I miss my garden. I have never had a great garden that would sustain me through the winter, but I like fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, etc. And I like to have flowers blooming in the yard. Usually by mid February I start my plants indoors by the window and watch them sprout. It gets me through the last legs of winter.
Well, this spring I made the decision that I am going to try and have a vegetable garden on the back of the RV. The motorcycle is off the rack, leaving a large flat surface of about 3 feet by 8 feet just sitting there waiting for something to go onto it. So, while we were getting pelted with ice and hail, and cold weather, I went into Walmart and bought the beginnings of my new garden.
The seedlings are beginning to sprout now, with the peas in the lead, followed closely by my cucumber plants. The cherry tomatoes are starting to come up, but no sign of the roma tomatoes yet. I am expecting them in the next few days.
As far as the logistics of setting them out on the back deck, I do not have any finalized plans. But that will unfold as the weather warms and the plants grow big enough to earn the right to be out there.
On a slightly different topic, I have started to build a water purifier. Since being in Ontario we have caught on that they charge a lot more for water than in the USA. We actually got used to paying $0.25 per gallon for water down there, and come up to the great white north and are getting charged 0.93 for a gallon of water. After the initial shock of the cost, I started checking out water filtering systems that we might install in the RV. I wanted one that would be able to treat the potable water we get at campgrounds, parks, and gas stations along the way. It it potable but not necessarily something we want to drink. So I want something more than just a Brita pitcher that goes in the fridge. You can get fancy osmosis systems for $500 (too expensive) or less expensive filter systems. Some have single filters, others use a double filter system, and they range in cost from $30 to $200. I started looking more closely at the basic filter systems and they are really just tubes and containers to run water through the different replacement filters available. And being cheap, I thought I could make my own filter case, and just buy the replacement filter.
Here is what I came up with:
I picked up the best filter (as far as I can see) that filters to 1 micron, and seems to take everything out of the water that these filters can. It cost me $30. Then I wanted to make sure I understood how the filter worked, so I ran water through the top, to make sure it moves slow enough through the filter. The guy at the hardware store said that was the key, the water should not be moving through the system too fast or it is not being properly filtered.
The first test worked, but I had to be very careful to not overfill the filter using the funnel. Next, I had to develop a way of pouring water into the top of the filter without having the unfiltered water pouring out the top of the filter. I had a hose adapter I picked up for a different project and never used. It was perfect for connecting to a pop bottle (using teflon tape to get a good seal), and screwing into the plastic on the top of the filter. The filter had no thread on it, so I created the thread while turning the hose adapter down into the top. It worked perfectly with just a slight leak. I need to put silicone around the edges and that should seal it up tight.
My next modification to this system is to pick up a patio pitcher with a water spout at the bottom of it. You know, like the ones people get for a lemonade stand. Then I simply have to pop the filter into the pitcher, run water through the top, and collect my clean water from the bottom spout. And I should be able to do that for free anytime I want drinkable water.
My new water filtration system has not been used yet though. I was thinking of getting the water tested, before and after, at some local company. After that, I would know for sure if the system is really working the way I think it is.
So, what do you think? Is it cabin fever or am I preparing for the apocalypse? Maybe I shouldn't tell you about the schematics I have for building my own solar panels. Oh, and my solar oven plans.
I know, it's nothing like the weather back home in Winnipeg. You have been getting snowed on non-stop this winter. And when it melts, sandbag season begins. But we are in an RV, and the outside temperatures affect us in a fairly immediate way, with our lack of insulation between us and the elements.
We entered Canada in Windsor, Ontario. It is two states down from Manitoba, and we figured it had to be warmer than Winnipeg. So, here we are, in Upper Canada. I know, the southern most part of Canada is called Upper Canada, what were they thinking when they named that! Anyway, we thought the weather would be nicer here. The weather.com website showed normal temperatures for April would be 50s F during the day, going down to freezing at night. That would be fine for a month, until temperatures warmed up. But that is not what we got, at least not every day. We did have a couple of nice days these past two weeks. But not every day. A lot of our time has been spent under blankets reading, watching tv, and surfing the internet.
