What About Our Stuff?

Moving into our fifth wheel has been a wonderful adventure and a necessary step towards reaching our goals (more on that later), but living in our little space is not without adjustments.  Fewer than I thought, some I hadn't considered.  (see previous post on Positive and Negative aspects of living in a RV.)   One thing I knew would be difficult was eliminating possessions.

Once John accepted the job here in Texas, I knew we'd be leaving, but I didn't know what kind of home we were going to find.  Would it be a house where we would move most of our belongings into?  Would it be a small apartment into which we would only be able to fit  a couch, our beds and a few other items?  Or, would it be an RV which comes furnished so we would only need to bring a few select items sentimental to our hearts and necessary for living?

I threw a yard sale in October to take advantage of the last of the good weather and clean out the most of our belongings in expectation of moving into an apartment.  I was happy to see some of the clutter go, but other things were much harder to part with: Furniture John had built, the cradle Zoey slept in the day after she was born, mountains of baby clothes (much of which I  passed on to friends), and other such items.  I sometimes had tears in my eyes seeing the mountain of possessions we had spent hours shopping for, and years admiring in its carefully chosen spot in our home - just drive away in the back of a rusty dodge pickup.  I kept a few select favorites for our new apartment, but our plans quickly changed and an apartment was no longer where we were going.

It's so hard to say good-bye :(

Midland was not hospitable to last minute movers and we had to find other housing, hence the RV.  Once we had the RV, I was to follow John down to Texas in a month.  I took the next month to try and sell a few more items on Craigslist as the cold Northern winter set in, but my heart wasn't in it.  I was finding it hard to part with the last of my things.  So after our funds ran dry for renovations so that I had nothing else to accomplish in Idaho for that time and Zoey and I couldn't bear to be away from John any longer, I left all my things locked up in my beautiful Idaho house wondering what I was still going to do with all our stuff.

Now having spent nearly four months away from our old house and all our stuff, I find that it doesn't mean so much anymore and frankly, I don't miss it.  The couch is replaceable, the mirror just a mirror, the coffee table fills too much space and so on.  As I prepare to leave for Idaho in the next month or so, I feel relieved to lighten my load and ready to commit fully to our new simpler lifestyle.  The house will be harder to let go of, but that's just something I can't take with me.

Our possessions may be simplified, but taking care of them isn't always.  We chose this particular camper for it's storage space.  A large cabinet in the living area, L-shaped kitchen providing extra storage, and an entire "toy hauler" space we can use. Still,  I've found I spend a lot of  time organizing and reorganizing to keep things tidy and make room for new food and projects. 

We've made a few upgrades to our little RV. When we first brought it to Idaho, we made living upgrades by installing soft play mats for the flooring in Zoey's loft and equipping the garage area with a tall plastic (for weight) cupboard which has provided a lot of extra storage space and installing a toilet paper holder (hmmm, Why wasn't there one in the first place?).  Since our RV had been a repossession, the former owners had stripped it of anything of value.  Although the seller had replaced most of the items,  a few were still missing.  John put in the garage-to-living-area door when we first got it and we just installed the replacement ceiling fan to help keep things cool as the temperatures rise.  We also just installed our space numbers on our trailer.  After a small dyslexic moment, we got them on in the right order and now we are officially #873, not #783.

I had planned on putting a few planters outside on our patio, but water conservation measures in the area prevent us from adding new plantings at the moment.  So for now we admire anything that manages to bloom and flourish in the Texas sun on it's own.

Most of the trees are shading the trailer park quite well, but a few trees in our little trailer park are missing their foliage, and ours is one of them.  This was a huge disappointment to me since we only have the one tree outside our front door to shade our patio (most spots have 2) and without it things are so barren and hot.  On it's dry cracking branches we've hung Zoey's artistic bird house, which she diligently painted herself, and a hummingbird feeder which received little visitors within minutes of it's arrival, and we regularly see yellow-breasted chats perched in the branches, but the tree is still nothing more than a tall pile of sticks.  Perhaps I can talk the manager into moving us under some shade once another tenant has left, after all numbers are cheap.


Who knew our life would take such a turn from settling down in a sprawling house in my hometown to moving half way across the country to live in a RV?  We're content, even happy with the changes and look forward to so many life enhancing changes we have scheduled in our future. 

Beach, But No Water - Monahans

In Idaho we lived with natural wonders all around us.  The Snake River Canyon was on our front door step, the "South Hills" recreation area less than an hour away, lava tubes to explore a little over an hour away and the Rocky Mountains, Sawtooth National Recreation Areas peaking in the distance.  My only complaint is we never had enough time to enjoy all of it fully, but we can always return to beautiful Idaho for visits.

Now that we have moved to a new area we're ready to explore our new surroundings.  I've asked around and searched the internet to find out what outdoor destinations are within our reach.  There are a few places we can visit, but since the dry Texan desert is mostly privately owned and dedicated to oil production, outdoor entertainment is at a premium.  We've already explored many city parks in the area, but we really wanted to see something different and a little more exciting, so last weekend we headed out  Monahans Sandhills State Park.

The park is located a brief 45 minutes West of Midland just off the interstate.  The entrance fee is $3/adult and is paid at the visitor center which has educational information, a nature trail with labeled flora, and sand disks for rent or purchase.  The road accessible area of the park quite small, but the entirety of the park is open to explore without restriction.  Most of the park's sand dunes are covered with small bushes  (Shinoak trees, but in the rest of the world they only qualify as bushes) and other native plants. These dunes are considered inactive dunes, but some areas have active dunes which are nothing but pristine white sand peaking high above the desert.

