The Sacramento area is a beautiful area to fly, especially after a weather system moves through and does a great job of clearing the air. Given his involvement with the CDCR drone team, Eric welcomes any opportunity he can get to fly our DJI Spark.
Safe Travels all!
Eric & Carol Anderson
Monday, February 4, 2019
Sunday, February 3, 2019
A bitter sweet start to 2019
The year of 2019 starts out like any year, where you hope for one that is happier and contains less drama than the year prior. For us, 2019 started out with lots of family gatherings starting with a couple trips up to Amador County to meet with Carol’s family members and enjoy a couple of games of Bowling at Amador Lanes with fun conversations with the Waite family and just basically enjoying each other’s company.
Unfortunately, prior to even completing the month of January of 2019, we had to make one of the most difficult decisions in our lives. On one evening in October of 2018, as Eric was reaching down to kiss Rex good night, Rex reached up to Eric and bit him in the face. Though Eric was not seriously injured, one of the lacerations appeared that it might require stitches and so we went off to the hospital to have Eric’s injuries checked by a doctor. Thankfully, none of the injuries were serious and after the wounds were cleaned and some anti-biotics applied we were sent on their way home.
Unfortunately because of the visit to the ER for a dog bite, the incident had to be reported by the hospital to the Sacramento County Animal control. This meant that now Rex had what amounted to a ‘Scarlet’ letter on his record. We then reached out to our veterinarian as well as a well-respected Dog Behaviorist organization in the Sacramento area seeking guidance on what was our best course of action moving forward. With our vet deferring to an evaluation by the behaviorists called Tug dogs, we met with them for an evaluation of Rex. Their conclusion was that Rex did not show signs of aggression that could be regularly triggered. Their concern that this incident would not be a ‘One-off’ incident and that when we least expected it, a similar incident would occur.
Over the next few months we both worked with Rex by increasing his training and exercise to help re-enforce our roles as Pack leader as well as trying to ensure that a “Tired dog is a good dog”. We also worked to make sure that Rex felt included as part of our family and did not feel like we were trying to distance ourselves from him.
During the holidays, things seemed to be going fairly well until one night in early January when a fight almost broke out between Rosie and Rex with Eric in between them. As the situation developed, Eric scruffed Rex and this resulted in Rex attempting to redirect to Eric in order to get free. Fortunately in this incident, no one was injured but we were both deeply concerned. Subsequent evenings, both of us had separate evenings where Rex growled at some point during the evening.
Given this series of events as well as the fact that Rex still tended to escalate play to a point where the other dog Rex was interacting with would get injured; we were deeply concerned that no one was safe. We also acknowledged that everyone was living on pins and needles. When Rex got too assertive with Charlie, Charlie would not correct Rex or fight back and just let himself be injured. Rosie would attempt to correct Rex, but these incidents would just continue to escalate to a point where in most cases, both dogs were injured.
We researched this behavior, keeping in mind Rex’s history. We have had him since he was a 9 week old Puppy. We recalled that because Rex, his siblings and mother were running lose, his initial rescuers were able to capture Rex and his siblings, but their mother got away. This resulted in none of the puppies getting proper socialization by their mother prior to being weaned off from her. Studies have shown that puppies raised in this situation, frequently end up showing unexpected aggression as they grow to be adults.
With all of this, we knew that humane euthanasia was our only responsible course of action. So, at 3:00 PM on Monday the 28th of January, Rex was put to sleep. We are both deeply impacted by this development. Both of us love Rex and valued him as a member of our family. We just wish there was some way we could have explained to him how important it was for him to change his behavior to save his own life.
We love you Rex, we always have and we always will. Run free our baby boy… we love you and miss you!
To all the followers of our blog, please give your furry friends an extra hug this day.
Safe travels all!
Eric and Carol Anderson
Unfortunately, prior to even completing the month of January of 2019, we had to make one of the most difficult decisions in our lives. On one evening in October of 2018, as Eric was reaching down to kiss Rex good night, Rex reached up to Eric and bit him in the face. Though Eric was not seriously injured, one of the lacerations appeared that it might require stitches and so we went off to the hospital to have Eric’s injuries checked by a doctor. Thankfully, none of the injuries were serious and after the wounds were cleaned and some anti-biotics applied we were sent on their way home.
