Haven

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Epiphanies

Ooh, today was bad, apocalypse level bad in terms of winds, rain, and property damage in the southern Prairies. I was right in the middle of it and unlike the eye of a hurricane, where it is calm, I was in a real maelstrom. There are trees down all over my hamlet and I had to use a lot of muscle to get a particularly large branch off my driveway so I could park my truck.

My internet service is flaky on a bad day and non-existent on a day like today. I ended up spending most of my day parked in a field about halfway to Assiniboia. That’s how far I had to go to get a usable cellular signal so I could do my work and about as far as I dared to go in lashing rain, gusting winds, and huge amounts of water on the road. It was a very long and unpleasant day.

Working out of my truck for a few hours is fine. I sit in the passenger seat and have a lap desk, so I’m comfortable. But I have no bathroom or means of making a hot beverage (which would have been appreciated on such a cold and damp day). I really don’t have an alternative place to work except taking a motel room in Assiniboia. The library in Assiniboia has weird hours and I obviously couldn’t do an eight-hour shift there or at the bakery that sort of doubles as an internet cafe. So I am rather resentful that I’m being put in this situation because we don’t have cellular service down in the valley, where I have a lovely office.

I am actively pursuing the connectivity issue this summer. I am at the point of seeking a political resolution, having reached an impasse with SaskTel, the telecom company that holds a monopoly in this province. As soon as I am ready to go to the media, I will lay it all out here on the blog. But the short of it is that at this point in time, there are no plans within the next 10 years to bring cellular service, and therefore good internet, to my valley and so I really need to reconsider using Haven as a home base. My flaky internet wasn’t such a big deal when I could schedule going up the hill to where there’s service on especially bad days while being able to work at home, but the new job requires me to respond very quickly to emails and is not compatible with a flaky internet service.

Which led to an epiphany regarding another decision I’ve been contemplating: buying a new (to me) vehicle.

I figured out this winter that I really want a camper van to use as a daily driver and to serve as a mobile motel room and office when I’m traveling. The epiphany I had today is that if I had a vehicle like that, it would mean being able to ride out poor connectivity issues in style. At the first whiff of bad internet, I could relocate to the mobile office, park where there’s a good connection, and work comfortably with access to a bathroom and means to make a simple meal. Yes, my home has wheels, but can you imagine having to pack up and move a 32′ motorhome a couple of times a week, never mind find a large enough place to pull off a highway to work?! There is a reason people like having toads!

Having contemplated the camper van situation for some time now, I’ve figured exactly what I want and why. Mexico has featured heavily into my consideration. I want something that I would be able to import when I move there semi-permanently in three to four years, so that means I need something older since you can only import vehicles manufactured eight or more years from the year of import. So that puts me at a 2009 to 2011 model year, a huge improvement over my current 2000 truck. I also want something that can easily be serviced in Mexico.

Next consideration is fuel economy; I want an improvement over my Ranger’s gas guzzling tendencies. I want something small that I can park anywhere. And I want something that is proven to be convertible into a camper van.

Tall order? Nope. I have found one vehicle that meets every single one of these requirements and it is hugely popular in Europe for camper van conversions: the Ford Transit Connect. It is not to be confused with its larger sibling, the Transit.

Unfortunately, the North American Transit Connects don’t have all the options of their European counterparts, most especially a manual transmission. Going to an automatic would be a huge concession. But we can get the longer body and high roof here, so there’s that. The Transit Connect makes for a very compact mini motorhome. The Transit is much more spacious, sort of like a poor man’s Sprinter in fact, but it doesn’t have the fuel economy of the Transit Connect.

I’ve looked at conversions of the Transit Connect and it would be just the right size for a small bed and work station with room for a potty, a cooler, and a cooktop. Pretty much every conversion I’ve seen has the same basic layout, and with good reason, as it lays out all these elements efficiently.

The conversion is a project I feel I could undertake myself. I would not add propane or plumbing. The most complex part of the job would be electrical, but that’s something I’m competent to do and I would actually pull a lot of materials from Miranda (solar panel, whole house inverter, battery monitor), which would really cut down on costs.

