April 23 - 30, 2025 - Traps Worked - TV in Homer - A/C Shroud Cracks - Bird Net - Door Light in Homer - Awning Arm Lock

My Blog Reflection

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

Booker T. Washington

Wednesday April 23, 2025

Traps were put up Tuesday morning and this morning I spotted a squirrel in the trap for any animal coming out of the house. 

I called the exterminator and by the time he arrived at noon there was another squirrel caught in the trap set up to catch any squirrels trying to go in. The exterminator said this was great news. We caught one that had been in there and caught another planning on going in. Probably a mating pair. The traps will be up for another eight days to make sure no more are inside. Making progress.

Work on Homer:

In the morning John agreed to come over and help me with a couple of minor electrical issues in Homer. The first was getting the TV to work. A couple of years ago we watched the TV, no problem. Then when we went to use it the next time in Michigan it wouldn't work. In Michigan I pulled out the booster. It looked a little corroded so Dave and I found an RV store and I bought a new one. The new one made no difference. I then suspected a bad cable connection or cable wire somewhere. You need two people to check out stuff like this since the antenna is on the roof, which makes it hard to be up there and see what the TV is doing. That's part of the reason I sought John's help, in addition to his expertise.

Before John arrived I put new batteries in the TV remote and turned it on. All I got was some squiggly lines on part of the screen. After waiting for it to warm up I used the 1950s TV fix - I smacked it hard several times. More picture came on but it was not a full screen. Repeatedly pushing the "Menu" or "Source" buttons on the remote did nothing. I turned it off. When I turned it back on the areas that had appeared earlier on the screen did not come back up. I guess my "smacking" only had a temporary effect. I called John and asked him to bring his small TV so we could connect it to the antenna to see what we got. Before he arrived I did some checking online and learned that really cold weather is bad for TVs. The last two winters with zero or below temperatures for extended periods of time apparently made toast of this TV, even though it was in an uninsulated shed. Sadly, it probably only had about fifteen or twenty hours on it.

John arrived with his TV. We hooked it up and immediately got an excellent picture from the Cape Girardeau stations, which are just thirty-five miles away. We turned the antenna to face toward St. Louis and got nothing. We thought it should have at least "flickered" on one or more St. Louis stations (90 miles away). I got up on the roof and checked the cable connection to the antenna. It was fine - tight and no corrosion. We decided maybe a new batwing antenna was needed as well. I ordered a refurbished TV and a refurbished batwing antenna from Amazon. If either one does not solve the problem, I can send one or both items back. They will arrive on Friday.  

We then moved to issue #2 - checking out the dead dash switch on Homer. This switch was installed by the previous owner. The lady I bought Homer from had no idea what it did. They were divorced so no getting in touch with him to find out. 

When working the switch would light up red when "ON". Last year, by accident, I noticed that when it was "ON" the alternator was charging the house batteries. This is a nice feature for long trips. I decided to use it on a trip last summer. 

I pushed it while on the road and after a few minutes Kelly and I smelled something burning. We got out, looked all around, and found nothing inside or out that smelled burnt. We continued on. After thinking about it, I decided the smell had to be from that switch. I pushed it and no red light. 

John is excellent with electrical issues. We pulled out the switch and put the voltmeter to it. The readings we got on the voltmeter that made no sense. The meter showed 77 volts DC. Impossible in a 12 volt system! We were perplexed. I marked the switch so I knew in which position power is off since the light no longer lights to show when it is "ON". We quit for the day. 

John went home and later called to tell me that we need to test the switch with an analog voltmeter. Sometimes digital voltmeters give strange readings on switches. I looked all over for my analog voltmeter and couldn't find it. I believe it is Florida. John will bring his out when he has some time and we have better weather. 

Friday April 25, 2025

I took the lawnmower to the shop to have the hydraulic fluid changed. The manual said to change it at 50 hours. It has 111 hours on it. I will never have to change it again. They will get to it today or Monday.

Back to Homer:

The antenna and TV arrived by UPS. I installed the TV and got six digital channels, all from the Cape Girardeau area. I then installed the new antenna. It did not do any better so I boxed it up and sent it back to Amazon. The new TV is a smart TV so we can connect to the internet whenever it is available. I programed our house but the router was too far away for the TV to connect.

When I was on the roof dealing with the antenna I noticed that the rubber boot that covers the antenna wire as it enters the cabin had pulled loose. This allows water to get inside. I scraped the old caulk back, pushed the back boot into place, and then caulked it. 

