Just Making Great Memories

When things start happening to you.....sometimes you have to look at it as 'just making great memories'.... of course that is after you have pulled your hair.....cussed a little.....barked a couple of knuckles....and maybe screamed in frustration. (And some time has passed.)
For those not living in Missouri....it is Deer Season. Saturday the 15th of November at dawn was opening of the 9 day firearms season. This year we tried something just a little different. Tom has always gone up to the kids farm for the opening weekend. I usually have craft fairs on the first three Saturdays of November. This year it worked out that only two weekends were busy. So the plan was for Tom to take the 5th wheel up to Versailles and set it up at a RV park there and I would come up on Sunday to spend the week. I did not want to be out on the farm with all the hunters as that was just toooo much testosterone for me to deal with. And that way I could have some time to do a little sewing. I took a sewing machine and some material for a project or two. That was the plan.....somewhere along the way.....it got a little changed and ended up much more experience and memories than we had planned.
Tom did take the 5th wheel and did get to the RV park to get it set up....but..... It turned into more of an ordeal to get it set up. First he had to get to a place that the sewer dump and the water faucet was on the right side. That was easy.... Then he had to hook everything up. He found that our 10ft sewer hose was not long enough to reach....not even if you really stretched it. In really trying to make the hose longer, he unraveled the last foot of the hose. So, he went to Walmart and farm center to look for a longer hose. He found that Walmart only had 10ft hoses.....and with two of those and what was left of the hose we had....that would be long enough. But Walmart only had one coupler to connect two hoses..... Off to the auto parts store and....they only had one coupler! Two couplers and three hoses and that made it long enough to reach. Also in the process he had to get a longer water line hose! But after about three hours of playing 'seek and you will find'....he finally got it all together. Now all this is happening on Friday late afternoon. And you know that he is going to have to get up before the dawn to drive out to the kids farm and find his 'penthouse' tree stand in the dark!
There were a few other minor problems like.....'blowing the breaker' on the 5th wheel and then not being able to find the fuse box. Of course, I (being the one at home) knew where the box was....but he (being the one at the 5th wheel) did not. After having looked everywhere, and practically tearing the whole place apart, and having more than a little help.... it was finally located behind a very large tote box that is filled with all his hunting clothes. Just another minor problem.....taken care of.
Next.....he did get out to the stand and all the guys did get to hunt. It has almost become a tradition that the 'new' guy gets the best shots..... And that our daughter-in-law, Michelle, gets the largest buck! This year was no exception. Unfortunately, Michelle's buck was at the bottom of a deep ravine and they took our big truck to go get him. All made it down without too much trouble. It is always the getting out that is the problem. We did find out that all the time we have been using the 4 wheel drive switch on the dash, that it has not been engaging the 4 wheel drive. Meaning that after getting up the first section and turning on the 4 wheel drive on the dash.....and only burning the tires and spraying dirt and rock chips everywhere, they got out and looked around and found that the tires were missing some tread, and that there are 'lock outs' for the 4 wheel drive! ( They can be put into automatic.....and then you can use the 4 wheel drive from the dash....but were not set that way!) Once the wheels were locked.....right on up the side they went. Amazing how that works. But.....as the story goes...... the inside tires on the dual wheeled back were missing a chunk or two of tread! (After we thought about it, we realized that the tires had been on there for a long time and that it was probably time to get new ones anyway......) Okay...... now we have a longer (although, patched together) sewer hose and clamps, a new water hose, one new fuse, and will have ,four new tires!!! And this all the first two days....
I got up there late on Sunday to find all the hunters busy cleaning and cutting way too many deer. It seems that some of Mike's friends like to hunt....but don't care to eat venison. So they brought their animals to Mike for him to have and gave some of it to a family in need. The hunters were in the process of skinning and cutting up 14 animals. I think that the main ingredient of dinner that night was......800 Motrin!! But all who want it will have meat in the freezer for the winter.
Monday morning Tom and I took one whole deer and 4 large trash bags full of only meat to the processor to be turned into deer burger, chops, steaks, and roasts. Luckily, the weather was 'cool' so that the ice chests.....a large number of them....could be used to transport all the meat.
Tuesday morning started out a lot colder than we wanted. Some time just before we got up, the propane gas tank went empty. (Now there are two tanks and we started with them both full.) It seems that if the temperature is below 40 degrees that you have to manually change the tanks so that they both go down equally. Of course it is a lot colder than 40 degrees and we did not know that we needed to change the tanks. So the one tank was totaly empty....and since it was the one that all the heat was running on. When it went empty....the heat went off!! And because it was really cold....the water hose froze. So, we also had no water. Great way to start the day. Tom took the empty tank and got it filled after we called the place that we bought the 5th wheel from to find out what the problem was.....and Amazing!!! The heat came right on and up the temperature went on the inside..... Then he left the hose out in the sun to unfreeze it...... After getting new tires on the truck and breakfast....we went back to the 5th wheel to get the water going. Just a little bit of work and ...... there was water!! We did a couple of other errands and got back to the 5th wheel a couple of hours latter ...... There is water coming out of the back of the 5th wheel....just like a small fountain...... And you can guess what is coming next! The faucet was left on in the kitchen......full force.....and the tanks were closed......(with it hooked to the sewer, we could have left the tanks opened and flowing directly into the sewer....but didn't).....after 25 gallons ...... the water had no where to go but out of the sink down on the floor and off to the lowest corner....all the way at the back! Not having it totally level meant out the back end..... That is across the one little area that had carpet and padding.
We went to work immediately with towels to try and get all the water up...... But saw that was a loosing battle....really we needed a shop-vac or better yet a carpet shampooer!! A carpet shampooer really pics the water up fast! Off we go! In all of Versailles.....at every place we could think of .....not one place rents carpet shampooers..... The local supermarket used to but when Versailles got a super Walmart....the supermarket went out of business...... Walmart used to but quit a couple of months ago......and no one else has picked up the slack!! We bought a small shop-vac and worked for about an hour and half before we gave up and realized there was no way we were going to get all the water out of the pad and carpet......Next step is to rip up the carpet. Well they put this carpet down like it was the last one on earth and it was meant to be there the next hundred years...... There were staples every quarter to eighth of an inch! And the pad has these industrial strength staples that are going to take a jackhammer to get out! Once we got it started....it could be ripped up for a couple of inches at a time by taking a good hold with two hands and just yanking......a little at a time...... but it was also the side with the slide out and was that part really stapled and under everything. Seems that they lay down the carpet and then put the cabinets on top of it!! But with a lot of pricked fingers, barked knuckles, and the dullest knives to cut wet carpet you could have....it did get out.....well almost all out...there is still a part that we are not going to get out with out some real TOOLS. Mike came to help after school was out with a real knife. So now we have a small heap of very wet carpet and pad in the back of the pick-up with 5 empty ice chests. But at least with the help of fans we can get the wood under floor dry..... well almost all of it dry....there is still that part that is going to need some real TOOLS....
At this point....just laugh.....because we have already pulled out what little hair we do have.....and have had to use about half of the band-aids that were left in the box from the 'hunters' doing their job on the butchering....(not just the cutting of the meat.....really butchering some of it..... and every now and then getting a little too much skin to go with the deer). The air was just a little blue from the verbal abuse as well as the humidity from the wet carpet and the heat. And we have not had enough time pass to really make it all 'funny'. I am sure in the upcoming ..... months that we will start to see exactly how funny this whole thing was..... Right now it was just a learning experience and...... Just Making Great Memories.......