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What are you up to today? This week?


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On 10/31/2019, 2:14:29, havanaholly said:

Kelly, I'm trying to wrap my head around a trailer/ RV that doesn't have primary propane for cooking, heating and fridge.  Also, for the water, can't you connect your hose to the spigot and turn on the water?  And do you have a septic tank you can dump your black and gray water tanks into?

I know it's been a while, but all of a sudden I have to remember my passwords when I'm on the library computer and it takes forever to reset them. And then when I do, I forget what I reset them to. 

Holly, the man who sold me the trailer sold it with two full propane tanks and a new 12 volt battery. One of the propane tanks is hooked up to the stove and oven, and the other is a spare. I bought one of my own, so when it went out, I switched to the spare and I'm getting my empty one filled today. Using a Mr. Buddy heater 3 to 4 hours a day will have a tank last about 3 1//2 weeks. Although, we have some really gnarly cold weather coming up. It's supposed to get up to 37 for a high and as low as 25 for a low in the next couple of days. If it rains, we'll have snow. Funny, I'm not looking forward to snow like I used to. LOL

Anyway, the fridge doesn't run by propane and the heater in the camper needs an electric ignition that would come from a generator. So I just use the Mr. Buddy heater and I'm good. I keep a cooler outside and in this weather, a bag of ice will last over a week.

I don't run the heat at night, but I'm plenty warm. I have a light blanket under a sleeping bag and then a couple of blankets on top of the sleeping bag. Last night it was 40 degrees and I slept with the window open above my bed. I'm so comfortable in the mornings that sometimes I don't want to get out of bed. Sometimes I don't.

But because it's so cold, my nose runs all the time. I put a small garbage pail at the foot of the bed so I could throw away kleenexes without getting up. One day I threw a kleenex into the heater while it was on. That was exciting.

I can connect my hose to a spigot, but the water pressure is so high that when I turn the water on, it sprays from everywhere. Also, if I leave the hose connected, the water stays in the spigot even if it's turned off and I don't want the water freezing in the spigot. When the hose is taken off and the water is turned off, the water drops back into the pipe below ground which is below the freeze level, so the water won't freeze then. I just have to haul water every other day for drinking and washing. When I can afford it, I'm going to buy 2 5-gallon containers for drinking water. 

There's no septic system to dump anything in. Lisa (Lisa_F here) came up one day and brought me some groceries and a plastic toilet seat to put on a 5-gallon bucket. I don't have sawdust and no access to any, so she also brought up a HUGE compressed bag of pine shavings from a pet store. I go in the bucket and then throw in a couple of handfuls of pine shavings. There's no smell once I do that.

In a couple of weeks, I'll start humanure composting. I'll start by digging a small hole in the ground, throwing in some straw, then I'll toss my buckets, and then throw some more straw over that. I just need to find a bale of straw is all. I'll also need to find 4 pallets to stand up on end to put around the compost. Meantime, the buckets can stay outside with their lids on them and like I said, there's no smell. Well, better than an outhouse.

 

The only thing that bugs me is there isn't  much to do. I'm sure that once summer comes along, I'll have plenty I can do, plus I'll have the trailer and the terracing paid off and I'll have a little extra money to buy plants and stuff. I was hoping I'd have electricity by next winter, but I have a feeling it's going to be another 18 months before I see that. Once I have electricity, I could live in that trailer forever. Of course, I still won't have a computer, unless I want to get DISH.

So all I do is eat, sleep, and read, and I'm running out of books. I can read about 300 to 400 pages a day and the library here really doesn't have a big selection. I don't know what I'm going to do over Thanksgiving when the library is closed for 4 days. So I'm fine and all, just bored. Lisa has actually convinced me to get a kindle and as soon as I can afford it, I will. 

I use camping lights for light at night. I can use the lights in the camper and I do use the one over the stove all the time, but I don't want to run the battery down. I don't have jumper cables yet and I'd need to jump start that battery and charge it  from my car battery when it finally runs down.

I tried the oil lamps. Either they're cheap or they're too small. I turn the wick up an inch and I get lots of light - for about 30 seconds. Then it drops down to the light of a tea candle and I have to turn the wick up again. I can go through a wick in about 5 hours and still not have enough light to read by, so I just light the lantern to have a flickering flame now. The biggest expense (and I knew it would be) is batteries. The camp light I have for reading is nice and bright, but that only lasts for about 12 hours. So I'm changing batteries practically every 3 days. I'm thinking of getting a propane lantern. I'm not sure how I'd get one to work by the bed, though, since that's where I read all the time.

