live. work. dream.

Wanted: Chief librarian for Slab City Lizard Tree Library. Must be literate, love books, the desert climate, live in own RV and enjoy colorful characters of all types. Pay is non-existent but the fulfillment of running this institution is something money can’t buy. Job starts today.

What began as a final trip to the Slab City Library yesterday has turned into a devastating discovery. This one-of-a-kind institution is on the verge of collapse.

Sunday afternoon I arrived with some DVDs to donate, only to find piles of books thrown around, and an angry look on the face of Ron, the chief librarian. All of the doors to the place had also been removed, the sign had disappeared from the parking lot, and the book donation shelves were gone. He even took our Internut access away.

I was stunned, and asked Ron, “Uh, what happened to the shelves?”

His eyes were filled with rage as he said “I’m sick of picking up after people and their dog shit! I’ve had it! If they want to trash this place they can have it!”

I asked “But….what’s going to happen here?”

Ron said, “It’s a self-serve library from now on. People can take care of it themselves. I’m done!” and he stormed out.

Three years ago, Ron arrived just after the founder of the library died. He was enthusiastic about keeping it going, and moved in next door. He took the wheels off his motorhome, set up an encampment, and went about the business of becoming chief librarian. He’s done an incredible job. Every time I went there, new books had been shelved, more fun knicknacks appeared and the floor was always clean.

But apparently the slobs around here made him snap. Or maybe it the 120 degree summertime temperatures. But last week he threw up his hands and surrendered. Now, this treasure is at risk of becoming just another trash heap in the last free place in America.

I’m so devastated, it kept me awake last night. I love libraries, and this is a rare find in America. It’s killing me that we’re supposed to leave for Anza Borrego tomorrow.

Today I made the “Save the Libaray!” sign and posted it inside, hoping that more people might care enough to stop taking the library for granted. Maybe we can change Ron’s mind about quitting.

I guess I’ll have to wait until next year to find out what happens next.

And if nobody wants the job, I just might apply when we return.

Slab City: love it or hate it.

Lovers are tolerant individuals who respect the many different lifestyle choices here. Haters just can’t seem to turn away from the trash heaps and shiftless drifters, and usually depart within 24 hours.

One might assume that Slab City Lovers are younger folks on the fringes of society, but as our neighbor Bernie demonstrates, that just ain’t so.

Bernie and his wife are snowbirds, spending summers in Washington and winters here at the Slabs.

He built this RV himself, handles all of his own rig maintenance, and is building a new cottage by hand back in Washington. A former HVAC repair man, he spends his afternoons lounging and riding his ATV around the desert. He and his wife have been vegan for the last 40 years.

Bernie is 80 years old. His wife is 75. They’re just one example of the many reasons why we love staying at kooky places like Slab City.

Because you just never know who’s going to rock your world here, like Don the musician.

Overheard at the Slab City Library: Champagne Living on a Beer Budget? … Hey, can I have that? … Serendipity in action.

Funny how I kicked off the new year that way – remembering the old adage momma would often cite. And funny that this 1969 guide by Mike and Marilyn Ferguson for How to Buy the Best for Less came to my attention while boondocking for free among both shiny monster RVs and deep rooted old buses.

As mother would also often question though, “Funny ha ha or funny peculiar”?

Either way, funnier yet are various applicable quotes I turned to throughout Champagne Tastes on a Beer Budget:

Happiness is being rich enough to ask the man to show you something cheaper.
~ Johnny Carson

We choose to live like vagrants here for a while because it is much cheaper than the alternative of paying for comfortable amenities, and richness is measured in many more ways than wealth. Others live on the slabs out of need, all rich in their own ways.

Necessity never made a good bargain.
~ Poor Richard’s Almanac

It’s all about give and take, I say. What are you willing to give up to get what you want? And if you want freedom, for free, you might need to go without quite a bit. As most do here in Slab City, USA.

Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam,
And I’ll show you a filthy house.
~Author Unknown

There seem to be many more people here this year. But you don’t see much of them, being rounded up in their safe little RV caravans as they are. Safety in numbers I suppose, among the regular miscreant vagrants, loving hippies, wandering loners and hobos.

Money, which represents the prose of life, and which is hardly spoken of in parlors without apology, is, in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

What’s that make me then? Well, I’m not quite smelling like roses these days. And I gave up a lot to enjoy the beauty within. Yes you must look past certain filth, but I’m not spending a dime (out of pocket), and am rich in personal freedom and fixed in perfect reality.

Our time in L.A. is nearing an end. Over forty days of living in the big city, and we’re getting homesick for our rig. It sits outside under a tree, and the birds are having a party on our roof. It’s time to get the rig out from under the shade, and under a blazing desert sky, where it belongs.

Any time we spend in cities is reassurance that we did the right thing by choosing to live like hillbillies.

We drove on the freeway, and it took us nearly two hours to travel 29 miles. Things are too fast, too crowded and just too much for us.

