That is what Stacy and I have been working on every weekend at least one day.
As I think I'd mentioned earlier in another post, last spring our neighbor had had a company log much of his property. He'd just wanted to have a better view of his land and be able to walk around his property without feeling the need of a machete due to his properties somewhat overgrown state.
It took the crew he'd hired about 2 weeks and they kept all his logged Cedar trees as those would be sold for their value.
All said and done and he was not happy!
That company did a pretty poor job making his property look more like a bomb had gone off more than the forest had been logged.
Stumps about 3 feet tall, or higher, shards of trees all over the place. Yes, they had pulled all the "trash wood" into about half a dozen large burn piles, but he was upset because they had not really cleaned his property up. Just logged it and left it.
When he got his money for the Cedar he had said it was going to take most of that money to have another crew come and clean up the mess left by the first company, no, not a happy guy!
But for us and his neighbors on the other side of his property he said we could get all the wood we wanted from those "slash piles" for our firewood since it will just all be burned in November, if we start to get any rain that is! As it stands now the fire restrictions that were in effect in June due to the drought conditions are still in effect indefinitely due to the lack of rain and extremely dry conditions.
So, Stacy and I did take advantage of the free wood and got about a cord or so so far, and still have a few weeks we can get a bit more, the guy doesn't have a wood stove or fireplace in his house and was in no need of any of the wood himself.
The problem is most the wood left is on the smaller side now and Stacy feels considerably more effort to dig out of those piles than it's worth since between us and the other neighbors all the good sized logs are now gone.
So, we've started to concentrate on deadfalls and other tress on our own property the past two weeks.
I have an application that is great for time lapse videos, Lapse It, I've been using a lot the last few weeks. As I have my Note IV as my 'phone', my Note 2 is now free to be a camera more than anything for things like time lapse videos since it means leaving the phone / camera in one place for a while. So I set it on one of my tripods start the app and let it go! The application (app) is available on both the Apple and Android stores.
After we finished with the wood above we took a break out on some lawn chairs and I took this video of our windy cloudy day.
To really use the app you have to pay for it. I don't know how much it costs now but when I paid for the "pro" version several years ago when it first became available it was only 99 cents and well worth it then! If you're reading this and like the idea, just buy it! With the paid version you can make all kinds of changes to the settings of the video you want to take, like how long between pictures, the one included here was 3 second intervals, and when done you can take the basic file and make different versions to get the version you like. Flip, loop, black and white to vivid color, timestamp or not, a very powerful app and well worth the cost if you like time lapse, and I do!
Last weekend, no video of that Saturday, I should have too!
We took down two trees on our property since it was one white pine tree that had rotted at the base and fallen into a birch tree and was taking that tree down also. So we speeded it up and took them both out.
With care and a come-a-long and some chain and ropes we got then down and I'm here uninjured to write about it! Stacy also uninjured!
Next weekend, there's still about 4 downed trees to saw up since the "unseasonably warm" weather is still holding as is very little rain as I'd mentioned above. This time last year we'd had quite a few rainy days and already some freezing mid 20s nights. Not this year quite yet.
Of Short Trips, Long Timing It, Or Full Timing It.
With our recent RV trip Stacy and I came up with a realization and then Stacy surprised me!
When we got the Wildcat Maxx last October, 2014, what I liked most about it was the almost 5th wheel floorplan and set up of the trailer. Way more interior storage than any travel trailer I'd ever been in or we'd owned.
Sure, there are ALWAYS compromises with any RV selection as no one brand or model has everything most people want for some reason. Be it a ten thousand dollar pull trailer or a million dollar class A motorhome. It is almost always, a bit of this or that in the feature set but the companies can never seem to get it all 'right' in any one model.
The Wildcat Maxx is a really good trailer and at the time was a good choice for us.
We've also been very lucky in that no major failures have developed like I've read so many forum horror stories about! At 33 feet long though Stacy is very apprehensive about driving with the trailer hooked up due to the overall length.
In our recent trip we decided we should have just purchased a 5th wheel and should go back to pulling a 5th wheel trailer. We actually still have our 1999 Tahoe 5th wheel but it will getting sold off next spring. It is too old and needs several things done that would be too cost prohibitive due to it's age. This definitely is not a time where it's "cheaper to keep her".
The Wildcat Maxx was bought with the idea at the time of shorter trips with the occasional longer trip here and there between now, retirement, and after retirement. It was also with the idea that it would be the last RV we'd buy due to the ever climbing costs of the models and features we prefer.
Then, shortly before we went on the recent trip, Stacy tells me she'd been thinking about us "full timing it"! Full timing or being a full timer means exactly what it sounds like, selling the homestead and living in an RV, 'fulltime'.
Not too many years ago it was what mainly "older folks" did, retire, sell the home, buy the motorhome and hit the road for a few years, or longer.
