Travel Fever

Not too much new going on, still working on the rogers house. Though I will be starting a new one soon. We leave for our trip to Oregon in a weeks time, we will be flying and staying with friends. I am very excited as I will be spending a week at a wood working school in northern washington learning to build gypsy vardos. Then south to Oregon for a week to build a couple vardos with friends. Draomama and Munchie will be staying in southern Oregon with friends the whole time. The dogs will be staying at the kennel while we are away, they seem to like it there. They bunk together, and get to play with other dogs. 

Meanwhile, the friends we are staying with, I'll call them the cottage crew, all have the flu. We have so far avoided it. Probably helps that they haven't moved in here full time yet, and we have our own kitchen in the camper. Their little boy had a 103 fever the other day, and they took him to the hospital. He is doing better now and is home, but the rest of the family is suffering along with him. At least they are getting it out of the way all at once, instead of swapping it back and forth for weeks. This does of course delay their move-in and therefore our getting our new camper. We are still hoping to get it in June so we can get it ready to live in before the heat of the summer. The AC works in our current camper, but we will be putting in a brand new unit into the new trailer. Our borrowed camper is old and I don't trust the ac unit to work all summer. Being hot at night is one thing, but trying to get a hot restless toddler to sleep in the heat is another.

I will try and post some pictures soon, of our current parking spot and of munchie at play. Until next time.

Severing Ties

We are back at our house this weekend, bringing the last few things to storage. We left before all was done because I had work available, and we were itching for adventure. Sadly our home of the past four years has become a chore and a issue we have to deal with. It is no longer home, but a place we were tied to. We will probably be back to finish cleaning it up for the next person who dwells here, we don't want to be thought of as filthy people. Honestly though with our possessions gone and our little house in the big world waiting for us, I don't care if we come back or not. Ultimately I pity our house as it will be joining the ranks of houses vacant and untended. Some houses never come back from such a thing, though ours has good bones so hopefully the next family finds her in good order as we left her. 

Enough about the old house, we have been planning what to do with our new trailer. We have yet to take possession of it, but planning never hurts. We want to remodel the interior as it needs work anyway. We will be adding a roof top air conditioning unit, a new furnace, new water and waste tanks, and new lighting. I plan on doing some woodwork inside as well, Walnut where I can afford to.  There has been talk of putting in one of those floating laminate wood floors, which should be easy to install. We want to make it as vardo like as possible. For those outside the loop, a vardo is a gypsy wagon. The outside will get a paint job if we have enough cash at the end. I will post pictures once we get over to the camper again.

TGISpring

It's been a little while since my last post. The job is going well, cleaning up so all the changes start looking good. Have a few more things to tackle, should be pretty close to done by the end of next week.

We are going to shift locations next week also, we'll be moving our little house in the big world to stay with some friends at their new abode. Change of scenery will be nice. Big news! Our friends that are letting us boondock are giving us their travel trailer. It's 10 feet longer than our current home, such space, Drool! They are using it for storage at the moment, but will be moving into their new home soon. Then we'll have to renovate the interior, there is some minor water damage, and it is severely dated. A little custom wood working and some new light fixtures and we have our new gypsy home. We have accidentally begun calling it "The Vardo". On the outside it's a trailer, inside...Gypsy Paradise. Hopefully all the moving goes well, and by the time we get back from our trip to Oregon, we should be working on our new home, and living in it by early June.

Snow crazy

It's been a long crazy two weeks. I was shunted off my project to a new one farther away. Unfortunately we couldn't bring the camper so Dracomama and Munchie had to stay behind. The job itself went pretty well, but in the middle of it, I got a miserable stomach bug and it snowed like 5 times. 

     On the upside the guy who loaned us the camper bought a new furnace for us. I just need a spare min to install it and we are good to go.

     I figure I have another week or so on this house and then I will be looking at several projects down in the cities. It will be nice to get to a site with running water! We have a water tank, but it's only 15 to 20 gallons and it goes away fast. We have learned to ration water and dump our grey water rather than let it go into the holding tank. It will be nice to have full hookups sometime, as we have never had the luxury. But parks are expensive $300 to $500 per month. I know cheap compared to an apartment or mortgage, still taps the savings.

Munchie in her Little House in the Big World

Here's our Munchkin playing with her dolls and having a grand old time:

[video link]

Sorry for the link - been having trouble uploading to Blogger!

Looking back, moving forward

Every time you move on to something new, you leave something else behind. 

We have had to leave behind friends, family and community to move on to this new lifestyle. It's been hard, and I don't think I've been really letting myself think about it much in an effort to not feel sad. I should just let go. But.. it's hard. I'm trying so hard to make sure we succeed that the thought of letting go emotionally frightens me. Which is probably why my back is currently a Guide to Knots of the Seven Seas :P

There are three ladies back home with whom I was particularly close. I already miss them  tremendously. I still feel them present in my life, but it's not the same, and won't likely ever be the same again. And part of me feels like I missed some opportunities to do more with my friends while I was there. They all (I'm assuming grudgingly) have helped launch us on this journey. Having been on the left-behind end of things before, I know that's not easy. And I thank them all for everything they have done for us - every bit of love they have shared.

Then, there is the other side of the coin. We have moved to an area where we have a lot of friends. We've been able to get together with several of them already and share meals, take advantage of showers (praise the Lord!), and reconnect. It's been a joy "showing off" Munchie to all of our friends. Really, she is the light of our lives and it is wonderful that she gets to spend time with all these other Aunties and Uncles. 

Wilderheart and I are blessed to have friends from one end of this state to the other (really, I think we have friends in both Moorehead and Albert Lea....), and humbled by the support and love that everyone has shown us during this transition. It's hard for us - we're boot-strap kind of people, and so we can get stubbornly determined to do it on our own. But there is no way - NO way - we could have done all of this without at least a dozen of our friends having pitched in to lend a hand or a shoulder along the way.

So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you!!

Spring, is that you?

What a roller-coaster week of weather! Cold, strong winds, snow, sleet, rain, low clouds. I could almost hear the geese cursing as they flew overhead.

We managed to resolve our heating issues, so at least we could stay warm in our Little House in the Big World. And we have exactly the right number of pans and buckets to catch the drips from the rain! Yes, our roof leaks. Something to see to once it warms up enough for sealant to properly cure. This is a borrowed RV, so I'm not about to complain! Free rent is free rent, so putting some equity into the RV is the least we can do.

It's been hard not to go looking to see what else is for sale out there. We don't have money pooled together yet to buy our own RV, and we're still flip-flopping between tow-behind and RV, but it's just so darned tempting to check Craigslist or poke our noses in at a used camper dealer.

We do know one thing: we want a home with bigger tanks. We have a 15-gallon potable water tank, and a combo grey and black water tank. We've been trying to tap our resources sparingly. We don't put any grey-water down the drain if we can avoid it - I do dishes in two tubs and toss the water in the grassy field by the house when I'm done. It adds an extra step, but at least we don't have to drive to the RV dump site every other day!

Wilderheart has been working at another job site for the past week - the realtor we're working with pulled him off his main project to get another home ready for listing right away. He should be finishing up on that site today, then returning to working right outside my door. I do really miss him when he's away, but the reality is that without our move into the LHitBW, I'd be missing him for weeks at a time. This way, we still get to be together as a family in the evenings. It's been a blessing!