Boondocking tip #17 - How to Have the Desert to Yourself

The BLM area across the road hosts five rigs ...



... while we are alone.

We've moved on again

about 200 yards.  Weather people - those pranksters - predict high-90's by Saturday, and I know you have not forgotten the citywide yard sale that we must stay for.  Our old site was quiet, but very sunny for several hours each day.  Our new place is tree-ish (piney), but has cicadas just like the old place.  

 

 I think that horsey people like our new spot, and I don't expect to be as secluded as we were this morning, where we were unexpectedly chatting with three hunter gentlemen and their dogs while we washed and hung out our panties.  The men were pleasant and charming and talked about sun tea, cicadas, beagles and NOT our flashy summer short johns. We pretended they were not the showiest things they had seen since Mabel Louise got drunk on the turned apple cider at the church picnic and showed her foundation garments to God and neighbor. 

 [Picture in your own mind]

Once you get started on a chore, you can’t stop for every camouflagioed visitor who wanders by with a dog.

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You also can’t go through today without me telling you that I turned 50 this morning during my second cup of coffee.  I should have stopped at one.  Fifty is the jewel-encrusted netbook birthday.

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Marianne, from Frugal RV Travel, has added us to her blog roll.  This is an honor, because it was her blog that I found early on in our planning and realized we could stay in beautiful places for free.  That's what made us think about making the Duck a bona fide boondocking rig.  Her site is a wonderful combination of tips, ideas, and resources for making this lifestyle work without a huge income;  you should go look around.  Marianne has also written a series of guides to lesser-known beautiful boondocking sites in the Southwest.  If you forget her link, it's listed here under "Boondocking Resources."
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We've been in this area for nine days, and we've fired up the generator once, for no particular reason.  We use battery power for lights, water pump, fans, and iPad charging. I don't think we had a real grasp on how far our power would go, because it always went.  This seems to mean that 80+% of our power was going to letting the LP detector blink and keeping the solenoid open.
~~~~~
Getting, using, and keeping connectivity is the trickiest part of my world.  I can write a blog post on iPad ... sort of ... and upload it anywhere we have 3G, which is a lot of places.  I can't add pictures that way.  Or, if my computer has a charge, I can write it in email and queue it up until I get my next wifi fix, but I can't add pictures that way, either. It's only with my trusty laptop connected to some good old wifi, or tethered to Annie's phone, that I can compose a post with visual aids.  Tethering drains my computer fairly fast, so if I've got something to say, I'd better make it snappy.


Today I'm loitering in the public library which offers:

• free wifi
• free charging
• quiet
• air conditioning
• bathrooms
• drinking fountains
• open bar

You'd think more people would be living here.  I'm thinking if I mention my birthday they'll bring me cake.

More of what we got into without supervision.

Kerr Reservoir.

 

Off-grid laundry is faking a curtain call.  We like this Wonder Washer a lot (thanks, Maggie!).  I believe the instructions begged us to use warm water;  our hearts were as cold as the water we washed in.

The wringer we bought from GetPreparedStuff.com.

Our solar dryer.

South Hill, Virginia, treated us pretty well.  They don't seem set up for RVers in general, but we ran into some very accommodating people.  Some things you might like to know, if you come here:

 Free wifi:

• public library (inside and out)
• Chamber of Commerce, outside the building in the 2 hour free parking 
• Food Lion parking lot (just outside C&M Tobacco the signal is awesome)
• Denny's 

We logged into all of these easily with our booster.  CoC and library signal was so strong we probably didn't need it.

Public library had some books set out for sale.  Not sure if it was a Friends of the Library situation, or something they do all the time.

Tom and Aubrey at Advance Auto Parts were very helpful.  They gave Annie a discount because she was patient, let us fill our fresh water tank from their city water spigot, and let us park in their lot while we walked around town.  I'm not saying they do this all the time, but if you're in need, I'd say go ahead and ask.

Propane at Parker Propane on 58 between Boydton and South Hill.

Public dumpsters off Rte. 4 at the corner of China Grove and Buggs Island (Rte 4) Roads, just outside the WMA entrance.  Next to Buggs Island Boat Co.

We didn't find a Super WalMart in South Hill, but we did find this:

We went in, because how could we not?  I wanted to take inside pictures really hard.  Miscellaneous grocery items were heaped up on tables.  One item would be recognizable to people who speak Spanish, but none of them was me so I don't know what they were.  My guess is tiny whole pears, but that's always my guess.  Piles of damaged cereal boxes.  Soda, dented cans of vegetables, noodles, big bags of rice.  We chose a canned ice tea and a tomato, and when we checked out, the cashier told us we could have this other tomato with a spot on it.  Where do I sign?  Because, seriously.  How can we talk the frugal talk, then turn down a free 98%-good tomato?  

If you're here in South Hill, face it:  there's not a lot on your agenda.  So, while you're walking around town, I implore you to visit the Tobacco Museum on W. Main Street.  I can't even imagine how lonely that curator's job is.  You'll see a 15-minute video produced by Philip Morris, but you will learn stuff, I swear it.  You'll hear phrases like "supplemental contract workers."  You'll hear the difference between Bright and Burley tobaccos.  Afterwards, the curator will guide you around the museum to show you turn-of-the (20th)-century tobacco farming equipment.  He let us try the metal dowsing rods.  Upstairs there was a small daily-life museum from the era.  At the end of the tour, you'll feel obliged to donate a couple of dollars, but you would just have spent that money on cigarettes anyway.

Afterwards we had a weird craving to smoke.

We'll leave today.  The Dick Cross WMA gets 4.75 stars, dinged for ticks.  This is a largely deciduous forest, so I imagine it would be beautiful in Autumn, and the plus side is that major tick season ends in September.  See ya later, forest!

I complained to my friend, David B., about all the diseases I could contract from tick bites.  He wrote me a song - catch it next time!

Update-iness

It's been a week since Annie quit working, so no more coddling. From now on, she has to get something done.  Ahahahahahaha!   Right now she's heating up my coffee: satisfactory.

Happy Spring!  Last night we got One Billion inches of snow and the world stopped.  March can kiss my saggy behind.

Annie is researching tires for the Duck.  I think she has come to a decision, or at least the decision is in semi-finals.  I hope she'll write about it, because if she leaves it to me things could get ugly.  For example:

Tires, by Roxanne ("Le Canard") 

Tires are important!  Invented sometime after the wheel, tires are more than just elegant lawn accessories.  Tires hold air and are way better than driving without themselves.  If your tire goes flat, you will notice that things feel funny.  If it goes flat FAST, you will notice a reduction of driving control all of a sudden and people will honk at you. 

I have been using tires for a long time now.  I have not changed a tire, but I have hired AAA to change a tire in my presence.  My mother always said, "It's better to have enough money to pay someone else than to learn to do it yourself."   

Tires are usually black, but I don't know why.  It is the 21st century, and I don't know why we can have iShuffles in 14 colors but only black tires.  Oh, and tires are rubber.  That's why I know they're safe.

If you don't want to see this sort of thing, tell Annie to write about it.


Grant from Get Prepared Stuff wrote to me again.  The dream lives!  I have asked him to send me the discounted wringer, so Get Prepared for a whole LOTTA laundry blogging.  [Get your cursor AWAY from the "unfollow" button.]

Three things that work as advertised.

I get tired of feeling cynical about commercial products, but they just won't give me a break. Or, they break. Here are three exceptions that I'm feeling pretty good about right now:

Fujitsu ScanSnap


Light, portable, and extremely intuitive. You can process your image any way you want it, right on the spot. Send it to iPhoto? You got it. Email it? Done. Several pages of a document? No problem, tell it when you're finished and it'll make it one file. I processed thousands of paper photos to digitize them, and I would have done it in half, maybe one-third the time with this puppy. Bus-power gives it extra ♥♥♥.

[Disclaimer: Annie bought this, and I just now choked up a little when I saw the price. Still, if you want a quick, small and convenient way to deal with paperwork on the road, I stick by my recommendation.]



Canon Pixma iP100 mobile printer

It's billed as a travel photo printer, but does a bang-up job on regular print jobs, too.  I have to print several times a week, and lugging our old HP up and down from the overhead storage was oppressive.  Losing my grip and dropping it on a cat was never popular.  It's light (made to be portable), but does the job well.  Not bus-powered, unfortunately, but I can't have everything.  Doesn't scan, but see above.




Mini countertop spin dryer


This is small, but effective.  I got this after I led you through a madcap laundry day in the Duck, and I like it a lot.  It isn't a dryer, as the description reminds you, but clothes come about halfway between just out of the conventional washer and completely dry, after two minutes of spinning.  Downside:  it doesn't hold a lot at once.  A pair of jeans, or three shirts.  But, if you like to do your laundry as you go, or you don't dirty a lot of clothes, this "downside" turns into an advantage, because its compact size makes it easy to hoist up onto the counter for a quick wring.

Another "downside" for me is that it isn't manual, so a little electricity is required.  It uses a nominal 0.75A, so if you ran it for an hour you'd use about 0.75Ah, or (for the gridlocked) 0.08 kwh.  Each 2 minute spin would use 0.003kwh.  If you pay 13¢ per kwh, like we do here, that would cost you 0.04¢/wring-a-ding (someone check my math).

If you get one, do read the instructions.  Especially the part about removing the shipping brace on the bottom.  If I hadn't seen a video it wouldn't have occurred to me to flip it over and take that thing off.

I haven't given up on getting a hand-wringer.  I emailed my man, Grant, at Get Prepared Stuff, because he offered me a used mangle at a good price, and I wanted to take him up on it.  Tragically, I never heard back from him, so I think our brief affair is over.  Some other woman is fondling the mangle that should have been mine.

Using a duck with a wringer.

You may think you're done, done, DONE with the washing subject and good riddance!  You may want to avert your eyes for a minute.  Better plug your ears, too, just in case.



Remember Grant, the Get Prepared Stuff guy whom I may be getting a little crush on?  He wrote more about the wringer, AND he's giving Good Luck Duck readers a coupon.







Grant sent me this link illustrating wringers on RV bumpers and other examples of Aussie ingenuity.  He also says about the Best Hand Wringer:

Not to back track from what I said in my last reply but if it came across like the wringer was of no value without a firm location to attach it to, I need to clarify that the wringer still works and will get considerable amounts of water out of clothing, it just won't be the best it could be and I don't have any real data other than to say it does pretty good.

 In explaining the items I have available for purchase I try to set expectation so you know what you are getting.  However, I've been known to talk people out of a good purchase simply because I've erred on over explaining the minuses while not explaining that the pluses could still out weigh the weaknesses. 

 A wringer even attached to a rather insecure bucket or tub will get enough water out of clothing to shave hours and even days off of air drying your laundry. That in and of itself could be worth it's use.  My hope is that people simply understand that it's a different process to wring clothing compared to an electric washer's spin cycle and the results can be much different depending on the clothes or material being run through it, how the wringer is located, how tightly you run the rollers and how much effort you want to put into turning the handle.  There are good reasons why wringers were gladly replaced by a washers spin cycle but I've not found a manual hand powered option that works any better than a wringer.

  My marketing as you've seen is still a lot to be desired but I'll attempt to at least help your readers somewhat and offer a $10 discount if they purchase a wringer and rapid washer together.  They will need to use Google checkout and type in: thegoodluckduck where it asks for a coupon.  They would need to purchase the items from the getpreparedstuff.com site. 

 I'll keep the coupon active for as long as possible but if the internet coupon sites pick it up I may need to turn it off.

 All the best,  

-grant

So, there you go.  He is also offering me a returned one in good shape for a decent discount - what should I do??

Something good may have fallen into place over the past week.  I mean GOOD.  It's not a done deal yet, but it's pretty close.   I should go ahead and tell you, because I'm not superstitious, but that might jinx it.  Better wait.

Mangled.

I've been looking at this hand clothes wringer, and I went looking for the owner of the company who sells them, Get Prepared Stuff.


His name is Grant, and he was extremely responsive to my questions and comments. Here is what he says about the wringer:

Thanks Roxanne,

The wringer is a good product and I've sold a lot of them unfortunately the cost is rather high and the two people that have commented were those that had less than stellar experiences with it.

The wringer is made in the USA from a design that hasn't changed in close to 80+ years. As far as a wringer goes it works quite well but the problem many have is that it doesn't work well on certain clothes such as jeans, overalls or other such clothing items that have buttons, zippers, snaps that bind up on the wringers rollers and prevent them from really "squishing" the water out around those areas of the clothing.

Wringing is a two step process where you run the clothing item through once to get a good amount of water out and then you tighten down the wringer even more and run the clothing through a second time which gets the most water out. This second time through is essential but it is the hardest to do for jeans and those types of clothing mentioned earlier because the tightness of the rollers prevent those clothing articles from going through without loosening the rollers over the rough spots.

The other problem with wringing is the stable and firm platform needed to clamp the wringer onto. When you tighten the rollers as tight as they should be the resistance to turning the handle on the wringer is quite stiff and it takes a good amount of torque to turn the handle. If the wringer is clamped down to a simple galvanized tub or other flimsy surface which doesn't provide enough rigidity to be able "put your back into" turning the handle you'll not be able to tighten the rollers down enough to get the most water out of the clothes.

There was one comment that a little clip would come off a pressure plate on the clamps foot and this is a known problem that can occur if you are moving the wringer around or clamping it on and then taking it off it's location. I've discussed this with the manufacturer and they are working on a redesign to hopefully fix the problem. The issue is that when unscrewing the clamp the pressure plate if it's at an angle can bind up with the "E" clip and twists the clip right off the end of the screw. If your wringer is not left on a fixed location this would be more of a problem because of all the clamping and unclamping than if it was left affixed to a single location.

That's the wringer in a nut shell.

If you have anything else I can help you with feel free to ask anytime.

Best regards,

-grant

I'm not positive that this is the right product for our needs, simply because I won't have that type of stationary object to clamp it to, and it seems to need that stability in order to put a shoulder into the job. But I like his style and his willingness to spend this much time explaining a product to one person. I didn't feel sold-to, and I'd like to think his responsiveness would extend to issues with purchased products.

Everything a bucket should be.

Careful!  Mime trapped in Triangle.

What's sadder than a washing thing that doesn't wash?

No one even repairs these Bendix units, and certainly not a 15-year-old model.  But, what good is one of these in a boondocking lifestyle anyway?

I picture this going to the curb to make room for my shiny, new Laundering System.



Now THAT'S a bucket.  We got it at Lowe's in the mop section.


I started with about 2 tablespoons of detergent (in this case, body wash).  I didn't want to try soap because of its different properties from detergent.  This smells nice, and is cruelty-free.

I lathered up some water before I put in a pair of jeans, four pairs of underwear, a bra, and three socks.


Rapid Washer.                                    

 

    

I used it like a plunger to agitate the clothes.  I was a little upset myself.  I agitated for two hours minutes - long enough to feel like a little workout.

The soapy clothes go into the wringer section.  This is a good idea, but the clothes aren't very wrung.  I filled up the section with more clothes, which worked better but not great.  I left the clothes in the wringer, dumped out the wash water (about two gallons, I guess) and put the soapy clothes back in the bucket.  They really weren't very soapy, because I didn't add a lot of suds in the first place.



I added clear water until the clothes were mostly submerged, and plunged again.  Repeat the wringing, which still wasn't very wringy.  I could pick up the smaller items and wring water out with one hand.









I'm expecting a folding metal rack, but my patience was at its end and I couldn't wait any longer to try this out.  You will not see any of Pants' pants here;  in fact, no undergarment of hers has ever been seen by a non-spouse or neighbor.

Conclusion:  I like the bucket-washing system, but I think an old-fashioned mangle connected temporarily to the rear bumper would be a good summer alternative to the mop wringer.  The wringer is okay, but probably not the best option available.

Pros:  electricity-free, off-grid, good exercise, feels satisfying, inexpensive, simple, repair yourself, boondocking-friendly
Cons:  inferior wringing capability.