Haven

by

Settling In

I’m slowly getting back into my at home routine. Most of my neighbours have been by to welcome me back. It’s nice to know I was thought about in my absence!

We had good weather on Tuesday and most of Wednesday, so I took care of outdoor chores, including most of the laundry, mowing the lawn, and nearly finishing the emptying of the truck. I got my exercise on Wednesday going back and forth to C&C’s every couple of hours to let out the dog and spend time with him and the cats. The dog’s dinner is a bit ‘complicated’, so Caroline had me over Tuesday night to show me how to put it together and I ended up being invited to stay for dinner!

It started to rain on Wednesday night and was cold last night. I set the furnace for 55F (after running it before bed to make sure it was working) and it kicked on around 4:00 this morning. I also ran my mattress pad warmer on low all night, so I was cozy.

Thankfully, we’re climbing out of this as we march into June. If we get a normal summer, this should be it for nasty weather. *all appendages crossed*

I’ve discovered that my roof is leaking worse than ever and have committed to a major assault of it this summer. Both Dicor and Eternabond have utterly failed me, so it’s time to look at household solutions. The big problem is that all the products recommended to me are not available locally, which explains in part why this project is going on so long.

At this point, I really don’t care about structural damage to the overhang (ie. weakened wood and delamination) because I’m not planning on moving Miranda again. Remember that she has an aluminum frame construction, so leaks get contained. I know the walls and roof are weak, but they’re fine for just sitting here. Once I know the roof is thoroughly sealed, I want to do some cosmetic work in the loft again to mask the water damage, but I don’t plan to take anything apart.

Work is picking up and May should end with enough money in the receivables for me to just scrape through June without dipping into savings. This includes a large amount of money outstanding from May that I only managed without in May thanks to everyone’s hospitality (I would have been sleeping in the truck in sub-zero weather otherwise!). It was an unexpected situation since both of those clients have always been reliable. One forgot to drop the cheque in the mail and the other nearly got stiffed by her client and only just managed to make them produce payment. In fact, that payment dropped into my PayPal as I was writing this! Yay!

The big personal project right now is putting together my grocery list for when I go to Moose Jaw next week. One of the unexpected realities of ‘maintaining two homes’ is that I have to start my pantry over each time I move from one to the other. I can’t keep food in Miranda over the winter and don’t want to have to ask C&C to store too much and I can’t store anything in Mexico because of the humid climate.

So I’m finding myself having to start over in both countries with condiments, spices, and other foods that normally don’t get replaced regularly. I brought some food to and from Mexico and it was a huge pain making sure nothing spilled. A lot of what I brought down in the fall got spoiled sitting in a hot truck for days on end. So I don’t plan on bringing much down this fall, unless I end up just doing the trip in a week.

I bought a freezer last summer, so my plan is to go to Moose Jaw and buy as much as I can to fill up the freezer and then do a little topping up in Assiniboia or Willow Bunch each week for fresh produce. Part of the shopping will involve cooking up tons of food over a couple of days so that I really don’t need to think about food for the rest of the summer. I don’t have any lucrative contracts lined up, so it will mean very long hours to make the money I need. Being able to just go to the grainery and pull a meatloaf or whatever out of the freezer at the end of a long day will be a blessing.

I wish I had a bigger budget for this shop (I think I can just squeeze in $400, maybe $500 if the exchange rate remains favourable, which really won’t go far), but if I put it off for July, a month will have passed and it really won’t be worth the effort. I really don’t want to do another substantial shop in Assiniboia either. That $80 really didn’t go far at all and I’m already wishing I could go back to town and buy more food for the weekend!

Another thing I dealt with this week was contacting SaskHealth to let them know I’m back so they can issue me a new health card. An email from them just dropped into my inbox informing me that the chance has been satisfactorily processed. I haven’t found anything on their site that says I can’t ask for an extension every year, so I’m going to try again in the fall. If I succeed, I can leave in October again and go spend some time in Utah before going to Mexico. Otherwise, I’ll have to leave in November and make a run for the borders.

So that’s all the big news out of Haven this week. 🙂 Now, I’m off to work. I did a full day yesterday and it should be full days from here on in… I keep telling myself that every dollar I make is about 12 pesos right now and 12 pesos goes waaaaaaay further than a dollar so I better hang on to my dollars and spend them as pesos! 😀

by

Morning at Haven

Ah, there’s nothing like opening the front door in the morning to survey your very own 5,000 square feet of land. The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, and it’s going to be a gorgeous day!

