The curtains are up. They look really nice. No pics yet. I'm not done with the detail stuff. As a tease, I'll tell you that we are using some pvc pipe that was laying around here for the rods. I know you survival dudes don't really care about stupid curtains and my effort to update our escape pod, but that's ok. If I'm going to be homeless, I'm going to do it in style!



In the meantime, we've still got real work to do. Tomorrow is "work on the hitch" day(Get those parts out of my escape pod!!!). I get to be the helper on that job. Randy is going to take some days off in the next couple of weeks. Then we'll work on the Honda. When it's made dependable, it will be time to take care of the heads on the Suburban. Oh, I'm so looking forward to all of this! I'd much rather be dressing up the pod or playing with new recipes in the kitchen. Oh well, it's all got to be done.



Speaking of the kitchen, have I mentioned that I love my cast iron skillet? You can cook just about anything in that thing. Although, I must say if you make anything with tomatoes in it, you've got to clean it right away. Most people know that. I just thought it was worth mentioning. That tomato acid will eat through almost anything. On another note. The Berkey has disappointed me. A bug got into the lower tank. Maybe it was because we didn't have water in the top tank to weigh it down. I don't know. I don't really care, there was a bug in our water! It didn't hatch in there either. How could it, right? We should have just gotten a reverse osmosis system. Yet another lesson learned.

The curtains are here! The UPS guy got here pretty late in the evening. To me it's an indicator that people are still buying stuff, just getting it cheaper off the net and not driving around from store to store. Anyway, we're really happy w/ the curtains. The color will work just fine. The carpet and the weird wallpaper were the concern as far as finding something that would work and not be obnoxious. So, we're getting there.

Next, (which should have been first and foremost) is get my Honda running reliable, so Randy can drive it to and from work. Then, we can get the heads taken care of on the Suburban. And, still hanging fire, there is the extra hitch stuff that needs to be put on. It's time for Randy to take a few vacation days.

On another note:
I'm going to have to agree with the folks saying it's going to be one heck of a cold winter. Summer was here for about 2 weeks. It's also been oddly humid this year. This is usually the hottest part of summer, and it's only supposed to get into the eighties today. The birds seem to have checked out too, as in headed south. I just wish we'd been right behind them. It looks like we may have to hunker down and stay through winter if we can. We'll see...

2 Fronts

I have been on this computer all day! I find myself fighting on 2 fronts. The state of Washington wants the land we live on. You may have already known that. Now, I'm trying to figure out what to do about the property owners association for our Texas property. (I did something stupid almost two years ago and bought 5 acres on Terlingua Ranch.) At first I thought, "$145 a year to keep up roads and access the lodge facilities, including pool, coin washing machines and bathroom w/ showers." What I did not know is that there was a lawsuit in progress. So, after paying the $145, they needed a "one time" $100 to pay for legal fees. I thought, "Ouch, but ok I can see that." Wait, it gets better. Now they are closing down the aforementioned facilities, including limiting road maintenance. On top of all that they want another $65! Yeah, it gets better. Next year they want the full $245 upfront, with the option to add one time fees whenever they want, not to exceed some amount. I don't have the stupid thing in front of me, so I don't remember that amount. Does it matter?! We're talking about a dried up piece of land with no electricity, no water, and dirt roads. Anyway, that's what I've been working on today. As far as I can see, I got nothin'. They can do whatever the hell they want. I could try to get a new law passed. Gee, that'll be fun. Florida is the only place I could find any info on what to do about problems with an HOA. Let's see... there's the Federal Trade Commission. You know, I was planning on living there in the relatively near future, so I don't know if that's really an option. I read on a blog or somewhere else that in America you never really own land. It's sad, but it may just be true. I have no problem paying the whole $60 a year in taxes on the property. But, come on! $300 plus for a whole bunch of nothin'? Oh yeah, did I mention they can put a lien on your place if you don't pay? Not far off is foreclosure. Oh that's just great. Are we having fun yet?

