November 7, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

Working on The New Businesses and Volunteering

Well, if I was worried about being bored after leaving my job, this week certainly proved that would not be the case! The bulk of the week was spent finalizing numerous aspects of our businesses, culminating in Lee publishing his website for Open Road Video and our ordering business cards and signs. Lee’s videos are his resume, so it was a much larger venture pulling together everything he would need for the website. If you have been curious about his work, take a look. One of the things that has been difficult for us in all of our businesses is finding a way to communicate that we are a truly mobile workforce,without coming across as less professional in any way. It really adds a layer of difficulty to marketing our services as most people look for a company in the area the business is located. That is changing as people are more mobile, but the bias is still to hire locally. So we understand this could be an uphill climb, but we are hoping that between the three businesses, Open Road Video, Open Road RV Repair, and TSPerkins Consulting we will be able to make enough to cover our relatively low budget. I know we have a lot of support out there, so I would ask if you know of anyone who you think could benefit from our services, please pass our information along. Since you understand the lifestyle, you could explain that we are mobile workers, which is actually a benefit, because we can take our skill sets to where they are needed.

Along with working on the businesses I spent quite a bit of time on my blog this week. We are coming up on our one year full timing anniversary (!) and I wanted to do the milestone some justice. I ended up completing two posts, one strictly about the facts and figures, and another about the emotions. In addition, I will be adding a financial review at the end of the calendar year which will slice and dice our costs in detail. I also have been reviewing all of my recipes, adding small pictures on the page and removing the ones that at second glance I felt did not make the cut. This work is still in progress as I will need to remake some of the dishes to get better pictures for the site. Lee was pretty excited to hear that! I’ve also been trying out many new recipes, almost all of which Lee liked but I am so-so about. The dish has to be delicious and worth the effort to make my cut and I have pretty high standards. Lee’s been very happy to be my guinea pig though, and even if a recipe doesn’t hit a home run I am learning some new cooking techniques which has been a lot of fun. I will say that on occasion I have been missing having a dishwasher. New recipes often require extra pans on the first go round and my hands are getting a little “pruney” from all that washing. Yes, Lee does dishes, actually better than me, (Better than pretty much anyone. – Lee) but since I am often making a huge mess I feel I should at least clean up some of the cooking dishes. Oh, and I forgot to mention that they had a local library sale and for $25 I bought a HUGE box of cookbooks. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me as I had gone through all of my other ones. Although I am not generally a fan of cutting up books, storage is of course an issue, so I look at the recipes and cut out the ones I am interested in, and put them in a file folder. (I don’t think she should feel guilty. In almost every case, the cookbooks she’s going through are old, and have had a good long life, and probably been passed from person to person. She ends up getting them at garage sales, flea markets, and library sales. So she’s giving them their last big hurrah, and plus, they get to see the country before they’re slaughtered. – Lee) In general these recipes can’t be found online as they are often family recipes from non-profit fund raisers or local restaurants. I was thrilled that I saw so many different ones since I was in California and when I paid for them the librarian said how great it was to see someone so happy about books at the library. So when you are in an area, check out the local library and see if they are having a sale. Not only does the money go to a good cause, but these are some of the cheapest books you will ever find!

My awesome box of recipe books!!

The small file folder I put my recipes in

Along with all of that we also got to do something really rewarding. Each fall, Stan does senior tours of the Bizz Johnson trail and we both volunteered to help. Stan gets golf carts from the local city golf course and then works with two different nursing homes to take seniors on an 8 mile ride up the trail. We did this on Thursday and it was a great example of something I would not have been able to do if I was still working my corporate job. Although it was very chilly, it was a clear day and we took one group up the Bizz, and at Devil’s Corral we dropped them off and brought another group down. My first passenger, Inez, was a very sweet lady who was a fellow rock lover and my second passenger Jack seemed to enjoy all the beautiful color still on the trees. They were very bundled up and really seemed to enjoy themselves and I certainly enjoyed getting an opportunity to share nature with them. Lee’s first passenger was Ray, a 96 year old WWII Navy veteran who retired from being a principle at the local high school. His second passenger, Dave, was a chatty octogenarian who really kept Lee on his toes through the whole trip. We stopped at several places along the way and Stan talked about the history of the trail which was very informative and even though I was super cold by the time it was done I am so glad we went. I always wanted to volunteer more in my old life and I am so glad to have this experience be a part of my new one.

Dropping off the golf carts that the local golf course generously donated

Lee and Stan dropping the gate

Check out my guy !!

Here is Inez my first passenger getting out of the van. Loading and unloading these folks was no small task

Lee with 96 year old Ray who was still pretty sharp

Getting lined up and ready to go

And we are off

Everyone liked the many beaver dams we saw

Stan would stop at some places and give some history which Jack my second passenger really liked

Here’s me and Jack. As bundled up as I was it was still pretty cold on the return trip

Everyone really liked the tunnels

And the 8 wooden bridges that we went over

Stan sharing some history

So glad there was still so much color

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It was a very beautiful day and a lovely experience. When Jack, who had difficulty speaking because he had suffered a stroke, thanked me for driving him, it really touched me. Lee had a wonderful time as well and we were both so glad to be able to give back a little. Our time here at Susanville is coming to an end, and it really has been a great experience. Look for my yearly recap posts which should be coming out later this week and as always, thanks for reading!

