Things We Have Learned

Seven weeks in a tent, and we have learned quite a bit. Some things may be obvious, others not so much. As we were not roughing it, if you are, YMMV (your mileage may vary.)

1. A good tent, easy to put up, take down and stow, is a must. I cannot speak highly enough of the Ozark Trail Instant Tent series, although I did miss the velcroed tent door from the Coleman. If you are able to travel with your belongings (versus carrying everything in a backpack), you can never have TOO much space. We did not spend a lot of time in ours, but our 8 man tent was snug. Our Coleman 8 man had more space, which was nice when the kids wanted to play cards or something at night.

2. Fans inside the tent were a God-send. Living in a tent became much more bearable especially in 95-102 degree Texas weather, once we got two fans.

3. Which brings me to electricity. We learned several years ago that if you have the choice of go electric or not, spend the slight extra to have electric on site (if it doesn't cost extra, it's a no brainier.) Think of all the convenience and things you can jettison if you have electric. Light (no fuel or battery), hot plate (no need to bring fuel or wood), easily heat and boil water (tea kettle like ours or on hot plate.) if you want to get really excited, an iron, a fridge, and a way to inflate air mattresses.

4. Air mattresses, the real kind. Not knowing what kind of sites we were going to encounter (grass, stake able or not, we decided to bring real air mattresses. What a real blessing these have turned out to be. Living in a tent means you are up at the crack of dawn due to the light, and don't go to bed until it's dark. This is a LONG day...15-16 hours. So having a softer place to land and sleep is such a nice blessing.

5. Food. Freeze dried meals (we prefer Mountain House) or dehydrated meals (this includes things like Hamburger Helper or Suddenly Salad) only takes hot water and/or a thermos to heat/rehydrate and eat. We had #10 cans of beef stew, stroganoff, spaghetti, chili Mac, Mac and cheese, broccoli, corn, etc. we bought a plastic storage bowl with a lid, dumped FD food in the bowl, added hot water and a lid, and 10 min later: dinner. Easy to prepare, easy to clean up, no mess no fuss. Plastic or paper bowls, plates, utensils are the way to go!! No worrying about how or where to clean, bugs attacking etc. Sorry Greenpeace.

Point is: pick your battles. I'm not saying you shouldn't cook stuff in a Dutch oven over coals if you want to, but when it's 97F you may not want to. Don't make your life harder than it has to be. You don't do it in a stick built home, why would you want to in a tent?

Also, snacks. We went to Costco and bought a box of 50 pack chips, 48 count granola bars, 48 count fruit rollups, things like that. We didn't go overboard, just enough to snack on during the day (keeps you from having to cook, or make a sandwich mess.)

6. Things to do. We spent a lot of time looking for housing which kept us busy during the day. We also spent a lot of time looking for jobs. But in the "down time" it's nice to have things to keep you from getting bored. We had electric and we have small solar panels which keep electronics charged. Games, shows, books, were all on electronics. Not saying your whole life should be electronic but it was sure convenient to have them in one place, rather than boxes full of books. I wish I had downloaded some movies on to my iPad before we left California.

7. We have learned to let the small things go (or pay attention to them.) My kids and I learned quickly that letting the small things go is important. By the same token, being mindful of the small things (not strewing clothes all over, keeping things picked up), really matter a lot. I am really fortunate that my kids have incorporated a "go with the flow" mentality. I can't imagine what it would be like if they had to have things "just so." 

I am especially impressed with my daughter. Those of you who follow me on my normal blog: justkathrynl.blogspot.com, know that she's had a lot of health issues these past six months, many are related directly to stress. For her sake, we have all kept things as calm as possible, but even then, she has done remarkably well. About three weeks in, it started to become a bit overwhelming, but she recognized she was getting overwhelmed and we took steps to counteract it.

8. The importance of sheltering in place (or not.) I am an American Red Cross Shelter Manager. I have always assumed I would be sheltering in place. It has been made clear to me how important it is to be able to shelter in place. I recognize that this may not always be the case, but sheltering in place allows you to establish a routine and a sense of normalcy. Moving every four days had us feel a bit disconnected, although these last two weeks of just moving between two sites has helped us get better established (examples: we know where to camp or where to avoid.) We pretty much used our 4Runner as our storage container, and it stayed put day in and day out at the site.

9. The importance of faith. Times have been challenging. About a week ago, I was really discouraged and ready to chuck it all and go back to California. I was just tired of encountering obstacle after obstacle at every turn (housing, jobs, money.) I really needed something, anything, to break my way. 

