Busy

Finally finished getting my little camper ready to go up north, all except the final packing.

I have the seat/table/bed finished.

Table stowed and ready for travel or sleeping:

Raise up to get the seat cushions from underneath:

Seat storage for food, clothes and blankets:

Table up and ready to use:

and I finished my travel clothes drying rack, too. Nice what can happen with pvc pipe and bunji cords:

Finishing up getting the apartment ready for the renter. She'll arrive on Monday. I just need to give it a quick clean and freshen up the sheets and towels, make sure the kitchen and bathrooms are spotless.

And I keep trying to keep up with the lawn care during heat indexes of over 100 and frequent rain storms. It's really tiring mowing in that kind of heat and humidity, but it doesn't do itself. Would that it would!

AND I purchased and installed a rain barrel, and have about 35 gallons inside, prior to this weekend's forecast storms:

And yet another mystery flower:

Next week I'll finish packing and sorting and then I'll be ready to head out, right after the noisy 4th.

Hopefully I'll do a better job of sharing pictures on this trip while it's happening. :)

I haven't forgotten the pictures I took in Arizona. I'm hoping to be able to do another picture post early next week.

And that's it from me today.

More camping photos

The dog has her own car seat cover I made from two thick towels:

They give her feet some traction on the slippery seats, keep most of the dog hair and mess contained and lets the seatbelt be connected.  Her travel harness fits over the seatbelt and allows her to sit up and lay down but keeps her from roaming the whole car.

She travels really well, as you can see:

At the New Mexico-Arizona border I stopped at a rest stop and took this shot:

The dog was not impressed:

And once I got to my campground in Arizona, my camp looked like this:

two more campsites

These are some of the pictures I took on my little trip this past spring.

They are of two campsites on the way out, Texas and New Mexico, and how the dog managed with the cold night temps.

We had night temps as low as 38 and day temps as high as 90.

Texas:

New Mexico:

She stayed under those blankets until after I'd gotten my coffee and the sun was well up. 

After that last night, though, I bought a small ceramic space heater for the mini camper and got some of my blankets back. LOL

Oh, Bill...

Tropical Storm Bill is draggin' it's soggy butt across my part of the world and stealing my brain in the process. Nothing like joint pain and fever and trouble concentrating to wear out a person, not to mention the backspace key.

But there are good things to share today, too. I found out the mystery plant in my garden is a cantaloupe, so I'm looking forward to eating at least two of those nearly free melons sometime in the next 2-3 weeks.

Ordered me up some rain barrels to help control the ponding and have soft, free, nitrogen rich water for the plants. They won't be here in time to catch some of TS Bill's bounty but I'm working things anyway. I dragged the dog's wading pool over to one downspout and managed to harvest 20 gallons just this morning. We've got another 3-5 inches over the next 24-36 hours to play with so I'm sure I'll have plenty to fill it up again plus the wheelbarrow.

The rain and storm has brought the temperatures down 15 degrees, and I am loving that! Couldn't be any more humid than it was, so no change there, but cool and damp I can handle a whole lot better than 95-100 and 100% humid, let me tell you.

The second nest of baby birds will be gone in a day or two. I caught one of them on the edge of the nest this afternoon and it flew into the tree while I watched. Later I saw out the window it had come back. Not quite ready to leave just yet. I'm glad with these storms passing by. It's at least a bit sheltered in the eaves of the porch. Time enough later this week to fly off and get all independent.

Tornado watch until midnight tonight and flood watch through Thursday, so I'll be online quite a bit keeping an eye on radar and ready to unplug from the wall when I hear the rumbles start. I don't expect it to keep me awake tonight, though. I've got the warnings set up on my phone just in case, and that will wake me if I need to move to the storm room. It's all prepped with food, water and battery light as well as the rest of the FEMA emergency kit I've got set up. A place to sit, an ebook, I'm good to go if I have to skedaddle in a hurry. :)

Hope the creek doesn't get too high. I've got another dentist appointment Thursday morning and it's the other side of the river. Guess that would be a valid excuse, though, if I need to cancel, eh? :)

Okay, that's all from me for now. Maybe a few more pictures of my little trip in a day or two. I've got campground pictures and one 'on the way' shot to share. Soon.

Off I go...

Inside the little camper

This is the way I had things set up for my little camping trip in April to Arizona.
I'm making a few minor changes for my next trip, but this will give you some idea of how I have things inside for my trip.

Looking in the door, to the right, and then around counter clockwise:

The head of my bed, and also where I sit during the day when I cook, eat, read or work on the computer. Plastic bins act as headboard and nightstand and drawers contain toiletries (top) and coffee/cooking supplies (bottom).

Shelf above A/C unit for thermometer, kleenex, dog supplies, level, battery light, hat and shawl, and clothespin for umbrella. Below umbrella is a small electric/DC cooler. No melting ice to deal with!

Also, nasal rinse bottle for allergies, soda crackers, eyeglass cloth, and a nice place to put hangers out of the way when I'm wearing the clothes. Silver things are water bottles; red thing is battery light. Squat silver is battery/electric projector alarm clock (I come wide awake in the night and know I should go back to sleep or not). Black bag holds rechargeable batteries and charger. White rectangle is battery LED light.

