Hints of things to come

There is a lot going on around my little farm and I feel at times that I am being pulled in many directions at once. so below is a little hint at one of the major projects that have been in play here for the last few weeks. Let me know what you think is going on.

The currently running project is useable at the moment, but far from being finished.  and this area of the property looks vastly so stay tuned to my YouTube channel for what is going on. For bigger hints check out my Instagram! Enjoy

Changes to YouTube, Google+ and a New Google + Community

Off Grid Jenn | My Sustainable Life

I don't know what happened but for some reason I am no longer the owner of the Off Grid Documentary Community on Google +. That is okay really didn't go anywhere to begin with. I think I lost the permissions when I deleted the accompanying youtube channel a while back when I had pretty much lost all hope of ever getting my dream off the ground. 

Well I now have a new community titled Off Grid Jenn | My Sustainable Life I plan on posting in there a lot! I hope you will stop by and take a look. If your feeling up to it Join as well. 

I have been making a few changes here today on my Google entwined Social Media sites. I have deleted all but two of my YouTube sites and their accompanying Google+ pages. To be honest it was a bit much to deal with. Not to mention extremely confusing when trying to simply upload a video. I don't like having to have my YouTube and Google+ linked together like they are. I feel it was a bad move on Google's part. The better thing to have done would to have combined the two into just one site. I like aspects of both sites but it is a bit much to deal with at times. The being forced to  constantly flip between the two is annoying as hell! Not to mention that when I went to delete a seeming unrelated Google+ page it completely took out my business webpage, and all attached Google+ Pages. I nearly deleted all my youtube and Google+ accounts then and there. 

I have taken a few deep breaths now and calmed down quite a bit. Life is back to good at the moment. I am hoping that the addition of the new community will be a successful one. 

My Tiny House Dream

Will my tiny house dream become a true reality? I am not sure yet, but I am working on it that is for sure! I have found my dream shell of a home. Well that is what I call it anyway. I have found the building that I want to convert into a tiny home, it is originally a shed but considering it is 16’ X 40’ it will be roughly 200 sq. ft. smaller than my Orlando apartment. With this I could turn the RV back over to my ex and build my little dream house.

Now with that said comes the question of “Where do I put it?” My Ex’s parents have some land, and to be honest I kind of miss my family. If I were to move out to their land and do my cabin there, my daughter could be right there with her dad and still have me around. This in no way would signify my Ex and I getting back together though. He and I are best friends and always will be, the relationship boat has sailed.

Now with that said I am not apposed to the living in the middle of the country, it has its perks like the quiet and slow pace. My only con is that you have to drive an hour to get anywhere that resembles a city, again not a bad thing. The whole point of living out somewhere in a tiny home is to get the peace and quiet right?

On an even brighter note I will be able to empty out my storage locker, and retrieve everything from my grandmothers house and put them all into one place saving myself near $100.00 a month. So there is one plus to this little venture in my favor.  The fact that I would not have to pay rent is another plus, however I would probably give them the 100.00 I saved as a gesture that I am sure they would appreciate.

I have been sitting here trying to figure out just how I would build it out on the inside. I have been able to total up al the important stuff like shower, sinks, toilet, stove, fridge and the like for around $2000. This does not include drywall, insulation, electrical wiring, plugs, light fixtures, etc. and so on.  But I figure if I get all the expensive things out of the way first that leaves room to get the rest done as I can… Right?

My other option is to find some land that I could put it on, that would be an ideal to say the least.  I would love to have my own little piece of property and my own tiny house to put on it.  Time will tell what the outcome of this little idea of mine.

Time For A Change

Home Sweet Home

When I moved back to Virginia from Orlando Florida I found myself back where I was when I left, at Oceana Naval Air Station Campground, other wise known as Ocean Pines Campground. This also carried with it the task of moving my RV every 30 to 60 days like clockwork, or having to beg the base commander for the privilege to stay longer every single month, I have much better things to do with my time to be honest. On top of that entire load of crap, one is required to pay a higher price tag during the summer months. This is not my most favorite place in the world to boot.