After a dry run and, lots of research on the curtains, I have decided we are going to buy some. The material I had was too thin and really just didn't work with the colors in the trailer. So, I found something that should work on sale on JC Penny's web site. My mom's poor old sewing machine was having a hard time too. And yes, we oiled it. The next step would be taking it apart and working on it. It's just not time or cost effective. The china mart had one for about $80. Again, the cost of a new machine, plus material(s) would be a lot more than what I paid for the curtains I ordered. Anyway, I'm just waiting for them to get here. Randy's been working some overtime, so not much has gotten done as far as hitch updates and vehicle maintenance.

I made another batch of beans and some rice yesterday. I'm going to refry some of them tonight. I doubled the batch, so now we got more beans than I know what to do with. It will be somthing w/ beans for the next few days. It's getting hot here, so I think I'll head over to the escape pod for some a/c. I know Ruby's ready to go!

Alrighty then.
I am trying to get myself out of this funk I’ve been in for the last few days. My usual way of doing this is finding something I think I can do with relative ease (or enjoy) and just doing it. Some chores may get left aside. But, I figure if it’s something I’ve been putting off because of those chores I don’t really want to do, then maybe it will bring me back up enough to want to take care of the day to day stuff. So I finally did it. I got started on those curtains for the escape pod. Randy gave me the thumbs up on my first attempt. That being said... I suppose I must say the sewing machine came from my mom. I didn't remember the original owner. Thus her comment. She's the one that took some time to teach me how the machine works. I still have the original instructions that have been a helpful reminder. She's in Australia right now, and for some time, with work. I wish she was still here ( in Washington) to help me figure out how to do what I'm trying to do. She knows that machine quite well. We had lots of fun updating her RV's interior when they first got it. Of course, she did the sewing. It's good for me learning how to do it for myself, but still it would be nice to have her here to give some suggestions. Ok, tell me what I'm doing wrong. (hee,hee)
Speaking of mum ( she is in Australia you know), I made a dinner last night that reminded me of growing up. I put a little spin on it. I cooked up some veggie burgers (her's were ground beef). I made some potato flakes( she used real potatoes most of the time). Then of course, peas ( she usually changed it up b/w broc and green beans). Growing up they were separated on the plate. I pretended to be a chef and put the potatoes on top of the patties with the green peas on top of that. A good old fashioned birds in the nest. It was like a personal shepherd's pie. Yummy, and reminded me of home.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this before, but bouillon cubes are a must have. If you're not able to make your own stock, you're going to need something to make your food taste good. It's light weight and lasts a long time. Heck, you might want to stock up on Lipton soup mixes too. Now, if I could just figure out a quick and dirty way to make and keep a health stock of beer. Yet, another must have.

H2O!

Well, we can finally drink our well water. Not even the Berkey was getting out everything. It was better, but still had a funky taste and smell. So, Randy found this Filtrete faucet water system - professional filtration at Lowes. I have no idea how it works. I can't really find any details on it. It's relatively new. It's not perfect either. Now we run the water through this new filter, then pour it in the Berkey. It's better than lugging 5 gal bottles to and from the store to get drinkable water. I don't know what the problem is with our water. It could be a number of things. It doesn't matter. Fixing it would be more expensive. I'm sure the Berkey will be fine for rain catchment later, when we get set up in Texas.

Beans!!!

I did it! I made pinto beans from scratch. I only cheated a little. I cooked them in the crock pot on high for about 3 hours. It's the biggest pot I have. Plus, it keeps from heating up the house. Also, since I don't eat meat anymore, I used Crisco for the fat. I was following a recipe from hillbillyhousewife.com. Randy chopped and sauteed some onion, and graded some cheese, and it was yummy! We also added some Johnny's Garlic Spread & Seasoning. It's for garlic bread, but we're garlic freaks. Anyway, we may do a mexican style next time. My next endeavors will be bread and flour tortillas. Yahoo! I'm having fun cooking and saving money, just a couple of my favorite things. I really must learn more about solar cooking.

