Travel Tuesdays: Embracing Change

It's that time of year!

Changing seasons brings different activities. For us, Fall means preparations to get our summer lot ready to face the wet winter months without us. Chairs are put away, mats rolled up, outdoor kitchen equipment put away or covered. The apple tree pruned and garden plants pulled up and potted herbs nestled in for the cold. Anything that migrated from the RV to the outdoor kitchen gets returned, while items that accumulated inside and won’t travel with us go into the shed. Sorting, preparing, evaluating. 

Getting the pots ready for winter

The winding down of one season and preparation for the next has a mix of melancholy for the ending of summer along with anticipation for the adventure ahead. It takes weeks of doing a little here, strategizing about what we can do now and what must wait until the last few days. Have we seen everyone we wanted to see before we go? Have we prepared with enough supplies for several months? 

Crunch time comes and a flurry of activity ensues to make sure all is ready for the estimated departure date. Can we flex a little if we’re not quite ready? Or is the weather going to dictate a precipitous departure?

Help with pruning the apple tree is much appreciated

For the uninitiated, it would seem that living in an RV means we could pull up the jacks and head out in short order. But, besides the preparations for what we leave behind, any time we get ready to roll it requires things to be stowed for travel, front seats turned around, the table leaf lowered, and the slide pulled in. Once the rig is ready, the tow vehicle must be attached on the back which often means moving the motorhome to a new position. At our very quickest, it takes about 1-1/2 to 2 hours to prepare to roll. When we are traveling for days in a row, we leave the slide in and the truck still attached. Often we wake up earlier than usual, make coffee and pull out, eating breakfast when we're ready for a break hours and many miles later. 

The covered deck shelters several things while we're gone.

If we’ve been parked for awhile we do much of the prep work the night before to make our departure quicker. When we’ve been boon-docking in the desert, the first stop is usually to dump the black and gray tanks and fill up the fresh water tank before we head to our next destination. The gas tank is filled often and we try to top it off before we park anywhere since the generator also runs off the gas tank. About once a month the propane tank needs to be refilled. While we can go the entire summer on one tank when it’s used only for cooking, traveling requires the refrigerator to run on propane. 

Several times a day the solar panel monitor is read to determine how well the sun is recharging the batteries. Is there enough sun to run an appliance for a little bit? On overcast days when the charge can’t get high enough, we run the generator for 30 minutes or so to give a boost so we can make it through the night. RV living is about managing resources: propane, gas, power, water, waste water and food. 

Parking near friends in Nevada near Valley of Fire

It’s also about change. Changing scenery, weather, locations, and states. Meeting people, new friends and old. Every year, whether heading south or returning home, we wonder what changes will occur before we return. 

Change. A part of life we have learned to embrace.  

The Christian Fellowship group in Quartzsite at moonrise and sunset. The picture does not do justice to the warmth of friendship and the fun of gathering in this place every year.

Tuesday Travel: Home Base

Me and my siblings visiting Dad in Salem.

The view from my walk looking back at Michael's place hidden by the trees.

     On our way back to our Home Base in Olympia, we stopped for a few days in Albany, OR to visit family. We were able to gather all of my siblings to visit with Dad who is 92. It has been several years since we were all together, so it was pretty special for Dad to have us all there at the same time. I'm amazed at how my Dad just keeps going! We stayed at my nephew's place in North Albany where he has several acres and it was a very pleasant place to recharge from all the visiting. We made the most of our few days there visiting with as many people as we could fit in. There were so many more people we want to see, but there wasn't time. We plan to return for a more extended visit later in the summer.

My one blooming Iris!

Hellebore plants are happy.

Wild bleeding hearts, Columbine

     We were glad to get back to our lot and settle in after being on the move every week or two for 6 months. We had plenty of cleanup to do from winter storms, branches and leaves to clean up, weeds to kill and the snow damage to assess and repair. After weighing options, we decided to replace our Costco tarp garage with a new one. It didn't do very well with the 17" of snow they got here in February. We are so thankful for our neighbors who came and got the snow off and propped it up until we could get home and fix it. Jerry has added supports to the new one to give it a better chance of survival in the future. Most of these in the park failed under the weight of the snow. Thankfully, the Harbor Freight one that the van was stored in did fine. It had a large tree over it, cedars alongside of it and a wider base which helped quite a bit.
     Coming home to see so many flowers in bloom was fun for me. I loved the amazing flowers we saw this winter, but coming home to familiar ones is always lovely. To see my shy Hellebore blooming profusely, the Hostas beginning to unfurl, and buds on my Peonies made my heart happy. Now my wild Bleeding Hearts and Columbine are in full bloom as are my Irises. Well, one Iris that's in a pot, anyway. The dirt here isn't all the great, so the many Irises I brought with me from the house add greenery, but haven't bloomed. For the most part I do container gardening. Not that I'm that much of a gardener, but I do love having fresh herbs and a few flowers. The herbs I have are Anise Hyssop, Sage, Lemon Balm, Chives, Mint, Stevia, Basil, Oregano, Lavender, and Thyme in varying degrees of success. It very fun to go out and clip some herbs to add to a salad or something I'm cooking. I was also given a space in the Community Garden in a friend's plot, so I now have two cherry tomato plants. We'll see how that goes! My Mom had such a green thumb, and so does my son. I used to feel like it had skipped me, but I've found that I've been able to build on a few successes here and there and I do well enough to suit me.

My little herb garden. 

    We were able to meet the original owners of our RV this past weekend. Imagine our surprise last year when we discovered that not only were a couple of people in our park related to the original owners, but a few years ago this very Motorhome lived in this park just a couple of streets over! We purchased it from a small family RV dealer in Vancouver, WA who bought it at auction 6 years ago. The names of the owners meant nothing to us at the time; we were still living in our house in Renton and didn't even know that this park existed. Jerry made note of their names as a matter of course when we bought it. (He's very good about documentation.) Last summer he had reason to check back in his records. "Do you think the Malley we know might know the Malley who owned this rig before?" he asks. Sure enough--brothers! At one time, all four brothers lived here. So of course when there was a family birthday party this weekend, several people made sure we got to meet the original owners. It was fun to get a little history about the rig and share how much we enjoy it now. What a small world!
 

"Travel Tuesday" and changes coming

My peony dressed up for Fall.

You may have noticed a lack of posts lately. I got behind and couldn't figure out how to 'catch up' on our travels, so I didn't post. But now I'm ready to start blogging again, this time with some changes. I want to add a bit of diversity. What had started as primarily a travel blog for family has become a resource for teaching fermenting. To add to the mix I want to include musings of my spiritual journey. I hope you'll want to join me on this journey as well.

This is the format I'm going to work with:
"Travel Tuesdays" where I write about our travels, thoughts about our travels, or catch up on those I missed--we saw some awesome places last Spring that I still want to post.
 "Foodie Fridays" where I talk about recipes, fermenting ideas and experiences, and other food related topics.
"Sanctified Saturdays" will be about my Big God Adventure as I learn more about pressing into the great big heart of Father God, learning more of His ways and seeing where He leads me.

   RIght now, travel preparations are under way to prepare for 6 months of absence from the Lacey area. It's been a beautiful Fall here and I've enjoyed watching the leaves turn. It seems to be colder, sooner, and even though I enjoy my brisk walks, I'm starting to look forward to wearing my summer type clothes, especially sandals!

   This summer we emptied our our storage unit and purged more of our stuff. I am nearing my goal of making my shed functional even with all the stuff I've kept. I used our 'Harbor Freight' garage as a sorting and purging station for all the boxes and tubs of stuff. While we are gone the van is stored in there, so it's been a race with time to get it all done before we leave. But now it's done with time to spare and I'm doing a happy dance! 

   This past week we took the motorhome in to have the engine looked at because we'd had some problems on our return trip. It turned out to be an oxygen sensor, which we suspected. They took good care of us, but they had to keep it over night to finish fixing it. So we made up beds on the floor of the shed. I did some final purging and stacking to make room, but it's all in there and we still had room to sleep and eat!. I cooked on the BBQ on the deck and used our fridge in the "Costco garage".  We had decided it was a good time to defrost the RV fridge, so all our food was in there. Not terribly convenient running here and there, but it worked and we felt like we were really camping! I'd have been more comfortable wearing my only warm coat that I'd left at my daughter's the previous weekend! Waking up to temps in the 40s and 100% humidity made for some interesting challenges; besides the bone-chilling damp cold, all the tables and dishes on the deck were covered in heavy dew. I washed dishes the night before and left them to dry in the drainer. Odd to wake up and find them wetter than the night before! But I managed fine, and when you're camping, pancakes and bacon hit the spot, so it was worth it! 

Hostas sporting their best Fall colors.

   With only about a week left, it't time to put away the deck chairs, make sure everything is ready for winter, and do the last minute checks. Did we get it all? Did we stock up on what we needed? Did we purge enough stuff from the motorhome? Did we sort through everything we want to take? Jerry is so good with lists; I have good intentions that often fall short! First you have to get it ON the list, then you have to read the list without skipping any lines! Both present challenges for this random thinker! I rely heavily on visual cues: Does it look as it should? Is anything left out?  Sometimes my visual cues don't get me where I need to go, so I rely on The List Maker to double-check me. We make a good team, and I'm thankful for his sequential and methodical self. We don't have a specific day to depart, but my next Travel Tuesday could very well be on Departure Day! Wahoo!