So now it’s a matter of finding my Transit Connect. I did a soft inquiry to see if I could get a vehicle loan and the amount and the answers are yes and enough to buy a recent model (I found a 2013 that fits in the price range). I really doubt that I would buy this summer/fall. I just don’t feel financially secure enough right now to jump into this project, although I am scanning the market. But it looks like my plan for next spring will be to find and purchase the vehicle and then spend the summer working on the conversion.

I need to decide how far afield I want to look. Importing from the US, which has a much larger market, would be a huge pain, but manageable with a broker. I just need to figure out how I could buy a vehicle there in the spring and drive it home while still having my Ranger and would appreciate suggestions for that. I love my Ranger and want to keep it as a cargo carrier until it rusts out from under me, so abandoning it in some junk yard like I did my beloved Accent isn’t my preferred option.

My fear of the Ranger rusting out is what is what got me thinking about buying a new vehicle in the nearish future. I’ve had three body repair guys tell me that the Ranger is too far gone to save and to stop putting money into it except for the most basic mechanical repairs. Independently of that, my financial planner told me that we needed to adjust my plan to fit in the replacement of my truck within a few years. So this is something I really need to be thinking about.

So to recap, I need a new vehicle, I need a backup place to work when internet at Haven is especially bad, and I need to cut down on costs when traveling between Canada and Mexico. Funny that the solution to all of those things is the same thing. I really do think that things are coming together for me!

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In Sync

Disclaimer: Anyone who has no use for modern gadgets and is going to leave a ‘I don’t have a smart phone and am proud of it’ comment, please don’t bother reading this post as it will be an eye roller for you. 😉

I was balancing the books yesterday and was frustrated by my inability to thoroughly keep track of my cash purchases. I was out a whole $25 that I couldn’t remember spending. When in town, I try to remember to input cash purchases into a note on my iPhone, but it’s clumsy, not quick to do on the fly, and then I have to put the information into my budgeting software. Since I pretty much only use cash in Mexico and want to keep better track of where I’m spending that money this winter since I know that I won’t just be spending on it primarily on food the way I was for almost four months last year, I really needed to come up with a better system.

I decided to investigate their iPhone version of the app, which promised to sync seamlessly with the desktop version through Dropbox. Now that I just about always have internet and unlimited bandwidth, syncing across the ether didn’t sound as scary as it once did, although it has always been a huge disaster with my Apple devices…

Well, I downloaded the iOS version of the budgeting app and tried it out when I was in Willow Bunch yesterday, immediately punching into the app the amounts spent at the pub and thrift store. It was much easier than creating a note in that the app could quickly pull up my payees with just a few keystrokes instead of having to type the whole name, recognize which categories they belong to, and has really big buttons to press to punch in the numbers instead of the tiny iPhone keyboard that pops up with the notes. When I got home and connected my Mac to the internet, my desktop app updated with the new purchases. Wow, cloud syncing could be wonderful!

So today, in between fits of work, I decided to figure out why I have such a hard time syncing between my Mac and my iOS devices. I’ve been trying to figure this out for five years, but never really pressed the issue because it wasn’t a critical issue for me. But now that I have an iPhone, work has really picked up, and I spend half the year out in the world and not staying cooped up at home 95% of the time, I need to be able to better use this powerful little pocket computer. If anything, I wanted to be able to have my calendar on my phone and not have to enter reminders on my Mac and then reenter them on the phone. I also go to bed with my iPad and wish that I could check my day’s to-do list and appointments before getting up, so syncing with it too would be a bonus.

I’m not quite sure how the epiphany came about this morning, but it didn’t take long for the light bulb to go on. My problem was that I have two Apple IDs (the reason for which I won’t bore you with) and have been using them pretty much interchangeably while I should have only been using one. So I took about a half hour (would have been much quicker with non-flaky internet) and made sure that all my devices were hooked up to the correct Apple ID and then I activated iCloud under that same Apple ID for each device. Bingo!

I still wound up with some duplicates and garbage information and it took me a moment to realise that the best way to clean that up is right in the cloud where everything is stored by signing in at icloud.com. But now that everything is synced and duplicates have been removed, I can update on whatever device I want and the changes appear seamlessly on each device (well, as long as my internet is cooperating).

I’ll be getting a new computer in a few weeks, so I’ll make sure to set it up properly from the get go.

