24/7 Chat About Anything

[travelaround]

Congratulations Maki! You made it.. I'm so happy for you! I'm getting a nice sunny day.. seems unusual after this long storm. Best I can say is I'm achieving my goals today.. the small stuff like laundry and trash disposal and mopping the van. I saw a cat today eating my catfood offering... this cat inspired it because of ribs showing. Glad s/he is eating.

 

[maki2]

Got my LTVA pass for the season and dropped anchor for the night at La Posa South. This site is not bad but I  wont unpack too much as I have not had a cchance to scout for an even better one. There is a decent enough Verizon signal that I dont have to boost it. This afternoon it  is a very pleasant temperaure, I am outside sitting in my chair on the shady side. A little whisper of a breeze but fortunately not at all windy.

Not too bad of a distance from here in to Quartzsite. I needed to drop an Etsy order into tne mail so before went to any BLM land I found the Post office. Tommorow I will see about renting a small  storage space in the Quartzsite so I can get the car cleared of things I dont need right now. Then I can more easily get to the tools and materials I do need for finshing the build.

Tomorrow I might take a trip into Parker to Walmart, I need more short sleeved shirts. plus a fly swatter, more sunscreen, etc.

 

[tx2sturgis]

Tomorrow I might take a trip into Parker to Walmart, I need more short sleeved shirts. plus a fly swatter, more sunscreen, etc.

Ah wintertime in Quartzsite...time to buy short sleeved shirts, fly swatters, sunscreen, and oh yeah, firewood!

 

[travelaround]

Oh fantastic.. you need short sleeved shirts! I'm intrigued! And it took you only a couple days to get there! Exciting! What will you do for electricity when you need to work?

 

[Sofisintown]

Hmm.. just read about it in wiki.. according to them runza was modified and named here in the states from bierock... Which is a germany russiany item.

When I was growing up we called them piroskie (Rusian/Polish name) My mom used to make them, and she would fill them with a thick ground beef sauce, minus the cabbage, or with a concoction of eggs and cheese. The outside was bread dough, and after you seal them you bake or fry them.
I do make them sometimes.

 

[crofter]

Got my LTVA pass for the season and dropped anchor for the night at La Posa South...

Tomorrow I might take a trip into Parker to Walmart, I need more short sleeved shirts. plus a fly swatter, more sunscreen, etc.

The custom in AZ is to quarantine for 14 days after travelling to prevent the spread of covid 19. In Parker you will be interacting with a vulnerable population so take the precautions please. And thanks. -crofter

 

[crofter]

When I was growing up we called them piroskie (Rusian/Polish name) My mom used to make them, and she would fill them with a thick ground beef sauce, minus the cabbage, or with a concoction of eggs and cheese. The outside was bread  dough, and after you seal them you bake or fry them.
I do make them sometimes.

I love piroshki, and also ate them as a kid whenever possible. If I was a bread baker I would whip some up. 
-crofter

 

[maki2]

@travelaround. You asked what I am going to do for electricity when I need to work.

This evening i fred up my laptop and vonnected it to my Verizon phone. I plugged my printer into a small, inexpensive 70 watt inverter into an outlet fueled by my house battery. that battery  is 160 ah AGM derp cycle marinegrsde and is charged by a 150 watt panel on the trailer roof. however I also have a Honda 1,000 generator along for times when I need more power for longer work sessions and for running some small power tools.  Of course the generator helps when there is not enogh solar on rainy days.

But I do have a plan B for when I might need a lot of work time either designing or cutting kits. That plan B for this winter is to check into one of the very low cost RV parks here in Quartszsite or down near Yuma. They dont have luxuries, basicaly just dirt lots with a bunch of power poles to plug into. But that is all I need and the cost for a few days is worth it in terms of how much I can get done. My tent will be left in place to reserve  my BLM LTVA campsite while I am working just a few miles away. Of course I can also set up my equipment in my car and commute to the RV spot as my day job location. But I would have to pretty much empty the car to do that and only have my chair and folding table and the supplies I need in the car. Honda Elements are tall enough in the rear to use it as a small mobile office. Hopefully I wont have anymore long days of vutting any time soon. But then again if I do that means I am making a lot of sales so I won't  be complaining about needing to work more hours.

