In Her Stars

This is something we've been discussing on and off for nearly 20 years, sometimes discounting it as impractical, sometimes as inevitable. We've gone back and forth about whether a pull-behind made more sense, or something like an RV. Both had pros and cons, but ultimately the trailer won out. It meets our needs best, once we could get over the hump of learning how to tow and park it, and frankly the price tag was a fraction of even a tiny, base-model RV.

We actually put a deposit down on one, then happened to be looking at another dealership--just for fun--and found one that was cheaper, and worked better for us. There were some fiddly logistics to work out, but we picked it up last weekend.

Full disclosure: as you can see from the outside picture, it is t i n y. Just about 13" feet long. It's surprisingly roomy inside, however. The one we'd picked initially was a hair bigger, but a lot more "tight" inside, had fewer windows, and you had to convert the dinette to a bed (and back again), which would have been super inconvenient.

This one has a breakfast bar with a big window, a little electric fireplace (!), and a fixed bed. The only real sacrifice is a smaller refrigerator with no freezer, versus the "apartment" refrigerator and freezer in the other one. Owing to the size, however, I don't see us "freezing" a lot, however, and even now we have a full pantry stored in there, with enough for a decent breakfast, lunch and dinner without having to go anywhere, so no complaints.

It's stationed at a camp site near the house through the end of October, at which point we'll need to sort out where to overwinter it. We're looking at options, but this is a big "camping" area, so there's plenty of options to choose from. Next year, once we hopefully have a better handle on driving, maneuvering and parking it, we'll travel with it a bit more. For right now we're just enjoying having this tiny little getaway, with access to campsite events, a fire pit and a pool. We just have to pop out to feed the cats breakfast and dinner.

It's very much a "DIY" camper. That is to say, it comes complete and ready to use, but anything fancy you want to do it, you'll need to be prepared to do it yourself. We spent the whole weekend accessorizing it and making it our home-away-from home.

Saturday was the first night we slept over. The air conditioner was so loud, but I don't think we really needed it anyway, so next time we're going to try it with just the windows open. As well, I ordered a little rechargeable ceiling fan meant to hang in tents, so we'll see if that helps (or is even needed.)

Saturday morning we had bagels for breakfast, and coffee in the little camping percolator we found at a yard sale a few years ago. I think I've pretty much got all the storage sorted out, and we still have plenty of room for things. It's important to me not to "junk it up," so I'm super pleased that everything we need is out of sight, and nothing is too crowded or packed too tightly. We ended up being able to use / re-use a lot of items that we already had around the house.

It has its own (combination) microwave and convection oven, but we also bought a little toaster oven. I just ordered a 4-well muffin pan that will fit in it, and made up a batch of chocolate chip muffin mix that we can keep in the pantry. Just add some (shelf stable) soy milk, a few tablespoons of oil, and I can bake muffins right in the trailer.

We got heavy, heavy rains last night, so at lunch we went out to check on it, and make sure there were no leaks, but everything looked fine. We're both just over the moon about it, and glad we took the leap instead of putting it off, or shelving it into a constant rotation of "five year plans."

I hung some laundry in the garden to dry, this morning, and after lunch I went to take it back in. Imagine my surprise finding the cucumber vine had already securely anchored itself to one of the hangers.

We have three decent-sized sugar pumpkins, which will almost certainly be the last for the year. The dill is dying back--half overgrown, half devoured by caterpillars--so the squash bugs have moved in. There's no point trying to eliminate them, when they're at this point, and fortunately they won't harm the fruit. If I need to I can always cut the pumpkins and let them finish ripening inside, but the flowers are really attracting bees and other pollinators, so I'd like to keep them around. I caught at least three of them having a little orgy together in the same blossom. Imagine how cozy it must be in there?

The potato plants are beginning to die back a bit (and they've been well watered, so I don't think it's that), so I dug around one of them to see if I could find or feel anything. All I found was one very tiny little red potato. So they may end up being a bust, but I'll let them keep trucking for awhile longer, just in case they're hidden elsewhere. I think they probably weren't hilled enough, but then I'd also run out of space. Next year I'll try them in the big barrels we use for tomatoes.

I learn a little bit more every year, even if at a snail's pace. Next year we'll hopefully have the blackberries, raspberries, figs and apples all matured enough to bear fruit (assuming the weather works in our favor.) We'll do sugar pumpkins again, more dill and pickling cucumbers, and try potatoes in something else.

The elderberries out front did fruit, but not enough to bother harvesting, so I let the birds have them. Because we have two sister plants, we're never going to get a robust harvest out of them, so now I'm trying to decide if we should just cut them down / dig them out and replace them with something else, or try to sneak a third elderberry into the front garden somewhere.

The cabin was only an hour and a half away, but we took the time to make a bunch of fun stops along the way. Hit a thrift store for a handful of cassette tapes, a supermarket for some taralli, then to a Native American museum. I picked up a book about local tribes, and a cook book.

We found a restaurant that had veggie burgers and vegan scallops for dinner, then went back to the cabin for drinks, cake, fire pit.

Saturday we made our own breakfast, then went out adventuring. Found a few country stores, another thrift shop, had lunch at a vegan Chinese restaurant, then visited a UFO and paranormal museum that was... okay. As depressing as it was, the Native American museum was frankly much better.

The area reminded us of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton area. While there was more evidence of it being a resort town, grocery stores were scarce and small, and there was a prevalence of abandoned store fronts and people obviously struggling. There was a long line of people in the public park where they were holding a farmer's market, and we were trying to figure out what they were lined up for before someone mentioned it was for food vouchers.

The sad truth is that most of these people probably voted for Trump, and still would. His signs were everywhere, and especially on the most dilapidated houses and run-down properties. It just makes me sad.

Last stop before heading back to the cabin was a cidery! We were expecting storms all night, so we went back and settled in with books and laptops for the rest of the night.

Up and back on the road early this morning, and we wasted some more time at a candy store and a flea market before heading back properly.

Our pet sitter took good care of the cats. We had to leave the pet door in while we were away, and we were able to see Beanie making several visits. And leaving his calling card (stinky little shitbird...)

The weather is finally clear and mild and beautiful, and we can breathe the air again. We've been sitting outside just enjoying it, since we got home.

We have one more day off before returning to the usual grind on Tuesday. Still not sure what we'll end up doing--I know Jim wants to visit the lake, and his brother, so I'll be the official chauffeur--but I'm also looking forward to making some bread and rolls, and maybe cleaning up the weeds in the garden, a bit.