hello...

[soisew]

Hello, I've not been on this board a long time, lets see...maybe a few weeks so thought I'd better take the time to introduce myself. My screen name is soisew here but I also frequent other RVers websites where I'm known as sewisme, sowego, something with the sound or word of SO or SEW in it. When you go into so many message boards it gets really wild and I decided to not use the same ID in all of them so...the confusion abounds!

I am married, just 6 years last month. It was a 2nd marriage for both of us as he was widowed and I was divorced. We bought our motorhome 6 years ago and have been RVing part time since then. Right now I'd call us "full-time sort of". We moved away from NC where neither of us had family ties or were native, back to my home place, a farm in northwestern Nebraska. He is from Ohio so we were both raised in cold country. We actually like snow, don't head south for the winter so aren't "snow-birds" of that sort. In fact if y'all need some advice on winter RVing we have the experience. We went across OR, UT, WY, CO in sub-zero! And right now we are sitting tight for the winter here parked beside the barn. We've been in here at -20 and are hoping we don't see that this year but we'll see what happens. There isnt' an RV out there that really is designed for sub-zero so...its quite a challenge.

I have one daughter who lives in the Denver metro area. She has a 6 year old daughter, my 1st real granddaughter. My Hubby has many step grandchildren. I was a stay at home Mom most of my life until the divorce in 1992. I worked until I met my guy and since he wanted to travel so there went the job. Garsh, I was not sorry at all. I am not a career type person of the type to be out there and into it like many gals are. I just loved to stay home, garden, sew, crochet, can, make apple sauce, salsa, jam, paint, macrame, bake bread, etc. I'm still the farmers daughter to this day. One of my sisters lives just about 30 miles from here and shares my creative interests so we have a good time with all that. She's an itty bitty gal, about 5'2" and 110 pounds who runs her family's cattle ranch almost single handedly, feeding cattle, pulling calves, riding the atv out to fix fence, haying, etc. She's my hero! My other and youngest sister lives hear Houston. My parents still live here on the farm so our time together is so precious! They are still farming and ranching, with wheat to harvest in the summer, hay to put up, constant fence mending and a herd of beef cattle to tend to. And we have lots of company -- this last summer we had 3 groups of family come and one RVing friend. Now that they've come to see our neck of the woods I know they'll be back so we'd better get busy and build that shed!

We will be building a large steel building to house the RV, autos and his workshop. I'm hoping for a bit of space for my creative stuff too. We'll build a house later on. Until then we will be living in the RV inside the shed. Can you imagine our outdoor patio area inside the shed will be set up like a mini house, sewing room, etc until the house is built!

My hubby a double retiree, 20 years in the Navy and 20 years in the aircraft business. He traveled the world in his "former life" and so RVing is a natural progression. Since we finally got moved to the farm he has really become interested in just being here, living the quiet life and not being out there in the busy world so much. We both lived most of our lives in or near large metropolitan areas and came to hate it. We recently spent Thanksgiving in Denver and really felt the shock of traffic, crowds and the noise. It's always good to see the family but coming back home to our quiet country life is more special to us than we could have imagined.

When we head out in the RV we've been out there buzzing along the Interstates and grumbling at the traffic, the speeding truckers, etc. But we do enjoy the RVing community -- the nicest people in the world are RVers! You hardly ever can get back into your rig when you start visiting at a rest area or RV park -- everyone is so friendly, eager to give advice when you are a newbie and so much fun to be around. The sad thing is...many times these chance meetings end so quickly and you never see or hear from them again. But, on the other hand we have several RVer friends we do meet and communicate on a regular basis so...all in all it's been great.

So we are somewhat settled down RVers. After 6 years we decided it was time to find a place to call home where we could spend our quiet time and keep up with our crafts. It is so hard to sew and do woodworking on the road!

