KOA – Sewtropolis

Hello! What a week I’ve had -so far. As you know I’ve been staying at the KOA for the past few weeks. The good news is I love it… the bad news is, they are SO PACKED this time of year that I had to leave for 11 days! Long story, but when I went to extend my stay they had already booked up and had no room at the inn until Aug 10th. So I will be staying with family and friends for the next 2 weeks. Yay for family and friends!

First stop: Spokane! I dropped my trailer off at the Spokane Airstream dealer to have them figure out why there is water leakage under the trailer when I hookup to city water. Hopefully it will be as simple as tightening a few hoses and won’t cost an arm or leg.

I stayed with my sister for the weekend and while there she, her friend Shirley and I went to a Powwow in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho – which was so much fun!! All I can say was WOW at all the color!! There were so many people that I could not get close enough to take pictures of all the dancers in main arena. This is the best I could do – sorry – it does nothing to show off how beautiful and elaborate all the outfits were!

But I managed to put my brave pants on (pun intended) and ask a couple of dancers if I could take my picture with them. The one on the left looks all mean without a smile, but he was super nice and was all smiles before and after the picture. Same with the hottie on the right.

My sister and Shirley were giving me a hard time about missing my chance to grab a husband. So to get back at them, I asked another dancer, who was dressed up in a gorgeous outfit if he would take a picture with my sister. We nicknamed this guy “Chief I’m Single” because his friend was trying to set him up! So many missed opportunities! LOL

Now onto the creative stuff – In my last post I teased that I would show you how I make Raspberry jam – well, here it goes:

Step 1: go for a long walk along the Green River trail where raspberries grow wild along the river!!

step 2: Pick about a gallon of berries! You will need the extra for your yogurt parfait or smoothies.

Step 3: enjoy how beautiful the trail is!

Step4: get down to jam making business! I used about 1/2 gallon of berries and the juice of one lemon. I love experimenting with different flavors and since I am planning on giving these jars of jelly away I though lemon would be a safe and refreshing option. I washed the berries off real good – (I was more concerned with critters than chemicals spray). I then put them in a pot over medium heat with about 2.5 cups of sugar and let it boil for about 10 min stirring constantly!

I did not use pectin in my jelly – instead I boiled the mixture until it had the consistency of a thick syrup and then boiled a few minutes more. Then I laddeled it into sterilized canning jars, covered with a lid and canning ring then boiled in a canning pot for about 10 min. I found with Jellies you don’t have to boil very long before you hear the lid seal. Sometimes it will seal even before I put it in the pot! All good signs!

I did all of this in the comfort of my own trailer! It makes me happy that so far I haven’t had to give up anything but debt by downsizing to a 27′ trailer.

This past week I moved out of my apartment. I spent a year there and even though it had a great view of downtown Seattle, was close to the sound and had all the amenities one could hope for … it just wasn’t for me – and it was expensive to boot.

I came to Seattle without a job, so I wanted to live someplace centrally located – and West Seattle seemed to fit the bill. I landed a job in a suburb south of the city which is about a 30 minute drive from West Seattle on a good day. Over the winter I did try to commute more – but having to catch two busses and a light rail ride added 2 hours commute each day. When I started attracting prisoners on work release – no joke – I pulled the plug on commuting). I also didn’t like leaving the dogs in the apartment for 10 hours each day.

After I decided to move out of my apartment I started looking for a house to rent closer to work that would have a yard for my dogs. But, even though some places accepted dogs, finding one that would accept 2 big dogs proved to be next to impossible. Housing here is tight… and when it started to look like I wasn’t going to find a place in my price range, before my lease was up, I started to think about living in my trailer – at least till the end of the summer – give the housing frenzie time to simmer down and take my time in finding the right place. But then the more I thought about it – the more advantages I started seeing for living in my trailer long term.

You see, I once owned this business, Sewtropolis, and even though I loved, loved, loved it…. it seriously wreaked havoc on my finances. I am now in the process of paying off that debt so when I ‘ran the numbers’ I saw that there is some serious financial advantages of living in my trailer for as long as I can.

So, here I am …. at the KOA and you know what …. I f*king LOVE it! I love that my dogs get to sun themselves in the GRASS outside my door. I love that I live within steps of a river with a trail that runs for miles along it! I love that when I walk around the campground people say “Hi”!!! Can you believe it!?!!? People f*cking say ‘Hi ‘here!! NOBODY says ‘Hi’ in West Seattle!!! I love that people stop by and ask me about my big a$$ potted tomato plant! (seriously it’s huge) I love that there is the laughter of kids playing (I didn’t realize I missed hearing kids laughing) I love that there are no sirens 3-4 times a night – every – f*cking- night!!! Ugh! And I especially love that my commute to work is only 10 minutes and I don’t even have to get on the freeway!

When I posted on FB that I had moved into my trailer people couldn’t believe it! I guess I had been living with the idea for so long that I no longer thought it was a big deal. I also saw that the advantages FAR outweighed staying where I was at. So, people can think what they want – I’ve never been one to live a boring life and now I can now get serious about digging myself out of debt and that to me, is all that matters.

Tag: KOA

A Powwow and Raspberry Jelly

The RV Living is Good!