Trying to Remember to Breathe…

Well, today is the day we find out if we are going to have to move. Why you ask? It’s a bit of a long story, but I’ll try to give you the cliff notes version as I continue to remind myself to breathe in and out…no holding my breath.

So, we have been living in this spot for almost 4 years now (it will be 4 years in October). It’s a nice little spot, next to a hangar on a private residential airstrip. Most of the hangar spots have houses, the one we are in does not. We are in an end spot, closest to the road.

Though this is not technically an RV space, our landlord had put in an RV sewage dump for the last person he had parked out here, so there are all the hook-ups here – water, electricity, and sewage, though we have not had running water since the end of December, sometime in January. We have installed a new pump once (well, like three times with the same new pump) but we still do not have water. Either the pump came bad from the factory or the control panel is bad. Not sure which at this point but the landlord assures us he now knows how to check to see if the control panel is the problem, so we wait. As frustrating and inconvenient as that is, we are muddling through it to the best of our ability, which means we have been buying bottled water in mass quantities for over 6 months now. Yes, I’m frustrated by this but the alternative is to try to find somewhere to move the gypsy camp to, which isn’t all that easy, especially since we really don’t have a way to move any of our dwellings, at the moment – as in no truck to haul the travel trailer, no 5th wheel set up, and not sure the RV we limped in here is going to start and/or move, again.

Anyway, our landlord is a bit of a pack rat (aka hoarder). He can no longer fly, so the one plane he has that looks like it would be flyable sits in the hangar, surrounded by a bunch of junk (some it is really cool, vintage junk). Around two sides of the hanger are about 30 or so cars, an old Hudson pickup, miscellaneous fodder. The cars have been there long enough to almost blend into the trees due to the amount of moss and growth on them. Most of them are complete, but there are many that are just part of the whole car – half a Dodge Omni here, a Volvo missing its door over there, windshields broken from branches falling over the years, the floaters (pontoons?) for a water plane, what looks like an old gas pump that’s been gutted, and the list goes on.  Anyway, you get the picture.

Since the day we moved in here, the landlord has said multiple times that he was going to clear all the junk out. Great! Let us know when you want to do that and we will do what we can to help. Obviously, this hasn’t happened. The hangar is also in a bit of disrepair – roofing edging boards rotten, falling down, lots of spots missing boards. I don’t think the landlord really cares much about this spot but it would be too overwhelming for him to have to go through and get rid of everything in order to potentially sell it. It’s a bit of a mess that I no longer really see because we have lived here long enough for it to become background noise. Well, someone from the airstrip turned him in, again, and now there is a guy coming out to take a look around. Our landlord had talked on the phone with the guy that’s coming out sometime last week or so, and this guy informed our landlord that he’s not allowed to have people living in RVs within county limits. Crap.

Am I in a panic?? Oh, I don’t think that is an adequate description of what I’m going through. Terror may be closer to the mark, though I am doing my best to not buy into it, trying to keep a positive state of mind and believe that everything will turn out just fine. Worse case scenario, hopefully, would be that we have 6 months to get our poop in a group and move. Of course, the best case scenario is obvious.

Despite trying to not buy into the terror that is coursing through me, that has my heart racing even when I’m trying not to think about it, I have gone into save our tooshes mode. What does that look like? Honestly, not pretty at all.

I started by trying to find spots for us to move the camp to. Not really any luck there. We would have two dwellings plus we have the three dogs. Not an easy set up to find a place to move to, which is why we tend to find a spot and try not to move for as long as possible. 3-4 years seems to be the limit, though, and we are unfortunately at the marker, though I am hoping that holds no bearing on the situation (Do you hear me Universe???).

Next, I moved on to attempting to find a drivable RV so we could at least be able to get our travel trailer out of here and still have enough living space for my son, my husband, our three dogs, two cats, and myself. I’ve found a couple that I think would work out well, might have to do a little bit of work to which isn’t a huge deal, but there isn’t funding for that. As for the RV we have here and the 5th wheel, I would gladly put them both on Craigslist and get whatever I could for them, or give them away for free to just have them dealt with and gone, but that means having something to move my son and his cat into first. Do you see the loop here? Can you see where my panic is coming from?

I’m heading into downtown Puyallup today to apply to be a delivery driver for Wesco Autobody Supply. Part of me feels like looking for a job when we may have to move and I have no idea where in the heck we are going to end up landing, which may turn out to be nowhere near where I end up working, is sort of pointless. If nothing else, it will bring in some funding. If I have to walk away later, then that is how that will go, but I must have something going asap in order to deal with what may come. If we don’t have to move, then I have an income coming in, which is always a great thing.

Lance is working up at his brother’s neighbor’s place today. The commercial roof job keeps getting pushed back for reasons unknown to me. Lance’s brother has been keeping him working, though, which is greatly appreciated.

Lance has started building a prototype for his yurt idea. It’s nice to see him actually doing something with his idea instead of just talking about it, drawing diagrams, doing the math, and jumping to steps he isn’t ready to take on, yet, like trying to find an investor. He still needs to write a business plan, something neither of us knows how to do, but I have started trying to teach myself about it. I have gotten Lance to agree that there is no way he can just pursue his yurt idea without working at the same time, too, which is good. He can see his idea so clearly it’s hard for him to not be able to just focus only on that, though he knows that isn’t optimal for keeping us afloat. Plus, he is going to need funding to do the things like a prototype and potentially help with writing a business plan, but he is finally moving forward a bit on it.

Lance has also decided that he wants to put an ad on Craigslist advertising himself as a yurt consultant. After having built one from scratch for us when we lived up in Tulalip and helping put together the one his brother built, he feels that he has a firm grasp on the making of yurts. I think so, too, as does his brother, who has pretty much said as much without actually saying so. That could turn into another income stream for him, maybe. I have no idea what kind of demand there is for that in the area, but I guess we shall find out.

Well, I have some errands to run so I’m going to go do that. Have a great day, Everyone, and keep your fingers crossed for us.

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