The antenna is right next to the A/C unit on the roof. While up there I noticed that there were several new cracks in the plastic A/C shroud. I believe that the A/C unit in Homer is original, i.e. over thirty years old. While it works great, there is no such thing as getting a replacement shroud for this old unit. A couple of years ago I had secured a couple of cracks on the top of the shroud with Eternabond tape. It has held up well. I still had part of a roll of tape so I fetched it from the shop and cut it to span the new cracks on the side of the shroud. Hopefully this fix will last for a while as well. Here is a picture with the yellow arrow pointing to the Eternabond tape fix. The tape is white while the shroud is off-white. No one will notice unless I tell them. LOL

I was back in the garage when a squirrel ran in. I chased him, with the intent of chasing him out. Instead he jumped into a wash tub that I keep in the corner with yard tools in it like axes, picks, sledge hammers, etc. I grabbed a few items that were nearby and threw them on top to keep him in there. I went out back and got a couple of broken bricks and piled those on as well. Assuming he didn't get out while I was retrieving the bricks, I should have a dead squirrel in a few days. I'm not going to check until I know he has to be dead. I don't want him jumping out at me all pisssed off.

Saturday April 26, 2025

For the last several years we have had barn swallows build mud nests in the raised, protected area of our front porch. They like the rough surface of brick to stick their nests to. In the past we have tried to stay ahead of them by using fake owls, fake snakes, a fan with streamers, etc. Nothing worked. I then tried to use the water hose to destroy the nest as they are building. Sometimes it worked but they are persistent and keep rebuilding. I have been amazed at how hard the nests are to remove. Whatever substance these birds secrete to make nests attached to walls should be patented by Gorilla Glue. We hate a nest being here because of all the bird poop on the front porch and on the front door. (Unsightly and not very inviting to guests.) 

This morning I went to the Grand Opening of the new Ace Hardware Store in town to get some bird netting and hooks to keep the birds off the front porch. Since it was the Grand Opening I got a free five-gallon bucket and a free T-shirt! I purchased the netting and some hooks plus a couple of things they had on sale for the day. 

I don't want to drill into the bricks to install metal hooks for the netting. The netting is very fine, plastic, and weighs next to nothing. I bought a four-pack of Command hooks for the project. They might work since the netting is so light weight.

The area above the front door where I need to attach the netting is quite high. With the entry step jutting out from the door, even with my eight-foot ladder I could barely reach where the hooks needed to be placed. I had my doubts that Command hooks would stick to the brick and I was right. They did not. I then glued each hook to the brick using E6000 and let it cure overnight.

Sunday April 27, 2025 

This morning I got on the ladder to put up the netting. The netting is made to keep birds off of fruit bushes, etc. The openings are only about 3/8 of an inch and the entire netting is a very fine plastic not much thicker than fishing line. Stretching from the top of my eight foot ladder, several times I hooked one corner of the net then upon moving to the other side, the first side would come off the hook. I used packing tape to hold the net on each hook as I moved around to attach all four corners. Once the corners were hooked the stretch and the weight held the netting on the hooks. It isn't the fanciest job, and I question if it will withstand a windstorm, but it should work. Here is a picture. The netting blends in with the brick but in the picture you can barely see the net when looking at the white ceiling. It was hard to get a picture. 

Here is a picture of the black Command hook in the corner where the birds were starting to build their nest this year. When I take the netting down in the fall I will work to get all that junk off the brick. As I said earlier, it does not come off easily.

Monday April 28, 2025

The exterminator was back today to reset the squirrel traps. We haven't heard any more noises from the attic but we will wait to see if any more try to come in or try to come out.

It was a beautiful morning. I decided to investigate why Homer's cabin door light is not working (again). When you open the cabin screen door, a light comes on over the steps, which is quite nice in the dark. Several years back this light quit working. I took the fixture out thinking I just needed to replace the bulb. I found that the light bulb was integrated onto a tiny circuit board. Why I will never know. Why not just a bulb in a socket? The little circuit board was burnt to a crisp. I cut the circuit board out and installed a 12 volt DC LED plug I had from an earlier project on Marge. I then purchased a little square LED bulb about 1/4 inch by 3/4 inch that would fit in this small light fixture. It worked until recently.

When I looked at the bulb today I found that only a tiny, pinhead sized spot of the bulb was lighting. I pulled the plastic fixture out, threw away the bulb, and took it down to the shop looking for options for a repair. 

When we purchased Marge the ceiling lights all had 12 volt halogen bulbs in them, which burn very, very hot. I was concerned that long-term use of these bulbs could discolor or make the vinyl ceiling fabric around the lights brittle. I replaced the halogen bulbs with cooler burning LED bulbs. These replacement bulbs were flat and the size of a quarter so they could fit in the fixture. In the picture below you can see one of the ceiling lights out of Marge with the yellow LED bulb installed.

