Happy Christmas

From our tiny house to yours...

Don't forget to call your loved ones this holiday! :)

Winter in an Airstream

 We're having a bit of a cold snap on the island! This is about as cold as it gets out here. With the windchill, it's about 10 degrees Fahrenheit, even though the days are sunny. We did get a dusting of rare snow! But it was literally gone before I got any pictures. It's been a bit of a struggle keeping the Airstream warm this week, so I thought I'd report on our winter survival! If the Airstream were better insulated, I don't think our little dickinson marine propane heater would have any problem keeping this trailer warm. But, since there's only a few inches of insulation in between two sheets of aluminum that separates us from the great outdoors, the little heater needs some help. We also run a space heater at the other end of the trailer to keep temps around 64 degrees while we are home, and then turn off the propane heater at night and whenever we aren't home. We are warm and toasty when things are heated up, it's just keeping it that way that is tough! The Airstream loses heat pretty quickly, as you can imagine. Fortunately, island cold spells don't last too long. We're already forecasted to be back to warmer temps (although rainy ones) next week.

Our other winter struggle so far has been condensation. We'd been told by other full-timers that it is a constant battle, and I'd agree with them. Storing anything against the wall by the floor is a no-no. We are very grateful that our bed design worked out so that no part of the mattress actually touches the walls - if it did, I think we'd have mildew issues.

It's hard to believe we've owned Blue for a little over a year now, and we're coming up on 6 months of living in her! Looking back, about this time last year our Airstream looked like the picture to the left. So nice to be snuggled in by our little fireplace enjoying our tiny home after all that hard work!

Wishing you warmth in your home and your hearts. It's the holidays so I can write mushy things like that :)

Finally a Floor

We have been on our marine-grade plywood floor for about 5 months now, and it is...dirty. While the pooches don't seem to mind, the humans decided they'd had it, so we went to the store and picked out some real flooring. We've been looking at all kinds of flooring types and in a perfect, un-dirty, canine-free world, we probably would have gotten cork or bamboo, but with our temperature-fluctuating, sometimes damp, always canine-friendly Airstream, we opted for a vinyl laminate floating floor that looks like wood. We are in and out constantly and didn't want to have to worry about moisture --this floor is waterproof.

We did a highly technical drawing with measurements to figure out how much flooring we needed to order. Good news -- we ordered the perfect amount!

There's the floor planks ready for installation

We turned our trailer into a construction zone for the weekend...again.

J cut and laid the planks down. After bringing a bunch of samples home to try out, we opted for the weathered-wood look; bright enough to keep things light in our trailer, but textured enough to conceal dirt.

Pups surveying their new digs! Agnes had the best day of her life because she got to spend the whole day outside while the floor was being installed, and Maggie had the worst day of her life because she had to spend the whole day outside while the floor was being installed :)

Maggie would like you all to know that her bed(s) were rudely relocated during this project and when she finally was let back in her trailer, she was forced to lay in a small corner with Agnes mashed up against her. Woof!

We didn't install flooring under the bed. Instead, J put fancy threshold there so our clothes drawers easily roll up over it.

Installing the LAST piece!

When it's winter in the pacific nw and you live in an Airstream and you want to work on your Airstream, this is what your life looks like. Got to get those trim pieces dry = let's go out for breakfast. We started our weekend like this, and thanks to all of J's hard work and Morgan's cooking, we ended the weekend like this:

We're all settled back in now with our nice new floor (so clean!) which I am really enjoying swiffering. I wonder if that enjoyment will wear off...

Let There be Heat!

Hello from your guest author Jacob ( I am the guy in the photos playing with power tools). Well the seasons have begun to change up here in the Northwest; the leaves are at their peak, mushrooms have sprung up everywhere, migratory birds have returned, and the night time temps continue to drop. When we first arrived back from Maui, the weather had us contemplating our Airstream living situation. But, the last few weeks of October have been pretty spectacular and have allowed us to reconsider. Ever since we first decided that we needed an Airstream trailer we had dreamed of it having a small/cute woodstove for heat. After living in the trailer for a while now we have come to learn the value of our precious space in Blue Moon. In total we have 75 square feet of open floor space and the dogs take up about 8 square feet a piece.....that doesn't leave much room for even the smallest woodstove! Lucky for us our buddy Andrew told us about the Dickinson marine heaters that are designed for boats and run on propane.

These stainless steel heaters mount on the wall and have a nice little glass window so you can see the flame....this really adds to the ambiance and the romance. The other cool thing about one of these vs. a woodstove has to do with safety: the Dickinson heater intakes air from outside the trailer, so as not to deplete the oxygen inside our trailer. A woodstove uses the interior air for combustion, which can be dangerous in a small space. The ability to wake up and press a button for heat instead of building a fire is also something Heidi is not complaining about. I ordered one of the heaters from Fisheries Supply in Seattle and it came in just a couple of days. The installation of the heater took four easy steps:

1) Drill hole in the ceiling where you want the flue pipe to exit. The heater comes with a flexible, double-wall flue pipe which could be bent in Dr. Seuss fashion to conform to our curvy trailer's walls.

