Happy New Year!

Here we are in 2013! Seems a little unreal still, and yes, I am still putting 2012 on everything I date....but alas, I will soon be caught up with everyone else. I'm just a little slow. I think it's allowed. *teehee*

So now is the time to reflect on the past year and make plans for the new year. What a year I had in 2012! Full of ups and downs, and some very major changes. Walk with me as I reflect on the year God gave me...

January:

Took this picture near our old house.

I don't remember a whole lot of excitement for this month, but it was the second month that Allan had been at his new (current) manager-ship. We were still getting used to living 300km apart, but we were very excited and hopeful still about all the new possibilities. Allan was actually home every other weekend and it was something that I could rely on! That was a first for us.

February:

Again, I took this near our old house. An abandoned farm house.

The original plan was to stay in our house until Sam (our oldest) was done high school. At this point she only had the remainder of the current year and one more year of school left. We felt it was unfair of us to pull her out and drag her up north without any friends to finish school.

The plan is starting to crack and fade. There are major holes in it. Yes, we were seeing Allan more regularly than before, but he was now on call 24/7. He was before...but not tied to a phone. Now he was. We felt like we never saw him, even when he was home. After several family meetings...it was decided. We would move north come summer. Sam would stay with my mom to finish high school, and we would sell the house. Ugh. I wasn't happy about leaving my baby girl behind...but I needed my husband, Willy needed his father, and Sam was almost an adult...*sigh*

We started to clean out the house and yard and get it ready to put on the market.

March:

Peyton

Oh what a month March was. One that no one in our family will forget. We had the house ready to list near the middle of the month. The realtor was coming on a Thursday to go over everything with us, photos paperwork, etc...

On the Wednesday before the realtor was to show, I got one of the worst phone calls I have ever received. My mother-in-law, Jane, called to say that Peyton, my 5 month old niece, was on her way in an ambulance to the hospital. She wasn't breathing...they think it's SIDS.

It was SIDS. That beautiful little angel passed away while having her afternoon nap. I still have a hard time with it and try not to think too much about that day. I've had people I love pass away before, they were all hard in their own way, but this was the first time I had to deal with the death of a little one. One who should have outlived me. It's not easy for me as an aunt....I can't imagine what my brother and sister-in-law went through and are still going through. As far as I know, there is nothing worse that someone can deal with on earth, than the loss of a child.

Needless to say, between losing Peyton, her funeral, and everything tied with it...we didn't list the house. The realtor was put on the back burner.

April:

First week of April, the realtor came and went over everything with us. Took photos of the house and the yard, and basically told us that we would have no problems selling. The price was right, the time was right, the house was great, perfect!

A week later...with no viewings, the realtor was back-peddling. The market was slow...the price is a little high, maybe drop it a bit? Fine...we dropped the price.

Another week later...perhaps drop the price some more? The market is still slow...but it will pick up soon! Yeah... uh huh....we dropped again.

May:

The house has been on the market for 30 days...we dropped the price twice, and have had 2 viewings. That's it. Time to start having open houses. This isn't good, as statistics show that less than 2% of houses are sold through open houses....I guess we are getting desperate.

We find a beautiful acreage up north that is everything we want. We put an offer pending sale of our house on it (I mean...we're doing open houses, it should sell soon, right?), and the owners accepted our offer! Oh we were so excited! Things are moving now, if only we can sell our house, all will be well in the world!

The owners got another offer and accepted it, unless we could meet our requirements within the deadline, which was selling our house, and obtaining financing. We had financial approval! We had 3 days to sell our house, which we didn't, so...we lost the acreage. As my son would say....sad panda :(

June:

June, the month of Father's day, Willy's birthday, and when the kids finish school. We are supposed to be moving soon (that's the plan, right?), but we still haven't sold the house. We have, however, found another piece of land that we love! This one doesn't have a house, but it's beautiful. We put an offer up pending the sale of our house, and the owners accept. Our house has been on the market for nearly 60 days now...it should sell any minute....right? Wrong. Two weeks later the owners accepted another offer and we lost the land. Sad panda :(.

