Category: North Carolina

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Exterior

Exterior – done!! Except for some trim and paint, the house is 100% closed in! I’m so glad; I was really getting burned out with this project. I feel like I need to get out there 7 days a week, since I can only work on it for a couple hours in the mornings before it gets hot. But I told myself to take Labor Day off. So I did. And then I also took the next 3 days off…oops! But now I’m back on duty. I think I will take the occasional day off though.

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Next comes the roof insulation which I am dreading like crazy. I got a STEAL on 4″ thick 4×8 rigid foam panels, only $12 each! They’d be around $40 each new. But I’ve discovered that they are not 4″ thick as advertised; they are sandwiched between some strange wallboard/fiberglass surface, so they actually are 4 1/2″ thick. That’s bad, very bad. I have continuous soffit & roof vents for hot air to escape, and it needs a 1 1/2″ clear air space . 4″ foam would have been perfect but now I will need to tack on a 1×2 strip on the bottom of each rafter, to give more air space.  It’s not terrible, but just a little more money and a little more labor. (It’s always something, isn’t it?)  I’ve read that when you cut this sandwiched foam stuff, little fiberglass particles go everywhere. Oh how fun. One of the reasons I’m using foam insulation is because I can’t stand working with fiberglass!

I have rigged up an outdoor shower though, so at least now I’ll be able to wash the fiberglass bits off. It’s wonderful! It’s a 3 gallon solar shower bag suspended high up in a tree next to the water tank. It’s so warm outside, I don’t need to lay the bag in the sun; it warms up nicely just hanging there. I strung a couple wires and have four $1 shower curtains enclosing the space. I have hung some towel hooks and a shower organizer thingie from bars around the water tank. I stand in a shallow tub that’s meant for cement mixing. I’ve taken more showers in the past two weeks than I took in the previous four years combined, LOL! It really feels luxurious to cool down and get clean.

I brought a couple of thrift store chairs over from storage and set up my living room. I’ve been doing some reading there, as it’s usually a little cooler in the house than the camper. Unfortunately, neither of those chairs is very comfortable for long-term sitting. I’ve got to find something really small, really cheap and really comfy! The bed will be hung from the wall at the 36″ high level, and will drop down over the top of the chairs so nothing will need to be moved to convert from living room to bedroom. I’ll just need a little step up in order to get into the bed.  Oh and there’ll be a small dining/game table that will be hinged against the wall under the bed, ready to be pulled up for use.  Living room, dining room and bedroom in 21 sq. feet! I just bought that tall door mirror on sale at Walmart for $6. It’s the first time I’ve had larger than a 6″ mirror in four years!

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Here’s a very unhappy Roxie in the house. She’s not at all comfortable in there yet. She has always believed that she can’t go up and down stairs, so this 2″ level across the doorway is enough to make her think she can’t get out.

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It’s been very hot, in the 90’s. I bought myself a kiddie swimming pool marked down to $2.75 and was all excited about sitting in that to escape the heat. I brought it home and put a few inches of water in it and left it for a few hours to warm up, and then was ready for my “swim”. But in my excitement I forgot that even though my knees don’t hurt any more, they still don’t work quite right. There’s no way I can get down and sit at ground level, not to mention what gyrations I’d have to go through to get back up on my feet afterward!  So that idea was a bust. Maybe I can use the pool as a planter or something. I’m glad I only paid $2.75 for it!

In early spring I had purchased two hummingbird feeders but I never put them out. Lately I’ve been feeling really sorry for the hummers who kept coming up and checking out every fake flower in my little hanging basket, as though they couldn’t believe there could possibly be so many flowers with nothing good in them! So I got out one of the feeders and made up some nectar. It was only out there for about 10 minutes before it was discovered! It’s been 4 days and now I have a regular parade of visitors. I hung it right outside the camper door, where I can see it easily. I can’t get photos of the birdies though because my camera won’t focus through the window screen.

