Hi, all! Thanks so much for stopping by.
It is very cold right now (what I consider very cold, here, anyway). My fingers are just too cold to type, so this will be short until at least Monday. As some of you know, it is nearly impossible to get any time on here on the weekends since the Ogre is home almost all of the weekends.
It was a very cold night last night in the tent! The kerosene heater was on and burning bright (I can only afford to run it on low), but it just wasn't cutting the cold last night. I have discovered that when it is really cold, when you need that heater the most, the fuel gets cold and it just doesn't burn worth a darn. It helped, but it was never warm. Me and the doggies, although piled high with blankets and snuggled up together, shivered all night. When I got up this morning, my water bottle that I keep about a foot and a half from where I sleep (2-liter pop bottle filled with water) was frozen so solid that I could not get a drink out of it. The weather forecaster had predicted a low of about 25 degrees C. but it ended up actually going down to 14! Brrr...... we survived, though.
T L Ogre is being overly nice and sweet right now, acting like the "Mr. Wilson" next door, even offered me a cup of hot coffee last night (no, I didn't take it). Don't know what is up with that, but at least it is less stressful at the moment. The tone does feel very belittling, like "You poor little waif" but at least he isn't violently raging for the moment. I think "Cowboy" is the one present right now.
I had a very hard emotional day yesterday. I spent most of the day reflecting and crying. That makes me so mad at myself. He just isn't worth the tears, but somehow, I just couldn't get that fountain of water to stop yesterday, so many emotions I am feeling right now, so much hurt and betrayal. Maybe it is all part of the process, I don't know, but I don't want to cry over him. He isn't worth feeling this sick the next day, nor the wasted time of the water works. I think part of it all is the sadness of the death of all of our plans for our future, a life I had so looked forward to and was enjoying the beginning of it with him, that I now know was just 'talk' on his part, that he never intended to follow through with any of it. On that end, I feel like a fool!
All of the dogs and I got up in the tent this morning with pink, irritated eyes. The weather conditions were just right for all that burnt tire gunk to really spread around in the air and find its way into our eyes. I have to wonder what our sinuses and lungs look like today. I don't think I do want to know. I have a sore throat, too, that started yesterday. I finally took some cold medicine today, and will watch to see if the dogs need some, too.
I am hoping (and planning on) today will be a better day. I will have to spend a good part of the day trying to keep the animals warm (I so look forward to someday building a barn for them all!), but the rest of it, I think I will spend hugged up next to that heater with some kind of hand work, as long as my injured hand will allow, then some writing.
NOW, a question for my readers . . . . does anyone know of a legal and safe way to move an old, vintage travel trailer (still pulls fine) about an hour to an hour and a half away, when it no longer has a title and hasn't been tagged in nearly 20 years? I desperately need to take this 32' travel trailer with me where ever I go, to spruce up a bit and live in it. All of your input, suggestions and feed back on this would be greatly appreciated!
See you next week. Have a safe and pleasant weekend.
Signed - Betty Sue
Showing posts with label living in a tent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label living in a tent. Show all posts
Friday, January 27, 2017
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Living In a Burnt Tire Lot
When I moved here, one of the things we moved was my 10x20 steel building with lofts. We could not find anyone to move it so we disassembled it for the move. It needed a couple of repairs, then reassembled into our tiny house.
It was the cold of Winter when I officially moved here, and time and weather did not allow to get that all done right off. We had been gifted one of those Portable Garages (Garage-in-a-Box) that came from Harbor Freight. Before I arrived, T L set it up here on his property for us to live in until our Tiny House could be assembled.
There was so much to set back up (farm and business related) all at once and it had turned really cold. We mutually decided and agreed to put the "tent" up in the dogs' big yard so that we didn't have to try to erect and heat several buildings, just one while we worked on getting our house up, then the dogs could have the tent for their own.
Well, that line of thinking was good in principle, but it didn't work that way. I know there have been a lot of questions on this subject and I will answer them all as soon as i can. Today, though, I am going to try to stick to burnt tires.
Here we are, over a year later, still in the same tent, the "house" still in pieces. The only difference is that now it is just me and the dogs in their tent. Right at that one year mark, T L Ogre bailed on us. Temporarily sharing our "tent" in the dogs' space wouldn't have been too bad of an idea, except that what he fenced in for the dogs' yard was an old junk yard! I have never cleaned up so much trash, car parts and bits and pieces of old metal and wire in my life! Even worse than that, though, is that right in the center of that old junk yard is a huge area where old tires had been burnt a few decades back! It covers an huge area inside this yard and that is right where T L Ogre centered our tent!
The Ogre centered it right over the thickest part of the burnt tire yard! I don't know how many tires had been burnt here, but it had to be a mountain of them, judging by what the soil still looks like over 30 years later. T L Ogre didn't own it yet, then, but it was still in the family and T L knew it was here. (Family property that kept getting passed from one member to the other.)
