Do we have water?

“Our water froze last night.”

I say that to many of my coworkers and they become deeply concerned about the state of my hose and burst pipes.  Little do they know, this has recently become a regular occurrence.  Our trailer’s water supply is fed by a hose from a nearby spigot.  Left exposed to the elements, the hose will easily freeze when the temperature dips only slightly below freezing (like 31.9 degrees).  We have regularly woke to find that the toilet will not flush (solids will fall, but it is not rinsed.  I will tell you more later about the workings of a trailer toilet, very interesting!) and it stinks until the sun rises and thaws our water.

These little nuances of trailer life have been fun, mostly avoidable, but interesting to learn about.  I have everything I need to insulate and protect our water, but why do that when I have kids to raise and there is fun to be had?  That is why we left our house wasn’t it…to get away from the need to be slaves to our home.  Well, I guess no reasonable person can actually shirk all responsibility, throw caution into the wind and let their home fall apart around them.  I will get to it soon.

It’s a Griswold Christmas!!

Well I have been very silent, but this was a great Christmas holiday.  Our Christmas morning was the most relaxed holiday ever!  We opened presents and enjoyed our traditional Christmas morning dose of biscuits and gravy.  Then we walked all of thirty feet to Nana and Pop’s house and leisurely opened presents, cooked a little, opened more present and cooked a little more and so on until we had a delightful dinner.

The best part of the day was seeing the delight and excitement in our older boys eyes as they saw their siblings open the gifts they chose and paid for all on their own.  Our oldest son had even wrapped his change and given it to one of our sons because, “he likes spending money.”  We thought it was about three dollars, but upon opening it, we found it was fifteen dollars.  He was quite happy to give his brother such a generous gift.  Similarly, he spent about ten dollars more on earrings for my wife than I thought he should.  He reason was, “but she will love these.”

This great holiday was preceded though by a wonderful holiday tradition.  The annual tree slaughter.  Although, we wait several months to kill our tree.  We like to dig it up, take it home, nurture it, plant it in a beautiful spot and let it have a slow death as it is withers and dies from neglect.  Not this year.  This year is going to be different.

We found a beautiful fir tree and though it would be lovely to keep it a pot next to our trailer.  It was about five feet tall and was perfect, but not for my oldest son.  “NO.  That one is too small.”  No amount of convincing was going to sway him.  Nevertheless, we dug it up anyway.  My wife’s sister needed a tree.  We searched high and low for the perfect big tree(you may wonder “Why a big tree?  They live in a travel trailer.” Well, it will go outside).  Finally, when we, and our friends were just about to give up and accept the perfect little tree, we found it.  It was like out of that seen in “Christmas Vacation”, as the sun was setting, it broke through the trees and lit up the one we were to have.  Heaven opened, pointed us to the tree and angels were singing, leading us the entire way.

That was a slight exaggeration, but we found it!  It was about nine or ten feet (or twelve) tall and a perfect specimen.  Ponderosa Pine do not usually make a good Christmas tree, but this was going to be the exception.  It’s shape was great and it’s height was perfect.  We were set to take it home, decorate it with edible ornaments and let the birds enjoy it.  Well, when I finally got it stood up and next to our trailer, it was about three feet taller than the trailer and too large for us to decorate effectively.  However, it did have popcorn and cranberry strings, popcorn balls and about eight strands of lights.  Really, it was beautiful and surely would have made Clark proud!

“…because we get to cuddle.”

Several days ago our four year-old son was laying in bed with my wife and cuddling.  They were telling each other “I love you” and hugging each other.  My wife was really just enjoying her little boy.

As they were talking he said, “I like living in the trailer.”

“Why?” asked my wife.

“Because we get to cuddle more!”

His response was unrehearsed and nothing we ever discussed.  He was genuine in his response and sat beaming as he said it.  Our son captured, in one brief sentence, the greatest benefit we have yet received by our lifestyle.  We now have greater proximity to each other physically and emotionally.  While he noted the increased time being near each other due to our small space, he hit on the underlying desire our children have to share those significant times together.  I have spent many mornings lying on the couch holding three little boys before we get ready for the day…I love it!

“Oh baby it’s cold in here”

In our last house, our master bedroom included a converted one car garage as part of its space.  Because of this, the heating and cooling in that room was always inefficient.  During the winter, the clock on my nightstand would frequently read 51 degrees as we woke up and never rise above 65 without a space heater.  Well, the trailer has had its heating issues also.  Cooling was not a problem (electricity is included in our rent payment and the A/C is refrigerated air).  Heating as the temperature drops has been a different story.