Because I haven’t paid full price for an Apple device in ages (in fact, for all intents and purposes every one of my current devices was free!*) I sometimes forget how expensive they are and that I really should be maxing out their potential to get more value out of them. Cloud syncing is going to help me do just that!

Next step, when I have a lot more time to focus on the issue, will be to figure out how to link my Filemaker Pro database to the iOS app so that I can consult my invoices on the go. It happens about once a month that I get an invoice query from a client when I’m away from the desk, so it would be nice to at minimum be able to look up invoice numbers, amounts, and due dates.

I remember life with paper dayplanners and no internet at my fingertips and this is better. I can’t imagine running my little empire without these tools. I’m not a slave to them, but now that work is so much steadier and I’m expected to keep more normal business hours, it’s good to not be tethered to my desk and to feel that I can get away without announcing that I’m away.

(*My current Mac was a straight trade for my older computer, my iPad was mostly paid for with a generous work bonus, and my phone was absolutely free with a two-year contract because it’s an older model and they were clearing out stock)

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First Steps Towards My Second Isla Winter

I managed to get hold of my landlady on Isla a few minutes ago (on the first try!) and confirmed that I can arrive early. I had talked about coming for November 25th, but now I want to be there November 1st. No problem, the house will be ready for me and I should have TelMex internet for the 3rd, which is going to be my first work day in Mexico. Worst case scenario, I’ll have time to get the booster antenna on the roof to get a reliable TelCel signal to tide me over till the hard wired internet kicks in.

I learned last year that my landlady doesn’t communicate well, possibly a Mexican trait. The attitude is, I’ve got the information and there’s no need to discuss it again unless anything changes. I nearly drove myself batty last year trying to get hold of her as I got closer to Mexico to confirm that I was coming and that the house would be ready. Now I know that she was thinking, “OMG, how many times does she have to tell me this?!” So on this call, I told her that I would not be calling again unless my date of arrival changed and that if anything changed for her, she could Facebook me. So for me, this is done. I’m arriving the 1st of November and the house will be ready.

The other big news is that I’ve decided not to take time off the new job to get to Isla. I’m trying to put off taking any vacation time until I’m feeling a bit more secure in the position and am ready to take a proper vacation. It would be nice in January to take a week, or maybe even two!, and go to a resort or something and be pampered a bit. Flights within Mexico are super cheap, so I could maybe even fly somewhere like the Yucatán to explore ancient ruins or fly to another city I could easily drive to from Canada to explore housing options for my third Mexican winter.

So the plan is to drive down to Isla in two chunks. I will finish work at 4PM on Thursday October 22nd and spend the evening finishing the packing of the truck and closing up the inside of Miranda. I’ll be up at first light on Friday the 23rd to close up the property and take off by 7AM to get to the border when it opens at 8AM.

Once I’m across, I’m going to drive till I drop and repeat on Saturday and Sunday to get to Nogales, AZ, by noonish on Monday the 26th. This will give me time on the Monday to get pesos, Mexican vehicle insurance, and do a Walmart run (I promised friends I’d arrive loaded down with kitty litter!).

I’ll then work my Tuesday through Thursday shifts, which will help me recoup a bit of energy from the mad dash down. I’ll then take off for the Mexican border super early on the Friday to arrive in San Carlos by early afternoon, like I did last year. Then drive partway to Culiacán Saturday, and then get to Isla around 2PM on Sunday. This gives me Monday to breathe and work on the booster.

WHEW! Of course, this doesn’t give me much leeway if I’m delayed for any reason, but I can of course stop sooner than Nogales to work if I need to and I know I could get to Isla in two days rather than two and a half if I wanted to now that I know the route. I could go from the border to Navojoa and then from Navojoa straight to Isla, for example. It really makes a difference that I’m not going into the unknown this time around.

So if you’re looking at your calendars, I’m already talking about leaving in terms of two months and a few weeks. The summer is going by really quickly!

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Programmable Thermostats Work Both Ways

Some time ago, I upgraded to a programmable thermostat so that I could better control the furnace in cold weather. What I liked about it is that I could set a temperature for different times of the day, so go to bed in a warm rig, let it cool down overnight, and then get up to comfy temps.