We’ve had a good visit with the family. Also met some world-renowned canine health professionals and interviewed them for Tripawds. And last week, ate at two of the best Asian restaurants we’ve been to in a while. Both are located in the San Gabriel Valley, where my parents live. These dining experiences reminded us that living in the city isn’t all bad.

Happy Harbor in Rowland Heights served up the best dim sum we’ve had since San Francisco. We also ate at a funky little 40 year old sushi joint in the Hacienda Heights ghetto, Akasaka.

We haven’t had sushi in over a year. We just have a thing about eating sushi anywhere other than the coast. It’s just wrong, and to us, the freshest sushi you can get is definitely worth the wait.

The plan is to leave here on Sunday, after the rains end. We’ll head straight for Slab City, where we a warm desert is waiting for us, with dark night skies and solitude.

Since childhood I have always had a taste for the finer things in life. I remember being about 11 years old when my parents would take us out for dinner at a favorite Italian restaurant, I would order the prawn scampi. Fresh lobster is another all time favorite. I will never forget my mother telling me, on many more than one occasion, that I have Champagne tastes on a beer budget.

Believe me, I still yearn for the taste of those finer things. But my budget is more suited for sparkling water now, and I do not mean Perrier either. After stretching our one-year roadtrip budget to last nearly three years, and making frequent reality checks on the savings we are still spending, I have become quite good at letting those tastes linger on my palate praetendere.

In years past we have enjoyed Moët & Chandon on New Year’s eve, though Cristal was my favorite. But in past years, we used to actually make money too! This year, it was Trader Joe’s finest. And that’s OK. Long ago, I came to terms with getting what you pay for, and paying for what you get. Yes, those finer things in life taste good, but they never last long enough. There was even a time when spending over $100 on a bottle of bubbly made me feel good, but that was when we could afford such things. Now I know what matters most is the memories.

Friendship, good health and good times. Happiness, well being, comfort and prosperity.

These are the things we toasted to ring in the new year with our good friends Martha and Ralph and the Oaktown pack. And these things are what we wish upon all our friends and family. Keeping in mind, that is, to prosper need not necessarily require being wealthy.

I for one, will take my debt-free lifestyle with a sip of California sparkling wine over an upside down mortgage and French Champagne any day. Cheers!

Regular readers may remember that Jim and I aren’t exactly big gearheads. With our frugal lifestyle and relatively non-existent income right now, we must carefully choose the gear we need, to get the most out of our budget. And we understand that there’s a difference between being cheap, and being frugal. Buying cheap gear is always more expensive in the long run.

Take for example, this North Face jacket I’m wearing during our stay at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado. The jacket has served me well for the last 8 years, but lately I’ve been thinking that it’s time for a replacement. This one was cutting edge at the time, but by today’s standard it’s bulky, heavy, and army green isn’t exactly the most flattering color. It’s also overkill for our winter travel adventures in the temperate southwest and should probably be left at our Colorado home base.

Coincidentally, I was introduced to The North Face Resolve jacket today, through Webtogs, an online retailer specializing in quality outdoor gear.

The North Face Resolve jacket features include:

• seam sealed, waterproof, breathable fabric
• soft, lined collar
• stow-away hood
• mesh-knit liner
• storm baffle front zipper with double front closure
• big pockets on both sides
• athletic cut with a drawstring cord for tailored fit

As you might be able to see in the photo, I’m a walking billboard for North Face gear. My boots and jacket are North Face and so are the base layers I wear. Their products last forever and hold up beautifully, making them a frugal RVer’s dream.

The North Face Resolve jacket looks compact enough to fit in our tiny RV wardrobe closet, yet sturdy enough to give me the protection I need from the spring rains in Texas.

With Christmas around the corner, I think it’s time for an upgrade, don’t you?

Our house is on a septic system and has its own well, something entirely new to this city girl.

I’ve been told by a plumber that it’s fine to throw toxic cleaning products down the drain, but I think of all the cute creatures around here (like this bull moose we saw, just down the road), and I shudder at the thought of poisoning their environment.

I’ve always tried to make my own cleaning products using vinegar, lemon juice and water, and only rely on the hard stuff occasionally, when things are really dirty.

But making homemade laundry soap was something I’d never considered until I came across this terrific Suddenly Frugal blog. It seemed hippy dippy, and I wasn’t sure it would work. But it was so cheap to make I thought I’d at least give it a try.

This is all you need to make your own Homemade Laundry Soap:

• Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
• 20 Mule Team Borax
• Bar of Fels-Naptha Soap

It’s not easy to find these standard ingredients. These proven cleaners of yesteryear are being shoved onto the bottom aisles at the grocery store. HelMart doesn’t carry them (figures), but King Soopers here in Colorado (a Kroger store) does carry all three.

The recipe is so simple it’s ridiculous:

1. Get a large bucket or tote.
2. Combine 2 cups washing soda and 2 cups Borax.
3. Grate 1 bar of Fels Naptha Soap
4. Mix into powder
5. Measure 1/4 cup per load.

Wear a dust mask when mixing, or be prepared to inhale a lot of powder. Ick.

