Please feel free to write your thoughts here, I'd love to read them!
Showing Style with grand manner, flair, enthusiasm, spirit amd done with verve or simply an ornamental plume of feathers! You willl find a variety of tips, lists and diy projects I have researched and completed. I hope to share with you my enthusiasm for design and flair for diy so you will end up with more than an ornamental plume!
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
Dad and Daughter the back pack kids do the Floss Dance
Dad and daughter, the backpack kids do the Floss Dance. There's two takes in the video so be sure to keep watching through to the end. You have to understand, we haven't had internet wi-fi in 8 months so we really are now catching up on things and apparently the Floss dance was not new to everyone, but we just stumbled upon it and thought it was hilarious! So here's daring Daddy and daughter grovin'.
Please feel free to write your thoughts here, I'd love to read them!
Please feel free to write your thoughts here, I'd love to read them!
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Flashback: What happened in the Camper Still Stays in the Camper
Water, Water Everywhere! Did you ever read this book to your child? It's from Baby Einstein. This book reminds me of water life in the RV through every season remembering every detail from reading it to the kids so many times during baths, as you can see I have so little spare time to read adult books thus the lack of adult references so often throughout my posts.
Oh, it has been a delight this past month to relish in the fact that we are no longer living in the RV! Every day we find ourselves something new to be thankful for. We are now even watching You Tube videos of people who live or have lived in their camper or 5th wheel or vintage trailer. We sit and watch and nod our heads as to how we know exactly what they're talking about! We watched one today of a couple with 9 children who traveled for a few months in a 5th wheel, a very NICE one. I sat back and listened to the kids talk about how jealous they were because we didn't have some of those features in the RV we rented. Then I am quick to point out that we weren't sharing with that many kids and the fact the family spent most of their time outside of the RV and also never went through all four seasons in one. There are not a lot of jokes or funny scenarios in this post, just the realness of everyday life we experienced. There are several more pictures I want to share but need to research my archives and will add them later on.
So, here we are, unbelievably living away from the camper we called home for 8 months in our amazingly blessed Summer Town House. We can't seem to get a grip of modern things we once had been deprived of. The showers here are GINORMOUS! And the toilets, all 3 of them, don't have us banging our elbows or heads on the walls! (I know, a christmas show reference- although our kids want to watch The Elf all year and we talk about it often)
One of the most memorable luxuries we lacked was the need of quick, warm and unfrozen tap water.
I will just share about H2O today and maybe a few other quirky memories, but this being the 2nd most intense subject while in the camper through all the seasons!
Traveling in an RV can be a challenge on it's own but parking it on rented land and hooking up utilities sounds like a dreamy situation but....it wasn't something we were ready for. The owners of the RV hadn't lived in it but had only stayed a short while and never in the winter. We had NO clue what was coming our way. It was certainly the calm before the Storm.
The first week in the camper was not to bad. I was struggling with trying to make it feel like a normal home and making the kids feel like they were on vacation. They did seem to enjoy it but Mama wasn't starting to enjoy what was going on, I could insert an emojii here but I will refrain!
The weather in mid November was really nice during the day but it started getting really cool at night. That was normally when we would do baths for the kids and myself pre-camper.
We had been in the camper a few days and we all smelled like it too. Trying to get adjusted to life in a different way.
I decided to give the girls a bath in the tiny little tub, which was something we really prayed for since we had little ones. The first go of it ended up in a tub full of brown water. I quickly texted the owner and asked about what they used to winterize it and thought it was from some chemicals, but No. It wasn't that. I thought and thought and realized that maybe the water line just wasn't flushed out, not being used on the land, so I drained the tub and re ran the bath water. It was clearer but turned brown half way through. Ok, so I ran and got some baking soda and essential oils and added it. I got the girls ready to put in and felt the water....it was cold. The hot water had run out? Actually it never got real warm. What? I can't give my little 6 month old a bath in cold water or the lil' toddler either.
I primitively went to the propane stove and fired up my 'big' 2 quart pan and the tea kettle and waited for it to get hot. I then spend 30 minutes getting the bath "all ready". I quickly gave the girls a bath and then had my 9 year old just jump in for a shower followed by his sister.
I had never heard such hollering as I left my son in the shower to get cleaned up. He was jumping and screaming for me. I stepped in and realized that his shower had gotten cold before he rinsed the soap off and he couldn't remember how to turn it off. I told him to wait for it to re-heat. He got tired of waiting and it was getting really cool in the bathroom with the vent open so he just rinsed with cold water and stuck his head in the sink to get the shampoo out. His sister got in and is very dramatic already, ended up crying and sobbing because she too had run out of warm water. I told her just to get out, water would be enough to rinse off and she could take a bath the next night. I gave up on my bath that night and decided to wait during the day hoping the water would be warmer in the pipes during sunlight.
The next day I got in. It was such a primitive feeling like I was in nature taking a shower and looking up through the skylight in the tiny bathroom as the older two decide to have a dance party, shaking the entire RV. Yes, I screamed a little, okay, a lot. "Kids, sit down, I can't keep my balance, please stop the jumping, this is not a bounce house, you hear me, I know you hear me because these walls are made of cardboard". (they weren't really, but I imagined they were since they were very fragile and not sound proof. I had to leave the little ones strapped in their chairs in the table seats, since I could watch them from the shower while they eat their snacks so Mommy could get clean. If I let them run amuck they would try to open the exterior door and risk falling out of the camper! I got in and I felt just like the Elf. Like a ginormous giant trying to shower off in an elf sized shower. Not only did the water turn frigid right after sudsing up but the water pressure was like the drizzle of a garden hose. We never did get that improved while we lived there for the entire time. We never could get the shampoo our of our hair really well. In fact, it was so hard to get our heads clean we would often get those little "cradle cap" like crusties on our head. It really was horrible.