It's now getting close to the point where we need to decide, and quickly, what's happening. We have two months until the kids are back in school. We haven't sold the house, and the only offer we got was $30,000 below our asking price. We were at the point where we probably would have accepted it, had we not hit bottom already with our asking price. We couldn't go down any further, not from greed...we had to pay lawyers, pay off our mortgage, and real estate agent...and then we might have a downpayment left for the new house...maybe. Drop it 30K and we would have to pay out of our pocket...which was empty anyway...not an option.

So...we start looking into other ideas.

July:

Our house hits 60 days on the market. Time to remove it, or renew it. We removed it. We are off the market, but we have a plan. Oh yeah, and what a plan it is!!

We have decided to buy a 5th wheel and live in a campground while renting out our house!! It's genius! Perhaps a little strange, definitely unorthodox, but it's a solution. So, we go 5th wheel shopping, and find us a 2013 Avalanche. It's beautiful! I didn't know you could buy holiday trailers with ceiling fans and dvd players, and surround sound! Oh how little I knew then. *heehee*

August:

Our old holiday trailer and our new home.

Basically from here on out, everything has been covered in the rest of the blog, so I will leave it at that. What an adventure this year has been. The only real difference that arose in our plans was that our house hasn't been rented. That's right...we are still paying for the house. The nice thing though is that Allan's company is paying our lot rent right now until we can everything figured out financially. They are truly a good company to work for.

Current Plans:

(Some old MLS photo I got from google ;P)

As last year shows, the best laid plans don't always work out, but it's still good to make them. God decides in the end what will and won't happen anyway, but we can always try.

For now...our current plans are to sell the house, we will put it on the market again soon, and to buy some land. We will then put the 5th wheel on the land, run utilities to it, and live in the 5th wheel on our own land, not in a campground. That's the plan anyway....we'll see what happens ;)

Wordless Wednesday

Not forgotten...

Spruce covered in moss outside our door.

As the title of the blog says, everyone hasn't been forgotten. I've been very busy, but the blog has always been in the back of my mind. As I've said in the past, I would like to write more, but it hasn't happened yet. It's not for a lack of things to write about, but rather, an overwhelming amount to write about. I think about sitting down to write, but I know that I don't have time for all the things I want to say.

Yesterday I was reading the blog of a wonderful and crafty woman here who lives in the woods and does crafts from things that she gathers there. She even gathers plants and mushrooms to dye wool with. This lady writes every day, monday to friday. Not a lot, but something, every day. Every Wednesday she has a 'Wordless Wednesday' where she posts a photo she took of something in the woods around her. I found this inspiring. I really like blogging, and this might be the answer I'm looking for.

So...a summary of the chaos:

William has been swimming still twice a week and in JFW (junior forest wardens) every Tuesday. JFW had a skills meeting near Edmonton where we learned all sorts of interesting survival skills. The kids amazed me with their knowledge. It's not often these days that you can see a 12 year old kid erect a shelter and start a fire in 5 min flat. These kids could. 

William also just finished a swimming competition in Grande Cache a few days ago. He did really well and we are very proud of him. His team took home five golds and the overall title too. Also, I have to add that the boys were very blessed on their drive to Grande Cache. They hit a moose! Blessed? You may ask...Yes! They weren't hurt and the vehicle received minimal damage. Here's a photo I found here to put things in perspective:

William and Allan were in a truck and not a car, but a collision with a moose on the highway is usually the equivalent of hitting a parked semi. Very rarely are the results ok. That is why they are so blessed and I am so grateful.

In other news, winter hit us with a vengeance. In the course of a week we received over a foot of snow. The roads were horrible and William and I stayed home most of the time. If I had to go into town, Allan drove me while I looked at my iPhone (I can't stand to look at the roads when they are that bad). The weather also turned cold and we received our first -25ºC weather. Were we warm? Yes. Were quite comfortable, but we learned a few things.

