Open for the Season

TBG was at camp this weekend with one of his bike wives.  I stayed home to let my muscle heal and to meet out with friends on Saturday night.

I've spent a lot of time at camp solo getting the trailer ready for summer.  It was a tough winter pest-wise.  Here's a cache of plastic ware that shows the amount of mouse and bug droppings that had to be dealt with.

Mice got in through our wheel well and shredded a bunch of stuff and pooped over everything.  There were two compartments under our dinette that needed to be completely emptied, cleaned, and reorganized.  It was not a fun job!

I also spent time creating my black (sewage) tank cleaning/deodorizing mixture.  Once the weather gets hot, there's nothing quite as awful as the smell that can seep up through the toilet.  My ingredient list consists of a powder formulation of dishwasher detergent, Borax, carpet deodorizer and baking soda.  I will also sometimes use a pre-made blend of  an Arm & Hammer with Oxyclean.  Aside from the Borax, all ingredients cost a buck a piece at Dollar Tree.

I keep the mixture in a pitcher, stored in the bathtub (which is no longer used for bathing).  Each time the tank is drained, we flush additional water through it.  Then I dump in about a half cup of this and fill with enough water to cover the bottom of the tank -- which I have no exact way to determine, so I estimate!

We dump our black tank daily, and it is also one of the last things we do before we close up from a visit.  I also keep liquid dishwasher detergent in the loo.  Any time something solid goes down, an extra amount of water goes down with a squirt of the detergent.  Whenever the toilet is flushed and refilled, we spray airspay or Febreze (whatever is cheap and on hand) over the water to help keep in fumes that might waft up from the tank.

Another horrible task, was cleaning up after an invasion of stink bugs! They must have gotten in from our slide-out, which was closed for the season.  Trapped in the cabinets, they all died.  And there were dozens of them!  This meant emptying every cabinet, disposing of the bugs, cleaning the surface, putting down shelf liners, washing the contents, then putting it all back together.  This was not fun.  We apparently weren't the only trailer with the problem. Everyone at the park had the same issue.

Keeping an RV like we do involves a decent amount of housework and upkeep.  It is, however, a lot less work than if we had a cottage -- and way less expensive.  I often take trips up by myself now if I feel a clean-up project needs to happen.  I want the time we spend together to be all about relaxing and having fun.   Even if the fun is being had without me!