Friday, February 17, 2012

The Art of Storage in a Small Space

I am truly amazed at how many frugal Blogspots and web pages there are on the Internet. I thought I was frugal. Heck there are folks who recycle 90% of what they would throw away. Of course, it helps to have children, but most of the throw always are recycled for kids toys and clothes.

 Yesterday my husband was going to throw away an old pair of jeans. I grabbed them thinking I could make a purse out of the good parts of his jeans. He took them back and decided to use them when working on the RV, cars, or truck. Good choice!

 It’s hard to collect recycle items in a 30' travel trailer. We broke down and bought a tall glass vase from the Dollar General Store. Actually, it was a cookie container, but I used it for my Valentine flowers from hubby. Guess I need to make more cookies after the flowers die. Ummm wonder if that was hubby's intention.

 We left a 1800 sq ft house in Nevada and now this 325 sq ft travel trailer, after 3 years, is getting real old. I am sure glad hubby and I get along.

 Our kitchen stove is propane, which is almost worthless. It does not cook well. Now I use it to store my cooking pans and lids. The top of the stove has burners. I didn't use them much so I put the cover over it and I use if for the things I need daily: butter dish, salt/pepper, hot tea holder, and lemons. I now cook on one portable burner, slow cooker, toaster oven, and of course my brand new bread machine. Since I only cook for two, I bought glass dishes that fit in the toaster oven. Someday we will give that away (or save it in case I need it to make polymer clay jewelry) and buy a larger toaster over/convection oven. Wal-Mart has a nice size one that fits in my cabinet.

 Inside this RV, storage is a premium. Each item has a designated place. Sometimes you have to take one item out to get to the one you want. It's a pain, but this life is temporary. I don't know how hubby will handle me if we ever design a kitchen. As a contractor, he may send me to my Mother's house if we build our own house. Then again, remodeling a home sounds more fun.




Small Frig and Freezer

Kitchen/Entry
Dinning Room/Office



Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Life On My Adopted Ranch


With all this rain in SW Houston there will be bigger bugs and skeeters soon. I am sure the fire ants are ready to harass us soon. It’s true, things are bigger in Texas. We love our friends in Texas, but truly miss the snow and Sierra Nevada Mountains in northern Nevada.


Sierra Nevada Mountains

We currently live in a RV Park in SW Houston in the middle of a Black Angus Ranch. We sure love this set up much better than most RV parks. Our RV space was originally in between other RV rigs. Hubby said he hated it and asked the owner if we could move to a corner spot. Now we have fields and cows on two sides. We don't have to look at RV's anymore. Our travel trailer on the RV parks side has no big windows. Good thing, hubby was not happy. Always keep hubby's happy! This picture is an old one. I will post a better one later.

Black Angus Cows

The cows and calves have been like family. Lots of birds here too. Of course, the Mockingbird (Texas state bird) is king and quite the bully. We had Cedar Wax Wing birds one year. OMG they are just so beautiful. They look like they have suits on. Anyway, the Mockinbird's chased them away every time they tried to eat the red berries off the bushes behind us. Those birds never came back after that. In addition, we put a feeder out for the Hummingbirds. We have a window that faces the feeder and I take pictures and video of those wonderful birds.

Last Years Hummers out my window
Cedar Wax Wing

The winter Mockinbird