There's a sadness around our little cabin community at the lake. It's a beautiful, cold, sunny day, but it's just not the happy place it usually is.

The matriarch of our neighborhood was diagnosed with a very rare disease just prior to Christmas. She's no longer in danger but she'll be in therapy for a long time. As a result, she and her husband haven't been at their home here for two months. It's lonely without them.

And the neighbors across the road from them haven't been here much either since they are her son and daughter-in-law. It's lonely without them as well.

A huge part of the sadness comes because our adorable little 6 year old neighbor at the lake had a malignant brain tumour removed last weekend and will be in chemotherapy and radiation treatments for months. It's really unbelievable that this could have happened to her, but she is blessed with the most smart, loving, giving parents and brother who ever existed. She has everything going for her; she's tough, happy, energetic and bright. But it's too quiet without them.

The couple who have the cabin up the hill from us haven't been at the lake very often over the past few months either. She's recovering from a recurrance of cancer but we hear she's doing very well. Our dogs miss their dogs.

Even though it's well below freezing today, there's a little something in the air that's hinting spring may be on its way soon. When the flora and fauna come back, we hope our neighbors can as well. It's lonely and quiet without them and we send them our thoughts and prayers daily.

The First Trip in The Dog House

Our first trip out in the new RV trailer, called the Dog House, was to Jackpot, NV, a small casino town just over the Idaho border. It took us almost two days to get the trailer packed up and ready to go, loading in kitchen things, bath items, dog stuff, clothes, etc. Seems we needed to make severaltrips to Fred Meyers and Bed, Bath and Beyond to purchase things we had no idea we needed. And food, of course, but just the basics: cereal, egg beaters, spray butter, bread, coffee, cans of soup. Naturally, we threw in some tortillas and cheese in case we just had to have quesadillas. Really? We’re going to Jackpot where there are all-you- can eat buffets, steak and seafood restaurants, and we have to take soup and quesadillas?


Doug loaded in a case of bottled water, which I thought was overkill since we had 60 gallons of H2O on board. But the first time I took a drink of the trailer water, I spit it out. Apparently, since it’s new, it takes awhile to get the plastic taste out of the system. Boy, did I appreciate that bottled water!


Our RV bed sheets arrived just before we left. We put our featherbed over the ridiculous excuse for a mattress that came with the rig, and the RV sheets and a blanket over top. Doug just insisted we buy a heating blanket for the bed, which I thought was silly. We didn’t put it on the first night and almost froze. Seems the bedroom door to the outside wasn’t actually latched, not to mention not being locked! But we didn’t figure it out until the next morning. Let’s just say, the first thing we did was put the heating blanket on the bed!

Speaking of the bed, Piper, the smaller female schnauzer, sleeps on our bed at home. Riley, the larger male schnauzer, sleeps on the chair in the bedroom. In the RV, there are two carpeted steps on each side of the bed instead of night tables. No idea why. Piper can jump up on anything but since the steps are there, even Riley can come right up. So, the first night, in a small bed, we had two dogs. They were cold too, so they slept right on top of us. Another epiphany! Doug had thrown the dog bed in the RV outside storage area, which again, I thought was a silly thing to bring in such a space-starved vehicle. We put their bed down the second night and didn’t have dogs in the bed until around 6AM, again because they got cold.


So, a big two night trip for our first outing. Just right, I’d say. Long enough to get used to pulling the trailer, setting it up, using the various appliances and fixtures, working the kinks out of the sleeping arrangements, acclimatizing the dogs, practicing departure procedures, stowing the rig back in storage. Now we’re actually ready to go somewhere!