Camping Fun

 We borrowed Terrys RV and took Soren camping at Spillman Campground, at Tahuya OHV state forest. He's 14 now, knows everything, still a kid at heart. 

We took the sxs and the guys took it out a few times and got good & dirty.

I stayed in camp, did a lot of cross stitching and relaxing.

BUT.

And there's always a BUT.

The neighbors were tweakers and on Thursday night they were screaming at each other for a while at about 10pm, on Friday they yelled a few times during the day and raked the forest floor...  We no longer felt safe with them there and more were showing up, plus their dog barked and barked and barked.

So we came home early.

And that was OK, since Soren had had his fill of camping, he missed his electronics and his girlfriend.

Fun was had, good food was cooked over the campfire, Soren had his Taki's and I hardly limited his eating. He also got to chop as much wood as he wanted and kept the fire stoked all day. 

Camping

 We're taking the 14 1/2 year old great nephew camping for 2 nights about 30 miles from home, taking the mtn bike for him to ride and the SXS for us all to enjoy. I'll take my cross stitch so they can go ride & I'll work on that, have a nap, enjoy snacks.

It'll be fun.

Over Time Is Done

 We got home on June 5th and I had another week off, but got called in for OT on June 11th. Then starting Sunday June 14th, I worked 6 straight days for that first 60 hours, I had Saturday June 20th off, then another week of 60 hours, 1 day off and this week I worked the last FIFA hours yesterday. I'll work Thursday and Friday for only 40 hours this week.  There were 2 holidays when I got OT so cash wise they were each $1,000 days but I chose Comp days so I'll get more time off. Today & tomorrow are the first 2 days I'll have off together since June 12th & 13th.

What I need to accomplish in these 2 days is:

Get the RV cleaned out and set up for Jeffs visit Monday

Put bedding and stuff out there 

Make sure there is water in it so he can use the toilet if he wants

Shop for snacks and treats, and beer for Jeff

          Shop for gluten free foods since he is intolerant 

Shop for an awesome Birthday gift for Jeff, he will be 66 on Monday

 

On July 11th there will be a memorial for Aunt Rita and there will be far more people there that I don't want to see than the few I do want to see. Until 2 months ago I thought that things were good between Sali and me but then I caught her in a lie so I no longer care to see her. And YES, that's petty but she simply didn't need to lie to me in the first place. 

I wonder how many more family members will die before I see them all again?

 

Black Orchid Ambleside

This was the trucks maiden voyage with the camper and I'm happy to say it did OK.

We got a late start and arrived at the area we like to boondock well after dark, so it was a bit difficult to find a spot. We did check out Kaner Flats but it wasn't on the river side of the road, and they wanted $10 to camp and I almost paid $40 because it was dark & didn't notice till the next day that I had put two 20's into the payment envelope. It's a good thing we didn't stay at that campground.

So this is the view we woke up to.

Our morning lesson with Amble turned into an afternoon lesson so we had 6 hours to use. Lan decided we should go check out Boulder Cave (it's only $5) and after the Ranger said it's reservation only, he said there was an opening so took our money and let us go in. There were only 2 other families there the whole time. It's a short cave, maybe 100 yards long and pitch-black inside. Its got bats but we didn't see a single one, since we forgot to take flashlights and my phone light sucks. But we still enjoyed the trek.

This little guy was on the hand rail of a walkway and we're sure he was trying to not get eaten by the Garter Snake that was hanging out below him. We left them both alone.

And, at 3pm, we got to see Amble. 

I got to drive my own horse!!!!!

I have a long way to go with driving but I hope I don't do her, or me, any harm. I definitely need to begin to use weights, my arms and hands were sore after I was done. And my feet were tired after being on the back of the cart for most of the hour from leaning to the outside of every turn.

 

Days Away on A Mini Vacation

 I have a lesson on learning to drive Amble tomorrow morning and I'd like to do it as early as possible, as its supposed to get up to 91* over there. We have decided to go camping tonight so we won't be driving for 3.5 hours at 0'dark:30 in the morning to get there.

I've checked out a bunch of the camping areas around Yakima and a few of them are on the Canyon Road between Ellensburg and Yakima, I don't know if I'd want to camp at any of them. The day use is OK; camping is only $5-$15 but the people are sketchy. They'd probably end up partying all night & we'd get no sleep.  There is the Sunnyside RV Park and it's still reasonable at $37 per night with electric and a pool but we'll be there too late to swim and leave too early to swim.  I did leave a reservation request with them so if the guy calls back, I'll ask about late arrivals, since we wouldn't get there before 10pm.

I'm excited yet nervous to drive Amble and to ride her. I'm not nearly as good a rider as I used to be and I've never driven besides one single time. This is why I need to go over, to learn to drive.

One More Week

In less than a week we will be leaving on our journey to Pioche, 

not on this exact path though because we'll be going through Winnemucca to see the Gypsy Horse Fest at the fairgrounds there.

Its about 700 miles and thats too long of a drive for 1 day so we might stop near Smith Rock in Oregon along the way.

I'm just excited to NOT BE WORKING.

 

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.

 

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? 

 

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.

 

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.