2)Run 12 volt power to the heater for the heater's fan = small moment of flashbacks to gutting when we had to remove the wall panel to access the wiring! We quickly replaced it.

3) Run a propane line from the propane tank to the heater (up through the floor). In the photo above, I am holding my hand-formed, very special connector piece of copper pipe.

4) Rivet the heater to the wall. Airstream owners are well-accustomed to using rivets in place of screws. The aluminum panels are too thin to hold a screw. The vent cap was also riveted to the outside of the trailer in the photo above.

It was not too terribly difficult to install and has made a huge difference in our overall comfort. It heats the whole Airstream without a problem, even on the lower setting. We were worried about the heater's fan being to noisy, but it is very quiet and circulates the warm air very well.

We're pretty stoked on our little heater. Here's to a beautiful fall!

Of Mice and Maui

September Sunsets!

'Twas the night before our vacation, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring...except for a mouse. We had all been nestled snug in our bed, and visions of wintering in our cozy Airstream were dancing in our head. Then out on the rear bumper there rose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window the mouse flew like a flash, raced up and down the screen and out the trailer in a dash!

I know, it may be a little early for holiday lyrics, but with the weather here, we're feeling the force of winter. Let's rewind...  Two weeks ago J and I booked a totally spontaneous trip to Maui (wahoooo!) The forecast looked brilliant there and we both had the time off. Flights were a darn good deal so we packed our bags. There was the issue of this mouse, however. If you have ever been kept awake at night by the clatter one little rodent can create, or the agony of knowing this small furry creature is SOMEWHERE in your house and you can hear it but not see it and therefore simply cannot sleep, you can understand J's pain. As I snored peacefully, he vigilantly kept watch over the kitchen cabinet that seemed to be making scratching noises and producing little brown turds all on its own. And then, suddenly, a flash of gray fur! Let's just say our Airstream door has never really closed all the way, and we actually saw this little mouse leave through the crack in the bottom of the door -while it was closed. We couldn't leave our wonderful dog-sitter, Morgan, with a third furry friend to deal with on her first Airstream sleepover while we were on vacation! Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say, and J went to work sealing off the door. It was time anyway--the nights had been getting cooler for sure. Little mouse was used to his racetrack pathway in and out of Blue Moon so J figured he didn't even need to bait the mouse trap, and that said mouse would just run right over it in his haste to get to our crumbs. I was totally skeptical. But, on the morning of our Maui departure, there was his cute face (*dead*) in our mouse trap. We both momentarily felt sad because he was really cute, then ceremoniously bagged him and tossed him. Whew. 

We left our little island one week ago while it was still glowing in the amber light that I've grown to love out here each September. But, it was time for a vacation! It was knockout b-e-a-utiful on Maui. We snorkeled with a gazillion fish, 6 massive sea turtles, and did some serious beach lounging. Despite developing a nasty cold mid-trip, I still got on the plane home feeling a little lighter. We returned to Seattle late at night and crashed on our friends floor until morning. I don't know why our friends live in Seattle. I have told them this. When we woke up to a total deluge of rain pelting the window with massive force, I said, "I don't know why you guys live here." I sincerely love to remind them that the island gets significantly less rainfall than their dreary city (and they know this because they used to live on the island and are always tempted to move back and I want them to so I have no shame in pestering them with these type of comments). But, they would not budge from their cozy apartment that day, so after a delicious breakfast with our beloved friends, we drove back to the ferry landing to catch the boat home. I said I would call them when the sun was shining on the island just to rub it in. But, the deluge did not stop. The ferry pitched and rocked in the rough seas all the way home and both J and I were a little land-sick when we got there. Bit of a shock from our tropical island vacation paradise, to say the least. 

But miracle of miracles, we came home to hot showers! As you know we don't have a shower in Blue Moon, and sadly the season for solar showers ended about 3 weeks ago- when even on sunny days the shortening daylight hours just weren't long enough to heat up our 5-gallon bags for evening showers anymore. We'd been taking coin showers at the harbor but we had a call in to the owners of our property to see if there was a chance they wanted to fix their water heater in their old trailer up here so we could take showers in it. Running. Hot. Water. Uh-mazing!