I have a new neighbor, a small Praying Mantis. He’s constantly hanging around my door. Every time I go outside he gets startled and waves his little arms around but he doesn’t move away; he’s always somewhere close by. Do you see him? I’ve named him Manny, not to be confused with Jeff’s dog Manny. Jeff and Manny left a week ago; moved over to a new property that our friend Pat purchased nearby.  I miss him. I was surprised at how comforting it was just to know someone was within shouting distance, in case of accident. Poor Jeff, I’m sure he was very sorry he was within hearing distance when I’d get frustrated at my house projects and start yelling!

On the health front, everything has been fine for the past few weeks but can you believe it…I STILL don’t have the pre-authorization from Humana for the MRI/Angiogram of my brain! The first order got thrown out after 13 days of waiting, because they called a really old phone number for my doctor (even though I had given them the corrected number!) and since they couldn’t get him, they just deleted the order without giving me a chance to straighten it out. Then my Dr’s office put in another order which miraculously got approved within a few hours! But she’d designated the wrong provider. I don’t understand why the provider would make a difference, but she tried again and we waited another 10 days, only to learn that Humana had no record of it, even though Cris had a confirmation number for the conversation. Note that every time they call Humana, it takes about an hour of their time and they often get disconnected and have to start all over again.  Cris tried again and managed to get another authorization for Summit Healthcare, yay, at last! She faxed it to the hospital and I called to make my appointment. Well not so fast. I was told it was no good; I needed yet another pre-authorization!!! My order said “MRI with angiography of brain with and without contrast”, and the hospital here does not do angiograms with and without contrast. So I need authorization that says just MRI with angiography. Can you believe I have been waiting for this pre-authorization for FIVE WEEKS!!  Good thing I’m not dying. Hopefully it’s not imminent.

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North Carolina

Oh Crap!

They have an RV sewer connection here so it’s easy to empty my porta-potty. The “stuff” starts coming out before the spout gets anywhere near the pipe though, so I have to be real careful to aim well and pour slowly. I don’t know if you are familiar with porta-potties; they have a top section that holds the clean water for flushing, and a bottom section that holds the “stuff”. In between is a sliding plate valve that opens when you want to flush. Well yesterday I dumped it, rinsed it out and took it back inside. I reconnected the two sections and opened the valve to pour in the blue good-smelly stuff. As I opened the bottle, the cap jumped out of my hand and went whirling round and round the bowl like one of those Give To The Blind coin contraptions you see in stores. And then it plopped into the base. SCORE!
OH CRAP. I didn’t think it’d be a good idea to leave it in there, and I didn’t think it would be good to dump it down their sewer pipe either, so I dumped it out on the ground, in the little trench way over to the side where the rainfall runs down. There was less than a cup of the liquid, and I’d washed it out pretty good, so it was only very light brown……..but I still hated to do it. Call the EPA! The garden hose isn’t long enough to wash it down/dilute it. I hope it rains soon! I guess in the bigger scheme of things, it’s way less than a dog poop, but somehow it being Human makes it seem so much worse.
Annnnnd…..yet another change in plans! Funny how that happens. I have been having trouble sleeping; I wake up in the wee hours and my fingers hurt so badly I can’t get back to sleep. And then I noticed that the ring finger on my right hand, which I KNOW was straight when I left AZ, is now trying to become S-shaped! The middle finger has been twisty for some time, and the first knuckles are all getting knobby. The two middle fingers are heading off to the west at the first knuckle, while the little finger wants nothing to do with those yayhoos; it’s curving over to the east, trying to escape. So far the index finger is still straight but very knobby. And the left hand is still pretty good but getting knobs on the first knuckles.

This drastic change from less than two months ago was a  shocker. The first winter I spent in AZ, my finger pain disappeared completely, only to return when I came east for the summer. Last winter the pain didn’t completely go away, but I think that’s because the arthritis had progressed. I just realized that if I wanted to keep the use of my fingers for as long as possible, I really need to live in a dry climate. I need my hands! It’s a blow because I really love my summers in northern Michigan. I’ve been using my infrared white light on it for the past few days and I do think it is helping with the pain.

