New Milestone! 5,555 Posts!

I was just checking my stats for Star Log and here is what it says:

Posts: 5,555

Comments: 969

Categories: 2,424

Tags: 955

 

OMG! 5,555 posts! YAY!

That means this post here must be 5,556. … a 666 is in our near future.

Thought of the Day: Learning From Native Americans

You want to know how to be like Indians?
Live close to the earth.
Get rid of some of your things.
Help each other.
Talk to the Creator.
Be quiet more.
Listen to the earth instead of building things on it all the time.
Don’t blame other people for your troubles.
Don’t try to make people into something they’re not.

~Kent Newborn

The Earth Does Not Belong to Us, We Belong To The Earth. ~ Chief Seattle

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

Thought of the Day: Where will you be 20 years from now? What will you think of what you did today?

Twenty years from now
you will be more disappointed
by the things that you didn’t do
than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.

~Mark Twain

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

Thought of the Day: Are you gathering rosebuds of today or do they wilt while you wait for tomorrow?

One of the most tragic things
I know about human nature
is that all of us tend to put off living.
We are all dreaming of some
magical rose garden over the horizon
instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming
outside our windows today.

~Dale Carnegie

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

Happy Hurricane Day!

It’s here! We’ve been waiting all week for this! The Hurricane Irene has touched down on Old orchard Beach! YAY!

Nothing better than aqua jogging on the beach, during a hurricane Had to cut my daily 2 miles down to a 1/4 mile though the waves were getting taller than me and the wind got to the point I couldn’t walk against them any more. Happily I’m not the only insane person on the beach today – it’s as busy as July 4th down there – only instead of swimming every one is down there video taping the storm! LOL!

Oh and if you are really, really really crazy, the Brunswick Hotel (Old Orchard Beach, Maine) is hosting a Hurricane Party on the beach tonight at high tide – 11:11PM…

Weird – half the businesses are boarded up and stacked with sand bags, while the rest are hosting beach parties. Half the town is evacuated and the rest of us are standing on the beach going “Oooooh look at that wave going over that house…”

There’s a lot of people gathered around “The Hurricane House” this is the first hurricane since they built it…it’s some sort of high tech revolutionary hurricane proof house, the theory being that even if the ocean lifts it off it’s foundation and tosses it out to sea, it will remain intact. There’s a crowd of people gathered praying the flood waters will go high enough to drag the house off it’s foundation, just to see if it falls apart or not.

Watching nature at it’s worst. This is better than going to the movies. We must be the coastal versions of Tornado chasers.

THIS is how I got the nickname “The Sea Witch of Old Orchard Beach”…In 20 years I’ve never missed standing on the shore during a hurricane.

And uhm… the police are on stand by with body bags…that’s always encouraging… LOL!

Did I ever mention my favorite weather is hurricanes?

No kites down there tonight – I think the wind would shread them in an instant! it’s going over 70MPH right now.

Hurricanes – the whole reason I live on a beach

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

Thought of the Day: Are you truly living your life?

We must remember the chemical
connections between our cells
and the stars, between the
beginning and now. We must
remember and reactivate the
primal consciousness of oneness
between all living things. We
must return to that time, in our
genetic memory, in our dreams,
when we were one species born
to live together on Earth as her
magic children.

`Barbara Mor

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

Thought of the Day: Did you stop and smell the roses today?

Next time a sunrise steals
your breath or a meadow
of flowers leave you
speechless, remain that
way. Say nothing, and
listen as heaven whispers,
“Do you like it? I did it just
for you”.

~Max Lucado

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

Thought of the Day: Possessions – Do you possess them? Or do they possess you?

My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions,
but in the fewness of my wants.

~J. Brotherton

In our rich consumers’ civilization
we spin cocoons around ourselves
and get possessed by our possessions.

~Max Lerner

It is preoccupation with possessions,
more than anything else,
that prevents us from living freely and nobly.

~Bertrand Russell

Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens.
If you have them, you have to take care of them!
There is great freedom in simplicity of living.
It is those who have enough but not too much who
are the happiest.

~Peace Pilgrim

Everything we possess
that is not necessary for life or happiness
becomes a burden, and scarcely a day passes
that we do not add to it.

~Robert Brault

To find the universal elements enough;
to find the air and the water exhilarating;
to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening
saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night;
to be elated over a bird’s nest
or a wildflower in spring
- these are some of the rewards of the simple life.

~John Burroughs

The ability to simplify means
to eliminate the unnecessary
so that the necessary may speak.

~Hans Hofmann

I like to walk about among
the beautiful things that adorn the world;
but private wealth I should decline,
or any sort of personal possessions,
because they would take away my liberty.

~George Santayana

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

How to find blogs with similar topics?

1. thequietvoice18
   Member
   Aug 11, 2011, 2:22 PM

   How do you find WordPress blogs that are similar to yours? I tried using the search bar on the top right but it either only gives results for my own blog or it says that there are 0 results in the archive… do you guys just web and forum surf?

My answer:

I click on the tags/categories under my posts and it opens a page with all other posts using that same tag.

I also just search using Google, by going to their search blogs section and typing in the topic phrase

I’m back again. I just checked out your blog to see what your topic was.

Okay, the last post I see, is tagged as:

young-adult, romance, realistic fiction, anna and the french kiss, stephanie perkins, france, paris

by clicking on each of these tags I found:

http://en.wordpress.com/tag/young-adult/ (many, many, many blogs listed)

http://en.wordpress.com/tag/romance/ (again, many blogs, several the same as for the last tag)

http://en.wordpress.com/tag/realistic-fiction/ (only a few blogs using this tag)

http://en.wordpress.com/tag/anna-and-the-french-kiss/ (only a few blogs, but more than the last tag)

http://en.wordpress.com/tag/stephanie-perkins/ (about the same as last 2)

http://en.wordpress.com/tag/paris/ (several blogs, but none really relevant to yours)

http://en.wordpress.com/tag/france/ (same as last tag)

Suggested tags for you to add to this post (to generate more readers):

books, book review, YA fiction

From a quick look at your blog, it seems to focus mostly on book reviews, so you should be using the phrase-tag “book review” in almost every post, but I do not see you using it in ANY post at all, and yet all but 3 of your front page posts should have this tag in them.

