Time to put up or shut up... or same ol' song and dance?

     First, I would like to insert a link to a great little story that I find most inspiring. Hopefully it will work.    http://tinyhouseblog.com/?p=30654 . (Kent, if you would prefer that I not include this link to your most excellent blog, just give me a holler and I will remove it.)
     And so, like usual I have slacked off in regards to maintaining and writing this blog, as well as a number of other things, but here goes again. Also as usual I am beginning to get that old traveling bug. Am I unsatisfied with my current situation, do I have  deeply held nomadic tendencies, am I bored, stressed, curious??? It could be none of these or as I have come to realize, a bit of all of these.
     I have this nagging feeling that come summer I will not be able to stop myself from hitting the road. Where will I go? What will I do to make a living? Why will I do this and How will I accomplish it when or if I do? I have absolutely no idea, and that leaves me just a bit stressed out at the end of the day.
     For those of you that still follow this blog, my itty bitty tiny trailer is un-habitable. The moisture/mold damage is just too great, and I still have some design issues. Sadly I will chop it up and humanely dispose of it. The utility trailer it sits upon I now believe I will sell. In its place I will attempt to follow the example of the attached link and look for an enclosed utility trailer to turn into an improvised homemade Stealth RV. I really like this concept. It should be relatively inexpensive and if done right it should be fairly easy to restore back into a utility trailer should I wish to sell at a later date. And perhaps most importantly, from the outside it looks like any other work trailer. Hence the Stealth label. This should allow for mostly un harassable camping.
     Well, once again you have wasted at least five minutes of your life reading my pathetic excuse for a blog. Now that I have a little bit better idea of what is to come, I will try really hard to keep up with the posts. I also have a new camera, so I will add some photos as this whole thing progresses. Ok, now get back to work!   :)

DECISIONS & DECLARATIONS, or Whats going on...

     A new post for a new year. Yes it has been quite some time since my last post. Apologies all around, I just didn't want this forum to degrade into nothing more than a hodge-podge of mindless Facebook postings. I am still out there working to place my self into a situation more congruent to building my tiny house and living a more debt free and sustainable life style. I'd like to say I was kept busy writing the aforementioned novel from my previous post but I've just been working too much... and I am a self proclaimed lazy as sin procrastinator of epic proportions.
     I have given much thought and contemplation to my present situation and what is in store for my future. After waffling around the subject for months I have decided to build a vardo style trailer. Not only do I not have nor will I have the resources to build a larger Tumbleweed style home in the near future, I also do not presently have the required skills. That is in fact my ultimate goal, however I would like to get busy with my build as soon as possible. I also think building a smaller more affordable trailer will be good practice as opposed to simply jumping into a larger far more complicated endeavor. You see, just in case you haven't read my earlier posts, I did not build my first itty-bitty house. I designed it as best I could at the time and even though I have done a bit of wood working I didn't feel comfortable at the time building it by myself. And so with all that said, I think this build will let me work on my home building skills on a micro level. I also like the added security of knowing if I had to live on the road at a moments notice that I will have a place to stay.
     Rapping things up let me explain very briefly what I would like to accomplish. The original Itty-Bitty had some short comings. Probably the main flaw was lack of ventilation. Moisture/mildew issues are what ultimately doomed my first little trailer. I thought about taring it down to the frame but that brings up my second issue. I would like to add a few inches to the width so that I can fit a bed width wise in to the back. I would also like to increase the head room a few inches by perhaps arching the roof vardo style. I am not sure if this will all be too much for the little cargo trailer stability wise. Since I have the trailer and their is nothing wrong with it I plan to make use of it. The original incarnation was fine traveling down the highways and byways as long as I kept the speed to about sixty. At around seventy Itty Bitty would start fish tailing so badly I thought for sure I was a goner.
     These are a few of the questions I need to answer by this summer when I plan to start construction. For those that would like a glimpse of what I am aiming for, check out Paleotools wicked awesome vardo trailer. There is a link on this blog for those that are interested. If my little project comes out half as well as his I will be most pleased.  And so until I get a bit closer to the big day and/or have some more thoughts I will let you all go, and I will attempt to find my camera by then as well.
     Peace Out.

Brief Update...

     Just wanted to make a brief update for anybody that's still following my shenanigans. I didn't have a whole lot to report for quite a while. I finally found a second job a couple months ago. I'm working two jobs about six days a week from dawn until well after dark and essentially have no life other than work. But with the present state of the economy I am grateful to have anything at all. And I am making progress. I've caught up on expenses, bought new tires for the truck and if I can keep this pace up I could be out of debt in a year or two. Then I will be at long last in a position to save and build my new Tiny House! This gives me about three to four years to continue planning just what I will be building and how I will go about this.
     And so until next time, I will be scouring the Tiny House Blog and other places on the net for inspiration for the aforementioned tiny house. I'll also be giving the National Novel Writing Month a try next month. Anyone is invited to give it a go at nanowrimo.com. Should be interesting to say the least. That's all for now, see y'all in a month or two or three...nanowrimo.com         

Beating a Dead Horse, continued...

