#447 - Our New Hometown, Here or There

Sgt. Dave and I are loving our new lifestyle in the country. Right now, it's more difficult and physically challenging because we are in the midst of rural property. However, with stormy weather, such as today, there's not much else to do in a small space besides lounging around. No set of stairs to climb with extra bedrooms that need cleaning, no extra bathrooms that need attention...just the pitter-patter of the rain on the RV roof and an occasion thunderclap.

BOOM!

And, we've gone from having a large home in the city with every amenity you can think of to personally coordinating every single detail for connection to the acreage.

It's a challenge, but I LOVE IT! I guess I realize that there will be days when I am tuckered out, like today, and that will have to be okay. Last night, I was on the land working until dark...searching for a place to situate my vegetable garden and shed. After finding the perfect spot, I got the hoe and began working the ground to prepare it for planting. Compared to Sgt. Dave, my efforts are piddle-paddle, but I keep trying! Then today, the rains hit. Hard. And this week, I have Houston-happenings that will keep me busy, so my garden will have to wait...again. That's the difficult part, wanting to do EVERYTHING right now!

Patience, always a lesson in patience.

It's the reason we have such appreciation and admiration for people with properties in the country who have already gone through the expense and hassle to have utilities, culverts and extensive fencing put into place. Each step is important.

Compared to our home in Greater Houston, we are delighted to have made the move to the resort/recreational area of Lake Livingston Texas.

Since our daughters are in their twenties, this was the perfect time for us to finally make the long-awaited move to the country. Our country cabin will require a lot of time and expense to construct, but we are thrilled at our opportunity to build a LIFE in the country...board by board.

For some reason, when our children were young, I wanted the primary lifestyle to be weekday busy with city-links, and with weekend country visits to various places so the girls would learn about both city life and country life. It worked. We were committed to giving the best of both worlds to our children, a familiarity with city life while instilling respect for nature and a love for the country.

Heather and Stefanie have a love for both lifestyles. But, throughout their years of growing up, I mainly connected my daughters to all of the wonderful parts of city life...Broadway plays, musicals, exhibits, downtown lunches, exotic foods, festivals, competitive dancing, big-city-sporting events, and boutique shopping on the strand in Galveston...we've enjoyed a bit of both sides!

Then, we made very frequent trips, for years on end, to our properties in the country and to state parks throughout Texas. My daughters grew up knowing the sound of a coyote pack in the distance, they saw alligators close up, they stood in the wilderness within a few feet of raccoons, porcupine, skunk, armadillo, deer, snakes and have an understanding of the country that goes beyond scenes on television. They lived in close connection to nature. They experienced nature.

Now, we are out of the city and smack in the middle of the country and the difference between the two is pretty stark. I thought I'd share some of those differences.

Internet Shot

We moved to the country about three weeks ago and after doing some research, here is a snippet of what I've found to compare our last home in the Greater Houston area to the acreage build-site we now live on, according to the United States Census Bureau.

 

COUNTY LAND MASS COMPARISON... Polk County Land Mass: 1,057 square miles
Harris County Land Mass: 1,703 square miles

Downtown Livingston, Texas.
So much different than Downtown Houston!

COUNTY POPULATION COMPARISON... Polk County Population estimate: 45,656
Harris County Population estimate: 4,253,700

 

Gazebo sits at back of Polk County Courthouse.
 

Downtown Livingston - Newer section in keeping with historic section.
 

Downtown Livingston - part of historic section.

COUNTY POPULATION PER SQUARE MILE COMPARISON...
Polk County - Population per Square Mile: 43
Harris County - Population per Square Mile: 2,402 ----- CRACKS ME UP!!!