Bed lifts up to reveal storage underneath for computer, journal, extra clothes, breakfast food, dishes and cleaning supplies. Curtains are homemade (still needing hems!!), and attached with cup hooks. Yarn keeper and crocheted blanket (full size, so fits only folded in half). Extra blankets and pillow at foot of bed. Bed measures 24 by 78, and sits 10 inches from the floor. Sheets are a combo of cotton and flannel so I can use whatever is needed during my trip and the other side works as light blankets or folds under the 4-inch foam mattress. 'L' brackets and framing you see is a floating framework so I can attach things without putting holes in the actual camper walls. Ceiling is dark grey felt.

There is still room for the 20 x 36-inch dog bed with room free in front of the door for a throw rug and room for feet when using the porta-potty. Spray bottle is for cleaning as needed.

There are two sets of cup hooks on each side of each window. The inside ones hold the curtain rod; the outside ones hold hanging clothes at night and a fly swatter as well as the dark brown towels I use as light blockers at night.

There you have it. 

All the comforts of home. 

I don't like 'falling behind'

Part of the reason I stopped blogging before is I really dislike falling behind on posts.
I feel guilty.
And pressured.
And confused where to start to catch up.
And I really don't like to write posts that read like 'to do' lists, no matter if it's things I want to accomplish, or a list of things I've been doing lately.
All of which is in my own head, not coming from outside.
But there it is.
And all of that makes it even more difficult to write a blog.
I really want to just be in the moment on here, but it's hard when I don't keep this thing up like I aught.

Any suggestions?

I had promised more pictures, but the weather went through a rapid change and I'm trying to change tack from what I do during Spring to what I do in the Summer.

In the spring/fall I have all day to do outside work, so I do a bit here and there all day.

Once summer comes...
by Summer I mean Early Texas Summer, humid, over 90, and full of nasty bugs like chiggers, scorpions, snakes and centipedes, as well as large red hornets that are just plain mean. And with all the rain we had this Spring, we also are dealing with mosquitoes morning and evening.
Mid Summer means humid and over 100.

So I really need to keep the huge yard mowed, but the humidity makes it difficult to do it early in the morning, plus I have neighbors that I don't want to disturb too early. The dew dries off around 8:30 am. By 9:30 it's too hot to want to be outside. And I don't do evenings well at all, so it's morning or nothing.

So I have about an hour a day to mow an acre, trim the edges, water the garden, take the dog out for exercise, weed garden areas, trim trees, sweep the walks and porches, wash windows, or anything else that needs doing outside.

By the time I do the things outside that need doing daily I have about a half hour to mow before I'm miserable.

Because of the Lupus, I wear a hat, a long sleeved sun resistant shirt, and long pants with tall socks and boots (for the bigger biting pests). Very hot clothes for over 90 temps, especially with the high humidity. Sun screen makes me feel even hotter, though.

I end up mowing 2-3 times a week, a different section a day, and then fit the other things like gardening, trimming and cleaning outside in around those days.

And then I come in hot and dusty and covered in biting things so I run to the shower and splash off, and end up too pooped to want to do anything at all for the rest of the day.

Especially on mowing days. Whew!

So that's why no posts for the past few days. Today I go to town to get the things I need to finish off the Apartment, and tomorrow more mowing. Maybe pictures on Friday?

Runaway

This is my little camper, a Navigator made by Runaway Trailers, and my set up on my first day using it.

It has a 110V 3-prong plug, and I use a 25 foot extension cord to connect to the campsite electric.

I get water from a spigot at the camp site into a cleaned empty plastic gallon milk jug (the one on the ground, at the camper tire), and put it through my small Brita filter, and collect it in a second empty plastic jug, this time a water jug, for use.

I have a strap that holds the door open; the wind wants to bang it around otherwise.

There are windows on either side with screens for lovely cross ventilation.

I use an empty plastic one gallon ice cream pail for my sink (at night the water jug fits snugly inside when not in use), and keep a dishpan outside on the picnic table to wash my hands as needed and to collect 'grey water' - used soapy water, mostly. I clip a microfiber cloth to the edge of the dishpan with a clothes pin to dry my hands afterwards. That keeps the wind from taking it.

I put a canvas tarp on the seat of the picnic table to keep paint and wood slivers from my clothes, a solar light on the table and a small trash can with a lid for garbage.

The dog is on a ten foot tie attached to the picnic table. Later I had to switch it to wrap around a car tire, instead, as she tried to pull the picnic table to get at a squirrel.

Her food and water is on a metal shelf near the back car tire.

The little camper is the same size inside as the inside of my car, so I can't stand up in it, but sitting is very comfortable.

It is only 4 foot wide, so when I'm driving I can't see it in my side mirrors, only the rear view mirror. That was a bit disconcerting at first. I kept getting quick panics thinking it had come unhooked and I'd lost it. But then checking the rear view mirror, no, there it was, safe and sound.

These pictures were taken the first two days of my trip. Lovely mild weather the first afternoon and night, windy, warmer and humid the second.

I only went 200-400 miles per day, and stayed for two nights each stop. It took longer that way, but I didn't get too tired to drive safely, or get sick from pushing too hard.

I'll post pictures of the inside of the camper, the way I have it set up, next time.

Questions?