Escape pod update:
Still working on updating the inside. The hitch stuff came in, and Randy is getting his mind around all of that. If all goes well, I'll be sewing up some curtains on my grandmother's sewing machine soon. There's still lots to do.

I'll be honest here. It's not always easy to be so upbeat about doing things the hard way. It gets overwheming sometimes. That's why I write this blog. It helps me remember the things that I have accomplished. With that in mind, it makes it easier for me to keep on keeping on. So, thanks for your encouraging comments. They keep me moving too, just so I can have something to report.

Busy Summer time

It's summer time and getting ever closer to fall. Everyone is busy prepping for whatever they may think is coming. Well, we never know what's coming. That's the joy of being human. It's also the bane of our existence. I'm not ignoring what's in my face. Trust me, one day we are going to have to move to our little place in the desert. And that will be a whole 'nother adventure. In the mean time we're doing our best to prepare for said adventure. Make hay while the sun shines!
My (not so little) ass finally made regular rice. I know it sounds stupid simple, but after growing up on box meals like hamburger helper, this was a sorry adventure for me. It turned out great. Ok, 10 minute rice in a bag vs. 20 minutes in the same pan? It's worth it. That rice was good! The other day I made regular oatmeal in a real pan. I added some of the crasins we bought a while ago, cinnamon, and honey. I didn't even add sugar! It was really good. I know this may sound silly to most folks, but we're talking about someone born in the early 70's. I am really trying to learn how my grandmother cooked.

Topic change:
I'm writing my light hearted thing and Randy turns up the news. Seriously? The oil companies making record high profits! Yeah, I guess we all know what this means. Maybe that Michael Moore wasn't so wrong, not that I ever doubted it. You just gotta love the good ole boy club.

Well, the hillbilly is back up, after recognizing the error of his ways. I'm glad to see he is getting more support from the people who read it regularly. I imagine he's pretty overwhelmed now. I know I would be. At last count, I saw 35 comments.



Anyhoo, we took the couch out of the escape pod yesterday. It's a lot more open now, and a heck of a lot lighter. We haven't done another tongue weight yet, but that thing was heavy. We didn't need the extra sleeping room either, so why not take it out? The more we take out the more we notice the mediocre craftsmanship. Randy was seriously disappointed, being a former carpenter and all. We've got some ideas for the new decor. We pretty much have to keep the aqua-green carpet, way too much trouble to take out and replace with anything. We lost some storage when we took out the dinette and couch. That's ok, because that way we won't pack it full of stuff (just added weight). We're planning on using the little door things that open to the outside for cat doors. We'll get a collapsible cat cage, and finagle a way for them to go outside and get fresh air w/o running off and getting lost or eatten by something. But that's not even really in the design phase yet. I'm going to try to sell what we pulled out. It's in really good shape, just heavy, and not our taste. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the windows as far as curtains. Seems like I'm trying to do a lot of stuff. I better get up from this computer and actually do something!

That's it!

Now Ron at hillbilly2be has canceled his blog! I've always been too chicken to comment on other blogs, I didn't really have anything interesting to say. Well, if that's what I have to do, then so be it! I enjoy reading ya'll's blogs. And now, you're gonna hear about it. I already left a comment for Wretha for the first time. I guess it's time for me to come out of my little hidey hole, and let folks know I'm appreciative that they take the time to write their blogs, whatever their motive.
So watch out ya'll! Kim from Ruby's big adventure is coming over to say Howdy! You don't have to do the same. I'm not gonna quit on ya. My little blog isn't all that informative, just sometimes passes for entertainment. And that's just fine with me.

Changes are just coming up everywhere! People are changing up their blogs(me too, a little). Some folks are moving. We are doing a few things as well. While Randy was at work I read up on making changes in the travel trailer. When he got home, we took out the dinette! The plan is to put in a small table and chairs. Next on the list will be the window treatments. This is a picture of the dinette from when we first got the trailer. I'll post befores and afters when we are done with renovations. I know things are looking kind of bad, but change is good. The world may change as we know it, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be all bad. We've had it pretty good for a while, now may be time to start thinking about living a simpler life.