So…..I’m planning on leaving here July 22 and heading out to the Laramie/Cheyenne, WY area. I have been wanting to go to the Snowy River Range for several years now. It’s a high alpine area with lots of beautiful lakes and forests, and a gorgeous scenic byway (Hwy. 130) between Laramie and Centennial. The elevation is around 8000′ so I hope that’s high enough to escape the heat. Then I’ll work my way down through western Colorado, visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and end up in either Flagstaff or Clints Well some time in September. The temps in most of Arizona don’t get to my level of comfortable until November so I’ll have to stay in the higher elevations til then.

I hope the neighbor here will pick up what I’ve been doing….paying the 2 worker-guys and inspecting the house after a showing. It’s not at all time-consuming.

That tooth that was bothering me back in April has awakened again. I sorta forgot about it. My dentist here is more expensive than anyone else, and that was fine when I had dental insurance and only had to pay a little bit extra, but now I can’t afford him. I bet it would cost $200 just to have him LOOK at this tooth! So I called the Western NC health clinic (for poor people) here in Asheville but they told me you have to be a Buncombe County resident, have HIV or be trans-gender. Ummm…OK? Oh well. So I called the Henderson County equivalent and they don’t have any appointments available for new patients until September!! But she said I could just come in and see if they can work me in; no guarantees though. So I guess I will do that tomorrow and just plan on sitting there most of the day. The weather forecast says 0% chance of rain tomorrow, and I wouldn’t want Roxie to have to suffer through a loud thunderstorm all alone. Last time that happened, when I came home she was standing on the stove! And normally she thinks she can’t jump onto the bed (which is the only way she could have gotten to the stove). I hate to think that I might have to go there every day for awhile!! But they have a sliding scale for payments, according to your income. I hope they have good air conditioning! Ugh, sure not looking forward to this. And in the end, I’ll probably have to get it pulled. I can’t afford a root canal, and that tooth already has a crown. I hope it won’t show. Boy, being poor with bad teeth is awful! I just know I’m going to end up one of those toothless hillbilly types; most of my teeth have crowns and bridges that are aging fast! Sigh.

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North Carolina

Lazy Days

I haven’t been doing much of anything lately, so not much to write about. The most exciting thing going on has been the people mowing the lawn!  The strawberries are coming in nicely and I’ve been able to get a few, plus some blueberries to go with my homemade organic Greek yogurt, which is really yummy and much cheaper than the store-bought stuff.

I lost my glasses!!  They HAVE to be in this camper somewhere, but where?? You wouldn’t think something could actually get lost in this small a space. I’ve given up on finding them and ordered new glasses from ZenniOptical.com. $50 for glasses with progressive bifocal lenses, plus a pair of clip-on sunglasses to fit them! I hope they’re not too ugly; I got the $9.95 frames. I am counting on the old glasses showing up as soon as the new ones come. That’s the way it works, isn’t it?

And my microwave bit the dust last week too. The door latch quit working, and the microwave won’t “go” if the door isn’t latched. So I bought a $38 one from Wal-Mart yesterday but haven’t pulled the old one out and installed the new one yet.

I met the neighbor guy Monday and hope I don’t meet him again! Blah, blah, blah, and all about his many health problems.  I had a hard time escaping. See, this is why I like boondocking out in the middle of nowhere. I’m not a nice person; I don’t LIKE people! I just want to be left alone. Now I’ll have to sneak around when I go check the mail.

I’ve been checking up on what’s for sale around here and also in northern Michigan. I would prefer to find a place here but there just isn’t much in my price range that’s livable. I’m looking for something under $15,000 and in NC-SC-GA that means a large house that’s pretty much wrecked, that would take thousands more to make livable.  I really want a small house, under 600 sq. ft. (which would be more than 10 times the size I’m living in now!) There’s much more available in Michigan in my price range, because there are lots and lots of little cottages and cabins up there, and many of them are in pretty decent shape and just need minor repairs or updating.  I could probably find an older mobile home on land around here but I don’t think I want something that’s only going to depreciate, and many of those are 900-1000 sq. ft. also. I just don’t want to have to heat, cool and clean that much space. I’m hoping to get up to Michigan in August to look around at what’s available. In the meantime I have to figure out how I’d pay for it…sadly, I’d probably have to buy it on my credit card because those kind of homes are not mortgageable.  I’m trying to save up though, if only those unexpected expenses wouldn’t keep cropping up!

