Additions and subtractions

Don’t worry, this blog post will not require that you take your shoes off in order to calculate any additions or subtractions. I came home from that camping trip to Friends Landing to find some new things, new additions, at my home. And I subtracted some things there as well.

First of all, in my mail box was a package that I had ordered … something to try out in the trailer. I’ll tell you about that in just a minute.

Secondly, a little neighbor of mine brought a few new additions to the neighborhood.

Let’s start with my little neighbor. You may remember the bunny rabbit who was hanging out in the planting area right outside my living room window for the past few months. She seemed quite content to hang out there even when I walked past.

She liked the daisies and the azaleas and the Lithodora (the low, dark green ground cover). She even slept in amongst the daisies at night.

She’s over on the left side, resting in amongst the daisies.

The first evening after I got home from the camping trip, it was nice to see that she was still there, right outside my living room window. But my gosh she was lethargic … and my gosh she was fat. What a belly!

Ahhhh, some of you know what’s coming. 🙂

A few days later, I walked out my front door and uncoiled my garden hose in order to water the front lawn when … wow! … zoom, whish, whoosh, whoosh, zinger, zowie … THREE little tiny bunny rabbits ran out from under that Lithodora … they ran in three different directions and they ran fast! Whoa … momma had had three babies! 🙂

The babies were so fast that I never did get a photo of them, not even one of them, much less all three. The photo below is the only one I could get … sigh.

Momma is now back to her normal trim weight. I thought she might leave, but it appears she now considers my front yard to be her safe home. I know rabbits are considered a nuisance in some places, but I still like my little neighbor.

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Now for the next addition … the one that I ordered online and want to try out in the trailer.

Here’s the problem I wanted to solve. There is only one mirror inside the trailer. That mirror is inside the wet bath, on the wall behind and above the toilet, on the wall furthest from the bathroom door. When the bathroom light is on and you are standing inside the bathroom and you are leaning over the toilet trying to look at yourself in the mirror, the light from that bathroom light is behind your head. You can’t really see your hair or your teeth or actually very much of your face. How dumb is that? And if the toilet lid isn’t closed and you drop something … well, you say very bad words … not that I’ve done that very thing of course.

So I wanted to add a mirror somewhere in the main living part of the trailer where there was lots of light and easy (and safe) access to the mirror. I thought about installing a mirror on the outside of the cabinet (below), but I feared what would happen if my installation failed and the mirror fell while the trailer was being towed … shards of sharp glass everywhere.

So I thought about it some more.

And then … while I was in that feed and seed store in Montesano, and poking through all of that horse stuff, I found a mirror designed especially for the inside of horse trailers. The mirror was plastic and would not break from vibration or from falling, and so there was no risk to the horse/s. The package said that a horse who is nervous inside a trailer can sometimes be calmed down if it sees another horse in there as a companion, hence the mirror!

I wasn’t sure about a plastic mirror and how reflective it would be. Maybe it would be fine for a horse, but would it be reflective enough for a human to use? And I still wasn’t sure I wanted it on the outside of that cabinet … would it be the right size to fit there? The price was a mere $17.99 (plus $10 for shipping), so I decided to order one and see if it might work.

It is perfect! It is every bit as reflective as a glass mirror. It does make my face look a tad bit thinner than it really is, but who wouldn’t like that? The mirror comes with instructions for cleaning so it doesn’t get scratched. It weighs a fraction of what a glass mirror would weigh. Because of its light weight, it will stay in place even in a bouncing trailer. It uses two large adhesive strips to hold it in place (the strips are already attached to the back of the mirror). And, while holding it up to the outside of that cabinet door, I got the bright idea of adhering it to the inside of the door, not the outside. I can then open the door and position the door at whatever angle I wish … with the door open, there’s a ceiling light in front of me and a ceiling light behind me. And if the mirror ever does fall off while the trailer is being towed, the mirror will fall into the closed cabinet and not onto the floor. And, if I need to remove the mirror but the adhesive messes with the finish on the door, then having the mirror on the inside of the door means that the finish on the outside of the door remains in perfect shape. Perfect in every way. 🙂

 

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Those were the two additions … new baby bunnies and a superior mirror. And now for the subtraction part of this blog post.

The issue was … there is no water available in the RV storage lot in this community. There’s a derelict house there, and a barn in great shape there, so why isn’t there water? I’ve been asking the maintenance folks here and have suggested to the Board that water be provided for the RVs. But so far, there has been no action.

The trailer needed a bath, to remove (or subtract) an autumn and winter and spring’s worth of dirt and road grime. But getting the trailer to my house (where there is water) could be tricky. My house is at the end of a street, but there is no large paved turn-around area at the end of the street … the street simply ends … there are just the short driveways in front of each home to use to turn around in. And the “street” itself is two lanes only, no parking lanes. So the day after I got back from my camping trip to Friends Landing, I checked with my neighbors to make sure they wouldn’t have any cars parked outside (we all have garages), and then I gathered up my courage and drove the truck with trailer in tow right down the middle of my street to the end of my street. I used the dual driveways of the neighbors across from me to turn the truck/trailer rig around and get the trailer backed squarely onto my driveway. It took a little maneuvering. But I go slowly, and stop when I need to, and think about which angle of approach would be best.

As you can see in the photo below, the trailer is parked perfectly, and the truck is in my guest spot at the street’s end. All that dirt has now been “subtracted” from the trailer and from my life, the wheels are polished and a fresh coat of wax has been applied to the front of the trailer. I also emptied the fresh water tank (there’s a drain in the pavement right in front of my driveway so it was safe to do that), and then I treated the trailer’s fresh water tank with a dollop of liquid bleach, then pumped that through all of the water lines in the trailer, then rinsed and refilled the tank and all the lines with good clean fresh water.

Hitching up and towing the trailer back out the road/street was a piece of cake. Towhee the Trailer is now back up in her storage area and is ready and rarin’ to go on another adventure.

Oh, say, I almost forgot. If you are interested in that plastic mirror that I installed in my trailer, here’s the link … https://www.horsetraileraccessorystore.com/Shatterproof-Mirror-Necessary-for-All-Sports-Enthusiasts_p_90.html.

May all of the subtractions and additions in your life be as wonderful as these three have been in my life. 🙂