Simply, Lesa

Hi everyone! Happy whatever you like to do during the winter - if its holidays or just snow days or what have you! I am still spending my days around the general area of St. John's AZ.  Yes, I truely am buying land here.  No I am not DONE traveling - I am a traveler or adventurer or something by nature. I apologize that I don't own a camera nor do I have any pictures to share right now.  It snowed here about a week ago and again last night.  We have had 5 inches of the fun white stuff! I am bunking with friends for the time being while it is so cold and not too good for camping.  My trailer project is coming along nicely and will see a little break in work due to the cold, the snow and its forthcoming melt which will bring mud... pretty good idea since all the work has been taking place outside.  By the way, if you want to renovate or bring life to an older trailer please do yourself a favor and figure out a covering while you are doing the work, if ...

Hi All! Long time no blog! Well - so much has been going on and I've not felt much like writing lately. AND I've been away from the internet... I got my Free to low income people phone.  I chose to go with the Safelink company which gives me a few months of double minutes and UNLIMITED text messaging.  My phone seems to be working fine.  It is NOT a smart phone - so no pictures, no email, and old school text typing on a basic Huawei phone.  I'm pretty happy with it so far. I had to get a new phone number so I did loose contact with a few people who had the old number.  If you are trying to reach me, you can use the blogger contact page to send me an email and give me a number to reach you at.  Texting works pretty well although they are shorter than I used to type because of the format on this phone.  Ozzie update:  well, I thought that he had lost his voice in his accident.  Darn, he didn't (just kidding).  I find it kind of incre...

Ozzie and I are simply living life. Of course at this time of the year seasons are changing and all the animals in our world are getting busy. Ozzie continues to hunt and protect our base campsite. I've had my thoughts pretty much focused on getting us prepared for cooler weather. I have a simply loosely woven plan which includes being in Quartzsite for the RTR in January. And begin available for travel with RTR buddies in February. We've been dehydrating fruits and vegetables in our solar dryer. When in town we search for metal tins, like christmas popcorn tins for storage because of the animals. I may need to make jelly or apple butter at some point if I keep getting so many apples...I truely cannot wait until I can make a better place for food storage. I've been given a lot of local produce and can't use it fast enough. Plus its a bit difficult with our mobile life to maneuver crocks of sauerkraut and stuff. I need to build a larger solar dehydrator too. My light po...

I'm having phone problems. I used to be a techy I've done all that I can. I believe that the internal usb charging pin is damaged. I have not budgeted for a new phone. I learned recently that I qualify for the Free Lifeline Phone. I will fax in my application this week. I will try to get to the library and send more blog posts this week. We are okay. Simply Me

A mug of Cowboy Coffee and Mini Potato Latkes!

I've had this for FOUR years. Thanks Dee for your gift that kept me thinking of you guys every day. It's been. .. my RTR mug!...lol The thoughts I had run through after it broke! Well I started a Memory tree at the circular drive at Windsong Ranch it seems only fitting to make it it's new home where lizards can crawl around and hide out or some plant can start a home. Hey might look good with a hens and chickens succulent growing around it!?! Now where is that other coffee cup?

If the person who you think that you may have an interest in OR may be interested in you spends most of their time online. And you don't. .. The online community may know them. You might not know thier mind/thoughts at all even if they were parked right beside you Simply Keep it Simple Sweethearts and Keep it REAL <smile>

One of the best pieces of gear that I have ever bought is this Camo net. Thanks to Al of RollingSteelTent.blogspot.com for the idea! I will admit to being fairly human which comes with being lazy.  I have seen far too many RVs and Vans with damages from an awning caught in the wind. So the idea of some shade n even partial shade with less maintenance or running to get the awning down before it gets ripped off. ..was right up my practical alley!

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And I truely don't. ...but I have been very busy lately.  Beats boredom any day! My lawn chair broke. I groomed Ozzie. ...who's currently burying his leftovers from supper. I got my camp kitchen set up. I got an older Coleman Expedition Kitchen for a great deal at a yard sale while traveling. I washed laundry and cleaned the bathroom tent and porta potty. And it was Hot today. Hot with no real escape even in the shade. I cleaned up the rooftop cargo carrier in preparation for a trade I've been discussing. I finally placed a Cragslist ad for the van. And I called my Canned Ham advisor guy about the project in my driveway. I have a 1953-59 Kencraft travel trailer.  It's quite a project though it has many good features as well.  I'm not physically working on it yet because I am first working out the title. If it's not really mine I am not investing in it. So I likely have three more weeks before that is done. I'm not 100% certain which way to deal with ...