My first night at home was good, but not as spectacular as if I had gone straight from Mexico to here. I’ve had many equally dark and quiet nights since I left Isla a month ago and certainly more comfortable beds! My bed isn’t bad, but I really do need a topper, which I’ve discovered means deeper sheets, so it’s really a more pricey project than I had a realised.

I fell asleep reading on my iPad last night and woke up flat on my back nearly eight hours later with the tablet on my chest. Too funny!

There’s so much to do in the next weeks. I still have mountains of laundry to wash and tons of bags and boxes to unpack. Miranda needs a good dusting and cobweb removal. I have to finishing set up the kitchen and work on my grocery list for Moose Jaw.

Outside, I want to finishing cleaning up the shed floor and then paint the inside (I think I have enough exterior paint left to do that), then set it up like a proper shed so that I can empty out the cabin and start thinking about what I’m going to do to make it a liveable space. In the meantime, I’d settle for a cleaner and more functional laundry space (my washer still works great!) because the cabin is a mess. I can’t get to the freezer or even the lawnmower. Oh, right, lawnmower. I might try to get to the lawn this afternoon. The grass is really tall!

Work is apparently incoming later today or tomorrow so it’ll be time to figure out what sort of routine I want with that. I think I’ll do five intense days a week and two shorter ones. My government contract is done for the year, so I don’t have anything lucrative lined up, just steady stuff with piddly pay. Better than nothing, but I need to dig for something juicier.

My budgetary focus for the summer is the trip down to Mexico in the fall, as well as my first month or two there, rather than the property. I have lots to keep me busy here that won’t require spending a lot of money, so I’m just going to enjoy being in my own space and puttering around. C&C are doing more work on their house, mainly roofing so that will occupy some of my time, too. I’m really not worried about being bored! I intend to savour these quiet contemplative days knowing that I’ll soon enough be back to the hustle and bustle of my Mexican abode. Talk about the best of both worlds. I continue to be in awe of myself for somehow managing to create this unbelievably amazing life!

by

Scobey to Haven and Rediscovering Miranda

I’m home!!!!!!!

I barely slept last night in Scobey, which was absolutely not the motel’s fault. I woke up around 4:00, read for a bit, and then dozed till 6:30. The room had a microwave, so I was able to make coffee, my last cup of the Mexican stuff!

I was packed and on the road by about 7:38. It was only 14 miles to the border, so I took it slow, about 40MPH, even though the speed limit was 70MPH (there was no one else on the road and I was still going a legal speed!). I got to the border exactly as it opened.

The customs officer was pleasant in taking my declaration, but based on how much he was writing, I knew I was in for it. Scobey is not a busy crossing, so I was probably going to be the most interesting crosser they’d get today and I paid for it. Like the Americans, they emptied the entire truck. Unlike the Americans, they did the work themselves. And unlike the Americans, they went through everything. I couldn’t see much from my vantage point, but I’d been asked to leave my purse and I saw them rifling through the receipts in my wallet; that’s how in depth their search was.

I was absolutely mellow about all this. I mean, I had made a truthful declaration and had absolutely nothing to hide. I wasn’t too happy to see them rooting around in my dirty laundry, but, hey, imagine how they felt!

Finally, I saw one of the guards pull out a piece of paper and take it to his supervisor. I knew exactly what it was. If that’s all they were worried about, I was in the clear. The guard came to me and said that he found what appeared to be a receipt for a 1TB hard drive shipped to me in South Dakota from California and had I included it in my declaration? I explained that it was a warranty return for a hard drive that crapped out in Mexico, that I had it sent to SD because UPS doesn’t come to Haven, that I have the paper trail on my computer, etc. The guard seemed to find that logical and then asked me why I have so many hard drives. I explained that I live in an RV and have pretty much digitized my life, so I have movies, books, pictures, and business backups on them.

The guard appeared to find all of that reasonable and moments later I was told they were both satisfied and I could go. And then guess what? THEY REPACKED MY TRUCK FOR ME.