You do have very topic specific tags, which match well with each book, this is very good (most book review blogs simply add the tag “book review” and NOTHING else!) You want to try to have a mix of common high traffic tags used by a lot of other bloggers (such as “book review”) as well as very niche topic tags, not commonly used by other bloggers (such as “fluid writing”, a phrase you used in your review). This gives you a wider range of readers.

As a general rule it is best to err on the side of “too many” tags rather than “not enough” tags. The more tags you have the more search results your blog will come up in and the more readers you will get. On my own blog, I try to have no less than 10 tags per post and if I can think of that many, it’s not unusual for me to put as many as 30 tags on a single post. The more the merrier when it comes to tags, but just be sure they are on topic for your post.

But anyways, yeah, tag your posts, than click on those tags, and you’ll see who else is using the same topics as you.

Oh, and I tried using the search bar at the top of the page – it appears that it ONLY searches within whatever blog you are viewing when you typed your search terms. I’m not sure if there is some way to change that in the settings or not.

Hope I explained all this okay and hope it helps you out. Good luck with you blogging!

~EK

EK’s Star Log is expanding it’s massive 1,000+ link blogroll, have you got a blog you want me to add?

EK’s Star Log is expanding it’s massive 1,000+ link blogroll, have you got a blog you want me to add?

I’ve been reading blogs since 1997, and writing blogs since 2003. Star Log is my original, most heavily trafficked (getting thousands of hits a day), oldest, biggest, most posted on, and by far the longest of the 34 blogs I write.

Getting your own blog linked here has been known to send large amounts of traffic to your blog, as my readers are quick to read pretty much anything I recommend. (Ain’t that just great?!).

Well, in 14 years reading blogs and 8 years writing blogs, I’ve read and commented on pretty much every blog out there, and today my blog roll hold a whopping 1,000+ links. I read a lot of blogs and I may be reading yours.

Are you on Star Log’s BlogRoll? No? Want to be? Leave a comment with a link to your blog.

PLEASE NOTE: That today while expansion is underway, several BlogRoll categories will be “off line” – they shall return this weekend, along with their blog links.

This btw, is post 5,507. Glorious!

RV Fultiming "Winter Camping" Questions

I’m not new to “winter camping” or 24/7 year round boondocking. I live in an area that gets 5 to 7 months of snow (more on a “cold” year), and usually spends 2 of those months at temps of -20F to -48F before wind chill factors (and living on the coast, we get a lot of high winds all year long). I lived fulltime in a tent since 2006 (no electricity, no running water, etc), during that time we had 3 blizzards (one which buried my tent under 9 feet of snow), 2 ice storms, and 5 hurricanes. So, extreme winter camping is a lifestyle for me. I love the cold and snow, I avoid the heat and hot climates.

I’m upgrading. I’m moving out of the tent and into a motorhome. I have not bought it yet, but the one I’m planning to buy is a 1988 Class A 31′ Georgie Boy TravelMaster. (Which has already been customized for fulltime boondocking, thus why I’m trying for this one first.) If they sell it before I come up with the cash to pay for it, I’ve got a few “back-up RVs” on my list, all are 1980s Class As. (After spending 2 years going in and out of every new and used RV, MH, TT, 5Th in the state I came to the conclusion I prefer the Class As of the ’80s.)

So, here’s the thing. I’ve never lived in a motorhome before. This is going to be a totally new thing for me (as well as being the LARGEST living space I’ve had in 36 years – I lived in a 16′x9′ beach cabin before the tent.). And me, living in the types of places I like to live I’m going to have to make sure it gets winterized for some heavy duty super cold regions. (Once in the motorhome I plan to spend a lot of time boondocking between Maine, Quebec, Yukon, Alaska, Colorado, etc, exploring the coldest iciest parts of North America – it’ll likely never see a warm day again once I own it!).

So my question is: what the heck do I need to do to my motorhome to winterize it? Does anyone have any advice on “RV Boondocking” in extreme cold regions

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

Woo-Hoo! or Losing weight too fast?

On June 28, I weighed myself for the first time in 5 years and found I had gone from 132 to 182 during those 5 years. I joined SparkPeople and started trying to lose weight later the same week.

I spent the first week tracking my diet and found that for meals (not including drinks or snacks) I was eating 2,300 – 3,500 calories a day!!! And for my height/weight I should be eating 1,200 calories a day. This did not include the fact that I drank 4 to 6 cans of soda a day. I was only drinking 2 – 3 glasses of water a day.

The entire month of July I did not drink any soda, I walked 1 mile a day, I made sure to drink 4 – 6 glasses of water a day, and I was careful to eat no more than 1,900 calories a day.

I decided not to weigh myself for a month to save on stress. On August 3, I weighed myself a second time and was 176. That’s a lose of about 1/2lb a week, which is not great but pretty good. It was an improvement, but I read that we should try to lose 2lbs per week, so I changed things a bit.

For 7 days, I walked 2 miles per day, replaced one meal with a Slim Fast Shake, drank 8 – 12 glasses of water a day, and was careful not to eat over 1,200 calories a day.

Today, August 10, I just weighed myself to see if I had increased my weight lose to 2lbs per week and was shocked when the scale read: 167lbs, for a loss of 9lbs in one week!

Part of me wants to run around screaming Woo-Hoo and part of me wants to go: OMG! That’s way too much too fast it’s not healthy!

Uhm…any thoughts on this? Should I keep going like I did this past week? Or should I go back to what I was doing last month? I mean, I like that I’ve lost nearly 10lbs in 1 week, but I’m worried that it’s not safe to lose it that fast.

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

Answers To Your FullTime RV Living Questions: Where is your legal residence? If you travel fulltime, where do you renew your drivers license and what state to you file taxes in? Do you still need to own property somewhere to be a resident?

Where is your legal residence? If you travel fulltime, where do you renew your drivers license and what state to you file taxes in? Do you still need to own property somewhere to be a resident?

You’ve got several questions rolled in one here, let’s answer each separately, okay?