 

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North Carolina

Growing Things

I am growing celery from the end of a grocery store bunch or organic celery! I cut about an inch off the end and stuck it in a little dish with water, and changed the water every day and look how cute! After only  6 days, new celery is growing! I suspect it’ll take forever to get actual new stalks, but I don’t mind using little baby-stalks. It will be nice to be able to harvest what I need without killing the plant, as I tend to throw a lot of celery away; it goes bad before I can use up a whole bunch of it. I need to plant it in dirt pretty soon. I read that you bury the whole thing up to where the new growth is coming out.

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And I also have another green pepper plant. I hope she does better than last year’s pepper who rejected her child when it was only an inch or so grown. I really wanted to have a lot of container veggies but since it’s so uncertain how long I’ll be here, I decided I’d better not. I think Celery and Pepper could travel with me if I have to leave.

I’ve discovered even more competition for those strawberries….apparently the squirrels really like strawberries too! They are nasty about it…they pick a berry and bring it up to a rock or onto the gravel drive, and then they eat about half of it and leave the rest there to taunt me. There are half-eaten strawberries all over the place! So far I’ve only gotten two berries that are kinda-sorta ripe. Obviously I can’t wait for them to ripen, or they’ll be gobbled up by all the competition.  I am the sole owner of the blueberries though, and I harvested a small handful the other day and had them in my yogurt. They are FAR superior to those flavorless grocery store blueberries!

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North Carolina

Blooming!

Everything’s bursting into bloom here. The  honeysuckle grows wild and the smell is intoxicating! It’s all over the bank on the high side of the driveway.

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I’ve had a hankering for meatloaf for a long time and I bought a toaster oven at Goodwill for $3. So yesterday I put the oven on a little table that’s in the garage, plugged it into an extension cord and made my meatloaf. The oven timer is only for 10 minutes though! So I had to set a little kitchen timer for 9 minutes and reset the oven timer…6 times. I sat in my lawn chair right in front of the open garage door, with my trusty fire extinguisher at my side. Just in case the oven was faulty, I didn’t want to burn down the garage!  But all was well, and the meatloaf turned out great. While I was sitting there, there was a little animal parade. First a fat opossum came squaddling across the driveway and into the honeysuckle. No time for a photo of him, but I did get a photo of the next guy, a little Eastern Box Turtle. He was headed straight for the garage so I redirected him to the strawberry patch.

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And oh, the strawberries! There’s a LOT of them, and they are starting to get ripe! Can’t wait, though Jenni told some of the neighbors they could have some, so I don’t know how many I’ll actually be able to get. A guy showed up yesterday with a BIG bag but they’re not quite ripe yet…….obviously he has big plans to harvest a lot of berries though. 😦 And I didn’t realize that turtles really like strawberries. Now I have more competition for them! Every time I see a berry getting red, there’s already a big chunk taken out of it.

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And finally, the water lilies in the pond are blooming. First were some yellow ones, and now pink. Very pretty!

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I made homemade Greek yogurt! I used a thrift store find, an insulated stainless steel coffee carafe to incubate it. I bought a quart of organic whole milk (in a glass bottle!) but after I had it on the stove, I realized my digital thermometer does not work. It was steaming but the thermometer only read 112 degrees! It’s supposed to heat to 180 degrees, then cool down to 110.  I had to just guess, but apparently it’s very forgiving, because it turned out to be really delicious! I made it speak Greek by straining it through paper coffee filters.

