The Christmas-weed

The Hubby found a HUGE tumble-weed, so we added lights, and it's now our Christmas-weed......... tumble-tree........... :)

in front of the rv...

standing on the steps looking down

What do I see when I go to work?

I used to go to work, and I would walk into a small building, stand behind a chair all day, and look at the back of someones head, for about 9 hours a day. For those of you who don't know, I used to be a hairstylist, until about 3 months ago. Now, this is my view when I go to work..............

a really cool view

great blue heron

a great tree

snow geese flying in

snow geese just hanging

sandhill cranes


a lone deer

canada geese

coots

neotropical cormorant

family of mallards

coopers hawk

family of deer

road runner

pissed road runner

bobcat under the Eagle Scout Deck

close up of the bobcat under the deck

I like my view now, much better. :)

It's snowing!!

It's snowing in New Mexico!

a VERY LARGE ARRAY

I'm sure some of you have seen the movie, Contact, with Jodi Foster. In this movie, she is a radio astronomer, Dr. Ellie Arroway, after years of searching, finds conclusive radio proof of intelligent aliens, who send plans for a mysterious machine. In the movie, she works at the VERY LARGE ARRAY, which is where we went yesterday. :)

Here are the pics............




and this is a really cool pic of a Red-Tail Hawk that I took, with the VLA in the background......

Training

So, as many of you know, we were training for our "jobs" this past week........... these are a few photos from the week.

These first two images are just of views from different parts of the refuge..........



These are of us when we were out in the field learning about the types of food that is planted for the birds to enjoy while they are here. :)




and here we are at the end of the week when we went to the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site.......... the first pic is actually of the view on the way there.......... It snowed that morning, and was amazing to see.... the last pic is of us on top of the petroglyph area......

more to come soon!

Chupadera Mountains

This is a photo of us from when we went on the tour loop of the refuge a couple of days ago. In the background of this pic, you will see the CHUPADERA MOUNTAINS. The mountains a beautiful, but pay no attention to my hair in this photo please. :)

This is our backyard......

This is off to the side of us.......

Here we are.

Ok, we finally made it to the wildlife refuge where we will be spending the next four months. We got here a week ago, and it was already dark when we arrived. When I say "dark", I mean, DARK. Like you can't see your hand if you stretch your arm out, DARK. But then, I looked up to the sky, and it was the most amazing sky I've ever seen! It was like we were walking in a planetarium there were so many stars!
Now, I know all about "light pollution", and that in the city you can't see all of the stars because of the lights on the ground, but this was simply amazing!

The drawback to living in the desert? There is no grass. The babies do not like that there is no grass, it took then several days to get used to pottying in the dirt. Emma, my oldest pug, found a tiny little yellow brush of weed, and has been peeing on it for about a week now. They get these little splinters in between their toes, and I have to check their paws after every outting. Seriously thinking of getting them some shoes. I know that sounds ridiculous, but one of the other volunteers has a spaniel, and she said that she had one of the splinters in her foot last year, and it got infected. I think they just all need some flip-flops. lol :)

Everyone here is so nice, and it's weird, back in "the real world", I would sleep till noon if possible. Here, I'm going to bed around the same time as usual, but I am getting up around 8:30 every morning! That's on my own, without an alarm clock, just wake up. I guess that's a sign that I'm much happier in this environment. :)

Ok, I hope all is well with everyone. Will update more later. :)

Albequerque.......

For everyone who has been wondering where we are.............. here we are!!! :) We are finally in Albequerque, at the Balloon Fiesta........ here are a few pics for your enjoyment.. The first pic is of our "rig" on the first morning that we were here.......... ours is the one on the left.

The second is one of the husband helping inflate "Burnie" the devil. We were on the chase team for Burnie. The third and forth are of burnie when he was up.........

We are in Murray

We are now in Murray, Ky. What a ride! I was white knuckeling it the whole way! I have only driven a stick shift once by myself, and we decided to not tow the lil truck for the first leg of our journey, so he could get a good feel for it......... My heart is just today starting to beat at a normal rate again.

Next week we will be heading out to New Mexico!

Finally!

WE ARE RUNNING OFF OF SOLAR ENERGY!!!!!!!!!!!!! yay!!!!!!!!!