The youngest at the time of moving in the RV was 6 months old, and then the next one up was almost 2. It was a real concern of mine that I felt they weren't getting clean enough. I am always the Mom that worries about germs and making sure they at least get a good scrub down every other day with our Young Living Baby Bath soap. But, I had to let my boundaries go and give in to either stay warm or get clean. It was a tough choice and I certainly was able to prioritize the necessities from the comfortableness. This, in itself, is very humbling. It was great knowing we were out in the middle of the country but when we decided to go where people were, it did require an army to get everyone presentable and clean. I know most people do not mind if they have body odor or if there are stains on their clothes or even boogers in their kids noses...........but I really am concerned with these details. My grandmother always said, "We may be poor, but we don't have to look dirty". Cleanliness was next to godliness in some things, especially her home. It was not very attractive being an old farm house, but if her guests were coming you would find her cleaning two weeks out from the date of their arrival. She would micro clean from top to bottom. She said, "we don't have a lot, but I don't want our guests to feel like their stay was dirty". That lady would clean with boiling vinegar and her hands were always scratchy from the hard labor she did bare handed. I miss her so. I took on some of her training and thoughts of making sure the kids were clean and our home is even cleaner for guests and just everyday living, although I am not as extreme as I used to be before four children. HA.
Back to the camper....As for the kids, they never learned to like the shower and my oldest daughter liked to take baths but never go the water to stop turning brown. We never figured that out and over time it got less brown but would stay clear until near the end of filling up the bath water. We just limited the amount of water for the baths then. Also the little ones liked to throw water everywhere so not only do you have to mop up the water quickly inside the bathroom, it likes to overflow the top of the tub if you take the shower head and turn it toward the stall and will run on into the bedroom. Yes, had to mop up several of those fun little adventures. With the toddlers in the confined little tub, though, they loved it. They had not a care in the world, they just enjoyed throwing water everywhere so the entire bathroom would be wet from steam and tub water. It was really like taking a bath myself and the plus to this was I could bathe the toddlers and help get dinner on the table since it was within reaching distance from the tub, see....win, win! But don't you dare turn on any other faucet while someone is showering, you will be scorned!
Once we got the water temperature valve changed, which I will cover in a minute, I was able to do a quick shower off and then either another day or hour go back and wash my hair without losing warmth. It was crazy! to say the least. I'd say if it wasn't for the mission trip to Honduras, I don't think I would have been quite as prepared for camper showering! As the weather got icy outside our showers got fewer and farther between. Once you step inside the tiny bathroom and have to open the ceiling vent to let the steam out, plus the lack of insulation in there....you will find yourself looking for the quickest way out of there. I'll just be real honest here...there were weeks where I only took a full shower to go to church and halfway clean up twice a week. There were, honestly times when I didn't shave my legs for several weeks, ok, maybe nearly a month or so, but hey, I was freezing and insulated leggings can hide a multitude of hairy legs! (I will get into the weather in another post, y'all) The winter got REAL interesting.
I found myself doing dishes with cool water as well and had to boil water for that as well. My daughter was in bottles regularly so I felt they never got really sanitized. I would use the microwave to heat up water and steam them but had to make sure no other electrical item was running.
Probably two weeks had gone by after moving into this wilderness camper when I called the owner and told her about the water issue. After each night off colder weather we realized something was wrong with the water heater. It is heated by propane so we knew it wasn't that. Turns out to be a super easy fix. Under the sink the tank switch was only letting the cold water through and not the hot water! Ugh, what? All those hours of struggling to do dishes, which was already crazy with all of us eating 3 meals a day plus snacks and bottles and NO dishwasher! We used a lot of camping paper plates and cups along with cutlery. A far cry from my pre-camper efforts to get rid of all plastic in the house........ugh. I felt myself cringe every time I had to revert back to my pre-knowledge of the effect of chemicals in plastics. I had wished I just hadn't educated myself on the topic so much, but now it was too late. You know the saying about sin- if you know something is wrong but you do it anyway, that sin, well I felt as though myself or the kids were going to feel the effects from using these camper style utensils for so long and I was going to be to blame. It really was hard. I will talk about what I kept in my pantry and the minimal cooking items I had in the cabinets. I really shock myself when I think about how I cooked all those meals with such little tools. Unreal.
I guess along with the showers and washing dishes issue there was also the issue of laundry. I was going to the laundry mat about 16 minutes away and paying oodles of cash to wash all our clothes. I got to the point I told the kids to keep wearing their clothes until they smelled horrible, unless we were going to church! They naturally get super dirty just going outside ONE time so this was a major challenge trying to get anything clean from their closets.
I would go at night to do the laundry when my husband came home from work. I did try to take the kids with me but that wasn't so pleasant during the last of the 2 hour trip! We were on a budget so I didn't dry the clothes all the way and would bring them back to the RV and hang a clothes rope from one side of the RV to the other and around our master bedroom and just hang as many as I could, hoping they would dry out before breakfast. Since the humidity in the RV doesn't just evaporate without a dehumidifier, it was getting me NO WHERE fast. The kids would just weave their way through the laundry hanging up and find their way to sit down for breakfast. The girls suffered the most as they tried to eat their food while looking up at Daddy's underwear! And Landon complained all the time that he couldn't see the tv because his sister's underwear and socks were staring him in the face. Well, I said, at least you'll have dry and clean clothes by this afternoon when the sauna heats up the camper!
My husband had promised that by now he would have a little storage building complete and would hook up a water line and attach our washer and dryer. Ummm, well, it just wasn't happening! I managed to make it 2 months without a washer or dryer and the weather was getting pretty frigid!
Waking up in the mornings in the RV were so pleasant as the weather got cooler. We didn't need the heater because the sun would begin to heat it up by the time 8 o'clock hit. We'd just open up the windows mid December and let it warm itself up. It was crazy to say, but in January I remember days that it was 40 degrees and we would have the windows cracked due to the heat in the RV. We couldn't turn on the air conditioner in Winter, that would be ridiculous!
