24/7 Chat About Anything

[maki2]

that will be a huge help if the clear the debris of the burnt items away.

You are going to have new songs to write now and new stories to write with all these new emotions to infuse into them. Use your journal to start on bits and pieces of that.

 

[maki2]

After my trip into Seattle on my way back to where I left my trailer I thought, it will be good to get "home". I have already  made the mental transition of where home is. It took only a few weeks.  Of course I have been working on the renovation over a couple of years so I was no stranger to the space I am now dwelling in.
When it rains I have an annoying drip, drip, drip off one corner of the popup roof onto the main roof. I will have to move my scaffold bench over there while it is raining and come up with an easy fix to reduce that noise. Of course when the top is down it does not do that but unless it is really cold I usually have it up while inside. The zippered openings in the popup canvas can be left partway open when it rains which gives a nice bit of fresh air while sleeping or working. But the slicing windows on the trailer have to be closed as they let the rain come right inside as the walls have a slope to them. They have to be sloped so they can pull the cured fiberglass shell out of the mold when they make the upper and lower halves. The makes of my trailer is a Campster, but I like to turn that into Clamster since it does have two halves of a clam shell

 

[Sofisintown]

But the sliding  windows on the trailer have to be closed as they let the rain come right inside as the walls have a slope to them.

I saw Slim Potatohead's trailer, that has a solar panel covering a big window of his trailer. When parked the panel swings out like an awning over the window.That catches sun, but can deflect the rain too, in your case?
You are so resourceful and handy, I'm sure you will come up with the perfect plan!

 

[nature lover]

Travel around - I know this doesn’t mean much coming from 3000 miles away and from a man who has no resources to share., but I feel for you. My downsizing was a bitter experience but it wasn’t forced on me like yours was. I miss so many things that I gave away or that I sold for almost nothing. Thousands of books, a shop full of tools, all my pets, ... sorry about this I Started listing my losses when thinking about yours. You will get through this. I think of my great grandma‘s gift of a Bible to me when I was five years old. I wish I knew where that Bible was. But in her shaking handwriting she wrote a popular little poem.
“One little life will soon be past; only what’s done for Jesus will last.”
Take heart in remembering that in the light of eternity our things are nothing. It helps me get over some of these down times but it never stops the grieving completely. Only one day when He wipes away every tear. Again your loss is so much greater than mine but I Know you can get through it. You’ve got your family, many lost theirs.
To me these sound like almost empty words without being able to help. But they are not empty, because they are backed up by the all powerful one, not me. God bless all the nomads especially those going through this mess.

 

[maki2]

ofisintown
I saw Slim Potatohead's trailer, that has a solar panel covering a big window of his trailer. When parked the panel swings out like an awning over the window.That catches sun, but can deflect the rain too, in your case?
You are so resourceful and handy, I'm sure you will come up with the perfect plan!


........
I do have i it all figured out and I even have all the materials with me. But there are other priorites that need to get done sooner.

 

[travelaround]

Thanks Nature Lover - I am so sorry for your losses as well. What is this teaching me - well, that a lot of what I valued didn't matter much at all. My things went up in smoke so quickly! They aren't even my things anymore! I can only move forward knowing that I still have a purpose for being in this world, even if I don't know what it is.

Today... I really need to do laundry, which means I will move the rig for the first time in several days. I've been slowly working on taking things out of the van to put into the cargo trailer for storage. This will help free up space in the van to make it more potentially livable again, in case it comes to that.

I could see myself leaving the area after we get to sign our property over to the state (temporarily just for cleanup) hazmat teams... I'd have nothing left to stay here for other than that in November my daughter is having another baby and I'd like to be nearby to honor the little one's entry into this world.

They are putting their skoolie into storage and I'm thinking of putting my cargo trailer there as well. Not sure, but it is a possibility... because driving the van around is easier without the trailer. Nevertheless, I'm hanging in there. I just asked my neighbor in the room next door if we have a choice on that and we both agreed we do not.

 

[highdesertranger]

a word about mounting things to the sides of any vehicle or trailer. desert pin stripping does more than scratch paint. at times it will remove(not so gently) anything that is attached to the sides of vehicles or trailers. my brand new trailer already is pin stripped and a tree has already had it's way with my door. highdesertranger

 

[nature lover]

High desert ranger - well said. I am in a conversion van. One of those things that looks so pretty on the on the dealer’s lot with all its fiberglass attachments like the runningboards. They were cracked when I bought it. But driving through the forest roads those things are really looking ugly. I’ll be taking them off shortly. They have no value just there for looks. I saw recently somebody put two metal containers bolted to the back doors, that look like a reasonable idea. I’d like one of them just for trash and things that might smell on the inside. I would like a hitch haul, I had one on the older van but got rid of it since. with this vehicle I’d have to add a hitch first and then the only practical way to get in the garage would be a swing out hitch hall and they ain’t cheap. But you’re right about hanging things on the side. I’ve seen people hang solar panels on the side that they can race up when they park they would never stay on my vehicle With the roadside travel. If I couldn’t travel these back roads I wouldn’t want to be a van dweller. Walmart is only a necessary stop over to get into the wilderness.

 

[wayne49]

Either Walmart or the Wilderness. Simplified.

 

[Qxxx]

I could see myself leaving the area after we get to sign our property over to the state (temporarily just for cleanup) hazmat teams... I'd have nothing left to stay here for other than that in November my daughter is having another baby and I'd like to be nearby to honor the little one's entry into this world.

On the bright side, now you have every reason to travel south this winter, and who knows .... maybe find another homebase area to your liking. It could happen, .