Allan's shaving cream froze in the medicine cabinet. It's not a heated cabinet, so if we had opened it a crack, the warmth from inside the trailer would have heated the cabinet. We didn't think of that, so it froze. We also learned that shaving cream doesn't recover from being frozen, and Allan had to buy more. 

The worst thing that happened was that our fridge quit. We had read that there is stuff flowing through the fridge that can gel at cold temperatures and we should take precaution. We didn't take it seriously enough though...it gelled, the fridge quit, and that was last week. We have since had warm weather and we still can't get the fridge working, so we will have the service guys come out and look at it. We are blessed enough that there are guys in town that will come to the RV instead of insisting that we bring it to them. That just wouldn't work right now.

Well, so much for a quick post, but if I post again tomorrow and the next day and the next...I should be able to keep them brief and keep everyone up to date. I may steal the 'Wordless Wednesday' idea though...so tomorrow may be only a photo. We will see.

Old Man Winter...

My car at the first snow of the year.

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I last wrote. We've been very busy around here, but I didn't think it had been that long. I will definitely do my best to be better at posting!

Lots has changed around here, but the biggest change would have to be the season. It's no longer fall here. Winter has come and brought freezing temperatures, snow and ice. We have had cold feet, frozen water, chilly bums, and ice cold beds. It's definitely been interesting adjusting, but it's all good too.

So, the first thing is we have had to winterize the trailer, but not in your typical way. Most RVs, you drain all of the lines and then replace the water with antifreeze for the winter. Because we are staying in ours, and would like to have some water, we can't do this. We have to find a way to keep our water from freezing while not using antifreeze.

What we did was take our water line, that's hooked up to the campground water, and we wrapped it in tinfoil. Yes, the entire 30' hose is wrapped in tinfoil. We then taped heat tape to the hose. If you don't know what heat tape is...it's not tape. It looks like a long electrical cord which has a sensor on it, and when the temperature gets close to freezing, the cord warms up. This keeps pipes (or in our case, hoses) from freezing. The reason we wrapped it in tinfoil first, is that tinfoil conducts heat far better than plastic, making sure we aren't only warming one side of the hose.

Our water compartment. It's inside the 'basement' door. The white hose is our water, and it's connected directly to the campground water. The black cord is the 'heat tape' and you can see the orange sensor on it. This is before we had everything attached. Yes...there is a plug-in in our water compartment.

Water hose wrapped in tinfoil with the heat tape attached with tape.

We then wrapped the whole thing with pipe insulation tubes. They look like pool noodles.

Once everything was wrapped in the pool noodles, or pipe insulation tubes, or whatever they are called, we had a nice warm home for our water hose. It worked great! The only problem was, where the campground water comes out of the ground, in the metal pipe, it kept freezing. Our hose didn't freeze, but that doesn't help when no water gets to the hose in the first place. We learned to keep our holding tank full of fresh water, just in case. Usually by the afternoon, everything had defrosted and we could use the campground water, but there were quite a few mornings without water.

Then..yes, there's so much more...the campground shut the water off. For the winter. For real. I guess their pipes are too close to the surface and they freeze quite regularly. The owners have taken to shutting the water off for the winter and blowing out the lines, saving them the cost of repairing burst water lines. They then haul water and use a pump to fill the RVs here twice a week. They come every Monday and Thursday. Our holding tank is large enough to provide us with plenty of water...as long as we don't shower. 

Luckily, a short walk away is a shower house. In fact there are two shower houses. One where the laundry is, and one by the fish pond.  The showers are free, and in some ways, better than showering in the RV. I don't have to worry about using all the hot water, or using all the water period. I can have it as hot and as long as I would like. The problem though, we have to walk to the shower house. I also learned that if you shower on the weekend, you may...or may not...have hot water. I must share this story. Haha.

The outside of the shower house by the fish pond. Left is women's, right is men's.

Inside the women's side of the shower house. There's two toilets, two sinks, two showers, and plug ins if you need to use a blow dryer.

The shower stall.

