Day 589: 12 Gallons of Water Found Hiding in RV

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Ben

No doubt so our RV manufacturer could save money by using lighter duty suspension components, our RV only has a 45 gallon fresh water tank, which is on the small side for an RV of this size. Most RVs used by fulltimers have at least 100 gallons of fresh water on board. In turns out to not be that big of a deal for us, as we can last about 5 days on 45 gallons of water, and we tend to go out on trips or to do errands frequently enough that we fill up our 45 gallon water bag in the bed of our pickup and bring the water back to the RV. A few times, though, we’ve run out of water and have been forced to make a special trip just to get more water.

Water in the RV is pumped from the fresh water tank into the plumbing to create water pressure at the sink and shower. Cold water is also pumped into the 12 gallon water heater. The pressure on the cold side pushes the heated water out of the water heater into the hot water lines. When there’s no more water in the fresh water tank, hot water no longer gets pushed out of the water heater, so it just sits there.

I realized we could use this 12 gallons of water heater water if we could access it. I removed the anode rod from the tank and added a T fitting which allowed me to screw the anode rod back into the T fitting and install a garden hose attachment on the side:

I then attached the other end of the hose to the fresh water fill attachment on the RV, and set the fill mode to “winterize”, which uses the onboard pump to draw from the fill attachment, not from the fresh water tank. This is normally used to draw anti-freeze into the RV’s plumbing for winter storage, but in this case I’m sucking water out of the water heater and making it available for use! We now have 12 gallons of water we can use in a pinch if we empty our fresh water tank.

For this to work, I have to open the pressure valve at the top of the water heater so that air can enter the tank to replace the water removed. I installed a screen over the valve to prevent bugs from crawling into the water heater through the vent. I also installed a screen between the hose and the RV pump so that any scale or other particles from the water heater aren’t ingested by the pump.

Just for fun, we lived on water heater water for the whole day!

This afternoon, B and I went for a ride “around the block”. Much of the Forest Service road was quite rough, and we passed a dead rattlesnake on the road! At one point, there were cows all over the road, which made B nervous, so I rode ahead and encouraged them to move along.

Day 588: Balloons and Biking

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Ben

This morning we saw a hot air balloon go floating by:

After homeschool, Trish and B went out for another Tour de Simcha training ride:

Looks like we might be in for a bit of rain:

Day 587: Tuzigoot and Jerome

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Ben

This morning we drove north to Tuzigoot National Monument, where a 14th-century, 110-room Sinaguan pueblo was discovered and rebuilt in the 1930s. We first did the marsh hike:

Next we visited the visitor center:

It was fascinating to see 500 year old jewelry:

The Indians here mined and traded a number of colorful minerals:

Next we hiked out to the pueblo site:

When the site was found in the 1930s, the walls had all collapsed, leaving behind the only the lowest row of stone and mortar. The park service reconstructed the site to give visitors a better idea of what it looked like back in the day.

Looking north from the top:

And South:

The park service rebuilt this enclosed room to give visitors a better idea of what the dwellings look like inside:

The kids earned their Junior Ranger badges:

Next we drove west to the hillside town of Jerome:

Jerome has many galleries and shops. We stopped to visit this copper boutique:

The shop had a number of artillery cartridges from World War I that soldiers at the time had crafted into trench art:

We also visited the Audrey Shaft Headframe Park. The headframe stands above a 1,900 foot deep shaft that was use to bring copper ore to the surface. The mine eventually produced over 500,000 tons of copper:

The shaft itself is covered with an acrylic walkway. Walking over it, we could look down into the darkness as we stood over a 1,900 foot vertical drop below our feet. Falling down the shaft would entail a free-fall 650 feet longer than from the roof of the Empire State Building to ground level:

We tried to explore downtown Jerome, but parking was a problem, so we returned to Cottonwood and did some grocery shopping before returning to the RV.

Day 586: Beads, Bicycles, and Floating Point Math Errors

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Ben

In between homeschool subjects, B worked on a new beading project:

M found somewhat less constructive ways to spend his time:

This afternoon, we had a bicycle repair clinic focused on flat tire repair. Each of us had a flat tire to work on:

At 5pm or so, I set out to ride from the RV to the town of Jerome, which involved a roughly 1500 foot climb. I arrived 15 minutes before sunset:

On the way down, I was treated to sunset on the red rocks in the distance:

Trish and B went out on a Tour de Simcha training ride:

Tonight, M’s assertion that “close is good enough” is a valid concept in mathematics led to a discussion of the Pentium FDIV bug. Ironic that this conversation would happen on Day 586, no? Of course it is. So ironic.

Day 585: Homeschooling Near Sedona

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Ben

Shabbos was pleasant here, with temperatures only reaching 80 or so. We went for a little walk and played Settlers of Catan in the afternoon.

Continuing their study of France in Geography Through Art, the kids today learned how to create medieval-era geometric stained glass windows:

The awning rail was detaching from the wall of the RV, so I applied Loctite to the screws and re-inserted them. I also added half a dozen new screws. Once the awning was not at risk of pulling away from the RV, I installed our new patio shade in the awning track to see what effect it would have on keeping the RV cool:

It’s been more confortable here than in the Phoenix area, with highs just reaching 80 in the afternoon. In the distance, the red rock of Sedona beckons:

B used a balloon in Science class to explore static electricity. B and M both blew up a balloon and wrote on them. The idea was that when the balloon was deflated, they would have tiny writing on the surface of the now-small balloon. M chose to write out the Star Spangled Banner: