Loading Up The Trailer

I bought 4 cases of water today to go with the 3 other cases we already have at home for our trip to Nevada in a couple weeks.  I loaded them into the trailer but I'll still need to move shit around because these cases leak and I don't want water sitting on the trailer floor.

We have a nice bed mattress on the lower bunk of the trailer and I'd like for it to be up on the top bunk and storage on the bottom where I can reach it easier. 

Think easier, not heavier.

The water will go into the bathtub.

We need to drink a LOT of water while we're there, if I don't drink lots then I get dehydrated and feel icky. Plus I get static electricity and shock my ass every time I touch anything.

I got these for washing dishes and cooking. 

The actual fresh water in the trailer will be used for flushing the toilet.

These bins are great for holding stuff in cupboards and I've got a few in the back seat of the truck to hold water and other drinks, chips and snacks and one for miscellaneous things like my wallet, notebook, sun glasses and hats.

We have a few of these neck pillows we always take with us on trips, I absolutely LOVE to nap while Lan is driving on long trips. I've had mine for a LOT of miles including England, France, Pioche a few times, Hawaii and Florida.

a full MONTH ago I began packing clothes to take to Pioche to be left there and now I can't find the damn things anywhere. I sincerely hope I didn't do something stupid like donate them, that would suck.

Where have you traveled to lately?

 

Shake Out Camping Trip

We went camping in the new to us trailer last night, just the one night, a shake out, to see what needs work and so on.

We went to Belfair State Park in Washington state, its only about 16 miles away.

The heater works well, the water heater works if the propane is on (hint hint) and the fridge might or might not work.

This is the first photo I've been able to take of the painted kitchen in real light, not electric lights. I really like it. I'll be putting a backsplash up on the surrounding walls before we leave for Pioche and the rest of the walls will be painted once we arrive there. I'm 99% sure the paint will dry faster there than here in the winter cold weather.

We have a good time.

 

April Fools Day 2025

Today I'm sending these photos to my husband and telling him we're expanding the farm

I mean, who doesn't want a piggie?

And emu chicks are darling!

 

Less Than One Month

 We'll be on vacation in less than 1 month and I'm getting more and more stoked to be out of here. The only problem is that I'm finding it harder and harder to save the cash I need for the trip.  The fuel alone will be about $800.00 ~ $1,000 and I don't even have that much saved yet.  I TRY to save but we have so many big bills coming due right now and I have the doctor and hospital bills that I'm now paying. Car tabs for 4 vehicles, materials we'll need in Pioche (or why effing go??) and the dentist. UGH. I make plenty of money but everything is just so fucking expensive.  I'm living again like we were back in 1990 when we had $1500 PER MONTH to live off.

Today that stinker Ambleside got through the fence to the neighbors property and ambled around. Lan brought her home and electrified the bottom fence.

Oh, that's another thing, we NEED to fix the front fence, its got 4 broken boards and the whole back pasture needs new fencing. We just can't get ahead.

I'm whining.

I've been working overtime each week and its exhausting but I'm hoping for another couple of bigger checks in April, my last check was only $1,700.

I have almost everything we will need for and in the trailer for our trip. I can't put everything in it yet but I have it. We need to make shelving in the closets and that's only 4 pieces of thin plywood and a bunch of 1x1 pieces cut to fit, about 32 pieces.  I'll have to get the measurements and find the wood, get some screws that are only just long enough and glue too.  We don't need to hang clothing up.

We have had ZERO interest in the Orting house and its about time to ask Mom if she wants to lower the price. Shes asking $405,000 for it now, I think it would sell at $375,000.

I'm fucking tired and need to go feed ponies. Ambleside needs a good grooming, so does Wifi. Joeys been getting groomed every couple days but I've put his blankie back on him because he lost a good 50# while he's had it off for the last 2 weeks. 

What to Do?

 I've been looking forward to our next trip to Pioche since we left there in December. At that time we were in a rented car, leaving the hotel in town since it was 20* at night and our house has zero insulation and holes in the walls, no beds, broken windows and no water so no toilet.

This next trip down we will focus on two things, interior wiring and getting the toilet sewer pipes hooked up so we can at least pee in the house. It's still going to be a ways down the road before we can have our own running water in the house, since I'm not up for paying $64 per month for it when we will only be there maybe 5 weeks per year. The neighbor Tom has said we can use his water all we want so I want to fill the bathtub and use a bucket to fill the toilet tank for flushing. I think its weird that I still haven't even tasted the water in town either.

Thats something I'll need to do on this next trip.

I've gotten SO MUCH STUFF for the trailer that we're taking down & leaving in the yard, a place for us to stay whenever we got down there. I'll have to get used to showering in a tiny tub, one that's smaller than the shower I currently use in our house in Washington. Eventually the house will be finished and I'll transfer all that stuff into the house, then we will sell the trailer.

Now, since we'll be leaving the trailer down there, will we need to cover it? We have a cover so that's not an issue but never having had a trailer down there long term leaves us with questions. We WILL winterize every time we're leaving so we won't have to worry about freezing pipes on future visits.

My horses are all fine, Wifi just turned 18 years old; I SOOooooo wish I could ride her. Joey will be 29 on April 15th, and Amble will be 4 on June 21st. They're all shedding and Joey looks like a floofy mongrel moose, he had matts all around his chest and belly but I got most of them off him. He will create more.  Amble is shedding but slower and Wifi, as always, has a ton of hair.

Travel Trailer Work

This is one of the photos the seller used when selling our trailer

Here is my photo, after I used 'Forest Floor' color  of paint to change it up. I have an off white to update the walls and I'm going to put up stick on sheets of plastic backsplash for around the sink area.

I have also painted the cupboards above the table but have no photos of it on my PC yet to share.

Have you ever painted inside a trailer? If so, what kind of paint did you use? 

 

Banner Forest

 I get to go walking around Banner Forest with my BFF.

Ambleside Is Growing Up

I bought a slightly used saddle for Amble yesterday, a 2022 Circle Y, cordura, 15" seat with a rounded shirt and trail stirrups. I paid $900 for it.

The seller only used it twice on her horse.

I think she looks good with it on.

Its XXWide, measuring 8.25" wide between these conchos

It doesn't pinch

Now I need to get her started under saddle. I suppose I could just get on her but that would be completely stupid since I am NOT a horse trainer.

Once it stops raining I'll take her out to the round pen and get her going in it. I can do ALL the ground work and even use it for driving her and use the long lines from her cart harness.

Daisetta Cordura Trail Saddle 6914

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New to the High Horse Cordura line, this Daisetta Trail Saddle offers a number of custom options to really make this one your own. Featuring High Horse's new border tooling pattern extending from the Pommel back to the cantle, and topped off with new copper flower conchos.

From there, you choose from a black suede or black grainout double padded seat, walnut or black finish, and regular, wide, or extra wide tree. The short, rounded, 26" skirt makes this a great option for the shorter backed horse.

An adjustable position flat plate rigging gives you the freedom to choose your rigging style and the tall cantle will provide security under a variety of trail conditions. Cordura fenders and skirt keep this saddle down to a mere 21lb. Long saddle strings make this a great choice for the trails.

Made in the USA.

*Main picture shown is Walnut in color

Specifications

• Seat Size: 13" 14" 15" 16" 17" 18"
• Color: Walnut or Black
• Seat: Double Padded
• Tooling: : Border
• Rigging: Adjustable Position Flat Plate with angled rear dee
• Tree: Regular, Wide, Extra Wide (13" and 14" Extra wide can be special ordered)
• Cantle Height: 4"
• Silver: Copper Flower
• Swell Width: 12"
• Horn Size: 3-1/4" Neck, 2-1/4" Cap
• Skirt Size: 10" D x 26" L
• Weight: Approximately 21 lbs.
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A Tale of Two Houses

Both these houses were built about the same time.

Obviously they have lived very different lives, have had different owners and different families living in them. Our house was built in 1926 in the town of Pioche, Nevada while the other house was built in what now is a state park. Our house is empty while the park house is full of antiques from the era. Ours has car windshield reflectors over the windows while the park house has actual curtains. Our house has newer aluminum windows while the park house has the original wood frame windows. Our house has an asphalt tab roof while the park house has a metal roof.

Our house does have an inside bathroom and indoor plumbing, while the other house has an outhouse. Ours is hooked up to city water and sewer but we aren't using it yet, as its $65 monthly whether we're there to use it or not once we get it turned on. The other house might have water, but maybe it only has an inside pump or they had to gather it in buckets and carry it to the house.

Our house had a wood stove at some point but no longer and the other one still has theirs.

I am hoping someday ours will look a little more like the other one.

 

Poor Hen

 One of our hens is egg bound.

We soaked her in a warm epsom salt bath for about 15 minutes, then I put some KY lube around her vent and put her in a dog kennel to dry off.  About 3 hours later she wasn't looking any better so we inserted a syringe (no needle) of Mineral Oil into her vent, placed the chick brooder in the kennel to keep her warm and put her back in, covered. I hope shes alive and well in the morning and has an egg to show for it.

Gary came over to trim horses hooves, all 3 were shits. Joey has a small wound on his front right coronet band so I had to doctor that. He's had his blanket on since christmas and I took it off today & he looks great. I'll leave it off as long as he continues to look OK, if he starts losing weight it will go right back on.

Wifi is fat but shes not sore like usual right before a trim.

Ambleside is now 14.3hh at the withers and shes very thick, heavy and fat. I may never be able to ride her!

Tomorrow Lan will be 58 years old and I bought him a $400 chainsaw plus out another $100 cash in his card. I'll bake his cake this evening and ice it in the morning. Last year he had 57 candles nut this year hes only getting a few.

The video from my 50th birthday has had 348k views.

February Paydays Suck

   As you might or might not know, we're rebuilding a house in Pioche, Nevada basically from the ground up. Not the foundation, but every other aspect of it. The floor, the exterior walls, all new interior walls because they were all torn out. It needs all new windows and a new roof, the plumbing is busted and leaks/pours sewage out. The electrical is a mix or old and very old, some just hangs into the middle of the room from above.

The walls are 9.5 feet tall, the house will probably measure 20x24 when we're finished and I 

*WANT* it to be beautiful.

Last payday I bought 2 dozen regular plug ins and junction boxes and a bunch of light switches plus 100 feet of interior wire. Today is the short paycheck, since there are only 28 days in February so we don't get to work to make up extra days for more pay so I only got 3 of these today. They were $52 for 3 of them.

We will put one in the kitchen, one in the living room and one in the bedroom.

Right now we have one in our kitchen and it is constantly being used. Its convenient and easily accessible. In the Pioche house it will be all of those things as well.

Cleaning Up

Jean Lee Brooks

My Mother In Law, who passed recently and I miss her.

She had dementia and was bed ridden for over a year.

She lived in a double wide mobile with Terry and now that she's gone I've been helping to clean out/up the house and let me tell you, its gross. 

It ALL stinks.

They were never big on cleaning and always had a lot of pets so the house, even though only 30 years old, it in terrible shape. Plus they were hoarders and he still will be. Dirt, pet hair, feces, filth, just junk all over. I've spent whole days over there and you can barely see a difference.

The bedroom she was in has their king size bed and her hospital bed, a couple chairs, dressers and her lifting thing. I've cleaned out most of her stuff, all her clothes are gone, I removed all her yukky old makeup and crap out of the bathroom and I removed the bedding off the bed. We've thrown everything away except a few things that can be saved or sold but they're going to need some serious cleaning first.

Terry was gone for 5 days and that's when I cleaned out most of her bedroom stuff, then night before last after he got back home and we were at our home in bed sleeping and he called, wondering where his bedding was.  OOPS.  Thinking super fast, I said we had brought it over here to wash

but it was actually in the trailer ready to go to the dump! We had to dig it out and I did wash most of it. Their comforter is too big for my machine so I'll take it over to their house and stick it in his washer. I'll put the sheets and blankets back on the bed for him.

The stink is on everything and its deeply embedded. She had a Disney sweatshirt I thought I'd like to keep but after washing it twice and using vinegar it still stinks so I threw it away too. This was our second load of junk removed from their house, this one weighing 1,380. Thats a LOT of junk.

The house still stinks but its getting a little better. He gave away the stupid pug that just shit wherever and a gal I know took the 3 horses that were basically neglected in the pasture. I gave her a couple of blankets for them and she's giving them all the care they desperately need.

I have brought home her nice jewelry but left most of the costume stuff, which she's got a large standing case that's full that I'm pretty sure she got when her sister died 10 years earlier.  There were over 20 of the tradable Disney pins and some solid gold necklaces, one weighing .9 oz of 18k gold.  I have no idea what happened to her wedding ring.  All these things will go back to Terry after her family gets done taking everything they want but some of the cousins are vultures and druggies and deserve nothing. One of those tried to take the China that Jean had promised to me.