There is no getting rid of this black gunk! It seems to actually get worse the longer I am living in it. It glues itself to everything it touches. The dust is even a black goo. The tent doesn't have a floor, so everything inside of it is gooey black. No matter how much you scrub or dust, it is right back in minutes. Initially, I tried spreading straw around on the floor. I just ended up with black straw while the dust never slowed down. There is no escaping this horrid, nasty, black, gooey, burnt tire dust!
I have been battling this stuff for over a year and it seems to just grow like slime. I go to bed with clean hands and wake up with black hands. It clings to the dogs' fur and glues my hair together. I have lost a lot of my hair to this nasty black stuff! I am now beginning to break out in strange rashes from it. It appears to be dryhing out my skin like nothing I have ever seen and greatly accelerating my wrinkles. My snot is black (and I am sure so are my lungs), what I could up is black, the morning "sleep" in the corners of my eyes is black, many times I pee black and I have a constant tire taste in my mouth. Any time I ever complained, TL just glared. He didn't see anything wrong with it. (It's just dirt.) This can't pissibly be healthy for me or the dogs. I have no doubt but that this burnt tire gunk is contributing to my chronic cough. Even my clothes turn black shortly after I have put them on. Sometimes even before I get them on.
When I finally get to move out of this nasty burnt tire lot, my skin will be a true test and challenge for the skin creams and soaps I have been creating over the years. To get it out of the inside of my body will be a whole other challenge I have no idea for, no clue how to accomplish that.
Thanks for stopping by!
Signed - Betty Sue
It was the cold of Winter when I officially moved here, and time and weather did not allow to get that all done right off. We had been gifted one of those Portable Garages (Garage-in-a-Box) that came from Harbor Freight. Before I arrived, T L set it up here on his property for us to live in until our Tiny House could be assembled.
There was so much to set back up (farm and business related) all at once and it had turned really cold. We mutually decided and agreed to put the "tent" up in the dogs' big yard so that we didn't have to try to erect and heat several buildings, just one while we worked on getting our house up, then the dogs could have the tent for their own.
Well, that line of thinking was good in principle, but it didn't work that way. I know there have been a lot of questions on this subject and I will answer them all as soon as i can. Today, though, I am going to try to stick to burnt tires.
Here we are, over a year later, still in the same tent, the "house" still in pieces. The only difference is that now it is just me and the dogs in their tent. Right at that one year mark, T L Ogre bailed on us. Temporarily sharing our "tent" in the dogs' space wouldn't have been too bad of an idea, except that what he fenced in for the dogs' yard was an old junk yard! I have never cleaned up so much trash, car parts and bits and pieces of old metal and wire in my life! Even worse than that, though, is that right in the center of that old junk yard is a huge area where old tires had been burnt a few decades back! It covers an huge area inside this yard and that is right where T L Ogre centered our tent!
The Ogre centered it right over the thickest part of the burnt tire yard! I don't know how many tires had been burnt here, but it had to be a mountain of them, judging by what the soil still looks like over 30 years later. T L Ogre didn't own it yet, then, but it was still in the family and T L knew it was here. (Family property that kept getting passed from one member to the other.)
There is no getting rid of this black gunk! It seems to actually get worse the longer I am living in it. It glues itself to everything it touches. The dust is even a black goo. The tent doesn't have a floor, so everything inside of it is gooey black. No matter how much you scrub or dust, it is right back in minutes. Initially, I tried spreading straw around on the floor. I just ended up with black straw while the dust never slowed down. There is no escaping this horrid, nasty, black, gooey, burnt tire dust!
I have been battling this stuff for over a year and it seems to just grow like slime. I go to bed with clean hands and wake up with black hands. It clings to the dogs' fur and glues my hair together. I have lost a lot of my hair to this nasty black stuff! I am now beginning to break out in strange rashes from it. It appears to be dryhing out my skin like nothing I have ever seen and greatly accelerating my wrinkles. My snot is black (and I am sure so are my lungs), what I could up is black, the morning "sleep" in the corners of my eyes is black, many times I pee black and I have a constant tire taste in my mouth. Any time I ever complained, TL just glared. He didn't see anything wrong with it. (It's just dirt.) This can't pissibly be healthy for me or the dogs. I have no doubt but that this burnt tire gunk is contributing to my chronic cough. Even my clothes turn black shortly after I have put them on. Sometimes even before I get them on.
When I finally get to move out of this nasty burnt tire lot, my skin will be a true test and challenge for the skin creams and soaps I have been creating over the years. To get it out of the inside of my body will be a whole other challenge I have no idea for, no clue how to accomplish that.
