Utilizing Space

One thing about trailers is there are a lot of storage compartments. The benches at the kitchen table are hollow and have lots of room inside. Lift up the bed and underneath is plenty of room to store all our bedding and extra blankets. The couch has a pull out drawer for more storage. Most trailers have lots of nooks and cranies for you to be able to store all of your things. But living in a trailer sometimes those nooks and cranies just aren't enough.

When we first moved into the trailer I had a hard time figuring out the best place to put our bread. I had already used most of the cabinets and needed a good place were the bread wouldn't get squashed. Our solution was to use heavy duty staples and attach a wire basket I already had to the bottom of a cabinet. Essentially we added an extra shelf.

Our trailer comes with two bathrooms. The main bathroom (that I have shown in a previous blog) has the shower and is next to the bedroom. The extra bathroom is a tiny room that has a toilet and a cupboard behind it. We never have used that toilet and don't intend to ever use it so we made that room into a closet. I use the cupboard for extra storage and we put hooks in there to hang our coats. We also have a step stool, vaccum cleaner, shop vac, and clothes drying rack that we store in there. The extra bathroom is such a convient closet.

We have also discovered some extra storage places. Underneath our utility sink is some room for storage, very much like any sink. Not too long after we moved into the trailer Meric was exploring to see what was behind some panels. He removed the panel from under the utility sink and discovered that basically nothing was behind it. We completely removed that panel and now have even more storage space under that sink.

The panel that we removed went towards another "storage tweak". By the TV in the back room there are shelves on either side. Since we hook our TV to the computer we removed one of the shelves and put the computer in its place. Meric put the panel on the bottom of the shelf and hung it up next to the front door. Now we have a shelf for my purse among other things. This shelf has come in really handy to keep some of the clutter off of my limited counter space. We also added the hooks under the shelf to keep our keys organized. (We ended up with an extra hook and I thought it was the perfect spot for my lovespoon!)

We have a few more ideas for adding extra cubby holes and storage to our trailer and are figuring out everyday the best way to utilize our space.

SUPER Foods

Meric and I have really been trying to get healthier over the last few years. It has been an interesting journey with good parts and bad parts. Eating right and exercising doesn't always come easy. It seems like we start, do well for a while and then something happens to get us off track. I can definitely say that good habits don't come as easily as bad ones. Lately Meric and I have been doing better and are getting back into those good habits.(knock on wood)

There are a few "super" food that I have found along the way. I thought I would share them with you. I talk a lot about protein but I want to clarify that Meric and I aren't doing an Atkins high protein style diet. We do a 40-30-30 style diet (at least sort of). That means 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% good fat.

GREEK YOGURT

I love regular yogurt and it is good for you but Greek yogurt has a little more oomph to it. The way that it is made gives Greek yogurt two times the amount of protein as regular yogurt. It is also thicker and creamier. Greek yogurt is also very versatile. Just add garlic and cucumber to plain Greek yogurt and you have tzatziki sauce to go on your Greek wrap. (Really yummy BTW). Also you can use it in cooking and baking. It is really easy to substitute sour cream with Greek yogurt to add a little bit more protein to your recipes. I am loving that Greek yogurt is becoming more popular because it seems like more companies are coming out with Greek yogurt options. I am loving the variety of flavors and brands that are coming out.

FLAT OUT WRAPS

Flat Out wraps are a food I discovered on a whim. Meric and I were shopping ate Costco when I first saw them. I had been wanting to do more wraps, so I thought I would give these a try. Boy am I glad I did! First of all they taste really good and are soft. I really hate dry wraps. Lately I have been trying out all of the flavors and I love all of them so far. These wraps are also high in fiber and protein. Comparing two pieces of bread to one wrap, you get at least twice as much protein (sometimes more depending on the flavor) and less carbs. Also I love anything with a good fiber content. The majority of people do not get nearly enough fiber in their diets and these wraps are a delicious and easy way to get some. These wraps are also versatile. I use them for all my wraps including Greek. I have used them as pizza crust too. Also if you go to their website you can find recipes for several things including desserts. There is a recipe on there that has you cook the wrap like french toast and layer it with berries and yogurt. I cannot wait to try it!

FLAX SEED

I love this stuff! Adding a little of this stuff to your diet gives you so many health benefits. Flax seed has wonderful nutrients and antioxidents. Also you get a good dose of the ever important fiber and omega-3 (good fat). And like the other foods I have listed, flax seed is versatile. I add this to protein shakes and smoothies and you can hardly tell it is there. It is easy to add to yogurts and cereal. Also throw some into anything you bake for an extra kick of nutrition. I love this stuff! Using flax seed makes it easy to get the fiber and "healthy" fat I need in my daily diet while adding antioxidents and other essential nurtients.