We were not happy with the amount of light the LEDs put out so I replaced all of the fixtures with LED fixtures made to mount under kitchen cabinets in homes to light up countertops. These fixtures are 12 volt DC and were converted to 120 AC for residential use. Since the lights in Marge were 12 volts DC, without the converter, they worked perfectly. They put out much more light. I installed these fixtures in all the under cabinet lights in Homer as well a few years ago. Here is a picture of one of these fixtures. They are really bright and well worth the money.

I found two of these light fixtures in the RV "junk drawer" in my shop. They are about three inches in diameter. I would love for one of these to work over the door in Homer. I held one up over the door to see if I could make it work. The existing fixture is only about 3/4 inch by 2 inches. This fixture is about three inches in diameter - far too large to use without a lot of fabrication to make it look right.   

Also in my RV junk drawer I have about a dozen of the of quarter-size LED lights that I took out of Marge many years ago. (I save all this stuff. LOL) These round LED bulbs are about the size of a quarter and thus about a 1/4 of an inch wider than the door light fixture. Here is a picture of the LED disc light.

While LED bulbs burn much cooler than incandescent bulbs, they still get quite hot when on for a while. I didn't want to take a chance on the bulb melting the plastic fixture so I used my Dremel tool to cut away a little plastic on each side of the light fixture. I did not want this flat disk bulb resting against the plastic fixture. Luckily the bulb socket held the LED suspended in air by about an 1/8 of an inch. The arrow in the picture below points to the light re-installed above the door in the "OFF" position.

Here is a picture of the light when on in the daylight. 

Here is a picture of the light at night. It is not bright, which is fine. Its purpose is simply to provide some light on the inside steps as you enter. The yellow light in the bottom of the picture is the light for the outside steps.

Tuesday April 29, 2025

This morning I decided to pull the awning out on Homer to make sure it is operational before we go camping. Upon opening I found that one of the plastic arm locks was broken. 

On each end of the awning roller there is an arm made of two pieces of aluminum. Each arm attaches to the awning roller on one end and the camper bottom on the other. The larger piece slides up with the awning is it is rolled out. The smaller piece rides inside the larger piece and stays attached to the camper. 

Each arm has a plastic "lock" that swivels down when storing the awning to keep the two sliding sections of the arms in place when traveling. Here is a picture of the arm with the lock engaged. The lock is made of two pieces of plastic. One piece pivots won to hold the inner section of the arm in place while traveling.

Here is a picture from the side showing how one piece swivels up so the arms can be pulled out to unfurl the awning. These plastic locks were both worn and would no longer stay in the "unlocked position" because of gravity. So a couple of years ago I put some Velcro (the white stuff in the picture below) on each lock to provide some friction to hold it up when the arms are being deployed. 

The swiveling part of the plastic lock pivots on a plastic rod. The rod had broken loose on one side. I drilled out the rivets that attached the entire lock to the outer arm and took it inside to look for a replacement online.

Here is a picture of a replacement part in white. I did find a black replacement available on another site but it was more expensive. I was shocked at the cost of this plastic part. This one was the cheapest!

I guess I should be happy that parts are still available for a 30 year old awning but I think they should be more reasonable. It is just molded plastic after all.

I wasn't paying that if I didn't have to so to the shop I went to see about a "fix". 

With a little prying I was able to separate the swiveling part from the arm mounted part. Here is a picture of it. The thin rod on the right edge had broken loose on one end. I Superglued it, clamped it, and let it sit for several hours but it did not hold. It is hard to Superglue many types of plastic. Apparently this is one. Did I mention I hate plastic?

I then marked where the rod attached on each side of the piece, put the piece on my drill press, and carefully drilled the rod out. I was then able to insert a bolt through each side and secure it with a nut. Here is a picture of the bolt and nut with the mounting piece re-inserted to check the fit and operation.

I painted the metal parts black to match and to slow down rusting. Here is a picture of the lock ready for installation. It should outlast me. When it quits raining I will rivet the piece back on to the awning arm.

This was a rainy afternoon project that cost me nothing, since I had the bolt and nut, as opposed to $27.00+ for a replacement.

Wednesday April 30, 2025

The sun came out this morning so I riveted the repaired awning arm lock on the arm. Here are pictures. As luck would have it I put the nut on the side facing the wall. The bolt head and nut don't interfere with anything and blend in well I think. 

Nothing much is planned for the rest of the week to blog about so I'll end here.