RVing

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A Quiet Couple of Days

This post is just so no one sends the Mounties out after me as I really have nothing to report. Yes, there are pixels below, but only proceed if you’re bored.

The weather’s been really grey, cool, and windy the last couple of days (although the sun seems to have decided to come out), so I’ve just been staying in and getting work done.

I have a transcription client who pays me peanuts, but lets me choose projects from a pool of available ones with no minimum to complete in any set period. So I turn to that client when things are slow with my better paying clients. This week, I got some really interesting ones, including some interviews that are likely going to be part of a ‘making of’ bonus feature on a DVD of a movie starring a famous Hollywood actor. Interesting ones like that make up for the poor rate of pay since it’s something I would have listened to for nothing!

But I’m not getting as much work done as I’d like because of my slow connection. It takes ages to download my transcription files and I can’t work on anything web-based, like Squidoo or the new site I will be launching shortly. There’s no rhyme or reason to what I can connect to or not, no Youtube, but Netflix is working way too well for me. Most annoying is Google, which hasn’t worked about 95% of the time since I got online at Haven. Bing works fine, though, but boy are its results crap!!!

So the connector for my booster’s high gain antenna can’t come fast enough. It’s been in Markham, ON, for days. I really should take this time to figure out how to get the antenna cable into the office more permanently than just bringing it in through the window, but the high winds haven’t made me want to get up on the roof!

In related news, I got my Verizon bill today and it really confused me, which was a tad frustrating since I haven’t figured out yet how, or if, I can even call them Canada. I had cancelled my data plan before returning to Canada, but kept my Nationwide + Canada voice plan, which is $60 a month. My bill was $44. I thought they goofed and took me off the Canada plan (ouch, I’ve been making calls!), but then I found a link to where I could download a PDF of the bill, which had more details and allowed me to go ah ha!

What happened was that I had essentially prepaid for the next billing period, but canceled the data plan before the end of that billing period. So they credited me a pro-rated portion of the data charge. Wow, these guys never cease to amaze me. There’s no way that would have happened in Canada, at least not in my past experiences with telecom here.

My phone is problematic out here. I get enough signal with the Mifi to check my messages, but not to place calls. The field where I can get online doesn’t give my phone enough bars to use. I had to make a call the other day and wound up driving 16KM (one way) to get 2 bars. I hope the high gain antenna can make the phone usable here. But I mostly use it to speak to my mother regarding work projects, so if I get here the internet speeds I got in the field, then we will just switch to using Skype or some other VOIP solution. With a good internet connection, anything is possible!

So that’s all the thrilling news out of Haven. I’m off shortly to attend Canasta night. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of Little RV On the Prairie! *snorts*

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Starting To Look Like a Homestead

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I got 11 gallons of water at C&C’s this afternoon and used 5 to wash my work and around the house skirts. I am just so tired of wearing jeans! I think pants are unnatural and they are soooo uncomfortable. Fine for the odd night out, but for doing actual physical work? YUCK.

For all the trees I have, none work particularly well for a clothes line, so I’m using a rather pliable sapling branch and the RV’s ladder. Good enough for an emergency wash session! I can’t wait to up a proper clothes line once I find the perfect place for it. There’s a lot of shade on this lot and the line would be in the way in most of the sunny spots. I’m sure the perfect spot will make itself apparent once I get Miranda moved.

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Netflixed

Netflix is one of those things people rave about that I thought wasn’t for me. I mean, it requires tons of bandwidth and high speed internet; right? I had the following thought yesterday.

Well, I now have 15GB of bandwidth a month, which is more than enough for what I absolutely need to do in a month. Once I get my high gain antenna, the connection is going to be pretty fast. Linda‘s Dave says that you can choose the quality of the video to use less bandwidth. Maybe it’s time to look at Netflix at little more closely.

So I did. The first thing I did was Google was how much bandwidth a typical Netflix movie uses up. To my immense surprise, I discovered that Netflix Canada movies are up to two thirds lighter than an equivalent movie in the US because even hardwired internet up here has ridiculous bandwidth caps.

I signed up for a one-month trial membership and got some recs from my best friend about what to watch. To my disappointment, Canadians don’t get the same options as Americans (but of course) so I can’t check out about 95% of her recs.

I eventually found a movie to try, it played smoothly even with my slooooooow connection, and I discovered that it used up only about 250MB (the Mifi actually updates usage in real time!). I obviously can’t watch a movie every night and do other interneting stuff, but it’s not like I have time to watch a movie every night anyway.

If I watch two Netflix movies a month, it’ll be cheaper than raiding the $5 bin at Walmart ($7.99 versus $10). Their selection, even in Canada, is pretty good. So I’m fairly sure I’ll continue with a paid membership.