What turned out breaking our way was a wonderful congregation. A family offered to shelter us in their house. We didn't need to take them up on it, but just the fact that they offered was the key which unlocked the gates to unblock the log jam. DS19 had a job interview for an EMT position, and we came across a house to rent for $800, which was offered to us on the spot without having to jump through a thousand hoops (local job, first, last, security, sellers and realtors who don't respond) that we had been encountering up to now.

We moved into the rental house a few days ago. We are grateful. North and south facing which I love, and air conditioning. No internet though, which makes life interesting. Our local library has excellent WiFi though, and it has pretty decent hours. So we are pretty much going to be living there on a daily basis.

The point of this is, what got me through this is knowing that Texas is where God wants us. When I was feeling particularly discouraged, I was like, "why on earth should we be here? I had work in California, sure I was homeless more or less, but I could have resolved that reasonably quickly" and I felt the answer, "when the big one hits the fan, do you want to be in California, or do you want to be self-reliant in Texas?" I said, "I'd like to be self-reliant in Texas, but I have to have a place in order to do that !!"

10. Money matters. SO GRATEFUL we were mostly out of debt when this all happened, and that we had money in the bank. It made the difference between having to stick at the campsite, feeling poor and watching every single penny (adding to our stress level), and being able to travel freely looking for a home, and eating in a restaurant (in air conditioning) just because we could. 

So get out of debt, gather together a savings. Ironically, we are still living like we did in the tent so that we can only air condition one room, and our fridge doesn't work well so we are pretty much living with refrigeration alternatives just like the past 8 weeks in a tent. It's pretty funny.

11. Gratitude is key. Last Sunday my youngest met a boy his age at church and mentioned we were living in a tent. He was horrified, and went to tell his mother they needed to do something. His father got wind of our situation, grabbed my son and had DS19 march him over to me and pretty much insisted we move in to their home. Which I appreciate. I am grateful for the offer. As he was talking, I tried to convey that we are grateful for our situation. He said "you need a roof over your head." I said, "we have four walls and a roof, it's just canvas. We have access to hot and cold running water, indoor plumbing and showers." He said, "it's 105F, you need air conditioning." I replied, "we have cars which have air conditioning and access to clubhouses and places which have air conditioning." It took me a while to convince him that we were doing well. 

And that is the key. We are doing well. We are grateful to recognize that God has blessed us abundantly. We are grateful to recognize that the shape of the blessings may be different from what we normally think of when we think of blessings, but they are still the same. We have our faith in God, we have each other, we have shelter, food, clothing, and know who we are, and why we are here.

We are indeed blessed.

Starting to get the hang of it

So it's averaging about 104F during the day and drops to a cold of 83F at night. It's hilarious that I actually find that cool. 6 weeks ago if it was 83F in Huntington Beach I would have been gasping for breath and taking cold showers every 10 minutes.

We generally hang out in one of the clubhouses which is air conditioned. The family one at Thousand Trails' Lake Tawakoni isn't but the adult one is. Today I was able to take a nap in air conditioning on a comfortable couch. That was nice.

We are actually doing pretty well. We have a line on a house, we will know in the next few days if it's going to happen or not. I've kind of decided that whether we get the house or not, it's time for us to stop bouncing. We are just bleeding too much money. Even if we moved into a motel we would at least be in one spot. So I'm going to focus on getting us into permanent housing.

Nice to be in a rhythm.

It's the bugs....And the moving !!

I realized the other day it's not the camping that bothers me so much. It's the bugs. And the moving every four days. We're at Lake Tawakoni, which is geographically closest to every place we need to go (commuting wise--Dallas, Tyler, etc.) It is the most bug-infested place we have been. And their 'clubhouse' with free WiFi is poorly air conditioned, so you can't really hang out there all day as we are used to.

So we currently sit in McDonalds.

We looked at a trailer the other day, which would at least allow us to stay in one spot. We almost bought it, but while we were enroute a guy who is owner-financing a house called me back. We went at looked at it. It's nice. Not really exciting, but it's in our price range and, if I could get the guy to get off his dime, it's something we could close on in a week. But "he's just so busy" to get me a sellers disclosure and an amortization schedule. DOES NO ONE WANT TO ACTUALLY DO BUSINESS IN TEXAS???

I'm about ready to go back to California, buy a trailer, and live at the beach. Then I can spend the rest of my life as a failure. But at least my son can work as an EMT, my daughter can find work as an Interpreter, and my son can actually have an environment to get his school work done.

Frustrated. Heaven and Nirvana are not the same place.

Feeling Discouraged

Our offer on the trailer was rejected.