Here we go!!

Ok, so our first "volunteer" opportunity is going to be in Albequerque, New Mexico at the International Balloon Fiesta at the beginning of October. We are so excited! This was one of the main things to do on our list, and it's actually going to be the first one! Yay!!! We have our volunteer confirmation, and everything is set! Woohoo!

Ok, this is it!

This is my last week at work......... no turning back now!!

Last days to go!

So, his last day at work was friday, and my last day will be Aug. 15th. We're on our way!

Date pushed back.

Ok, so we are still waiting for the charge controller for the solar system...... so just to be on the safe side, we decided to push back the date a month. Our landlord is using the remaining deposit as the rent, so it's kind of like we are staying here for free....., (free in the fact that it's not coming out of our pocket now, we paid it over a year and a half ago, and we can still work on the rv here, (solar), which we most likely wouldn't be able to do in a park.)
In the long run, this is much better, we will have a little more time to sell/donate everything we aren't taking with us, and you'd be amazed at how many little things pop up at the last moment, that you never even consider!
After planning for two years, four weeks is nothing............ we can do that on our heads!! :)

So far So good!

We've been sleeping in the rv for the past few nights, and so far everything has been great. Emma has had a few scrapes going down steps and such, but we will all get used to the new place soon! :)

First night in the rv.

So we have moved our bed out into the rv and will be sleeping in our new home tonight for the first time. Wish us luck! :)

WE'VE GOT INSURANCE BABY!!!!!!!!!

We are ready to roll! We've got our "full-timers" insurance and we are ready!!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!! :) Now all we need is a destination! Or not, whatever! :)

Finally

We have finally got the aluminum grid for the roof to add the solar panels to! Yay!! One step closer........ we are getting closer and closer......... every day we are more and more ready to leave. Now each step is a huge one, and we've made several huge steps in the last couple of weeks....... only a month left until we are finally on our way!

One more step.......

This week, we put in our thirty day notice to our landlord......... and I put in my notice to my salon leader.......... at the end of July...... we are out of here!!

Entertainment center

Today, the plan is to rip out the entertainment center that is in the rv right now. It is made for a 19 inch tv........... but we have a large tv that we will be taking w/ us.......... yay, one more step. :)

Welder

So we, (meaning of course, my husband), will meet w/ the welder this week to get the grid underway. He wants to use a grid system on top of the roof, to attach the eight solar panels to, instead of attaching them directly into the roof, creating possible leaks. So, the search was on for a welder who can weld aluminum, and give us a decent quote, and hopefully we've found him. Keep your fingers crossed!

93 chevy silverado

You know, it just seems sometimes, like we just aren't meant to do this. Every time we think we only have a few more things to do........ something comes up. This time it was the truck, luckily it turned out that it was a faulty distributor, which we had replaced in august, so we are only out the tow and diagnostic fee to the first mechanic who came up w/ the diagnosis of the faulty distributor....... and we then had it towed to Goodyear, who replaced it for free........ but man....... is it just me, or is it just impossible to trust mechanics? I don't ever know who to trust....... One mechanic says it's this, then the other mechanic says, no that guy doesn't know what he's talking about, the distributor is fine, you will now owe us for the tow and a new diagnosis since we towed it here and the warrantied part is not the problem....... then he comes back a day later and says, we couldn't figure it out, but to get your business back here, since you had a bad experience w us in the past, we'll just replace it for free, you owe us nothing, and hope that it fixes the problem. I mean, come on, what is that, is this really the case, and he does want our business back, and he is just trying to make it right......... or is he just covering his bases, and did he even really replace the faulty part?!?!! I'm sure there are some great, honest, non-condescending mechanics out there, and I hope I met one this week, but I'm pretty sure there is nothing I hate more than dealing w/ mechanics........ ok, maybe doing the dishes........

