Windseeker RV Blog with Joe and Libby

On December 3, I underwent Total Hip Replacement on my right hip using the Direct Anterior Approach, or DAA which is a minimally invasive technique. The surgeon will make their incision from the front of the hip, and the patient is asked to lie on their back. The removal of any damaged joint bone or cartilage is thus done through the front of the hip. The surgeon will replace the damaged areas with artificial joint pieces and anchor them in place. This approach avoids unnecessarily cutting or damaging any surrounding muscle, which may help make recovery faster. At least that is the hope. My recovery was a little slow due to recurrence of noticeable drops in blood pressure when trying to stand or sit up. But after two days, I was doing well enough they released me to home for my recovery with Libby's careful assistance.

We had thought we might go out to a Thanksgiving dinner buffet, but the line was out the door. So we went to McGrath's Fish House near home where they were serving Thanksgiving dinner but also had other fare. I opted for a seafood sauté dish and Libby chose a butternut squash ravioli dish prepared with a roasted hazelnut and fresh sage butter sauce. Both were delicious. So as not to ignore tradition we also shared a piece of pumpkin pie for dessert.

While I am at home overseeing the HVAC upgrade work, Libby has seized the opportunity to fly to New York to visit Patrick, Linjia and baby Lulu who is now 6 months old. She will stay in New York 4 nights and return home on Monday. Babies change so fast, if you want to catch the major changes you have to see them often!

We planned several major home improvement projects while we are at home this fall. One was the exterior painting of the entire house which I noted here previously. An even larger project is the total replacement of both upstairs and downstairs Central Air Conditioning and gas furnace systems. Our existing A/C units were from 1996 and 2003 respectively and it was time to upgrade them. And since the furnace units include the air handler function for the A/C we decided to replace everything. We solicited several bids and decided on a local Vancouver HVAC company called Blairco to install brand new Carrier performance series 80% gas furnaces with 14 seer R454B air conditioners. A major upgrade to this home... and a major expense too, as you can well imagine. Our comfortable home will be a little comfier now.

It is that time of year again. Fern Ridge Lake is only open April 1 to October 1. Because it is essentially maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers for flood control, they drain it down each year at the beginning of the rainy season and leave it low until March 1 when they begin allowing it to fill again for the boating season. We only spend the boating season at the lake. Then each fall, we pull the boats out, winterize and cover them for winter, winterize the RV's and close up everything until spring. This year we'll store the motorhome down at the RV Park under cover in our secondary space, and perhaps in late winter we may plan a spring trip to southern California.

The Squirrels are very busy this time of year doing what they do... squirreling away nuts and seeds for the winter months. We maintain a feeding station at the back fence so the dogs have entertainment throughout the days. Riley, in particular, our young Schnauzer pup LOVES to sit by the family room window and stand watch... Taffy is avid as well, but she's a little older and needs more rest time than Riley. For fun we put up signs including "Squirrel Crossing".

Tonite we joined neighbors and friends Don and DD Miller for dinner at a local Vancouver Mexican restaurant, Lindo Mexico. To our great joy they serve molcajete, a savory, sizzling meal served in a preheated, traditional Mexican volcanic stone mortar and pestle called a molcajete, featuring a combination of meats like steak, chicken and shrimp, grilled vegetables such as nopales (cactus), and often a flavorful salsa and beans, all kept hot by the stone bowl. A delicious traditional Mexican dish we can share. Yummmm!

The dogs are relieved that the house painting has been completed. It has been hardest on the dogs. Patrick's dog Poe came to visit and for the first week the doggie door had to remain closed most of the day. Geeze! And poor Riley... the window from the family room to the backyard has been masked off for the last 5 days! It's been hard for Taffy also. Poor pups have been in severe withdrawal. "I need to keep an eye on our friends," they say. Now finally they can relax - masking has been removed, all the tarps are removed from the backyard, the 'strange men' are gone and life has returned to normal. They can now return to their post, and we can all breathe a deep sigh of relief!

Today is National Schnauzer Day, "A day to celebrate all things schnauzer. The majestic breed comes in three sizes, Miniature, Standard and the mighty Giant, all with loveable characteristics and of course the iconic beard." Our little boy, a white Miniature Schnauzer, Riley, got a haircut yesterday to celebrate the event, and with his typical "puppy cut", he is adorable as ever.

We are home in Vancouver this week and we're having the house painted. The weather is excellent. It is no small task with a two story house and tri-color paint scheme. We had the house painted in 2013 before we moved in after buying the home. So we wanted to have it repainted while the paint is still in good shape and work needed is minimized. We chose the same tri-color paint scheme and went with the highest quality latex house paint available, Sherwin Williams Emerald. Current price is $132/gallon, but fortunately all their paint is on sale this month at 1/3 off. The photo shows the front of the house with a couple of the trucks from Lester's Painting.