Unfortunately because of the visit to the ER for a dog bite, the incident had to be reported by the hospital to the Sacramento County Animal control. This meant that now Rex had what amounted to a ‘Scarlet’ letter on his record. We then reached out to our veterinarian as well as a well-respected Dog Behaviorist organization in the Sacramento area seeking guidance on what was our best course of action moving forward. With our vet deferring to an evaluation by the behaviorists called Tug dogs, we met with them for an evaluation of Rex. Their conclusion was that Rex did not show signs of aggression that could be regularly triggered. Their concern that this incident would not be a ‘One-off’ incident and that when we least expected it, a similar incident would occur.
Over the next few months we both worked with Rex by increasing his training and exercise to help re-enforce our roles as Pack leader as well as trying to ensure that a “Tired dog is a good dog”. We also worked to make sure that Rex felt included as part of our family and did not feel like we were trying to distance ourselves from him.
Given this series of events as well as the fact that Rex still tended to escalate play to a point where the other dog Rex was interacting with would get injured; we were deeply concerned that no one was safe. We also acknowledged that everyone was living on pins and needles. When Rex got too assertive with Charlie, Charlie would not correct Rex or fight back and just let himself be injured. Rosie would attempt to correct Rex, but these incidents would just continue to escalate to a point where in most cases, both dogs were injured.
We researched this behavior, keeping in mind Rex’s history. We have had him since he was a 9 week old Puppy. We recalled that because Rex, his siblings and mother were running lose, his initial rescuers were able to capture Rex and his siblings, but their mother got away. This resulted in none of the puppies getting proper socialization by their mother prior to being weaned off from her. Studies have shown that puppies raised in this situation, frequently end up showing unexpected aggression as they grow to be adults.
With all of this, we knew that humane euthanasia was our only responsible course of action. So, at 3:00 PM on Monday the 28th of January, Rex was put to sleep. We are both deeply impacted by this development. Both of us love Rex and valued him as a member of our family. We just wish there was some way we could have explained to him how important it was for him to change his behavior to save his own life.
We love you Rex, we always have and we always will. Run free our baby boy… we love you and miss you!
To all the followers of our blog, please give your furry friends an extra hug this day.
Safe travels all!
Eric and Carol Anderson
Saturday, January 5, 2019
Christmas 2018
Our Christmas holiday season was once again a busy one where we hooked up with both Carol and Eric's family members. This year, we stayed at the Gold Country Campground in Pine Grove California which is in Amador County. Though we started decorating our rig and site in Rancho Cordova, the majority of the festivities took place in Amador county and Ashland Oregon.
We arrived in Amador county on Sunday and spent all day Monday and Tuesday in the Pioneer/Pine Grove area. We stayed at the Gold Country RV park in Pine Grove. On Monday morning, Katie and Russ stopped by for a gift exchange and lunch.
On Christmas eve, a majority of the family gathered at Sandy and Bills in Pioneer for Sandy's annual Buffet dinner and our gag gift exchange. We were glad to see that Richard Conner made it up from Sacramento as well to spend time with the family.
On Christmas day, we joined Sandy and Bill visiting Billy and Loretta at their home in Pine Grove. Prior to having a tasty Crab dinner, the group enjoyed a poker game where Eric and Carol returned to the motorhome $1.25 richer than they left with! :-)
On the day after Christmas, Wednesday, we headed the motorhome up to Ashland Oregon to spend time with the Wraight clan. Though we have visited Oregon virtually every holiday season, we stayed for the first time at the RV park at Emigrant Lake. This is a wonderful new place to call our home base when visiting Ashland.
One of the highlights of that visit was spending time at a hands on science center which is focused on an experience for young visitors.
Check out our video which covers our holiday adventures.
Safe Travels all!
Eric and Carol Anderson
We arrived in Amador county on Sunday and spent all day Monday and Tuesday in the Pioneer/Pine Grove area. We stayed at the Gold Country RV park in Pine Grove. On Monday morning, Katie and Russ stopped by for a gift exchange and lunch.
