I have a crafting space, and progress.

This is the old unit.  Ugh. 

​I took one horribly hot day off, then put the rest of the "furniture" in place in the new unit. I have what used to be a large camp kitchen. It no longer goes to my Rendezvous camp, but it has shelves, drawers, and a drop-down work surface. It gets to stay. Also moved to the new space is a desk box, which was custom-made for me by a woodworker friend who is no longer with us back when I had my travel trailer. It is heavy, and it's waiting for help to be lifted onto the bookcase boxes it will sit on.

​Next, I moved Craft Supplies. That was relatively easy because they mostly stay, in keeping with the purpose of setting up a crafting space. I designated two shelf units for supplies and filled them. Anything else that comes in means something else has to leave. I am certain that I will be able to get rid of some individual fabric and yarn, but I cannot take the time to sort down to that level right now.

​Why so much? I sew. I knit, crochet, and attempt to spin. I work with leather. I do beadwork, pine needle basketry, and cartonnage. I dabble in dot painting. And I still have porcupine quills because even if I decided I really wouldn't do any more of that, Goodwill wouldn't know what to do with them.

​I'm excited to finally be about to have space to actually use this stuff. And yes, some stuff did go in the "go away" pile.

​The other major category was clothing. I found four tightly packed bins of aspirational (aka too small) clothing—stuff I used to fit in and stuff I used to really like, because I have sorted before and this is the cream of the crop. Still, I binned up enough to go away that now I have two loosely packed bins left, and I'll make another pass through those before I recruit help getting them to the top shelf.

​Does anyone remember Gunne Sax dresses? They were so beautiful! I have one I used to wear every chance I got, about 40 lbs ago.

​I did save my china—it's one small tote, just the few pieces I saved from my great-grandmother's extensive set, which I used daily in RVs but not in my current rig. Because someday when I can't drive anymore, or if I have an RV again, I will definitely use them. The corner where the shelves come together is the perfect place for long-term storage of the few things being held for possible future use.

Progress IS being made.

And So It Begins.

 I received the lock and key to my new storage unit and went to Sam’s Club to pick up the shelves I had ordered: four stands of five shelves each, four feet wide. I probably should have borrowed a friend’s pickup truck. It would have been much easier than carrying the shelving in the cargo basket behind my van. Luckily, they did actually fit—just barely—standing on end, and I am well supplied with ratchet straps.

I opened the new storage unit and unloaded my cargo of shelving. Last year, I helped a friend assemble identical shelving in her basement, so the process was easy and familiar, but it still took quite a while because it was extremely hot and I moved appropriately slowly.

Plans are, of course, an invitation to the Universe to mess with you. When I had set up the first stand, I discovered that my Sterilite totes are an inch too tall to fit on any but the very top shelves. That was disappointing. However, I am perfectly willing to have my supplies in smaller containers that are easier to lift. I just wasn't wanting to spend yet more money!

I was about to start the fourth one when my friend came with my wire shelves from Walmart. (They’re for the van project, so they’ll sit there until next week.) He helped me assemble the fourth stand, so that went more quickly.

By then it was definitely time to call it a day.  A long hot productive one.  

A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss,

Okay, I have been running around living life rather than blogging about it, so I don't know if I have any readers left. Maybe I'll get some new ones. In any case, I'm reviving this blog for myself, in order to document a project I am starting formally, although it's been in progress since February. They say that a rolling stone gathers no moss, but I am living proof that that is bovine excrement. 

I have an extended van, a trailer, and a 10-by-20 storage unit. Since I am older than the internet and started reading long before the Kindle was invented, I don't mind having a storage unit. I do mind it being so full that I can't make good use of it.

So, this is a multi-faceted project which involves decluttering my van and remodeling it, decluttering my trailer and remodeling it, and clearing out a whole lot of stuff from the storage. I intend to do this all before I head south for the winter. A good bit of it has already been done—enough so that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I know the level of comfortable clutter that I'm aiming for. The various obstacles that have kept me from doing this in the past have apparently gotten out of the way, so let the games begin!

My intention is to post regularly my progress, my process, and some updates on what's already been done. If you think decluttering a house is difficult, try a camper van that travels to two different centuries. My longtime readers will know that I do 18th-century historical camping, which involves a whole lot of additional stuff."