Enough about the weather in this post, but I said all that to lead up to the cold weather causing some issues. The first freeze we got, I believe was on a weekday, Scott had already gotten up really early to replace one of the propane tanks when we turned the heater on and when he went to brush his teeth, well the pipes were frozen from the water spout outside to the RV inside the hose.
We called the owner and she quickly said she would get an electrically heated water hose to hook up if Scott could de-thaw the pipe. So, he got our hair dryer and managed to get the extension cord to reach from the barn to the RV and started thawing away, with a hair dryer! It didn't do so well, so he managed to get a small space heater and, well, it blew a fuse or socket or something. Quickly ruined the little space heater, but he got it thawed out.
I said to myself that day, and I'll never forget- "I will not live here another day if we can't keep the water warm inside."
Well, to my surprise, the problem was fixable and we again trudged on through the trenches with the warning of the first of winter. There was only one other day that the pipes froze and that day Scott blew out one of the outlets in the camper. I did get my laundry/storage/school room but my poor husband had the worst of time trying to get it finished. It was beginning to get dark in the evenings to he had little sunlight so he had to try and get it on the weekends. He finally managed to get it ready. He bought an instant water heater on sight and he wrapped a water hose with our previous summer of Pool Noodles and duct tape!! He had to super insulate all hoses outside to prevent any freezing. There were a few times I couldn't use the washer at night because the hose was a little frozen. I would wait until day to do some laundry. Any kind of wet towels that were left hanging would just smell moldy the next day, so I learned to put stuff outside, even though a little frozen, could thaw them out and throw them in the wash by noon the next day. Fun huh! Oh yes, so many great memories made here in the outback!
(I do have a pic of the drying laundry somewhere in my archive)
We struggled all through winter with water pressure but did have some steaming hot water at the faucets, even though short lived, we could get dishes soaking in the sink and learned to spread out the baths during the day so everyone could get a little warm water at a time.
Well, enough of water memories for today. I'll be addressing the weather, mold issues, and maybe will throw in some wild animal stories just for extra entertainment!
Please feel free to write your thoughts here, I'd love to read them!
Oh, it has been a delight this past month to relish in the fact that we are no longer living in the RV! Every day we find ourselves something new to be thankful for. We are now even watching You Tube videos of people who live or have lived in their camper or 5th wheel or vintage trailer. We sit and watch and nod our heads as to how we know exactly what they're talking about! We watched one today of a couple with 9 children who traveled for a few months in a 5th wheel, a very NICE one. I sat back and listened to the kids talk about how jealous they were because we didn't have some of those features in the RV we rented. Then I am quick to point out that we weren't sharing with that many kids and the fact the family spent most of their time outside of the RV and also never went through all four seasons in one. There are not a lot of jokes or funny scenarios in this post, just the realness of everyday life we experienced. There are several more pictures I want to share but need to research my archives and will add them later on.
So, here we are, unbelievably living away from the camper we called home for 8 months in our amazingly blessed Summer Town House. We can't seem to get a grip of modern things we once had been deprived of. The showers here are GINORMOUS! And the toilets, all 3 of them, don't have us banging our elbows or heads on the walls! (I know, a christmas show reference- although our kids want to watch The Elf all year and we talk about it often)
One of the most memorable luxuries we lacked was the need of quick, warm and unfrozen tap water.
I will just share about H2O today and maybe a few other quirky memories, but this being the 2nd most intense subject while in the camper through all the seasons!
Traveling in an RV can be a challenge on it's own but parking it on rented land and hooking up utilities sounds like a dreamy situation but....it wasn't something we were ready for. The owners of the RV hadn't lived in it but had only stayed a short while and never in the winter. We had NO clue what was coming our way. It was certainly the calm before the Storm.
The first week in the camper was not to bad. I was struggling with trying to make it feel like a normal home and making the kids feel like they were on vacation. They did seem to enjoy it but Mama wasn't starting to enjoy what was going on, I could insert an emojii here but I will refrain!
The weather in mid November was really nice during the day but it started getting really cool at night. That was normally when we would do baths for the kids and myself pre-camper.
We had been in the camper a few days and we all smelled like it too. Trying to get adjusted to life in a different way.
I decided to give the girls a bath in the tiny little tub, which was something we really prayed for since we had little ones. The first go of it ended up in a tub full of brown water. I quickly texted the owner and asked about what they used to winterize it and thought it was from some chemicals, but No. It wasn't that. I thought and thought and realized that maybe the water line just wasn't flushed out, not being used on the land, so I drained the tub and re ran the bath water. It was clearer but turned brown half way through. Ok, so I ran and got some baking soda and essential oils and added it. I got the girls ready to put in and felt the water....it was cold. The hot water had run out? Actually it never got real warm. What? I can't give my little 6 month old a bath in cold water or the lil' toddler either.
I primitively went to the propane stove and fired up my 'big' 2 quart pan and the tea kettle and waited for it to get hot. I then spend 30 minutes getting the bath "all ready". I quickly gave the girls a bath and then had my 9 year old just jump in for a shower followed by his sister.
I had never heard such hollering as I left my son in the shower to get cleaned up. He was jumping and screaming for me. I stepped in and realized that his shower had gotten cold before he rinsed the soap off and he couldn't remember how to turn it off. I told him to wait for it to re-heat. He got tired of waiting and it was getting really cool in the bathroom with the vent open so he just rinsed with cold water and stuck his head in the sink to get the shampoo out. His sister got in and is very dramatic already, ended up crying and sobbing because she too had run out of warm water. I told her just to get out, water would be enough to rinse off and she could take a bath the next night. I gave up on my bath that night and decided to wait during the day hoping the water would be warmer in the pipes during sunlight.
