Wet Wednesday

As predicted monsoons are on the way, well Easter Bank holiday is on its way when the kids are off school, so you could count on the weather turning cold and wet. We had spent a nice morning yesterday in Hanley shopping followed by a large meal at the China Garden (a Toby carvery) on the Festival Park site with my brother Ken and his wife Audrey. Hanley has become a minefield to navigate they just can’t stop messing about with the road system which meant we turned up a tad late.

Then on our return to the RV we said a sad farewell to one of the oldest Highland cows on the farm. The poor old thing had been looking ill for a while and for the past two days had just sat on a dusty patch in front of our RV without moving and even though the water trough was just in front of her she would not drink or eat. The other Highland cattle started to gather round her as though they knew she was dying so sadly the owner called in the Knackers man to put her to sleep.

The old Girl

A mischievous little tyke from the next caravan wanted to watch the gory proceedings “can’a watch mister are you gonn’a kill her”, but the farmer put a huge bale of hay in front of her to hide her from the caravan site and shooed the lad away. We noticed that all the Jersey's on their way out from the milking sheds lined up along the far edge of the field like an honour guard and as soon as the old girl was dispatched and removed, they all turned in unison to head out into the fields.

Who says animals can’t feel? We felt that all the animals on the farm were well aware of what was happening. The previous day the young pony ‘Bella’ had put her hoof over the old girl several times, she was tugging at her to move and licking her face without any response. I suppose us townies are too sentimental when it comes to animals.

The site is fairly empty now apart from a few caravans and a new arrival….another RV, a Damon Daybreak owned by a chap called Andy, Like us he’d just returned from having a new set of tyres supplied by Brian Evans in Oswestry and was also putting his machine in for its annual MOT with Signature motorhomes. I suppose this site is well placed for the RV community as there are a few good RV dealers and suppliers in the vicinity.

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Sunny Sunday

The heatwave continues and as usual we had just been fraternising with the locals, when out of the blue we had a visit from an old army mate.
Alan Fradly and his wife Ann dropped by to see us and we spent a couple of enjoyable hours talking all things motor homes. Its a pity I didn't bring the Cadac BBQ with us as the weather was perfect for one and Frad could have immersed himself in Frigadellen and Bratwursts mit Senf to remind him of the good old days in Germany.
The camp site has been packed with visitors coming and going to the tea rooms all day, I can just imagine what the site will be like next week if this weather keeps up, but knowing the vagaries of the British weather a monsoon will no doubt hit us next weekend.

Frad & Stu

Bella one of the ponies has really taken too me this morning, as I attempted to change the Pressure relief valve (without any success as the damn thing is rock solid and I don't want to tempt fate by forcing it) and as I worked she sided up behind me and gave me a nudge in the back, after which I could pat and stroke her and she was nuzzling my arm quite contentedly.
Strange creatures horses they ignore you one minute and then want fussing the next (sound familiar!!!!)

Typical when I recharged the water heater afterwards, the valve stopped leaking so let's see how it progresses after all 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'.

relief valve

A chap in a Four Winds Hurricane RV (who arrived with the caravan rally) popped over to see us and we spent some time discussing the differences in our machines. It appears he's also new to these RV's and I was able to pass on some things that I'd discovered and in turn we tried out extending his awning to see how they roll out, as mine would end up in the field with the horses and cattle we are so close to the fence.
I gave him the name of a good tyre supplier up at Oswestry (where we had our tyres replaced) as it looks as if he will soon be in need of replacing his, how the people who supply these units get away with supplying machines with dangerous out of date tyres I don't know.
Then it was off for a lunch at the tea rooms and a visit to see how our friends in a neighbouring caravan are as they have had some illness.

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Blind Panic

The heat wave has arrived this weekend and we have been out enjoying the sun as usual, but you can have too much of a good thing, so we looked at what little jobs where on the cards that needed completing in the RV.

We received a pack from rvspares last week that contained all the necessary bits to repair a broken string on a Day-Night Blind. Now on the pack it states ‘you will need two hours to complete this task’ yeh right! Three hours later after much swearing and panicking we completed the task.