Looking out my desk window at the lights of Quartzsite in the distance. It is a 6 mile drive from this campsite. There is an LTVA site just a half mile from the town but no potable water, trash or waste dump there. My campsite is faily close to those amenities at this location.

 

[maki2]

Pease note, I own 10 face mask and buy hand sanitizer by the quart.

Please note, I am allowed to do essential item shopping.

The items I am going to shop for are essential for my health ,  as stated I need sunscreen and clothing for hot weather. I am heat intolerant and coming from a very different climate I need appropriate clothes to wear as the clothing I own is for a cold climate. Sunscreen is recommended by all MDs to prevent skin cancer, it is an essential purchase. Fly swatters are not just for fun and amusement. They too are an essential health related item for food safety reasons.

While my writing style might sound casual there is nothing casual about how I act when in public places on essential errands. I did forget to mention that I also need to go to Walgreens to pick up prescriptions for a new inhaler and for my arthritis. Yet another essential errand that is health related.

Stores don't deliver to BLM campsites. That means going to the stores for my health care supplies as well as food is an "essential" errand. This is not recreational shopping.

 

[travelaround]

Well I hope you have  a wonderful experience in AZ and adjust well to the warmth. I am not doing well in the cold right now and wish I was there with you. I love how prepared you are with electricity.. to maintain your business.

My daughter is more than 8+1/2 months pregnant. They are living in the new trailer now and put the old RV in my space here but have not done the work to make it available to me to use. I'm kind of freezing right now and had a toothache all day and am not very happy. I can't get warm unless I run the van engine, but gas is so expensive.. I told her not to come clean the RV right now because she's too pg. But.. why doesn't her husband? I guess he isn't aware that I'm needing warmth and a shower.. don't mind the freezing sponge baths in the mornings but I'd like to wash my hair.

 

[maki2]

Travelaround.
Its hard to think of compromise solutions when tired and stressed out. 
So I am going to suggest one you could try if you wish to do so.

The alternative is to take the job on yourself. Start in the bedroom so you have a warm place to sleep tonight. Purchase a box of heavy duty trash bags if you need to fold and store their clothing so you can use the bedroom to sleep in. That will make it easy to deliver it to them or have them pick it up. one small goal at a time, your most critical need is being warm in bed tonight. Tackle that one thing today. The rest of the cleaning is not as urgent of an issue.

Just telling them you need to use the bedroom tonight might be enough to kick them into action mode to clean that area out today. This does not have to be a situation where all the cleaning happens on the same day. The roadblock could be their not having enough time to do the cleaning all at once. So offer up a workable solution that gets part of your immediate goal met, a warm place for a good night of sleep. After that you can tackle clearing out the bathroom, that is a half hour job, you will need some boxes to put their stuff in. The cleaning will take anothher hour or two.

 

[travelaround]

Okay, got daughter to show me how to use the RV ... so I can take a shower. It looks like a family was living there... obviously still needs cleaning but is a way to get out of the cold. My tooth is bothering me a lot and I have an appt for that Monday afternoon.

 

[crofter]

Getting clean makes all the difference. 
Didn't you have a buddy heater, or did the fire get that?
-crofter

 

[VanFan]

TravelAround:  Hope you feel better soon!!

 

[maki2]

Travelaround.. Glad to hear you are out of the cold now.
Not at all surprising your daughter and her husband have not gotten the moving out of the RV finished. I doubt she is getting a good nights sleep this late in the pregnancy which means he is also not getting enough sleep since they share the same bed. Their butts must be dragging all day long with all the things that need doing for the kids as well as the rest of life. So cleaning the RV is really the start of all the pitching in you are going to be doing for the new baby. 

I need to get to the dentist myself. Planning on going to Algodones if a few weeks if I can wait that long.

This afternoon when zi got back from Parker AZ  I began unloading materials such as the poplar wood for the cabinet doors for the build that I had I brought along from Seattle in my into my tent/workspace. At least now zi can get it all sorted out and organized. Put the rainfly on, it will be hotter in there but not as dusty when I need to put varnish on the wood.