The next day I got in. It was such a primitive feeling like I was in nature taking a shower and looking up through the skylight in the tiny bathroom as the older two decide to have a dance party, shaking the entire RV. Yes, I screamed a little, okay, a lot. "Kids, sit down, I can't keep my balance, please stop the jumping, this is not a bounce house, you hear me, I know you hear me because these walls are made of cardboard". (they weren't really, but I imagined they were since they were very fragile and not sound proof. I had to leave the little ones strapped in their chairs in the table seats, since I could watch them from the shower while they eat their snacks so Mommy could get clean. If I let them run amuck they would try to open the exterior door and risk falling out of the camper! I got in and I felt just like the Elf. Like a ginormous giant trying to shower off in an elf sized shower. Not only did the water turn frigid right after sudsing up but the water pressure was like the drizzle of a garden hose. We never did get that improved while we lived there for the entire time. We never could get the shampoo our of our hair really well. In fact, it was so hard to get our heads clean we would often get those little "cradle cap" like crusties on our head. It really was horrible.
The youngest at the time of moving in the RV was 6 months old, and then the next one up was almost 2. It was a real concern of mine that I felt they weren't getting clean enough. I am always the Mom that worries about germs and making sure they at least get a good scrub down every other day with our Young Living Baby Bath soap. But, I had to let my boundaries go and give in to either stay warm or get clean. It was a tough choice and I certainly was able to prioritize the necessities from the comfortableness. This, in itself, is very humbling. It was great knowing we were out in the middle of the country but when we decided to go where people were, it did require an army to get everyone presentable and clean. I know most people do not mind if they have body odor or if there are stains on their clothes or even boogers in their kids noses...........but I really am concerned with these details. My grandmother always said, "We may be poor, but we don't have to look dirty". Cleanliness was next to godliness in some things, especially her home. It was not very attractive being an old farm house, but if her guests were coming you would find her cleaning two weeks out from the date of their arrival. She would micro clean from top to bottom. She said, "we don't have a lot, but I don't want our guests to feel like their stay was dirty". That lady would clean with boiling vinegar and her hands were always scratchy from the hard labor she did bare handed. I miss her so. I took on some of her training and thoughts of making sure the kids were clean and our home is even cleaner for guests and just everyday living, although I am not as extreme as I used to be before four children. HA.
Back to the camper....As for the kids, they never learned to like the shower and my oldest daughter liked to take baths but never go the water to stop turning brown. We never figured that out and over time it got less brown but would stay clear until near the end of filling up the bath water. We just limited the amount of water for the baths then. Also the little ones liked to throw water everywhere so not only do you have to mop up the water quickly inside the bathroom, it likes to overflow the top of the tub if you take the shower head and turn it toward the stall and will run on into the bedroom. Yes, had to mop up several of those fun little adventures. With the toddlers in the confined little tub, though, they loved it. They had not a care in the world, they just enjoyed throwing water everywhere so the entire bathroom would be wet from steam and tub water. It was really like taking a bath myself and the plus to this was I could bathe the toddlers and help get dinner on the table since it was within reaching distance from the tub, see....win, win! But don't you dare turn on any other faucet while someone is showering, you will be scorned!
Once we got the water temperature valve changed, which I will cover in a minute, I was able to do a quick shower off and then either another day or hour go back and wash my hair without losing warmth. It was crazy! to say the least. I'd say if it wasn't for the mission trip to Honduras, I don't think I would have been quite as prepared for camper showering! As the weather got icy outside our showers got fewer and farther between. Once you step inside the tiny bathroom and have to open the ceiling vent to let the steam out, plus the lack of insulation in there....you will find yourself looking for the quickest way out of there. I'll just be real honest here...there were weeks where I only took a full shower to go to church and halfway clean up twice a week. There were, honestly times when I didn't shave my legs for several weeks, ok, maybe nearly a month or so, but hey, I was freezing and insulated leggings can hide a multitude of hairy legs! (I will get into the weather in another post, y'all) The winter got REAL interesting.
I found myself doing dishes with cool water as well and had to boil water for that as well. My daughter was in bottles regularly so I felt they never got really sanitized. I would use the microwave to heat up water and steam them but had to make sure no other electrical item was running.
Probably two weeks had gone by after moving into this wilderness camper when I called the owner and told her about the water issue. After each night off colder weather we realized something was wrong with the water heater. It is heated by propane so we knew it wasn't that. Turns out to be a super easy fix. Under the sink the tank switch was only letting the cold water through and not the hot water! Ugh, what? All those hours of struggling to do dishes, which was already crazy with all of us eating 3 meals a day plus snacks and bottles and NO dishwasher! We used a lot of camping paper plates and cups along with cutlery. A far cry from my pre-camper efforts to get rid of all plastic in the house........ugh. I felt myself cringe every time I had to revert back to my pre-knowledge of the effect of chemicals in plastics. I had wished I just hadn't educated myself on the topic so much, but now it was too late. You know the saying about sin- if you know something is wrong but you do it anyway, that sin, well I felt as though myself or the kids were going to feel the effects from using these camper style utensils for so long and I was going to be to blame. It really was hard. I will talk about what I kept in my pantry and the minimal cooking items I had in the cabinets. I really shock myself when I think about how I cooked all those meals with such little tools. Unreal.
I guess along with the showers and washing dishes issue there was also the issue of laundry. I was going to the laundry mat about 16 minutes away and paying oodles of cash to wash all our clothes. I got to the point I told the kids to keep wearing their clothes until they smelled horrible, unless we were going to church! They naturally get super dirty just going outside ONE time so this was a major challenge trying to get anything clean from their closets.
I would go at night to do the laundry when my husband came home from work. I did try to take the kids with me but that wasn't so pleasant during the last of the 2 hour trip! We were on a budget so I didn't dry the clothes all the way and would bring them back to the RV and hang a clothes rope from one side of the RV to the other and around our master bedroom and just hang as many as I could, hoping they would dry out before breakfast. Since the humidity in the RV doesn't just evaporate without a dehumidifier, it was getting me NO WHERE fast. The kids would just weave their way through the laundry hanging up and find their way to sit down for breakfast. The girls suffered the most as they tried to eat their food while looking up at Daddy's underwear! And Landon complained all the time that he couldn't see the tv because his sister's underwear and socks were staring him in the face. Well, I said, at least you'll have dry and clean clothes by this afternoon when the sauna heats up the camper!