Four string diagram

This is a two string version

Simple…. yes if you have three sets of arms, the kit comes complete with a CD that guides you through the process of fitting no end of different types of blinds, but isn’t it just typical that yours is only just mentioned and even then some parts on your blind don’t look quite the same as the ones on the CD.

The kit

Still it does prove one thing, that together we can now restring a four corded, three bar, Day-Night Blind, so if happens again when we are away that’s one task that we can say ‘yep we can do that’ and it also proves Kay and I can complete a tricky task without any divorce proceeds being taken. Mind you, I have yet to replace the Atwood pressure release valve yet.

Today I did my bit for some of the farms animals, I noticed the water trough next to our RV was dry, as the ball valve was broken and the poor horses and Cows just stood there looking sad, so I nipped out and ran the hose from our water tap to the trough and refilled it for them. Some were so glad, they didn’t wait for me to finish before their heads where down and they were slurping away.

Well I’m off back out to enjoy the sun.

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Sunshine, Sunshine

What a change in the weather, mist first thing this morning followed by a glorious sunny day.

After a shower and breakfast we took a short trip off to TravelWorld motorhomes at Telford, no not to buy a new motorhome but to change the toilet wand which had developed a fault and after only two uses, so it was back to the people we purchased it off. While there we also picked up a new pressure relief valve for the Atwood water heater which has been dripping water for the past few days so that’s a job for me to fit it soon and that should be interesting.

We arrived back at the RV with enough time to done our cycle helmets and take a short ride down through the village and onto the millennium way. Well it was to be a short ride, and hats off to Kay she managed to complete the, none stop round trip of eight miles. Poor Kay complained of cramps in her ankles and feet but was so determined to complete the ride. Shh… I was dead proud of her, I can’t mention where my aches and pains are but needless to say sitting is a sore point. So to compensate we both had a nice Beef salad lunch in the tea rooms.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the sun watching the rally caravans’ arrive on the rally pitch including a nice four winds Hurricane RV while chatting and drinking tea with our two neighbours from across the way.

The sky over Stafford has been full of gliders wheeling and swooping all afternoon and as the sun started to set we had the nice sight of a dark coloured hot air balloon floating effortlessly on the evening air.

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Just another day

The wind howled all through the night with mournful groans and sudden gusts that rocked the RV on its stands, not that we really noticed being snug as bugs in a rug as we slumbered through the night. At daybreak the weather was warm but overcast and grey, so we decided it was a morning of doing the chores.

I started by emptying the black and grey wastes and then flushing out the black tank with a toilet wand, followed by re-topping up the fresh water tank. Then I thought that it was about time I moved the RV to rotate the tyres and turn the engine to preserve the tyre walls and help pump lubricant around the engine. By moving the RV I also lifted the jacks as it stops them seizing up and getting rusty. This was followed by the task of running the Onan Generator for ten minutes to keep that lubricated as well.

As I did these few chores Kay nipped off to do the washing and then cleaned out the RV before setting out our lunch of omelette and oatcakes (Hmm Yummy).

OK now watered and fed the urge to get out for a few hours so a quick walk to the village and back got us in the mood to venture out a bit further, had it been not so windy and grey, we would have used the cycles but opted for the car instead.

Kay wanted some photos of the houses and interesting things we’ve seen so it was off to Haughton & Gnosal to take some pictures.

See Below

Old Hall Haughton

Old Gaol Gnosal

St Lawrence Gnosal

St Lawrence Gnosal

13th century Norman  door

11th Century Door

Gnosal High Street

Gastronomy Shop

history of St Lawrence's church Gnosal

http://www.st-lawrence-gnosall.com/html/history.html

Village history with interactive video

http://www.gnosallparishcouncil.org.uk/archives/tour.htm

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Mothers Day

We awoke to a dullish day but soon the sun came out and the farm sprang to life, as the rabbits bounded from their burrows and the cows and horses came to call. Being Sunday the caravan crowed started to pack up, hook up and make their move early and by the end of the day the rally field was empty. The sites tea rooms have been doing a roaring trade all day with visiting groups of families, no doubt dads dragging mum out with the kids or grand kids to celebrate the day.

