We’ve been hanging out at the “dirt farm” in Casa Grande for a couple weeks now.  The name “dirt farm” is not meant to be derogatory.  It’s the name my brother and his significant other, Cheryl, have given to their 5-acre homesite complete with horses and chickens.  It’s actually quite green for the moment with the recent rains and somewhat cooler weather.

This is also where my mom and stepdad live in their separate, but smaller pre-fabricated house.  Brother Steven and Cheryl have the “big house”  – a super-sized triple wide home.

We’ve been parked in front of Mom’s house, where stepdad Jim just finished hooking up a 50-Amp receptacle in the garage.  Now we, or anyone else for that matter, can mooch power from either house… just depends on who you want to visit. 🙂   Although, the houses are only a couple hundred feet apart, we opted to park at Mom’s because it’s fenced in.  This is great for little dog, Coach.  We don’t have to put him on a leash… just let him out the door in the morning to do his business.  Besides, as I reported earlier, the ground at Steven & Cheryl’s 50-Amp pedestal was still soggy from recent rain when we first arrived here.

When we weren’t working on the “dirt farm”, we went out to eat a few times… but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been eating well at the farm too!  We’re going to have to get away from here so we can go on a diet!  Just kidding Mom 🙂

While enjoying all the good meals and the company of family, we’ve been helping out a little with all the on-going projects around here.  Some of these projects include, but are not limited to: running electrical power and burying cable for outlying sheds and a casita; putting up or moving fencing; spreading gravel and leveling with the bobcat; etc., etc.,

And the first fruit tree goes in…

I also used the time here to reorganize the contents of my cargo trailer and made room in my “Conex” storage container for more items.  Now I can park either the ATV or the Harley inside the trailer, depending on which one we decide to haul around in the pickup with us.

The new Xantrex inverter/charger that I wrote about in my last post has been working as advertised.  Although, when I did some checking, I found out that the technician forgot to tighten down the nuts that hold it to the basement wall.  I guess he got distracted after finger-tightening the nuts… must have been tired from lifting the 75 pound unit into place.

Also, I think I need to come up with a junction box of some sort for the wire connections he spliced.  I wish he would have taken the time to run new wires, the old ones (orange) were just a couple inches too short.

In other RV maintenance related news;  I finally took the time to do something about the sagging insulation in the engine compartment.  My stepdad had some super-sized washers that I was able to use after drilling holes through the closet floor (under the drawers).  Don’t look too bad, eh?

I also fixed a support bracket for the charge-air cooler tube that had broken again.  This bracket had been fixed once already by my old high school buddy and good friend, Mike Harris.  My buddy Mike welded the bracket, but I think the extra weight of the sagging insulation that was laying on top of the tube was just too much for it. Thanks anyway Mike!  🙂

Oh, and by the way – the technicians at Speedco lied!  They didn’t lube the u-joints on the Coach after changing the oil and replacing the fuel filter like they said they did.  There was absolutely no evidence the dirt-encrusted grease fittings had been touched with a grease gun since last year.  So I cleaned the fittings and lubed them myself while I was under there.

It’s been great spending time here at the “dirt farm’ with family.  Thanks Ma, Jimmy, Steve & Cheryl!  See you again soon… hopefully we’ll be back in time for some Easter fun at the farm 🙂

And now it’s time to move on… we’re signed up for an Alpine Coach Pre-Rally in Valencia CA that starts the 19th.  After that, we’ll convoy to the FMCA Rally in Pomona.   We’re looking forward to both rallies, there’s going to be lots of activities and new things to do and see.

Here we are at a rest stop by the Imperial Sand Dunes along I-8 yesterday (Wednesday) after we said our farewells and hit the road.

I decided to load the Harley and the bicycles for our next adventure in California.  I parked the ATV safely away in the cargo trailer back at the “dirt farm”.

We found an overnight spot at the Red Earth Casino along highway 86 next to the Salton Sea.  And the price was right,  Free!  We just had to stay at our $20 limit inside the casino…

We should make it to Valencia in a few hours after I post this.  Check back in later to see what we’re up to. 🙂