I was there just shy of 40 minutes. Since they did all the work, it really wasn’t painful and I’d consider that a non-event of a border crossing. I do wish I had been as well packed by this point as I was when I crossed back into the US because I had a lot of loose items!

Both Google and my GPS refuse to route me from Willow Bunch to Haven via the gravel road, so they both put my travel time as double what it really is, claiming I was two hours from Haven at the border when it was actually just one hour. The paved roads were really bad and made me think I was back in Quebec! It was a real obstacle course! I was glad to hit the last 18KM stretch on perfectly graded gravel.

Before I knew it, I could see the green roof of C&C’s garage and then the blue roof of my shed. The property needs a really good mowing and still has trash that Charles had said he’d get rid of (he’s been busy!), but otherwise it looked good.

I’d left them my house key, so I entered through the cab. The first thing that hit me was just how fresh Miranda smelled. It was really surprising! I came in and found no dust worth mentioning, no evidence that mice feasted on the poison I left out, no signs of mould or water infiltration, and only an inordinate number of dead bees.

Satisfied with Miranda’s condition, I went out and removed the tarp that covered her all winter, then opened all the windows and roof hatches. I should point out here that it’s hot and sunny in southern Saskatchewan!

Next, I went to check out the water hydrant and was happy that it had been turned on for me as promised. I was going to start on laundry when I realised that I’d left my grainery key with C&C and that they weren’t home.

So I decided to start on the next most pressing issue, Miranda having settled over the winter and no longer being level. Her starting battery was dead and I didn’t feel like waiting for it to charge, so I just gave her a boost from Moya and her engine cranked right over! Good old V-10, doesn’t even care about the stale fuel! Getting level was a bit of sport, but the whole thing amused me. How many people leave their home for the better part of a year and the first thing they have to do is start its engine and move it around?!

Once I was level, I hooked up to power. My batteries are still in C&C’s garage, but I really don’t need them now that I have shore power, so moving those heavy suckers will be a task for another day (as will emptying C&C’s basement of the stuff I stored there!). With the power on, I was able to start the fridge.

By the time all this was done, I saw Caroline’s school bus was parked in front of the house, so I went over just in time for coffee break! We caught up on each other’s news and I went through my mail. There was nothing major except for a very overdue bill for gravel that I forgot would be incoming since I had sent payment for its shipment. I hope they will be understanding. Needless to say, I will send a cheque promptly, a letter of explanation and apology, and an offer to send me an invoice for interest!

Caroline and Charles are super busy retirees and I had tons of stuff to do myself, so I didn’t stay long. As it turns out, our May long weekend doesn’t coincide with that of the US, so today wasn’t a holiday Monday after all. So I decided that I might as well go to town and pick up propane and groceries.

Before I did that, I got my water hoses hooked up to the hydrant and by the time I was nearly done, two more neighbours came by to welcome me back and catch up on the winter’s happening. What a lovely community I have!

The road to Assiniboia was also terrible and very good for practicing my reflexes! Propane was crazy expensive, $38 for 29 pounds!!!! Groceries were also terrible. I spent $80 and came out with almost nothing. As an example of the culture shock I felt, a watermelon that is 0.65CAD in Mexico and 1.20CAD in the US is 3.99CAD here. I was pleased to see that the grocery store is being expanded, that the produce that was there was better than anything I’d ever seen there (but they were out of onions!), and that they are starting to carry more international foods (like haloumi, halva, and thin pita; be still my beating heart!). I still don’t want to shop there again this summer for anything substantial and look forward to a Moose Jaw trip, if only for meat. Oh, and the non-alcoholic beer I discovered last summer was almost half off today and, I’m happy to report, is still as good as the real stuff!

The fridge and freezer were surprisingly cold when I got in. I put away the food and got started on laundry. I have almost zero water pressure, so I didn’t waste any time, filling the motorhome holding tank in between loads. I have tons of laundry to do because I discovered in Keystone that I picked up a mouse along the way and a lot of my bedding is mousy. Yuck!

When the RV was full of water, it was time to test my water system. And this is where I got bad news. I was able, after a lot of work, to get my water heater to fire, but I discovered have a bad leak in my hot water system. I can see it, but I can’t get to it to work on it. I knew this was going to happen at some point, having recognized since day one that I’d be screwed the day that I had to work on the water heater since the only way to do so is to literally cut a hole in the exterior wall to pull it out.