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Its not what we may think - chasing home or the things of home or relationships or people or running to escape our past  or anything that comes even close to looking like our past. Happiness for me is watching Ozzie as he feels safe enough to run and play and explore! Its accepting the responsibility for another being that has allowed me to mostly forget my dissatisfaction and depression and get past a lot of my own crap and all that has allowed me to openly enjoy watching his happiness. Wouldn't it be kewl to have a close personal relationship develop the same thing?!? PS it's really hard to get a good picture of his playing to share. :(

This past week I returned from my trip to Colorado. I drove my new to me Honda Passport home and after 7-8 hours I was tired. I had some rest time before starting the errands process. I set up the well loved gift tent which is basically being used as storage because of daily rain with thunderstorm warnings in my area. I also set up my new shower/potty tent! Omgosh I'm so glad to have that it feels rather luxurious!  Then I needed to reconnect my friends solar system (I hate dealing with batteries) which took a couple days till I reconnected while it was dark outside to lower the spark risk. Then my van has been in town because I can not get a ride to pick it up so I visited and picked up some things. Then placed a For Sale sign in a window just to see if there was any interest. ..i recieved two serious calls the next day. I'm waiting for a call back now. A friend and I went to Pie Town NM for Sunday brunch. Nice to catch up with the friend - the town and trip was a travel yawn...

I've been having a great time here in Colorado for the past two weeks. Visiting with Shane & Lily and getting to experience both their life in Denver and their new lot near Eleven Mile State Park has been fun. The altitude has left me with tight lungs, no energy and feeling rather sick. It is rather cold here as well so if you are planning a visit come prepared! Ozzie has been very well behaved. Lily and Ozzie met up very shortly after he came to live with me.  They remember when it was extremely difficult for Ozzie to meet other dogs and when he was very territorial. I think that he feels more safe and secure now. Shane & Lily both commented on how much better he is and how calm he is. Training is paying off. Unfortunately I have had some cellphone signal problems - traveling with phones can be annoying. Lily and I went to Hartsel Days yesterday. We got to see a gun fight reenactment and do some shopping. We visited South Park City and Buena Vista which has great garag...

To give you guys a little update. I'm in Colorado picking up my new to me SUV. Ozzy and I took off from Holbrook Arizona on a Greyhound bus.  It felt nice to let someone else do the driving. We rode for nearly 18 hours on the bus including a five hour layover in Albuquerque. We were both very tired when we got here. SO we took a couple of days too kind of chill out and visit with our friends Shane & Lily. We gradually have been enjoying some vacation style things like going to a waterpark one day and to Cracker Barrel for dinner. We have camped out in some of the local camping spots with them. I've gotten used to driving the new car and got the insurance and legal stuff taken care. Visiting in a large city like Denver has been good and different.   The low drone of traffic all day long as well as the hot city weather can add to our stress levels. I'm walking Ozzie around the lot behind Cabela's here in Denver. They have a large grassy area with sidewalks in the ...

My last post was about Simply being along for the ride!  And I am. Quietly, hopefully patiently in my seat. Watching out the window as we move along.   Okay not always quietly because I do like to talk. <grin> My intention was to write and publish a post and update on Wednesday. ..but we were still in motion - unit this morning. I'm enjoying my coffee which I made inside my van. Sitting on my milk crate/game board with Ozzie at my feet I sip the dark warm liquid while I listen to NPR news on a borrowed radio (that I repaired by the way). It's Friday. The month of July is half over. At times, time simply flies past. Yes I am still parked on my friend's 20 acres. I love this area and the people that I meet. The small towns and old school businesses are not only manageable but fun too. The weather has been interesting. With some challenging flooded roads this past week. Which kinda reminded me of rainy season in Costa Rica.  I have found out how to get both UPS ...

Home Housing Homelessness Uncomfortable weather - hot or cold, wet or desert dry Cost As well as legal regulations. ... Over the years since I left my parent's home in Eliot, Maine: these issues have been a consistent part of my thoughts. I was not prepared with information or experience out in 'the world'. I didn't understand legal stuff or how to rent and deal with landlords. I thought everyone had to be fair and that they would deal in every situation ethically, honestly and legally.   and when they didn't I was confused and baffled - and when some of those people were family it was even more baffling - its no wonder I became depressed. I have tried on (like shoes - grin) many different living situations. When out of ideas I have even stayed in homeless shelters and tried to live within the system. .working up from the shelter to transitional housing and finally snagging the Section 8 housing.... (by the way - yuk can you say no freedom and no money) My d...

