Sunday, January 31, 2016

Hello Everyone, 

Today I was reading Gail Alexander's blog on RV space savers.  I wanted to share, and expand on some of the things she wrote about.  As she mentioned, many RVers prefer to save on propane because of the price, which varies from one place to another.  Most RV parks offer sites with electrical hook-ups (of either 30 or 50 amp service) at no extra cost.  Instead of heating the RV by running the furnace, we prefer to use our oscillating electric heaters, and an electric blanket on our bed.  This has been successful, but we have to make sure we turn the heater off before we use the microwave or we will blow a breaker.  

Whenever possible we also cook with electricity instead of using the stove.  We have a Nuwave induction cook top.  It came with its own fry pan, but we also have another fry pan we can use on it.  We are on our second NuWave oven, which cooks by induction, conduction, and infra-red cooking.  It is amazing because you can cook frozen meats in a very short time.  One year at Christmas, we roasted a 16 pound frozen turkey in about two hours!!!  We have cooked chicken, steaks, and roasted potatoes in it.  We also invested in the T-fal Actifry.  We can do French fries without using any oil, in about 20 minutes.  We have also used it to make other meals, like sweet and sour chicken that was fantastic!  We have a really nice waffle iron too.  Sometimes, we make waffles for dinner and serve them with chili and cheese on top.   

Sometimes we cook using our Cuisinart Griddler.  It has adjustable temperature settings, for both the top and bottom plates.  It has dual flat grills on which we can cook pancakes, French toast, or eggs, etc.  It also has raised grids for cooking steaks, chicken breasts, hamburgers, or any meats that you want grill marks on.  Last, but definitely not least, we have a Ninja 3 in 1 cooker.  It is a 6 quart size crock pot, but it has a stove top setting so you can brown meats, onions, peppers and more before slow cooking the foods.  It has an oven setting, with programmable temperatures for doing a roast, or baking muffins, and it has a buffet setting to keep food warm for hours.  It has a non-stick finish so it is easy to clean, and we use it every week.  I use it to make stew, soups, spaghetti sauce, chili and much more.  

This means we only need to use the stove when I want to bake cakes, pies or cookies.  By mostly cooking and heating with electricity, we only need to use our propane to heat the water for showers and dish washing.  That way, our propane lasts a couple months.  Whenever we stay longer than a few days we use our "extend-a-stay" hook-up.  It allows us to connect a 20 pound propane tank to the RV.  Then, when we use up the propane, we can just disconnect the portable tank and get it refilled, instead of having to unhook and drive the RV to a place to be refilled.  

This past week I gave Millie a hair cut and trimmed her nails.  It's NOT her favorite activity, but she tolerates it pretty well.

 
I also clipped Willie's nails.  He is much more tolerant of the procedure than she is.  Jim has to hold Millie, but Willie just sits and waits for it to be over.  LOL
I know I've posted pictures of these birds before, but I just enjoy seeing them gather around here in the park.  Some days we see dozens of these creatures that are spending the winter here.  On Friday Almita and Rueben were here for the afternoon, and we had a lovely day together.  They have offered to take us birding with them next month.  We've never done that before so I am really looking forward to it.  We already have a pair of binoculars, and a bird book, so we are ready to go!

Before I close, I want to talk a little about something that frustrates me.  I used to think that the people who broadcast the news were fairly well educated.  It seems to me that their educational level has gone downhill very noticeably.  I don't claim to be an expert on language or grammar, but don't they have proof-readers to correct glaring errors?  In recent news programs I have heard reporters speak of someone hiding in the "li-bary", instead of library, and also one referred to next month as Febuary!  Likewise they don't seem to know when to use the word "I" versus the word "me".  Some people will say, "He gave it to her and I." It should be "to her and me".  With the "shorthand" used by young people texting, our language is taking quite a beating.  I hate to think of what will happen in the next ten years or so.  I have heard that writing is not even taught in school anymore.  How can future generations compete if they can't read or write to express themselves?  Well, that's it for today.  Just something for you to think about.  Take care and stay well.