Polk County Courthouse

OLD HOME/ACREAGE RESIDENTIAL CITIES COMPARISON... Livingston Population: 5,238
La Porte Population: 34,469

It is staggering for me to realize, per square mile, our new county home has, on average, two-thousand three-hundred fifty-seven LESS people PER square mile than we had in Harris County. I was BORN in the heart of downtown HOUSTON, so I'm a Native Houstonian, and I have been raised in Greater Houston, but I must confess that it is magical to step away from city congestion and breathe fresh country air.

 

And yes, the air IS cleaner, but that's an entirely new set of research stats I won't subject you to...well, not today.

Part of our acreage.

Geez, no wonder I can hear the crickets out here in the country! In the Country, the crickets have taken over people!

#446 - Just Say NO to Laundrymats!

We've moved to the country and are living in an RV over the next year as we prep the land and build our cabin. So, we're still living in between, for a while. The process to building our country home will be extensive.

In the past couple of weeks, we've gone from living in a large home with three bathrooms to living in an RV with two slide-outs and one very UN-private bathroom, unless you close both doors on each side of bathroom, which we rarely have energy to do.

The RV bathroom doors work great for visiting company, but for the two of us, the pocket doors stay pocketed in their place.

We decided, these are the times when it serves us well to have been married for over 26 years.

The master bathroom in the house was very large. We had a separate shower, two-person garden tub with seat, separate potty room, two sinks, a large vanity AND a large bathroom-pantry closet in addition to our massive master closet that was large enough to have a ceiling fan. My daughter's boyfriend, Brice, cracked me up as he said it was "ridiculous" to have a closet so big that it requires a ceiling fan, but I counter with that humor as I say...ANYTHING in the South serves us better with a ceiling fan.

Finding an RV that works for a man well over six foot tall is, in itself, a tall order. Since I am barely over five foot tall, we don't have a problem on my end, but the man requires headroom. Most RV showers found him standing with the top of his head inside the sun-dome and me laughing, except when it was getting too close to us selling our house and then I was closer to crying.

The RV we purchased is designed for tall people. It has a domed ceiling that adds a few inches of headroom, which is beautiful and the shower gives ample room for Sgt. Dave to TRY to rinse off the caked on dirt that he accumulates while working his land.

Therefore, he often takes showers at the outside shower area that came with the RV. Thank God for hot and cold outdoor water!

We needed to make space for our bodies in this space, so we purchased two separate dispensers to hold shampoo, conditioner, body soap and more shampoo. I installed these with the stickies and adhesive that could put you on the floor gasping for air. And Sgt. Dave installed a much better shower head that has the water-stoppage nozzle to control water usage.

This week, after my horrible experience at a laundrymat/washeteria, I've been hand-washing a few things. As for being without a washer and drying, I've served years of duty in a washeteria throughout my years, but it's been a LONG time since we've used one. This past week, the one outside of town we found was HOT and MISERABLE and WITHOUT any where to sit.

Sgt. Dave had helped me get all the clothes into the washers, then he headed out in a mad dash to drop things off at the storage facility on the other side of town while I waited for our washing machines to finish so I could move our laundry from the washing machines to the driers.

We had gone out to eat earlier, so I was wearing a nice dress that I had recently purchased in Houston.

All our dirty laundry took up FIVE industrial washing machines. The country sure is a dirty place to live!

I got over-heated and there were crates on the sidewalk outside of the washing facility, but I felt rather out of place in my city dress to be sitting on a crate. There was also a bench, but it had slats missing and I didn't relish the feel of my rear falling through the gaping hole. So, I stood on the sidewalk, with all my LONG curly hair becoming heavier by the second and making me more over-heated as I tried to avoid the blaring sun while keeping an eye on my laundry supplies inside the washeteria.

And $4.00 per load is NOT cheap!

Good thing is...I understand a fair bit of Spanish, so I was a tad distracted by the soap opera playing on the television inside the hot-hell-hole that had two ceiling fans, but only one was puttering.

Then, as I stood outside, on the sidewalk...over a period of about twenty minutes, I had two rather nice gentlemen come up to me as I stood trying to gasp fresh air and ask me if I were ok, if I needed anything.