We are both so addicted to this place (the farm), which was homesteaded by my great-grandparents in 1876 and this whole region. This part of NE isn't what people think of when they hear the state "Nebraska". We have sandstone pine tree covered buttes, bad lands, and it's cattle and dryland wheat country. The corn is all in eastern Nebraska. Our elevation is quite high too -- about 3500 feet. We are about 30 miles from the SD & WY borders so...we are "way up here". When hubby's brother came to visit last summer he remarked "does God even know we are out here?" They and many visitors are amazed at our diverse landscape the hills, the plains, the bison, long horn cattle, native american history, etc. We are just about 120 miles south of the Black Hills of SD.

During the past 6 RVing years we've traveled from NC to Seattle, then back to Key West and many places inbetween. We've only missed a few of the most northeastern states in the US. We do not intend to stop traveling. We have many more trips planned to places we've not seen and we make regular trips to see family in Ohio.

Most of the past 3 years were spend repairing the house in NC, in preparation to be a rental. When I 1st met hubby in 1999 he was in San Jose doing the same to his house so...we've had lots of home repair & improvement experience! It will not end there. We are having our steel building put up but the workshop will be built by us. The contractor will put up our log house but we'll do all the interior finishing. And we have lots of redoing projects in mind for the RV interior. To do all that repair on the NC & San Jose house, get our stuff in one place then move it all to NE was quite a chore. Egads...that is why we hope this home will be our last! I'm not doing a major move again!

Well, I've about blurred our eyes enough for today so that's enough of an intro for now...Shelley (PS -- typos are typical with me so I hope I edited enough it makes sense)

[Bethers]

Shelley,
Oh my what an interesting person you are - and so diverse in what you've done and what you can do. I'm glad to make your acquaintance - your intro is so extensive that I really feel like I know you!

If you come to Houston while I'm still in TX (until April) it would be great to meet you. Otherwise, you can bet that if you're in NE and I'm drivng through, I'll hope that we can get together there. I don't know if I'll ever have the desire to have a stick built home again - but certainly understand yours - and more so because of the roots you have there with family.

Thanks for the very informative post - and yep, it's so good to have you here with us.

[soisew]

I know I did a rather length intro but I forgot to mention our 2nd family, our little kids -- Morgan & Emmy. When I met my fella I had 2 cats, had just lots my beloved Misty Rose (Irish Setter) Both cats had "found me" at my places of work and thier stories are so special. The male I 1st called Purrtat turned into Big Guy because he grew to be 20# and he was not really fat. I found him while working at Target. Emmy was dropped off one weekend when I was working at Lowe's Home Improvement Center. Paul had a cat named Feisty and a dog named Morgan. So, when Paul & I 1st met we had 4 animals in the house! Big Guy died in 2000 of an siezure brought on by an infection and Feisty died 3 years ago from Kidney failure. Feisty had a couple of years with us on the road and would just lay on the dash and sleep all day long. Feisty lived up to her name. She loved to play rough and had more play and spunk than her new younger step sister Emmy. Emmy rides where ever she decides is comfortable and Morgan is belted in on the couch. Emmy is a torqoise calico who is now 11 years old. Morgan is a mixed breed now just turned 12. Morgan's momma was a white german shepherd and they think the daddy was a Husky or nroweigen elk hound. He is about 50 pounds and looks so much like a wolf he scares people as has the stocky build and stance of a husky with slight shepherd coloring. He loves snow and 1st step out the door he is making snow angels rolling around on his back and runs around like a young pup when it snows. Emmy is a cuddler and never met a dog she did not make up to. Second day after she met Morgan she was rubbing up against him. We get lots of laughs as Emmy walks on a leash like a dog. The cat wants to go for a walkie as bad as the dog! So every evening there we are walking the dog and cat....but out here on the farm we let them both go out and run free when ever we are outside. Emmy is pretty territorial though. Dad has 14 cats and she keeps them away from her "house". They are all abot 1/2 her age so she is the queen of the place.