Where is your legal residence? 

Maine.

Why? Easy. I like Maine. I was born in Maine, raised in Maine, no plans to ever leave Maine. When I do travel (which is rare) I travel with-in Maine, sometimes New Hampshire, a few times Vermont, but mostly just Maine. I’ve been in every town in Maine at one time or another, but I stick to the coast pretty much 24/7, I’m on the beach almost every day, jogging hip deep in the waves 3 hours a day, and for the most part I stay in one place months at a time.

I didn’t become a full-timer to travel. I initially did not become a fulltimer by choice. The lifestyle was thrown on me when a flood took everything I owned, including my house. (Remember what I said about me liking to live on the coast, well, my front door was practically in the ocean.) I was homeless for 5 years, spent that time with the goal of getting back into a house. But than one day that goal just melted away.

I lost everything to a flood. Was quite happy living in a house, had no plans to stop doing so, (well, happy enough, I didn’t really like the tiny 700 square foot house, it was the location I loved) but  than one day there was no house. Lots of water. Lots of rubble. Lots of mud. But no house. I lived in a “home made tent” (a 8×6 tarp thrown over a woodpile) for the next few years. Eventually got a car and lived in that instead, while still also living under the tarp-tent-thing. The whole 5 years I was working towards getting back in a house. Than, after 5 years of “homelessness”, I moved into an apartment, and HATED being indoors. OMG! I had spent those 5 years with one goal: to get back inside a house, only to reach that goal and realize, I really, really, really HATED living indoors! So it was back to the land (which I still owned, but still had no house on it, where the tent-thing still stands to this very day) to try to figure out what to do next.

In my 5 years of “homelessness” I had learned to love living without a house. I had boondocked the whole time: no electricity, no running water, no toilet, pretty much it was like a 5 year camp out – a cold blizzards filled camp out, but a camp out none the less. I learned to love cooking over a campfire. I learned to get up with the sun and sleep under the stars. I got used to my radio station being the ocean waves and the screaming seagulls and the singing songbirds. I had even learned to love living without electricity, without running water, and without a toilet! I couldn’t believe it – I got back into a house and I could not adjust to HAVING these things! All I wanted to do was escape the indoors and rush back outside to be out in nature.  I even got use to dealing with thunderstorms, hurricanes, and blizzards with only a 8×6 tarp for protection! Weird, I know, but that’s what happened. The whole time I was wanting to get back in a house, but I got so used to living off the land, that when I did get back in a house, I couldn’t fathom going back to house living which now feels like a confining prison to me. I had never lived a normal life, and my house lost to a flood, was a 700 square foot 1 bedroom summer cabin, which I had rarely spent much time in to begin with seeing how I was always too busy being outdoors. I basically only slept in the thing. I think I only really lived in a house to begin with, because I felt it was the thing “normal” people did and I was “supposed” to do it. Going into an apartment, showed me just how much I REALLY detested being indoors.

Logic told me I needed a house of some sort, at least to have a dry/warm place to sleep during Maine’s endless rain and snow seasons. And than it hit me: what I needed was a motorhome! It allows me to have a warm dry place during rain and snow and still have the option to live at one with nature. The other advantage of a motorhome is, when the next hurricane, nor`easter, blizzard, or thunderstorm comes ripping up the coast (and one or the other arrives every month of the year) it’s a simple matter of starting the engine and driving my home inland to sit out the storm, than drive back to the ocean once the storm passes. No more worries of floods taking out the house! LOL!

And so I became a fulltimer/boondocker, with no goal of ever traveling at all. Now granted my fulltiming is not the norm, most fulltimers, got their motorhome with a goal of traveling, me, I’m content to stay in one spot most of the time, I don’t move around to much. I don’t particularly NEED a house, it’s just me and my cats, and there’s plenty of room for us in a motorhome. A House has all sorts of expenses, that a motorhome doesn’t have. And with a motorhome, I don’t have to stay just on one beach all the time, I can go from one beach to the next and take my “house” with me. Living in a motorhome just plain made more sense to me, than living in a house.

Thus my “Domicile” is as it always was: Maine, because I love Maine, I love Maine beaches, I love Maine coastlines, I love Maine forests. I just plain love Maine. With a house only one tiny lot in Maine could be my home, now with a motorhome, the ENTIRE STATE of Maine is my home. I still have the land where the house used to be and I’m parked there much of the time. My mail comes there, I vote in that town, I attend that’s towns counsel meetings, yadda, yadda, yadda. It’s where I grew up, it belonged to my parents, my grandparents, my great grand parents…there are no buildings on the land anymore, it’s basically an empty lot, turned into a parking space and garden. I have a garden here, roses, vegetables, fruit trees, it’s only about an 1/8 of an acre…So even when I’m elsewhere, that address remains my “home address” and very likly will remain so the rest of my life.

While reading lots of RV stuff in prep for my motorhome, I noted money (taxes, insurances, etc) to be a major deciding factor for most RVers when choosing a place of residency. I found this quite interesting, because money has never been a deciding factor for me in any of my decisions, RVing or otherwise. But I thought I’d comment on this myself, as it may be of interest to those deciding their own domicile.

Fact #1: Maine is in the Top 10 for being a state with the HIGHEST taxes in the nation.

Fact #2: Old Orchard Beach (my Domicile city) has the SECOND HIGHEST taxes in the state and is among the highest of any town in New England.

Fact #3: My father’s grandfather founded and settled this town over 200 years ago and for most of that time my family pretty much ran every business and government seat in the town.

Fact #4: I have Autism. I was removed from school at age 8. Did not talk for most of my life. Never had any education of job training. I can barely count, let alone to math, so talk of money is generally lost on me. You tell me what I own you and I can count enough to count out the cash I hand you. That’s pretty much my limit of money ability. I require adult supervision and have a difficult time with most things.

Fact #5: The flood that left me homeless, also left me alone. It didn’t just take the house – it took everything and every one, leaving death and destruction all around me. I was 29 years old and both alone and without adult supervision for the first time in my life. I have had to teach myself EVERYTHING since than. I was 34 when I got my GED, and 36 when I got my driver’s license. My next goal is learning how to get a job.