Of course, that mortified me.

They stared at me with perplexed expressions...as though I were lost and out of my mind to be standing there at the washeteria attached to the local gas station off the freeway.

What?

What did it look like I was doing?

# 445 - Country Security Lights & More

We've been in the RV on the acreage, living in the country full-time for 18 days now! So much has happened since we closed on our house...

Our favorite hats to wear in the sun on the land.
A bit worn, but just as comfortable!

The past few weeks have been completely crazy and chaotic; the busy lifestyle is not coming to an end any time in sight.

At least we're older and know that each step involved in starting a full-time life on rural acreage requires patience or you'll kill yourself. Our lives have changed, dramatically, yet for the better. Here is the view from my front porch these days:

At night, since the generator is no longer running in the distance, I can really hear all the nightlife. It's odd because I have been long accustomed to hearing sirens and traffic close by. And we don't hardly ever see or hear an aircraft fly overhead, which is really strange because we've always lived in airspace that has a flight path overhead, or we live near an airport, or an Air Force base with jet strip and hush-house nearby. For those who have never heard of a "hush-house," it's basically a massive building where the jet engines are worked on and TESTED. Through all these years, I've not found anything to which I can compare this noise.

The other day, on a stroll through the land, my dad and I came across some century trees on the side of our property that I've always loved. I was greatly saddened to see that one of them was in the midst of death throes. Dad immediately recognized the variety and said, "That's a Cottonwood...how strange to see that here," and he looked around through the forest to not find another and remarked, "...look at the bark and you'll see it's a Cottonwood."

Here is a recent shot of my dad and my brother since my dad has lost all hair and mustache due to chemo treatments. Notice the words on my dad's shirt. Enough said.

I kept my distance from the massive branches of this Cottonwood that were hanging by a toothpick and noticed the smooth, beautiful bark, so different from the oaks that towered nearby. I will hopefully go for a walk tomorrow to post pictures, we've had torrential rains on and off yesterday, so outside activities were limited.

Future cook-out and picnic table area. Chickens are about to moved, I think.

And I almost hit the RV ceiling during storms yesterday that sounded as if thunder passed through our bodies and lightening hit directly outside our windows.

Anyway, I decided that this Cottonwood tree, even though it is dying, would have its branches and trunk used for various projects. It's too beautiful to burn. However, I have no idea how we will manage such a massive tree needing to come down, especially without it causing a person great danger or damaging the trees surrounding it. I have taken many pictures of this tree through the years, so I am saddened to see it wither and die. Stay tuned, I will hopefully get a picture of this tree within the next couple of days.

Here is another tree that has fallen, this one is a good size, but much smaller than the Cottonwood that is still holding its ground, yet clearly dead. The one in the photo below has moss growing on it as well as ferns, such as you'd see in a rain forest. The eco-system here is AMAZING!

On that day of my dad's most recent visit, I had been planning on mowing a bit of the acreage while my husband was at work, but as my dad drove off, he asked me to please not mow until my husband was home. I was a sneaky kid at heart as I promised, reluctantly, to not mow...that DAY. Since I've been kept so busy in the RV with box after box and with rearranging and continual setting up, then with going through all the arrangements for crews every day, I'm often relegated to the business/boring side of our lives. However, I honored my dad and did not get on the biggest Cub Cadet on the market, actually a cross between a mower and tractor, a hybrid of sorts, hence the name "lawn-tractor."

After Sgt. Dave got home that afternoon, he hopped on the lawn-tractor and as he got going a couple of acres from the RV, he experienced one of the large tires rolling straight off, yet he was strong enough to not topple over. I might not have been so fortunate, especially since my upper strength is not the same.

I guess my dad was operating on a sixth sense because he never asks me to NOT do something. Glad I listened.

