Living With Less...

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

                                               ...privacy that is.

There's nothing like using the toilet while sitting 3-5 feet away from your sweetie, especially when doing something particulary smelly. In one respect, we have lots of privacy, heck we don't have blinds or shades or any sort on our windows, for the most part, no one can "sneak" up on us, we have trained all of our friends to honk and/or holler well before they get to our place, they all understand and comply. Besides, with the cabin being so high off the ground, anyone walking up wouldn't be able to see in, short of someone sitting across the mountain with binoculars or telescope, we don't have to worry much about anyone seeing us inside the cabin no matter what state of dress (or undress) we may be in. If someone were to go to the trouble to try to spy on us, Lord help them for what they will see, they deserve what they get! In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, "There is good naked and there is bad naked..." nuff said. :) 

Living as we have for the last 9 months, Bob and I have gotten particulary close, living in one room for most of the time, you either have to adapt or kill, so we chose to adapt. LOL 

Along with making sure you have all the equiment and food to survive, one other thing to consider before moving to and living in a place like this is how well do you get along with your partner? Many couples live nearly separate lives, generally both of them have to work, you spend most of your day separate from your partner, upon getting home, there are so many things to do before bed time, make dinner, clean up, get ready for the next day... if you have a family that takes even more time. Living as we do, we are together nearly 24/7, with the excepetions of the days I'm at the store (usually 2 days a week) and the rare occasions when one of us leaves to go to something, we are generally together most of the time. Fortunately Bob and I do not have a problem with this, we are so much alike in our thoughts, likes and dislikes, we do just fine being together as much as we are. We also understand that each of us needs our "private time", and we are pretty good at giving it to one another. I have been reading several blogs about people moving to or living in remote places like Alaska, living in small, one room cabins, I think it takes a special breed of people to be able to do it, and not go nutty, or maybe one has to be a bit nutty to survive, I don't know... At any rate, it's something to consider.

Ladies, I know you will understand this, when Bob and I first got together, I was very shy about using the toilet in front of him, what if I made a noise? What if it smelled? How embarrasing! Once Bob figured out I had "performance anxiety", he would purposely come into the bathroom when I was in there, he thought the whole thing was pretty funny, I fussed about it, but fussing while sitting on the porcelain throne isn't particulary effective... eventually, gradually I got over the whole thing, now I can pop myself right down on our sawdust toilet, only a few feet away from Bob and do what needs to be done (get 'er done!) with not as much as a blush or giggle, we discuss important things with him or myself on the sawdust throne. If things get too, uh, odorus, one of us just opens the window, it's easy, there are no blinds to get in the way! :)

Wretha

Thanks for visiting, I love comments (but not spam), you may leave anonymous comments (you do not need to sign up or sign in). I do moderate/approve each comment, if your comment doesn't show up within a day or so, try to leave it again, if you still have trouble, email me.
.
.
.
.
.

02-21-08

It's been several days since I wrote anything, that is because not much has been happening, Bob has been gone during the daytime, I do get some things done, dishes, cleaning, taking care of the humanure toilet. Day to day life is becoming normal here, at least normal for me :) I get up in the morning, I look outside to see how the day looks, I take the dog out, I change out of my pj's, I take a sponge bath using the water from the stock pot that is still warm from last night's fire. I put on my clothes, I do any dishes that were left from the night before, if I am hungry, I eat something, usually I make a bowl of oatmeal, if the water in the pot isn't hot enough, I have a 2 burner propane stove, it doesn't take long for the water to get hot enough to cook the oatmeal. Sometimes I listen to the radio, we get one station, it's a NPR radio station out of Marfa, they play a variety of music, I have heard everything from rock, classic rock, country, old country, ancient country (grin!), pop, jazz, classical, Cajun, folk, blues, and some I can't put a name to, and that's all in an hour or two! It seems that they don't want to offend anyone or leave anyone out, so they play this crazy variety of music one after another, you might hear Pink Floyd then right after that they might play Hank Williams Sr, then something classical... it's like a crazy quilt for music. Anyhoo, at some point during the day (or evening) I go to my neighbor's house for water and company, once Bob gets home and gets cleaned up (as much as possible), I make dinner, we eat dinner while watching the most beautiful mountains and sunset. Our mule deer show up just before sunset on most days, they have gotten quite used to us, for better or worse, they hang around for an hour or so, depends on how many crackers I toss their way. After dinner, if I haven't gotten water yet, I will go then, otherwise, we have movie night a few nights a week, IF the weather cooperates. If the wind is gusting, we can't hear anything but the wind, many movie nights have been canceled because of the wind. But that is OK because we do like to talk to each other, actually we are opposites from most couples, in most other couples, the female talks more and the male talks less, often to the point where the female wished her mate would talk more and the male wishes his mate would hush up! :) In our situation, Bob is the talker, I like to say that he narrates the world, this is a good thing, I appreciate his gift for gab, I on the other hand, tend to be a bit on the quiet side, at least as compared to most of the other women I know (though I can chat up a storm when I need to), so for us, it works out quite nicely.