Thanks for stopping by!
Signed - Betty Sue
Friday, January 6, 2017
Dealing With This Cold Spell - Be Back Shortly
We are having a hard cold spell for a few days (snow included). It is taking all my time to try and keep me and all of the critters warm. T L Ogre will no longer help me with bedding down any of the critters for the cold spell, so it is all on me, now. My heart doesn't like the cold, anyway, but with the added stress, it is making it harder. I have to take warm-up breaks in between bedding down each few animals, and I can only heat up 2 bricks at a time on the kerosene heater. This may take hours tonight, since it is going down to single digits, with a very low wind chill.
I will be back asap with more of what is going on. I will keep writing by the heater, ready to post when I can. (no heat where the computer works) In the mean time, we have a possibility of a piece of property. Need to find out some more info and go look at it, then figure out how to pay for it. Keep this in your prayers and positive thoughts, please.
Thank you for stopping in and for you wonderful support.
Signed - Betty Sue
I will be back asap with more of what is going on. I will keep writing by the heater, ready to post when I can. (no heat where the computer works) In the mean time, we have a possibility of a piece of property. Need to find out some more info and go look at it, then figure out how to pay for it. Keep this in your prayers and positive thoughts, please.
Thank you for stopping in and for you wonderful support.
Signed - Betty Sue
Friday, December 30, 2016
How We Heat our Tent
Over the past year, several of you have asked how we heat our tent, don't you get cold, are you warm enough, why don't you use a wood stove, doesn't all that kerosene get expensive? and many more questions about our heat source.
YES, all that kerosene gets expensive! And YES we do get cold! Sometimes I get so cold that I shiver so hard my heart flip flops. We can't even begin to afford enough kerosene (nor the person that is buying it for us) to keep warm. We have to conserve it. If it is 30 to 35°F or above, I don't get to use heat. We just bundle up with blankets and I put bottles filled with hot water in the dog beds and in mine - heated bricks on the exceptional cold nights. I am definitely learning survival techniques! The kerosene heater does make the center of the tent warm, and takes the hard chill out of the outer edges of the tent, where we sleep.
There is a way we could have wood heat, unlimited, and be very comfortably warm as much as we want. But T L Ogre won't do it. I have explained this in the video below. One thing I forgot to add to the video was that, besides having acres upon acres, here, of firewood, we also have permission to go into a closed down pallet company and take all the pallet wood we want. Lots of it is cut into short pieces, ready to toss into a wood stove. Much of it is also 4x4 hard wood that would burn for a long time..... no trapsing around all over the acreage to hunt and cut firewood, just drive in, load wood, and leave. It also helps them clear out their lot. But no, can't do that, either.
I am VERY cold natured, T L Ogre is VERY hot natured. This is just another control tool for him that he very much enjoys inflicting on me. I will survive it, I will learn from it, I will escape this madness (with all of my fur and farm babies), and we will be warm and toasty in the winter from now on, some way!
Thanks for stopping by. Thanks for your support. Have a wonderful day. And remember, if you have never been in similar shoes, you could not possibly fully understand what I am feeling now how strong my feelings are, so please, don't judge.
Signed - Betty Sue
YES, all that kerosene gets expensive! And YES we do get cold! Sometimes I get so cold that I shiver so hard my heart flip flops. We can't even begin to afford enough kerosene (nor the person that is buying it for us) to keep warm. We have to conserve it. If it is 30 to 35°F or above, I don't get to use heat. We just bundle up with blankets and I put bottles filled with hot water in the dog beds and in mine - heated bricks on the exceptional cold nights. I am definitely learning survival techniques! The kerosene heater does make the center of the tent warm, and takes the hard chill out of the outer edges of the tent, where we sleep.
There is a way we could have wood heat, unlimited, and be very comfortably warm as much as we want. But T L Ogre won't do it. I have explained this in the video below. One thing I forgot to add to the video was that, besides having acres upon acres, here, of firewood, we also have permission to go into a closed down pallet company and take all the pallet wood we want. Lots of it is cut into short pieces, ready to toss into a wood stove. Much of it is also 4x4 hard wood that would burn for a long time..... no trapsing around all over the acreage to hunt and cut firewood, just drive in, load wood, and leave. It also helps them clear out their lot. But no, can't do that, either.
I am VERY cold natured, T L Ogre is VERY hot natured. This is just another control tool for him that he very much enjoys inflicting on me. I will survive it, I will learn from it, I will escape this madness (with all of my fur and farm babies), and we will be warm and toasty in the winter from now on, some way!
Thanks for stopping by. Thanks for your support. Have a wonderful day. And remember, if you have never been in similar shoes, you could not possibly fully understand what I am feeling now how strong my feelings are, so please, don't judge.
Signed - Betty Sue
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