Catching Up, Cleaning Up & a Tetanus Shot.

Phew! We have been sooooo busy!

I started us back to "school" this week. On top of that, Elias scratched his toe with a rusty machete (silly boy) on Monday. He was also due for his tetanus booster...so we spent Tuesday getting him his shot.

On Sunday, we had Elias pull all of his stuff from out of his sleep area. He keeps on letting stuff get up against the walls and that tends to let mold grow in the winter. We needed to clean it up. That has been a process running over a few days.

The mattress is shaped like a sort of "U" with a separate piece that inserts to make it a rectangle. We pulled the separate piece out and cut off the "arms" of the "U". He now has a narrower (almost the size of a twin) piece of mattress to lay on. However, we cannot put it back in until we finish cleaning out the area. We are taking the foam off of the separate piece and replacing it. Without the foam, it will be easier for us to put back in there the things that need to go there.

The shot on Tuesday and two commitments on Wednesday have interfered with getting things done. At least the mattress is wrapped in several layers of plastic and the area has been sprayed with bleach. Today, I hope to wipe it out so that we can get his mattress back in there.

So, where has he been sleeping? Well, on the "kitchen" floor with his head up by the kitchen sink cabinet and his feet sticking into the bathroom. Yep...he is almost as tall as me. I am 5'2" and that is how small our kitchen area is! He has spent two nights sleeping that way. Hopefully, tonight will be different.

Well, I gotta run. I have lots to do today. Hopefully, I will get back here later...or tomorrow...to post some more. I have some pics to share, when I can have the time to get them ready.

Less to Store/Pack & a Bug Feast!

Gosh, it seems like it has been forever since I had the time to just sit here and write my thoughts and catch everyone up on what is happening here on the land!

One thing that is happening is that I am a feast for the bugs! I must have somewhere between 8 and 10 bug bites right now. Most of them, we think, came from outside yesterday as we went through all the boxes that were under the tarps outside our door.

Dave estimates that about 98% of what was under there is destroyed. Between water and mildew, it was bad! I did wipe off some things with Lysol and managed to save some curriculum and a special bible. But we lost hundreds of dollars of books and things, probably even over a thousand.

The slides I had of when my older boys were growing up appear to be ruined. I have set them aside for the moment and not looked at them. I am so glad that I was able to rescue our wedding pics, for the most part, before last winter.

The good news is...there is very little left to pack, sell or give away!! *smile* Gotta look at the upside of things! There is still much to do, but we did make a dent in things. I think most of the bites came from working with all that stuff in the boxes and moving wood, etc.

We have also had a lot of bugs inside, so we set a fogger off inside the RV while we were at church today. Although we remembered to turn off the propane and electricity, we forgot to turn off the propane ignition switch to the water heater. Since we also have 12 volt, it was trying to ignite while we were gone. We always refer to the foggers as bug "bombs". Well, thankfully, the igniter did not ignite the fog and blow the RV up...really making it into a "bomb"!

By the way...Vicks Vaporub works pretty well on bug bite itches...if you apply it well periodically. So does the Aloe Vera gel with the analgesic in it. Someone today told us of something called "After Bite". I am hoping to try it. She says she puts it on two or three times after a bite and it goes away. Hmmm...sounds good to me!

I hope to get pictures up tomorrow of the nest a little bird made inside of our tarp storage shed.

Well...this is a bit rushed, I know. I hope I made some sense here!

From our little RV on the Hillside, I hope that your days go well and that your nights are restful!

Ice, Lockin, Mice, Mildew & a Blanket in the Bathtub!

OK...you are probably wondering what those things have in common...or maybe not! :)

Our church has a youth lockin tonight. So far, it has not been cancelled due to icy roads. The roads are in pretty good condition...right now. However, a lot of driveways are not...which effects us. Last night Dave parked across the creek rather than risk trying to get down an icy driveway this morning. That was a good thing as there is at least an inch of ice on our driveway. :(

The lockin...well, the ice effects our son getting there. Dave has to work late. We have only one vehicle. The driveway of the person who could give us a ride there...yep...you guessed it...is icy and she cannot bring us. So, Dave will have to bring him about two hours late.

Now, what does this have to do with mice, mildew or a blanket in the bathtub? Well, this lockin is overnight. We did find the sleeping bag, but it had gotten left outside in a garbage bag when we had to spray the inside of the tarp shed for mildew. The bag apparently got ripped open or something and there is frozen water in it. The washing machine is wrapped up for the cold and I cannot use it to wash the sleeping bag.

Our son has a favorite blanket that someone gave him. It is bit large for his sleep area, so it was in the tarp shed. Well...the mice got to that and bit holes in it, which has son rather upset. It was a gift...poor guy. So, he cannot use that, either.

We found a bigger blanket in our box when we went looking for his small sleeping bag...a bag that was NOT outside. However, this blanket smells like the box and needs to be washed. So, we have a blanket in the bathtub.

I have washed smaller blankets in there and it is not too bad. We have a shower curtain rod in the middle of the wall at the top to hang things from. I use it to drape things across and then twist them to ring them. Only one problem with that...this blanket (a queen/king, if I remember correctly) is too heavy and will just bring the rod down. I know...I tried and almost brought it down. :P

Ever try to wring out a big blanket? It is very heavy...and hard to wring. What makes it even better is that our hot water heater only holds 6 gallons...which means the water is pretty COLD!!! Yikes! So, I have this blanket that is soaking that I have to get wrung out enough to get it into the dryer. Hmmm...I wonder what happens when you put a soaking wet blanket in the dryer? Do you think it will ruin the dryer? Uh oh!

So, as I write this...we are trying to get the smell out of the blanket...with only partial success...partly due to an inability to really wring out the water. Plus, I am waiting for the hot water heater to heat the water up again. Oh, what fun...NOT! :)

This is life in our little RV on the hillside. We have mice and mildew, ice and lockin and a blanket in the bathtub! What is YOUR day like today? LOL