Fermenting Fun

Showing how fermented salsa is made. Lots to sample!

Friends gathering to taste while I concentrate on a question.

Today at our 'Home Base' in Olympia, WA, I taught another class on fermented foods and their wonderful benefits. I love teaching these classes! Over the winter I did three of them in our travels and it's so much fun to meet up with people again and hear of their successes and the benefits these foods have brought them. I love it that eating live foods brings life to the body. I love sharing this knowledge that I've learned over the years in hunting for answers to my health challenges. To see the lights go on as someone 'gets it' is pure joy! I have long been accustomed to being the odd one who doesn't eat like everyone else. I don't make a big deal out of it, it's just part of my journey. The benefits by FAR outweigh the crazy comments, sidelong looks and no food I want to put in my body at a potluck. I just bring my own food, smile at the looks and joke about being an oddball! So it's a delightful surprise when I encounter people who want to learn about what I do and why I do it, and best of all to embrace it and head off on their own journey of health and a happier gut.
  The microbiome is getting to be quite a buzzword these days. That's the name given to the trillions of microbe friends that live on and in you. They outnumber the cells of your body 10:1! They are super important and do more than was ever suspected. When I first learned about it about 5 years ago after doing the GAPS Diet (which made a huge difference for me--it's a way of healing your gut) you didn't really hear about it. I did find some great books talking about the research on the microbiome and the importance of nurturing my gut microbe friends. (See the list on my Class Notes page). Now that I eat to keep them happy, they return the favor by keeping me healthy and happy. And, yes, keeping your gut happy is more effective than antidepressants.

Super Bowl and snow

From the RV front window as the snow began to accumulate.

It has snowed several times this winter, but this was the first at our new place. The snow began on Superbowl Sunday in the afternoon. We went to the club house anyway to watch the game and enjoy the Chili Cookoff. It was amazing how much it snowed! But it was over 32 degrees, so melted some. If it hadn't melted, we would have have many inches of snow instead of just about 3. I was glad we didn't have far to go home, but driving from the club house to our lot in the snow was so beautiful! I wish I had gotten a picture of it.

From the club house as we watched it come down for hours.

Of course the next day it warmed up and started to rain and melt. That brought its own kind of fun!

 We had had the awning out a little ways to cover the steps in the rain. Didn't think about it as it was snowing, but when the rain added weight, it was clear that needed to be dealt with! Jerry got out the ladder and swept and pushed and finally got all of it off the awning and the awning put away, He figures there was a couple hundred pounds on that!

Then, of course, with all that snow melting and the rain and all, water was everywhere! I grabbed my hoe and went to work, creating channels for it to flow off the lot and into the ditch. I picked up some skills following my big bro around as a kid. He was forever changing the flow of any water he could.

South side of lot, down to the ditch.

Getting the flow just right to pull water from under the motorhome and past the steps.

Heading for the ditch, whose flow I also improved.

We had to move the wooden steps and build the area up to get them out of a big puddle. It's amazing how much water there was! First grounds improvement: little ditches. Next project I'm going for a better look.

Bittersweet

  In spite of being so ready to be done with the house, working hard to refurbish and reduce, driving away for the last time was still bittersweet. Yes, adventures lie ahead (and hopefully rest!), but 28-1/2 years of memories live there, and we don't. There were some tears, sadness and some fleeting moments of "What in the world have we done!?" But it was a great comfort to know that the family who bought our house loves it, loves what we did with it and appreciate what a great house it is. They will be making their own memories, and there is comfort in that. I was glad that the sun chose to shine when we pulled out. Somehow that made it easier, not only with the driving, but the feeling of rightness, also. That chapter of our lives is closed. On to the next!

Waking up the next morning on our lot, surrounded by trees, birds chirping and the sun shining was delightful! The next part of our Grand Adventure has begun.

Although theoretically we were 'done' with projects, it now became time to focus on the motorhome and things we had put off because of The House Project. Like fixing the toilet, whose gasket needed replacing. We had the necessary parts, and I thought it would be a fairly quick and easy job. Nope. After exhausting my abilities to get the bolts off  (rusty bolts are not my friend), I threw up my hands and Jerry took over. I did find a guy who works on RVs locally and will come to you, but tenacious guy that he is, Jerry managed to get the other two off and soon we were back in business. I was so thankful to have "Comfort Stations" aka bathrooms located within a very short distance of our lot, so the inconvenience was minimal. Then on to other projects in preparation for leaving. Like fixing the valve to the water tank so that I came actually use it without water spewing out into the compartment. Since we have water at the lot, I was filling a couple of gallon jugs and putting them into my 2 gallon Brita which has a spigot. Voila! Almost running water..... Nothing like roughing it in a motorhome. I informed my dear hubby that I would not be taking off until that water tank was functional! He did a great job of problem solving and fixing.