My husband had promised that by now he would have a little storage building complete and would hook up a water line and attach our washer and dryer. Ummm, well, it just wasn't happening! I managed to make it 2 months without a washer or dryer and the weather was getting pretty frigid!
Waking up in the mornings in the RV were so pleasant as the weather got cooler. We didn't need the heater because the sun would begin to heat it up by the time 8 o'clock hit. We'd just open up the windows mid December and let it warm itself up. It was crazy to say, but in January I remember days that it was 40 degrees and we would have the windows cracked due to the heat in the RV. We couldn't turn on the air conditioner in Winter, that would be ridiculous!
Enough about the weather in this post, but I said all that to lead up to the cold weather causing some issues. The first freeze we got, I believe was on a weekday, Scott had already gotten up really early to replace one of the propane tanks when we turned the heater on and when he went to brush his teeth, well the pipes were frozen from the water spout outside to the RV inside the hose.
We called the owner and she quickly said she would get an electrically heated water hose to hook up if Scott could de-thaw the pipe. So, he got our hair dryer and managed to get the extension cord to reach from the barn to the RV and started thawing away, with a hair dryer! It didn't do so well, so he managed to get a small space heater and, well, it blew a fuse or socket or something. Quickly ruined the little space heater, but he got it thawed out.
I said to myself that day, and I'll never forget- "I will not live here another day if we can't keep the water warm inside."
Well, to my surprise, the problem was fixable and we again trudged on through the trenches with the warning of the first of winter. There was only one other day that the pipes froze and that day Scott blew out one of the outlets in the camper. I did get my laundry/storage/school room but my poor husband had the worst of time trying to get it finished. It was beginning to get dark in the evenings to he had little sunlight so he had to try and get it on the weekends. He finally managed to get it ready. He bought an instant water heater on sight and he wrapped a water hose with our previous summer of Pool Noodles and duct tape!! He had to super insulate all hoses outside to prevent any freezing. There were a few times I couldn't use the washer at night because the hose was a little frozen. I would wait until day to do some laundry. Any kind of wet towels that were left hanging would just smell moldy the next day, so I learned to put stuff outside, even though a little frozen, could thaw them out and throw them in the wash by noon the next day. Fun huh! Oh yes, so many great memories made here in the outback!
(I do have a pic of the drying laundry somewhere in my archive)
We struggled all through winter with water pressure but did have some steaming hot water at the faucets, even though short lived, we could get dishes soaking in the sink and learned to spread out the baths during the day so everyone could get a little warm water at a time.
Well, enough of water memories for today. I'll be addressing the weather, mold issues, and maybe will throw in some wild animal stories just for extra entertainment!
Please feel free to write your thoughts here, I'd love to read them!
Monday, July 10, 2017
Reality Check: What Happens In the Camper Stays In The Camper
Whew, what an adventure we survived. Yes, past tense, we are out of the camper!
Goodbye RV, we will be talking about you for a VERY long time! We promise we won't ever forget you.
But wait you say-you wanted to hear some of our stories, right? I promised to tell some of our stories, thus the title, "What happens in the camper, Stays In the Camper". I cannot express in words the amazing, hairy (there was a huge hairy mishap with a wild dog and cat), freezing, hot, cramped, stressed and wild adventure in one little post. So I'll be sharing over a series of posts of our stories. I think today I want to share a couple of the crazy of craziest stories.
Our normal day, pre-camper, included managing the day with home school, toddler tantrums, laundry, meals and snacks, cleaning up messes and outdoor play, and hours of bedtime drama. Now it included the same momentum packed in one day but just in a tiny space that felt very much like a bounce house in a large closet, to be real about it. Maybe I can share my true feelings toward the end of our stay and just title it "Camper Alcatraz"! Those first few days were very uncertain and included moments of "What have we gotten ourselves into" to "this is like a really nice getaway" and the next minute something would go out so back to, "I can't make it another day in here".
I guess the most epic of obstacles was the One Bathroom Port-O-Potty is what we called it. These troubles are certainly staying IN the camper, we won't be having to experience these again, I PRAY!
The tiny little toilet was right next to the table where we ate and guess who would have to "poo" right at meal time? There was at least one of us who had to "go". Now before I go into deatils let me explain that I'm fixing to share a really vivid picture of the porta-potty, I meant bathroom, right?
So there's some rules on upon using our camper bathroom and here it goes:
#1 Please shut the door
#2 Please keep the door shut and make sure to turn on the fan BEFORE you go. Even when using the fan, expect everyone at the meal table to complain when you go. The smells you smell will waift throughout the RV. I remember many meals there so for the kids sake I use these terms: TunaPoo Casserole, Turdle Pie, Poowich and chips, Spaghettie and Tootieballs, BakedPooTatoes, well you get the picture. Every 'stinkin' meal.
#3 Make sure you open the roof window before you turn on the fan even if it is 20 degrees outside. You'll experience an "Olaf" type of frozen experience while you drop your drawers and in the summer be ready to experience the "Sauna" inside the camper bathroom-It's a steamy pooful experience you'll never forget. Just like the spa but more like a spa at the landfill!
#4 (we discover WAY later)Push the water pedal before you "go" to fill it partially with water otherwise things remain in the "bowl"
#5 Don't be afraid to ask for a fork, someone close by will have a plastic one handy and you can use it to push your stubborn poo down the Luxury Gravity Flush Potty! It is a privilege to push down your child's poo, especially in the middle of your meal!
#6 Only use RV approved septic safe toilet paper and DO NOT cram toilet paper on top of your poo, it will only stop up
#7 Make sure to use RV only dirty water toilet cleaner regularly or the smell will EAT your lunch
#8 Make sure you turn the fan off and close the ceiling window shortly after going or the smells from the septic will come back into the RV
#9 If you plan to use the portoPotty for more than your allotted time, expect to be yelled at as there are 4 others waiting to use the John
#10 If you are in there a long time just go ahead and use your time wisely and brush your teeth, shave your legs, whatever you normally do, you can reach everything in the bathroom! Expect many bumps and bruises as you adjust or attempt to find room for your elbows as you shimmy into the toilet square footage.