Anyway, that's where things stand now. I'll check back occasionally and let you guys know how things are going. Right now I'm cold, but happy (because this library is freezing!). Today I have to go drop off the modem, fill the propane tank that ran out, and do some grocery shopping. I also need to stop at the main library to drop off books and look for more. So off I go!

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Your fridge may not be Dometic, every RV we've had the Dometic fridge ran off either electric or propane from the tank, and the tank supplied propane for the stove, the heater, the water heater and the fridge.  When we didn't have electric or water at a site we used our battery lantern for light.  Of course, there's a HUGE difference between camping in a RV and living in one full time.  It amazed me how warm it gets in my sleeping bag!

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Once I have electricity, I should have heat and a fridge. Meantime, I just have to depend on the cooler.

We had a heck of a windstorm last night. One blast came through so hard the trailer rocked and it really roared. I swear I thought we had a landslide somewhere near, but it was just wind.Now we're looking at cold. Brrrr.....

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I won't send you our current warm spell, since it's also VERY wet!, but also because COLD is moving in right behind it.  The youngest arrived last night for the month and his next up brother, wife & fur child are due late Saturday; I told them to bring clothes for anywhere from 30s to 80s, as they like to get up before daylight and run 10 miles.

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Oh Kelly- hope you stay warm with that cold blast coming thru!!

As for our family- we welcomed a new grandson on the 16 of November.....and our new granddaughter should be arriving any day soon! :clap:  We are driving down to DC to visit my son and DIL, and my son says he is betting that exactly 1 hour after the turkey is in the oven- her water will break!  LOL  At any rate- this GiGi is loving all of the babies!

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Hi Kelly - nice to hear how you're going.  I have a Kindle and LOVE it!  I have hundreds of books on there.  Hubby however suggests that getting a cheap tablet might be better for you.  You can download the Kindle app and still use it as a Kindle, however you can also connect to the internet and use a browser etc when it's available.  Only problem with that is that the Kindle battery lasts a really good long time and the tablets usually not so much.  Also you can use Kindle anywhere - in bright sunlight, in the dark, and adjust the light as required.

Other thing Hubby suggested, because Washington rains so much you could attach spouting to your trailer to collect water.  Have a barrel that the pipe drops into to fill.  Even if it's not great for drinking, ideal for watering gardens etc.  Of course we're not used to the temps and cold conditions so I'm picking that wouldn't work in winter as it may freeze?  However would do well for Spring!

Jackie - CONGRATS!!!  How lovely to have new babies in the family. xxx

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Well.....we almost had an after Thanksgiving dinner baby!  LOL  But all was well and they sent her back home to wait for the scheduled induction.  Little Emma Kate arrived this afternoon, weighing in at 8lbs 11oz. :clap::cloud9:  I surely wish that I could run down to DC this very minute and cover her with GiGi kisses!  I will have to wait til Saturday.....it's gonna be a LONG week!

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Congrats, Jackie!!!! 

 

We had some snow here about 5 or 6 nights ago. It was about half an inch and gave me a heart attack when I saw it, but it all melted by about 2pm. Sure was pretty while it lasted, though. It's been really warm. I made a grocery list for foods I could put in the cooler. Now I have to change it because the ice in the cooler is melting too fast.

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Thanks Jess and Holly for your thoughts!  Fortunately we are about 4 hours drive away so well away.  Unfortunately it seems like it was mostly tourists visiting NZ who have been caught up in the eruptions.  I've always wanted to visit the island though!!  Where I live, Auckland, there are about 52 volcanoes - most of which are only dormant not dead.  As NZ lies along the Pacific ring of fire most of us are a little blase about it.  No doubt if and when it does happen here it'll cause widespread loss and devastation.  Let's hope it doesn't happen for a few more generations at least!

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My husband bought himself a new desktop computer the other day and he always has me set things up on them because he's too lazy to bother with it himself. With his first computer he was totally into DOS and all that, and I was the one who didn't know anything about computers, now it's the other way around and he has to ask me how to do everything on it.

Anyway, once we got everything going, I was surprised to see that the desktop background I had devised myself and put on the old pc, was now on the new pc - all by itself. Microsoft knew my background wallpaper and put it on the new computer. Although this was handy, it still bothers me.

