STILL in Ohio!

Well, to say it has been a while since my last update is the understatement of the year!  I am still in Ohio, spending this past year enjoying my time with my family and friends and getting some things in my life settled.  With the loss of my brother last spring, it has been a year of adjustments and change.  Also a year without easy internet access!  Thus one of the reasons for my lack of posts.  However, I have been working on getting ready for life on the road.

Last summer I attempted to repaint my teardrop's trailer frame and give it more protection from rust.  I first tried to remove some of the rust that was on it with a "facial mask" of baking soda and vinegar and a wire brush.  It kind of worked.

The underbelly of Zelda

Then I painted it with several coats of Rust-oleum primer and finished it off with 2 coats of their rubberized undercoating.  I'm hoping that will keep the rust away!

Zelda's tongue box - covered for painting

My dad helped me make an alienesque outfit for my cooler.  This should help keep it well insulated.  I got this great idea from a fellow teardropper at one of the TearJerker gatherings.  I did decide on purchasing the Coleman Extreme 52 Qt cooler.  I'm not overly experienced with using coolers so there will definitely be a learning curve during the first couple of months of use!

A cool cooler!

Last August, I moved back to my friends' farm but this time living in my tearbaby!   They had a lovely spot for me to park Zelda.  The white statue was Zelda's bovine security guard - fierce killer cow!  No one dared bother her.

My "outhouse" (without the house) was behind the white fence to the left of my trailer in the above picture.  Every day I had a gorgeous view of the cornfield and sunrise during my morning constitutional.  What a lovely way to start the day.  Of course, the weather didn't always cooperate.  Some mornings I sat on my bucket trying to keep dry under my little, compact umbrella.  After one particularly rainy morning with cold dribbles from my umbrella running down my back, a dear friend sent me a BIG golf umbrella.  The gesture of a true friend!

My morning view

Speaking of rain. . .  One night we had major storms with non-stop lightning and lots of rain.  I had opened my pop-up top when the rain let up to see if I could keep it opened partially and I think that led to some water getting in around the opening.  I eventually got tired of blotting the drips so I employed another strategy.  Sometimes being a girl comes in handy.

YEP!!

Last fall I lost another of my cats, Squirmey (a.k.a. Evil Devil Spawn Cat).  He was having seizures and they were getting worse and more frequent.  I couldn't let him suffer any longer - even if he was a pain in the butt.  I swear he had ADHD, Bipolar and Tourette Syndrome. We had kind of a love/hate relationship - he was a funny cat, and the best bed buddy, but he was constantly terrorizing all my other cats.  I always figured we were married in a previous life, and it wasn't a good marriage.  Gotta love Karma!

Squirmey

After losing Squirmey, I moved my last cat, Phoebe, to the trailer with me.  We both enjoyed our time together in the tearbaby - she loved having the windows at bed level to look out all the time.

Phoebe

Only problem was her litterbox.  My floor space is only about 3ft x 4ft empty.  I do keep some things there permanently, so adding a litterbox really made it challenging to function in the already limited floor space.  I did put the box inside Phoebe's cat carrier with the door removed (green box in picture below) so I wouldn't accidentally step in it or drop something in it and to keep the litter confined somewhat.  As much as I love my furbabies, I do NOT recommend a litterbox in such a small, enclosed space if you plan to live in said space too!  Sometimes there just aren't enough windows.

All the floor space I had with the litterbox

 I have since lost Phoebe this past April.  She was 16 + years old and the momma of Yoda, whom I lost just before leaving Chattanooga.  After 18 years, I am at a loss without any furbabies in my life.  


While living in Zelda for several months I found that I needed to come up with a better plan for my bedding.  My teardrop is designed for a full size mattress, but to fit it lengthwise I have to use the bench in the raised position, thus reducing my open floor space width to about 2 feet.  Without the bench I gain an extra foot in floor space width which I prefer to have.  So, when I ordered my bed foam I had them cut it a foot short of the full size mattress length and I sleep diagonally.  One of the few times in my life being short has paid off.  This works pretty well, except that bed sheets are designed to be much longer than the bed so you can tuck them in.  Add to that my bed being a foot short and you get a LOT of excess sheet hanging over.  This got annoying after a while so I asked a friend who has a sewing machine and is an amazing quilt maker if she could make a very simple bedspread / top sheet for my short bed.  I sent her an old sheet and a piece of material I found along with the dimensions I needed it to be and she sent back something that was beyond my wildest expectations.  She added more material around the edges and made the most beautiful bedspread for Zelda.  My gratitude cup runneth over.

No, those are not alien eyes, they are my "over the bed" lights!

The other day I gave Zelda and Tawanda much needed baths.  As I was washing Zelda a neighbor's friend came over and exclaimed "It's a PREEMIE!!".  I never thought of teardrops in that way, but in the world of camping trailers and RV's they definitely are!  I love it.  Cracks me up every time I think about it.

Zelda all shiny and clean!

This spring has brought more changes and challenges to my life, but I look at them as settling old business so that I can start my new life fresh and unencumbered.  "Things fall apart so that other things can fall together" - so true.  It has been a year and a half full of things both falling apart and falling together.  I am grateful that I took this time to spend with my family and friends.  It has given me the time to examine my life from a new perspective which has confirmed that I am indeed on the right path and that the timing for everything has been as it should be - hard as it is to accept sometimes.

People keep asking me when I plan to leave and I find myself replying that I don't make plans anymore, because as soon as I do they blow up in my face.  I am HOPING that things will fall together soon so that I can head out by the end of July. . . but I'm not making any plans!!