We bought the escape pod with that in mind. I got a wild hair and bought some "cheap" land in Texas almost 2 years ago, knowing, eventually the state of Washington was going to want retribution for Randy's mother's care. I'm kind of excited about this little project. It's taken me almost a year to talk Randy into letting me make some major changes in the decor of the trailer. He's worried about resale value, but if we do it right, it shouldn't hurt it. Plus, I wasn't planning on selling it anyway.

Here are some of the things that have been going on. The phone company came out yesterday and finally fixed the line. Maybe now I can put some stuff on e-bay or Craig’s list. I’ve already got some sprouts coming up from the seeds I planted last week. We’ll have tomatoes (sans salmonella) in no time! We got the Berkey up and running. The next big test will be running this nasty well water through it. It was suggested that we just get the filter and build our own. But, we needed to see how it worked and I wanted it for the aesthetics. We may make our own in the future. For now, we’re happy with it and maybe we won‘t have to pay for our drinking water anymore. I’ve been trying to get paper work organized. It’s a constant battle. I’m also working on making a little schedule for myself in an effort to use my time more wisely.

Another busy weekend

So much for posting everyday. When the wind blows I loose my connection. We called the phone company, and of course, it was dead calm when they called back. Just another work in progress...
I started some veggie seeds. I didn’t do this sooner because I didn’t want to start a garden if we were going to be booted out at any time. Since it looks like we’re going to be here longer, and the price of everything going through the roof, I decided it was worth it. I have had great success gardening here in the past. The seeds were 10 packets for a dollar, so what the heck. Maybe we’ll get to eat fresh tomatoes again.


The Sherline tongue weight scale came in Friday. We weighed the pod Saturday. The tongue weight was 1250 lbs. That’s too much. Time to lighten up! Out go the canned goods in the pantry. We’ll weigh again later. I guess we’ll have to put together a mess kit to haul in the suburban (just like camping). We’ll just eat the canned goods and collect dry food from now on. Being newbies at towing a travel trailer, we thought it best to get the scale rather than take a chance at guesstimating. It’s a pretty cool little device.


We made a trip to town that was interesting. We got to witness lines at the pumps that were reminiscent of the ones in the 70’s. We finally broke down and got a Costco card. You’ve got to watch their pricing just like you do anywhere else. Some things are a better buy, while others are as much, if not more than the grocery store. Non-perishables were the only things I was interested in. I figure it’s worth the initial cost just in saving money on gas by cutting down on trips to the grocery store. We also went by a restaurant supply type store. They had lots of bulk items. We were pretty tired by then, so we’ll go back some other time for beans, flour, and other stuff. I noticed you’ve got to watch them too. They had the exact same taco seasoning for almost 3 times as much as Costco! Sneaky lil' buggers.

I'm going to start including at least one thing we’ve done each day to get closer to our goal. This will help me keep focused, and let anybody who cares (family, etc) know what we‘re doing. Eye on the prize and all that. I have listed the survival blogs that I read because they inspire me and give a lot of useful information about living on less. They also focus on being prepared for any kind of disaster be it financial or natural. This is important information for any and everyone. I don't always agree with their politics. I’m not big on politics or history, but I get a lesson on both almost everyday from Randy. I’m not getting into a political discussion with anyone. That’s Randy’s forte.
I have other things going on in my life besides getting ready to get out of here, so that may get posted also. If it bores you, that’s ok. I don’t enjoy every post on all the blogs and sites I read either. Just wait though, something interesting will come up soon.