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I have mice and it's NOT a good thing. I went shopping with Lisa on Monday and got some new shoes. Night before last, I was making macaroni and cheese and spilled the macaroni all over the floor. Naturally, this is when I discover I have no dustpan. So I just swept it all up in a corner. 

Yesterday I put on the shoes and thought I had a rock in one of them. I shook it out and it was a macaroni noodle. Oh, okay. This morning I shook out the shoe again. Nothing. But when I turned the other shoe upside down, ALL the macaroni I'd swept up came cascading out.

Some mouse thinks my new shoes are a nice place to store his pile of macaroni. Looks like a cat is in order.

And yes, I've been too lazy to pick it up. But in my defense, I've been driving all over. In less than two weeks, I've been to two libraries (one of them three times), to two Walmarts, to the doctor's twice, the grocery stores several times and did a large shopping yesterday, picked up my prescriptions, had my car washed, been at the bank, the Social Security office, and then Social Services twice, dropped off a payment at the optometrist, did laundry at the laundromat, and stopped at my storage locker, the Hallmark store, and various other places. Since I live so far out, I try to do all the trips together. I sometimes leave early in the morning and don't get back till evening. I ordered two large water containers from Walmart and they arrived two days ago. Those have been sitting outside the trailer until last night. I finally came home just before it got dark and filled up and carried back to the trailer 7 gallons of water. 

It's not the number of places I go. It's just that it takes forever to get anywhere in the traffic.And I'm not even Christmas shopping this year! I'm just telling people who ask that I'm on the "Christmas-once-every-five-years" plan and that this ain't the fifth year. 

 

 

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Sounds like chipmunks......we find all kinds of pine tree seeds in our sheets all shiny and clumped together from their saliva (in our cabin). They like to squirrel their food away for safe keeping. Mice just leave their droppings. I also found a live mouse in a box cereal. It scared the droppings out me!  A cat would be good company for you.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hey guys, I'd post more often but nothing happens. Same old, same old.

The weather is a good topic. We've had rain like you wouldn't believe. About a week ago we had a storm that dropped something like 5" of rain on us in about 2 days. Naturally, I was out in the middle of it and while there weren't too many slides, there was a ton of water over the road. I have one headlight and that makes it hard to drive in the rain. I'm sure glad the contractor insisted on putting in a driveway for me. Otherwise I'd be up to my door handles in mud.

Today is pretty nice and warm again (warm being about 50°). But by Monday a cold snap is supposed to come in and wow! is it gonna be fun. Highs in the mid 20s, lows in the low 20s. And snow. The original forecast was for 16" of snow! But it looks like 6" to 7" is more likely. And sure, why not? I live up there now. :cheezy:

The first mouse is gone. He fell into a 5 gallon bucket and I dumped him far, far away. The trailer leaks, however, so the second mouse fell into a bucket and drowned in the water (I would have saved him if I'd known). The third mouse is still on the loose. I'd buy a Hav-a-Hart trap but I'm just stretching out money right now. In December it was clothes and Comcast, this month it's car insurance and the garbage bill. Always something. Meantime I'm trying to coax this mouse into the bucket like the last one. But not to deliberately drown him. I consider wild mice vermin, but I can't do that.

My lot was one of about 8 (or 10) that was for sale from the same owner. Now the contractor has bought all the lots. He says he's going to run water and electric to each of them, put in septic, and then put houses on all of them. I don't know, that sounds like it's going to be in the millions of dollars. But he's starting with electric. It's one transformer to every two lots and my price for a transformer would be $5000. I'd get back $2500 of it when that other lot sold. But the contractor is saying if he puts electric on all the lots, he'll only charge me $2500 (and whatever it costs to run wires to a meter) and even better, there's a program that I might qualify for that will pay for most of the cost of installation. Best of all, he's telling me this might be done this summer. We'll see. This is the guy that took a year to mow the weeds on my lot. But it's something to look forward to - imagine, electric in the trailer! I might be able to start a mini mini-project.

 

So that's about all the news. I'll show up again to let everyone know what's going on.

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1 hour ago, rodentraiser said:

Hey guys, I'd post more often but nothing happens. Same old, same old.

So that's about all the news. I'll show up again to let everyone know what's going on.

glad to hear from you Kelly...stay dry and check in when you can

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