Sold the old one

I forgot to update this, but we were able to sell the shell of the rv we had been working on. This was about a month ago, actually, a week after we bought the "new one", and by "new one" I totally mean, new to us. We were hoping for $2000, so that we could buy the charge controller for the solar. We listed it on craigslist for $4000, and got $3500!! Woohoo! Of course, that means we lost $1500, since we bought it for $5000, but it's truly just a shell at this point, and in the long run, we are very happy that we only lost $1500, we were afraid we'd have to pay someone to take it to the junk yard and just sell it for the aluminum in it. It would've ended up costing us several thousands to get that one to the point, that the "new one" is already at. So, now we just have to add the solar, build an entertainment center, and hope we have enough left over for gas to get out of here in July!!

welder

We are now in the process of trying to find a welder who can weld aluminum. We need to build a grid system for the roof that we can attach the solar panels too. This way, we can move them around, w/out putting holes in the roof itself.

Arctic package

So, we figured out that the new rv, (not new, but new to us), already has the arctic package. yay!! So we don't have to be concerned w/ being in the colder parts of the u.s. past October. We also discovered that the previous owners had a new roof put on........... by professionals............ and it comes a 12 yr warranty. again, yay!! :)

ummmm, nevermind........

Ok, so scratch everything we've talked about. We have just purchased a different 5th wheel rv!! :) The luxury by design, ended up being just too much of a project for us. Every time we thought we were making some headway, there would be another problem. When we bought that one, we knew there was a leak, and we'd have to replace the roof. Replacing the rubber, ended up being, replacing the rubber, the wood, the insulation, the wiring, the walls, the floors, and the plumbing...... until finally, we were at the point we were......... just a shell.
So, in comes CRAIGS LIST......... my husband saw a 36ft Cardinal listed for way less than it should have been, we called the woman, after checking out the pics........ She actually listed it for Camping World in St. Augustine, and said that they are not advertising this price on Camping Worlds site, on which it was listed for twice as much. (In fact, when we got there, to check it out, spoke w/ a different sales person, and he asked if that was our price range...... we said, "um, no, the price on craigs list is our price range".) They are trying to get rid of most of their used inventory, and are having great difficulties doing so, because no one can get financed. Even their new $129k units are on sale for $89k.
So, we went down, checked it out...... haggled a bit, told them we had cash, and that was as high as we could go....... got them to take another $1300 off the final price after tax, tags, and title.......... and we have a new home, (and only $25 to our names!)! One that is completely ready to go!! We could move into it today. However, we are going to be waiting about 3 months before we take off............ need to have the solar panels installed....... and save up some moolah....... yay yay yay!!! :)

walls

Alright, we bought walls yesterday........... if only we could get the wiring done, so we could actually get them up! :)

Awning

He took the awning down today. It's been over the rv since august, to protect it while we replaced the roof. The rv looks so much bigger now w/ out the awning on top!

Reactions

It's amazing, the varied reactions we get from ppl when they first hear of our plan to "drop out". It's either, "oh, you'll be back here in 6 months tops!", or "wow, that sounds amazing, I wish I could do that!"
I don't understand the negativity behind the "oh, you'll be back here in 6 months tops!" mentality. Why try to discourage someone from having an adventure in their lives, or even making their lives into an adventure? Why is that such a bad thing?

Zuma 125

In August of 2008, we figured we should buy a ZUMA 125, mind you this was at the height of the $4/gal gas, but still, it was a good idea. We figure we can just hop on the scooter, and go adventuring in places we probably couldn't take a truck.

We went to buy the scooter in August, but since it was the 2009 model, wasn't going to be in the dealerships until the end of September. So we waited, and saved our pennies. September and October came and went, and our dealer still didn't have the ZUMA 125. We had put down a $200 deposit to get the first one in, and it was non-refundable. However, that particular YAMAHA dealer was in the middle of a buy-out, and wasn't getting anymore stock until everything was completed!! We decided to call around to other Yamaha dealers, we found one in Georgia that not only had the ZUMA 125 in stock, but it was $900 cheaper!! I called and asked if they could hold it for us until we could get there, the woman asked how we'd be paying, I said, "cash", she said, "what kind of cash?"....... I was like, "ummmmmmmmm, green cash?" she was very excited then, and said they would hold it all day for us. (how many types of cash are there?) He went and picked it up, and we are the proud owners of a yellow ZUMA 125. I swear, it looks like a bumble bee, it's so cute!