 COTTAGE CHEESE

I need to start by telling you that I don't like cottage cheese. I don't like the flavor and hate it plain or even with fruit. With that said, I love it and consider it a super food. I love cottage cheese as long as I can't taste it alone. When Meric and I first started our diet we discovered that carbs are easy to get but protein can be a little difficult at times. Cottage cheese is high in protein so I started experimenting on ways to use it. I discovered that cottage cheese is very versatile. I love mixing cottage cheese and yogurt for breakfast and blending it with some berries makes a wonderful dessert. I also love adding cottage cheese to pasta sauce. There is a "healthy" cheesecake I make with cottage cheese that is super delicious. So even though I don't like cottage cheese after experimenting a little I have come to love it.

So there are four of my favorite "super" foods. As you can tell versatility is a big factor for me as well as health benefits. What makes them super to me is all the different things you can do with them to add variety to your diet without sacrificing nutrition. Also anything with extra protein or fiber wins my heart. Food can be so delicious and nutritious!

Camping in the NC

Over Labor Day weekend Meric and I went camping with some friends in western North Carolina. It was a 7 1/2 hour drive to get to the campground but well worth it because we got to see some of our Fort Bragg friends. The camp sites were nice and surrounded by trees. We were far enough away from the other campers that having the dogs loose wasn't a problem.The only odd thing about the camp ground was the cemetery. We had to pass by it on the way to the bathrooms. I understand that the cemetery is old and was there long before the campground, but it is still a little odd. Also it was surrounded by a fence that had barbed wire on top. You would think it was to keep people out of the cemetery except the barbed wire was pointed inward instead of outward. It was like they were keeping things in instead of out. Spooky!  We were camping with two other couples and one of the couples had two boys and a dog. The boys were funny and would always move their chairs so that they were either sitting next to Meric or me. The youngest boy (about 3 years old) kept referring to Meric as my dad. He would ask me where my dad was or what was my dad doing. It was really cute. The dog that they had was actually a 6 month old puppy. It reminded me of how old my dogs really are. It was nice to go drive-in camping. It has been a long time since I have done that. Usually when we go camping we go backpacking. Of course there are some people who would consider the way we live to be camping.(Sorry no pictures. We took our camera but forgot to take pictures.)

Taking a Dump and Dumping the Tank

It ain't pretty but everyone has to do it. Using the bathroom in a RV is definitely different than using a regular one. Pretty much the toilet is a raised bowl with a hole in the bottom and a pedal on the side.

I will spare you any pictures of the inside :)

When you press the pedal half way down the bowl fills with water. When you press the pedal all the way down it opens the hole in the bottom and flushes the toilet. The toilet water or "black water" as it is called in RV lingo goes into a tank under the RV. Everything from the toilet collects in the black water tank until it is full, about one week, and then we empty it. Everything collecting in that tank isn't all liquid so we have to break it all down. At the beginning of every tank cycle we toss a chemical packet down the toilet hole.

The chemical packet dissolves in the tank and breaks everything down so that it all comes out of the tank smoothly. Like I said, it ain't pretty but everyone has to do it.

The black water tank isn't the only one that fills up and needs to be emptied, there is also the grey water tank. Grey water is the water from the sinks, shower and washing machine. Since there are so many sources of grey water that tank needs to be dumped at least twice a week.

Dumping the tanks has several steps. We need to shut off the water and disconnect the hose from the trailer's water supply and connect it to the tanks. We got quick connectors for the hose to make it easier when switching it from one to the other.

Then we open the black tank and let the sewage flow. We turn the water back on so that can help clean out the black tank. Opening the tanks is done by pulling a handle inside this compartment.

Once the black water tank is emptied we open the grey water tank. By opening the grey water tank second the grey water going through the hose helps clear the black water out of the sewer hose. When both tanks are emptied, we close them, shut the water off, switch the water hose back to the trailer's water supply, turn it back on and then we are done.

When we first moved into the trailer using the bathroom was kind of weird for me. It took me a little while to get comfortable with the idea of the way the toilet works but now it is just normal. The only thing I hate about using the toilet in the trailer is when I really have to pee. Before I use the toilet I need to fill it with water. Sitting there listening to and watching the water run is torture when you really gotta go!

Experimental Meals

One of my favorite things to do is experiment with meals. From trying new recipes to making them up, I enjoy experimenting. I am also very fortunate to have a husband who is willing to try whatever I make. Well almost anything, if you ever think that tilapia, brown rice and broccoli and cheese cream of soup all mixed together might be good, let me tell you that it is gross and not even Meric will eat it!