Fact #6: My current income is $2,000 PER YEAR, made from selling my art online via Zazzle.com. I pay my taxes, I register/insure/put-gas-in my vehicles (I also have a Volvo and a 1964 Dodge), I buy food for myself, I buy food for my 12 cats. I have no other expenses.

Conclusion: I rarely use money, I barely understand money, I go for months at a time without money and without the need to spend it either, I make enough to pay for what few expenses I have, and otherwise have no reason to think about money. Thus money is not a deciding factor in choosing my domicile. For me the deciding factor is – I am at home in this town: I know the people, I know the town counsel, I know the businesses, the town is so small I can walk from one end to the other in less than an hour, I can walk on the beach every day, I can hike in the forest every day, there are fewer than 8,000 residents, I am one of less than a 1,000 year round residents, in the winter it’s pretty much just me and the lobstermen.

In Short: this town is my own little Paradise. You can’t put a price tag on that. I chose my place of residence based on the fact that I like this town and for no other reason.

If you travel fulltime, where do you renew your drivers license and what state to you file taxes in? 

I am not the right person to be asking this question to.

First off, let me explain that there are two types of full-timers: Full-Time Travelers and Full-Time RVers.

Full-Time Travelers are on the road a lot. They rarely stay in one location more than 3 or 4 months, and most only stay at each stop for a week or less. They may or may not live in an RV. Some live in cars, some live in vans, some live in trailers, some live in motorhomes, some live in tiny pop-ups pulled by motorcycles, and I’ve meet a few who live out of their backpack while crossing the country on bikes. Some live in their cars during the day and sleep at motels or in tents during the night. They call no place their home and move from one place to the next, year after year.

Full-Time RVers may or may not be Full-Time Travelers. They live in a trailer or a motorhome full time. They may be “Snowbirds” living 6 months in the north and 6 months in the south always parking in the exact same location, which they may either rent or own outright. They may be “Homesteading Boondockers” living off the grid all year long never moving off their land at all. They may be “Part Time Travelers” living in the RV on their own land most of the year and traveling in the RV only a few weeks of the year.

Full-Time RV Travelers are when Full-Time Travelers are also Full-Time RVers.

Me? I am a Full-Time Boondocker, a Semi-Full Timer RVer, and only an occasional vacationing traveler. What this means is this: I live on my own land, without utility hook-ups (no electricity, no running water, no sewer/septic). On dry warm days I live in a tent and on cold, rainy, or snowy days I move into a motorhome. My traveling consists of monthly weekend visits to in-state tourist attractions, festivals, fair grounds, beaches, fishing villages, state parks, etc. I am a Scottish Traveller by birth, race, and culture (note the double “LL”, but I am not a Traveler (single “L”) by life style.

So to answer your question: have a Maine license and I file my taxes in Maine.

Do you still need to own property somewhere to be a resident?

In some towns, in order to vote, you are required to own property and live on it 6 months of the year. Where I live, Old Orchard Beach, Maine, they have this law, but as I live here year round it is not a problem for me.

I know that folks who are Full Time Travelers rarely own property and usually use a service via Good Sam’s or Escappees or some other RV Club, which helps them provide “proof of residency”, though I’m not sure on the specifics of such things and you would have to ask some one who actually uses these services.

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

Answers To Your FullTime RV Living Questions: I want to start full-timing. Who is responsible for paying for stuff? What expenses am I responsible for?

 I’m sorry, but I have to say this seems like a pretty silly question and I’m not sure why it was even asked or if maybe not all of the question was written down? ???

Okay, so you want to go full-time living in an RV and you want to know who is responsible for your expenses? Uhm, hello! YOU ARE!

You want to go full-time living in an RV and you want to know which expenses you are responsible for? Uhm … ALL OF THEM!

Okay, I’m thinking I only got part of the question. So I am going to analyze and deduce and adjust my resulting answers accordingly, to see if I can figure out what it is you meant to ask here.

I can see three scenarios that could result in this question:

Scenario #1) You are a teenager or young adult still living with your parents and getting ready to go off on your own or maybe go to college and are planning to move into an RV for however long. Not having any money of your own you feel it is your parents responsibility to pay for your RV expenses and they disagree with you and so you are now asking me what it is that you are supposed to be paying for on your own and what your parents are supposed to pitch in.

My answer to Scenario #1) : As a teenager or young adult just starting out, it is understandable that you may at first need some help to get by while you are first on your own. Now moving into an RV is a big step for anyone and even more so for someone just starting out on their own. What expenses should you pay for yourself? Ideally all of them. If you do not yet have a job, my first advice is to start looking for one, BEFORE you move out on your own, and than save every penny until you have enough saved up to be able to support your RV lifestyle for 3 months. Than move into the RV and continue to work, while using your savings to pay for the first few months expenses. After this point you should be settled down to a routine enough to know how much your expenses are and be able to live quite well on your income.

Okay, so maybe you do need your parents to pay for a few things to help you get started. But try to be reasonable about it. Think about the expenses you ACTUALLY NEED and do without the ones you SIMPLY WANT. You don’t NEED $50 a month internet access when you can use free Wii-Fi at Starbucks or public libraries, at least not when you are starting out. You don’t NEED $75 a month TV when you can watch free movie and TV show DVDs from your library – you can get by for the first few months without TV. You don’t NEED to start out with a brand new $150,000 motorhome when you can get a 5 year old used one for a $1,000 off Craigeslist.

So you are just starting out, what do you need? The RV for one thing (including registering, insurance, maintenance, repairs, etc.). Food to eat. Water to drink. Gas to get from your parking spot to work. And a place to take a piss. That’s it. Nothing else. Not one solitary thing. Everything else is a WANT, not a NEED. Those things cost me under $150 per month. I live quite well on my $2,000 per year income.

If you are working a regular job, than you are making no less than $7.50 per hour, which is $848 a month if you are working part time and $1,200 a month if you are working full time. And Honey, if you are living in an RV and your expenses are over $200 per month, than something is seriously wrong with your spending habits!