So, finally, on Wednesday morning of this week, we had our electricity connected after the local power company ran lines from their poles to ours. I can't even tell you how much I wanted to jump up in down in celebration! No more generator!

You can see two of our security lights in this shot, coming on at dusk.

Since we now have television, electricity and water-hose connection to water a few acres away, I feel somewhat civilized! At least we don't feel as if we're camping any longer.

You can see Howdy in the distance, doing his nightly barking routine.

Another bonus has been the three security lights that we had installed which run on sensor so I don't have to worry about turning them on and off. At dusk, around 8:30pm, they come on, and they go off automatically at the break of dawn.

Every night, Howdy runs outside to do a weird ritual and I was able to capture him in the light of one of the security lights as he charges outside to stand puffed out while giving a few "manly" barks. I guess he feels compelled, perhaps its part of the guard dog in his breed that feels the need to give a warning good-night bark to local critters.

I wish he could have scared this booger out of my RV bedroom, but between a can of Raid and my broom, I triumphed without any stings!

I am glad to have this extra lighting, and we will be adding more throughout the property, mostly motion-detector kind of lights.

As for missing the things I cannot see as easily, I especially miss my sister! She's a doll!

And here's a picture taken by my talented brother-in-law of my sister and my niece. My sissy Robin and her daughter, my niece, Shaye, they fill my heart with beauty!

I can't wait to show Shaye around the country! She's never been here and we're working on a plan for a special visit very soon! We've talked about our place in the country, but I don't think she'll be able to imagine it until she steps foot in the woods! I know she will be gasping with awe and ready to explore! She's a nature-loving kind of gal!

But, we've got the Disney Channel...just in case.

# 444 - Country Life - Madness and Gladness!

My best-friend, Kelly, told me about WiFi that can be connected through my IPhone and it's called "Personal Hotspot." I hooked up for one month of service, for an additional $20.00 through my AT&T phone and it gives 5GB of usage. However, I am using that amount of data PRETTY DARN FAST.

Now that I have Direct TV to keep me distracted when piddling with other things in the RV, I am probably going to use less of our Data Plan on the IPhones. And once I find the PS3 with components that was put into storage by accident, I will be able to use the internet to stream in Netflix as well...I love streaming to the television directly!

However, we must have a local telephone connected in order to get DSL Internet service, which will take a minimum of two weeks to get installed. That is our next amenity that will be connected on the land, phone and DSL.

Our water is sent via multiple water hoses connected from far corner of acreage. Sgt. Dave put a pressure valve of some sort onto the RV with a splitter so I can still use a regular water hose and we had to buy a filter so our water doesn't taste like it came from a water hose.

All of these things will be done on a better and more permanent basis when we are not so pressed for time to get such an important necessity to the RV. I think there is about 600 feet of water hose ran to the RV...about $200.00 in water hoses. That stinks!

But, the really stinky part is the temporary "septic" which is  a hole in the ground. Yes, it works, especially after a couple of bleach tablets are added to the concoction. Our septic tank is within reach, but our piping needs to be handled and all of this is taking a LOT of time and energy. Sgt. Dave only has so much time to spare with having to drive back and forth to Houston each day. But, we are getting there, slowly but surely! I can't believe I went from three bathrooms to a little RV restroom with a hole in the ground! The septic tank is in the distance...so close, yet so far!

Of all my creature-comforts that have been missed over the past two weeks, I must say that Internet has been my most missed because I have missed blogging and reading the blogs of others. I haven't missed television so much, but have been able to watch a few things through streaming on my IPhone from Netflix.

This morning, I finally got to enjoy not having to listen to the rumbling sounds of the generator because the local electric company FINALLY got out here to connect their pole to our pole's meter box and breaker box that we just paid to have installed with 200 amps.

Here is a shot of one of our older poles that is now out of code.

After seeing the new pole and the much added height, I can kind of understand, but the price-tag still hurts! We paid $825. for the new pole, installation, meter box and 200 amp breaker box.