One fine Saturday morning, I wandered over to the shower house by the fish pond, images of hot water dancing through my head. Upon arriving, I undressed, started the shower, and hopped in. Less than 30 seconds later...the water was ice cold. I jumped out as fast as I could. Shivering, I contemplated this. It happened so fast, my hair was still dry. I could just towel off and head back to the RV. Obviously all the hot water had been used up before I got there. Just as I decided to come back later, the water turned steamy again. Strange. 

Deciding someone had perhaps flushed a toilet, or ran a tap, or something in the men's side, I got back in the shower. Got my hair wet, and FREEZING WATER. Crap! Hop out again. Now my hair is wet, I'm freezing, and nothing is clean yet. Covered in goosebumps, shivering, I contemplate again. I really want a shower. It's been at least 30 seconds since I jumped out...maybe I should go home. 30 seconds is a long time when you're wet, cold and standing next to a shower. Hot steam comes from the shower. Ok, lets try this again. Hop back in the shower, warm up, put shampoo in my hair, get it nicely lathered, and FREEZING WATER. This has to be some sick joke. Now my hair is full of soap. I can't just leave. I have to rinse my hair out. Do I do it in the freezing water? This water is ice cold. It's not like it just cooled off and is merely warm. This stuff is being pumped straight from a glacier somewhere, I swear!

The goosebumps on me look like small mountains. I'm seriously debating running back to the RV with the soap in my hair and rinsing it off there. I think it's been a full minute. Yes, that's what I'll do. The hot isn't coming back this time, I can tell. I look at my towel....and heat comes from the shower. Really? I sigh, and hop in the shower. 

My hair rinsed, the water goes ice cold again. I jump out. I'm getting a little mad now. I'm plotting all of the things I will say to the campground owners about their defective shower and my horrible experience. The shower goes hot. Ok, that time it was only for a second or two. That's not bad. I'll see if I can wash before it goes cold again. Yes. I managed to finish my shower in blessed heat. Moral of the story, don't shower on Saturday. So far. I haven't had a problem during the week. We'll see if that changes.

We also discovered that the slides are about 5º cooler than the rest of the trailer. You know...the place where our beds are, and our living room couch, and our dining room table. Yeah. They are cooler. Our feet get cold on the floor. We have since skirted the trailer, and that has greatly improved the warmth of the floor, but you can still feel the cold through the walls of the slides. It's only -15ºC here. We aren't freezing by any means. I have to admit though, I'm a little concerned what the slides will feel like at -40ºC though. 

The RV with it's tinfoil, bubble wrap skirting on (I think it's called Flex Foil Insulation). The large propane tank is a new addition as well. A company comes out and fills it for us, all 380lbs. We just have to call them when it hits 30%. It's way more convenient and much cheaper than the smaller 30lb bottles.

In the meantime, we are wearing slippers, and we discovered an amazing invention. A mattress heater. No more getting into an icy cold bed. No, no! We turn the warmer on about an hour before we go to bed, and we crawl into a heated bliss. Oh my. It's heaven. The dogs love it too. Gunner never used to sleep on the bed, but he's finding his way on our bed more and more. Manny sleeps on top of the blankets now, he usually sleeps under them. I think it's too hot under them with the heater on. 

Lap blankets are our friend now too. Don't get me wrong...we aren't cold. It's just...cool, sort of. Like a slight draft, almost. It's hard to explain. We could probably turn the heat up and be just fine, but that would mean our furnace would be running more and our propane would be disappearing faster. We don't want that, so we use slippers, blankets, a space heater, and mattress warmers. With those things, we are toasty warm. The space heater is also to keep the furnace from running as often. Power is free here...propane isn't. 