It took me maybe 10 minutes to do all of this, and one batch lasts about 4 weeks for us (I only do wash once a week). Total cost of purchasing the ingredients was, $10.84, about the same as a box of Tide, and I’m going to get at least 3 months out of the ingredients (I bought 3 bars of soap). Don’t hold me to that though; I’m innumerate.

DIY Laundry Soap really does work! There’s a reason this stuff has been around forever. But if you try it, keep these tips in mind:

• Let your washer fill up at least halfway with water, to dillute the powder.
• You won’t see bubbles in the water, but bubbles aren’t what cleans your clothes, detergent does.
• For stains, try spot cleaning first by rubbing a bar of Fels Naptha on the stain.
• There are recipes for liquid laundry soap out there, but they look like a pain, and they’re messy to make. I like this recipe the best.

I would love to keep making this laundry soap while we’re on the road this winter, but I’m not sure I’ll have the space in the RV to store the ingredients. Time will tell when I get to packing again in a few weeks. That’ll be fun.

What was that about how it’s almost time to fly south?

I think that boat left without us. This is supposed the first day of Autumn. But I think Autumn got scared, and flew south too. Looks like winter is here.

This is the scene outside today. A winter storm warning has been issued for the next few days. Lucky for us, we’ve got food, booze and Internet. And Wyatt Ray really loves playing all this white stuff.

I’ll never forget the look on his face when we took him outside in the morning. Jim opened the door, and Wyatt’s ears went straight up. His eyes bugged out of his skull. He jumped and romped and spun around and just couldn’t understand what all of that white stuff was!

The Farmers Almanac is predicting a cold, hard winter in these parts. I look outside at our snow-covered rig, and thank Dog that we are in the house right now. The outside temperature is in the low 30s, but it’s warm and toasty inside the house with our fire going.

Time’s a wastin’, we better get moving soon.

Just in case anyone was wondering if perhaps we thinking of “settling down” here at Jerry’s Acres, for the record, we are not ready to commit to staying here for the entire year. I know, I know, we just got here. Seems like yesterday we were getting bombed on champagne and playing Scrabble on our first night here.

But the aspens are turning yellow, there is a definite chill in the air. Soon we’ll do the sensible snowbird thing, and head south for the winter. For there’s still so much to see, and far too many adventures in store. And besides, Wyatt Ray needs to get out there on the road and see the great big world that’s out there waiting for him.

We’ve been busy making plans for our flight south. Looks like we’ll workamping in November and December, either in Kansas or Nevada. Then, we’ll head to see my familia in Southern California for Christmas (it wouldn’t be the same unless we had another sweltering Christmas day in the shadow of downtown L.A.). After that, we’ll more than likely turn east and head to New Braunfels, Texas again, to hook up with our NuRVers friends at Landa. But first, we’ll stop at the Slabs again for some free boondocking and interesting ambiance.

But winter won’t be all fun and games. Our budget situation is such that we’ll need to get our butts in gear and start making some real money now.  Getting to Texas is going to cost us, big time. So this means even more plowing away at our online endeavors, as well as workamping or (gasp!) temp jobs in bigger cities that can bring in some real money (well, as “real” as it gets when you live like hoboes) until we return to Colorado in late March.

The fulltime RVing lifestyle beckons.

It was always apparent that we didn’t get rid of enough stuff when we left Eureka in June 2007. Our $250 a month storage bill said it all.

When we hit the road, we hired a moving company to store our stuff, thinking that someday we would be willing to pay to ship it to us, wherever we landed. But until the moving company actually put it all in their warehouse, we had no idea how much our storage bill would be. By the time we learned what the damage was, it was too late.

The Horrors of Excess

While in storage, our stuff took up five crates at 4′ x 7′ x 7, for a grand total of 980 cubic feet. Once we closed escrow on our house and saw what our finances looked like, that there was no way we were going to shell out the $5k the moving company wanted to deliver our stuff, so we opted to go get it ourselves.

The only problem was that I never actually saw how much space our junk took up, until we landed in Eureka for just one stealth night in August. When we arrived at the moving company’s warehouse with our 26′ moving truck, our jaws dropped.

A massive amount of boxes were stacked  and waiting. At first, the two movers we hired to help load weren’t even sure if it would all fit. As they started loading, I began making piles of stuff that we would ditch if it didn’t.

I wanted to cry. All this time I thought that we had really downsized. Who was I kidding?! The excessive boxes of clothes, kitchen stuff, and knicknacks, was unreal. I kicked myself up and down the parking lot, cursing at our naivety in thinking we had gotten rid of all but our essentials.

Eventually, the movers made it all fit. We left Eureka in less than 24 hours, and lugged it back to Colorado.

Note to Self: Lesson Learned

Two years ago, I thought we were keeping only the essentials. But I’m not the same person I was then. The road has taught me that I don’t need much to have an enjoyable life. I don’t need eight pairs of jeans, or three different sets of dinner plates to feel complete.

Sure, it’s nice to have some of my favorite things back under our roof, like my card making stuff and my bread machine. But when it comes down to it, I’ll take the incredible journeys we’ve had over all of our material possessions any day.