24/7 Chat About Anything

[maki2]

I gave my Mojo two days off and then it decided to go work for a much better boss. I can't afford to match the benefit package of it's new employer so I will have to do my best to crawl very slowly along without it. The weather is now a blend of hot, rainy or seriously threatening to rain. But at least today I got a few hours of production time. Hopefully I can repeat that for most of this coming week. Then, if the weather is favorable, not too hot or stormy I am going to treat myself to a little vacation at the Grand Canyon. Some sightseeing, an ice cream cone treat while looking at the view, maybe even a piece or two of maple fudge!
Plus the luxury of a few showers. Unfortunately the showers in the Grand Canyon Park are only open in the morning so are not available for cooling off on a hot afternoon. But maybe with my build done and my car emptied of build materials I will take the time to create a shower room right out my trailer door that hooks onto my awning rail and uses my adjustable support poles for 2 corners. I can get that put together pretty quickly by adding some extra grommets to a tarp. I did not need a shower tent before as I had my popup shelter with privacy panels for that function. But my popup died from sunstroke so it is time to create an alternative shower room.

 

[bullfrog]

^^^So was this the fancy screen room you got a couple seasons ago and modified that the sun got to? If so would you buy another? How long and how well did it last? Please give us a review.

 

[maki2]

It held up for a lot of use and abuse by weather for about 2 years. Yes the do need modification to handle strong winds.good to about 20mph without modification. The come with only stake tie downs at the lower corners and those tie downs are on webbing but the only stitching of them to the tent is a single row of clear thread at the seam that attaches the sides to the perimeter short ground skirting. I am not going to elaborate on how I reinforced it so that it stood up to 60mph gust as well as direct hits by very large dust devils. Too tired for that tonight. Overall I liked it. Reinforcing it takes many hours of hand stitching on wide webbing.

But if anyone in the Flagstaff area is looking to purchase an unused 4 sided Clam Shelter a woman in the area I have camped with is selling her with 3 wind panels for $100. I thought about buying it but all my funds went into build materials this summer.

 

[user 22017]

But if anyone in the Flagstaff area is looking to purchase an unused 4 sided Clam Shelter a woman in the area I have camped with is selling her with 3 wind panels for $100. I thought about buying it but all my funds went into build materials this summer.

Good price and product. Wish I was there to buy it.

 

[maki2]

Oh no another rodent wanting to caravan with me. Just part of living in the wild I guess.

Very rainy afternoon here near Flagstaff, the flood warnings are being sent out for vulnerable areas near town. Guess I will just hang out in camp and read. Not a good day for taking tools in and out of my car for working on projects. Of course no solar input either.

 

[maki2]

Going to take a break from posting for a little while while I focus on some other stuff. So do not worry I am OK I just need to get gears shifted so to speak. I have never been a good multi tasker and less so with each passing year.

 

[user 22017]

Oh no another rodent wanting to caravan with me. Just part of living in the wild I guess.

I'm not looking forward to dealing with rodents

 

[travelaround]

Hello - from heatwave central. We're expecting 111 tomorrow and 113 on Friday. Maybe that's nothing compared to Arizona, but I'm not used to it being over about 104 here.

Today we had another fire about three miles from here but fortunately it burned only about 1/2 acre before being extinguished by local residents and firefighters. It was in an area already burned over in the 2020 fire... so lots of grasses but not trees.

I'm now in the habit of going into town only once weekly - on Wednesdays - so today was that day. I just went to the library to drop off a book, then the post office and store. I met a man walking up the creekside road planning to go 6 miles in long sleeves 104 degree heat, and without water. I had to stop and offer water. Don't know what happened to him next. He wanted to go see the place where he lived before the fire.

After the fire the landlord there told me the tenant (the man I met today) had found a gold bar in the ruins of his house. Considering the heat of the fire I'm guessing the gold bar would have been in melted condition. For some reason the landlord thought it had been concealed in the crawl space of the house by some former tenant, and should belong to him. But the man I talked to today just said he is a gold prospector and that's why there was gold there. Of course he recovered it and kept it, which upset the landlord. (Life in a small town.)

His rental home was just down the hill from where my daughter was living before the fire. I don't think any of those homes will ever be rebuilt. The owner/landlord is elderly now, and had built all those rental cabins when he was much younger... well, most of them. The one my daughter lived in was the original cabin on the property before he lived there. (Four bedrooms.) Sure was nice, while it lasted.

Anyhow, that was my day. Nothing much is going on around here. I need to work on buying a shed so I can get everything out of my van and do something about making it livable again.

