We’ve slowed down our travels a bit for a few reasons. The first is Covid-19. We wanted to protect ourselves and slow the spread, and avoiding crowded areas was our best option. The second is David’s Mobile RV Service, which has many great clients who refer other great clients, and David has built himself an active business in the Crescent City area. We still identify more as tumbleweeds than redwoods, but if we’re going to put down some tentative roots, among the redwoods is where we’d like to do it. This campground might be the best-kept secret on the Northern California coast. Nestled in the redwoods along Highway 101, you can sleep among the trees and be part of the forest, but without giving up things like cellular service and easy access to groceries. We decided to hunker down for the winter here, and moved to a long-term spot back …
We are spending the winter in the redwoods! We spent most of the summer on the coast in Crescent City, but by October, the coast gets extra windy, making the RV feel like a boat. So we moved a tiny bit inland where the wind is blocked by these magnificent trees. We love this area so much that we decided to stay through the winter. We have never experienced a Pacific Northwest winter, so that’s an adventure in itself. We were warned to expect lots of rain and to prepare for moisture control. Honestly, the rain was an understatement. We did get a dehumidifier to help with the condensation inside and it’s helped a lot. We had a white Christmas: with hail! Big huge hail that looked like snow more than a few times. We’re staying at Rambling Redwoods, which is right on US-101. It’s an appropriately named park, with …
The more we do this and live this life, the more we learn. We learn, our needs change, technology changes, and new cool things come out all the time. We don’t buy the latest and greatest, and we prefer to live simply, so maybe this list is a bit lower-tech than you’re expecting. But here are 10 of our current favorite RV doodads, in no particular order: 1. Happy Campers RV Holding Tank Treatment This stuff is amazing. It has no smell or added perfumes, it’s a simple powder that deodorizes holding tanks. We use this in our black tank, but we also add it to the gray tanks on occasion, if we notice any kind of odor. It works within a few hours, and lasts a long time. Now that we have a healthy colony of bacteria taking care of our black tank, we only ever notice a smell …
Like most of you, we’ve been isolating ourselves from most of the world in order to help “flatten the curve” and avoid getting or giving COVID-19 (the novel coronavirus). To be honest, we’ve kind of lost track of time and how long this has been going on. I was buried deep in the blur that is tax season when the pandemic hit the U.S., and while I work remotely, most of my coworkers work out of physical offices in Massachusetts. Since we’re already set up for remote work, most everyone was able to limit or eliminate their in-office hours, and clients were able to work with us digitally. We thought we’d be pushing hard to make the April 15 deadline, but once the deadline became July 15, things have become a whirlwind. David has been working hard as a mobile RV technician, and had been so busy that he had …
We learned about these snuffle mats from our newest friends and fellow animal-loving RVers, Traci and Terry. We are always looking for kitty enrichment toys to avoid boredom and to keep the younger boys from harassing the older ladies. These are primarily designed for dogs, but who says cats can’t snuffle, too? Everyone loves it! Even Miss Kitty got into it, and she expects her food to be served by full service wait staff on fancy China. We used to use foraging toys (old pill bottles with a hole cut out) in our sticks-and-bricks homes, but they’re a trip and fall hazard in a tiny space, so they didn’t come with us into the RV. As a bonus, snuffle mats are easy to wash (just throw it in the laundry). We chose got this snuffle mat for dogs, which has an adjustable string to make the mat more compact for …
Thank you for reading. Your support means the world to us. We hope you and your families have a happy and safe winter season, and that the new year brings many happy memories. With love, Jennifer, David, Miss Kitty, Lillian, Tycho, and Kepler
Before we moved into our RV, we spent about 3 months cattifying it so our four-legged family members would have an easier time adjusting to living in a tiny home. They’d always had larger apartments (and most recently, a 3 bedroom house), where they used more of the space than we humans did. They had shelves and many cat condos to climb, and we were going from about 1500 square feet to about 250 square feet (give or take).
We have four cats and live in a 35-foot RV. Where do our cats poop? Not gonna lie: this was at the top of our priority list when we were RV shopping. It is extremely important to have a clean and safe area for cats to go to the bathroom, because without that, it can cause all kinds of behavioral problems that could lead to anything from aggression to physical illness.
This post was originally published on The Whisker Shop’s blog with the title Helping Cats Live Large in Small Homes, and we’ve used this philosophy for “cattifying” our RV home, too. If you lack the square footage for elaborate cat furniture, there are plenty of ways to help your cat branch out (and up), and make you feel like he’s got more room than you. Tip #1: Think vertically! This is really the best way to maximize a cat’s space. Adding shelves, or rearranging stuff on existing shelves to make room for cats, is like a cat magnet for most cats. Keep in mind the size and age of your cats: smaller or older cats may need additional shelves or a chair moved so they can get on and off the shelf safely. Make sure the shelves can hold your cats’ weight and the force of their jump, to avoid …