Downsized and Happy!

 

The title says it all!  It has been a heck of a ride but we did it!  Now we are beginning to enjoy our new home.  Phone photos are the best way to show our summer. 

June 8th, 2015, this is the depressing reality of our new outdoor space.

First splash of primer on the old kitchen walls.

The kitchen/living room wall comes down.

Bedroom floor after carpet is removed.

 Ceiling braced before header beam installed.

The beam is up…loving the open space!

    

Meanwhile, back at the old home, piles of unwanted stuff start accumulating. Our criteria for keeping something:

1. Do we love it?       2. Is it necessary?

Our first look at the new floors. Wow!

David removing hinges.

Rockers relocated from old porch to new porch.

The painting begins!

And ends.

The Escape finds new parking.

  Our furniture arrives.    Bellhops move us.

The new fridge arrives….now we can eat!

Princess moves with us…still looking for her new home.  Sheba, the Siamese, finds perfect loving new owners. Sylvester, the camping cat, adjusts to his new smaller space.

Small improvement to back yard.

Woods behind the house.

Our daily walk.

David enjoying our first outdoor meal. (Two days ago)

Before photo…spot for our storage building.

And now.  It is being built as I type this post.

We will resume camping soon!  Heading to Knoxville next week to get the Andersen WDH and hope to camp a few days before returning home. Rally time will start the end of September!

My goal for this post is to document our summer and to give hope and inspiration to those who are continuing to downsize.  We are living in 3 rooms plus a bath and utility room, less than 975 square feet, and I have never been happier!  There are absolutely NO REGRETS!

Yes, it has been a roller coaster of emotions…picking every object up and asking “do I love this?” But the rewards are huge! 

Good luck to all..go after those dreams!!

Happy New Year from Beaumont, TX!

 

Not sure how we could be moving at this turtle pace, but tonight, on this new year’s eve, after three days of travel, Google says it is only 729 miles back home!  I am sure our truck odometer will show more but maybe it is a divine intervention to keep us out of this storm that’s bearing down on us.

Our first day of travel we made it to Meridian, MS….just like the trips in 2012 and 2014.  But this time my 2 year old Garmin gps announced that all the maps had been locked!! 

After driving all day, I spent another 3 hours on the laptop (in the tiny trailer in a rv park) trying to find a way to unlock the maps.  Then more time on the phone the next day with customer service.  A stop at Auto Zone for new windshield wipers, a stop at Dollar General for a kitty litter scoop and a stop for food and gas ate up more of our travel day.  Tried using my phone’s navigation system but grew impatient with the inability to see where we were going.  After several wrong turns, I thought I was turning right onto I-59 south and wound up in a Best Buy parking lot!  After making several less than spiritual comments, my husband urged me to go buy a new gps.  Which I did.

Spent last night at Fontainebleau State Park near Slidell, MS. Very cold but we did get in a nice walk to see Lake Pontchartrain.

This am the skies were clear with a beautiful blue …wonderful to see the sun again.  We were making great time all day…no need for extra stops….until we decided to stop at the Texas Welcome Center to discuss the possibility of taking 90 instead of I-10.  We were warned to stay off of the roads past San Antonio, I-10 or 90, for the next 36 hours due to ice and possibility of snow.  It was after 3 by then and we started looking for a PA camp for the night.  Got the last site at Hidden Lake Park in Beaumont. 

So our new year will arrive in another 90 minutes.  Occasional booms can be heard in the distance from those who celebrate with noise.  They are not bothering Hubby and Sylvester who have been asleep for an hour. I am snuggled into the corner of the bed with my laptop keeping me company. 

Don’t know what tomorrow will bring…other than rain.  We still have not de-winterized and camping with the pink stuff is getting tiresome.  Guess we will either stay here or head to San Antonio.

Highlights of our three days……

 

Random Ramblings

 

Struggling to write because there are no pictures to share!   So much of what I write is wrapped around photography.

Before we left on the Big Trip (Alaska 2013), I felt that it would change me.  We’ve been home for almost 3 months and I’m still trying to put my finger on what’s different?  But there are subtle changes …. more confidence has found a home somewhere inside me.  We did something big, something that was almost incomprehensible (to us) before the trip!  This time last year I did not know where Fairbanks and Anchorage were…except in Alaska!

The other change seems to be one of roots or belonging.  My world has gotten larger, more aware of what’s happening in other places, noticing there’s an ice storm in Anchorage, a flood in the Rockies and a whole city in San Francisco volunteering to make a little boy’s dream come true!

Whatever the changes, they are welcome!  Hoping to continue to grow as a person as I approach my 65th year.

Frequently find myself thinking of the birthday that’s still 4 1/2 months away.  Must apply for Medicare soon…am I beginning to feel old?

Switching subjects….did I mention how sick I’ve been?  Three days after getting home I was down with sinus issues, itchy eyes, chest congestion which led to asthma.  These problems continued off and on for two months with me finally going for allergy testing.  Learned that I am allergic to cats!!!  And dogs, dust mites, mold, ragweed and roach debris and miscellaneous weeds, grasses and trees.  This shocks me as cats have been in my house for the past 34 years!

Discussing this as a warning to others.  Our house was extremely dusty after being closed up for over 3 months.  And it was not exactly clean when we left!  We had lots of rain during July which caused mold outside and inside.  We’ve been cleaning for weeks and now I’m symptom free (for the present)  and have lots of prescriptions and inhalers if needed.