Nowadays this is what many people and even families are doing all across the country, I think it is primarily due to the high costs of buying a house today. The "Tiny Home" movement is along those same lines I'm certain as we've seen shows where the people, or the families, can buy a Tiny House in some really expensive area that they could otherwise never afford to live. Although I think for over $200,000.00 for a 400 square foot tiny house, like a show we saw, you could have one heck of a nice RV with more space!
At this point, and thinking about our future, I'm not so sure about full timing it, and that's where long timing it comes in. While I'm not sold on selling everything including the homestead and taking off in an RV, I'm not saying I wouldn't mind the idea of 3 to 6 month trips!
I fully intend the first winter after we've retired, again, to do the 'snowbird' winter thing and return to Quartzsite, Arizona, or some such place that attracts hundreds of thousands of people each winter to escape the cold and snow of the North. We went there several times when living in Southern California when Stacy's father was full timing it and spent the winters in Quartzsite. We spent several weeks there over several years and already know what the area is like and how boondocking (living with no hookups) was when there.
Stacy told me she likes the idea of being a "work camper" for a while, which is where you get a job at some location in return for your living space and often utilities, etc.
Again, there are thousands of people doing just that right now. I follow several blogs of full timers and work campers, one in particular works winters at an Amazon shipping facility and summers in the National Parks, she spent this past summer working at Yellowstone, which Stacy said she really wants to do, work at Yellowstone, not Amazon!
So, with this different future in the works the plan is probably next year trading in the Wildcat Maxx and getting a 5th wheel trailer again, Stacy really, really wants a motorhome, but I prefer leaving the trailer parked and taking off to explore in the truck. 5th wheel trailers pull better and are safer in windy conditions or when big trucks pass and for the same length of 33 or so feet the actual behind the truck length is lessened by the 4 or 6 feet over the truck bed so shorter overall which can get you into a place where a 33 foot trailer might not fit.
Plus, even with all the interior storage of the Wildcat Maxx, it can't come anywhere close to the exterior storage of just about any 5th wheel trailer. The Wildcat Maxx has one medium sized passthrough where most 5th wheels have large "basement" passthroughs as well as front storage and many have other storage areas as well. A ton of places to put a ton of stuff if needed. And storage is what's needed for either long time or full time living in an RV. While you can't take 'everything' with you, it is still nice to have the ability to take some important stuff with you.
If you are curious about any of this yourself after reading this, search YouTube, there are a bunch of videos and a lot of information, and you can also just "Google It", for even more information about this emerging lifestyle. You might be amazed!
As I think I'd mentioned earlier in another post, last spring our neighbor had had a company log much of his property. He'd just wanted to have a better view of his land and be able to walk around his property without feeling the need of a machete due to his properties somewhat overgrown state.
It took the crew he'd hired about 2 weeks and they kept all his logged Cedar trees as those would be sold for their value.
All said and done and he was not happy!
That company did a pretty poor job making his property look more like a bomb had gone off more than the forest had been logged.
Stumps about 3 feet tall, or higher, shards of trees all over the place. Yes, they had pulled all the "trash wood" into about half a dozen large burn piles, but he was upset because they had not really cleaned his property up. Just logged it and left it.
When he got his money for the Cedar he had said it was going to take most of that money to have another crew come and clean up the mess left by the first company, no, not a happy guy!
But for us and his neighbors on the other side of his property he said we could get all the wood we wanted from those "slash piles" for our firewood since it will just all be burned in November, if we start to get any rain that is! As it stands now the fire restrictions that were in effect in June due to the drought conditions are still in effect indefinitely due to the lack of rain and extremely dry conditions.
So, Stacy and I did take advantage of the free wood and got about a cord or so so far, and still have a few weeks we can get a bit more, the guy doesn't have a wood stove or fireplace in his house and was in no need of any of the wood himself.
The problem is most the wood left is on the smaller side now and Stacy feels considerably more effort to dig out of those piles than it's worth since between us and the other neighbors all the good sized logs are now gone.
So, we've started to concentrate on deadfalls and other tress on our own property the past two weeks.
The video above is from our working on wood over the Columbus Day holiday weekend.
I have an application that is great for time lapse videos, Lapse It, I've been using a lot the last few weeks. As I have my Note IV as my 'phone', my Note 2 is now free to be a camera more than anything for things like time lapse videos since it means leaving the phone / camera in one place for a while. So I set it on one of my tripods start the app and let it go! The application (app) is available on both the Apple and Android stores.
After we finished with the wood above we took a break out on some lawn chairs and I took this video of our windy cloudy day.
To really use the app you have to pay for it. I don't know how much it costs now but when I paid for the "pro" version several years ago when it first became available it was only 99 cents and well worth it then! If you're reading this and like the idea, just buy it! With the paid version you can make all kinds of changes to the settings of the video you want to take, like how long between pictures, the one included here was 3 second intervals, and when done you can take the basic file and make different versions to get the version you like. Flip, loop, black and white to vivid color, timestamp or not, a very powerful app and well worth the cost if you like time lapse, and I do!