Crystal River SP, and kayak in the water.

Note: I wrote this in 2021.  I thought I'd published everything but I had not, so here it is.  I have not looked at my blog in years, but I just did this evening and it was very cool to look back at the old posts.  I think I'll revive it.

It took 3 months and a trip to Florida to find kayak weather for the ORU's second swim.  But now that I'm in Florida, I should be able to get it in the water more often.

I meet up with some friends at the crystal springs archeological state park.  The museum is closed due to the pandemic, but we walked the paths, read the sign board, and climbed the steps up the tall mound by the river.

Then we went on down the road to the kayak launching spot.  My friend had to get on and do some other things, but they helped me remember how to set the kayak up, and then took pictures, before they left.  I had a nice paddle, folded the boat up and loaded it back in the van.

HOW TO AVOID EZ-UP CANOPY COLLAPSE!

Have you ever seen what happens when an EZ-UP style canopy is caught in heavy rain? 

I've owned one for several years, which I set up at flea markets or when I'm camping for a decent amount of time in one place.  I discovered right away that the scissors style frame does not allow water to just run off like it would on my 18th century dining fly.  The frame traps the water and it pools there, and you have to reach up with a broom or something and raise the cover up so the water pours off.  I would watch the weather app and if rain were possible I would take the cover off.  Therefore it was only good for shade, not as any sort of rain protection.

I have camped next to several EZ-UP DISASTERS.  One of my neighbors' canopy got caught in wind and rain and mangled badly.  He put it back up in front of his tent but it was lopsided and a lot shorter than it had been.

Another year the folks camped next to me had their canopy in front of the door of their trailer.  It rained heavily during the night, the canopy collapsed and blocked their door, trapping them inside.  It took them quite a while to get out.

When I parked at the end of March for a long term camp due to COVID, I set my canopy up next to my van. 

And it was only a matter of time, and one night an unexpected heavy rain fell while I was sleeping.  I was sure I had taken pictures of my mangled canopy, but apparently not.  Trust me, it was not salvageable.  The frame was bent in places and broken in places.  It still held a pool of water large and heavy enough that I had to cut the fabric to let it out and be able to clean up the mess.

(If you want to see what all that was like, this other blogger had a similar experience and did take pictures.

I hauled the frame to the dump, rolled up the cover, and ordered a new canopy.  When it arrived, I put the new cover aside, and set up the new frame with the old cover.  I wanted to test my theory.  When I took the canopy down 6 months later I knew my theory worked.

Here's the deal: 

Since the scissors frame holds the water in, I figured that if I put holes in the fabric where the water would pool, that would let it out, keep it from pooling, and keep it from collapsing the frame.  I did not want to put holes in my brand new canopy top, and the old one already had a big slice where I had let the water out the day it collapsed.  So I sliced holes in the other three sides and waited for the next rain to see what would happen.

IT WORKED!!!  Rain came, rain hit the canopy, rain ran out through the holes instead of pooling. 

The canopy withstood quite a few heavy downpours over the summer.  The water goes through the holes, and hits the ground right near where it would have if it would have drained off the roof properly.  Buckets placed there keep me from having to haul dishwater.

So when I do open up the new canopy, I plan to put grommets in the places where I put the slits in the old ones, so the holes will be neat and finished looking.  I was worried that my slits might tear, but that's good tough fabric and they didn't tear at all.

I got a KAYAK!

OK, COVID happened, I stayed in one place for 6 whole months, long enough that Gas Buddy asked if my card had been stolen.  My eighteenth century events were all cancelled, so I did home improvement (another post) and then unloaded my time traveling gear into storage.  My intention for now is to do a lot of woodswalking, bike riding, and every chance I get KAYAKING.

I got an ORU BEACH folding Kayak.  My VA daughter also has one, so we took them out for their first swim when I got to Virginia.

My kayak folds up into a box shape 13 x 30 x 33, which I can carry INSIDE my van.  It only weighs 26 pounds, and the case has backpack straps.  

It behaves very nicely in the water.  Although ORU makes more adventurous kayaks, mine is a flat water kayak - and I am a flat water kayaker.  I have no interest in careening down rapids; I like exploring soggy cypress groves and stuff like that.  

So stay tuned for kayak explorations.