#11 If you plan on sitting on the Gravity Flush potty, just expect to feel as though you are on a plane with turbulence, don't expect to be undisturbed in any way since there is also not a lock on the door! Yes while everyone is eating their dinner, expect a toddler to show everyone that Mommy is going poo poo!
#12 Expect to be yelled at yet again if you dare open the door to pull up your drawers, no one likes to see a shiny hiney staring at you while you eat!
#13 Expect there to be drops of ice cold water in the winter to drop on your back and head while you use the facilities! It is a sensational experience especially in the winter! Any water condensation has no where to go in the winter. Make sure the de-humidifier is on and you have an accurate tool to measure the humidity and temperature. Expect your potty room to also be really cold or really hot, depending upon the outside temp.
#14 Plan to have Internet service available if you happen to need to know how to unstop the toilet, especially in emergency when one might have the stomach bug, for random and rare instance. You will need to know what to do when using the gravity flush toilet.
#15 Know that at least one person out of 6 will have to go outside in the woods at least once, or twice or use a bucket to throw up in or use the facilities in.
#16 Don't EVER flush while someone is in the shower better yet don't use the toilet while someone is in the shower-your face will be in their bum behind the shower curtain
While in the beginning of our first week in the camper I suddenly realized that my idea of it being easy and completely doable, after all it was to only be temporary housing, was completely out the window. Unlike any camping trip I've ever been on, oh wait, I've never been camping more than one night before. I had my doubts and complete denial of the obstacles I was to be facing, but when the challenges came I found myself digging to the deepest core of my being to overcome these survival mountains.
We knew God had provided what we had needed and it was JUST THAT, only. Just simply a step up from camping in the wilderness for sure. Some people call it glamping but it is not called that past the one to two week camping trip. My experience was similar to a show called Survivor Man. I know it was NOT complete survivor mode but pretty close by way of not normal, easy, convenient or comfortable way of living. I think if it would have been just me and my husband, it wouldn't have been so hard. But you bring into this tiny little camper 4 more human beings, a 9 year old hyper soccer player and homeschooler, a 5 year old ballet, karate fighter driven, hyper little chatty demanding girl, then go ahead and add a very jumpy, climbing screaming lil' 2 yr old who doesn't like naps or bedtime, plus a 6 month old happy non-independent lil' baby who hasn't learned to self soothe to sleep or crawl...yes people, we had a CIRCUS goin' on in there.
So, flash back to that first week. I remember looking inside the fridge and thinking we would make it easy...no problem. We had little groceries from our house when it sold so I went to the store and racked up small things and tried to plan for propane stove cooking. I brought very little cooking utensils. I began unloading my groceries and well they didn't fit. Somehow I managed to cram them into nooks and crannies of the small cabinets and the fridge and freezer were stuffed so much I could barely close the door! I decided I would need my deep freezer set up but no where to put it. My husband had already planned to build a small storage building and set up the washer and dryer and put a deep freezer and our school supplies in there.
I was so excited to know that I would at least have that to lean on for a little comfort instead of running to walmart every couple of days to get food and running to the laundry mat with all of our family's clothes.
So the first day, to be exact, I came to the quick reality that cooking beyond the crock pot would mean strategy planning around the fuse box in the camper. That meant cooking one thing at a time unless we wanted to spend tons of money per month for propane on the stove and oven. It also meant if we had the air turned on we couldn't run anything else beyond a tv or stereo at the same time. You mine as well forget using the microwave along with anything or the vacuum for sure!
My first 911 call to the RV owner was on this exact issue. They had told us that the amps were limited so I never really figured the reality of that, but anyway, first thing the fuse box cuts off the electricity. It's a guessing game sometimes if you don't know what tripped the breaker and trying different things to see if it's the fuse or the breaker box outside or an outlet needing to be reset. So mid dinner of a screaming and HANGRY crew ,there I was. Trying to figure out all this electrical stuff and cook dinner. It turned out, after many switches inside, to switch the main breaker. So here I go. Baby's in the high chair strapped into the bunker seat at the small table, toddler is strapped into the baby high chair strapped onto a toddler chair and the others warned to stay there to watch the littles until I get back!
So out I tramp out behind the camper and flip the switch. Only after a few more incidences I learned that dinner was going to be a long time away so we decided to have a snack until I could get myself together. It was still nice weather outside that first week so I would often send my son outside to get his nervous energy out. There were 9 acres total but limited amount of play space since the mower hadn't come yet to clear the tall grasses so he would run around the camper and run the driveway.
I'm tellin' ya, I'm only scratching the surface here. So keep sharing and I will keep you entertained with plenty of reality checks. I can help you be so thankful you are able to live in a comfortable and convenient permanent home. You also might re-consider staying in a camper for very long at all! LOL
Please feel free to write your thoughts here, I'd love to read them!
Goodbye RV, we will be talking about you for a VERY long time! We promise we won't ever forget you.
But wait you say-you wanted to hear some of our stories, right? I promised to tell some of our stories, thus the title, "What happens in the camper, Stays In the Camper". I cannot express in words the amazing, hairy (there was a huge hairy mishap with a wild dog and cat), freezing, hot, cramped, stressed and wild adventure in one little post. So I'll be sharing over a series of posts of our stories. I think today I want to share a couple of the crazy of craziest stories.
Our normal day, pre-camper, included managing the day with home school, toddler tantrums, laundry, meals and snacks, cleaning up messes and outdoor play, and hours of bedtime drama. Now it included the same momentum packed in one day but just in a tiny space that felt very much like a bounce house in a large closet, to be real about it. Maybe I can share my true feelings toward the end of our stay and just title it "Camper Alcatraz"! Those first few days were very uncertain and included moments of "What have we gotten ourselves into" to "this is like a really nice getaway" and the next minute something would go out so back to, "I can't make it another day in here".