Here's Libby relaxing on this superb sailing afternoon... really as good as it gets. Temps in the mid 70's, winds pretty steady 10-12 with some higher moments... Crystal clear blue skies and about half dozen other sailboats keeping us company, this on a lake that is about 4x7 miles in size! Not a single powerboat out there disturbing the stillness. The absolute perfect way to wrap up the 2025 sailing season on Fern Ridge Reservoir.

We could not ask for a better day to end the sailing season. We were planning to pull the sailboat today but postponed the plan until tomorrow so we could take advantage of an absolutely perfect forecast for today. That slightly NNE cant to the wind is the perfect direction and those tiny hi/lo spreads for the wind this afternoon accompanied by clear skies and mild temps are as good as it gets. We're going to get out there early afternoon to enjoy the perfect conditions to end the season. Considering we have not been out sailing in a full month, it just doesn't get any better than this. We'll pull tomorrow, and head home Weds when the house painting crew will start minor siding repairs on our Vancouver home Thursday in prep for painting next week.

We're back in Vancouver for a few days and among other things, I had an appointment to have an echocardiogram, a non-invasive medical imaging test that uses ultrasound waves to create detailed pictures of the heart. I was pleased to get the results back quickly which basically rated all my heart functions as "normal."

Another low wind day so we were not able to sail, and so we drove the golf cart down to the marina and took the pontoon boat out for a brief evening cruise with the dogs. We should get in a couple more days sailing this week as moderate winds usher in another heatwave, probably the last of the summer. The plan is to pull the pontoon out of the water on the weekend since the the lake level is dropping and the Fern Ridge Shores Marina will soon become too shallow. And since we have to go home for a couple doctors' appointments next week, we will probably avoid the heat and low wind next week and head home on the weekend. If we use the pontoon again this summer we will probably need to just launch it for the day.

After two months of family stuff, several mishaps, and illness, we finally got back out for a few hours of sailing this afternoon, only our ninth day of the season, and a full 8 weeks since we last sailed in mid June. But considering what I went thru, we glad to finally be back and reasonably healthy again. That's me in my uniform of the day... blue t-shirt, blue shorts and my nose guard. Winds were a bit gusty today but plenty strong, and we sailed until about 6pm. I had no problems handling the boat with Libby handling the jib duties as she usually does. Here's hoping we can get another ten days in before season's end Oct 1.

We left Veneta for home exactly 7 weeks ago. We intended be home for the visit of Pat and Tim and their families, however, many things intervened. We started out to return late June but after having Mimi washed and waxed, she lost power half an hour from home. We limped home using the emergency crossover switch but as it turned out, I had omitted hooking up one cable when replacing the battery. Then while back home, the washing machine died and, with kids arriving, we quickly got a replacement. Also, my newer Samsung 4K TV died and I had to replace it as well. Then I started having trouble with the Dish Network receiver and had to replace that (major ordeal transferring all recordings and settings). Then I had a severe gall bladder attack and was admitted to the hospital for a couple days. Beginning to feel like Joe Btfsplk, the world's worst jinx. Finally this weekend, bad luck behind us, it seemed things were returning to normal and so we headed back to the lake. Fingers Crossed!

If it seems like we have been away from the lake for an abnormally long time, it's, well... because life has not been normal. On Monday July 14, just after the kids and grandkids left to go home, I had a severe gallbladder attack. That was a first in my long 80 year history, Never diagnosed with gall stones, never... just a certain amount of rather typical liver trouble for an octogenarian who has never been terribly careful about what he eats. I do like my sausages for lunch, grilled ham and cheese, pizza, juicy burgers and ribs, gooey mexican food, etc. All which have contributed to 'slightly elevated' liver values. But the liver has been pumping all this fatty mess into the gallbladder and it seems I have developed a certain amount of sludge in my gallbadder and some stones. On July 13 one tried to work its way out, got stuck and caused a major incident. More on my photo gallery if you are interested,

We are home in Vancouver this week welcoming both sons, Pat and Tim, and their children. Pat and Linjia are staying with us with baby Lulu, now four months old. This photo is little Lulu in her recliner highchair sitting alongside me in my recliner. Sweet little girl... I always wanted a daughter, now I have a grand daughter to enjoy. Libby is, of course, really enjoying playing grammy and of course hosting our own little boy, now grown with a family of his own,

After her beauty treatment, it was time to take Mimi back down to our second covered RV space at the lake. On Friday morning we took off, Durango in tow, and headed down the interstate. Sadly, we did not get very far. About 20 miles from home the electrical system went haywire and we coasted to a stop on the shoulder of an off ramp. I had no electrical power at all. A quick check with my multimeter indicated voltage was very low coming off the new chassis battery I had just installed a few days earlier. As it turns out the alternator was not charging the battery so the engine was running solely on battery power and a builtin safety mechanism just shuts ir all down when this happens. A call to my favorite mobile tech yielded the bandaid I could use to engage the emergency start button to pull power from the new house batteries, duct tape it in the on position, and start the generator to keep the house batteries charged. This allowed us to start the engine and limp home. Once home I can diagnose why the alternator is not charging and fix the problem.