 

[NctryBen]

Yikes TA, that’s pretty hot. Two three years ago I came up through your area with a load of canoes to deliver and experienced the same. The car temp was a steady 111 from Sacramento to Oregon it seemed. That was hot... and oh, my air conditioner took the day off that day. Haha!
We’ve been in a comfortable stretch here. 70’s by day, 50 at night. Just kinda wet... always enough solar to top off batteries though.

 

[Morgana]

So a client would like to hire me but only if I get an LLC and professional liability insurance. Three days and a scary sum of money later, it’s done. Now staring cross-eyed out the window like a zombie. I feel like I climbed three mountains. It’s like doing your taxes while programming a VCR and visiting a really boring foreign country, aaaaaaaaaaa. And then when it’s done it all looks so simple and obvious you wonder what the big deal was. \_(**)_/

I already did one job for this client and they seem solid and decent and it was a good gig. This is way more corporate than I usually get but hey, flexibility is key, right?
It’ll be nice if they work out. I’ll be feeling very silly if they don’t. Thanks for listening.

 

[NctryBen]

Congratulations Morgana.

 

[user 22017]

Three days and a scary sum of money later, it’s done.

Grats, Morgana!

 

[user 423]

After the fire the landlord there told me the tenant had found a gold bar in the ruins of his house. Considering the heat of the fire I'm guessing the gold bar would have been in melted condition. For some reason the landlord thought it had been concealed in the crawl space of the house by some former tenant, and should belong to him. But the man I talked to today just said he is a gold prospector and that's why there was gold there. Of course he recovered it and kept it, which upset the landlord. (Life in a small town.)

I'm surprised the tenant even mentioned it to the LL ...

Sorry to hear of the hot weather you're having. This is the first time I've stayed in AZ for July-Aug. during the monsoons and it's cooled things down.

I'm trying to get work done on my vehicles so the rain is a bother but I'll take mid-80s in July for sure. The extra humidity isn't too bad.

 

[JDub]

CONGRATS MORGANA!

 

[abnorm]

Hi TA...................Triple digits in the van today in Oregon........Monday cooling !

 

[vanbrat]

Hi TA...................Triple digits in the van today in Oregon........Monday cooling !

It's 93+/- in Seattle this week but out here on the Island we are high 70's to mid 80's. I like my Island's!

 

[travelaround]

@Morgana - congratulations! That all sounds so positive.......

I saw 111 degrees today - on my phone. Fortunately I was indoors with the air conditioner on. Got a call from the tribe today - they've suddenly decided to do inspections on all their loaned-out travel trailers. I made an appointment for Monday afternoon. These trailers weren't built for full time living. The tribe owns almost 100 loaner trailers and I don't blame them for wanting to inspect. I've heard some of the trailers are in very bad condition now. Mine is still in good condition - but I will sweep and mop before they get here... and move some things out, back into my van of course. I have too much stuff in here. Grrrrr.... it is so hard to stay minimalist.

@slow2day - I'm not so sure that tenant ever told the landlord about the gold. More likely, he heard it from the community rumor mill.

You all probably have no idea how much I second-guess my decision to stay in this community. It was the end of 2019..... then someone offered me the land, and then covid lockdowns, then fire... and I feel stuck here and all my good intentions for travel went out the window and the money drained out of my bank account. This community has both good and bad to it, but I'm stuck here for the duration, waiting to hear if I'll ever have a house built here again. All I can do is sit and wait. And grow tomatoes, basil, oregano, parsley, and lemon balm. And draw silly pictures in my little sketchbook. And read books.

Plantar fasciitis is better now. I bought a good and expensive pair of walking shoes but they caused me PF pain the one day I wore them into town for my errand day last week. I've also bought the inserts someone suggested and they should be here Monday - so I'm still trying to regain my walking/hiking life someway somehow.

 

[abnorm]

Hey TA

The McKinney fire looks dangerously close to Happy Camp......Hwy 96 East closed ?

Prayers for a safe outcome...........................

 

[travelaround]

Yes Highway 96 is closed. Our forest is on fire. This is huge - it was 300 acres yesterday and now is 18000 acres. Many homes lost already. Many evacuations. The city of Yreka is threatened. Fire is burning near my hometown too, but it is expected to go north, not to us. With the heat what it is... and winds... I might as well go pack my van again. We don't have an evacuation warning here, but that could change. I'm in zone 1212. Even though it burned here in 2020 and many of the trees were lost, there are still some trees, homes that didn't burn then, and the grasses.

 

[NctryBen]

Oh man TA... that’s just to close! Pack that van! Be ready!!! Your in my prayers!!
Doug... your not far from my son. He had 115 yesterday and 113 today. Be careful in that heat. You mind as well go back to Arizona and shrivel up there.. My son did assure me the dry heat was a good thing. 113 only feels like 113. Haha. Man, stay safe out there!