Is there anything else I need to discover now that I have a good bandwidth cap in Canada?

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The Start of My MacGyver Pile

When I had my house, I frequently scavenged for goodies to add to it, using what I found as inspiration rather than letting inspiration dictate what I’d use. I’ve done the same thing with my renos in Miranda, for example making good use of the Campbell River Home Depot’s dumpster.

This afternoon, I went treasure hunting in Hiram’s back yard. As a reminder, he’s the guy who thought he owns my property. He has piles and piles and piles of junk in his backyard and I was given permission to take absolutely anything I want.

Now, most of the stuff in the yard is absolute junk and not worth the trouble it would take to do anything with it, but I still found quite a few diamonds.

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The first item in this photo is some chicken coop-type wiring. Not sure yet what I’ll do with it, but it could come in handy to protect a garden from the resident bunny. Next to that are a few bricks. I’m going to keep my eyes out for bricks to use as edging and paths. Finally, the battered rusty round metal ring is a fire pit! I need to check what the rules are for fire pits here, but everyone seems to have one, so I’m hoping I’ll get to use it. I also found a bucket of good coals to go with it.

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Next to the fire pit are a few sheets of tin roofing material. Not much there, but could be useful to cover my future compost bin.

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Next to the roofing is my big pile o’ leaves. I am not making progress, believe it or not.

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Next up is the start of my pallet pile. If anything, they will be good kindling for the fire pit! Most of the other pallets are too heavy to carry, so I’ll have to borrow a dolly.

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I plan to use some pallets to make a porch. This piece of plywood is in great shape and will make a good topping for the pallets so that I don’t risk going through the slats. An outdoor carpet will be in order as well. Behind that is the bucket of coals.

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Finally, I found a ground plane for my high gain antenna! Just need to find some tin snips to cut it to size, then bang it flat and glue it to my roof.

There is tons of lumber to go through on that lot. All of it has been outside for eons, so it’s in dubious shape, but I think I could build some rough temporary structures with quite a bit of it. For example, I’m thinking of combining some pallets with fencing panels,  2x4s, and the tin roofing to make a temporary shed.

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Co-Oped

Nearly first thing this morning I headed to the post office. I got to meet the post master and received a key for my box. She asked me to return the key when I leave. I laughed and said that I hope to have that mail box for at least 30 years! She gasped. I think that my owning a lot in town wasn’t enough for her to believe I was planning to put any roots down here at all.

I don’t know yet what I’ll do with my mail in the winter, but I gave C&C access to the box when I filled out the paperwork just in case having them check it in the winter ends up being the best solution. I really don’t get any pressing mail except the odd royalty and commission cheque. Jody deposits those for me and I’d have to come up with something similar here.

The important thing is that this is to be my mailing address for as long as the post office here exists. I am sick and tired of having to make an address change! I’ve successfully redirected my mail in the past, so if I go anywhere else in Canada for any length of time, I can get my mail without having to change anything. It’s just trickier to the States; even if I could get mail redirected there, I wouldn’t be able to deposit the odd cheque. I’ve got six months to figure out the best solution.

I then drove into Assiniboia for groceries. Wow, what a madhouse since the store was closed yesterday for Victoria Day. There were crazy traffic jams in the aisles, plus their meat freezers went out over the long weekend, so there were a lot of unhappy carnivores.

I was able to find what I needed and am pleased to say that the produce at the Assiniboia Co-op is most satisfactory; very fresh and tasty even at this time of the year. I even found a good pineapple for $2.99. C&C told me that once their garden starts producing I should shop at their place since they give away the bulk of what they grow, but in the meantime, it’s nice to know I can get good tomatoes and leafy greens. I also discovered I picked a good day to shop since it was scratch and save day. You are guaranteed 5% and can get up to 25%. I was quite happy with the 5% as that was better than nothing!

Western Canada has a chain of stores under the Co-op name. It’s really hard to get information about this brand since each Co-op is independent. Locally, I am under the Southland Co-op. It was $10 to join, which bought me 10 shares and I am now a part owner of the grocery, hardware, and convenience store, as well as the gas bar! The only advantage I see to this is that I will get a share of the equity based on how much I buy locally in a year and I may occasionally get a token cash rebate. If I’m here for the rest of my life and shop here for six months ever year, especially with what I’ll be spending on fuel, this could really add up. At age $69, I would be eligible to get my equity in cash. So for $10, it seemed silly not to join.

I need to get a couple of hours of work done, then I will head back out into the yard and keep working on my leaves since there is very little wind today and I will also move more pallets.

I’m rather glad I don’t have Miranda parked ‘permanently’ yet this summer as I’m getting a chance to see if the corner I reserved for her really is the best. Indeed. It is very shaded, which will be good in the summer, but the passenger side will get all the mid to late day sun; perfect!