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November 4, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

First Time at a Coffin Race

I know, weird title right? But it was more fun than it sounds. Susanville sponsors a “safe and sane” Halloween where they close off a large portion of their Main Street and little kids walk around to all of the downtown stores and get candy. In the middle of the street they have push cart races (no steering wheel allowed), which were quite entertaining to watch. It reminded me a bit of Keene’s pumpkin festival costume parade, although on a much smaller scale of course, and we really enjoyed it. Actually I have no complaints about the town at all. The people are pretty nice and I love the small town feel. This was the perfect first time work kamping assignment and on that note I did want to mention that Stan (our BLM coordinator) is looking for volunteers for next year. He is willing to break up the season if you want a shorter time commitment and you seriously cannot beat the full hookup site we have. So if you have an interest send me an email at camperchronicles@gmail.com and I will send you Stan’s contact information. That being said, here’s some pictures of the Susanville festival to give you a feel for the town.

I am a sucker for little kid costumes

The line stretched around both sides of the downtown for candy

Love the pigtails

They had a dog costume contest also

My absolute favorite dog costume…he was just “lion” around

A hot dog!! Who doesn’t love a good pun

Some adults got into the action as well

Lee’s favorite was the blind ref

Loved the Sherlock!!

This dog looked super!!

I am a big fan of homemade costumes

Very serious about the candy!!

One of my favorites. Future CEO. Oh yes I can be spider man but I am throwing in a tutu…awesome!!

This bloodhound was so creeepy. Amazing costume though

This bloodhound was so creeepy as a spider. Amazing costume though

A lion trying to eat a sucker

A lion taking a snooze

Best family costume was a circus family

And they had their little lion walk through the hoop for candy was adorable

There was a parade of the coffins first

My personal favorite for costume

The races started at one end of the street

Police and fire versus local Ag

Local track team was awesome. They ultimately won. Loved the costumes.

I loved how much fun the teens were having

Look how much fun the teens were having

NEver sen this before. Bulldozer for candy

Never sen this before. Bulldoze had candy in it, but the kids loved it

Someone is pooped out

Really nice event and a good way to support the downtown

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November 1, 2015 by Lee and Tracy

October 2015 Budget

We finally lived a month really focusing on controlling all of our spending and, Wow! We spent only $2893.59 which is $1,000 less than the best month we have had to date. We reduced spending in almost every category. For details on how we did it please see below.

Campground Fees – We are volunteer work kamping so no fees this month. We have a beautiful site and there is minimal work that needs done in the off season so it has been more than a fair bargain.

Groceries – We have struggled in this category but this month we put a new plan in place. (I would just like to point out that in the entire month, I didn’t buy a single pie. Clearly the overage is due to Tracy’s reckless purchasing of salad components. She’s the Ron Swanson of salad.-Lee) We have regular meal plans and have eliminated waste down to the minimum. Towards the end of the month we did struggle. Meat continues to be a problem as we don’t have a large freezer and are somewhat at the mercy of that week’s prices. What we are doing now is buying whatever meat is on sale and menu planning around it which takes some creativity on my part. We also just ate whatever was in the cupboards the last couple of days to avoid making a store run until the first of the month. I am in no way prepared to declare victory in this category, but it’s a huge step forward.

Dining Out – We went over because we celebrated my last day of work. We could have skipped those meals but in my mind certain things deserve a celebration.

Entertainment – Very happy with this category because we managed to do several things this month, yet didn’t spend a lot on them.

Cell Phones /Internet – This category has a new baseline with the minimum Verizon phone plan we bought. Since that will now be my work phone this may actually go up, but for now we are holding the line. This includes 80GB data (and we use every bit of it, every month), an AT&T phone, a Verizon phone with 1GB of data (mainly use the AT&T wireless), and an AT&T Ipad.

Home Improvement – Look at who is getting serious about the budget!! Lee spent $25 and that was on a new outlet in the kitchen. Major improvement!! (I wouldn’t even have had to do that, but it’s getting pretty cold at night, routinely down to the low 30’s. We have a space heater in the bedroom that’s plugged directly into the power pedestal, so it doesn’t go through the inverter, which doesn’t have enough amp pass through to handle it. There’s also a built in electric fireplace in the living room, which also bypasses the inverter. So we had a toasty bedroom, a toasty living room, and a freezing kitchen, which is exacerbated by the constant opening and closing of the outside door. So, I put in a dedicated outlet that bypasses the inverter, and the cost was for the outlet box, a new outlet (I don’t like to reuse old outlets) and a special thin saw to cut through the very thin wall veneer. I didn’t want to risk using something bigger and tearing the paneling. So now it’s toasty warm everywhere, and as long as we are on electric hookups, we won’t need to use our propane furnace. – Lee)

Cigarettes – We stocked up in Reno in anticipation of moving to the Redwoods and that is the cost of a 15 week supply of tobacco and tubes. For the year we have spent half of what we anticipated and that budget amount was $4300 less than we were spending while in a sticks and bricks. As usual, I know smoking is bad, but if you are on a budget and want to smoke, rolling your own is absolutely the way to go. (I know not many people smoke anymore, but if you do, seriously consider doing this. Before we hit the road, we were spending $130 a week, $6700 a year on smoking, which is a truly ridiculous price to kill yourself slowly. The same amount of tobacco and the tubes to stuff it in is $25 per week, or $1300, and it takes about 90 minutes a week to roll two cartons. That’s over 80% savings. And the machine is only $75. – Lee)

So there we are. In order to prove this is not an anomaly we need to see what happens over the next few months. It does prove it can be done though, at least short term, which is very comforting.

(I am currently hard at work preparing a truly epic “I told you so” speech. – Lee)

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Camper Chronicles

Travel Tales from Working Full Time RVers

Month: November 2015

Working on The New Businesses and Volunteering

First Time at a Coffin Race

October 2015 Budget