Then came the past few days. The weather people started talking about freezing rain, and the possibility of snow. How bad could it be, really. We were in the quaint little town of Woodstock when we got that news, on our way to Kitchener. We had something to take care of in the small town of Drumbo overnight, so we stopped at the rest area / truck stop for the night there. That was when the ice storm hit.
Our RV got covered, head to foot, in ice. There were icicles hanging off every edge available. And the wind was howling. They said the winds would get up to 60 km. Well, after being in Corpus Christi a few months ago with 63 mph wind gusts, that would be a piece of cake. It didn't scare us. We simply parked into the wind and tucked in beside some of the semi trucks that lined the truck stop parking lot.
The next day was more of the same; more wind, more rain, and more ice. So Drumbo was were we spent another day. Then finally today temperatures warmed up to around 5 degrees celcius, and the ice began sliding off the RV.
We drove in to Kitchener, taking the more scenic roads cross country. The fields were beautiful, with hoarfrost covering everything. The signs along the side of the road all had 2-3 inches of icicles dripping off them as well. But the roads were wet and free of ice.
When we pulled into Kitchener some of the trees still had ice coating them, but by late afternoon that was a thing of the past.
We turned on the evening news, and found out we got away pretty lucky. The town of Waterloo, just down the road from us, seemed to get hit a little harder with the ice. Several trees had suffered from the heavy ice, loosing branches everywhere. Power was out in several areas as well, due to the ice build up on the power lines. I don't know how we manage to drive around these weather issues, but I am just glad we did.
We are finding Canada to be a bit of a strange country, and are having trouble adapting to it's strange ways. I still have to watch myself with the kilometers and not miles per hour for speed limit signs, and it doesn't help that the RV speedo is in miles. We are also getting lost a lot in these towns. I find road signs are not marked as well as they are in the States. The business route I was following in Chatham stopped advertising it's route number and the street changed it's name 4 times in 4 blocks downtown, as it turned corners (no exageration on that). In London, the street I was looking for had a different street name on google than it did in real life. And county roads have their county names on them. I was looking for Oxford Rd in one small town, googled it, and found two different roads called Oxford. It took me a while to figure out it was because Oxford was the name of the county, so every road was called Oxford Rd, along with the county road number. And when you follow a road that has an actual name, you have to watch out, because it changes it's name if it leaves the county. Google doesn't show the road numbers that correspond with the county road numbers, and the roads may or may not display the route or name you are looking for. So, now when I google directions somewhere, I make really good notes, and watch for all signs I can find. We are not getting lost as much now as when we first got here. What a strange country this Canada land is.
Oh, and we are having difficulty finding RV sewage dumps. I know it it's a gross topic, but the RV needs this service every week or so. The last dump we found was at the Flying J in London. But that was a week ago. The next closest Flying J is in Mississauga, and we are not going there. We could dump at a campground, but they are not open yet. And we could dump at the park in Cambridge, but it isn't open yet either. So far, Ontario is not very user friendly. I am sure I will come up with a solution to this latest issue we seem to find ourselves with.
But tomorrow will be nicer, going up to 9 degrees celcius, with 18 degrees on Monday.
Guess what, the bike is coming off the rack!!! And Ward could not be happier. I think tourist Rae is going to show up again as well. We'll be touring Kitchener in no time.
I picked up the best filter (as far as I can see) that filters to 1 micron, and seems to take everything out of the water that these filters can. It cost me $30. Then I wanted to make sure I understood how the filter worked, so I ran water through the top, to make sure it moves slow enough through the filter. The guy at the hardware store said that was the key, the water should not be moving through the system too fast or it is not being properly filtered.
My next modification to this system is to pick up a patio pitcher with a water spout at the bottom of it. You know, like the ones people get for a lemonade stand. Then I simply have to pop the filter into the pitcher, run water through the top, and collect my clean water from the bottom spout. And I should be able to do that for free anytime I want drinkable water.