So far, so good on the winter RV front. I will keep things updated more often, as we also have internet. Did I mention that? We have satellite internet now, and with being fairly careful, we can avoid going over our allotted 30 gigs a month. It may seem like a lot, but not if you consider that one HD movie from iTunes uses 4.5gigs. Or...a 5 minute youtube video can use 100mb. Thats roughly 1/10 of a gig. So 10 videos that are only 5 min long, and I've used a gig in less than an hour. We are downloading seasons of tv shows and movies once a week while I clean the apartment, and we are avoiding using the internet for things like, netflix, youtube, and facetime. We are, however, playing online games, specifically, Guild Wars 2. Before you panic...an hour of online gaming..on a pc...uses about 24 mb. I would have to play for 4 hours to use up what one 5 min video on youtube is using. BUT, it would be totally different if I was using a PS3 or an Xbox 360 to game online. The graphics are much higher, and can use as much as 100-200mb an hour.

I digress, all is well here. Until next time, take care =)

Our first visitors!

It's been two weeks since I last wrote, and it wasn't for lack of inspiration. Plenty has happened around our little abode, one of the things being that we ran out of data for our internet. We can buy more at any time, but we talked to a certain company and they assured us that they could provide us with internet, satellite internet and high speed!  Sound too good to be true? Yes, it was. We phoned them back a week later to arrange the hookup, drop off, meeting...whatever it is they had to do, and the person who answered said, "Oh, we have satellite television, but we don't have satellite internet. Besides...you're out of our internet coverage area." This may seem ridiculous, but it's about par with everything else we've experienced. We had one lady (different company) tell us that they had satellite internet, but we couldn't move the RV for 2 years because they had to hardwire it in, and only did a free move every 2 years. Huh? That makes no sense, but we couldn't convince her otherwise. So, we are continuing the search, and in the meantime, I may purchase more archaic internet from the campground. I say archaic because it's so slow it takes hours to do one blog upload.

So, what's new? Well, we spent a week back at the old house trying to get it cleaned out. We couldn't bring the RV because the transmission is gone in the truck, and as I write, we are still waiting for it to be fixed. Instead, we stayed with my Mom and had a wonderful time. The dogs love my mom. It's like they know that she's special because she's Grandma. They are as bad as the kids...Manny cries when he sees her house, he's so excited! Of course, we are excited too! She spoiled us, fed us like royalty, and wouldn't let us do a thing! I finally told her pay back was coming when she came to visit us. She wouldn't be allowed to do anything but relax.

Manny in the arms of his Na-Na....I wasn't sure he was coming home with us!

When we went home, my in-laws came out to visit us! Our very first visitors. I was a little nervous, I really wanted them to see the charm of what we were doing, and why we loved our new, strange life so  much. It's one thing to do something that you love, it's another to show it to someone else.  They brought their RV, a 33 ft bumper pull, and we managed to get them a spot in the campground. That's one thing that has amazed me, the campground is still full and it's nearly October. I'm sure in some places that might be normal, but here, it's dropping down to freezing temperatures at night, and there are still people pulling into the campground.

While the in-laws were here we did a lot of fishing, Heather (my sister in law) and Jack (my father in law) joined us on our morning walks and brought their two dogs, Scruffy (a Shit-tzu) and Darby (a Cocker Spaniel). It was nice walking with them in the mornings, all the dogs running around having a great time.

Heather and Jack ahead of us with the dogs.

Jack, Allan, and the dogs.

Jane (my mother-in law), William, Heather and I did a little shopping in town and I showed Jane some of the stores our small town boasts. While we were in town, Allan and Jack took off fishing. We all met up that night and went to the little pond that is in the campground so that the kids could go fishing. The campground owners stock the pond with rainbow trout. Although it's a small pond, it boasts some large fish. The lighting was wonderful that evening, so I took a few pictures <giggle>.

A huge trout Jack caught. He said it was the biggest he's ever brought into shore.

Allan teaching Heather to fly fish.

Pretty.

Jack, looking to hook that big rainbow again.

Jack furthering Heather's fly fishing instruction.

William watching his Daddy fish, net in hand.

A smaller trout that Allan caught. William's ready with the net.

We had a great time with the in-laws here. We were all sad to say goodbye. I hope that means that they will be visiting us again soon. 