Working weekend

We got lots done this weekend. We cleaned up around the travel trailer, and pulled the slide in. This was in preparation for moving it to a better location on this property. We bought the trailer before we bought the tow vehicle, so we haven't even towed it anywhere yet. I know, it's kind of backwards. But, I was freaking out at the time, sure they were going to throw us out on the street any day. I was also thinking about the land we had purchased in Texas. It's a pretty big trailer (26') and very heavy. So, we got a bigger hitch (class IV). Now it looks like we are going to have to buy more stuff in order to haul this big thing safely. Big trans cooler, dual cam sway control, and weight distribution hitch. What's next? Actually, we knew we were going to need those things. Now's as good a time as any. The prices are only going to get higher. We still need to look into getting a couple of marine batteries for the solar. Randy corrected me on using solar for the a/c, "Ha!, you're joking right?". Fans, swamp cooler, maybe. Oh well, wishful thinking on my part. I didn't know! As I mentioned before, Ruby and I spoil very easily.

Topic change:

The woman at the AG's office is coming around on how much she's willing to take for the property. The tax assessed value for just the land. Well, since she wasn't so accommodating previously, we've been spending all our money on getting the hell out of here. We had also been told earlier, we couldn't buy it even if we wanted to. I don't trust these people. I feel like we've been lied too and are now being extorted for what ever they can get out of us. I'm calling bullshit. Our friends and family think this whole thing is insane, or we are. They sound like they aren't real sure if they should believe us or not. Even the lawyer gave us a kind of cock-eyed look. Well, folks, it is happening. I'm getting ready to get a voice recorder to record what this woman is telling Randy. The only explanation I can come up with is that the state needs money, and will take whatever they can get. There is an awesome well-fare system here, and I imagine that gets pretty costly. If this keeps up you're going to get to read my rant on that. The lawyer did say that if we do manage to work out some kind of deal, come back and see him. Yeah, no kidding? It's not like we want to stay here forever, but it would be nice to leave on our own terms. That's enough for now. I'm just getting mad all over again.

Hotter than hades!

It is hot here in the armpit of Washington state (that's SE Wa) 102! I had to retreat to the escape pod with a/c. They say it's a desert here. But, with all the farmers and sheeple watering in the heat of the day, it gets pretty darn humid. Ruby the wonder dog has totally whimped out on me! She won't even come out with me when I go out for a smoke. I knew she didn't like the heat, but come on. She's going to have a hellava time if we ever get down to Texas. I may be spoiling both of us, but it's hard to even think in that kind of heat! I'm going to have to just get up earlier in the morning, get stuff done then maybe retreat.

I feel a rant coming on, but I'm going to wait and see what happens next. That being said, I'm going to try to think in a more positive direction for now. Stealth survival blog mentioned today that it seems like the survival blogs are getting kind of gloomy. I was thinking that the other day, but can you blame them? It comes and goes in waves. Linnabary reminded his readers of that today. There are others that are trying to bring us back up too. That's just the one I thought of.

I found a cool web site the other day through one of the blogs I read, and I can't seem to figure out which one. Anyway, it has some good easy and basic recipes. I grew up with a single mom who was busy working her butt off just to get something on the table. So, I don't have mom's or even grandma's recipes to fall back on. However, I love to cook. So it was exciting for me to find these recipes that use simple inexpensive ingredients. They are great for prep food too, mostly dry ingredients.
I'll warn you, it has some religious content. But, who couldn't use a little god right now?


Here's the site: hillbillyhousewife.com

A Few Updates

Here are a few updates:

We slept on the foam mattress in the travel trailer. It's pretty comfy. Good thing because it's getting hot and the only real a/c we have is in said trailer, a.k.a. the escape pod. It's just 3 pieces of foam (4"firm,4" med, 2" memory foam). We ordered it on e-bay from Sleepy Mountain Mattress.

The solar system was ordered and arrived yesterday. It has not been put to work yet. That will be reviewed in another post. It looks like a pretty easy set up, and we're excited about it.

On a more personal note: Randy's niece has found both his mom's and dad's wills. Better late than never. Had we not made nice with his brother in law, this would not have happened, as Randy's sister passed away unexpectedly. Now, maybe we can sell this place with everyone benefiting. Even if it's not that simple, this is good news because the lawyer didn't give us much. He said if the AG's office is working with you, keep it up. Of course, we saw the lawyer before we found out the wills had been found. Things might be made clearer Monday. Who knows?

