Oh the weather outside is frightful...

Freehold, NJ 07728

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RV: While in NC, we did hit a low temp of 38° and did just fine.  Now we are 3/4 through our 10 days in NJ and we are experiencing the good ol' Noreaster.  Temp dropped to 33°, 50 mph winds expected and we had sleet this morning and now a dusting of SNOW!!!

Our furnace is working fine.  We just use it to get the RV up to 68° and then use two electric heaters that work pretty well.  

Our windows have condensation, but no dripping.  I'm comfortable and plan to cuddle up in the easy chair later with an afghan and knit and watch some TV.

Just finished a nice cup of white hot chocolate. Hubby is cooking chili. 

We sold our Ford Focus today, put our motorcycle in storage and up for consignment.  Ahhhh....things are starting to fall into place for now.

House should be up for sale next week. Hope the Cert. of Occupancy doesn't cause us too much trouble. But we'll deal when we have to.

Since taking the last bit of things out of the house and into storage or the RV, the RV is a mess. I planned on putting things in their place today, but with this lousy weather, the awning is not up and I can't get into the "basement" without getting freezing rain all over me.

RV PARK REVIEW:
Oct. 21-Nov. 1, 2011 (11 days)
PINE CONE RESORT  Freehold, NJ 07728 
$49./day
Our rating: 2.5 out of 5  Will avoid.
+Rustic atmosphere.
+Quiet campground even during busy Labor Day weekend when full.
+Pets allowed
+Wi-fi  +Verizon internet worked fine
-Sandy roads and dirt sites, so always tracking dirt into RV.
-Electric needs updating. We had to move from an older 30amp site to a newly renovated 50amp site. The 30amp site kept shutting off on us.
After being at real RV resorts, I have downgraded the this campground.
 -Too much dirt.

PETS: Although Lyla seemed to have enjoyed being an only dog, since Ryley's passing, we still prefer to have two dogs.  Lyla and Devin seem to be getting along well. Lyla will go into his crate when he gets to rowdy for her.

Two nights ago, we let Devin sleep in bed with us. He did fine. The next night, he chose to sleep in his own dog bed and did fine. In fact letting him sleep out of the crate, enables us to get an hour or two extra sleep in the morning!

LYLA                              DEVIN

Funny thing...I definitely consider the RV home now.  The weather is miserable, cold and wet.  We packed the dogs into the truck and when we got to the house, I proceeded to walk in the miserable freezing rain with the dogs, around the neighborhood, for them to "do their business". Well duh!!!! I forgot...the house has a fenced in backyard.  Why should the 3 of us get all wet & cold, when I can just let the 2 dogs run around the backyard, while I stay cozy in the house!

And the winner is...

This weekend Four Paws hosted a Vintage Tin Can Rally.  Great little rally with really interesting RV's., ranging from a 35' to teeny tiny and a home made one.
In keeping with the vintage feel, there was a pot luck dinner in which we were to make an "american" dish like Mom used to make.  Lots of chicken pot pies and mac & cheese. Delicious!
Afterward we played a trivia game, which I normally detest, but wanted to be social that evening, so stuck around.  We guess whose group one! Ours.  Below is the certificate to prove it!

Here are a few of the Tin Can Rv's

Dead man walking

Location:  FOUR PAWS KINGDOM, Rutherfordton, NC 28139

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I feel like a dead man walking, the final walk before the end of it all.
I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE THIS CAMPGROUND!!!!!
We've already extended our month stay by 3 more days. Now we just got word that this site is open until the end of the season!
Here's a lesson...there are consequences to procrastination.  Because we were lazy and didn't get started on clearing out our stick house and getting it ready for sale to the last minute, we are FORCED to head back to NJ to do the finishing cleaning of the house and yard and put it in the hands of a real estate agent. I just want to be done with it!!! I don't want to go back to NJ.
We may really push our time schedule and stay another week here at Four Paws Kingdom.  Then we will only be in NJ for a week, and we will HAVE to keep busy finishing up the house.
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PETS:
Had a crying spell because I miss Ryley so much.  We were eating breakfast at Denny's and I was reading "The Social Lives of Dogs".  In the book they were talking about the ranks of people & pets in the home.  The owners are usually #1 & #2, then the most dominate pet, etc.  While in the car they spoke of when the #1 person left the vehicle, the #1 pet would move up to the empty driver's seat, because that was the person of the highest ranking being in the household.  I just lost it.  That is exactly what Ryley would do.  If we were to leave the dogs in the van (on cool days only of course), we'd find Ryley sitting up in the driver's seat when we returned.  Even after he went blind, he would still find his way up there.
The honeymoon period is over with Devin.  Time for some training.

Busy, Busy...

