ARGH I had a long post ready to go and blogger ATE it!!!!
**** I ATE 10 SERVINGS OF PRODUCE TODAY!!!!**** I'm quite sure I won't be able to do that daily. ::snort:: If I keep this up I'm sure to LOOK like say a Cantaloupe or Melon.
~Stacia woke up early. I put on Waltons and cuddled with her...before the show was over Nolan and Zander had climbed into bed too.
~The youngers watched Brady Bunch...in other words we got a late start. All but Josiah who had to go to work.
~I was in the shower when Mandy dropped by. LOL The younger boys love playing with her boys...and we had a nice visit as well.
~I worked on taxes. I made a shocking realization today. For the first time EVER our child deductions did not off-set Mike's income. He had taxable income this year! AND we no longer qualify for the EIC. We've worked ourselves into a new tax bracket. We'll get everything we paid in taxes back...but we are used to getting at least 5K in a "refund". Ah well.
~I did some more trailer shopping. Delvin said that the owner gave him a hard time for giving me a hard time yesterday. It seems the owner has the trailer we have and says it pulls well and my van won't have trouble at all. BUT we'll see. They said that I'd have trouble pulling it up Pike's Peak but they don't think I'll be doing that often and said any trailer would lug for that. ::snort:: Mike found another model he's looking at too. The 31' model is top of the line with all the amenities. The 28' one is a "great little trailer but no amenities" and it's only $2k LESS but 2K pounds less too. BTW, do any of you know the what dry camping is and how it compares with wet camping? My mind scrabbled back through our 20+ years of camping and I came up with some clues about wet camping but I was quite sure that they weren't right given the context of the discussion. Debbie, have you and Brian used that terminology? Mike? He's checking our credit number et al. I'm checking with the courthouse. I want to register and license it in AK...he isn't sure I can. We did this with the van when we bought it ....so either we should be able to or I should keep quiet because we shouldn't have been able to do it with the van either. ::snort:: The owner and now Delvin are sure that 1200 lbs is about what the average family hauls....and that we won't need all our camping gear (outside stove, sink, tent etc) any longer. We'll just need clothes, shoes, pots/pans, and food. I have no clue. Debbie, have you and Brian ever figured out how much weight you put into your trailer to go camping? I'm guessing a 5th wheel would be different or I'd ask Cindy - well Cindy - do you know how much weight you all take with you? Our van is rated for 8400 lbs. The trailer is 7200 empty.
~Went to the library to return books and look for the book Laura recommend. They don't have it.
~Looked around netflix and put the documentary Debbie recommend in my queue. Has anyone watched "The Long Road Home"? It's a documentary on the holocaust and the journey for the Jewish survivors to have a homeland in Israel. I know it would be too intense for the younger set from the preview. I'm wondering if it would be o.k. for the high school boys...possibly the 7th grader.
~Dinner - spanakopita and salad for Jamin and I. Tortellini and sauce for Jared. The youngers had oven baked fries, carrot sticks and such. Stacia ate it all.
Time to take care of showers, reading and bed time...Sunday School starts early.
15 comments:
I've not seen the film you mention.
Have you read Going Solo by Roald Dahl? Excellent book for (especially) boys aged 8 to adult.(Though Grace really enjoyed it too.) It's Dahl's early adult adventures living in Africa when WW2 started and as a young RAF pilot in the Middle East. Gripping.
Dorothy
You're doing great on that produce! 10-12 servings seems like a LOT if you aren't juicing lol. What all are you eating? Do you get other foods in too? I can't imagine LOL.
Sounds like things are going to be fun with your new trailer. I'd love something like that soon. My body does not like the air mattress any longer lol.
~Kelly
Sis: Know lwhat you mean about being a "little lady" in a man's world. :(:):) Will be nice to see what you end up getting.
We have 2 nights booked in Spokane and are working on the other nights.
No way I could eat that much food in one day...... that is unless it was candy.
Going to Kathy/Chuck's at one to eat.... Walt/Deanna will also be there. He slept on our floor lastnight as he seems to be doing just about every other week.
l/p
l/p
De'Etta, dry camping is when you don't have any hook up. You run off the sytems in your camper. You have to be more careful with your water and battery supply and how quickly your waste tanks fill up.
We do some camping at VT state grounds and they have no hookups. We can easily stay for a long weekend with no problems.
When you dry camp, you would have more weight because your water tank would be full.
Most of the time when we travel, we run a "short tank" of water...just enough to flush the toilet while we are in route. They actually advise against this because of load shift, but in all the years of trailer camping and the thousands of miles we have traveled, we have never had a problem with a partially full water tank.
Regarding the TOG picture, you are right :) It takes you to some weird place! If I were you, I'd email the graphic designer at TOG/Lampstand Press as ask them for the code (or whatever it's called!) so you can have a link on your blog to them. Never hurts to ask!