I am ecstatic to report that happy coincidences seem to happen at the times they are meant too. Out of curiosity I did a search for RV parks on the outer banks. To my surprise I found one that was well within my price range, was long term, carries with it a one-year lease. The park also requires that I pay for my own power, cable, and phone; water and trash are included.  This quite frankly is quite perfect for me to be honest, especially during the winter months. All that this little adventure would require is a deposit and first months rent, both of equal amounts, a twenty five dollar application fee, of which I am sure is a load of bull just a way to get a few extra bucks. The final required ingredient would be my X to drive down and move me the hour and forty five minutes to the park which is located just after the causeway that enters Kitty Hawk from rout 158.

So given the fact that I had just moved up to Virginia Beach and had Direct TV come out and install my satellite, I packed up my little homestead, asked my ex came down from Maryland, given he had a break in settling his fathers estate he was happy to help out. We hooked up the RV to the truck and off we went. The hardest part of all this was not having any Internet or television for a few days. That is a whole blog unto itself.  I am happy to report that my issues with Sprint Network have been resolved as well as I am not literally across the street from one of their cell towers. I now have the best coverage ever, and to think all it took was moving down here to a little hole in the wall RV Park.

I met with Nik the park manager at the Border Station to drop off my copy of the signed lease and the money. For most people this would seem a little shady but he was away for the weekend and passing through that Saturday.  I wanted to move on that Sunday the 6^th and he was going to be out of town Sunday, so it made sense. As a former Real Estate Agent I am no dummy so I made sure that I had covered all of my bases with everything so that if it went south I would have proof. I got it all in writing and in pictures that is for sure! On Sunday I pulled in to the park with my RV in tow and moved in.

My first thoughts on the park were it seemed really nice. It was defiantly apparent as to why some of the rules I was given were put in to place, that is for sure. But it is a nice park all the same. According to one of my neighbors it used to be a trailer park. A trend that I see happening more and more which is not a bad thing as taking one over greatly reduces the start up costs as apposed to the cost of converting one over.

Now, I will fully admit that the vast majority of people that I have met have been beyond friendly, so much so that I witnessed the phrase about too many cooks in the kitchen first hand while trying to pull in. For the most part the truck got stuck in the sand and that took about two hours, six people, a towrope, and a 4x4 van to correct. Like I said Friendly people. I pretty much just sat back and let my ex and the neighbors figure it all out. It was quite entertaining to watch. But my rig is in and set up now and I could not have been happier that night knowing that in thirty days I would not be moving this beast to a new location.

With a new move comes a bit of nostalgia. My mother and stepfather had a place on the James River back in Virginia that was their weekend getaway. Sunken Meadow was a place that my family had visited longer than I have been around. I even have pictures of my Great Grandmother lounging on a blanket on that very beach. A few years before she passed Hurricane Isabel took out nearly the whole beach and their little getaway as well. This was rather upsetting to all of us. I have fond memories of sitting on the porch with my mom drinking coffee and watching the kids playing on the beach there. I mention this because my new home kind of reminds me of that very place. Like there, people here have their little out buildings; some of them have little decks built. I have plans for my own such improvements.

My little piece of Kitty Hawk is one that I plan on keeping for quite a while. Even if it turns into just a weekend getaway somewhere down the road.

Until next time, my adventure continues…

iOS update from hell.

128 GB iPhone 6 Plus

I am on week two of living in the RV and I have to say the hardest part of this transition has been the loss of my broadband Internet and my total house wi-fi integration. Most especially since I am trying to update my phone to the new iOS 8, I have been trying to download the software for the last seven hours, it isn’t working, and I am getting frustrated.