I teach a Personal Project Plan (P.P.P.) Class. Often I chose to teach at a Homeless or Battered Women's Shelter or Mental Health Wellness Center. After my nervous breakdown. ..omgosh 10 years ago this coming September/October. ..I was struggling with how to be okay.  It was odd to have the Doctor apply for Disability benefits for me and I needed the help. I guess I thought that I would work some lesson plan and over time (like maybe one year) I would be okay...whatever okay was/is. A lot has changed in 10 years. I have traveled a lot! I have met many new people and even have learned how to not only meet them but also to develop some lasting friendships. I have relocated from Maine to Times Square NYC to Costa Rica and then to a Nomadic Vandweller lifestyle in the South West.  I recently relocated again to St John's Arizona.  For the past 6 months I have had the companionship of my Yorkie Ozzie. In the past ten years I attempted two relationships with men that didn't las...

Ozzie killed his first pack rat last night. Who was it that told me Yorkies were breed as lap dogs? Check breed history. Rodent hunters!  Yes sir-ie! I buried the kill and rewarded with two doggie chicken jerky treats. Why - because rat poison has been in the area and it is known to 'secondary kill' owls and hawks.

Yup you guessed it. I've been slacking - well not really although on the blogging home front I sure feel like I have. Any day I expect a flood of emails asking if I am alive! I'm writing. It is a blog post. I am alive! Yippie. I know. I do this off and on. Especially when I am in a state of flux....yet what part of life's plans is not written in jello? Don't we all have days or weeks when we thought we were going to_____(fill in the blank) and something greater than us had a sense of humor as well as other plans! I had a lovely Latino family (three young kids & a family dog) move into my peaceful hill top campsite a couple weeks ago. After setting up camp by diesel pickup headlights at 9:30 pm, I rather expected bedtime --- errr humour, it was dinner time! The next morning I woke to a young voice saying Daddy, Daddy drive me to the bathroom! Hurry up Daddy..groggy voices. ..diesel engine (really?) 5:15 am. The threee atvs unloaded the night before not good enoug...

and who's tired now!

Not just a walk...on an actual marked trail! Ozzie is such a trooper. The hike was not particularly difficult or time consuming.  It was however in a National Forest complete with wild turkeys, yup we saw the momma and babies.  Two days ago in this general area I saw an elk - wow they are large. On this morning's adventure we did see signs of recent bear activity - which reminds me of my need to be even more allert to help protect Ozzie. On some of my former hikes if I saw signs of some serious thing I would talk to God and the universe until my anxiety passed. It was a great accomplishment and lots of fun crossing the flowing creek with my fur hiking buddy! Oh and yes it rained quite a lot during the night so Ozzie is kinda damp!

Today's class project. Omgosh this is fun!

Weekly updates really show me how quickly time seems to fly past! Ms Cheri and I spent last week in the same area of Tonto National Forest as we did the week before. It has been a lovely quiet area in a pine forest. I continued my habit of an early morning fire since there have been no fire bans in place. I did need to be careful on hot and windy days. It is so easy for a fire to flare up and get out of hand. I'm very careful and all has gone well. I had my first jewelry making class. Yup it's serious fun! Vantucket had some repairs done in New Mexico last October. A rear axle had become so worn that it was not safe to drive. Hence part of the reasoning behind me selling the Scamp. The axle was repaired with a repair kit. I was so happy to have a driving vehicle again that I soon forgot about how serious a problem it had been. Last month when the brakes locked up and the mechanics could not identify the sticky gunk. ..we cleaned it up and went on with life, careful to pay at...

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Vehicles. Incredible. Wonderful machines. My dear Vantucket is a classic van. She is beautiful. She takes very good care of me. We, Vantucket and I have had many conversations. Yes I talk to my van, probably more before Ozzie came to live with us. Classic vehicles can need a bit more maintenance, mostly because they are getting on in age. A few weeks ago, Vantucket's rear passenger side brake locked up and I had to have her towed to a shop. The wonderful, and now family like, mechanics at Southwest Tire and Auto did their best to figure out what the sticky gunk they found was. They cleaned it well though didn't feel right charging me only for the clean up.  We couldn't repeat the problem.  So off I went..and kept going until this morning. I was driving around town doing errands and felt the odd glitch in that same brake that I had felt just before the brake locked up the first time. ..sooooo I called Mel and had her tell Brian that I was on my way over to the shop. I...