Linda
Kelly - it IS a lot of produce. I'm making a change and sticking with it for 4 weeks to see if it makes a difference. In other words I'm giving this "eat breakfast" thing 4 weeks. I don't get many other foods in - because I'm not HUNGRY to start with and I don't intend to make myself sick to speed up my metabolism....but I'm trying.
Breakfast - 1/2 C fruit or smoothie (1 -2 servings)
Lunch - 1/2 sandwhich (grain, protein)2 C salad (2 servings)
Dinner - 2 C salad (2 servings) and then whatever...last night it was 10 servings because I ate 4 servings of spanakopita (4 servings)
I don't think I'll get 10 in most days...I was tryin to add the snacks etc and it is just to MUCH food....so I'm going to do breakfast and eat when I'm hungry the rest of the day and we'll see. If I WANT a snack, I'll do produce for the snack...but I can't force feed this much produce. The idea (besides having to desire for sweets and fats when that stuffed) is that it will drastically up my fiber which will carry cholesterol on out of the system. LOL
Dorothy - I'll look it up. Thanks for the tip.
Linda - the little box to the left IS a link...this is supposed to be a link. But I can't get it to work right....ugh.
Debbie - thanks for the info! I'm learning....
That is a lot of produce LOL. I think I said that already :) Can you drink OJ? 1 c. of juice is 2 servings (at least according to WW). I used to love juice....I'm beginning to not love it right now LOL. But I am feeling SO much better, so it is serving a purpose. And I've lost 7.4 lbs. since Monday! And I'm consuming about 3000 calories a day, so not sure how that is working, but I'll take it. Five more days or so and I'm going to slowly add in more food. I'm finally not missing coffee!
I don't blame ya for not stuffing yourself. But breakfast is a good thing :) Produce for snacks, also good.
I'm sorry you're having a hard day today. You've been in my prayers and thoughts. I do love your new blinkie!
~Kelly
Great job on all the veggies and fruits! You have been on my heart and in my prayers! :-)
For the first time EVER our child deductions did not off-set Mike's income. He had taxable income this year!>>>>
DeEtta, don't forget that most of the income he earned while deployed is probably federal tax free.... one of those benefits of being in a "hazardous duty assignment".
Congrats on the veggies/fruit!
I also second the recommendation for Going Solo. I just finished reading it myself and it was really good! I always bring a book with me to the drs and this was a good one.lol
I've always wanted an RV. Going on vacation when you've got food problems would be so much more fun if I could do all the cooking.
Blessings,
DeEtta,
Regarding 5th wheel vs bumper hitch. It doesn't matter what kind you are pulling you are still limited to the gvw rating on your vehicle. Now, the longer you go with your trailer the more difficult it's going to be to control with a bumper hitch which is why we go with 5th wheels.
Did you decide on the 28' or the 31'? Obviously, I'm too late to answer your questions now because I see you already bought one... not knowing which one I'll still give you Tim's info.
Ours is right at 8000 pounds and our pick up is rated for 11,000. He said we EASILY go over 1200 pounds which I think is the # you were wondering about?
Depends on what you're needing to take or willing to leave at home, I suppose.
We always take two 5 gal jugs of water because I always worry about drinking water. One gallon of water weights 8 pounds so if you plan to fill your tank up at all that's going to add up VERY QUICKLY.
We still take our BBQer because where we go camping it's HOT in the summer and I don't like to get stuck in the camper grilling burgers and dogs... it makes the camper smell FOREVER! We do very little cooking in our camper. We cook all of our meals outside on our BBQer and Tim said that's easily 100 pounds with the propane tank.
Then, we take the kids bikes... 3-4 of them and that's a signficant amount of weight.
We still take our tent because it's nice to have a place to put "stuff" that you pile into the camper but it still has to be somewhere once you get there since you need to be able to move about the camper (LOL)! We put coolers, toys, life jackets, towels etc in the tent at night so they don't blow away or some varment doesn't drag them off.... speaking of coolers you'll probably find you still need to take some because I find our fridge isn't big enough with just the 6 of us. We always need 1 extra cooler for food and I take 1 extra (very big - as in width of the pick up big) cooler for beverages.
Then, the last thing I figured is the clothing. A regular suitcase filled is usually about 50 pounds (ours are anyway when we fly). I figure the kids take about 1/2 of what we take when we fly so I figure their "stuff" is probably around 25 pounds each.... but your kids may take less stuff.... ours don't take many clothes, but they usually take a book or board games, etc.
One last thing. Tim said if you're going that long and getting that close to the GVW of your van you'll definitely want to look into getting an equalizer hitch to distribute the weight up the length of your vehicle instead of just at the back end... You and Mike probably already know all about that though... but I'll toss it out there since Tim said to be sure to mention it.
I'm GLAD yours has the tall slides! Our does too and it's so nice to be able to stand up and not bump your head (LOL)!.
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