My camp-host cousin solves the annoyance factor by baking cookies when she has to fire the generator up and then distributing warm cookies to her immediate neighbors. Wise woman.

Ha, that's a great way to make the noisy generator less of a problem!

We have enjoyed our little camper for 7 years without AC, generator, microwave, TV, or stereo. Likely we'll acquire all of these when we upsize, and I will undoubtedly look back and wonder how we managed otherwise. On the other hand, we currently can go anywhere a pickup can, which I know I will miss. There are always trade-offs. As with Anna, we plan to take more extensive winter trips, so creature comforts will become more important.

For years we just had a Corvair Greenbrier van. We laid the back seats down, and laid our sleeping bags on them. Had a camping module my husband made to keep our cooking things and a few groceries. We had a Coleman stove and lantern. We had a tent in case we wanted to use it, and a canopy to put up outdoors if it was too hot or too rainy. We camped that way with our kids for years.

I thought I died and went to Heaven when we got our travel trailer! Comfy bed, nice kitchen, and decent bath. The shower is a bit of a hoot. It's a very tiny tub with a curtain around it and a shower head. It's nothing you'd want to linger in, lol, but it works.

If we want to run around the boonies, we just unhitch and take our truck. We've been very happy with it, but don't use it enough. I could live in ours full time if I had a giant storage building for all of my "stuff".

I hear you on the 'stuff.' Part of our retirement plan is to get the house ready for sale, with no actual plan to sell it. That is a challenge in itself. We are taking it one room at a time - deep cleaning, remodeling if needed, sprucing up if not, and - most importantly - decluttering! Such a great feeling to get rid of...stuff. If the kids don't want it, out it goes. We are saving the barn for the final push, holy moly is that a rats nest.

This thread is a bit off topic, but I guess all farmers (and gardeners) need winter projects, so unless someone objects...

Great project. We are attempting to do the same, but it's a huge project and a lot of hard work. Our kids don't want much of what we have even though the stuff was expensive like fine china, silver, crystal, etc.

I know we will never be "full-timers"............if we can just go somewhere warm during the winter months, we will be fine. Summers here are good; it's just the Tundra Zone winter months that get us down.

I have no problem with this thread being about RVing and leaving coldl weather behind. Maybe I should start an RV-motor home thread in the Sandbox??? Whadda ya think? Might get a real lively discussion going.

Good idea, Anna. I think there are a lot of snow birds in the garden world. We are in a temperate climate, but still like to get away from all the gray and drizzle during winter. Might catch some good ideas from others. I'm especially interested as we transition from our tiny camper to whatever the next adventure might be. I'll keep my eye out for a new thread, or you could 'call' both Karen and I into your new thread. Start it off with photos of your beautiful beast!

A new year for us all. We have no animals at present. Our renter took everything home in early December. The Spousal Unit does not want any animals up at the other farm during the winter, so that was ok. We would have taken more here at home, but so far he has not brought us anything. Maybe when it gets a bit closer to spring he will. So, with no beasts to feed, the SU had to try and close the silo bags of feed back up. As long as it is cold, the spoilage will be practically nil, but once it starts to get above freezing, the feed will start to spoil some. Hopefully it will not come to that.

We've had some snow, and it got pretty cold and windy along with the snow when we were in Puerta Vallarta in December. Thankfully, it hasn't been too bad since we got home.

We have a milking job this coming Thursday night and Friday morning for the guy that has the double 8 parlor. We stay overnight there, as it's over 20 miles there and it saves us a trip. The owners don't mind; they prefer to have someone there at night..........."just in case". It works out for all of us.

The days are getting longer now.............why, it will be spring before we know it!

Hmmmm............guess nobody is alive here but me. Talking to myself is common, so I will keep on.

We've had ice here the last 2 days. No school again today. I am so glad I do not have to navigate the "incline" from the barn to the calf barn with pails of milk replacer. It would have taken copious amounts of barn lime on my path there in order for the pails AND me to have made it there in one piece. Ice like this would have been bad for getting cows back into the barn, so I imagine we wouldn't have let them out for their morning silage. Everything here was "uphill".

There is still snow, but lots of bare patches too. Forecast is for in the 40's by the weekend. I will take that.

Not much going on re: farming since we don't have animals here to care for at present. Our renter took his heifers we had here at home back the middle of November, and the 12 that were at our other farm a month ago. It was nice not to have anything here. The SU got his animal feeding fix in by going out every morning and feeding the 3 barn cats.

Our winter has been a weather rollercoaster: record high temperatures followed by record lows. Two weeks ago we had two nights in a row at 19 degrees - practically unheard of here. In spite of my cutting off the water to two parts of the farm and draining the pipes, three of the float valves on the water troughs froze and broke, so I was playing plumber. Our pastures were lush and green one day and burnt and brown the next. I hate freezing weather!

I cannot wait till we can get the RV out again and go "someplace" for a few days.

I follow the "farm" threads even though I'm about as far from farming as one can get (tiny lot in a manufactured home park).



Loved the story about "SU feeding the barn cats".

Anna I still check in about everyday to see if anyone has stop by, but don't have much to say these days. I still have a few rabbits in the rabbit barn. They will be gone in the spring as soon as they will sell. We haven't decided if the goats are going too. There all due to kid the end of this month and Feb.

Well, we don't have animals either, but those around us do. I'm sure we'll have some heifers that we'll feed for the neighbor again in the spring.

I read these farm threads also but I am hardly a farmer. Just like to read about it.

Rita, I'm the same way. All I have now is a dog, but we used to have chickens and horses. I miss them. I love hearing about all the farming you all do.

Same here. I hope to have horses one day and a few other days but gotta find a job that will allow it.

I hope you get them, Amanda. It is very expensive keeping horses. Hay has gone up so much, and there is shoeing, vet bills, tack to buy, lessons if you have kids, etc. We ended up showing them, so we had to have the horse trailer, truck and all the show gear. It was a lot of fun, but I'm glad we're through with all that.

I didn't find keeping horses to be all that expensive. We hayed locally (a lot of work), I trimmed their feet myself, and we rarely needed a vet. No lessons or showing, and thus way less tack needed. Three sided shed for shelter. I would have liked a trailer but we never had one so just rode locally. Like any pasttime, the cost can fluctuate greatly. I miss my gelding and the ponies but not my mare (she was a pill). We took down most of our fencing so no more livestock for us. Hope you are able to swing them if possible. Majestic animals, glad to have experienced them.