Evenings in the Trailer

Evenings in the trailer are much more relaxed than evenings in our stick and brick home. We don't have evening commitments - this is  new for us and I highly endorse this plan. We also have very little to prep for the next day.   After the bustle of the day - school, projects, exploring, visiting with friends - it is nice to know  dinner and the evenings will be family - and friends from time to time.

Our patio and Featherstone - in the front; Fam Camp at Sunset

 We have watched all of Monk. We began to stream a series until we decided we didn't like the things they started surprising us with in season 3. We read books - The Cay is our last. We play games. We've taken sunset walks and nighttime walks to the lake. We've streamed movies.

View from our Patio

My favorite of all is sitting beside the fire! Everything seems bigger, brighter and better with a fire. I am still so happy with our choice of a fire pit for Christmas. I'm also happy, after decades, we are in a place where none of our kids are going to try to pick a stick out of the fire - though we do still watch for flaming marshmallows  - always beware of flaming marshmallows.

Wood is a problem - $7 a bundle at the commissary. There are branches laying on the ground all around the Fam Camp, but this is a military installation in CA - best not to break the rules. Michael had  a thought today. He worked at Fred Myers back in the day. He stopped by the BX to see if they had any damaged pallets. The good ones are reused. He saw one badly broken and asked the manager, showed the manager what he was talking about, and was given the pallet. He had to cut it up - but in Portland we heated one winter entirely with broken pallets and mattress frames. He knew how to do this - it was  a bit more time-consuming without the chain saw. 

We are getting 3 fires out of this

Tonight we enjoyed a fire without s'mores - we did have ice cream this afternoon! What do you do around a fire without s'mores? 

Contemplation 

Electronic games, reading and talking with Jared

Looking at the fire - talking with each other

 One thing we noted early about the caboose is the "reading light" is placed so it is NOT going to be on our books if we read in bed - unless we get up and sit in the middle of the bed. We've talked of various options for reading lights. When we turn  the light on to read it shines directly into our eyes. Michael came home with this nifty light. It works in bed and it's great for reading Patrick McManus beside the fire.....

We love our slower-paced evenings in the trailer. Thanks to the master of the fire for making a fire possible tonight.