Wednesday, January 27, 2016

January 27, 2016

Hi Everyone,  
This will be shorter than usual, I expect, but I wanted to let everyone know what has happened this week.  Back in December we discovered we had a leak somewhere under the shower.............but we couldn't find a cause for the water that ran out into the hallway, so we called out an RV service guy.  He did all he could but he couldn't find a cause either.  He tightened every connection, making sure not to over-tighten and risk cracking anything.  It seemed like the problem was solved..............but while we were out in Palm Desert we had another problem:  I tried to turn on the hot water one morning for my shower, but the knob turned without any water coming out.  Jim discovered the handle was stripped, so for that one day he used a needle nose pliers to turn the water on and off.  Then we went to a local RV supplier to replace the faucet unit.  He had to order it, so we had to wait from Friday until Monday to get the new one, which meant using the pliers for a few days.  On Monday Jim replaced the faucet, and we thought all was well, but that was again, sadly not true.  This Monday (two days ago) we found water running out into the hall from under the shower after we used it.  We called another repair guy, since the guy we called back in December could not find the problem.  He arrived late Monday evening, and crawled around looking for the leak.  He finally found it under the front, left corner of the shower.  It was late, and he didn't have what he needed, so he had to leave it and returned today to fix the problem.  He was here less than an hour and has removed the edging strip that had probably caused the leak, and sealed the entire inside and underside of the shower.  His name is Brad Miller, and he and his son work under the name of Miller's RV Service.  His rates were reasonable, and we hope the leak will finally be a thing of the past.  YAY!!!!!

Now, for a short change of topic, I was rather amused by what we saw here today.  Jim went out to go get our daily paper and spotted this right across the street from where we are.  
 
 We think the black and white bird might be a wild turkey.  As you can see below, he seems friendly with the geese, and he doesn't seem to be afraid of the campers either!
 

I was informed that the bird I posted a picture of in my last blog was a black headed night heron.  I looked him up in the bird book we have, and that is definitely what he was.  Thank you Tony!  That's it for tonight.  Have a grand day and stay warm and well.  Bye for now to all.  

4 comments:

  1. Wow ... sorry for all your RV headaches. Not Fun! At least it's fixed and behind you now. Your duck is a Muscovy Duck. And the correct name for that Heron you mention is Black-crowned Night Heron. See you Friday!

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  2. Yes, Tony gave both names, black-crowned or black headed. Thank you. I looked for it in my National Audubon Society Book and there was no Muscovy Duck, and no duck that looked like this one. With it's bigger body, I thought he was some kind of wild turkey. We have seen several wild turkeys here at Wilderness Lakes in the past, but usually much later in the year.

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  3. The Muscovy Duck is in my National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America (I have the Audubon guide, too). If you search "photos of Muscovy ducks" you will find many photos and info. Some are all white, some black, others a variation like the one you saw. The males have that red sometimes black, knob at the base of their bill; females don't have that. They are sold as pets and some people like to eat their meat. I haven't seen the one in your photo at Wilderness Lakes but I have seen a white male swimming in the canal. So, just some added info!

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  4. Thanks. That was interesting. I'll look in the book again. Maybe we can go birding with you guys sometime...if it's not tooooo much walking. I have bad knees so there is a limit on how much walking I can do. ps. I can't imagine getting one as a pet, and then eating it! OMG.

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