Zoey and John Sled-sinking

There are several picnic areas for day-trippers to enjoy and a camping area for those who can't get their fill of sand all in one day. We chose to picnic at the largest picnic area near a large area of active dunes.  As soon as Zoey's feet hit the ground, she bolted toward the hill of sand.  She didn't stop running until she peaked the dune and we found her at the top rolling in the sand and running her hands through it. Almost immediately she asked to take off her shoes andbecause the sand is a soft and powdery, I soon joined her and  found it was easier to tread barefoot than dump a 1/2 pound of sand out of my shoes every 10 steps. I i think we both loved the feel of the sand between our toes.  Thinking sliding down the dunes is a great idea, (after all why else would they offer disks if it wasn't great), we purchased a sand disk and took it for a few runs.  It turns out that when the sand is that soft, you sink, not slide.  After a few sinking attempts, we abandoned that idea.

Admiring the view.

Zoey had the time of her life.  She ran up and down the dunes, made sand angels, barrel rolled to the bottoms, and drew pictures of "snakes" in the sand.  Mom and dad had a great time too, especially watching her.  Leaving the park Zoey asked if next time we can visit the beach with water, Texas has those too, but we'll have to drive a little longer to get there.

Sand Angel!!

Little Surprises

Zoey inspecting the pond.

Beal Park (clubhouse)

I'll be the first to admit I hadn't been thrilled with moving from scenic Idaho to flat and dry west Texas.  Making the move in winter time when there are no leaves or flowers to be seen definitely affected my initial opinion, but I have found some pleasant surprises as spring has sprung in my new home.

One night I was awoken by thunder rumbling in the distance.  Staring out my little RV window which is located next to my pillow I could see lightning dance through the clouds in a non-stop show of beauty.  Back home, lightning storms are few and far between and involve some large strikes here and there.  Here I saw a something totally different and magnificent.  Had it not been 1 a.m., I would have gone outside and sat in a lawn chair to enjoy the show of several bolts a second skipping from cloud to cloud. I look forward to more beautiful storms like that one.

Turtles Sun Bathing

Zoey and I have taken full advantage of the temperate winter and spring weather and ventured to a number of the public parks in the area.  The parks not only have the traditional play equipment, trees and baseball fields, but most have a small pond feature full of ducks, frogs, turtles and of course fish.  Often the grass has endured the onslaught of ground squirrels and gophers, but these well adjusted (and stupidly brave) rodents provide ongoing entertainment for children and adults alike.

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Zoey always has to fill her list of activities at the park; (1) Play on the toys and make a friend, (2) Find Creatures, (3) Go for a walk/bike ride.  She often takes her shovels so she can "build a castle", which involves digging a hole as deep as she can get it, and does her best to recruit any child her age to play with her.  On one of our bike rides we found it....Where the Sidewalk Ends. (Shel Silverstein)
 
The biggest surprise is the many wildflowers that have bloomed as the weather heats up.  All along the roadways, in empty fields, on medians and even in my weedy front yard flowers have started to bloom.  Large patches of white, yellow, orange and purple can be seen everywhere.  I just had to get some pictures before the heat of summer scorches them away. Unfortunately I didn't realize my resolution on my camera was low, but you will get the idea.

Oil, Oil, Oil Everywhere

I don't know if I never paid attention or if it's a common misconception, but I always thought oil is only pumped in few and far between places, it seems I was wrong.  Out here in the Permian Basin, you don't see an Oil Derrick, or Pump Jack as they're called around here, you see fields full of them as far as the eye can see. There are pumps in the middle of neighborhoods,  on lots between houses, across the street from apartment complexes,  and I even saw one in the median between the on-ramp and the highway.  There is one just west of our front door; about 500 feet away.  To get an idea; in this link here of a satellite photo of our trailer park and surrounding areas, you can see each white square is a Pump Jack station and that's what is close to town! Every drive we take I hear Zoey declare from the back seat, "There's a pump jack, doing it's work!", and there's a lot of work being done to get us more of that precious oil.

Drilling Rig by the road.

There are power-lines cris-crossing the desert to power the pumps which are painted in various colors and of all sizes.  Alongside the pumps are many natural gas pumping stations often surrounded by chain-link fences.  The little fire stacks you sometimes see in oil fields are to burn large amounts of Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S), which is a lethal toxic gas in high qualities.  In the rural areas, like the town of Goldsmith where we started, you often smell H2S in the air, which is the same as that rotten egg smell at geysers and natural hot springs. 

Not only is the large presence of Pump Jacks shocking, but the ongoing oil work. In a drive of only a single moile you are likely to come across a drilling operation, a wireline/fracing operation and a pulling unit at work; not to mention the surveyors, engineers and other people whose work is not so visible. Oil work is everywhere and it's constant.

The drilling operations look as if they have set up a large amusement park ride.  There's a drilling tower, large platform, and numerous support buildings the size of train cars.  Some of the larger units look like mini Eiffel towers and  take seven days to move from location to location.  When operating at night they look like pillars of light illuminating the desert.

Drilling Rig at Night

The wireline/fracturing operations have a wireline crane extending above a large circle of semi-trucks loaded down with massive engines which pump the thousands of gallons of water from a man made reservoir which is created onsite. There is a constant grumble of engines onsite which increases to a massive roar as the water is pumped deep into the earth.  These are the crews John works with.

John working under a pulling unit.

Finally is the pulling units which are tall metal cage towers, much like the drilling towers, but supported by multiple wires.  These are used for any operation requiring the lowering or retrieval of items and instruments from an oil well.  When in operation you can see the pulley system moving up and down inside the tower structure.  John sometimes works with a pulling unit crew when the winds are too strong to use only a crane.

I'm sure there are other machines and operations involved with oil production, but these are the ones we have seen and become acquainted with during our short time here in West Texas. One thing is for sure, oil is the reason Midland and Odessa exist and it's keeping the town booming and bringing in outsiders like ourselves.