Now if you are still looking for a job, than you may have to ask your parents for help, yes. But don’t just ask for them to pay your bills for you! No! Ask for a loan. Ask for a loan LESS THAN $3,000. You can live in an RV very well, for a year, with $3,000 and by the time that money is gone, you should have a job and be able to both support yourself AND have enough to pay that $3,000 back.

Now …….

Scenario #2) You are a couple about to leave in your RV and the wife is saying the husband must foot all the RV bills, while the husband is saying the wife should, or maybe one of you wants each to pay half and the other disagrees, or maybe one of you wants to pay for everything and is refusing to let the other help out, and so on and so forth. Unable to agree which of you should pay for what you are now asking what I think.

My answer to Scenario #2) : As a couple, this is harder to answer. Lots of factors are involved here. I know some men who absolutely refuse to allow their wives to hold jobs or spend money. I know some wives who are so “independent” that they refuse to allow their husbands to pay a penny for anything. There are couples that divid all bills in half equally. Others each pay for what they use, keeping everything separate. And for each of the above there are dozens of variations in between.

To answer your question requires you look at how you are handling money matters right now. Is your current set up working for you are a couple? If so than there is no reason to change it.

Personally I think it is best for each to pay his own way, and split the stuff you both use. or example, if you put $200 worth of gas in the RV, each of you should pay $100. If only one of you has a computer and uses the internet, than only that person should pay ALL of the computer and internet bills. This is the easiest and most fair solution.

Scenario #3) It could be that you were asking for a list of what expenses RVers have.

My answer to Scenario #3) : Depends on your personal situation and your location, the type of RV you own, how often you are parked, how far you travel, etc.

A quick list of your expected expenses includes:

Cost of the RV itself.

Cost of a tow vehicle, if needed.

Cost of the toad, if you have one.

Registrations, inspections, and insurance for each of the above. (Remember that an RV is a house and needs BOTH auto AND home owners insurance.)

Gas for each of the above.

Oil, batteries, and repairs for each of the above.

Power supply: electric hook-ups, solar panels, wind turbines, generator, propane, etc.

Water supply: tap hook-ups, self contained tank storage, etc.

Food.

TV, phone, and internet if you chose to have any of these.

Any health insurance and medical supplies you need.

Clothing, bedding, furnishings, etc.

If you have pets or children, anything they need.

These are you basic expenses which all RVers have. Anything over that is extras.

Tip:

While it may be tempting to start out in a new RV, keep in mind that a new trailer costs $35,000 – $150,000 and a new motorhome costs $75,000 – $300,000. It is also temping to rush out and get a loan so you can buy a new RV. Stop and think. You’ll be paying for that new RV every month for the next 20 to 30 years. Do you REALLY think you’ll still be living in that same RV 20 to 30 years from now? What about interest? Whatever the price tag is, you’ll be paying nearly twice that amount if you pay via a loan, as a result of 20 to 30 years of interest (and possibly late fees). Think too about resale value. 30 years from now you’ll have a hard time selling your $300,000 coach for $5,000, IF you can even get that much for it. Look around the used lots: those $5,000 motorhomes are only 5 to 10 years old. You can always buy a big/newer/better RV later when you are better able to afford to pay cash for it.

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

Answers To Your FullTime RV Living Questions: What is RV Boondocking? How is it different from just plain Boondocking?

Boondocking is a term that has been around for close to 200 years. It was only recently picked up and used by RVers in the last 15 years.

“To Boondock” by correct, proper, and true dictionary definition, means to live off the land, in an isolated location on the deep far outskirts of society, without electricity, without running/tap water, and without sewer/septic/toilets, and on an very abnormally low income at least 50-75% below the poverty line (generally considered to less than $5,000 per year, per person in the household).

Boondocking means “Living out in the Boonies” or “Living in the Sticks“, or inother words to live outside of town, outside of the city limits, or deep in the woods and swamp regions where the average person does not live.

People “Living out in the Boonies” (a Southern term) or “Living in the Sticks” (a Northern term) are said to be “HillBillies” (in the South), “Hermits” (in the North), or “Mountain Men” (in New England and the Rockies).

Since the above terms are now considered to be culturally slanderous, degrading, hate names, or politically incorrect, the modern term used by the general public today is “Boondockers“, “Hipsters“, and “Hippies” whom are “Living Off the Grid” or “Living Off the Land” or “Living an Eco Friendly Green Lifestyle“. In the 1960s and 1970′s “Hipsters” and “Hippies” were the preferred terms, but since the 1990′s the preferred term has been “Boondockers”.

Terms which have always been considered degrading include: “Bums“, “Tramps“, and “Hobos“.

Boondockers whom own there own land are referred to as “Homesteaders“.

Boondockers whom camp out on publicly or privately owned lands without the permission of the land owners are referred to as “Squatters“. Most states have laws regarding “Squatter’s Rights” which allow the Squatters to camp out on government owned lands for a specified length of time (which varies from as little as 6 hours to as long as 4 months, depending on the local laws.)

In some regions it is a stereotyped myth to assume that all Gypsies, Irish Travellers, and Scottish Travellers are ALWAYS Boondockers.

Traditionally someone who lives “Out on the Boondocks” lives outside of the city limits, often on public land, usually in a densely wooded area where they can not be seen from the road. Often living in huts, shacks, tents, cabins, lean too, covered wagons, trailers, and shanties. If they had a house at all, it was usually abnormally small and often had only 1 room. Usually they lived this way because they were too poor to live in town. Many Boondockers had large families with 7, 8, 10, 12 or more kids, all sleeping in the same bedroom. Some begged for food, some worked in near by mills or mines or fisheries. In areas where several Boondocking families gathered together, became know as “Shanty Towns”, “Hobo Cities”, or “Tent Cities”.

“To Boondock” by correct, proper, and true dictionary definition, means to live off the land, in an isolated location on the deep far outskirts of society, without electricity, without running/tap water, and without sewer/septic/toilets, and on an very abnormally low income at least 50-75% below the poverty line (generally considered to less than $5,000 per year, per person in the household).

And that is the way is has been ever since the late 1700′s through the 1800′s and on into the 1900′s until the late 1980s/early 1990s when WalMart arrived on the scene and gave a whole new meaning to the word: Boondocking.