When I called the other dealership and told them that we found one from another dealer, and would it be possible to get our deposit back, he was, of course, very rude. He said that that wouldn't be possible, and that they would be getting the scooter in any day now. Which is what they had been saying for two months at that point. He said that we would not be able to get our deposit back, and tried to use that as a way to keep us from buying the other dealers scooter, I said, "while, it is true, we will be losing $200 from you, we will be saving $900 by purchasing from them", he said, "well, you have to think about the gas you'll use to go and get it, since it's in Georgia", I said, "it's an hour away, definitely not $900 worth of gas"......... in the end, we bought the scooter from the dealer in Georgia, and after speaking w/ the manager of the dealership here, we were able to use the deposit as cash to purchase accessories for the ZUMA 125, everyone is happy. :)

Dreamers

Luckily, we are dreamers.......... we have no notion that this isn't going to happen. Simply a matter of when. :)

Solar

We decided that we are going to make the rv, as self sufficient as possible. This way, we won't HAVE to be plugged in, if we don't want to be. We've purchased 8 solar panels, Sharp nd-167 to be exact, to be mounted on the roof. If you click on the link, you will see that this model has been discontinued, for the newest model to take it's place, because of this they were deeply discounted. (They are still available for purchase here, here, and here, just be sure to request the prices, they should have them much discounted from what is shown there.) When we called to place our order for 6 panels, we were told that since they have been discontinued , they only had 8 left in stock, and that if we would take the additional 2 panels, they would discount our entire order by 30%! We were able to get 8 panels for nearly the price we were planning on paying for 6. (yay) We will have a total of 1336 watts... most ppl in rvs make do w/ around 600watts........ We met a guy that lived in the desert for over a month, in his rv, w/ only 200 watts of solar power. He said he was able to watch tv at night for almost an hour if he was very careful w/ his energy usage during the day. He mentioned the "solar envy" he had when seeing an rv whose roof was covered in solar panels, much like we will have. :) This will allow us to be out in the middle of NOWHERE, and still have all the comfort of being plugged in! yay :)

first step

We decided that we wanted to purchase a used 5th wheel rv, so we could gut it, and make it our own. We found a nice 36 ft, w/ 2 pop outs, but needed some repairs..... exactly what we were looking for.
The first thing we did, was replace the roof. What we thought was going to take 2 weeks, took months. Once we got the old rubber roof off, we saw how bad and thin the wood beneath it was, so we decided to replace it. Once we got that old wood up, saw that we needed to replace the old insulation, since it had gotten wet from the leaks. So, we pulled up all the old insulation, and discovered very thin wiring....... of course this meant we needed to re-wire and add some cat-5 through-out. Also had to run wiring for the solar panels we were planning on installing, and what better time to do that, than when the roof was open? Long story short, now 6 months later, the roof is finished, and we are way behind schedule.

The plan

Almost two years ago, my husband decided we should do this. I wasn't convinced at first, I thought he wanted us to become beggers or something. This, of course, was not the case. He played a video for me, showing me different ppl "workamping", and it simply seems amazing! There are ppl from all walks of life, and workamping jobs all over the country, doing all sorts of things! There was a job posting last september, (of course we weren't ready for that), but it was for a couple to be lighthouse keepers for the month of september, in Washington state! Imagine how beautiful that has to be, plus you stay there for free!
Some ppl work in amusement parks, state parks, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Mt. Rushmore...... the list goes on and on. There is a llama farm in Tx.......... (I COULD BE A LLAMA MAMA!!), an animal rescue resort in New Mexico, and even a nudist resort in Oregon, near the redwood forest! So many interesting places and ppl! Ok, I'll admit, I'm not at all interested in the nudist resort........ but I am excited to see the redwood trees! :)

a little history

Ok, so this is going to be my blog. The title of my blog is "Can we leave now?!", because my husband and I are planning on "dropping out" in the next couple of months. We are in the process of renovating a 5th wheel RV and will be traveling around the country workamping.

What is a workamper? "Workampers are adventuresome individuals, couples and families who have chosen a wonderful lifestyle that combines ANY kind of part-time or full-time work with RV camping. If you work as an employee, operate a business, or donate your time as a volunteer, AND you sleep in an RV (or on-site housing), you are a Workamper!"

Essentially, a workamper is someone who trades work, for a free rv site.

This blog is going to be about the long road to actually leaving, becoming workampers, and our adventures thereafter.