Trailer – Aged but not deceased

Allison?

Sitting at the trailer by the fire, well I was, Rosalie was playing with her darn Instant Pot cooking up some sort of delicious meal when we got a call from Julie. “Come and see the baby squirrels,” she said.

We hustled over and discovered that she’d taken a draw from her bathroom and under a layer of insulation (stolen from our trailer we later found out.) we saw that it was filled with six baby squirrels. She put it outside in the hopes that Mum would find them and take them away.

Apparently, the reason they called me was they thought that I would dispose of them. Wrong!! The babies were so cute I wanted to adopt one or two of them. I could punch someone in the chops but when it comes to killing things…no way.

I was worried about the new babies so suggested that they put them by the entrance hole to the trailer that Mum had used. Mum, however, had already been there and seen the babies and was a bit confused as to why they weren’t in the trailer.

Ron and Julie watched Mum, after finding the babies and giving them a good scolding for straying, took them back to the trailer one by one and hid them somewhere inside once again.

I was a little put out as I hand fed Allison for two seasons and she had her babies in Julie’s trailer. I would rather she had them in ours. I won’t pursue that idea though as I just the look from Rosalie at the mear suggestion of it.

But wait! I was outside working when I almost tripped over a familiar critter; Alan! I was really surprised, I think Alison and Alan are not the same squirrel as I thought. Although I didn’t quite feel right about that. Alison was hesitant were as Alan was more in my face.

He immediately went to the end of the fence where I usually feed him. Rosalie wanted to see if he had boobs so I held the peanut high so we could get a good look. What a pair of perverts! But no boobs that we could see.

Mike thinks that Alan may be involved with the new pups but none of them even looked like him. I think Alison is trying to trap him, the hussy.

The debate still rages though. I noticed that Alan has teats. (nipples to the peasants) but I’m still not sure if he is male or female. I did ask but he seems disinclined to answer.

Anyway, I have decided that I don’t care what gender he is, He will remain, Alan, even if he is a female. The poor gender confused little critter.

Gardening

This is not the best location for gardening but I thought I would give it a try. I started out cautiously and only made a 5 X 5 raised bed. If it’s successful (yea right.) I will expand it next year.

We got a bunch of mixed topsoil and mulch last year and I shoveled it into the box. We supplemented this when we went with Peter and Suzie to the beach to get a load of seaweed. I washed it off and dumped it on top of the dirt and left it for the winter. We have some flowers that somehow survived the previous year even though we did our best to kill them off; we are not the best gardeners.

I planted garlic in October just before we left for Mexico and was Inspired by the fact that it was a foot high when we got home in spite of the great storm of 2018. The tree fell close but missed the garden.

We were told that the best time to plant garlic was on the October full moon at midnight naked. I stayed warm but poor old Rosalie froze her butt off.

After carefully choosing which veggies we are going to destroy this year I proceeded to plant and sow. Rosalie refused to have anything to do with it as we have been disappointed many times before. Probably a smart move. I noticed that she insisted on planting peas though as she likes to eat them off the vine. However, she had better save some for me.

I installed a timed sprinkler system a few years ago for the flowers but had to dismantle it when we built the sunroom. So now I have to find all the pieces and install it again just in case we have to go away for any length of time.

Perhaps we should invest in some marijuana plants now that it’s legal, (not that that would stop us.) With all the shortages we could make a fortune. I won’t though as it would be unfair to see all the local deer who get at the garden stoned out of their minds. To say nothing of Rosalie and the neighbours sneaking some.

I’m also going to try some of the upsidedown hanging tomato plants again this year as we were partially successful last year. I like them as it feels like you are torturing them without actually hurting anything. (I think I need help.)

If, in the Fall, you find me pestering you to take excess veggies then you know we were successful; but don’t count on it.

Gazebo

As we plan to live at the trailer all summer, I suggested to Rosalie that we need somewhere comfortable to sit outside; and possibly nap. So, we decided to buy a gazebo and add some comfortable furniture.

We found a gazebo on-line at Lowes. We decided on a soft top as they were by far less expensive. But, as I soon learned, you get what you pay for. I gave them a call and some young guy told me that they had a similar one in stock. Having nothing better to do that day we drove into town to take a look. They had nothing like the one we wanted. It was a wasted journey so we went home, ordered the one on-line and waited.

It finally arrived so I had my handy sidekick and supervisor, Peter, come and help me put it up.

The instructions said it would take four people four hours to erect; we did it in an hour and a half. Time to sit have a beer and enjoy the fruits of our labour.

The following week, Peter and Suzie came for a visit. While the girls went for a walk Peter and I decided there was too much beer in the fridge so we had better try reducing the stock.

We were sitting in the gazebo when it started to rain. Nothing serious, it only lasted fifteen minutes. However, I felt a drop of water hit my head. The darn gazebo with its weather proof roof was leaking. I guess rain doesn’t qualify as weather. Eventually a lot of drops got through meaning we had to return it.

Off to Lowes again. We eventually found a bigger, better one with a metal roof. The original price was $1,699, but had been reduced to $999. The salesman then told us that it had been further reduced to $830. Not only that, but that day only, they a 10% sale as well. It endedup, that we got a better, bigger gazebo for about $100 more. Since it came without walls, it ended up costing a total of $300 more.

When they phoned to say it had arrived, I took down the previous gazebo and loaded it into the old beater truck ready to take back and get the new one. Now all I had to do was get Peter to supervise the next erection. (?)

I was hacked!

As we all know, some miscreant hacked my blog site. Who in their right mind would want to hack me. I can see it if I was Hillary Clinton or some ginormous corporation. But me! What did I do beside upset a few people with my opinions. I don’t know what the world is coming to.

As you can see, this site is pretty raw because I’m learning as I go along. The content is the thing though.

As I haven’t blogged for a long time there is some catching up to do, so grab a glass of wine put your feet up and let me bore you. Some of this may be repeated as I don’t have access to what I did previously and at my age I sure can’t remember what I did.

We moved out of the condo and are now happily “living the dream” in the trailer. It’s been a bit stressful. I had my hand surgery as we were packing and am just finished hand therapy. Then I tore a ligament in my back which slowed me up somewhat. I’m taking shots for that (tequila) so I will be better soon.

Rosalie has a problem with her arms going to sleep. I think they’re just anticipating the rest of her body which seems to fall asleep at the drop of a hat. She had an MRI but they found nothing. We think it’s a pinched nerve so are taking steps to make her better. I keep threatening to trade her in but I think she’s past her ‘best by’ date.

It was pretty chilly when we first moved in in April but we had lots of heaters. We would sit in the sun room and watch downloaded Netflix movies. We were dressed in layers of clothing and wrapped in a blanket. Our first night I started laughing as it struck me funny at what we were doing. We’re both totally mad, I’m sure of that. The thing is though, we love it. I think our attitude is the epitome of this site, We’re older but we ain’t dead yet and we can still have a lot of fun.

I’ve had a lot of work to do and at times it seems daunting but I’m getting through it and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now that summer’s finally here I’m starting to slow down a bit and enjoy our new life. So far we love it, but this is only half of our trial year. We still have to see if we can live for six months in Mexico. I don’t doubt that we can, but who really knows.

Just after I wrecked my back the truck broke down. These two things decided us that we made a mistake when we bought the boat, so we sold it. I got the truck running after spending a day underneath it, something I swore 30 years ago I wouldn’t do again. Well, I am only 73 after all.
In a future blog I’ll tell you my gold mining story.