Yesterday I got an email from my bank that a transaction had been denied…..someone in Utah was trying to use my debit card to buy something for $69.95! Thank goodness Wells Fargo has a good fraud detector system, but I had to cancel my card and get a new one in the mail…..what a hassle! I’ll have to change to the new card number at a bunch of websites where my card number is saved, and for recurring payments. Ugh!

Am I the only who’s been getting Facebook Friend Requests from people you don’t know? It’s always middle-aged men, and when I go into their FB page, they don’t have any other friends. Why me??? Just my luck to have a bunch of friend requests from loser men who have no friends.

 

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North Carolina

Chillin’ in Asheville

We are all settled in at our covered berth in Asheville, NC. As it gets hotter, I’m really appreciating the electricity to use the roof vent fan as much as I want, and I’m starting to need the air conditioner as well.  Having the carport roof overhead really helps to keep the camper cooler though.

I am trying to figure out what to do with my camper door. On the way here, I noticed the dreaded flashing blue lights in my rear-view mirror. My heart sank because the new registration sticker for the camper’s license plate was waiting for me here in Asheville, and I was driving on very expired plates (expired in February!). But the trooper was very nice and didn’t even ask for my license and registration; he stopped me because my camper door had come open and was flapping in the wind!   Boy just seeing those blue lights in the mirror took several years off my life! Somehow the roof latch on that side of the camper had jumped off….it was still all locked together, but was hanging down, which allowed the roof to raise enough so the door came open. It had also been hyper-extended….the door never used to open all the way flat against the camper.  So now the door doesn’t really want to stay closed, it keeps a very big gap instead of staying nicely closed against the weatherstripping. Right now that’s not a problem but if I go to Michigan’s Mosquito Country, they’re gonna love that easy access. And when it gets cold, it will be letting in an awful lot of cold air.  Maybe I just need to replace the piano hinge. I’m thinkin’ about what to do.

Life here is fairly quiet and calm. We hide out in the camper if the house is being shown, and pretend to be invisible. One crazy realtor last week jerked the camper door open while we were in here though! What a shock! He said he didn’t know there was anyone in here, but…..the listing realtor had told him I was here, plus my car is sitting right next to the camper!!  What a nutcase. All I could think was “glad I wasn’t sitting on the porta-potty when he opened the door”!  From now on I’ll keep it locked when people are around.

It’s great to be in a place where I pretty much know my way around; I lived in the Asheville area since 1979. And it’s also really nice that Asheville is a great place to get fresh organic foods, grass-fed and pastured meats, etc.  I’m trying to eat “cleaner” without breaking the bank….not an easy task.

I am finally feeling much better! It took three different antibiotics to clear up a simple UTI…..probably because factory farmed animals are fed so many antibiotics, the “bugs” are getting resistant to them. 80% of all antibiotics are used in agriculture!

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North Carolina

Horse Camp!

Today we got lots of new neighbors…9 big horse trailer/campers! With lots of big dogs running around loose. Roxie is having a ball telling them what’s what. Here are the folks next door. They’ve got nice living quarters in the front part, with a slide-out.

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These are their horses. There are big posts in the ground all over the place here, so they can run ropes between them and tether the horses.

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And these horses are right across the road from us. Their owners have very strong southern accents, talk really loud and play their radio quite loud. Oh joy.

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Some of them came yesterday, and they all had nice big campfires, with no fire rings or anything to contain them. This in an area already inundated with wildfires, with no rain in sight….what are they thinking??!

The wildfires make me so sad; some of these areas are where I used to whitewater kayak….here’s a photo taken at Nantahala Outdoor Center, where they set backfires to try and save the buildings. That was a gorgeous area to paddle….now it’s going to be very ugly for years to come. There’s also the Pinnacle Mt. fire which is only 35% contained, with windier conditions coming tomorrow. This one might result in our having to cancel our gathering on the 27th if they don’t get it under control; right now the air quality at our campground is RED. Not very conducive to outdoor fun. So far the air here is clear.

