El Rancho Gitano Del Desierto

     GARBAGE CANS AND LITTLE THINGS 

10-5-2021: Just because you don't own an actual house, does not mean you get a pass on the financial pitfalls and general frustrations of home ownership. The only difference between stick built home repairs and RV repairs is the latter is twice as hard to maintain and three times as expensive. On my last trip down south, the water heater in my RV sprung a leak. The old tank had rusted through spraying water all over the underside of the storage compartment. I didn't have time to deal with it so I jerked it out, took it to Arizona Auto Tech in Wickenburg and got a hotel for the night. I told them I'd be back for a new one in a week or so.

The little things cost enough to be lined with gold...if they were at least they wouldn't rust! But...you can't put a price on a hot shower after digging trench all day in the dust and wind. That hot shower was worth every penny of the almost $800.00 bill. It's always something.

With the trench dug and the pipe laid, it was time to back fill the trench. Mother nature, however, was uncooperative at best. There is nothing quite like a good Arizona thunderstorm. The rolling thunder and lightening is awe inspiring. When it rains here...it gets with it. I'd no more than fire up the tractor when another storm would hit. By the second big rain, the pipe was floating in the trench. I had to give up – park Miss Kitty under cover and run for for shelter. By the time I reached my RV, still parked at Crandall's – I could not have been wetter. It actually felt kind of good after wallowing in the dust the last few days.

10-6-2021: The storms the day before did wonders for the ground. It settled the dust and packed down the powdery roads to a firm base that doesn't require four wheel drive to negotiate. The trench dried out enough that the pipe was no longer floating. I back drug a section of the trench going into the area I would soon move my RV into. I was anxious to get it and my horses moved onto our new digs.

Cousin Phil borrowed a fifth wheel/goose neck converter thingie from his son-in-law, Brett. Handy gadget if not a pain in the ass to put on. It weighs about as much as a small Buick. It has a ring type adapter that bolts on to the fifth wheel hitch. The actual converter part, that weighs a ton and a half, slips over the adapter thingie and is secured by four large bolts. The hard part is holding it up there while it's bolted down. Phil wrestled around with it while I attempted to bolt it on. Phil is not a small man and not short on strength...but trying to hold the thing in just the right spot was not doing his back any good. We finally came up with the idea of using the trailer jacks to “jack” it up and hold it in place. It worked like a charm albeit a little wobbly. Afterwards, I had the brilliant idea to use Miss Kitty to hoist and hold it up. It would have been even more brilliant had I thought of it before.

We set about preparing the RV to move across the street to my property. I don't know when the RV was moved last – but most everything requiring movement to unfastened required lot of WD-40 before it was over.

You would have thought I was about to move into a castle complete with a mote full of alligators. I was giddy backing that rolling castle into it's new resting spot on my property. Normally I cannot back up a rig with somebody watching. Today, I didn't care if the whole world saw. I backed it in, leveled it as best we could and hooked up the water. My castle was ready for move in.

With the RV in, we drove into Wickenburg for corner hay feeders and to purchase my very own garbage can. It's the little things in life that bring me the most joy. My very own garbage can. Life does not get much better.

That evening, I sat outside my RV with a cup of hot tea and watched the horses clean up their dinner. The silence was broken by the eerily soothing yip of coyotes in the near distance. I leaned back and closed my eyes. We did it Hank. We are home.