One of the things that I’m grateful for during this season of thanksgivings is my lack of depression.  Years past I have always gotten down as the cold days and long dark nights descend.  Thoughts of the Arizona sun are keeping me in a great mood.  Heading west just after the new year arrives!  We have a wedding to attend in January in Scottsdale and a rally in Quartzsite in February.  Looking forward to seeing some old friends!

The Casita has a new propane regulator, new gas hoses and the bearings have been greased.  Now ready to tackle the long postponed project of valences over the blinds.

 Wonder if this will work?  Found the remnants from this upholstered chair and it seems to match a blue in the cushions.  Will let you know how they turn out.

Other than trying to get the house clean, we have been walking frequently and hiking with a group of seniors.  Also joined a gym but hurt myself the second visit….still waiting for my body to heal!

Enjoying our fur babies….even though the black and whites fight constantly.  I pray for the day they peacefully co-exist!

Sylvester

Princess

Been hanging out on a new (to me) Facebook group, Dutch Oven Cooking.  Strange to be looking at groups other than Casita Owners but the cast iron group is quite addicting.  Lots of information there and I got inspired to rehab an old piece from my granny’s house.

This was after 3 hours in a self cleaning oven before scraping the rust and re-seasoning it.  Wish I had a before picture.  There’s a line on the back that indicates it was made between 1750 and 1875.  Warning….this group is habit forming!  Already gone through Mom’s cabinets looking for more cast iron.

Looking forward to being on the road!  For those of you out there, be careful!  Hope to see some of you soon.

 

Minus 9 days!

This is the spot where our Casita lives, back left corner, and it’s been vacant for two weeks!  She’s still at the shop waiting for the brake inspection and bearings grease.  Who would have thought that it would be over a two week wait for something as simple as this?
The Casita’s maintenance has not been the main thing stopping our departure.  Our wonderful cat sitting lady has been away  and we have had her two critters for the past 9 days!  CiCi, the shih tzu, and Bertie, a Maine Coon mix, joined our three felines creating a bedlam, stopping all trip preparations!




We are back to three cats and I’m trying to pick up where we left off.  It’s beautiful today, a little cool, a perfect day to wax the truck.  At least it’s on the to-do list!
David has successfully attached two of the three solar panels, thanks to our Casita friends, Todd and Maureen….thanks, guys!   Todd gave us a plastic hinge and suggested we attach them with VHB tape, very high bond, a 3M product.
 



We did not want to go to the expense of buying another solar panel system.  This one works great….just a pain to store and set up.  The plan is to simplify the set up by eliminating this huge box.


It would be so much easier if we were full-timing!  Although we have been on two trips of a two month duration, this 3 1/2 month sojourn is pushing our limits.   It’s all the responsibilities of the house, dealing with the mail, the yard maintenance and farming out two cats in one direction and the new cat in another place… thank you, sister!
But every little thing that can be remembered will get done.  Our dreams of Alaska will come true.  The trip becomes more real everyday thanks to some great blogging by John,  and the information supplied by our Escape friends, Duke and Beverlee and Marv and Vicki.
The goal is to be on the road next weekend! 

Precious rosebush handed down from mom.

Cat Wars & Spring Flowers

 

Life has been far from peaceful for the past three weeks!  Our newest family member, Sylvester, is not being welcomed by everyone.  We humans are in love with him; the two older cats are not happy!

It feels like all  I have done is feed and referee!  Due to being hungry and foraging, the new stray thinks he must eat everything in sight!  The food bowls have been put up….something totally unacceptable to the 9 and 11 year old females who have always had access to their chow.  Feeling sorry for them, I am putting their food down 3 times a day, locking and feeding Sylvester in another room.  He eats his allotted  portion and ten minutes later he acts like he’s starving.

Each night a kitty litter box goes into the bedroom and Sylvester is sequestered away from the demon cat, Princess.  Just can’t tolerate being awakened in the middle of the night to the banshee screams that they are making.  Surely they will eventually adjust. 

Princess has always had problems…definitely not a normal cat.  She growls and hisses….and purrs, simultaneously.  So far we have put a bell on her….so he can hear her coming, ordered a calming cat collar…..(hurry up Amazon!) and last night, in a fit of desperation, made up a spray bottle full of water.  This seems to be working as the morning has been quiet….only one explosion.

Temporary truce....they forgot their feud due to a bird landing on the deck!

I choose to be optimistic…..things will eventually work out.  Just like choosing to be positive about the upcoming Alaska trip.

  Training my thoughts…….    “We can do this!”  “It will be OK.” “We can handle whatever comes our way!”  And I have said over and over….. if it gets to be too much for us, we will just take another direction or come home. 

The yard has been providing lots of pleasure since everything has turned green again.  Many flowers are blooming……don’t know how they keep coming back.  We sure aren’t caring properly for them. 

(Move curser across picture….some are labeled.)

These strawberries come back every year…..even though hubby has occasionally driven over them while backing the egg into her place.

The little Chatta-Egg is resting peacefully.  She’s been home for 12 days and says she’s ready to rest up for the 12,000 mile trip next month.

It’s raining with a flood watch for the next 3 days…..glad we live on the side of a hill.  Weather is so crazy with snow in Arkansas  in MAY, 39 degrees in Memphis this AM.

Hope Mother Nature gets her seasons straightened out soon!