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Skip ahead to the 1990′s and the arrival of WalMart.

WalMart realizing that RV travelers needed a place to stop and shop and stop and get a few hours sleep between driving, came up with a marketing screme to bring in more customers, by allowing RVers to camp out in their parking lots 100% for FREE. In the beginning, all WalMart’s allowed RVs to park in their parking lots. Some WalMarts even offer hook-ups and dumping stations. All you do is drive out behind the WalMart to the designated RV parking spaces, park, head  in to the service desk, give them your name and info (make of RV, plate number, etc) and tell them how many nights you need to stay. The only thing WalMart requires of you, is that you come into the store each day.

However, while ALL WalMarts allowed RV parking, not all cities give WalMart permission to do so! It is not uncommon in certain places, for the police to wake you up at night and tell you to clear out of WalMart, wither you have permission from WalMart or not. Cities started charging WalMart fines and many WalMarts were forced to tell RVers they could no longer park over night. Fortunatly cities banning WalMart parking were few, and there are still over 400 WalMarts across the country, which welcome RV overnight parking.

Originally there was no limit on how long you could stay in WalMart’s parking lot. Need to park for a week? A month? Six months? A year? As long as you went inside and bought something every day, they did not care how long you parked. Entire caravans would park in WalMart, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 RVs traveling together. They’d pull out their slides, set up their tents and lawn chairs, set up a fir pit, and than every day go into WalMart and buy one .99c item. They’d lay out on beach towles and play loud music and annoy and disrupt WalMart’s regular customers. When they left they often left piles of garbage in the parking lot. They almost ruined it for every one.

Times have changed.

Today, some WalMarts don’t want to deal with the hassle and choose not to allow RVers at all. Most however, ask that you park, but don’t “set up camp”. (In other words – don’t open your slides, don’t pull out your awning, don’t set up a tent, leave the lawn chairs indise, and don’t cook on your grill or fire pit.)  Many now have time limits varying from 1 night to 14 days, often only allowing employees to stay longer periods. Some disallow caravan groups. And if you only rush in and buy a single .99c item each day of your stay, rather than doing your regular shopping there, they may ask you to leave and not let you come back. And remember – if you break too many rules – they took down your name, RV make, and plate number – you could get banned from WalMart nation wide, not just the one you parked in.

Other stores now follow WalMart’s lead and it is not too difficult now to find, shopping centers, malls, gas stations, truck stops, casinos, race tracks, and other commercial businesses which allow RV parking. Rarely will any allow more than a 3 nights stay.

But the result of all of this was a new breed of people who had begun to call themselves “Boondockers” or “RV Boondockers” or “WalMart Boondockers”. Because they were dry camping (without hook ups) while at WalMart, these same folks began to call themselves “Boondockers” any time and every time they parked ANYWHERE without hook-ups. If they parked in an RV Resort and opted to dry camp no hook ups, they called themselves Boondockers, even though they had bumper to bumper people and amenities on all sides. If they are parked in WalMart without electrify, they call themselves Boondockers. In they are parked on the street in the middle of the city, surrounded by apartment buildings, they call themselves “Stealth Boondockers“. If they are in a National or State Park, they call themselves Boondockers.

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And so what is the difference between Boondocking and RV Boondocking?

“To Boondock” by correct, proper, and true dictionary definition, means to live off the land, in an isolated location on the deep far outskirts of society, without electricity, without running/tap water, and without sewer/septic/toilets, and on an very abnormally low income at least 50-75% below the poverty line (generally considered to less than $5,000 per year, per person in the household).

“To RV Boondock” means to live in any location an RV without electricity, without running/tap water, and without sewer/septic/toilets, and gives no regard to income levels.

RV Boondocking, if you want to get technical about it, is not true Boondocking and is actually a slang term for Dry Camping. Dry Camping means to camp in a spot where you do not have access to electricity, running water, or flushing toilets. This covers everything from camping in your RV to the family fishing trip in the tent along side a river. If done only occasionally as a vacation it is considered “just a camping trip”, but if down every day, all year long as a lifestyle than it becomes Boondocking.

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

Answers To Your FullTime RV Living Questions: I can hardly wait to get started! I wish I could sell my house and go right now! Any advice?

I have but one word to say to you:

Rosebud.

I will direct you to the name of my motorhome: Rosebud.

Ever watch the movie Citizen Kane? Yes? Than you know why I answered your question this way. No? Than rent the DVD and watch it today, learn the meaning of the most famous line in movie history:

“Rosebud”

No time to watch the movie? I’ll make it easy on you and sum up what the word “Rosebud” means and why I named my motorhome Rosebud.

I’ll start with a quote from another movie: The Dead Poet’s Society. (When you get done watching Citizen Kane, watch the Dead Poet’s Society, you’ll see the meaning of my answer if you watch both movies back to back.

” Carpe Diem - Seize The Day - Gather Ye Rosebuds while ye may.”

The story of Citizen Kane is this:

On his death bed, a very wealthy, very hated, very old miser, sat starring into a snowglobe than mustered every last ounce of strength he had to say to his nurse: “Rosebud”. Than he feel down dead.

Having no will and no known heirs, his lawyers were convinced that Rosebud must be the person Kane intended to leave his worldly goods to. And so begins the movie as these men dissect every aspect of Kane’s life in search for the girl, the secret wife, the hidden lover, the daughter, the maid, the nurse, someone ANYONE who ever entered Kane’s life, whom was named Rosebud. In doing so they find his diary, and begin reading…the rest of the movie is in flashback, detailing Kane’s life from the day he was born until the day he died and the story goes as thus:

Kane was happy boy, oblivious to the hardships of the world around him: an abusive father and mother who cared only about money.

WATCH THE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE. (4 minute clip)

Time moves on. The boy grows up. In a few short years he is a millionaire. He owns every thing and every one. The more money he gets the more powerful he becomes. Soon Kane is the evilest, wickest, greediest, cruelest, miser in the land – poor people are shattered and crushed in his path as he builds his giant empire of possessions, houses, and wealth.