The hardest part about moving to the country, moving out of a near 3,000 square foot home and into an RV that has around 300 square feet with the two slide-outs has been trying to find a new system of organization. My in-laws have perfected this kind of life-style because they have been living in an RV motorhome for about 15 years of traveling around the United States and through Canada. However, even though we will be living in our RV for probably a year as we build a cabin, I highly doubt I could do this for multiple years on end. I don't know.

For the people who do it...God Bless You! It takes a great amount of organization and simplistic living to live in such a confined space, especially if you don't have a home-base to return to for some spreading out to rejuvenate.

That said...I love our RV. It is rather spacious for an RV and has the best kitchen area I've ever seen. The loveseat is extremely comfortable to me and it rolls out to a bed for guests, mainly Stefie and perhaps my dad.

Our dinette is not a built-in, it's a free-standing table with four chairs. I was disappointed that two chairs did not survive the trip to the country, but Sgt. Dave will be repairing them, sometime down the road. But, I like the table and it has a little section that extends out for extra table space that counts. In an RV, every inch of space is important.

There are a lot of cabinets that I am trying to figure out how to best utilize.

My mother-in-law and father-in-law are coming into town tomorrow. They'll be staying at a nearby RV park, probably the Indian Reservation, and it will be so nice to have them visit. I love playing cards and Dominoes with them. My father-in-law just had surgery a couple of weeks ago at M.D. Anderson for cancer of the tongue, so he's been through rough times lately.

And my own dad is about to start his third round of harsh chemo that is administered through the port in his chest via a pump that he wears so it can be injected 24/7 for about a week straight. My dad is determined to live as "normal" as possible, but I sometimes see that he's putting on a tough-guy persona so that we kids don't worry. I try to not worry because worrying can be similar to praying for what you don't want. Instead, I try to think of the positive things in life, with hope! But, this is a hard aspect of moving right now since I am nearly two hours from him now (one-way).

The below shot is of my dad, my daughters (in order...Stefie and Heather) and my in-laws at one of Stefie's dance performances during her Senior year of high-school. I love my family and am a very blessed woman!

However, since we've moved to the country, my dad has made a few trips out here to visit and to help. He's a champion of mine. In fact, we closed on our house on May 15th and my birthday was the following day...for my birthday, my dad gave me a 10x14 shed! The best present ever!

He came over last week and we unloaded about 800 pounds of materials from his truck. Even battling cancer and on chemo, my dad kept going, but on an ordinary cancer-free day, this man is unstoppable and has more energy than most 20 year old young fellows.

We'd work for a bit, then we'd stop to rest under a big oak tree with the breeze feeling wonderful and we'd visit, play with the dogs and prepare to get back to task under the Texas sun.

It was one of the best days I've had with my dad, even though we were completely drained by the heat and saturated in sweat from working during the worst part of the day. But, we had to work with the time that we had available.

After my dad left, I went to restart the generator for the RV to have air-conditioning and as I walked around the corner toward the generator, I smelled gas...a lot of gas...too much gas. I'd filled the tank earlier that day and after I followed my sense of smell and my instinct, I began to inspect the generator to find a hidden steady leak.

Since my dad had just driven out of sight down our private country road, I found myself over-heated from working beneath the sun and without any power for several more hours.

Once Sgt. Dave got home, we went to town and no hardware store had the gaskets in stock. Then, he pulled into a little lawn repair shop that was supposed to have been closed nearly two hours earlier, but they were still there working on an emergency repair, so they came to the door and let him inside. Sgt. Dave opened his hand to show the broken parts and the woman reached into a bin for new replacement parts and said, "Two dollars and fifty-nine cents."

Needless to say, we WILL be taking our business to them.