Location:  FOUR PAWS KINGDOM, Rutherfordton, NC 28139

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RV MOD:
How did I ever have time to work a 40 hr week?
Been working on organizing the RV, instead of everything just thrown in and not knowing where it all is.
The past couple of days I worked on our kitchen pantry.  Our 2007 Cedar Creek 33LCDTS Silverback has pantry doors in between the stove and the fridge. Lots of storage, BUT...the are 11" wide and 24" long.  That's a very dark and long drawer.  It has been difficult to make use of the rear of the drawers.  It was very frustrating. I knew we were using these drawers as best we could. So, I put drawer sliders in 5 drawer/cabinets.
I'm very happy with the end result.  Now, before you comment on the finished job, keep in mind, I just wanted to get this completed. I did not finish or paint the wood.  So maybe down the road, I'll pull them out and paint them all the same.

Before 24" deep

 

I purchased the material at Lowe's. I think each slider was about $7.00. Only one needed per drawer. They are center slides.

Really quite an easy project. Once you get the hang of one, you just do assembly line and finish off the rest.

Feels like home...ONLY BETTER!!

Location:  FOUR PAWS KINGDOM, Rutherfordton, NC 28139

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 We are feeling very comfortable living in our RV.  As I write, Scott is outside sawing wood to brace some extra cabinets.  The honey do's don't end just because we are on the road!
As you can see below, Lyla has claimed SCOTT'S recliner chair as hers.

Devin (formerly Breslin) is fitting in EXTREMELY well!  You can read more about Devin at our pet blog,

Calm before the storm

Location:  FOUR PAWS KINGDOM, Rutherfordton, NC 28139

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Today will be a day of just lazing around. I'm going to thoroughly enjoy this day of calmness and relaxation.  It's 2:30pm and I'm still in my jammies and on my 3rd cup of coffee. Ahhhhhh.
It has been very nice with just 1 calm & healthy dog.  We take turns taking Lyla out. She can hold "it" for many hours and she doesn't really need to expel any energy with exercise. She's a very laid back dog.
All this calmness will end on Wednesday 10/5/11.
Tues, 10/4/11, we will be making the 8 hr drive to my parents and also Magnolia Setter Rescue in FL.  We are picking up Breslin, a 9mth old male Irish Setter/English Setter mix. Let the activity begin!

We are at the perfect place to introduce a new young dog into our home. Four Paws Kingdom  has 3 dog parks to play in and hiking trails.
We are considering changing Breslin's name. We like that it is Irish, but don't like the name itself.

PLEASE LIST ANY NAME SUGGESTIONS IN THE 

COMMENTS SECTION BELOW!!!!! 

We'd like it to rhyme with Breslin, so he's not too confused.
You can read more about Breslin here.

RUTHERFORDTON, NC 28139

 FOUR PAWS KINGDOM 

"A Campground for YOU and Your Best Friend Too!"

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RV PARK REVIEW:

FOUR PAWS KINGDOM Rutherfordton, NC 28139  

Our rating: 5 out of 5

"Catering exclusively to adults & their canine companions"

VERY PET FRIENDLY (dog parks)

Level sites

Very friendly staff

Free WiFi

Saturday morning Lyla competed in wiener bobbing.  Out of about 20 dogs, she came in 2nd! She is such dainty girl, I didn't think she would dive in the pan of water and wieners with so much gusto.
Saturday night we took a trip to Germany! We enjoyed Octoberfest at Four Paws Kingdom campground. The owners of the campground are from Germany and Meik is a real chef.  He cooked up a wonderful German dinner to 65 of the guest registered at the campground. Birgit made a delicious Black Forest Cake. Her cake was so light and refreshing. Very different than the Black Forest Cakes found in the US. The US Black Forest Cake is basically a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and cherry in between the layers.  Very heavy and very sweet. Birgit's cake were thinner layers of a less dense chocolate and instead of heavy, sweet chocolate icing, she had whipped cream in between the layers with cherry filling. Mmmm, mmm, YUMMY!
The main menu was Home made Sauerbraten, Spaetzle (Swabian Noodles), Knockwurst, Brats, Kraut and Grandma's Red Cabbage, & warm German Potato Salad. We were actually served 2 plates full of food.  I took the knockwurst and brats home and had for lunch today. Delicious!
Also a cash bar available for purchase bottled German beers, wine and schnapps! 

After dinner there was entertainment. Both Meik and Birgit sang some German songs for us...

we heard some risque Octoberfest jokes, we played some games, some of which involved shots!
One game was to make a human Weisswurst!

 Scott was glad no one volunteered him for this game!

Very, very enjoyable evening. We'll be signing up for a repeat next weekend!

We arrived at Four Paws Kingdom on Wed, Sept. 14, 2011. This was one day later than planned.  We had a doggie emgergency on Sunday, Sept. 11 evening. Get details HERE & go to post dated 9/11/11.

I could live at this campground.  I already feel like I have family here.
If you have an RV and love to bring your dogs along with you...THIS IS THE PLACE TO VISIT!!!!