Once An RVer...

 I realize it’s been a long time between blogs but that’s what seems to happen to most of them when they’ve been running as long as mine has. I figured I’d spare you the mundane aspects of a Wisconsin shut-in winter, in which we endured some major snowfalls and then just for good measure, a couple of ice storms in March, which did major damage to some of our trees.

I sewed up a storm through winter to have plenty of items for the Humane Society online auction in February and that went well, with most of my items selling. The large polar bear tote, which is one of the first ones I made when I was learning, ended up selling for $60, so we were thrilled for that! I still have enough left that I probably can stock the next online auction in September without more sewing because it’s looking like we’ll have a very busy summer. 

 Marc kept very busy with his daily volunteer activity of volunteering in the wood shop classes at the local high school, where he works to mentor those who have actual avid interest in learning something. Many just sit there as window dressing for what they perceive to be an easy class to waste time. He comes home daily shaking his head at how dangerous some of the kids are around the saws and chisels and how callous and sloppy they treat the tools. Unfortunately, there is a large percentage of young folk who are going to be complete write-offs and likely, entirely useless to society. If it’s not on their phone, it doesn’t exist or matter. Their attention span lasts only as long as the next Tic Tok video and anything hands-on is quickly forgotten by the next day. Fortunately, there are a few shining stars, one of which told Marc he wants to soak in all that Marc knows (not enough time, ha!), so Marc tries to concentrate on them so he can truly make a difference in a young person’s life. 

Those who’ve been following us, know we’ve been pretty home-bound the past couple of years and insidiously, it started working on me. I may be old but I’m not ready to give it all up quite yet, so I started dropping hints about the possibility of another RV purchase. Marc was having nothing to do with it; he hates maintaining them, losing depreciation money on them, having to worry about winter damage to roofs, and mostly, fixing them! I’m of the same accord, but the fact remains that unless we have an RV as a means to get out, we simply can’t go. Motel and Air B&B options, beyond high costs, just are a no go with three cats. 

Last fall, Marc decided to take up E biking and has been having lots of fun discovering all the local rides and trails and started getting interested in things further afield. My mind got into gear: what better way to find and experience those possibilities than a camper. And specifically, a camper where you can pack along your expensive bike easily and not have to worry about it. Thus, it came to be that he saw the light (halleluiah), and agreed to start looking for a toy hauler RV. I will say that he also thoughtfully added that he felt badly that I was left home and never got the chance to get out so that’s why he changed his mind on the RV idea.

It didn’t take long; we found a smaller 2021 cheaply made toy hauler in little used condition from a dealer nearby. There are a few minor fixes we’re doing to it: some small repairs; we removed all the attached, fold down chintzy furniture they come with and are installing our own important things like two new reclining chairs and the large kitty condo necessary for our cats’ comfort. Marc replaced the wheels with larger ones and bought new tires and he’ll be building a special storage unit to cover the interior wheel well.

 

We decided to sell the large destination RV we have sitting on our lake property up north; Marc will tow it back here where we can put it up for sale. I’ll unload it and then load up the new one so there will be nothing to buy in terms of household goods. The new RV doesn’t have a lot of storage and the idea is for us to just go out for two- or three-nights max, taking very little with us, so we’re not bogged down with packing, unpacking and setup when we get somewhere. We purposely looked for an RV without a slide (to get away from their endless problems), on the smaller side, but one still featuring a queen-sized dedicated bed, not a Murphy bed or crawl-over bed. 

So, looking forward, you should see more traveling scenery coming up in the blog. We’ll also be making some trips north to try and get our property on the market this summer and there will be much to move or store. I’ve learned at this age, that things move at a much slower pace than maybe what I’d like, but on the other hand, what’s the big hurry?

Wrapping up, these photos of an amazing post-storm sunset were just too stunning not to share!

Shut In So Totes, Totes, and More!

 

I admit it; I kind of become more of a couch potato during winter’s cold, ice and snow. I have full-blown osteoporosis in my spine and hips and since old age makes one unsteady to begin with, I figure there’s no sense taking unnecessary chances. That’s my story anyway. Although I’ll also add that when you step outside and the cold even makes your eyeballs hurt, that’s some serious shit going on. This time of year, I can often go for a couple of weeks without leaving the house so you can see why this blog gets smaller and smaller.

I did have a successful showing of my wares during late November as we set up our display for the Humane Society at an assisted living facility craft show. We featured a darling adoptable puppy and my stuff; I tout that I donate profits to them so feel it makes people feel good about their purchase of my things.

My big totes didn’t go but my most expensive purse/clutch did plus two of the smaller bags, which lends me to believe smaller and lighter could be the way ladies are headed in what they want to carry. So, more and more, I am making these; for one thing they take way less fabric and I can offer them at a lower price point. Designer fabric has gotten outrageously expensive, but often times I just can’t help myself because they are so dang gorgeous! Online fabric stores are definitely my “candy store” and I can spend hours endlessly flipping through wonderful new choices. Obviously, I lean toward bright and lively colors; I just like it when things really stand out. In quite a few of these photos I do have a lot of fabrics which I've upcycled from upholstery samples or thrift stores however.

 

Thanksgiving and Christmas are quiet times at our house since we have no family visiting. Buster precludes us putting up Christmas decorations and he constantly knocks over the Christmas tree just with lights on it in his attempts to play or climb it.  I did really score though for my birthday in that Marc told me to buy a new sewing machine as the old used Viking I had started presenting me with many glitches. I did a lot of online studying of reviews and features and settled on a Janome and so far, I’m very happy with it. There are a ton of features I’ve yet to even try.

Marc is keeping pretty busy at the high school involved in both his volunteer/mentoring and he also is helping out with maintaining and fixing a lot of their saw equipment, which had been woefully neglected. He likes passing on his skills so it’s a good use of his time. He sadly had to park his E bike once the roads became snow coated. 