So I have been experimenting a little and thought I would share. Last night I made chicken, macaroni and cheese with steamed broccoli. Sounds pretty basic right? Well for the chicken I breaded it in crushed pretzels with a little ranch and garlic seasoning. Instead of using regular cheese for the macaroni I used white cheddar, butterkase, and yogurt cheese. Butterkase and yogurt cheese are both semi-soft cheeses so they made the mac and cheese so creamy I didn't have to add any milk. After dishing it all up, I thought it looked so good I had to take a picture. And after eating it, I would have to say it was delicious!

Another experiment was a result of laziness. When I make lasange I mix together sour cream, cream cheese, and cottage cheese. I take that mixture and layer it with meat sauce and lasange noodles. (I started adding spinach to it for some extra nutrition.) Lazy version is to take a scoop of the cheese mixture, roll it up in a lasange noodle and cover it with the meat sauce. It is all the same ingredients but without the layering. The last time I made it I ran out of lasange noodles half way through. As a result I got even lazier. I mixed the meat sauce and cheese mixture together. Then I boiled some tortellini and mixed it all together. The results... YUM! Adding the cheese mixture to the meat sauce made it very creamy and added great flavor.

I have also been experimenting with breakfast, mainly pancakes. My lastest creation was pina colada pancakes. I used a pancake mix and added crushed pineapple, coconut flakes and rum extract. They turned out pretty good. The pineapple made them sweet and the rum extract added good flavor. I couldn't really taste the coconut though. I am slowly starting to like coconut so I was okay with the light coconut flavor. Baby steps!

Automotive Repairs

Meric is a do-it-yourself kind of guy when it comes to automotive maintenance and repairs. Living in a trailer makes that a bit of a challenge. We don't have a garage or driveway to work in and most campgrounds aren't too thrilled about people changing their oil and stuff like that on the campsite. So how can you do your own automotive work while living in a trailer? Well being in the military makes the answer easy, take it to the automotive bay. On most military posts they have automotive bays where you can take you vehicle to have work done on it or a place to do it yourself. At only $1.75 per 1/2 hour you can rent a bay area which includes lifts, access to all of the tools and help/advice from the mechanics who work there.

This past Saturday Meric and I took advantage of the automotive bay. Meric had just gotten a "power pack bundle" from Banks. (Banks is a company that specializes in upgrades for your vehicles.) The bundle included: air intake, exhaust (including high flow muffler), inter cooler and down pipes, tuner, speed brake. All of this is to help make his truck more efficient while towing our trailer. After a quick safety video, Meric and I checked out some tools and went to work. We were going to start by changing the air intake and the exhaust. Meric had looked at the instructions for the air intake and decided any idiot could do it, so that was my job. Following the instruction booklet (the pictures helped) I was able to switch out the old air intake for the new one on my own.

the new air intake that I installed

Meric started on the exhaust but quickly ran into trouble with a couple of rusted bolts that just wouldn't come off. Being at the automotive bay was great because Meric had access to so many different options to try and get the bolts off. Unfortunately, one of the guys that was helping broke one of bolts. Which led to more time being spent in trying to get the rest of the broken one out, but without any success. We did change out the exhaust but we will need to figure out what to do with the broken bolt at another time. For those that are worried the exhaust system is still functional without the bolt and there isn't an exhaust leak.

Meric's new exhaust tip

Broken bolt top right corner

We still have a lot of work to do before the new system is completely installed on Meric's truck but the automotive bay makes it easier. It is nice to have a place we can go to work on our vehicles.

4th of July

Cabin in the memorial

For the 4th of July, Meric and I decided to do some more sightseeing. This time we went to visit Abraham Lincoln's birth place. I knew that Lincoln was from Illinois, but I didn't realize that he was born in Kentucky until we moved here. Lincoln's birth place is actually only 30 minutes down the road from us. Our first stop was Sinking Spring Farm. This is the site of Abraham's family farm at the time of his birth. There is a memorial building which houses a cabin from the era of Lincoln's birth. (The actual cabin he lived in no longer exsists.) The 56 steps up to the memorial represent the 56 years of Lincoln's life. There is also the sinking spring, a walking trail, a gift shop that shows a video about Lincoln's life in Kentucky, and cabins that you can rent for an "authentic" experience.

56 steps to the memorial

Sinking spring

Next we headed down the road to visit the sight of Lincoln's boyhood home. Abraham's family moved from Sinking Spring to Knob Creek when he was only 2 or 3. The site has a log cabin, a small garden to  demonstrate the crops that were grown there, and a picnic area.

Cabin at Knob Creek

After our presidential sightseeing, we headed home to bbq some steaks and watch 1776. When it got dark we watched the fireworks show that was going on close by.