I contacted the owner of the company who was gung ho to hire me, then I didn't hear anything from him. He called back, and gave me some lame excuse about how "he was concerned I'd have to commute so far... (an hour)" Really? That's the best you could do? Mind you, I don't actually LIVE anywhere, and he knows it.

It's really frustrating. 

I feel like giving up and going back to California. Except that drive was hell the first time <grin.>

A Sense of Normal: Back in Bridgeport

We are back in Bridgeport! For four days anyway. It's nice to be back; Bridgeport kicks off our "normal" routine: four days here, four days at Tawakoni, back four days here, return to Tawakoni for four days, etc.

Like so many other TT campsites, we are virtually the only tent campers. When we made our reservations for this cycle, for some reason it said all the Tent and 30amp sites were booked, so we ended up having to reserve a 50amp, which of course, we don't need. We were able to switch it to a 30 amp site which we had scouted out our last time here: that would be the one closest to the main showers and laundry facility!!

Yes, it's the small things in life we take for granted until you don't have them anymore. Being at the main showers mean all four of us can shower at the same time. That's a big deal when you have a DD18 who takes 90 minutes to get ready!!

We are at the clubhouse with WiFi and air conditioning, all by ourselves, as usual. By this afternoon, I'll know if we get the trailer or not. If not, I may buy a small fridge at WalMart and bring it to the clubhouse every day. Lack of real refrigeration is an inconvenience which could be solved by a $66 purchase. I used to belong to a Refrigerator Alternatives group, and we've done fine without it so far, it would just be nice. One of those luxury items <grin.>

I had another witness Sunday that Texas is where we are supposed to be. Ok, I'm good with that. What I can't figure out then, is why it's so hard for us to get established. I can't help but wonder if we are just supposed to be like the House of Israel during the exodus...who had to wander 40 years until they burned off the crappy attitudes and behaviors. (Numbers 32:13). I hope it doesn't take us 40 years to figure out what we're supposed to be learning. I don't have that long, LOL.

In a few minutes I'm taking DS15 and whoever else wants to go to a homeschooling meeting. We're pretty excited about it...this is the main core group he will be doing things with. Once a month they have a "teen" party or event where they can all get together and socialize.

One of the main grocery stores up here in north Texas, Brookshires, started doubling and tripling coupons this weekend. They will double or triple up to a $1.00 credit or the cost of the item, whichever is less. So excited!!  It's ironic because I had just asked my RealFoodStorage group if they knew of stores in north Texas which accepted manufacturer coupons, and I purchased a Sunday paper (for the want ads) this weekend. Looking forward to re-building my food storage (where to store it? Another problem for another day.)

A Possible Reprieve?

I'm hoping that in a few days I'll be blogging from the air conditioned comfort of our very own travel trailer!!

We put in an offer yesterday, we should hear back by Monday or Tuesday. If we get it, we'll be able to move into an RV park and get some permanence in our lives.

The dust has settled a bit, tonight is our last night at Lake Whitney, tomorrow (Saturday) we are going into a motel in Tyler Texas, as we have eliminated the Corsicana/Lake Whitney area from further consideration (permanent living) and the kids want to go to church in Tyler, so rather than wait until Sunday to move out (which is what our schedule originally called for) we are going to go there early and check in to air conditioning. My youngest made a friend at church a few weeks ago who invited him to 6Flags tomorrow so after checking in at Tyler, we'll go there for a few hours. Lots of driving. In air conditioning (ha ha ha.)

Overall things are going well. My friend Wendi let me vent to her today. I am a person with a plan, so all this uncertainty drives me a little bit cray-cray. But we are here in the clubhouse in air conditioning, (we've been here all day), and I realized we had a microwave at our disposal, so we went into town and got some frozen foods since town is only 3 miles away. It's too bad there's such a distance to town with the other TT campsites, we could go back to juicing. Oh wait. Didn't bring that. I actually forgot for a minute.

We've settled on bouncing between Bridgeport TX and and Lake Tawakoni TX. Those are the two closest to Dallas, and we start that bounce pattern this Sunday after church. We'll do four days at one, and four days at the other, and then just go back and forth in a four day pattern between the two. It sure would be nice to find work in Dallas metro, both locales would be about a 60-75 minute commute.

Lake Whitney as a site is pretty nice, actually one of the nicest ones, and the fact that it is only three miles to the town of Whitney would make it perfect. There's just nothing around here and it is a solid 90 minute drive minimum, to Dallas. 