My only hope at this point is self-sealing silicone tape, so I’ll pick up a roll next time I’m in town and see if I can seal the leak with that. What’s leaking is a shut off valve, but there is literally no room to work to cut it out so that I can replace it with a new one. I’ll have to think about whether I know anyone with a smaller frame and much smaller hands who knows plumbing. My friend Croft has had similar issues. It sucks to have the technical competency to do something, but to not have the room to work!

So I have a tank full of hot water, but no shower tonight. I’m glad that’s the worst of it!

Somewhere in all of this, I got my booster and antenna set up so I could have internet. The signal I’m getting is worse than last summer, so I really do need to make a better antenna installation a priority. My office is partially set up now and I plan to be back at work Thursday.

I’m waiting for the last load of laundry for today to be done, then I’m calling it a day and will start to work on supper. I wonder how my bed is going to feel!

by

More Thoughts About Mazatlán

I remember doing some research about Maz this past summer and getting a figure of over 1 million for its population. I have no idea what I was looking at. The population of the city is about 440,000 and if you add in the metro area, it’s still less than half a million. That puts it at twice the size of Regina, but fully half the size of Calgary.

In terms of actual landmass, the city feels very compact. I’ve covered most of the core of the city. It’s a very easy city to get around in, thanks to great public transportation and high walkability, so you can quickly and cheaply find yourself from one end to the other. I would do very well here without a vehicle. In fact, I am toying with the idea of flying to Maz next year since I really do not miss driving this winter.

I’m already playing the ‘could I live here?’ game that I played through my travels in the U.S. and Canada. I do intend to live in Mexico for a few years if I can get a long term residency visa, so I think that getting a start on answering that question is worthwhile. It certainly paid off in Canada because it enabled me to buy property smartly.

I know myself really well now, know what is important to me in a long term home and what is a trade off I’m willing to make. Maz has a lot going for it, being a so evocative of the central core of Ottawa, which I still maintain is the perfect Canadian city for me except for one key detail. I’ll get into that in a moment. If I were to choose Maz as a permanent residence, I’d probably want to live on Isla to continue getting the best of both worlds.

But Maz has one big ugly issue that would make it utterly unsuitable for me as a permanent residence: its climate. I can hear all of you say WHAT?! Maz has a humid tropical climate. I do not ever again want to live long term in a humid climate. Humidity makes the cold colder and the heat hotter. You also have to deal with food spoilage, mould, odours, condensation, rust and a host of other issues. I cannot believe how much of my stuff, including bags in storage, the top and sides of my fridge, clothes hanging in the closet, and even computer parts are getting fuzzy with mould! Soon as I get half a day off, I really need to empty everything out of the closets and cabinets to make sure I’m on top of the mould issue.

I didn’t buy property in the back end of nowhere Saskatchewan just because it was cheap or because I had easy access to a lovely city (which I don’t…). I bought property there because of a generally dry and sunny climate, year round. As it turned out, my biggest priority wasn’t being able to walk to a bar or coffee shop or a movie theatre or a good grocery store, but to be in a climate that doesn’t make me want to curl up in a ball and sob three quarters of the year and keep me glued to an AC vent the rest of the time. Climate came first, cost of living second, and everything else was negotiable. That was as shocking revelation.

I love Maz very much and look forward to returning next year, but after that, I’m going to seek a different location to try to find that magical combination of hot and dry winter weather. Being near the ocean isn’t important to me (rather obvious if you look on a map where Haven is located, about as far away from an ocean in all directions as is possible anywhere in North America!), so I wouldn’t mind venturing further inland, although I will have to watch the elevation!

by

Salad

IMG_0339

This extremely simple salad would be such a big treat at Haven. I can’t get decent veggies in Assiniboia most of the year and when the lettuce and tomatoes are decent, I’m going into town so rarely that a salad can be had maybe one or two days a month. I’m always ecstatic when Caroline and Charles have enough produce to share!

Here, fresh veggies are easily accessible and super cheap so I’m making an effort to make salads more regularly. This one is super basic and really doesn’t have much in it; romaine lettuce, tomato, red onion, turkey ham, and Oaxaca cheese. I don’t buy salad dressing, so I made one with oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt, pepper, and a little garlic powder. Not as good as the one I make with balsamic vinegar and honey Dijon, but still tasty!