December 2007

Well, it finally stopped raining, but the temp dropped to well below freezing for a couple of days, so we decided to wait until the weather warmed up a bit, doesn’t sound like we are very hardy pioneers… well the reason is a very good one, our food. We have several cases full of canned food and we couldn’t afford to allow it to freeze. We are relying on this food to keep us fed through this winter, so we can’t afford to let anything happen to it.

It got above freezing each day, but it got well below freezing each night (28 F), we knew it would take at least 12 hours to travel the 500 miles we had to go, there would not have been enough time to get there and still have enough time to properly stow our food and keep it from freezing.

The last two nights, we used a portable heater to keep our food from freezing on the trailer, the food is packed in a big cage in the middle of the trailer, we wanted to take the food off the trailer and take it into the house but getting to the food meant removing too many other things off the trailer, it became painfully obvious that we had to find a way to keep the food above freezing, there was no way we were going to get everything off the trailer to get to the food. So we used heavy builder’s plastic and canvas tarps to enclose the cage, then we placed a piece of stainless steel panel inside the cage as a base, and placed a small space heater on the stainless steel panel, there was a good 3 feet of clear space between the front of the heater and the first set of boxes so it was safe. We secured the whole thing to keep cats or any other animals from getting inside, we have lots of feral cats running around here and they would have done just about anything to get inside the heated space, it worked out great, our food stayed good, and no animals got inside.

Now that the freezing weather is past, all we have to do is make sure the vehicles are ready to go, we have to wire up the VW bug’s tail lights so that while it’s being towed, it will be legal (the brake lights will come on when I brake), and tweak the trailer load. We should be leaving for the final trip either Tuesday or Wednesday. Hopefully the next post I make will be from my property.

Oh, one last thing, I can send messages from my cell phone to this blog, the problem is I don’t do the text thing very well, I can type on a regular keyboard just fine, but it takes me a bit more time and …

Ugggg! Will it ever stop raining? I am thankful that we aren’t experiencing the ice like our neighbors to the north… Today I went outside to check on our stuff, our last load of stuff is sitting out on a trailer, it’s covered with builders plastic, it’s basically super heavy plastic, that’s the only thing protecting our belongings. It was still raining a little when I went outside, I noticed that water had pooled in places on the plastic, gallons of cold water threatened to soak everything underneath it. I was able to pull the plastic taught and let the water drain out onto the ground. Ohhhh, it was cold as it flowed over my arms, refreshing!!! It appears so far that everything is OK under the plastic, we will find out when we unload it.

Now on to a more pleasant subject, I have had lots of fun driving my new/old bug! I drove it over to my Dad’s house to show it off, he lives about 30 minutes away, that gave me a chance to try out driving in it, one thing I learned, I’m glad I’m not driving it to west Texas, I will be towing it, just driving to my Dad’s house and back was fun but rough, I don’t think I’d like being rattled for 12 hours. It does need some work, the dash has gaping holes, in case you aren’t familiar with old bugs, the engine is in the rear, the front has the gas tank, wires, the spare tire and the rest is open space, it’s the trunk. There used to be a radio and speakers in the dash, these are missing, and the glove box is missing too, you can look right through from the front seat into the “trunk” area, that means that all the cold air comes right in through all the holes in the dash to the inside of the cab. My husband did have pity on me though, he took a can of spray foam and plastic bags and filled up all the holes in the dash, at least no more air leaks in. Once we get settled in at our new home, he will work on a better solution. When I got to my Dad’s house, he came out and looked it over, just like most dad’s, he wanted to pop the hood, so I showed him the trunk, the first thing he noticed was all the foam, not standard issue on most bugs, I explained that it was temporary. Next I showed him the motor, I don’t think he is very familiar with bug engines, he is a real do it yourself kind of man though, and has changed out his fair share of motors on many other vehicles, so he was able to appreciate the simplicity and durability of the elegant engine that was staring …