The kids spent the day watching movies on their devices (free WiFi, electricity), I spent the whole day applying for jobs. They met some new kids and introduced them to Bang! (yes Eldred, it's the wild west one) and they played some chess as well. We are the only tent campers in the entire campground, so by dinnertime (7ish) the clubhouse is vacant as the RVers go home, and we have it all to ourselves. 

This has pretty much been the pattern at every campsite we have been at. It's nice for us, gives us a place to go and pretty much lets us relax and have a sense of brick and mortar normalcy. But I would really love it if we could move in to our own travel trailer.

I ran the numbers in our budget, and realistically unless we get the travel trailer (in which case I will find the money) we can't really afford to live anywhere other than camping for free until the middle of September. Lest you think we're destitute we're not, but I really want to get back on track financially. I paid the bills which were due two weeks ago today, so technically they were all late. That means I need to pay bills due about August 10 on the 14th, (so they'll be slightly late too), and then again on August 28th but that will catch us up completely. All that means is that we need to watch our pennies, which is hard to do on the road bouncing around like we have been. 

Even if we are in a tent, being solid between two sites will allow us to develop a routine, and knowing the clubhouse set ups now, we can plan meals accordingly. Whitney for example, has a refrigerator we can use during the day...how cool is that? Bridgeport doesn't unfortunately, neither does Tawakoni. Whitney really does have the best set up (fridge, microwave, exercise floor, free WiFi.) But all of them have electricity, so we can do what we did today, which is bring our food in with us and just park it for the day.

Living wise, we've got the routine down solid. I've seen multiple people have these water filters they attach to spigots. I think I need to get us one of those, and if we get the trailer, I definitely need to get a Berkey filter set up. Right now, we just buy bottled water, which works too...and not too expensive.

Those fans are a godsend!! The kids have actually laughed that they are COLD at night (this, after 104 degree F days!) But it's nice to be able to sleep in until about 730am and have it still be a bit "cool" (that would be about 82F, geez I'm starting to sound like a Texan.)

I'm grateful the Lord is watching out for us. We are mindful of our finances, and like all good preppers, are planning for "what if." I didn't receive a job offer like I thought I would this week. I really need to rethink the one at the pre-school which is only 3 hours a day. The problem with it is, it is only 3 hours a day, and I will spend about that much time on the road commuting to and from....hours I could be working somewhere else. I keep feeling like I need to re-start developing apps, but I need some solid internet access in order to do that. I think next week I will start exploring libraries in Bridgeport or Decatur, and Wills Point or Terrell (or even Tyler.)

Alrighty. Whined enough. I know The Secret is to express gratitude for all that I have. We have shelter, we have food, we have funds, we have transportation, we have friends, and we have the Love of the Lord. 

We look forward to tomorrow.

What a Difference a Fan Makes !

What a difference a fan makes!

Last night when we went to bed, it was about 86F. "Cool" for Texas. We hooked up the 30amp/110v adapter: 

Hooked up the extension cord:

Ran the multi-plug outlet into the extension cord (Ozark Trail has an "electrical cord hole" so you can run electric into the tent):

And plugged our fan into the multi-plug.

Worked really well. The two kids closest to the fan ended up sleeping under blankets last night. 

This particular fan is a bit under powered, and doesn't quite reach the far side of the tent (10 feet away.) We bought a box fan at another WalMart to put on the far side of the tent hopefully that will increase air flow even more.

So today we went and looked at a brand new home, cookie cutter. Oy. Ok, the big plus is they cover all the closing costs, and the HOA isn't out of control yet. But the homes themselves are pretty small for looking (on the outside) pretty big, and every home looks exactly the same.

We checked out an RV park near where we are staying at Lake Tawakoni. The Marina itself is nice, like, buy a boat and spend hours on the lake nice. It's inexpensive and I really like that commute down I-80 (for a long commute anyway) toward either Dallas or Tyler is pretty quick.

We checked out a mobile home park. It's okay. It's biggest claim to fame is that it is on barely the outskirts of Dallas so for commuting in to work there, it's pretty convenient. But as a place, it is barely better than an apartment. It's nice, but it's really an apartment. And about that expensive. It's hard to think about spending $12,000 in a year on just rent versus going "toward" something.

As I write we  are currently in Bridgeport. The kids bought a card game called "Bang" which was sent to the PO box. Since we were "halfway" there (Lake Tawakoni to Dallas) we went ahead and came all the way back to Bridgeport to get it. I have to say, I really like Bridgeport. It already feels like home, I know my way around it, but there's no internet out here!!  When you have to be at McDonald's and hope the internet works, you're really way out in the country.

We head for Lake Whitney, which is south toward Corsicana tomorrow.