So, I am especially happy to be off the generator. Seeing that leak was a scary day. If my dad had not shown up, I realize that I'd just filled the generator tank full of gas and that it was leaking straight onto the motor...glad we were working in the sun and I'd turned it off so I would not be wasting gas. And I'm glad that I'm my father's daughter; my dad is a man of mechanical inclination who always taught us to pay attention to the sounds, smell and the feel of mechanical happenings...PAY ATTENTION is what he taught us. And, I'd like to think that he taught me well.

In between the madness with trying to get settled, we are enjoying our new residence! The dogs love their ability to RUN around. Howdy is glad to be able to act like a real Australian Shepherd!

And every time we drive down our new street, I am filled with awe at the beauty of nature. I cannot express to you how much happier we are to be farther away from the petro-chemical industry that has surrounded us for most of our lives.

Being away from the chemicals spewing into the air is nice...this forested area certainly smells better; however, it is definitely harder to keep the dirt out of our living space because we are smack-dab in the middle of pure country. The country is pretty, but it leaves dirt on your shoes!

I can see a deck in our near future and a walking path.

Also, the shed will soon hold my washer and dryer because I did NOT relish the special "date" Sgt. Dave and I had at the washeteria the other day.

Well, I was there the entire time as he went to unload more things at the storage unit, but it was a couple of VERY HOT hours!

There is nothing quite like a non-air-conditioned washeteria in Texas during the summer as you are doing five loads of dirt-filled clothes.

Let me tell you, it's as hot as H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks!

I have missed the Internet and my washroom. But, those are temporary inconveniences. Being in the country is SOOOOOO worth it! But, we need to get that shed built and haul the washer and dryer to the land for connection! At least I can run IN and OUT of a hot shed to load/unload instead of standing there for hours.

And here is my new home as we get ready to build a home...the views are fantastic! We are no where NEAR being set up, but it's been a very productive 16 days in the country!

 

 

We're HOME!





# 443 - Country Life: Rural to Civilized

We've been in the country for approximately two weeks and things are rolling. We are STILL ON GENERATOR POWER for minimal electrical usage, but the city has us on the schedule tomorrow to connect our lines to our personal electrical pole. We had a pole installed with a meter and a 200 amp breaker box.

If you want to see the country-way of installing a massive electrical pole, take a look at this video and be prepared to crack up laughing.

http://youtu.be/HSH2lBHZx2E

It will be super nice to again have regular electricity and Sgt. Dave will no longer have to keep running to the gas station to fill up the containers.

We will not have internet for two more weeks. The city has to run a phone line to the RV and then we will have DSL internet! I can't wait!

But, yesterday was awesome because we finally were able to get TV again after the satellite was installed...Direct TV.

Sgt. Dave is really just concerned about his sports channels, even though we're not inside five minutes to watch anything.

The chickens are still alive, as of today.

Howdy and Lilya are loving the country life.

I am hardly ever alone because we have so many family and friends coming out. Here is my dad and one of his dogs, "Lady" coming for a wonderful visit!

And today was a LOT of fun because I bought my best-friends golf-cart from her.

We drove to the Houston area with our trailer today to pick it up and tow it back. Sgt. Dave has to work on the batteries, but I will be grateful to have this little baby to drive around the acreage and to drive to check the mail!

We've also decided to build the house in another area. Good thing we're getting to actually LIVE on the acreage because it is teaching us about our land in a new way. We've seen the soil is great on the side of the acreage that we truly love and that means the cabin can be built there!

Every day, we love it more. I can't take pictures to share of inside of RV because it is disaster-land until we get everything in order, but we're getting there! But, here is a snippet of Sgt. Dave's NEW GAME-ROOM!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE not having a house that is nearly 3,000 square feet. We feel as if we are getting a break from everything, but we have nearly ten acres to roam. And I am one HAPPY TEXAS GAL!

The people around here talk about their "big city" friends asking, "Why don't you ever go on vacation," and they answer, "...because I LIVE in an area that is a DAILY VACATION!"

But, I still have my "city days!"

Amen to the country-life!