No matter what, there's still lots to do. I better get to it.

Well, I had this really long winded rant about the state of Washington coming to take our property, but things changed a little after Randy talked to them. We got an e-mail stating that they were going to start foreclosure proceedings by the end of the month. Randy talked to the woman handling the case and got a little more info from her. She had not been very forthcoming previously. For those who don't know, Randy's mom was in a nursing home paid for by medicaid. There is a state recovery law here and now they want this property to pay back some of the cost. After Randy talked to this woman, she really sounded like she didn't know how the whole process works if you're not willing to just let it go. Up until this point she was just trying to scare us out. She kept telling us we could sell it, with any and all going to them. The problem with that is how could we sell it if it wasn't in our name? Yeah, she didn't have an answer for that either. Anyway, we're going to a lawyer Thursday. Maybe we can figure it out from there. I don't know.

Things to come...

Summer is coming into eastern Washington. It's starting to warm up finally. It's been an odd spring here this year. It's usually hot before now. I'm not complaining by any means. It's been really nice. We're probably going to end up sleeping in the escape pod when it gets really hot. It will be much cheaper cooling it than trying to cool the house. That being said, I ordered a new foam mattress for the pod. Unfortunately, we had to do something. Not too long ago, we accidentally left one of the cats (Romeo) in there overnight. He decided to express his displeasure with us on the bed. (Damn cat! Stupid humans!) I'm hoping the foam will be more comfortable anyway. It was a cheaper replacement too. I'll report on our comfort level at a later date.



Randy is going to order our solar set up this week. That should help, if not take care of, the cost of running the a/c in the pod. It's a big chunk of change, but it will pay for itself in no time. We will use it here, and be able to get mobile quick when our personal SHTF event comes to pass. We're already using the fridge in the pod. Ours crapped out. You can follow my logic here, given our situation.

On my other blog I mentioned that we're trying to live "it" before we have to leave here. I keep reading all these great blogs and think to myself, "we're kind of in survival mode right here right now." Prepping is not just for the well to do.

We live "it" because we really don't have much of a choice. The state is eventually going to kick us out of this place, because Randy's dad didn't write a proper will. It's not so bad here, really. I'll miss the meth-heads that practically live in our backyard. And the regular visits from various law inforcement agencies. It's pretty impressive watching them line up down the narrow easement to visit the neighbors. Randy goes to work at a dead end job that doesn't pay what he's worth, and I stay home with the 38 and the dog to make sure the meth-heads don't rob us blind. But I digress...
I grew up in Houston with floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. So, we tried to keep a minimal collection of supplies. Now that I live in a more rural area in Washington state, it's much more important to be prepared for power outages, and anything else. It's a treck to go to the grocery store. When canned goods we like go on sale, we buy extra. We get the big box of rice, dried milk, potato buds, and anything else that will keep. I was buying bulk frozen stuff, but since we're going to be moving, we've gone through most of that stuff. We plan on selling the little freezer. (And pretty much everything else.) I don't know if this qualifies as being a prepper. It works for me though.
We have our junk land, a travel trailer and tow vehicle. We're working on getting a solar package. I'm still considering the Berkey for a water filter(a little pricey). Our land doesn't have water or electric.
I love reading Wretha's blog on how they are going off grid and being self sufficient. They sound a lot like us. There's much to be done before hand. I should get to work on that.

Hey, I think I may be getting the hang of this new blog! I even got Ruby's picture up. I thought I should if I was going to name this thing after her.

So, I added a few of the sites I look at regularly. That is what I have been wanting to do, so people can see what has been driving me on this mission I have to get off grid and out of the rat race. My biggest hope is that I can share as much as these folks have shared with me. I'll add more as I can. There are certaintly more sites that I refer to often. I just need to get it together before I try to post their addresses.

Something new

I'm starting this blog because I just wanted to try something new. I think I may have more options here than on my other blog. We'll see.