 

[maki2]

Sure you can go to the desert but it has plenty of weather related issues as well even in the winter months.

 

[Qxxx]

I found this radio station using radio.garden. Humboldt Community Radio, lots of news focussed on the fires and local n.e. CA area.
http://radio.garden/listen/kzzh-lp-96-7/sjkHj1NX
https://kzzh.accesshumboldt.net/

 

[nature lover]

It’s to be 38 Degrees here in PA tonight. I was hoping to move to the mountains This weekend and stay for a week or two. But there could be frost in the higher elevations. Up there I don’t have an electric line ( my mountain campsite is 5 miles from any electric line)so the ceramic heater Is out. Low 30s Temp I can feel those snowbird feathers getting larger every day. But our skies are blue and beautiful and the crisp temperatures during the day are great so I throw on an extra quilt at night; definitely survivable but not always pleasant. It’s this kind of weather that makes our Pennsylvania apples crisp and sweet. I have a friend who is pressing apple cider as I Write this. It can get cold at night but I’m told I’m very “hot”. LOL God bless the nomads those that are hot and Those that are cold.

 

[Qxxx]

Sure you can go to the desert but it has plenty of weather related issues as well even in the winter months.

Well, there aren't many places that are perfect year round. Maybe the southern California coast, but then you have 40,000,000 neighbors next door. That's why Snowbirds were invented, to go with the nice weather. It's all a compromise, it's called "life".

Before I settled down after retirement, for a period of 2 1/2 years, I lived for 6 months at a time in several different places before deciding on John Galt City. Rented apartments and got to know the places.

But that was before having the van. If I were to do it over, and looking for a new homebase, I would travel around in the van for 2 years visiting places all over the west until I found something agreeable to my interests, and with reasonable living expenses. You only have to go out and do it.

 

[wayne49]

John Galt City doesn't exist. Local humor?

Galt, CA?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galt,_California

Galt [California] was named in 1869 after former city of Galt [Ontario] in Canada, now part of Cambridge [Ontario].

 

[Qxxx]

Ah, never heard of Galt CA. I don't think I would want to live near Sacramento. Too hot and humid, plus too many people and too high taxes. Back in the 1970s, I lived in Berkeley, and would only drive through the Central Valley in summer at night when it was cool. It's hotter now. Yeah, JGC is just local humor, it could be anywhere, lol.

 

[travelaround]

Hello, good morning... how's everyone today? I did my morning routine - look for breakfast at the hotel's Red Cross center, renew my hotel key for another day, and got coffee across the street at a gas station. Today, being Sunday, I will attempt to use the spotty internet connection for streaming online church services (2) one from Idaho, and later from Happy Camp.

I did my laundry yesterday and visited the cat shelter (they still don't have my cats) and went to a thrift store to buy used books for my Newbery Medal/Honor Book collection (part of which burned in the fire) ... what else? Well having done all that yesterday I have no plans for today.

I still have no plans to return to Happy Camp right away. My mail will be sent back to Yreka on Monday. My son called and wanted to buy me something so I asked for a hiking stick to replace the one burnt in the fire. He got me a nice one so I'll get that delivered to my Happy Camp PO box next week... I may return to pick up my mail, but there's still no word on when we can return to our properties to look for treasures that survived the ashes, if we ever get to do that. Basically... we have to do whatever the state of California says if we want them to clear the debris off the properties and test for toxicity and hopefully eventually certify the land as nontoxic so we will be able to build on it again. Long process ahead.

Yesterday I told my daughter that I may go travel while property cleanup is happening, for a year or two or whatever... she is planning to get into Section 8 housing if nothing better is suggested. She's expecting a baby so... really needs a place... for her, the husband and two older children and baby. She'll look for a place in HC but since housing is in short supply there she will consider a nearby city. Things are changing and there's no going back.

 

[maki2]

It has rained enough that the smoke is gone today. Partly cloudy today and the blue sky and some sun breaks are much wecome mood lifters after all the gloom. I will try to get the car better organized so I can move my business bin boxes back into it for getting hooked up and on the road in a couple of days. Undecided yet as to exactly where I will head, much depends on the weather. Stll too hot down south in Arizona. The mountains are not a good option until I  downsize more things or else rent a storage space for a month or two, which is something that I should give serious thought to. Just stopping for a day or two somewhere close to where I want to spend the winter to drop off some stuff I can sell later in November and December. The late fall and winter are when people get busy with hobbies related to cpllecting and making miniature and that is the type of items I saved back to sell when I moved out of sticks and bricks space.

 

[Qxxx]

She'll look for a place in HC but since housing is in short supply there she will consider a nearby city. Things are changing and there's no going back.

Just offhand, I wonder what your all feelings are about possibly settling in Eureka? 

Although, for the area, I like Mt Shasta (City) quite a bit myself. At 3600', city-data indicates the climate there is very suitable for year-round living ... as I've described in the past. In comparison, once you get down to Redding at 560', it's very hot in the summers.
http://www.city-data.com/city/Mount-Shasta-California.html

 

[travelaround]

Eureka? ... Mt Shasta (City) 

Eureka.. super expensive.. also high suicide rate due to foggy winters. Huge massacre of Native Americans on an island nearby, back in the day.

Mt. Shasta.. living under the shadow of a volcano might not be the best choice for a permanent homesite. Also expensive. 

Both places.. lots of marijuana culture which may or may not be to your liking. 

I own land in Happy Camp and hope to be able to live there again in a few years. That's my current plan. I'd be happy to have a nice deck with a yurt on it.