Hello and happy near spring to you!

I'm over due for an update but have been enjoying the big sky out here as well as getting acclimated to my new job. Thankfully due to my "really not so isolated location," I've taken a weekend away in my short 10 weeks as a full timer. I took the local bus to Vegas, visited a friend for the night and then flew out to visit friends and loved ones in Portland, Oregon for a few days. It worked out so nicely I am going to visit friends in Vegas soon again too.

Vegas is only a couple hours drive away, as is LA and San Diego too for that matter.

However, my trip to Portland was just around my one month anniversary of full timing so I felt I needed to wait a few more weeks before I considered myself a true novice full timer. :)

It is going well, thank you to the helpful advice of my neighbor, and also hugely to his returning from his weekly trips home, (to civilization,) with advice and items to help my trailer situation.

Last weekend he did some recon and brought back an air conditioner that should fit in my window and he told me yesterday it also has an auto sensor to turn off, (important in a small trailer,) when it cools to the set temp!! I stacked cinder blocks outside the window to support it and we ought to get it set up relatively soon.

I'm working the midnight shift for my regular job and then will likely be on call for 10 days straight every month for my alternate duty at the hospital too. Since its cool this week, and I'm going out of town this weekend, we'll probably set it up next weekend.

What have I learned so far?

1- It is nicer than I anticipated. It is quieter than living in the hub of the city center here, and just that extra 500 meters to drive here feels like living in a campground with a slower pace, relaxing.

2- The local storage, (like a closet,) for $20. a month was worth it to use for the items I had stowed in my truck bed, it has my garage type items and also helps to keep my trailer storage space open and roomy. There is plenty of unused space here but, it helps when I need to move things around so I don't feel so crowded.

4- It is more convenient and nicer to use my own latrine system than it is to use the port-o-potties here!! I'm still using the P.E.T. system, (with the absorbant-enzymatic gelling powder, (waste in a bag.) I still have the "Pee-Wee" bags too and its much easier for me than messing with black water, odors and mess. However, the RV waste water dump site is close enough where I could use a portable system to collect to transport and dump but, I am getting settled without using that for now. Maybe when it is hotter and I set up my indoor shower systemthough, I could use that for the grey water.

5-I'm not cooking like I used to and I miss my own food. I have my ricer but, have been enjoying myself outdoors.

6- Oh! This is huge. I feel like the entire outdoors is my living room. Even though my trailer is 8x15 I have a gorgeous view out my windows and when I leave my 'bedroom' I am in the amazing open sky. Very nice.

So far, this feels like something that will be easier to do than I thought. I have downsized some more and my cat has plenty of space to move around and play in. He is also getting more exercise in this trailer than in the last place we lived. He has 7 levels of areas to climb up and jump around from and 4 hidey areas that he will play peek a boo from.

Today's picture is from the nearby Rainbow Basin area.