We have relied heavily on space heaters as they run on electricity.  The furnace uses propane for which we must pay and I believe it is rather inefficient.  So far, the space heaters have worked quite well and keep us comfortable through the night.  The boys are the warmest due to the heaters being pointed directly at them and we are a little cooler as is our preference.  The problems arise when we turn off the space heaters and are gone for large parts of the day.  Several weeks ago, we were gone from morning until after dark and the larger space heater was turned off.  When we returned home, the coldest area of the trailer was 49 degrees.

Since then, I have been very good about leaving the heater on while we are gone so that the chill is kept away.  Today I was diligent about having the heater on and pointing in the right direction.  As we left I double checked it and ran out the door.  That is where I went wrong.  I guess the door slammed, but it did not catch and shut.  When we returned home, ten hours later, on one of the coldest nights of the year the door was opened as far as it could.  We quickly realized it was bitterly cold, but still a little warmer inside than outside.  Actually, I came to that conclusion because my breath made more steam outside the trailer than in it.

I turned the furnace on and got to work trying to thaw everything out.  That clock with the thermometer in it read 32.5 degrees and suddenly it felt much cooler.  Thankfully, 290 square feet can become comfortable rather quickly.  Sadly, three hours later the furnace is still running, but the temperature has increased by 31 degrees.  Finally, it has reached a good sleeping temperature.

Goodnight from the trailer!

Gettin’ ready for Christmas!!

When we made the decision to live the way we do, one of the stated benefits was going to be more family time.  The trick about that is one must actually do it.  I can say, with some certainty, we have yet to set aside time to just have fun as a family.  We have been moving, e-baying, sorting, just being…we have been very busy.

Tonight I decided we needed to just do it.  We have several hours every night that we are not using to clean the house, work in the yard or have a second job, so what are we going to do?  Get ready for Christmas!  Our older boys helped us cut and decorate 25 strips of construction paper to make an advent paper chain.  Everyday, we will tear off a link and read the scripture about Christ which we wrote on it.  The boys loved the time spent on them and our rewards are being seen.

This weekend we will play the part of the Griswalds and go get our Christmas Tree.  I am still not sure exactly where we will put it!

Moving Day!

We recently decided to move.  Why move?  Well, the short answer is, “We can.”  For any reason we can, within a matter or hours, totally uproot and move our home anywhere we want (and where the law allows).  The long answer is that we thought it would be nice to be near my parents during the holidays, save the $585 we pay at the campsite and…many other reasons.

One cold, and soon to be storming day, we decided to move on my lunch break.  It took a short time to empty the holding tanks (that is where the black and grey water are stored), throw everything into the back of the suburban or into the trailer, pull in the slide-out and hitch-up the trailer.  Then we were on the road, but it was just my lunch break so my wife and kids planed to wile away the day at the mall while I finished working. (BTW, it is a great place to park)  This was quite memorable for my wife as her home now really was at the mall!!

  

Less than an hour after dropping them off, the clouds rolled in thick and snow started coming down hard.  The trip down to my parents would be quick but if the snow started to accumulate, as it appeared would happen soon, it could be treacherous!  Therefore, I made the decision that we had to leave now.  My wife had previously offered to drive the trailer down herself and the thought of following through with that made me physically ill.  The sudden responsibility I felt and fear for her life would not allow me to let her take everything (belongings and children) by herself.

I very carefully maneuvered the city streets and pulled onto the interstate headed out of town.  Driving through familiar roads I felt comfortable until a dump truck in front of me began to brake hard.  I applied my brakes and the trailer brakes promptly locked up.  I had visions of everything we own being strewn across the freeway and our true state of homelessness.  Then, the truck pulled away, and all was now safe.  As I pulled south out of town, the snow slowed, the clouds thinned and parted.  Not only was there no snow on the roads south of town, the sun was shining.

While I could have worked all day, we made it early.  We were able to park before the sun went down and enjoy our first evening out of the city!

Storage is a premium!!

Sorry for the time since the last post!

So, when we made the cinnamon rolls, the oven worked!  It actually worked wonderfully and the rolls turned out great.  There was a problem though.  Our problem is storage!

You see, we have no closets.  Relative to a house, our storage is quite limited.   We have storage under and behind our couch.  We have small closet-like units in our bedroom along with equally small nightstands.  There is storage under the seats of our dinette and only a few other spaces where “stuff” can be kept.  Even our oven has become a place for storage.  What?  You store something in the oven, how stupid!  Well it really isn’t that bad.  I have to light the pilot on the oven every time I use it, therefore, I will have to look in the oven before I turn it on.  It really is a great place to store pans, a iron skillet…and a postal scale?!

 

Well, the scale was a total loss.  I thought I had got it out in time, and it just looked a little warped.  Actually, all of the parts on it fused together.  Despite the computer turning on, it would not register a weight.  It just kept thinking and thinking and eventually it went dead.  Anyone know where we can get a new scale?