Our Electric Usage mid January to mid March, 2013

As noted in an earlier blog, we are at an RV park in which our electric use is metered. We pay a monthly rent plus a monthly electric use fee. Having a meter allows us to track our usage.

During the colder days that we were here, we used our furnace (propane with electric controls and blower), 1 or 2 small ceramic space heaters (1500 watt each) and electrically heated hot water. We used each sporadically but usually used one or two devices each day for a period of time. During a 60 day period from mid January until mid March, we used a total of 623 kilowatt hours (KWH) of electricity at $0.13 per KWH. This averaged out to 10.4 KWH per day or $1.35 per day for electricity.

However, since mid-March, the weather has warmed considerably. We have not used our furnace, space heaters nor the electric water heater--we used the water heater on propane instead. Therefore, our daily electric usage has nose dived. For each of these days, we have used approximately 1 KW--or, $0.13 per day for electricity. (1 KWH is the amount of electricity required to burn a 100 watt bulb for 10 hours.) This 1 KW of usage includes using our television and satellite antenna system.

On the weekend that we were at the Butt Foundation camp, our usage dropped to 0.5 KWH per day. The usage was to run the refrigerator, gas alarms, etc. Also, we did not unplug the television to reduce the usage further. So during these "not-home" days, our electricity cost was 6 1/2 cents per day.

Once the cooling season arrives, air conditioning will dramatically increase our daily usage and cost. However, we hope not to be at a metered park to determine exactly how much more we would pay.

Sometime in the coming months, we are going to try to determine how long we can live off just our 12 volt batteries and not plugged into the grid. Time will tell.

Our Butt Experience

The weekend of March 15-17 was a Butt day, Howard E. Butt  Foundation day to be more specific.  We got ourselves elected as assistant cooks at a weekend retreat for families from the school that Judy's daughter,  Kathy, teaches.  Kathy and her husband Phillip were the primary organizers of the event:

Apparently, anyone met the "cook" criteria, and, therefore, we were selected.

The H. E. Butt  camps (known for their  HEB groceries in the San Antonio area) are located in Leakey, Texas.  Leakey is about 100 miles north west of San Antonio.  The foundation owns 1900 acres with several camp facilities.  It is open only to those non-profit groups which meet their religious (Christian) leaning.  We were located on one of the medium sized camps--our group was about 175 people.  Each camp has a modern kitchen/dining hall , outside meeting area, and cabins (most were bunkhouses).  Most bunkhouse contained a dozen bunks and each cabin had toilet/shower facilities.  Our cabin (assigned by the gracious organizer) was the only one with two bedrooms, toilet, shower, dining room and living room.  Our "cabin" which we shared with John and Judy, had about 1200 square feet.  We even had laundry facilities in an outside room off the back patio.  We were housed as royalty.  The only down side to the accommodations was there was no television, no internet and no cell phone service.  We were roughing it!

While the 175 other people (toddlers to grand parents) were off doing whatever their schedule required, we were in the kitchen by 6:00 each morning until about 8:00 each night with a short afternoon break.  We assisted the real cooks (many come each year to this annual event)  with the preparation and service of the meals.  Unfortunately, cooks normally ate last and often the main entrée had "run out" by that time.  By Sunday, we learned to eat early.

The Foundation's grounds lie along the East Frio River.  Getting to our camp was somewhat challenging.  We rode with John who maneuvered his newer Lexus down River Road.  This road was really the river.  We drove down a marked lane in the river for a t least a 1/2 mile:

The designated road was to the right of the stone markers and was tight in many areas for two-way traffic.  The water in most areas was no more than 6 inches deep.  This was the only way into or out of our camp.  We were warned that if we had rain, we may have to wait a day or two for the river to recede.  We could not find anyone who could explain why the road was named "River Road."

The camp offered swimming and canoeing in the very picturesque setting.

 

 

As noted above, this camp is closed to non-Christian religions.  There were, however, signs of a Wiccan presence:

Non-believers were otherwise covert.

Happy Pi Day!

Today, 3/14,  is Pi Day.  Pi (π) is the mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle's circumference (C) to its diameter (D).  Any circle's circumference divided by its diameter is π, or approximately 3.14. 

It is approximately 3.14 because π actually is a number without end.  It has been computed to over 10 trillion digits.  Here is π to a thousand digits:

3. 14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510 58209 74944 59230 78164 06286 20899 86280 34825 34211 70679 82148 08651 32823 06647 09384 46095 50582 23172 53594 08128 48111 74502 84102 70193 85211 05559 64462 29489 54930 38196 44288 10975 66593 34461 28475 64823 37867 83165 27120 19091 45648 56692 34603 48610 45432 66482 13393 60726 02491 41273 72458 70066 06315 58817 48815 20920 96282 92540 91715 36436 78925 90360 01133 05305 48820 46652 13841 46951 94151 16094 33057 27036 57595 91953 09218 61173 81932 61179 31051 18548 07446 23799 62749 56735 18857 52724 89122 79381 83011 94912 98336 73362 44065 66430 86021 39494 63952 24737 19070 21798 60943 70277 05392 17176 29317 67523 84674 81846 76694 05132 00056 81271 45263 56082 77857 71342 75778 96091 73637 17872 14684 40901 22495 34301 46549 58537 10507 92279 68925 89235 42019 95611 21290 21960 86403 44181 59813 62977 47713 09960 51870 72113 49999 99837 29780 49951 05973 17328 16096 31859 50244 59455 34690 83026 42522 30825 33446 85035 26193 11881 71010 00313 78387 52886 58753 32083 81420 61717 76691 47303 59825 34904 28755 46873 11595 62863 88235 37875 93751 95778 18577 80532 17122 68066 13001 92787 66111 95909 21642 01989 ...

