Winter Lessons

Happy 2015 Everyone!

We teeny tiny living folks spent almost 2 weeks in California over the holidays.

Flying into this city...

Then driving up along the Californian Coast

Playing lots of frisbee with this guy

Aaah... Sunset on the beach

Frolicking in wine country chasing a dog with a stick

Eating lots of yummy homemade food

At the end of our adventures, we came home to this:

SNOW!!!

In the spirit of energy efficiency and cost saving, we thought it was a good idea to turn off all the heat while we were away.  Um... it was not such a good idea...  When we got back our place was a bit chilly...

It was minus 2 degrees Celcius (about 28 degrees Fahrenheit)

Everything liquid in the bus was frozen... including the dish soap!

Warming up with the stove while we waited
for the heaters to warm up the bus.
The great thing about living in a small space
is that it took less than an hour to get the bus
to a comfortable temperature.

And despite tBoy draining the water pipes before we left... the pipes were frozen too.  The last times we had frozen pipes (twice), it was only the shower, but this time, even the kitchen sink pipes were frozen :(!  We were somewhat puzzled because we had already fixed the "problem spot" at the beginning of last winter... but there was not much we could do other than wait for warmer temperatures. So in the meantime we went to our friends' place and hung out a lot in their hot tub and showered at their place (which was not so bad actually!)  Thanks D&K - you guys are the best!

Then one day while tBoy was out shooting his bow, I heard a strange sound and looked for it... And as soon as I realized that a small spray of water was coming out of the pipe under the kitchen sink, it became a BIG spray!  And soon, it was making a puddle in the kitchen!  Eeks!!  I called tBoy and tried to find the water valve under the bus (unsuccessfully) so I came back onto the bus and took out every towel we have on the bus (not many!) to mop up as much water as possible.  Thankfully tBoy was close and a fast runner and managed to shut off the main water valve quickly.  And then we did some investigating...

It turns out that the water pipe under the sink burst because the guy who did our plumbing put in the frost free valve upside down!  It's not so useful that way.  Because it is inside the bus, it has not been a problem, since we never had freezing temperatures in the bus... until now.  So, off to the big orange box store tBoy went.  He is becoming quite the handyman!  Problem fixed and mystery solved!

Speaking of not heating your house in the winter (BAD idea)... we learned that fridges do not know how to exist in subzero temperatures either.  Because it was cold in the bus, it looks like ours didn't turn on... so the food in the freezer defrosted.  Luckily most of our frozen food is in the big freezer that is outside the bus, so we didn't lose too much food.  But another lesson learned!

As for 2015...

We are getting a new member in our teeny tiny family...

Meet Naïa... named after les Naïades... mythological fresh water nymphs... and to flow in Greek.  We crossed the Pacific Ocean to an island to choose her from her litter that was born along a river.  She will be coming home in 2 weeks!  Don't get deceived, this small-ish puppy will grow to be about 50lbs.  So stay tuned to see how we include Naïa in our 200-sq. ft. home.

ttDog is not so good at sharing,
so we'll see how good she will be with her new sibling!

And also...

We are looking for land to call our own...

Checking out some land with friends...
(during a snowstorm, that's how keen we are!)

Land for sale...

Didn't we say that land was too expensive?  Well, it still is.  But we have a new idea :)!  More to come on that in the next post (I promise).  For now, tBoy and I are off to meet with the bank!

Today' is tGirl's mom's birthday.
Happy Birthday Mom!!!
And good-bye for now everyone :)!