There are a few other things on the list of happenings lately. My mom and Sam are coming up to see us this weekend. We're all very excited about that! We are in the process of getting the RV ready for the winter as well. I think I will devote a blog entry to that and all that we have done, including what Allan has done to organize the basement. I may also make a separate blog about how I've managed to fit everything into our RV and still have room to breath, haha. I may take some videos of everything too. I've also been hired (officially now) by Allan's company to clean their office and the crew house. The crew house will sleep up to 5 guys at a time. I have to wash the bedding and clean everything. That's where I am as I write this...they have internet! The crew house is clean right now and I'm just waiting on bedding that's in the wash. It gives me a chance to blog. Until I get internet at the RV, this may be the only time I have to post. William's plugging away at his schooling and doing well, I'm still making survival bracelets to sell to send Sam to Nicaragua with H.A.N.D.S (Helping Another Nation Develop Schools) at Easter next year. I've also been knitting dish cloths. I love knitted dishcloths! They just work so well!

I'm sure there's more that I could say, but that's probably enough for one day. I wish that I could write more, but internet is such an issue. Soon enough I will be able to write more often. There's so much more that I would like to share with everyone. I find that my thoughts get jumbled if I wait too long. Everything wants to come out at once, and it doesn't all fit <gig>. I'll post again as soon as I can.

More to life than hotdogs....

Nothing quite says camping like roasting hot dogs over the fire. Every time Allan and the kids and I would go camping, that would be our first meal. We would set up camp, gather firewood, and start the fire. Once there was a good set of coals burning in the depths, out came the hotdogs. Everytime. Except...now that we live in our RV.

We are on week three of full-time RV living and we haven't had a single fire. We don't have any firewood gathered...and we haven't eaten a single hot dog. Not one marshmallow has been consumed either! I know... I think we may have committed a camping crime. I'll keep an eye out for the Fish and Wildlife officers. I'm sure eating hot dogs while camping is part of their jurisdiction right? Eating fish and deer and moose are, so that makes sense.

If we haven't been eating the normal food of camping, what have we been eating? The simple answer is, "Whatever we want." If you're looking for food ideas for camping, this may be a strange site to be at. We have eaten spaghetti, lemon and dill salmon, lasagne, couscous, etc. How do I cook these things in an extremely small kitchen? Careful planning. Lol.

For example, tonight we are having meatball chill and fresh baked bread. I did the chili in the slow cooker at 11am, and then did the bread in my toaster oven at 1:30pm. I did one at a time, and cleaned up completely after each one so that I would have the room for the next one.

Our Meatball Chili cooking

The risen bread dough, just put into the toaster oven. It just fits.

The bread fresh out of the oven, cooling off and filling the RV with mouthwatering goodness.

The RV kitchen in action.

It is a bit of a juggling act, I admit. It's not impossible though, and as far as I'm concerned, it's totally worth it! As soon as the bread is out of the oven, and the oven has cooled, it goes back into our bedroom closet, freeing up the sink space. Once the bread is cooled, it is wrapped up and put into the microwave. Yes...the microwave. I use it as a bread box, haha. Why not, really? Then I have 2/3rds of my counter space back in time for supper, when all I need do is dish up. 

While all of these high-wire acts are going on, William is doing his homework at the table, and the dogs are moving from sun patch to sun patch soaking in the rays and napping. It's quite peaceful most days, and I'm really enjoying it.

William hard at work while Manny lays in the sun on the couch.

The real test for me will be next week. We are planning on possibly taking the RV back to our hometown for a week while we finish up all the details on the old house. It's currently riding on whether or not our new truck passes it's inspection, and if we can get the 5th wheel hitch into it in time. If all goes well, the RV will be moved for the first time since we brought it to this spot. It's a little scary for me because I've moved a lot of stuff into the place since we first got here. I think I have it all in such a way that we can easily pack up and go, but I don't know for sure. Perhaps I'll let you know nest week ;-P

Settling in

Gunner hanging out at the front door.