Today, I had arranged for my favorite RV detailer, a fellow named Angel, to wash, buff and wax our motorhome, Mimi, as we called her. 8 hours later, she gleams like a jewel. The day was a bit cloudy so I did not get the glow of late afternoon sunshine, but you get the idea. We bought her slightly used in May 2021, and now a full four years later she looks as good or better than when we bought her.

We're having several days of 90+ degree here at the lake, and basically windless, so I'm hanging out indoors with the A/C and looking in occasionally on the eagle cam. Two days ago Sunny's little sister, Gizmo, fledged. It was kind of accidental as she was practicing her wing flapping, or branching... she slipped and stumbled off her perch. At first we were a little concerned but apparently her wing strength was more than adequate and she soared to a nearby tree, where she spent the night, and next morning daddy Shadow brought her some fresh trout for breakfast. A lot of this is captured here on this cute edited video. ENJOY! This morning I checked in early and both sisters were in the nest at dawn and at 1:00 pm the eagle cam wide shot had them side by side in a nearby tree together, right. Very heartwarming!

We have been watching the two young eagles Sunny and Gizmo on the eagle cam provided by Friends of Big Bear Valley in California. They were hatched back in the first week of March and it has been great fun to watch their growth over the past 3 months. Eagles usually fly the nest (called fledging) sometime 10-14 weeks after birth. Today Sunny, now 90 days old and 4 days older than Gizmo, fledged at 10:46am. She is just catching flight top center as Gizmo watches. We were unable to see Sunny after she flew off. I think the two parents who were spotted together in a nearby treetop were keeping an eye on her. Little sister Gizmo has been branching a lot (spreading her wings at the edge of the nest) - so we figure she may fledge tomorrow.

This is a photo of our Sun Tracker Pontoon Boat with the new Seat Covers on. We had these made up end of last season. We put the boat in the water this past week, and took a couple late afternoon cruises. Probably won't use it now for a few days so we put on the new seat covers for the first time. They look and fit just great.

Here's a nice family photo of our son Patrick, wife Linjia and baby Lulu as well as a closeup of Lulu, age 2 months. We were not there in Brooklyn NY when the photo was taken, but the photo was sent to us by the proud parents.

We had to leave Veneta for a while so Libby could fly to San Diego to visit the grandkids and then attend her 50th high school reunion in L.A. We got back middle of last week and this was first day we could get back out sailing on the lake. This just marks Day 2 for the season but this is exactly on par with the same date last season. But last year we sailed 8 days in May so we'll have see how it goes this year. We are here for the month and don't go home again until mid June. The winds were a bit light today and we had to motor back to the marina, but still got in some nice light wind sailing for about an hour and a half.

Today we got in an excellent day of sailing on Fern ridge Lake... winds in the 10-12 range, sunny skies and temps in the upper 60's. A great start to the 2025 sailing season. The lake levels are up at the maximum (full pool) so we're looking forward to a full 6 month season... hopefully lots of time on the water. Still a little chilly so I have my flannel shirt on... but bright sun, nonetheless, so I have my nose shield in place. Too many years of unprotected exposure on the old schnozola so I have to protect it every time we go out on the boat.

Turning 80 is a milestone in anyone's life lucky enough to reach it. It seems to me as I enter my 80's, one cannot kid oneself any longer. You are not "Getting old" - you *are* old. It is still a bit jarring when I read some test results or something, and it says "80 year old male." Who me? Ah well, better than pushing up daisies! For my birthday we find ourselves back at the lake and getting the Anne Marie, my Catalina 22 sailboat, ready to put back in the water for the summer sailing season. Sailing into the 80's, that's me!

We are pleased to report that we have arrived back down at Fern Ridge Shores on west side of Fern Ridge Lake, Oregon just west of Eugene. The lake is almost full for the season and should get there by end of the month, as the Army Corps allows it to fill gradually. The marinas are open and we'll be launching the boats very soon. Looking forward to another great sailing season at Fern Ridge Lake. We plan to be here all summer until the lake closes again October 1.

The fuzzy little eagle chicks we have been watching online since my March 13 post are definitely beginning to look like young birds, as they sit in the nest patiently waiting for some dinner from mom. The two kids were the subjects of a national naming contest conducted by Friends of Big Bear Valley. Their official names are now Gizmo and Sunny. The little eaglets are now more than 6 weeks old and are instinctively stretching their little wings as they look forward to becoming full-fledged fledglings when they will leave the nest for the first time. We are excited to watch Gizmo and Sunny develop into fledglings in the coming weeks.