Monday, June 23, 2014

The tour of the Buck Knife factory was so popular that reservations were required - our reservation was booked more than a week in advance!  The factory was in Post Falls, ID.  It was about a 45 minute drive and our route took us right by a Carl's Jr.  It was a given we would have to start the day with a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit.  Fortunately, we arrived a bit early which gave us time to look around.

The lobby was filled with wild life trophies, including one huge grizzly!  Once again, I was reminded why camping in a motorhome is preferable to a tent in the great northwest.

There was a pair of mastodon tusks in nearly pristine condition in the upstairs museum.  We learned later that you can have a knife custom made with just about any material in the handle - even mastodon tusk!  This pair was too well preserved to cut into handles.  I shudder to think what a mastodon handled Buck knife might set one back.

Mastodon tusks and molars found in Alaska.

While I was not allowed to take pictures on the tour, I could photograph the facility from an observation window above the floor.  Just over 300 people are employed in the 130,000 square foot factory.  I never heard them use the term, but I saw a lot of evidence of "lean manufacturing" as we toured the floor.  My favorite piece of equipment was the laser cutter used on the harder steel.  They make some amazingly intricate knives using that machine.  There were also quite a number of machines that were WWII vintage surplus still in operation.

This place was enormous!

I took a lot of pictures of the mounted animals, but something about this one mountain goat fascinated me.  Maybe I feel connected since that time I watched them high in the Rockies off the Beartooth Pass highway.

This was our tour guide, Brittany, who knew her knife history pretty well.  Each of us wore a headset/ear protector so that on the very noisy floor we could clearly hear what she was saying.  After the tour she worked in the gift shop where we had a few additional questions for her.

We spent more time than we had planned at the Buck Knife factory, but we still managed to see the historic downtown section of Couer D'Alene, have burgers and fries at the highly acclaimed Roger's Ice Cream and Burgers (which was, unfortunately, somewhat disappointing), picked up some things at Costco and collected official paperwork from Banfield (our vet) on Sam's history, in case it might be needed at the border.

When we got back to the coach we visited our neighbors, Mary and Jim, across the street.  They showed us the progression of building on their property, from their motorhome pad, to the "bath house" and finally to their beautiful house.  As with almost every location in this neighborhood a deck is a must to take in the beautiful views.

  

Such a nice view of the meadow and distant hills.

They had one feature we had never before seen - the bathroom linen closet included a "back door" into the laundry room.  You could take towels out of the dryer, fold them and put them directly into the linen closet without leaving the laundry room - I thought that was extremely clever!

This is a stroke of genius!

We spent a few very pleasant hours discussing all sorts of topics (except politics, which everyone agreed should be avoided completely).

We could just barley see the side of Jim and Mary's house from our lot.

Later that evening, as we were settling in for the night, our little friend came by to say goodbye on our last night.  The sound of us talking with the windows open did not seem to bother him in the least.  He spent about 10 minutes just outside the front of the coach before wandering off.  Good-bye.

I'll miss seeing this cutie each night!

Saturday, June 21, 2014

It was such a beautiful day we decided to visit Spokane again. Looking back, I cannot say who was the instigator in the decision to stop at the Best China Buffet, but I can say there was no argument.  The place lived up to its name.  I had the best hot and sour soup ever.  There was chicken prepared about fifty different ways and all of them were good (I know - I tried them all!).  As we were leaving, I realized I had not even made it to the buffet table with sushi and chicken/pork/beef skewers. Maybe I should have gone for round 3.

Earlier, Louise had suggested we access the Spokane River Centennial Trail by parking at the Red Lion Inn (free) on Division Street in Spokane.  We headed east and walked around some of the Gonzaga campus.  A grandma pushing a stroller with a pair of kids had attracted a group of marmots by feeding them strawberries.  They were so engrossed with the berries they paid little attention to Sam. Strangely, Sam seemed to pay little attention to them either.  There were a lot of opportunities along the walkway to cross the river on any one of the old bridges closed to traffic and re-purposed for pedestrians.

As we headed west on the opposite side of the Spokane River the Gonzaga Art Center made for a nice composition along with the cast concrete "scrap" on the near shore.

Continuing west, we explored Canada Island.  I can't quite remember the significance of the Totem Pole but I believe it was to honor the relationship the settlers had with the local Indians. 

Spokane River "Upper" Falls.

This rather large building did not house any of the actual power producing equipment - I suspect it was just offices for all of the people sending out bills.

Washington Water Power Building 

What do you think it means that there was so much water running out of the basement of the building?

By the time we were looking up at the lower falls, we realized just how much climbing we now had in front of us!  

All along the walkway there were interesting pieces of art.  The table below appeared to be cast from recycled materials.  The welded steel sculptures were left unprotected from the elements, so they were covered with a nice layer of iron oxide.

By the time we returned to the car we were both parched.  Joani speculated it might have something to do with all of the Chinese food we had eaten (MSG maybe?).  Stopping at a Wendy's for a couple of large drinks helped, but I was thirsty all the way home.