It’s taken me a bit of time to realise that I can use the thermostat the same way with the air conditioner. Now, I don’t run the AC tons and I don’t need my home to be icy cold when it’s 50 billion degrees outside, but I work in here and need to concentrate. I have the machine, so why not use it?

We’ve been having an odd summer where it is very cool in the morning and then it gets to infernal temps in the afternoon. It’s such a gradual change that by the time I realise that I’m boiling, it’s 95 in the RV!

So I have my AC set to 85F, which is a good compromise for me between boiling and paying for tons of power. Most days, it never kicks on. But there are days like today where the AC kicks on and I realise that it really is getting warm. I get up, shut the door, windows, and roof hatches, and then let the AC do its thing.

The thermostat upgrade was one that has really paid off over the years. You should consider it if you spend any length of time in your RV!

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Under Attack

Wow, it’s been a whole week since my last post! For all the excitement that’s been going on around here, there really hasn’t been much to blog about. I got a huge unexpected transcription project that is going to keep me busy pulling overtime straight through the first week of August. What a blessing!

My friends C and C are away for a couple of weeks and I am cat sitting. I go over in the morning to give them their wet food and back again in the evening to spend time with them.

The boy cat is wonderful and always glad to see me. You’d think he’d be excited about the wet food in the morning and the treats in the evening, but he’s more thrilled to see a human who will pet him and tell him what a good boy he is. In the evening, I sit in the living room in a comfy chair with my feet up and read while he sits beside me on the floor so I can pet him. I’m hoping that he’ll eventually move to my lap!

The girl cat is the devil incarnate and I steer a wide berth from her. This morning, I couldn’t find her and I didn’t like that. I searched the basement and main floor, then decided that perhaps she was hiding in the hallway upstairs. I climbed up the stairs, turned the curve, and BOOM. I found myself with an armful of hissing cat hell bent on scratching me to death. The little monster ambushed me! I managed to get away unhurt and I could swear she was laughing at me as I raced back down to the kitchen!

And speaking of getting attacked, let me tell you about my wasp situation.

Monday night, I was going into the shed when a wasp came and stung me behind the ear. It was the worst pain I have ever felt and I have had a dentist drill into a nerve for an hour with no pain killers, so I have a good point of comparison. My ear swelled up like a cauliflower and was numb for days. So soon as I can get an appointment, I need to go see a doctor so I can get a prescription for an Epipen as it looks like I might be allergic to wasp stings. Reactions apparently get more severe each time, so this isn’t something I can just brush off.

I found out that the wasp came from a nest inside my shed. I need my shed! I asked Charles before he left what I should do and he told me to get some wasp spray, wear thick clothing, go to the shed at dusk when the wasps are bedding down for the night, and shoot the nest until it’s soaking wet, then slam the door shut and run for my life. This sounded like a plan except for the possibly getting stung and dying from anaphylactic shock part.

Well, he came by the next day to let me know that he’d spoken to another neighbour (the one who leveled gravel and moved my power pole) and this neighbour said that he would deal with the nest for me!

I went to town yesterday and bought wasp spray (conveniently 25% off this week), then went to see him as it was perfect wasp killing weather (cold and wet). He promised to be by in the evening. We had a big rain storm (my roof doesn’t leak anymore, by way, YAY!) and as soon as the sky cleared, he was at my door. He was dressed in jeans, tall boots, a heavy coat with a hood, thick gloves, and goggles, looking ready to go to war!

I explained where the nest was and he went to work spraying it. He just stood there calmly and sprayed while I could see (from a safe distance) that wasps were pouring out of the nest! He sprayed about three quarters of the can, wanting to save some for this morning. Then he shut the door and promised to follow up today.

He was here this morning around 9:00 and went to check out the shed, telling me to stay back in case he opened the door and there was a swarm of angry wasps waiting to take their revenge. Nope. There was a huge pile of dead wasps on the floor. He still sprayed the nest a second time and left just a bit in the can in case I find another one growing nearby. He volunteered to get rid of the nest, but research tells me to leave it there as it will discourage other wasps from moving into the shed.

So that’s all of the excitement out of southern Saskatchewan this week. Stay tuned for the next riveting installment of Little RV On the Prairie!