I guess the most epic of obstacles was the One Bathroom Port-O-Potty is what we called it. These troubles are certainly staying IN the camper, we won't be having to experience these again, I PRAY!
The tiny little toilet was right next to the table where we ate and guess who would have to "poo" right at meal time? There was at least one of us who had to "go". Now before I go into deatils let me explain that I'm fixing to share a really vivid picture of the porta-potty, I meant bathroom, right?
So there's some rules on upon using our camper bathroom and here it goes:
#1 Please shut the door
#2 Please keep the door shut and make sure to turn on the fan BEFORE you go. Even when using the fan, expect everyone at the meal table to complain when you go. The smells you smell will waift throughout the RV. I remember many meals there so for the kids sake I use these terms: TunaPoo Casserole, Turdle Pie, Poowich and chips, Spaghettie and Tootieballs, BakedPooTatoes, well you get the picture. Every 'stinkin' meal.
#3 Make sure you open the roof window before you turn on the fan even if it is 20 degrees outside. You'll experience an "Olaf" type of frozen experience while you drop your drawers and in the summer be ready to experience the "Sauna" inside the camper bathroom-It's a steamy pooful experience you'll never forget. Just like the spa but more like a spa at the landfill!
#4 (we discover WAY later)Push the water pedal before you "go" to fill it partially with water otherwise things remain in the "bowl"
#5 Don't be afraid to ask for a fork, someone close by will have a plastic one handy and you can use it to push your stubborn poo down the Luxury Gravity Flush Potty! It is a privilege to push down your child's poo, especially in the middle of your meal!
#6 Only use RV approved septic safe toilet paper and DO NOT cram toilet paper on top of your poo, it will only stop up
#7 Make sure to use RV only dirty water toilet cleaner regularly or the smell will EAT your lunch
#8 Make sure you turn the fan off and close the ceiling window shortly after going or the smells from the septic will come back into the RV
#9 If you plan to use the portoPotty for more than your allotted time, expect to be yelled at as there are 4 others waiting to use the John
#10 If you are in there a long time just go ahead and use your time wisely and brush your teeth, shave your legs, whatever you normally do, you can reach everything in the bathroom! Expect many bumps and bruises as you adjust or attempt to find room for your elbows as you shimmy into the toilet square footage.
#11 If you plan on sitting on the Gravity Flush potty, just expect to feel as though you are on a plane with turbulence, don't expect to be undisturbed in any way since there is also not a lock on the door! Yes while everyone is eating their dinner, expect a toddler to show everyone that Mommy is going poo poo!
#12 Expect to be yelled at yet again if you dare open the door to pull up your drawers, no one likes to see a shiny hiney staring at you while you eat!
#13 Expect there to be drops of ice cold water in the winter to drop on your back and head while you use the facilities! It is a sensational experience especially in the winter! Any water condensation has no where to go in the winter. Make sure the de-humidifier is on and you have an accurate tool to measure the humidity and temperature. Expect your potty room to also be really cold or really hot, depending upon the outside temp.
#14 Plan to have Internet service available if you happen to need to know how to unstop the toilet, especially in emergency when one might have the stomach bug, for random and rare instance. You will need to know what to do when using the gravity flush toilet.
#15 Know that at least one person out of 6 will have to go outside in the woods at least once, or twice or use a bucket to throw up in or use the facilities in.
#16 Don't EVER flush while someone is in the shower better yet don't use the toilet while someone is in the shower-your face will be in their bum behind the shower curtain
While in the beginning of our first week in the camper I suddenly realized that my idea of it being easy and completely doable, after all it was to only be temporary housing, was completely out the window. Unlike any camping trip I've ever been on, oh wait, I've never been camping more than one night before. I had my doubts and complete denial of the obstacles I was to be facing, but when the challenges came I found myself digging to the deepest core of my being to overcome these survival mountains.
We knew God had provided what we had needed and it was JUST THAT, only. Just simply a step up from camping in the wilderness for sure. Some people call it glamping but it is not called that past the one to two week camping trip. My experience was similar to a show called Survivor Man. I know it was NOT complete survivor mode but pretty close by way of not normal, easy, convenient or comfortable way of living. I think if it would have been just me and my husband, it wouldn't have been so hard. But you bring into this tiny little camper 4 more human beings, a 9 year old hyper soccer player and homeschooler, a 5 year old ballet, karate fighter driven, hyper little chatty demanding girl, then go ahead and add a very jumpy, climbing screaming lil' 2 yr old who doesn't like naps or bedtime, plus a 6 month old happy non-independent lil' baby who hasn't learned to self soothe to sleep or crawl...yes people, we had a CIRCUS goin' on in there.
So, flash back to that first week. I remember looking inside the fridge and thinking we would make it easy...no problem. We had little groceries from our house when it sold so I went to the store and racked up small things and tried to plan for propane stove cooking. I brought very little cooking utensils. I began unloading my groceries and well they didn't fit. Somehow I managed to cram them into nooks and crannies of the small cabinets and the fridge and freezer were stuffed so much I could barely close the door! I decided I would need my deep freezer set up but no where to put it. My husband had already planned to build a small storage building and set up the washer and dryer and put a deep freezer and our school supplies in there.
I was so excited to know that I would at least have that to lean on for a little comfort instead of running to walmart every couple of days to get food and running to the laundry mat with all of our family's clothes.
So the first day, to be exact, I came to the quick reality that cooking beyond the crock pot would mean strategy planning around the fuse box in the camper. That meant cooking one thing at a time unless we wanted to spend tons of money per month for propane on the stove and oven. It also meant if we had the air turned on we couldn't run anything else beyond a tv or stereo at the same time. You mine as well forget using the microwave along with anything or the vacuum for sure!