We probably covered about three miles of trails which was only a small fraction of the entire network of trails along the river.  Overall, Spokane had so much more to see and do that we will have to return someday.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

We have been staying in Spring Ridge Estates for nearly two weeks surrounded by some of the nicest people.  For more than a week, Sam and I have joined the early morning walking group.  They pass by at 7:30 sharp each morning.  We join them for a walk around the neighborhood totaling somewhere between 1.5 and 2 miles.  I know 7:30 sounds early, but you have to remember the sun is up at 4:45 (and it doesn't set until 8:45 giving me some long daylight hours for messing with the coach).  I should probably mention these guys walk rain or shine!

Gary, the developer, has divided the neighborhood into lots from 2 to 20 acres.  Folks have developed their lots with anything from just a basic pad and full hook-ups to complete beautiful houses with a pad or pole barn or garage for their RV.

One day a week, quite a few of the residents gather for breakfast at the Mangy Moose.  With a name like Mangy Moose the food has to be great or else who would ever eat there?  We joined them last week, but forgot to take any pictures.  This week I did better and captured the whole crew.

The Mangy Moose has great food, with portions big enough to feed two.

Judy and David

The overflow table which including Louise and Ray (facing the camera) and Jim and Mary (facing away).

Judy and Paul 

Rounding out the breakfast group for the morning are (from left to right) Charles and Grace and Judy and Jim.

Below you see Joani had the Denver omelette.  Nearly every meal at the Mangy Moose comes with about a pound of hash browns.  Your choice to have them smothered in gravy or not.

At 4:00 the entire neighborhood gathered at Judy and David's place for the annual "Welcome back to the neighborhood" party, and they graciously invited us.

I thought we had met nearly everyone in the neighborhood, but I was wrong!  It turned out to be the perfect day for an outdoor party.  After several overcast, cool and rainy days, Judy was a little worried about the weather, but it really could not have been better.

The picture below does not adequately convey just how gorgeous this water feature really is.  It is massive.  I would estimate it is nearly 40 feet by 20 feet with a fall of at least 3 feet.  Even more impressive to me was that David built it himself.  Clearly, he has lots of energy to support his highly creative talents.  He also has some of the nicest lawn I have ever seen anywhere.

Inside, the house was beautiful.  What can I say about all of the food except WOW!  There was such a variety and it was all so good.  Of course, I ate way too much.

There was some discussion of tractors and tractor racing.  As you can see that discussion somehow evolved into Jackson bringing his tractor right through the party with a trailer and a chair ready for rides. 

If we settle on some property, I will have to have one of these toys. This is what Dave used to build the water feature in the back yard.  Of course, he can move more than rocks.  With his attachments he is able to do all kinds of filling and grading.   He has had his tractor for 25 years and it still looks like new.

We said our goodbyes around 7:30 and walked back to our coach. Thank you again, Judy and David, for a really great afternoon!  The people here are really this neighborhoods best asset, and except for being so far from family, I think we would seriously consider owning property here.

Monday, June 16, 2014

I decided today I would find the problem with our plumbing.  Our bathroom faucet was just slightly more than a trickle and the kitchen faucet took more than a minute to fill a gallon jug.

I wanted to find a single something common to both problems that could easily be corrected, but that didn't happen.

I started with some of the obvious things.  I inspected all of the hose fittings and additional hardware I had installed for any corrosion or mineral build up.  I bypassed the external filter and water pressure regulator.  Neither had any impact on faucet water flow.  I opened the panels in the water bay.  I checked for any unknown pressure regulator or filters.  I checked the position of the two winterizing valves.  They were in their proper positions, but I tried switching them anyway to see if they made any difference - they did not.  Next, I completely removed the check valve from the water inlet.  That also had no effect.

Inside, I opened the water heater cabinet and removed the check valve. It was clear.  Finally, I removed the bathroom faucet, resigned to do a complete and through cleaning.  I took it outside and tried to flush it out using a hose.  Mostly, that just got me soaked.  Although it seemed clear, there was very little flow through the faucet passages.  I found a screen buried in the flexible line between the valves and the nozzle.  It was pretty clogged and turned out to be our problem.

I put everything back together and verified the bathroom faucet was again working as it should.

That success made me look more closely at the kitchen faucet.  Sure enough I found another screen I had not noticed before.  It was not very clogged so it didn't make much difference.  I tried the faucet without the aerator and noted quite an improvement in flow.  I decided that I shouldn't just leave the aerator out but I noticed it could be easily modified.  I opened up a few of the holes in the aerator disc and that helped nicely.

Joani was happy with the improvements, so I thought it was a good time to declare victory and celebrate with a glass of wine.  I love that sense of accomplishment you get from a successful conclusion to a full day of hard work (I really like the retired definitions of "full day" and "hard work").

UPDATE: Wednesday I tried to improve the faucet flow further by opening up the remaining aerator disk holes.  Careful timing, however, showed no improvement leading me to believe just cleaning both screens before was all I really needed.