Most afternoons, I set up my ham radio in the shade on a small table and see who’s talking. On Thursday afternoon, I was doing just that when I picked up a mobile transmission from a guy traveling west on AZ74 (Carefree Highway) and heard him talking about a fire near Crown King. I got in on his conversation to ask for more detail as Crown King isn’t too far from Lake Pleasant – it’s about 40 miles north.

I walked to the front of our site and sure enough, the sky to the northwest was full of smoke. Where I was sitting in the shade by the trailer, I couldn’t see it. I thanked the guy for the info and shot a couple of photos

The smoke was heavy and continued to the southeast toward Glendale and Phoenix.

Currently, the fire encompasses about 10,000 acres and is burning six miles northwest of Crown King – about 18 miles south of Prescott. The area is sparsely populated and about 100 people had to evacuate Friday morning. The Forest Service says there’s a lot of valuable equipment at the top of Crown King – I’m guessing communication and television transmission gear. They’re calling it the Horse Fire. This has certainly been the summer of fire in west.

High winds kicked up unexpectedly Thursday night and into Friday morning. I’m sure this hampered firefighting efforts. Donna had signed up for a guided kayak tour from the Lake Pleasant Regional Park. It was a ranger-led event called Pleasant Paddlers. Donna wasn’t about to let the wind deter her. I had loaded the Sea Eagle kayak in the Midget the night before and drove Donna to the regional park. The north park entrance is about seven miles from Pleasant Harbor RV Resort.

We set up the kayak in the lot above the Castle Creek boat ramp and lugged it down to the water. There were eight participants including two rangers. They set off a few minutes before 9am.

The water near the ramp is in a protected cove and was calm. That wasn’t the case once they hit open water on the lake though.

They came across a herd of 26 wild burros in a cove.

At another cove, they stopped for lunch and saw more burros.

After lunch, the winds died down and they had a nice paddle back. The tour lasted nearly four hours and they covered 5.9 miles! Donna’s feeling it today.

Today I tackled a project on my “to do” list. Our Dometic 320 RV toilet has had an intermittent leak. A few drops of water come out by the foot-operated flush valve from time to time. Earlier, I checked the manual for the toilet to see what parts are involved with the flush valve and found an interesting note in the manual. The note addressed two common complaints.

The first note regarded the toilet bowl not holding water. It said the first thing to do was to shut off the water supply, then hold the toilet bowl drain valve open with your foot. With a gloved hand they recommended using your finger to push the seal and seat it.

We had this problem a few weeks ago, so I did the recommended procedure and found a build up of minerals deposited under the seal. With my finger I was able to push the deposits away from the seal and it worked – the toilet held water again.

The second part of the note addressed water dripping from the water supply valve at the foot-operated lever. It showed how the water valve is a cartridge-type set-up with a piston that opens the valve to allow water to flow into the toilet when you step on the foot lever.

I found a replacement cartridge at Dyersonline.com. Dyers carries many lines of genuine Dometic replacement parts. I’d ordered awning parts from them in the past. They have a warehouse in Anthem – only a few miles away from Pleasant Harbor. I called them and was told no in-person sales at the warehouse were permitted due to covid-19 restrictions. I had to pay for FedEx delivery. Oh well, at least I got the part.

At first I thought I would have to remove the entire toilet to access the cartridge, but after looking it over and seeing how it was fastened, I went for it with the toilet in place.

The cartridge has two plastic springs that catch in slots on the housing. This loosely holds the cartridge in place, then two screws anchor it to the housing. The cartridge kit included new screws and a hose clamp for the hose running from the valve into the toilet.

The first thing I had to do was to release the water supply line from the elbow at the cartridge water inlet. I used pex tubing when I installed the toilet and used Shark Bite fittings. These are clever arrangements. The Shark Bite uses a horseshoe-shaped device that fits over the tubing for disassembly. Pushing the device against the fitting while pulling on the tube releases it. Ingenious! To reassemble, you simply push the pex tubing back into the Shark Bite fitting and it locks in place with a water-tight seal.

While I was removing the old cartridge, I think I uncovered the root of the problem. The toilet had been assembled at the factory with only one screw holding the cartridge in place. With only one corner of the cartridge firmly screwed down, it was relying on the spring clips to hold it. I think this may have allowed the cartridge to cock slightly when pressure was applied to the foot lever as it contacted the piston. This, in turn, put a side thrust force on the piston which may have cocked it in its bore and broke the seal at times.

I reassembled it with two screws – one on the upper left and one on the lower right as designed. Job done! It seems Dometic knows the failure modes of their toilets!

Yesterday, Donna whipped up her mojo marinade before we set off for her kayaking adventure. When I returned from dropping her off, I put the now cooled marinade into a sealed bag with a pork tenderloin. Last night, Donna grilled it and served it with sweet potato French fries and asparagus. Another nutritious, delicious meal and we’ll be enjoying leftover mojo pork tacos for lunch!

The hot weather continues with daily highs in the upper 90s. The forecast calls for another week of the same before we cool off to a more normal high in the low to mid 80s.