Talking of Mothers day, we had a nice surprise this morning announced by a loud knocking on the RV’s door (which shook us both awake) and there with her arms full of flowers, chocolates cards and a balloon announcing happy mother’s day was a young delivery lady.

Kay was soon in tears as she is missing her daughters and grandson and the arrival of these gifts tore at her heart strings. A few telephone conversations later and she was back to her normal self. As I’ve predicted our kids will always find us no matter where we are.

We’ve been planning our touring strategy today and have been phoning a few camping sites to cover the coming summer period, our aim is to head south to the Cheltenham area first, then further down towards Devizes and hooking back towards the Malvern’s by the end of August for the three counties Western Motor home show. After the show it will be south again, eventually heading for the channel ports ready for our departure into France and Spain for the winter months.

Hopefully by then any problems with the RV will have been ironed out and we will feel more confident of arriving safe and sound at our eventual destination, which as yet is still in the air. I think the only fly in the ointment is fuel costs i.e. what will we be paying for a litre of petrol and LPG come August?

I’m of the opinion that our governments (new and old) are conning us, LPG which our RV uses, has increased from 50p to 78p per Ltr in just one year. Now they can’t use the excuse that it’s the cost of fuel imports going up as we export 45% of our north sea LPG overseas, or that it’s the carbon footprint excuse as LPG is a green fuel so by rights they should be encouraging its use by lowering its cost (pigs might fly).

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Solar so good

Yesterday we had a visit from Chase RV Electricals to have our new Solar panel fitted. It would have been nice if the sun had made an appearance as predicted by the weather girl, but sadly it was overcast and very, very windy, which doesn’t help when you’re trying to install a large solar panel on an RV’s roof. The thing quite literally has a life of its own with a force eight gale blowing around your ears.

It took quite a while for the chap to fit the 125 watt Panel and the Sunsaver solar controller with the Fox D-1 display unit which now gives us a steady reading as to the state of the batteries charge. So with luck this will also help when we attend some rally’s later on in the year where there will be no electric hook up for a couple of nights. At least it should help power the 12 volt TV and the Led lights.

controller

Fox D-1

Kay had made a visit to the tea rooms earlier and had purchased a large walnut cake which due to our involvement with the fitting of the panel saved our stomachs (including the man from Chase RV) as lunch went past without being noticed. The chap fitting the panel had thirty years of RV electrical knowledge under his belt and soon spotted some areas that we needed to investigate further before setting off on our long trips abroad.

Having missed lunch we decided to head out to Gnosal for tea after the chap left, as we had spotted a good old Fish & Chip shop there on an earlier visit. On arrival the queue for food was huge, now I know its Friday evening, but this was ridiculous the place must be the only chippie for miles around. So we about turned the toad and headed off for Stafford only there was a problem with this plan, neither of us knew where the chip shop was in Stafford. Fortunately we were passing Tesco’s at the time, so the next thing we did was to get Britons favourite dish, Good old Curry in a bag.

We had just finished downing said curry (with a bottle of Red wine naturally) when we had a knock on the door, our friends Phil and Zita had popped over with you guessed it, with another bottle of Red in hand.

Today the weather started off miserable but soon changed to a glorious sunny day which was great as we had a visit from my brother and his wife, (secretly I think my brothers reliving the days of his youth with all these farm animals about).

We called over to the tea rooms with them and enjoyed a nice lunch followed by some of the farms excellent ice creams. I know its food again and I think I’m going to have to curtail all these visits to the tea rooms as the trousers are definitely getting a bit tighter around the midriff.

I never knew you could get so attached to animals on a farm; we get concerned when we see the gander wandering about squawking for its mate thinking has a fox attacked. The large Shire horse and the two smaller mares have become good friends often staring into the RV’s windows waiting for me to pop out with a carrot. The Guiney fowl running around comically like little old ladies with big bustles, as though desperate to not miss out on the gossip.

And a family of wild rabbits that have a warren right next to the RV who often pop out to play right under our noses.

So life on the Red Lion Farm is quite idyllic when the suns out, Kay sits in her chair in the conservatory (her term for the front passenger seat with all that glass about) knitting or reading.

And yours truly on the dinette either updating the blog or working on my three novels.

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