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Last night I tried to start up my new heater before going to bed and imagine my surprise when a little flame came up OUTSIDE the heater, at the gas connection elbow! Yikes! I blew it out like a birthday candle; luckily that worked. And then I shut it down. My first thought was “Oh God no, don’t make me set off that fire extinguisher in here again!!” But all is well. I tightened the connections (though it didn’t feel like anything moved) and started the heater. The fire stayed where it was supposed to be, no more roaming around!  It does make me nervous though; I won’t use it while I’m sleeping.

I have been walking! Since I’ve been here I’ve been taking the horse trail for abotu 1/4 mile each day, and yesterday I went twice, for a total of .7 miles! That’s way more than I’ve walked in a very long time.  I hope I can keep it up, though today I didn’t go very far because my knee hurt. I’ll let it rest and give it a go again tomorrow.

 

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North Carolina

Fun With Fire Extinguishers

ACK! I pulled out a plastic bin from under the bed and my fire extinguisher sent a big blast of super-fine powder into my FACE!  The extinguisher was laying down and Roxie dish was in front of it, I guess I put pressure on the trigger by pulling out the bin. I didn’t notice that the safety pin thing had fallen out! I scooped up Roxie and dashed out the door, leaving it open. Huge clouds of yellow dust kept billowing out as I was gagging and choking. (Roxie seemed unaffected though she did have some yellow hair) A bit later I went back in and turned on the roof fan to suck some of it out but there’s this fine yellow dust EVERYWHERE.  What a mess! And all that from only a 1 second blast. So today turned out to be a cleaning day.

The hair on the side of my head was all yellow too and even though I rinsed it with water a couple times, it’s still sticky. It did, however, give it a LOT Of body! I believe I could effortlessly brush my hair to stand straight up and it would stay that way. However that look doesn’t seem to be “me”.

We have moved to a nice meadow site in the Uwharrie National Forest. The camper is facing the full sun all day long on the door side and I couldn’t put up my little canopy because the poles are buried in the back of the car somewhere behind the back seat. With the sun so low in the sky, I’m not sure the canopy would help that much anyway.  We are under an oak tree that is dropping acorns on us though…sounds like hail! Luckily they are very small.

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That black “thing” is a shade cloth I’ve rigged up over Roxie’s exercise pen.

There’s a nice trail through the woods for horses so Roxie and I hiked a little bit of it. My knee is feeling MUCH better so we were able to go about 1/8 mile before it even got a twinge of pain. We turned around then and came back but I am pretty sure I could have gone farther. I’m going to try and do this every day, maybe it will strangthen my knee. Frankly I tend to not do anything because I am terrified that I’ll hurt it again.  I was thrilled to be able to do that 1/4 mile!!

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A Walk In The Woods

When I first got here, I had good Verizon cell service but only 1 bar of 4G wifi service on my ATT Unite hotspot. I need 2 bars in order to do anything. Then I remembered the little antenna I bought on ebay for $17. I was really disappointed when it arrived because it’s only about a foot tall! It has a magnetic base which is kind of a problem in an aluminum camper, but I just propped it up as high as I could and lo and behold, it boosted it just enough to be able to work!! Yippee!

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North Carolina

Wandering Around Asheville

On Tuesday, Jenni helped install the propane line for my new Olympian Wave 3 heater. (As usual, that means she did all the work while I sat around being supportive) She had to crawl up inside the very small outside storage compartment!  What a good sport.

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I’ve been house-and-dog sitting since Wednesday. That first day I made too many trips from the camper to the house (it’s on a hill), and too many trips in the house so my calves were killing me for the next three days! Better now but I wasn’t sure I was going to live through it.

In the camper, the “bathroom” (porta potty) is one step from the bed and the door is 2 steps. I can take Roxie out and let her go potty in about 5 steps. In this gigantic house, it’s 40′ from the living room to the bathroom, and 60′ to where the dogs can go potty!  My knee is doing surprisingly well in spite of all the exercise.

Thurs-Sun I hosted the third annual Pajama Party with two friends. We had a great weekend of good food & good company! On Friday we drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Pisgah Inn and had lunch. I believe the fall color is at it’s peak! The sun was coming from the wrong direction to get really good photos.