After our blissful showers we hit the sack - me still a little sick from my cold. It was still absolutely pouring down rain. Sleeping under a tin roof in a rainstorm takes some getting used to :) Around 3 am I woke up coughing and had to sit up in bed to blow my nose. While sitting there, a cold drop of water fell on my head. And then another drop. Drip, drip, drip...J turned the light on and we discovered that the skylight over our bed was leaking. So at 3am in the pitch-black and the pouring rain, poor J was running around outside with a ladder tarping our skylight. Welcome home. With the addition of the tarp, we had officially entered the dreaded trailer trash land. Tarp on the roof, towel on the bed comforter, we miraculously slept on and didn't wake up until late this morning. 

After spending the day at Morgan's and recovering from the shock of re-entry into our real life, here's what we fall asleep with tonight...

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
921 PM PDT SUN SEP 29 2013

...POWERFUL WINDSTORM TO AFFECT PARTS OF WESTERN WASHINGTON
TONIGHT...

.AN UNSEASONABLY STRONG STORM WILL MOVE THROUGH THE AREA TONIGHT.
THIS HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE ONE OF THE STRONGEST SEPTEMBER
WINDSTORMS ON RECORD. NORTHWEST WASHINGTON...FROM THE CENTRAL AND
NORTH COAST THROUGH THE STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA AND THE NORTH
INTERIOR...WILL BE AT THE GREATEST RISK FROM THE STRONGEST WINDS.

The tarp has been replaced with caulk over the leaks, and we're thinking heavy thoughts so as not to be blown away. Our phone line has been out all day, sorry if you've tried to call! Visions of a cozy Airstream winter are no longer dancing in our heads...perhaps it will all end with Autumn.

Wish us luck. 

Cabinetry and...Unconsciousness

We had a bit of excitement up here on the mountain on Saturday night. After nearly a 2-month hiatus of doing very little work on our Airstream (J's had a busy summer guiding) - we decided to finally tackle putting on our cabinet faces!

We've had temporary cafe curtains under the sink that I was excited to get rid of, although Maggie enjoys the free smells and easy access to the garbage can - blarf :(

And here's what the other side of the kitchen looked like. The dishes on the bottom tended to get filled with dust and had to be wiped out before every use, which I was ready to not have to do!

It was a beautiful afternoon for us both to be off work and J not tired from guiding any overnights recently. He cut and sanded the cabinet faces and I stained them. 

We took the puppies on a walk while the last bit of stain cured and then around 6pm J got ready to install them. The picture above is important because I took it just a few minutes before J accidentally cut into his pinky finger with some electrician's pliers. The cut was bad enough to make J wince, and we sat there for a few minutes (it was not a big bleeder, although his fingernail was cut in half!) and then decided to walk over to our landlords old trailer where there is running water to rinse it off. I grabbed a few first aid supplies to take with and bandage it afterwards. We got to the deck of their trailer and Jacob sat down outside, saying he didn't feel well. He turned green as the grinch and I thought for sure there was puke in his future. But, for better or worse, he held it in, and instead, promptly had a seizure. J was sitting up against the wall and I held his head upright while his whole body convulsed and went rigid, his eyes wide open and staring up into the light unnaturally. Jacob will tell you that during this time his mind was racing through a picture flip-book of memories and he was desperately trying to focus on one. What a wild ride it must have been! In my mind, I knew Jacob was having a seizure, and I was grateful for knowing that (thank you Diamond Peaks Ski Patrol OEC training), and for knowing that he would wake up, and that it was not something even crazier. That being said, when all the color drained from him and his eyes turned yellow, I was tempted into being scared for the love of my life, and knew I would need more help.

J went from totally rigid to a sack of potatoes and crumpled forward, unconscious. I tried to unfold him and get him to lay down, but could not move him from his propped up position. At this point I knew I would have to leave him and go for the phone, which was back at our Airstream. I leaned Jacob's head against the nearby post and sprinted for the phone and called 911. By the time I made it back and was on the phone with the dispatcher, J had woken up and was telling me he was ok, although he was still crumpled over! On-call medics Ryan and Steve from San Juan EMS arrived very quickly and had J lie down and hooked him up to all kinds of machines to begin monitoring his breathing, heart rate, etc. They were so thorough and caring and were in no hurry to throw him in an ambulance, which we both appreciated. After reviewing the day, we all determined that J was pretty dehydrated - somehow we had just missed drinking water that day, and the shock of the finger injury just put things over the edge. J was pretty whooped, and with the help of both medics, eventually made it back to our awesome sofa in our trailer. We were both happy to find out that paramedic Ryan is doing a Sprinter van conversion and therefore did not find our living situation entirely ridiculous - I believe he even said our trailer was "rad!" Once the medics were sure he was stable, they signed him off and left. At which point, I decided to lose my cool completely and had an emotional breakdown. 