Late in life Kane is hated by every one. He never married. He has no family. Money and wealth have made him miserable. The more he owned the more unhappy he became. Now he sits alone, sick and dieing and his masion. Unloved. Uncared for. Looking back on a life fill with regret: regret that the young man never carried out his dreams, never did the things he wanted to do as a boy, never had time to find a woman to love, turned his back on everything in pursuit of wealth, and was no sick, alone, and dieing… holding a snowglobe and remembering the only time in his life he was ever happy, his time spent with the mysterious elusive Rosebud.

And so the lawyers come to the end of Kane’s diary, no closer than they were at the beginning of the movie, to find out who this Rosebud was.

Having no heirs, Kane’s vast estates are taken over by the government, and everything considered “junk” is sent to an incinerator to be burned…

I’m not going to tell you the end of the movie, and who Rosebud is, instead…here is the last 3 minutes of the movie, you can watch it for yourself and see who Rosebud was, and why she was so important to this man’s happiness:

WATCH THE VIDEO CLIP ON YOUTUBE (3 minute clip)

Go back and watch the first one again…now the second one…did you see her? Look close and you’ll see Rosebud in both clips.

Okay, so now that you’ve watched those 2 video clips and know who Rosebud is, did you figure out yet WHY it is my answer to your question?

No? Let’s move on to The Dead Poet’s Society than…

John Keating: Mr. Pitts, would you open your hymnal to page 542 and read the first stanza of the poem you find there.

Pitts: [reading the poem title] “To the Virgins To Make Much of Time”?

John Keating: Yes, that’s the one. Somewhat appropriate, isn’t it?

Pitts: GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may, Old time is still a-flying : And this same flower that smiles to-day; To-morrow will be dying.

Keating: “Seize the day. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.” Why does the writer use these lines?

Charlie: Because he’s in a hurry.

John Keating: No. Ding! Thank you for playing anyway. Because we are food for worms, lads. Because, believe it or not, each and every one of us in this room is one day going to stop breathing, turn cold and die.

…(points to 100 year old photos of school boys)…

John Keating: They’re not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they’re destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? – - Carpe – - hear it? – - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.

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And that is my answer, my advice to you:

Rosebud.

Carpe Diem.

Seize the day.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.

Make your life extraordinary.

Do it now. Do it today.

Do not put off till tomorrow what you should have done today.

You say (about fulltimeing and living in a motorhome):  ”I can hardly wait to get started! I wish I could sell my house and go right now! Any advice?”

I ask you in turn: Why are you waiting? Seize the day. You want to sell your house? Than sell it! You want to live in a motorhome? Than get off your ass and go live in a motorhome! What’s stopping you? Money? You can get a $1,000 motorhome off Craigeslist and be on the road in less than a month. Don’t wait til you have $150,000 to buy a new one, start living your life now in a used one, you can move up to a new one after the sale of your house goes through.

Look around at the hopes and dreams and goals you watch fade and die like withered rosebuds every time you put off your dreams and stash them away in your “someday” pile. Don’t let your rosebuds wither and die. Gather them up today while they are still alive and fresh.

How many rosebuds have you gathered today?

Or how about thinking on it this way:

When you are on your deathbed: How many rosebuds will you be wishing you had not let pass you by?

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

Answers To Your FullTime RV Living Questions: Don’t you worry about not having health insurance? What will happen to you if (God forbid!) you’re in a bad accident or come down with some awful illness?

Yes. All the time. But I have Autism, so what can I do? This is not an issue of money, it’s an issue of discrimination. Certain illnesses such as Autism and Cancer bar you from being allowed to buy medical insurance. You have to be in good health BEFORE you apply for insurance and if you were born with one of the disqualifying illnesses, than your parents can’t even get health care coverage for you in your infancy or childhood. Hard fact of the matter is, that in the United States of America children and adults with Autism do not get the medical care they need because both government and privately owned insurance programs refuse to allow them the option to get health insurance. This is why 35% of America’s 2billion homeless adults have Autism…in most cases they became homeless after becoming sick and not being able to afford to pay cash for their medical bills, so hospital collection agencies took everything they own and left them alone to die on the streets.

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

Answers To Your FullTime RV Living Questions: Do you use Coolworks to submit your applications for these jobs? How long does it usually take for responses to your applications? Do you usually apply in more than one place and then choose from what is being offered to you?

Do you use Coolworks to submit your applications for these jobs? How long does it usually take for responses to your applications? Do you usually apply in more than one place and then choose from what is being offered to you?

I was asked this question twice.

Hmmmm…. interesting…. Coolworks you say? Never heard of them. I shall go Google them and find out what they are than get back to you with a better answer, but for the moment, my answer is:

No.

No idea, never used it.

Ditto on the last answer.

What I said for the first 3 questions.

For now I’ll give you a quickie answer on how I DO make money…

I make my income 100% online via writing articles for Squidoo & Associated Content + selling my art/paintings/photography on Zazzle & CafePress + doing online psychic/card readings + I sell crafts/dolls/quilts on Etsy. I make $30 – $600 per month, with the average being $90 – $150 per month. If it was just me alone that income would be more than enough but with pets I need more so I’m trying to get my income up to $300 – $800 per month.

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

If You could ask a full-timer anything, what would you want to know? Questions To Ask Yourself Before Moving Into an RV & FAQ About Full-Time Living in an RV…. Your Questions Wanted….

As you know this blog is still new and far from being “ready for readers” and has a long way to go before it catches up with my most popular blog “EK’s Star Log” which as of today has 5,483 posts (since 2003), 183,000+ unique visitors, hundreds of subscribers and 7,000+ regular readers. Star Log is where I do my random anything-goes yapping, as it is my “personal” blog, and unlike my other 34 blogs does not have a specific topic.

However, unlike Star Log, Houseless Living is a blog with a focus and a single topic: Houseless Living, with subtopics including such things as homelessness, workamping, boondocking, full-timing, camping, living in tents, cars, vans, trailers, boats, or motorhomes, etc. I’m still working on the bugs in the layout, as there is a glich somewhere causing the blog to load slow and not load certain posts. Seems to be an html error which can take a while to fix as it required reading the code itself.