My first 911 call to the RV owner was on this exact issue. They had told us that the amps were limited so I never really figured the reality of that, but anyway, first thing the fuse box cuts off the electricity. It's a guessing game sometimes if you don't know what tripped the breaker and trying different things to see if it's the fuse or the breaker box outside or an outlet needing to be reset. So mid dinner of a screaming and HANGRY crew ,there I was. Trying to figure out all this electrical stuff and cook dinner. It turned out, after many switches inside, to switch the main breaker. So here I go. Baby's in the high chair strapped into the bunker seat at the small table, toddler is strapped into the baby high chair strapped onto a toddler chair and the others warned to stay there to watch the littles until I get back!
Fuse Box in Bunk room: it stays running all the time |
So out I tramp out behind the camper and flip the switch. Only after a few more incidences I learned that dinner was going to be a long time away so we decided to have a snack until I could get myself together. It was still nice weather outside that first week so I would often send my son outside to get his nervous energy out. There were 9 acres total but limited amount of play space since the mower hadn't come yet to clear the tall grasses so he would run around the camper and run the driveway.
I'm tellin' ya, I'm only scratching the surface here. So keep sharing and I will keep you entertained with plenty of reality checks. I can help you be so thankful you are able to live in a comfortable and convenient permanent home. You also might re-consider staying in a camper for very long at all! LOL
Please feel free to write your thoughts here, I'd love to read them!
Thursday, June 15, 2017
7 Months and Counting in an RV Camper
It's time to write again! I simply couldn't wait any longer!!!! There has been a lot happen in the last couple of years but most recently since November 2016.
Why in the world would we want to move into a Camper with ALL 6 of us? you might ask.
Where to begin? I'm thinking, well, where and why are we here in this crazy little camper 20 minutes from town, in the middle of the wilderness in a rented camper on rented land?
Questions I am asking EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!
So here is the real beginning of it all, well mostly a long story leading up to this point but the most recent jump start into where we are now!
In 2016 we sold our home and during the middle of November we stuffed all our belongings into a storage unit in town and took ONLY what was necessary to the rented camper.
Before this epic family moment we had tried to arrange what our motivation and plans would be if we could sell. Our mission and focus was to sell and try to purchase an investment property, flip it and repeat and then save up to build a new home on some acreage out in the country but near town. Several attempts were made to rent out our home while we bought a foreclosure but fell through.
We still to this day don't know why, but many details and sobbing episodes later.....we just gave up! Well, for me that was just a few days of accepting the truth and then jumping back to myself and braving the challenge again.
Something I have always found myself in the middle of is exactly the most outrageously impossible situation and resulting in this ambition rising up inside of me and bravery to push through and find a solution.
I decided that I can't give up. I can't let go of this dream. God has left us in Greenwood for a reason and I just can't lose hope. For my children, now 4 of them, they needed a place to run and play. We needed a room just for homeschool things. I needed to have a place to garden and just get outside.
I knew I couldn't give up. So after 4 years of trying to sell by owner we decided to list with an agent. The first did not work..again...try again....
We had our 4th child and decided that we were not longing to have any more children. We knew that we were ready to step out in faith and look for God to make a way.
So fast forward, we enlisted an agent again but discovered that to have her sell for us we would end up with no money back at closing. Huge hiccup, but we said If God is in this, it will happen. So we waited and not long into the listing we got a buyer. I totally doubted we would REALLY sell, but we quickly made plans to find elsewhere to live. We worked hard to budget something that would help us manage living/renting plus the plans of building a house and General Contracting it. We still trusted God in this. Not knowing how he would help, but he did! We closed it out with a few hundred dollars to boot! We sold to a couple that we knew would take good care of it. The owner even let me come back and get my Echinacea plants in the spring.
We built our first home nearly 16 years ago but my Step Dad did most of the work and we helped. So it wasn't entirely a new and uncharted territory for us. I also had been in real estate sales and we had flipped a few homes.
None the less, we could not budget a large rental and had no clue how long we would find land. We had been looking for years and couldn't find anything near town in our price range. We had a tight budget since I don't bring any income to the table. We had to be smart. Not owing on our vehicles has saved us, although not very attractive to be seen in, it does get us to and fro!
We made it to closing but our crazy adventure was just getting started. Before closing we had decided that we might try to buy a camper and live in it and when we find land....just move it onto the place and build our home. We went to a RV camper sales and discovered that it was going to be quite expensive to purchase one brand new AND that would be a payment even when we finish our house...bummer. So I randomly thought, what if someone wanted to rent their camper out. It would be temporary. It would be an easy way to save money. But the one thing I couldn't handle was staying at an RV park. So I brainstormed and advertised that I was looking for a camper rental and looking for land to put it on with utilities already in place.
Well, lo and behold-what does God do? I get a response almost immediately: a friend of a friend has one. Oh my, it is the same model and look of the one we wanted to buy- A Wildwood 31foot camper! ok. ok. so now what- look what God has provided, but I can't find anywhere to park it. A few days later another friend tells me there's land near them with 9 acres with rv hookup! What?
Ok. With a barn, chicken coop (so we could get some laying hens), a deer stand and a gorgeous view of the Ouchita Mountains
Well, God, you have provided exactly what we needed and exactly when we needed it! We wanted to "get away" from it all. We prayed we'd have room to play and stretch out. To have a place to be "free". A place for a tire swing and just a little bit of privacy from closed quarters living in a subdivision.
Done.
The only catch is.........we need to be out of the RV by Memorial Day. So it's November and surely we can find land and be out by then, right?
Surely winter won't be so bad and we can cruise on through. Hubby's going to build a small storage building with laundry facilities and homeschool storage, surely this won't be too hard. We'll have everything we need and it won't be long and we'll be moving into our new home!
So, alright, there we went. Onward bound.
Our journey had just begun. I will continue to write about our adventures with pictures soon.
We don't have Internet service so I am limited on how much time I can spend using my phone wi-fi spot to blog. This is so therapeutic to be able to share our journey and relieve some stress. It has been a wild ride and it's June and it's still not over!
I have some amazing and shocking stories and posts coming. For me it is literally driving me crazy but I hope to share in a way that is hilariously comical, so please follow!
Thanks for reading, please share!
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