     I just wanted to finish up some trains of thought from my last post. I'll be brief and hopefully the next post that I am working on at present will be a bit longer and a bit more in depth, answering a number of questions relating to my theories of living in a house on wheels or leaving a smaller footprint in the world in which we live.
     Do I like how I am presently living? Did I make the right decision to down size and live in an RV? For the most part. Only time will tell if I did in fact make the right choice. At the time I needed to make a decision rather quickly and my choice's were living with room mates or looking for an apartment. I felt I needed a brake from living with others for a while and there was no way I could afford an apartment of my own. Now I have privacy at an affordable price living in the forest with deer walking by my door within a fairly close commute to the city.
     Would I like to move and will I go nuts if I don't? Hmmm... well, I think I'm about as sane as anybody else for what that's worth. I will say I do go a bit stir crazy when I've been cooped up out of the rain for days or weeks on end. But I think that would probably happen in an apartment or house just as easily. When that happens I go forth and look for something out side of my little world to occupy my self with. Maybe I should break down and buy a TV... I'll have to think on that one. I think if I am able to build a tiny house custom made to my specifications I would like living where I am a whole lot more than I do. If I can figure out a way to increase my income I would like where I am a whole lot more. So it's not necessarily where I am but my particular circumstances that may need to change. If I were to move I would probably get rid of the trailer and look for a cap/canopy for my pickup truck and embark on a mega road trip to see more of this great big country of ours. This does appeal to me quite a lot. I do get the urge to go a wandering from time to time. Where would I go and what would I do when I get there? Don't know. It would certainly be a whole lot easier if I could make it work right where I am, but as I said before... Only time will tell.

Beating a dead horse?

     That's right. I am back at it, writing this tiny house blog (the aforementioned dead horse). Should I keep on keeping on or just let it simply vanish into obscurity? Hell, I've got nothing better to do. I think the focus will have to shift until I am able to build an actual tiny house. I suppose I could switch to writing fiction, however there are times this blog/ my life seems like fiction and poorly written pulp at that. But damn it I just can't let it go... so, here goes.
     I think future posts will be on the subject of living smaller. I am living in an RV after all. I obviously didn't build it but it is definitely small and for better or worse is my home. Do I like it? Did I make the right decision? Do I want to move? Do I think I'll go all Ted Kaczynsky (ahem...you know, crazy living in a small space)? What will I do if I do move? Where would I go? What would I do? These are the questions I will attempt to answer in up coming posts. I believe this has the potential to help others out there that are trying to answer the same questions for them selves as they try to make the mortgage payment, pay their taxes, keep sane in a positively crazy and kooky world. Anybody out there that would like to chime in in the process, well have at it. Lets all try to be productive adults and make this wacky world a better place.
     Until the next time, Peace Out.

Tiny Travels: the continuing story or yup, still here...

Well then, long time no see. It's almost Thanksgiving and I am sitting here in the latest incarnation of the Itty Bitty House listening to Scarlet Begonias (alas not the Grateful Dead version) wondering just what it is that I am doing. Anticipating a looming eviction and still wanting to preserve my independence, I hurriedly snatched up a 19 ft. travel trailer on the cheap. Perhaps not cheap enough after spending a few months repairing its various ailments. But what's done is done. Let me first say that I do believe this may be my last post to Tiny Travels. There really isn't anything else I can add to the topic of living small. At least not for  quite some time. My original tiny house in the extreme is parked next to my RV. It served me well for over a year and although not habitable at the moment it is not sitting in vain. I has become my own private storage locker for all the junk I have yet to purge from my life. I do hope to whittle down the lifetime of accumulation that fills its innards by Spring and then maybe sell or give away the tiny house. It still has a good solid frame if anybody has the gumption to want to brake it down. As far as the RV goes, I will most likely attempt to sell it as well. At least once I can find some place else I can afford to rent. And so what did I get out of this wild and wacky experiment other than cheap accommodations and perhaps exposure to toxic mold? I learned I can make do with less, much less. All those treasures and trinkets that we know without a shadow of a doubt that we must have to not only be happy but to survive are not the end all be all to living a happy productive life. I know I don't need to live in a mc-mansion to be happy nor would I want to. The question is, what will make me happy? Could I make do in say a brand new state of the art Airstream? Well duh! of course. But do I want or have that kind of cash? Hell No. But yes, I now know that I could do it. My present 19' trailer is maybe just a little too small. It's fine for a weekend get away but for full timing? No. But thats just my opinion, someone else might find it just dandy. I do however believe that something along the lines of a "Tumbleweed Tiny House" would work out just fine, with it's quality craftsmanship and a well thought out design. Utilizing every square inch to its utmost. I do believe the only thing in question would be where to park it. Do I continue to rent space or buy some land and then deal with all the subsequent zoning issues? Then there is always the option of simply buying or building a permanent structure that is still small but meets all building codes. I think as long as it is under 500 sq. ft. I would be satisfied. But as I said, that will take time. Quite a lot of it. For now, I do believe I am done being, as some have told me to my face, "Trailer Trash", (for now). At least I'm not "living in a van down by the river"  :)
     And so for now, Peace Out. Maybe I'll be back in a few years with news of a new Tiny House or perhaps a new blog altogether. Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

NEW & EXCITING IN THE LAND OF TINY TRAVELS...

So, here we are in the dog days of summer. Although for July its not that bad. Not a lot going on here in the great north west, but I wanted to give a brief update as to what Ive been up to. I recently traded in my tiny truck in favor of a larger one that would be more capable of towing a somewhat larger trailer. Its not huge, just a 1500 series chevy. Not new either, I got a pretty good deal and should get it paid off in the forseable future. Now I am searching for a lightly used smallish travel trailer. I hope to make this my new home until I can pay off a few bills and save up for a piece of land on which to build a proper "tiny house". In the mean time, I will be selling the current tiny house as soon as I find its replacement. And considering its condition, I just might give it away ( the camper part, the trailer is in good shape, so I will want a bit of cash for that). That is about all I have to say for the moment. I'll post some pictures as soon as I have something to post. Until then, have a great Summer, and enjoy the sun while we have it!