Still a mess! (Cold, too!)

A tad nippy this morning!

Didn't get much above zero, either, and going colder tonight!

Man, I can't WAIT to head south!

These are different buckets! I've got 6 buckets packed and moved to the other room, 4 almost full here, and an empty one sitting there waiting.

Today I packed things like spices and my sprouting stuff.

This is our Hot Pot solar reflector oven. We used it quite a bit over the summer.

I've packed it in it's original box and plan to cook with it often in Nevada.

It has a black kettle that fits inside a clear glass kettle with a lid, and

all of that sits in the fold-out reflector. The foily/shiny reflector walls are

made of a sturdy tin-like material.

This nifty little stove burns wood, charcoal, anything flammable you can break up or wad up and shove in it. The pan sits on top of it. It folds and fits into that little green pouch.

It's called a "Pocket Stove".

I look forward to testing it out.

It might be good in a emergency kit, especially

one a person plans to keep in a vehicle, since it's not all that light.

This is a solar battery charger. Supposed to charge all sizes of batteries.

It came with a cord with multiple-size plug-ins for charging small electronics.

The lid is a solar charging panel.

The cord always works for things like plugging in a small radio and facing the

lid of the charger toward the sun, and listening to the radio.

I used it in my garden a few times last summer.

I have not yet charged batteries in it, but we bought rechargable AA and D batteries

to take along on this adventure.

I'm mostly posting all this to pass the time. With the cold weather I've worked inside today

and I'm *bounce! bounce! bounce!* excited that the real adventure is creeping ever closer!

Please feel free to leave questions, comments or suggestions. If anyone thinks of something we might forget, let us know. Or if you know of something we could test out or try while we're gone on this adventure, suggestions are welcome!

Snow storm

We got about 8" of snow in the night, and it's still snowing off and on.

See it piled up against the back door of the uhaul?

I'll have to shovel it off the roof again, too, because we're trying to keep the

roof dry enough to build the rack for the kayaks.

We also have new marker lights to put on at the top on the front and back.

Well, then...
I guess we'll wait for another day to take the motorcycle to Kalispell.
If necessary, on the day we leave we can pull the trailer out to the pavement with the Cherokee, then drive back and leave the Cherokee and take off in the Uhaul.
We can hitch the trailer to the uhaul at the parking pull-off at the foot of our road,
known locally as "the Interbel lot" (phone co. substation).

What did I forget?

Me, on last year's bug-out!

Three weeks in a tent in the desert.

This year we'll be spoiled, with the uhaul-camper.

Hmmmm....what could I be forgetting?

Oh! A frying pan!

(Reference: a little story from our friend, Burma, about a camping/fishing trip to a remote area...involving a forgotten frying pan and silverware!)

She also reminded me not to forget a can opener!

I have lists and lists, but didn't have a can opener on any of the lists!

I've added "Google ads" to my blog. We'll get paid a few cents for every time someone clicks on the ads. They're supposed to be selected to be of interest to those who are reading a blog.

Sorry for "commercializing" everyone, but your involuntary contribution will help make up for the high price of gas that will make this trip a bit tight financially!

Loading the motorcycle & bicycles

First, the motorcycle had to be dug out of the snow.

Odie had a blast playing with the snow as it flew off the shovel!


Odie, still playing, and now DH has a trench dug behind the motorcycle
The tarp was stuck in the snow and we had to shovel and break it free where we could.
We never did get it all the way loose from the snow. We pulled it over the side and just left it laying, frozen in the ice and snow!
There's a hole now where the motorcycle sat, surrounded by the hard-pack foot of snow.
Light rain showers fell while we worked, for a while. It was about 45 degrees.
Shirt sleeve weather in Montana!



We pulled the motorcycle back, then pushed it foward to turn it, and rolled it to the trailer.


With some grunting and "Heave-ho"-ing, we got first the front end on the trailer, took a few deep breaths (gasps!), then heaved the rear of the bike up onto the trailer.
Looks like crazy angles, but it's an illusion!


Motorcycle strapped down, and a bicycle on each side.
Trailer springs look good, so it's not too heavy.


DH, getting ready to tie down the bicycles.
In the background, over the motorcycle, you can see the back of the uhaul.
We're taking the trailer down to Bryan's in Kalispell tomorrow, using the Cherokee to pull it.
That'll be less to worry about as we drive out in the uhaul, when the day comes.
Our 3 miles of icy snowpack over what is a dirt road in summer, and includes some steep downhill grades (going out. Steep uphill coming in!) and interesting blind curves, will give us enough to keep track of on the way out.
I'm all the more excited now, having all the bikes loaded.
It's like the whole thing is becoming real!


A view from the back door looking forward and at the "passenger" side of the uhaul.


This is the outlet he was putting in yesterday.

Looking from the bed/bunk out the as-yet unfinished back wall.

One of the snowmobiles in sight, but if you look farther out, behind that bush

is the Cherokee and trailer.

Starting to pack

I've been gathering up things we want to take to Nevada, so I started packing it today.

I'm using the white buckets to pack just about anything that will fit into them: Food, cleaning stuff, First-aid stuff, and so forth.

The crates on the left are for jars and canned goods.

On the lower right is the Coleman camp oven.

On the top left, on the couch, is the Solar oven.

As I fill the buckets I write on the side what is in them. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can probably read my writing. This is only the start of packing. I've been moving them to the other room as I fill them.

I packed pie pans, cake pans, and bread pans inside the oven.

Paneling and outlets

He wired in the outlets today. They'll connect to the inverter at the rear of the uhaul, which will be connected to the battery and solar panel.

Most of the paneling is done.
The plain masonite was put where cabinets will be built later over the foot of the bed up in the loft (on the left. The head of the bed will be to the right). This side of the loft has to be built out about a foot, to make it wide enough for a double mattress. We'll build storage underneath, which explains the masonite you see right in the middle.

Before the Adventure began!

I look at the uhaul, sitting there in the cold and snow, and dream of warm, sunny days to come.

I won't have to wait until spring, if all goes as planned.

Hopefully, around the end of the first week of February, we'll be heading to southern Nevada.

We finally got the floor boards laid. In this picture he had just finished cutting the last board and was changing from boots to slippers to keep the floor dry.

There was over a foot of snow on the ground outside!

He had to sweep snow off the picnic table to cut the wafterboard sub-flooring.

The metal floor was SO cold, and the waferboard and (soon) linoleum will help keep

the floor warmer.

Back in early November Steven framed the inside, I put insulation in, and DH put masonite over that on the ceiling. Then I painted the ceiling white.



Steven framed in the back and put a camper door in.
The double doors have been removed since this picture was taken.



This was right after Steven finished putting the windows in.


I painted the box brown back in October, and still need to do some striping or detail work on it. I'm thinking maybe stenciling pine trees and/or deer, bears, or some kind of rustic critters.

The cab part needs to be painted, but we're still deciding what we want

to do for that.