Thank you Morgan, Sox, and Andrew for coming up and solving this problem :) We are so lucky to have friends that won't hesitate to show up at a moments notice, and bring movies, oreos, ice cream, hard cider (for me only!) and laughter. It took several hours before J could get off that sofa - his body was definitely out of whack.

J rehydrating and reading his heart print-outs!

Now, we try to keep this blog clean, but that is in fact Jacob's nipple. Sorry 'bout that! Here's tired J with all his sticky hook-up pads from the heart rate monitor, and his bandaged finger. He said he didn't even want the EMT's to deal with his finger, so he made me do it after they left. I covered his eyes with Finn the stuffed whale while I did it :)

Sunday was a day of rest and recovery. J still did not feel anywhere near 100%. Fortunately our teas from Ray at Back of Beyond Farm had just arrived, and J was on to the Easy Tea - steeped fir tip and wild bergamot.

We went to the beach with Morgan to relax too. J napped (and drank lots of water!) and we had girl time.

By Monday, it was back to work and J finally woke up saying he felt "excellent" which I was exceedingly grateful for, because my cooking repertoire was already nearing the end of its menu :) And last night, after he went on "the best" 2-hr mountain bike ride, he was back installing our cabinet faces.

And wow do they look awesome! All the handles, hinges and hardware were salvaged from the original interior of our Airstream, as well as the dark wood. The lighter wood is the new stuff. 

Double-doors under the sink - yay!

And that, is the story of our cabinets.

Thank you San Juan EMS for your quick response - we couldn't have asked for a better team to come up and help us out!

Before & After

Nothing like a cloudy day to make me appreciate my cozy space and the realization that we did it all! All that's missing is a tiny wood stove, which is definitely on our minds if we're going to stay in the Airstream this winter. In the meantime, taking a small trip down memory lane...

Here's the inside of Blue Moon when we got her in September 2012. The white paint on the walls was peeling, the carpet was mushy and the wood was rotten. There were wasps and mouse hotels everywhere! We were over-the-moon-excited about our little trailer project. We figured with enough "love" we could make her homey again. 

Turns out it took more than just love. We also put in a lot of hard work and some fightin' words! I particularly like this picture because we were really in deep then. You'll find a lot of gutted vintage Airstreams on Craigslist that people got to about this point and gave up. I can definitely empathize with them. While both J and I can honestly say that giving up never crossed our minds (and I'm so grateful for that), we definitely learned to just go ahead and put our foot in our mouth any time either one of us said "Oh, I don't think that part will be too hard."

And fast forward to today - here we are, in Blue Moon the Airstream :) While we've still got some things to finish up, like the rest of the cabinet faces, a real floor to go over our plywood, and some light fixtures, our little home looks pretty sweet if I do say so myself! My mom will be happy to know that Berry the bear is happily enjoying the trailer life with us (his future home was up in the air due to his size). He has taken the place of the composting toilet (only in the location sense!), which has been moved outside for the summer. Now when you go out there, it's like a luxurious bathroom-in-the woods experience. Seriously - i was just *sitting there* the other day and a fox and a deer just meandered by... more on that later.

Anyway - trip down memory lane is complete! 

Canning Summer's Fruit

I am lucky to live near the fruitful Skagit Valley and a group of folks here did a bulk buy of local blueberries and we each got a 10 lb. box delivered to the island! I had been planning for the arrival of my berries for several weeks and looking up recipes for canning them into syrup. J and I love pancakes, waffles, french toast...all things that require delicious fruit and syrup to go on top. All of the syrup recipes I was finding involved straining out the fruit so you were just left with the syrup at the end (read: throw the fruit away) and I really wanted to eat the fruit too, so I was excited when I found this recipe for a low-sugar berry syrup and topping. J was still guiding a trip, so Morgan and Andrew came up to Blue Moon for a night of canning excitement. We had a blast! It might also have something to do with the fact that we watched Dirty Dancing too (that was a first for Andrew).

So how does one can in an Airstream? Well, due to limited stove space, we realized we needed two stoves. So we fired up the coleman two-burner outside and cooked the blueberry glop out there while the canner got hot on the inside stove. Everything worked out surprisingly well - I couldn't have done it without these two!

My accomplices: Morgan - first-time canner, and Andrew: expert canner extraordinaire = supervisor. 

Three butts in the Airstream kitchen (you can't see Andrew's, he is the photographer).

Now Morgan, when I take this lid off it's gonna get real steamy in here - you ready?

Wahoo, we're canning!

Morgan fills up the jars!

Relaxing while the jars process (wine, Dirty Dancing, Patrick Swayze discussion ensues...)

Look at those beauties!

In a sly move, J returned home from guiding the following day, just in time to taste the product (he approved). He did make me pancakes though so I can't really complain :)

The morning after: what a mess! But all worth it for 10 deliciously full jars of blueberry goodness.