The other big loss has been the extreme decline in my cell signal. It I go a block in almost any direction I have three or four bars. Sitting here in my recliner I am lucky to have just one bar, as usually I don’t even have that. I am told by many here in the RV park that Verizon is the way to go if your going to live here. I am assuming that since I am currently in the RV park of a military base that Sprint is not paying for the privilege to have cell service on the base.  Either way it is really frustrating. I have hopes and something I am working toward at the moment and the fact that most people cannot get a hold of me is a major issue. I do like the peace and quiet at times, but there are important phone calls that I at least need to receive.

Now the last time I was at this particular park they had a pay Internet service. This time they have switched to some free service that is not worth the price I am paying for it… get it? To be honest the lack of decent Internet is an issue. I do a lot online and I need to be able to connect to it. This is unacceptable!

Earlier today I went to the sprint store and got my replacement phone for the iPhone 5S that had the screen issues. I have to admit that the cell connection is a little better, but not by much.

As luck would have it, my update failed yet again, of course it only had three minutes of download time left before it took another crap on me. Guess I will restart the download, and find something else to do. I shudder at the thought of having to do this yet again for the iPad.

I am happy to report that after three days I finally got my iOS updated only to turn around and finally get my iPhone 5S replaced thanks to the screen freaking out on me, only to spend 15 hours on the phone to upgrade the 5S to a 128 GB iPhone 6 Plus. All I can do is just shake my head, but I am finally done and things are working better phone wise. The Internet however still sucks!

Starting to feel like home…

Moving in...

Well it is official! I have been back in VA and in my RV for a little over a week now and it is finally starting to feel like home. The RV is much cleaner than it was last week when I walked in the door for the first time in three years. I have come to realize that I pretty much need to downsize the amount of crap that I have. I am even considering opening an e-bay store and selling off some of the things I have that I want to get rid of instead of just tossing it out. That is going to be work as I have a lot of crap that I really should get rid of.

When it comes to the house/RV I still have some scrubbing to do, mainly the ceiling as so much time in storage has left the RV rather nasty. I spent most of today scrubbing the walls, rearranging the stuff that was originally just shoved into the cabinets. Direct TV came out and installed my satellite. It was kind of a bittersweet moment. For most of my previous time in the RV I had Dish Network, however a change in their policy has made it an ill choice to go with them for my satellite. The funny thing is that when I sold my house in 2002 I had Direct TV and when I moved into the old RV I had to get rid of Direct TV for Dish for the very same reasons. Times have really changed.

One thing that I have learnt is that a “Magic Eraser” is a godsend for someone living in an RV. The only thing that I hate is that it seems to disintegrate when you’re using it, that is pretty annoying, but damn does it get rid of the crap you need to get rid of! I have yet to find anything it hasn’t gotten rid of. I honestly don’t think that the kitchen cabinets have looked as clean since I bought the RV.

Not going anywhere!
Bolted down like it is in a hotel.

A couple days ago I faced one of my biggest fears. I climbed up the back ladder, which was awkward to say the least. I am cool with being up there, and cool being on the ground, it is the in-between I have the issue with. The thought of falling 13 feet and breaking my neck is not appealing in the least, but I did it! And carrying up two more cans of spray rubber. I hit the front cap and the skylights again. The rain today leaves me hopeful that the non-leaking skylights have been fixed but I am not going to relax just yet. When it comes to the front cap however, I cannot for the life of me figure out how the water is getting in. The seam has been glazed like a doughnut and I have no clue how it is still leaking, but it is, sadly. SO after the rain today it looks like another trip up on the roof is in order. I am hoping a friend of mine will do it for me. Crossing fingers.

I was happy to find that my microwave from the apartment was the same size as the existing one, so I replaced the old with the newer, much cleaner microwave. It also works much better than the old one and is making my life so much easier at the moment.

Tomorrow I will be spending most of the day cleaning windows, washing the ceilings in the slides and most likely the ceilings in the bedroom and bath. I will leave the taller much larger ceiling in the living area for a day unto itself. That is going to be a back breaker.

For now, This saga continues…