and the company is getting it fixed, no biggie. But, he is having to run our personal truck while the company truck is in the shop. So the last two days have been crazy for me trying to get everything I need to get done in the 4 hour window before its time to fix his dinner & food for work & him leave again.

So we had a freeze last night, no biggie all our hoses are wrapped (well it shouldn’t have been anyway). We woke to no water this morning, didn’t think much about it, I figured it would thaw out in a bit. I had to run a few errands in town first thing this morning. I came back from town to find a note on my door from the neighbor explains that he had shut our water off because there were 2 huge leaks. Ugh! Yep! The hose splitter had split & the water filter had busted. So I made another run into town to get the parts to fix it and finally got our water back on.

March 17, 2013March 17, 2013

Time to Rescue Holly!

As I posted a few days ago, our daughter’s, that we just moved 3-1/2 hours away to Dallas, car broke down. We had a feeling it was the battery and we had planned on coming up this weekend to fix it, but Harold’s work told him that even though it was his only weekend off for the whole month, he couldn’t take it. So as soon as we got paid we sent Holly the money to buy a new battery. She got some of her friends to help her go get a new in and get it in and she reported that everything was fine.

Till Friday afternoon. We get a call about 3pm and Holly was sitting in the side if the road about a mile from the house, car dead! Well, work or no work we couldn’t leave our baby girl stranded, so we had her call a friend and take her to work while we loaded up dad’s tools that he thought he night need and headed out.

We arrived late Friday night. Luckily I thought to call ahead to the hotel to book a room as we got the last room. Holly lives down the road from The Texas Motor Speedway and there was a classic car rally there this weekend

One of the cars at the hotel where we were staying.

Saturday I got up at 4:30am to go pick up Holly to get her to work. Then after daylight dad & I went to see what was wrong with her car. As soon as dad opened the hood the look on his face told me someone had screwed something up. Her friends meant well trying to help her, but it was very apparent none of them, including Holly, had a clue. First off she had the wrong size battery in. And because it was to big it was jammed up to the alternator fan. The cables were not attached to the posts and the battery cables, because of the wrong size battery, had gotten shoved up into the alternator fan and the blades of the fan had chewed through the protective coverings and into the bare wires. We were so lucking it died before it caught fire.

Dad was able to rig it back together temporarily so we could get it the mile back to her house and start making a list of parts we needed. Once we had our list together we made a run to the nearest O’Reilly Auto Parts store, which was about 20 miles away. We ended up going to 2 stores to finish getting all the parts and new battery, cables, terminals, etc. by the time we were done it was time to pick Holly up from work and have some lunch.

After lunch we headed back to Holly’s to get to work on her car. One of Holly’s friends was there and he got right outside with dad and helped him get everything fixed back up. They got all new cables and terminals put in. Secured the new battery & cables so it wouldn’t slide around or bump the alternator. Thank goodness it didn’t mess up the alternator as we just replaced that a month ago. (Of course I suggested to dad back when we replaced the alternator to go ahead and put in a new battery, cables & clamps & secure it as it looked like it needed to be done & I didn’t want her to get all the way to Dallas and get stuck :/ hmmm maybe someone should listen time a little more often).

After dad got her engine running good again he and Holly’s friend checked all her brakes and tires to make sure she was doing good. So she is up & rolling again.

After we got all cleaned up we were talking to Holly’s best friend and roommate and she confessed when we asked her how her car was doing, that her car had been acting funny & stalling out in her. It’s a good thing we planned on staying two nights, after breakfast this morning dad is going to check out her car and see if we can’t get her running good again.

So it has been a busy but productive weekend. And I’m just so thankful my husband knows enough to keep all our vehicles running.

I took this picture of The Texas Motor Speedway from Holly’s front yard. Yep she is that close.

Till next time,
Rachele T.