New trailer at last.

We get to go clean out the new trailer tomorrow, and start cleaning up in anticipation of the repairs and changes we will be making. The rest depends on how fast the money comes in. Rv parts aren't cheap. I found a good source for scratch and dent new stuff, hopefully that will make the difference. I have up coming job that should make us enough to replace the water and waste systems in the trailer. Then we can move into it, and finish any other improvements as we go.

A sense of home

I've been feeling displaced lately. We moved the remainder of our belongings into the storage unit this weekend. Swept and cleaned the old place, then locked it up and left town.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sad about it all. A lot happened this weekend. Unloaded two cars and a house. Rather drastic for a 48-hour span. We visited with friends, which was bitter-sweet. People we love dearly, who we won't be seeing as often as we'd like. People who have drastically impacted our lives for the better, and to whom we owe much gratitude.

I've never been one to really mourn leaving a place, but I suppose most of the time we've left with a firm plan and a place to move up. And now, for the first time, we've moved.. not down, not back, not up, not forward. We've just moved to a whole new reality, really. We parted with SO MUCH "stuff." We pared down to what really mattered, and without those blankets of "stuff" around us, I feel a bit naked sometimes. Not that I need all that stuff, nor do I want to be burdened by it again. It's just so very different. I haven't had this little in so long. I used to be able to move from apartment to apartment in the back of a station wagon, then a van, then a small moving trailer, then a truck, then a semi.... now, with three of us, we're back to only really needing a small U-Haul. It's so very unconventional, yet so very practical.

I am ever-grateful for the friends we have been staying with these past few months. They have offered us security, family, fun, love, comfort, a bathroom ;), and so much more. I doubt I'll ever think of them as anything but my family. We have gained brothers, sisters, nephews, and kittens :)

It's amazing to be going through this process of moving onward. It is not a simple process, but it is a life-altering one, and I think our family is approaching it in the healthiest way we can: together, with integrity and love.

Still here...

Sorry about the long break in posting.
As I posted last we were about to head to Oregon for 2 exciting weeks. The wood working class was very exciting, we learned a great deal. Port Townsend, WA where the school is is as you might guess a port town. There is also a wonderfull boat building school there, which we got to tour. There is a historic fort there, as well as many 1800's buildings, we learned that the hotel we stayed at on the waterfront was known as a seedy brothel in it's hayday. Many a sailor would get drunk there and wakeup at sea to discover they have been shanghai'd to crew some ship or another. We didn't get to explore too fully as we spent most nights designing our projects for class.

After the class we retured to southern Oregon, to Ashland and surrounding area. Our friends live in a quaint sleepy little town called Jacksonville. Which btw is where Bruce Campbell lives! I didn't see him, but I looked!! We toured the area a bit, and set to work building the first of our planned gypsy vardos. Unfortunately things were complicated early on by hard to find materials and shortages. We got plywood ordered, took 2 days to get, we had to order in clear fir for making structure, and we got lucky and found a huge pile of fir brick moulding at a recycling center, which we cut into strips and bent laminated into roofing spars. We tried like hell but we just didn't have the time to get a skin on it. We got the 4 walls framed in ontop of the floor system, and al the roofing spars bent, sanded and cut to length. We ran out of time and energy, we had been working dawn to dusk for 5 days straight. We decided to take a break and enjoy the last 2 days with our friends. We hiked through a beautiful state park full of water falls. One of our friends taught us his waterfall trick. If you stare at a waterfall and let your eyes go out of focus for awhile and the quickly look at a solid object it will jump and quaver. It made the trees all over the hillside look like they were growing before our eyes! Pretty cool trick.
We caught an obscenely early plane, made it home, and then Dracomama and Munchie were on a plane 3 days later to Alaska to visit Dracomama's sister for a week. That was a long week for both of us.

We are all home together now, obviously more has transpired since then but non of it was notable. We still haven't gotten into our new trailer, it took forever to get my last payment from the Rogers house I was working on. We just got it last week! *Indignant* I lucked out and got a great deal on a truck that needed a tiny bit of work on, the guy was selling because he thought it needed new fuel injectors, what it really needed was a tuneup. So plugs and wires and $1000.00 off the price. Just like to mention, somebody else told him it needed injectors not me! We can finally go get our trailer sometime in the next week. I have some other projects to finish up before I can start fixing on it, but just havin it will be a step in the right direction.

As for living situations, well we are not quite as self contained as we would like anymore. The waste tank has a crack in it. Made things interesting when I went to the dumpstation. Lets just say the trail I was leaving wasn't bread crumbs. So needless to say we no longer have running water and we can't use our bathroom in the middle of the night. We are still parked with the Cottage crew, they are moved in. We use their facilities for everything now, we can't cook without running inside for water or to do dishes. Having a real shower and toilet is nice but not convenient to our home. We are debating what to do for the winter, I think we both want to head away from the cottage crew as this situation wold not be feasible in the cold and snow. I might look into an RV park that would allow winter guests, people wrap their trailers and rv's in styrofoam and have LP delivered. We are also thinking of getting a 6 mo lease at an apt somewhere on the west end of the cities, we like it over here. It all depends on work really, if I can stay busy all winter long an apt would be doable. We really want to head down to New Mexico for xmas with Dracomama's brother, and stay for the worst of the MN winter in the southwest. I could probably find work there as well as here, business cards are cheap and tools would come with us in the back of the truck.
I'll keep you informed as we get our new trailer and get it livable. We'll see what the end of summer brings.

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.