OUR MOTORHOME COVER

I had built and erected the cover in a hurry the year before. We had it at a friend's house but moved it to a local RV park when our friend needed the area for fruit trees. It worked out better. Now we have a very large organic garden area.

The cover required a lot of work to get it finished the way we wanted. The year before I put it together and up in a week and some things weren't quite plumb or level. We backed the motorhome in so the view would be our garden instead of the back of a building.

Where we live the building codes state if the building is rigid framed, fabric covered and under 500 sq. ft. you don't need a building permit. We meet all the code requirements.

As with most things it took a lot longer to finish than expected. The year before I put the vinyl cover on the roof the day it began to snow. This year I had all summer and took my time. It was worth it. This morning it was 17 degrees F. outside. Inside it was 40 F.

Our gardens were very successful and the floor inside looks like a produce market. We carpeted the entire floor which helps keep it warmer. I made drop down curtains for the back and north sides. We can raise the curtains to let in sunlight to warm the interior and close them at night to hold the heat in. One lady commented, "It looks like a little house with shiny glass eyes." Another suggested we put trellises on the south side for plants to grow on. The entryway looks like a piece from Hansel and Gretel....on purpose.

When I was putting the structure up the building inspector came by. We chatted, he looked, I told him the code that allowed me to build what I did. He made a few suggestions that I was going to do anyway. When he left, he was happy and so was I. We have house sitting jobs from Nov. 1 to March 15. If the cover proves to be adequate for the cold, I won't add any more inner panels. If not, the front and south sides will have clear panels inside the ones that are already installed. That will give us double walls all around with solar gain on south and east. The west side has a clear panel with a drop down, non-clear panel that can be easily raised to take advantage of the sunny afternoons. The north side is clear panels with drop down curtains. Next summer I plan to put in a ceiling. The RV park is putting in new power poles and broadband fiber optics. We hope to be able to have others of a like mind come next summer. Celinda teaches yoga and I'm getting certified as a fitness and nutritional counselor/coach. As a writer for 30 years on health, fitness and nutrition, getting certified fits right in. I'm working with the RV park to see if it will be possible for those who stay all season to have an organic garden plot of their own. We'll see if that works out. If having access to yoga, T'ai Chi, nutrition, fitness and health counseling, the latest fishing information for local trout, bass, crappie and catfish, many summer and winter outdoor activities, a wonderful small community atmosphere and being able to do it all from your RV is of interest, e-mail me at this address for more information.

The summer seemed longer than it really was because my days were taken up with rebuilding and building.

During the winter it gets cold where we live. The first snows are on the mountains in the background.

We spend time in the motor home between house sitting for friends. The second night we got back from one house sitting adventure the temperature was 10 degrees F. We were cozy and warm with nothing more than one small electric heater. Our weak link is the electric heat if the power is off for long, even though we do have the propane furnace. I didn't have time to implement my original heating idea. I plan to make a separate small building alongside the cover that has a wood stove in it. The heat will be blown into the motor home cover and under the MH. The MH is fully skirted and the heat will rise up through the floor. The heat will be blown in by solar powered fans with panels on the roof of the small building or MH cover, whichever works best. Batteries will be charged by the solar panels during the day for night time use. There'll be a thermostat that will regulate the amount of heat that goes to the MH. I'll have to go out to stoke the fire during the day and just before dark in the evening but it will last all night. The stove will be made on the lines of the Russian ceramic heaters. With the heater in a separate building, we won't have any flame or sparks in or under the MH cover. The way I have the ducting designed, there will be nothing but warm or hot air going to the MH.

This is he anchor kit I bought. Has all the necessary parts to install the anchors. I did a lot of research on anchor systems for the motor home cover. We have hardpan, about a foot thick, that's about 18" below the surface. I know people who've used auger anchors and they've had a lot of problems getting them in the ground, even resorting to digging a hole and burying them. Digging a hole and burying doesn't have the pullout strength. I found the arrowhead anchors I used through http:/www.milspecanchors.com. They were much easier to install, I used a steel fence post driver to drive them through the hardpan and a sledge hammer to finish the job. I got the driver sleeve from milspec. Once through the hardpan they went in real nicely. We've had a couple of pretty hard blows and nothing has moved. We had one blow before I had a chance to put the arrowhead anchors in the ground and the whole building moved south about three inches. I was very happy with the service and and very pleased with the product. The man I talked to was very knowledgeable and helpful. All too often the service or parts we get turn out to be below our expectations or what we're lead to believe from what we read in the ads. That was not the case with milspecanchors.

I used the tee post driver, home made for driving steel fence posts. It made the initial part of the job a lot easier, especially when driving through the hardpan.

There is absolutely no indication of the anchors pulling out. One thing I learned during the installation was: before you cut the cables between the anchor and building to length, pull hard on the cables that go to the arrowhead anchor. If there is any slack in those cables, you'll find when you tighten the turnbuckle it pulls the slack out and you can't properly tension the cables because they're too long. I had to cut one off after I thought I had it right because there was some slack in the cables underground that I couldn't see.