Speaking of Dad's cats...they are all really something else. Each of them has such a wonderful personality. None of them are skiddish or unfriendly to the family. When strangers come along they run and hide though. Trust me -- we have no mice! He calls them his little kids so I guess they are actually my younger siblings!

Ok, I'll shut up now....Shell

[Cedar518]

Welcome Shell!

Never worry about being lengthly,.. it just gives us a better idea of who you are! I'm so glad you are with us. If you ever get over to the (also cold) northeast don't forget to get in touch and we'll connect for coffee or lunch or supper,.... It would be good to meet you and your DH.

I'm still working so I don't have time to sew like I used to. But I still buy patterns,... isn't that the way we are?

Thanks for joining us and letting us get to know you!

[Nasoosie]

Welcome, Shelley! What a wonderful way to start my day getting to know you! I have seen your name somewhere on here and have wondered who you were....now I know! I LOVE your writing....keep on it! It sounds as if you and your husband have found your niche at last, and how fulfilling it is that it's on your family homestead. Now, all we need are some pictures of you and your little kids! I can't imagine how you live in your RV, shed or no shed, when it's so cold out there! Tell me how to do it and not have water freeze-----or do you not use water in the winters? (Other than jugs of it, or something.) I'd love to be out in my trailer rather than in here, but am not sure how many tanks of propane I would go through in a month!

Thanks for joining us.....you will love this group!

[avalen]

Welcome Shelley, so good to see you found us. You sound like a real country gal, just
like me and you really have it "goin on" . I'm from Colorado, Denver metro (Thornton,
Aurora) but was transplanted to Arizona in 2001. It took me until this past year to
adjust to the desert and now I can hardly wait to get started gardening again. I live
in my fifth wheel parked in a retirement snowbird community. I'm what they call one
of the year'rounders. My space has room for a garden but learning what grows good
in this climate is going to be a challenge.
I look forward to many more of your posts, and please share pics of your handiwork too.
Right now I'm working on an afghan, I usually do one or two every winter. I just got my
sewing machine out of storage, seems its gonna need to be serviced cause the heat in
the shed melted all the lube in it and the gears are not moving. Might just go buy a new
one, we'll see.
Posting photos is easy here, just copy and paste the image code from your photobucket
into the post and hit submit.
Ok, I'll shutup now too.

[soisew]

Thanks everyone!

Avalen I lived in the Denver metro area from 1973 until January 1987. That's when I ended up near Charlotte, NC and also why my daughter went back to that area to live. While in CO I lived in Commerce City, Englewood, Littleton, & Aurora. My daughter now lives in Arvada. I got tired of the growth of that area and how the mountain areas changed for the worse (time share condos everywhere). But we do enjoy visiting there. When we go now we either stay at her house (when we dont' take the RV) or out at the Jefferson county fairgrounds. It's much quieter there and cheaper than Dakota Ridge (both in Golden, CO on the edge of the foothills, overlooking the metro area).

I'll see what I can do about finding photos. As the one who is on the shooting end of the camera -- I seldom get into the photos. I have lots of photos of our pets and Paul.

Water in freezing temps is the worst challenge. The one year we were here when it hit -22 we had our kitchen sink pipes freeze at 10 so we got scared and winterized the rig and used the facilities in the house. It's doable to live in a rig winterized. We used jugs of water for drinking and brushing teeth. I put a sock over the faucets to remind us not to turn on the pink water! And we hauled dishes into the house for washing, took baths in there and tried to use the toilet in there too.

This time we are trying a different approach. We are pulling in the kitchen slide anytime the temp will be below about 25, opening cabinet door to keep the pipes warmer and being sure the propane heat stays set high enough to keep the bays warmer. We have remote temp sensors in the water utility bay, the main storage bay under the kitchen, and under the cover of the generator. That way we can tell what temps are in all those locations from inside. If we feel any of the bays is getting to cold we put a drop light or ceramic heater in there. So far we've been down to about 8 degrees and had the bays stay warm enough. Paul stuffed extra insulation in the water/sewer bay and put pipe wrap on all the pipes he could get to. We had intended to put up some sort of skirting so we'll have to work on that. I have no idea what will happen when we get really cold! We'll just use more propane I guess.We have a house size propane tank so we no longer have to take a 100# tank to town to fill every week. We keep the furnaces set about 62 -64 degrees and that is warm enough to keep things going so far. If we set the temp higher the units run too much and burn the air up so much our humidity in here to below 20%. I run a humidifier when the humidity gets below 30% (cool or warm mist). We are on well water here so if the water in the tank is not freshest we fill jugs to drink and we have a Pure water filter on the kitchen faucet. We also bought a large roll of the foil covered bubble wrap stuff. I cut pieces to fit all the windows and skylights (velcro for the vents). At night I set them in the windows in front of, not behind the day/night shades. That helps a lot to keep the cold out. We have one for the windshield too as well as the curtian. The next day it is necessary to pull them off, let the sun come in and the ice melt. The windshield, which is not double pane glass gets all "jack frosted up" and if its super cold the metal frame windows will ice up. I have towels there to soak up the melting water. I also made sure to close all the ceiling vents (from the AC units) and made bubble wrap covers for the AC unit vents as I could feel a draft. The big downside is -- yet get to feeling like you are in the space station or something with all the foil showing at night. I could get creative and cover the inside of them with pretty cloth but so far I've been too busy to do that. I figure a little "pillow cases" for each of them would be good.

To answer a question about how much propane -- it depends -- we used about 100# of fuel in a single week when it was the coldest with only using that for heat not cooking. In milder climates you may be able to go longer. We tried running off our onboard tank and 20# BBQ style bottle and that did not work well. A 20# lasted only a couple of days! We got really tired of loading up bottles to run to town to fill them. We save the onboard tank as a back up only when the little ones ran out. The larger the tank you can get the better! It's also cheaper to buy it in bulk.

We use one small electric heater to help warm the coach but not too much. the more the elect. heater runs the less the propane runs therefore the cooler the bays. That was our failing last time out.
gotta go -- catch ya later ~~ Shelley
Once we are in the shed it we'll have to vent our propane furnaces to the outside some how and I believe it will be warmer in there as we'll be out of the wind. Anyone who has been out west knows...we have high winds a lot! It's the wind that makes it miserable. We don't have the humidity like in the east to chill you to the bone but the wind more than makes up for that!

[Liz]

What a unique situation you have...a chance to live on the family homestead and enjoy your home on wheels too. The best of both worlds. I can tell you will be a valuable addition to our forum. Welcome!

[Carolinagal]

What an interesting intro, Welcome to our forum ! Its very easy to tell how much you love the area you live in. I am courious as to where in N.C. you lived. I live in the S.W area. I love it here. Your name seemed familiar to me, think you have posted here before haven't you? So glad you really told about yourself, as others said, makes me feel as I really know you. I love some of the crafts you do also. Winter time is great for them, in the summer is play time. Welcome , post often.

Carol

[soisew]

Carol,
We lived in Gastonia, about 18 miles west of Charlotte.
Shell

[rvgrammy1953]

Soisew....so glad you made it here.....isn't this a great place?! The gals here are the best!!! Have fun and Welcome!!

[OregonLuvr]

Soisew

I know where Gastonia is very well. I did an assignment in NC during the winter 2 yrs ago...I was in Lincolnton. I loved that part of NC. Too bad about the humidity, oh yeah and while I was there a tornado touched down in GASTONIA ha ha told us on the news to hide in the bathtub and cover with a mattress...yeah right....I just took my chances but it passed over to Gastonia. I was there for 3 months and had a blast. BUT couldnt wait to get back to the WEST where I belong ha ha

Karen