 

Already Fixed The Awning

That was quick, we went to Lowes, got 4 screws and put them into these brackets.

Before

After

Not perfect but good enough

We just need the awning to hold on till we get to Pioche, then its going to be parked in 1 spot till we're finished with it, in a few years.

 

The Trailer Awning

When we paid $1000 for this trailer we knew we were getting an extremely good deal, no matter what repairs it might need. We knew there was water damage and found out after we got it home that the awning needs repaired too so here are the before photos. We're just hoping we can get it fixed RIGHT and of course, we'll be doing the work ourselves.

This isn't going to be easy as the black material underneath is still completely intact and if we open it up we are going to then need to find a way to repair that.

 

 

Pioche

We're already planning our next Pioche trip, April 27-May 10, 2025.

IF I can get Saturday April 26th off, we will be able to leave here Thursday evening after we get off work. Usually when we leave in the evenings like that, we're able to drive till about midnight before we have to stop to sleep. Having a travel trailer, RV or camper has always been nice because we aren't paying for a cheap ass hotel room and we can boondock. 

We've purchased interior house wire, junction boxes, plug-ins and light switches for the house in Pioche and thats what we're planning on getting finished this trip. We will have to remove a lot of old stuff, some of that is OLD in this stuff (stock photo)

and some is newer. We will have to leave some because we'll need to use it for tools and lights.

We're going to work on the plumbing too so we can at least use the toilet. Tom, the neighbor, has said we can use his hose so we'll just fill the tub to have flushing water. I want to make sure all the water pipes are completely blown out each and every time we leave so we won't have to worry about busted pipes in the future.

I haven't been able to paint in the trailer because its been too cold, down into the 20s as night. The paint needs a bit of warmth to dry and even though there's a heater in there, I can't use it too much. The whole barn, shop and tack room are on the same electrical breaker as our dryer and its too much so it keeps popping off. I'm not interested in burning down any of our buildings so I'll just wait to paint.  I want to finish at least the kitchen in green paint, and the walls an off white. I'd like to put a back splash around the stove and sink but no ideas what sort yet.  The color of kitchen cabinet paint is Benjamin Moore 'Forest Floor'

In other exciting news:

Erin and I had made plans for her to come over and give me a lesson in driving Amble but shes got that nasty cold/flu I had last month and I told her to stay home. 

I E-Filed our income taxes today and we're not even getting half as much as last year due to a drastic tax cut that happened early last year. We're getting more money on each check but a lot less on our return. I could pay more into it but not going to do that, I'll just know we're getting less. This year we'll use the money for fencing around the back pasture.

I'm trying to save money for our trip but its hard, we'll need at least $800 for r/t fuel.  I think right now I might have $200 saved with potential to save $500 from each check equaling up to $2,500. I best get cracking on it. Maybe I can sell some junk, like the Metro. Thats not junk but I don't need it.

IVC Carriage ROCKS

 I received the order, had to call the company twice since it wouldn't go through online. Its a good thing I called, I was going to order the wrong items otherwise but he gave me info for correct items.

Once they arrived I discovered that there were two items here that I didn't know I already had so now I've got two over girths and an extra noseband.

This is the old girth that came with it, its pony size. Amble needs horse size.

Thats fine, I'll use the new ones because Ambleside deserves new stuff.

Jeans memorial was fine, once we got into the building. The code they provided wasn't opening the door, everyone was there at noon and standing in the hail waiting. At least there were lots of people to help get stuff set up and arranged.  The pot luck was good and after eating we all sat around and talked about jean and our memories of her. I couldn't do it, I just cried. She was loved, even though so much of the time she was cranky.

It was nice to see both my boys together again, its been a long, long time.

I've been painting in the camper a little. 

I need to get some kind of easily washable back splash for around the stove and sink area.

Why Is It So Difficult?

How come when I want to order shit it never works?

I've been online twice, I've called 3 times and finally went to the bank to get this shit figured out and still the order wont work. So fucking frustrating.

 

New To Us Harness Is Here

Today Ambleside's harness came via UPS.

I paid $900 for it used; that included 2 bridles, shipping and its carry bag.

What it didn't include was a noseband and a girth/belly band & over girth that would fit her.

I'm trying to order the parts but the website isn't working properly. Ugh.