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Jake really took a shine to my friend Patricia, who played with him a lot. He’s usually not that friendly. On Saturday morning he snuck into her bedroom for a cuddle, and he’s not allowed in that room. Bad Jake….bad Patricia for leaving the door open!  He was ushered back out quickly.

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Jack has some wind chimes that he pushes with his nose when he wants to go out, and a sort of doorbell that he steps on when he wants to come in.  It takes some getting used to, when the doorbell rings and it’s the DOG!

One of my friends noticed this huge snake in the strawberry patch:

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We were all agog until finally we realized it never moves……it’s an inflatable snake to keep out the strawberry-eating critters!!  I don’t know if it works for them but WE weren’t going to go anywhere near the strawberries!

Princess Roxie got a haircut today. I hated doing it; I like her to have the natural coat her breed (Havanese) is supposed to have. If I could bathe her often, she’d never get matted but I just don’t have access to that much water, and she’s horrible about being brushed or combed. So off with it! I took her to a friend who has a grooming salon and he’s really good; he gave her a very cute scissors cut. The only thing she got to keep was her long tail. The rest is about 2″ long all over. And she can SEE now, without all that hair falling into her face. I don’t hate it as much as I thought it would. Maybe in a few days I’ll even think it’s cute. (That’s Jake’s doorbell at the top right of the first photo)

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North Carolina

Asheville, NC

I left Pinckney, MI and only drove an hour, to the Cabela’s in Dundee. I knew the next day was going to be a long drive because I wanted to make it to the free parking at the KY Artisan Center in Berea. Boy am I glad I did that, because on Thursday it rained all day and there were several big slowdowns where the traffic only went 20-30 mph for long periods of time. And isn’t it weird that sometimes there never seems to be a REASON for that??  Anyway those added more than an hour to my trip. It was a miserable driving day. I didn’t make it to Berea either; I ended up staying at a Cracker Barrel in Richmond, KY. I was the only RV there but their parking area is pretty much hidden away behind the building so I didn’t feel unsafe. I much prefer overnighting at Cracker Barrels than Wal-Mart.

It rained all day Friday too but I made it to my friends’ place in Asheville by 3:00 and then it took a really long time to back the camper into it’s “hole” under the carport. There are big wooden posts on one side and their shiny Airstream camper on the other side!  Sometimes I can get it in easily but usually Jenni comes out and guide me in. No one was home so I ended up doing LOTS of to-ing and fro-ing. But now I’m all cozied in, and I have electric hookup too! Wow….microwave and toaster, woot woot! I hope I don’t get too spoiled.

I have already been chipping away at my To-Do List. I’ve got it down to 26 things, and some of them are quick 5 minute jobs. The biggest and most important job is to get Jenni’s help installing my new Olympian Wave 3 propane heater. I now carry two heaters; a 1500 btu Coleman SportCat and a 3000 btu Coleman ProCat. This new heater is tiny; 8x12x2″ thick…and it has two settings, 1600 and 3000 btu’s! Perfect. Now I won’t have to decide before it gets dark which heater I need to drag out, plus it works off the bulk propane tank so I don’t have to mess around refilling those little 1# propane bottles. The only hard part of the installation is getting the right hose connections; I want it on a quick-connect so I can take it out when winter’s over. I’m pretty sure I’m going to use over-the-door hooks to hang it from my kitchen cabinet. And I can also get rid of that nasty sharp-edged safety surround that I made; this heater will be higher so there won’t be any danger of Roxie’s tail bursting into flames if she gets near it!  It will also give me a lot more space in the car; that ProCat heater is BIG.

Starting 10/26 I’ll be house-sitting for my friends here for a week, and taking care of their dog Jake. Here’s the house……it’s got running water, flush toilets and everything!  I guess it’s oh, about 50 times the size of my camper??!!       dscn6545

I’m having our Third Annual PJ Party during that week, with some of my camping lady friends; and another camping friend from Colorado will be stopping by to visit too!

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