ANYWAYS…while I’m doing that, I thought I’d get ready to get the “on topic” posts started, and do so by sending out a request to my Star Log readers and asking you to ask me questions on the following topics:

Questions To Ask Yourself Before Moving Into an RV

 FAQ About Full-Time Living in an RV


Answers To Your Motorhome Questions


Answers To Your FullTime RV Living Questions         

Answers To Your FullTiming Questions

Answers To Your Boondocking Questions 

If You could ask a full-timer anything what would you want to know?

A few I thought up so far include:

Would I Be Happy Living In An RV For An Extended Period Of Time?


How do you pay for this lifestyle? What type of work do you do?


How do you survive cold New England winters in a motorhome?


How can you survive in such a small space?

So, leave a comment here (or elsewhere on one of my many social network accounts) and tell me what questions you have, and I’ll try to answer as many as I can by using them over the next few months as topics for my blog posts.

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat










Answers To Your Motorhome Questions, FAQ About Full-Time Living in an RV, Questions To Ask Yourself Before Moving Into an RV, Full-timing, Fulltimer, Motorhomes, Living in an RV, Living in a Motorhome, RV Living, RV Lifestyle


Answers To Your Motorhome Questions, FAQ About Full-Time Living in an RV, Questions To Ask Yourself Before Moving Into an RV, Full-timing, Fulltimer, Living in an RV, Living in a Motorhome, 

Some Thoughts On Living in Small Spaces…

I grew up in a beach cabin. 7 people. 8 dogs. 9 cats. 3 birds. In a 1 bedroom beach cabin 16 feet long by 9 feet. This sort of thing is not unusual in my town, which is a tiny Maine beach resort with 8,000 residents. More than half the houses in town are under 1,000 square feet, many under 300 square feet. Ours was one of the larger houses. Behind our land is an RV resort with 400 lots, beside them is a “hide a way” campground with 225 lots. Across the street and down away is the largest of our towns 30 RV parks, which has 725 lots. Many people in these parks are fulltimers. So, I grew up with the “small living lifestyle” and growing up in this town, I was well into my 30s before I realized that the year round residents of our town were sort of considered as freaks to the rest of society, seeing how the entire community was made up of families living in homes smaller than the average family’s bedroom! In fact I was shocked to learn that people ACTUALLY LIVED in houses that were bigger. (You can tell I had never been outside of this town. Also I have Autism, so I’m not prone to thinking about what other people do much.)

Anyways. May 9, 2006, a flood came home and took the house with it. I was surrounded by death and destruction and found myself alone. Just me, 2 dogs, and 9 cats. Me with Autism and having no idea how to do pretty much ANYTHING.

I stayed on the land, but having no house, I lived the first few years under a 8×6 tarp. I eventually got a Volvo and lived in that for the next couple of years. I am currently in the process of buying a motorhome, and should be moving into it this fall. A 31′ Class A from the 1980s, it’ll be my BIGGEST home yet – at 31′x9 ‘ it is almost twice as big as the 16′x9′ house I grew up in, and it’ll be just me and the cats, in the house I had been one of 7 people.

When I tell people about my motorhome I’m buying (for $3,000) and how it’s like moving into a mansion for me, they respond wit: “That tiny thing? You call that a mansion? What the heck did you live in before?”. Than they laugh and tease me about it. Well, I don’t care what they say. I’m glad I’m getting this motorhome. Having all that living space available for me and the cats is going to make HUGE improvements in my life. I can’t wait to move in.

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

Why I no longer read/watch the news…

I used to read/watch the news. Than in around 1983 my dad got a new job – at the local newspaper. Suddenly the news was EVERYTHING. We had months worth of free newspapers stacked all over the house (research?). All the local newspapers were stacked on the table, on the chairs, on the floor, in the car. I was a teenager at the time.

Well, before this point, my reading newspapers was as such: I started with the comics, went on to the advice columns, checked out the book/movie/theater/restaurant reviews, read the obituaries, than scanned the headlines to see if any news of interest caught my attention (stuff involving pets, nature, animals, local businesses, etc). Wars, sports, stocks, earthquakes, death, shootings, those things bored me, so I avoided them. (I was a kid, what did I care about that “adult” stuff?)

Skipping ahead. My dad worked for the newspaper for 21 years. In that time my life became filled with the darkest side of mankind – murder, war, illness, starvation, shootings, drug raids, more murder, this group hates that group, riots, death, violence, bloodshed…and all because every day the only conversation any one in the house had was, “Let’s see what’s going on in the news today.”…”What article will be in the paper tomorrow?” Etc, etc, etc. News, crime, war, hate, death, became the only topics discussed over dinner, around the tv, in the garden, on the beach…in short news, esp really bad news, became the only thing the family cared about, all day, every day. There was no break from it.

Granted it was understandable, I mean it was my dad’s job and all, but I just plain got sick of it. I found the whole thing morbid and depressing. News seemed to focus only on the bad things, glamorizing and glorifying hate and bloodshed. It made me sick. It made me depressed. It made me hate the news.

Today, many years later, as an adult, I do not read the newspapers or watch the news reports. I do read the tiny community papers still, you know the type which give updates and reviews on local businesses and the results of last week’s town counsel meeting and who planted what in their garden last week, how many lobster old George brought in last night, that sort of thing, but world news? BAH! World news can drop off a cliff for all I care. It’s too depressing for my tastes. I have better things to do with my time than focus on morbid world events.

I became homeless after a flood in 2006. I have not had a TV since. Life without TV = freedom. More time to do more things.

Life without TV News = antidepressant. Less worry about what is happening to people in places I’ve never heard of, less worry about the US economy. I remember when I first heard about the 9-11 attack…what really, it did? When? Than there was the Iraq War… what, when did we go to war again? That many years ago? Huh. First I heard of it.

It’s weird, but these BIG events that people worry and fret about (and years ago, I too worried and fret about), I now find out about them 4 or 5 years after they happened, and I can look back on them and think…boy am I glad I didn’t know about that, it certainly didn’t effect my life and I would have been so depressed with worry had I known about it.

My life has been much better (emotional health wise) since both news and TV have been removed from it.

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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat