During our 14 1/2 years of a bliss-filled marriage, we have lived in about 12 different places. This trailer was one of them. No, it was not my favorite dwelling – but it is in our history of ‘places’ God has led us to.
Today I am VERY ,VERY ,VERY thankful for a roof over my head. Specifically, a roof that is bigger than 30 x 8 ft.
Our family of 7 plus a dog, lived in this trailer for a total of 10 months, while we built the house we now live in.
The story below is not for the faint of heart, so read at your own risk !!
This is where we live now. Where is the snow you ask? Well this is a picture from August and shows the trailer in the background. Right now I feel like saying that I would never ever live in a trailer again – but every time I say things like that, awful things happen.
I show you this so that you don’t feel too bad when you read the story.
We had been living in the trailer for about 7 weeks since moving up from So Cal November 8th, 2008. Yes election day when Obama won. Well, the temperature dropped to a frigid -10′ f (-24’c) and needless to say everything froze – me, the pipes, the dog, me, the water hose, the septic tank (yuk), and me. I’m not a fan of the cold! We believed we could make it through, since the electric company was coming to put in all the power poles to ELECTRIFY our property.
During those 7 weeks we had been trenching 3-4 ft down for the water pipes and the power lines from the well and panel to the house. This was no small job for dummies like us – may I add we also have HARD pan for dirt – emphasis on HARD. We broke one trencher and ended up having to pay an expert to finish the job. Note the pathetic attempt at trenching on the left, and the painted line for the real trench on the pic.
This is a real trench. So real even my sleepy dog Amber had to check it out and a couple of the boys wanted to fall in head first too.
Not sure what’s going on to the right here. Maybe trench fever? I don’t even know this man. We put in all the wires, conduit, and pipes and then BY HAND filled in around the pipes with a foot of gravel. ……… Those dots are because I still feel the pain of loading the wheelbarrow one million and three times, or so. Then a lovely man came and filled in the rest with a machine.
Are you still with me? Back to the frozen pipes. It was a momentous day looking forward to no more generators running 24/7, no more hum driving us crazy, no more runs to the gas station, and no more filling the generator up in the middle of the night to keep our little ones from freezing. Or so we thought.
The day had come for the electric company to put in the last pole to hook up the power to our panel – only a few more minutes now! We had to shut all power to the trailer down while all this was going on and now it’s 4.30 pm getting colder and darker. No worries, THE POWER WILL BE ON SOON. They leave, it’s done, and we are about to plug in the trailers to the new RV hook-up. The kids and I are in the trailer – my hubby is the switch guy. Let’s go!
BANG – did you hear that? What happened? Well, the kids and I shot to the floor like we were under attack.
Oh well – let’s try the switch again. By this time, we are REALLY freaking out.
BANG – WITH SMOKE – YES – SMOKE!
You may have guessed, we had blown the converter. That is the thing that converts AC power to DC power for the trailer. At this point, I have to confess, I was at my wit’s end. After realizing our electrician had wired the RV hook up so that 240 volts were going to a 120 converter, we saw the snow shower had turned into a snow blizzard.
“TAKE EVASIVE ACTION,” I heard my hubby say. Thank you Lord I have a guy who can think in a straight line at times like this. Times like when we blow things up! We threw all the kids in the car with the heat on as it’s now -4′. With a flashlight, because the power has gone in the trailer batteries by now, I frantically gather a few things for our quick exit and overnight excursion to somewhere with electricity!
We left. The snow had turned into a driving Bonanza blizzard. My fourthborn will not stop asking questions. I think I lost my mind about here. I cried all the way to town – 35 miles – which took over and hour in the storm. Everyone was now silent. Our power day had turned out to be a blackout.
So I say,” Let’s go to Motel 6.” (read- CHEAP)
“We are going to the Shilo Inn”, says hubby. (read- most expensive hotel in town)
We check in and collapse in a suite five times the size of our trailer and I think, “WE ARE DOOMED”. Everyone took a much-dreamed-of shower, after 7 weeks of sharing 6 gallons of hot water between 7 of us. One of us even fell asleep in the bathtub!!
I was still a little upset and before falling asleep I wept into my beloved’s ear, “I just want to go home, honey.” To which he replies,
“We don’t have a home!”.
I weep more.
Christmas was a week away.
THE END
Never fear – God took care of us! It all worked out better in the end! The next day, we rented a house nearby for the next 3 months, moving back after the winter to finish up the house. We spent $500 to fix the converter and everything unfroze just fine. And despite the emotional scars regarding living in trailers, plugging in RV’s, driving in snow blizzards, and smoke filled confined spaces -I’m good, really I’m good. The pictures below are Christmas day.
Today, I am very thankful for this home and all the other 12.
P.S. Anyone want to buy a trailer – it’s hardly been lived in!