Some people have memorized it to over 67,000 digits!   There are even entire books published about pi1  It is used in all forms of mathematics and science including geometry, mechanics and electronics.  What fun!

Another very common use of π is to calculate the area of a circle: Area = π ×  r² where r² is the radius of the circle (or, half the diameter) times itself (or "squared").  There is a pizza chain in Wisconsin  (Rocky Rococo) that sells square pizzas because "pies are square."  Think about it.  Got it?

So today is Pi day.  Celebrate.  Eat pie. Pi Pie at Delft University:


 


Some very important people were born on Pi day .......... including Einstein.  He loved Pi.  So do I.

A Cowboy, a Cook and a Geek walk into a bar . . .

 

On Saturday we attended our first rodeo at the Tejas Rodeo Company http://tejasrodeo.com/ in Bulverde.  Bulverde is north of San Antonio but only about a half hour from our camp site.  They have professional rodeo every Saturday night from March until November.

We accompanied Judy's family to the event.  While waiting for dinner served adjacent to the rodeo grandstand, an old, broken down, itinerant cowboy tried to sweet talk a couple of city slickers:

I think he may have been selling used cowboy hats from the back of his truck.  They didn't fall for his spiel.  The evening started with dinner al fresco and of course included steak. What else?  Vegetarians and fish eaters were not welcomed.

Prior to the actual rodeo, there was a mutton busting event for kids under 7.  Kids, volunteered by their parents, were attired in safety helmets and chest protectors and perched atop  one of several sheep.  Their ride was timed and the winners received a ribbon and applause.  Most kids won a ribbon by staying on until the sheep was released out of the holding pen.  This was a normal sight--the rider watching the sheep run away after quickly depositing him onto the turf:

The  rodeo opened with a bit of pageantry

A cattle drive then began the performance:

And then came the bull riding and calf roping events:

 

 

About midway through the rodeo, kids were again involved in the programming.  Kids under 12 were invited onto the field to chase calves which had ribbons tied to their tails.  The kid who could capture a ribbon won a prize.  But as participants needed to get into appropriate shape before participating, each had to do sit-ups, pushups etc. in the dirt:

I am sure their parents really appreciated the effort made to get these kids in shape.  Next came the chase:

 

 

 

What do you call a Zamboni on dirt?

And to close out the event, 7 year old Mary shows how a real cowgirl does it:

 

 

Judy and Donna were still being bothered by the old cowpoke at the end of the night  but his shine was fading from the picture:

 

 



 

The following day we celebrated with a meal at Judy's for her family.  Donna spent several days cooking her lasagna and manicotti from scratch (including the pasta for the manicotti) and the results were well worth it.

Then the geek got involved and found a new Microsoft store in San Antonio.  He played with the new Surface Pro and perused the latest Windows 8 phones and Xbox. 

 

The store was about as busy as the adjacent Apple store. 



Boerne Continues

We continue to sit tight in Boerne, Texas, and watch others come and go.  The park has been quite full lately.  Whenever a site opens up near us, it is not long before someone moves in.  We seem to be the anchor at this part of the park--always here, never moving.  Stagnant like a pool of tepid water providing sustenance only for blooming algae.  Maybe we are the reason people are leaving?  Could be.  Probably not.

Across our road are people from Cincinnati who are here only for a few days.  Apparently, they were told that they needed to leave by Wednesday as a large rally was expected.  We have not been given notice of eviction.  Should be fun, elbow to elbow, awning to awning.  Donna will be putting off streaking through the park until later.  She was SO looking forward to it.

We are actively discussing staying here until mid-April.  The weather in the mid-west does not appear conducive to an early, warm, spring.  The weather here has been pretty nice with day times in the 60s and 70s and nights in the 30s and 40s and sometimes even in the 50s for lows,  We had talked about going east into Mississippi in mid-March and following the Great River north following spring's arrival.  We wanted to visit some corps of engineering parks, etc.  But with the Great Sequester now upon us, we are concerned that the parks will not be open.  Oh, well. 

It has been windy on occasion with lots of dust.  It seems the north winds bring juniper and cedar pollen levels soaring.  The local Walgreen's thanks us whenever these winds blow.  Our sinuses are both negatively affected.  The wind does, however, has positives especially in the evening.  Sunsets are terrific:

Better than 2 feet of snow.