I just heard the Bug pull up, it will take Bob about 5 minutes (+/-) to walk up to the cabin, once he gets here, we are supposed to go to our neighbor's house for dinner, our neighbor is cooking a pork roast, Bob just walked in, I stopped typing and started heating water for coffee, Bob is a coffee drinker, he likes it semi-hot and very sweet.

I have figured out a glitch in our power system, not a bad one though, I dug out my alarm clock a few days ago, it runs on 110 and has a battery backup, it's just a standard, digital alarm clock. The first night I had it plugged up, it worked just fine, but the next morning, I noticed the time was wrong, it was a head about 20 minutes, I assumed that either Bob or I had hit the wrong button and made the time jump ahead, I reset the time and watched it for a bit and it ran just fine. A few hours later, I noticed the time had jumped ahead again, not much, between 5 and 10 minutes, again I reset the time and assumed that one of us must have bumped the button that resets the time, it's quite sensitive. So today, I was watching the clock to see if it was having a problem, the digital clock was a minute behind the clock on the weather station, I heard the power inverter's fan kick on for a few seconds (that happens when the refrigerator comes on or some other load occurs), right after that, the digital clock jumped a minute ahead of the weather station clock, that was the "aha" moment, I started making the inverter fan come on by turning on lights and other things that cause a power load to occur, each time I did this, the digital clock would jump ahead 30 seconds to a minute, so I am going to have to isolate it from other power loads in the future, Bob thinks he can do something to change the "flavor" of the power, we will see if it works, it would be great of it did, but it's not a big deal if it doesn't work, for the most part, we don't need an alarm clock. :)

Moon

Last night I watched the lunar eclipse, I saw it from the point where the moon was red, I got a late start and missed the first half. I went out about once every 10 minutes to see what was happening. I must say that I wasn't very impressed, it was kind of fun to see it, but not a huge thrill, I understand our next full lunar eclipse will happen in about 3 years... A strange thing that happened during the eclipse, I don't know if it was associated with the event or just a coincidence, my cell phone couldn't acquire a signal at all, this went on all night, it worked during the day just fine, but about sun down, it started "looking" for a signal and it did this all night. This morning, it finally started working again, I hope this doesn't happen often, I get a marginal signal at best, it's always a "roaming" signal, and for the most part, I have to stand in a certain place in the cabin, if I move around, my signal drops out and I may even lose the call alltogether.

Comments

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been leaving comments, I really REALLY appreciate each and every comment, keep them coming! :) Comments, questions, I read and respond to them, so if you ask a question, go back to that comment and look for my response, it may take a few days to get back to you, but I will respond.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

5 Comments

Oldman in th eBoonies said...

Perhaps I missed it in your posting but Unless you have a true sinewave converter you will always have problems with a power inverter and some elctronics. Variable speed motors and standard inverters do not get along well. I replaced the variable speed fan on our Wood burner with a equivilant CFM bathroom fan and some flexable ducting. The inverter is much happier now. This was a much cheaper solution than a Sine wave converter.

Thanks for the info on the water pump. I keep forgetting about RV and Marine stuff. I am building a rainwater catchment system and 12 componants are essential. Since we are in the frozen great north the project is on hold for a while.

February 22, 2008 7:17 PM

Wretha said...

Yeah, we have an inexpensive inverter, it was the biggest one I could get where I used to work, Best Buy is not known for selling inverters, computers yes, but not the bigger inverters, but it was a good deal for me so I got 2 of them, eventually we will get a bigger/better one, but for now, what we have is working just fine.

Where in the frozen north are you located?

Wretha

February 23, 2008 9:07 PM

oldman in the boonies said...

We are in Central Wisconsin. We got 14" of snow last sunday after it had been -20 for a couple of days in a row. we have had about 80 inches so far this year. It is in the high 20's yesterday and supposed to be 35 today.

We are in our late 50's. We have about 5 acres. We grow about 75% of our vegetables. We have 5 chickens.

We do have a nice 6" well that gives us all the water we could want. it runs on 220 and that scares me. I have put together a rather extensive rain water catchment system. while it is still evolving I am always looking for better ways to do things.

You and Bob are doing great. I look at your every day to see if you have posted.

February 24, 2008 8:11 AM

nanabird2000 said...

Hey Wretha, everyone sends their "Hello's" sounds like things are going well for you guys. Was nice to talk to you the other day. If you keep up all talking to the animals you may turn into Dr Dolittle and the animals talk back to you, :) Glad you guys are doing good your neighbor sounds like a heaven sent, you must be company for each other. Keep up the blogs look forward to reading them and enjoy the pictures too, explains alot of things, thanks. Until next time......Nancy

February 25, 2008 9:53 PM

Wretha said...

Oldman, wow, that is too much snow for me, and too much cold! I really love living in the desert AND on a mountain, I get the best of both worlds. We are going to get chickens sometime this spring (I hope!), I can't wait to have fresh eggs and the occasional chicken in the pot... we are also going to grow lots of fruits & veggies. How do you store (long term) what you grow?

Nancy, thanks so much for keeping up with me, I miss each and every one of you! I will keep up the blog, it's great fun and honestly, it allows me to remember things that I might forget, especially about the early periods, and helps me to appreciate each step.

I have more pix that I will be uploading soon, stay tuned! :)

Wretha

February 26, 2008 10:07 PM