Last weekend, no video of that Saturday, I should have too!
We took down two trees on our property since it was one white pine tree that had rotted at the base and fallen into a birch tree and was taking that tree down also. So we speeded it up and took them both out.
With care and a come-a-long and some chain and ropes we got then down and I'm here uninjured to write about it! Stacy also uninjured!
Next weekend, there's still about 4 downed trees to saw up since the "unseasonably warm" weather is still holding as is very little rain as I'd mentioned above. This time last year we'd had quite a few rainy days and already some freezing mid 20s nights. Not this year quite yet.
Of Short Trips, Long Timing It, Or Full Timing It.
With our recent RV trip Stacy and I came up with a realization and then Stacy surprised me!
When we got the Wildcat Maxx last October, 2014, what I liked most about it was the almost 5th wheel floorplan and set up of the trailer. Way more interior storage than any travel trailer I'd ever been in or we'd owned.
Sure, there are ALWAYS compromises with any RV selection as no one brand or model has everything most people want for some reason. Be it a ten thousand dollar pull trailer or a million dollar class A motorhome. It is almost always, a bit of this or that in the feature set but the companies can never seem to get it all 'right' in any one model.
The Wildcat Maxx is a really good trailer and at the time was a good choice for us.
We've also been very lucky in that no major failures have developed like I've read so many forum horror stories about! At 33 feet long though Stacy is very apprehensive about driving with the trailer hooked up due to the overall length.
In our recent trip we decided we should have just purchased a 5th wheel and should go back to pulling a 5th wheel trailer. We actually still have our 1999 Tahoe 5th wheel but it will getting sold off next spring. It is too old and needs several things done that would be too cost prohibitive due to it's age. This definitely is not a time where it's "cheaper to keep her".
The Wildcat Maxx was bought with the idea at the time of shorter trips with the occasional longer trip here and there between now, retirement, and after retirement. It was also with the idea that it would be the last RV we'd buy due to the ever climbing costs of the models and features we prefer.
Then, shortly before we went on the recent trip, Stacy tells me she'd been thinking about us "full timing it"! Full timing or being a full timer means exactly what it sounds like, selling the homestead and living in an RV, 'fulltime'.
Not too many years ago it was what mainly "older folks" did, retire, sell the home, buy the motorhome and hit the road for a few years, or longer.
Nowadays this is what many people and even families are doing all across the country, I think it is primarily due to the high costs of buying a house today. The "Tiny Home" movement is along those same lines I'm certain as we've seen shows where the people, or the families, can buy a Tiny House in some really expensive area that they could otherwise never afford to live. Although I think for over $200,000.00 for a 400 square foot tiny house, like a show we saw, you could have one heck of a nice RV with more space!
At this point, and thinking about our future, I'm not so sure about full timing it, and that's where long timing it comes in. While I'm not sold on selling everything including the homestead and taking off in an RV, I'm not saying I wouldn't mind the idea of 3 to 6 month trips!
I fully intend the first winter after we've retired, again, to do the 'snowbird' winter thing and return to Quartzsite, Arizona, or some such place that attracts hundreds of thousands of people each winter to escape the cold and snow of the North. We went there several times when living in Southern California when Stacy's father was full timing it and spent the winters in Quartzsite. We spent several weeks there over several years and already know what the area is like and how boondocking (living with no hookups) was when there.
Stacy told me she likes the idea of being a "work camper" for a while, which is where you get a job at some location in return for your living space and often utilities, etc.
Again, there are thousands of people doing just that right now. I follow several blogs of full timers and work campers, one in particular works winters at an Amazon shipping facility and summers in the National Parks, she spent this past summer working at Yellowstone, which Stacy said she really wants to do, work at Yellowstone, not Amazon!
So, with this different future in the works the plan is probably next year trading in the Wildcat Maxx and getting a 5th wheel trailer again, Stacy really, really wants a motorhome, but I prefer leaving the trailer parked and taking off to explore in the truck. 5th wheel trailers pull better and are safer in windy conditions or when big trucks pass and for the same length of 33 or so feet the actual behind the truck length is lessened by the 4 or 6 feet over the truck bed so shorter overall which can get you into a place where a 33 foot trailer might not fit.
Plus, even with all the interior storage of the Wildcat Maxx, it can't come anywhere close to the exterior storage of just about any 5th wheel trailer. The Wildcat Maxx has one medium sized passthrough where most 5th wheels have large "basement" passthroughs as well as front storage and many have other storage areas as well. A ton of places to put a ton of stuff if needed. And storage is what's needed for either long time or full time living in an RV. While you can't take 'everything' with you, it is still nice to have the ability to take some important stuff with you.
If you are curious about any of this yourself after reading this, search YouTube, there are a bunch of videos and a lot of information, and you can also just "Google It", for even more information about this emerging lifestyle. You might be amazed!
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