On Christmas eve, a majority of the family gathered at Sandy and Bills in Pioneer for Sandy's annual Buffet dinner and our gag gift exchange. We were glad to see that Richard Conner made it up from Sacramento as well to spend time with the family.
On Christmas day, we joined Sandy and Bill visiting Billy and Loretta at their home in Pine Grove. Prior to having a tasty Crab dinner, the group enjoyed a poker game where Eric and Carol returned to the motorhome $1.25 richer than they left with! :-)
On the day after Christmas, Wednesday, we headed the motorhome up to Ashland Oregon to spend time with the Wraight clan. Though we have visited Oregon virtually every holiday season, we stayed for the first time at the RV park at Emigrant Lake. This is a wonderful new place to call our home base when visiting Ashland.
One of the highlights of that visit was spending time at a hands on science center which is focused on an experience for young visitors.
Check out our video which covers our holiday adventures.
Safe Travels all!
Eric and Carol Anderson
Saturday, December 22, 2018
Potters rescue - Dec. 21st, 2018
On November 8th, 2018, a wildland fire broke out near the town of Paradise in Northern California. It turned out to be the most deadly and devastating wildland fires in California history. The effects of the smoke could be felt as far south as Sacramento and even Stockton.
Over 15,000 homes, and 5,000 businesses were destroyed. One family of 5 who lost everything reached out to Chako Pit Bull Rescue and advocacy for help. There was a pit bull that the mother had rescued from a closed KMart parking lot in Oroville in August of 2018 at the age of about 3 months. The puppy, now 6 months old was part of a family who had lost their home, their business and were about to start living out of their car. The mom and the four kids did not want to give up the dog, but they needed to do something to try to make life work again. So they had to give up this puppy that they had rescued and called Malta. Eric and Charlie left Sacramento at 4:30 AM on a Saturday morning to drive up to Redding to see if Malta might be a suitable dog to enter the Chako Foster program.
After doing the Chako behavior evaluation, Eric decided that Malta could become a foster dog of Chako's and start his search for his new forever home.
The following is a little video that Eric put together about the adventure of going to pick up Malta, who would later be named Potter once he entered the Chako Foster program.
Sadly, when Potter went into get neutered at the Chako veterinarian, he must have come across some parvo virus, because 5 days after his surgery, Potter developed the Parvo virus. Potter has been treated and released from the veterinary hospital and is on crate rest while he recovers from his bout with the Parvo virus. Though he is not out of the woods yet, the entire Chako team is hoping he will make a full recovery.
Safe travels!
Carol and Eric Anderson
Safe travels!
Carol and Eric Anderson
Drone Task force - Dec. 15th, 2018
Eric has been working for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation; the state prison system. For the last year working for CDCR, Eric has been a member of their Drone Task force which is investigating how drones can be used in the state prisons, and also what equipment can be employed at state prisons to detect drones that are being flown by criminal elements to deliver contraband to inmates at the prisons.
Eric is really enjoying the team members that he is working for and all that he has learned over the last year. Additionally, that after more than 30 years, Eric is thrilled to start using so much information and principles that he learned when he was studying for his Aeronautics major.
Everyone who works as part of the Drone Task force are enjoying not only the mission, but the others that are involved in the team. Even the holiday spirit is being embraced by the drone task force.
Safe travels all!
Carol and Eric Anderson
Eric is really enjoying the team members that he is working for and all that he has learned over the last year. Additionally, that after more than 30 years, Eric is thrilled to start using so much information and principles that he learned when he was studying for his Aeronautics major.
Everyone who works as part of the Drone Task force are enjoying not only the mission, but the others that are involved in the team. Even the holiday spirit is being embraced by the drone task force.
Safe travels all!