It's been two weeks since I last wrote. So much has happened, I have no idea where to begin, or what to include. I can't include it all, or I would be here all day and I barely have the time for this as it is. I guess the best place to start is at the beginning.

On Saturday, August 25th, we went and signed our lives away on our future home. It was super exciting to finally see the place after all of the waiting and the planning. Part of me was scared that it wouldn't be as wonderful as I remembered it, that I had somehow put it on a pedestal for which it didn't deserve.  I needn't have worried. It was everything I remembered and so much more!

Left: Our old RV ; Right: Our new home

That Sunday was a long day. Allan and I drove the 300km north to pick up his boss's pick up and then drove 300km back to the dealer to pick up the RV. Why would we do such a thing? Well, even though Allan's truck is a 3/4 ton, it's still not big enough to pull our RV, so we borrowed a 1 ton. It was a 6 hour drive, then we hooked up to our new home on wheels and took it to the Wal Mart near our house so that we could load it up. Between family visiting to see the new digs, and loading everything in, we were going until after midnight.

Following my 'house' at 7am on Monday

The following day, Monday, we were up at 4am. We packed what we had left into the truck, car and RV and hit the road north. We knew where we wanted to put the RV when we got there, but we still had no idea if the campground was full or not. The last time we had talked to the owners, the place was completely full. We really had no idea where we would end up, but Allan had to work still that day, so off we went.

Monday was a very strange day, and a story in and of itself. Perhaps I'll write about it later. Long story short though, the dogs locked us out of the car half way there, we ended up at a horrible campground by a golf course for 4 hours, and in that small amount of time, I nearly practiced infanticide on someone else's kids (does it still count?). We also learned the joys of RV living. Number one joy on my list....you can change your neighbourhood any time you want, and we did! By 10 o'clock that evening we were exactly where we had wanted to be. God smiled on us and a spot opened up at our campground...and we are still here as I write!

The view from my dining table tuesday morning. The building you can

just see through the trees is the laundry. I walk a dirt path through the woods to do my 

washing...it's kind of cool.

Tuesday morning I woke up totally refreshed and feeling great. Our bed was super comfortable, the temperature was perfect in the RV, it couldn't have been a better sleep. I made Allan lunch and coffee and sent him off to work, then sat at the table and thanked God for the amazing blessings He gave us. 

As you can see from the above photo, this is the view from the dining table. It's not for everyone, but I love it. I love the woods, the smell of the woods, the sounds, the animals. It's great! It's not an ocean view, or a mountain one. It's not anything real 'woohoo' that would make it on a calendar....but it's also not my neighbour's house, or an alley, or smog. I don't wake up to the sound of car alarms and vehicles running and people yelling at each other. I wake to the sound of squirrels chattering and birds singing. There are magpies, ravens, whiskey jacks, blue jays, and a million different small birds...it's perfect.

There's a cutline behind the RV that leads to a farmer's field. I checked with the campground owner and she said that we are welcome to walk there, just no atv's. I take the boys (Gunner, Manny, and Willy) on a walk down the cutline and through the field every morning. It's been great. Everyone is tired by the time we get home, and then the dogs sleep all day and Willy isn't talking my ears off (he does that when bored, lol). So for anyone who may think that my Lab or my 12 year old boy will suffer living in an RV...you may want to look at these pictures before you judge. They are all getting more exercise than they did before we moved here. I think they have more space too *wink*.

The view from the top of the cutline looking into the field.

The view from the field looking up into the campground. You can just

see Willy's bedroom window. He has the best view!

Gunner, tired and covered in morning dew from the grass in the trees.

Willy and Gunner, looking handsome and rugged.

Gunner and Manny. Manny had troubles keeping up the first few days. He's nearly 7 years old, 

but he's leading the way some mornings now.

We are heading into week three soon of RV living. There is still much to do. We need to finish cleaning out and fixing up the old house so that we can put it up for rent, we have to skirt the RV before winter hits, organize the RV basement, and...and...and a million other things. We are loving our new life though. So far...no regrets.