I got my trailer aligned so that at miday the sun is directly in line to mt solar panel. That means at miday the only shadow being cast is in the rear where my entry door is. At this time of year the long sides are not getting too much heat accumulation on them. I have a piece of 3/8" thick EVA landau foam in the front window. That is working just fine to kerp the trsiler cooler than xmbient temperature along with the rest of the indulation I put in. Plus with the popup canvas unzipped at the screened openings the cross breeze goes through and pulls any heat  up and out.

As soon as the sun goes down I put up my foam backed reflective window covers inside and zip up the popup windows leaving just a small smmount open for fresh air. I also close the sliding windows. The trailer is then warm enough until bedtime that I dont need to use my heater. Of course that will change in a few weeks as winter's colder nights start to arrive.The mornings are somewhat chilly but putting on a fleece jacket is sufficent as it soon warms up  after sunrise. Making hot coffee on the propane stove also helps warm up this small trailer. No need yet for the diesel heater.

So what else.  I was able to use a little 100 watt inverter to bring my old laptop  battery ftom 50% to 100% while bringing the house battery up to 100%. The house drops down some at night because it is running the fridge, plus charging up my tablet, phone and a few LED lights.

One of the yjoutube channel tribe stopped by my camp today to say hello and talk about my trsiler. He told me where I could get a 250 watt panel that would fit perfectly on my roof space for omly $50.00. I will keep that in mind for January or February when I have more of the build work completed. I dont have the room for a bigger battery so all it would really gain me is more computer time during daylight hours. Or in the hot months runnig a bigger fan during the daytime. That is likely worth it if I want to do more design time in the future. 3D CAD programs eat up a lot of processing  which takes quite a bit of energy useage. It can't be done on low power mode.

 

[maki2]

Thank goodness, I wss afrsid the group of people who moved in next to me were going to run the generator all night long. They finally shut it off at 11 pm. O wasvafrsid I would have to pack up everything I just took out of the car so I could move to a new lovcation. I can sleep through a lot of noises  invluding routers, tablesaws trsins, plabnes, grand pianos playing, etc. and that major windstorm last week in Orego and hurticanes in New Orleans. But not this particular genset, it was driving me nuts.

 

[maki2]

Home for now at Quartzsite. Nice day today, good enough weather all week although a few breezy days but nothing strong enough to bother  my tent or popup top.

 

[nature lover]

Hello fellow nomads. I am finally on the road south city now very close to the ocean at Cape Hatteras hairy seagulls and tomorrow I’ll be having my feet in the Atlantic ocean on the Outer Banks. Oh this is a tough life. The van is running great getting 16 miles to gallon which for a big V-8 or full-size Dodge van not bad at all. That tuneup paid I guess. It’s 70° here now after 5 o’clock. I am parked at a rest stop which shares a parking lot with a national wildlife refuge. I’m not sure if overnighting here is legal but if they knock on my door I will politely tell him I can’t drive after dark and it was getting dark so here I sit. Last night was a Cracker Barrel they were nice people. My campsites in Virginia became limited due to the Covid policies and they didn’t give me really enough notice to make changes. I’m going to drop in a picture I hope I have something on usual I have not yet taken many pictures but this was unusual for me so I snapped it.

Mama never rocked me in the cradle by the mold cotton fields but I did sing the song today.

 

[travelaround]

Nice to get everyone's news of the day. Maki, hope you are happy camping in the desert. I don't know how to slow down and relax in one place anymore it seems. I'm always going somewhere if only to run the van heater to stay warm ... a bad habit I know but there's no place to go inside here.. normally very few choices but with covid everything is off limits except the market and post office... and I can't spend all day there. Today I drove out about 10 miles on the road where the fire was... and saw devastation everywhere. Also saw piles of wood chips from tree cutting operations and fantasized about taking those chips back to my property, one little bag at a time, to enrich the soil... of course when the land I own is cleared they will scrape off 6 to 8 inches so I may have to buy dumptruck loads of top soil if I want to grow anything here.. I've located a place in Yreka that can sell me that much dirt.

 

[tx2sturgis]

Home for now at Quartzsite. 

'Bout the best lookin small rig I ever did see....definitely 'Bob Bait'....