As a last note, with our harsh temperatures lately, we’ve turned into a little bit of a rescue operation for the wildlife. The black feral female cat we fed and fixed last year is back, along with another cat and I took mercy on a young cottontail who would hang out beneath my lilac branches eating wood. I’ve started feeding it and it now comes out from under the sunroom daily as it hears me calling. Rabbits are slow eaters so it gives Buster endless entertainment to watch it feed as he gazes from his kitty condo out the window. 

We hope you have enjoyable and safe holidays this year end. Merry Christmas and here’s to a much better New Year!

 

 

The End of an Era

 

For ten years she’s sat in front of our shop, turning uglier by every season. She provided untold amounts of solid maple wood for Marc to harvest for his woodshop and much needed storage space area for a bunch of miscellaneous junk. But it’s been past time for her to leave as a blight on our front yard so with the help of some equipment kindly lent to us by a contractor friend, we got to it. Ten days, $1200 in expenses like dump fees, fuel, and additional gravel, and many backbreaking hours of pickup work later, most of her was gone. What remains; the frame and axles mainly, will be further stripped and then eventually be put up for sale.

We had good weather, although some days too warm, for our work, so primarily worked during early morning hours. Watching the jaws of the grapple bucket gnawing away at the skeleton reminded me of seeing a small ant with a giant load of something clenched in its front pinchers. Forty foot of fiberglass and wood and more insulation than I’ve ever seen in one place succumbed to brute force.

(a hydraulic dump trailer)

(first step was removing main slide)

(finally just a pile of debris)

(down to the final load)

(what's left for final cleanup and sale)

Was it nostalgic? A little. She housed our family for many years as we chased construction projects all over the country and then finally escaped in her fulltime for many RV travels. Very stoutly built (it’s true they don’t make them like that anymore) and heavy, it took a special truck to safely haul her. Now, it’s all just memories, like so much of our life is becoming….

 

Fall is here.

 

Old People Days

 

It’s hard to write a blog when not much is going on and you’re looking at the life of two old people!

Summer has mostly passed; it was notable for very hot temperatures and high humidity for an extended time, neither of which we’re fond of anymore. We’re cooler now but still rainy, so the garden has slowed some. I suspect within a couple of weeks it’ll breathe its last productive gasp and I’ll spend a day pulling up dead and dying plants. The cherry tomatoes produced extraordinarily well though; we got thousands out of two plants. I have even been dehydrating them and freezing as a way to try and make use of them. I also peeled, cored and cut lots of apples this year (we have three trees) for freezing for yummy baked goods later this winter. 

I turned my mother’s old time zucchini bread recipe into a way to use up the yellow summer squash and boy, was it a hit. It turned out wonderful. Prior to that I had been taking lots of it to the shelter to share, even with the bunnies and guinea pigs. Chard loves colder temps and is still doing well; I had to also freeze lots of that as I love it in soups and omelets.

 

The shelter auction did well in late August and out of 32 items I had made (jewelry and art) and contributed, all but three or four sold. After the auction, I worked at helping with the sorting and then the dispersal of the items to the winners for several days. Prior to that and during, I was also baking my bread and freezing it in anticipation of having twenty loaves for the bake sale that happens for the city Fall O Rama, which was the 20^th. For the first time I can ever remember, it stormed badly that day and as soon as we set up we got caught up in the deluge and thunder and lightning. Many items were ruined as we only had two small canopy covers and the powers-that-be came around and said they were closing it down. We were able to pack up and move indoors to a local car dealership which was having a pet adoption event so we tried to piggyback on their endeavors but it wasn’t the same. After all that work by so many of us baking, it was a huge disappointment. As I’m sure it was for all the craft and food vendors who then had nowhere to go. Of course, my bread can always find a home or we’ll eat it ourselves!

Marc decided he needed some exercise help so recently bought an E bike and has been setting it up for extended riding. He’s been good about getting out almost daily and is fortunate that the county has many riding/hiking trails, some of which run over 30 miles into other small towns. He fashioned a quick trailer to haul the bike in and at some point I’ll be dropping him off and picking him up at some further point with it and the truck. 

Speaking of trucks, Marc finally sold the old Dodge truck which he purchased new thirty years ago! We parked it out front on the highway and it sold in less than three hours. Given that new, one ton dually diesel trucks are pushing $80-100,00 I can see why….It still ran and had only 160,000 miles on the best Cummins motor Dodge ever used. It now lives just down the road from us! 

Nothing earth-shattering is coming up for us; Marc will be having a contractor friend down soon with his forklift and dump trailer to help us dismantle and scrap out the old Travel Supreme so we can finally get that eyesore outa here! I’ll definitely take pictures of that. I have a couple of possible things coming up for the shelter; a Victorian Halloween house tour (I featured that last year) and a craft fair held in mid-November at an assisted living center where we usually sit with some puppies and me with my wares for sale. We have no plans for any of the holidays and will, I’m sure, spend them alone. 

I have decided to turn my hobby efforts in another direction; I am doing more jewelry and probably will continue with that and I’ve developed an interest in learning how to sew totes and handbags. I’ve ordered some neat fabrics and some instructions and patterns and am just starting on my first “practice” one using some leftover scraps of material. If successful, those will go in the February shelter online auction and we’ll see how they do. Due to the fact that most fabrics are manufactured overseas and given Trump’s stupid tariff regime, the price of fabrics has gone up leaps and bounds so they aren’t going to be cheap to make! It’s a good thing I’ve got a lot of fabrics on hand to get started with. I also do lots of reading and have a jigsaw puzzle going at all times. I try as hard as I can to stay away from the news as it drives me totally insane…