Carol and Eric Anderson
Refrigerator replacement, Dec. 12, 2018
The day after thanksgiving this year, we had our typical left overs and then topped that off with our small ice-cream treat for our late night snack. On this day, we found that our ice cream was a little softer than normal. So, we checked the refrigerator and found that the Freezer was only at 30 degrees. We placed a thermometer in the refrigerator portion and found it was running at 50 degrees. This was not a good sign. Since it was late in the evening, there wasn't much we could do about it, but the next morning, Eric had to hop on getting to the bottom of what the problem was. A quick inspection on the back side of the refrigerator, Eric found that the control board (which had failed in the past) was not the problem. So, next, he checked the insulation around the burner that heats the Ammonia to cause the cooling process that takes place that allows RV refrigerators work even with burning propane. Eric found a yellow deposit the key indicator of a coolant leak on a RV refrigerator.
The refrigerant on RV Refrigerators can not be refilled except when done at the factory, so Carol and Eric had to decide if they wanted to have a new coolant unit installed, replace the refrigerator, and if that was done, would we go with a new RV refrigerator or a residential one. We decided that we wanted an RV refrigerator so that we can still easily boon-dock, so we either had to replace the coolant unit or the whole refrigerator. Well, we knew the seals on the existing doors were shot as well and that the only way to replace the seals is to replace the doors. So, now it seems like we are replacing most portions of the refrigerator, we might as well replace the entire unit.
So, we had a couple options to consider. We could get a new Norcold, or a Dometic unit. We found by looking at the specs that the Dometic unit was two inches deeper and would not fit through the doorway. And we were told that if we they had to take the refrigerator in and out of the window, we would need to leave the rig for 3 days. Well, we didn't want to live in temporary housing for two nights so we decided to go with the Norcold unit which is over $1,000 more than the Dometic unit. After much thinking about the issue, we decided to go with the Norcold unit to simplify the process.
Well, we are very happy with he outcome of having the new unit, because additionally, the existing wood panels from the old refrigerator fits in the doors of the new one. The funny thing we found out is that the technicians were not able to get the old refrigerator out through the door, they had to use the window. Well, they removed the window anyway, so we could have gotten the Dometic if we had known that in the first place. Oh well, we are very happy with the new unit.
Safe travels all!
Eric and Carol Anderson
The refrigerant on RV Refrigerators can not be refilled except when done at the factory, so Carol and Eric had to decide if they wanted to have a new coolant unit installed, replace the refrigerator, and if that was done, would we go with a new RV refrigerator or a residential one. We decided that we wanted an RV refrigerator so that we can still easily boon-dock, so we either had to replace the coolant unit or the whole refrigerator. Well, we knew the seals on the existing doors were shot as well and that the only way to replace the seals is to replace the doors. So, now it seems like we are replacing most portions of the refrigerator, we might as well replace the entire unit.
So, we had a couple options to consider. We could get a new Norcold, or a Dometic unit. We found by looking at the specs that the Dometic unit was two inches deeper and would not fit through the doorway. And we were told that if we they had to take the refrigerator in and out of the window, we would need to leave the rig for 3 days. Well, we didn't want to live in temporary housing for two nights so we decided to go with the Norcold unit which is over $1,000 more than the Dometic unit. After much thinking about the issue, we decided to go with the Norcold unit to simplify the process.
Well, we are very happy with he outcome of having the new unit, because additionally, the existing wood panels from the old refrigerator fits in the doors of the new one. The funny thing we found out is that the technicians were not able to get the old refrigerator out through the door, they had to use the window. Well, they removed the window anyway, so we could have gotten the Dometic if we had known that in the first place. Oh well, we are very happy with the new unit.
Safe travels all!
Eric and Carol Anderson
Pitty Puddle - Nov, 16th 2018
Most nights when we get home from work, after dinner and doing the dishes, we enjoy watching TV in the company of our dogs who had been waiting patiently all day in the motorhome for us to return after a hard day of work. The couch can get a little cozy with all five of us sitting on it. We definitely make the couch work most nights, but occasionally we like to have what we call 'Family Bed Night' where we watch TV in the bedroom.
Sadly on the night this picture was taken, Carol was out having dinner with some friends, so it was just me and the three dogs, but rest assured, she has been in this picture many evenings as you can see below! :-)
The dogs don't care where we are, as long as they get to be with us.
Safe travels all!
Eric and Carol Anderson
The dogs don't care where we are, as long as they get to be with us.
Safe travels all!
Eric and Carol Anderson
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